EARLY in the experience of every one who is seeking a better way and is convinced that he has found it in Christian Science, there comes a period of rejoicing in the thought that evil has been dethroned. That God and good are synonymous terms, leaving no place to be filled by devil or evil, is a thought of restful significance, bringing peace and quiet into a world of struggle and tiresome effort and oftentimes apparent defeat. It is not surprising, therefore, that nearly all of us stop there to rest for a time and that some of us refuse ever to go farther. If the writer has any qualification for helpful suggestion along this line, it lies in the fact that he has long insisted upon the absolute sufficiency of this thought and has only very recently seen the necessity for any other. One who has just met and, as he hopes, mastered a difficulty, can sometimes state it more clearly than another who has long since left it behind and gone on to others which are to him of greater moment.
"You are giving evil power," we have been accustomed to say, when those who have seen farther have urged upon us the necessity for wisdom as well as love and charity and forgiveness. "We have been fighting evil all our lives and are tired of it. We came to Christian Science for that very purpose,—to get rid of evil. We don't want to know it and we don't want to know any of its claims." And then we have tried to justify our attitude by quoting Mrs. Eddy, perhaps to the effect that we do not need to know or fear evil if we will only keep our minds filled with good, forgetting that any quotation which does not take in all that she has said on the question, is apt to be misleading. Verily we are all tired of evil, tired of sin, tired of sickness, tired of poverty, tired of misery in all its forms. We want to get rid of every one of them, and the only difference of opinion is as to the best and quickest way to do this. Shall it be by closing our eyes and going by on the other side, or by clear-eyed understanding and courageous mastery of all conditions that would work against good? What was the method of Jesus? Can there be any possible doubt as to the correct answer to that question?
I confess to having had an admiration bordering on enthusiasm for those who, having practically no sense of evil in their own mentality, are slow to see it in any one or anything about them. Association with such a mentality is as restful as is the thought that evil has no kingdom and no abiding-place. We feel that we can throw down the bars, that we do not need to watch; that nothing will be misunderstood, nothing misinterpreted; we can close our eyes, secure in the thought that there will be no by-play, nothing underhanded or mean. And yet, is that all there is to goodness? Weakness and dulness are equally harmless. Who has not seen untold misery worked by just such a mentality. Many persons, for the want of spiritual alertness, actually play into the hands of designing persons, and then wonder helplessly that a good God should permit the ruin and suffering that follow. The harmlessness of the dove must be tempered by the wisdom of the serpent till all are harmless. Evil is not powerless till it is known as evil; so long as it is permitted to masquerade as goodness it seems to have temporary influence. To believe that its influence can be other than temporary would be to impugn the wisdom of the All-wise.
