0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 10 – Miscellaneous Writings – Chpt 6 – Sermons

                                              A CHRISTMAS SERMON 

  	           Delivered in Chickering Hall, Boston, Mass., on the
 3	                           Sunday before Christmas, 1888 

  	            SUBJECT: The Corporeal and Incorporeal Saviour 

  	    TEXT: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
 6	government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
  	Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
      Prince of Peace. — ISAIAH ix. 6. 

 9	    To the senses, Jesus was the son of man:  in Science,
  	man is the son of  God. The material senses could
  	not cognize the Christ, or Son of God:  it was Jesus'
12	approximation to this state of being that made him the
  	Christ-Jesus, the Godlike, the anointed. 
  	    The prophet whose words we have chosen for our
15	text, prophesied the appearing of this dual nature, as
  	both human and divinely endowed, the personal and the
  	impersonal Jesus. 
18	    The only record of our Master as a public benefactor,
  	or personal Saviour, opens when he was thirty years of
  	age; owing in part, perhaps, to the Jewish law that none
21	should teach or preach in public under that age. Also,
  	it is natural to conclude that at this juncture he was
  	specially endowed with the Holy Spirit; for he was given
24	the new name, Messiah, or Jesus Christ, — the God-
 
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 1	anointed; even as, at times of special enlightenment,
  	Jacob was called Israel; and Saul, Paul. 
 3	    The third event of this eventful period, — a period of
  	such wonderful spiritual import to mankind! — was the
  	advent of a higher Christianity. 
 6	    From this dazzling, God-crowned summit, the Naza-
  	rene stepped suddenly before the people and their schools
  	of philosophy; Gnostic, Epicurean, and Stoic. He must
 9	stem these rising angry elements, and walk serenely over
  	their fretted, foaming billows. 
  	    Here the cross became the emblem of Jesus' history;
12	while the central point of his Messianic mission was peace,
  	good will, love, teaching, and healing. 
  	    Clad with divine might, he was ready to stem the tide
15	of Judaism, and prove his power, derived from Spirit, to
  	be supreme; lay himself as a lamb upon the altar of
  	materialism, and therefrom rise to his nativity in Spirit. 
18	    The corporeal Jesus bore our infirmities, and through
  	his stripes we are healed. He was the Way-shower, and
  	suffered in the flesh, showing mortals how to escape from
21	the sins of the flesh. 
  	    There was no incorporeal Jesus of Nazareth. The
  	spiritual man, or Christ, was after the similitude of the
24	Father, without corporeality or finite mind. 
  	    Materiality, worldliness, human pride, or self-will, by
  	demoralizing his motives and Christlikeness, would have
27	dethroned his power as the Christ. 
  	    To carry out his holy purpose, he must be oblivious of
  	human self. 
30	    Of the lineage of David, like him he went forth, simple
  	as the shepherd boy, to disarm the Goliath. Panoplied
  	in the strength of an exalted hope, faith, and understand-
  
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1	ing, he sought to conquer the three-in-one of error:  the
  	world, the flesh, and the devil. 
 3	    Three years he went about doing good. He had for
  	thirty years been preparing to heal and teach divinely;
  	but his three-years mission was a marvel of glory:  its
 6	chaplet, a grave to mortal sense dishonored — from which
  	sprang a sublime and everlasting victory! 
  	    He who dated time, the Christian era, and spanned
 9	eternity, was the meekest man on earth. He healed
  	and taught by the wayside, in humble homes:  to arrant
  	hypocrite and to dull disciples he explained the Word
12	of God, which has since ripened into interpretation
  	through Science. 
  	    His words were articulated in the language of a de-
15	clining race, and committed to the providence of God. 
  	In no one thing seemed he less human and more divine
  	than in his unfaltering faith in the immortality of Truth. 
18	Referring to this, he said, "Heaven and earth shall
  	pass away, but my words shall not pass away!" and
  	they have not:  they still live; and are the basis of divine
21	liberty, the medium of Mind, the hope of the race. 
  	    Only three years a personal Saviour! yet the founda-
  	tions he laid are as eternal as Truth, the chief corner-
24	stone. 
  	    After his brief brave struggle, and the crucifixion of
  	the corporeal man, the incorporeal Saviour — the Christ
27	or spiritual idea which leadeth into all Truth — must
  	needs come in Christian Science, demonstrating the spir-
  	itual healing of body and mind. 
30	    This idea or divine essence was, and is, forever about
  	the Father's business; heralding the Principle of health,
  	holiness, and immortality. 
 
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 1	    Its divine Principle interprets the incorporeal idea, or
  	Son of God; hence the incorporeal and corporeal are
 3	distinguished thus:  the former is the spiritual idea that
  	represents divine good, and the latter is the human
  	presentation of goodness in man. The Science of Chris-
 6	tianity, that has appeared in the ripeness of time, re-
  	veals the incorporeal Christ; and this will continue
  	to be seen more clearly until it be acknowledged, under-
 9	stood, — and the Saviour, which is Truth, be compre-
  	hended. 
  	    To the vision of the Wisemen, this spiritual idea of the
12	Principle of man or the universe, appeared as a star. At
  	first, the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from
  	the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the
15	beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonder-
  	ful manifestation of Truth and Love. 
  	    In our text Isaiah foretold, "His name shall be called
18	Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting
  	Father, The Prince of Peace." 
  	    As the Wisemen grew in the understanding of Christ,
21	the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it
  	will continue, as it shall become understood, until man
  	be found in the actual likeness of his Maker. Their
24	highest human concept of the man Jesus, that portrayed
  	him as the only Son of God, the only begotten of the
  	Father, full of grace and Truth, will become so magnified
27	to human sense, by means of the lens of Science, as to
  	reveal man collectively, as individually, to be the son of
  	God. 
30	    The limited view of God's ideas arose from the testimony
  	of the senses. Science affords the evidence that God is the
  	Father of man, of all that is real and eternal. This spir-

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 1	itual idea that the personal Jesus demonstrated, casting
  	out evils and healing, more than eighteen centuries ago,
 3	disappeared by degrees; both because of the ascension
  	of Jesus, in which it was seen that he had grown beyond
  	the human sense of him, and because of the corruption of
 6	the Church. 
  	    The last appearing of Truth will be a wholly spiritual
  	idea of God and of man, without the fetters of the flesh, or
 9	corporeality. This infinite idea of infinity will be, is, as
  	eternal as its divine Principle. The daystar of this appear-
  	ing is the light of Christian Science — the Science which
12	rends the veil of the flesh from top to bottom. The light
  	of this revelation leaves nothing that is material; neither
  	darkness, doubt, disease, nor death. The material cor-
15	poreality disappears; and individual spirituality, perfect
  	and eternal, appears — never to disappear. 
  	    The truth uttered and lived by Jesus, who passed on
18	and left to mortals the rich legacy of what he said and
  	did, makes his followers the heirs to his example; but
  	they can neither appreciate nor appropriate his treasures
21	of Truth and Love, until lifted to these by their own
  	growth and experiences. His goodness and grace pur-
  	chased the means of mortals' redemption from sin; but,
24	they never paid the price of sin. This cost, none but the
  	sinner can pay; and accordingly as this account is settled
  	with divine Love, is the sinner ready to avail himself of
27	the rich blessings flowing from the teaching, example,
  	and suffering of our Master. 
  	    The secret stores of wisdom must be discovered, their
30	treasures reproduced and given to the world, before man
  	can truthfully conclude that he has been found in the
  	order, mode, and virgin origin of man according to divine
 
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 1	Science, which alone demonstrates the divine Principle
  	and spiritual idea of being. 
 3	    The monument whose finger points upward, commem-
  	orates the earthly life of a martyr; but this is not all of
  	the philanthropist, hero, and Christian. The Truth he
 6	has taught and spoken lives, and moves in our midst a
  	divine afflatus. Thus it is that the ideal Christ — or
  	impersonal infancy, manhood, and womanhood of Truth
 9	and Love — is still with us. 
  	    And what of this child? — "For unto us a child is
  	born, unto us a son is given:  and the government shall
12	be upon his shoulder." 
  	    This child, or spiritual idea, has evolved a more ready
  	ear for the overture of angels and the scientific under-
15	standing of Truth and Love. When Christ, the incor-
  	poreal idea of God, was nameless, and a Mary knew not
  	how to declare its spiritual origin, the idea of man was
18	not understood. The Judaean religion even required the
  	Virgin-mother to go to the temple and be purified, for
  	having given birth to the corporeal child Jesus, whose
21	origin was more spiritual than the senses could inter-
  	pret. Like the leaven that a certain woman hid in three
  	measures of meal, the Science of God and the spiritual
24	idea, named in this century Christian Science, is leaven-
  	ing the lump of human thought, until the whole shall
  	be leavened and all materialism disappear. This action
27	of the divine energy, even if not acknowledged, has
  	come to be seen as diffusing richest blessings. This
  	spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiae of the
30	life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man,
  	a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make
  	him the glorified. 
 
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 1	    The material questions at this age on the reappearing
  	of the infantile thought of God's man, are after the man-
 3	ner of a mother in the flesh, though their answers per-
  	tain to the spiritual idea, as in Christian Science: —  

  	    Is he deformed? 
 6	    He is wholly symmetrical; the one altogether lovely. 

  	    Is the babe a son, or daughter? 
  	    Both son and daughter:  even the compound idea of
 9	all that resembles God. 

  	    How much does he weigh? 
  	    His substance outweighs the material world. 

12	    How old is he? 
  	    Of his days there is no beginning and no ending. 

  	    What is his name? 
15	    Christ Science. 

  	    Who are his parents, brothers, and sisters? 
  	    His Father and Mother are divine Life, Truth, and
18	Love; and they who do the will of his Father are his
  	brethren. 

  	    Is he heir to an estate? 
21	    "The government shall be upon his shoulder!" He
  	has dominion over the whole earth; and in admiration
  	of his origin, he exclaims, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
24	of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things
  	from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto
  	babes!" 

27	    Is he wonderful? 
  	    His works thus prove him. He giveth power, peace,
  	and holiness; he exalteth the lowly; he giveth liberty
 
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 1	to the captive, health to the sick, salvation from sin to
  	the sinner — and overcometh the world! 
 3	    Go, and tell what things ye shall see and hear:  how
  	the blind, spiritually and physically, receive sight; how
  	the lame, those halting between two opinions or hob-
 6	bling on crutches, walk; how the physical and moral
  	lepers are cleansed; how the deaf — those who, having
  	ears, hear not, and are afflicted with "tympanum on the
 9	brain" — hear; how the dead, those buried in dogmas
  	and physical ailments, are raised; that to the poor — 
  	the lowly in Christ, not the man-made rabbi — the
12	gospel is preached. Note this:  only such as are pure
  	in spirit, emptied of vainglory and vain knowledge, re-
  	ceive Truth. 
15	    Here ends the colloquy; and a voice from heaven seems
  	to say, "Come and see." 
  	    The nineteenth-century prophets repeat, "Unto us a
18	son is given." 
  	    The shepherds shout, "We behold the appearing of
  	the star!" — and the pure in heart clap their hands. 

21	                       EDITOR'S EXTRACTS FROM SERMON 

  	    TEXT: Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of
  	God. — MATT. xxii. 29. 

24	    The Christian Science Journal reported as follows: —  
  	    The announcement that the Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy
  	would speak before the Scientist denomination on the
27	afternoon of October 26, drew a large audience. Haw-
  	thorne Hall was densely packed, and many had to go
  	away unable to obtain seats. The distinguished speaker
30	began by saying: —  
 
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 1	    Within Bible pages she had found all the divine Science
  	she preaches; noticing, all along the way of her researches
 3	therein, that whenever her thoughts had wandered into
  	the bypaths of ancient philosophies or pagan literatures,
  	her spiritual insight had been darkened thereby, till
 6	she was God-driven back to the inspired pages. Early
  	training, through the misinterpretation of the Word,
  	had been the underlying cause of the long years of in-
 9	validism she endured before Truth dawned upon her
  	understanding, through right interpretation. With the
  	understanding of Scripture-meanings, had come physical
12	rejuvenation. The uplifting of spirit was the upbuild-
  	ing of the body. 
  	    She affirmed that the Scriptures cannot properly be
15	interpreted in a literal way. The truths they teach must
  	be spiritually discerned, before their message can be
  	borne fully to our minds and hearts. That there is a
18	dual meaning to every Biblical passage, the most eminent
  	divines of the world have concluded; and to get at the
  	highest, or metaphysical, it is necessary rightly to read
21	what the inspired writers left for our spiritual instruction. 
  	The literal rendering of the Scriptures makes them noth-
  	ing valuable, but often is the foundation of unbelief and
24	hopelessness. The metaphysical rendering is health and
  	peace and hope for all. The literal or material reading is
  	the reading of the carnal mind, which is enmity toward
27	God, Spirit. 
  	    Taking several Bible passages, Mrs. Eddy showed how
  	beautiful and inspiring are the thoughts when rightly
30	understood. "Let the dead bury their dead; follow
  	thou me," was one of the passages explained metaphysi-
  	cally. In their fullest meaning, those words are salvation
 
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 1	from the belief of death, the last enemy to be overthrown;
  	for by following Christ truly, resurrection and life im-
 3	mortal are brought to us. If we follow him, to us there
  	can be no dead. Those who know not this, may still
  	believe in death and weep over the graves of their beloved;
 6	but with him is Life eternal, which never changes to
  	death. The eating of bread and drinking of wine at the
  	Lord's supper, merely symbolize the spiritual refresh-
 9	ment of God's children having rightly read His Word,
  	whose entrance into their understanding is healthful life. 
  	This is the reality behind the symbol. 
12	    So, also, she spoke of the hades, or hell of Scripture,
  	saying, that we make our own heavens and our own hells,
  	by right and wise, or wrong and foolish, conceptions of
15	God and our fellow-men. Jesus interpreted all spirit-
  	ually: "I have bread to eat that ye know not of," he
  	said. The bread he ate, which was refreshment of divine
18	strength, we also may all partake of. 
  	    The material record of the Bible, she said, is no more
  	important to our well-being than the history of Europe
21	and America; but the spiritual application bears upon
  	our eternal life. The method of Jesus was purely meta-
  	physical; and no other method is Christian Science. In
24	the passage recording Jesus' proceedings with the blind
  	man (Mark viii.) he is said to have spat upon the dust. 
  	Spitting was the Hebrew method of expressing the utmost
27	contempt. So Jesus is recorded as having expressed
  	contempt for the belief of material eyes as having any
  	power to see. Having eyes, ye see not; and ears, ye hear
30	not, he had just told them. The putting on of hands
  	mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power. 
  	"Hand," in Bible usage, often means spiritual power. 
 
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  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

 1	"His hand is not shortened that it cannot save," can
  	never be wrested from its true meaning to signify human
 3	hands. Jesus' first effort to realize Truth was not wholly
  	successful; but he rose to the occasion with the second
  	attempt, and the blind saw clearly. To suppose that
 6	Jesus did actually anoint the blind man's eyes with his
  	spittle, is as absurd as to think, according to the report
  	of some, that Christian Scientists sit in back-to-back
 9	seances with their patients, for the divine power to filter
  	from vertebrae to vertebrae. When one comes to the age
  	with spiritual translations of God's messages, expressed
12	in literal or physical terms, our right action is not to con-
  	demn and deny, but to "try the spirits" and see what
  	manner they are of. This does not mean communing
15	with spirits supposed to have departed from the earth,
  	but the seeking out of the basis upon which are accom-
  	plished the works by which the new teacher would prove
18	his right to be heard. By these signs are the true disciples
  	of the Master known: the sick are healed; to the poor
  	the gospel is preached. 

21	        EXTRACT FROM A SERMON DELIVERED IN BOSTON,
  	                                    JANUARY 18, 1885 

  	    TEXT: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
24	took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. 
  	 — MATT. xiii. 33. 

  	    Few people at present know aught of the Science of
27	mental healing; and so many are obtruding upon the
  	public attention their ignorance or false knowledge in
  	the name of Science, that it behooves all clad in the shin-
30	ing mail to keep bright their invincible armor; to keep
 
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  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

 1	their demonstrations modest, and their claims and lives
  	steadfast in Truth. 
 3	    Dispensing the Word charitably, but separating the
  	tares from the wheat, let us declare the positive and
  	the negative of metaphysical Science; what it is, and
 6	what it is not. Intrepid, self-oblivious Protestants in
  	a higher sense than ever before, let us meet and defeat
  	the claims of sense and sin, regardless of the bans or
 9	clans pouring in their fire upon us; and white-winged
  	charity, brooding over all, shall cover with her feathers
  	the veriest sinner. 
12	    Divine and unerring Mind measures man, until the
  	three measures be accomplished, and he arrives at
  	fulness of stature; for "the Lord God omnipotent
15	reigneth." 
  	    Science is divine:  it is neither of human origin nor of
  	human direction. That which is termed "natural science,"
18	the evidences whereof are taken in by the five personal
  	senses, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite
  	law of God; which law is written on the heart, received
21	through the affections, spiritually understood, and dem-
  	onstrated in our lives. 
  	    This law of God is the Science of mental healing,
24	spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed. 
  	    Mental Science, and the five personal senses, are at
  	war; and peace can only be declared on the side of im-
27	mutable right, — the health, holiness, and immortality
  	of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and funda-
  	mental rule of Science must be understood and adhered
30	to; namely, the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture
  	that God is good; hence, good is omnipotent and
  	omnipresent. 
 
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 1	    Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, or
  	man's theorems, misstate mental Science, its Principle
 3	and practice. The most enlightened sense herein sees
  	nothing but a law of matter. 
  	    Who has ever learned of the schools that there is but
 6	one Mind, and that this is God, who healeth all our sick-
  	ness and sins? 
  	    Who has ever learned from the schools, pagan phi-
 9	losophy, or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of
  	Mind and not of matter, and that this law has no relation
  	to, or recognition of, matter? 
12	    Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God,
  	omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an oppo-
  	site so-called science, which says that man is both matter
15	and mind, that Mind is in matter? Can the infinite
  	be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted
  	in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without
18	space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that
  	it is man? 
  	    If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter
21	is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power
  	and all-presence, man is not met by another power
  	and presence, that — obstructing his intelligence — 
24	pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man
  	is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that
  	is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator? 
27	Surely not from God, for He made man in His own
  	likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called
  	matter? Have attraction and cohesion formed it? 
30	But are these forces laws of matter, or laws of
  	Mind? 
  	    For matter to be matter, it must have been self-created. 
 
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  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

1	Mind has no more power to evolve or to create matter
  	than has good to produce evil. Matter is a misstatement
 3	of Mind; it is a lie, claiming to talk and disclaim against
  	Truth; idolatry, having other gods; evil, having presence
  	and power over omnipotence! 
 6	    Let us have a clearing up of abstractions. Let us
  	come into the presence of Him who removeth all iniqui-
  	ties, and healeth all our diseases. Let us attach our sense
 9	of Science to what touches the religious sentiment within
  	man. Let us open our affections to the Principle that
  	moves all in harmony, — from the falling of a sparrow
12	to the rolling of a world. Above Arcturus and his sons,
  	broader than the solar system and higher than the at-
  	mosphere of our planet, is the Science of mental
15	healing. 
  	    What is the kingdom of heaven? The abode of Spirit,
  	the realm of the real. No matter is there, no night is
18	there — nothing that maketh or worketh a lie. Is this
  	kingdom afar off? No:  it is ever-present here. The
  	first to declare against this kingdom is matter. Shall
21	that be called heresy which pleads for Spirit — the All of
  	God, and His omnipresence? 
  	    The kingdom of heaven is the reign of divine Science:
24	it is a mental state. Jesus said it is within you, and
  	taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come;" but he did
  	not teach us to pray for death whereby to gain heaven. 
27	We do not look into darkness for light. Death can never
  	usher in the dawn of Science that reveals the spiritual
  	facts of man's Life here and now. 
30	    The leaven which a woman took and hid in three
  	measures of meal, is Divine Science; the Comforter;
  	the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the "still,
 
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 1	small voice" that breathes His presence and power, cast-
  	ing out error and healing the sick. And woman, the
 3	spiritual idea, takes of the things of God and showeth
  	them unto the creature, until the whole sense of being
  	is leavened with Spirit. The three measures of meal
 6	may well be likened to the false sense of life, substance,
  	and intelligence, which says, I am sustained by bread,
  	matter, instead of Mind. The spiritual leaven of divine
 9	Science changes this false sense, giving better views of
  	Life; saying, Man's Life is God; and when this shall
  	appear, it shall be "the substance of things hoped for." 
12	    The measure of Life shall increase by every spiritual
  	touch, even as the leaven expands the loaf. Man shall
  	keep the feast of Life, not with the old leaven of the
15	scribes and Pharisees, neither with "the leaven of malice
  	and wickedness; but the unleavened bread of sincerity
  	and truth." 
18	    Thus it can be seen that the Science of mental healing
  	must be understood. There are false Christs that would
  	"deceive, if it were possible, the very elect," by institut-
21	ing matter and its methods in place of God, Mind. Their
  	supposition is, that there are other minds than His; that
  	one mind controls another; that one belief takes the
24	place of another. But this ism of to-day has nothing
  	to do with the Science of mental healing which acquaints
  	us with God and reveals the one perfect Mind and His
27	laws. 
  	    The attempt to mix matter and Mind, to work by
  	means of both animal magnetism and divine power, is
30	literally saying, Have we not in thy name cast out devils,
  	and done many wonderful works? 
  	    But remember God in all thy ways, and thou shalt
 
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  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

 1	find the truth that breaks the dream of sense, letting the
  	harmony of Science that declares Him, come in with
 3	healing, and peace, and perfect love. 

  	                        SUNDAY SERVICES ON JULY FOURTH 

  	                                            Extempore Remarks 

 6	    The great theme so deeply and solemnly expounded
  	by the preacher, has been exemplified in all ages, but
  	chiefly in the great crises of nations or of the human race. 
 9	It is then that supreme devotion to Principle has espe-
  	cially been called for and manifested. It is then that we
  	learn a little more of the nothingness of evil, and more
12	of the divine energies of good, and strive valiantly for the
  	liberty of the sons of God. 
  	    The day we celebrate reminds us of the heroes and
15	heroines who counted not their own lives dear to them,
  	when they sought the New England shores, not as the
  	flying nor as conquerors, but, steadfast in faith and love,
18	to build upon the rock of Christ, the true idea of God — 
  	the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter. 
  	When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth
21	Rock, frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted
  	away in the fire of love which came down from heaven. 
  	The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom,
24	in the rights of conscience. 
  	    But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? 
  	Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and
27	responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve
  	them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith
  	we are armored? 
 
                                                                                                      177   
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extempore Remarks – July 4th  

 1	    Never was there a more solemn and imperious call
  	than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent de-
 3	votion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and
  	holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great
  	battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil
 6	are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the
  	Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and opera-
  	tive in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate
 9	malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action
  	against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and
  	they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-
12	bearers. 
  	    What will you do about it? Will you be equally in
  	earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid
15	zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will
  	you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great
  	work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science
18	which are necessary to the salvation of the world from
  	error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practi-
  	cally, and answer aright! 

21	EASTER SERVICES 

  	    The editor of The Christian Science Journal said that
  	at three o'clock, the hour for the church service proper,
24	the pastor, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, accompanied
  	by Rev. D. A. Easton, who was announced to preach
  	the sermon, came on the platform. The pastor intro-
27	duced Mr. Easton as follows: —  
  	    Friends: — The homesick traveller in foreign lands
  	greets with joy a familiar face. I am constantly home-
30	sick for heaven. In my long journeyings I have met
 
                                                                                                   178   
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Easter Services  

 1	one who comes from the place of my own sojourning
  	for many years, — the Congregational Church. He is
 3	a graduate of Bowdoin College and of Andover The-
  	ological School. He has left his old church, as I did,
  	from a yearning of the heart; because he was not sat-
 6	isfied with a manlike God, but wanted to become a God-
  	like man. He found that the new wine could not be
  	put into old bottles without bursting them, and he came
 9	to us. 
  	    Mr. Easton then delivered an interesting discourse
  	from the text, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
12	those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the
  	right hand of God" (Col. iii. 1), which he prefaced by
  	saying: —  
15	    "I think it was about a year ago that I strayed into
  	this hall, a stranger, and wondered what sort of people
  	you were, and of what you were worshippers.  If any
18	one had said to me that to-day I should stand before
  	you to preach a sermon on Christian Science, I should
  	have replied, 'Much learning' — or something else — 
21	'hath made thee mad.' If I had not found Christian
  	Science a new gospel, I should not be standing before you:
  	if I had not found it truth, I could not have stood up
24	again to preach, here or elsewhere." 
  	    At the conclusion of the sermon, the pastor again came
  	forward, and added the following: —  
27	    My friends, I wished to be excused from speaking
  	to-day, but will yield to circumstances. In the flesh, we
  	are as a partition wall between the old and the new;
30	between the old religion in which we have been educated,
  	and the new, living, impersonal Christ-thought that has
  	been given to the world to-day. 
 
                                                                                                   179   
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Easter Services  

 1	    The old churches are saying, "He is not here;" and,
  	"Who shall roll away the stone?" 
 3	    The stone has been rolled away by human suffer-
  	ing. The first rightful desire in the hour of loss, when
  	believing we have lost sight of Truth, is to know where
 6	He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these
  	questions: —  
  	    Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we
 9	any other consciousness than that of good? If we have,
  	He is saying to us to-day, "Adam, where art thou?" We
  	are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and
12	death. This is the old consciousness. 
  	    In the new religion the teaching is, "He is not here;
  	Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become
15	more to us, — more true, more spiritual." 
  	    Can we say this to-day? Have we left the conscious-
  	ness of sickness and sin for that of health and
18	holiness? 
  	    What is it that seems a stone between us and the
  	resurrection morning? 
21	    It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come
  	into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old con-
  	sciousness of Soul in sense. 
24	    These flowers are floral apostles. God does all this
  	through His followers; and He made every flower in
  	Mind before it sprang from the earth:  yet we look into
27	matter and the earth to give us these smiles of God! 
  	    We must lay aside material consciousness, and then
  	we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, "Rabboni!" 
30	 — Master! 
  	    In 1866, when God revealed to me this risen Christ,
  	this Life that knows no death, that saith, "Because he
 
                                                                                                   180   
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Easter Services  

1	lives, I live," I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the
  	flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease
 3	my warfare. 
  	    When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from
  	the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were
 6	frightened at beholding me restored to health. 
  	    A dear old lady asked me, "How is it that you are
  	restored to us?  Has Christ come again on earth?" 
 9	    "Christ never left," I replied; "Christ is Truth, and
  	Truth is always here, — the impersonal Saviour." 
  	    Then another person, more material, met me, and I
12	said, in the words of my Master, "Touch me not." I
  	shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went
  	out to God, and I found the open door from this sepulchre
15	of matter. 
  	    I love the Easter service:  it speaks to me of Life, and
  	not of death. 
18	    Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his
  	resurrection. 
  	                                        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
 
                                                                                                   181
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Jn. 1:12, 13]

 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 Spirit, — 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
 
                                                                                                   182
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Jn. 1:12, 13]

 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  
                                                                                                   183
   Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Jn. 1:12, 13]

 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,  
                                                                                                   184
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Jn. 1:12, 13]

 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
 
                                                                                                   185
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Jn. 1:12, 13]

 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:
 
                                                                                                   186
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [I Cor. 15:45]

  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
 
                                                                                                   187
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [I Cor. 15:45]

  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, — 
 
                                                                                                   188
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [I Cor. 15:45]

 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
 
                                                                                                   189
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [I Cor. 15:45]

 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. 
 
                                                                                                  190
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [I Cor. 15:45]

 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
 
                                                                                                   191
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Luke 11:14]

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
 
                                                                                                   192
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [Luke 11:14]

 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
 
                                                                                                   193
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [John 14:12]

 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. 
 
                                                                                                   194
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [John 14:12]

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
 
                                                                                                   195
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Bible Lessons  [John 14:12]

 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,
 
                                                                                                   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
 
                                                                                                   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
 
                                                                                                   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. 
 
                                                                                                   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. 
 
                                                                                                   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
 
                                                                                                   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  
                                                                                                   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."SHOW ALL