"Why, Katherine, if that is true I can understand how God can be
omnipresent! That is a doctrine of my church, that has been a
tantalizing mystery to me all my life. My dear girl," she went on
in an eager tone, "I begin to see a ray of light--I must think
more about it, though. I have always thought of Deity as a
'personal God,' and, yes"--smiling--"I used to believe in a
personal devil, too; with a very vague conception that although
the latter had always managed to keep the preponderance of power
in his hands, God would, in some miraculous manner, win the battle
in the end. But, even now"--with a look of perplexity--"I do not
grasp where or how, according to your logic, God comes in as
supreme, infinite, so long as evil exists."
"Let us go back to the lie for an illustration," said Katherine.
"You said that it originated in the person's own evil thought and
desire to deceive. Well, what happens when you turn the light of
truth upon a lie?"
"Why, it disappears--vanishes; you learn the fact and are no
longer affected by, or conscious of, the falsehood."
"Then truth has destroyed, annihilated it; it has become nothing
to you. As long as you believe a lie you are its victim and suffer
from it; but once learn the truth you are free from that illusion
and its power over you is gone. Now, you would not say that truth
created the lie, permitted it, or was in any way responsible for
it, or your suffering on account of it?"
"N-o; so God, being good--infinite good--knows nothing of evil in
any form. Is that your point, Katherine?"
"Yes; so it follows He could neither create nor permit what He
knows nothing about."
"Why!" exclaimed Miss Reynolds, turning a glowing face to the
girl, "those same arguments must hold good for everything! Then
sickness and suffering must be the outcome of wrong thought on the
part of mortals! What unlimited possibilities that suggests!
Divine Principle! I begin to understand why you call yourselves
'Scientists'--you think and live in accord with this infinite,
absolute Principle--you demonstrate it, as--as I demonstrate
mathematics."
"Yes," said Katherine, smiling; "so you see that Christian Science
is, as some one has aptly said, 'the Science of sciences.'"
"That is a very sweeping assertion," responded her teacher in a
somewhat doubtful tone. "I'll have to ruminate on that. However,
this little glimpse of a better way than I have hitherto known,
seems like an olive leaf of hope and promise to me, for I have
been tossing on a restless sea of doubt and skepticism for years,
reaching out and groping after some substantial plank that would
float me into a haven of peace and rest. But how is it that you,
so young, argue so clearly and logically about these things that
have puzzled older and wiser heads for ages?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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