Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 241:17), “The error of the ages is preaching without practice,” which means the statement of Truth without its simultaneous visible or concrete expression accompanying it, seen in what we call practice, is the error of the ages.

“God spake,” and what He spake was in evidence as concrete, manifested form. To believe that understanding can appear without being some definite, concrete expression in human consciousness, is to believe what is not true.

True form, of course, is not limited or bounded, but it still appears to us with these material accompaniments. Truth must be in concrete, manifested form and cannot appear otherwise. Divinity is in evidence as concrete human expressions which are constantly being transformed by the ideal.

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 353:1), “The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.” The sight I now have is actual sight; the mind I now have is the only Mind; the walking I now do is the only Life consciously active. I must understand that the actual and the concrete being that I now am, is the same being. Of what value would the understanding be, if it were not translated into human experience or daily living?

Of what value is it to study and learn about perfect being and harmony, and abundance, if these do not, in their concrete, manifested form, enrich our daily living? Could we learn perfect being, and harmony, and abundance, apart from their concrete, manifested form, except as we have done so in belief?

As Christian Scientists, we strive to get an understanding of our own being, and life, in order that the manifested form of these may be our bodies and our daily living.

Understanding in its concrete form is proof of demonstration, and these are always a unit in consciousness, and are inseparable and in-severable; the actual is always the practical.

Truth discerned must have an accompanying concrete manifestation. It is only false sense that says we can know a truth, and still not know it in some concrete evidence. Someone will say, “Well, I can go into my room and realize the Truth, and I don’t want to know what is called material things.” The problem of being must be solved in the way that Jesus taught and exemplified.

The Truth of abundance that appeared in the consciousness of Jesus, was expressed in its manifested concrete form, exemplified by him as wine, the tax money, loaves and fishes, etc., thus proving that Divinity, Reality, was in manifestation as supply to the human consciousness.

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 442:22), “Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually.”

There are those students who insist that Truth or understanding can come into consciousness as abstract, that is without some accompanying tangible expression. This is impossible, because infinite Truth is concrete being. To believe that understanding or spiritual insight alone, without an accompanying proof, or demonstration, is sufficient, or to believe that understanding or spiritual insight alone is sufficient to deliver salvation, is to follow but one part of Jesus’ teaching and example.

Understanding and visible practice or demonstration are a unit and inseparable, they are simultaneous. To adopt a form of practice which advances one toward reality, instead of basing one’s practice upon one’s Reality and present completeness and perfection, is to misunderstand the Principle exemplified by Jesus, by his advent on earth.

Christian Science is founded upon perfect manifested Being. It was because Jesus understood and declared himself to be the Life and Truth and the Way, the concrete manifestation of God, that he was able to demonstrate, or give proof, of this fact.

In every instance Jesus presented the unity of his understanding of perfect being and the concrete proof or demonstration thereof. At no time did Jesus base his practice upon the belief that he was a human being advancing toward the Christ, and at no time did he believe that he would sometime become the Christ. No, he was the Christ, and Christ must be in evidence as concrete being, expression.

Jesus practiced from the standpoint of his divinity, from the standpoint that he was the Christ, and because of this correct starting point, the divinity of Jesus was expressed simultaneously in his true humanhood, or his humanity. This true humanhood Jesus never surrendered, but changed it from glory to glory, on through the resurrection and ascension, ever onward and upward.

Jesus demonstrated and exhibited the Christ. We must do the same. We must perceive our actual, perfect manifested state as already established, or we have no Principle to demonstrate.

God, Soul and body, as a unit, must be in evidence as the Mind and body we are now, or what is termed a human being; and unless we practice, have faith and confidence in our actual perfect manifested state, how shall we prove that we exist as the son of God? For a student to assume a position for himself above the necessity of both understanding and demonstration, leaves that student in the position of the son of God, but without expression, and therefore unknown.

This would be like having heaven without having our earth, and such a thing is impossible. Heaven and earth are coincident, and likewise Divinity, the actual, and humanity, the manifested degree of the actual, are coincident and inseverable.

In John 1:1, 14 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word was made flesh,” means that God, individual Mind, is evidencing Himself as individual consciousness or individual man, seen by us as humanity.

“The Word” is Christ, and Christ is what Mind is consciously; Christ is the Divine idea, concretely existing as the health, the harmony, the sight, the hearing, the form, all the quantities and qualities that now are. We need to admit these to be actual, and then we can prove that they are imperishable, unalterable.

“The Word made flesh” does not mean that Christ, the divine idea, was in evidence as a state that was personal, corporeal and mortal. No, that was a misconception of the reality of things as they are at hand. “The flesh of the Word” are those concrete evidences, which exhibit the word, or are the evidence of the actual at hand.

Jesus demonstrated that the “flesh of the Word” was at hand as imperishable sight and hearing and wholeness and supply. “The flesh of the Word” was also in evidence as his own incorporeal, weightless, incorruptible, deathless being or body.

We must look beyond and above the evidence of the material senses. “The Word made flesh,” Mrs. Eddy says, is the Truth “rendered practical.” Or it is the Truth or understanding in its evidence, exhibited as active practice or living. “The Word made flesh” is the Truth in demonstration or in concrete evidence. It is the Truth, or the actual, exhibited in practice or daily living.

When considered relative to Christian Science practice, “the Word” of Truth is the understanding, and the “Flesh of the Word” is the practice or concrete evidence in demonstration. Let us remember that the exhibited and its exhibition is one and the same thing, and let us see to it that we are not mentally separating the understanding from its concrete flesh, that is, from its practice or demonstration and its evidence.

The understanding and the practice are coincident. They are a unit in Being, they are indivisible, inseparable, inseverable.

“The Word made flesh” is Divinity appearing as humanity, appearing as true humanhood. Let us never again put a mental separation between our divinity, that is, actuality, and our humanity, because of the paralyzing results to us. Illustration: The Miser.

It is not infrequent that we read in the papers of some one passing on in poverty and cold and hunger, who had plenty of means at hand to make himself comfortable. The fact that he had money was of no practical value to the miser, because he did not translate his money into needful things, such as food, warmth and clothing. The miser may look at his money, count it over and over, but until he removes that mental wall which separates his wealth from his daily living, until he removes that which keeps him from translating that wealth into practical, concrete, right expression, that wealth is of no practical use or value.

Likewise, it is possible that we may have quite an understanding of our reality, of our divinity; we may read a lot, listen to many splendid lectures; we may vision harmony and good; and yet live in discord and sickness and limitation, just like the miser. How often we finish our mental work, close the book, only to return immediately to our inharmonies. Why is this?

Because of our mental separation, a sense of separation, between what we understand we are actually, and what we are concretely or humanly. We do not really believe that what we are humanly is our actuality, because of our misconception of ourselves. Of course, there is no such separation. What we are humanly is the actual, still seen as humanity.

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 353:1), “The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.” If we fully understand this, we would believe that what is at hand, the actual and its concrete manifestation as a unit, would have the power, in and of itself, of better expression and demonstration.

It is because we separate our humanity from our divinity that we are unable to practice our divinity. The false belief that divinity actually is one thing and concrete humanity is entirely another thing, results in a wrong starting point in our practice. This wrong starting point separates one from divinity, it separates one from the very thing that is concrete demonstration.

The science of our perfect being is of practical value only as we are expressing increased, concrete health, wealth, and longevity.

The science of our Divinity should be practical in overcoming worry and ignorance, sin, sickness, and death.

The Kingdom is “come in earth as it is in heaven.” And the “middle wall of partition is broken down.” It has been broken down ever since that day of days, when the veil of the temple was rent, and man was free to enter the holy of holies.

SECTION II

The Word Was Made Flesh
The How of the Way

Someone may ask, “What is the way, or what is the method of bringing the actual into concrete demonstration?”

Of course the “how” to do a thing, the “way” to do a thing, the process or method of accomplishing a thing, must be understood before accomplishment can take place to any great extent. We know that Jesus was the exemplified way, and he set out the way or process for us all. And he set it out in his imperative command, “Ye must be born again.” That rebirth is the discovery that you are a perfect being, immortal now. And that divinity is in practice or conscious operation as humanity.

In order that we might appreciate the process of being born again or discovering our actuality, Jesus set out and discovered great truths, and these truths or principles, when utilized and individualized in daily living, become the method or process by which we use our nativity in Spirit.

Jesus’ method of procedure in his demonstration of any and every event, was set out in his one fundamental announcement, “I am not come to destroy but to fulfill.” This process of fulfilling instead of destroying, is as essential in our daily living and demonstration, as it was in the days of the Master. The process of fulfilling, instead of destroying, is the being re-born.

Fulfilling in righteousness was Jesus’ method. So we are born again or reborn through the living, conscious process of fulfilling. No matter what the problem, nothing else is necessary on our part, but fulfilling in righteousness. The process of fulfilling is adequate for all things.

As we pattern the Master, as we utilize the Principle he set forth, we too shall find that there is not evil, as evil, to be destroyed. We shall find that the works of the devil, delusions, are simultaneously destroyed or taken up by the active process of fulfilling.

I believe that there is not one student in a hundred who does not insist that the mind he now has, is mortal mind. The student may have been declaring for twenty years, “God is my Mind,” but nevertheless he still believes that the mind he now has, is mortal mind.

Our dictionary and our textbook both tell us that mortal mind is the name given to ignorance, and ignorance is nothing, no thing. “The phrase mortal mind implies something untrue and therefore unreal; and as the phrase is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to designate that which has no real existence.”(S&H 114:14)

Because the student believes the mind he now has, is mortal mind, he thinks he must get rid of it through treatment, and if he starts with getting rid of the mind he now has, he isn’t starting to fulfill the mind he now is.

There is only one Mind, so the Mind you now have is God, the only Mind. It is true that you need to subordinate your fleshly perceptions about it, but nevertheless, the Mind that is here now, is the only Mind.

No matter what the state or stage of expression, this human mind is not to be destroyed through treatment, but rather, through treatment or prayer, this human mind is to be fulfilled in righteousness.

Again, there is not one student in a hundred who does not insist that the body he now has is material and mortal, and that it must be disposed of, or changed, through treatment.

The only soul or body there is, is God, and God is Mind and the body of each one of us. Each one of us is “the One” in some particular individual expression or member. so-called mortal mind and body, a mortal, is a false representative of man.

This misconception or mis-statement of mind and body, a mortal, is not objectified. “It is not a person, place, or thing,” Mrs. Eddy says. So, I do not have to destroy it, and I do not fulfill it through treatment, any more than I destroy or fulfill my ignorance of music. I fulfill the degree I already apprehend of music; that takes care of ignorance.

I, as eternal entity, do not live in that which is only a misconception, neither does the misconception live or die. A misconception or ignorance is like a shadow, without substance, life or intelligence.

But the individual expression of soul and body, a unit as my entity, in the sense as yet of manhood or humanhood or human being, can through treatment or prayer, rise and expand as spiritual sense from glory to glory, until I arrive at the “fullness of the stature of Christ.”

The belief that the body we now have is material, and that it can be separated from the human mind and die, return to dust, is nothing but ignorance and superstition.

Jesus demonstrated for all ages, in the case of Lazarus and in his own case, that the body we now have, is not material, and that it cannot be separated from the mind we now have, and that mind and body, as an entity, as human being, does not die. Both Jesus and Mrs. Eddy have shown that the human body, which is the human mind in expression, is to be fulfilled in health and harmony, through the spiritualization of consciousness, and that both human mind and body, as human being, as an entity, is to be absolved from death and the grave.

When Jesus healed the sick, he did not approach a so-called objective evil as though he would destroy it, or change it by mental treatment, or mental power. No, Jesus never used the method of mind over matter, or mind over mind.

In the case of the withered hand, Jesus did not approach an objective hand with the thought of doing anything to the hand, or doing anything to a withered condition, or doing anything to the man.

Jesus beheld the perfect man, and he knew that the man with the withered hand was that man, no matter how distorted he seemed to be. To Jesus, there was no imperfection in conscious Mind, and therefore there was none in its concrete, manifested expression, body, and as individual consciousness reflected the one infinite consciousness, there was only perfection everywhere.

Jesus beheld the actual. His consciousness was the Truth, and this true consciousness held within itself the perfect, unchanging, incorruptible, indestructible, immortal idea: hand. True consciousness fulfilled the hand in righteousness.

It is the work of each individual to discover how to treat or pray in order to execute spiritual authority.

When we clearly understand that an illusion is always a false sense of a thing and never objectified; and when we clearly understand God’s creation as it is, and see as God sees, and know as we are known, then we will execute spiritual authority, and like Jesus, we will say, “Arise and walk,” “Neither do I condemn thee,” “Lazarus come forth.” Jesus continually instructed the human mind through parables and, little by little, the human mind relinquished its false view, its erring beliefs imposed upon it by ignorance. Today, if we ponder these same parables, the truths we glean from them will replace ignorance.

It is our work as practitioners when the patient comes for help, to reform the human mind. It is our work to turn the vision from destruction, discord, and imperfection, and place it upon completeness, perfection, and reality. It is Christ, the impersonal Truth, that reconciles wrong beliefs with divine ideas. It is treatment, or prayer based upon reality, that emancipates the human mind and body.

True consciousness is the needful and only possible emancipator.

SECTION III

The Word Made Flesh
Illusion

It is very helpful, in order to rightly dispose of a misconception, to understand the term illusion. The dictionary says, “1. An unreal or misleading image presented to the vision, a deceptive appearance. 2. State or fact of being deceived, a false impression, misconception. 3. A perception which fails to give the true character of an object perceived. Syn. Delusion.”

Therefore, when I believe that an illusion is a reality, or is an object, or is a condition, I am under the influence of a false impression. I am under a delusion.

We all know how false a conclusion may be, if it is based upon our ignorance of that thing. Illusions are wholly in the realm of mortal mind, wholly within the realm of ignorance, and illusions are never objectified. They are never other than false conclusions; illusions and false conclusions are never in or of the mind of the human being, never in or of the mind I now have.

Let us take an illustration we are all familiar with: the mirage or appearance of water on the highway. Now we cannot remove the water from the highway, because we know there is no water there. Water as water is not objectified, it is not present, and it does not fill space. We know that the highway is dry because of personal experience.

Let us assume that there is a stick over there in the corner, and because of dim light, I think I see the stick move, and I think it is a snake. My belief that there is a snake in the corner does not objectify a snake. I cannot extricate a snake from a stick. Just because I believe a thing, my belief does not objectify the thing. Let us never get away from the fact that reality and its manifestation exists eternally, and my belief never is a created or objectified thing.

There is no snake present anywhere. All there is to the snake is an unreal, misleading image, presented to the vision. Why is it, that this illusion can present itself to me? It is because of ignorance of the Truth. If I know that the stick was not a snake, I could not see the image of a snake, neither could I be under the influence of a false impression.

Then the mind I now have, did not make the image of the snake. The image of the snake was the result of ignorance and false conclusions.

In the same way, my mind does not make a shadow. Try as you may, the mind you now have cannot form a shadow. You may see or feel a shadow of a tree, but for your mind to make one is impossible. If I could only get some students, who always think their troubles are not in the body but in their minds, to see this.

The shadow is the result of my relationship to imperfect light. Now it is clear to you that there is no objectified snake in the corner, nor in the stick, nor in my mind. The image, snake, is not made in nor of my mind, but is wholly because of ignorance of the truth. This ignorance makes the delusion over the consciousness, distorting the vision so that it reports a snake instead of a stick.

Take a simple illustration of the flat appearance of the earth. Now we know that the earth is not flat. The flatness is an unreal, misleading appearance. The illustration of the flatness is not over or on the manifested form called earth. Flatness is not over or on the earth at all.

When I think that the water or the snake or the flatness are objects or a condition at all, I am under a delusion or false impression, but the delusion is over the consciousness, distorting the vision, so that it reports flatness instead of roundness.

In this particular case, our ignorance has been corrected by intelligence, so that the false appearance of flatness does not disturb us. From experience, we all know how erroneous and false are our conclusions about anything when based upon ignorance.

I recall when a child, I was playing in the yard at dusk and came upon a black object, and I thought it was a dog or a bear, and became terrified. The next morning, I found that this terrifying object was only one of Father’s old boots that the dog had been playing with.

How differently we see in the dark, or when in ignorance, from the way we see in the light of Truth.

Ignorance always causes a superimposition to take place, seemingly causing something to be seen or felt which is not present, and this superimposition, which seems to be caused, is nothing at all, and in the light we behold the nothingness of it, and the fullness of Truth.

All limitation is an imposition of the mortal mind. Limitation is the seeing of lack where there is plenty, the feeling of sickness where there is health, the experiencing of discord where there is harmony. It is the same as walking in the dark and seeing things that are not present. I am sure I hear some say, “But Mrs. Wilcox, I feel my trouble is no illusion, either.”

Let us take the illustration of one on a train, the train standing perfectly still. That one may feel his train moving and can feel himself moving, when he is not moving; all the time it is another train moving. All that one needs to do is to look out of the window on the opposite side, and his false impressions are corrected. Immediately, his feeling of movement ceases. It ceases the instant he knows that his train is standing still.

If one would look at the reality of his being, as readily as he looks out the window on the opposite side of the train, all healing would be instantaneous.

As with the illusion of the train moving, so it is with the illusion of the diseased or deformed or suffering or aged body. All these conditions are purely felt illusion, and are so-called mortal mind sensations, ignorance of the reality of being, and are not in nor of the mind we now have, neither are they touching the body we now have, any more than the flatness troubles the earth.

Oh! How different things might be with us, if we only had more understanding! These seeming conditions are no conditions. These illusions are not over or on the manifested form called body. The body is not diseased or deformed or depleted or aged at all, because the Mind we now have, is God. There is but one Mind, and the body is as perfect as the Mind it manifests.

These illusions are not in nor of what is called my mind. They are not formulated by the mind nor by any state or stage of my mental growth, or what is ordinarily called my mind. These seeming conditions are because of our ignorance of our real being.

This ignorance causes the delusion over the consciousness, distorting the vision, so that the vision reports imperfection, instead of perfection and beauty that is eternally at hand. These seeming conditions, like the shadow, are the result of my relation to an insufficient amount of the light of Truth.

When I fully understand that discordant conditions but show forth an ignorant sense of some actuality, just as discords in music show forth an ignorance of the science of music; when I fully understand that in Christian Science, true knowledge governs the ignorant sense just as light governs darkness, or as light takes up a shadow, then in proportion that I understand and individualize true knowledge, this true knowledge has power over all false conditions or illusions.

It is ignorance of my real being that distorts the vision, to report the opposite of Truth. There is never an object to be removed, nor is there a condition to be corrected.

All that we as students of Christian Science need, is an enlightenment and understanding of our true being, and this knowledge shows us that which IS. Then I am not to take the position or viewpoint, am I, that a physical inharmony is a result of a mental inharmony? But rather do I take the position, that it is an illusion that there is physical inharmony at all, or that there is a mental inharmony at all.

The belief that there is a mental inharmony, is in the realm of mortal mind, or ignorance, or illusion, and is like a shadow, and is never in the realm of the mind of the human being. I do this, just as I took the position that there was no snake at all, and that the flatness was not seen, and that the moving train was not felt, so I take the position that any inharmony is not filling space and is not at all.

I do not try to get it out of the mind I now have, any more than I try to get the snake out of the mind I now have. God is the mind of a human being.

Illusions of sin, sickness, age, or death may appear to be distorted vision, but they have never been objectified themselves, they cannot objectify themselves.

I cannot get them out of my mind, because God is my mind, and I cannot get them out of my body because Mind expressed is my body. I can turn on the light. What we see and feel as disease and deformity, age, and death are not externalized or objectified things or conditions at all, and one of understanding knows that he is not seeing or feeling these things at all. These are pure illusions, ignorance of Life, Truth and Love.

In Christian Science treatment, we do not remove sickness, suffering, weakness or death from the body. Neither do we remove these from the mind, as though they were in and of the mind, but rather do we look upon them as a shadow, cast over the mind, and we put on more light, more understanding.

All seeming erroneous conditions are removed in proportion as we remove ignorance from over the mind, and ignorance is removed as I bring my state or stage of mind into close proximity to the Truth, thus fulfilling reality. Then this greater, fuller light of Truth takes up the illusions or shadows.

I do not treat the body, nor do I treat the condition, but I turn on the light of Truth and see and know what is, and with this understanding of Truth, I reject as impossible every suggestion of mortal mind or ignorance. I reject this ignorance, just as I reject a discord in music or a mistake in the science of mathematics.

Years ago in a lecture, Mr. Kimball told the story of an insane woman, who was deluded into thinking that her arms were covered with feathers. She was sure of it. She both saw and felt feathers.

He gave this illustration to show that sickness or disease were wholly delusions, and were never objectified or externalized, and that one could never remove the feathers by treatment, any more than one could remove the snake in the corner by treatment, because there never was a snake to be removed, nor any feathers to be removed. The feathers did not fill space, they were not externalizations of thought, but rather distortions of the vision or misleading impressions.

Treatment or prayer is for the purpose of letting our minds approximate the Truth, the parent Mind. The living, conscious intelligence that is released from within, will take care of the ignorance, the illusions.

To perceive with understanding that any inharmony or imperfection is a mis-statement, a misconception of a genuine fact, would be to free oneself instantly.

The great need of the hour is that we reconcile our state of consciousness, or sense of existence, with the Truth of reality, and this reconciliation can never take place outwardly, for it is always within the individual consciousness.

We know that the snake requires no reconciliation with the stick, because the snake has no objective formation. The water requires no reconciliation with the highway, because the water is not form at all. The reconciliation must take place in consciousness, and when the consciousness is reconciled with Truth, that very instant the onmipresent reality appears to sight and sense.

The only form creations there are, are the eternal manifestations of Spirit, and the manifestations are omnipresent and indestructible, the only presence. Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 516:6), “when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.”

When Jesus wakened Lazarus from the illusion of death, the appearance called death in the body vanished simultaneously with his awakened consciousness. This proved that Lazarus, in both mind and body, was just as much alive even when he appeared dead to sight and sense, as he ever was.

Paul’s demonstration was not in destroying the viper’s power to cause death. His demonstration was the proof that a viper is Mind in particular form expression. Vipers had never been anything but what God is in being, and yet, because many persons believed that their misconception of a viper was an object, and this object had life in and of itself, these people died.

They died, not because their misconception of a viper existed as an objectified thing, not because they were bitten by a viper, but they died because of their belief or delusion.

Oh! How many of you are spending much time in inharmony, because you have objectified YOUR misconception of man as a husband or wife or somebody, and given this illusion life?

Daniel was sufficiently illumined by Truth, that lions are harmless and peaceful. They always had been, and always will be, the eternal manifested form of Spirit. The lions were not to be destroyed. A lion will always remain a lion, to lie down with the lamb, but our misconception objectified as a lion will change, as our false belief is reconciled with the Truth of Mind’s creation.

When humanity attains the true concept of its Divinity, the mental and spiritual will be harmonized, and Truth will reign supreme, and heaven will be viewed as here on earth.

Jesus, while in human form, established to sense and to sight the Truth he presented. He set before the world the proof that there is no power and no presence, whatsoever, in sin, sickness, death, bondage and limitation.

This is an exalted vision, but without it we perish. You are ready for it. You will find it on every page of your books. It is a vision higher than an improved belief, or of a conviction, or faith. It is understanding. You are ready for it. I am ready for it. It is a vision of understanding or true knowledge, and with this vision the Word will become flesh.

Let the glorious Science of celestial Being which we are visioning and studying, be brought out in daily living; then the race will be elevated, the earth will be blessed, and the demonstration and proof of heaven here at hand, will be seen in the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, and in our restoration to paradise. There is at hand a new era of practical Christianity, wherein the might and glory of spiritual vision delivers to us the demonstration of the reality of all things.

The demonstration or reality of all things will unfailingly follow the utilization of the power of spiritual light over darkened sense, and of Divine Science over false beliefs.

I want to present a fundamental truth, and in order to make it clear and to aid those of this association who are not so advanced in the practice of Christian Science, I shall illustrate it.

This fundamental truth is “ALL THINGS ARE MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL.” It is a wonderful thing to understand that all things are necessarily formations of the one conscious Mind, and that all things are just as necessarily spiritual because of the character of Mind.

I well remember when, for the first time, I understood that all things of which I am conscious are thought and are never external to, or separate from, what I call my mind. That what I call my mind, is not always seeing things as they actually are.

Once, when at Mrs. Eddy’s home, one of her beautiful horses was in a serious claim. This was reported to her and in substance she said, “What the horse is to you, is not actually the way that the idea is.” Dr. Powell said, “Things are not what they seem.” (No, things are what they are.) They are figures of the true. If our faith were more simple, we would see them as they are, expressions of the Divine in forms we call material.

Mrs. Eddy showed us that the so-called human mind held within itself its own self-made concept of horse, and attached to its concept of horse, its own qualities of being, sick or well. She also showed us that this one, so-called mortal mind, gives to each of us its own and the same concept of horse. She then showed us that this beautiful horse, which we all so much admired, was wholly within the realm of consciousness as image or idea.

She showed us that the Divine Mind was the only power that can formulate an idea, and that Divine Mind was the substance and character of every particular idea, and that the Divine Mind was all there was to what the human mind called horse.

She showed us that we did not need to heal a horse, but we did need to restore our vision from that which was untrue, to that which was true in the realm of consciousness. The work was not to be done on the horse, the only horse there was, was already perfect, and she showed us that the true horse was the one and the same horse in each individual consciousness.

We thoroughly understood that the horse, which we saw as material and sick, was to be seen as it was. We were not to change a sick horse into a well horse, but we were to change our thought from belief to Truth. We also thoroughly understood that the Divine Mind was the I, or Ego, present, that we were calling the personal I, and this Divine Mind, present, was conscious of and seeing its own contents or idea, horse.

The horse did not need healing. Mrs. Eddy only restored our vision to see Truth or fact, that the only Mind present was aware of its own perfection, and with the restoration of our vision from that of belief to Truth, the horse appeared to us as he had always been.

This was my first clear apprehension of the fact that a Christian Scientist has nothing to do with effects. If a Christian Scientist has the Divine Mind present as the only Mind, this Mind itself sees and is aware of its own identity as effect.

I understood for the first time that if I allowed the so-called human mind to have place, then the human mind would see and know its own imperfect concept, a sick horse needing healing. I understood the necessity of maintaining the fact of the one divine Mind.

True enough, it does seem that there is a so-called human mind that sees and feels the contents and qualities of its own erroneous mortal self, and in order that what I call the personal I, may see and feel the good, I must understand that the divine Mind, the one I or Ego, is all there is present to what I call my mind. I must let that Mind be present which is the cause of good, and which sees and feels itself as being all good effects. There is no other I or conscious being present.

It was the Saviour or impersonal Truth or Divine Mind that saw His own image and likeness. The human mind can see man only according to its own idea of itself, which is always material, corporeal, mortal and finite, and as long as I see or believe man as actually material and finite and corporeal, the Saviour or impersonal Truth is not present in my consciousness.

So every morning, and many times a day, I declare, “The I or Ego or Mind, the Saviour that is present here, is aware of Himself, and this awareness of Himself is His idea, or image like Himself, and is His individual child as divine intelligence or myself, Himself, as idea, is myself.” Do you see the importance of having that Mind present which sees, and knows, and is all things, as they actually are? Do you understand that this Mind is the only Mind? The divine Mind is the great author of all His children, the sons and daughters of God, known in our human existence as men and women, but I must see men and women as they are, “expressions of the divine in forms we call material.”

We are each and all the infinite disclosures of the one divine conscious Being, and various expressions of the one and the same Divine Mind. We make up the Spiritual universe.

God, or the one and the same Mind, is the existence, the substance, the character, and the intelligence of each one of us. Just as the one light or sun is the substance and the shining of all its rays. The one light, Being, is all there is. God, or Mind, is each one’s self-hood; God, or Mind, is all there is to each one of His children and to all His children. There is nothing but the Divine Mind in His infinite disclosures or expressions.

The Function of Man

The function of man, or the function of the sons and daughters of God, who appear to us as men and women, is never other than reflection. Man as the idea of God receives all that he is from the Mind that constitutes him and gives back to that Mind the fact of Mind’s own Being. A reflection always does two things, it receives and it gives back what it receives. In this way, reflection establishes the Divine Mind to itself, as a great fact or entity.

Just as humanly your idea of yourself gives back to you the fact of your own being, and establishes you to yourself as an entity. If we could remember that “I can of mine own self do nothing,” then we could better understand that we are a living, constant, reflection. We should know the tremendous importance of our function and divine purpose, that of being reflection.

In substance Mrs. Eddy once said to a student, “Every mortal has been taught to believe that he holds within himself the capacity to give birth to many things, in other words, to be a maker of many things.” Every mortal has been taught that he of himself can make a home, a living, a career, produce a condition, an atmosphere or an organization, and all in the face of the Bible declaration, “The Lord is thy maker.”

God is the Principle and Life of all His ideas. He is, therefore, the only source of all that constitutes a “living.” Man’s living, then, is made. God made it, and man has it in the measure that he is reflection. Man is dependent only on God for it.

What is this argument of everybody, sick or well, my house, my family, my bank account, my letter which I am writing, my church, my disposition, but the belief that we can give birth to many things, that we can be a maker. In reality, all we can do is reflect, and we have the infinite capacity to reflect the perfection of Infinite Mind.

I want to repeat about reflection:

1. You can see that humanly you would not exist to yourself, if it were not for the idea of yourself.

2. The idea of yourself establishes you to yourself as an entity.

3. Does not the idea of consciousness of yourself equal you? Would not this idea of consciousness include all that you are?

Reflection

1. Now Divine Mind has an idea of Himself, and Mind’s idea of himself is man.

2. Then Mind is established to Himself, as Mind, or as existence, because of His idea of Himself. His idea gives back to Him the fact of His own Being.

3. Now you can see the divine purpose or function of man, as idea or reflection.

4. There would not be the established fact of one thing in Mind’s creation, were it not for man as idea or reflection.

5. Then is not Mind’s idea of Himself equal to Him, although dependent upon Him? Then does not idea or consciousness include all that Mind is? You will admit that Mind’s idea is all inclusive, as is Mind.

Reflection Practical

1. Then why should a Christian Scientist select some certain things that he would like to have true and try to bring it to pass?

2. There is a tendency among Christian Scientists to demonstrate something, to demonstrate health or to demonstrate abundance, which is perfectly legitimate.

3. But the fact is that the Divine Mind is now, and He is All. Man, the idea or reflection, is now. One cannot make a demonstration by believing that something is going to take place which is not already true and in existence, and is not already ours.

4. There is not a man in the universe that is less than the absolute expression of an infinite God, and that is not the idea of all-inclusive good.

5. There is one infinite idea or consciousness, and that includes all things, includes the universe, includes all that place means, all that plan means, and all that opportunity means.

6. There is nothing bigger, or besides God’s idea of Himself. God’s all-inclusive abundance is made. God and man are one.

The panacea for all fear is your union with God. The moment the thought about fear is broken, the means of escape is apparent.

The thing that you fear you hate, and the thing that you hate is fear. The cleansing of the mind from hate takes away much of the value of fear.

Your very enemy is to bless you. Because you have called out the God in that bewildered image of human belief, and He has come forth.

The permanent identity of Lazarus was able to pick up his body from death and putrefaction, and bring it forth perfect, for he had life everlasting, and Spirit was present in every cell and fiber of his consciousness.

There is no security in the human consciousness. Spirit is joyous and consciously free, unbounded by anything human wisdom may set down.

The moment you have to work in the Truth, you are working in the thought concept of it.

Association Address — 1941

The purpose of this morning’s lesson is to gain a truer and more comprehensive sense of the eventuality that we call war.

Just what is war? According to the religious thought instructed in Christian Science, war is a warfare between Truth and error. A mental conflict between spiritual sense and material sense; a conflict between the flesh and the spirit which is spoken of in both the Bible and our textbook. And far too much is made of this seeming warfare, for we who are metaphysicians are proving each day, that in the realm of infinite Good there is not both good and evil, but Good only. Hence, there is no warfare.

War, according to the revelation of Christian Science, is mortal mind or animal magnetism, and mortal mind or animal magnetism stands for all evil of whatever name or nature. It is the belief of life, substance and intelligence in matter; the belief of minds many, and powers many. And the more we, as Christian Scientists, accept the suggestion that war is going on as a fact, the more we strengthen and perpetuate the belief of life in matter and the belief of minds many, and the more we are governed by mortal mind or animal magnetism, instead of by the reality of Being.

The belief of mortal mind or animal magnetism has no life, or power or presence, or being, therefore it cannot assert itself, or express itself as war. The belief of mortal mind or animal magnetism is not Mind or conscious Life, therefore it cannot be minds many; it is not an entity filling space; it has no presence or being, therefore it cannot assert itself as a power or influence over people, and cause discontent, disorder, and murder. The whole claim of animal magnetism or mortal mind is without Being, is without God in the world. War is purely the result of the belief that creation is material, but we through Christian Science know that all creation is spiritual, consisting of the sons of God, with one Mind.

War seems to be a very great error, but we cannot properly invest error with gradations. No one error is greater or less than another error. All errors are mortal mind or animal magnetism and therefore unreal. All errors are unreal, and the war should not gain in seeming reality because of its seeming greatness.

Mortal mind, or animal magnetism in any form, is nothing, and however great it may seem to be, it still is nothing. We should not make the mistake of believing that the evils that confront us are great or small. In the demonstration of the one Mind, we find that error is neither great nor small. Our textbook teaches us that all errors are illusions, and what is an illusion? An illusion is an unreal appearance.

The claim that error is personal in one instance and national or international in another, should not deceive us. God, Mind, Love, divine Principle, is infinite and All. The one Mind is conscious of everything that is true of men, and is conscious of everything that is true of nations, and whatever is not true of men and of nations does not exist at all.

Where does this so-called war operate? Does it operate external to us, or does it operate within us? All war is operating within what is ordinarily called human consciousness. It is not in any way external or remote from us. The war is entirely mental, no matter how much it may seem to the contrary, and it must be met in the mentality.

The Bible says, “There was war in heaven.” Since there can be no war in heaven, harmony, the word “heaven” is here unquestionably used to indicate the realm of thought, and sometimes there does seem to be a great conflict, or war, in what is ordinarily called human thought. Every problem which confronts us is wholly wrong thought, and all that can ever be done to the problem must be done in the realm of thought.

We cannot understand too well that whatever we take cognizance of, and accept as a fact, becomes a part of what is ordinarily called our human consciousness, and is reflected on our body or in our world. If we cognize and accept as a fact that there is war, and dangers of war, we are not dealing with war scientifically, and the so-called war becomes our war or threatens to become our war. Those of us who read or listen to all the war news and think of war as actually taking place, are protected only because of mortal mind’s belief that the war is apart and remote from us, instead of being a part of our human consciousness. Much is said about this war being the result of conflicting modes of thought; that barbarism is conflicting with Christianity; that totalitarianism is conflicting with democracy; that dictatorship is conflicting with individualism, and so on.

But this so-called war is purely the result of a universal mass-mesmerism, an obsession; the so-called mortal mind’s obsession that an increase of material good can be had only by external or extraneous additions of good. In other words, the expansion of so-called human good is by accretion rather than by the unfoldment of spiritual ideas from within.

This misconception of the expansion of material good is impelling Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and the Japanese to extend their control over territories and over the people of other nations. They are obsessed with the belief that there are no limits to the benefits of national expansion, and that no price is too great to pay for it. But in Christian Science, we understand that God made man, and gave him presence, and certainty, and position, and man does not desire to get from somebody or some other nation, but draws from Infinity.

The true and only method of expansion is revealed to us through our study of Christian Science. Here we are taught that expansion of good is not by accretion, but results entirely from divine ideas within our consciousness (S&H 68:27). The only expansion is mental and spiritual. Spiritual expansion is heaven, harmony; there are no limits to the benefits of spiritual expansion.

This situation called “war” is an extreme phase of mortal mind chemicalization, and we in Christian Science should have handled and taken care of this extreme chemicalization. Much of this eventuality is the result of work done in Christian Science, and the chemicalization produced should have been cared for by Christian Scientists.

For many years, through the activities of the Christian Science movement, Christ, or Truth, has been poured into universal human consciousness, and Christ, or Truth, has carried its active work of redeeming human consciousness. But the material resistance of mortal mind to this active Christ or Truth, has caused a great mental conflict throughout the world and, for want of a better name, we are calling the mental conflict “war.”

As an effect of this work done in Christian Science and under the pressure of this Christ or Truth, that which purports to be the human mind, with all its traditions, is being forced to a recognition of its own powerlessness, and nothingness, and even its own self-destruction. This yielding of the so-called human mind to the divine Mind is causing this great universal disturbance and chemicalization, and since mortal mind is both belief and believer, as one, its own self-destruction of persons and things. But this seeming self-destruction of mortal mind is not the destruction of anything actual, useful or valuable. It is the disappearance, or dissolution, of the false human concept of man as being a person, and of things as being material. And so long as this false human concept is entertained by us, it dulls our perception to that which is divinely true and just at hand. Primarily, we are not engaged in demonstrating over war, but as Christian Scientists we are primarily engaged in demonstrating the divine Principle, Love, in whose universe war does not exist.

In demonstrating the divine Principle, Love, we as Christian Scientists may think we have failed miserably, because we have not as yet succeeded in bringing about conditions that are deemed desirable. This so-called war seems to involve so much of mortal mind and so many so-called mortals, that unless we are very alert, we may fail to vision the true character of success, or fail to recognize the present indications of success, because these indications do not tally up with our previous mortal mind conceptions of success.

I want to say emphatically that any apparent lack of results from our work in regard to this seeming conflict, is but the inability on the part of material sense to cognize what is taking place in this event called war. We, as Christian Scientists, should advance our thinking to a higher and more permanent mental and spiritual altitude, wherein we fully understand that our right thinking or our treatment has its origin and law in Omnipotence, and that failure is impossible. Does this present war have a spiritual value for this epoch? All events and epochs are scientifically valueless unless they have a spiritual purpose. It is of little worth that wars and rumors of wars engage the printed page of thousands of newspapers; something more and something new is to be discovered and made practical. History shows that every epoch has its spiritual values, and happy are we who discern the spiritual values of this present time.

We closed last year’s Association Meeting with this statement, “This is the close of an era,” and this morning allow me to make this statement, “We are now in the beginning of a new era.” And this new era demands that each individual must see and hear with new distinctiveness and understanding. Jesus said, “Let him that readeth understand,” and the prophet Jeremiah said, “What seest thou?” If we read and see from the material sense of things, there will be “discord and dismay,” but if we read and see from the spiritual vision, then there will be “science and peace.” We make our own choice.

More than 2000 years ago, Jesus prophesied this present event or this present war, but he did not prophesy it as calamitous to those who “look up” above the sense testimony, or to those who “lift up their heads;” that is, lift up their thought to approximate Truth. True enough, he saw that all material human concepts would vanish from the human mind; he saw that even the powers of heaven would be shaken; that is, all mortal mind’s established methods and customs and traditions and values would be shaken, and give place to a new and higher order of things.

In this prophecy, Jesus stated definitely and without question that, at that present time, there would appear the supremacy and reality of Good, and there would be the disappearance of evil from the world. According to Jesus’ prophecy, this event is to be a triumph for Truth. Reality will be recognized, and there will be the perception of the nothingness of nothing.

Jesus said, “And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matt. 24:30) The coming of the Son of man signifies that the demonstration of Christian Science is at hand. The Son of God is Reality, or is all creation as it is; the Son of man is the human proof that all these Realities are at hand. And the human proof, or manifestation, will approximate the perfection of these Realities according to the degree that our individual thought individualizes Divine Science.

The coming of the Son of man is not the coming of a person, or the coming of something visible or spectacular, something outside of ourselves. No, the Son of man appears as higher, truer qualities of thought within ourselves. It is a great spiritual evaluation of the Good that makes up our consciousness. We can in no way disconnect or disassociate the coming of the Son of man from God. The coming of the Son of man is God’s presence, appearing humanly, and is man and the universe seen and known according to our highest comprehension of their reality.

Referring to our present time, our textbook says, “As material knowledge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of materially.” (S&H 96:27) Jesus set forth clearly and definitely what should be our attitude of thought in these “latter days,” and why we should have this attitude of thought. He said, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads.” Why? “For your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28) Our redemption from what? Our redemption from the false concepts, the veil which has darkened man’s vision, and which is done away in Christ. Christ, the Truth about all things, is our Redeemer, and our redemption is at hand. We do not look at the destruction of matter as the destruction of something, but as the passing away of the false material concept of substance. This false concept of Substance hides the omnipresence of man and the universe of Reality. How readest thou? How seest thou? Instead of viewing the present time with dismay, Christian Scientists should assume their divine responsibilities. These may present themselves as human responsibilities, but since we know that they are divine and mental, they should be joyous responsibilities.

Each of us can, and should, assume the responsibility of handling the errors in his own thinking. We should do just this, as if we were the only one upon whom rested the responsibility for the correction to be made. In this way, only, do we work out our own salvation, and at the same time aid in working out the salvation of the world.

A New Age

At this present time, we are leaving the era of a personal mind and are being forced to rise to the demonstration of the divine Mind. The material resistance to this rise from a personal mind to the divine Mind is great. Those who depend upon personal mind alone, can no longer demonstrate even ordinary sustenance. We have the example of how personal mind has planned peace and brought us war; the so-called mind of man has planned for abundance, and yet millions are in want.

Among the many spiritual values revealed to this age, there is none greater than the revelation that the intellect of man is not primarily human or personal, but is primarily divine Intelligence, although, as yet, imperfectly disclosed.

The Son of man, which is divine Intelligence, is coming to this age with great power. This is an incoming age of power and action, and dominion and works. The great need of the Christian Science movement today is not so much of the letter, but the power of Spirit: less teaching and talking, and more instantaneous, permanent healings. We are leaving the “talking age” for an incoming age of power and works. We all know far too well that the human personal mind has done much talking along every line, Christian Science included. There has been much talking in public affairs. There are talking congresses, talking legislatures, talking peace conferences, wordy diplomacy, etc. In business there are reports, sales propaganda, human opinions, etc. All talk! No doubt this talking age has fulfilled its purpose. The human mind has learned that talking is easier than seeking divine guidance; easier than action and works. But man is also learning that talk does not produce actualities, and is not a substitute for actualities; God is demanding of us dominion, and power and action and works. To what extent are we preparing ourselves for these higher demands?

In reality, what is taking place in this age is what takes place in every Christian Science treatment, with the exception that what takes place in the individual consciousness through a treatment, is now taking place in cosmic or universal consciousness. And this that is taking place, is the appearing of the reality of ever-present Good, and the disappearing of all so-called evil.

At this present time, we are witnessing the ascendancy and supremacy of Good, and the powerlessness and nothingness and self-destruction of evil, even though the sense testimony is to the contrary. We would be mightily discouraged if we did not understand this great and vital truth.

Every event in so-called human history has been for the triumph of Truth. This is clearly seen in what frequently appears as a war of conflict, but what, in its actuality, is the demonstration of the omnipotence and omnipresence of Good, and the powerlessness and nothingness of evil.

We read in our textbook, “The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, ‘The anger of the Lord.’ In reality, they show the self-destruction of error or matter and point to matter’s opposite, the strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal harmony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil.” (S&H 293:24)

It also says, “The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.” (S&H 96:15)

The end of any error will come to us individually, when the error becomes extinct within our human consciousness. When we give a Christian Science treatment, there should be the extinction of some particular error, and the extinction should be permanent. Yes, wars, which are purely error, will continue until the cause of the war is exposed and vanquished, and made extinct in human consciousness.

Moral Chemicalization

Our textbook says, “Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization.” (S&H 96:21) Moral chemicalization is taking place at this time, and the errors of mortal thought are vanishing from human consciousness. In the coming age, human consciousness will be characterized by moral excellence; that is, our manners, customs, habits, conduct and ways of life, pertaining to the action of men and nations, will spring from man’s natural sense of rightness and propriety.

We all understand that man’s natural sense has its source in divine Principle, Love, therefore man’s natural sense will show forth the qualities of graciousness and mercy and justice to all.

Since mortal error is vanishing in a moral chemicalization, it is fitting that we understand the nature and character of chemicalization and what produces it. Mrs. Eddy says, “What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal belief.” (S&H 401:16) According to this definition, our present so-called war is a chemicalization or an upheaval produced by immortal Truth destroying erroneous mortal beliefs. And what an upheaval seems to be taking place as “Truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims!” (S&H 223:29) There would be no chemicalization or upheaval at this time, were it not that “the claims of Truth” are being resisted to the very hilt by mortal mind.

Chemicalization Purely Mental

The word “chemicalization” is usually associated with a process of mental fermentation, but in Christian Science chemicalization is purely mental; that is, it is taking place wholly within what is ordinarily called the human consciousness. Mrs. Eddy says, “Mental chemicalization follows the explanation of Truth, and a higher basis is thus won.” (S&H 453:8) She also says, “Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pass away.” (S&H 401:18) Again she says, “By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis.” (S&H 168:32)

From these definitions we readily see that chemicalization is occasioned whenever we change our erroneous human concept of persons and things to a spiritual and true concept of persons and things. Some may ask, “Is chemicalization necessary?” It will take place just so long as there seems to be both Truth and error, both good and evil, in our consciousness. Chemicalization is the natural process we undergo in our change from belief to Truth, or it is the transformation of the human to the Divine. But this change or transformation should be effected without pain or aggravation to either mind or body. Mrs. Eddy says, “This chemicalization should be painless if it were not for the seeming material resistance to Truth in our consciousness.”

Chemicalization, produced by the action of absolute Truth, when absolute Truth is poured into human consciousness, is a belief which cannot be ignored. It needs much more consideration than most workers in Christian Science give it. Many Christian Scientists in their practice work, and in their work concerning the world’s problems, fail to recognize the need of handling the claim of harmful chemicalization. Mrs. Eddy unmistakenly indicates that chemicalization should be dealt with through the realization that divine Love expressed, is the only presence, power or consciousness.

The Making of Civilization Causes Chemicalization

In the process of the appearing of real civilization, the old civilization chemicalized, and a new and higher civilization appeared. Real civilization has never failed, but the pretense of civilization has failed miserably. Nevertheless, a mere pretense of civilization is better than barbarism. Without civilization in some degree, we would have no Christianity and no Christian Science.

Someone may ask, “Is this chemicalization which is brought about by the revelation and demonstration of Christian Science so severe, that it is destroying civilization rather than redeeming it? Surely, we do not believe that the practical demonstration of Christian Science could produce harmful chemicalization, rather should we take the attitude, that we have the ability to care for any chemicalization that seems to be produced through the demonstration of Christian Science. And, if in our work, our thought takes on something of the grandeur of God, this true thought or Truth will take care of any situation that may arise.

Civilization will not be destroyed; government will not be destroyed; and the reason they will not be destroyed, but appear better unto their perfection, is because they are already Reality, they are already perfect and established in the Mind of God.

True civilization and true government cannot be imposed upon by any individual. Civilization and government are ideas of Mind, and must eventually spring from within. Our Science teaches that man, self-governed by divine Principle, is ideal government. This Mind of government is neither capitalistic nor communistic, but is exclusively and inclusively Christian. This real government seems quite remote, if we look to the testimony of the senses, but looking within, each one of us may establish divine government, and each one of us may exemplify divine government, and, in so doing, we hasten divine government for all mankind.

Only Christian Scientists understand the import of these days. With our pure thought, we are looking through and beyond the mists of war, which is merely an appearance of evil, and are glimpsing war’s underlying reality, a new and true civilization, a new and divine government.

God Governs the Universe

Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God governs the universe harmoniously and eternally, and in this government there are no secret organizations and no fifth columnists that can govern or influence men or nations erroneously. Reason and logic show us conclusively that what appears as a human being with life and intelligence in and of himself, is none other than Mind’s Presence. Divine Mind has unfolded Himself out into this particular so-called personality. All there is to any personality, or all there is to anything this personality may seem to be or to do, is divine Mind, Himself being and doing it. Therefore, man cannot be governed or influenced by anything but the divine Mind.

Christian Scientists have power over evil beliefs because the Christ, or Truth, which they individualize is power. Thinking rightly about the war is greater than the war. Which is greater, your understanding or the war? Your understanding is God with you, while war is error, therefore nothing.

Christian Scientists, as exponents of Truth, have sufficient understanding to protect those at the head of our government, to protect our nation and to protect all nations. We should clearly discern that any nation and all nations, our government and all governments, reflect wisdom and intelligence, and cannot be influenced erroneously.

Since we embrace our civilization, our government and our universe in our thought, we should know that our true thought, or Truth, governs all harmoniously. Let us rid our thought of hate, malice, and anger. Let us rid our thought of the desire to get even with somebody or some nation. Let us rid our thought of rivalry and contention, and maintain a clearly defined mental position based on Truth.

Such realization of Truth is the law of annihilation to the belief of destruction, devastation and death. Such realization will do something to the war, and will eventually destroy all sense of, or belief in, war. When we take the mental position that God is All, then man in His image and likeness cannot be an instrument through which hypnotism, suggestion and deception can work. A position that God is All is a law of annihilation to the belief of fear, contention, or animal magnetism of whatever nature. When we take the mental position that God and man is one Being, this basic Truth is a law of education, enlightenment, and discernment of the divine Presence, expressed as the idea of infinite Love. “Love is the liberator.” (S&H 225:21)

Preparedness and Defense

Among students of Christian Science, there has arisen the question whether material preparedness and defense is necessary, or whether spiritual preparedness and defense alone is sufficient. Now in order that spiritual preparedness and defense may be equal to the emergency at hand, our understanding must be pure Science, accompanied by omnipotent divine Power. If we have the understanding to demonstrate God’s allness, then there is no need for material preparedness and defense. But so long as we are taking our human footsteps which are always indispensable, we do need intelligent material preparedness and defense.

It seems that we, in our present growth, are in a stage of semi-metaphysics wherein, as Mrs. Eddy says, our “arguments are based on the false testimony of the material senses as well as on the facts of Mind.” (S&H 268:16) But surely no one will underestimate the value of spiritual preparedness and defense, without which no victory is really won. There is nothing soft or weak or effeminate about spiritual preparedness and defense. Spiritual preparedness and defense is the power of divine Love, and is as keen as steel. It takes strength of character, and discipline of thought, and great courage for us to become spiritually prepared to the extent that we have an adequate defense for every emergency. But any degree of spiritual preparedness, however small, is of the utmost value.

Bible history shows us that no matter how great the material preparedness and defense of armies, it is only when spiritual power enters into the arena that victory is won. Why is this so? Because the operations of both armies are based on material observations and sense testimony, on fear and hate and pride, and it is only when the spiritual element enters in, that victory for right is won.

Take for example the armies of Abram. They were considered an adequate defense in that day. They moved as a tower of strength in their preparedness of horsemen and chariots, spears and swords, in great array. But even these great warriors fell back before the oncoming hordes of the enemy, whose fiendish yells of victory were heard above the cries of defeat of Abram’s armies. During this long night of defeat and terror, Abram, the one righteous man, watched the coming of Melchizedek, “Prince and Priest of the Most High.”

Melchizedek came with the coming of the morning, but not with arms and great numbers of men. He came with only a few attendants. Yet, the armies arrayed against Abram saw this vision of Omnipotence, this coming of Melchizedek, as a great army advancing swiftly upon them. They saw their own fears personified and fell back upon their own swords, and were self-destroyed. Then did Abram and his armies know that God, the Power of right Mind, was the spiritual defense of His people and their strong deliverer.

Again we would say that the armies of Israel arrayed against the Philistines were great armies, both in size and ability, but the armies of Israel were not adequate for the victory over the Philistines. The victory came when David, challenging Goliath, said, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” (I Sam. 17:45, 47)

Both Abram and David had within themselves spiritual preparedness. They had gained this spiritual preparedness and power, which was their strong defense through many trying experiences. Abram and David had within themselves clearly defined mental positions, and these mental positions were based on spiritual understanding, not on sense testimony, newspaper reports, or radio announcements. When Abram and David were confronted with overwhelming problems, they had no question or doubt as to the outcome of the situation, because their mental position was the infinitude and allness of God.

Some may ask, “Should we never read or listen to the war news?” To ignore the war news would not help in any way to overcome the belief in war. But to read all the war news and listen to all the radio broadcasts, and saturate our mentalities with the horrors of war, only to have these reflected on our bodies and in our homes and business conditions, does not in any way help us, or in any way correct the belief in war. If we do read and listen, it should be for the purpose of handling the error intelligently. Our recognition of man’s oneness with God should be a law to the seeming situation. We should not be terrorized by what we hear, but we should deny it, and handle it, and never accept it as fact. Like Abram and David, our thought should be clearly defined as to the facts in the case.

The mental position of each individual student of Christian Science should be clearly defined, when it comes to the social-economic revolutions that confront our world today, and especially when it comes to war. We should base our thinking on the allness of God, and we should be persistent and insistent in establishing a mental position based on Truth.

When our mental positions concerning the experiences which seem to be taking place humanly, are based on divine facts, they are always accompanied with divine power. The time has come when spiritual Truth must be the guide to practical life. We, as Christian Scientists, must seek and accept and fulfill the guidance of spiritual power which is always above the concepts of the human mind.

As working Christian Scientists, we say that the understanding of Christian Science is equal to every difficulty, whether the difficulty is great or small. These are days of seeming great difficulties and great tribulation, and these are wholly mental, and must be met in the mentality. And our demonstrations of the divine facts at hand will depend entirely upon the mental position we maintain, and the results will be in the exact proportion that our thought is based on sense testimony, or is based on the Science of Mind.

All power is in the right thought or in the divine idea which we individually entertain. This is the only power in the universe. Thinking rightly or establishing the fact about any situation, governs and controls aright the human concept. The power of right thought is in the thinking of it, or in the realization of it. Our understanding is

God with us, and is the only power with which we demonstrate.

We often hear it said that God governs the war. Let us remember that God is not something separate or remote from man, so we cannot leave all the responsibility of the war to a remote power. What we individually know of Truth is power, and is God in action.

To sense, the war is appalling, but the apathy and indifference and inactive attitude of thought towards the war among the Christian Scientists is far more appalling. To sew and to knit and make garments is a commendable thing, but it is never a substitute for the power of Truth or true thought within the individual consciousness, which is most vital at this time. Day by day we should know that nothing unlike good is taking place. When we read or cognize that our liberty is being threatened by the dominating powers of autocracy, we can even take care of that, because our idea of what is true, or the true idea which we individually entertain, is Principle, and as we establish our thought on the side of Principle, this Principle is the law that governs and cares for the universe.

There seems to be two sides to every question, both belief, but our treatment will meet the claim of evil that threatens to overcome the better side or the better belief. As we know there is but one Power, one thought, one side, then what seems to be the better side or the better belief will prevail. Principle and its action is law. Principle and its action is the law to man, that he shall be a state of harmony instead of a state of discord; that he shall be a state of liberty instead of a state of bondage.

In regard to our country, we need to know that, “The government is upon His shoulders.” Then we can slip out from under the burden and let Truth unfold. We manage to do a lot of things when once we sense the power of right thought, and realize that the right ideas which we entertain are one with Principle, and are law to any situation. We should keep uppermost in our consciousness that God, Mind, is infinite, all power, all action, and then we are able, as Mrs. Eddy says, “to mightily rebuke a single doubt of the everpresent power of divine Spirit to control all the conditions of man and the universe.” (My. 294:13)

To waken Christian Scientists throughout the world to a recognition of pure metaphysics, and to a right sense of affirmation and denial, is one of the tasks that lies before us, and this awakening comes only through the demonstration of Love. Christian Scientists in every nation must awaken to the necessity of denying their own faults and the faults of their own nation, and those seeming faults must be denied until they are extinguished from consciousness. In every Christian Science treatment, the only adequate denial is the absolute nothingness of any phase of evil.

The international outlook presents a few great nations glorifying war, and the rest of the nations fearing war. The errors are national pride and national fear, and we are apt to deceive ourselves when it comes to these errors and merely handle national pride. The fear of nations is very great, and we should handle this claim of fear.

Let us remember that the reality and individuality of every nation, as well as the reality and individuality of every man, is forever intact in God and is eternal. The reality and individuality of a nation cannot be lost, but is found in the harmony of its infinite Principle, Love.

To want to wipe Germany off the map, or to feel great disapproval of any person or group of persons, is not a correct scientific attitude for any Christian Scientist to take. To make any error, however great, a personal error is not the way to prove its nothingness. Our work as Christian Scientists is to prove the powerlessness and nothingness of erroneous thought, wherever it is seen or whatever its form, through our own correct mental position of God’s allness.

As we realize that we are of the Spirit of God, we can control every situation, but in Christian Science we must be scientific in our thinking, or we shall make no demonstrations. As Christian Scientists, we have a responsibility far greater than adherents of other religions, because the Truth about all men and nations has been revealed to us. Our textbook, when speaking of the power of God in healing both mind and body, says, “The tree is typical of man’s divine Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering full salvation from sin, sickness, and death.” (S&H 406:4-6) And St. John the Revelator writes: “And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev. 22:2) The leaves of the tree stand for pure metaphysics, and any error pertaining to man or nations, that is cognized by pure metaphysics, comes under the all-powerful healing influence of pure metaphysics.

It is quite natural that each one of us should be vitally concerned about our own country, the United States, and about our own boys, and yet, we experience the protective power and healing influence of pure metaphysics in the proportion that we maintain the fact that divine Mind is in operation as all consciousness. God, Mind, is not only in operation as the consciousness of Christian Scientists, and the consciousness of our country and our boys, but God, Mind, is in operation as the consciousness of the whole world.

The one infinite consciousness is not exclusively aware of me as a Christian Scientist, and aware of my country and my boy, however much these may engage my attention. If I desire protection for myself, or my country, or my boy by means of divine Science, my protection is in the exact proportion that God, my Mind, knows no distinction of nations or persons or boys. As I understand and maintain that God, my Mind, is the only substance, presence, power, and law to that which constitutes my consciousness humanly as nation, country, or boy, this realization not only protects me, and my country, and my boy, but protects all men and all nations.

Last October I read a personal letter written by a Canadian boy, who had been through the Battle of Dunkirk, and also the battle in France, before France capitulated. He was, at the time, acting as pilot in the Royal Air Force in England. The letter was written to his Sunday School teacher and practitioner who had spent much time with him in preparing his thought for the many problems that might confront him.

This boy quite thoroughly understood the distinction between man and the illusion that appeared as fighting mortals. The practitioner had made it especially clear to the boy concerning the allness and omnipotence of God, and how this omnipotence and omnipresence of God was the substance and wholeness of every human being. She told him that the omnipresence of God could not be pierced by a bullet. This statement of Truth appealed to the boy so much that he wrote it out and placed it on the control of his plane, so that it was right before him.

Arrangements were made that if anything should happen to this boy, that a cable was to be sent to the practitioner. One day a Nazi bomber shot down his plane and he fell to the earth, but even while falling, the thought was with him that Omnipresence was the substance and the wholeness of everything. They picked him up, took him to the hospital, and cabled the practitioner.

The boy seemed terribly mangled and the next morning they went to the hospital expecting to find him dead, but instead he was alive and no bones broken. The practitioner had proved that the omnipresence of conscious Life is the substance and the whole of everything that constitutes man. Within a week the boy was back piloting another plane.

The practitioner understood pure metaphysics, and her mental position of God’s allness was an adequate defense. She neither affirmed nor denied the illusion, the mere appearance called personal man, but she realized that in the omnipresence of God there is neither “Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, but Christ is all-in-all.”

Mortals may say, “What is the remedy for the multitudinous problems of the world?” We know that men evolve and formulate wise laws and just agreements, which to some extent relieve the world’s troubles, but mankind is absolutely powerless to change the human heart, from which every form of evil springs. Christ, Truth, Love alone, can do this.

The hope of the world lies in a higher power than human greatness and might. Human wisdom and ability cannot save the world in the perilous hour, but deliverance will come from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And let us remember that “The Lord” is the right idea, or true consciousness, which we entertain concerning all things. The thinking of right thoughts or spiritual ideas is the only power in the universe.

We should not be dismayed at man’s apparent helplessness. These days are teaching us, universally, the need of divine help. The call of this hour is that man shall return to God, or Truth, because Truth is the only remedy for human ills, and as Christian Scientists we should be giving more attention to spiritual values and moral excellency than ever before. The supreme need in the world, today, is a religion that will lead the people to almighty God and unchangeable Truth, and this religion is the Science of Mind, or Christian Science.

The hope of the world is in Christian Science. The world is desperately in need of a new perspective; a need of an interpreter and an interpretation, and it is coming today into our midst. “What seest thou?” The coming of the Son of man, even the demonstration of divine Science in our midst. Everything that we now know humanly will be understood in its reality, and will be seen visibly and known tangibly in its divinity.

Are we, with our pure thought, looking through and beyond the mists, the mere appearance of evil, and are we beholding these appearances as the hidden existence of Good? The infinity of Good is discernible in men and nations, since men and nations exist as the manifestation of Infinity.

Since our own Mind is the One Mind, it must be pure Science, and pure Science is the only effective power in dealing with the testimony that confronts the world today. When we understand the facts concerning men and nations, and remove our thought from the sense testimony, this fact of men and nations is enlightening, and comforting and reassuring. Let us keep uppermost in our thought that infinite Consciousness is infinitely conscious of all His own. “The Lord is mindful of His own.”

There is no limit to the good we can do, when once we refuse to accept the limitations which so-called mortal mind would impose upon us. To become conscious of the world as God is conscious of it, is to overcome the world as Jesus did; that is, we overcome the false human concept of the world. The more we cognize the power we possess, as right thought or divine idea, and exercise this power in a God-like manner, the more we observe the effect of our work. The result is apparent not only to ourselves, but is apparent to all mankind.

Perhaps the most important of all Truth for us to understand today, is that God has chosen us to live in these very years. Just as much so, as it was in divine order that Jesus appeared to humanity in his age, and that Mrs. Eddy appeared to humanity in her age. Out of the billions of persons seemingly born to other ages, we have been chosen to live in this present time, and be present at the christening of a new age.

The world is so confused, that unless we recognize that God has chosen us, and that we are in divine order, we will fail to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Son of man, which is the Son of God; fail to prepare ourselves for the spiritual riches appearing as the new material wealth of this age.

Each of us should prepare ourselves, mentally and spiritually. We do not need to bother about anything else. Each one of us should change himself in order to be prepared for the new age.

We need not try to change God, and it is useless for us to try to turn new conditions back into old conditions. Our only problem today is to prepare ourselves to fit into the new conditions of a new world, which is the coming of the Son of man, or the demonstration of Divine Science. Old things and old conditions are passing away. “Behold, I create all things new.” The world of mortals is chaotic, it is the breaking up of old beliefs. We see the sign of the coming of the Son of man in all the fluctuations and changes that are taking place today. We are not afraid, but rather do we rejoice that the long night of materialism is fading, and the dawn of a new spiritual day is at hand.

We all have a sense of limitation because, as yet, we have a limited sense of infinite Good. We all, in some degree, have difficulty in demonstrating supply, in multiplying or increasing our good. There is reason for this, and the reason is, that we have not sufficiently learned how to translate our sense of things from a material basis to a spiritual basis. Yet Mrs. Eddy tells us that “Science understood translates matter into Mind.” (Mis. 25:12) Matter translated back into its original is Mind.

More or less our sense has been that all things are external and apart from us, and that we must somehow attain them in order to have them. Also, our sense of things, especially of inanimate things, has been a finite and material sense. But now, in this new cycle of truer enlarged thinking, we are awakening to the necessity of evaluating all things, both animate and inanimate, as being spiritual ideas.

After the experience of the past few years, we all see the necessity of basing our sense of things on a spiritual foundation, in order that we may understand and demonstrate that all things, which constitute our present consciousness are spiritual ideas, and are therefore everpresent, infinite, and unfailing.

The Problem of Supply — Lack of Understanding

The student of Christian Science deals easily with many problems; but when it comes to the question of supply, there seems to be less of a basic, definite understanding, less of scientific thinking, more of mass mesmerism and superstition than accompanies any other so-called problem. And while our sense of supply affects our human existence more keenly than any other problem, we continue in some degree to walk “into or with the currents of matter or mortal mind” (Un. 11:3-4) on this important subject.

The Mass Mesmerism of this Question

There is mass mesmerism connected with the problem of supply which we, as students, cannot afford to ignore. Because of our ignorance of the realities of existence, there is the almost universal mesmerism which causes us to believe, consciously or unconsciously, that God or Mind has little to do with supply. There is the belief that our supply is almost entirely in the hands of other persons, and little in our own hands, or the hands of God.

There is the belief that our income, our position, our employment are disconnected from us and are at the mercy of others, and that we, in and of ourselves, have little power over these things. It is almost a prevailing belief that our business is dependent upon the activities of other persons, upon the activity of our government, or of nations, or international conditions, and that it is entirely out of God’s hands.

Law of Coordination and Man’s Oneness with God

But in the proportion as we understand the coordination of all things, the reciprocal law of divine Being, and our inseparable oneness with God, our own Mind, we will free ourselves from all this mass mesmerism. Mind is unifying, cooperative, and reciprocal because one Mind only is unfolding itself out into infinity.

Everything in the universe belongs to God, to Mind; everything is in His hands; everything of which we are conscious has its being, its substance, and all its activities, in the one divine Principle. Likewise, everything in the universe belongs to us. Each one of us is an individual expression of Infinity, and consequently each one of us possesses all the glories of heaven and earth.

When once we understand that it is our ignorance of God and man as one Being, that causes the false sense which seems to hide our real heritage, we will reject this false sense, and be more alert in basing our thinking on the spiritual sense of God and man.

There is no separation between God and man; between Principle and idea; between Infinity and its expression. Then, since God and man are one Being, there could be no such thing as a claim of poverty or lack, and the fear of poverty and lack is all there is to the claim. We as Christian Scientists should never ignore the claim of lack of any nature, neither should we ignore the fear of it, but we should understand the absolute nothingness of the claim, and have confidence in the certainty and permanency of God and man as one Being.

The claim of insufficient income, so long associated with many of us, should be disposed of, at least in a measure. And we should come naturally and consciously into infinite possessions. The fact that we identify all that God is, is true now, and is demonstrable in the measure that we actually understand and individualize this fact.

Consciousness

Perhaps the most aggressive mass mesmerism is that we can think about something and still not consciously have it; that we can think about health and wealth, and still not consciously experience health and wealth in our daily living. Nevertheless, the fact that we think about health and wealth, is the fact that they already are in our individual consciousness as a conscious experience. What we call our thinking about health and wealth is the presence of health and wealth in our consciousness.

The student of Christian Science should be keenly alert and individualize the fact that things exist only as they have been thought or conceived of by God, his Mind, and therefore constitute his own individual consciousness. God or Mind is ever conscious, and everything in the universe has been evolved by this conscious Mind as thought or infinite ideas, and these still appear humanly as material things.

It is most important to understand that the universe of so-called material things is the universe of thoughts or ideas. God or conscious Mind is in manifestation as an infinity of ideas, and this infinity of ideas constitutes consciousness or intelligence or individual man.

In Christian Science we do not think of ourselves or individual man as personal or corporeal or material, but we think of ourselves as man, as consciousness. We think of ourselves as an infinite compound of all the ideas that identify God, our Mind, and constitute our consciousness.

We Do Not Evaluate the Things in Consciousness Correctly

We, as Christian Scientists, often fail to evaluate correctly the things of which we are conscious. We should evaluate everything of which we are conscious, no matter how it may appear to us humanly, as being one with God, infinite and spiritual. All is infinite Mind, infinitely manifested, from a world to a potato patch, from a blade of grass to a star, from a pin to a palace.

Everything of which we are conscious is included in our consciousness. Everything of which we are conscious makes up our compound of ourself. Everything is inseparable from God or Mind; everything is what Mind is consciously being, and is infinite and spiritual. Everything is the manifestation of Mind, and is spiritual man himself, no matter what false sense says about it.

Everything of which we are conscious is a conscious idea; it is alive, it is living. There is no such thing as an unconscious or inanimate idea. Every idea manifests consciousness. By virtue of the fact that all things constitute consciousness, every idea or everything is divinely conscious. A stone, as idea, does not think (it is only God or Mind who thinks), yet stone is conscious and is something in consciousness. Money, as idea, is conscious and is something that constitutes consciousness. What a stone or money really is, as idea, may not be fully revealed to us yet, but we know that they are ideas in consciousness and can, therefore, be demonstrated by us.

Two Groups of Creation

In universal belief, the things of which we are conscious are divided into two groups, animate and the inanimate, the spiritual and the material, the divine and the human. But in Christian Science, we learn that these opposites are not two, but one; that the inanimate is only a false sense of the animate; that matter is but a false concept of spiritual ideas; and that the divine idea appears as the human, all because of our ignorance of God and man as one Being.

In Christian Science we learn that everything which appears to us humanly can be demonstrated to be divine ideas. Everything which appears as a material object, or an object of sense, is a divine idea, and because it is divine and infinite, we, each of us, possess it. Even the fish, being conscious, included the tax money.

Animate and Inanimate

Everything that appears as an inanimate object, from a pin to a palace, is in its reality, an infinite idea. Everything of which we are conscious exists in consciousness, and it makes no difference how infinitesimal it seems to be, or how material it seems to be to the human senses, it is idea and is infinite and divine.

Horse

It may appear to us that the things we call “animate” in nature are easier to understand as idea than the things which we call “inanimate.” For example: A horse in belief is a living, animate creature; but in reality, all there is to a horse is a divine idea. In belief then, horse, because of its apparent life, appears different from a table or a chair or money or a loaf of bread, which we call inanimate objects with no apparent life. Nevertheless, in reality, the table, the chair, the money, and the loaf of bread are living conscious ideas, which are imperfectly known or imperfectly seen by us. Everything we believe to be inanimate, when dissociated from matter and understood as divine consciousness, will lose the limitations of matter and be seen in its true depict.

Loaves and Fishes

The disciples brought to Jesus two loaves and a few fishes as representing all the food available. Two loaves and a few fishes were the disciples’ limited sense of the availability of food, but this was not the vision of Jesus. Jesus knew loaf and fish were infinite, divine ideas, infinitely expressed; and he knew that each one of the multitude, being the conscious, infinite identity of the one Mind, included in his consciousness all that Mind included. Therefore, each one of the multitude included loaf and fish. But the multitude were ignorant of their oneness with God or Mind. They were unaware that they identified infinite plenty. To them, loaf and fish were separate from their consciousness, and they thought they had to attain them in order to have them. To the multitude, supply was limited, and to their false sense it was also material.

But the vision of Jesus was above the human sense, or the ignorant, limited sense of food as material. The very food which the disciples and the multitude considered as material and limited, Jesus understood as divine and infinite. Jesus interpreted food from a spiritual basis, and his true discernment of divine Substance resulted in the inexhaustible and illimitable supply of thought and things, and appeared humanly to the disciples and the multitude as loaves and fishes in abundance.

Jesus saw in the loaves and fishes his own true concept of food. To Jesus, food was a divine idea identifying infinite spiritual substance, and could be increased or multiplied where he was, according to the amount he needed, even though the place were a desert and the necessity was food for five thousand. Jesus saw food as a spiritual idea, universal, omnipresent, and at hand. But the multitude, whose concept of food was still limited and material, no doubt saw in this spiritual expression of infinite GOOD only their old familiar so-called loaves and fishes.

To the materialist, all things are material. To the spiritually minded, all things are in and of Spirit. If things appear to us individually as material and limited, the trouble is not with the things, but it is the lens through which we see them.

In divine Science everything that appears humanly is a divine idea. That which appears to us humanly as a material object is, in reality, a divine idea. Objects of sense are ideas of Soul. An idea of Soul, seen through the lens of material sense, may appear as a material object or a material thing, but there is only one thing present, and this is the idea of Soul. Right where the finite, material object of sense seems to be, there the right idea is, in my mind or consciousness.

Objects of sense do not exist in Reality; they exist as false appearance only; therefore objects of sense, as objects of sense, have neither place nor limitation. What appears to my consciousness as material, limited things are merely my human sense of divine ideas. Man, tree, and flower appear to die, but they never do die, because they are divine ideas, one with God, immortal Life. Man, tree, and flower, according to material sense, are the human sense of divine, immortal Substance. Ideas are never temporal things; there are no temporal things. The so-called temporal things are but the false interpretations of eternal things. All things are one with God and are immortal.

Let us remember that every divine idea we entertain in consciousness is the presence of God, or Mind, unfolding in our consciousness; present as our Mind, and appearing as power, presence, law, achievement, and intelligence in the measure of our understanding.

Money, a house, a table, and an automobile exist as ideas only; but to our human concept they are objects of sense with measurements and limitations and material accompaniments. Money, a house, a table, and an automobile are the human concepts of divine ideas, and we are told in our textbook that we must replace human concepts with divine ideas, or we must exchange the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.

The words “replace” and “exchange” might be very misleading if we think there are two entities, one to be replaced or exchanged for the other. We, as students, must clearly understand that what appears right here and now as an object of sense, is present right here and now as a spiritual idea and has the presence, the form, the color, the substance, and tangibility of Spirit.

A divine idea is immortal and exists at hand in its Reality. This is why we can always demonstrate it. Everything which we wish to be demonstrated already exists. Every attribute and quality of the thing to be demonstrated already exists. If things or certain attributes or qualities seem to be absent or limited, it is because of our limited sense of divine, infinite substance, God.

Money, a house, an automobile, a table, and all other things which appear to meet the need of humanity today, are only a material, limited sense of what is present as ideas, of completeness, wholeness, satisfaction, and ease; ideas which are contributive to a perfect state of being.

We need to understand that all these things which appear to meet our human needs, are Mind, God, manifested as ideas, and are not the material things they appear to be. When we understand them as ideas, they will always bless us, always add to our comfort and happiness and well-being, and always satisfy us.

Every idea of God’s creation is ours and constitutes our consciousness, not sometime, but now; and our consciousness is, even now, conscious of itself as infinite Good.

It is right and natural that we should have an enlarged sense of this infinite Good in our present state of consciousness. If we should free ourselves from the false education of the centuries and accept our birthright as the Son of God, then there would appear this conscious continuity of all Good, experienced in ascending states of consciousness, until all so-called material objects would be seen in their divine character.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Understanding is the reality of all things brought to light.” Hence, there is the great need to understand the certainty and permanency and the eternality of all that we are conscious of humanly. This understanding is a protection for those of us who seem to have little, as well as for those who have much, for it is only as we understand that all things of which we are conscious are divine ideas, that we can prove their permanency and their ever-present availability.

Some years ago a Christian Science Lecturer made this startling statement from the platform, “It is a sin to be poor.” Shortly after this, a prominent Christian Scientist said to me, “There is no sense in so much lack among Scientists, when they know what they do about the Science of Supply.” And again, another Christian Scientist, whose experience and quality of thought was much above the average, made this pointed declaration, “Insufficient supply is a disease, as much so as insufficient health.”

These statements challenged my orthodox way of thinking. Unconsciously, like many others, I was holding to the old belief that a deprivation of wealth often developed worthy traits of character. I was holding to the thought that poverty and lack were virtues, when in reality, poverty and lack are sin. I soon found that the average thought in regard to supply was very feeble thinking. Like myself, nearly all Christian Scientists were walking “into or with the currents of mortal mind” when it came to the demonstration of their supply.

The Results of Our Thinking

We, as Christian Scientists, are entering this new age fully aware that we cannot escape the results of our own thinking. If we think in or with the currents of mortal mind, we receive the results of such thinking, and when we think with our God-endowed dominion, we experience God’s ever-present supply. We reap our harvest from the thinking which we maintain. Today we are where our thinking has brought us, and no matter what our present environment is, we shall fall, remain stationary, or rise to new heights according to the thoughts we maintain.

Supply Exists Fundamentally

The whole world knows that supply is vital to the wellbeing of mankind. As Christian Scientists, we understand that, fundamentally, our supply already exists. We understand that the Science that demonstrates health, is the same Science that demonstrates supply. We are taught that every human heart can have its rightful need supplied, whether that need is “a child of promise,” like Isaac, St. John, and Jesus, or the need of loaves and fishes, or the need of tax money.

Supply Is Mental

We who understand something of Christian Science, believe that the Science of supply exists, is established, and is as workable as is the science of mathematics. When once we clearly understand that the character of supply is as mental as mathematics is mental, we shall have our supply at hand, all the time. We do not go outside of our own mind to get the mathematical value we need, and we do not go outside of our own mind to get the supply that we need.

Jesus did not go anywhere to get the loaves and fishes. He turned at once to his own Mind for his needed supply. Jesus knew that loaves and fishes were purely mental; they were thought forms, or forms of thought. He knew that each individual consciousness already included loaves and fishes and all other good, as well. Jesus proved in this demonstration that we already are the infinite supply that God is being.

Everything in Consciousness

Everything of which we have been conscious, and everything that we ever shall be conscious of, even now makes up our consciousness. There is nothing external to or apart from our consciousness. Our supply is purely mental, and consists of infinite, divine ideas in our consciousness. These divine ideas are perfect and established and make up our individual consciousness throughout eternity.

Infinite Good Is the All of Each of Us

Infinite good is the all of each of us, just as the qualities of the sun are the all of each individual ray of light. The Father said to the prodigal, that is, the prodigal’s own mind said to the prodigal, “Son, thou art ever with your own infinite Mind, and all that your own infinite Mind is, is you.” To be one with our own Father-Mind, is to be Mind’s presence; is to be the infinite good, which appears to us as all things.

When we understand that our supply is purely mental and consists of ideas already within our own mind, we shall experience our supply of things without delay, without mental labor, and without the sweat of our brow. Whatever may be our supply tomorrow, or next year, was our supply a thousand years ago. Our supply of infinite, divine ideas has been inherent in divine Mind, our mind, from the beginning. There is no time nor distance between supply and our own mind that is being our supply. Whatever seems to be over there, as supply, is here in our own consciousness as an infinite, divine idea.

Excerpt from Mr. Young’s Writings

Bicknell Young has said, “The time will come when Christian Scientists by the thousands will think with the profundity of the divine Mind, without process, and shall acquire the objects of their thinking without delay, and with the certainty of the divine Mind.”

We Possess Everything

It does seem at times that the human being wants and needs many things. This is mortal mind’s worst malpractice. In reality, we are never in a state of need or want, because the infinite, divine ideas in consciousness are already complete and established. This fact of our completeness, forever excludes our needing or wanting anything. To want something, keeps us from having it.

Since we already possess the infinitude of divine ideas in our consciousness, we cannot at the same time need or desire anything. When we finally overcome our ignorance of the Science of supply, we shall find ourselves in possession of all things. We shall find ourselves secure, abundantly supplied, and satisfied.

Many are saying at this time, as soon as the war is over, we shall have automobiles, and gasoline, and tires, and sugar, and many other things. But why should we wait until the war is over? The five thousand could have been fed later in the day, but Jesus saw no need of waiting. Jesus knew that everyone in that company of five thousand already possessed loaves and fishes, as well as all other divine ideas, that very instant, by way of reflection. Jesus understood that supply was mental and eternally present as divine ideas in consciousness. Like the science of mathematics, the Science of supply was a mental operation to Jesus, and by exercising this Science, the loaves and fishes were at hand.

Establish the Sense of Supply

Mrs. Eddy admonishes us to “Establish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the oppressed organ.” (S&H 373:22) And we should likewise establish in our consciousness the scientific sense of supply, and in this way we relieve the oppressed condition. And we should keep on establishing this scientific sense of supply, until the various forms of lack are spiritually healed. When we recognize that lack is merely a false claim, and never an entity, we no longer fear it, and the complete destruction of the claim quickly follows.

Supply is purely mental, and when we displace the sense of lack in our consciousness with the true sense of supply, this sense of supply which we entertain will manifest in our human consciousness. Our heavenly Father is ever conscious of abundance, and by the law of divine reflection, we can individualize this consciousness of abundance. It is a present, spiritual fact that we possess abundance, and nothing can interfere with our expression of it. Having once gained this consciousness of abundance, we can never lose it, for it is the scientific sense of supply. Wherever we go, we take it with us, and should everything that makes up our present human sense of supply be temporarily swept away, our scientific sense of supply still remains undisturbed and will manifest itself.

The Harvest Is Mental

Mrs. Eddy has told us that, “Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities. He said that the kingdom of heaven is here, and is included in Mind; that while ye say, ‘There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest,’ I say, Look up, not down, for your fields are already white for the harvest; and gather the harvest by mental, not material processes.” (Un. 11:24)

Subject 3

Association Meeting 1935

Our next subject is Scientific Translations; and this subject should be understood by every Christian Scientist. In dealing with matter, the student is often confused in regard to the method he should use. He does not understand how to deal with the so-called material man and the objects of the material universe.

In the very beginning of his study of metaphysics, the student learns from his textbook that he is to “exclude matter” (S&H 123:13) from his thinking; he learns that “in Christian Science the nothingness of matter is to be recognized,” and he learns that “every object in material thought will be destroyed.” (S&H 267:1)

The student’s belief that material man and the material universe is to be destroyed, often according to the accepted meaning of destruction, seems to create an antagonism against Christian Science, and a reluctance to conform to the requirements for growth, as set forth in the Christian Science textbook, because he feels that he, with all his seeming pleasure, will be annihilated.

But as the student progresses in his study, he learns that what we call material man and the material universe is to give place to their spiritual fact by translating material man and the material universe back into Spirit. (S&H 209:16) In Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy makes the following statement, “Science, understood, translates matter into Mind.” (25:12) And Mind is here written with a capital “M,” meaning Spirit.

From these references, we see that the purpose of Christian Science is to translate matter into Mind, or Spirit. According to the dictionary, “Translation” means to repeat or to carry forward one mode of expression into a better or higher mode of expression. For instance, the translation of Greek into English, is the interpretation of the mode of language called the Greek into a more useful and comprehensive mode of language, called the English. In the process of translation, it may seem that the

Greek language was destroyed, but the translator saw in the Greek language the substance of a more useful and comprehensive language, which we now call the English language. When Enoch was translated to heaven, his continuity and identity were in no way destroyed. By translation, Enoch, as a mode of consciousness, was forwarded, or was expressed in a higher or heavenly mode of consciousness.

So it is with the different states and stages of human consciousness, which to us are material. As these states and stages of material consciousness are flooded with the light of understanding, as taught in Christian Science, this understanding translates these states and stages of human or material consciousness into Mind, Spirit, or Reality. Translation in Christian Science is accomplished only by applying the rules and principles of Christian Science to our various states and stages of human or material consciousness. Our states and stages of human or material consciousness is all there is to matter.

The translation of material man and the material universe back into Spirit is best accomplished by using Jesus’ scientific method, which was always one of spiritual fulfillment, and not one of destruction. Translation, as taught by Jesus, and later as taught by Mrs. Eddy, is the changing of our material concept of the things at hand into a higher or more spiritual concept of the same thing.

Therefore, when I treat someone’s heart, I do not destroy a material heart, but I understand that all there is to that individual’s heart is the spiritual fact, the divine idea, the very presence and substance of Spirit. The trouble with the individual who seems to have heart trouble, is that he sees his heart as corresponding to his false, material concept of heart. Then I need to change his concept of heart, and not his heart.

By translation, I realize that all there is to a material heart, or to the material concept of heart, is the spiritual fact which is Reality. I do not change the spiritual fact, but I translate my material concept or belief about the spiritual fact, and see and understand it as it is. I, as a translator, see in my material concept of heart, something which if lifted up into its true depict, is the substance of the spiritual fact at hand. We know “heart” is a spiritual fact, because from our textbook (585:10) we read, “Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold.” And again, “All must give place to the spiritual fact by the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be found harmonious and eternal.” (S&H 209:21)

Ishmael

We read that God told Abraham not to destroy Ishmael. No, Ishmael was not to be destroyed; but through the understanding of the method of translation, Abraham discerned the spiritual fact of what his material senses beheld, and he saw in Ishmael the substance of Reality, or the spiritual fact at hand. And although Ishmael, as the son of a bondwoman, was not to be heir with Isaac, yet God, or Mind, said to Abraham, “Also, the son of the bondwoman will I make a great nation because he is thy seed.”

We, like Abraham, need to recognize that the good in human consciousness has in it “the seed,” or “the substance of things hoped for,” and not want to destroy it, but exchange a material concept of it for a higher, truer sense of the same thing.

For a Christian Scientist to take the attitude of thought that everything that still seems to have material accompaniments is just matter and, therefore, is to be destroyed, is not a scientific attitude of thought. Perhaps there is nothing so misunderstood as what is called “material things,” and perhaps there is nothing so improperly handled in Christian Science. Material things give place to the objects of spiritual sense as we translate man and the universe back into Spirit. True enough, in absolute Science, matter is naught; Mind is All. But to our human comprehension, practically everything we know seems to be material. But they are material only because of our material concept of them.

What Is Matter?

In Miscellaneous Writings (102:24), Mrs. Eddy says, “Whatever seems material, seems thus only to the material senses, and is but the subjective state of mortal and material thought.” So, what we call matter is not some inanimate thing, but is a mode of mortal thought. Were this not true, matter could not be translated into Mind, Spirit. In Miscellaneous Writings (233:30) she says, “Matter must be understood as a false belief.” And again (Ibid. 174:2) she says, “Matter is a misstatement of Mind.”

“Mind” written with a capital “M.” We can readily see that before we can have a false belief, or make a misstatement about a spiritual fact, the spiritual fact must be already at hand. We also see that there cannot be present both a material object and a spiritual object. If we see an object as material, we are only wrongfully minded about the spiritual fact already at hand.

If I have a picture of my home, we know there had to be a real home from which the picture was taken. The real home and the picture is the same thing. And, of the picture, I can say, “This is my home.”

So material objects are mental pictures of Realities formed by the human mind. The Reality is all there is to the mental picture. The Reality and the mental picture is the same thing. And of the mental picture I can say, “This is Reality.” I can say of my heart, the heart I now have, “This is divine idea and is perfect; there is only one heart present.” My concept of heart does not make another.

As our conception of Reality broadens, so-called matter, or these mental pictures of the spiritual fact, appear in higher perceptions and higher presentations of Reality. These fuller appearances, approximating Reality, make up the various states and stages of human consciousness, according to the degree to which the human mind is illumined by Truth.

These higher states and stages of consciousness which the human mind terms matter and Spirit, show forth the individual’s progress from sense to Soul, and they show forth the rise of mankind from a material viewpoint to a spiritual understanding and scientific demonstration of all Reality.

The Meaning of the Word “Thing”

The ordinary meaning of the word “thing” or object is that which is inanimate and has boundary, limit, weight, density and space, qualities which are the direct opposite of the qualities of Mind or Spirit; but when we understand “thing” or object correctly, it is thought.

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 337), “Eternal things (verities) are God’s thoughts.” So, things are objects of thought, or distinct ideas in the Mind of God, and are spiritual facts or Realities.

S&H 573:10, Mrs. Eddy says, “What the human mind terms matter and spirit, indicates states and stages of consciousness.” To the individual whose consciousness is illumined by Truth, man and the things comprising the universe are spiritual, “while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material.” (S&H 573:8) The good in any stage of human thought is the appearing of the spiritual fact at hand. This good is not to be destroyed, but our material sense of it is to give place to a higher spiritual sense.

If material good indicates a certain state of consciousness, then that particular stage of human consciousness is not to be destroyed. It is to be translated into higher states of consciousness, which more nearly approximate the spiritual fact or divine idea at hand.

Indeed, matter, or these states and stages of thought, must be translated into Mind, so that to us, there will not be both matter and Mind, but Mind will be All.

Man and the Universe Translated

How shall we translate man and the universe back into Spirit? We do this by knowing and feeling that Spirit, Mind, or Conscious Life, lives in all things and as all things. All things are the spiritual evidence of Mind.

There should be a feeling of infinite tenderness towards the things of Spirit which are here before us, even though we see them now as through a glass darkly. We can never behold the creations of Spirit at hand, so long as we see things as matter, or illusions, or nothing, and try to destroy them. The work of a Christian Scientist “is to discern the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold.” Only in this way can man and universe be translated back into Spirit.

In our present stage of understanding, we are not viewing things and forms as we shall view them when we open our perception wider, and live Reality more abundantly. Jesus said, John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” As we experience perfect life more abundantly, we begin to view everything about us in a more perfect way. And as we discern the spiritual fact of all things, the material accompaniments such as inanimate life, weight, density, solidity, finiteness, impermanence, insecurity, uncertainty, time and place will vanish from our consciousness and human experience.

Spiritual objects are forms of spiritual thought, and “thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but without material accompaniments.” (S&H 310:6)

The revealment or the disclosure of infinite Mind as ideas and forms is constant and eternal, and these higher revealments is what our Leader has termed states and stages of consciousness. Jesus said, John 14:2, “In my Father’s house (infinite Being) are many mansions,” that is, there are many higher and continuous revealments of Perfection or the things of Reality. Jesus demonstrated that the spiritual fact was the thing at hand, and that it was to be seen and utilized right in the midst of his human experience. So we are to utilize the thing in our midst, and see that our human experiences and the spiritual fact is now the same thing, and the only thing.

Under the marginal reference “Scientific Translations”, Mrs. Eddy says, “Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth.” (S&H 485:14) That is, emerge gently into your successive stages of consciousness, and let your demonstrations keep pace with your successive stages.

One lady said to me, “I fear I shall emerge too gently,” and someone else is trying to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. “Therefore are its spiritual gates not captured, nor its golden streets invaded.” (Ret. 79:27) This anxiety results from separating any stage of consciousness from its divine source, and considering it other than the spiritual fact.

It is always best to be temperate in thought, word, and deed, and if translation means the carrying forward of the states and stages of human consciousness into successive, higher modes of experience, this can be done only by degrees. God’s work is finished; His idea man, is finished; all creation is finished; and all will appear as finished and spiritual from the infinitesimal to infinity as we, individually, discern the spiritual fact of all that we behold.

PART II

We have considered “Translation” from the viewpoint that Christian Science, understood, translates matter, or states and stages of human thought, into Mind; now, let us consider “Translation” from the opposite viewpoint.

Mrs. Eddy says, Miscellaneous Writings (22:10), “Christian Science translates Mind, God, to mortals.” That is, Christian Science translates God, Mind, meaning all Reality, to mortals. We know, of course, that God, Mind, cannot be matter or a mode of mortal thought, but God, Mind, gives us spiritual ideas, and Christian Science translates these spiritual ideas, or realities, into mortal thought as good things which the human mind can understand.

Jesus translated spiritual ideas, or spiritual facts, into loaves and fishes for the multitude; into tax money for Peter; into the wine for the wedding feast. These examples of the Master show us that it is possible to receive, in its visible form, any spiritual fact or idea in which one can function, while yet in human consciousness.

Many of us seem slow in reaching a satisfactory solution of our daily problems; slow in making our own demonstrations; and slow in giving the proof to others that there is a wealth of desirable things at hand. When it comes to a wealth or an abundance of health and joy and peace, and supply, our proof of Christ, or Reality in our midst, seems very meager. This, of course, is a result of a meager understanding of certain spiritual facts. (Unity of Good 61:23-25)

We all need fully to understand that all things or all creation is not to be separated into two groups, one group spiritual and the other group material. Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 369:21), “Jesus knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and the other to be made indestructible.” Jesus knew that the God-Life is all there is to the so-called human life; and that the divine idea is all there is to so-called material good things.

And we need to know that creation, that is, all things, is ONE CREATION; and that all things are spiritual, no matter in what state or stage of human growth we are in. The living God made heaven and earth and the sea, and all things that are therein, and everything in creation is exactly the same at this moment as God conceived it; it is good and very good and it is spiritual. There can be nothing outside or beside or unlike the all-inclusiveness, ONE-INFINITY.

When rightly viewed, all natural things, from the sands on the seashore to the stars in the heavens, are formations of Spirit and are spiritual. So, also, is everything from a pin to a palace, including houses, and lands, and money, when these are correctly understood. Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 70:12), “The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal.” Then a star, which to one state of human consciousness is inanimate matter, when rightly viewed, is an identity or is identical with Mind, Spirit, and must be spiritual. The whole point at issue is our individual viewpoint.

To the most of us, the sand on the seashore would seem very inanimate and material, but to Jesus it would not seem so. Mrs. Eddy says (Misc. Wr. 74:13), “Christ Jesus’ sense of matter was the opposite of that which mortals entertain.” Then what to us is material, must have been, to Jesus, spiritual.

There is an old legend taken from the Aquarian Gospel, which tells of Jesus when he was seven years old. He was telling the people who had gathered before his home, of a dream. He said, “I had a dream, and in my dream I stood before a sea, upon a sandy beach. The waves upon the sea were high; a storm was raging on the deep. Someone above gave me a wand. I took the wand and touched the sand, and every grain of sand became a living thing; the beach was all a mass of beauty and song. I touched the waters at my feet and they were changed to trees and flowers and singing birds, and everything was praising God. I heard a voice which said, ‘There is no death. The sea of life rolls high; the storms are great. The multitude of men are idle, listless, waiting, like dead sands upon the beach. Your wand is Truth. With this, you touch the multitudes and every man becomes a messenger of holy light and life. You touch the waves upon the sea of life; their turmoil ceases; the very winds become a song of praise. There is no death, because the wand of truth can change the driest bones to living things and bring the loveliest flowers from stagnant ponds; and turn the most discordant notes to harmony and praise.’” (Valley — Glossary : 596)

To Jesus, things at hand were not inanimate, material things. This legend illustrates the fact that everything at hand, when viewed correctly, is spiritual Reality. With our wand of Truth, these spiritual facts can be translated into concrete, visible forms which we can understand, and into human experiences which are needful. “Our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things.” Such things as health and sight and beauty and food and clothing and homes and friends and money.

It is very important to know that there are not two groups of creation, but that all things are spiritual.

Since there is only one group of creation, and all is spiritual reality, then it is very necessary that we understand that the concrete, visible expressions of these realities is the spiritual fact of Reality itself, even though these visible forms appear as human sight, food, home, or a friend, or money.

How different would man and the universe be to us, if we would let this sense of separation of the human concept or material thing, and the divine idea, be swallowed up in unity, and see that loaves and fishes, the money and the wine, as the spiritual fact at hand, through the discernment of the reality of what the material senses behold.

Divine realities and their concrete expressions in human good co-exist, they are ONE AND THE SAME THING. Let each one become aware and conscious of this great fact.

“The spiritual ideas” that God gives us, and their translated daily supplies, are a unit; indivisible and inseparable. As one gains the more glorified concepts of Substance and its accessibility, things will be seen in their finer and more etherealized form, quality and beauty. Let us accept the fact that Reality is present in the very place where we stand. Reality is the divine Substance or Truth within us, or is our state of consciousness which we may utilize to fill our every need. It is right for us to translate these divine ideas, or spiritual facts, into concrete, visible forms and bring them to human sight and sense.

Humanity is, at present, functioning only partially in the completeness and abundance of Reality, so to sight and to sense, our abundance of good appears to come gradually. Our infinite Good, to human sense, is only partially seen and, therefore, only partially utilized and demonstrated.

It is only as we lift our vision above the realm of appearances, and function in the spiritual fact of abundance, as at hand, here and now, that we can bring the spiritual fact of abundance into tangible expression, and the good things that we desire.

Let us hold in consciousness that the one Good is here, at hand, now, in our possession. This knowing, this conviction, will out-picture or externalize itself into what we call our human good. This universe of spiritual ideas is apprehended and utilized by each individual, according to the individual’s degree of spiritual illumination. Such things as rocks, and trees, and grass, and sky, and animals, and men, are not material, as sometimes believed to be.

They are good, and therefore, they are “God-bestowed” in the human consciousness. When we treat such things, we always consider that the spiritual fact is all there is to our human concept of them.

Not a single blade of grass, a leaf, or a flower, is material, when viewed correctly. It is Spirit, Mind, which conceives, outlines and forms these ideas, which multiply and replenish the earth.

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 191:21), “By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell.” All natural beauty and grandeur, from the freshness of the morning, to the calm of the evening and the starry heavens at night, are the presence of the one Spirit, and are, therefore, spiritual.

All natural activities, such as eating, and walking and resting, and hearing, and seeing, and thinking, and feeling, ARE NOT IN NOR OF MATTER, but are the conscious functionings of the one Spirit, and are therefore spiritual. All natural love, and affection, and gladness, and happiness, and joy, and peace, and harmony are not in nor of person, but are the one conscious Life or Spirit in Being, and are therefore spiritual and unceasing. All things pertaining to, and essential to, our normal state of living, from a pin to a palace, when rightly viewed, are not matter, but are spiritual ideas at hand.

I do not say that the way I see them humanly, is spiritual, but the fact of what I see humanly, is spiritual, and the fact is the only thing present. Let us remember that only one thing is present: the spiritual Fact, and that Fact is always as it is, no matter what the human concept about it seems to be. The human concept and the spiritual fact is the same thing and the only thing.

All right, useful things, things that may yet seem material to us, REPRESENT SPIRITUAL IDEAS AND ARE EVER PRESENT AND DIRECTLY AT HAND. THIS IS TRUE, BECAUSE THE SPIRITUAL FACT IS THE SUBSTANCE AND PRESENCE OF THAT WHICH IS SEEN HUMANLY, or seen as a material thing. And, we as Christian Scientists are to “discern the spiritual fact of whatever our material senses behold.”

The spiritual fact is eternally at hand, and the way I see this Fact, humanly, or my highest human concept of it, does not make another fact, it is still the same spiritual Fact. I always have the Fact or Reality at hand, and I translate my human sense of it into higher, truer modes of consciousness. We are to remember that whatever appears to us as any material thing, this thing, AT THAT VERY INSTANT, IS A FACT, IS SPIRITUAL REALITY.

The Israelites must have had some sense of spiritual Reality as the substance and presence of their human concept of clothing, for their clothes waxed not old for forty years. Their clothes were materially mental, a state of human consciousness.

We are told that Christ, Truth, is the spiritual idea, giving us temporary food and clothing. And it appears to us as a human concept, or as something which the human mind can comprehend. As this material or human concept of food and clothing is transformed or translated with the ideal, higher and truer states and stages of consciousness take place, and the material disappears in the fulfillment of that which approximates Reality, and man is fed and clothed spiritually.

Homes — Lands — Money

We have been taught to call homes, lands and money, material things, but in reality, they are not material things, because Spirit is the substance and presence of what I see humanly as houses and lands and money.

Jesus had in his consciousness the eternal, spiritual Fact at hand, of what appeared to Peter, humanly, as the tax money. Jesus had in consciousness the eternal idea of Substance at hand, of what appeared, humanly, as wine at the wedding feast. Jesus’ consciousness was that of omnipresent infinity and it appeared, humanly, as loaves and fishes to the multitude. Homes and lands and money are divine ideas, expressed in forms that are cognizable to the human mind according to our individual comprehension of Reality.

Demonstration of These Things

If one is trying to demonstrate a home, or land, or money, his first perception of these things should be that since infinite Spirit, or divine Substance, or the divine idea is NOT material, neither can its expression be material. When we feel the need of these things that are natural and essential to our daily living, nearly always our first thought is of the cost. Our second thought must deal with certain people and circumstances; our third, the time it takes to obtain what we need and desire.

This seems to be our present stage of growth, but if we understand that all things are primarily divine ideas, in unity with infinite eternal substance, we can also understand that actually we have these things without price, and they are not dependent upon person, place, thing, or time for their existence, because they are co-existent with eternal being.

Sooner or later, it will occur to us that all good things belong to us because they are our very being. Sooner or later, we shall recognize that our own right Mind is God, and is our source of infinite supply. As we comprehend this fact, we need to deal with no one but ourselves. There is no “outside” to Being. BEING IS ALL. As we understand this to be true, we need not depend upon persons, place, time or circumstances for our help. Our world depends upon nothing outside of ourselves, and no problem is too small or too great to be understood, in its right light, and translated into Harmony.

We should learn to promote experiences of plenty and satisfaction from Heaven within us, rather than try to obtain them from circumstances without. All things are ours, because things are not material as is often believed, but are thought forms or distinct ideas in Consciousness.

All natural things that belong to our natural living are not finite or material, as supposed to be, but are forms of Mind, Spirit, although cognizable to us according to our comprehension and understanding of Being.

No matter in what state or stage of human consciousness I am, everything good in my consciousness “from infinitesimal to infinity” is God-bestowed, and is the divine idea or eternal reality at hand.

Whatever is good to human consciousness, we never consider it as matter. We never deny imperfect concepts with the thought of destroying things, but with spiritual insight and conviction, we deny the imperfect concept and, through translation, the imperfect concept gives place to a higher concept of Reality.

We do not destroy the so-called material body; we do not destroy the so-called material universe; we do not destroy the so-called personalities; the companionships, the pleasures, the activities, but we flood our consciousness with the understanding of omnipresent reality, and our concepts of these things appear brighter and brighter unto their perfect Reality.

All good things in human consciousness are God-bestowed. They are the formations of our own Mind or Being.

The Master said, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Let us rejoice that Heaven, Reality, reveals itself in our human consciousness as home and persons and things.

Yes, even the warmth and glow of a happy family; the clasp of a friendly hand; the pure pleasures of daily living.

All forms of good are God-bestowed and are tangible and substantial in human consciousness, according to our individual comprehension of good. The fact that Spirit is infinite Good, precludes the possibility of a lack of so-called material or human good. Infinite Good and material good are one and the same Good when correctly understood. (S&H 561:16)

In view of the fact that in the Scriptures we find both the primitive and the ultimate of man, it is quite fitting that a greater unfoldment of the spiritual understanding of the Scriptures should have a place in the day’s work of our annual association.

Where is the Science of Life to be found, if not in the Scriptures? Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39) Again he said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matt. 22:29)

And on the way to Emmaus after the resurrection, we find Jesus teaching the disciples the importance of understanding the Scriptures in order that they might have a proper attitude of thought and action towards the experiences of that hour. He said, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25, 27) And it is only through an understanding of the Scriptures that we can have the proper attitude of thought and action towards the trying experiences of this hour, this hour when the Son of Man is coming in greater power. Who is able to see and abide his coming?

For three years Mrs. Eddy withdrew from the world to meditate and pray and search the Scriptures, and she enjoined all students of Christian Science to study the

Scriptures and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures habitually. And we should value daily our study before everything else, for this study promotes the individualization of the Science of Life. The Scriptures, when understood in the light of the revelation of our textbook, become fundamental and very sacred to the student of Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy says, “the Bible was written in order that all peoples, in all ages, should have the same opportunity to become students of the Christ, Truth, and thus become God-endued, with power (knowledge of divine law) and with ‘signs following’.” (My. 190:23-27)

Mrs. Eddy also says, “The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.” (S&H 131:10) And this great fact of the superiority of spiritual power over physical power, is emphasized and exemplified in the lives of all great characters of Biblical history.

We should clearly understand that the Scriptures are a record of the evolution of the concept of God in the human mind, from its first inception down to the present time. The Scriptures set forth the rise and fulfillment in the human consciousness from the first conception of God as a person, up to the conception of God in our time as Mind or impersonal Truth, and it also sets forth the demonstration thereof.

All progress in so-called civilization is the unfoldment of Spirit in human consciousness. This unfoldment of Spirit is the only evolution, and this evolution has been the unveiling in human consciousness of the everlasting established fact of God and man as one Being.

The rise and fulfillment in human consciousness of the true conception of God and man, that is, that God and man is one Being, is the immaculate conception. The immaculate conception has always existed. The immaculate conception is the Christ or God’s complete idea of Himself, which was before Abraham was. The immaculate conception, discerned in the human consciousness, either in the days of Abraham or in our present day, is the same perception of the Truth of Being which Mary perceived and presented to the world in the concrete form of Jesus.

The perception in my human consciousness or in your human consciousness of the fact that “I and my Father are one,” or that “God and man is one Being,” is the immaculate conception in me or in you, to be fulfilled and presented to the world as our “true humanhood.”

The Chain of Spiritual Existence Appearing

The Scriptures record the eternal chain of spiritual and scientific existence or the Science of Life, as it appears through the ages; that is, the Scriptures record the Immaculate Conception or the self-revealing Christ from its first dawn in the human consciousness of the patriarchs, up to its full disclosure in Divine Science or Christian Science; thus “uniting all periods in the design of God.” (S&H 271:4)

The Line of Divine Light

Last year in our lesson on this subject, I did not hesitate to say, that in order to find the Science of Life and to come into its Principle and Law (through which we enter the kingdom), we must be able to follow the line of divine light through the ages to its culmination in “Science and Health.” We should recognize that in the “design of God” we are now in the period of Divine Science, all prophecies having been fulfilled. And under this dispensation of Divine Science, we are “all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:13)

The patriarchs and prophets stand for something far greater than mere human beings, or just good personalities. These glorious characters exemplified the unfoldment and the development of the immaculate conception. They showed forth or exemplified the Science of Life, or the self-revealing Christ which was their reality.

These characters need to be understood correctly, for in no other way shall we understand ourselves correctly. Deity, Divinity, was manifested in the humanity of these spiritually minded men of that day. God was their Mind.

Enoch

We find that Enoch worked out his salvation in his day through a right knowledge of God and man, for it is recorded that “Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.” (Gen. 5:24) Enoch knew what must be known by every individual; that God or Spirit is One, that Spirit is the only creator, and that all creation is the being of Spirit. Enoch knew that all evil, matter, sin, disease, and death are like the mist that seemed to arise at dawn to oppose the sun; but which, when the sun appears, dissolves and is no more.

Enoch, because grounded in immortal Truth, overcame the false beliefs that limit mankind, and he so focused the rays of immortal truth upon his seeming self that the seeming self dissolved. Enoch walked with God; he passed, without death, into a consciousness of eternal life. Thus all mankind must do to live.

Noah

We find that Noah was the first person to give special attention to the immaculate conception. He gave special attention to perceiving the spiritual concept of God and man as one Being. Noah saw the wickedness of mankind at its very height, but he saved the world through his faint perception of the Science of Life. It was the mesmerism of evil that swept away human civilization in Noah’s day, and we of this day, like Noah, need to take refuge in the Ark of Truth, and rise above the turbulent mesmerism of error.

Abraham

After Noah’s trying experiences, there came into view many patriarchs who perceived that spiritual existence is a scientific fact. One of the greatest patriarchs was Abraham.

The immaculate conception of God and man as one Being had already been revealed in human consciousness, and now we find Abraham putting forth every effort to exemplify in his daily life this immaculate conception or the self-revealing Christ, which was all there was to him. We read that Abraham left his father’s house; that is, he left the prevalent modes of thought of that day, and went out into a strange country. To Abraham, this strange country, or this mode of thought, was life in Spirit or his true understanding of God and man. In Hebrews (11:10) we read, Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

In Abraham we find a type of obedience, and Christian Scientists know that without obedience, we can never see God, never find the Science of Life. Obedience implies sacrifice, but we are not to sacrifice material things, or others; we sacrifice only a false sense of things and a false sense of others.

Abraham, through his effort and willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, learned that the offering of human sacrifice was a mistake. Through his perception of the immaculate conception, he now understood that he was to give up only his material concepts, even the material concept of his beloved son. He perceived that every material concept must be replaced with the spiritual concept of God and man as one Being. With such an understanding of Spirit, and with such obedience to Truth, is it any wonder that all nations were to be blessed in Abraham?

Because Abraham was faithful and obedient to his glimpse of truth that God, Spirit, is One and All, he was made Heir to the Word or Heir to the spiritual concept of God and man, and was rewarded with the promise that he should become the father of many nations. And because of Abraham’s fidelity and obedience to truth, the whole material concept of sin, lack, disease, and death will be abolished from the earth, and the spiritual concept of man will be fully revealed.

It was at least ten years after Abraham left his father’s house before he found Melchizedek, the Christ, or the perfect concept of God and man, that delivered him from the hand of all his enemies. He was assailed by temptation and fear, by loss, and besieged by enemies. At Bethel he separated from his beloved Lot, that Lot might have the richest of the pasture lands.

But during all these years, while gaining an understanding, Abraham was proving his faith in the only living and true God. Abraham knew he was a witness to the stupendous truth which was destined ultimately to conquer every false system of worship, and form the basis of one demonstrable religion, that God is One and All.

Abraham knew that in order to find the city that hath foundations, which is the true understanding of God, he could not be wanting in patience and obedience and fidelity. He knew he could not gain this understanding by fleeing when evil pursued him. He knew that evil, when undestroyed, would pursue him, because God or Truth does not let evil rest until it is entirely destroyed. A false peace is no peace.

Abraham made mighty demonstrations through his faith in God, and through his fidelity to his vision that God is One.

Many of us, when wrestling with the problems of this day, receive much comfort and courage from the narrative where the Assyrian armies swooped down upon Abraham and his tribes, and were shouting their cries of victory, when Melchizedek, the Prince and Priest of the Most High, appeared in the distance with the supposed army.

The Assyrian armies, when they beheld the oncoming host of Melchizedek, which appeared to them to be as numerous as the sand of the desert with their shields and spears glistening in the sun, turned back their armies in such haste and confusion as to fall on their own spears, and were thus self-destroyed.

The enemies of Abraham fled when the host of Melchizedek burst upon their sight; but Melchizedek came not with arms nor with great numbers, just Melchizedek and a few attendants; but Abraham’s enemies, mortal mind as always, saw its own concept and fears personified, and fled before what was, in reality, the vision of Omnipotence.

Likewise, we learn slowly but surely that our enemies are but our own concepts, human thoughts and fears that are personified. These seeming enemies are turned back and self-destroyed, when once Melchizedek, the Prince and Priest of the Most High, the understanding that is absolute Truth, becomes our consciousness and demonstrates the everpresent fact that God, Truth, is supreme power.

Melchizedek

What a grand character was Melchizedek. There is some question about who Melchizedek was humanly, but we know the reality of the Christ was all there was of him. He was without human father or mother, without beginning or end of days. In the days of Abraham, there dwelt on the earth sacred and mysterious kings of righteousness and peace, and the greatest of these was Melchizedek. He was a spiritually minded servant of the One God; he was a great administrator of justice, and such as he believed God, Himself, would be.

Melchizedek subdued Egypt and overthrew their idolatry, and did it without bloodshed or strife. How was this done? Through his understanding of God as One. He knew that materiality, personified evil, has no power to interfere or defeat that which is spiritual fact. Melchizedek was the type of that greater Priest who was to come as a sinful world’s Messiah. I often think of those who dwell on earth today, who move among us as a divine afflatus, invisible to us, because our eyes are holden.

The great Prince and Priest of the Most High alone can lead us to that city which hath foundations; and we shall find that city when we seek the spiritual alone; when we abandon the belief that things are matter; when we cease to fear that evil has presence and power; when the belief in evil ceases to contest our faith in God as All. Our Most High Priest is always at hand. Our Redeemer liveth, and He stands upon the earth today as our Great Deliverer.

Moses

Next in the line of the spiritual appearing of spiritual existence came Moses. Moses came nearer fulfilling the immaculate conception than anyone, save Jesus. It was his lack of love that prevented Moses from being the anointed.

With the exception of Jesus, Moses is considered the greatest character in history. When we see Moses leading the people triumphantly through the Red Sea, providing manna in the wilderness, and water to drink from the rock, we realize to what extent he was endued with the might, the Mind of Spirit.

But Jesus stands alone as having made the complete demonstration of the oneness of God and man. It was when Moses tried to harmonize his understanding of Truth with humanity’s needs, that he failed to demonstrate his vision of man’s oneness with God.

Moses was commanded not to smite the rock; that is, not to have as fact both evil and good, and then to endeavor to overcome the error in consciousness with the good in consciousness. Moses sacrificed the Christ concept by accepting the false suggestion that the Israelites were apart and separate from God: he saw them sinful and disobedient, sick and lacking, and he saw himself a personal Saviour.

We, like Moses, may rise to Pisgahs in our vision, and yet fail woefully because we do not demonstrate our vision out in life’s experiences. At the age of eighty, Moses began his great life work, and continued it until his 120th year. At that time it was recorded of him that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. The appearing Christ or Saviour in the human consciousness of Moses became the seed of a great nation worshipping God, a nation that ceased to worship idols, and worshipped the One God.

Elijah and Elisha

After Moses, Elijah and Elisha followed in succession in the divine development of the immaculate conception. Elijah and Elisha brought in the dispensation of spiritual healing. Each of these prophets raised a child from the dead, multiplied the oil for the widow, and divided the river Jordan that they might pass over dry shod. These prophets set out, or established, the method or technique for all metaphysical healing throughout all time.

The technique of healing used by Elijah in raising the widow’s son in the city of Zarapath is clearly portrayed. The narrative tells us that the son of the widow fell ill and there was no breath left in him; and Elijah said unto her, “Give me thy son,” and took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode. (See I Kings 17:17-19)

Now, bosom means the within or secret thought, and Elijah took the lad out of his mother’s thought, which was the thought of death, and took him up into his own thought which was the thought of life, abode there, and he stretched himself upon the child three times; another translation tells us that he measured himself upon the child; that is, Elijah estimated the child according to the spiritual fact of man, which was the standard or measure of himself and others.

Today we use the same standard for measuring our patients or our problems as was used by the prophet Elijah. And like Elijah, we should measure ourselves upon our problems three times; that is, we should measure or evaluate our problem until, in our ascending scale of realization, we see perfection. This is what Elijah did, for the narrative tells us that Elijah delivered the child to his mother and said, “See, thy son liveth.” (I Kings 17:23)

Our standard of measure is always perfection or the truth of Being. God or Mind is the standard of man. We should persist in maintaining this standard until, with Paul, we come “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13) The healing of our patients or problems depends upon our demand that they measure up to the standard of the spiritual man in God’s likeness. (This is to stretch ourselves upon the child.)

We find that the prophet Elisha, too, measured himself upon the lad in the case of raising the Shunammite’s son from the dead. The record states that, as a result of this measuring process, the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes. (See II Kings 4:35) Now, sneezed comes from a word meaning originally to diffuse or to scatter; so Elisha, when measuring himself upon the child, caused the error in the child’s thought to be scattered or destroyed.

These two narratives exemplified that insistence upon the facts of being is requisite, and we find that in measuring ourselves upon the problem, insistence is always requisite. Mrs. Eddy says, “Mentally insist that harmony is the fact.” Again she says, “Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside Him. There is no disease.” (S&H 412:23; 421:15-18)

The Appearing of the Christian Era

Mrs. Eddy tells us that these patriarchs and prophets “caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ,” and if this exalted view that they obtained had been retained, “man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony.” (S&H 333:23; 598:25)

One often wonders why it was, the Christian era did not appear at the time of the patriarchs and prophets, with men of such high vision and power with God. This was the reason: Christ was appearing in his maturity to these men of old. These patriarchs and prophets had an exalted view which could not be retained by the less spiritually minded; a view that was beyond the human comprehension of mortals. The general thought of that time was not prepared to receive the Christ. Prepared thought is the doorway through which revelation comes. Truth is withheld from those who cannot comprehend it.

Isaiah

It remained for Isaiah to perceive that in order for Christ or Truth to be retained, this coming of the Christ, or this immaculate conception, must take place within the consciousness of each individual. Each one must, himself, be the individual Christ, and all men the Christ universal. Isaiah understood that this immaculate conception, or the individual Christ, must first come as a little child; must be understood as a child; and grow into maturity. He understood that each one must grow into the fullness of the stature of the Christ. (See Eph. 4:13)

Because of Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah’s perception of the form in which Christ would some day appear, for hundreds of years many Hebrew maidens felt and hoped that they might become the mother of the anointed, and bring forth their concept of the immaculate conception.

Christ’s Appearing

Down the ages, the dawn of ideas unfolded the Christ, or Saviour, to men in various ways and fuller degrees until, in the fullness of time, the Christ who was to herald the Christian era, as foretold by the prophets, appeared.

The Christ appeared in the highest form possible to human conception, and appeared to the most courageous and purest thought of that time. The Christ appeared to the Virgin Mary, a woman communing with God. Jesus was born of Mary, and Mrs. Eddy tells us that, “Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God.” (S&H 316:12)

Not Enough to Perceive and Present the Christ

But it was not enough just to perceive and present the Christ through Jesus, as was done by Mary. In order to complete the scientific reason for the appearing of the immaculate conception to the patriarchs, it was necessary that one more step should be taken.

The Positive Rule

This further step was that this Truth, or Christ, must be set down in writing; a positive rule must be given humanity, by means of which all mankind could demonstrate the divine Principle. Bible scholars assert that the roll spoken of in several places in the Bible, is scriptural symbolism for the written word of God. This roll is spiritual, scriptural references to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Jesus did not give the whole truth to the world. Not because he did not have the whole truth, but he said, “Ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:12-13)

Comforter Is Divine Science

The Spirit of truth or the Comforter, is Divine Science. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, given to the world through Mary Baker Eddy’s perception of the Christ, has explained Divine Science, and this Comforter will lead all humanity into all truth.

All Prophecy Is Fulfilled

All prophecy has been fulfilled. The Christ, as impersonal truth, appeared in Mrs. Eddy’s consciousness and she has given it to us through her writings. Nothing further is required to guide us into all truth. Mrs. Eddy typifies the “woman clothed with the sun,” spoken of in Revelation, whose babe, Divine Science, is to rule all nations. (See Rev. 12:5)

Christian Science originated in the first chapter of Genesis, and has been on its way until, in an age promised by Christ Jesus (this present age), this immaculate conception or Christ or Truth has appeared in its fullness and completeness as Divine Science.

At this time, the coming of the Christ, or Saviour, heralded a purely spiritual type or model, and it came to the spiritualized consciousness of a woman. This woman, Mary Baker Eddy, is not only the Discoverer and Founder of the Christian Science Movement, but when correctly estimated, she is the Leader of this movement throughout all time.

Mary Baker Eddy, like Abraham and Moses, the patriarchs and the prophets, stands for something far greater than a good personality, or a good human being. When correctly understood, Mary Baker Eddy stands for the full and complete revelation of divine Science; she stands for the full Egoistic consciousness, the revealed Christ.

The truth that we have today, is the same truth that appeared to Abraham and Moses, only in complete revelation. It was not a new truth or a new phase of truth that some thought Christ Jesus to be; it was the same Christ that revealed himself in the days of the patriarchs. Neither is it a new truth, nor a phase of truth, that we are receiving through Mrs. Eddy, the transparency of this age.

Our real self-hood has appeared on the horizon of our thought. The question is, what are we as individual students of this Science going to do with this revelation?

Each individual here today is individually the Christ or is Egoistic consciousness. We, too, are fixed stars in the heaven of Soul. Shall we, like the patriarchs, the prophets, Jesus, and Mrs. Eddy, let this self-revealing Christ fulfill itself within us and swallow up the personal and mortal misconception of ourselves?

Let us have the moral courage and insistence upon the facts of being, which alone will give us the power and glory of the Christ within us.

The following was given at an Association Meeting by Mrs. Wilcox. These things were taught her by Mrs. Eddy while she was in Mrs. Eddy’s home.

It is most important to analyze the beliefs specifically. This is always possible only when we understand that Truth brings the belief to light; that the human mind cannot uncover its own error.

When you call the disease animal magnetism, wholly a belief of mortal mentality, you are calling it by its correct name. What educated belief calls it, is not what it is. Cancer, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, war are simply names, and not something which is occurring, then you understand animal magnetism.

Love meets the human need, and one of the needs of the human race is to find out to what extent animal magnetism is claiming to be one’s thinking.

Any effort you may make to rid yourself of sickness and death only perpetuates these errors of belief, since the error is not sickness and death. Sickness and death are evidences of the nothingness of matter, the self-destruction of mortal mind going on as the immutable law of Spirit. They are animal magnetism, a belief of life in matter, and can only disappear by translating matter into its original language, Mind.

“The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.” (S&H 402:18-19)

Remember that what a thing is named, that it is not. Disease is never a condition of matter; it is always a state of mind called matter, a self-destroying error. (S&H 204:306; 227:26-29)

Whatever names you give the error of belief that is uncovered, it is always an error of statement, an error stating Truth in reversion, stating that there is life, substance and intelligence in matter. All substance is Mind. Therefore we look away from the error to the Truth that is forever present. When matter is really understood to be a mortal concept, an error of statement and not a lump of stuff, then error will not be used in stating Truth.

What you are actually witnessing, which educated belief names disease, war, and what not, is the false sense of God and man, named a mortal, finding out that mortality is nothing.

Divine Love meets the human need. The human need is that we shall think divinely, that we shall be conscious of divine facts only, that we shall be aware that the “very circumstance which suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive” is Love, the divine energy of Spirit, saying, arise from your false consciousness, for that is the only place that suffering is. “Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly interprets God as divine Principle, — as Life, represented by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to God.” (S&H 568)

True self-denial will set aside the belief that we are material, mortal, finite, and thus set aside disease. The denial of material self-hood occurs scientifically when thought looks out from Mind, rather than a person up to Mind.

The human body itself cannot argue for a cancer any more than can a table. It is this false belief of mind that gives us all the trouble. Our textbook says that because it is a myth, it must by its own consent give itself up to everlasting Truth. “That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so-called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth.” (S&H 151:31-2) (S&H 250:25-27)

If the disease is an error of belief about body, or God and man, it is not “out there,” belonging to a person, but it is “here,” as a belief of a false mind, as a belief that there is a believer in evil. Therefore, the belief must be denied by leaving the mortal basis of belief. (S&H 425:6; 419:28) “Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes the whole body ‘sick, and the whole heart faint’; whereas divine Mind heals.” (S&H 219:11)

Sin, the belief of false mentality, constitutes the mortal man, therefore, disease is not caused by sin in the way we usually think of it, but the belief of mortality is the only sin and sinner, and is the only disease. Mortal mind makes its own man, mortal. In order to heal disease and bring to light the indestructible body, the incorporeal body, we must transcend material sense. As Christian Scientists, we do not go through crucifixion and resurrection, the overcoming of evil by good, in order to transcend personal sense and live in the realm of ascension. “The basic error is mortal mind.” (S&H 405:1) “Neither disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to cause disease or a relapse.” (S&H 419: 10-12) “Deny the existence of matter, and you can destroy the belief in material conditions.” (S&H 368:2931)

“Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.” (S&H 262:30-32) “Matter, and its effects — sin, sickness, and death — are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind.” (S&H 283:8-10)

Since the admission of materiality makes disease inevitable, we do not have to consciously believe in disease to have a belief of disease. Anything that identifies us with the belief of false mentality, identifies us mortally, and this is disease. Christian Science has come to show us that matter is a dying error; that all is Mind; that we have the capacity to consciously think as Mind, and thus meet the belief of false mentality which claims to be our conscious and unconscious thinking.

When we recognize that we are not dealing with a substance called matter, but merely with a belief that utterly misrepresents substance, there is no so-called disease that can stand in the effulgence of that understanding.

“You say, ‘Toil fatigues me.’ But what is this me? Is it muscle or mind? Which is tired and so speaks? Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non-intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that which affirms weariness, made that weariness.” (S&H 217:29-2) Weariness, exhaustion, lack of sleep are not the results of having too much to do; they are the products of a belief in a self-hood apart from God, products of pride and fear, impatience and self-assertion, the arrogant belief in a self-hood apart from God gets tired.

Mind, being consciousness, cannot be unconscious, so whatever sleep is, in the divine Mind it is not unconsciousness. Consciousness is Mind, Spirit, and all we can be conscious of is constituted of Spirit, indestructible, uncontaminated substance. The error is the belief that there is another substance than Spirit. This belief is named matter, but it is false belief, a misstatement of Mind, unreal in all its aspects.

Matter, being wholly belief, a supposition that substance is other than Spirit, a state of mind, is not something that can be destroyed. It is wholly a theory, a formulation. Meet the belief that matter is substance, and so-called mortal mind, in giving itself up to Mind, cannot appear as the destruction of the belief. When matter is seen to be a mortal belief, “Error will be no longer be used in stating Truth.” (S&H 126:2)

Remove the sin, the belief of mortality, and you remove its penalty, disease, mortality and death, because the punishment of sin, mortality, is the self-destruction of mortality, and thus you experience the incorporeal body which comes with the ascension.

The breaking up of material beliefs named matter, is not disease, want, woe, war, etc., but is the appearing in consciousness, as consciousness, of true substance, Spirit. (Un. 32:9-17; S&H 193:25-27) When we deal with disease or any discord as the effect of mortal mind, we do not understand that mortal mind is a myth, is a basic error, and an error is never cause to have effect. Error is simply a term to indicate the suggested absence of something. The effect or phenomenon of mortal mind is mortal mind, a false view and not something that is occurring. (S&H 488:23-8)

You waste your strength dealing with effect or matter “out there.” This so-called mind is the basic error and goes right along being the sin until you are ready to see that Mind is One. You cannot meet the belief of matter, named disease, as long as you think of them as effect, (S&H 569:1419; 396:21-22) “as if matter could have sensation.” That is why Mind can destroy all this. (S&H 493:20-21)

Thought that is concerned with the material appearance of things and attempts to correct the appearance, or what is called effect, by correcting the thinking of the so-called human mind, has accepted the human mind as causation and is on as material a level as the one giving medicine to heal sickness. One of the most limiting beliefs confronting Christian Scientists, is believing that effects can be changed by an improvement in the human mind. The human mind never becomes better nor is an effect ever improved. (S&H 230:27-30; 423:15-24; 120:25-29; 251: 1-32)

When assailed by the belief that there are no results from your work, agree with your adversary. There are no results in Mind. The only result in Mind is action or evidence, and that has been from all eternity, perfect, untouched by any belief or interruption; all existence, being reflection, is noumenal, not phenomenal.

When you understand that Mind is One and All, then you must admit that everything in your world comes to you as consciousness. If you do not turn from Mind, cause, to consider effect, you will experience as effect only that which is true, beautiful and satisfying. If “all is Mind,” what is there to turn to and where can you turn? If “all is Mind,” that Mind cannot be conscious of anything but itself as evidence.

The elements of Mind, form, color, etc., are infinite, perfect, ever present. “I believe that of which I am conscious through the understanding, however faintly able to demonstrate Truth and Love.” (Un. 48:19)

On page 442, S&H, we read, “Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.” If the belief of malpractice was not the belief of a false mentality asserting itself as one’s own mind, one could not be a law unto himself. (Oneself)

The mere fact that everything seems to be going smoothly, happily, does not mean that we have met the belief of malpractice. Malpractice is always present as a claim of false thinking, a false mind, the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals. “The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they annihilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and fall into dust. In reality there is no mortal mind, and consequently no transference of mortal thought and will-power.” (S&H 103:25-31)

There are no thought waves even in belief. You cannot send a good thought or a bad thought. So all the good thoughts and bad thoughts are a belief of collective thinking as individual, the one mortal mind.

When you heal a patient, that patient is healed primarily because he is already well. There is no one that exists who does not know God and is not knowing God every instant; since knowledge of God is the only existence. Your understanding of this fact takes care of malpractice. Malpractice is the belief of false mentality and its activity. Anyone unenlightened by Science is the victim of the belief of malpractice, a belief of false mentality. You cannot rest short of seeing that the whole fabric of mortal mind constitutes what is called your mortal mind, either consciously or unconsciously; therefore when one phase of mortal mind seems to disappear, it does not mean that all of mortal mind has been met, so you must be ever alert.

The human being is a law unto himself and is exempt from the belief of malpractice, when he understands that all being is Spirit. If what is called malpractice is wholly a belief of wrong mental practice, and there is only one Mind, and that Mind is God, where and what is the wrong mental practice? Wholly supposititious, wholly unreal. If you believe that someone can think evilly of you or anyone, if you believe that someone can hate you, or is hating anyone, if you believe that ten thousand can fall at your right hand and ten thousand at your left hand, you have accepted the belief of a mind separate from good, and this is malpractice upon yourself. Where is the belief of malpractitioner? Where is the believer in evil? Personal sense is always malpractice, and so a murderer from the beginning. The belief of malpractice and malpractitioner is one. “All sensible phenomena are merely subjective states of mortal mind.” (No 14:6-7)

“The subjective states of evil, called mortal mind or matter, are negatives destitute of time and space; for there is none beside God or Spirit and the idea of Spirit.” (No 16:11-14) We often hear this statement, “The accident was caused by malpractice; my sickness was caused by malpractice.” Malpractice could never be a cause; malpractice is a belief, error. The accident and sickness are themselves a belief of malpractice, a belief of false mind, an incorrect view, the one collective and individual belief which embodies all the evil that we think we see. Mrs. Eddy once said to a member of her household, “In the beginning it was easy to handle sickness, but now we are handling sin.” It is sin to admit that mind is mortal and can know either good or evil matter.

A supposition has no power to be anything. It cannot do anything but fade away in the light of Truth, and is not doing anything but that. A supposition cannot make anyone ill. There is no believer in evil. Any seeming belief in evil is reactionary, which means that a supposition (so-called evil) can destroy nothing but itself.

Mrs. Eddy’s discovery that all is Mind is the “greater works,” and is the prevention of disease, since the only disease there is, is the belief in matter. The time is not far distant when matter will be universally understood as a way of thinking, a mental concept; then the seeming destruction of the so-called human body by disease, accidents or death, will be impossible.

(S&H 90:8-12; also see marginal note “Mind is substance”) Treatment in Christian Science is constant revelation and therefore creation; therefore a real treatment cannot be a formula. Mind is action. Treatment is Mind demanding, supplying its own evidence. (S&H 199:8-12) There are only three things to consider in a treatment: First, cause; Second, substance; Third, law. Covering these three essential points thoroughly, you have covered the essential points in connection with every suggestion.

The time will come, NOW it can be, since it is, when Christian Scientists will think with the clarity of divine Mind without process, and shall acquire the object of their thinking without delay, because the object of their thinking is their thinking. “Mind spake and form appeared.” (Mis. 280:1) All existence is the awareness of Truth. “The life of man is Mind.” (S&H 402:17) This understanding means the elimination in treatment of routine, mere affirmation and denial. “Before they call I will answer.” Before the error is brought to light to be self-seen as nothing, that error does not exist as something but as supposition.

An affirmation of Truth is the acknowledged presence of Truth; it is Mind acknowledging the evidence of Itself. In fact, anything that arises in consciousness, regardless of appearances, is always the demand of Truth upon Itself to be Itself. Human beings seem to arrive at a conclusion through a process of thinking, but we must remember that the conclusion always existed in Mind, and can be arrived at without process, because it already is what it is. You must remember that nothing is to be changed by thinking. Jesus said, “Take no thought.” There is nothing to change. True thinking is the activity of Mind, which does not think about anything, but is Mind forever being infinite. The attitude or viewpoint of the human being changes proportionately as understanding constitutes his consciousness. The patient is what the practitioner knows. Let your understanding determine how you should give a treatment. If you need to argue, understand that you are never arguing with disease but always with yourself, to convince yourself that you cannot believe in evil, that “man has no Mind but God.” Never treat yourself; yourself is all right. Treatment convinces you of that fact. Mrs. Eddy gives a clear statement of what to do if you need a formula for treatment, and here it is: S&H 495:14-24.

Your patient is not somebody “over there” thinking he has a disease, trouble and sin; neither is your patient yourself. There is no patient even in belief; the belief is always mortal mind, and mortal mind is not a patient, nor a practitioner. There is no mortal mind, no private mind, no private body.

The first step is to rejoice in the divine fact that there is nothing to be healed, and that the constant demand is to acknowledge God; that is your opportunity to bear witness to the divine law, in other words, to be what you divinely are.

Encounter everything that arises in consciousness, regardless of its importance, with a joyous anticipation of Mind. Let that Mind be the only Mind, since it is the only Mind, and let your thought proceed from the infinite in all its grandeur. Mind is. Consciousness is. Therefore, all there is to a treatment is the consciousness which is Mind declaring Itself, and simultaneously denying the seeming presence of anything unlike Itself.

You must not make statements of Truth as if you were theorizing. When we make statements in a treatment, we make them because they are true and not because we expect them to accomplish something. (Mis. 201:9-12, 1624)

Our patients will come to us as they came to Jesus and experience healing in the same way, when we live the divine ideas that are the Christ. “The rule and its perfection of operation never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life, because you have not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science.” (S&H 149:11-16; John 6:44)

Let us remember in this matter of argument, that mortal mind always starts from effect, so you may be sure if you are considering effect, the way anything looks, be it good or evil, it is mortal mind and is always evil. “In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysical systems afford no substantial aid to scientific metaphysics, for their arguments are based on the false testimony of the material senses as well as on the facts of Mind.” (S&H 268:14-18)

If you turn from effect to cause, find Mind, God, as the source and condition of all being, you have the right interpretation of every appearance, whatever named or labelled. “The material atom is an outlined falsity of consciousness, which can gather additional evidence of consciousness and life only as it adds lie to lie. This process it names material attraction, and endows with the double capacity of creator and creation.” (Un.35:26; 32:17-19)

The denial of evil is really the state of consciousness that knows no evil. When you understand the nature of the lie, you cannot beat that for a denial. A lie is always a lie about something true, present. When you understand that what educated belief calls disease is the breaking up of material belief, which means the better visibility of Spirit, can you beat that for a denial of disease?

“Everything that God created, He pronounced good. He never made sickness. Hence that is only an evil belief of mortal mind, which must be met, in every instance, with a denial by Truth.” (Mis. 247:29-32)

The human mind cannot uncover and deny error, since the belief that Mind is human is the error. The human mind cannot lift itself by its own bootstraps. It is Truth which says, “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter”; it is not mortal mind that says it. It is not mortal mind that says, “There is no disease.”

Mortal mind says, “How can I fulfill the conditions of being nothing without disease?”

Our book says, we should begin our treatment by “allaying the fear of the patient.” How? What is fear? Fear is ignorance; ignorance is this unknown; fear ignores the fact that God is All. The human race is always fearful of the unknown. Fear is met by self-denial; the denial of material self-hood. Fear is the manifestation of the error of material sense or extinction; naturally, the belief that being is personal and material, being a belief, a lie, would embody the fear of self-destruction, since a lie, being nothing, always includes within itself the seed of its own dissolution. Therefore, to remove fear, we do not argue against fear. Our argument is always with the suggestion that there is a mind to be afraid. This basic error that Mind is mortal, is all that is wrong.

The mind of man is God, wholly good, wholly lovely, and there is no other mind, no mind to be afraid. (’01 14:14-16; Rud. 9:10-16)

We must understand that this belief of being a mortal always embodies fear, since it denies Life. Even when the mortal does not seem to be afraid, as a mortal he is always afraid. Mortal mind is a state of extreme fear.

There is no malpractitioner other than that which claims to be your own mind, the self-admission that there is a mind apart from God. (S&H 462:20; 84:14)

We cannot outline how disbelief in evil will look to human sense. We do know Truth brings a disbelief in evil. No one actually believes in evil, so disbelief in it has to be apparent. Error stating Truth has to be seen as Truth stating Truth. Error makes the nothingness of nothing apparent. (S&H 225:26-28)

On page 267:27-28, S&H, Mrs. Eddy speaks of error as “Waymarks to eternal Truth” (marginal heading). Therefore, you do not ignore the error nor turn your back upon it, nor do you say of it, there is no Truth in it, it is nothing, and let it rest at that; but you recognize that all belief implies the existence of spiritual reality and is actually a proof of the presence of Truth. As Christian Scientists, we let go of the belief and acknowledge the ever-present Truth, which Mind is forever unfolding as individual conscious being.

In this way, the denial of error, the denial that the concept is human, becomes an automatic process of reversal.

Ascension does not mean going some place. Science and ascension are synonymous, the giving up of sense testimony, false beliefs. In this realm of Science which is the ascension, there is no crucifixion, no resurrection, no dying, no awakening, no putting off the old man and putting on of the new. Ascension is the horizonless Truth, not error stating Truth, but Truth in all its glory, declaring the perfection of all being; the fourth dimension of Spirit, subjective Being in all grandeur. (S&H 195:19-22)

We often hear the word “destroy.” This is not a good word, since nothing is ever destroyed. What is apparent as mortal mind being self-destroyed, is Mind being All.

Omnipresence means permanence, permanent identity. The presence of Truth dissipates that which is not, so there seems to be a change. Nothing, however, changes.

God is All, yesterday, today and forever. (Mis. 102:32)

The fourth dimension of Spirit, which is the true measure of Being, is the eternal duration of Truth. Duration means enduring, abiding, continuing, and therefore it means indestructibility. We enter this realm of horizonless Truth through Christian Science, and can completely disregard appearances.

Absent from the body, effect, matter, and present with the Lord, with understanding, with comprehension, which is the fourth dimension of Spirit, we are no longer confined in the three-dimensional world of matter.

The Christ-consciousness is not concerned with setting aside so-called human laws, it is concerned only with its joyous, harmonious Being; this awareness, which is Truth, sets aside the three-dimensional belief, so that what appears as a sick man to material sense, is well and alive outside the prison of material belief. (Rud. 6:3-11; 1:114)

In our work as practitioners, we cannot outline what the appearance of this unfolding idea will be to finite sense. (S&H 120:15-19; 550:10-14; 423:15-18; 250:15-25)

Note marginal heading “Mortal existence a dream.”

Anything and everything that seems to be occurring in the human experience, is due to the Christ, and is for the triumph of Truth. Understanding being the line of demarcation between the real and the unreal, and being true self-hood, enables us as human beings to differentiate between Truth and error, and gives us the power to rejoice regardless of what seems to be going on.

When you begin to understand the Science of Being; when you begin to understand the absolute God, when you love Truth, not in order to correct the errors of the human mind, then you are a practitioner of Christian Science.

Mr. Kimball said, “Suppose this room were infinity; suppose it were possible that suggestion could knock at the door and say, ‘I am here.’ Infinity could not hear this or take cognizance of it, and no matter what the aspect it assumes, there is nothing there but perfection, and to perfection suggestion does not exist.”

The greatest thing that can possibly come to human consciousness, has come to us in this present age. This greatest thing is the divine idea of God and what He is in manifestation or man, as one Being. This spiritual fact of one Being has existed from everlasting to everlasting. This spiritual fact that God and His manifestation, man, is one inseparable Being has always existed in Principle, but was made visible in concrete form for the first time with the birth of Jesus.

Whenever we make the statement in Christian Science that “God and man is one inseparable Being,” or that “Principle and its idea is one,” these statements may mean much to us, or they may be mere words to us. This Oneness of God and His manifestation, man, means that man, as God’s idea of Himself, alone can do nothing. It means that God alone, without man, can do nothing, not even exist. Whatever is done within the spiritual realm of the spiritual universe, God, alone, without man, does not do it. In fact, whatever is done, whatever the circumstance or event, God and man as manifestation, do it together as one inseparable Being.

If there was such a thing as sin in the world, it would be God and man as manifestation, inseparable as one sin. If there were such a thing as death in the world, it would be God and man as one inseparable Being, dying and being the death. Since we cannot attach sin and death to God, we cannot attach them to man, because God and man are one inseparable Being. God, without man, cannot be immortal, but God and man as one inseparable Being is immortal, is Life eternal. This powerful divine idea that God and man is one inseparable Being, active in human consciousness, is indeed our Saviour.

This revelation came to Mary’s consciousness as the result of her self-conscious communion with the Holy Ghost or Science of Being, which was her mind. The patriarchs and prophets discerned that this divine idea of spiritual power existed as a fact in God or Spirit, and believed that it would be expressed visibly in human consciousness, in some future time and in some unknown manner.

But Mary was the first to give concrete proof of the spiritual power of the divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being in the form of Christ Jesus. We, as Christian Scientists, will be ready to progress when we live our lives from the standpoint of this revealed Truth that God and His manifestation, man, is one inseparable Being or is I AM THAT I AM. This divine idea active in human consciousness is Almighty Power expressed humanly.

The Prophet Isaiah

The prophet Isaiah appraised the appearing of the divine idea of God and His manifestation, man, as one inseparable Being. When this idea appeared to Isaiah, he appraised it as “Unto us a child is born.” And, immediately, he appraised even this first faint appearing of this divine idea, as being in the fullness and completeness of its divine character. He appraised this divine idea as “Wonderful, as Counselor, as the mighty God, as the everlasting Father, as the Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

If we, like Isaiah, recognized that even this first, faint appearance of a right idea in our consciousness is the almighty God, and is already full, complete, finished, perfect, and permanent, the results would be amazing. How few of the infinite ideas that knock at the door of our human consciousness are recognized as the almighty God, and are given admittance, and allowed to unfold in their completeness and perfection and permanence. I fear, not many of them. They are forgotten almost instantly.

When Isaiah, the great Hebrew prophet, wrote the outstanding statement, “For unto us a child is born,” this divine idea was far in advance of its tangible, concrete appearance in human consciousness. When Isaiah wrote this prophecy, he was not referring to a little babe lying in a manger, he was referring to a divine idea that already existed in Principle; he was referring to the eternal fact that God and His manifestation, man, is one inseparable Being.

Isaiah’s Vision

Isaiah visioned so-called human life as evolved from God, divine Principle, not from matter or personality. Isaiah visioned man, the infinite idea of God, as begotten of the one Principle of all Being; he saw man as untouched by sin and death; he saw Deity, divine Mind, manifested; he saw God the Son made visible; he saw coincidence of the human with the divine. This, too, was the vision that was born of Mary’s human consciousness by the Holy Ghost or divine Science, and to which Mary gave concrete visible manifestation.

Isaiah visioned the joy in heaven and in earth when this mighty idea, God and his manifestation, man, as one inseparable Being, would be presented in concrete form to the world, even though to material sense this divine idea appeared as a babe. Millions of babies had been born before this particular baby was born in the little town of

Bethlehem, but not one of these millions had been heralded by an angel throng, or a star in the East.

A Savior Was Born Which Is Christ, the Lord

The angel said unto the shepherds, “Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Saviour (an infinite idea) which is Christ, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10, 11) The angel did not say that a child was born, but he said a Saviour is born, and this Saviour is Christ, the Lord, the divine idea, the living conscious irresistible Truth of the ONENESS OF GOD AND MAN that makes all men free.

This was a remarkable event. Nothing like it had ever appeared on earth before. The narrative continues, “and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God (not praising a baby) and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” These angel visitants beheld not the human concept called a babe, but they beheld the concrete visible idea, the Saviour.

Caesar’s Reign as Governor of Rome

At this time, Caesar Augustus was governor of Rome, and his supposed power and law was so great that he did as it pleased him with the lives and property of three million people. Never before had a mortal swayed such power, and never again will a mortal sway such power. Why? Because unto us has been born a divine idea, a Saviour. And when correctly appraised as almighty God, this divine idea or Saviour in our human consciousness, is irresistible POWER AND LAW, which demonstrates ITSELF. When the hosts of heaven heralded the appearance of this divine idea, this Saviour, Christ, the Lord, Caesar Augustus realized there was being established on earth a permanent empire clothed with divine Power and Law, and that his seeming power and law would fade into its native nothingness.

Mary’s Concept of Jesus

To the shepherds, Jesus was IMMANUEL. To them Deity had taken the form of flesh and blood. But Mary’s concept of man had risen above matter and material sense, and while others might see man as flesh and blood, Mary’s idea of man was God’s idea of Himself, the Christ. Mary’s mode of consciousness was the Truth, the Christ, and she gave her true conception of man visible birth.

By reason of Mary’s divine conception and its visible proof, she clearly understood that in every instance, whether it was sin, sickness, or death, Christ Jesus was to give to the world, the proof of the supremacy of Spirit, Mind, over matter or mortal mind. This was Jesus’ mission in the world. And this is also our mission, as Christian Scientists, in the world today. We, too, are to give proof of the supremacy of Spirit or Mind, over matter or mortal mind. And we do this as we understand that the divine idea is man, the Christ, and not a personality.

Mary at the Wedding Feast

“There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and Mary, the mother of Jesus was there.” (John 2:1) It was at this wedding feast that Mary demanded of Jesus that he give proof or evidence of the power of Spirit or Mind over matter or mortal mind. Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine;” to their sense they had used up their wine, their supply of wine was exhausted. Indeed, Mary perceived that they had no wine, that is, no inspiration; they had no understanding with which to perceive that the underlying fact of all visible things is inexhaustible. Mary demanded of Jesus that he give proof or evidence of this fundamental, operative, inexhaustible, divine idea which is our Saviour from all want and lack.

Jesus said to his mother, “Mine hour is not yet come.” But this was not Mary’s sense of the divine idea. Had she not given visible proof of the invisible fact of God, as Christ Jesus? Jesus, no doubt, had yet to ascend above restrictions that material suggestions seemed to impose upon him.

Mary knew that there must be the human proof or evidence of the invisible, inexhaustible God or infinite Good that underlies all visible things. She knew that evidence of this fact or divine idea must be in concrete, tangible, visible form at that very hour. She had the understanding, and the absolute faith that God, Mind, the creative Cause, is ever in operation, and of necessity must present His own ideas or evidences. Therefore, she could say unhesitatingly to the servants at the wedding feast, “Whatever he saith unto you, do it.”

Jesus knew that a divine idea or spiritual, inexhaustible fact was underlying the human sense of water, and because of this understanding, he turned the human sense of water, according to sense perception, into wine; that is, he turned the limited sense into an inexhaustible sense, and the human sense of the guests was satisfied. Any human sense of need is supplied by divine idea or the spiritual, inexhaustible fact underlying the need, and this fact or idea appears to us in the form that best satisfies our human sense. There is a divine idea or divine basis for everything that appears to us humanly.

At this wedding feast, it was demonstrated for all people throughout the ages, that any human sense of need is supplied by the divine idea, or the spiritual, inexhaustible fact underlying the need, and this fact or idea appears to us in the form that best satisfies our human sense of need, whether that sense of need is health, home or business.

Christian Science teaches us, that when we look beyond all mortal sense testimony, beyond all limitation, to Mind, for the divine fact, we express it instantly. When we look for the fact of Mind, then Mind outlines Itself as that fact to meet the present need. In other words, the supply appears spontaneously in the form that best satisfies our human sense of that reality. This coincidence of the divine fact and the human need is our Christ Jesus that is with us always. From our Bible we read, “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt.28:20) Not a personal, but an impersonal Saviour is with us unto the end of all sense of need. At the wedding feast, Mind, the mind of Jesus, spake and it was done. The water was wine, instead of water. Not an instant intervened between Mind as the inexhaustible, invisible fact and the visible evidence of the fact.

Ideas Should Become Tangible

Far too many useful and important ideas appear in our human consciousness and remain there as mere ideas. We fail to present these ideas in visible, tangible form. Every right divine idea that comes to our human consciousness is begotten of God or Mind, and should be cognized as the almighty God, who of necessity, unfolds and presents His own ideals and evidences humanly, visibly, and at hand, according to the human sense of need.

Statements From Mrs. Eddy

Mrs. Eddy once said, “To affirm that which is true, is to assert its possibility.” She also said, “By affirming that to be true, which to all human reasoning or sight, seems not to be true at all, you can bring it to pass.”

The power and the infinitude of Mind, make every affirmation of Truth instantly available. When we affirm a fact, we are asserting or enforcing the possibility of that fact. By affirming that which is true, we can bring it to pass, because “the bringing it to pass” is simply the cognition in our consciousness of that which already is.

What a vision of success and achievement is unfolded in us, when once we understand that God and man, Good and Its manifestation, is one inseparable Being. What certainty and assurance come to us, when we appraise even the first idea that appears in our consciousness, as a divine inexhaustible fact, as the almighty God, complete, finished, perfect and permanent.

More and more should we demand of ourselves, that we give proof of these fundamental, operative, divine ideas which are our Saviour. And as we put these divine ideas to work in our consciousness, we too, shall see the coincidence of the human with the divine fact.

The Star of the East symbolizes divine Science. It was the star of divine Science that guided the wise men to the birth of a more spiritual idea, even the Virgin Mother’s immaculate conception and visible presentation of man’s real being. It is so necessary that we let divine Science guide our thought to this idea of God and man as one inseparable Being, and that we accept and demonstrate this true idea in our daily lives. This true idea of God and man as one inseparable Being will prove to be our Saviour from all personal sense, from all want, and age, and sin, disease, and death.

Angels

It is remarkable how often divine ideas and divine experiences appear in our human consciousness as angels. And how often we are unaware of them as being angels. In the general sense, we think of angels as disconnected from God and as external to our consciousness. But in truth or fact, angels are divine Mind’s powerful impressions of good appearing in the human consciousness.

Angels are as real as any other part of God’s creation. It is the carnal mind in us, that has classified man, the compound of divine ideas or experience of good, as “a little lower than the angels.” In the spiritual account of creation, man is represented as God’s grandest product. God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen.1:26) Man was not made of a lower order; he was not made “a little lower than the angels.” Man is the divine ideas, or divine experiences, or angels, as God created them. These powerful spiritual impressions of good that come to the human consciousness, is man in the image and likeness of God.

The angel of the Lord, or these ideas or experiences of good, appear to us when our consciousness is prepared to receive them. Angels are Mind’s messages, powerful impressions of good. They are truly mental and must be mentally received by us in our individual mentality. Angels, divine ideas, or experiences of good, are exalted thoughts, healing truths, positive right convictions that appear to us as our human thought.

These “angel visitants” come to us as a “Still small voice within us;” they come as a great enlightenment, as an unfoldment of truth; they come as a surprising thought or conviction, as just the right thing to say, or to do. As a rule, angels come suddenly, but in a timely way. They usually come as promptings or as restraining intuitions. Isaiah portrayed the appearing of angels to our mentalities, when he wrote, “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21) To those mentalities in tune with the divine Mind, these angel visitants, divine ideas, or experiences are innumerable. They are the incidents of every hour and are the privileged lot of every individual. Angels are the invisible essence and substance of our visible experiences. Through them the invisible appears visible in human consciousness.

Angel messages, divine ideas or divine experiences are invisible to human consciousness, but become externalized in ways that can be seen and understood. The angel Gabriel, representing the “might of God,” came invisibly to Zacharius. The old priest’s mentality was so filled with the firm conviction that “with God all things are possible,” that this truth externalized itself or was made visible to Zacharius, as his long desired son who later became John the Baptist. Zacharius, whose whole heart’s desire was that he might have a son, was earnestly striving after righteousness; his right thinking was about God and man as one inseparable Being. His mentality was in oneness with divine Mind, and it was quite natural that the angel or divine idea of God’s omnipotence came as a sudden conviction that “with God all things are possible.”

God’s goodness is impartial. He does not withhold anything from us. These “angels of His presence” are something which we, in our ignorance, are withholding from ourselves. Miracles do not just happen. When we change our inmost thought to accord with “The angel of His presence,” this puts into operation spiritual law, which causes the externalization of that which from the beginning has already been bestowed.

Woman

This morning in our amplification of “The Power of a

Right Idea,” the idea of God and man as one inseparable Being, we shall begin with the first faint gleam that came to human consciousness. This first faint gleam of the power of the divine idea, which is the Saviour of mankind, appeared in the consciousness of Eve in the Garden of Eden. And we shall follow the unfoldment in human consciousness of the almighty power of this divine idea or Saviour up to our present age, where it has culminated in its entirety as divine Science or Christian Science.

Growth of the Divine Idea as Portrayed in Biblical History

We who are awake to the truths of Christian Science, know that no experience of which we are humanly conscious, just merely happens. The sense of our human experience may be sadly awry, but nevertheless, everything of which we are conscious is in the order of divine Science.

Since everything is in divine order, it is quite enlightening and worthy of our consideration, that the seven successive, fuller unfoldments of the Christ, the divine idea, or our Saviour were made visible to the world, through seven women portrayed in the Scriptures.

These seven women who unfolded the Christ in human consciousness were:

First: Eve, called “the mother of all living.” (Gen. 3:20)

Second: Sarah, called “a mother of nations.” (Gen. 17:16) Sarah was the mother of Isaac, a child of promise.

Third: Miriam, a prophetess, who at the Red Sea, sang the song of triumph for the supremacy of Spirit over matter and evil. (Ex. 15:20, 21)

Fourth: Deborah, called “a mother in Israel.” A prophetess who said to Barak, “Up; for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand.” (Judges 4:14)

Fifth: Ruth, the gentle gleaner, who said, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

Sixth: The Virgin Mary, who said of herself, “For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48)

Seventh: The woman in the Apocalypse. Without doubt the woman in the Apocalypse is typified by Mary Baker Eddy, who has given to the world the impersonal, universal Christ in divine Science. (Rev. 12)

The Christ, or divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being, could come only through woman, could come only through woman’s receptive recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the scriptural sonship of man. The word “woman” as it is used in the Scriptures represents a type of consciousness.

Today, when speaking of these seven women, we would miss the mark entirely were we to think only of seven female personalities. The term “woman,” as used in the Scriptures, refers to modes of spiritual discernment, or to a purity of consciousness. The high spiritual quality of thought maintained by these seven women, was the medium through which divine messages from God were made visible to the world.

Since our time is limited, today, we shall consider only three of these seven women through whom the divine idea or Saviour has appeared: Eve, the Virgin Mary, and the Woman in the Apocalypse, typified by Mary Baker Eddy.

Eve

Eve, the woman in the Garden of Eden, prefigured the coming of the Christ, or the divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being which is our Saviour. Eve means a beginning; Eve typifies an appearing or a beginning of a more righteous thought that came to the human consciousness to deliver all mankind from evil.

The first faint gleam that the Christ or Saviour was not a personality, but was mental and spiritual in character, appeared in the consciousness of Eve in the Garden of Eden. And, it has taken us a long time to discern that our Christ or Saviour is found wholly within our secret thought, and must be understood as the divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being.

As time passed on, this divine idea of the Christ or Saviour that first appeared to Eve, became clearer, and finally became visible in concrete form as the Babe Jesus, who grew into the spiritually mental stature of the power of Spirit, as Christ Jesus. And lastly in our day, this divine idea of the Christ or Saviour, this mode of righteous thought, has unfolded as the impersonal understanding of divine Science.

This first day of human awakening came to the consciousness of Eve when she faintly glimpsed the divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being. And the unfoldment in our consciousness of this same divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being is our Saviour, which will eventually lead us all to that seventh day of spiritual unfoldment, wherein this inseparable Oneness is fully understood, and “the serpent” or false sense is cast into “the lake of fire” or into the consuming Truth of God’s infinitude.

A Religious Fable

In religious history, it is generally admitted that the woman Eve was not a human personality. This narrative of the Garden of Eden is a scriptural allegory or great religious fable. This fable and the lesson it taught were handed down from generation to generation, to impress upon thought the distinction between good and evil, and the effects of good and evil. This fable was personified by Adam and Eve, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and is a misstatement about God and His spiritual creation as set forth in the first chapter of Genesis.

Modes of Consciousness

The Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, together with the serpent, all typify states or modes of consciousness. Eve was a mode of consciousness in which the spiritual idea of God and His creation had its beginning. When the Truth appeared in the thought of Eve, this true spiritual sense enabled her to recognize the serpent or the lie of personal sense which she had accepted as her thought. Eve saw the contradictory natures of good and evil, and discerned the folly of believing that both were true.

The Enmity of the Serpent

The enmity of the serpent against the woman, specifically mentioned in the first and last books of the Bible, does not imply a radical discrimination between men and women. This “enmity” against woman or the spiritual mode of consciousness, illustrates the antagonism of the carnal mind towards spirituality, whether found in the consciousness of man or woman.

This “enmity” between the serpent, personal sense, and the woman, spiritual sense, is the inherent and irreconcilable conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, or between the spiritual and sensual elements; or between truth and error in human consciousness.

The serpent, personal sense, and the woman, spiritual sense, are opposite modes of thought. On the side of the serpent or personal sense are all the debasing influences which impel mankind toward moral and spiritual corruption. On the woman or spiritual sense side, is found every uplifting and regenerating influence that touches human consciousness. It is through spiritual sense or spiritualized consciousness, typified by woman, that humanity finds deliverance from the subtleties of the serpent or personal sense, and awakens to the true consciousness that God and man is one inseparable Being.

Hope Was Born in Eden

A divine hope was born in Eden when human thought first became impressed with the distinction between good and evil. This divine hope was born when “woman,” the mode of righteous thought, recognized the claims of personal sense as something not to be admitted, but to be denounced and dispelled.

When Eve discovered that she had been lured into a state of error through mesmeric subtlety spoken of as the “serpent,” she recognized, somewhat, the purity and spirituality of God’s creation. And this germ of spiritual awakening in human consciousness increased, and will continue to increase, until it displaces all sense of evil in every human consciousness, and the seventh day or the light of divine Science unfolds in its fullness.

Mrs. Eddy in speaking of the “woman” says, “Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, ‘The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;’ as much as to say in meek penitence, ‘Neither man nor God shall father my fault.’ She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to manifest the deathless man of God’s creating. This enabled woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.” (S&H 533:26)

The Virgin Mary

From the very moment that Isaiah uttered the prophecy, “Hear ye now, O house of David; the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isa.7:13,14) From that very moment throughout the years, every daughter of Israel not only longed to become the mother of “The Anointed One,” but thought it possible that she might become the mother of “The Anointed One.” Therefore Mary, in common with all Jewish maidens of her period, cherished the hope of becoming the mother of the long expected deliverer of Israel.

The World of Mary’s Day

History tells us that the world of Mary’s day was drowning in its foully materialistic thinking. Rome, the most important city, had set up the worship of the Emperor, the adoration of a human personality, as her religion. In the province of Galilee, where Mary lived, there were many established religions and political parties: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, the Lawyers, and the revolutionists, all waiting the hour to strike Rome.

The conception held by these groups concerning the deliverance of Israel was wholly a material conception. What remained of the morality and spirituality of the Israelites was, at this time, found only among the common people.

A Group of Metaphysical Thinkers

And sacred history tells us that in this province of Galilee, and among the common people, was a little group of metaphysical thinkers. Right in the midst of this dense materialistic thinking of the upper class, was this little group, this remnant of Israel who practiced pure and undefiled religion. They taught and practiced the most beautiful moral precepts. In fact, they were full of light in that black night of materialism. Many of the best literary productions nearest the advent of Jesus, were written in Galilee by these religious thinkers.

This little remnant of Israel was undiscouraged for Israel’s deliverance. Their faith in God was unshaken by the blood ravages of Rome. They worshipped the true God of all the religions of that day; none approached the Hebrew religion in purity of doctrine or cleanness of life as shown forth by this little group of metaphysicians.

Deliverer of Israel

The greater portion of this province of Galilee, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, the Lawyers, and the revolutionists all looked for a materialistic deliverer to save them from the Roman Emperor. But this remnant of Israel, this group of metaphysicians, looked for a deliverer who would purify his people. They realized that Israel’s woes were the result of her false and unrighteous thinking. Hence, this little group looked for a spiritual King who would deliver Israel from its materialistic mode of thought.

According to prophecy, their Deliverer must belong to the highest order of Being. He was to be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and He was to be born of a virgin of the family of David. (Isa. 9:6) His mission would be the salvation of His people and of all mankind. (Isa. 49:6) To Him would be given everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom, and all people would serve Him. (Dan. 7:14)

To the Hebrew, his belief in prophecy was wholly beyond the interpretation of man. His beliefs were deeply intrenched in his thought. They had been prophesied by patriarchs and prophets, and handed down as fixed spiritual and mental laws of thought. To the Hebrews, prophecy was a fixed fact. And, too, they had demonstrated so many amazing experiences, that they were confident that a spiritual deliverance would also be their experience.

Since this prophecy was a fixed law to this little remnant of Israel, they made themselves ready for the coming promised deliverer. They purified their thought and made many marvelous demonstrations which logically followed their spiritual thinking.

This little group knew from actual experience that spiritual law set in motion by purified and spiritualized thought, was far more effective than the forcing of political issue through material aggression or human will.

Mary’s Vision of the Deliverer of Israel

Mary belonged to this group. So naturally her vision of the Deliverer or Saviour of Israel was far from that of a mere political restorer who would set up in material splendor the ancient throne of David. Mary knew that this Deliverer or Saviour of Israel, who was awaited not only by Israel, but by the whole world, must be one who would demonstrate Israel; that is, one who would set forth the real man in the image of Spirit. Mary realized that nothing short of an immaculate conception or a deep purity of thought could bring into human visible form, a Being, who for the task before him, must be spiritually endowed, as no human being had ever been endowed before.

Mary’s Preparation

Mary was deeply religious, a woman of strong character and super-intelligence. She was far from the “clinging vine” type to which so many have ignorantly assigned her. It is interesting and wonderful to learn how Mary, within herself, prepared for the coming of the Saviour. She was familiar with the Scriptures and knew that an immaculate conception would not just happen. She knew that an immaculate conception could take place only if the purity of the virgin’s thought was sufficiently demonstrated.

Mary knew that the angel of the Lord, the divine idea, the reality of Being, could come to the virgin’s human consciousness in concrete visible demonstration only when that consciousness was prepared and ready both mentally and spiritually. She knew and understood the spiritual law that made invisible spiritual facts become humanly and materially visible to mankind.

Mary was familiar with the miracles of the ancient patriarchs and prophets. She clearly understood why the burning bush was not consumed. (Ex. 3:2) She understood, in some measure, how “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Gen. 5:24) She knew why the pot of oil failed not. (II Kings 4) She knew how Elisha’s own mind could say, “Thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.” (II Kings 4:43) She no doubt understood how and why the temple was rebuilt by King Cyrus. (Ezra) How and why there was rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem under Nehemiah.

Mary no doubt prayed and sang the songs of David. To her, the Psalms were the same source of comfort and consolation as they have been to both Christian and Jew alike, down through the ages. Mary knew and understood the demonstration of Zacharius and Elizabeth, and she had seen many more demonstrations of spiritual import wrought out into concrete visible expression.

Mary knew that with God, her own mind, all things were possible. She knew that in all these experiences, the might of God or Mind came to the human consciousness as powerful impressions of Good, and then these mental spiritual impressions were externalized to mankind in concrete visible forms.

Things and Events Do Not Just Happen

Mary knew that all things, circumstances, conditions, and events do not just happen. She clearly understood that any thought held in the mentality tends to express or externalize itself in outward or visible form. Therefore, Mary firmly believed that the longing and the undaunted faith in the certain coming of Israel’s deliverer, would sometime become externalized.

Mary knew that if she, a virgin, were to become the mother of the Saviour, this demonstration could only be made through her spiritual understanding of the Fatherhood of God. Her demonstration made, then indeed, God would be the Father of her child, and her child would truly be the Son of God.

The Annunciation

The annunciation, as recorded by Luke, was Mary’s announcement to herself, and to those who looked for Israel’s deliverer, that she was to be the mother of the Saviour, who would save, not only Israel of that day, but all generations to come. This annunciation represents Mary’s own reasoning; her communion with the angel, was her communion with her own inner self. In a larger sense, her annunciation was her communion with God, her own mind. This indeed, was the power and operation of the divine idea in human consciousness.

In this annunciation, Mary said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.” (Luke 1:46-50) This annunciation by the Virgin Mary, is the greatest poem in Hebrew literature. I will say it is the greatest poem that has ever been written.

Mary Called Her Son, Jesus

Since Mary, herself, was of royal lineage, she knew that God would give to her son, the throne of David. Mary named her son “Jesus,” because Jesus was synonymous with Joshua, a renowned leader in Israel, and Mary’s son would indeed be a leader. The name Jesus also comes from the Greek form of Je-hosh-us which means Jehova, the healer. And why should Mary not attach to her son those qualities which in sacred history were promised to the Son of God.

When the angel, that mighty impression of good, appeared to Mary and said unto her, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” Mary answered this angel, saying, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:35, 38)

False theology has made the world believe that this statement made by Mary to the angel, was made in a spirit of mere pious resignation on her part, and that Mary had little or at least very little to do with giving a Saviour to the world. But since “The Key to the Scriptures” has unlocked for us the “Science of Mind,” Mary’s statement, “Be it unto me according to thy word,” reveals Mary’s thought as being on a lofty plane of spiritual power and realization. This statement was a confident assertion that nothing, not even the bringing forth of Israel’s deliverer, was impossible with God. Her words were the acknowledgment of spiritual law.

A Fundamental Law in Christian Science

A fundamental law in Christian Science has been revealed to us. This law is, that things do not merely happen. Thought held persistently within our mentality tends toward the externalization of itself in outward and visible forms. The thought of the whole Hebrew nation, a thought born in the Garden of Eden, lay back of Jesus, the Saviour, and forced him into view.

The Virgin Mary’s state of mind was the mighty God, the law of divine Science. This law, set in motion in the consciousness of Mary, gave us a Saviour who saves us from all sin, disease, age, want, war, and death. This law, active in the consciousness of Mary, gave visible proof that the Father of man was not a material personality, but was an all-creative Principle, known to Israel as their God.

Summary

Let us review some of the vital points in this lesson. First: The divine idea or spiritual fact, held persistently within the mentality, will externalize itself in outward and visible forms.

Second: The divine idea , when correctly understood as the Mighty God or as active, powerful, conscious Good, holds within itself the power to demonstrate itself.

Third: Things do not merely happen. There is a divine basis for every human thing, circumstance, condition and event.

Fourth: It is spiritual law, active in human consciousness, that causes spiritual facts to become humanly and materially visible to mankind.

Fifth: The divine idea or Saviour will come to our human consciousness in concrete visible demonstration only when our consciousness is prepared and ready both mentally and spiritually.

The Woman in the Apocalypse

Through “The Woman in the Apocalypse,” Saint John, the Revelator, portrays a greater vision, a brighter light of understanding, a higher spiritual thought process, than was portrayed even by the spiritualized thought of the Virgin Mary.

Jeremiah, in his day, prophesied concerning the spiritual thinking that was to come. He said, “the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.” (Jer. 31:22) By this, he meant that the inspired woman thought would finally grasp the full wonder of God’s man, and would demonstrate this real man in human consciousness.

And Jesus, in his day, prophesied that spiritual thinking, or a higher understanding of the divine idea, would appear in human consciousness as the “Comforter.” He said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” (John 14:16, 17) And Mrs. Eddy, in her day, further enlightens us by saying, “This Comforter, I understand to be divine Science.”

John’s Apocalyptic Vision

St. John’s Apocalyptic vision completes the beautiful picture of woman’s place in prophecy. This vision completes the seventh day of unfoldment of spiritual thinking. To St. John, “There appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and behold a great red dragon, stood before the woman to devour her child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness where she is nourished for a time, and the great dragon was cast out.” (Rev. 12)

In this vision, St. John presents spiritual thinking typified as “a woman clothed with the sun.” This divine idea or spiritual thinking typified by woman, is pictured as radiant with the light of spiritual understanding, with matter under her feet, and crowned with a diadem of victory. This divine idea or spiritual thinking typified by woman, appears in this apocalyptic vision in the fullness of spiritual understanding.

In this vision, the woman brought forth a man child. Woman, portrayed as the fullness of spiritual understanding, brought forth Christian Science, which is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Error, typified by the great dragon, resists this revelation. In other words, the spiritual sense of Life, Truth, and Love appearing as Christian Science, is confronted by the dragon or serpent of personal sense.

But the divinely illumined consciousness or woman thought, is given two wings of a great eagle; she is given the understanding of the omniaction of conscious Life, with which she flies into the wilderness. And Mrs. Eddy defines “wilderness” as “the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” (S&H 597:17)

Mrs. Eddy speaks of this woman in our textbook. She says, “The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea.” (S&H 561:22)

The Complete Demonstration

Again, woman typified as spiritual thinking appears in John’s apocalyptic vision. This time, she is seen in a great high mountain as “the bride,” “the Lamb’s wife.” The Lamb’s wife is the word of God, understood and demonstrated. The Lamb’s wife is Christian Science which explains, and presents, and demonstrates, the Christ method of healing.

It is through the application in individual consciousness of Christian Science, this Comforter given to us by Jesus, that the works done by Christ Jesus are repeated. “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matt.11:5)

Mary Baker Eddy

Let us now consider our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. Without doubt, Mary Baker Eddy typifies the woman in the Apocalypse. That is, Mrs. Eddy typifies or embodies all the characteristics of the pure woman thought that was portrayed in St. John’s vision. Mary Baker Eddy showed forth, or prefigured, or exemplified the spiritual consciousness portrayed in that great vision, and presented that spiritual consciousness to the world in concrete visible form as divine Science.

Mary Baker Eddy stands for something far greater than a good personality or a great human being. When correctly estimated, she stands for the complete revelation of Christ in human consciousness. She stands for egoistic consciousness, the revealed Christ.

The Virgin Mary perceived the Christ and presented the Christ to the world through Jesus. But this was not enough. One more step must be taken. A positive rule must be given to humanity by means of which all mankind could demonstrate the Christ.

“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” given to the world through Mary Baker Eddy’s perception of the Christ, explains divine Science or the Comforter prophesied by Jesus, and is leading humanity into all Truth. Mrs. Eddy received the Christ Truth into her consciousness, and then gave the Christ Truth to us in her writings. Nothing further is required to guide us into all truth. We look for Mrs. Eddy in her writings where the revealed Christ is to be found.

Truth’s Volume

St. John in his Revelation tells us, “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, and he had in his hand a little book open.” (Rev.10:1, 2) Mrs. Eddy tells us that this “little book” in the hand of the angel and Science and Health are one and the same. She refers to this little book in our textbook, where she named it “Truth’s volume.”

The truth that we have today, is the same truth that unfolded in the Garden of Eden in the consciousness of

Eve. It appeared in a much fuller degree in the spiritual thinking of the Virgin Mother. And this same truth has come to us as a full, complete, divine Science through the purity of our beloved Leader.

Things Do Not Just Merely Happen

This revelation of divine Science, given to the world by Mary Baker Eddy, did not just merely happen; like the Virgin Mother, Mary Baker Eddy prepared herself for this divine mission. She tells us in our textbook that “I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration.” (S&H 109:20)

Mrs. Eddy spent three years in the study of the Bible. After this intensive study of the Scriptures, in order to discover and understand spiritual law, she put her findings to a severe test by healing the sick and the sinning, and raising the dying to life and health. After this intensive preparation, which covered a period of years, she published “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” which will stand the test of the ages. “Science and Health” is Mrs. Eddy’s revelation of provable spiritual law.

Through the reading of “Science and Health,” thousands upon thousands have been healed of sickness and sin and have been enabled to live happy and useful lives. Is it any wonder that Christian Scientists love and revere their Leader? Is it any wonder that we are deeply grateful to her for the revelation of divine Science?

Mrs. Eddy fulfilled scriptural prophecy. In this age, she has brought to us the true meaning of the woman thought in St. John’s Apocalyptic Vision. This woman thought is divine Science and Mrs. Eddy speaks of this woman thought or pure consciousness as “Truth’s immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries, gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning.” (S&H 55:15, 16)

Practical Operative Christianity

Today, there is a world crisis in religion. Many deep thinkers regard our long established religions as devoid of spiritual power. They feel that many churches should be classified as the angel classified the church of the Laodiceans, when he said, “Because thou art lukewarm, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:16, 17)

Thinking persons realize that we need more than fear or force, or even good-will based on better business, to save the postwar world. They firmly believe that a religion based on practical Christianity is the only hope of civilization. Christian people who are awake to this world crisis in religion, are crying out for an operative Christianity; for active practical salvation; for a living faith; for a deeper understanding of God and of themselves. They are crying out for divine theology that was made manifest through Christ Jesus.

Are we awake to the fact that multitudes will come to Christian Science for help at the close of this great world struggle? Why will they come? They will come because of the full-orbed promise that they shall find healing and restoration of both mind and body. And when the test for the fulfillment of this promise comes, let it not be said of Christian Scientists that, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Dan. 5:27)

Mrs. Eddy’s Definite Life-Purpose

Mrs. Eddy records her life purpose. She says, “My lifepurpose is to impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical operative Christian Science.” And she further says to us, “drink with me the living waters of the spirit of my life-purpose.” (See Mis. 207:3-4)

There was no doubt in Mrs. Eddy’s mind that she had a definite purpose in life to fulfill, and what this definite purpose was. No matter what others might do, this divine purpose was definitely fixed and established in her thought, and she knew that she must follow this definite direction in life in order to fulfill her divine purpose, and give to humanity a visible proof of a practical operative Science when applied to human affairs.

When we recognize the magnitude of her purpose, the far reaching results of the fulfillment of this purpose; what it has meant in our lifetime to have an unfailing, everoperative Science to apply to our human affairs; and when we realize that an even greater unfoldment will come to future generations; we may well marvel, and express our gratitude for this blessing that has appeared to us in our world.

Jesus’ Definite Life-Purpose

Jesus, too, was keenly aware that he had a definite purpose in life to fulfill. In answer to Pilate’s question, he said, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” (John 18:37)

Both Jesus and Mrs. Eddy had a clear sense of the signification of their so-called human experience. They recognized that no one ever was born out of due time. They knew that they had a definite purpose to fulfill, and they knew that they had the power and intelligence from God with which to fulfill that purpose.

Our Definite Life-Purpose

Are we, as Christian Scientists, awake to the fact that we, too, have a definite life-purpose? And are we following a definite direction in life in order to fulfill this divine purpose? Today, as never before, we need to recognize the significance and value of the existence of each so-called individual. We should watch, and not become mesmerized with the seeming lack of value that is placed on the individual at this present hour. We should not just close our eyes and permit our thought to stand dormant concerning this lack of appreciation for human existence.

Let us bear in thought that there is nothing external to our own consciousness. Our own mind sees and feels its own projected thought. Our own mind does not see or feel another outside itself, or other than itself or unlike itself. When we see another, we are seeing ourself. We see and feel only the contents of our own mind. St. Paul in speaking to the Romans said, “Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” (Rom. 2:1)

In order to fulfill our definite purpose and be a visible witness for Truth, we should be keenly aware of our present individual existence in its higher spiritual aspects. We should be deep thinkers, we should vision happier days for the human family. We should prove that an abundant practical life is the one eternal Life at hand. We should participate in, and rejoice in, the present fulfillment of this present liberating dispensation, the dispensation of the coming of the Son of man, which is the Reality of all things being made visible in human consciousness.

As individual Christian Scientists, we need a greater love for God and a greater love for man in our hearts, in order that our sublime life-purpose may be carried out into effect. Each one of us has a sublime task to perform. We should so live, and so love, that God or Truth is made comprehensible to us, and that we may hear His voice saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” (Isa. 30:21)

We Should Impress Humanity With Operative Science

What does it mean to impress humanity with practical operative Christian Science? The word “practical” means that which is available, usable, or valuable when in operation. The word “operative” means the quality of action. It means to have the power of action within, which will produce results. “The term Christian Science relates especially to Science as applied to humanity.” (S&H 127:15, 16) Then “practical, operative Christian Science” means a Science that is available to human consciousness and is active in the production of results, when applied practically and intelligently to human affairs.

Jesus Impressed Humanity With Practical Results

Jesus, as the reflection or evidence of Mind, had no action, ability, or power underived from God. His action, ability, power were God’s action, ability, and power ever operative as practical results. Jesus imparted to and impressed humanity in a practical way throughout his every day experiences, with what the Father-Mind revealed of Itself to him. He healed the sick, fed the hungry multitude, opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the deaf ears, provided the tax money, and raised the dead. Surely, such deeds were the active and practical results of his divine theology within himself.

Mrs. Eddy Also Impressed Humanity With Practical Results

Mrs. Eddy, too, as the reflection or evidence of Mind had no action, ability, or power underived from God. It was God’s action, ability, and power that impressed Mrs. Eddy in a practical way with what the Father-Mind revealed of Itself to her as Christian Science. And she demonstrated this Science through her daily living and experiences, by healing the sick, raising the dead, and by committing to the pages of a book, her sublime discovery. This, indeed, was impressing humanity with a practical, operative Christian Science.

Each Individual Must Impress Humanity With Practical Results

So, each one here today, as the reflection or evidence of Mind, has no action or power underived from God. We are the action, ability, and power that God is being in manifestation, and this action, ability, and power that God is being in manifestation is ever operative in producing results.

It should be our purpose to impart to and impress humanity with what our Father-Mind has revealed of Itself to us of divine Science, and demonstrate this Science in our daily lives and experiences. We have the ability and power from God with which to impress humanity with what divine reason, revelation, and demonstration have given us.

No matter how circumscribed our sphere in life may be, we have within ourselves a definite direction to follow, and a life-purpose to fullfill.

There never has been a time in the history of Christian Science, when Christian Scientists need to so clearly hear the within voice of Truth, and to know there is nothing external or outside their own consciousness. Within our individual self is the battlefield, and there, too, is found the victory. We need to watch our thought that it does not become confused with the issues of the day. We need to be spiritually keen and alert in our thinking. We need to be “undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses” and prove that “Science (is) still enthroned.” (S&H 306:25, 26)

Jesus’ Prophecy

At this hour, humanity stands at the threshold of a mental overturning, an overturning unparalleled in human history. Jesus prophesied this hour. He said, there would be “upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity.” (Luke 21:25) Then followed his prophecy of encouragement and hope in these words, “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” (Mark 13:26, 27)

The Coming of the Son of Man

This prophecy of Christ Jesus, interpreted according to Christian Science, means far more than is seen on the surface. What is the coming of the Son of man?

The Son of man is not a person, but is the expression of the God-Mind in its totality of life, substance, and intelligence. These expressions of life, substance, and intelligence, appearing in the highest sense comprehensible to human consciousness, are the COMING OF THE SON OF MAN.

The prophecy reads, “Then shall he send his angels.” This means that God or Mind will send His messages, His mighty mental and spiritual impressions, into the hearts of men at this time; just as He did to the patriarchs and prophets, to Zacharius, to Mary, to the Revelator, and to Mary Baker Eddy, if we are prepared to receive them and desire these saving messages as they did.

These angels are the God-Mind made comprehensible, practical, and visible in the human consciousness of this day. Who can doubt that many are the saving angels that come to the men on the battlefields, on the sea, in the air, as well as to the business man, and to the wife or mother in the home, when they, in their thinking, reach out to God or Truth as their only deliverer.

His Elect

The prophecy reads, “He shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” God’s elect are not persons, are not saints, are not even those who classify themselves as Christian Scientists. No. “The elect” are God’s revelations of Himself, revelations of His life, His substance, His intelligence, appearing in our individual experiences. Life, substance, and intelligence are God’s essential qualities or revelations, and are His elect.

God or Mind reveals Himself in His essential quality of life, which gives to God, man and everything in the universe, the sense of eternal existence. God or Mind reveals Himself in His essential quality of indestructible substance, which gives to God, man and everything in the universe the eternal sense of dimension or sense of filling space. God or Mind reveals Himself in His essential quality of intelligence, which gives to God, man and everything in the universe the conscious qualities of feeling, knowing, and being.

At this time, God’s elect, conscious life, conscious substance, and conscious intelligence, as they are in their reality, are appearing in fuller and clearer degrees in our human experiences. These spiritual and omnipotent operations of God or Mind, typified by the four winds, is the spiritual understanding that is coming to the human consciousness. This spiritual understanding is coming universally and practically and is the coming of the SON OF MAN.

Wherever these spiritual and omnipotent operations of God appear in human consciousness, even though in a limited degree, or in the uttermost parts of the earth, right there, in that place, God or Mind is gathering together in unity, His elect, His infinite qualities of life, substance, and intelligence as they are in reality, and He is lifting them up to the uttermost parts of heaven, or is lifting these qualities in human consciousness to their highest degree of reality.

Are we, under whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, looking within? Are we letting the divine understanding reign and be ALL? Are we comprehending and experiencing eternal Life, concretely? Are we experiencing the substance of God, that is free from discord and decay? Is our intelligence the pure consciousness of God without restrictions and limitations? If we, as Christian Scientists, are experiencing in some degree, these qualities in our daily living, then we have a practical, operative Christian Science.

Spiritual Power

Spiritual power does not just happen to come to us. Spiritual power is forever at hand, but it appears to us only as we put off the material sense of life.

It is natural for us, at times, to long for the quiet days of the past. And some Christian Scientists are content to remain in the same old mental and metaphysical grooves. So-called mortal mind tenaciously resists stir and change. Nevertheless, progress or higher unfoldments in any field of endeavor, whether economic, educational or metaphysical, is not made without a launching out into newer and higher modes of thought.

Prepared Thought

In order to gain spiritual power and fulfill our divine purpose in life, we must prepare our thought. We must educate mortal mind out of itself by bringing every wrong thought in our mentality into captivity, into obedience to the Christ Truth.

Mrs. Eddy spent many years in study and in the healing of incurable disease before she gave to the world “Science and Health.” Both Mrs. Eddy and Jesus learned to do by doing, and learned to be by being.

Mrs. Eddy sets forth inescapable requirements by which we prepare our thought and gain that higher understanding which gives us spiritual power. She says, “thought must be spiritualized, in order to apprehend Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish, and pure, in order to have the least understanding of God in divine Science.” (Ret. 28:9-12) This is a very emphatic admonition that we as Christian Scientists need to heed.

How Do We Spiritualize Thought?

What is the process through which thought is spiritualized? The process is “the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit.” (S&H 209:22) Through translation, we exchange our mode of material thought about man and the universe, and in so doing, we become the spiritual fact of man and the universe. Our progress spiritward depends upon the translation of matter into Mind. (See Mis. 25:12; p. 74:15)

Mrs. Eddy makes the following statement in our textbook, “The compounded minerals or aggregated substances composing the earth, the relations which constituent masses hold to each other, the magnitudes, distances, and revolutions of the celestial bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit.” (S&H 209:16-22) Why are these things of no real importance? Because we do not see these things as they are in fact. We see only our material concept of them. Mortal mind or the lie has classified these spiritual ideas as matter or “objects of material sense,” and we, through immortal Mind, must translate these material sense objects back into their originals until we see them as divine ideas.

Let us be honest. How many of us, a few weeks ago, translated Mount Vesuvius and its rocks back into originals, back into divine ideas, perfect and eternal as Mind? Our textbook says, “rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas.” (S&H 511:24) How many of us translated the hidden, blind, destructive forces of matter that were attached to Mount Vesuvius, back into their originals, back into the almighty forces that adhere in Spirit only? So-called mortal mind says that the hidden, destructive forces attached to Mount Vesuvius, are the destructive forces attached to our world today, and are remote, and apart from us, and over there. “Over there” is always here. The so-called mortal mind that is over there, is the same mortal mind that is here. The same destructive forces that seem to be over there, are here within the realm of our own individual mind. Perhaps the degree is not the same, but the quality is the same.

Unless we, through our own immortal divine Mind, translate those seeming destructive forces back into their originals, back into the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of divine Mind, we shall continue to see and feel mortal mind’s thought objectified. It is only through translation that we lose the material sense of things, and our thought becomes spiritual.

To what extent are we translating ourselves, our bodies, and their so-called functionings back into their originals, back into divine ideas and divine functionings?

Mortal mind has classified us as matter and has given us a material sense of body and its functionings. But through translation, immortal Mind gives us the originals; gives us man in God’s image and likeness; gives us body as Mind’s embodiment of right ideas; gives us functions as perpetual operations of Mind forever eternal and harmonious.

When we translate the objects of material sense, the things of our universe, ourselves, our bodies and their functionings, into their originals, we do not deal with anything external or objective to ourselves. No. We replace the material sense object and its operations with divine ideas, and we do the replacing wholly within the realm of our own thought. This is the process through which our thought becomes spiritualized, so we may apprehend Spirit.

The universal belief that ideas have become material things, is the fundamental lie. What any material thing may seem to do or to be, is a lie about the eternal fact, at hand. What is called a material body, or a material mountain, or a world war, or a poor business, is a false human concept of a divine idea at hand. It is the belief that ideas have become material and that man must have life and consciousness through the medium of matter. Through translation, we gain freedom from these false beliefs, and experience the divine facts in their reality.

Translation Gives Us a New Tongue

Mrs. Eddy says Jesus’ “earthly mission was to translate substance into its original meaning, Mind.” (Mis. 74:15 17) She also says, “The great difficulty is to give the right impression, when translating material terms back into the original spiritual tongue.” (S&H 115:9-11)

In order to give the right impression when we translate material terms back into the original spiritual tongue, we must grasp the spiritual sense of the original. Could any of us be affected by altitude, if we but knew that we include within ourselves the spiritual fact, the only fact of altitude? The mountain, the grand and lofty idea of God, is not outside of us, or apart from us, but it is of the compound of ideas that is us.

Through translation of man and the visible universe back into the spiritual fact of man and the universe, we shall finally see and know that an elephant, or a planet, or an airplane is not larger or mightier than ourself. We shall see all things as thought forms, or ideas, or spiritual facts, included within us and as possessing all the qualities and attributes of God.

As Christian Scientists, we are to grasp the spiritual sense of the originals. The spiritual originals can only be discerned spiritually. Translation gives us an entirely new sense of things and gives us a new language. Old terms have a new meaning. This new meaning, or new sense of things, is called by Mrs. Eddy “religion’s ‘new tongue.’” (Mis. 25:15)

When we translate into the new tongue, we change what we have been calling matter or material substance, back into the original spiritual meaning. Mrs. Eddy says, “‘The new tongue’ is the spiritual meaning as opposed to the material. It is the language of Soul instead of the senses; it translates matter into its original language, which is Mind, and gives the spiritual instead of the material signification.” (Hea. 7:6-10)

Honesty

As stated before, Mrs. Eddy admonishes us that our thought must not only become spiritualized in order to apprehend Spirit, but it must become honest, unselfish, and pure in order to have the least understanding of God in divine Science. (See Ret. 28:9)

As I pondered this word “honest,” it came to me that in order to have the least understanding of God in divine Science, we must be as honest in our thinking as divine Principle is honest. To be honest, our reliance upon material things, must be transferred to a perception of, and dependence upon, spiritual things. There is only one honesty. Therefore, any degree of honesty that we see or know humanly, must identify divine Principle.

A personal sense of honesty is always better than dishonesty, but honesty as a personal virtue is merely a sense of personal goodness, and is devoid of the Principle of honesty.

It requires understanding on our part to discern between honesty as God’s idea, and a false sense of honesty which is a lie of personality endeavoring to make itself equal with God. A personal sense of honesty seeks to glorify person, but in Christian Science, our one motive for being honest is to glorify God. And we glorify God and manifest honesty as a spiritual power, only as our thinking identifies with divine Principle.

Unselfish

Next, in order to have an understanding of God in divine Science, we must be unselfish. What does it mean to be unselfish or unselfed? It does not mean a personal virtue. Unselfishness is spiritual self-hood. To be unselfish, we think in terms of the one Mind, the one man, the one body. Unselfishness is the Christ idea loved, understood, and lived. Unselfishness as a personal virtue includes minds many, personal wills, and personal desires. We often see human motherhood and fatherhood showing forth a false sense of unselfishness. Since man identifies with God, this fact excludes any self-hood apart from God. To see and know God as ONE and ALL, is to be unselfish or unselfed in our thinking. When we give up a personal sense of ourself, and let God be ALL, then we manifest spiritual power.

Power

Also our thought must be pure in order to understand God. Pure thought is always associated with the one infinite Mind and never with mind in a so-called material body. Pure thought does not originate with persons. Its source and origin are in God and is forever reflected forth as man’s pure thinking, and feeling, and knowing.

As our thought becomes spiritualized, so that it apprehends Spirit; as it becomes honest, unselfish, and pure; to the degree that it understands God in divine Science, there is a corresponding spiritual power manifested in our so-called human existence, our so-called human body, and our so-called material world.

Spiritual power is the result of the spiritualization of our thought. God’s ideas require no spiritualizing process. They are already spiritual. It is only the human concepts that need to be improved and spiritualized through translation.

Mrs. Eddy has translated the spiritual originals into language that is comprehensible to us. Likewise, we should strive to translate the originals of all ideas and qualities that appear in our consciousness, into thoughts and language that is comprehensible to us and to others.

All too often we repeat statements from our textbook with no attempt on our part to translate our thought to them, back into Spirit or the new tongue. It is only through translation that our human concepts are improved, and our spiritual power is increased. It is only through translation that we have the signs following.

The Theology of Jesus

Mrs. Eddy is emphatically insistent that our thought must become spiritualized; that through translation, our thought must become honest, unselfish, and pure. And she is even more insistent that all students of Christian Science must understand the theology of Jesus, in order to have the signs following that Jesus had, because of his theology.

Mrs. Eddy says, “The theology of Christian Science (which is the theology that Jesus had) is contained in the volume entitled ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.’” (Pul. 55:21-23). She also says, “It was this theology of Jesus which healed the sick and sinning. It is his theology in this book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which heals the sick and causes the wicked to ‘forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.’” (S&H 138:30-2)

The Theology of Jesus Was Divine Science

The theology of Jesus was the scientific knowledge of Truth that he entertained in his consciousness. His theology was his own divine Mind, or his own divine Intelligence. His theology was not a theory but a demonstrable Science, called by Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science or divine Science. The theology that Jesus used was capable of proof and was demonstrated by Jesus in healing the sick and the sinning, raising the dead, and walking over the waves.

The Theology of Other Religions

There is a great difference between the theology of Jesus and the theologies of the many different systems of religion. Religion is a term which covers an immense field, ranging from the most primitive faith up to the highest spiritual understanding. But religion in its broadest sense is the affection and conduct expressed through the individual’s highest human concept of God. The theology of all systems of religion, except Christian Science, is based more or less on creeds and doctrines.

To a great extent, the theology of all systems of religion, except Christian Science, is scholastic theology. Much of what these religions know about God and man has been gained from the theological seminaries, and savors of human intellect and reason, based on a human concept of God and man. Scholastic theology is quite different in its nature from the divine theology that was taught and practiced by Jesus.

Scholastic Theology

We must not forget that scholastic theology has done much for the human race. Any sincere belief in God does much for mankind. The scholastic theology of the Christian Church has kept alive the Christ, and this alone has been a marvelous contribution to religious growth. But the scholastic theology as taught by Christian churches does not redeem the human race from matter, sin, sickness, and death.

There are more than 200 Christian religions that are founded on creeds and doctrines, besides the many so-called heathen religions. The question is often asked, “Are all religions, in their last analysis, a question of creeds, doctrines, rites, and ceremonies?” It is true that the significance of true religion is often lost in the multitude of interpretations imposed upon it. The word “religion” is usually identified with minor moralities, conventional forms, technical orthodoxies, ecclesiasticisms, cultisms, and denominationalisms.

Pure Religion or Vital Christianity

But true religion or vital Christianity is not based on creeds or doctrines, and it is not necessarily found in lofty cathedrals. Christian people believe that vital Christianity is essential in the saving of mankind, and that pure religion is the hope of salvation. There are thousands of persons desiring a practical religion, a living faith, a deeper understanding of God and man, and they will find it in the divine theology of Jesus as set forth in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook.

Pure religion, with all the divine ideas and qualities, is to be found only in the human heart. These ideas and qualities which constitute pure religion, are utilized and expressed visibly in art, in science, in music, in literature, in statesmanship, in business, and in pretty much anything else to which the individual may devote his thought.

Truly religious individuals are not confined entirely to ritualistic forms and scholastic theories, any more than they were in our Lord’s time. Truly religious individuals represent or evidence forth the Christ ideas and qualities, and are today recasting the whole human concept for a higher mode of life. The Christ-life within the individual is becoming visible, universally as ONE HOLY CHURCH; as one spiritualized consciousness.

This is as it should be. The Christian churches, as a whole, were never more truly religious in their relations than they are today. Their one need is the control and guidance of the Christ-Truth within, as revealed through Christian Science. And unless many signs are misleading, this inner light of understanding, this impersonal Christ within, is breaking forth anew in numerous modes and methods.

Redemption From Scholastic Theology

Each one of us needs to be redeemed, more and more, from scholastic theology. Each one of us has much false scholastic theology clinging to us, that we are practically unaware of, even though we classify ourselves as Christian Scientists. It is this scholastic theology that is hindering us from expressing to the world that inner light, that Christ within, which permits of “signs following.” We should examine ourselves and see to what extent our thought is the teaching of false theology.

For instance: Do we believe that we were ever born? Do we believe that we have a personal life that lives in a personal body? Do we believe that as a personality we are a sinner and must be saved from sin? Do we believe that we as a personality can become sick and can die? Do we believe that we can be poor, wretched, and robbed, and dominated? Do we believe in evil, in war, in storms, in shipwrecks, in lack of tax-money? In other words, do we believe in another power and presence, other than the one almighty God? Do we believe that we, individually, are other than this one almighty God in expression? If so, we are accepting false theology as our religion.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Scholastic theology makes God manlike; Christian Science (or the theology of Jesus) makes man Godlike.” (Mes.’01 7:3) She also says, “Popular theology makes God tributary to man, coming at human call; whereas the reverse is true in Science.” (Un. 13:3) It is quite true that the theology of Jesus is today shaking creedal and doctrinal foundations, which have been believed to be solid for time and eternity.

Our Former Concept of God

Generally speaking, we might say that before Christian Science revealed the theology of Jesus, our concept of God was “The unknown God” whom we ignorantly worshipped. Our concept of God was that He was wholly apart from us and governed us very much as a mother governs her child, rewarding us according to worthiness or unworthiness.

Our Present Concept of God

But now, our concept of God is greatly enlarged. We understand God numerically, as one Being; as one Whole and ALL. We think of God as an infinite incorporeal Being, the only Being, the very being of each one of us. We think of God as the only consciousness, and we know there is no other consciousness. We do not think of Consciousness as the effect of God or Mind, or as produced by God or Mind, but that God or Mind, in fact, is Consciousness and there is no other consciousness. We think of God, or Mind, or Consciousness, as all-inclusive; as an inseparable, indivisible unity of Good. We think of God, or Mind, or Consciousness as revealing Himself to Himself; since there is none outside of Himself, or beside Himself, to whom He can reveal Himself. We think of God as one infinite Self. We think of God as His own interpreter.

Our Former Concept of Man

Before Christian Science revealed the theology of Jesus to us, man was a personal, material, mortal existence, wholly apart from God. We believed that the mind and body of man could be separated. We believed that sin, sickness, and death were inescapable.

Our Present Concept of Man

But now, our concept of man is greatly enlarged. We have learned that the Science of Being includes man. Think of the sum-total of all that God or Mind brings into expression, THAT IS MAN. Think of full representation of what God or Mind is mentally and spiritually, THAT IS MAN. Think of God or Mind presenting Himself, infinitely, presenting His faculties, His all-seeing, and allknowing, His infinite operations and movements, allenergy, all-action; what these are consciously to Him, as Himself, THAT IS MAN.

Think of God or Mind presenting Himself, again and again, to Himself, never twice alike; presenting His spiritual senses, His infinite elements of form, color, quality and quantity, THAT IS MAN. Think of God or Mind presenting again and again, His beauty, His art, His order, His immensity, THAT IS MAN AS REFLECTION OR EVIDENCE.

Man represents or evidences, infinitely and consciously, all that God, his Mind, is.

Let us think of man as the infinite Intelligence of God or Mind, as the omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of God. Let us think of man as the immanence of God or Mind; as the compound of infinite ideas indwelling in their Cause or divine Principle. Let us think of man, the spiritual compound idea, as the subjectiveness or the essence of what God is, as Himself. What God or Mind knows Himself to be, MAN IS THAT.

A ray of light is the sun’s own shining. So let us think of each one of us right here as God’s own shining. Let us think of each one of us as God’s own consciousness living; as God’s own consciousness loving; as God’s own consciousness understanding; as God’s own conscious creating; as God’s own conscious Being. Man is the conscious activeness of God or Mind. All that God or Mind senses Himself to be, is man in His image and likeness.

God or Mind is presenting Himself at this time, as man, in far greater usefulness, far greater activity, a far greater measure of abundance and sublimity than we have ever known before. Life is being expressed more and more, in its original buoyancy, freshness, and fairness and freedom from restrictions.

Someone will say, all this that you say about man is beautiful, but it is far beyond what we can demonstrate in our present age. But, let us not forget that God or Mind demonstrates His own ALLNESS. All things are possible to God. He is a living conscious Power that demonstrates Itself. He presents Himself in tangible, concrete proofs or demonstrations as man and the universe.

Our part, as Christian Scientists, is to abide in the spiritual fact that we are God’s image and likeness; that we are spiritual, not material; that we are, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We should not let the accuser be a law unto us, but we should be a law unto ourselves.

God and Man as One Being

I should like to repeat a paragraph that we used at the beginning of this morning’s lesson. Whenever we make the statements that “God and man is one inseparable Being” or that “Principle and its idea is one,” these statements may mean much to us in Christian Science, or they may be mere words to us.

This oneness, according to the theology of Jesus, means that man, as God’s idea of Himself, can do nothing. It means that God alone, without man, can do nothing, cannot even exist. Whatever is done within the realm of the spiritual universe, God alone without man does not do it. Whatever is done, whatever is the circumstance, or the event, God and man do it together as one inseparable Being.

If there were such a thing as sin in the world, it would be God and man sinning as one inseparable sin. If there was such a thing as death in the world, it would be God and man as one inseparable Being, dying and being death. Since we cannot attach sin and death to God, we cannot attach them to man, because God and man is one inseparable Being. God, without man, cannot be immortality. God and man as one inseparable Being is immortal Life. This understanding that God and man is one inseparable Being is indeed our Saviour. This is the divine theology that was taught by Jesus and presented to the world as Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”

Introduction

Our coming together on these Association Days is not repetition in the usual sense. It is not doing just the same thing year after year. Each Association Day is a day of further revealment of higher unfoldments in our human consciousness, of those things which are already spiritual facts. This should be to us an inspirational day, a day in which to progress both mentally and spiritually. In each Association, there is at least one outstanding idea which, if accepted in consciousness, will unfold and bless, and heal us throughout the year. This right idea is a living, conscious, irresistible power which demonstrates itself, and works the works of God. There have been many healings during the past year by those students in the Association, who have learned to “be still and know” that this right idea or the Christ within his own consciousness demonstrates Itself. Like the Master Teacher, all teachers of Christian Science ascend into higher revealments of truth to their students. So, throughout this work, I shall amplify, enlarge, or elucidate the power of a divine idea when it is made active in human consciousness.

The power of right or divine ideas that we see and feel today, will become clearer and more real tomorrow. We become increasingly conscious of the power of these ideas by the increasing use we make of them. The unfoldment in our human consciousness of the power of divine ideas is infinite and limitless in scope, “since God is the light thereof.” This divine power will continue to unfold throughout all eternity.

Never in all history has the human mind expressed the qualities of Deity in such immeasurable degrees and in such concrete visible forms as at this present time. When correctly understood, the qualities of power, capacity, exactness, precision, coordination, etc., that are so outstanding in this world-conflict, are all evolved by divine Mind, and are in the divine Mind only.

Then the question arises, how can these divine qualities of power, and capacity, and coordination, etc., appear to us as destructive forces? It is because so-called mortal mind has translated these divine qualities and their functionings as destructive, and then sees and feels its own destructiveness objectified. Mortal mind is ignorant that God and His manifestation, man, is one inseparable Being.

We are learning that all these supposed destructive powers, hidden in the blind forces of matter, when correctly understood, are divine powers that adhere only in Spirit. Through the understanding of Christian Science, we are, more and more, translating all power, and substance, and action, as well as man and the universe, back into Spirit. It is through translation that the subjective qualities of Mind are revealed.

It is only by obedience to truth that all error of belief can be overcome, and since we cannot be obedient to the truth unless we understand the truth, we therefore overcome by being obedient to our understanding.

In the sixteenth chapter of St. John we find a most amazing declaration from Jesus Christ concerning his own individual victory in overcoming. He was the victor in the greatest contest that has ever taken place in the history of the world.

This was a mental contest of which he said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus meant that he had overcome within himself the entire material concept of man and the universe. This, Jesus considered the climax of his demonstration.

Jesus also considered it of paramount importance that each individual should overcome the material concept of his individual world, or each individual should translate man and the universe back into Spirit. (S&H 209:22) Mrs. Eddy says, “The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs” (S&H 257:15), and these misconceptions must all give place to the spiritual facts at hand, and this is accomplished through obedience to our highest concept of truth.

Christ Jesus made it very plain that the individual overcoming of the false concept of his world is most essential. We find that Christ Jesus emphasized this fact in his revelation to St. John.

And if we want to truly estimate the rich heritage that is bequeathed to the individual who overcometh, we should read and ponder what is written by St. John to the seven churches throughout Asia. No one can understand what is written to these churches and not feel that it is worthwhile to make the effort to be obedient, and thereby overcome the material concept of the world. The reward offered to the seven churches is climaxed in the first one; namely, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” (Rev. 21:7)

To the evidence of the material senses, the world that Jesus lived in, is as much in existence today as when he left it; the same hills, lakes, mountains, and valleys are here. Jesus made no attempt with dynamite to obliterate matter; he used no physical force or human will power; he left the world in physical outline the same as when he entered it, but he overcame it.

Jesus overcame a counterfeit sense, a false mistaken sense, the material concept of that which is a spiritual fact at hand, and the only fact at hand. Even before Jesus’ demonstration of this conquest in overcoming, as manifested in his ascension, he had overcome a matter-sense of the world. He walked on the water, he fed the five thousand, he obtained tax money, he passed through the walls.

Our present world is not outside of us, but is our mode of consciousness and is constituted of all men and all things. Our world and all that comprises it is mental and spiritual now, and we only need to have a correct sense of it.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite” (S&H 208:2), and it is the overcoming of this carnal mind or this so-called material sense of man and things that is the overcoming of the world.

This spiritual mental ascent above the finite and material sense of persons and things was made within the realm of Jesus’ own consciousness, and this same spiritual ascent must be made within the realm of every individual’s consciousness.

God’s creation has always existed as His infinite visible reflection, man and the universe. This is the only creation, the creation that we are seeing today, even though we see it through the lens of material sense, or through a glass darkly, and call it matter. Mind, God, evolves and reveals His numberless ideas that express Him. God reveals Himself as man, His greatest idea, for man is “the compound idea of God, including all right ideas.” (S&H 475:14) Man completely manifests the Infinite Creative Mind.

In the beginning all creation was good, perfect, harmonious and eternal, and so it remains today; for what could change it, since it is God expressed, and God is omnipotent; then why, when all is good and very good, does there seem to be the process called overcoming?

The Scriptures state that “there went up a mist from the earth” (Gen. 2:6), which means that reality always seems to have its shadow in unreality, and this unreality claims reality for itself. In this respect it counterfeits the real.

So-called mortal mind stands as the opposite and negative of the Mind that is God, but it is suppositional and without basis of fact. Jesus calls it a liar from the beginning. So-called mortal mind translates Mind’s ideas in conformity with itself and calls them things, or objects of matter.

What we see as objects of matter is the human mind’s misconception of the spiritual facts at hand; in other words, matter is just the human mind’s way of regarding real creation.

Spiritual facts appear to the human mind to be matter, and matter is false appearance only. The trouble is, that mortals deal with appearance only and not with the spiritual facts or with things as they are. Therefore the so-called mortal man, through enlightenment and obedience to his understanding, must overcome his misconceptions of man and the universe.

So-called mortal man is the sum total of the material thoughts that make up supposititious consciousness or a material self-hood; but Mrs. Eddy teaches that there is no self-hood apart from God, because God and man are coexistent as one Being; and if there is no self-hood apart from God, then the self-hood present here must be God, no matter how it appears.

Enoch proved this. Enoch saw no evil, or sin; he saw the appearance called matter, and even death, as the formless mist that flees or dissolves before the light of the sun. He so focused the penetrating rays of omnipotent truth upon his seeming material self-hood, that it dissolved and vanished from human view. By so doing, Enoch lived and moved and had his being in God, and experienced the consciousness of eternal life. Thus must all mankind do to live.

There are not two kinds of reality, one to be overcome and the other to endure forever; but it is through the understanding of truth that we overcome the misconception of the one and only self-hood, here and now.

We do know what is to be overcome, even the false material concept of man and the universe. We know how to overcome it, even through the understanding of, and obedience to, truth. We know where the overcoming must take place, even in human consciousness. But one thing remains; when are we to do the overcoming?

We are to do the overcoming at the very instant that error confronts us. We must begin right where we are, and right where error confronts us, to overcome the material, erroneous sense. We do this by being obedient in our thinking and living, to the spiritual sense of the thing at hand.

There seems to be a natural tendency on the part of human beings to ignore the present, and look to what is believed to be the more important things of the future, when we should make our decisions and take our stand for the truth of reality at that instant. Present opportunities must be improved if we are to reap the reward of the faithful and inherit all things.

Daniel could not wait until he got out of the lions’ den to do the knowing and living of the truth; he had to do it right now, right then and there; but if Daniel had not been living in obedience to the reality, or truth of men and circumstances, before he was put in the lions’ den, he might not have fared so well at the time.

If we think rightly at all times, and under all circumstances, there is little danger that we shall act wrongly when under pressure. We may act without deliberation at times, but essentially our actions will be right; but if we think wrongly and harbor thoughts of envy, hatred, revenge, dishonesty, passion, sickness, etc., we are not going to act rightly now or next week, or at any time, until we change our thinking and standard of living. Why is this so? Because right thinking is not a matter of habit, but is a matter of reflecting the Divine Mind. Right thinking is not an activity of the human mind at all, but right thinking is scientific activity, and scientific thinking reflects the activity of the Divine Mind. It is only as we reflect the Divine Mind that wrong or unscientific thinking can be overcome.

Let us consider David and Goliath in their presentation of scientific and unscientific thinking. Twice each day Goliath had successfully defied the host of Israel by mesmerizing them into thinking that he, a personality, was invincible. Goliath’s display of preparedness, size and power possessed their thinking entirely, and “they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.” (I Sam. 17:11)

But evil’s representation of itself as size, power, or frightfulness, whether in the guise of a man or beast, held no terror for David, because his thinking was scientific thinking, the reflection of Mind, and such thinking permitted of no suggestion of any presence or power besides God.

How large was Goliath, really? How much to be feared, when such a small missile as a little round stone, understandingly wielded, could destroy him. It was not a giant the hosts of Israel feared, but it was their misconception that almighty power had its source in a giant. Through their wrong thinking, they saw the power of life and intelligence in person, and this wrong thinking controlled both armies for forty days.

Are we really aware of how much of the time we give power to life and intelligence in persons, weighing and fearing what personal man will think or say or do unto us? This is all unscientific thinking, and we should overcome it by the reflection of the thinking that is the activity of the divine Mind. In Christian Science, there is no personal self-hood; the only self-hood is God, and every individual man reflects Him.

What needed to be destroyed in order to liberate the host of Israel was the mesmeric suggestion wielded by the carnal mind; David did not become a victim of the malicious suggestions sent out morning and evening by Goliath, but he said, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” (I Sam. 17:37)

And when carnal mind bragged of its power, and dominion, and displayed its great weight, and size and solidity, David remained obedient to the truth in his thinking. David’s divine insight enabled him to overcome the carnal mind. His direct blow of true understanding aimed at error’s forehead, or the false claim of intelligence in matter or person, was sufficient to win the battle.

The realization of the dominion and influence of right scientific thinking is the first step away from the misconceptions that man can be governed by chance or circumstance or environment, or any of the various forms of matter or evil. Man, God’s idea of Himself, is governed in his entire action by God, and by nothing else.

David did not hesitate or fear to go out to meet Goliath, because he acknowledged no place where God’s law is not in operation. He knew that God, alone, is supreme in Heaven and in earth.

And the Davids of today, we who do the will of God, need not fear to go forth and fight for the right, and there comes the abiding sense of joy and satisfaction only as we are faithful in the performance of every work to which we are called.

No one can hold to a position outgrown. There is always higher work for each and every one of us when we have faithfully and lovingly performed our present duty. This was true of David who, after carefully attending his sheep, was at length called upon to administer the laws of the nation; and as it was with David, so it is with us.

Overcoming means nothing else than the gaining of further good.

We are to give proof that our kingdom is not of this world. To do this we must first order our thinking and our conversation, and go forth to meet the mental foe, firmly resolved to overcome, by obedience to truth, whatever in human consciousness is unlike perfection.

Christian Science is revealing to us the Godlike qualities which made man the divine character of the Christ; and instead of supinely waiting for God to do something, we should do something ourselves to attain this divine character. Christian Science teaches that we must be doers of the word if we are to receive the further good that is in store for us.

Now for a while, let us consider some of the natural tendencies of mortal mind which should be overcome, and which can be overcome by obedience to our understanding of truth. One of the most subtle temptations which turns thought from the straight and narrow way leading to further good, is the desire to be exalted above others, and this human desire should be overcome.

We often receive satisfaction from having privileges which others are not permitted to enjoy; and even though we may have opportunities which are denied others, any exultation in which we indulge, only makes it more difficult to accomplish the greater overcoming which is expected of us, and which is required of us. We should not think of ourselves as superior to others who render just as effectual service, but in positions that mortal mind considers of less importance. It is never the position we occupy, but the overcoming in individual consciousness that is of consequence.

Again, the temptation to be satisfied with human recognition and appreciation often prevents the honest striving for the things of Spirit, which is so essential to continued progress in further good.

There is but one road to enduring success, either for the individual or for the race; that is for each one of us to be faithful in the use of that which has been entrusted to our keeping, not regarding the relative importance according to the human estimate of our work or position as compared with that of others. The faithful worker is rewarded, not according to material views or compensation, but according to spiritual law; and since this is true, the faithful is always sure of his reward.

In every righteous endeavor, we are to consider no high and no low, but recognize and appreciate every honest effort wherever seen. To bless another and not possess another should be the motto of every one who has caught a glimpse of love, and only unselfish service is accepted as proof of love. If we wish to gain the health and peace which Christian Science offers, we do not seek these blessings for ourselves alone. Such an attitude of thought would prevent us from rising higher than the mere letter of Christian Science.

If we were to see a man overcome with cold and perishing in the snow, how quickly we would go to the rescue, but are we that divine Love that will go to the rescue, when we see another overcome by resentment, greed, vindictiveness, hate, or jealousy?

On such occasions we can silently reflect the warmth of Divine Love, until his heart feels the gentle warmth of Love, and he is roused to express the activity of the life that is love.

Opportunity awaits us hourly to manifest that love which is impartial and reaches out to all mankind. Such love is the gift of God, a reflection of that love which includes all of its ideas, and tenderly and impartially protects them.

Again, among the obstructive forms which mesmeric influences assume are indifference, apathy, and fear of human opinions. We cannot be a Christian Scientist and be half-hearted, or idle, or let our thought be influenced by the consideration of what people think.

When truth becomes the lodestar of our thought, the trust and confidence of our fellow man is assured. Meanwhile it is well to dismiss all anxiety in regard to our motives being intelligently viewed, or our achievements or difficulties sympathetically appreciated. We should recognize that the human mind at the best is incapable of accurate judgement, and we should see to it that all our actions are the result of waiting upon God for directions.

Jesus gave us the method of procedure in overcoming for all ages. He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24) To deny oneself meant to Jesus the denial of mortal material self-hood; and if we heed the Master’s admonition and deny ourselves daily, it will soon be apparent that the human will, with all its aggressiveness and insufficiency, is losing its seeming influence, and that the Divine Mind with all its power and peace is governing.

We should strive daily to realize that there is no mortal material self-hood at all; that each individual is the reflection of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love. This is really all the me and you there is, and this true and only self-hood is coexistent and co-eternal with God.

When we really deny ourselves, we forget ourselves and all mankind materially, and remember only the image and likeness of God. In this way is Christian Science healing wrought.

The Christian Science doctrine of the unreality of matter does not teach that matter represents nothing at all, but it teaches that matter is a material misconception of a true conception or a true idea held in Divine Mind. And the so-called human is the subjective or the externalized object of his own thinking, and, being a mere effect, he changes and alters with every alteration of his mind, which is projecting or causing the effect.

Jesus had so destroyed the human or carnal mind by this simple process of denying himself, that is, denying his own materiality, that when a leper approached him on the way to Capernaum, his own spirituality or the Christ, rejected the lie of sick matter, and recognized only the idea of Divine Mind.

The real man, the image and likeness of God, was a purely spiritual idea, incapable of sin, disease and death. Knowing this, Jesus knew that he was not placing his hand on leprous matter, since all his spirituality was capable of recognizing as real, was the image and likeness of God.

And Jesus could not understand this truth, and be obedient to it in his thinking, without destroying the specific lie or misconception presented to him, that of a leprous man, in the only place where it claimed to exist, in the human mind.

Gone from the human mind, it was gone, not only for Jesus, but for the leper, and the priest to whom the leper was to go and show himself. Jesus, in short, had known the truth; and the truth had destroyed the lie or misconception and set the leper free. Jesus saw the perfect man where sinning mortal man alone was visible to those about him, and this healed the sick. This exemplifies the simplicity of a Christian Science treatment. No Christian Scientist, be he student, reader, practitioner, can do more than have his thinking true, the truth about God and man; and this conscious Truth as one’s own mind overcomes or rejects any mental presentation that is not true.

True protection lies not in outward circumstances but in spiritual thinking, and it is won through our ceaseless struggle to think God’s thoughts and be Christlike.

The students of Christian Science realize the importance of rejecting suggestions that old age will curtail activity or diminish the power of certain moral faculties. One not awake to the truth of being may let in such suggestions and brood over them until they are made manifest in his experience. Mrs. Eddy warns against this when she writes, “The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a chance to manifest itself.” (S&H 452:5)

Christian Science proves that quick rejection of disturbing, morbid thoughts, fearful, apathetic, selfish thoughts, prevents their taking effect in one’s experience; and by keeping their thoughts fixed on God, Truth, Christian Scientists are able to experience divine preservation, peace, harmony, happiness, useful activity, and to assist in bringing continual satisfaction to their loved ones and friends. Health, harmony, happiness, useful activity, success are within the reach of all who will begin to use their useful capacities in constructive spiritual thinking and activity. These things are within the reach of all who overcome the misconceptions of man, by obedience to the truth of being.

Mrs. Eddy gives the following instructions, “We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material.” (S&H 428:19)

In overcoming by obedience, we should clearly understand that our problem is never one of overcoming persons and conditions outside of ourselves, but our problem is to overcome within ourselves the false belief that the source of power and action is in a person or condition.

The prevalent tendency is to place the source and origin of power and action in personality, or conditions, instead of in God and in this present time. Certain personalities appear to be wielding great power and influence and domination. But Mrs. Eddy, in her college classes said, “There is no personality, and it is more important to know this than to know that there is no disease.”

What appears to the human mind to be a powerful and active person, a veritable Goliath, is in fact individual man expressing the power and action of the ONE GOD-MIND.

There is no personal self-hood. The self-hood that is present here is God-Mind in mental, spiritual manifestation or man. Each individual here is the mental, spiritual showing forth of the one self-hood, God.

We do not have to overcome evil persons, or evil conditions, in order to be liberated from our problems, but we liberate ourselves by overcoming the mesmeric suggestions wielded by the carnal mind; that man is a person and is the cause of evil conditions.

We, like David, should not be mesmerized by evil presentations, even though it presents the appearance of great power, activity, domination, war, etc. Much of the time, even Christian Scientists are giving power to the Goliaths of today, when we should be using the small round stone, or true understanding, to destroy the mesmerism of life and intelligence in matter.

When erroneous mental pictures seem to confront us, we should realize the necessity of overcoming them instantly. Mrs. Eddy says, “Error comes to you for life, and you give it all the life it has.” (From an old Journal)

To overcome any error that seems to confront us, we realize that it is a mental suggestion only, and then replace the suggestion with the truth or spiritual fact. The wrong mental or evil suggestion can be overcome by the right mental or true thought because right thinking is the activity of the Divine Mind, present as the action and power that is truth and life. Right thinking is never the activity of the human mind, but right thinking is always Divine Mind in action, and is supreme power. Christian Science proves that quick rejection from consciousness of disturbing, morbid, fearful, selfish thoughts prevents them from taking effect in one’s experience.

As we realize the dominant influence of right scientific thinking, we overcome the misconceptions that we can be governed by chance or circumstances or any form of evil. Our protection from all seeming evils, lies in spiritual thinking. As we rise to higher realms of thought, we automatically transcend evil conditions.

Our present world is not outside of us; it is a mental world, a state of consciousness, and we, like Jesus, are to overcome the entire mental concept of it. Overcoming is always a mental contest within the consciousness of the individual; a contest between our understanding of the spiritual fact that God is All, and the belief in the misconception that evil is presence and power.

Our enemies are purely mental. They are our human thoughts and fears, our misconceptions of man as personal, and our universe as material. Our spiritual ascent above the finite material sense of a personal self-hood, and a material world, is made within the realm of our individual consciousness. We overcome only by obedience to the truth of being.

At last year’s Association, we stressed the thought that each student of Christian Science should have a clearly defined mental position within himself. The patriarchs, prophets, Jesus, the disciples, and the Revelator all held within themselves clearly defined mental positions from which they never swerved. Do we, as Christian Scientists, maintain a mental position in regard to our divine Reality and our divine Intelligence from which we never swerve?

Spiritual Vision

The patriarchs and prophets based their mental position on spiritual vision. What, to others at that time, seemed to be ordinary human conditions and events, these men interpreted according to spiritual vision, and placed upon the conditions and events an entirely different value than was placed upon them by the mind that was unenlightened spiritually.

These men lived life and practiced life based upon their spiritual vision of men and things, with the result that they exercised spiritual power. They brought water from the rock; they fed the hungry with barley loaves and corn; and they raised the dead. They gave proof or evidence of their spiritual power.

Enlarged Spiritual Vision

This spiritual vision appeared in an enlarged measure to Jesus and the disciples in the form of the Holy Ghost, and they exercised enlarged spiritual power. And today this spiritual vision is appearing within our individual mind in a still larger unfoldment of Divine Science. And we should exercise this power that is appearing to us as Divine Science or divine Intelligence and do “the still greater works.”

All Troubles Result From an Incorrect Viewpoint

Each one of us is living his life today according to an incorrect viewpoint based on material sense, or according to a correct viewpoint based on Divine Science. All the seeming troubles and inharmonies in the world today result from incorrect viewpoints, and we have these wrong viewpoints because we base our interpretations of everybody and everything upon the beliefs of material sense. Wrong interpretation always results in a wrong viewpoint.

Right Interpretations Give Correct Viewpoint

We have a clearly defined mental position, as did the patriarchs and Jesus, only as we base our mental position on a spiritual viewpoint and interpret man and the universe according to Divine Science. It is through strict adherence to the laws of Divine Science that we are able to interpret correctly every environment, circumstance, and event of our daily experience. Jesus had a correct view of man. He not only interpreted man, as man really is, but he gave instant proof or evidence of “the perfect man at hand.” Jesus had this correct view of man and things, and gave instant proof or evidence of wholeness and perfection because he based his interpretation of man and things upon spiritual facts.

Do we interpret man as personal, and material, and mortal? Do we interpret the world in which we live as material and destructible? If we do, we are interpreting them erroneously, and are living our life from a limited viewpoint of material sense. There is nothing wrong with our world, or with the people living in our world. It is our mental interpretation that is erroneous, and causes us to think and act from incorrect viewpoints.

Perfect Man and Perfect Universe

Every Christian Science student clearly understands that “God is All,” and that His creation, man and the universe, are spiritual, eternal, and perfect. This correct interpretation by the Christian Science student gives instant proof or evidence, as in the days of Jesus, that the man and universe at hand are harmonious and eternal.

It is most important that we, as Christian Scientists, maintain a correct interpretation of ourselves, and others, and the things of our universe. Whatever we take cognizance of, and accept as a fact, this becomes a part of what is ordinarily called our human consciousness, and is reflected in our bodies and in our affairs. If our viewpoint is determined by an incorrect interpretation of the divine fact at hand, then our body and our affairs reflect this false interpretation. But if our viewpoint is determined by a correct interpretation of true Being, then our body and our affairs reflect the facts of Divine Science.

With correct interpretation, our human objectives are the objectification of true Being. It takes a clearly defined mental position, based upon a correct viewpoint, to see orderliness in business, in world affairs and in all activities. No change is needed in the external condition, but a change must take place in our mental position, before we can maintain the sense of peace and joy that is strength and power, and that enables us to fulfill the needs of mankind.

When our individual interpretations are based on the facts of Being, our thought is divine Intelligence and like the patriarchs of old, we see what the unillumined mind cannot see, a perfect world and harmonious experiences. Mrs. Eddy says, “Science reverses the evidence before the material senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and man.” (S&H 461:13)

An Age of Power, and Action, and Works

As we exercise our thought and action from a viewpoint based upon the interpretation as given in Divine Science, this new age will be for us an age of power, and action, and dominion, and good works. It will be an age in which we, as individuals, give instantaneous proof or evidence of perfect man and perfect universe at hand.

Vital Points

1. We need within ourselves, a clearly defined mental position from which we never swerve.

2. We should always, not sometimes, but always interpret man and the universe from the standpoint of Divine Science, not from the standpoint of material sense.

3. Our viewpoint is reflected in our bodies, in our business, and in all our affairs.