THE remarkable discrepancy evident on the part of individuals and nations between their profession and practice of Christianity, indicates a profound ignorance of or indifference to the nature and demands of Christ's teachings, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the general attitude toward what is called evil. The great Teacher said of the devil, the supposed personification of evil, "There is no truth in him;" but some professed Christians of today, assuming to be wiser than their Master, argue that it is folly to denounce evil as a lie, not realizing that by believing it they are joining in the greatest folly of all the ages. The standard of Christianity which its Founder established is plainly not the standard of the schools today, else we would not have the astonishing spectacle of religious teachers and leaders defending the acknowledgment of a power besides God and believing this to be consistent with one's Christian profession.
The human race does not need a savior because it believes in God, but because it believes in something else, for this error of a belief in evil produces all the wrong conditions on earth. Whatever, therefore, prolongs the belief of mortals in evil, not only prolongs the struggle for salvation, but defeats the very purpose of the Christian religion. There is no doubt that the seal of approval set by religious teachers upon the belief that evil is a real power, has served to embed it more firmly in human consciousness and is mainly responsible for the lack of practical godliness among Christian nations. Evil has thus been permitted to carry out its delusions under the very eyes of Christendom, and mankind have gone on agreeing with it and submitting to it, instead of exercising their religious faith toward its overthrow.
Christian Science is sometimes criticized because it stands so uncompromisingly upon the absolute infinity of God, or good, that it denies the reality of all that is unlike Him; but its critics have not hitherto offered a more Scriptural, scientific, or Christian platform upon which to stand. All thinkers will agree that until human consciousness is purified of its belief in evil, this consciousness will not become permanently harmonious or good; the problem, therefore, revolves around the question as to whether evil will be gotten rid of more quickly by admitting its claims than by rejecting them, that is by accepting the infinitude of good or by denying it. We stand either on the affirmative or on the negative side of this question, and our decision on this point, more than doctrines or theories, decides the genuineness and success of our Christianity. Few stop to reflect that to acknowledge evil as real is equivalent to saying that there are places in the universe where there is no God, a conclusion which the psalmist credits not to the wise man, but to the fool.
