CHRISTIAN SCIENCE teaches that good is real, eternal, infinite, omnipresent; and that evil, the supposititious opposite of good, is unreal and ephemeral, without form, locality, or substance. This knowledge is gained by lifting thought above the testimony of the so-called material senses, by contemplating spiritual existence, and by learning of God and the truths pertaining to God, as expounded in Christian Science. Good is not created by Christian Science, but is revealed through it. Good unfolds naturally through right thinking. A conscious sense of the presence of good constantly abides in spiritualized thought.
Christian Science declares God, good, to be the divine Principle of man and the universe; and Mrs. Eddy states in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 213), that "God, good, is self-existent and self-expressed." God, therefore, being good, man, as the image and likeness of God, expresses only good. This demonstrable, ever present law of good becomes operative in human experience as our eyes are turned Spiritward through Christian Science, which illumines our thinking so that the dark shadows of personal sense—selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, intolerance, prejudice, hatred, idolatry, and such like fallacies—are annihilated. The spiritual interpretation of "eyes" Mrs. Eddy has given as "spiritual discernment,—not material but mental" (ibid., p. 586). Therefore, when one mentally discerns the spiritual nature of good, he awakens to the magnitude and extent of its manifestation in human affairs, as indisputable proof of God's ever-presence. So overwhelming at times is this disclosure that the exclamation is spontaneous, "Who is so great a God as our God?"
An abiding sense of good unfolds through pure affection evidenced in the kind acts of friends; also, in the realization of long-cherished right desires. True freedom, right joyousness, pure happiness, perfect health, and spiritual regeneration result from the operation of God's law, the law of good. Good is proved ever present when unexpected opportunity presents itself to speak the word of truth, thus utilizing the law of God in healing one's fellow-men. When Philip was bidden to go to the eunuch of Ethiopia, as recorded in Acts, he did not refrain from responding to God's call. Running to the chariot where the officer of the queen sat reading "Esaias the prophet," Philip proceeded to explain the Scriptures to the officer, and to preach "unto him -Jesus," the one perfect representative of good to the human consciousness, with the result that the eunuch believed, at once accepting the Christ, Truth, and asking to be baptized. Thus was good realized in the experience of one through obedience, and in another through seeking an understanding of God.
