Where Art Thou
From Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy
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In the allegory of Genesis, third chapter and ninth
verse, two mortals, walking in the cool of the day midst
15 the stately palms, many-hued blossoms, perfume-laden
breezes, and crystal streams of the Orient, pondered the
things of man and God.
A sense of evil is supposed to have spoken, been listened
to, and afterwards to have formed an evil sense that
20 blinded the eyes of reason, masked with deformity the
glories of revelation, and shamed the face of mortals.
What was this sense? Error versus Truth: first, a
supposition; second, a false belief; third, suffering;
fourth, death.
Not man, but a mortal—the antipode of immortal
man. Supposing, false believing, suffering are not fac-
ulties of Mind, but are qualities of error.
The supposition is, that God and His idea are not all-
30 power; that there is something besides Him; that this
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1 something is intelligent matter; that sin—yea, self-
hood—is apart from God, where pleasure and pain,
good and evil, life and death, commingle, and are for-
ever at strife; even that every ray of Truth, of infinity,
5 omnipotence, omnipresence, goodness, could be absorbed
in error! God cannot be obscured, and this renders error
a palpable falsity, yea, nothingness; on the basis that
black is not a color because it absorbs all the rays of
light.
10 The “Alpha and Omega” of Christian Science voices
this question: Where do we hold intelligence to be? Is
it in both evil and good, in matter as well as Spirit?
If so, we are literally and practically denying that God,
good, is supreme, all power and presence, and are turn-
15 ing away from the only living and true God, to “lords
many and gods many.”
Where art thou, O mortal! who turnest away from
the divine source of being,—calling on matter to work
out the problem of Mind, to aid in understanding and
20 securing the sweet harmonies of Spirit that relate to the
universe, including man?
Paul asked: “What communion hath light with dark-
ness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” The
worshippers of Baal worshipped the sun. They believed
25 that something besides God had authority and power,
could heal and bless; that God wrought through matter
—by means of that which does not reflect Him in a single
quality or quantity!—the grand realities of Mind, thus
to exemplify the power of Truth and Love.
30 The ancient Chaldee hung his destiny out upon the
heavens; but ancient or modern Christians, instructed in
divine Science, know that the prophet better understood
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1 Him who said: “He doeth according to His will in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest
Thou?”
5 Astrology is well in its place, but this place is second-
ary. Necromancy has no foundation,—in fact, no
intelligence; and the belief that it has, deceives itself.
Whatever simulates power and Truth in matter, does this
as a lie declaring itself, that mortals’ faith in matter may
10 have the effect of power; but when the whole fabrication
is found to be a lie, away goes all its supposed power and
prestige.
Why do Christian Scientists treat disease as disease,
since there is no disease?
15 This is done only as one gives the lie to a lie; because
it is a lie, without one word of Truth in it. You must
find error to be nothing: then, and only then, do you
handle it in Science. The diabolism of suppositional
evil at work in the name of good, is a lie of the highest
20 degree of nothingness: just reduce this falsity to its proper
denomination, and you have done with it.
How shall we treat a negation, or error—by means
of matter, or Mind? Is matter Truth? No! Then it
cannot antidote error.
25 Can belief destroy belief? No: understanding is re-
quired to do this. By the substitution of Truth demon-
strated, Science remedies the ills of material beliefs.
Because I have uncovered evil, and dis-covered for
you divine Science, which saith, “Be not overcome of
evil, but overcome evil with good,” and you have not
loved sufficiently to understand this Golden Rule and
demonstrate the might of perfect Love that casteth out
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1 all fear, shall you turn away from this divine Principle
to graven images? Remember the Scripture:—
“But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart,
My lord delayeth his coming;”
5 “And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to
eat and drink with the drunken;
“The lord of that servant shall come in a day when
he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not
aware of,
10 “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his por-
tion with the hypocrites.”
One mercilessly assails me for opposing the subtle lie,
others charge upon me with full-fledged invective for, as
they say, having too much charity; but neither moves
15 me from the path made luminous by divine Love.
In my public works I lay bare the ability, in belief, of
evil to break the Decalogue,—to murder, steal, commit
adultery, and so on. Those who deny my wisdom or
right to expose error, are either willing participants in
20 wrong, afraid of its supposed power, or ignorant of it.
The notion that one is covering iniquity by asserting
its nothingness, is a fault of zealots, who, like Peter,
sleep when the Watcher bids them watch, and when the
hour of trial comes would cut off somebody’s ears. Such
25 people say, “Would you have me get out of a burning
house, or stay in it?”
I would have you already out, and know that you are
out; also, to remember the Scripture concerning those
who do evil that good may come,—“whose damnation
30 is just;” and that whoso departeth from divine Science,
seeking power or good aside from God, has done himself
harm.
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1 Mind is supreme: Love is the master of hate; Truth,
the victor over a lie. Hath not Science voiced this les-
son to you,—that evil is powerless, that a lie is never
true? It is your province to wrestle with error, to handle
5 the serpent and bruise its head; but you cannot, as a
Christian Scientist, resort to stones and clubs,—yea, to
matter,—to kill the serpent of a material mind.
Do you love that which represents God most, His highest
idea as seen to-day? No!
10 Then you would hate Jesus if you saw him personally,
and knew your right obligations towards him. He would
insist on the rule and demonstration of divine Science:
even that you first cast out your own dislike and hatred
of God’s idea,—the beam in your own eye that hinders
15 your seeing clearly how to cast the mote of evil out of
other eyes. You cannot demonstrate the Principle of
Christian Science and not love its idea: we gather not
grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles.
Where art thou?
