IN Christian Science there is presented to humanity a radically new solution of the problem of evil. This solution may appear at first startling in its undeviating absoluteness of premise and conclusion, but to spiritual reasoning its logic is unanswerable. It is this—that if we accept Spirit, God, as the only cause and creator, then the nothingness of evil becomes self-evident.
As soon as this great fact is acknowledged by the student and made the basis for right reasoning, he finds himself instructed and enlightened, in every forward step he takes, by the wisdom and inspiration of his two textbooks, the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. He quickly learns how contrary to all accepted methods, whether religious, scientific, or philosophic, is this discovery of the Science of Christianity, which concedes not one jot to conservatism or convention, which marches forward under Truth's banner, acknowledging no authority and no evidence except those of divine origin. Unequivocal in its thesis, it maintains in the face of agelong tradition, and of accepted sense testimony, that only to God's allness belongs the designation of reality. Herein alone can the inherent nothingness of every form of evil be established in human consciousness, whereby the fear and the love of sin are finally destroyed. With this key Christian Science opens for us the Scriptures, and leads us into a new land, where we see the man of God's creating, the man whom Christ Jesus came to reveal.
To abandon the methods hitherto adopted, in all ages—repudiated by none except the Master and his immediate followers—of either fighting or submitting to evil, and to learn through the revelation of God's allness that that which opposes Him is not power, this is the teaching of Christian Science. He who accepts the letter and spirit of this divine message has begun to cut the very ground away from under his fear of and belief in evil, and with intelligent assurance to break its seeming cause.
The writer of the Apocalypse, in twenty-two chapters, has recorded "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants." In this book there is uncovered the full gamut of evil, in all its subtle and degrading forms. But here also is recorded the triumphant overcoming of evil, in the casting down of the accuser, and the marriage of the bride, the Lamb's wife. The writer of the book of Revelation leaves us in no doubt that what he wrote of, he also saw. With dramatic emphasis he tells us, "And I John saw the holy city."
How was it that the Revelator emerged from this terrific ordeal with confidence undisturbed, with vision so clear that he could testify of the Spirit and the bride? The answer to this all-important question may be found in his own words, uttered before he set out upon the task with which he had been entrusted. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day," he writes. This alone explains his preparedness as transcriber of the vision for which Jesus had selected him. In this blessed state of consciousness, inspired wholly by spiritual sense, resting in a knowledge of divine creation as forever complete and perfect, the Revelator could observe without horror the uncovering, and then see the final destruction of evil. For him, its nothingness, its utter powerlessness to interfere with or disturb the infinite ever-presence of good, had become an established fact, because he was identifying himself with the allness of Spirit.
In an allegory (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 323) our Leader portrays the Christ, descending from "a celestial city above all clouds, in serene azure and unfathomable glory." From such a summit of consecration, the subtle claim that evil has power to ensnare, to frighten, and to victimize man is beheld in all its nothingness. The Saviour's mission of redemption and salvation is here seen to be fulfilled, because, in bearing witness to the infinite nature of good, it uncovers and destroys all forms of evil.
With his thought illumined and strengthened by the understanding which Science bestows upon him, the student realizes that, even though he may be beset by difficulties and dangers, this Christ-power is his also, guiding and protecting him, in the measure that he claims and abides by it, as did the Stranger, to meet "their secret and open attacks with serene confidence" (ibid., p. 323).
Spiritual experiences and the lessons which they teach must always be apprehended individually. The Stranger remains a stranger as he comes and goes for those who are a prey to appetite and passion, egotism and self-indulgence; but for those who are in "the Spirit on the Lord's day," the great purpose of the teaching that evil is not power, revealed in the Apocalypse and discovered by Mrs. Eddy, is fulfilled, the vision is clear, the way is plain. For them, also, as they take this way and press forward in the light of Truth, there must come the revelation of "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." In this divine consummation of creation which spiritual understanding unfolds, we behold the "new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven."
In describing this experience which came to the Revelator, as the powerlessness of evil was uncovered to him, Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 573): "St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality." Thus did the writer of the Apocalypse identify himself with Spirit's supremacy as it had been revealed to him, and thus does his record close in exalted reaffirmation of the forever triumph of Principle and its idea.
Impartial, universal, and imperative is the call to each one to be "in the Spirit"; that is, to accept spiritual sense alone as his witness and guide; to recognize no other day but the Lord's day; that is, the completeness of divine creation; to go forth, as did the Revelator, obedient and receptive to the Christ-vision, with the assurance that he too can prove, what alone is provable, the utter nothingness of evil, because of the supremacy and allness of God.
