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MARY BAKER EDDY
A sense of evil is supposed to have spoken, been listened to, and afterwards to have formed an evil sense that blinded the eyes of reason, masked with deformity the glories of revelation, and shamed the face of mortals. What was this sense? Error versus Truth: first, a supposition; second, a false belief; third, suffering; fourth, death. Is man the supposer, false believer, sufferer? Not man, but a mortal — the antipode of immortal man. Supposing, false believing, suffering are not faculties of Mind, but are qualities of error. The supposition is, that God and His idea are not all-power; that there is something besides Him; that this something is intelligent matter; that sin — yea, selfhood — is apart from God, where pleasure and pain, good and evil, life and death, commingle, and are forever at strife; even that every ray of Truth, of infinity, omnipotence, omnipresence, goodness, could be absorbed in error! God cannot be obscured, and this renders error a palpable falsity, yea, nothingness; on the basis that black is not a color because it absorbs all the rays of light. The "Alpha and Omega" of Christian Science voices this question: Where do we hold intelligence to be? Is it in both evil and good, in matter as well as Spirit? If so, we are literally and practically denying that God, good, is supreme, all power and presence, and are turning away from the only living and true God, to "lords many and gods many." Where art thou, O mortal! who turnest away from the divine source of being, — calling on matter to work out the problem of Mind, to aid in understanding and securing the sweet harmonies of Spirit that relate to the universe, including man? Paul asked: "What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?" The worshippers of Baal worshipped the sun. They believed that something besides God had authority and power, could heal and bless; that God wrought through matter — by means of that which does not reflect Him in a single quality or quantity! — the grand realities of Mind, thus to exemplify the power of Truth and Love. The ancient Chaldee hung his destiny out upon the heavens; but ancient or modern Christians, instructed in divine Science, know that the prophet better understood Him who said: "He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?" Astrology is well in its place, but this place is secondary. Necromancy has no foundation, — in fact, no intelligence; and the belief that it has, deceives itself. Whatever simulates power and Truth in matter, does this as a lie declaring itself, that mortals' faith in matter may have the effect of power; but when the whole fabrication is found to be a lie, away goes all its supposed power and prestige. Why do Christian Scientists treat disease as disease, since there is no disease? This is done only as one gives the lie to a lie; because it is a lie, without one word of Truth in it. You must find error to be nothing: then, and only then, do you handle it in Science. The diabolism of suppositional evil at work in the name of good, is a lie of the highest degree of nothingness: just reduce this falsity to its proper denomination, and you have done with it. How shall we treat a negation, or error — by means of matter, or Mind? Is matter Truth? No! Then it cannot antidote error. Can belief destroy belief? No: understanding is required to do this. By the substitution of Truth demonstrated, Science remedies the ills of material beliefs. Because I have uncovered evil, and dis-covered for you divine Science, which saith, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," and you have not loved sufficiently to understand this Golden Rule and demonstrate the might of perfect Love that casteth out all fear, shall you turn away from this divine Principle to graven images? Remember the Scripture: — "But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; "And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, "And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." One mercilessly assails me for opposing the subtle lie, others charge upon me with full-fledged invective for, as they say, having too much charity; but neither moves me from the path made luminous by divine Love. In my public works I lay bare the ability, in belief, of evil to break the Decalogue, — to murder, steal, commit adultery, and so on. Those who deny my wisdom or right to expose error, are either willing participants in wrong, afraid of its supposed power, or ignorant of it. The notion that one is covering iniquity by asserting its nothingness, is a fault of zealots, who, like Peter, sleep when the Watcher bids them watch, and when the hour of trial comes would cut off somebody's ears. Such people say, "Would you have me get out of a burning house, or stay in it?" I would have you already out, and know that you are out; also, to remember the Scripture concerning those who do evil that good may come, — "whose damnation is just;" and that whoso departeth from divine Science, seeking power or good aside from God, has done himself harm. Mind is supreme: Love is the master of hate; Truth, the victor over a lie. Hath not Science voiced this lesson to you, — that evil is powerless, that a lie is never true? It is your province to wrestle with error, to handle the serpent and bruise its head; but you cannot, as a Christian Scientist, resort to stones and clubs, — yea, to matter, — to kill the serpent of a material mind. Do you love that which represents God most, His highest idea as seen to-day? No! Then you would hate Jesus if you saw him personally, and knew your right obligations towards him. He would insist on the rule and demonstration of divine Science: even that you first cast out your own dislike and hatred of God's idea, — the beam in your own eye that hinders your seeing clearly how to cast the mote of evil out of other eyes. You cannot demonstrate the Principle of Christian Science and not love its idea: we gather not grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. Where art thou?
Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 332-336 |
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