Chapter 7: The Way Evil Argues

WHOSO READETH LET HIM UNDERSTAND - Chapter 7.

THE WAY
EVIL ARGUES

EVIL’S argument follows practically the same lines as any other argument, the only difference being that evil, through its channels of malicious minds, argues silently. Unless you are awake to its machinations, it will govern you. Mrs. Eddy was spiritually minded enough to read malicious mind from the standpoint of divine Mind. Such reading is possible only through spiritual discernment. It cannot be done through mortal mind reading, such as mediumship and spiritualism. Mrs. Eddy has stated, “There is no mortal mind reading. Mortal mind cannot see or hear what is going on, for all is embraced in the one Mind, and error cannot know anything about Mind.”
Because the arguments of evil are silent they are not then less persuasive than arguments that are audible. An audible argument is more easily

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refuted than a silent one, because it is out in the open where it can be seen, while the silent argument may be operating with you when you are least aware of it and are not on your guard. Its subtle attacks are felt in your body, in your home, your business affairs and your world conditions. So be on your guard—keep awake to the fact that any argument, whether it comes as your own thought or as the thought of another, is always malicious mind’s argument if it starts with effect and not cause, if it comes as some person, place or thing that is wrong.
This malicious argument will present itself in any and every way that can harass and distress you. It may appear as physical suffering, business losses, family discord or any suggestion that can make you doubtful of your ability to succeed in your purpose, whether it be healing a case of sickness or achieving success in any line. Its arguments will be directed especially toward discouraging you and embittering your disposition. It will suggest that you are of no possible use; that you cannot heal, or if you do heal that it is only temporary and the discord will return. Mrs. Eddy has repeatedly drawn attention to these as well as to many similar arguments.
How much attention have you given to what she has so forcefully exposed? Do you con-

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tinue with the same old routine, or are you daily becoming more alert to what is taking place, no longer thinking that it is you who conjure up these impossible arguments? You must be positive that it is not a person, a place, or a thing that is at work but malicious minds, the ever-operating affectation of malicious mind, masquerading as intelligent power.
If someone were audibly arguing with you, it could not seem more real than the silent argument of malicious mind endeavoring to make you accept its lies as your own mental volition. It argues just as directly, vigorously and forcefully as a good lawyer arguing a case. It uses every cunning device to deceive you into believing that you yourself are the originator of your disturbed thinking, and, should it succeed, you become its voice and its servant. As a Christian Scientist you must not and cannot yield to such a palpable fraud. To do so would be fatal to your health, harmony and progress.
To understand this intellectually does not necessarily mean that you innately feel the truth of it; and what you really do not feel you will not utilize. Malicious evil will always rob you of what you only intellectually understand, but nothing can rob you of what you not only know but feel. Mrs. Eddy counseled her students,

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“First, find out what error is trying to do. Second, keep it from doing it. Third, see that it is not done.”
You know that evil is the negation of good; that it imitates good in all the unfoldments of good, from the simplest to the most marvellous; and that its silent arguments are the negation of the spiritual arguments of Christian Science. To destroy the negative arguments the spirit of Truth and Love must be present and realized. Every presentation of sin, disease, death, and limitation, and every finite sense of person, place and thing, as entity apart from God, must be translated back to God, the one Mind, that God may be found All-in-all.
As used by the metaphysician “translating back to God, Mind” does not mean to translate the “effect” back to cause, but to take the things of God and show them unto the creature: to start with God, cause, and there find all being. In his oneness with God he knows what the “creature” or “effect” must be. Furthermore, he does not think “effect” has to be corrected outside his “own mentality,” but he knows God must be found as the only “mentality” for a clear sense of good to be maintained.
This “translating,” as used by the metaphysician, means beginning with God; and ending

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with God, and finding God all noumenon and phenomenon. It means accepting God as all that can appear to him and holding steadfastly to this truth, he sees that which is as all that is and perfection reigns.
Mrs. Eddy states in Miscellany the great importance of this beginning with cause, never with effect: “Losing the comprehensive in the technical, the Principle in its accessories, cause in effect, and faith in sight, we lose the Science of Christianity,—a predicament quite like that of the man who could not see London for the houses.”

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