ON page 85 of "Retrospection and Introspection" by Mrs. Eddy we find this significant statement: "The tempter is vigilant, awaiting only an opportunity to divide the ranks of Christian Science and scatter the sheep abroad; but 'if God be for us, who can be against us?'"
Who or what is the tempter referred to by our Leader? Is it a person or a thing? Neither one. Is it an evil spirit endowed with power to influence God's children? It is not, because there is but one Spirit, infinite and indivisible, and that is God. Is it an evil mind? It is not, because God is the only Mind, and Mind is good, not evil. Is it a manifestation of intelligence for which God is in any manner responsible? It is not, because God is the one and only intelligence of the universe. Is it a devil which God created and suffered to exist for some wise purpose? Not at all, because God, good, is everywhere, and where God is there could be no devil. The Bible says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." If so-called evil (devil) could enter the atmosphere of ever-present Love, it would immediately be consumed as chaff; but Love being omnipresent, there is no place for evil to come from. It never originated in God, therefore it never was created. Having no creator there is no cause for it, no real existence. Just as darkness never came or went, so evil never came from some place, nor did it ever go somewhere.
Then who or what is the tempter? Who can answer this most important question? Does the theology of the past throw any light on it? In the gospels we read that our Master was assailed by "the tempter,"—an arrogant, self-assertive, but baseless claim of mind and intelligence separate from God,—but such a decisive victory was gained by Christ Jesus as proved the powerlessness of error in the presence of Truth. In these gospel accounts we find no admission that the so-called tempter possessed either reality or power. The only weapon used in the forty days' struggle was the word of God, and with this same weapon the Master went forth from his great victory to heal the sick and even raise the dead. The absence of any healing works since the third century, however, shows that further light is needed on this question.
