Association Address for 1927
by Bicknell Young
Our Association has one object, and only one, and that is to learn Christian Science, and learn it better, and thus demonstrate it more fully. The object of all our endeavor is to understand and to grow in the understanding that there is but one infinite power, wholly good, and that in the realm of being, of existence, there is no other power. To attain a certain sense — spiritual sense of the certainty of the immanence and availability of this power, is the object of our meeting here today. The other things we do in a human way are incidental and necessary, but they should not at any time hide the main issue or the main object.
The tendency of Christian Scientists to be influenced by something or somebody all the time, cannot be wholly ignored. In a certain way, Christian Scientists are more subject to mental influence than other people are, because they are more mental than other people, and unless their mentality is guarded by the very presence of the infinite Mind, or unless it partakes of the nature of the infinite Mind — what they call their mentalities, or their minds, are much more likely to be touched by suggestion than they were before.
The constant tendency, to revert to old things, old sayings and old beliefs, is something that just keeps this movement on the edge of achievement, but never quite able to achieve! The beliefs of human beings, and especially their belief of goodness, or their beliefs in human goodness, are just like the chains of slavery.
Old theology is part of the mental equipment of every human being, no matter if he has never had any religion. I had none myself, and yet I found out when I became a Christian Scientist, that I was full of old theology, as everything that that religion meant, had that “old stuff” in it. That is, the belief of a distant power, the longing to understand something, and the reaching out for it. Now, as a matter of fact, some of the best workers in Christian Science are still held back by this “stuff.” Truth is not something to contemplate. Truth is the only intelligence there is. You don’t contemplate it, you are it. Stop this contemplation. Do not rest under the belief that you must be a channel for good. Get rid of that “channel.” Good doesn’t require a channel, — good is all. The only reason you and I possess intelligence is that we may show forth the nature of true being. You don’t show it forth by thinking about it, or by contemplating it, or by becoming a channel for it.
There are no planes of existence. There is no such thing as a plane here or a plane there. There is one existence; there is no other, nothing going on but Mind, Spirit, Principle, Truth, Life, Soul, Love — God. Designate error as error, and never talk about it as if it were truth. Regeneration is a human experience. You don’t have to regenerate God; therefore, you do not have to regenerate man. Man requires no regeneration. You don’t have to redeem him; you only have to find out that you are that man. You know you don’t have to be regenerated because in your real being you are exactly like God. Nobody is going to be regenerated by passing on. There is no death and you have to stand for that, and if you don’t stand for it, you are not really a Christian Scientist, and you can’t go to a patient and treat him, while thinking he will die sometime.
I know that mortal mind says that everybody is going to die, but if you are going to accept what mortal mind says you are not a Christian Scientist. We must find out that everybody is going to live now, not after a while. This minute you are alive and you are a million times more alive than you were last year because you know more and have demonstrated more, and it is what you know that is alive. The Bible says, “alive forevermore.” (Rev. 1:18) That’s the thing to know, and know it better than we have ever known it! Stand for life all the time. Treat your patients for life. Know they cannot lose it. That they cannot change or pass away, and the belief that they can must be denied, cast out.
In our Textbook, we read: “…the natural order of heaven comes down to earth.” Heaven is to be known now; it comes down to earth. (S&H 1118:31) “…but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, — the actual reign of harmony on earth.” (S&H 122:4-7) Not somewhere else, right here. “The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount…proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on earth.” (S&H 174) “…the understanding by which we enter into the kingdom of Truth on earth…” (S&H 281:2-3) There isn’t something or somewhere that isn’t to be known now and demonstrated here. There are no planes in NOW, so let’s let up on that forevermore.
You have to maintain what it is, at the same time that you have to make concessions in the way of statement or explanation to those who do not understand, but the less you do of that the better, because almost everybody can understand that Christian Science declares that there is something right in the universe, something eternally right, something that doesn’t know how to go wrong. Something that is eternal and true, that something being Principle, God. This is the standpoint from which every demonstration is made in Christian Science. You do not go out to it, or climb ladders to get it, you proceed from it. To demonstrate Christian Science you have to stop this business of introducing “old theology” into Christian Science. We are dealing here with pure Science.
Jesus didn’t grow from the standpoint of “coming up” from anything. He grew from the standpoint that everything is now all right. “Infinite progression is concrete being.” (Misc. 82:20) That statement is full of encouragement for us because it shows us the very nature of man; that he cannot stop or cease to be. He must be a state of “infinite progression” because the Principle of Life — of all things — is infinity, and infinity can never cease, never began. Therefore, man who is the image of infinity, must be a state of spiritual progress; that is what man is. He does not progress from the mortal or material to the spiritual. That is the human sense of things, and that is what we call demonstrating Christian Science. When the human being is lifted out of some sense material and is able to see and demonstrate something of his own being, and this is only possible because man being exactly like Infinity, he is ever progressing from the standpoint, not of imperfection, but of perfection.
When you want to improve a human being, realize that man is already established in perfection. Realize that from that standpoint he is forever unfolding as the image of infinite Spirit, of Mind — and human being seems to progress from error to Truth under that divine realization. “Infinite progression is concrete being,
which finite mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory.” (S&H 82:20-21) There is no postponed eternality.
In the Bible you will find both truth and error. Do not rest upon the supposition that the Bible is a “holy” book. Ideas are holy. Books are not holy. A book is animal magnetism, a belief of matter. There surely is nothing holy about the compilation we call the “Bible.” The only thing that is holy about it is holiness, but where we find something that isn’t holy or right or good, it isn’t made so by being in the Bible. If the Bible had never been, Christian Science would still be. If Jesus had never existed, Christian Science would still be Christian Science. There would still be a Science of Being which would, some time or other, have been discovered. Our Textbook says, “…we take the inspired word of the Bible.” (S&H 497:3-4) It doesn’t say “we take the Bible.” You are thinking this instant because God is Mind; and if there were no Mind, God, we couldn’t think in any way.
Infinity expressing Itself as one infinite Science is the eternal ISNESS. You cannot do anything to infinity; you can just know it. It has to have a Science. God could not exist without existing as law, as order, as supreme arrangement, plan and purpose, as every thing that means the completeness of satisfaction. God could not be otherwise. Infinity, God, must of necessity have an infinite Science, a Principle. God is that Principle or rule; and that rule is invariable, inviolable. Nobody can break that rule. No mind exists in the universe contrary to that divine Mind. No mind, therefore, operates in such a way as to produce inaction, overaction, diseased action. There can be no other thing going on in an immeasurable universe than an infinite Science governing every thing, to the Principle of Science, accordingly.
The action of this Science in humanity’s behalf is the way of understanding. Therefore, the Bible urges upon us the necessity of seeking understanding. You don’t find understanding by seeking it from the low to the high; you ascend all the time, you do not descend; but from the standpoint of permanent ascension you look up to that which demands your attention and governs it by supreme presence and law, — and that is Science. Christian Science is the Science of every thing. To make this practical, you have only to hold to Principle, then proceed as idea. This knowing is the sanctuary, “my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” (Ezek. 37:28)
Afternoon Session
The thing we have to remember is the fact that a lot of earnest men and women striving to do right, is a wonderful thing, even if they do not always see clearly the operation of divine Principle. It is very essential that we should maintain the spiritual fact in relation to the church, and not be disturbed by the material evidence. If people do get into our church who do not belong, in due time they will be redeemed or get out. Don’t worry about it. The only church there is, is all right, and the only church member there is, is all right. Eventually the error will be entirely eliminated.
Your chief business is to love and you have to do that under all circumstances that would tempt you to do every thing except love. Error is often unrebuked, and that is because of fear, the fear of losing favor. Now our movement is growing and we are constantly in danger of having people who are not really interested, sincere or honest; but above all, as church members, do not be afraid to stand for the church of God. If you stand for that, you will find that the church, which appears to be a material organization will flourish and progress, and become the means of blessing many people. Do not be influenced by sentimentality. I cannot see any place in Christian Science for sentimentality. I do see an awful lot of sentimentality in church. Love is not sentimentality.
Everyone in the room is a Christian Science practitioner and I am perfectly sure that practically everyone is a good one. I cannot see that a person can actually “get into the practice” by merely desiring to. Rather the practice, in a certain way, “gets into him or her.” It seems to me when understanding is so accurate that a human being is so entirely subservient to the understanding that it has become his real life, he is in the practice. If you take any patients at all, that is the chief thing. Every thing else is less important. Keep a secret. Never tell any one about your patients. Never mention their names. You must be very careful not to let anything in the way of social engagement or amusement enter in to disturb your work. In the practice, the tendency is to assume responsibility or to avoid it. Neither way is right. We do not want to gain the idea that we personally can heal a case, but we do not, on the other hand, want to be irresponsible. When you can handle every error as the mere secondary error, or the primal error, of mortal mind, you are handling error successfully. When you permit your thought to be turned so away that you believe that you have to contend with some difficulty, and that difficulty has substance and law, power and intelligence, then you are not handling it correctly. Whatever the error is, it has no substance or intelligence; whether the error be lack, or pain, or hatred, or revenge, or opposition, it has no substance other than supposition, and the supposition has no supposer, the belief has no believer, for the believer is a belief, and that’s all there is to a believer.
Now mortal mind attempts to pattern infinity by having lots of minds, so as to have someone wondering what is to become of his mind; the thing he calls his “mind” needs correction, however good it may seem to be. The belief that it is better needs to be corrected even more, if he has a great sense of mental power. That belief is sure to lead him astray at some time. Nearly always very clever people are subject to that belief. Flattery. And that is the way Roman Catholicism today worms its way into influential circles and gains a certain seeming power in the affairs of men and nations.
Everybody is a genius in the sight of God and there is no other sight. Every person is a genius because he has one infinite Mind and he knows, as an individuality, the grandeur of the infinite Mind. Do not doubt this, but let the spontaneous spark of genius show in your thinking. Do not let anything persuade you that there is anything you cannot know.
Man thinks as Mind, speaks as Mind, acts as Mind, walks as Mind, and cannot do otherwise. He sees as Mind, smells as Mind and not only that; the very feeling that says to him he can feel a pain in untrue; he cannot feel a pain, for feeling is a spiritual sense that cannot possibly transmit a pain to man. Every sense is a spiritual sense, so that person should walk and talk, even digest his food, through the demonstration of Mind. (S&H 264:2-12)
The fact is that he cannot demonstrate the kingdom of heaven unless he demonstrates beauty in everything. There is not an ugly thing in the kingdom of heaven, not one idea that does not show forth infinite Soul, which means infinite countenance, grandeur, something we rejoice to see, and we shall always see it. We must have the evidence more and more, and the evidence must accumulate, become more and more desirable. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of beauty. Be sure of that so we need not think we can ignore the beauty of the material earth. The beauty is not material. We associate matter with beauty, but the beauty is eternal and that eternality will appear in the measure that we cease to associate matter and personality with that beauty. These characteristics are qualities that belong to God. You cannot be the image of God by trying to be. You can only be the image of God by thinking as Mind, and that thinking is now the image of God. You don’t have to wait.
Demonstration is a word that signifies both progress and proof. Being is already and forever perfect and cannot improve nor be improved. The imperfect belief is but a counterfeit of the spiritual fact of creation. This spiritual fact perceived is the demonstration of Christian Science, is the soul of man which is in heaven.
A Christian Scientist does not have to change his occupation in order to gain heaven. He has to change his belief. Let his occupation go on. We can’t all be practitioners in a minute. The world has to have business men. Things have to be bought and sold; and the world cannot get along without this. It is a wonderful thing that Christian Scientists are doing these things; and the thought of the Christian Scientists is helping the whole world. Do all to the glory of God. Do all in the demonstration of good.
Another thing, don’t ask a blessing at the table. It is wrong when people stand up for benediction, to bow their heads. What are you doing with your head like that? True thankfulness is straight-forward thinking. You are responsible for your thinking. Think as if you were the only thinker in the universe, as if the universe had to be carried on by your thinking. The great objection to being all the time in a state of gratitude is that you are all the time reviving your troubles to remember how much you have to be grateful for. Yesterday is always coming up — last week, last year, and so forth. But if you keep going back, when are you going forward?
Now, there never was a yesterday, and in the last analysis, you never were, yesterday! A false sense of existence sat in the place of God and said you were a sinner and a sick man, and that is a lie. (This in reference to thinking of what you were healed of, etc.) I don’t mean you must stop giving testimonies, but give better ones. Give them in such a way that you convey the idea of omnipotence and omnipresence, because there never was anything else.
The Christian Science movement has to be carried on; and you have got to carry it forward yourself with an enthusiasm that is never asleep. The divine Mind never sleeps nor slumbers. Cut out all the “yesterdays.” Glorious energy is the activity of Mind. “If we array thought in mortal vestures, it must lose its immortal nature.” (S&H 260:28-30) Let us have the testimonies that are truly alive so that people who are inclined to be dead shall be aroused by that testimony. “Let the dead bury their dead.” (Matt. 8:22) You must beware of joining the great body of the “living” dead. Have nothing to do with that. It is part of old theology.
It is sometimes supposed by some people that there is a kind of an evolution going on. That it evolves through a belief of truth until it becomes divine. That is theosophy, the belief that error finally becomes truth. Christian Science is the doctrine of perfection. It is the absolute Science of the Infinite perfect Being, brought to light in such a way that all human beings can demonstrate this Infinite perfect Being in their lives in the measure that they apprehend the Infinite and perfect, thus abiding by the laws of the Infinite and perfect Being, God.
The steps by which they see the evidence of this understanding may be called “improvement,” or “improved beliefs,” but that does not mean that we shall gradually turn matter into spirit. We never get a single improved belief in Christian Science except through understanding the unreality of matter and the unreality of improved belief. The reality is that the idea exists in perfection forever.
You have a right to express Truth according to your own understanding. Don’t be afraid to be yourself and let divine Mind be — just let It be, so that when you think out from the material body to the material world, embrace the universe — think on this. You’ll like it; and when you have patients, they will like this way of thinking also. Think as if you were the only person in the universe and the universe depended upon your thinking. It’s going to be wonderful weather today, good for corn, good for wheat, equally good for both. This day the weather will be good for both, for it is God’s weather; and it is going on until every thing that needs to be harmonious is harmonious through God’s law. Think out from — embrace the universe, until harmony prevails.
You can’t possibly avoid the responsibility of your own understanding, (individually). Your individuality is the very expression, the very evidence of God. “Man…, the full representation of Mind.” (S&H 591:5-7) There will be a certain individuality, a spontaneity about it. It will give you a certain place in the material world, just as you have your place in the universe of Mind. You will find that it is operating to give you what is natural to you in human affairs and that place will be a blessing. It may not be prominent. It is a good thing to be out of the limelight — most desirable. The limelight is not by any means the “light” of heaven. It is human beings’ exaltation of personality.
Even Christian Scientists are inclined to fear the absolute spiritual being. They say, “If I am wholly spiritual I won’t be tangible. I want to see myself.” We shall see each other in a much better way; our seeing is going to be much better seeing, our hearing, better hearing; all senses better senses; and by means of them we shall never discern anything about ourselves or anyone, but perfection.
There is no disease; there is no pain. There is nothing the matter with hearing. Nothing the matter with the eyesight. All is well; one perfect body removes the fear of two bodies. Declare that your work brings about these improved beliefs and sustains them. A normal, healthy, happy, alert progressive Christian Scientist — one body, one interest, one concern, one being, expressed in everyone’s body. Therefore, we must love one another for Love constitutes the one and only body, and Love, revealing and constituting the one and only body, is the one and only Mind, the Mind which heals the sick.
All people who study Christian Science undergo a mental and moral change, and sometimes it is more violent and more prolonged with good people than with so-called “bad” people. Chemicalization is a claim we cannot ignore. Sometimes we go on working and do not know what the trouble is, and then wake up to the handling of chemicalization. Mrs. Eddy writes, “…the conflict between the flesh and Spirit.” (S&H 567:12) Now, as a matter of fact, there isn’t any because there is no “flesh.” Spirit is all; but there is a belief just as there is the belief or thought of human beings that they can chemicalize. We need to see clearly that there can be no chemicalization because infinite Mind is All, and does not contain anything that chemicalizes. Deny all the beliefs that seem to be the product of chemicalization, and see that chemicalization cannot produce a product. See the naturalness of good.
Self protection means an all-embracing consciousness from which no event of interest to mankind can be excluded. It is wise to be alert, but not to be anxious. To be clear, and yet not to be too keen in doing something instead of knowing something. Realize that your understanding sets aside, offsets and nullifies false prophecy.
I ask you not to judge. Christian Scientist’s judgment is usually more severe than the judgment of the average person. Be sure that the Christly spirit pervades all. Avoid suspicion. Be sure to know that your treatment is not merely mental, but is the healing power of divine law which heals and sustains the healing. The way to give a treatment is to recognize the one Mind, so that you know the patient hasn’t a mind separate from the one Mind; that he hasn’t a body separate from this one Mind; that there is no mind or body in the universe separate from Mind; consequently, there isn’t a mind or body that can be sick. The patient is receiving the treatment because the one Mind is announcing Itself individually as Himself.
Understand your business; then gain your dominion; and your dominion consists of improving every detail. Know that nothing but good is going on. Everything that appears to be going on is already done, but you have to know it. Then it may appear that you have to do a great many things in connection with that, but it is your knowing that makes your doing valuable, and your knowing is a certain dominion which is your divine right, and is your possession of all, if you are willing to claim it.
A Christian Scientist in business should know what is going on all the time, and above all, should gain that calm sense of things which enables him to carry on his business without any fatigue. There should never be a sense of fatigue because it is his privilege to know that Mind is not fatigued, and that Mind is the only thing that is going on in business. A Christian Scientist in business should know that he cannot be induced to over-reach himself, cannot be flattered into buying what he does not want, what he ought not to take and that will be of no use to him. He cannot be handled by animal magnetism. He has a right to be loving and just, but he needs to know what Love is.
Now, in business we are so apt to associate money with business that we think money is business. Money is not essential to business, because business went on before there was any money. Money is only a medium of exchange. We don’t need to be afraid of money, or afraid about it. If business is based on Principle, then it has its capital; but it isn’t based on Principle unless it is legitimate business, unless it promises something in the way of success, and that means it must pay. It must pay those who carry it on, and those who invest in it. Honesty, sincerity, and Principle are the capital. A man must not be a slave to his business.
Men and women are the sons and daughters of God. “He (man) is the compound idea of God including all right ideas;…” (S&H 475:14-15) Man is not two, not a male and female, because he is the image, the exact likeness of God. Even in human experience companionship between male and female is satisfactory in relation to the oneness; such oneness is the blending of ideas. Ideas must always be distinct; otherwise they will not blend, but will interfere with each other. Blending of ideas is not the mixing of ideas. We are gaining our identity, we are not like one another; we are eternally like God. Man is not two, not male and female, but one — one individuality and one with God.
You will realize that in yourself you may increase your understanding in such a manner as to be more conscious of every person’s individual being; and as you become more conscious of the individual being of your friend or neighbor, or wife or husband, or son or daughter, or father or mother, as an individual consciousness, you will be showing forth the body of God, the complete body of Being. It is not visible to the material senses, but it is apprehensible in divine Science. It appears as your spiritual sense of being unfolds through your growing understanding of Christian Science. Do not be afraid of it. Do not fear that you are going to lose something or lack something, or that in some way or other, when you find your completeness, you won’t be satisfied because you have always wanted your completeness in somebody else. In this completeness you find one body, one wonderful body showing forth the infinity of Mind, demonstrating one Mind among men as one body. Doing that individually you will not lose your sense of body, but will gain it so much more fully that your present sense of body will be subject to your understanding. You will be able to say to it, “Be healthy,” and it will be healthy; and mortal mind will not be able to say to it, “Be unhealthy,” because your demonstration of the one Mind, and realization of one body becomes the law to your sense of body.
The belief of mortals has always been afflictive in that it has always had unsatisfactory desires; and that no matter what mortal mind does to satisfy itself, it is never satisfied. Observe this: that just a slight realization of our real being satisfies as we were never capable of being satisfied before, because realization of our own being is a present possibility and consequently, in that measure, our divine body or our individuality appears spiritually, is discerned; we can see that it means happiness for ourselves and for all mankind. Be willing to see this and do not be afraid to see it — this one body, one entity expressed in infinite identity — or what appears to be infinite body or infinite bodies. Every person will be himself forever and can’t avoid being himself, or herself, for God could not be infinite if one of us could be left out of creation.
We can see how important we are, and yet we are not important at all unless we do the thinking which constitutes the human illustration of the divine power. Let your thought be a law of substance to every idea, so that every idea that is revealed to you has continuity, power, the divine nature. As you think in this way, you become a kind of law to every thing you think of.
According to Christian Science, the only real senses are spiritual. “Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind.” If your treatment is divine Mind, and you give a treatment to yourself, then no report can come back from the material body saying, “I do not feel so well.” It cannot say anything back. Mind says everything to its own body, and when you say what Mind says, to what appears to be your own body, then what Mind says is as though God were saying it; then no report can come back. It cannot say anything back. It cannot say anything. “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.” (S&H 284:28-32) And man doesn’t come back and say to God, “I don’t like what you are doing. I am deaf to all this splendor you have made for me.” God is his Mind, his consciousness, his Principle, his absolute Soul, his Life, and he has no other; consequently, when your treatment is that, then you establish that divine power so unmistakably that nothing can resist it, or say unto it, “What doest thou?” or in any way resist the harmony and peace that the divine Mind provides in a treatment. Mind is the substance of all thoughts, the power and presence of every idea.
Now, I have said a great deal about the necessity of gaining and maintaining one infinite consciousness, but there is a necessity for saying it, because this world has got to be helped more than it is being helped at present by Christian Scientists; and it cannot be helped unless Christian Scientists are more specific. They must cease to be moved by old beliefs that were voiced in the name of Christian Science, the same queer, old metaphysical notions along the line of metaphysical thought. The same old notions passed from one generation to another, absolutely preventing the demonstration of Christian Science! Why not let them all go and why not, after all these years, decide that you practice Christian Science as Mind Science, as the Science of one Mind, the only Mind; that you will study to understand that one Mind, that you will be that one Mind, and permit your understanding to humanly show forth the power and the law of the divine Mind: Why not? If you are willing to do this, our practice, no matter what our occupation may be, will be quite a new thing, and we will see in a short time a wonderful change in human consciousness!
Are you aware of the fact that there are five hundred people meeting here today? Why, that is more than enough to bring a revolution in human government! It might be mentioned that a certain revolution was brought about by three hundred people, and it wasn’t a good revolution, either. Five hundred people, knowing the Truth! It isn’t the weight of the five hundred people, it is the fact that the possibility that the human race may learn to think like God, and still be the human race. In consequence of that thinking, they can obtain their divine being, and show it forth in their ability to heal diseases and overcome sorrow, abolish poverty, overcome tyranny and slavery, and bring about a normal state of human affairs, a government of good. First individually, then collectively for five hundred people, then five thousand people. Fifty thousand can do it, but the five hundred have to do it — because YOU ARE the five hundred. For that reason, I am placing upon you today greater responsibilities than ever given you before, and yet it is the same old one — WATCH your thinking! See that it is like good — like God — all the time, in order to have power. See that your thinking is so clear that you cannot, as a thinker, be mesmerized or hypnotized, handled at any time by any form of animal magnetism.
Be clear. But do not be foolish or frightened. See that your thinking must resemble good, or God, and that is it the only thinking that is real thinking. See that the beliefs of animal magnetism, hypnotism, mental malpractice and mesmerism are just that, mere belief. There is no mental malpractice. There are not mortal minds, no malpractitioners. They are not reality, not true. See how frequently people go down by the belief that somebody is malpracticing. That is a belief. There is only one infinite Mind and that is Love, and there is no other Mind, so you handle mental malpractice as a belief, not as malpractice. There is no malpractice.
Let us awake, and be Christian Scientists and show Christian Science to be what it is. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:30) Our responsibility is that of right thinking, and it removes all the burdens, it gives you joy, gladness, abundance of good, and health that cannot be touched by disease, health that is so perfect that it is absolutely the image and likeness of God and remains so constantly. Health that you have now and henceforth, forever more. Health is the being you have all the time when established through Christian Science. Stand for the best there is, for that is sufficient to overcome all evil, and bring about the kingdom of heaven now, and enable us to keep it forever.
