THERE are those who would limit themselves to a theoretical consideration of Christian Science. No doubt the theoretical side is of great importance; but it is a mistake to have regard to it alone, for Christian Science is of the utmost practical value. Consider, first of all, what Christian Science is and what it does. It is the Science of being; the knowledge of God and His creation. It declares the truth that God is infinite Spirit or Mind; infinite Life, Truth, and Love; infinite good; and that His creation, including man, is His spiritual reflection, as eternally good and perfect as God Himself. That, briefly, may be regarded as the positive side of the teaching of Christian Science.
But there is another side to the teaching of this Science. Reasoning from the premise that God is infinite good, Christian Science maintains that evil is unreal. Thus it agrees with Paul that "there is no power but of God; " that there are not two real powers, good and evil. That evil is unreal was part of Mrs. Eddy's great discovery. Christ Jesus had testified to evil's unreality when he declared that "he [the devil] is a liar, and the father of it;" but not until Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science was the fact that evil is unreal declared to be an irrefutable deduction from the absolute truth of the allness of God, good.
Christian Science, then, reveals the truth that God is infinitely good and that in reality evil does not exist. Theoretically to admit this may not be difficult; but such admission is only a part of what Christian Science demands. What is the situation as it presents itself to mortals? It is that they believe themselves to be living in a material universe; that they are subject to material laws; that they are victimized by evil in its many forms, including sin, disease, and death; that they are enslaved by all manner of limitation. It is true that goodness and harmony and health are manifested by men in some degree, but human existence appears to be constantly clouded over by the belief that good and evil, Truth and error, Life and death, are equally real. It is this cloud of erroneous belief which must be annihilated through the truth which Christian Science reveals.
