"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


"Once upon a time long, long ago, there was a great and good king, who
lived in a country where everything was good. He had thousands of
subjects under him, and these subjects were all good. This was because
the king was good and the people strove to be like him. But one day
one of his people imagined she saw an evil thing or devil, and became
greatly alarmed thereat. She hurried home and told her husband what
she had seen, and he believed her story about this evil, or devil (that
never had any existence, only in the imagination of this woman). And
because of her great fear of it this woman kept thinking of this evil
constantly, until at last it seemed very real to her, and after a time
she imagined this evil, or devil, had entered her body and was stopping