0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

15	    EXTRACT FROM MY FIRST ADDRESS IN THE MOTHER
  	                               CHURCH, MAY 26, 1895 

  	    Friends and Brethren: — Your Sunday Lesson, com-
18	posed of Scripture and its correlative in "Science and
  	Health with Key to the Scriptures," has fed you. In addi-
  	tion, I can only bring crumbs fallen from this table of
21	Truth, and gather up the fragments. 
  	    It has long been a question of earnest import, How
  	shall mankind worship the most adorable, but most
24	unadored, — and where shall begin that praise that shall
  	never end? Beneath, above, beyond, methinks I hear
  	the soft, sweet sigh of angels answering, "So live, that
27	your lives attest your sincerity and resound His praise." 
  	    Music is the harmony of being; but the music of Soul
  	affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling
30	and awaken the heart's harpstrings. Moved by mind,
  	your many-throated organ, in imitative tones of many
 
                                                                                                  page 107
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Extract from My First Address in 
                                          The Mother Church, May 26, 1895                                                                               

 1	instruments, praises Him; but even the sweetness and
  	beauty in and of this temple that praise Him, are earth's
 3	accents, and must not be mistaken for the oracles of God. 
  	Art must not prevail over S...cience. Christianity is not
  	superfluous. Its redemptive power is seen in sore trials,
 6	self-denials, and crucifixions of the flesh. But these come
  	to the rescue of mortals, to admonish them, and plant
  	the feet steadfastly in Christ. As we rise above the seem-
 9	ing mists of sense, we behold more clearly that all the
  	heart's homage belongs to God. 
  	    More love is the great need of mankind. A pure af-
12	fection, concentric, forgetting self, forgiving wrongs and
  	forestalling them, should swell the lyre of human love. 
  	    Three cardinal points must be gained before poor
15	humanity is regenerated and Christian Science is dem-
  	onstrated:  (1) A proper sense of sin; (2) repentance;
  	(3) the understanding of good. Evil is a negation:  it
18	never started with time, and it cannot keep pace with
  	eternity. Mortals' false senses pass through three states
  	and stages of human consciousness before yielding error. 
21	The deluded sense must first be shown its falsity through
  	a knowledge of evil as evil, so-called. Without a sense
  	of one's oft-repeated violations of divine law, the in-
24	dividual may become morally blind, and this deplorable
  	mental state is moral idiocy. The lack of seeing one's
  	deformed mentality, and of repentance therefor, deep,
27	never to be repented of, is retarding, and in certain mor-
  	bid instances stopping, the growth of Christian Scientists. 
  	Without a knowledge of his sins, and repentance so severe
30	that it destroys them, no person is or can be a Christian
  	Scientist. 
  	    Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin. 
 
                                                                                                  page 108
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Extract from My First Address in 
                                          The Mother Church, May 26, 1895                                                                               

 1	The sensitive, sorrowing saint thinks too much of it:  the
  	sordid sinner, or the so-called Christian asleep, thinks too
 3	little of sin. 
  	    To allow sin of any sort is anomalous in Christian
  	Scientists, claiming, as they do, that good is infinite, All. 
 6	Our Master, in his definition of Satan as a liar from the
  	beginning, attested the absolute powerlessness — yea,
  	nothingness — of evil:  since a lie, being without founda-
 9	tion in fact, is merely a falsity; spiritually, literally, it
  	is nothing. 
  	    Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger
12	of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright,
  	then reducing its claim to its proper denominator, — 
  	nobody and nothing. Sin should be conceived of only
15	as a delusion. This true conception would remove mortals'
  	ignorance and its consequences, and advance the second
  	stage of human consciousness, repentance. The first
18	state, namely, the knowledge of one's self, the proper
  	knowledge of evil and its subtle workings wherein evil
  	seems as real as good, is indispensable; since that which
21	is truly conceived of, we can handle; but the misconcep-
  	tion of what we need to know of evil, — or the concep-
  	tion of it at all as something real, — costs much. Sin
24	needs only to be known for what it is not; then we are
  	its master, not servant. Remember, and act on, Jesus'
  	definition of sin as a lie. This cognomen makes it less
27	dangerous; for most of us would not be seen believing
  	in, or adhering to, that which we know to be untrue. 
  	What would be thought of a Christian Scientist who be-
30	lieved in the use of drugs, while declaring that they have
  	no intrinsic quality and that there is no matter? What
  	should be thought of an individual believing in that
 
                                                                                                  page 109
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Extract from My First Address in 
                                          The Mother Church, May 26, 1895                                                                               

 1	which is untrue, and at the same time declaring the unity
  	of Truth, and its allness? Beware of those who mis-
 3	represent facts; or tacitly assent where they should dis-
  	sent; or who take me as authority for what I disapprove,
  	or mayhap never have thought of, and try to reverse, in-
 6	vert, or controvert, Truth; for this is a sure pretext of
  	moral defilement. 
  	    Examine yourselves, and see what, and how much, sin
 9	claims of you; and how much of this claim you admit
  	as valid, or comply with. The knowledge of evil that
  	brings on repentance is the most hopeful stage of mortal
12	mentality. Even a mild mistake must be seen as a mis-
  	take, in order to be corrected; how much more, then,
  	should one's sins be seen and repented of, before they
15	can be reduced to their native nothingness! 
  	    Ignorance is only blest by reason of its nothingness;
  	for seeing the need of somethingness in its stead, blesses
18	mortals. Ignorance was the first condition of sin in the
  	allegory of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Their
  	mental state is not desirable, neither is a knowledge of
21	sin and its consequences, repentance, per se; but, ad-
  	mitting the existence of both, mortals must hasten through
  	the second to the third stage, — the knowledge of good;
24	for without this the valuable sequence of knowledge
  	would be lacking, — even the power to escape from the
  	false claims of sin. To understand good, one must discern
27	the nothingness of evil, and consecrate one's life anew. 
  	    Beloved brethren, Christ, Truth, saith unto you, "Be
  	not afraid!" — fear not sin, lest thereby it master you;
30	but only fear to sin. Watch and pray for self-knowledge;
  	since then, and thus, cometh repentance, — and your
  	superiority to a delusion is won. 
 
                                                                                                   page 110
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Extract from My First Address in 
                                          The Mother Church, May 26, 1895                                                                               

 1	    Repentance is better than sacrifice. The costly balm
  	of Araby, poured on our Master's feet, had not the value
 3	of a single tear. 
  	    Beloved children, the world has need of you, — and
  	more as children than as men and women:  it needs your
 6	innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontami-
  	nated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you
  	preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through
 9	contact with the world. What grander ambition is there
  	than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to
  	know that your example, more than words, makes morals
12	for mankind! 
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