Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to header Skip to footer

Negate the negative!

From the July 1987 issue of The Christian Science Journal


It was in grammar school. Johnny, annoyed with another lad, exclaimed, "Aw, he don't know nothin'."

The teacher said, "Now, John, you should have said, 'He doesn't know anything.' But the way you did say it, you made another point. Because, if he does not know nothing he must know something. We call that a double negative, and it makes a positive."

Doesn't an incident like this hint at what we are learning to do in Christian Science—to negate the negative (error in all its forms) and so bring out the positive reality? It is understanding of Truth that enables us to deny error. Christian Science is the law of Truth, which comes to reveal God as infinite Spirit, the one and only substance, the creator of His one and only spiritual universe, including His one and only spiritual man. With a variation on the double negative we can eliminate error's negative statement with a negation of our own—one that points out what error is not—namely that regardless of what it says, error is not real.

Sign up for unlimited access

You've accessed 1 piece of free Journal content

Subscribe

Subscription aid available

 Try free

No card required

More In This Issue / July 1987

concord-web-promo-graphic

Explore Concord—see where it takes you.

Search the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures