The Pastor's Son by Walter, William W.

"Mr. Williams, do you believe God is all intelligence?"

"Yes, certainly."

"Then He must be the intelligence of man, or his mind, otherwise God would not be _all_ intelligence." The pastor sat perfectly still, fully absorbed with his own thoughts. Mrs. White waited a few moments, then continued: "What I have said in regard to applying the rule is in full accord with the teachings of Jesus Christ wherein He demonstrated the necessity of us working out our own salvation."

"Mrs. White, you say that God is the intelligence of man, or his mind."

"Yes, for God is _all_ intelligence."

"You also say that God is good only."

"Yes, God is _all_ Good."

"Then according to this theory that God is all intelligence, you must admit that He is also the bad or evil intelligence found in some men, and if this be true, you could hardly claim that He is all good, for one statement would contradict the other," slowly said the pastor.

"You have made a mistake in your reasoning, Mr. Williams. A bad intelligence is not intelligence, but a lack of intelligence, or non-intelligence; in other words, ignorance, and ignorance has no place in the realm of intelligence, for ignorance is evil, and intelligence is good," said the practitioner. "Your explanation sounds very reasonable, but I am not yet willing to agree with you; it may be because I do not fully understand," answered the pastor.

"I do not think it possible for man to fully comprehend any science in a few moments, and this science is the science of sciences."

"Am I to understand that evil and ignorance have no place in the universe; in other words, are not real?" asked the pastor.

"Yes, the good alone is real. It is only through ignorance of the truth that evil seems real, or has place or power."

"But we see evil all about us," said the pastor.

"This seems so, but it is only a misapprehension of the truth, for evil is not real, has no entity or principle, God (Good) never made it," said the practitioner.

"But if it is not real, and God did not make it, where did it come from?" asked the pastor.

Mrs. White's face broadened into a smile, and then she said, "Mr. Williams, I think I will tell you a little story that I wrote to one of my patients who was suffering from a claim of indigestion. She insisted that evil was real, and offered up the evidence of her indigestion as proof thereof. This little story came to me as I was thinking of her case. It may enlighten you on the origin of evil as it did her. Now for the story."

CHAPTER XIII

THE UNREALITY OF EVIL