Much-repeated declarations of truth without a sincere effort to put them into practice tend to be ineffectual. Actually no demonstrable truth ever lacks vitality. The basic teachings of Christian Science should be of absorbing interest to every Christian Scientist; and if we ever find that these truths seem trite, we should look carefully to our practice. Certainly the fundamental statement that good is real and evil unreal is a vital point for us all not only to acknowledge but to use daily.
Thoreau, the celebrated philosopher, wrote, "There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." Mankind want to be free from evil. Men naturally yearn to reach that millennial state where only good appears in each experience and where evil is seen to be without influence or substance. All their endeavors work toward this point. But only Christian Science teaches the complete practical cure for the world's ills—the casting out of evil on the basis of its unreality and the acknowledgment of good as God-established, and therefore as real and enduring. As students of Christian Science we should never neglect to emphasize and prove this teaching.
Mankind must and will learn that actually the troubles they face are not conditions, but erroneous concepts, with no substance except to illusory mortal thought. The method of awakening we know. It is the gaining of spiritual understanding, the knowledge of God and of man in His likeness. It is learning to witness positively for the truth that all reality is good, and evil but a false claim, an imposition. The root of evil is the belief in its reality; it is there we must strike.
