Christian Science declares that good is the natural and basic quality of God and is revealed in all that He creates or unfolds. Referring to this, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 26, 27): "The Scriptures name God as good, and the Saxon term for God is also good. From this premise comes the logical conclusion that God is naturally and divinely infinite good. How, then, can this conclusion change, or be changed, to mean that good is evil, or the creator of evil? What can there be besides infinity? Nothing! Therefore the Science of good calls evil nothing. In divine Science the terms God and good, as Spirit, are synonymous. That God, good, creates evil, or aught that can result in evil,—or that Spirit creates its opposite, named matter,—are conclusions that destroy their premise and prove themselves invalid. Here is where Christian Science sticks to its text, and other systems of religion abandon their own logic."

The study of Christian Science enables one to gain a constantly growing understanding of the allness of good and of God's infinite, perfect being. Logic and reason also aid in revealing that good and evil are neither coexistent nor co-active. In Christian Science we see that one might entertain a belief in evil's reality, but he can never know it. Only good can be known, and good alone constitutes man's true being as God's manifestation or reflection.

In the Gospel of Matthew we are told that a young man who apparently was seeking spiritual enlightenment came to Jesus. "Good Master," he said (19:16), "what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Jesus replied, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." In these few words Christ Jesus was plainly endeavoring to have the young man see that good is not a personal, private possession, but that all good has its origin in God; that whatever good he or anyone else expressed or demonstrated resulted solely because God's nature and character is wholly good, and that therefore man, as God's expression, must show forth the nature of his creator.

In his talk with Jesus the young man indicated that he had kept the letter of the law. He had apparently striven from his youth to obey the Commandments, and yet it would seem, as the Master endeavored to show him, that his belief in the reality and value of material riches, his belief that matter was substance and a source of good, stood in the way of his spiritual progress. Jesus clearly recognized that what this young man needed was a true understanding of good and of spiritual values.

The study of Christian Science leads one to see that there is a distinction between good, which is absolute and divine, and that which may be termed a human or relative sense of goodness. Christian Science shows us that as we learn to reflect and demonstrate divine Principle, Love, in our human experience decisions will not be made from the standpoint of sentiment or of personal attachment. Action will not be taken merely from the basis of human kindness, but from the basis of Principle, which is always right and wholly good. We discover, too, that any decision or action which does not bless all concerned cannot be wholly good. Our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, says (p. 13), "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals."

Christian Science reveals that human philanthropy often is based on and expresses a false sense of goodness. A right understanding of good enables us to bless humanity through the knowledge and demonstration of divine Principle. Many bequests and foundations have been established by men and women motivated by their highest sense of human good, and yet these philanthropies have not brought about spiritual freedom; nor have they destroyed disease or always turned thought Godward. When goodness is translated into the divine fact and mankind learns that all good resides in Spirit, God, then the race will be more abundantly blessed.

We sometimes hear people ask why someone they have known seemed to have so much trouble and physical suffering and yet apparently was what the world would call good. Christian Science shows us that the answer may be that one can manifest a human sense of goodness and yet have a deep-rooted belief in personal righteousness, as opposed to personal unrighteousness. He may also cling persistently to a belief in material birth, a belief that he and others are born in matter and must suffer and die out of it. A relative sense of goodness also can be shaken and appear as intolerance and self-satisfaction. If one clings to a belief that matter and evil are real, it may be asked, can his thinking be termed wholly good?

A correct understanding of good and its divine source does away with any sense of self-righteousness and uncovers the error of attaching goodness to person. As we study Christian Science we begin to see that it is nothing to one's credit that he is good. One cannot congratulate himself on being personally good, since good is only what man ought to be and actually is in his true and forever being. Good is the natural state of man, to be lived and demonstrated. False standards of good and so-called righteous conduct have to give place to the fact of absolute good and of Spirit's allness.

Scholastic theology and philosophic reasoning, appearing as religion, do not always conform to the standard of absolute Truth, or good. Indeed, these may be deceptive in their intent and result. To the Colossians, Paul wrote (2:8), "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The effort of evil to parade in the guise of good is also uncovered in the warning of the Master (Mark 13:5-22): "Take heed lest any man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ.... And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: for false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." Christian Science, declaring the allness of good as the forever fact under all circumstances, is a law of light dissolving any and every belief of anti-Christ.

Richard J. Davis