In various discussions and observations involved in conducting a Journal, unpleasant things have to be said sometimes of persons, and sometimes of the causes and interests with which they are connected. But these do not always go together. We may approve a movement or a party, when we condemn one or more of its adherents; or we may approve the men when we disapprove their cause. These are distinctions which our readers should always remember. We are not responsible for more than is fairly involved in our own utterances; and we are not supposed to endorse necessarily, and in detail, all of a public report which we reprint, which may be done simply because it has by previous printing gained an interest. We may also see much that is good in a cause we cannot work with, because we see it involves, by choice or necessity; something we consider false and dangerous.
Yet we are also glad to remember that all error is not wholly evil in its action. As the vanishing system of medicine heals disease by what they confess to be poisons, so other vanishing systems of thought conquer error by error less deadly and better connected. The truth with which they are connected may be the means of neutralizing the evil. The error may be in many cases the first charm with many readers, and but for the error the associated truth would not be looked at; and so, in in some such cases, Truth may allow error as a bait to catch men.
But Truth cannot disguise herself, nor approve the wrong. It is only by asserting her own proper quality and claims, in opposition to error, that the difference can be seen, and thence the destruction of error be effected. Hence our obligation to consistency and fidelity in upholding the banner of a true and pure Christian Science. We thus, in the most effective way, uphold all that is good in other systems and theories, and help to repress and destroy their evil and error.
