infidels [15]
may disagree. Bonaparte declared, "Ever since the
reign of Christianity began the loftiest intellects have had
a practical faith in God." Daniel Webster said, "My
heart has always assured and reassured me that Chris-
tianity must be a divine reality." [20]

To turn the popular indignation against an advanced
form of religion, the pagan slanderers affirmed that
Christians took their infants to a place of worship in
order to offer them in sacrifice,--a baptism not of
water but of blood, thus distorting or misapprehending [25]
the purpose of Christian sacraments. Christians met
in midnight feasts in the early days, and talked of the
crucified Saviour; thence arose the rumor that it was
a part of Christian worship to kill and eat a human
being. [30]

Really, Christianity turned men away from the thought
of fleshly sacrifice, and directed them to spiritual attain-

[Page 346.]

ments. Life, not death, was and is the very centre of [1]
its faith. Christian Science carries this thought even
higher, and insists on the demonstration of moral and
spiritual healing as eminent proof that God is understood
and illustrated. [5]

Origin Of Evil

The origin of evil is the problem of ages. It confronts
each generation anew. It confronts Christian Science.
The question is often asked, If God created only the
good, whence comes the evil? [10]

To this question Christian Science replies: Evil never
did exist as an entity. It is but a belief that there is an
opposite intelligence to God. This belief is a species of
idolatry, and is not more true or real than that an image
graven on wood or stone is God. [15]

The mortal admission of the reality of evil perpetuates
faith in evil; and the Scriptures declare that "to whom
ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye
are." This leading, self-evident proposition of Christian
Science, that, good being real, its opposite is necessarily [20]
unreal, needs to be grasped in all its divine requirements.

Truth Versus Error

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures
of silver." It is a rule in Christian Science never to re-
peat error unless it becomes requisite to bring out Truth. [25]
Then lift the curtain, let in the light, and countermand

[Page 347.]

this first command of Solomon, "Answer not a fool accord- [1]
ing to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him,"

A distant rumbling and quivering of the earth foretell
t