Excerpts from the Class of 1921

Part Three

by Bicknell Young

CHURCH SCIENTISTS. In church work, you may meet with such conditions — may meet with condemnation and damnation, conventionality. They stick to conventionality. Mrs. Eddy was unconventional. They get a system and stick to it. They are tied and bound up in their beliefs. It is tradition in the name of Christian Science. The real system is forever changing. If the business man does not change his system as often as is necessary, he will get left! Do not get into a rut. Don’t run by human rules and systems. Progress; and if you are doing the right thinking, you will think clearer about it. If you are willing to acknowledge the one I AM, the very fact that you think correctly, something is happening. We are changing the universe. Thought is doing it.

Salvation is found in harmonious progress.

INSPIRATION WITHOUT THE LETTER. I knew a man in Milwaukee once who had studied Christian Science and seemed to get wonderful inspiration. He healed people right and left for six months. Then suddenly he was not able to do any more healing work. He was bitterly disappointed — went down under it — passed out. He did not have the letter, as well as the inspiration. He needed both. Inspiration and light do not necessarily constitute Christian Science. That which is true is true. Makes you steady, safe, so that you cannot be moved.

When you are on a subject, treating, and so forth, keep to the subject, in hand and do not interrupt and lose the thread of thought. Fear has no Love in it.

SUNDAY SCHOOL. The Sunday School is the best thing on earth.

Never let the children relate demonstrations (in the classes), you will make liars out of them.

MUSIC is not harmony any more than any other science. Art of cooking is metaphysical. Some say that music is more spiritual than the other arts, but if that were so, musicians would be the most spiritual people on earth! And we know they are not.

If you don’t understand the error, you have not the Science, for Christian Science is the realization of the truth about the error.

MENTAL MALPRACTICE has no principle, law, no subject or object.

God reigns. This is God’s day. It is not a period of time, but unfoldment, and it brings me nearer to God. It makes me more certain about my divine relationship to the divine creator. “Day” is only an expression. This day brings me more understanding, because it is not time. It gives me a greater hold on the absolute facts of being. Error appears to disappear under the action of Christian Science.

Christian Science has come to make human beings divinely healthy, divinely satisfied. You are just as far away from heaven as your thinking is. Not any farther.

STUDYING THE TEXTBOOK. Mrs. Young: “Take Science and Health and pick it to pieces and put it together again. Study it as if trying to convince someone else of its truth.”

Realize that the church of God is an infinite idea in infinite Mind; that it is not dependent upon human circumstances; that it exists eternally in the Mind of God. There is no other church. So the claim that a Christian Science church has any such difficulties is but the suggestion of mortal mind. The actual substance and being of the church is the understanding of all the people that constitute its membership.

PROTECTIVE WORK. Question (by railroad man): Suppose someone said to you, “Well, accidents will happen,” and then he told you all about something that had happened. What would you say? Answer: The railroad is an idea of Mind, operated absolutely by divine Mind, and every man that has anything to do with the railroad is an idea of God, and it is impossible for any accident to occur, for God’s law is ruling every activity of that road; and the belief of accident — even when it seems to occur, is only a false claim of animal magnetism. There is no death. Begin to know that, if the railroad is an idea of God, and I know it is, that fact is going to do something to this railroad. If that is the need, you have got to put in good ties, material, and so forth, and not be limited by tricks of mortal mind. Mind puts in everything that is good and right and needed. Have Principle in the road.

I had a relative who took up a responsible position as an official of a railroad, and one of the first things the other officers said to him was: “Well, we have accidents all the time. Of course, you cannot avoid that.” This man said, “You can. It is the business of a road to run without accidents.” In South America, they would be surprised to have an accident. They are always on time — also always slow! Handle the claim of greed, in connection with these things, because sometimes accidents from defects are because officials don’t want to spend money.

Business is the activity of Mind. Man engaged in business is simply reflecting activity of divine Mind, and there is no competition. There is business for everyone. God supplies activity for every one of His ideas. I reflect God, and there is no law that says business goes up and down, which has any power. The only law is God’s law.

COMPETITION. God has no competitor, and if you know that, you would not be afraid. Your understanding of the allness of God would take care of competition. Have the office inside of you. Your trouble is, you don’t own the business. Result of lack of understanding. You ought to know enough to know that Mind owns that business, and consequently you own it and must run it as though you owned it.

Where there is no humility, there is no ability.

Don’t go into the work unless you can keep steady and calm. Error gets in through old beliefs and gets them to attacking each other.

APATHY. In this connection,, it may be necessary to handle the belief of Romanism. Be steady. It claims to be able to produce mental apathy, under the name of the “Pope’s intention.” It is sometimes said that they have people, nuns, and so forth, working in relays, praying that the Pope’s intention shall prevail. But this is only a belief that mortal mind has a religion.

It has been said that they treat and treat all the time and keep at it and, by keeping at it, it gets into the thought of Christian Scientists and gets them to fighting. The evidence of unity is what we need, and the evidence comes with realization.

The Catholics want us to give Romanism power. It cannot do a thing. It has just come to light that it may be destroyed.

The Greek Catholics are very superstitious. In places like Petrograd, Russia, there are but two classes: the intensely ignorant and the highly intellectual. It is hard to get the laboring classes to work, they spend so much of their time groveling in the dust and praying. (Some Christian Science work is being done in Russia, but not a great deal.)

DEMONSTRATING HEALTH. The thing to do, if you have to, is to meet it where it talks. With your realizing it is nothing, it is nothing. And, if you have to, deny it in detail. Reject the suggestion that it is not met. Say, “I am always well.” “In the infinity of good, I was never sick.” This is the thing I have found out in Christian Science. The claim I was sick, that belief, the particular claim that expressed itself as part of my existence, has been entirely obliterated permanently, and it cannot come to me.

In talking at testimony meeting, know, “What I am saying is helpful to these people. It is true humanly, because I was always well.” See clearly that testimony is the evidence of the power of Truth, the divine Christ, and that the truth is that no one was ever sick.

Error is a lie. It does not signify something because it is uncovered. Only Truth uncovers it, and uncovers it as NOTHING. If you discovered a fault in a person and did not first discover it as nothing, you might better not tell him.

Mortal mind may say coffee spoils a man’s stomach. Then if he is not able to refrain from excess, he will get the benefit of (the thought back of) excess.

Once when I was going in to a town to give a lecture, the Lecture Committee, the men who met me, smelled of tobacco. Be clean.

I am a Christian Scientist, but there are many things I would not put into my stomach. If I did, then I would have something to meet.

I went to a tea in London after a lecture, and when I sat down they brought me a pot of chocolate. I said I did not want it. (I dislike chocolate.) The hostess said, “We thought you didn’t drink tea, because we heard that Mrs. Eddy served chocolate.” Now chocolate is one thing that will keep me awake all night! I have not been able to handle the belief that chocolate keeps me awake! Chocolate is a belief, and the belief (with me) is that it is a stimulant worse than tea or coffee. However, it was essential that these people see that Christian Science could heal the sick whether I drank tea and coffee or not. If the people in Boston got rid of hate, instead of tea and coffee, we would not now have a law suit. It is a question of metaphysics and not of food.

Jesus said there must be a change of evidence, and there must be a change of consciousness in order to bring about a change of evidence.

The consciousness of the human being is the consciousness of sin, sickness and death. Now change that, and there occurs in consciousness instead of sin, sickness and death, HARMONY, HEALTH, LIFE.

NO DUALISM. When you get to a point and are making a declaration for the patient, if the patient says, “I am all right in Truth,” he is implying that there are two of him! He is saying that he is all right in Truth, but in trouble in belief. See this clearly, because this was what Jesus saw. Christ demonstrated, means the human evidence of divine power, divine presence, and you must always know you will have the evidence as much as you have the Truth.

EXCESSES. Back of excesses is fear. Back of alcohol is fear. Back of stimulation is fear. Fear is back of the whole difficulty.

SURGERY. If we work correctly, the time will come when all these cases that materia medica says can be healed ONLY by surgery will be healed right and left in Christian Science — and it is much so now. As a matter of fact, you can heal anything. But remember, it is spontaneity of the divine Mind, Love, and Love has no condemnation in it. As long as you are just getting health, you are still under condemnation. The human sense of health is relative.

GOOD. A moral man just shrinks from what is not good. That is the human sense of evil. But it is better than evil. Still, it is not goodness at all.

DREAMS. (Student spoke of having a dream in which she was talking with a person she once knew, and was doing metaphysical work for this person in the dream.) If you are doing your work all day long, you should not be dreaming. If you know that Mind never sleeps, you would not dream. It is because there is a belief that mind sleeps that you dream. That is your consciousness. As for this particular dream, you must not dream about your friend at all. Handle the claim of mortal mind that says there are spirits, that there are actually spirits, and that they only go away a little from us and then come back to us. They cannot. It is only a belief. Nothing. But the belief is in mortal mind, and it is part of the mesmerism of mortal mind. Handle self-mesmerism. It puts out all the assumption of a spiritualism. This is right, because you never saw that person with your eyes. Never. It is the apparition of belief. If it was true, it would keep both in the sense of mortality. There is no spiritualism even in belief. One Mind, in which these phenomena all vanish. Divine Mind, in which Truth begins to appear.

Roman Catholics in Business: The question of being associated with Catholics often comes up to Christian Scientists and you have to do the best you can in ordinary business, because you are more or less connected with them in business. But you find, as you work more and more in Christian Science, there^-will come about a natural separation that will be right for everybody. Your business will go along lines where the Protestant element is more active, and the Roman Catholic element will be eliminated from your business and work. It is not that we want to do them any harm, but when you begin to work in Christian Science and the office begins to fill up with them, Romanism cannot stand it and it goes out.

Take it in the Parochial schools. They are educated to be obedient. They are taught to say, “No, Sir,” and “Yes, Sir” — which is really very nice. Much better than many of our children, who say “No,” and “Yes.” In any office, it makes it more dignified. These people get in because of that element of obedience. They have been trained to be obedient to their superiors, the priests, nuns, et cetera. So the thing we have to watch out for is to just do the work. That is all. In a case where you find you are being betrayed, I would put the person out of the place immediately. Discipline in offices is necessary. Nor should the child be permitted to dominate the home. It is bad for the child. You can control children entirely if you make the demonstration.

It is not wisdom to take into the Sunday School any child who has been in a parochial school. But if merely baptized, that would be different. If friends are dropping away, it is one way you can tell if they are through demonstration. The Christian Science movement is far more important to consider than the taking of Roman Catholics into our churches. They can all come to church if they want to. They can do anything the rest of us do — read, and so forth. They have all the privileges of the church except paying the per capita tax!

MORTAL MIND SELF-CENTERED. Mortal mind finds trouble when it is troubled, but when the other man is troubled, it is not troubled.

CONDEMNATION. Don’t condemn people. Don’t ever condemn Roman Catholics. There are beautiful people who have been brought up in this belief, brave and true, as far as they understand. The people are not to blame. It is the thing itself.

OPERATIONS. In a case where a doctor is involved, you have got to see this: If there is a doctor on the case, and if it is the best demonstration you have been able to make, then there is a right one (doctor). Get a pure-minded, honest, capable one, an intelligent and successful practitioner. Know that no unsuccessful or mistaken practice can enter this case under the name of materia medica, that no improper influence can be exerted as fear to take from the situation what belongs to it through Christian Science. The doctor is divine Mind, is God — though human sense says there is a human doctor. And the only law that is doing anything is the divine law, and the only operation is the operation of Truth — which is only unfoldment. Always protect the doctor. Don’t treat him. Handle it this way: If I saw he was anxious and perhaps a little afraid and disturbed because the case was worse, I would realize for him the only Mind there is for him is God, Principle, and he is under no claim of fear, or belief of lack of skill. The only Mind there is is dictating, competent, and able to handle the whole situation. If the man were ill, you would not treat him; but in this case, as a Christian Scientist, you are in charge of the situation, and they have asked you to help. The only way I can help is to know the only thing I can do is to realize good, and God is big enough to include the doctor! You are meeting the thought of the human race about it. If it is your case, you are justified in breaking the mesmerism of fear. It is Truth that is there all the time.

ACCIDENT. Referring again to the horse falling down the mountain side in Yosemite, I started the minute the horse began to fall, saying, “You are all right.” Back of that was what I knew of Christian Science.

As a matter of fact, I would do that to dog or man, or any one in trouble in case of an accident. If you see two motors coming together, right away declare, “They cannot do it!” The question is: shall Truth govern, or shall error? And that is up to you to maintain.

The work of a Christian Scientist is to live it, love it, think it, know it, thinking, knowing and being it. Being is both protection and treatment. All you have to do is to BE.

EXERCISE. If there is activity, it is mental. If you sit down and keep still for fifteen years, and don’t be active, how have you given any proof that there is spiritual activity? Keep on moving! Going upstairs, the suggestion will come, “I am tired.” Then know that this body cannot talk to you. There are lots of others who hate to take exercise — especially Christian Scientists — because they like to study and think. But you can think while you work. Remember inactivity is a claim. Get so you can handle it in Christian Science and KNOW you can handle it.

Manifest to the world that physical form that the world has a right to expect from Christian Scientists. That means that you have got to do something besides “treat.” After you have treated, go out and show that you have made your demonstration as a strong, healthy person.

The most material person in the world is the person who is fading out from a belief of disease. That is the claim: materialism. In handling a case where the belief is that there is gradual reduction of blood and flesh, and deterioration that would cause fear, when you see there manifested such a beautiful character, look out! I would far rather have him angry and stirring things up, or swearing at the nurse, far better, because there is nothing going on like Life, but the belief is that they are just giving up the ghost. You have got to be living humanly. You don’t want these patients to be spiritually minded and die. Get them well. When I see such a person is “so sweet,” I know the claim is death staring the practitioner in the face. The case is going in the wrong way. The patient would be far better if he were not so nice!

POISE. Don’t be easily surprised. Something now happens to me. “Why I never had that happen before.” And you will have a little more. Be prepared beforehand, and say: “Nothing can surprise me. I know enough of mortal mind that it cannot fool me. It cannot put up anything to make me think it is real. I am ready for mortal mind now, and if it has something to surprise me, I am ready for it. Now I know its unreality, no matter what.” Before it comes, you will know it and prove it. You are so prepared for that so-called surprise that it never happens. Be awake. Something will occur in the world if we have a lot of Christian Scientists who are awake.

INSOMNIA. Realize that he cannot possibly be anything but awake forever, and he goes to sleep. Handle fear.

Do not think you are just right because you are exalted. Exaltation is not spiritual understanding. I have seen such people who were up in the air and who were not good. “I feel so beautiful today!” Exaltation is not God. That person is just excited and thinks it is God. God is never excited. Just as calm as calmness. Steady. Feet on earth. Proving these things right where you are.

SHOPPING. A person going downtown shopping. What is governing?

The only buyer and seller, nothing going on but knowledge of infinity. And everything will be ready, and I don’t have to wait a minute, because it is all going on right now. Instead of showing you fifty things, they will put the right thing in front of you. Infinite mind is immediate decision.

RHEUMATISM. A lady from Australia said rheumatism seemed more prevalent in this country than in other places. It is the belief or claim that the people of America are a more nervous temperament, taking them as a whole, than people in other countries. But this extra energy seems to have something to do with the belief of intensified nervous temperament. Most everyone comes under that some time. It is frequently so with business men.

“Pep” is generally intense nervous fear. All the “pep” there is is in divine Mind already and you have all the pep you need.

ABSOLUTE SCIENCE. Absolute Christian Science is the way. Be strong. If one is not strong, he is of little value. Have the strength to stand for right. Stand for the right that brings Christ to bear upon the case, and stand for right as the Christ. Evil having done its worst, everyone ought to be free forever, and death should never have occurred again. Jesus demonstrated once for all.

MARTYRDOM. You have not got to suffer if you have done right. No penalty.

God never forgot Jesus and He will not forget us.