A magistrate’s pardon may encourage a criminal to repeat the offense; because forgiveness, in the popular sense of the word, can neither extinguish a crime nor the motives leading to it.  The belief in sin—­its pleasure, pain, or power—­must suffer, until it is self-destroyed.  “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS SIN?

Frequently when I touch this subject my meaning is ignorantly or maliciously misconstrued.  Christian Science Mind-healing lifts with a steady arm, and cleaves sin with a broad battle-axe.  It gives the lie to sin, in the spirit of Truth; but other theories make sin true.  Jesus declared that the devil was “a liar, and the father of it.”  A lie is negation,—­alias nothing, or the opposite of something.  Good is great and real.  Hence its opposite, named evil, must be small and unreal.  When this sense is attained, we shall no longer be the servants of sin, and shall cease to love it.

The domination of good destroys the sense of evil.  To illustrate:  It seems a great evil to belie and belittle Christian Science, and persecute a Cause which is healing its thousands and rapidly diminishing the percentage of sin.  But reduce this evil to its lowest terms, nothing, and slander loses its power to harm; for even the wrath of man shall praise Him.  The reduction of evil, in Science, gives the dominance to God, and must lead us to bless those who curse, that thus we may overcome evil with good.

If the Bible and my work Science and Health had their rightful place in schools of learning, they would revolutionize the world by advancing the kingdom of Christ.  It requires sacrifice, struggle, prayer, and watchfulness to understand and demonstrate what these volumes teach, because they involve divine Science, with fixed Principle, a given rule, and unmistakable proof.

IS THERE NO SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT?

Self-sacrifice is the highway to heaven.  The sacrifice of our blessed Lord is undeniable, and it was a million times greater than the brief agony of the cross; for that would have been insufficient to insure the glory his sacrifice brought and the good it wrought.  The spilling of human blood was inadequate to represent the blood of Christ, the outpouring love that sustains man’s at-one-ment with God; though shedding human blood brought to light the efficacy of divine Life and Love and its power over death.  Jesus’ sacrifice stands preeminently amidst physical suffering and human woe.  The glory of human life is in overcoming sickness, sin, and death.  Jesus suffered for all mortals to bring in this glory; and his purpose was to show them that the way out of the flesh, out of the delusion of all human error, must be through the baptism of suffering, leading up to health, harmony, and heaven.