MANY today are debating within themselves as to whether or not the good men do is rewarded. Some of them will probably admit that on the whole their own efforts after good have produced equivalent results, but at the same time they may find themselves forced to acknowledge that it is not uncommon to see "the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree." The question to some may not be an easy one to answer; and for the reason, principally, that good and evil are not regarded in the right way by mankind in general. At present the great majority of people believe that good and evil are both real. The consequence is that they regard both good and evil as having power, the result being that sometimes good predominates in their lives, while at other times evil seems to hold sway. With thought thus divided is it any wonder that confusion should reign? Is it any wonder that men should find themselves in a dilemma on the question as to whether it is certain that the doing of good is of a surety rewarded?
Christian Science has a wonderful way of clearing up human difficulties; and it assuredly holds the key to the solution of the problem under consideration. But before we can rightly decide whether or not good is rewarded, we must be correctly informed on certain fundamental truths. What are these truths? One is that God is infinite good ; another, that since God is infinite good, evil is unreal. It must be obvious that when good and evil are correctly regarded in this way, the one as real, the other as unreal, an entirely different perspective is presented to that which one beholds when both good and evil are looked upon as real.
When, then, God is acknowledged as infinite and good alone as real, the futility of evil doing becomes plain. Indeed, in this light it is clear that evil doing can be productive of nothing; or, in other words, that evil doing cannot produce a real result or obtain a real reward. Whereas, the thinking of good and the demonstration thereof cannot fail to be rewarded by a good result. One can have no difficulty in apprehending this when the position as elucidated by Christian Science is understood. The understanding of the fact that evil is a negation, an unreality, enables one to see the absurdity of believing in and practicing evil, and that the rewards of evil doing are altogether illusory. The knowledge, on the other hand, that good is real, that good alone possesses power, shows unmistakably that the doing of good cannot fail of its reward.
