Christian Science is stated from the standpoint of absolute Truth, the allness of God, and that there is in reality nothing else. But human belief declares that there is something else, and that mortals suffer sorely therefrom; therefore Christian Science, as applied to human need, is stated for the purpose of redeeming mortals from their wrong beliefs and experiences. With this in view it is impossible, as Mrs. Eddy points out, "to define truth and not name its opposite, error" (Miscellany, p. 235), and Christian Science names the opposite of truth as that which denies the infinity of good, in whatever form presented. But Christian Science in every instance designates error as error, as the transitory and false, never as the real thing, a real person, or as having real power.
Accepting without reserve the truth of the allness of God, and awakening to the spiritual facts of being as they profess to be, the burden of proof will continue to rest upon Christian Scientists, and they will be called upon to show by their thoughts, speech, and conduct, so far as this is now humanly possible, that only the good is true. Condemning persons for their mistakes, or gossiping about one's neighbor's shortcomings, will not help this work, but serves to invest error with a sense of reality and to confirm its claims. Looking for the supposed cause or origin of evil has the same effect.
Using the words "error," "belief," and "false claim" as different names for sin and disease, and then needlessly making them the topic of conversation, is no more consistent with Christian Science than it would be to do this under their ordinary names. If we would make the fact of the nothingness of evil practical in our lives, we should beware of lending our thoughts or our tongues to the dissemination of its illusions, but should take note of error and deal with it only in the sense of its falsity or in the process of its destruction.
