The Washington herald., 1912-04-29

duu COuQCIul nliil OClOIC nG has pSIii
heard Contrary to the practice of the
law throughout the centuries, he is con-
sidered guilty until he can prove him
self innocent. Commonly accepted the
ology has assumed that without any
choice upon his part man has been
born a sinner, has inherited evil pro-
pensities, tendencies. and idiosyncrasies,
which invite disaster, and that his
chance of being saved from this in
herent evil is comparatively slight,
The commonly accepted theories OF
physiology and anatomy treat man as
material body so delicately fashioned
that the slightest jar in the wrong place
may destroy his usefulness and rob
him of life. If by any chance he should
escape the consequences of his evil
propensities and be saved from sin, he
is almost sure to fall into the tolls OF
disease and become physically disabled.
These theories place mans mind in
the brain and his soul somewhere else
in the body. generally in the heart. But,
wherever placed, the mind and soul of
this miserable sinner are never safe
from the assaults of the accuser He is
believed to be the sport of circum-
stances and the victim of discord.
Christian Science comes to declare
man Alright 1t invites him before the
bar of justice, where his real nature
may be set forth and his tormentors
condemned. 1t furnishes the evidence
that man, made in the image and like
ness of God. is innocent, inherently
good, naturally happy. and of noble pur-
pose. 1t shows that man is by nature
healthy as well as good, that God is
his Mind and his Soul, that his future
is assured, for he is immortal and in
destructible like his Creator, safe in the
bosom of the Father. abiding under the
shadow of the Almighty.
GOD Is LOVE.
Let us now consider the definition of
God given by John when he said, God
is Love" Do we carry that definition
to its logical conclusion? One such con-
clusion must be the following: If God
is Love, then we cannot conceive of
Him as creating evil. Therefore, Chris
tian Science teaches that God is not
the author of evil in any of its forms.
He did not create it, since it could never
lodge in His-thought for an instant, else
He were not wholly good and the Prin-
ciple governing the universe were not
wholly reliable. Evil has no origin in
Spirit, no entity nor reality of Gods
making and no eternity. but is always
false concept, assailing the mind Of
mortal man until such time as its lying
nature is laid bare and its futile, trans
itory pretenses cease to frighten. Evil
has no standing before God. Those
who dwell in the secret place of the
most High" need not fear its empty
threats, but, asserting their divine
rights, may rise, in the words of the
apostle Paul, ''in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ"
There is much comfort TO struggling
humanity in the conviction that God
does no: authorize the miseries of our
earthly experience. This conviction is
the first step toward the realization that
these very miseries, lacking divine sane
tion, cannot have any real entity or ex-
istence, and must perforce have a hc-
titious origin and an unreal nature.
At this point the question naturally
presents itself, if evil is not of Gods
creation, then what is it, and what is
its origin? The essential nature of evil
has proved a puzzle to mankind at
large, and yet many centuries ago it
was laid bare by the Founder of the
Christian religion when he said of
personihed evil that he was "a liar and
the father of it" Mrs. Eddy, follow
ing the teachings of Jesus, has de-
scribed evil in so many words as in
herently falsiN, a mistake, an illu-
sion, and deiusion about something
true. She has given the general name
of error to evil in all its forms and
thereby. uncovered its essential nature
to human apprehension. Evil, no mat
ter what may be its pretense to power,
no matter how threatening it may seem
TO mortal sense, is never real in the
presence of Truth, has no entity, no sc-
tuality, is never the cause of anything
true has no real origin. When con-
fronted with Truth it vanishes like neg
ative darkness before the positive light.
In the presence of God the suppositi-
tious belief calling itself evil becomes
a nonentity and so is reduced to its ma
tive nothingness.
Law OF GOD.
Now, God governs the universe, in
ciuding man, by law, and since God is
wholly good, His law is good also, and
can never ultimate in sin, disease, death,
calamity, or catastrophe. If, therefore,
we seem to be confronted by laws pro-
a