When we examine those conditions that are usually spoken of as evil, and trace them back to their possible origin, or last analysis, it is impossible to find any actual evidence in support of the belief that evil is real, or that it has independent existence. On the contrary, all evidence is on the other side, and we are impelled to accept the idea that evil is non-existent. But the question is, why does evil seem to be real; and why is it here affecting the life of man in such a positive manner?

Deep thinkers in every age have given the larger parts of their lives to these questions; and naturally various conclusions have been formulated. Among the best known of these conclusions is the belief that evil is merely a condition arising from the misuse of the good; but in the full analysis of this belief a difficulty is met with that no thinker along that line has as yet overcome. And it is this, that if evil has no real existence, there can be no natural evil in man; and if there be no natural evil in man there can be no desire or tendency to misuse anything.

But the good is misused as we all know; then from whence comes that tendency in man to want to misuse the good? Such a tendency cannot be good; and therefore cannot originate in the good. However, if all is good, where are we to find that from which the tendency to misuse can originate? There is a great difficulty here that must be overcome or explained if we are to demonstrate the belief that evil is merely the misuse of the good. But this difficulty has not thus far been explained; and yet when we examine evil closely we find that it certainly is non-existent.

There is another belief, not so well known, that will prove itself far more satisfactory to the pure reasoner, and that will, not only explain the various difficulties that are met with in its analysis, but that also presents a method for eliminating evil that is far more perfect than anything else ever conceived of by the mind of man. It will be interesting therefore to consider this belief; although it will be necessary to be brief, the subject being so large that a volume would be required for a full and complete elucidation.

According to this new belief, evil is but a shadow - a shadow that is cast by the life of man himself when he is in the light, and only when he is in the light, it being impossible to cast a shadow when in the dark. In other words, evil exists only as a shadow, it having no reality or permanency in itself. Thus evil is known only to those who have evolved sufficiently from the lower states of consciousness to have come up into the light, as it is not possible for those to know shadows who have never been in the light.

If we are to accept this belief - and there is nothing to disprove it, while all the evidence obtainable is in its favor - we must, in one sense, rejoice in the fact that there is evil in the world - that our lives do cast a shadow, for this at least proves that we are in the light. But although we may rejoice in the fact that we are in the light, still we cannot rejoice in the fact that our lives do cast a shadow, and that these shadows have occasioned so much misunderstanding, so much stumbling and so much pain in the world. We must find, therefore, the reason why the life of man does cast a shadow.

When we go in search of this reason why, we soon discover that the life of man casts a shadow because the light does not pass through his life - his life is not transparent. If the light of truth and goodness and perfection - in brief, the divine light of being, could pass through his life, there would be no shadow, and man would not know evil in any form.

This is self-evident. But before we can go further in the demonstration of this belief, we must find the reason why the life of man is not transparent. This is our greatest problem; and although the solution can not be made so clear that it will be intelligible to everybody, still it is in our possession, and can be proven, by any thinker of spiritual insight, to be the exact solution. The many, however, may not concern themselves so much with the reason why the life of man casts a shadow as they may with the finding of practical methods for the elimination of the shadow. And here this particular belief has a decided advantage over all others; it does present methods for the elimination of the shadow that all can understand and apply.

The principle is that if the life of man is to cease to cast a shadow, his spiritual nature must become transparent; his life must attain unto spiritual transparence; and the way to spiritual transparence can be found and followed by any earnest, awakened soul.

When we proceed to examine the problem of evil more closely, and from the viewpoint of this belief, we come to several self-evident conclusions. We find that the life of man does cast a shadow; that some lives cast a darker and a heavier shadow than others; and that this shadow not only causes our minds to believe in darkness and evil, its presence being always with us, but it also gives origin to all the ills known in the world. This last statement may seem to be too far-reaching, but it can be proven to be true.

When we look upon this shadow, our thoughts are created in the image of darkness; and any thought that is not created in the image of light must necessarily be an evil thought - a thought that will affect human life adversely. Such thoughts darken the mind, confuse the mind, misdirect the mind; and we have, in consequence, a number of mental actions that can only end in undesirable results. Thus, by thinking of the shadow, believing it to be real, the mind is prevented from doing all its thinking in the light; and here we find the final cause of good and evil in man. The good in him comes from his thinking in the light; the evil in him comes from his thinking in the shadow, and by following the shadow during a large portion of his daily existence. It is clearly evident therefore that if there were no shadow, all the thinking of man would be in the light; and as such thinking can result only in the good, there would be no further evil in his life or in his world.