The Apostle Jemes writes, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." He had previously written, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." The two statements may at first sight appear to be contradictory; for if temptation, or trial, is not of God, why should we rejoice when our faith and understanding are put to the test? In Christian Science we find the answer. We may rejoice first that no phase or form of error which we are called upon to overcome is sent by our loving Father. God, infinite good, could not cause that which He knows not and has never created. Again we may rejoice that, the error or discord being untrue because not God-created, we are able to glorify God in the refutation of, and victory over, that which has presented itself to us for acceptance. Thus we may demonstrate the unreality of all that is unlike God.
God's gifts are harmony, happiness, health. Any apparent trouble is a manifestation of the lie that both matter and Spirit, both mortal mind and divine Mind, both good and evil exist. Whatever form this lie may assume, however tenaciously it may assert itself, it will be most effectually overcome in our striving to reach a clearer understanding of God. On page 465 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in answer to her question, "What is God?" Mary Baker Eddy writes, "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." It would be impossible for evil to form a part of or proceed from this one infinite and perfect Being. Whatever the difficult human circumstances in which we may find ourselves, our aim should be to acknowledge and glorify God, to prove to all men that God, good, alone is; that He is All, and that there is no power, presence, or knowledge besides Him and that which He alone originates.
Our first step, then, in demonstration is to acknowledge what is true. Only the beautiful, harmonious, gracious, and good are God-given and real. We see therefore that, logically, sorrow, sickness, poverty, sin, death, cannot be true; and with the recognition of what is real, lovable, and lovely, we are in a position to deny with confidence the reality of trouble, of whatever kind, and its seeming power to disturb or harm, because we know that God has not sent it and has no cognizance of it. As His children, inseparable from infinite Mind, we cannot, logically, know what God does not know. And the pretended reality of evil is an illusion of mortal mind. It is the lie of the serpent, evil belief. Trouble in any form is never anything but a supposititious manifestation of material sense or mortal mind.
