| 1 |
To kindle in all minds a common sentiment
of regard
for the spiritual idea emanating from the infinite, is |
| 3 |
a most needful work; but this must be done
gradually, for
Truth is as "the still, small voice," which comes to our
recognition only as our natures are changed by its silent |
| 6 |
influence.
Small streams are
noisy and rush precipitately; and
babbling brooks fill the rivers till they
rise in floods, de- |
| 9 |
molishing bridges and overwhelming cities.
So men, when
thrilled by a new idea, are sometimes impatient; and,
when public sentiment is aroused, are liable to be borne |
| 12 |
on by the current of feeling. They should
then turn tem-
porarily from the tumult, for the silent cultivation of
the
true idea and the quiet practice of its virtues. When |
| 15 |
the noise and stir of contending sentiments
cease, and
the flames die away on the mount of revelation, we can
read
more clearly the tablets of Truth. |
| 18 |
The theology and medicine of Jesus were
one, - in the
divine oneness of the trinity, Life, Truth, and Love,
which
healed the sick and cleansed the sinful. This trinity in |
| 21 |
unity, correcting the individual thought,
is the only Mind-
Page
2 |
| 1 |
healing I vindicate; and on its standard
have emblazoned
that crystallized expression, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. |
| 3 |
A spurious and hydra-headed mind-healing is
naturally
glared at by the pulpit, ostracized by the medical faculty,
and scorned by people of common sense. To aver that |
| 6 |
disease is normal, a God-bestowed and
stubborn reality,
but that you can heal it, leaves you to work against
that
which is natural and a law of being. It is scientific to rob |
| 9 |
disease of all reality; and to accomplish
this, you cannot
begin by admitting its reality. Our Master taught his
students to deny self, sense, and take up the cross. Men- |
| 12 |
tal healers who admit that disease is real
should be made
to test the feasibility of what they say by healing one
case
audibly, through such an admission, - if this is possible. |
| 15 |
I have healed more disease by the spoken
than the un-
spoken word.
The honest student
of Christian Science is modest in his |
| 18 |
claims and conscientious in duty, waiting
and working to
mature what he has been taught. Institutes furnished
with such teachers are becoming beacon-lights along the |
| 21 |
shores of erudition; and many who are not
teachers have
large practices and some marked success in healing the
most defiant forms of disease. |
| 24 |
Dishonesty destroys one's ability to heal
mentally. Con-
ceit cannot avert the effects of deceit. Taking
advantage
of the present ignorance in relation to Christian Science |
| 27 |
Mind-healing, many are flooding our land
with conflict-
ing theories and practice. We should not spread abroad
Page
3 |
| 1 |
patchwork ideas that in some vital points
lack Science.
How sad it is that envy will bend its bow and shoot its |
| 3 |
arrow at the idea which claims only its
inheritance, is nat-
urally modest, generous, and sincere! while the
trespass-
ing error murders either friend or foe who stands in its |
| 6 |
way. Truly it is better to fall into the
hands of God, than
of man.
When I revised
"Science and Health with Key to the |
| 9 |
Scriptures," in 1878, some irresponsible
people insisted
that my manual of the practice of Christian Science
Mind-
healing should not be made public; but I obeyed a diviner |
| 12 |
rule. People dependent on the rules of this
practice for
their healing, not having lost the Spirit which sustains
the
genuine practice, will put that book in the hands of their |
| 15 |
patients, whom it will heal, and recommend
it to their
students, whom it would enlighten. Every teacher must
pore
over it in secret, to keep himself well informed. The |
| 18 |
Nemesis of the history of Mind-healing
notes this hour.
Dishonesty
necessarily stultifies the spiritual sense which
Mind-healers specially
need; and which they must pos- |
| 21 |
sess, in order to be safe members of the
community. How
good and pleasant a thing it is to seek not so much
thine
own as another's good, to sow by the wayside for the way- |
| 24 |
weary, and trust Love's recompense of
love.
Plagiarism from
my writings is so common it is be-
coming odious to honest people; and such
compilations,
|
| 27 |
instead of possessing the essentials of
Christian Science,
are tempting and misleading.
Page
4 |
| 1 |
Reading Science and Health has restored the
sick to
health; but the task of learning thoroughly the Science |
| 3 |
of Mind-healing and demonstrating it
understandingly
had better be undertaken in health than sickness.
DISEASE UNREAL |
| 6 |
Disease is more than imagination; it
is a human error,
a constituent part of what comprise the whole of
mortal
existence, - namely, material sensation and mental delu- |
| 9 |
sion. But an erring sense of existence, or
the error of
belief, named disease, never made sickness a stubborn
reality. On the ground that harmony is the truth of be- |
| 12 |
ing, the Science of Mind-healing destroys
the feasibility
of disease; hence error of thought becomes fable
instead
of fact. Science demonstrates the reality of Truth and |
| 15 |
the unreality of the error. A self-evident
proposition, in
the Science of Mind-healing, is that disease is unreal;
and the efficacy of my system, beyond other systems of |
| 18 |
medicine, vouches for the validity of that
statement. Sin
and disease are not scientific, because they embody not
the idea of divine Principle, and are not the phenomena |
| 21 |
of the immutable laws of God; and they do
not arise
from the divine consciousness and true constituency of
being. |
| 24 |
The unreality of sin, disease, and death,
rests on the
exclusive truth that being, to be eternal, must be harmo-
nious. All disease must be - and can only be - healed
Page
5 |
| 1 |
on this basis. All true Christian
Scientists are vindicat-
ing, fearlessly and honestly, the Principle of
this grand |
| 3 |
verity of Mind-healing.
In erring
mortal thought the reality of Truth has an
antipode, - the reality of
error; and disease is one of the
|
| 6 |
severe realities of this error. God has no
opposite in
Science. To Truth there is no error. As Truth alone is
real, then it follows that to declare error real would be to |
| 9 |
make it Truth. Disease arises from a false
and material
sense, from the belief that matter has sensation. There-
fore this material sense, which is untrue, is of necessity |
| 12 |
unreal. Moreover, this unreal sense
substitutes for Truth
an unreal belief,-namely, that life and health are
inde-
pendent of God, and dependent on material conditions. |
| 15 |
Material sense also avers that Spirit, or
Truth, cannot
restore health and perpetuate life, but that material
con-
ditions can and do destroy both human health and life. |
| 18 |
If disease is as real as health, and is
itself a state of
being, and yet is arrayed against being, then Mind,
or
God, does not meddle with it. Disease becomes indeed a |
| 21 |
stubborn reality, and man is mortal. A
"kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation;" therefore the
mind
that attacks a normal and real condition of man, is pro- |
| 24 |
fanely tampering with the realities of God
and His laws.
Metaphysical healing is a lost jewel in this
misconception
of reality. Any contradictory fusion of Truth with
error, |
| 27 |
in both theory and practice, prevents one
from healing
scientifically, and makes the last state of one's patients
Page
6 |
| 1 |
worse than the first. If disease is real it
is not illusive,
and it certainly would contradict the Science of
Mind- |
| 3 |
healing to attempt to destroy the
realities of Mind in order
to heal the sick.
On the theory that
God's formations are spiritual, har- |
| 6 |
monious, and eternal, and that God is the
only creator,
Christian Science refutes the validity of the testimony
of
the senses, which take cognizance of their own phenomena, |
| 9 |
- sickness, disease, and death. This
refutation is indis-
pensable to the destruction of false evidence, and
the
consequent cure of the sick, - as all understand who |
| 12 |
practise the true Science of Mind-healing.
If, as the
error indicates, the evidence of disease is not false, then
disease cannot be healed by denying its validity; and this |
| 15 |
is why the mistaken healer is not
successful, trying to heal
on a material basis.
The evidence that
the earth is motionless and the sun |
| 18 |
revolves around our planet, is as sensible
and real as the
evidence for disease; but Science determines the
evidence
in both cases to be unreal. To material sense it is plain |
| 21 |
also that the error of the revolution of
the sun around the
earth is more apparent than the adverse but true
Science
of the stellar universe. Copernicus has shown that what |
| 24 |
appears real, to material sense and
feeling, is absolutely
unreal. Astronomy, optics, acoustics, and hydraulics
are
all at war with the testimony of the physical senses. This |
| 27 |
fact intimates that the laws of Science
are mental, not
material; and Christian Science demonstrates this.
Page 7
SCIENCE OF MIND-HEALING
The rule of divinity
is golden; to be wise and true re- |
| 3 |
joices every heart. But evil influences
waver the scales
of justice and mercy. No personal considerations
should
allow any root of bitterness to spring up between Chris- |
| 6 |
tian Scientists, nor cause any
misapprehension as to the
motives of others. We must love our enemies, and
con-
tinue to do so unto the end. By the love of God we can |
| 9 |
cancel error in our own hearts, and blot
it out of others.
Sooner or later the
eyes of sinful mortals must be opened
to see every error they possess, and
the way out of it; and |
| 12 |
they will "flee as a bird to your
mountain," away from
the enemy of sinning sense, stubborn will, and every
im-
perfection in the land of Sodom, and find rescue and refuge |
| 15 |
in Truth and Love.
Every loving
sacrifice for the good of others is known
to God, and the wrath of man
cannot hide it from Him.
|
| 18 |
God has appointed for Christian Scientists
high tasks,
and will not release them from the strict performance of
each one of them. The students must now fight their |
| 21 |
own battles. I recommend that Scientists
draw no lines
whatever between one person and another, but think,
speak, teach, and write the truth of Christian Science |
| 24 |
without reference to right or wrong
personality in this
field of labor. Leave the distinctions of individual
char-
acter and the discriminations and guidance thereof to
Page
8 |
| 1 |
the Father, whose wisdom is unerring and
whose love is
universal. |
| 3 |
We should endeavor to be long-suffering,
faithful, and
charitable with all. To this small effort let us add one
more privilege - namely, silence whenever it can substi- |
| 6 |
tute censure. Avoid voicing error; but
utter the truth of
God and the beauty of holiness, the joy of Love and "the
peace of God, that passeth all understanding," recom- |
| 9 |
mending to all men fellowship in the bonds
of Christ.
Advise students to rebuke each other always in love, as
I
have rebuked them. Having discharged this duty, coun- |
| 12 |
sel each other to work out his own
salvation, without fear
or doubt, knowing that God will make the wrath of
man
to praise Him, and that the remainder thereof He will |
| 15 |
restrain. We can rejoice that every germ of
goodness will
at last struggle into freedom and greatness, and every
sin
will so punish itself that it will bow down to the command- |
| 18 |
ments of Christ, - Truth and Love.
I enjoin it upon my
students to hold no controversy or
enmity over doctrines and traditions, or
over the miscon- |
| 21 |
ceptions of Christian Science, but to work,
watch, and
pray for the amelioration of sin, sickness, and death. If
one be found who is too blind for instruction, no longer cast |
| 24 |
your pearls before this state of mortal
mind, lest it turn
and rend you; but quietly, with benediction and
hope,
let the unwise pass by, while you walk on in equanimity, |
| 27 |
and with increased power, patience, and
understanding,
gained from your forbearance. This counsel is not new,
Page
9 |
| 1 |
as my Christian students can testify; and
if it had been
heeded in times past it would have prevented, to a
great |
| 3 |
extent, the factions which have sprung up
among Scientists
to the hindrance of the Cause of Truth. It is true that
the
mistakes, prejudices, and errors of one class of thinkers |
| 6 |
must not be introduced or established among
another class
who are clearer and more conscientious in their convic-
tions; but this one thing can be done, and should be: let |
| 9 |
your opponents alone, and use no influence
to prevent
their legitimate action from their own standpoint of ex-
perience, knowing, as you should, that God will well |
| 12 |
regenerate and separate wisely and
finally; whereas you
may err in effort, and lose your fruition.
Hoping to pacify
repeated complaints and murmurings |
| 15 |
against too great leniency, on my part,
towards some of
my students who fall into error, I have opposed occa-
sionally and strongly - especially in the first edition of |
| 18 |
this little work - existing wrongs of the
nature referred
to. But I now point steadfastly to the power of grace
to
overcome evil with good. God will "furnish a table in |
| 21 |
the wilderness" and show the power of
Love.
Science is not the
shibboleth of a sect or the caba-
listic insignia of philosophy; it
excludes all error and |
| 24 |
includes all Truth. More mistakes are made
in its name
than this period comprehends. Divinely defined, Science
is
the atmosphere of God; humanly construed, and ac- |
| 27 |
cording to Webster, it is "knowledge, duly
arranged and
referred to general truths and principles on which it is
Page
10 |
| 1 |
founded, and from which it is derived." I
employ this
awe-filled word in both a divine and human sense; but |
| 3 |
I insist that Christian Science is
demonstrably as true,
relative to the unseen verities of being, as any
proof that
can be given of the completeness of Science. |
| 6 |
The two largest words in the vocabulary of
thought are
"Christian" and "Science." The former is the highest
style
of man; the latter reveals and interprets God and |
| 9 |
man; it aggregates, amplifies, unfolds, and
expresses the
ALL-God. The life of Christ is the predicate and postu-
late of all that I teach, and there is but one standard |
| 12 |
statement, one rule, and one Principle for
all scientific
truth.
My hygienic system
rests on Mind, the eternal Truth. |
| 15 |
What is termed matter, or relates to its
so-called attributes,
is a self-destroying error. When a so-called material
sense
is lost, and Truth restores that lost sense, - on the basis |
| 18 |
that all consciousness is Mind and eternal,
- the former
position, that sense is organic and material, is proven
erroneous. |
| 21 |
The feasibility and immobility of Christian
Science
unveil the true idea, - namely, that earth's discords have
not
the reality of Mind in the Science of being; and this |
| 24 |
idea - dematerializing and spiritualizing
mortals - turns
like the needle to the pole all hope and faith to God,
based
as it is on His omnipotence and omnipresence. |
| 27 |
Eternal harmony, perpetuity, and
perfection, constitute
the phenomena of being, governed by the immutable
and
Page
11 |
| 1 |
eternal laws of God; whereas matter and
human will,
intellect, desire, and fear, are not the creators,
controllers, |
| 3 |
nor destroyers of life or its harmonies.
Man has an im-
mortal Soul, a divine Principle, and an eternal being.
Man has perpetual individuality; and God's laws, and |
| 6 |
their intelligent and harmonious action,
constitute his in-
dividuality in the Science of Soul.
In its literary
expression, my system of Christian meta- |
| 9 |
physics is hampered by material terms,
which must be
used to indicate thoughts that are to be understood meta-
physically. As a Science, this system is held back by the |
| 12 |
common ignorance of what it is and what it
does, and
(worse still) by those who come falsely in its name. To
be
appreciated, Science must be understood and consci- |
| 15 |
entiously introduced. If the Bible and
Science and Health
had the place in schools of learning that physiology
oc-
cupies, they would revolutionize and reform the world, |
| 18 |
through the power of Christ. It is true
that it requires
more study to understand and demonstrate what these
works teach, than to learn theology, physiology, or physics; |
| 21 |
because they teach divine Science, with
fixed Principle,
given rule, and unmistakable proof.
Ancient and modern
human philosophy are inadequate |
| 24 |
to grasp the Principle of Christian
Science, or to demon-
strate it. Revelation shows this Principle, and will
rescue
reason from the thrall of error. Revelation must subdue |
| 27 |
the sophistry of intellect, and
spiritualize consciousness
with the dictum and the demonstration of Truth
and Love.
Page
12 |
| 1 |
Christian Science Mind-healing can only be
gained by
working from a purely Christian standpoint. Then it |
| 3 |
heals the sick and exalts the race. The
essence of this
Science is right thinking and right acting - leading us
to
see spirituality and to be spiritual, to understand and to |
| 6 |
demonstrate God.
The Massachusetts
Metaphysical College and Church
of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, were the
outgrowth of the |
| 9 |
author's religious experience. After a
lifetime of ortho-
doxy on the platform of doctrines, rites, and
ceremonies,
it became a sacred duty for her to impart to others this |
| 12 |
new-old knowledge of God.
The same affection,
desire, and motives which have stim-
ulated true Christianity in all ages,
and given impulse to |
| 15 |
goodness, in or out of the Church, have
nerved her pur-
pose to build on the new-born conception of the Christ,
as
Jesus declared himself, - namely, "the way, the truth, |
| 18 |
and the life." Living a true life, casting
out evil, healing
the sick, and preaching the gospel of Truth, - these
are
the ends of Christianity. This divine way impels a spirit- |
| 21 |
ualization of thought and method, beyond
doctrine and
ritual; and in nothing else has she departed from the old
landmarks. |
| 24 |
The unveiled spiritual signification of the
Word so en-
larges our sense of God that it makes both sense and Soul,
man and Life, immaterial, though still individual. It re- |
| 27 |
moves all limits from divine power. God
must be found
all instead of a part of being, and man the reflection of
Page
13 |
| 1 |
His power and goodness. This Science
rebukes sin with
its own nothingness, and thus destroys sin quickly
and |
| 3 |
utterly. It makes disease unreal, and this
heals it.
The demonstration of
moral and physical growth, and a
scientific deduction from the Principle of
all harmony, de- |
| 6 |
clare both the Principle and idea to be
divine. If this be
true then death must be swallowed up in Life, and
the
prophecy of Jesus fulfilled, "Whosoever liveth and be- |
| 9 |
lieveth in me shall never die." Though
centuries passed
after those words were originally uttered, before this
re-
appearing of Truth, and though the hiatus be longer still |
| 12 |
before that saying is demonstrated in Life
that knows no
death, the declaration is nevertheless true, and remains
a clear and profound deduction from Christian Science. |
| 15 |
IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE OF
THE SAME LINEAGE AS
SPIRITUALISM OR THEOSOPHY?
Science is not
susceptible of being held as a mere theory. |
| 18 |
It is hoary with time. It takes hold of
eternity, voices the
infinite, and governs the universe. No greater
opposites
can be conceived of, physically, morally, and spiritually, |
| 21 |
than Christian Science, spiritualism, and
theosophy.
Science and Health
has effected a revolution in the
minds of thinkers on the subject of
mediumship, and given |
| 24 |
impulse to reason and revelation, goodness
and virtue. A
theory may be sound in spots, and sparkle like a
diamond,
while other parts of it have no lustre. Christian Science
Page
14 |
| 1 |
is sound in every part. It is neither
warped nor miscon-
ceived, when properly demonstrated. If a
spiritualist |
| 3 |
medium understood the Science of
Mind-healing, he
would know that between those who have and those who
have not passed the transition called death, there can be |
| 6 |
no interchange of consciousness, and that
all sensible phe-
nomena are merely subjective states of mortal mind.
Theosophy is a
corruption of Judaism. This corruption |
| 9 |
had a renewal in the Neoplatonic
philosophy; but it sprang
from the Oriental philosophy of Brahmanism, and
blends
with its magic and enchantments. Theosophy is no more |
| 2 |
allied to Christian Science than the odor
of the upas-tree
is to the sweet breath of springtide, or the brilliant
cor-
uscations of the northern sky are to solar heat and |
| 5 |
light.
IS
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FROM BENEATH, AND NOT FROM ABOVE? |
| 18 |
Hear the words of our Master: "Go ye into
all the
world"! "Heal the sick, cast out devils"! Christian
Scientists, perhaps more than any other religious sect, are |
| 21 |
obeying these commands; and the injunctions
are not
confined to Jesus' students in that age, but they extend
to
this age, - to as many as shall believe on him. The |
| 24 |
demand and example of Jesus were not from
beneath.
Are frozen dogmas, persistent persecution, and the doc-
trine
of eternal damnation, from above? Are the dews
Page
15 |
| 1 |
of divine Truth, falling on the sick and
sinner, to heal
them, from beneath? "By their fruits ye shall know |
| 3 |
them."
Reading my books,
without prejudice, would convince
all that their purpose is right. The
comprehension of my |
| 6 |
teachings would enable any one to prove
these books to
be filled with blessings for the whole human family. Fa-
tiguing Bible translations and voluminous commentaries |
| 9 |
are employed to explain and prop old
creeds, and they
have the civil and religious arms in their defense;
then
why should not these be equally extended to support the |
| 12 |
Christianity that heals the sick? The
notions of person-
ality to be found in creeds are far more mystic
than
Mind-healing. It is no easy matter to believe there are |
| 15 |
three persons in one person, and that one
person is cast
out of another person. These conceptions of Deity and
devil presuppose an impotent God and an incredible |
| 18 |
Satan.
IS
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PANTHEISTIC?
Christian Science
refutes pantheism, finds Spirit neither |
| 21 |
in matter nor in the modes of mortal mind.
It shows
that matter and mortal mind have neither origin nor ex-
istence in the eternal Mind. Thinking otherwise is what |
| 24 |
estranges mortals from divine Life and
Love. God is
All-in-all. He is Spirit; and in nothing is He unlike
Him-
self. Nothing that "worketh or maketh a lie" is to be
Page
16 |
| 1 |
found in the divine consciousness. For God
to know,
is to be; that is, what He knows must truly and eternally |
| 3 |
exist. If He knows matter, and matter can
exist in Mind,
then mortality and discord must be eternal. He is Mind;
and whatever He knows is made manifest, and must be |
| 6 |
Truth.
If God knows evil even as a false claim,
this knowledge
would manifest evil in Him and proceeding from Him. |
| 9 |
Christian Science shows that matter, evil,
sin, sickness, and
death are but negations of Spirit, Truth, and Life,
which
are positives that cannot be gainsaid. The subjective |
| 12 |
states of evil, called mortal mind or
matter, are negatives
destitute of time and space; for there is none
beside God
or Spirit and the idea of Spirit. |
| 15 |
This infinite logic is the infinite light,
- uncompre-
hended, yet forever giving forth more light, because it
has
no darkness to emit. Mortals do not understand the |
| 18 |
All; hence their inference of some other
existence beside
God and His true likeness, - of something unlike Him.
He who is All, understands all. He can have no knowl- |
| 21 |
edge or inference but His own
consciousness, and can take
in no more than all.
The mists of matter - sin, sickness, and
death - dis- |
| 24 |
appear in proportion as mortals approach
Spirit, which
is the reality of being. It is not enough to say that
matter
is the substratum of evil, and that its highest attenuation is |
| 27 |
mortal mind; for there is, strictly
speaking, no mortal
mind. Mind is immortal. Death is the consequent
of an
Page
17 |
| 1 |
antecedent false assumption of the realness
of something
unreal, material, and mortal. If God knows the antece- |
| 3 |
dent, He must produce its consequences.
From this logic
there is no escape. Matter, or evil, is the absence of
Spirit
or good. Their nothingness is thus proven; for God is |
| 6 |
good, ever-present, and All.
"In Him we live, and
move, and have our being;" con-
sequently it is impossible for the true man
- who is a |
| 9 |
spiritual and individual being, created in
the eternal
Science of being - to be conscious of aught but good.
God's
image and likeness can never be less than a good |
| 12 |
man; and for man to be more than God's
likeness is
impossible. Man is the climax of creation; and God is
not
without an ever-present witness, testifying of Himself. |
| 15 |
Matter, or any mode of mortal mind, is
neither part nor
parcel of divine consciousness and God's verity.
In Science there is
no fallen state of being; for therein |
| 18 |
is no inverted image of God, no escape from
the focal
radiation of the infinite. Hence the unreality of error,
and
the truth of the Scripture, that there is "none beside |
| 21 |
Him." If mortals could grasp these two
words all and
nothing, this mystery of a God who has no
knowledge of
sin would disappear, and the eternal, infinite harmony |
| 24 |
would be fathomed. If God could know a
false claim,
false knowledge would be a part of His consciousness.
Then evil would be as real as good, sickness as real as |
| 27 |
health, death as real as Life; and
sickness, sin, and death
would be as eternal as God.
Page
18
IS
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BLASPHEMOUS?
Blasphemy has never
diminished sin and sickness, nor |
| 3 |
acknowledged God in all His ways. Blasphemy
rebukes
not the godless lie that denies Him as All-in-all, nor does
it
ascribe to Him all presence, power, and glory. Chris- |
| 6 |
tian Science does this. If Science lacked
the proof of its
origin in God, it would be self-destructive, for it rests
alone
on the demonstration of God's supremacy and omnipo- |
| 9 |
tence. Right thinking and right acting,
physical and
moral harmony, come with Science, and the secret of
its
presence lies in the universal need of better health and |
| 2 |
morals.
Human theories, when
weighed in the balance, are
found unequal to the demonstration of divine
Life and |
| 5 |
Love; and their highest endeavors are, to
divine Science,
what a child's love of pictures is to art. A child, in
his
ignorance, may imagine the face of Dante to be the rapt |
| 8 |
face of Jesus. Thus falsely may the human
conceive of
the Divine. If the schoolmaster is not Christ, the school
gets things wrong, and knows it not; but the teacher is |
| 21 |
morally responsible.
Good health and a
more spiritual religion are the com-
mon wants; and these wants have
wrought this moral |
| 24 |
result, - that the so-called mortal mind
asks for what
Mind alone can supply. This demand militates against
the
so-called demands of matter, and regulates the present
Page
19 |
| 1 |
high premium on Mind-healing. If the
uniform moral
and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of Christian
Sci- |
| 3 |
ence were lacking, the premium would go
down. That
it continues to rise, and the demand to increase, shows its
real value to the race. Even doctors will agree that in- |
| 6 |
fidelity, ignorance, and quackery have
never met the grow-
ing wants of humanity. Christian Science is no
"Boston
craze;" it is the sober second thought of advancing |
| 9 |
humanity.
IS
THERE A PERSONAL DEITY?
God is infinite. He
is neither a limited mind nor a |
| 12 |
limited body. God is Love; and Love is
Principle, not
person. What the person of the infinite is, we know
not;
but we are gratefully and lovingly conscious of the father- |
| 15 |
liness of this Supreme Being. God is
individual, and man
is His individualized idea. While material man and
the
physical senses receive no spiritual idea, and feel no sen- |
| 18 |
sation of divine Love, spiritual man and
his spiritual
senses are drinking in the nature and essence of the
indi-
vidual infinite. A sinful sense is incompetent to understand |
| 21 |
the realities of being, - that Life is God,
and that man
is in His image and likeness. A sinner can take no cog-
nizance of the noumenon or the phenomena of Spirit; |
| 24 |
but leaving sin, sense rises to the
fulness of the stature of
man in Christ.
Person is formed
after the manner of mortal man, so
Page
20 |
| 1 |
far as he can conceive of personality.
Limitless person-
ality is inconceivable. His person and perfection
are |
| 3 |
neither self-created, nor discerned through
imperfection;
and of God as a person, human reason, imagination, and
revelation give us no knowledge. Error would fashion |
| 6 |
Deity in a manlike mould, while Truth is
moulding a
Godlike man.
When the term divine
Principle is used to signify Deity |
| 9 |
it may seem distant or cold, until better
apprehended.
This Principle is Mind, substance, Life, Truth, Love.
When
understood, Principle is found to be the only term |
| 12 |
that fully conveys the ideas of God, - one
Mind, a perfect
man, and divine Science. As the divine Principle is
com-
prehended, God's omnipotence and omnipresence will |
| 15 |
dawn on mortals, and the notion of an
everywhere-present
body - or of an infinite Mind starting from a finite
body,
and returning to it - will disappear. |
| 18 |
Ever-present Love must seem ever absent to
ever-present
selfishness or material sense. Hence this asking amiss
and
receiving not, and the common idolatry of man- |
| 21 |
worship. In divine Science, God is
recognized as the
only power, presence, and glory.
Adam's mistiness and
Satan's reasoning, ever since the |
| 24 |
flood, - when specimens of every kind
emerged from the
ark, - have run through the veins of all human
philoso-
phy. Human reason is a blind guide, a continued series |
| 27 |
of mortal hypotheses, antagonistic to
Revelation and Sci-
ence. It is continually straying into forbidden
by-paths
Page
21 |
| 1 |
of sensualism, contrary to the life and
teachings of Jesus
and Paul, and the vision of the Apocalypse. Human |
| 3 |
philosophy has ninety-nine parts of error
to the one-
hundredth part of Truth, - an unsafe decoction for the
race. The Science that Jesus demonstrated, whose views |
| 6 |
of Truth Confucius and Plato but dimly
discerned, Science
and Health interprets. It was not a search after
wisdom;
it was wisdom, and it grasped in spiritual law the uni- |
| 9 |
verse, - all time, space, immortality,
thought, extension.
This Science demonstrated the Principle of all
phenomena,
identity, individuality, law; and showed man as reflect- |
| 12 |
ing God and the divine capacity. Human
philosophy
would dethrone perfection, and substitute matter and evil
for divine means and ends. |
| 15 |
Human philosophy has an undeveloped God,
who un-
folds Himself through material modes, wherein the human
and
divine mingle in the same realm and consciousness. |
| 18 |
This is rank infidelity; because by it we
lose God's ways
and perpetuate the supposed power and reality of evil
ad
infinitum. Christian Science rends this veil in the pantheon |
| 21 |
of many gods, and reproduces the teachings
of Jesus, whose
philosophy is incontestable, bears the strain of time,
and
brings in the glories of eternity; "for other foundation |
| 24 |
can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ."
Divine
philosophy is demonstrably the true idea of the
Christ, wherein Principle
heals and saves. A philosophy
|
| 27 |
which cannot heal the sick has little
resemblance to Sci-
ence, and is, to say the least, like a cloud without
rain,
Page
22 |
| 1 |
"driven about by every wind of doctrine."
Such phi-
losophy has certainly not touched the hem of the Christ |
| 3 |
garment.
Leibnitz, Descartes,
Fichte, Hegel, Spinoza, Bishop
Berkeley, were once clothed with a "brief
authority;" |
| 6 |
but Berkeley ended his metaphysical theory
with a treatise
on the healing properties of tar-water, and Hegel was
an
inveterate snuff-taker. The circumlocution and cold cate- |
| 9 |
gories of Kant fail to improve the
conditions of mortals,
morally, spiritually, or physically. Such miscalled
meta-
physical systems are reeds shaken by the wind. Com- |
| 12 |
pared with the inspired wisdom and
infinite meaning of
the Word of Truth, they are as moonbeams to the sun,
or
as Stygian night to the kindling dawn.
IS
THERE A PERSONAL DEVIL?
No man hath seen the
person of good or of evil. Each
is greater than the corporeality we
behold. |
| 8 |
"He cast out devils." This record
shows that the term
devil is generic, being used in the plural number.
From
this it follows that there is more than one devil. That |
| 21 |
Jesus cast several persons out of another
person, is not
stated, and is impossible. Hence the passage must refer
to the evils which were cast out. |
| 24 |
Jesus defined devil as a mortal who is
full of evil. "Have
I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a
devil?" His
definition of evil indicated his ability to cast it out.
An
Page
23 |
| 1 |
incorrect concept of the nature of evil
hinders the destruc-
tion of evil. To conceive of God as resembling - in
per- |
| 3 |
sonality, or form - the personality that
Jesus condemned
as devilish, is fraught with spiritual danger. Evil
can
neither grasp the prerogative of God nor make evil om- |
| 6 |
nipotent and omnipresent.
Jesus said to Peter,
"Get thee behind me, Satan;" but
he to whom our Lord gave the keys of the
kingdom could |
| 9 |
not have been wholly evil, and therefore
was not a devil,
after the accepted definition. Out of the Magdalen,
Jesus
cast seven devils; but not one person was named among |
| 12 |
them. According to Crabtre, these devils
were the dis-
eases Jesus cast out.
The most eminent
divines, in Europe and America, con- |
| 15 |
cede that the Scriptures have both a
literal and a moral
meaning. Which of the two is the more important to
gain,
- the literal or the moral sense of the word devil, - in |
| 18 |
order to cast out this devil? Evil is a
quality, not an
individual.
As mortals, we need
to discern the claims of evil, and to |
| 21 |
fight these claims, not as realities, but
as illusions; but
Deity can have no such warfare against Himself.
Knowl-
edge of a man's physical personality is not sufficient to |
| 24 |
inform us as to the amount of good or evil
he possesses.
Hence we cannot understand God or man, through the
person of either. God is All-in-all; but He is definite and |
| 27 |
individual, the omnipresent and omniscient
Mind; and
man's individuality is God's own image and likeness,-
Page
24 |
| 1 |
even the immeasurable idea of divine Mind.
In the
Science of good, evil loses all place, person, and power. |
| 3 |
According to Spinoza's philosophy God is
amplification.
He is in all things, and therefore He is in evil in
human
thought. He is extension, of whatever character. Also, |
| 6 |
according to Spinoza, man is an animal
vegetable, devel-
oped through the lower orders of matter and mortal
mind.
All these vagaries are at variance with my system of meta- |
| 9 |
physics, which rests on God as One and All,
and denies
the actual existence of both matter and evil. According to
false philosophy and scholastic theology, God is three |
| 12 |
persons in one person. By the same token,
evil is not only
as real as good, but much more real, since evil
subordi-
nates good in personality. |
| 15 |
The claims of evil become both less and
more in Chris-
tian Science, than in human philosophies or creeds:
more,
because the evil that is hidden by dogma and human rea- |
| 18 |
son is uncovered by Science; and
less, because evil, being
thus uncovered, is found out, and exposure
is nine points
of destruction. Then appears the grand verity of Chris- |
| 21 |
tian Science: namely, that evil has no
claims and was
never a claimant; for behold evil (or devil) is, as
Jesus
said, "a murderer from the beginning, and the truth abode |
| 24 |
not in him."
There was never a
moment in which evil was real. This
great fact concerning all error brings
with it another and |
| 27 |
more glorious truth, that good is supreme.
As there is
none beside Him, and He is all good, there can be no evil.
Page
25 |
| 1 |
Simply uttering this great thought is not
enough! We
must live it, until God becomes the All and Only of our |
| 3 |
being. Having won through great tribulation
this cardinal
point of divine Science, St. Paul said, "But now we are
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were |
| 6 |
held; that we should serve in newness of
spirit, and not
in the oldness of the letter."
IS
MAN A PERSON? |
| 9 |
Man is more than physical personality, or
what we cog-
nize through the material senses. Mind is more than mat-
ter, even as the infinite idea of Truth is beyond a finite |
| 12 |
belief. Man outlives finite mortal
definitions of himself,
according to a law of "the survival of the
fittest. " Man is
the eternal idea of his divine Principle, or Father. He
is |
| 15 |
neither matter nor a mode of mortal mind,
for he is spir-
itual and eternal, an immortal mode of the divine
Mind.
Man is the image and likeness of God, coexistent and |
| 18 |
coeternal with Him.
Man is not absorbed
in Deity; for he is forever individ-
ual; but what this everlasting
individuality is, remains to |
| 21 |
be learned. Mortals have not seen it. That
which is born
of the flesh is not man's eternal identity. Spiritual and
immortal man alone is God's likeness, and that which is |
| 24 |
mortal is not man in a spiritually
scientific sense. A
material, sinful mortal is but the counterfeit of
immortal
man.
Page
26 |
| 1 |
The mind-quacks believe that mortal man is
identical
with immortal man, and that the immortal is inside the |
| 3 |
mortal; that good and evil blend; that
matter and Spirit
are one; and that Soul, or Spirit, is subdivided into
spirits,
or souls, - alias gods. This infantile talk about
Mind- |
| 6 |
healing is no more identical with Christian
Science than
the babe is identical with the adult, or the human belief
resembles the divine idea. Hence it is impossible for those |
| 9 |
holding such material and mortal views to
demonstrate
my metaphysics. Theirs is the sensuous thought, which
brings forth its own sensuous conception. Mine is the |
| 12 |
spiritual idea which transfigures thought.
All real being
represents God, and is in Him. In this
Science of being, man can no more
relapse or collapse |
| 15 |
from perfection, than his divine Principle,
or Father, can
fall out of Himself into something below infinitude.
Man's
real ego, or selfhood, is goodness. If man's individuality |
| 18 |
were evil, he would be annihilated, for
evil is self-destroying.
Man's individual
being must reflect the supreme indi-
vidual Being, to be His image and
likeness; and this |
| 21 |
individuality never originated in molecule,
corpuscle, ma-
teriality, or mortality. God holds man in the eternal
bonds of Science, - in the immutable harmony of divine |
| 24 |
law. Man is a celestial; and in the
spiritual universe
he is forever individual and forever harmonious. "If
God so clothe the grass of the field, . . . shall He not |
| 27 |
much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith?"
Sin must be
obsolete,-dust returning to dust, noth-
Page
27 |
| 1 |
ingness to nothingness. Sin is not Mind; it
is but the sup-
position that there is more than one Mind. It issues |
| 3 |
a false claim; and the claim, being
worthless, is in reality
no claim whatever. Matter is not Mind, to claim
aught;
but Mind is God, and evil finds no place in good. When |
| 6 |
we get near enough to God to see this, the
springtide
of Truth in Christian Science will burst upon us in the
similitude of the Apocalyptic pictures. No night will be |
| 9 |
there, and there will be no more sea. There
will be no
need of the sun, for Spirit will be the light of the city, and
matter will be proved a myth. Until centuries pass, and |
| 12 |
this vision of Truth is fully interpreted
by divine Science,
this prophecy will be scoffed at; but it is just as
veritable
now as it can be then. Science, divine Science, presents |
| 15 |
the grand and eternal verities of God and
man as the
divine Mind and that Mind's idea.
Mortal man is the
antipode of immortal man, and the |
| 18 |
two should not be confounded. Bishop Foster
said, in a
lecture in Boston, "No man living hath yet seen man."
This
material sinful personality, which we misname man, |
| 21 |
is what St. Paul terms "the old man and
his deeds," to
be "put off."
Who can say what the
absolute personality of God or |
| 24 |
man is? Who living hath seen God or a
perfect man?
In presence of such thoughts take off thy shoes and
tread
lightly, for this is holy ground. Surely the probation |
| 27 |
of mortals must go on after the change
called death, that
they may learn the definition of immortal being; or
else
Page
28 |
| 1 |
their present mistakes would extinguish
human existence.
How long this false sense remains after the transition
called |
| 3 |
death, no mortal knoweth; but this is sure,
that the mists
of error, sooner or later, will melt in the fervent heat
of
suffering, mortality will burst the barriers of sense, and |
| 6 |
man be found perfect and eternal. Of his
intermediate
conditions - the purifying processes and terrible revolu-
tions necessary to effect this end - I am ignorant. |
| 9 |
Inasmuch as these momentous facts in the
Science of
being must be learned some time, now is the most accept-
able time for beginning the lesson. If Science is pointing |
| 12 |
the way, and is found to bring with it
health, holiness, and
immortality, then to-day is none too soon for
entering this
path. The proof that Christian Science is the way of
sal- |
| 15 |
vation given by Christ, I consider well
established. The
present, as well as the future, reveals the fact that
Truth
is never understood too soon. |
| 18 |
Has Truth, as demonstrated by Jesus,
reappeared?
Study Christian Science and practise it, and you will
know
that Truth has reappeared. What is demonstrably |
| 21 |
true cannot be gainsaid; but getting the
letter and omitting
the spirit of this Science is neither the comprehension
of
its Principle nor the practice of its Life.
HAS MAN A SOUL?
The Scriptures
inform us that "the soul that sinneth,
it shall die." Here soul
means sense and organic life; and
Page
29 |
| 1 |
this passage refers to the Jewish law, that
a mortal should
be put to death for his own sin, but not for
another's. |
| 3 |
Not Soul, but mortal sense, sins and dies.
Immortal man
has immortal Soul and a deathless sense of being. Mortal
man has but a false sense of Soul and body. He believes |
| 6 |
that Spirit, or Soul, exists in matter.
This is pantheism,
and is not the Science of Soul. The mind-quacks
have
so slight a knowledge of Soul that they believe material |
| 9 |
and sinning sense to be soul; and then
they doctor this
soul as if it were not even a material sense.
In Dr. Gordon's
sermon on The Ministry of Healing, |
| 12 |
he said, "The forgiven soul in a sick body
is not half a
man." Is this pantheistic statement sound theology, -
that Soul is in matter, and the immortal part of man a sin- |
| 15 |
ner? Is not this a disparagement of the
person of man and
a denial of God's power? Better far that we impute
such
doctrines to mortal opinion than to the divine Word. |
| 18 |
To my sense, such a statement is a shocking
reflection
on the divine power. A mortal pardoned by God is not
sick,
he is made whole. He in whom sin, disease, and |
| 21 |
death are destroyed, is more than a
fraction of himself.
Such sermons, though clad in soft raiment, are
spirit-
less waifs, literary driftwood on the ocean of thought; |
| 24 |
while Truth walks triumphantly over the
waves of sin,
sickness, and death.
Page
30
IS
SIN FORGIVEN?
The law of Life and
Truth is the law of Christ, destroy- |
| 3 |
ng all sense of sin and death. It does more
than forgive
the false sense named sin, for it pursues and punishes it,
and will not let sin go until it is destroyed, - until nothing |
| 6 |
is left to be forgiven, to suffer, or to be
punished. For-
given thus, sickness and sin have no relapse. God's law
reaches and destroys evil by virtue of the allness of God. |
| 9 |
He need not know the evil He destroys, any
more than
the legislator need know the criminal who is punished by
the
law enacted. God's law is in three words, "I am All;" |
| 12 |
and this perfect law is ever present to
rebuke any claim
of another law. God pities our woes with the love of a
Father for His child, - not by becoming human, and |
| 15 |
knowing sin, or naught, but by removing our
knowledge
of what is not. He could not destroy our woes totally
if He
possessed any knowledge of them. His sympathy |
| 18 |
is divine, not human. It is Truth's
knowledge of its own
infinitude which forbids the genuine existence of
even
a claim to error. This knowledge is light wherein there |
| 21 |
is no darkness, - not light holding
darkness within itself.
The consciousness of light is like the eternal law
of God,
revealing Him and nothing else. |
| 24 |
Sympathy with sin, sorrow, and sickness
would dethrone
God as Truth, for Truth has no sympathy for error. In
Science, the cure of the sick demonstrates this grand
Page
31 |
| 1 |
verity of Christian Science, that you
cannot eradicate dis-
ease if you admit that God sends it or sees it.
Material |
| 3 |
and mortal mind-healing (so-called) has for
ages been
a pretender, but has not healed mortals; and they are
yet
sick and sinful. |
| 6 |
Disease and sin appear to-day in subtler
forms than
they did yesterday. They progress and will multiply into
worse forms, until it is understood that disease and sin are |
| 9 |
unreal, unknown to Truth, and never
actual persons or
real facts.
Our phraseology
varies. To me divine pardon is that |
| 12 |
divine presence which is the sure
destruction of sin; and
I insist on the destruction of sin as the only
full proof of
its pardon. "For this purpose the Son of God was mani- |
| 15 |
fested, that he might destroy the
works of the devil"
(1 John iii. 8).
Jesus cast out
evils, mediating between what is and is |
| 18 |
not, until a perfect consciousness is
attained. He healed
disease as he healed sin; but he treated them
both,
not as in or of matter, but as mortal beliefs to be |
| 21 |
exterminated. Physical and mental healing
were one
and the same with this master Metaphysician. If the
evils
called sin, sickness, and death had been forgiven |
| 24 |
in the generally accepted sense, they would
have returned,
to be again forgiven; but Jesus said to disease: "Come
out of him, and enter no more into him." He said also: |
| 27 |
"If a man keep my saying, he shall never
see death;"
and "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound
Page
32 |
| 1 |
in heaven." The misinterpretation of such
passages has
retarded the progress of Christianity and the spirituali- |
| 3 |
zation of the race.
A magistrate's
pardon may encourage a criminal to
repeat the offense; because
forgiveness, in the popular |
| 6 |
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. |
| 9 |
"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 |
| 12 |
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 |
| 15 |
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. |
| 18 |
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 |
| 2l |
to love it.
The domination of
good destroys the sense of evil. To
illustrate: It seems a great evil to
belie and belittle Chris- |
| 24 |
tian 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
Page
33 |
| 1 |
loses its power to harm; for even the wrath
of man shall
praise Him. The reduction of evil, in Science, gives the |
| 3 |
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 |
| 6 |
rightful place in schools of learning, they
would revolu-
tionize the world by advancing the kingdom of Christ.
It
requires sacrifice, struggle, prayer, and watchfulness |
| 9 |
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 sacri-
fice of our blessed Lord is undeniable,
and it was a million |
| 15 |
times greater than the brief agony of the
cross; for that
would have been insufficient to insure the glory his
sacri-
fice brought and the good it wrought. The spilling of |
| 18 |
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 |
| 21 |
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 |
| 29 |
life is in overcoming sickness, sin, and
death. Jesus suf-
fered for all mortals to bring in this glory; and his
pur-
pose was to show them that the way out of the flesh, out
Page
34 |
| 1 |
of the delusion of all human error, must be
through the
baptism of suffering, leading up to health, harmony, and |
| 3 |
heaven.
We shall leave the
ceremonial law when we gain the
truer sense of following Christ in spirit,
and we shall no |
| 6 |
longer venture to materialize the spiritual
and infinite
meaning and efficacy of Truth and Love, and the sacrifice
that Jesus made for us, by commemorating his death |
| 9 |
with a material rite. Jesus said: "The hour
cometh, and
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth." They drink the cup of Christ and |
| 12 |
are baptized in the purification of
persecution who discern
his true merit, - the unseen glory of suffering for
others.
Physical torture affords but a slight illustration of the |
| 15 |
pangs which come to one upon whom the world
of sense
falls with its leaden weight in the endeavor to crush out
of a
career its divine destiny. |
| 18 |
The blood of Christ speaketh better things
than that
of Abel. The real atonement - so infinitely beyond the
heathen conception that God requires human blood to |
| 21 |
propitiate His justice and bring His mercy
- needs to be
understood. The real blood or Life of Spirit is not yet
discerned. Love bruised and bleeding, yet mounting to |
| 24 |
the throne of glory in purity and peace,
over the steps of
uplifted humanity, - this is the deep significance of
the
blood of Christ. Nameless woe, everlasting victories, are |
| 27 |
the blood, the vital currents of Christ
Jesus' life, purchas-
ing the freedom of mortals from sin and death.
Page
35 |
| 1 |
This blood of Jesus is everything to human
hope and
faith. Without it, how poor the precedents of Christian- |
| 3 |
ity! What manner of Science were Christian
Science
without the power to demonstrate the Principle of such
Life;
and what hope have mortals but through deep hu- |
| 6 |
mility and adoration to reach the
understanding of this
Principle! When human struggles cease, and
mortals
yield lovingly to the purpose of divine Love, there will be |
| 9 |
no more sickness, sorrow, sin, and death.
He who pointed
the way of Life conquered also the drear subtlety of
death.
It was not to
appease the wrath of God, but to show the |
| 12 |
allness of Love and the nothingness of
hate, sin, and death,
that Jesus suffered. He lived that we also might
live. He
suffered, to show mortals the awful price paid by sin, and |
| 15 |
how to avoid paying it. He atoned for the
terrible un-
reality of a supposed existence apart from God. He
suffered because of the shocking human idolatry that |
| 18 |
presupposes Life, substance, Soul, and
intelligence in
matter,-which is the antipode of God, and yet governs
mankind. The glorious truth of being - namely, that |
| 21 |
God is the only Mind, Life, substance, Soul
- needs no
reconciliation with God, for it is one with Him now and
forever. |
| 24 |
Jesus came announcing Truth, and saying not
only "the
kingdom of God is at hand," but "the kingdom of God
is
within you." Hence there is no sin, for God's kingdom |
| 27 |
is everywhere and supreme, and it follows
that the human
kingdom is nowhere, and must be unreal. Jesus
taught
Page
36 |
| 1 |
and demonstrated the infinite as one, and
not as two.
He did not teach that there are two deities, - one in- |
| 3 |
finite and the other finite; for that would
be impossible.
He knew God as infinite, and therefore as the
All-in-all;
and we shall know this truth when we awake in the divine |
| 6 |
likeness. Jesus' true and conscious being
never left
heaven for earth. It abode forever above, even while
mortals
believed it was here. He once spoke of himself |
| 9 |
(John iii. 13) as "the Son of man which is
in heaven," -
remarkable words, as wholly opposed to the popular view
of Jesus' nature. |
| 12 |
The real Christ was unconscious of matter,
of sin,
disease, and death, and was conscious only of God, of
good, of
eternal Life, and harmony. Hence the human |
| 15 |
Jesus had a resort to his higher self and
relation to the
Father, and there could find rest from unreal trials in
the conscious reality and royalty of his being, - holding |
| 18 |
the mortal as unreal, and the divine as
real. It was this
retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which
recuper-
ated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death. Had |
| 21 |
he been as conscious of these evils as he
was of God,
wherein there is no consciousness of human error, Jesus
could not have resisted them; nor could he have conquered |
| 24 |
the malice of his foes, rolled away the
stone from the
sepulchre, and risen from human sense to a higher con-
cept than that in which he appeared at his birth. |
| 27 |
Mankind's concept of Jesus was a babe born
in a manger,
even while the divine and ideal Christ was the Son of God,
Page
37 |
| 1 |
spiritual and eternal. In human conception
God's off-
spring had to grow, develop; but in Science his divine |
| 3 |
nature and manhood were forever complete,
and dwelt
forever in the Father. Jesus said, "Ye do err, not know-
ing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Mortal thought |
| 6 |
gives the eternal God and infinite
consciousness the license
of a short-lived sinner, to begin and end, to
know both
evil and good; when evil is temporal and God is eternal, - |
| 9 |
and when, as a sphere of Mind, He cannot
know begin-
ning or end.
The spiritual
interpretation of the vicarious atonement |
| 12 |
of Jesus, in Christian Science, unfolds the
full-orbed glory
of that event; but to regard this wonder of glory,
this
most marvellous demonstration, as a personal and material |
| 15 |
bloodgiving - or as a proof that sin is
known to the
divine Mind, and that what is unlike God demands His
continual presence, knowledge, and power, to meet and |
| 18 |
master it - would make the atonement to be
less than
the at-one-ment, whereby the work of Jesus would lose
its efficacy and lack the "signs following." |
| 21 |
From Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures
teach an in-
finite God, and none beside Him; and on this basis
Messiah
and prophet saved the sinner and raised the dead, |
| 24 |
- uplifting the human understanding, buried
in a false
sense of being. Jesus rendered null and void whatever
is
unlike God; but he could not have done this if error |
| 27 |
and sin existed in the Mind of God. What
God knows,
He also predestinates; and it must be fulfilled. Jesus
Page
38 |
| 1 |
proved to perfection, so far as this could
be done in that
age, what Christian Science is to-day proving in a
small |
| 3 |
degree, - the falsity of the evidence of
the material senses
that sin, sickness, and death are sensible claims, and
that
God substantiates their evidence by knowing their claim. |
| 6 |
He established the only true idealism on
the basis that God
is All, and He is good, and good is Spirit; hence there
is
no intelligent sin, evil mind or matter: and this is the
only |
| 9 |
true philosophy and realism. This divine
mystery of
godliness was the rock of Truth, on which he built his
Church of the new-born, against which the gates of hell |
| 12 |
cannot prevail.
This Truth is the
rock which the builders rejected; but
"the same is become the head of the
corner." This is |
| 15 |
the chief corner-stone, the basis and
support of creation,
the interpreter of one God. the infinity and unity of
good.
In proportion as
mortals approximate the understand- |
| 18 |
ing of Christian Science, they take hold of
harmony, and
material incumbrance disappears. Having one God, one
Mind,
one consciousness, - which includes only His own |
| 21 |
nature, - and loving your neighbor as
yourself, constitute
Christian Science, which must demonstrate the
nothing-
ness of any other state or stage of being.
IS
THERE NO INTERCESSORY PRAYER?
All prayer that is
desire is intercessory; but kindling
desire loses a part of its purest
spirituality if the lips try to
Page
39 |
| 1 |
express it. It is a truism that we can
think more lucidly
and profoundly than we can write or speak. The
silent |
| 3 |
intercession and unvoiced imploring is an
honest and po-
tent prayer to heal and save. The audible prayer may be
offered to be heard of men, though ostensibly to catch |
| 6 |
God's ear, - after the fashion of Baal's
prophets, - by
speaking loud enough to be heard; but when the heart
prays, and not the lips, no dishonesty or vanity influences |
| 9 |
the petition.
Prophet and apostle
have glorified God in secret prayer,
and He has rewarded them openly.
Prayer can neither |
| 12 |
change God, nor bring His designs into
mortal modes; but
it can and does change our modes and our false sense
of
Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer |
| 15 |
humiliates, purifies, and quickens
activity, in the direction
that is unerring.
True prayer is not
asking God for love; it is learning to |
| 18 |
love, and to include all mankind in one
affection. Prayer
is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us.
Prayer
begets an awakened desire to be and do good. It makes |
| 21 |
new and scientific discoveries of God, of
His goodness and
power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before,
what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows |
| 24 |
us what God is. Advancing in this light, we
reflect it;
and this light reveals the pure Mind-pictures, in silent
prayer, even as photography grasps the solar light to por- |
| 27 |
tray the face of pleasant thought.
What but silent
prayer can meet the demand, "Pray
Page
40 |
| 1 |
without ceasing"? The apostle James said:
"Ye ask,
and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to consume it on |
| 3 |
your lusts." Because of vanity and
self-righteousness,
mortals seek, and expect to receive, a material sense
of
approval; and they expect also what is impossible, - a |
| 6 |
material and mortal sense of spiritual and
immortal
Truth.
It is sometimes wise
to hide from dull and base ears the |
| 9 |
pure pearls of awakened consciousness, lest
your pearls
be trampled upon. Words may belie desire, and pour
forth a
hypocrite's prayer; but thoughts are our honest |
| 12 |
conviction. I have no objection to audible
prayer of the
right kind; but the inaudible is more effectual.
I instruct my
students to pursue their mental ministra- |
| 15 |
tions very sacredly, and never to touch the
human thought
save to issues of Truth; never to trespass mentally on
in-
dividual rights; never to take away the rights, but only |
| 18 |
the wrongs of mankind. Otherwise they
forfeit their
ability to heal in Science. Only when sickness, sin, and
fear obstruct the harmony of Mind and body, is it right |
| 21 |
for one mind to meddle with another mind,
and control
aright the thought struggling for freedom.
It is Truth and Love
that cast out fear and heal the sick, |
| 24 |
and mankind are better because of this. If
a change in
the religious views of the patient comes with the change to
health, our Father has done this; for the human mind |
| 27 |
and body are made better only by divine
influence.
Page
41
SHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE? |
| 3 |
History repeats itself. The Pharisees of
old warned
the people to beware of Jesus, and contemptuously called
him
"this fellow." Jesus said, "For which of these |
| 6 |
works do ye stone me?" as much as to ask,
Is it the
work most derided and envied that is most acceptable to
God?
Not that he would cease to do the will of his Father |
| 9 |
on account of persecution, but he would
repeat his work
to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his
Father. |
| 12 |
There are sinners in all societies, and it
is vain to look
for perfection in churches or associations. The life of
Christ is the perfect example; and to compare mortal |
| 15 |
lives with this model is to subject them to
severe scrutiny.
Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying
to
force the doors of Science and enter in; but this white |
| 18 |
sanctuary will never admit such as come to
steal and to
rob. Through long ages people have slumbered over
Christ's
commands, "Go ye into all the world, and preach |
| 21 |
the gospel;" "Heal the sick, cast out
devils;" and now
the Church seems almost chagrined that by new
discoveries
of Truth sin is losing prestige and power. |
| 24 |
The Rev. Dr. A.J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist
clergyman,
said in a sermon: "The prayer of faith shall save the
sick,
and it is doing it to-day; and as the faith of the Church
Page
42 |
| 1 |
increases, and Christians more and more
learn their duty
to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will
such |
| 3 |
manifestations of God's power increase
among us." Such
sentiments are wholesome avowals of Christian Science.
God is not unable or unwilling to heal, and mortals are not |
| 6 |
compelled to have other gods before Him,
and employ
material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit
supplies all human needs. Jesus said to the sick, "Thy |
| 9 |
sins are forgiven thee; rise up and walk!"
God's pardon
is the destruction of all "the ills that flesh is heir to."
All power belongs to
God; and it is not in all the vain |
| 12 |
power of dogma and philosophy to dispossess
the divine
Mind of healing power, or to cast out error with error,
even
in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal |
| 15 |
the sick. While Science is engulfing error
in bottomless
oblivion, the material senses would enthrone error as om-
nipotent and omnipresent, with power to determine the |
| 18 |
fact and fate to being. It is said that the
devil is the ape
of God. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring
itself
both true and good. The path of Christian Science is be- |
| 21 |
set with false claimants, aping its
virtues, but cleaving to
their own vices. Denial of the authorship of
"Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures" would make a |
| 24 |
lie the author of Truth, and so make Truth
itself a lie.
A distinguished
clergyman came to be healed. He said:
"I am suffering from nervous
prostration, and have to eat |
| 27 |
beefsteak and drink strong coffee to
support me through
a sermon." Here a skeptic might well ask if the
atone-
Page
43 |
| 1 |
ment had lost its efficacy for him, and if
Christ's power to
heal was not equal to the power of daily meat and
drink. |
| 3 |
The power of Truth is not contingent on
matter. Our
Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Truth rebukes |
| 6 |
error; and whether stall-fed or famishing,
theology needs
Truth to stimulate and sustain a good sermon.
A lady said: "Only
He who knows all things can esti- |
| 9 |
mate the good your books are doing."
A distinguished
Doctor of Divinity said: "Your book
leavens my sermons." |
| 12 |
The following extract from a letter is a
specimen of
those received daily: "Your book Science and Health is
healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, preach- |
| 15 |
ing deliverance to the captive, convicting
the infidel, alarm-
ing the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian."
Christian Science
Mind-healing is dishonored by those |
| 18 |
who take it up from mercenary motives, for
wealth and
fame, or think to build a baseless fabric of their own on
another's foundation. They cannot put the "new wine |
| 21 |
into old bottles;" they can never engraft
Truth into error.
Such students come to my College to learn a system
which
they go away to disgrace. Stealing or garbling my state- |
| 24 |
ments of Mind-science will never prevent
or reconstruct
the wrecks of '"isms" and help humanity.
Science often
suffers blame through the sheer ignorance |
| 27 |
of people, while envy and hatred bark and
bite at its heels.
A man's inability to heal, on the Principle of
Christian
Page
44 |
| 1 |
Science, substantiates his ignorance of its
Principle and
practice, and incapacitates him for correct comment. |
| 3 |
This failure should make him modest.
Christian Science
involves a new language, and a higher
demonstration of medicine and
religion. It is the "new |
| 6 |
tongue" of Truth, having its best
interpretation in the
power of Christianity to heal. My system of
Mind-heal-
ing swerves not from the highest ethics and from the
spirit- |
| 9 |
ual goal. To climb up by some other way
than Truth is
to fall. Error has no hobby, however boldly ridden or
brilliantly caparisoned, that can leap into the sanctum |
| 12 |
of Christian Science.
In Queen Elizabeth's
time Protestantism could sentence
men to the dungeon or stake for their
religion, and so |
| 15 |
abrogate the rights of conscience and choke
the channels
of God. Ecclesiastical tyranny muzzled the mouth lisping
God's praise; and instead of healing, it palsied the weak |
| 18 |
hand outstretched to God. Progress,
legitimate to the
human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love
into every wound. It reassures us that no Reign of Terror |
| 21 |
or rule of error will again unite Church
and State, or re-
enact, through the civil arm of government, the horrors
of
religious persecution. |
| 24 |
The Rev. S. E. Herrick, a Congregational
clergyman of
Boston, says: "Heretics of yesterday are martyrs to-day."
In every age and clime, "On earth peace, good will to- |
| 27 |
ward men" must be the watchword of
Christianity.
Jesus said: "I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven
Page
45 |
| 1 |
and earth, that Thou hast hid these things
from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them
unto babes." |
| 3 |
St. Paul said that without charity we are
"as sound-
ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal;" and he added: "Charity
suffereth long, and is kind; . . . doth not behave itself |
| 6 |
unseemly, . . . thinketh no evil, . . .
but rejoiceth in the
truth."
To hinder the
unfolding truth, to ostracize whatever |
| 9 |
uplifts mankind, is of course out of the
question. Such an
attempt indicates weakness, fear, or malice; and
such
efforts arise from a spiritual lack, felt, though unacknowl- |
| 12 |
edged.
Let it not be heard
in Boston that woman, "last at the
cross and first at the sepulchre," has
no rights which man |
| 15 |
is bound to respect. In natural law and in
religion the
right of woman to fill the highest measure of enlightened
understanding and the highest places in government, is |
| 18 |
inalienable, and these rights are ably
vindicated by the
noblest of both sexes. This is woman's hour, with all
its
sweet amenities and its moral and religious reforms. |
| 21 |
Drifting into intellectual wrestlings, we
should agree to
disagree; and this harmony would anchor the Church in
more spiritual latitudes, and so fulfil her destiny. |
| 24 |
Let the Word have free course and be
glorified. The
people clamor to leave cradle and swaddling-clothes. The
spiritual status is urging its highest demands on mortals, |
| 27 |
and material history is drawing to a
close. Truth cannot
be stereotyped; it unfoldeth forever. "One on God's
Page
46 |
| 1 |
side is a majority;" and "Lo, I am with you
alway," is
the pledge of the Master. |
| 3 |
The question now at issue is: Shall we have
a prac-
tical, spiritual Christianity, with its healing power, or
shall
we have material medicine and superficial religion? |
| 6 |
The advancing hope of the race, craving
health and holi-
ness, halts for a reply; and the reappearing Christ,
whose
life-giving understanding Christian Science imparts, must |
| 9 |
answer the constant inquiry: "Art thou he
that should
come?" Woman should not be ordered to the rear, or
laid on
the rack, for joining the overture of angels. Theo- |
| 12 |
logians descant pleasantly upon free moral
agency; but
they should begin by admitting individual rights.
The author's
ancestors were among the first settlers of |
| 15 |
New Hampshire. They reared there the
Puritan standard
of undefiled religion. As dutiful descendants of
Puritans,
let us lift their standard higher, rejoicing, as Paul did, |
| 18 |
that we are free born.
Man has a noble
destiny; and the full-orbed significance
of this destiny has dawned on the
sick-bound and sin- |
| 21 |
enslaved. For the unfolding of this upward
tendency to
health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to labor
and wait. |
