"Can evil come out of good?" briefly queried Katherine.

Miss Reynolds started slightly.

"No," she returned, positively; "no more than a lie can spring out
of truth; those are self-evident facts."

"Then dare we say that God--which is but another term for good,
Supreme Good--created evil?"

"Oh, do you believe in the serpent or devil? I know he comes
forward from some mysterious source in the narrative and is held
responsible. Then naturally follows the question, 'Who created his
satanic majesty?' Well, who did? If God created everything, and
evil cannot come out of good, where did evil come from? What a
paradox it seems!" she went on, without waiting for a reply. "Yet
evil does exist in the world--look at Dorothy! Think of the sin,
misery and crime all about us! Where did they come from? There are
some who contend that God did not create evil, but permits it for
some wise purpose; but that, to me, seems like a weak attempt to
clear the Almighty from the terrible responsibility of having made
sin and its deadly results without detracting from His
omnipotence."

"If a person tells you a lie, where does it come from?" Katherine
quietly inquired.

"From his own evil desire to deceive, of course."

"Exactly; it was an invention of his own evil thought, prompted by