The Wahpeton times., 1917-09-20

very few people have ever reason :
ed out the question to their own
satisfaction as to where good and
evil come from, and still fewer have
even satisfactory theory as to
how good may be secured or evil
avoided in actual human expert
ence.
All through the centuries there
has been a widespread belief that
good and evil come as the result
Of luck or chance, but this belief is
necessarily incorrect. Amnog all
polytheists, or those who N>lieve in
many gods; there is the belief that
some Of the gods send good and that
others send evil, and they seek to
lropitiate the latter by sacrifices
anG rites, believing that i'll this way
alone they can escape from evil.
Among monotheists, or those
who believe there is but one God
there is the belief that the one God
creates and sends both good and
evil. This belief however, invo!-
.cs so many impossible cont.acic-
tions that it has led actually I. the
belief i'll the existence of an evil be-
ing called devil" who is suppos.
ed to create and send evil. Thus to
escape the belief that God sends
both good and evil, those who call
Themselves monotheists are really
rolytheists, for t.:ey actually be
iievc III God Of good, and il. an
evi! power, or devil. This in turn
makes it necessary for them to
determine i'll belief the sphere of
activity and the relative power Of
each. Since the Bible declares,
however, that God is omipotent,
that is, that He has all power, mo-
notheists have come generally y to
believe that such power as the de-
vii is supposed to posses has been
conferred upon him by God, and
that God permits the devil to send
evil in the form of sickness, sor-
row, sin, and death, to afflict and
destory human beings.
Without going further into the
matter than merely to state the
case, it will thus be seen that there
is much confusion of belief among
Christians and other monotheists
concerning the nature and origin
OF both good and evil and as to
what causes their activity in hu-
man experience, and until this is
corrected by positive knowledge il
will be impossible to deal with the
subject intelligently, or to think
about it accurately.
Christian Science shows that all
good comes to man from God thru
the operation of His laws, and that
evil originates in the human carnal
mind, which is "emnity against
God" Evil is not an entity. If
has no kindom and no king. I'll
has no mind, no presence. and no
laws. The only power it can ever
exercise is what it derives from hu.
man belief in it, and human accep-
tance Of it.
Since God is infinite good He
has knowledge of good and of
nothing else. lie could not posi-
ply have knowledge of evil, for evil
does not exist in the spiritual uni.
verse. The seeming existence of
evil is in the carnal mind. 1t has
been we'll said that if every one
would quit SHINING there would be
no more sin. AS human conscious
ness is evangelical by truth and
love, sin disappears.
There is no such thing as an app-
ry God waiting to smite You for
sin. God has no knowledge of sin in
any form. His law is against sin
yet the punishment for or of sin is
by sin, and when the sin is das-
tfoyed and put away out of the hu-
man mind, the punishment stoDs
hut as long as the sin remains il
will whip and punish the sinner.
Thus the forgiveness of sin CO l.
slsts in the destruction of sin, and
the sin exists nowhere but in the
esrlal hul:an mini. The belief
that God pardons sin merely be.
cause you ask Him to do 50. with.
cut turning from the sin yourself
ahc putting it away from yon. is
irolish self-leception
People ask how God can DESTROY
sin when He knows nothing of sin
and does not even know that is ex-
lists. The answer is plain. He des.
troys it just as the sun DESTROYS the
darkness which it never sees. When
the light appears the darkness dis.
apears. Good and evil cannct
mlngle any more than light and
darkness can mingle. One vanish.
es before the other.