I have always loved the saying, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” For me this metaphor powerfully illustrates a metaphysical rule Mary Baker Eddy states in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is ‘no night there’ ” (pp. 474–475).
We learn in Christian Science that since God, good, is all and made all, evil is not real. Evil is error—an illusion that cannot truly harm anything in God’s totally good creation. Even the darkest of evils—death—has no real power to destroy, for there is no life in matter. Life is one of the seven synonyms Mrs. Eddy gives for God in Science and Health, so we know that because Life is God, and man is made in the likeness of God, man must be spiritual and eternal (see p. 115). She states further on in the book: “When man gives up his belief in death, he will advance more rapidly towards God, Life, and Love. Belief in sickness and death, as certainly as belief in sin, tends to shut out the true sense of Life and health” (p. 430).
For many years now, I have been praying to see the unreality of death, and to overcome the fear of it. I recently had an experience that showed me the benefits of extinguishing this dark belief from thought by letting in the light of divine Truth.
