It is sometimes said by those who are critical of Christian Science, that its adherents are narrow, that they are persons of one idea, even bigoted in their insistence upon one way and only one way of expressing themselves in matters pertaining to their understanding of God, man, and the universe. yet these same critics are not offended by the exactness and "bigotry" displayed by the mathematician, who is equally exact and equally insistent upon the manner in which a problem in mathematics shall be stated and worked out. Just why this should be so is hard to explain, except upon the theory that these critics look upon mathematics as an exact science, and the relation of God to man and the universe as a relation of chance and change; a theory which will not bear analysis.
If, with God. there is, as the apostle James wrote, "no variableness, neither shadow of turning," then the knowledge of God and His relation to His creation cannot be otherwise than the knowledge of something which is exact and unchangeable, and this knowledge can be rightly expressed only in the most exact and certain way. This is clearly stated by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, where she says (p. 127):"If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity."
The fact that twice two equals four is accepted as a scientific fact, and therefore is admitted by all to be unchanging and unchangeable. That God, the All-good, cannot and does not create evil, should be just as readily admitted to be a scientific fact, yet no statement of Christian Science is so vehemently denied by our critics as is this one, until they have logically proved the proposition to be true and entirely in harmony with God's omnipotence. To say that God creates evil, is at variance with Christian Science, but no more so than to say that He makes use of evil in order to do good, or that He permits evil for some purpose of His own; yet some critics who agree with us that the first of these propositions is not true, call Christian Scientists narrow because they insist that the other two propositions are equally untrue.
