"IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made," wrote the beloved disciple (John 1:1-3). Holy Scripture teaches that God is good. Science proves that like begets like. Therefore God's creation—the universe, including man—must be entirely good. But human experience often seems to deny all-inclusive good.
Material sense, presenting evil as real, would attempt to fasten it on men and thus enslave them. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 252), "A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error, until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears, and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit, is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his Maker."
All we can really know of anything is the truth of it. Until it is learned that the product of three times four is twelve, we might ignorantly believe the answer to be nine. But when the principle of mathematics is applied, and the correct result is proved, we can no longer be deceived by the false concept, because we know the truth of the multiplication of numbers.
