0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

BIBLE LESSONS 

21	    But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
  	sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born,
  	not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
24	but of God. — JOHN i. 12, 13. 

  	    Here, the apostle assures us that man has power to
  	become the son of God. In the Hebrew text, the word
27	"son" is defined variously; a month is called the son
  	of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both
  	a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak
30	of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of man; but
 
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 1	Jesus said to call no man father; "for one is your Father,"
  	even God. 
 3	    Is man's spiritual sonship a personal gift to man, or
  	is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man's
  	knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to dem-
 6	onstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite
  	in order to understand his sonship, or unity with God,
  	good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to
 9	the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of
  	Science, unless that requirement should express the claims
  	of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite
12	Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over
  	what is the person of Spi...rit, — if we recognize infinitude
  	as personality, — for who can tell what is the form of
15	infinity? When we understand man's true birthright, that
  	he is "born, not . . . of the will of the flesh, nor of the
  	will of man, but of God," we shall understand that man
18	is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize
  	him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard
  	him as spiritual, and not material. His sonship, referred
21	to in the text, is his spiritual relation to Deity: it is not,
  	then, a personal gift, but is the order of divine Science. 
  	The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact:
24	"But as many as received him, to them gave he power
  	to become the sons of God." Mortals will lose their sense
  	of mortality — disease, sickness, sin, and death — in
27	the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spirit-
  	ual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of
  	good, and not of God's opposite, — evil, or a fallen
30	man. 
  	    John the Baptist had a clear discernment of divine
  	Science:  being born not of the human will or flesh, he
 
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 1	antedated his own existence, began spiritually instead
  	of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the im-
 3	possibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through
  	violent means or material methods. 
  	    "As many as received him;" that is, as many as per-
 6	ceive man's actual existence in and of his divine Princi-
  	ple, receive the Truth of existence; and these have no
  	other God, no other Mind, no other origin; therefore, in
 9	time they lose their false sense of existence, and find
  	their adoption with the Father; to wit, the redemption
  	of the body. Through divine Science man gains the
12	power to become the son of God, to recognize his perfect
  	and eternal estate. 
  	    "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
15	the flesh." This passage refers to man's primal, spirit-
  	ual existence, created neither from dust nor carnal de-
  	sire. "Nor of the will of man." Born of no doctrine,
18	no human faith, but beholding the truth of being; even
  	the understanding that man was never lost in Adam,
  	since he is and ever was the image and likeness of God,
21	good. But no mortal hath seen the spiritual man, more
  	than he hath seen the Father. The apostle indicates
  	no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite;
24	but the possibility of all finding their place in God's great
  	love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and
  	daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of exist-
27	ence as Principle and idea, wherein man and his Maker
  	are inseparable and eternal. 
  	    When the Word is made flesh, — that is, rendered
30	practical, — this eternal Truth will be understood; and
  	sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did
  	more than eighteen centuries ago. The lusts of the flesh  

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 1	and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine
  	Science of being; in the ever-present good, omnipotent
 3	Love, and eternal Life, that know no death. In the great
  	forever, the verities of being exist, and must be acknowl-
  	edged and demonstrated. Man must love his neighbor
 6	as himself, and the power of Truth must be seen and
  	felt in health, happiness, and holiness:  then it will be
  	found that Mind is All-in-all, and there is no matter to
 9	cope with. 
  	    Man is free born:  he is neither the slave of sense, nor a
  	silly ambler to the so-called pleasures and pains of self-
12	conscious matter. Man is God's image and likeness;
  	whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's
  	reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn
15	this, and receive it:  learn that man can fulfil the Scrip-
  	tures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall
  	be filled — not by reason of the schools, or learning, but
18	by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed
  	on him, to give utterance to Truth. 
  	    "Who hath believed our report?" Who understands
21	these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is re-
  	vealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence,
  	that equips man with divine power while it shames human
24	pride. Asserting a selfhood apart from God, is a denial
  	of man's spiritual sonship; for it claims another father. 
  	As many as do receive a knowledge of God through
27	Science, will have power to reflect His power, in proof of
  	man's "dominion over all the earth." He is bravely
  	brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material
30	sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true
  	status of man because of it. The material senses would
  	make man, that the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker,  

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 1	the very opposite of that Maker, by claiming that God is
  	Spirit, while man is matter; that God is good, but man is
 3	evil; that Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and
  	sense conflict, from the revolving of worlds to the death
  	of a sparrow. 
 6	    The Word will be made flesh and dwell among mortals,
  	only when man reflects God in body as well as in mind. 
  	The child born of a woman has the formation of his
 9	parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material. 
  	Paul refers to this when speaking of presenting our bodies
  	holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service;
12	and this brings to remembrance the Hebrew strain,
  	"Who healeth all thy diseases." 
  	    If man should say of the power to be perfect which he
15	possesses, "I am the power," he would trespass upon
  	divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power;
  	even as when saying, "I have the power to sin and be
18	sick," and persisting in believing that he is sick and a
  	sinner. If he says, "I am of God, therefore good," yet
  	persists in evil, he has denied the power of Truth, and
21	must suffer for this error until he learns that all power is
  	good because it is of God, and so destroys his self-de-
  	ceived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives
24	back the lost likeness and power of God as the seal of
  	man's adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable,
  	which casteth out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death;
27	that seeketh not her own, but another's good; that saith
  	Abba, Father, and is born of God! 
  	    John came baptizing with water. He employed a type
30	of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity,
  	even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and
  	submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the
 
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 1 	lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker. 
  	None but the pure in heart shall see God, — shall be able
 3	to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle
  	of Christian Science. The will of God, or power of Spirit,
  	is made manifest as Truth, and through righteousness, — 
 6	not as or through matter, — and it strips matter of all
  	claims, abilities or disabilities, pains or pleasures. Self-
  	renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material
 9	man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his
  	spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that
  	opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good
12	flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of
  	all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demon-
  	strating the true image and likeness. There is no other
15	way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man
  	be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality. 
  	    "As many as received him," — as accept the truth
18	of being, — "to them gave he power to become the sons
  	of God." The spiritualization of our sense of man opens
  	the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses
21	would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright,
  	pure, and free; having no need of statistics by which to
  	learn his origin and age, or to measure his manhood, or to
24	know how much of a man he ever has been:  for, "as
  	many as received him, to them gave he power to become
  	the sons of God." 

27	    And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;
  	the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. — 1 COR. xv. 45. 

  	    When reasoning on this subject of man with the Corin-
30	thian brethren, the apostle first spake from their stand-
  	point of thought; namely, that creation is material:
 
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  1 	he was not at this point giving the history of the spiritual
  	man who originates in God, Love, who created man
 3	in His own image and likeness. In the creation of Adam
  	from dust, — in which Soul is supposed to enter the
  	embryo-man after his birth, — we see the material self-
 6	constituted belief of the Jews as referred to by St. Paul. 
  	Their material belief has fallen far below man's original
  	standard, the spiritual man made in the image and like-
 9	ness of God; for this erring belief even separates its
  	conception of man from God, and ultimates in the op-
  	posite of immortal man, namely, in a sick and sinning
12	mortal. 
  	    We learn in the Scriptures, as in divine Science, that
  	God made all; that He is the universal Father and Mother
15	of man; that God is divine Love:  therefore divine Love
  	is the divine Principle of the divine idea named man;
  	in other words, the spiritual Principle of spiritual man. 
18	Now let us not lose this Science of man, but gain it clearly;
  	then we shall see that man cannot be separated from
  	his perfect Principle, God, inasmuch as an idea cannot
21	be torn apart from its fundamental basis. This scien-
  	tific knowledge affords self-evident proof of immortality;
  	proof, also, that the Principle of man cannot produce a
24	less perfect man than it produced in the beginning. A
  	material sense of existence is not the scientific fact of
  	being; whereas, the spiritual sense of God and His uni-
27	verse is the immortal and true sense of being. 
  	    As the apostle proceeds in this line of thought, he
  	undoubtedly refers to the last Adam represented by the
30	Messias, whose demonstration of God restored to mortals
  	the lost sense of man's perfection, even the sense of the
  	real man in God's likeness, who restored this sense by
 
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  1	the spiritual regeneration of both mind and body, — 
  	casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead. 
 3	The man Jesus demonstrated over sin, sickness, disease,
  	and death. The great Metaphysician wrought, over and
  	above every sense of matter, into the proper sense of the
 6	possibilities of Spirit. He established health and har-
  	mony, the perfection of mind and body, as the reality of
  	man; while discord, as seen in disease and death, was to
 9	him the opposite of man, hence the unreality; even as in
  	Science a chord is manifestly the reality of music, and
  	discord the unreality. This rule of harmony must be ac-
12	cepted as true relative to man. 
  	    The translators of the older Scriptures presuppose a
  	material man to be the first man, solely because their
15	transcribing thoughts were not lifted to the inspired sense
  	of the spiritual man, as set forth in original Holy Writ. 
  	Had both writers and translators in that age fully com-
18	prehended the later teachings and demonstrations of
  	our human and divine Master, the Old Testament might
  	have been as spiritual as the New. 
21	    The origin, substance, and life of man are one, and
  	that one is God, — Life, Truth, Love. The self-existent,
  	perfect, and eternal are God; and man is their reflection
24	and glory. Did the substance of God, Spirit, become a
  	clod, in order to create a sick, sinning, dying man? The
  	primal facts of being are eternal; they are never extin-
27	guished in a night of discord. 
  	    That man must be evil before he can be good; dying,
  	before deathless; material, before spiritual; sick and a
30	sinner in order to be healed and saved, is but the declara-
  	tion of the material senses transcribed by pagan religion-
  	ists, by wicked mortals such as crucified our Master, — 
 
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 1	whose teachings opposed the doctrines of Christ that
  	demonstrated the opposite, Truth. 
 3	    Man is as perfect now, and henceforth, and forever,
  	as when the stars first sang together, and creation joined
  	in the grand chorus of harmonious being. It is the trans-
 6	lator, not the original Word, who presents as being first
  	that which appears second, material, and mortal; and
  	as last, that which is primal, spiritual, and eternal. Be-
 9	cause of human misstatement and misconception of God
  	and man, of the divine Principle and idea of being, there
  	seems to be a war between the flesh and Spirit, a contest
12	between Truth and error; but the apostle says, "There
  	is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
  	Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
15	Spirit." 
  	    On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis
  	of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses;
18	thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense;
  	and right there he leaves the subject. 
  	    Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where
21	the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian
  	Science. And she has not left it, but continues the ex-
  	planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning,
24	its allness. The recognition of this power came to her
  	through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal
  	or mortal sense of things; not that there is, or can
27	be, an actual change in the realities of being, but
  	that we can discern more of them. At the moment
  	of her discovery, she knew that the last Adam, namely,
30	the true likeness of God, was the first, the only man. 
  	This knowledge did become to her "a quickening
  	spirit;" for she beheld the meaning of those words
 
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 1	of our Master, "The last shall be first, and the first
  	last." 
 3	    When, as little children, we are receptive, become
  	willing to accept the divine Principle and rule of being,
  	as unfolded in divine Science, the interpretation therein
 6	will be found to be the Comforter that leadeth into all
  	truth. 
  	    The meek Nazarene's steadfast and true knowledge of
 9	preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God
  	and man, — made him mighty. Spiritual insight of
  	Truth and Love antidotes and destroys the errors of flesh,
12	and brings to light the true reflection:  man as God's
  	image, or "the first man," for Christ plainly declared,
  	through Jesus, "Before Abraham was, I am." 
15	    The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into
  	matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false
  	sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it
18	away:  revealing, in place thereof, the power and per-
  	fection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as
  	God. The Scriptures declare Life to be the infinite I
21	AM, — not a dweller in matter. For man to know Life
  	as it is, namely God, the eternal good, gives him not
  	merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying con-
24	sciousness of spiritual power that subordinates matter
  	and destroys sin, disease, and death. This, Jesus demon-
  	strated; insomuch that St. Matthew wrote, "The people
27	were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them
  	as one having authority, and not as the scribes." This
  	spiritual power, healing sin and sickness, was not con-
30	fined to the first century; it extends to all time, inhabits
  	eternity, and demonstrates Life without beginning or
  	end. 
 
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 1	    Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the
  	energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the out-
 3	come of life infused into matter:  it is infinite Spirit, Truth,
  	Life, defiant of error or matter. Divine Science demon-
  	strates Mind as dispelling a false sense and giving the
 6	true sense of itself, God, and the universe; wherein the
  	mortal evolves not the immortal, nor does the material
  	ultimate in the spiritual; wherein man is coexistent with
 9	Mind, and is the recognized reflection of infinite Life and
  	Love. 

  	    And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to
12	pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake. — LUKE xi. 14. 

  	    The meaning of the term "devil" needs yet to be
  	learned. Its definition as an individual is too limited
15	and contradictory. When the Scripture is understood,
  	the spiritual signification of its terms will be understood,
  	and will contradict the interpretations that the senses
18	give them; and these terms will be found to include the
  	inspired meaning. 
  	    It could not have been a person that our great Master
21	cast out of another person; therefore the devil herein
  	referred to was an impersonal evil, or whatever worketh
  	ill. In this case it was the evil of dumbness, an error of
24	material sense, cast out by the spiritual truth of being;
  	namely, that speech belongs to Mind instead of matter,
  	and the wrong power, or the lost sense, must yield to the
27	right sense, and exist in Mind. 
  	    In the Hebrew, "devil" is denominated Abaddon; in
  	the Greek, Apollyon, serpent, liar, the god of this world,
30	etc. The apostle Paul refers to this personality of evil
  	as "the god of this world;" and then defines this god
 
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1	as "dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God
  	deceitfully." The Hebrew embodies the term "devil"
 3	in another term, serpent, — which the senses are supposed
  	to take in, — and then defines this serpent as "more
  	subtle than all the beasts of the field." Subsequently,
 6	the ancients changed the meaning of the term, to their
  	sense, and then the serpent became a symbol of wisdom. 
  	    The Scripture in John, sixth chapter and seventieth
 9	verse, refers to a wicked man as the devil: "Have not
  	I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Accord-
  	ing to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is
12	more than one devil. In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty-
  	eighth verse, it reads: "Master, we saw one casting out
  	devils in thy name." Here is an assertion indicating
15	the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the
  	first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found
  	to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth,
18	casts out. By no possible interpretation can this passage
  	mean several individuals cast out of another individual
  	no bigger than themselves. The term, being here em-
21	ployed in its plural number, destroys all consistent sup-
  	position of the existence of one personal devil. Again,
  	our text refers to the devil as dumb; but the original
24	devil was a great talker, and was supposed to have out-
  	talked even Truth, and carried the question with Eve. 
  	Also, the original texts define him as an "accuser," a
27	"calumniator," which would be impossible if he were
  	speechless. These two opposite characters ascribed to
  	him could only be possible as evil beliefs, as different
30	phases of sin or disease made manifest. 
  	    Let us obey St. Paul's injunction to reject fables, and
  	accept the Scriptures in their broader, more spiritual
 
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 1	and practical sense. When we speak of a good man, we
  	do not mean that man is God because the Hebrew term
 3	for Deity was "good," and vice versa; so, when referring
  	to a liar, we mean not that he is a personal devil, because
  	the original text defines devil as a "liar." 
 6	    It is of infinite importance to man's spiritual progress,
  	and to his demonstration of Truth in casting out error,
  	 — sickness, sin, disease, and death, in all their forms, — 
 9	that the terms and nature of Deity and devil be understood. 

  	    He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
  	greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. — 
12	JOHN xiv. 12. 

  	    Such are the words of him who spake divinely, well
  	knowing the omnipotence of Truth. The Hebrew bard
15	saith, "His name shall endure forever:  His name shall
  	be continued as long as the sun." Luminous with the
  	light of divine Science, his words reveal the great Principle
18	of a full salvation. Neither can we question the practi-
  	cability of the divine Word, who have learned its adapta-
  	bility to human needs, and man's ability to prove the
21	truth of prophecy. 
  	    The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing
  	belongs to every period; as the above Scripture plainly
24	declares, and as primitive Christianity confirms. Also,
  	the last chapter of Mark is emphatic on this subject;
  	making healing a condition of salvation, that extends to
27	all ages and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can
  	be more conclusive than this: "And these signs shall
  	follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on
30	the sick, and they shall recover." This declaration of
  	our Master settles the question; else we are entertaining
 
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 1	the startling inquiries, Are the Scriptures inspired? Are
  	they true? Did Jesus mean what he said? 
 3	    If this be the cavil, we reply in the affirmative that the
  	Scripture is true; that Jesus did mean all, and even more
  	than he said or deemed it safe to say at that time. His
 6	words are unmistakable, for they form propositions of
  	self-evident demonstrable truth. Doctrines that deny
  	the substance and practicality of all Christ's teachings
 9	cannot be evangelical; and evangelical religion can be
  	established on no other claim than the authenticity of
  	the Gospels, which support unequivocally the proof that
12	Christian Science, as defined and practised by Jesus,
  	heals the sick, casts out error, and will destroy death. 
  	    Referring to The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,
15	of which I am pastor, a certain clergyman charitably
  	expressed it, "the so-called Christian Scientists." 
  	    I am thankful even for his allusion to truth; it being
18	a modification of silence on this subject, and also of what
  	had been said when critics attacked me for supplying the
  	word Science to Christianity, — a word which the people
21	are now adopting. 
  	    The next step for ecclesiasticism to take, is to admit
  	that all Christians are properly called Scientists who
24	follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth;
  	and that no one is following his full command without
  	this enlarged sense of the spirit and power of Christianity. 
27	"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do,"
  	is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and
  	power of Christianity to heal; for this is Christlike,
30	and includes the understanding of man's capabilities and
  	spiritual power. The condition insisted upon is, first,
  	"belief;" the Hebrew of which implies understanding. 
 
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1	How many to-day believe that the power of God equals
  	even the power of a drug to heal the sick! Divine Science
 3	reveals the Principle of this power, and the rule whereby
  	sin, sickness, disease, and death are destroyed; and God
  	is this Principle. Let us, then, seek this Science; that we
 6	may know Him better, and love Him more. 
  	    Though a man were begirt with the Urim and Thum-
  	mim of priestly office, yet should deny the validity or
 9	permanence of Christ's command to heal in all ages,
  	this denial would dishonor that office and misinterpret
  	evangelical religion. Divine Science is not an interpo-
12	lation of the Scriptures, but is redolent with love, health,
  	and holiness, for the whole human race. It only needs
  	the prism of this Science to divide the rays of Truth, and
15	bring out the entire hues of Deity, which scholastic theol-
  	ogy has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine
  	power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy
18	of Spirit and the nothingness of matter. 
  	    The context of the foregoing Scriptural text explains
  	Jesus' words, "because I go unto my Father." "Because"
21	in following him, you understand God and how to turn
  	from matter to Spirit for healing; how to leave self, the
  	sense material, for the sense spiritual; how to accept
24	God's power and guidance, and become imbued with
  	divine Love that casts out all fear. Then are you bap-
  	tized in the Truth that destroys all error, and you receive
27	the sense of Life that knows no death, and you know that
  	God is the only Life. 
  	    To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that
30	is God, good, we must comply with the first condition
  	set forth in the text, namely, believe; in other words,
  	understand God sufficiently to exclude all faith in any
 
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 1	other remedy than Christ, the Truth that antidotes all
  	error. Thence will follow the absorption of all action,
 3	motive, and mind, into the rules and divine Principle of
  	metaphysical healing. 
  	    Whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science but
 6	possesses not its spirit, is unable to demonstrate this
  	Science; or whosoever hath the spirit without the letter,
  	is held back by reason of the lack of understanding. Both
 9	the spirit and the letter are requisite; and having these,
  	every one can prove, in some degree, the validity of those
  	words of the great Master, "For the Son of man is come
12	to save that which was lost." 
  	    It has been said that the New Testament does not au-
  	thorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period. 
15	    We ask what is the authority for such a conclusion,
  	the premises whereof are not to be found in the Scriptures. 
  	The Master's divine logic, as seen in our text, contradicts
18	this inference, — these are his words: "He that believeth
  	on me, the works that I do shall he do also." That per-
  	fect syllogism of Jesus has but one correct premise and
21	conclusion, and it cannot fall to the ground beneath the
  	stroke of unskilled swordsmen. He who never unsheathed
  	his blade to try the edge of truth in Christian Science, is
24	unequal to the conflict, and unfit to judge in the case;
  	the shepherd's sling would slay this Goliath. I once be-
  	lieved that the practice and teachings of Jesus relative to
27	healing the sick, were spiritual abstractions, impractical
  	and impossible to us; but deed, not creed, and practice
  	more than theory, have given me a higher sense of
30	Christianity. 
  	    The "I" will go to the Father when meekness, purity,
  	and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter,
 
                                                                                                  page 196
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [John 14:12]

 1	lead to the one God:  then the ego is found not in
  	matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one
 3	Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God. 
  	Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds
  	and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner
 6	of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in
  	the beginning, "Believe in me, and I will make you as
  	gods;" that is, I will give you a separate mind from God
 9	(good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open
  	your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become
  	material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent
12	said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind,
  	good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the
  	words of our Master: "He is a liar, and the father of it;"
15	also, the character of the votaries to "other gods" which
  	sprung from it. 
  	    The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man's
18	unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present
  	existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good. 
  	It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness,
21	and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall ap-
  	pear, "we shall be like Him;" we shall do the works of
  	Christ, and, in the words of David, "the stone which the
24	builders refused is become the head stone of the corner,"
  	because the "I" does go unto the Father, the ego does
  	arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted, — 
27	not through death, but Life, God understood. 

  	    Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. — 
  	ACTS xvi. 31. 

30	    The Scriptures require more than a simple admission
  	and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they
 
                                                                                                  page 197
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Acts 16:31]

 1	require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons
  	into our lives that these truths become the motive-power
 3	of every act. 
  	    Our chosen text is one more frequently used than
  	many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin
 6	and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import
  	of this text is not yet recognized. It means a full salva-
  	tion, — man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for,
 9	unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven
  	in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers
  	pursue. 
12	    In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let
  	us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion
  	entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God,
15	or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more
  	help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical
  	event or person. But it does mean so to understand the
18	beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus
  	presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will
  	compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to "let
21	this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
  	(Phil. ii. 5.) 
  	    Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life
24	in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelli-
  	gence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both
  	good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and there-
27	fore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Command-
  	ment of God. 
  	    Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God,
30	recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and,
  	placing his trust in this grand Truth, and working from
  	no other Principle, he can neither be sick nor forever a
 
                                                                                                  page 198
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Acts 16:31]

 1	sinner. When wholly governed by the one perfect Mind,
  	man has no sinful thoughts and will have no desire
 3	to sin. 
  	    To arrive at this point of unity of Spirit, God, one must
  	commence by turning away from material gods; denying
 6	material so-called laws and material sensation, — or mind
  	in matter, in its varied forms of pleasure and pain. This
  	must be done with the understanding that matter has no
 9	sense; thus it is that consciousness silences the mortal
  	claim to life, substance, or mind in matter, with the words
  	of Jesus: "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
12	own."  (John viii. 44.) 
  	    When tempted to sin, we should know that evil pro-
  	ceedeth not from God, good, but is a false belief of the
15	personal senses; and if we deny the claims of these senses
  	and recognize man as governed by God, Spirit, not by
  	material laws, the temptation will disappear. 
18	    On this Principle, disease also is treated and healed. 
  	We know that man's body, as matter, has no power to
  	govern itself; and a belief of disease is as much the prod-
21	uct of mortal thought as sin is. All suffering is the fruit
  	of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil; of
  	adherence to the "doubleminded" senses, to some belief,
24	fear, theory, or bad deed, based on physical material law,
  	so-called as opposed to good, — all of which is corrected
  	alone by Science, divine Principle, and its spiritual laws. 
27	Suffering is the supposition of another intelligence than
  	God; a belief in self-existent evil, opposed to good; and
  	in whatever seems to punish man for doing good, — 
30	by saying he has overworked, suffered from inclement
  	weather, or violated a law of matter in doing good, there-
  	fore he must suffer for it. 
 
                                                                                                  page 199
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Acts 16:31]

 1	    God does not reward benevolence and love with pen-
  	alties; and because of this, we have the right to deny the
 3	supposed power of matter to do it, and to allege that only
  	mortal, erring mind can claim to do thus, and dignify the
  	result with the name of law:  thence comes man's ability
 6	to annul his own erring mental law, and to hold himself
  	amenable only to moral and spiritual law, — God's gov-
  	ernment. By so doing, male and female come into their
 9	rightful heritage, "into the glorious liberty of the children
  	of God." 

  	    Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in neces-
12	sities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. — 
  	2 COR. xii. 10. 

  	    The miracles recorded in the Scriptures illustrate the
15	life of Jesus as nothing else can; but they cost him the
  	hatred of the rabbis. The rulers sought the life of Jesus;
  	they would extinguish whatever denied and defied their
18	superstition. We learn somewhat of the qualities of the
  	divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of
  	his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it
21	gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mor-
  	tals name matter. 
  	    The Principle of these marvellous works is divine; but
24	the actor was human. This divine Principle is discerned
  	in Christian Science, as we advance in the spiritual under-
  	standing that all substance, Life, and intelligence are
27	God. The so-called miracles contained in Holy Writ are
  	neither supernatural nor preternatural; for God is good,
  	and goodness is more natural than evil. The marvellous
30	healing-power of goodness is the outflowing life of Chris-
  	tianity, and it characterized and dated the Christian era. 
 
                                                                                                  page 200
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [II Cor. 12:10]

 1	    It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the
  	mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instan-
 3	taneous. Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man,
  	and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as
  	the better representatives of God than sin, disease, and
 6	death. The master Metaphysician understood omnipo-
  	tence to be All-power:  because Spirit was to him All-
  	in-all, matter was palpably an error of premise and
 9	conclusion, while God was the only substance, Life,
  	and intelligence of man. 
  	    The apostle Paul insists on the rare rule in Christian
12	Science that we have chosen for a text; a rule that is sus-
  	ceptible of proof, and is applicable to every stage and
  	state of human existence. The divine Science of this rule
15	is quite as remote from the general comprehension of man-
  	kind as are the so-called miracles of our Master, and for
  	the sole reason that it is their basis. The foundational
18	facts of Christian Science are gathered from the supremacy
  	of spiritual law and its antagonism to every supposed ma-
  	terial law. Christians to-day should be able to say, with
21	the sweet sincerity of the apostle, "I take pleasure in
  	infirmities," — I enjoy the touch of weakness, pain, and
  	all suffering of the flesh, because it compels me to seek the
24	remedy for it, and to find happiness, apart from the per-
  	sonal senses. The holy calm of Paul's well-tried hope
  	met no obstacle or circumstances paramount to the tri-
27	umph of a reasonable faith in the omnipotence of good,
  	involved in its divine Principle, God: the so-called pains
  	and pleasures of matter were alike unreal to Jesus; for he
30	regarded matter as only a vagary of mortal belief, and sub-
  	dued it with this understanding. 
  	    The abstract statement that all is Mind, supports the
 
                                                                                                  page 201
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [II Cor. 12:10]

 1	entire wisdom of the text; and this statement receives
  	the mortal scoff only because it meets the immortal de-
 3	mands of Truth. The Science of Paul's declaration re-
  	solves the element misnamed matter into its original sin,
  	or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the
 6	qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought
  	death; and death is an element of matter, or material
  	falsity, never of Spirit. 
 9	    When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he
  	revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its power-
  	lessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the
12	Mind that knows this:  he also showed forth the error
  	and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great
  	somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit,
15	and immortal. 
  	    Understanding this, Paul took pleasure in infirmities,
  	for it enabled him to triumph over them, — he declared
18	that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
  	made me free from the law of sin and death;" he took
  	pleasure in "reproaches" and "persecutions," because
21	they were so many proofs that he had wrought the prob-
  	lem of being beyond the common apprehension of sinners;
  	he took pleasure in "necessities," for they tested and de-
24	veloped latent power. 
  	    We protect our dwellings more securely after a robbery,
  	and our jewels have been stolen; so, after losing those
27	jewels of character, — temperance, virtue, and truth, — 
  	the young man is awakened to bar his door against further
  	robberies. 
30	    Go to the bedside of pain, and there you can demon-
  	strate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities;
  	because it illustrates through the flesh the divine power  
                                                                                                  page 202
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [II Cor. 12:10]

1	of Spirit, and reaches the basis of all supposed miracles;
  	whereby the sweet harmonies of Christian Science are
 3	found to correct the discords of sense, and to lift man's
  	being into the sunlight of Soul. 

  	              "The chamber where the good man meets his fate
 6	               Is privileged beyond the walks of common life,
  	                   Quite on the verge of heaven."
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