Evil will not cast out evil. A lie will not correct a lie. To return evil for evil is not the method of Christian warfare. Paul understood this when in that one immortal sentence he voiced the whole of the teachings of Christ Jesus, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." This brief rule indicates the method in which the Christian warfare is to be conducted, and one reason why the world is not better to-day is because professing Christians have not grasped and applied this doctrine in their campaign against evil. The generally prevailing argument has been that to overcome evil you must resist and oppose it by every available means, even to the extent of personal enmity, forceful separation, and violence. What has been the result? Evil has been introduced and relied upon to help work out good the rule. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," has not been kept, hence harmony and peace have not been established. Christian Science has come to point out the complete meaning of this divine rule, hence it also makes greater demands upon us to keep it. How to obtain peace has been the dream and problem of the ages, yet how simple the rule for its attainment; even a child can comprehend and apply it.
Who does not recall the strange feeling of loveoneliness and oppression which seized upon our hearts when, as children, we wilfully disobeyed or neglected our mother's teachings and commands. Who does not remember the childish struggles with self, the burden, the distress, the cold isolation away from the sunshine of love and peace, until in our childish simplicity we could stand it no longer, and like the prodigal son we hastened to confess our faults. I am sure most of us can recall the emotions of pity and sympathy we felt at the thought of having not only brought sorrow to our mother's heart, but of having alienated ourselves from God; and alone at night, with burning tears, we promised ourselves that we would remove the enmity at once by an honest confession and thereafter strive to be more obedient. And when the reconciliation came and the burden was lifted, how great our joy!
Jesus said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Does not this spiritual sensitiveness, so true and clear in the child, become obscured and suppressed by the selfish interests of material sense as we pass into manhood and womanhood? The Master's words imply this, and they also imply that this ought not to be, and need not be.
