Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/134

108 The sensitive, sorrowing saint thinks too much of it: the sordid sinner, or the so-called Christian asleep, thinks too little of sin.

To allow sin of any sort is anomalous in Christian Scientists, claiming, as they do, that good is infinite, All Our Master, in his definition of Satan as a liar from the beginning, attested the absolute powerlessness — yea, nothingness — of evil: since a lie, being without foundation in fact, is merely a falsity; spiritually, literally, it is nothing.

Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright, then reducing its claim to its proper denominator, — nobody and nothing. Sin should be conceived of only as a delusion. This true conception would remove mortals' ignorance and its consequences, and advance the second stage of human consciousness, repentance. The first state, namely, the knowledge of one's self, the proper knowledge of evil and its subtle workings wherein evil seems as real as good, is indispensable; since that which is truly conceived of, we can handle; but the misconception of what we need to know of evil, or the conception of it at all as something real, — costs much. Sin needs only to be known for what it is not; then we are its master, not servant. Remember, and act on, Jesus' definition of sin as a lie. This cognomen makes it less dangerous; for most of us would not be seen believing in, or adhering to, that which we know to be untrue. What would be thought of a Christian Scientist who believed in the use of drugs, while declaring that they have no intrinsic quality and that there is no matter? What should be thought of an individual believing in that