The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-19


 not then guide his footsteps or make everything work together for good for him.
 SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL
 Outside of Christian Science very few people have ever reasoned out the question to their own satisfaction as to where good and evilscome from. and still fewer have even satisfactory theory as to how good may be secured or evil avoided in actual human ex- perience.
 All through the centuries there mas been a wiespread belief that good and evil come as -~the result of luck or chance, but this belief is necessarily incorrect Among all polytheists, or those who be- lieve in many gods. there is the belief that some of the gods send good and that others send evil. and they seek to Epropitiate the latter by sacrifices and rites, believing that in this way alone they can escape from evil
 Among. monothe.sts, or those who be- lieve there is but one God. there is the belief that the one God creates and sends both good and evil. This belief how ever, involves so many impossible contra dctions that it has led actually to the belief in the existence of evil being called devil who is supposed to create and send evil Thus to escape the belif that God sends both good and evil, those who call themselves monotheists are really polytheists for they actually be- lieve in a God of good, and in an eVi power, or devil This is turn makes it necessary for them to determine in be- lief the sphere of activity and the reia- tive power of each. Since the Bible de- clares, however. that God is omnipo- tent that is. that He has all power monotheists have come generally to be- llieve that such power as the devil is supposed to possess has been conferred upon him by God. and that God permits the devil to send evil in the form of sick ress. sorrow, sin, and death, to afflct and destroy human beings
 Without going further into the matter tlan merely to state the case, it will thus be seen that there is much confusion oe belief among Christians and other monotheists concerning the nature ana origin of both good and evil and as to what causes their activity in human eH- perience. and until this is corrected by positive knowledge it will be impossible to deal with the subject 'ltelligently, or 10 think ..saut il -ccurately.
 Christian Science shows that all good comes to man from God through the operation of His laws and that evil orig mates in the human carnal mind, which is ienmity against God. Evil is not an entity It has no kingdom and no king. It has no mind no presence, ana no laws. The only power it can ever exercise is what it derives from human belief in it, and human acceptance of 1t.
 Since God is infinite good He has knoweldge of good and of nothing else He could not possibly have knowledge or evil for evil does not exist in the spirit ual universe, and it is really the only I.universe. The seeming existence of evil is in the carnal mind. It has been well said that if everyone would quit sinnins there would be no more sin. As human consciousness is evangelized by truth and love. sin disappears.
 There is no such thing as an angry God waiting to smite you for sin, for , God has no knowledge of sin in any form. His law is against sin; yet the punishment for or if sin is by sin, and when the sin is destroyed and put away out of the human mind, the punishment stops, but as long as the sin remains Il will whip and punish the sinner. Thus the forgiveness of sin consists in the destruction of sin. and the sir ! exists nowhere but in the carnal human mind. The belief that God pardons sir merely because you ask Him to do so without turning from the sin yoursel and putting Ii away from you, is foolisf self deception,
 People ask how God can destroy sir when He knows nothing of sin and doe not even know that it exists. The answe . is plain He destroys it just as the Sul destroys the darkness which 1t neNe sees When the light appears the dark ness disappears. Good and evil canno mingle any more than light and dark ness can mngle. One vanishes befor 
 v the other.
 MAN
 : Sooner or later every one must lear , the truth about man. When one ask himself who is man? what is he? wher
 does he' come from? is he spiritual, is he material? many channels 10 thought are opened Upon the correct an swer to these questions will depend tn = solution of every human problem
 Every one has read the two dl1ferin
 accounts of creation in the Bible l the first chapter of Genesis we are toi !. that God created man in His own mag tafter His own likeness, and that Il
 made him good In the second chapte
 of Genesis. however we find the ailt :, gorical account of how God came
 to the earth and made man out of tn :. dust of the ground. Then follows u