MRS. EDDY does not minimize the necessity of overcoming error. Throughout her entire writings she is persistently pointing out the heinousness of sin and its blighting effects on the lives of men, and is incessantly calling upon them to master the passions. Consider, for example, these words of hers on page 407 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters—passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge—is conquered only by a mighty struggle. Every hour of delay makes the struggle more severe. If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood." No feeble trifling with sin encouraged there! Christian Science is as adamant to evil under whatever guise it may seem to masquerade. Its call to men everywhere is, Have done with it if you value your "happiness, health, and manhood."
The effort to overcome error should be made now. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," says Paul. We cannot think of the apostle as procrastinating where sin was concerned, for to him the "carnal mind" was "enmity against God." His call to his brethren was that they should put the Mind of Christ in the place of the carnal mind, and that they should make the effort to do this without delay. There was wisdom in this, since it is generally believed that sin is more difficult to overcome the longer it is indulged. Jesus himself pointed out the disastrous effect of inaction and delay in the parable of "the ten virgins," recorded by Matthew in the twenty-fifth chapter of his Gospel, the thirteenth verse of which contains the warning words of the Master, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
Now the way in which mankind usually regards evil is not how it is regarded in Christian Science. Mankind, uninstructed in Christian Science, looks upon evil as if it were as real as good, and also as powerful. But that is not how Christian Science regards it. In this Science, God is declared to be infinite good; and from this premise the conclusion is drawn that evil is unreal, that evil has only a supposititious existence. This means that mankind is deceived in believing that evil is actual and has power; led astray when it indulges any form of sin; fooled when it allows itself to be the plaything of the passions; deluded when it fails to see that the result of giving way to the passions is unhappiness, ill health, and the destruction of true manhood.
