Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-19

A. KIMBALL
| toned to the abnormal that proper con-
ditions were intolerable and incompre-
hensible to him.
Good Cannot Permit Evil
| An explanation somewhat parallel
| with this narrative may be offered at
this point. There are millions of people
! who will say they believe that God is
good that God is Life, that God is per-
feet and changes not, and that He is
! infinite These same people will also
say they believe that God procures or
has instituted sickness and death, and
4 that He gives permission to evil and its
activity. Persons who commonly sub
scribe to these two propositions suppose
that they understand them and that it
| is easy to understand them. But these
two statements of the deific nature are
directly opposed to each other, hence
/ both of them cannot be true, nor can
/ they possibly be amalgamated. No one
who gives assent to them can ever un-
derstand what they really mean. I
| know of nothing in the range of thought
that ought more promptly to elicit the
protests that 1t is hard to understand
than the attempt to combine these two
postulates of religious belief; viz. that
infinite good can permit evil; that in
| finite Life which changes not, can
change itself and induce sickness and
utdlIls anu lIldI pSIlSCtlOll Neii bC liz
author of disaster. All these contradic-
tions are logically unthinkable and
ought to become void.
Christian Science declares that God
is good, and is infinite; God is Life,
Truth, Love; that God is Spirit, is per-
fection and is supreme. 1t declares that
He is the cause and origin of all real
existence; that He is the sole law maxi
er, is all power, and hath done all
| things well. There is scarcely a Christ
| ian on earth who would deny any OF
| these poStulates. Wherefore, then, is
| the objection that Christian Science is
hard to understand? Is it because ev-
cry incidental or amplified belief in
cluded in the theology of Christian Sci
ence is in consistent accord and har-
mony in every particular with these
| fundamental statements? Is it because
Christian Science insistently presents
complete structure of religious belief
which is without illogical antithesis?
No 1t is because the world has re-
garded evil as an indestructible entity,
whereas Christian Science diScloseS 1t
to be a disorderly negation which can
be abolished. 1t is because of the new
ness, the novelty, the strangeness OF
this modern analysis of what has beer
called a battling mystery, that the old
time thinker designates it difficult 70
understand It's pure logic and reason
! ing solve mysteries. They are the cor
| relatives of an immaculate science; ana
| they shine with pure and simple llght
which dazzles and thus perhaps con-
fuses the mind accustomed to other
things.
Invoke Supreme Power
The average person who decides to
turn to Christian Science for the cure
of disease has many misgivlng. There
is no remedy or modus in sight. There
is nothing that he can see, no plan that
he understands which offers tangible
assurance that something is being en-
ployed to aid him. For him to decide
to trust the issue to that which he does
not comprehend and cannot behold
seems like jumping off the earth into
empty space. He might feel even more
adrift and rudderless If he knew that
we were not depending on a petltlon 10
God, whereby to persuade him to neal
the man in consideration of the prayer;
oh, thou battered and storm-tossed
victim of i'll fortune, in this hour when
decision is poised between the eXl-
gencies of your need and that which
seems as though it might be hnal
plunge into the unknown and non-d1s-
| cernible, take heart, for at last there
! is opportunity for you to know that
your Redeemer liveth and that you
may, with much avail, trust in the
! good God.
| Let us inquire as to this reliance
and try to conclude whether you are
committing your hope to something or
nothing. If you were to congregate all
| the people on earth and discuss with
| them their ills and their desire for re-
lief. and If it were within your prlVl-
lege to let them designate that when
they might choose to invoke in their
own behalf, upon what woud they de-
eide? If they knew enough they would
say eve invoke the supreme power
Of the universe, whatever that may be.
We ask for the supremacy of power,
Of action and of law. If supreme pow
er be available for us, then nothing
can hinder or Withstand or continue
to oppose it, because it necessarily fol-
lows that if supreme power makes for
the manifestation of good 1t will
| abolish every semblance of power that
makes for the manifestation of evil.
/ Would you who may read these words
ask for more than the privilege of
invoking infinite supremacy? Can the
sick man possibly utter more ade-
quate appeal? Is there anything illogi-
cal or fanciful in the desire of man
who needs help that the help shall be
supreme? No!
Then. having taken a reasonable
step, the question to consider it, Is
there such thing as supreme power?
IF there be. then is 1t available to a
sick man? BY way of answer to these
/
things are undeniably true. 1t is unde-
niable that there is such a thing as
existence as the universe, including
man. All the objects of creation are
effects or phenomena. All the effects
or phenomena are effects of some
| cause.
Final Analysis Undeniable
when the subject is carried to its
final analysis it is undeniable that all
phenomena proceed from or manifest
one noumenon or cause In other
words, all the objects of the universe
have one cause or creative energy. The
same origin or cause which produces
things or effects also maintains them;
/ hence the inevitable conclusion that
there is some supreme cause which in
duces and includes all the things and
activities of the universe and to which
all are subordinate. Further, it will
not be denied that man manifests in
! telligence and as man is phenomenon
or effect then it follows by way of con-
| clusion that his intelligence can only |
! exist because his creator is an intelli- |
gent cause. Inasmuch, then, as active |
! Intelligence means active conscious |
ness, it follows that the intelligent /
first cause is conscious intelligence or
conscious being.
No DossibIe line of logical reasoning |