An emphatic refusal on the part of mankind to know evil in any phase would promote a departure from mortality and the demonstration of spirituality. Mortality is predicated upon a knowledge of evil. The Bible gives mankind a terse command in the second chapter of Genesis, where we read, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Spirituality is obscured to the thought that knows evil, the thought that believes in a power opposed to infinite good. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 19, 20), "Jesus urged the commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' which may be rendered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life,—even God, good."

We learn in Christian Science that a deep and honest awareness of good, a determination to dwell mentally on nothing but good, can change one's life from sickness to health, from drabness to sparkling joy, from hatred to love, from confusion to certainty. To know good alone is to obey the command not to know evil. Good is the counterfact of evil. Evil is the counterfeit of good; and good being all there is or can be because it is one of the designations for God, evil is consequently without power, place, or existence.

Mrs. Eddy says in her article "Science and Philosophy" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 367): "Infinite Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To good, evil is never present; for evil is a different state of consciousness. It was not against evil, but against knowing evil, that God forewarned."

Just preceding this statement our Leader writes: "Error says that knowing all things implies the necessity of knowing evil, that it dishonors God to claim that He is ignorant of anything; but God says of this fruit of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, 'In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.' If God is infinite good, He knows nothing but good; if He did know aught else, He would not be infinite."

One must choose which basis of being he is going to accept: good or evil. If one is "knowing" hatred, for instance, it will be impossible for him to know Love, or good. If one is "knowing" jealousy, it would be impossible for him to know brotherly love at the same time. If one is "knowing" greed, it would be impossible for him to know generosity and spirituality at the same time.

Not to know evil is one of the basic commands in Christian Science. An emphatic, energetic determination not to know evil can lift one into a life of goodness and freedom heretofore thought impossible and far removed from present-day living.

The familiar advice, "Count ten," could well be adapted by the student of Christian Science to mean that he should ponder ten aspects of good for every temptation to know evil. This would bring about a major change in his experience. It would accomplish two things: make him gradually refrain from knowing evil at any time and counteract the evil in his thought until good becomes the basis of his living.

All through her writings, our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says much about good and evil and the impossibility of a union of these two opposites. She makes clear that to know evil is to make it seem real to the mind which knows it; that to denounce evil and refuse to know it, and instead to know good exclusively, is to experience the heaven of harmony.

When an evil report comes to us concerning a friend or an associate, it lies within our power to refuse to accept or believe it. "Thou shalt not know evil'' is a divine command ever resting upon us as Christian Scientists. It is a command which we cannot fail to obey if we would be well and free, joyous and successful.

A knowledge of evil in the human mind is the activity of animal magnetism, which is animal in nature and which operates hypnotically. Evil seems to hold one's thought, and one oftentimes feels that one can do nothing about it. This belief is substanceless. Just as surely and positively as one knows his name, one has the ability to refuse to know evil; but he has to put this knowledge into action and thus break the illusion falsely operating as his thinking.

Knowing that God is infinite good makes it possible for one to refuse to know evil in any direction. The constant practice of refusing to know evil helps to bring into one's experience the full power of God and the operation of divine Principle. There is nothing that can withstand the power which such spiritual activity generates. Truth is ever uttering, "Thou shalt not know evil."

What doth the Lord thy God require
of thee, but to fear the Lord thy
God, to walk in all his ways, and to
love him, and to serve the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all
thy soul, to keep the commandments,
of the Lord, and his statutes, which
I command thee this day for thy
good?—Deuteronomy 10:12, 13.