AT the entrance of the old building which stands on the corner of Lake and Dearborn streets in Chicago, there is a tablet bearing a statement taken from a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Alton, Ill., in October, 1858. After quoting his statement of the great issue then before the American people, the inscription reads: "That is the issue which will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglass and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles —right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle."
This statement of the great commoner voiced an error regarding principle which has beclouded nearly all ancient and modern systems of philosophy and logic. The great English poet, Milton, gave expression to the same error when he wrote that "a good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad one." In fact it has been customary for nearly all logicians to classify principle as both positive and negative, helpful and harmful, good and bad. Down through the ages thinkers have continued to believe in the reality and equipollence of good and evil; therefore principle has been commonly regarded as having its origin in two contradictory elements, and power has been given to both elements, notwithstanding the Scriptures repeatedly affirm that God is good, the only creator, and that He is the only power in the universe.
Until Mrs. Eddy discovered and brought out this absolute truth in regard to the true nature and power of the Father of man, no religious writer or leader since the days of Jesus of Nazareth and of the primitive Christians ever set forth the scientific fact that God is good, is one, and is All. Our revered Leader clearly discerned the nature of God as divine Life, Truth, and Love, the divine Mind; and her broadened spiritual vision, sweeping rapidly over the field of metaphysical causation, soon led her to perceive that God, the sole creator of all that really exists in the true mental realm, is divine Principle, the infinite cause of all that appears as fundamental and good in human affairs. That this wonderful revelation was a fulfilment of prophecy, none can doubt who have been blessed by even a slight acquaintance with the nature and power of Principle as defined and scientifically explained in her great work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
