Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics

A Collection of Lectures and Articles

by Dr. Francis J. Fluno


Published by The Bookmark
Post Office Box 801143, Santa Clarita, CA 91380

This transcript is based on the Christian Science textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

Unless otherwise noted, the quotations in this transcript are from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy.

All quotations from the Bible are from the authorized King James version.



Table of Contents




A Biography of Francis J. Fluno, M.D., C.S.D.

Foreword

In accordance with the wish of our membership, as expressed at the Association Meeting of 1932, the following Biography of our Teacher has been prepared by Lillian Clyde Reese and Blanche Partington, at the request of your Executive Committee.

The gratitude of the Association is due to all those who have so generously contributed of their time and material to this work: to Mrs. Ella V. Fluno, C.S.B., whose help has been invaluable; to First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Oakland, California, for their kindness in permitting the use of Church Records; and to the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy, for their gracious permission to use the letters of our Revered Leader, herein quoted.

Inevitably, so brief a history can include only a few of the rich salients of a life so broadly significant as that of Dr. Francis J. Fluno. But we sincerely trust, that brief as it is, this record of the life and work of one of the great pioneers of the Cause of Christian Science on the Pacific Coast, who gave himself so unstintedly in the service of humanity and for the good of each and every one of us, his students, will arouse us all to new and ever more consecrated effort, will inspire in us a purer and higher loyalty, and will quicken us to “fight the good fight of faith” with all-conquering courage and hope, in the service of God, of our Leader, and of all mankind.


Executive Committee
Miss Blanche Partington, Chairman
Mrs. Evelyn A. Dunn, Vice-Chairman
Mr. George H. Brown, Treasurer
Mrs. Virginia E. Brown
Mr. Edmond H. Mott
Mr. Ralph A. Presher
Mrs. Jerita V. Blair Head, Secretary

Committee on Biography
Mrs. Evelyn A. Dunn, Chairman
Miss Lillian Clyde Reese

July 1933


FRANCIS J. FLUNO was born on a farm in Otsego County, New York, September 15, 1845. He was the son of Isaac and Jane [Smith] Fluno, whose ancestors came from Alsace-Lorraine, and third youngest of a family of six. His parents were natives of New York State, where the father followed agricultural pursuits.

When Francis was five years old, the family moved to Wisconsin, where the father continued in his chosen vocation. He received his early education in the country schools of Wisconsin, and later attended High School in Mauston, Wisconsin. In 1863, when not yet eighteen, he enlisted for one hundred days’ service in the Union Army, serving as a volunteer in the Forty-first Regiment. After his return, he finished his High School course, which was followed by a period of school teaching.

As a boy, Francis had worked in a cabinet shop, and later, by carpenter work and teaching, he earned his way through the State University at Madison, Wisconsin. While attending the University, he met Miss Eleanor Pearson, whom he subsequently married.

During all these years, he was a close student of the Bible, desiring above all else to become acquainted with God. He became convinced that God was not a person, but an ever-present Truth. He would at this time have entered the ministry, had he understood sufficiently the nature and character of God to have taught his listeners the truth. He had had an experience in early childhood that had definitely turned his thought towards a concept of God as Spirit, as a protecting and saving power. When a very small child, he was one day crossing a field, and fell into an old abandoned well. He never could remember, he said, how he got out of the well, for there was no one with him, but he always felt certain that something beyond human power had lifted him out. In later years, he often recalled and spoke of this strange and happy experience.

Because of his deep desire to be of service to humanity, he began studying and practicing medicine under a physician in Madison. Five years after this, his wife passed on, and six months later, he went to the Homeopathic Medical College in Iowa City. On his way to Iowa, he visited a sister living on a farm near Mauston, and there met his sister’s friend, Miss Ella Victoria Jennings, with whom he afterwards began to correspond.

Returning from Iowa City some time after this, he accompanied a brother to Flandreau, South Dakota, and after a year’s practice there returned to Mauston, where, at the end of a short visit with friends, he married Miss Jennings, May 11, 1881. They returned together to Flandreau, and three years after this, in 1884, went to Chicago, where Doctor Fluno entered the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. Here, after completing the course, he took up the practice of his profession, locating on the corner of Western Avenue and Madison Street.

It was here, in the fall of 1884, that Dr. Fluno saw his first copy of Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker G. Eddy, the thirteenth edition, loaned to him by Mrs. Cordelia L. Childs, a childhood friend and neighbor. Mrs. Childs had taken treatment from a student of Mrs. Eddy’s and been benefited. Desiring to help Doctor Fluno to succeed in his practice, she purchased the textbook and brought it to him, saying, “This is metaphysics; study it up, and use it in your practice. It’s good.”

Science and Health was then in two volumes, and this enabled Doctor and Mrs. Fluno to study at the same time. Eagerly they devoured its pages. Once, twice, three times they read it, and at the third reading Doctor was overcome with joy at finding the Truth for which he had been so long seeking. Later they returned the book to Mrs. Childs, and purchased the fourteenth edition, studying even more deeply, and beginning to put into practice the teachings of Christian Science, with the inevitable result that Dr. Fluno found at length he could no longer administer drugs to the sick.

Mrs. Childs, about this time, seeing the profound impression made by Science and Health upon the young seekers, brought Mrs. Philbrick, a student of Mrs. Eddy’s, to advise them as to further progress. There were no churches at that time in Chicago, although there were four workers, [of whom Mrs. Philbrick was one], but recognizing the spiritual depth of Doctor’s thought, Mrs. Philbrick said, “You must go to Mrs. Eddy; you must not study here.” “But,” said Dr. Fluno, “we haven’t the money,” the charge for the Primary Class being three hundred dollars, husband and wife counting as one. Mrs. Philbrick replied, “Money is nothing! Get it!” And it is a happy witness to the receptivity of their thought, that about that time Doctor received a letter from Dakota, from a lady who wished to purchase some property, the subsequent sale taking care of the tuition. Dr. and Mrs. Fluno entered the Massachusetts Metaphysical College under the instruction of Mrs. Eddy in November 1885, both obtaining the degree C.S.B.

A Mrs. M. Bettie Bell, C.S., whose name was in the Journal, was in that Primary Class. She had a sister living in Lexington, Kentucky, and was desirous that Dr. and Mrs. Fluno should go to Lexington and establish themselves in that field. They were willing to go anywhere to help the Cause, and asked Mrs. Eddy if she would direct them. She gently replied, “Choose your own field,” and they went to Kentucky. The healing work here was phenomenal, and five months from the time they arrived in Lexington, Mrs. Eddy wrote them to teach what they had learned, saying, “There are those who understand in five months that which takes others five years to understand.”

In 1887, Mrs. Eddy wrote asking Dr. Fluno to come for the Normal Class in March, at which time he received the degree of C.S.D. Dr. and Mrs. Fluno each taught one class in Lexington. They also held services there during the three months before their departure. There, also, Dr. Fluno wrote and delivered his first lecture on Christian Science, eleven years before the formal establishment of the Board of Lectureship. The services were conducted in the Auditorium of the City Hall, where also Dr. Fluno delivered his lecture — which took three hours to deliver. He later developed three lectures from this one, a portion of it forming the basis for the one known as Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics.

While in Kentucky, Dr. and Mrs. Fluno received letters from a friend in San Diego, a former medical patient of Doctor’s expressing the wish for them to come there, and in the Journal of August 1888, appeared their card showing that they were located in San Diego. That same year, they came to San Francisco, their card appearing in the Journal of July 1889, with the address as 433 Golden Gate Avenue. They became charter members of First Church of Christ, Scientist, San Francisco, which organized July 1st, 1889, and on August 18th, 1889, Dr. Fluno conducted the services.

There had been meetings in Oakland for about three years previous to this time, conducted by the Reverend Joseph Adams. Both Reverend and Mrs. Adams were students of Mrs. Eddy, and at her suggestion they were called to Chicago about this time. Very desirous of leaving the Oakland field in good hands, Mrs. Adams visited a former patient in San Francisco, whom Dr. Fluno was then treating, and inquired of her what she thought of asking Dr. Fluno to take their place in Oakland. The lady hesitated in replying, and Mrs. Adams asked, “Do you think Dr. Fluno is not good enough for the place?” “No, indeed!” answered the lady, “I was just wondering if the place was good enough for him!” Dr. and Mrs. Fluno’s answer to the question was shown in the Journal of September 1889, giving their address as Oakland.

Years later, recalling this experience in his own wise and humorous way, Dr. Fluno told a group of his students, “When we came to Oakland about fourteen years ago, we came quite reluctantly, because we were then settled over in the City. But we came because there seemed to be a call, and we thought if we could make a living in Oakland at all we would be thankful. We came from a basement over in the City — a few rooms in the basement; it was one step above ground. We took a house over here with nine rooms, and bought all the furniture, and had a girl to do the work at twenty dollars a month — over $460 worth of furniture I guess, and didn’t pay a cent, and we had only five dollars when we got here to Oakland, and one load of furniture on a one-horse wagon, and poor stuff at that! But we have never wanted for anything, and we were able to pay our rent from the very first, and our help, and to pay for everything that we got, and right straight along, and to pay little by little for what we had bought. And now we live in the swellest house in Oakland, and have the swellest church on the Coast!” [Laughter] “I forgot Dr. Filbert was here!” [Dr. Filbert was from Los Angeles, where the first Christian Science Church on the Pacific Coast, a small wooden building, was erected.] “They said that maybe they could pay us something if I would come here and take charge of the meetings. I thought maybe they could pay me ten dollars a month, possibly. I didn’t think they would pay me more than that. I didn’t think I was worth that,” [Laughter] “and they paid me forty dollars a month from the very first. Sometimes they didn’t quite reach that, but I guess they averaged it and made it up at Christmas. If it did not come one time it came another, and we have had some grand Christmas gifts, but this Christmas was the grandest gift of all; that upper room finished and furnished beautifully, and all the loving thoughts that have been put in there.” [The “Pastor’s Study” in First Church, later referred to.]

Back of where the American Theatre now stands, and facing on Seventeenth Street, still remains the two-story house, the house for some years occupied by Reverend and Mrs. Adams, in which the earliest authorized instructions in Christian Science were obtainable in the City of Oakland. Informal meetings had also for some time been conducted in the home of Mrs. Hester Fairchild, who lived directly across the street, and to this pioneer worker, Reverend Adams remarked that he saw in Dr. Fluno “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Mrs. Fairchild now joyously turned over her meetings to the supervision of Dr. Fluno, who was known as Pastor.

At the time Dr. Fluno came to Oakland, services were being held by the Reverend Adams in Grand Army Hall, Thirteenth Street, every Sunday morning at 11 o’clock, and they were so continued under the leadership of Dr. Fluno. Though he was known as Pastor, he called his sermons lectures, not having been ordained. Requests that these lectures be made available for distribution soon became so numerous that the Doctor decided to issue a small magazine for this and other purposes conducive to the furtherance of the Cause. The magazine was called “The Beacon,” and following are examples of notices appearing therein: “A Christian Science Journal, published by Dr. F. J. Fluno, C.S.D., and Mrs. Ella V. Fluno, C.S.B., 568 Seventeenth Street, Oakland, California. For information by students or patients, please apply to F. J. Fluno, C.S.D., Principle. Mrs. Ella V. Fluno, C.S.B., Assistant. Text-Book, ‘Science and Health,’ M. B. G. Eddy.” Another notice reads: “REGULAR CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SERVICE held in Grand Army Hall, Thirteenth, between Broadway and Franklin Streets, Oakland, California, Sunday at 11 A.M. Sunday School and Bible Class at 12. Inquiry meetings in Upper Hamilton Hall, Thirteenth and Jefferson Streets, every Thursday night, at 7:30; also every Friday, from 2 to 4 P.M., and Sunday nights at 568 Seventeenth Street. All cordially invited to attend these services. F. J. Fluno, Pastor.” At these inquiry meetings those interested were invited to come and ask questions on the subject of Christian Science, which questions were answered by Dr. Fluno.

Still another notice in The Beacon was this: “CHURCH OF CHRIST, [SCIENTIST] Alcazar Building, 166 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, California. Christian Science services every Sunday, 11 A.M.; Bible Class at 12. You are cordially invited to attend these services. Sue Ella Bradshaw, Pastor.” Also this notice: “A Free Dispensary and Reading Room, Blake and Moffatt Building, Corner Broadway and Eighth, Oakland, California. . . . Open to public for counsel and treatment.” Similar notices were included in the early editions of The Christian Science Journal.

There were no stipulations at that time concerning fees or the number of pupils, or the number of classes during the year. In 1889 and 1890, Christian Science became very popular among Oakland society women. One lady on Jackson Street formed a class of sixteen and paid Dr. Fluno seventy-five dollars for the lessons. It was considered fashionable to interview him and to have a treatment from him.

During these years, the International Quarterly Bible Lessons were studied, and Christian Science sermons continued to be delivered by Dr. Fluno. In later years, meetings were held in the Maxwell Building, Washington Street, near Fourteenth.

In the History of The Mother Church, by Joseph Armstrong, it is written: “Before a single layer was begun on the walls, our teacher and mother, consulting only with Infinite Mind, quietly wrote to certain students, offering them the privilege of contributing a Thousand Dollars each to the building fund. In response to this offer, Forty-four Thousand Dollars were added to our supply, which, together with what had been coming in as usual, assured the contractors that they could go on with the work of completion.” In 1893, in personal acknowledgment of their gift to The Mother Church building fund, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Dr. and Mrs. Fluno as follows:

My Dear Students: Your check received. Your act in getting this, is most praiseworthy. Your names shall be transmitted as last written. Mr. Chase our Treasurer will receipt to you, for your check for $1,000 received by me yesterday and sent to him today by express. May our Father-Mother God more than repay you a thousand times for your noble self-sacrifice. I wish you could come to Boston and be nearer to us. Accept my profound thanks. . . .

Ever thine lovingly,
Mary Baker Eddy.

Other noteworthy evidence of the esteem in which these good workers were held is that the names of Dr. and Mrs. Fluno were included among those placed in the cornerstone of the original Mother Church, in the list of donors of a thousand dollars to its Building Fund.

In 1895, in the April Journal, our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, came forward with the ruling that henceforth the Bible and the Christian Science textbook should “be our only preachers.” Dr. Fluno’s gratitude for and appreciation of this ruling were expressed in a letter to Mrs. Eddy, copy of which may be found in the Journal for August 1895, Volume XIII, page 216, as follows:

Dear Mother in Truth: Today we held our first real Christian Science service in Oakland according to the form given by you in the April Journal. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is on its triumphal entry into the new Jerusalem and it will revolutionize the world. In its meekness is its might; in its simplicity is its profundity; and in its lowliness is its grandeur and its greatness. For it I gladly lay my armor by and cast my trophies at its feet and strew my garments in its path. Yet in the mighty conflict now waging I look and wonder, will I be found faithful. But of this I am sure, — Christ, Truth, will not fail, and because He lives !shall live also. F J. Fluno.

It would be difficult, if not impossible to write any biography of our beloved teacher, which did not include much of the history of First Church in Oakland, so closely is his history interwoven with that of the church, as its first Pastor, Reader, President, and so on.

In 1895, the house on Seventeenth Street having become too small for the afternoon meetings, Dr. and Mrs. Fluno moved to 1319 Grove Street, and it was here, October 16th, 1895, less than one year after The Mother Church was dedicated, that [Church Record] “A number of persons from the Society of Christian Scientists, which had been in operation [in Oakland] for nearly ten years, met together, for the purpose of forming a Branch Church of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. It was voted to incorporate and obtain a Charter under the laws of the State of California, with the Branch Church title of First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Oakland, California.”

A Building Fund was started even before the Church was organized. One student of Dr. Fluno brought the first three dollars she had received in her healing work. Another student came and brought $500, saying it was the amount she had been paying yearly for druggist bills. Later, as with the building of all Christian Science churches, many “sacrifices of joy” were made to the fund, with one possibly unique contribution by a woman who had cut her husband’s hair in order to contribute the barber costs to the fund.

One year from date of organizing, the Treasury contained $1,104. Three years after the Building Fund was established, there was in the bank $2,904.25, and twenty-two feet of ground had been subscribed toward the Site of the Church, for it had been decided that wherever the lot, and whatever the price, individuals would begin the purchase in this way, foot by foot.

Dr. and Mrs. Fluno purchased the first two feet of ground. Later we find [Church Record] the Doctor appointing the Committee to select an architect; appointing a Finance Committee; appointing the Committee to select building materials; serving as Trustee of the Building Fund, and — getting the lot weeded [for $1.00, Church Record]! We find him inspiring “individual demonstration” in the building; stating thus its ideal: “Finding all in and being governed by Infinite Mind, our church must then express harmony and perfection in every detail and accessory, combining a commodious and convenient interior with structural beauty and substantiality." We find a church vote later happily recording the realization of this ideal: “A motion for a wooden structure was then made and voted down. Followed by a second motion for a brick structure, which was voted down. A third motion that we build a Church of Stone was then made and recorded.”

We find, Dec. 17, 1899, Dr. and Mrs. Fluno formulating for the Church a letter of Love and Loyalty to Mrs. Eddy, as follows:

December 17, 1899.

Beloved Mother:

We acknowledge the privilege given us of rendering to you, our Revered Leader, our sincere devotion and unswerving loyalty to Christian Science as taught by you in our Text-Book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: and the great wisdom and far seeing judgment with which you have shaped the course and established the stately workings of our glorious Cause. And we moreover do recognize the fact that you to whom the Truth was given that enabled you to write that book must be the chosen one of Truth and Love to bring it to the world in the highest, truest and most practical way. Certainly your courage, faithfulness and unselfishness is unparalleled in history since the time of him who gave his life a ransom for the world.

It is our prayer that we may ever be found faithful and worthy followers of a worthy Leader in so great a Cause.

We also desire to render a tribute of gratitude and thanksgiving to the very efficient members of our Publishing Society who stand at the post of duty, laboring so nobly and assiduously for the promotion and establishing of the Cause so dear to every loyal student.

Lovingly and obediently,
F. J. Fluno,
President and First Reader.
Ella V. Fluno, Second Reader.

One month only before the dedication, we find the Church with still $10,000 to raise, and we find our teacher, the day after the dedication, saying: “I don’t know now how it has come, but every cent of it has passed through my hands.” And, at last, on the glad day of Dedication, “very early in the morning,” we find our faithful teacher at the Church, there “to see that everything was all right.” But of his own sense of his part in the building of the Church, we have his own humble and memorable words:

“I think really we do not any of us know how this work was done. As I look back at it and remember what I thought — tried to think what should be done, I found I could not do it, but whenever there was a need, then I found it done. Whenever there was a motto to be put on the walls, we found it was there. We came in here one day without any idea of any mottoes on the walls, and we found them here, left them here, and that day they were inscribed on the walls. We were in the library one day, and those mottoes came, especially the one of the Master’s. We wrote out first another one and had it all arranged to put on the wall, and then another came — the one that is there, and the first was taken away, and this was put there, and afterward we found how it matched exactly with the words of the Mother. One corroborated the other: ‘Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.’ [S.& H.] ‘If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.’................ The demonstration has been a wonderful one, and I don’t know how it was done, but I just stand back as we did when the lot was purchased — we didn’t have anything to say and nobody did it. ‘If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”’

On Sunday morning, January 5, 1902, this “Sermon in Stone” stood free from debt, polished within and without, its portals thrown wide for its humble and triumphant housewarming. As throughout the years, Dr. Fluno was still First Reader, Mrs. Fluno was Second Reader, and on the day of Dedication, visiting Readers also took part in the services.

There is a pretty story in connection with the Tower Room in which the right to furnish this room, all unknown to him. On Christmas morning preceding the Dedication, he and Mrs. Fluno were presented with a large bouquet of roses, with a key attached by means of a bow of ribbon. This key admitted them to a completely furnished Pastor’s study, the furniture, rugs, pictures, etc., being gifts to them personally, with a large desk for Dr. Fluno and a smaller one for Mrs. Fluno. They had thought nothing of not being admitted to this room, believing that it contained building materials locked away for protection, and that the Church could still be dedicated even though this room remained incomplete. But upon entering the study, they found everything complete, even to a carpet sweeper under the couch. With the key was a letter bearing the following message:

2612 Channing Way, Berkeley, Calif.

Dear Dr. and Mrs. Fluno:

This key will open to you an outward and visible token of the inward love and gratitude of your students who from far and near have joyfully united in preparing for you this upper room in the dear church.

Trusting that within its quiet walls you may find a sense of rest and peace as shadows of the true rest and peace which the world knoweth not of, we remain,

Ever your devoted students.

December 25th, 1901

We all know this act of love must have been based on the old idea of the Minister’s study in the church, but a few years later Mrs. Eddy saw the unwisdom of such a custom continuing [it now having become a rather general idea], and Dr. Fluno, as always instant in obedience, had the room dismantled, and it became the Board Room, newly furnished accordingly.

On Sept. 19, 1901, Dr. and Mrs. Fluno prepared and conducted services in honor of the late President, William McKinley, the service being held in Loring Hall.

April 1, 1902, [Church Record] “. . . . It was declared the sense of the meeting that Dr. and Mrs. Fluno be authorized to write to Mrs. Eddy a letter of appreciation of the inestimable work in the revision of Science and Health.” Mrs. Eddy’s reply appears in First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, page 202, and may be found in the Journal 1914, Volume 32. It reads:

Beloved Brethren: — I thank you for the words of cheer and love in your letter. The taper unseen in sunlight cheers the darkness. My work is reflected light, a drop from His ocean of love, from the underived glory, the divine Esse. From the dear tone of your letter, you must be bringing your sheaves into the storehouse. Press on. The way is dark at first, but it expands as we walk in it. ‘Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.’ God bless this vine of His planting.

Almost immediately “this vine of His planting” was blessed in its instant and happy obedience to the request of our Leader for a three years’ term for Church Readers. This was incorporated in the Church By-laws July 23, 1902, and October 21, 1902, after the election of new Readers, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Whereas, our Leader, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, has recently shown us that when the appropriate time should arrive, another step forward awaited us, and

Whereas, in making this demonstration, we are unable to appoint this year as First and Second Readers, those who have so faithfully and successfully worked here during the past thirteen years,

Resolved, that we hereby extend a loyal, loving greeting, and promise our support to the newly appointed Readers, and also, express our appreciation, affection, and love for Dr. and Mrs. F. J. Fluno, well knowing that their obedience to divine Principle has enabled them to be the instruments for establishing Christian Science in Oakland, and bringing to its banner not only the loyal support of many of our citizens, but placing it in a position at once dignified and respected by all.

Dr. Fluno, however, still remained President of the Church, and Feb. 11, 1903, at a Wednesday evening meeting, “it was unanimously agreed that we contribute $5,000 to The Mother Church Building Fund, on or before January 1, 1904.” We find the Doctor [Mar. 7, 1903] thus encouraging and inspiring the members in this work [Church Record]: “The President spoke to the members of keeping money in circulation, instead of putting it in a napkin. That if we should put out, say $100. now, in a few months it will have come back and will bring back interest with it. That we do not know how much it is helping our Cause for us to have come forward and built churches. Mortal sense has to see something material, has to think something is being done. We should also remember that since The Mother Church was built, other cities have had finer edifices erected. This ought not to remain so, when we remember the devotion and love our Mother has given to the establishment of the Truth, and the debt of gratitude we owe her.... In closing, we were reminded that those in public places need thoughts of love and words of encouragement from us, that Love is reflected in love.”

Five years before this, in 1898, the Christian Science Board of Lectureship was established, and our teacher appointed by Mrs. Eddy was one of the first five members of the Board, with Mr. Edward A. Kimball, Reverend Irving G. Tomlinson, Judge Septimus Hanna, and Judge William G. Ewing.

First Church was quick to take advantage of the new opportunity. “At a meeting of Church Members Aug. 31st, 1898, arrangements for a lecture from Mr. Edward A. Kimball of Chicago, were completed.... It was decided at the meeting that the lecture be free to the general public, all attendant expenses being met by Christian Scientists and those having received benefits of the same.... A suggestion that any money in excess of expenses be paid into the Church Fund met with general approval.” The lecture was held in Macdonough Theatre, Sept 17, 1899. Expenditure, $186.50. Balance for Fund, $60.95.

Four months after Mr. Kimball’s lecture Dr. Fluno delivered his first lecture in Oakland. [Church Record]. “Our faithful and beloved leader and teacher, Dr. Fluno, being about to leave us for a time in his capacity as a lecturer on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, it was the wish of many that he should begin his work by a lecture here in his home field.” The subject of the lecture was, “Christian Science and Its Mission,” and, in spite of the short notice given to the public, it attracted considerable attention. The lecture was published in the Oakland Enquirer and Fifty Dollars paid to the paper for five hundred copies. The management said, however, that they would gladly give us a thousand copies for that sum, and Mrs. Fluno, who was in charge, replied that we would take the thousand. These were all sold at five cents a copy, and yet another thousand ordered and disposed of. After this, the Enquirer offered to put the lecture into pamphlet form, but the offer was refused, as this province belonged alone to The Mother Church.

The lecture was given in Hamilton Hall on a Wednesday evening. With this began the Doctor’s long and happy experience as a lecturer. From the beginning, his work here was distinguished by the same affluence of wisdom, and spiritual authority that later won from Mrs. Eddy the following high tributes:

October 11, 1906

My dear Student:

I thank you for your lecture. I consider it par-excellence.

You have ‘Fattened it with the fatness of His house and the rivers of His pleasure.’

You have left no plea for an opponent, no excuse for error of any sort, and best of all rendered justice to the M. D.’s; and then left all, all to the infinite Love, than which there is nothing else. . .

Thine in Christ,
Mary Baker Eddy

February 1st, 1907

My dear Student:

I read of you at different places, lecturing, and the lecture that I read is masterly, profound, correct in every way. . . .

Mary Baker Eddy

Happy word of healing and regeneration followed upon the footsteps of the lecturer. Harvest of the new knowledge of God and man began to appear in the highways and byways of the earth. Where had gathered tens and hundreds to hear the new tongue, began to gather the multitudes, hungering for that bread of life so richly bestowed on them by our teacher. And began to appear, by their living interest in the Word, by enriched and ennobled lives, their gratitude to our Leader, whose loving wisdom had given them this grand channel of spiritual supply, and to our teacher, its faithful and able minister.

One public response to the maturity and profundity of the Doctor’s thought, joined to his venerable appearance, was amusing. Current report quite commonly had it that he had long passed the century mark, that he was fast approaching Moses’ years, and would probably pass them! Nor was this entirely to be wondered at. Those of us familiar with the unforgettable figure of Dr. Fluno on the lecture platform, tall and stately as a prophet of old, his head as of a “lion of the tribe of Judah,” his piercing, kindly eyes, and patriarchal beard, this reaction is eminently understandable. Even England came out of her customary reserve to manifest interest in the Doctor’s years. At Oxford University, where he was delivering a lecture in 1909, a gentleman asked Mrs. Fluno how old the Doctor was. “Sixty-three,” Mrs. Fluno replied. “There!” the gentleman said, turning to a friend, “Didn’t I tell you he was a young man of sixty!” The friend had declared he was a hundred!

The Doctor’s experience as a lecturer included the giving of the first Christian Science lecture in Hawaii. In 1908, he lectured in Australia and the Philippine Islands [Manila]. In 1909, he lectured in Queen’s Hall, London, England. Also in Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Guernsey, and Germany, and gave the first lecture ever given in South Africa. He wrote and delivered, in all, seven lectures after he was appointed to the Christian Science Board of Lectureship:

Christian Science and Its Mission
Christian Science, and The World’s Great Need of It
Christian Science and Christian Scientists
Christian Science, a Reasonable and Rational View of All Things
Christian Science versus Finite Sense
Christian Science and Its Claims on The Modern World
Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics

Two of his lectures were delivered in The Mother Church:

Christian Science versus Finite Sense
Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics

In 1919, in order to give all of his time to his teaching and practice, Dr. Fluno resigned from the Board of Lectureship, after twenty-one years’ continuous service thereon. In 1918, our teacher was President of The Mother Church.

Mrs. Eddy’s love for our teacher was deep and abiding. From the first, she had found him loyal in the highest degree to every demand of Principle and his Leader, and joyfully obedient thereto. She honored him by making ever higher and higher demands upon that loyalty and obedience, and ever found our teacher worthy. Two years only after she had taught him in the Primary Class, she called him to the Normal Class, and then sent him forth to teach. She appointed him as one of the first five lecturers on Christian Science. In 1906, she called him to her home, where he had the inestimable privilege of a three months’ stay. During this time, he was asked to write the address for the Annual Meeting of the General Association of Teachers in the United States, that year held in New York. The paper was read by another teacher, as Doctor was still in Mrs. Eddy’s home. The subject was “Obedience” and Doctor had been asked to make clear the distinction between true obedience and obedience of the letter, with the latter’s stultifying, deadening effects, and the quickening and freeing effects of the former. Always conspicuous in Doctor’s work, the mellow humor which he here brought to bear on the destruction of the error, evoked much merriment, and with his loving wisdom brought about much healing.

Asked later what most deeply impressed him in his day-by-day association with our Leader, our teacher replied, outstanding beyond all else was the imperious sense of Mrs. Eddy’s “closeness to God,” of her visible actual awareness of the very presence of Spirit. A source of inspiration beyond words, he said, it was to see this, and to see our Leader’s constant air of “listening” to Truth, listening always, to perceive the purpose and direction of the divine Mind in all things. And of the day-by-day things, our teacher said that Mrs. Eddy’s practicality, her radiant common sense, continuously flashing from the heights of spiritual vision where, he felt, she stood alone, and piercing through and clearing away the little difficulties of the moment as well as the greater problems, so simply and swiftly and sweetly — this, he said, was a constant amazement and delight to him, and perhaps most deeply impressed him. Another thing was what he called the beautiful order of Mrs. Eddy’s home. Nothing was ever neglected, nothing wasted, nothing ill-done, nothing left undone, but everything promptly and harmoniously accomplished. He would mention often, in this connection, that the house was “full of clocks,” “all going,” and “all right,” ... for “every moment had to be accounted for.” He frequently referred to a trust... perhaps symbolic, reposed in him by our Leader while he was a guest in her home. Under his bed, closed, locked, was a box, the contents of which [which it pleased our dear teacher to make a little mystery of] are now told for the first time. The box contained a valuable edition of an early translation of the Bible, and all the time the Doctor was in the house to him belonged the guardianship of the treasured contents.

To “let his works praise him” has been the ideal of this little Biography. No one less than Dr. Fluno, as we his students, so well know, desired or inspired a personal idolatry. He never even seemed to see this, much less accept it. His own pure loyalty to Principle, to our Leader, to all mankind, beyond question, beyond reserve, and his deep, constant effort to evoke and foster this loyalty in us, are perhaps the most widely recognized and highly valued of all his gifts to us. There was no art of the Spirit, no persuasion of Love, no attraction of Truth that he did not use to awaken this loyalty. His wisdom was ever at this work, his delightful wit, kind as it was keen, was ever at this service. How many of us he literally laughed out of our “lesser loyalties” and into loyalty to Principle! Yet never did our teacher despise “one of these little ones,” never did he destroy one least upreaching thought. How often do we remember him taking, so tenderly, the little bud of human affection for good, and lifting it up and up, until, transfigured and fulfilled, it would be revealed as one with Love itself.

Nor less grateful, do we remember the noble fearlessness and affluence of spiritual logic that distinguished our teacher, nor his generosity in sharing this wealth. Never was there here any “half-way impertinent knowledge” [Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, 103:13]; no mental husks, no famine of “fragmentary ideas,” [Ibid 302:13], but a glorious, overflowing feast of the Spirit, feeding, satisfying, healing —

Forever shared, forever whole,
A never-ebbing sea.

“Take it out into the Infinite.” How often have we heard our dear teacher say this! And how patiently, fearlessly he would lead thought out to the spiritual conclusion, up to the very feet of Love, the revealed Word. No wonder that our Leader, who tells us so kindly how “through reason, revelation and demonstration” she “won” her “way to absolute conclusions,” should so honor our teacher, her so-faithful follower to this goal. And we, his students, well know why, to this day, his friends at headquarters still affectionately call Dr. Fluno “Old Faithful.”

One tribute to Doctor’s teaching that would have been especially dear to him, from one who is himself a teacher, is as to the impersonal attitude of the Doctor’s students in church activities. He finds them, he says, from long and intimate observation, “never politically aligned, never cliquing together, but always independently loyal to Principle, to the best interests of the Church as they conceive them, a loyalty to which they were always so faithfully pointed by their teacher.”

Another dear tribute is from a student of a student of Mrs. Eddy’s, who was a guest at one of our Associations, who writes: “May I tell you something of the very deep love which entertained for Dr. Fluno, which she expressed in her own words to the entire class, of which I was a member. She dwelt for nearly three quarters of an hour on the subject of the beautiful work in Christian Science healing which Dr. Fluno had done, and of which she had firsthand knowledge — citing him as a true and loyal disciple of Mary Baker Eddy, a tribute than which there can be none higher.”

Another splendid student, invited to address our Association, writes as follows: “I deeply appreciate the invitation to address the Association of Dr. F. J. Fluno. I would rather come to you than any other association I know of. ... I have the deepest appreciation of Dr. Fluno and his teaching, and would feel very keenly the goodness of God in bringing me to you.”

“A grand character, a veritable rock of truth,” from another friend.

In conducting his Association meetings, our teacher chose such subjects as Loyalty; Kingdom of Heaven; Resurrection; Christian Science; Love; Anatomy; Prayer; Right Doing; Demonstration and The New Church Building; Friendship; Salvation, and these always dealt with in their largest relations, to the universal as to the individual need, to the eternal demand, and to the necessity of the moment.

Some of his familiar and much prized words of counsel may be acceptably placed in this record:

Asked during the Great War as to how we should think about a so-called enemy nation, Doctor said: “Just put them in the kingdom of heaven, and they can’t hurt themselves or anyone else.”

Asked by a student for help with a case, which, said the student, “is very stubborn,” the Doctor just replied: “Oh well, Truth is more stubborn!” Needless to say, the patient was healed.

“If you want love, study Love.”

“We all need more of that Love that is ‘reflected in love’ love that is reflected in kindness, friendship, helpfulness. Then would we demonstrate more of all that we need — health, plenty, and prosperity.”

“Don’t study Science for what you can get out of it. Study it as a divine privilege to know man’s relation to God, and God’s relation to man.”

“Whenever you make a business deal, be sure you make a friend.” “Don’t be so scientific that you forget to be Christian.”

“You cannot know the nothingness of nothing too well.”

“If we learn to love to go up hill, it will be down hill all the way.”

“If you have opportunity to go to —— it might be a good thing to do. Only do not go there to be a leader, and don’t let mortal mind drift you into leadership. Better go as a servant, and remain a servant, and remain obedient to the will of love.” [Letter].

“Be not in haste, but rather be right.” [Letter]. “Principle doesn’t know process.”

“Fear makes us unkind to others because we think someone is going to harm us, and we must stand up for our rights. If we live in love and kindness, we will neither be put upon, suffer persecution, have to vindicate ourselves, or study self-preservation, for the softening glow of love in your own heart will vanquish every foe.” [From a letter to a student.]

“Christian Science governs from the highest to the lowest and from the lowest to the highest. We cannot expect to be slothful over the things we have and yet advance spiritually. Science bids us have plenty and abound, to do well by all that we have and all that is entrusted to our care, to advance in everything and in every way. Christian Science leads us higher and gives us the best, as well in the things of the earth — the worldly things so called — as in health.”

“If you are a child of the king then the king will take care of you, and will give you the best and not the poorest — give you the highest and loftiest and not the lowest — give you the greatest and not the least. Everything belongs to us — divine Principle is full to overflowing. There is no such thing as poverty in divine Principle. While we grow into the spirit of plentitude, we grow out into what is called physical plenty. Everything comes to us, and as we grow in the spirit of Truth and Love, as we advance in the perfect Love, we will grow into what is called more of the mortal love — that is, kindness, gentleness, into kindness and helpfulness to everyone and everything, helping and loving one another.”

“We cannot lay down what we have in mortal sense either — any business that we have. We must lay it down and throw it away, and advance in Science at the same time. We must demonstrate out of it — grow up out of it — and find ourselves doing better and better in what we have undertaken — advancing in every way in our undertakings and in what we have before us and in the business that we have, demonstrating right where we are.”

“If you are teaching school, learn to teach it well and then learn to teach it better and better. . . . There is no such thing as a lowly place — we may say so ourselves by sinking down into the work. If we are washing dishes or doing housework, if we are cooking, lift that work up higher and higher, until it becomes a lofty position, a glorious position, and everyone will want it because they see how grand it is and how beautiful it is. Don’t throw away anything that you have; that is not Christian Science. Grow up right out of it; that is Christian Science.”

“Study along the line where you are living and look into that and see what there is of Truth in it — follow the thoughts of mortal sense, or the finite, out — out until they invert and you find them in Principle. That is true growth and true advancement.”

Dr. Fluno was fond of poetry, and sometimes expressed himself in verse. One of these writings may be found in the February Journal of 1894, in the article, “A Christmas Lecture.” He was very fond of quoting from Thomas Moore:

When from the lips of Truth one mighty breath
Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze
The whole dark pile of human mockeries;
Then shall the reign of Mind commence on earth,
And starting fresh, as from a second birth,
Man, in the sunshine of the world’s new spring,
Shall walk transparent like some holy thing.

“Pre-eminently,” Mrs. Eddy tells us [Science and Health, 102:31], Christian Science “promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore in the community,” and without some mention of our teacher’s rich genius of neighborliness, his good citizenship, and the deep love and tenderness which he had for his family, this little work would surely not be complete.

As to how Dr. Fluno was regarded in the community in which he made his home, we cannot do better than quote from “History of the State of California,” with Biographical Record of Oakland and its Environs, by J. M. Gunn, A. M., Member of the American Historical Association of Washington, D. C., 1907:

“Dr. Fluno has been a resident of Oakland since 1888, and has sought to advance the general interests of the community,... being keenly alive to the needs of the state, supporting those measures that have had for their object the general upbuilding of the city, county and state. He holds a high position among the followers of the Christian Science Society, and enjoys the esteem and confidence of his fellow townsmen. ... He was largely instrumental in the building of the Christian Science church in Oakland, one of the finest edifices of its kind on the Pacific Coast.”

As we, his students, so well know, the home of Dr. and Mrs. Fluno was ever open to those in need, to the sick, the sorrowing, the sinner. Always at their hospitable table was a place for the friend and for the stranger, and perhaps never, in all their history, was the guest room of the Fluno home unoccupied, or their front door latched. During the earthquake time in 1906, their home became a veritable hostel, and many to this day gratefully remember the spiritual and material hospitality accorded them at that time.

Those who best knew our teacher say of him, “He was a devoted husband and father.” His experiences as teacher, practitioner and lecturer were all shared as fully as might be by Mrs. Fluno. His students well remember that in all our Associations Mrs. Fluno, herself a teacher, stood by Doctor’s side, ready to aid in any way, and generally adding a pertinent word to the day’s programme as seemed befitting. A letter from a student happily illustrates Doctor’s quaint ways with his children when they were small. “In his simplicity Doctor paid little attention to formality, and on numerous occasions in meetings in Loring Hall, when in the pulpit, would take one or another of his four little children and place them in a chair on the rostrum alongside his, in full view of the congregation. Sometimes the little head would drop to one side in peaceful slumber, without disturbing the service. He loved little children.”

Dr. Francis J. Fluno, C. S. D., passed from our vision April 22, 1922, after forty-three years of unceasing, joyful, devoted, fruitful labor for the Cause of Christian Science. The Truth he gave so richly is bearing its rich harvest in the hearts and lives of those to whom he gave it. Gratitude for this multiplies with the years, with the increasing perception of the fearless, selfless consecration of our dear teacher to the Truth, and to its blessed messenger, our Revered Leader. We may well close with his own words here, from the lecture, “Pure Metaphysics”:

“Columbus believed there was a land beyond the sea; he searched; he found; he no longer merely believed; he knew.... Mrs. Eddy believed there was a scientific law underlying and controlling the health of man. She searched; she found; she demonstrated; she no longer simply believed; she knew. Our Leader’s knowledge reached beyond the testimony of the senses.... Her basic Principle for the Christly Science was unchanging Truth, undying Life, and unselfish Love, the ultimatum and substantiation of all things — yea, the divine omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.... And when Mrs. Eddy said, ‘Mind can never be in man, but is reflected by man’ [Science and Health, p. 336], she revolutionized theology, physiology, and medicine.

“Mary of old gave birth to the pure-minded Jesus, the Christ personified. The Mary of today has given birth to the incorporeal Christ-idea, the true idea of God and man, as revealed in Christian Science.

“Yes, ‘the morning light is breaking;’ the first faint gleams of ruddy light now tint the eastern sky, shedding its effulgent rays over a benighted world. And through the clouds of mortal sense the spirit of Truth, descending like shafts of light shot through a waste of darkness dense, reveals a spiritual world and God as the only author, architect, and builder.

“Yes, the fourth watch of the night is come; and you that have toiled all night rowing against the adverse winds may look up and see Christ, Truth, walking o’er the waves of mortal sense. Go ye out to meet him, for he comes to still the tempest’s roar and calm the raging seas. You who have lain long years at the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the troubling of the waters, may now cease to look down, may look up and see Christ, waiting to make you whole.

“And you who have seen the ‘star in the east,’ the spiritual light of Truth divine, if to you that light be strong, then go and tell to sinners round what a dear Saviour you have found. But if that light be faint, then follow where it leads, till it comes and stands over where the young child is. And when you have found him, open your treasure, and present yourself and all that is within you, a living sacrifice for the truth that makes you free.”




Lectures




Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics

The term metaphysics, derived from two Greek words, meta, meaning over, above, or beyond, and physicus, meaning physical, signifies over, beyond, or above the physical. In true metaphysics, or absolute Christian Science, all is Mind; there is nothing physical or material; there is no matter. The science of physics has no part with true Science or metaphysics. Beginning with matter, all is matter; there is no mind. Beginning with Mind, all is Mind; there is no matter.

There is nothing real that Mind does not evolve, govern, and control; Mind is Spirit, and everything that Spirit creates is like itself, spiritual and not material. To Spirit, there is no matter; all is Spirit. The finite, limited, or material sense would have all things material, would have life, substance, and intelligence in objects; but the spiritual or unlimited sense, the scientific understanding, reveals the spiritual to be the real, and the material, the unreal. The material universe is not the true idea.

Wipe out or eliminate all that can be called a material universe or a material man, and the true man, the true expression of God, still remains, and will forever remain, no more subject to change or annihilation than God, the infinite Principle, in whom man lives, upon whom he depends, and whom he represents. To find man, the true man, is not to study the physical man, but to study the reflection of God. By so doing, we grow into the consciousness or realization of our relation to God and attain the divine atonement, or at-one-ment, with the Father. This means having no other Life, no other intelligence, but God, the divine Principle.

True Qualities Are Permanent

Nothing that God has made can ever be lost. The spire of grass that carpets the green meadow; the cactus eking out a life on the parched and sandy desert; the lichen on the highest rock that decks the lofty mountain; the seaweed in the deepest depths of yonder rolling ocean; the flower that blossoms in the vale, or waves upon the summit of some monarch of the wood; the tree that grows in sheltered nook or deeper, denser forest; the insect that flits; the worm that crawls; the serpent with his cunning; the bird that warbles in the grove or soars in ether blue; the fish that swims in brook or rill, or broader, deeper water; the beast that roams the prairies free or crouches in the jungle; the constellation or a star in all that vast infinity; and man, the consummation and combination of all God’s handiwork — all, in their true spiritual being — have their place in the infinite Mind.

Anything less than an infinite expression would make God less than infinite in entity. God, the infinite intelligence, will never lose sight of aught that He has made, and all He has made is good. By studying the true Principle, we will be able to find the true solution of each and every problem. Each object of creation, in its true character, will be found harmonious, pure, and perfect. Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ’s kingdom, among other things, says, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb ... and a little child shall lead them.” Already we begin to find that against innocence and fearlessness the fangs of the serpent are never raised, for Jesus said of those who believe, “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.”

Spirit the Only Basis

Beginning with matter, we have no foundation. Matter cannot see, hear, speak, or have sensation. Matter cannot originate Mind or dwell in Mind, for it is the opposite of Mind. Non-intelligence cannot become intelligent. Christian Science comes separating the gold from the dross, the wheat from the chaff. It comes separating Mind from matter, Spirit from the flesh, immortality from mortality, the true from the false, the right from the wrong — that which is from that which is not.

Spirit is God, the only good, who is Life, Truth, Love, intelligence, Soul, substance. Spirit is also infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. You cannot get over, around, or under Spirit, for “in him we live, and move, and have our being.” It is God who formed the great law, who framed, controls, and governs the spiritual universe. Existing in boundless space, yet also here with us, expressed in your consciousness, and also here in mine, the “still small voice” of Spirit forever comes to us in thought. It is the “pure river of water of life,” clear as the fountain is, unsullied in the stream, “taking no taint from touch of human lips, at best impure.”

Spirit never mingles with matter. As we cease to depend upon matter and learn to depend upon Spirit, we become more and more harmonious. What a never failing fount of strength is this compared with a belief of strength in a muscle! What an inexhaustible storehouse of wisdom and intelligence, compared with a dependence upon a material brain, which, forsooth, may be too large, too small, or of too poor material! What an all-supporting and sustaining Principle upon which to lean for life and health, compared with a dependence upon liver, lungs, stomach, blood, air, exercise, material drugs, or material food!

Life is Self-existent

Life is self-existent Principle—self-existent because it could not be made or evolved since it would ever require Life to make life. That which could make life must itself have life, and of necessity must itself ultimately be Life. Hence we must conclude that Life is self-existent, and that which has its existence within itself can never be slain. This is the Life that is God, and there is no other. The physical life is but a belief of life in the body, where there is no life.

On this same basis, we have to conclude that Truth and Love are self-existent; but when we speak of Truth, we mean immutable Truth; and when we speak of Love, we do not refer to the personal selfish affections that depend upon feelings, but the Love that is God. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the primal triune Deity, the three-in-one Principle, the Spirit that is God.

Christian Science is not speculative or conjectural; neither is its Principle hypothetical. Truth, God, must of necessity be, and be primal. A negation could not be primal, for if a negation were primal, there would be no way by which to prove that it were a negation. Two things opposed to each other cannot both be true. Since the negative, or error, could not be, and be primal, its opposite, the positive, or Truth, must be, and be primal; and from the primal all things must proceed. And since Truth cannot express itself in error, therefore there can be no error.

Truth cannot result in error; the positive cannot result in the negative. Love cannot result in hate; Life cannot result in death. If Life could result in death, then death would be the victor and Life the vanquished; then all would be death, and there would be no Life. If Truth could result in error, then error would be the victor and Truth the vanquished; then all would be error, and there would be no Truth. But these are things impossible.

By virtue of the fact that the positive is, the negative cannot be. The positive is the real, the negative the unreal. Truth is the real, error the unreal. Love is the real, hate the unreal. Life is the real, death the unreal. Harmony is the real, discord the unreal. Spirit is the real, and flesh the unreal. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.” One is, and the other is not, but to finite sense it seems to be.

Did God, then, make the mortal to war against the spiritual? All He made was good, and must therefore be harmonious. God never made mortality. He could not, for there is no mortality in Him, and all we really have and are, comes from Him. Mortality is a myth; it is the delusion of the senses, the negative of immortality. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The carnal mind is the mortal mind, the negative mind, or beliefs that rest upon appearances. We appear to have sensation in a nerve and strength in a muscle, to have life in the body and intelligence in the brain, but Science proves that appearance to be false.

Eternity is Now

Finite sense made time; God made eternity. According to Christian Science, we are in eternity now; there is no time. When we begin to realize the idea of eternity, we begin to lose the sense of time. The angel of Truth that John saw, is standing today with one foot upon the sea and the other foot upon the land, proclaiming with a loud voice that time shall be no more. Heaven, harmony, is inevitable; it is the primal and ultimate fact of being. It is the ever-present reality of being. Its opposite, hell, is not a reality, either past, present, or future. Let your heaven be renewed each day, each hour, and the future will take care of itself.

Heaven, as Mrs. Eddy has said, is “the reign of harmony,” and there is no fear in harmony. Harmony is heaven; fear is torment; and the fear that is torment will never lead you into the harmony that is heaven. The harmony that is heaven will never be fully realized while the fear of hell remains. Perfect Love gives perfect confidence, hence Love brings harmony. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear”— that is, perfect Love will not admit of fear.

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Truth is infinite. The infinity of Truth is expressed in all that really is; hence the desire of each and all to know, to comprehend and to realize the truth expressed in everything. There is no rest in idleness; there is no happiness outside of progression. We will never find the downhill until we learn to love the uphill, and then it will be downhill all the way. To reach each day, each hour, a new, a mightier, and a sublimer consciousness of Truth that brings light and liberty and harmony to our benighted vision, is heaven all the time. In Truth, we have absolute liberty; but in error, we find nothing but obstruction and disappointment.

Gaining Freedom

As a man gains more freedom in Science, he will be more and more liberated from the bondage of sense. As he grows more and more out of the limited, he will gain more and more the unlimited. As a man loses his fear, he will gain his freedom. If you are fearing anything, you are in torment in the proportion that that fear has possession of you. If you are fearing sickness, you are in bondage to that fear. If you are fearing error, then you are a slave to error. If you are fearing the devil, just turn around and face him, instead of running from him, and see him vanish like the mist, leaving in his stead the radiant beams of Truth. Every fear is a demon, and for every demon that you cast out, an angel will take its place. And if you are fearing hell, take the torchlight of Truth and Love and explore that reputed region from top to bottom, from center to circumference. By so doing, you will turn that dreadful hell to heaven and make it a paradise complete. “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there;” and where God is, there is heaven.

If you are honestly searching for Truth, you can never go astray, for you will either find the truth of the true or the untruth of the false. The truth you’ll accept because it is true; the false you’ll reject because it is false. What we want is freedom to find the truth, to let our thoughts have wings, to traverse the realms that be, and walk with the great I AM. Then on pinions of love and light, we rise, and reach the heights supernal, and drink of the benisons sweet that flow in the unsullied river of Life, and take of the leaves of that beautiful tree that on this and on that side is growing. There a balm will be found, our diseases to heal; and the fruit will be life eternal.

Error may seem to suppress Truth, but it cannot. Truth is impregnable. Nothing can scale its lofty walls or enter its sacred precincts, except in the way that Truth itself shall lead, and Love must be the prompter. All who enter here must take their shoes from off their feet, must divest themselves of material or mortal sense, for this is holy ground. Science admits of no personal opinion; it is founded upon the rock of self-evident demonstrable truth, and can never be shaken. There are no beliefs in Science. Belief implies doubt; but when understanding appears, all beliefs vanish. “With all thy getting, get understanding.”

Mrs. Eddy’s Discovery

Columbus believed there was a land beyond the sea. He searched, he found; he no longer merely believed — he knew. Newton believed there was a law that governed the phenomenon of the falling apple. Galileo believed there was an established principle controlling the stellar universe. Mrs. Eddy believed there was a scientific law underlying and controlling the health of man. She searched, she found, she demonstrated; she no longer simply believed — she knew.

Our Leader’s knowledge reached beyond the testimony of the senses. To her thought, physical seeing was not scientific knowing. No high grade of finite belief entered into her scientific understanding of the Science of all things. She left no mere personal opinion, to be changed to higher thoughts by those who in the ages to come should write of things immortal. Her discovery of the Science of Life lifted her above the poet’s dream of time and space and things that are superior, but not supreme. Her basic Principle for the Christly Science was unchanging Truth, undying Life, and unselfish Love, the ultimatum and substantiation of all things — yea, the divine omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.

Yet while Mrs. Eddy’s standard for Christian Science was perfection itself, she rejoiced to know that the all-embracing law of Love lifts poor mortals from their low estate to the higher thought of God. It was my great privilege to have her teaching both in Primary and Normal Class Instruction, and then afterward in her own home as well. I learned to love her because she had the love that lifted me out of the physical and material into the metaphysical and spiritual. Hers was like the love which enabled the great Exemplar to reach from the pinnacle of perfection to lift the Magdalen thought to behold the risen Lord. Hers was a noble nature, brave yet gentle, generous and kind. When you saw her, she had won you; when you knew her, you had loved her.

Science and the Bible

The Science of being does not contradict the Bible; it substantiates the Bible. But it may contradict some person’s beliefs about the Bible. Truth will destroy all error, will vanquish every foe. Truth is first, and can result in nothing but harmony. Sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, and death are discords, of which to know the truth, is to be freed from their grasp. There is no truth in sin; that is, there is no truth, hence no reality, in the sinful thought that promotes a sinful action; that which is unreal is false and is therefore nothing. Sin, however, is a mistaken belief that must be destroyed through suffering or Science. The grand lesson that we all must sooner or later learn is that we all must come to Truth. The hard road is by the way of suffering and experience; the easier way is through searching and acceptance.

God is omnipotent, for God is Truth, and Truth must overcome all evil. No one may escape the penalty due for sin; each must pay the uttermost farthing, be he saint or sinner. Everyone must suffer until his belief in evil is destroyed and, through choice, he desires to be led by unchanging Truth and unselfish Love. “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Evil brings its own reward. If you sow to the flesh, you “shall of the flesh reap corruption.”

Disease is discord, the seeming absence of ease, that comes of sowing to the flesh; it is a ghost, a phantom thought that comes flitting along, and in the fertile soil of fear begotten of ignorance, the discordant seed takes root. Instead of turning upon it and correcting it in embryo, we fear it until it grows to be a monster. We think it real and let it grow, when all we need to do is to turn and face the ghost with the flaming sword of Truth, and soon it will shrink to nothingness and be lost in its native nowhere.

Pathology and Medicine

Pathology is another theory like the old one of the earth and its foundations. The earth was supposed to stand upon a pedestal, and that upon something else, and that upon something else, and they never found the ultimate something else. Now pathology always flies from this cause to that cause, and from that cause to the other cause, but it never finds the primal or ultimate cause of any disease. Finite sense begins with the appearance, the evidence of the senses, and tries to reach a fundamental principle. Evolution has reached to protoplasm. Pathology has gone as far as bacteria; but it is still an open question which was first, the disease or the germ, whether the germ caused the disease or the disease produced the germ. This question can be answered only as it is answered in Christian Science, which proves conclusively that neither the disease nor the germ is true — both are false. And since the premise is false, the conclusion must also be false. From nothing it came, and to nothing it must return.

And medical science must follow in the wake of pathology, for since disease is nothing, there can be no medicine for it, except the medicine of Truth which proves the nothingness of disease. Matter has no intelligence. Drugs cannot direct themselves; they cannot say, I will go to the lungs, or I will work upon the blood, or upon the nerves, or upon the glandular tissue. Drugs have no intelligence to direct themselves; it is simply your faith, and the faith of those around you, mixed with the faith of all mankind, that seems to make them work. The medical fraternity, finding drugs a failure in the healing art, has turned to amputation and operation. It has amputated almost everything but amputation, and operated on almost everything but operation. Christian Science has come to the world, and eventually it will perform every needful wonder. For the Science of Life, from its very nature, must overcome all evil — both cause and effect, both disease and its physical cure.

True Life and Health

Physical health is a belief of health in the body, and is a failure; therefore it is a poor kind of health. Likewise, physical strength is a belief of strength in a muscle, and is overcome by weakness; hence physical strength is weakness. In like manner, mortal or finite life is a belief of life in matter, and is overcome by death; therefore mortal life is death. From this, we might say in Bible phraseology, if the life that is in you be death, how great is that death! If the strength that is in you be weakness, how great is that weakness! And if the health that is in you be a failure, how great is that failure!

True health is not in physical man or material things; it is a property or quality of the eternal Life-principle, and is as unchangeable and infallible as the eternal God Himself. And this property or quality of true health, must be, and is, expressed by every truly living thing. So also true strength is not so-called physical strength, which overexerts itself and gives way to weakness and therefore is weakness, but a property or quality of eternal Truth; hence it knows no weakness. Man’s true strength lies in the recognition and scientific understanding that God, divine Principle, undying Life, unchanging Truth, and unselfish Love, is and must be expressed. The true man and the true universe must be like Him, unchangeable and eternal.

True Life, therefore, is not life in the body, but the forever living and eternal Life-principle that is God, expressed by pure spiritual beings, who know no death. Like the great Life-principle, they always were and always will be reflecting perfect and unfailing health, and inexhaustible strength. Our Master says, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.” “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Turn forever away from sense to Soul, from flesh to Spirit, from body to Mind, and find Soul, Spirit, Mind, the only true source of life, strength, health, and happiness. It is a self-evident fact, that if Mind has aught to do in controlling the body, it has all; for a “house divided against itself shall not stand.” One must be the master.

True Mind-healing

Christian Science is true Mind-healing, but what is commonly called mind-healing may be quite different. False mind-healing begins with an evil man, according to the testimony of the senses, and tries to make him good; it begins with a sick man and tries to make him well. Christian Science, reversing this procedure, begins with perfection as a basis of every thought and action. It begins with perfect Principle, or God, and perfect man, and from this scientific basis, demonstrates perfection at every step.

History repeats itself. Of old, the messenger of Truth was accused of casting out devils by the prince of devils. Today, Christian Science is accused of casting out error with error; of healing sickness and sin by mesmerism, hypnotism, mental suggestion, or autosuggestion. The world of mortal mind, or finite sense, is a seething sea of animal magnetism, autosuggestion, and mental suggestion. All mortals from the mortal standpoint are mental malpractitioners. Consciously or unconsciously, until corrected by the knowledge of the truth, they are living in the belief of a God-given mind in a material brain, which suppositional mind is a mixture of good and evil, of right and wrong, of love and hate. But Christian Science not only heals mankind of sickness and sin, it also heals of autosuggestion, mental suggestion, hypnotism, mesmerism, animal magnetism, spiritualism, and some other ‘isms.’ For Christian Science is the Science of Truth and true being, and must of necessity rule out all that is unlike God, the absolute and only good.

Christian Science covers the whole ground, and solves the problem of being physically, morally, financially, temporarily, and eternally. If Christian Science is not good for everything, then Christian Science is not good for anything. And if Christian Science is not good for everyone, then Christian Science is not good for anyone.

Need of Divine Principle

All sin, all disease, all discord of whatever sort, is perpetuated by trying to solve the problem of being independently of divine Principle, or by trying to make the principle conform to the problem, thus necessitating as many principles as problems. This process finally makes discord the basis of being and harmony a nonreality. Here we see the tower of Babel; which is trying to reach health and harmony from the basis of disease and discord, trying to build a medical science upon an unscientific basis, and trying to reach immutable Truth from the foundation of appearance and belief.

God, the great primal Principle, is, and must be the origin of all; then if disease or discord is a reality, it must be of Him. All we really have, comes from Him; if He sends it, He must have it, and must be the origin of it. If He does not send it but permits it for our good, and He is omnipotent, then He virtually does it, and makes evil necessary that good may come. Such doctrine is too absurd for this enlightened age.

According to physics, this material body which is called man is 75 percent water. If you weigh one hundred and sixty pounds, one hundred and twenty pounds of that is water, and according to physiology, this entire body undergoes complete reconstruction once in three to seven years. The water that largely constituted your physical body a few years ago, has floated away in vapor and perchance settled in some lakelet. A goose drinks it and then it is goose. Has that water any more intelligence when it says it is man than when it says it is goose? When is it the greater goose, when it struts itself a man or when it waddles itself a goose?

Because we look to the body for health and strength, we are doomed to disappointment, and this for the simple reason that these qualities are not in the body. Nothing in this material universe is reliable — even mortal or finite success is a failure — and this because it is finite. These are the apostle Paul’s words: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” In Revelation, we read, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

Irrefutable Logic

You will agree with me that where God is, sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, and death can never come. You will further agree with me that God is omnipresent; then you have also already agreed with me in this third statement, namely, that all discord and all mortality is a nonreality. You would dishonor God and do violence to mankind by admitting these things as realities in His presence. You must either reject His perfection and omnipresence, or admit the unreality of all discord and all mortality. You will furthermore agree with me that God is omnipotent; that He is omnipotence itself; that all power is vested in Him, and there is no other power; that He rules, and He alone. Moreover, you will agree that He does not will and is not willing that any should perish. Then you have also already agreed with me in this third statement — namely, that none can perish.

For if God is omnipotent and does not will or is not willing that any should perish, then who, I ask, shall deny Him? The alternative conclusion must be, as is sometimes taught, that in spite of infinite Love and the omniscience and omnipotence of God, the devil still gets ten thousand into endless perdition while God gets one in heaven. We may at least pray God to forgive the blind who lead, and to give sight to the blind who follow, and lead them to the light of Truth divine, that must finally overcome all evil, dispel all darkness, and vanquish every foe. Mortality alone must die, for it is the child of the devil, who “was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” The sooner mortality dies, the better. But we must not be “overcome of evil,” but must “overcome evil with good;” we must not be overcome of death, but must overcome death with life.

Disappearance of Mortality

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” We must separate the mortal from the immortal, separate the flesh from the spirit, and do it today, not after death. The devil says, Do it after death. God says, “Now is the accepted time.” And why does God say now? Because God is Truth, and in Truth there is no other time; there is one eternal now. And why does the devil say after death? Because there is no death; all is Life. Everything that the devil makes or advises is just like himself—a lie from the beginning. All that really is, can never die; and that which is not, is dead already.

Mortality is a myth; there is no mortality. It is the carnal mind, the seeming, that depends upon the senses, that seems to make man mortal. God, the infinite intelligence, names everything after its true, perfect, and harmonious character, while the Adam or false sense names everything after its false, material, or seeming character. One is true, the other is false. One is, the other is not, but only seems to finite sense to be. Jesus proved this in his last and final demonstration.

All through his earth life, even to the time when he showed himself to doubting Thomas, Jesus presented a material body; he ate and drank and labored and wearied and wept and joyed like any of us. But he went away leaving not a chrysalis behind, and we know that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

He overcame death with Life; he overcame the mortal with the immortal; he overcame the flesh with the spirit; he overcame the false with the true. He was not overcome of evil, but overcame evil with good. He made the divine atonement, or at-one-ment, with the Father. He yielded up self entirely, and would have no life in the body, but in Mind; hence, he became one with the Father. And he said, “I and my Father are one.” “The flesh profiteth nothing.” Your true self is the spiritual expression of Spirit; and Spirit is God. Hence we express Spirit, not matter.

We have been singing the praises of, and praying at and to, a corporeal Deity, “as though he needed anything,” or that we were going to get something by asking what He would not give if we did not ask. God is unchangeable, and is giving us more everyday than we in our ignorance know how to ask for, or even how to accept. The simplest prayer is the heart’s sincere desire to know the truth, to know Him “whom to know aright is Life eternal.” (Science and Health) Desiring Truth, you will search for Truth, and seeking, you shall find. An ever-increasing desire for more will prove your appreciation of what you already have. Thus you will fulfill the divine injunctions, “Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.”

Coming of Divine Theology

For the past nineteen hundred years, theology, in the character of John the Baptist, has been preached in the wilderness of mortal sense. But there cometh one mightier than it, even divine Science, the Science of Christ, Truth, understood and demonstrated, the "latchet of whose shoes” the old theology is “not worthy to stoop down and unloose.” When Howe put the eye of the needle in the point, instead of the larger end, he revolutionized the great mercantile world. When Galileo said, “The earth moves and the sun stands still,” he revolutionized all theories concerning the stellar universe. And when Mrs. Eddy said, “Mind can never be in man, but is reflected by man” (Science and Health), she revolutionized theology, physiology, and medicine.

Mary of old gave birth to the pure-minded Jesus, the Christ personified. The Mary of today has given birth to the incorporeal Christ-idea, the true idea of God and man, as revealed in Christian Science.

Do you recognize this coming,
Do you know the trumpet tone?
Is your ear atuned to hear the truth
When’er the blast is blown?

Do you see the consummation,
That the mighty work is done?
That death and hell are yielding up
And the dragon is cast down?

Yes, “the morning light is breaking;” the first faint gleams of ruddy light now tint the eastern sky, shedding its effulgent rays over a benighted world. And through the clouds of mortal sense the spirit of Truth, descending like shafts of light shot through a waste of darkness dense, reveals a spiritual world and God as the only author, architect, and builder.

Yes, the fourth watch of the night is come, and you who have toiled all night, rowing against the adverse winds, may look up and see Christ, Truth, walking o’er the waves of mortal sense. Go ye out to meet him, for he comes to still the tempest’s roar and calm the raging seas. You who have lain long years at the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the troubling of the waters, may now cease to look down, may look up and see Christ, waiting to make you whole. But when you are made whole, then “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

And you who have seen the “star in the east,” the spiritual light of Truth divine, if to you that light be strong, then go and tell to sinners what a dear Saviour you have found. But if that light be faint, then follow where it leads, till it comes and stands over where the young child is. And when you have found him, open your treasure, and present yourself and all that is within you, a living sacrifice for the truth that makes you free.

In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy has truly said, “For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain.”

As a point of interest: Dr. Fluno was a member of Mrs. Eddy’s household during part of the year I was in her home. One interesting incident I recall is, that when he was seventy years old, he sent Mrs. Eddy three lectures for her approval. She turned down one of them, declaring that the public was not ready for it. She said that he might give it in twenty years. The question assailed him as to whether he would be lecturing when he was ninety years old, but he did not doubt. He gave the lecture as Mrs. Eddy directed him. It was called, “Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics,” and was printed in pamphlet form in 1917.

From Mary Baker Eddy: Her Spiritual Precepts
by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Sr.




Christian Science versus Finite Sense

Christian Science is the Science of being, and necessarily includes all there is of being. It is an education in itself; an education that is infinite, unlimited, and inexhaustible; that takes not only months, but years, ages, yes, eternity itself, to know, understand, and comprehend. It takes time even to begin to comprehend, or begin the study, as it were, of such a subject, for since Christian Science is the Science of being, it necessarily is the reverse of sense testimony. It is the converse of the senses, and is therefore just the opposite of most people’s line of thought or way of thinking; and it must of necessity take time to turn from thinking one way to thinking just the opposite way.

The Christian Science Textbook

If you were going to take up the study of mathematics, you would not want a textbook that did not teach mathematics; you would want the science of numbers itself, if you could get it, and nothing short of it. Or, if you wished to study music, you would not apply to a teacher who taught by ear, but one who would teach from principle, and hence would teach it correctly. Likewise, to begin the study of Christian Science, you will need its textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and also the other works by this author. These books and other Christian Science publications, together with the Bible, are the only ones that Christian Scientists recognize as authority on the subject, or as teaching Christian Science at all. The textbook of Christian Science is a library in itself; it educates, enlightens, and refines all who come in contact with it.

The author, Mrs. Eddy, was fitted by rare intellectual ability, deeply religious nature, high educational attainment, and a life experience which tended toward weaning her from earthly hopes and ambitions for a master-work, a priceless contribution to the age in which she lived. She is of English and Scotch descent, a native of New Hampshire, and her family has lived for many generations in the vicinity of Concord, honored and respected by all. I am grateful to say that it has been my privilege to receive personal instruction from her, and confirmation, as it were, of the teachings of Science and Health.

Christian Science vs. Finite Sense

Finite sense has all things material and nothing spiritual. Christian Science has all things spiritual and nothing material, and this is why some of its leading statements seem so absurd and far-fetched to the finite sense, but this should not seem so inconsistent and foolish when we remember that the Bible teaches that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other.” As Christian Science counsels its adherents, Paul also writes, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh;” and again, “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Christian Science teaches most emphatically that if we are led of the Spirit, we are not under the material law — not under the law of matter, the law of the physical, but under the divine law, and the more closely we walk in the Spirit, the further are we removed from the mortal law. Hence, living according to Christian Science, we are becoming more and more freed from the bondage of the senses, more and more liberated from the things of sense that tend to keep us forever in bondage.

Finite sense judges all things from the standpoint of appearances, while Christian Science judges all things from the standpoint of Principle, God. Jesus said, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” And Isaiah, in his prophecy of the coming Prince of Peace, said, “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.”

No judgment springing from or based upon sense testimony can be reliable or trustworthy, and so it cannot be a righteous judgment. Appearances have no Principle, no standard, no basis in fact, and so ought not to be taken in evidence. And since, according to Jesus’ teachings, the sense testimony, the testimony of appearances, is not right, because not righteous, then surely it is not right for anyone, and especially not right for followers of Christ, to take it in evidence.

Jesus’ Judgment not According to Appearances

Jesus did not judge according to appearances when he met the man who had been blind from his birth. His disciples were inclined to judge from that standpoint, for they asked, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents,” and then he proceeded to heal him. When he met the man with the withered hand, he did not stop to consult the sense testimony, to give it any rights, or honor it with any power; but he commanded that the hand be stretched forth, and it was stretched forth, and was restored whole, like as the other. At the tomb of Lazarus, he did not credit the evidence of the senses, which said, “He has been dead too long;” but, quite contrary to anything the senses had to say, he commanded Lazarus to come forth, and he came forth and was restored to his family and friends.

The Master did not judge according to the finite sense of life, the life that ends in death, but according to eternal Life, the Life which knows no death, the Life that never dies and which triumphs over death. And the man who came foaming and frothing from the tombs, who was so exceeding fierce that no man could bind him or control him — at the rebuke of Truth was brought to the feet of the Christ, a willing and obedient disciple. Jesus did not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears. He did not condemn the sick to their sickness, the diseased to their diseases, nor the sinner to his sins. But with righteousness, he judged both the sick and the sinner; he rebuked the sickness and the sin, and set the afflicted free. He did not judge sinners according to their sins, but pronounced a righteous judgment upon them.

Thus Christian Science, which judges not according to appearance, but judges righteous judgment, comes to rescue just such heavily laden ones; it takes their load of ills away, and they find themselves free, both mentally and physically. They are made healthy, strong, and well, so that even the physical sense will, does, and must acknowledge their restoration from weakness to strength, from sickness to health, from a living death to a living life. According to the sense testimony how many hopeless invalids are today eking out a miserable existence in a living death, under the ever-increasing load of sympathy and fear that is constantly being laid upon them in thought, in look, and in word — “Poor thing, how ill you are.” And this load is often made the heavier by the very comforting remark, “The Lord is afflicting you for some good purpose.” Christian Science comes to relieve them of this terrible load, and to show them that their affliction is not of God; that it is not necessary either to their spiritual, moral, or physical welfare, nor yet to help them on to heaven; but that as soon as they turn to the Lord with all their heart, their sins, though they be many, will all be forgiven, their sicknesses will disappear, their burdens will roll away, and they will be well indeed.

The mission of Christian Science is not primarily the healing of the sick only. Neither should it be considered merely as one of the many methods of healing the sick. Christian Science comes to heal the world of all error. It heals sin as well as sickness. It heals ignorance, and everyone who comes in contact with its teaching, of necessity advances in education and refinement. It heals poverty — a scourge that starts with individuals, spreads through families, lays waste communities, and finally devastates whole nations. Christian Science teaches that no one need be in poverty or want; that poverty should no longer be considered a Christian virtue. He who is the source and supply of all being is a bountiful giver. No one needs to, or should, ask sparingly when he comes to that fountain whose very nature it is to give. “I must have all things, and abound, while God is God to me.” Christian Science comes to heal the world of all evil, of all wrong, for no evil and no wrong is found in the kingdom of God; and His kingdom is come, and His will is done, “in earth, as it is in heaven,” even as we have prayed so long. Really, His kingdom is here already, and the door is wide open. “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.”

There are scores of cases where men have been healed of the tobacco habit, of drunkenness, of infidelity, of atheism, of agnosticism, of profanity and brutality to wife and family. Christian Science heals not only physically, but morally, mentally, and spiritually. It heals financially, understandingly, scientifically, educationally, and substantially. Far from being narrowing and belittling in its tendencies, Christian Science is broadening and enlarging. It elevates, purifies, and exalts mankind. It is in the highest degree a liberating and ennobling religion. Christian Science covers the whole ground; it answers all questions and solves all problems; it turns the search-light on all physical phenomena, all materialistic beliefs, hypotheses, speculations, conjectures, and dogmas.

Christian Science not Spiritualism or Mental Suggestion

Christian Science comes to all who believe there are spirits many, to reveal the scientific fact that God is Spirit; and since there is but one God, there is therefore but one Spirit. There are not spirits many, or spirits at all; neither are there parts of Spirit; for God is one, undivided and indivisible, and man and the universe, representing and expressing the divine Principle or Spirit, are spiritual, but not Spirit.

Christian Science reveals the fact that there is no spirit in matter or body, and hence no spirit to depart from the body; therefore embodied spirits and disembodied spirits, departed spirits and spirits returned, are mere mortal beliefs, without principle or reality. They have no more existence than the gods of mythology. Christian Science, the Science of Life, turns the search-light on spiritualism, mesmerism, mental suggestion, hypnotism, and animal magnetism, and proves them to be of the earth, earthy. It shows them to be finite sense vagaries which will not stand the test of eternity, and consequently cannot stand the test of Christian Science.

Many suppose that the teaching and practice of Christian Science is the concentration of the human mind, but that is really as far from the teaching and practice of Christian Science as darkness is from daylight. Christian Science teaches that there is one Mind only, and this Mind is God. Christian Science does not teach the holding of thoughts to the end that we may bring about that which we might wish for. For instance, that if you wanted a trip to Europe, and should hold this thought continuously in your mind, that this would bring about your desire. This is merely mortal mind, or finite sense twaddle, and has nothing to do with the lofty teachings of Christian Science, wherein the eternal facts of being are unfolded and the allness of God and the perfection of man and the spiritual universe are seen and demonstrated.

Christian Science, like the science of numbers, does not teach what to do. It teaches what is true, and then there is nothing else to do. Mesmerism has no more to do with Christian Science than with the science of numbers. Fancy a person attempting to teach or practise mathematics by mental suggestion or hypnotism. Likewise no true Christian Scientist ever uses any magnetic or hypnotic influence in his teaching or practice of Christian Science. Mesmerism and animal magnetism teach that there are minds many, and their action is the stronger mind controlling the weaker mind, while Christian Science teaches but one Mind, and that Mind is God. The mortal or finite mind is but the negative of divine Mind; hence, it is no mind at all. This finite or false mind is the mind in which all mesmerism, hypnotism, and magnetism have their origin. And where they abound; they never reach that divine Mind where no evil is, or is known.

Christian Science educates men out of the superstitious belief that God punishes in the earthquake and belches forth His vengeance from the mouth of the volcano; that He glares in the lightning, roars in the thunder, or rages in the storm. It teaches that in the great scientific fact of being none of these things are found, and that they will vanish away under the advancing steps of the understanding of Truth that has come to the world today.

God and His Man

Christian Science teaches the scientific and eternal relation of God and man, but man and the universe of God’s creating have never been seen by finite eyes; Science alone can reveal the man of God, and the universe that God has made. The material man and universe, far from being spiritual, were never made by Spirit, God, and are only of mortal mind creation. Mortal mind itself is false, the mere negative of being, just as darkness is the negative of light. In Christian Science, man does not start as a pure negative, as some claim; neither is there negation or error found in him at all, for if error is found in the premise, it will also be found in the conclusion; and since a negative man would be the direct opposite of man, he would be no man at all. Search the world over, if you will, on the finite plane and from the physical standpoint, to find man — and you will fail to find him.

Man, in Christian Science, is a perfect expression of his pure and perfect Principle, God. He is as perfect now as he ever was or ever will be, and is as perfect as God, his Maker, who is perfection itself. Christian Science admits of no error, either in premise or conclusion, in cause or effect, in Principle or expression.

Christian Science lays the axe at the root of the tree, and “every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” It speaks from the eternal Principle of all things, and deals with eternal facts. That which is not an eternal fact, that which will not be a fact through all eternity, is not a fact today; since in the Science of Life a fact must forever remain a fact, it will be true through all eternity. Christian Science plunges beneath the surface of things, and brings out the eternal, the enduring, the spiritual and the true. It breaks down the false, the seeming, the temporal and finite with the eternal fact. It destroys sickness and sin with the understanding that God is all. In Him is no sickness, no sin, nothing that defileth or maketh a lie.

How many thousands are today sleeping in the silent tomb, having been sentenced to death by physicians and friends? Appearances were against them; conditions seemed to make death the inevitable. And how many have by Christian Science treatment been plucked like brands from the burning, who are today living witnesses of the power of Truth over error, monumental evidences of the power of Life to destroy death?

We do not wish to be understood as finding fault or picking flaws with the physicians. For the most part, they are an earnest, honest, self-sacrificing band of workers, who are doing all in their power, all they know how to do, and studying all the time to find in what way and by what means they can do more to help suffering humanity and relieve their fellow-men. Christian Scientists, if they are honest and conscientious, have enough to do without minding other people’s business or finding fault with other people’s affairs.

Manner of Living

Right here, it may be fitting to say a word along the line of Christian Science life and practice. Do Christian Scientists live absolute Christian Science? No, they do not. Absolute Christian Science means the perfection of being. It means that perfect state of being in which man is as perfect as the “Father in heaven is perfect”; it means the absolute harmony of heaven; and Christian Scientists have not, and do not pretend to have, reached that point in living or in demonstration. They still live in houses, ride in cars, wear clothing, and eat food. They put on overcoats and wear wraps when it is cold, sit by the fire to get warm, and do many other things for their comfort. They use common sense and reason in all things, for Christian Science will not bear anyone out in doing unreasonable things. They do not leap from the pinnacle of the temple, or attempt to make bread out of stones, or do any other unnecessary or uncalled-for thing, to suit any deceiving or deceptive temptation that comes to talk them into it. Christian Scientists have not yet grown into the fulness of the stature of the Son of God; they are growing in the knowledge of the truth and the life of Christ. They need help, and not criticism; since they need to help and not to criticize others.

Christian Scientists are studying Love itself, and as a consequence are learning how to love better and in a better way than they ever knew how to love before. They give up material comforts and enjoyments only as they outgrow them; and they outgrow these things through the study, understanding, and knowledge of the truth as it was in Christ Jesus. They do not use drug remedies, because they have found by experience and study that they are not a real benefit; that they can do better for themselves and others, in times of sickness, with the understanding that Mind governs the body and that sickness is not a fact of being. If sickness, disease, and sin were facts of being, then they could not be destroyed or eliminated. Even God Himself could not destroy these things if they were real.

Christian Scientists as a rule do not talk of their ills; their conversation does not turn to sickness and suffering and all the evils of the day. They talk about that which interests them more, and which they find more elevating and helpful for themselves and others; namely, health, happiness, and peace. And this, not because of any rule or by-law, but because these are the only things they find worth talking about.

Christian Science a Benefit to All

Christian Science does not come to criticize any one thing more than another. It comes alike to all, to each and everyone — the rich and the poor, the high and the low. It comes to the physician as well as to the Christian Scientist, to everyone and everything, for everyone is taking sense testimony more or less for the fact; he is judging more or less according to appearances, rather than righteous judgment.

The warfare which Christian Science wages is not with people; its warfare is with mortal sense. It is Christian Science versus finite sense. It is Truth against error, Life against death, Love against hate, good against evil, right against wrong. It is Principle opposed to appearances; it is the true ruling out the false, the correct ruling out the incorrect. It is the true survival of the fittest, because it is the highest ruling out the lowest. Christian Science brings nothing but goodwill to man, for it comes correcting the world of its wrongs. It heralds nothing but “on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” It does not come giving nothing for something, but something for nothing. It gives all there is, in exchange for all there is not. It gives the true in exchange for the false; it gives the abiding and eternal in exchange for the fleeting and finite. It gives eternal Life in exchange for mortal life, the Life that is for the life that is not. It gives understanding for belief; it gives demonstrable truth for hypotheses and suppositions; it gives the Science of being for a mere speculation and belief of being. It gives knowledge for doubt and dogma; it gives practice for preaching.

Christian Science comes to lead men into the understanding of the one great Principle — Life, Truth, and Love — which unites all in one grand union, where laborer and capitalist are working together, where one man is not protecting himself against another, but each one is laboring to protect the other. Christian Science alone can solve the problem of capital and labor and bring out the correct answer, for it comes to liberate the representatives of both from the thraldom of their own unhappy condition.

Christian Science is the Science of life, and must be based upon perfect, eternal Principle; it must be the expression of eternal, immutable divine law; it must embrace, include, and comprehend the whole of being, for the Science of being must include all that is. It deals with nothing but facts, facts which are logical deductions from the one self-evident, self-existent Principle; it must have its existence within itself, for there could be nothing greater than itself to give it existence.

God and His Creation Perfect

Divine Principle, God, is, and is self-existent and eternal — as primal as infinity, and as lasting as eternity. As there can be nothing greater than itself to create it, there can be nothing greater than itself to destroy it. It therefore always was, and always will be, and its creations must be like unto itself; they must be as perfect as itself, as primal as itself, and as enduring as itself. There never was a time when God, Spirit, divine Principle, was not and was not perfect; and there never was a time when God’s creation was not and was not perfect. And as there never will be a time when God will not be and be perfect, so there never will be a time when His creation will not be and be perfect. From this it follows that since God is now, and is perfect, therefore His creation is now, and is perfect, and His creation can never be any more perfect than it is at the present moment. We should not strive to make ourselves perfect, but to know ourselves perfect. Man cannot “add one cubit to his stature” or “make one hair white or black.” We must take God’s side of the question, look at everything from His point of observation, and soon we shall see all things in their true, harmonious condition, without spot or blemish.

Christian Science bases its fabric upon divine Principle, self-existent Life, Truth, and Love, while finite sense bases its every fabric upon the evidence of the senses. Christian Science finds God to be divine Spirit, and hence finds creation to be spiritual and not material, while finite sense finds a material or finite creation and necessarily posits a materially and finitely disposed God. Christian Science finds man the image and likeness of God; while finite sense finds God the image and likeness of mortal man. Christian Science says man was never seen by finite eyes, while finite sense sees man only with finite eyes.

Christian Science finds the spiritual man to be the real, genuine, and true man, and the material or mortal man to be but a mere belief; while finite sense finds the material or mortal man to be the real, genuine, and true, and finds the spiritual man only in belief — that is, it believes there may be a spiritual man, but thinks it knows there is a mortal and material man. Christian Science says the spiritual universe is true, while finite sense says the material universe is true; but both cannot be true, for they are opposites. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Christian Science takes divine Principle as the basis of all things, while finite sense takes the evidence of the senses as the basis of all things. Finite sense believes there is a God, but has no positive proof, while Christian Science proves positively and undeniably that God is, and hence does not need to believe — it knows. Finite sense limits all things, bases all its arguments and deduces all its conclusions from the testimony of the senses. It says that the sun rises and sets, and that the moon travels from east to west. It says that sound is in the bell and that color is in the object. It says that hearing is in the physical ear, that sight is in the physical eye, and that sensation is in a physical nerve. It says that mind is in matter, the brain thinks, and the heart loves.

Mind you, we are not talking about people; we are talking about finite sense. This should appeal to Christian Scientists as much as anyone else. Christian Science comes, educating mankind, and thus lifting them up out of this deception. When we stop to consider for a moment, we know that the brain cannot think any more than the heart can love. We know that the heart cannot love any more than the lungs or the liver, or any other organ of the body. If the brain could think, it would never cease to think. If it were endowed with power from on high to think, then, because of the unchanging nature of God, that thinking power could never be withdrawn. If it had the power of thought within itself, then it would think on and forever.

Christian Science shows that Mind is not in matter, is not in the brain — that it is not in the body at all. Christian Science shows that Mind is God, divine Principle, the great omniscience of being; that instead of Mind being in us, we are in Mind. The mind which is supposed to exist in the brain, is not Mind, but a mere negation of Mind. It is the opposite of the divine Mind, which opposite mind is no mind at all, for the Mind that is God, the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Mind, could have no opposite. If God is All-in-all, then how could He have an opposite? Could there be any more than all? From this, it follows that heaven is not a locality or place, but a state or condition of harmony which finite sense knows nothing of and can know nothing of, since finite sense knows nothing but discord.

Here again, finite sense and Christian Science take most positive issue. Finite sense knows nothing but inharmony, while Christian Science knows nothing but harmony. Finite sense cannot live where harmony is, any more than mortal man can look upon the face of God and live. The moment God, absolute good, is seen, that moment mortal sense begins to die.

The Science of being could not see an error in being, any more than the science of numbers could see an error in mathematics, or any more than the sun could see darkness, or heat could feel cold. There is no such thing as a mathematical error, for an error in a mathematical solution would not be mathematical. Likewise, there is no such thing as a scientific error in the science of Life, for an error in the solution of a scientific problem would not be scientific. Consequently there is no error in science, and Christian Science is absolutely free from error. Like the science of numbers, it deals with nothing but perfection — absolute correctness. No one can find fault with the Science of man’s being, when he understands it, any more than he can find fault with the science of numbers when he understands that.

Falsity of Finite Sense

Every theory beginning with the evidence of the senses, begins wrong, because sense testimony is not reliable. All sense testimonies are simply limitations that have no principle to support them, no foundation in fact; they are vagaries and deceptions that ever lead into wrong conclusions and superstitious dogmas.

Sense testimony tells us that the earth is flat and that the sun passes around it. Not many centuries ago this testimony was taken in evidence; it was universally conceded to be a fact and was taught in all the schools of that day. Then that grand old astronomer, Galileo (to whom the world owes so much, for so many mathematical and geometrical propositions brought to light) came and said, “The earth moves and the sun stands still,” and they hooted him off the streets, and called him crazy, a crank, and an ignoramus; they said he was a dangerous man to have at large, teaching the young such silly inconsistencies. They threatened to put him in prison; they abused him, and would have hung him had he not recanted. Yet what would be thought of the ignoramus who should come teaching in accordance with the evidence of those same senses such theories as they were teaching then, and should offer his services in our public schools today?

Is it not plain how ignorant are all those who hope to reach the truth by relying on sense testimony respecting a material earth and a physical creation? Who will dare to say that future generations will not laugh at us and call us ignorant for thinking that man was made of dust?

If we interpret the Bible literally, we are held in gross ignorance and the most bigoted superstition. Take, for instance, the fifth verse of the 104th Psalm: “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.” Taking this in its finite, literal sense, as our fathers did, what wonder that they thought Galileo an impostor? For to this sense his theory flatly contradicted the Bible, as well as ran counter to all common sense and reason. The earth, as they saw it, stood still; it was established on foundations that could not be moved forever, even as the Bible teaches, in its literal sense.

But as we now see how false the literal rendering is in this text, may it not be found, as Christian Science discloses, that the literal rendering of the second chapter of Genesis is equally absurd, foolish, and inconsistent, when it teaches that “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [that was made out of dust] became a living soul”?

Christian Science shows conclusively that man was not made as is related in the second chapter of Genesis, but according to the first chapter, where it is stated that man was made in the image and likeness of God. It shows that the second account of the origin of man, as rendered in the second chapter of Genesis, is merely an allegory, giving the sense testimony of the manner of creation, which is just the opposite of the scientific and true. The sense testimony must always be opposed to the scientific, because one is belief, the other is understanding; one is speculation, the other scientific truth; one judges from appearances, the other from Principle. The sense testimony is the limited and finite; the scientific testimony is the unlimited and infinite. One is false, the other is true.

But does the Bible, therefore, teach falsely? No, it teaches the truth; it teaches the truth of the true, and it also teaches the truth concerning the false. It gives the scientific account of creation, and it gives also the finite sense account of creation; one is the true, the other is the false. Every theory starting from the evidence of the senses starts wrong.

Man and Protoplasm

Evolution, or the Darwinian theory, that even many of our learned men have embraced, starts with man — man as the senses behold him — and tries to reach his origin. But every theory of an origin calls for another origin, and they never can find what the last origin originated in. Darwin went back as far as protoplasm, which was the ultimate of his research, and there he had to stop, because he could get no farther. But the question will arise, What did protoplasm come from? Or, if God made protoplasm, from which by gradation man is evolved, then surely man must be in protoplasm; that is, protoplasm must contain all that is evolved from it, from the lowest to the highest of creation — plant, insect, animal, and man. If an all-wise and omnipotent God could make protoplasm, out of which to evolve man, could He not make man as well? Still further, if God made protoplasm out of which to evolve man, then God must have had man in His thought; therefore man would be a thought of the infinite Mind, a thought of God.

This is just what Christian Science teaches — that man, the true man, the image and likeness of God, is an idea of the infinite Mind, expressing all the properties and qualities of divine Principle—perfect peace, perfect happiness, perfect health, and a perfect and immortal life in a blessed state of harmony, where sickness never enters and sorrow never comes — that we do not need to die to attain this, but it is for us here and now, and can be arrived at each day, each hour, by putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, which is Christ the Lord.

This perfect state of man in Science is an accomplished fact, for whatever is to be with God is already accomplished. Whatever is to be true of man and the universe any time throughout eternity, is true today. Nothing can be true that will not stand the test of eternity. That which will not stand the test of eternity never was true, and it is not true today, and never will be true. It is only finite sense that says man is mortal and material today, but after death, he will be spiritual. All that really is, of man and the universe, will live forever, always did live, was always spiritual, never was material, and is not now; while all that will not live forever, never in reality did live, is not of God, and therefore is not at all. God and the spiritual creation is all that really is, while the material creation in reality is not.

For ages past, men have taught the coming of the end of the world; that this material world or universe would come to an end; that this physical universe, which finite sense says is a reality, in some unknowable, incomprehensible, and really impossible way would be swept out of existence and become an unreality. I say impossible way, because if it were a reality, how could it become an unreality? How could something become nothing? Christian Science reveals the fact that this physical universe, this world of finite sense, is unreal, and hence will come to an end as we grow in the understanding of its nothingness. This material universe will one day be rolled up like a scroll — that is, be numbered among the things that were once thought to be true, but are now found to be false. Christ Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Everything in the material universe is dependent upon failure. Every business pursuit lives upon failure, flourishes best upon failure. Ask yourself, how long the boot and shoe business would continue and what it would amount to, if boots and shoes did not wear out. If clothing did not wear out, what would the great wool, cotton, silk, and linen industries amount to? What would the law profession amount to, and who would study it if the brotherhood of man were not a failure? What would the medical profession amount to if physical health were not a failure? And last, but not least, what would the undertaking business amount to if mortal or finite life were not a failure?

The basic law of mathematics is just as fixed before we have solved a given problem as it is after we have solved it; we only brush away our own misunderstandings and misconceptions. Likewise, the problem of our own being is just as perfect before our solution as it is afterwards; hence man is just as perfect now as he ever will be. He only needs to be scientifically understood.

Jesus said, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Divine Science is the key to the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you find true now, according to divine Science, will be found true in heaven, and will be found to be true throughout all eternity. Likewise, whatsoever you find on earth not to be true, according to divine Science, will not be found in heaven; in heaven it will be false, and will be false throughout all eternity. Whatever you bind to yourself on earth as being true, according to Christian Science, will be bound to you in heaven; and whatsoever you find to be false, according to Christian Science, will be loosed from you in the kingdom of God.

Christian Science has come to the world, and is educating mankind out of the teachings of finite sense; out of the bondage of limitations that hedge us round on every side, where the false sense, or physical beliefs, alone are holding us in ignorance, superstition, and fear. It is finite sense alone that is holding us in ignorance of our God-given rights, keeping us in the dark as to what is waiting for us and might be had for the taking. Lucy Larcom says:

I cannot in the valley stay;
The great horizons stretch away;
The very cliffs that wall me round
Are ladders into higher ground.

Physical sense makes men slaves to their own beliefs. Just to the extent that men are governed by the sense testimony, to that extent are they in bondage to their own false beliefs, slaves to their own slavery and serfs to their own serfdom, so much engrossed with their own belief that they were made to till the soil, that they cannot look up to read the scroll just over their heads, which would give them a bountiful store and free them from their toil; too much occupied with the thought that they are poor, to find that they are rich; too much impressed with their own belief of want and famine to find themselves in the land of plenty. They cannot hear the blessed import of the invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” So heavily laden are they with the weary load of their own condemnation and despair that they cannot hear the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

A glorious gift is come “down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” It is the gift of God, that has come to lift mankind out of the slums of ignorance, debauchery, misery, and sin, “into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” It will not only heal the sick of their present ills, cleanse the sinner of his present sins, and rid the world of its present load of misery and despair, but it will correct the world of such things as sickness and disease; correct the world of sin, of war, of murder, of bloodshed, of famine, of want, of pestilence, of sorrow, pain, and death. It is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” It is the veritable Christ, that has come “the second time without sin unto salvation.”

Christian Science a Revelation

Christian Science has come to the world, and has come through revelation to the one who was fitted to receive it and to give it to a waiting people. As time goes on, and the glorious truths expressed in Science and Health are better understood and more fully appreciated and more generally demonstrated, then will the world begin to comprehend and realize how great a book is this book; how great a work is this work; and how glorious a Cause is this Cause which has come to give deliverance to a benighted world.

Then will it be seen what the author of this book has done for the world. Then will those who stand by her now, be justified for their fidelity to her, for obedience to her behests and fulfilment of her slightest wishes. Then would those who now misjudge and misrepresent this movement and its Leader be glad if they could lay their tributes at her feet, and hear words of gentle and kind forgiveness from one who has sought for all mankind the greatest good, the highest and the best that a world could possibly desire — deliverance from all its ills.

When we, her students, know and appreciate in part how much has been done for us, is it any wonder that we love her and revere her, and do what we can to aid in the great work that she has established? Could we show our gratitude to her in any better way than to obey her requests? Jesus said to his disciples, his students, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” And he also said, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another.” The behests of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, have been no more arduous and no less loving, and as kindly desirous of goodwill to all; indeed Christian Science comes, as the Christ came of old, with nothing but love in its message.

And now, if this Science takes aught from you, it returns four-fold instead! If it takes disease from you, it gives you health; for error, it gives Truth; for hate, it gives Love; for death, it gives Life; for evil, it gives good; for time, it gives eternity; for mortality, it gives immortality; for matter, it gives Mind. If, by taking matter and mortality away from you, we have taken your Lord away, and you know not where we have laid him, then turn as did Mary; turn from looking down into the tomb of material sense, and see Jesus, standing in his risen state, in Spirit and in Truth, triumphant over death, hell, and the grave, and follow him in his transition state, where Truth and Life and Love lead up to the summit, overlooking all below — a victor over sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, because felt and feared no more. Then will the golden beams of Truth’s eternal sunrise guide you ever toward the morning land of harmony and rest, in Love’s bright haven home. Then in your progress, no effort will be needed, but in transports of joy and on wings of delight will you rise to the realms of the real, through eternity’s day, in the Science of Life, to dwell in the home of the soul.

In that home of the soul no terrors can come,
Neither weariness, sorrow, nor care;
The love-light of glory has banished the gloom,
For Christ, the good Shepherd, is there.




Christian Science: A Reasonable and Rational View of All Things

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Here is an invitation to reason together with the most high God; to have a quiet interview with the great I AM — an invitation to spend an hour apart from daily toil and care and have a confidential talk with divine intelligence; to seek counsel and advice from Spirit, God, who will always give you wise and fatherly counsel, because He is wisdom and intelligence itself; who will always give you the most tender, loving, and motherly advice, because He is the Spirit of good, the Spirit of love.

It is the infinite, the eternal, the omnipresent One that invites you — the One who is never absent, who is always present and everywhere present; the One who is never preoccupied, or too much engaged, or who has forgotten His invitation to come and reason with Him.

Did you ever think of God as the everywhere present Mind, the high and holy Mind, the Spirit or Principle of being, wisdom, Love; who is always ready to hear and answer your questions, no matter how small or insignificant, or how great or how important they are? To reason with God, however, is not to have a superstitious, sanctimonious, or incomprehensible interview with a personal or corporeal deity, whom you may believe in but with whom you have no acquaintance, — it is to have a friendly, comprehensive, and intelligent communion with divine Spirit, the one pure and perfect Mind.

Do you ask if that pure and perfect Mind could have evil thoughts and still be pure and holy Mind? “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity,” wrote the prophet Habakkuk. This answer comes quick and sharp and right to the point, and leaves not a doubt or a shadow of misunderstanding. Then you will find, by further reasoning, that this same Mind not only could not think an evil thought, but could not evolve or beget anything which could have an evil thought; therefore the man of His creating never could have and never did have an evil thought.

Did you ever think of God in the same way that you might think of the principle in mathematics? That although there are ten thousand, or ten million, or any number of different people, and in any number of different places, all calling upon it at the same time, and each one with a different problem, it can attend to all at the same time, and to each one as though he or she were the only one? That no matter how frequently you come or how long you remain, it is always ready to receive you, and willing to stay with you until your question is answered, until your problem is solved and you are satisfied?

Did you ever take your petition to God, Spirit, Love, in the same way and with the same persistency and earnestness that you would take a problem in mathematics to its principle, and with the same determination to know and understand and have it demonstrated to you? By working over the problem, until finally the reasoning dawns upon you, you solve the problem by an understood law, and it is demonstrated to you, and you not only know it to be correct, but you know why it is correct. You know it is not only true for you, but it is true for everyone; that it is true for all time, and for all peoples and tongues and all generations, in every land and in every clime; that what is demonstrably true for you in a law of mathematics is equally true for everyone.

Likewise, did you ever come face to face with the proposition that in the great scientific fact of being what is true for one is true for all, that what is true for one is true for everyone? That “God is no respecter of persons”? That what He gives unto one, He gives unto all? If He gives eternal life to anyone, He gives eternal life to everyone. If He has given eternal salvation to anyone, then He never did, never can, and never will give eternal damnation to another. He has never bequeathed to one the opposite of what He has bequeathed to another, and man has no power to change the unchanging purposes of an unchanging and omnipotent God.

You remember the Master said at one time, “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” You remember also that he said to one who was a sinner, “Thy sins are forgiven;” to another who was sick of the palsy, “Arise, and walk;” and to another who was a leper, “Be thou clean;” and to another who was dead, “Come forth.” Then the fact confronts you that what he said to any one of these he said to every one. You wonder how this can be; you may be willing it should be so, but you do not see how it can be so. You may be willing to say, “Thy will be done,” but you cannot see how it is already done; and yet it is a scientific fact — and if it is true in one instance, it is true in every instance — that if the sins of one be forgiven, then are the sins of all.

You take that grand old book the Bible; you look it over and you read, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Then you go and reason together with God; with Spirit, Truth, and Love, until finally the great Principle of all being dawns upon you, and you see how it is that your sins, though many, are all forgiven and your name is written in the book of life.

God and His Creation Spiritual and Pure

You find God to be the pure and perfect Spirit, or Father of all creation, and man the offspring of that pure and holy One; then it follows that you cannot admit of sickness or sin as belonging to man without predicating the same of his Creator; and that which does not belong to God cannot belong to you. You find God, the eternal Principle of all being, to be unchangeable; He is “yesterday, and to day, and for ever” the same. Then we must admit that He is not granting forgiveness today, and tomorrow withholding it; that He is not healing the sick in one age, and in another age withholding that healing power.

Since He is unchangeable and “no respecter of persons,” what is ever to be ours is waiting for us now, and what is for one is for everyone. Then it follows that the great Master, he who did only the will of God, never did anything for anyone that God has not already done. When he spoke peace to a troubled heart, he knew that this rest was already spoken in heaven. When he granted forgiveness to a penitent sinner, he knew that out in the great universe of Love this pardon was waiting for him. When he spoke the healing word to the sick and suffering one, he knew it was in accord with the unchanging will of God. He never granted anything to anyone that God had not already granted, not only to that one, but to everyone. You see that what is true for you is true for all; what is true for one is true for everyone, and is true for all eternity; and that there never has been a time when it was not true. You know it is scientifically true, and you know it is Christianly true, because you have reasoned together with Christ, the Son of the most high God, and because you have reasoned together with the most high God Himself. Since we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,” therefore the saying, “All things that the Father hath are mine,” is as true today as when it was first uttered; and must, in the great fact of being, be as true of you and me as it was of him who said it. And the converse must also be true — that which the Father hath not is not mine.

Christian Scientists have been accused of being a prayerless people; yet Christian Scientists are learning to “pray without ceasing.” For their hearts’ desire is to know God, and to this end they are seeking day and night. They are not praying to a personal God to do something He has not already done, or to give them something He has not already given; but they are in constant communion with God the Father, to know what He has already done and to know the things He has already given. In other words, instead of begging God to give them something they think they have not, or are not in possession of, they are finding what they already have in their possession, although they knew it not; for if, as Paul says, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Then surely, if we find what we have, we will have enough; and Christian Scientists, in constant communion with the most high God, are both learning to know Him, whom to know is life eternal, and to find what He has in store for them — that which mortal eye has not seen, and finite sense has never known.

Christian Science not Physical Science

Some are objecting to Christian Science on the ground that it couples the word science with the word Christian, and well they may, because from their standpoint the word science means physical science. They do not see that physical science has no part or parcel with Christian Science — that one is directly opposite to the other. Physical science is based wholly and entirely upon sense-testimony, and all its conclusions are deductions drawn from hypotheses based upon the evidence of the senses, while Christian Science has its foundation in the most high God, the eternal Spirit, or divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love. This is ultimate; beyond it you cannot go, higher you cannot reach, because there could be nothing more living than Life to create life; nothing truer than Truth to evolve truth; and nothing more loving than Love to beget love. It is therefore conclusive and final.

Christian Science is a logical deduction drawn from that ultimate, absolute, and divine Spirit, God, and is therefore absolute and divine Science. It is as demonstrable as the science of numbers, and is as primal, present, and everlasting as the eternal God. It is therefore the Science of God and man; hence it is the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, the “Spirit of truth” that leads in the way of all truth, and testifies of Christ. Christ said, “When the Comforter is come,... even the Spirit of truth,... he shall testify of me.” “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Christian Science does testify of Christ. It corroborates all the statements that he made, explains away all doubts concerning his teachings, and clears up all the mysteries connected with his life and demonstrations. Christian Science is not, therefore, physical science; the world is fast recognizing the fact that they are very remote from each other; in fact, they have nothing in common one with the other.

Christian Science is not only absolute and demonstrable Science, but it is also absolutely Christian, because it teaches nothing but kindness and love, and peace and goodwill to all; it teaches right toward all, and wrong toward none; it teaches right doing as well as right preaching; and it absolutely and entirely eschews all wrong doing. It teaches that “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, it teaches that unless your right doing shall exceed the right doing of the very highest idea of right, or right doing according to the finite sense, you can in no wise enter into the kingdom of harmony.

Legislating Against Christian Science

Attempts have been made in some instances to legislate against the practice of Christian Science, but in every instance these have been due to a misunderstanding of what Christian Science is and what its practice consists of. As soon as an explanation has been made of its kindliness and helpfulness, and its utter lack of coercion or any attempt to press its mode of treatment upon anyone in any way, all desire to legislate against it disappears. So in most cases, instead of Christian Science losing its case, it has gained a point in the estimation of men.

The thought has also been expressed that little children should be protected against Christian Science treatment. But, far from little children needing any protection, they take to Christian Science very readily themselves, as the most natural kind of help in times of sickness and trouble, and in many cases need no treatment other than what they are able to do for themselves. The Master said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Little children often give testimonies in our public meeting of demonstrations over sickness and suffering, accidents and misfortunes that come to them, and not only over these things, but over anger, malice, hatred, and jealousy that arise in their hearts. In some instances, little children, in their perfect confidence and childlike simplicity, have been known to make demonstrations over sickness, disease, and discords where older ones have failed, thus corroborating the statements of Jesus: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”

Christian Scientists do not press their religion or their Christian Science healing upon any one, not even on little children, but it is fair to suppose that what people find is good for themselves in times of sickness and suffering, they would like their families to have. Little children in most cases not only respond very quickly to Christian Science treatment, but they very readily learn to practice it for themselves; and not only are they healed of their ills and also able to help others, but it helps them in their education, their schooling. It raises them to a higher moral standard, for Christian Science is elevating in every possible way. No one, when he learns what Christian Science is, and what it can do for those little ones who are so soon to take our places in the ranks of public and social life, in civil and religious reform, would have the children exempted from it.

It is not reasonable to suppose that anyone, when he learns what Christian Science is and what it can do for the world, and especially for the little children, would, if he could, keep from those little ones, or from anyone, that simple Christ-cure which is provided by divine Love, especially when they remember that our silent cities are peopled with thousands and millions of little children who never heard of Christian Science, who never heard from anyone in their hours of suffering the blessed invitation, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”

In view of all this, we may be excused when we ask with the Psalmist, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Christian Science does not come with anything but the greatest blessing and the highest good. It comes in the name of Christ, with healing in its wings. It does not come like a mighty conqueror, like a conquering army whose one and only thought is to conquer, to devastate and destroy. If this were the case, well might the people imagine terrible things; well might they be afraid. If Christian Science came like the sweeping tornado, the consuming conflagration, or some dread and loathsome scourge — if this were the nature of Truth’s appearing — then surely the world might tremble, but this is not the nature of Truth’s appearing. Christian Science comes today, as Truth has always come, with only the message of peace in its wings. It comes with a healing balm for everyone — a restorative for the sick and suffering, a forgiveness for the penitent sinner, with joy for the sorrowing, and life for the dying. It brings comfort to the mourner and solace to the bereft; it is bread for the poor and supply for the needy; it is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. Christian Science has nothing in its teachings or in its practice but the highest good and the greatest blessings for all mankind. Since it has not one element of evil or wrong in its teachings or in its possibilities, it can do good, but it cannot do evil; it can do right, but it cannot do wrong.

The Ideal Religion

Christian Science is the ideal religion; it includes and comprehends those religious teachings that everyone is looking for and that everyone should recognize as soon as he sees them practiced by anyone. It is a pure and undefiled religion. It teaches the allness of God in its purest and highest signification. It teaches the absolute perfection of God, and consequently the absolute perfection of man — that man, the image and likeness of his Maker, must of necessity be as perfect as his Maker. The effect must always be like the cause. The demands of Christian Science regarding man are precisely the demands of the Master when he said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Christian Science is not another religious belief. A mere belief is next to worthless. Belief, as the term is applied at the present day, is a very weak word; there is perhaps not another word in the English language that means so little as the term belief Christian Science is not taught from the standpoint of belief, but from the standpoint of understanding, the same as mathematics is taught. Fancy a person attempting to teach or demonstrate mathematics on the basis of belief! What teacher in mathematics, after solving a problem for a pupil, ever asks him if he believes it? Does he not rather ask him if he understands it? Would the student’s belief or disbelief change a fact that is logically true and demonstrably correct? What avails it whether we believe that three times seven are twenty-one? If we accept it, does that make it true? Or if we reject it, does that make it false? Is not a fact still a fact, whether we accept it or whether we reject it?

Are we not each and everyone of us humble and helpless before the little simple fact that two and two are four? Can we, by any possible effort on our part, make it any more or less a fact than it already is? Can we, by any possible effort on our part, substantiate a fact that already is a fact? Can you make two and two four? Have you any power to make it any more or less than what it already is? Likewise, in the great scientific fact of being, have we any power to make man any more or less a child of God than he already is? If man is the image and likeness of God, just how would you go to work to make him any more so? Or just how would you go to work to make him any less so? Have we any power vested in ourselves to change eternal facts, or to make them any more or less a fact? Is there anything left to us but to find what already is a fact, and then let it be so? Did you ever think of the words “Amen,”, “So be it,” or “So let it be”? Are we ready to say in all things, "Not my will, but thine, be done”?

Deals with Facts and not Beliefs

Can we change eternal facts, or make them any more a fact than they already are? Are not God and His laws fixed and forever the same? “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” You see, Christian Science deals with facts, and not with beliefs; and facts are stubborn things, especially eternal facts.

Finite material facts, so-called, such as sickness and health, pain and pleasure, sorrow and joy, evil and good, are changeable, and therefore are not facts; hence in Christian Science, they are called beliefs. Even physical science has no use for the term belief; and most emphatically is this true in the absolute Science of being. Christian Science never made a statement on the frail hypothesis of belief! There is no belief in Science. Science is based upon divine Principle — the Spirit or Principle of intelligence or God. God is omniscience, and omniscience does not need to believe — it knows.

Along the finite plane or from the plane of sense-testimony, we use the word belief, and some beliefs are better than others, but all fall short of understanding. Beliefs as beliefs, whether good or bad, vanish when understanding appears. It is better to have a belief of health than a belief of sickness, except that a belief of health is more deceiving than a belief of sickness, because we are led to think that it is the true health, when really it is not. As we all know, a belief of health can be changed to sickness. What is called physical health, which is only a belief of health, is unreliable, while true health, such as Christian Science teaches, is not liable to sickness or disease, because it is based upon eternal law — the law of Life, the Life that is God. This is the true health, and it is perfect and unfailing because it is the law of the perfect and unfailing One. If you are studying this law, you are studying the perfect and the only law of health.

Did you ever think of health as one of the laws of the Lord? Mind you, that is not saying that mere physical health, is a law of the Lord; but true health, such as Christian Science teaches, is a perfect and unfailing law of Life, Truth, and Love, and is as reliable and unchangeable as the eternal and unchanging God. God — the eternal and ever-living God — must have eternal and unfailing health, else He would sicken and die. So health is surely a law of the Lord, and he who studies this law will grow into an understanding of health, into a better, a more perfect state of health, which will be manifested on the body in what is called physical health. Not only will there be manifested a better and more permanent physical health, but there will be a better and more healthful mental state and condition; a spiritual uplifting and regeneration; a stronger desire to do right and be right, to love righteousness and hate iniquity.

Yet, as we said before, if you have not reached this higher health — this health that is born of understanding and demonstration, this health that is the law of the Lord — it is better to have a belief of health than of sickness, of right doing than of wrong doing, of honesty than dishonesty, of kindness than unkindness, of truthfulness than untruthfulness; better to have the thought of morality than immorality, of virtue than of vice; since whatever thought predominates, that thought will show forth in the body — in your deeds, your actions and your conditions — and it will, in belief, be the ruling power of your mortal life, for the body acts in obedience to the governing thought.

Everyone knows, in a measure at least, that the body responds to the dictation of thought, hence we say it is better to have good beliefs than bad beliefs, better the belief that has an upward tendency than the one that has a downward tendency. So while Christian Science does not teach belief, yet it does not disparage, but rather encourages high and ennobling beliefs. At the same time, it educates up out of belief into understanding; it does not quench the smoking flax, but fans it to a flame.

Christian Science comes to rob the world of no good thing that it has ever known. It teaches that unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the very highest idea of right from the mortal standpoint, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven; and it likewise teaches that unless your health exceed the health of the most healthy from the physical standpoint, you have not yet found the health that is taught in Christian Science which belongs to the children of God, and this kind of health we must find before we can enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of harmony.

Christian Science does not teach men to become law-breakers, but law-abiding citizens; it teaches that we must not break the law, but that we must keep it; that “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

One criticism against Christian Science is that it is only a fad, a mushroom theory, a Jonah’s gourd that has come up in a night to wither in a day, but Christian Science, far from being a “snowflake on the river,” is planted on the rock, Christ, and will stand forever. It is the Science of Christ, the Science of Life; and though finite sense has seen it not, yet it has forever been and will forever be. Christian Science is not the finite sense of being, which is the false sense of being, but the eternal fact of being. Like the science of numbers, it forever stands immutable and unchangeable.

Healed by Reading Textbook

Christian Science has come to stay, and we might as well be getting acquainted with it and see what it is that is demanding so much attention. It will do you no harm to look into it. Hundreds and thousands of desolate homes have been made cheery, bright, and happy, just by looking into Christian Science. Hundreds and thousands of sick and invalid mothers have been given back to their families in health and wholeness, just by reading the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mrs. Eddy. Hundreds of homes that were once made miserable by a debauched and sin-stricken father and husband, have been made happy just by looking into Christian Science. It has come like an angel of mercy to many a poverty-stricken and drink-blighted home; it has taken the desire for strong drink from many a poor, fallen, and unhappy husband and father, and today, happiness and prosperity reign where unhappiness and poverty did much more abound. Not only has the appetite for strong drink been overcome, but the tobacco, opium, and morphine habits have been cured, and the poor unfortunates have been made free — absolutely healed of all desire for those things. Christian Science has no elements of destruction in its nature. It does not come to tear down, but to build up; it comes not to rob or to plunder. It comes just as the Christ came of old, “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

There are those who find fault with the price of Science and Health, who say that the price is too great compared with other books of the same size. They ignore the fact that the character of the work should be taken into consideration; that it is a textbook, and that textbooks exceed in price the cost of any other book; that the time and study given to compile such a work is great. Besides, you know, you may buy chaff for two cents a cartload. But if you want wheat, you have to pay a good price for it.

In most instances, those who question the cost of the book, get nothing from it; they keep their sickness, their suffering, their fault-finding, their unkindly feelings, and their necessities. On the other hand, those who study and practice the teachings of this book, in most cases find their health restored, their sufferings eliminated, their hearts enlarged, their love for their fellow men broadened; they have a more elevated idea of God and man; they find their wants supplied, their business capacities enlarged, and many other comforts and blessings are added unto them.

Textbook and Education

Science and Health is a library in itself, and a comprehensive and extended study of it leads one into the avenues and along the lines of the highest and best. It is a true educator, because it is broadening and enlarging in its scope and tendency. It heals sickness, destroys sin, dethrones bad habits; it overcomes vice, villainy, hatred, and immorality, and leads out of and above all evil tendencies; it is elevating, edifying, enlarging, and refining in its teachings.

No one can come in touch with Christian Science teaching without feeling its beneficial effects, its educating and uplifting influences. It educates out of the common superstitious religious beliefs of a corporeal deity, a personal devil, a place called heaven and another called hell; out of the superstitious belief of such things as foreordination and eternal punishment for the children of God. It brings mankind into an understanding of Truth and true being; into a more perfect understanding of God and man, a more conscious companionship with God the Father, a more exalted and a more sacred nearness to Christ our Saviour. It develops a deeper, broader, and higher love for our neighbor; a more tender regard for the lower animals, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and even the creeping things of the earth; for plant life, and all creation.

As the old Grecian mythology has gone out under the advancing steps of knowledge and education; as the belief in fairies, ghosts, and goblins — all supernatural beings — is disappearing under the proof and demonstration of their non-existence; as the emancipation from slavery has been effected by educating out of that wrong into a better, a more Christlike, a more humane way, in like manner all superstitious beliefs of a corporeal deity, a vengeful god, a personal devil, a place called hell and another place called heaven, with all the superstitious beliefs growing out of these vagaries, together with all sickness and all disease, all sorrow and sighing, sinning and dying — all these false beliefs will be overcome, cast out, and eternally obliterated by the advancing steps of a higher education, the more perfect understanding of Truth and true being that has come into the world in the name of Christian Science. In their place will be found health, harmony — “on earth peace, good will toward men;” the burning fires of hell as a place of torment — only a superstitious personified picture of mortal sense, made out of the same material as the old Grecian gods of mythology — will sink into the same utter nothingness. That heavenly city, on some far-away shore, in some unknown and unknowable locality, will give way to the higher understanding of the teachings of Christ, the kingdom of heaven within, for the kingdom of God is not a place, but a state or condition — the reign of harmony, the government of divine Science, the absolute law of right.

No Mesmerism in Science

Some of those who think themselves averse to Christian Science, but who are only averse to their own beliefs of it, are saying the day of miracles is past. To the Christian Scientist, those demonstrations of Jesus and the apostles which the world calls miracles or wonders, are really manifestations of divine Principle, not yet wholly understood, but now brought to light in Christian Science, and being performed by all who understand the law and who are striving to live the Christ-life “in spirit and in truth.”

One of the charges brought against Christian Science is that it can do evil as well as good, and this might be true if it were the human mind that is used in Christian Science work, but that is the very thing which Christian Science is ruling out. No one ever thinks of bringing any mesmeric or hypnotic or magnetic influence to bear in the study of the science of numbers; he studies and practices mathematics understandingly. Likewise, Christian Scientists do not use magnetic or mesmeric or hypnotic influence in the study and practice of the Science of being. Even in their silent treatments they bring no such power as that to bear; they deal with the subject understandingly.

Fancy a person attempting to teach or practice mathematics without an understanding of it. While he might say some things that were true; yet they would carry no weight, because he has no understanding of his subject. Christian Scientists in their study, practice, and teaching of Christian Science, deal with the subject understandingly, and this naturally and necessarily rules out any and all hypnotic or mesmeric influence.

Science and Health from cover to cover teaches that the human mind cannot heal the sick; that the human mind causes sickness, and therefore cannot heal. The whole burden of its teaching, from first to last, is that sickness, evil, sin—all discord of whatever sort — is never really healed except through the divine Mind, the Mind that is God, the Mind expressed by Christ Jesus. That Mind is not capable of doing evil, for it has no properties of evil to dispense, because it is the “Spirit of truth” itself.

Science and Health teaches that God never did an evil thing, never could do an evil thing; that He is capable of all good, but not capable of evil. It not only teaches that He is not capable of doing evil, but that He is not capable of producing evil; that He produces all good, but cannot produce evil, for if He were the producer of evil, then He must be the source of evil, which would certainly be the evil spirit itself.

The Study of Genesis

Christian Scientists believe in the Bible. You believe in the Bible; i.e., you believe that the Bible teaches the truth. You have read the first chapter of Genesis. No doubt, you all have read that chapter many, many times, but did you ever make a study of it, to the end that you wanted to find out just what things were made and what were not made, just what things God produced and what He did not produce? You will find a complete list there of all the things that God made; and His work was finished, so nothing was made after that. Did you ever notice that there is no sickness, no sin, no evil, and no death listed there?

When God made man, He just made plain, common-sense man; “male and female created he them,” “in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” He did not attach a long list of diseases to man; He put not even a suggestion of sickness, sin, or death, or any human ill upon him; He just made good, plain, honest, straightforward man. God did not consider any of those human ills essential to the welfare and comfort of the man whom He made. If He had, He most surely would have made them for him and given them to him. Neither did God make any medicine for man. He did not say, I have put medicinal properties and qualities into the plants, the minerals, and the insects. He neither made sickness, nor medicine to heal sickness. His creation had no use for either of them.

Would any of you think it the part of wisdom to make something you knew was not fit to exist, and then have to make something else to destroy it? Do you not deem God’s wisdom at least equal to that of mortal man? You see, Christian Science takes a reasonable, common-sense view of all things; there is nothing unreasonable or overdrawn or far-fetched about Christian Science.

Christian Science is the Comforter, because it answers all questions and solves all problems; it brings comfort, because when your questions are answered, it brings rest. You are not worrying and fretting with beliefs and speculations, wondering whether this be true or if that be true, or whether anything is true, or what is the truth anyway; you are comforted; you are at rest. Christian Scientists are noted for their happy faces and satisfied looks and actions, and this is remarked even by those who decry what they think is Christian Science. The secret is that they have found the Comforter; their questions are answered and they are at peace. From the fact that they have been able to demonstrate this in a small way, they see the grand possibilities before them of a final and complete triumph — the inheritance of all things. Christian Science is not a belief; it is not speculation; it is not founded upon hypotheses; it is based upon the eternal God, the divine Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love. It is the eternal fact of being, and woman has brought it to the world.

Woman’s Work and Woman’s Hour

Yes, woman gave Christian Science to the world, and this is a pretext that is being brought forward as a reason for not accepting Christian Science.

You remember the Master said on one occasion, "Whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” What Christ meant was, that they were determined to find fault anyway, and if it were not one thing, it would be another. They found fault with John because he did not eat, and they found fault with the Master because he did eat. Those who find fault with Christian Science because a woman brought it, would be just as ready to find fault with it if a man had brought it.

Christian Science has come to the world, and from the very nature of its being, must destroy the serpent of material sense; and woman must bring it, because the seed of the woman, you will remember, was to bruise the serpent’s head. Christian Science is here, and woman brought it. It is doing its work, and it will continue to do its work until that work is done. Woman will stand by it until the end, for nothing but the feminine quality of Mind has love enough to defy the seeming powers of mortal sense and brave the fury of the spirit of darkness, to risk all for the sake of Christ, Truth.

Yes, woman brought Christian Science to the world, and it is the power of God unto salvation to all them that understand. It is the grand Truth of being that has come to rid the world of error, and it was found of her by communing with the most high God. It is cause for rejoicing everyday that one was found who had the moral courage to open the seven seals of error with truth, who, when she found the truth, had the moral courage to stand up in the face of a sin-drunken world and proclaim that truth which will liberate the world from the misery of its own debauch, from the chains of its own forging, from the pains and death of its own false conception, from the grave of its own digging, and the hell of its own device.

Because this is woman’s hour, then who shall stop it? Who will dare to come forward and say it shall not be? Who will dare to say the time has not come when omnipotent Love shall stretch forth His right hand over the seething, surging sea of mortal sense, sickness, pain, and death, of sin and iniquity, of human woe and dread calamity, and shall say, It shall be no longer? God’s hand rests upon this hour; then let no mortal presume to say what shall or shall not be.

If this is woman’s work and this is woman’s hour, if infinite wisdom has entrusted her with this grandest charge of heaven — the bringing into and establishing in the world the divine Science of being that is destined to revolutionize the world and bring about that glorious day when all shall dwell together, one shepherd and one fold — then surely men who proverbially are of the stronger sex, instead of standing on their dignity, ought to feel that certain degree of humility which will make them willing subjects, helpers, and auxiliaries in the grand Cause which Mrs. Eddy has so nobly and faithfully established.

Love Works Gently and Kindly

Christian Science is in our midst, and is destined to revolutionize the world, physically, scientifically, morally, mentally, religiously, and spiritually. But for the comfort of those who are not yet ready to take it up and make it their study and their life, let me say that although Christian Science is destined to revolutionize the world, from every possible standpoint and to all extents, yet you need not be afraid; it will not do it all this year, nor yet this century. In fact, it may take centuries to accomplish this mighty task, so no one need be afraid his vocation will be injured.

When Love works a revolution, it is done so gently and so kindly and so lovingly that the world hardly knows it is being done. The ministers in each of the several denominations will fill their places and have their followers just as long as they wish to preach their doctrine, and the people of each denomination will find someone to preach to them just as long as they want to hear it. The medical practitioner will find plenty of practice just as long as he wants to practice his profession, and those who desire the medical help will find physicians to attend to their cases. The druggist will find plenty to sell drugs to as long as he wants to sell drugs, and those who wish drugs will always have a druggist to go to as long as they want drugs. Christian Scientists do not go out on a crusade to break open saloons, drag out whisky barrels and smash them open in the streets. Christian Science works no such change as that. When the untamed mortal thought works a revolution, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force;” but Christian Science is the Science of Christ, the Science of Love, and works no devastating changes in the world. It comes not to hurt or to harm; each and all can go on with his profession or vocation, so long as the world considers it legitimate, until he gives it up of his own volition.

The Healing Mission of Christian Science

Christian Scientists have no quarrel with the physicians. As a class, they are a noble, self-sacrificing band of workers, doing all that they know how to promote the general welfare of mankind, working and studying sedulously and unceasingly to discover new ways and means by which they may help their fellow men and allay the suffering in the world today. Someday, they will know better what Christian Science is — that its primal object and only mission is not merely the healing of the sick; that while it comes to bless mankind in every way, it must of necessity have healing in its message. Then will they bless the Science of Truth and of true being, that comes to do for them and for the world what they have been laboring so earnestly and faithfully to accomplish.

Christian Science comes not to hurt, but to heal. It will not hurt or harm any one, but will heal everyone, for everyone and everything seems to have some malady, some evil condition or habit that Christian Science can heal. It comes with no elements of destruction in its nature; it comes only with healing in its wings. There will be no harm done if Christian Science is left to itself, and so long as Christian Scientists adhere strictly to the teachings of absolute Christian Science, they can do no harm; they can only do good.

Christian Science heals insanity, but never causes it. Thousands go insane on account of a lack of Christian Science, but never because of Christian Science. Suppose you become converted to a belief in Christianity, and being very conscientious, you wish to live a purely Christian life; but finding you are unable to come up to the standard you have made for yourself, you are seized with the idea that you are numbered among those who are predestined to eternal damnation. Under this appalling belief, you are fast becoming mentally unbalanced, when Christian Science comes to your rescue. You are not only healed of your mental derangement, but the dark foreboding of even the possibility of such a thing as eternal damnation — much less a predestination thereto — is lifted from your mental horizon. You then become a devoted follower of Christ in understanding and demonstration.

Christian Scientists are sometimes accused of being fanatical; but this does not disturb them, when they remember that it was often said of the Master that he had a devil. It is a generally conceded fact that the insane think everyone else is insane; and the well-established crank always thinks it is the other fellow who is unbalanced.

Our Leader’s Great Work

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and the author of Science and Health, has accomplished a work unique in every respect. Christian Science has now not only spread all over the United States and Canada, but is rapidly spreading over Europe. It has also found its way into Africa; is well established in Australia, in the Sandwich Islands, and in New Zealand; has made an opening in the Philippine Islands, as well as in the mining countries of the far North, and is being introduced into China and Japan. It is also represented in Mexico, and has lately found its way into South America, so that there is hardly a country in the civilized world which has not Christian Science represented there in a greater or lesser degree. When Science and Health was first published, critics said it would never be read, but its circulation is constantly increasing, and it is fast being recognized as the masterpiece of the age. There is now published a very complete and perfected Concordance of Science and Health, and also a Concordance of all of Mrs. Eddy’s other writings.

As time goes on and Christian Science continues to advance its standing in the world, and it is seen what a wonderful delivery has come to mankind, the name of Mary Baker Eddy will stand out like a star of the greatest magnitude. She will be honored and renowned as the greatest philanthropist and the greatest deliverer the world has ever known, save him who, heralded by the heavenly hosts, brought “on earth peace, good will toward men.”




Christian Science and the World’s Great Need of It

Christian Science is the Science of being, and must include all there is of being. There never was, and never will be a question propounded that has not its answer in Christian Science. And the world’s great need is unlimited; therefore only a small part of Christian Science, and only a few of the world’s great needs of it, can be expressed here.

Looking out over Earth’s vast arena, where the farce of human life continues to be played, and finding in that play nothing but a farce, nothing but unreality, finding nothing that satisfies the longing for something substantial, something abiding, something secure, something true, does it not stand to reason, that there is a something wanting; a something that the world has need of; something that although the world of sense knows nothing of, yet human beings in some way or for some reason, find themselves in need of?

That spirit of investigation in man that can find a flaw in the solution of his being, naturally and necessarily demands a solution that will bear investigation — a solution that has no flaw; a solution that will bear the closest scrutiny, and yet no imperfection be found.

That spirit of investigation in man that can find a rent in a fabric, could not possibly be satisfied until it found a fabric in which there is no rent; he could not be contented until it found a fabric that is not subject or liable to rent, to wear or tear, to decomposition or destruction. Such a fabric is Christian Science — the Science of being — that comes today to fill the world’s great need. In it there is no error, no wrong, no evil that needs to find an exit. The more it is inspected and the closer it is scrutinized, the more its correctness appears and the less of imperfection of any kind, is found.

Who among us would like to think, or for a moment to contemplate the possibility, that in the great scientific fact of his own being and existence, there is or even could be a mistake; that in the great ultimate of his own being, there could be and is an error, a flaw, an incorrectness, a something wrong; that therefore the whole fabric of his being is wrong?

Who, I ask, would like to contemplate such a condition of things, and look out upon the appalling situation, where the eternal God Himself had made a mistake, and therefore He Himself was a failure? Who would enjoy looking upon the tablet of his own being, and finding in it such a condition of things? Do you not admit it would be anything but enjoyable, anything but agreeable? But, in the light of being, of common sense, reason, and revelation, we are glad to say that such a thing could never be, for the simple reason that there could not be failure unless there first were a standard. There could not be the failing, the mutable, the false, unless there were first the unfailing, the immutable, and true. Out of the true the false could never come; out of the unfailing the failing could never proceed; out of the absolute standard of being could never evolve or produce that which is absolutely without a standard, without foundation, without a basis in fact.

Therefore, by virtue of the fact that the unfailing and true must be, the failing and false cannot be; by virtue of the fact that beingness is, the beingless could never be. Two things diametrically opposed to each other cannot both be true; and nothing that is true of one can be true of the other; hence, whatever is, its opposite is not. Such is Christian Science — the Science of being — that comes today to fill the world’s great need — having nothing of its own to uphold, nothing to vindicate, nothing to gain and nothing to lose, simply standing on its own merits, on its own self-evident truth. It only comes, as it has always come, to disclose to those who are ready to receive it the simple facts of being, and how, through the knowledge of those facts, to demonstrate over the evils of mortal sense — sickness, sin, and death; and to reach through the knowledge of the life that is God, that living which is eternal; that deathless and forever living, which all must reach before perfection is attained. Since perfection is, perfection is attainable, and must therefore be gained, to satisfy the longings and fill the heart’s great need. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Looking out upon the throngs that people the earth, what do we see? Do we find harmony, happiness, brotherly love, peace on earth and goodwill one toward another? Is this the state and condition of things prevailing everywhere, or anywhere? Or do we not find just the opposite of such a condition? Do we not find prevailing in a large degree, inharmony, unhappiness, a great dearth of brotherly love, and a great want of peace on earth and goodwill one toward another? Mind you, we are not finding fault with people by way of comparison. It is only the condition of things as they exist in the world today. We ask, Is this the effect of brotherly love, is this goodwill one toward another? Is this the application of the Golden Rule, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”?

And in view of this helpless and almost hopeless condition, for indeed men are helpless in it, they would be rid of it if they could, if they knew how, or if they dared to. But once in it, they know not how to get out, and dare not make the effort; hence, if left to themselves, they are not only in a helpless, but a hopeless condition.

The Need of a New Dispensation

In view of all this, is there not a need for the advent of a new dispensation, a new era, a something that will work a change, and save men from their own thraldom; the advent of that which will bring and demonstrate to men and to the world that what is for the good of one, is for the good of all? Is there not a growing need for the advent of that in the world which will help men, and show them how to demonstrate the Golden Rule, which all agree to be right, but few know how to practise?

Then I ask you to read the textbook, Science and Health, and see if such a saviour is not already come to the world, and is demonstrating these things, and ye knew it not.

Mortal sense, it is true, has its degrees of evil, and its degrees of what it calls good. It has its degrees of wrong, and its degrees of what it calls right. But even its highest degrees of good are still not good, because it has evil in the premise, and its very highest degrees of right are still wrong, because mortality is wrong to begin with.

Hence we see the necessity of something outside of ourselves to save us from ourselves, to save us from the evils and wrongs, which we find ourselves in seeming possession of — nay, which we find ourselves the seeming embodiment of! And it only stands to reason that whatever that saving power may be, it could have no error in it. Whatever that power may be which will save men from their own thraldom, must be the embodiment of purity and perfection, of absolute correctness and right.

Such a saving power is the religion of Jesus Christ the righteous, that comes today in the name of Christian Science — the Science of being, admitting of no evil, no wrong, admitting only a perfect God, and a perfect creation, perfect God and perfect man — to fill a long-felt need. In it there can be no wrong, else being itself would be a failure, and the great I AM a myth.

Christian Science finds God to be divine Spirit, and man and the universe in their true spiritual being — though invisible to finite sense, yet visible to spiritual understanding — is found as perfect now, as when "The morning stars sang together,” and God, from His eternal throne of wisdom and intelligence, looked on all that He had made, and pronounced it “very good.”

Mortal sense having no standard anywhere, every attempt to save itself is a failure, for the very good reason that it has failure in the premise; everything that begins with mortality, begins with failure, because mortality is a failure. The peacemaker cries, “Peace, peace; let us have peace!” But they know not how to bring it about, because in the world there is no peace.

The orator on the stand is telling his hearers what ought to be done to save our Nation’s honor; but he cannot tell them how to do it, because he has nothing but a mortal, a material, a changeable basis.

The minister in the pulpit is telling his flock they ought to, and must, do better in order to escape eternal punishment and gain more happiness here and heaven by-and-by! But just how much better they must do, or just how to do better, he cannot tell, because he is judging all things from a human, a mortal, a material standpoint. Even happiness, the hope of heaven and the escape from punishment, he bases upon the effects of mortality, which mortality itself is a failure, and has failure written all over it.

The doctor at the bedside is telling his patient she must be more cheerful, but he cannot tell her how to be more cheerful, because he is looking at cheerfulness in the person, instead of in the Principle. The kind friend soothing that sorrowing one, tells her she must look on the bright side, but just how to look on the bright side, he does not know. Neither does she, because they are both believing in a bright side and a dark side, and each side at the sport of circumstances — each side at the mercy of chance and change. They do not know there is but one side, and that is the bright side, as an eternal and unchanging fact of divine Principle. Finite sense has a dark side as well as a bright side, but even its bright side is still the dark side, because not enlightened by the sunshine of Truth. Christian Science has but one side, and that is the Christ side, the side of eternal and unchanging Truth, where darkness never enters, where sunshine always brightens, where clouds never gather, and storms never come.

The Civilized World Needs Christian Science

The reformer proclaims with great eloquence, "We must civilize, or we must perish!” But just how to civilize, or just what true civilization is, he cannot tell, because he bases reformation and civilization upon people and things where there is no standard, rather than upon eternal law and unchanging Principle that is standard itself, that is always civilized, and never needs to reform. Christian Science brings true civilization to the world, because it is based upon eternal and unchanging Principle, whose laws are always pure and perfect; whose laws never change, never vary, never can and never need to reform; whose laws are right toward all and wrong toward none; whose laws, like their divine Principle, are of the very highest type and hence the very highest and best, and only true civilization. Therefore the so-called civilized world needs Christian Science in order to become truly civilized, for the world will never be, or become truly civilized, until it is governed entirely and absolutely by divine Science — the unchanging laws of God.

The civilized world needs Christian Science, on account of its education and consequent living in, and bondage to, sickness, disease, and sin. It is a lamentable and almost universally conceded fact that civilization has more sickness and more diseases, than the barbarous and uncivilized nations and peoples of the earth today; and it is also a lamentable and almost universally conceded fact, that this condition of things is growing worse instead of better. Viewed from the world’s standpoint, civilization is growing “weaker and wiser;” wiser, not in true wisdom, but in the wisdom of the world, for true wisdom cannot lead into weakness, but into strength; it could not lead into sickness, but into health. True wisdom could not possibly lead into disease, but into soundness, purity, and correctness.

But while we see that civilization, is, as it were, the harbinger of sickness, disease, and evil, yet Christian Science does not teach barbarism and uncivilization as a cure for such a state of affairs. Rather it teaches a higher grade of civilization than the world today knows anything of, a civilization where not only sickness, disease, and sin are ruled out, but roughness and uncouthness, degradation and ignorance are not found. Christian Science does not teach that to be well, healthful, and sound, means to be low, uncivilized, and animal; it does not teach that being hearty, vigorous, and strong, means to be voracious, uncouth, and unrefined; neither does it teach that refinement means delicacy, weakness, nervousness, sickliness, and invalidism.

Christian Science does not teach that because the civilization of the world is really not true, we might therefore as well lapse into uncivilization, ignorance, and barbarism. It demands a higher civilization; a more perfect education and refinement; a better code of morals and mortality; and a purer idea of right and righteousness, than the civilized world in its highest sense has ever conceived of.

It teaches that “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Christian Science demands a higher grade of civilization, not a lower; it demands and demonstrates a higher grade of health and wholeness than physical health could ever be; it demands a more perfect degree of right and righteousness than the most honest and upright of the world has ever conceived of.

And Christian Science comes to the world today to help it out of the tangle of civilization, moral culture, and refinement, as well as consequent sickness, disease, nervousness, weakness, invalidism, and inability, into which it has plunged itself and cannot extricate itself, to a higher and more perfect standard of being, a clearer sense of right and righteousness, a better and more reliable health and healthfulness — into a brighter light, a purer air, and a closer walk with God. And this, surely, is what the world needs. And because of this need, the supply has come, for with every real need there is a supply, and the supply is always equal to the demand. As soon as the real need is felt, the supply is forthcoming.

The Golden Rule

Christian Science comes to the world today, not to teach men the Golden Rule, but to teach men how to demonstrate, how to practise the Golden Rule. Mortal man, in and of himself, cannot live the Golden Rule; he is too selfish. Indeed, he is the embodiment of selfishness; everything radiates from himself and everything centers in himself; he is selfishness from the ground up — from the inner core of his heart of hearts to the farthest stretch of his mortal desire, it is “I, I, MYSELF, I.” Hence, however much he finds the Golden Rule to be good, and true, and right, and however much he would like to live it, yet, try as he will, he finds he cannot do it. Hence the necessity of something outside of himself to teach him how to live that Rule which all agree to be the Rule, but which no one has ever been able to practise.

Christian Science comes to the world today to fill this great need, to fill this long-felt want. Christian Science comes to the world to settle the question of peace among peoples and nations. Peacemakers in all lands are advocating the peace question; but just how to bring it about, no one can quite find out. No one ever will so long as finite sense (mortal man and matter) is taken as the basis of being, because nation cannot trust nation, man cannot trust his fellowman, and finally, mortal man cannot trust himself. Consequently, there is a long-felt and growing need of something outside of ourselves to bring about and establish peace among people and between nations, and nothing will do it but the one universal law of Love, which the Science of being brings to the world today to fill this special void. Nothing but the recognition and acknowledgment of the one God, the one divine Principle governing all; the recognition and acknowledgment of but one Mind — the Mind of God, the Mind that was in Christ Jesus — can ever establish “peace on earth,” and the brotherhood of man.

And, not far removed from this great need, is another one that has been recognized from time immemorial, and that is the thing that everybody wishes everybody else would do, but never does himself— everybody wishes “Folks would mind their own business!” But it seems that no one has ever quite been able to accomplish that requirement himself; indeed, it is about as impossible for mortal man, in and of himself, to mind his own business, as for water, of itself, to rise higher than its source. Mortals are so constituted that, however much they might try to attend to their own affairs, they would find that unexplainable something in themselves that would keep them meddling with other people’s affairs. However, Christian Science comes to help mortals to overcome this weakness, since Christian Science is the only thing that reveals to mankind that the faults they find in others, they find in themselves as well; hence they find everything to do at home, and nothing to do abroad. Christian Science helps people to mind their own business, and reminds them very forcibly of their faults, when they get to minding other people’s business.

It Heals Its Healers

The world needs Christian Science today, not only to heal its sick, but to heal its healers. The physician is as much in need of the healing power of Truth and Life as the sick can possibly be.

The civilized and so-called Christian world of today has gone mad on the physiological, pathological, surgical, and medical education, of which they all need very much to be healed. Every theory or course of reasoning that begins with matter, (a material body or a material thing) begins wrong; non-intelligent matter cannot be made the basis of any intelligent course of reasoning; non-intelligence cannot be made the basis of intelligence; matter cannot be made the basis of Mind; consequently, no solution or conclusion arrived at from the basis of body or matter can be correct. And for this reason, the sick are helplessly sick, and the physician helpless to heal. It is a case of the blind leading the blind, and both falling into the ditch.

And Christian Science comes today to rescue the world from that dreadful ditch of physiology, pathology, surgery and materia medica, sickness and medical healing, into which it has fallen, wherein it is wallowing, and from which it cannot extricate itself.

If you enter our extensive hospitals where the sick are cared for in a wholesale way, where mortal sense is doing its level best to help the sick and suffering, and peep behind the lattice at the blindness, groping, guessing, and experimenting, that of necessity is being practised there: bodies are mutilated, operations performed, medicines administered, applications and appliances used, and no one can tell what the prognosis is, or what the results will be. There are hundreds and thousands of cases every year, not only in our hospitals, but in private practice, where one man’s judgment settles the question of favorable or fatal. If the latter, then narcotics are administered, until he die; and this out of what is called kindness, because neither the physician, nor anyone else, knows any better thing to do, and they cannot bear to see the afflicted suffer.

And, in view of such a helpless and hopeless condition — for indeed it is a hopeless state — looking into matter, mortals become buried in it, until they know nothing else, and can hardly be shown a ray of light to lead them out of the gloom. Is it not, therefore, high time for Christian Science to come to the world to lift us from our own destruction, to put us on a better basis, and take our feet from the mire and clay of our own making and our own failings, and then put us on a sure foundation, even the divine Principle of Life, Truth, and Love?

So long as mortals continue to look to the body for health, they will continue to be deceived, for health cannot be found in matter; neither can matter be made the basis of health; since matter has no intelligence to say I am sick or I am well. Matter cannot tell of sickness or of health, of harmony or of discord, of pain or of pleasure. The inertia, and consequent non-intelligence of matter, has been taught, even in physics, through many years; and yet the whole world is looking into matter for health, happiness, and life. The whole world is thereby being deceived, and led deeper and deeper into the vortex of the very maelstrom they are trying to extricate themselves from, and will not be able to because they stand on sinking sand.

Under the medical regime of four thousand years, not only sickness and mortality have increased, but diseases themselves have multiplied; and it is a question today which was first — the physician, the medicine, or the disease. When a physician comes into a country town where no doctor has been, and the people were in the habit of being well, then the inhabitants begin to get sick; a doctor has come to town, and the thing to do is to be sick enough to call in the physician.

When a doctor gets a new medicine or instrument, or a new kind of treatment, like a boy with a new knife, he immediately begins to look about for a chance to try it; and if none presents itself, he has to improvise one. He has something new to treat the sick with, and someone ought to be kind enough to furnish him a case. To this end, let me quote from Dr. James Johnson, Surgeon-extraordinary to the King. He says, “I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long observation and reflection, that if there were not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist, druggist, or drug on the face of the earth, there would be less sickness and less mortality.”

But how to get out of it is the question, and we at once see that there is no possible and final way but for that to come to the world which will eliminate both the cause and the effect, both the sickness and the treatment, both the remedy and the disease. Nothing can possibly accomplish this thing but that which will lift us from ourselves, and Christian Science comes to the world today to fill this very need.

Christian Science the Remedy

Christian Science — the Science of being — comes to the world today to prove and demonstrate beyond all doubt, beyond all controversy, that sickness and disease are an illusion, and do not belong to the great fact of being. Therefore no medicine is needed, but the knowledge of the Truth that shows the nothingness of disease. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

The best remedy for any disease is not to have the disease; and Divine Science proves that disease does not belong to being, that error or discord of any kind does not belong to the Science of being, any more than the errors and incorrectness of mathematics belong to the science of numbers, that out in the great scientific fact of being, harmony and happiness is an established fact, and nothing can possibly come to mar the serenity there. This we do not need to die to attain to; neither will dying help us to attain to it, but in the light of Science, as it comes to the world today, these glorious facts may be demonstrated here and now. And this is the world’s great need — not deliverance by-and-by, which by-and-by never comes; not deliverance after death; but deliverance now, from sickness, sin, and death.

Those who are sick need Christian Science because they are believing in the reality of sickness, and hence they are helplessly at the mercy of sickness and disease, from which they know not how to free themselves from the terrible incubus that is weighing them down to despair. Although they do, by this or by that, find temporary relief; yet they are still believing in sickness, and therefore are holding themselves in bondage to their own beliefs — victims of their own false conception, captives of their own capturing. So that not only those who are physically sick and suffering (whom the world of finite sense calls sick) are the sick who need Christian Science; but all those who are believing in the reality of sickness need Christian Science, because this Science comes to teach and to demonstrate the unreality of sickness and disease, and to free the world and all mankind from their own most hopeless and most terrible disaster.

The world will never be freed from sickness and disease so long as the world continues to believe in sickness and disease; and so long as the world continues to believe in sickness and disease as a part of the great fact of being, just so long will it be at the mercy of sickness and disease, and a victim of its own beliefs; and that the world is believing in sickness and disease, goes without saying; and that therefore the world is helplessly and hopelessly sick, is also a foregone conclusion; and that it is in need of a saviour, a redeemer, a deliverer, is evident on the face of it. The Science of being is come to the world to fill this very need by teaching the world the unreality of sickness and disease, that sickness and disease do not belong to the Science of being. That nothing but the Science of being can teach conclusively what does and does not belong to being, is very evident; and that it can and must teach it conclusively, is also evident.

Therefore, whatever Christian Science, the Science of being, does teach, is conclusive and final; hence, whoever contradicts or presumes to dispute Christian Science, must find at length that he is fighting against eternal Truth — Almighty God — and will find with Paul, it is hard for him “to kick against the pricks.”

And now that Science has come to the world, and must, and does, teach what does, and does not, belong to being, all who investigate it far enough to understand it, see that it does teach the unreality of sickness and disease. They see at the same time why it teaches what it does; they find it is demonstrable, and therefore what is needed in their own particular case. Since the whole world and all mankind are in the same stranded condition, therefore Christian Science has come to fill the world’s great need.

The Temperance Question

The world needs Christian Science to settle its temperance question. The advocates of temperance cry “Total abstinence,” as a cure for intemperance. But the poor inebriate cannot abstain; he has lost control of himself; his appetite has gotten the better of him; so that, while he knows that to “Taste not, touch not, handle not, the unclean thing,” is his salvation, and his only salvation, yet he cannot avail himself of it.

Fancy, if you please, a poor fellow sinking in deep water, where, ignorantly or injudiciously, he has ventured, and a friend on the shore calls to him, and says, “Come here, and you’ll be safe!” But he cannot get there; he does not need to be told that if he would come to the shore he would not drown; but he is now in deep water, and cannot get to land.

Likewise, the poor victim of strong drink does not need to be told that if he will become temperate he will not be intemperate, that if he will not drink any more he will not get drunk; but he is already sinking in the deep waters of intoxication and intemperance, and cannot become temperate, cannot become an abstainer. He cannot get to that point where he can stop drinking; he has not the power over it; it has the power over him! Of what use to taunt and mock him with total abstinence as a cure for intemperance? He needs to be healed of his appetite for strong drink; he needs to be rescued from the deep waters of intemperance and intoxication. He, to himself, is a helpless and hopeless victim to the very false but universal belief that matter has power over mind; that non-intelligent matter has power to excite, exhilarate, and intoxicate mind; that non-intelligence can make a fool of intelligence.

And from this terrible deception, that matter can intoxicate mind, who, more than his would-be deliverer, needs himself to be delivered?

Who, more than the temperance advocate himself, needs to be healed of intemperance? For who, more than he, is believing in the power of matter over mind? is believing that matter can intoxicate mind? And since the whole world is under this terrible deception, the whole world is in the seething maelstrom of intemperance, a helpless victim of its own beliefs, from which it cannot save itself without the intervention of a power outside of itself, to save it from itself. And the temperance question will never be settled, and intemperance driven from our land and from the world, until that power is seen, acknowledged, universally adopted, and demonstrated. Such a power is the knowledge of the truth that Mind has power over matter; that Mind controls matter; that Mind has power to correct matter.

Christian Science not only teaches that all is Mind, but that there is but one Mind, and that the Mind of God was the Mind that was in or controlled Christ Jesus. In that Mind, there is no evil and no evil doer; no inebriety, and no inebriate; no intoxication and nothing that can intoxicate. That Mind is the author of all that was made, and all it made was good.

Just so long as the world continues to believe in the power of matter over Mind, that matter has power to dethrone Mind, or that matter is equally potent with Mind, intoxication will prevail in the world, and men will continue to be intoxicated. And that the world is believing in the power of matter over Mind, is evident on the face of it. That it is in a helpless and hopeless state of inebriety, needs nothing to vindicate it. And that it needs Christian Science to extricate it from its thraldom, is also plain; and that Christian Science has come, and is filling that very need, is what the world is slowly, but surely, waking up to comprehend and acknowledge.

And we are glad today, and do rejoice, that there is a power that can save the world from this terrible scourge. And we are also glad that that power is the power of Christ — the spirit of Truth, the power of God, the only good, and that there is no other power.

The Financial Question

The world needs Christian Science to settle its financial question. Men of all classes of caliber, from the lowest to the highest and greatest statesmanship, have made it their life study, and it is no nearer a solution now than it was a thousand years ago. It never can be solved, so long as gold, or any other material commodity, is made the basis of value. Gold, or silver, or precious stones, or houses, or lands, or property of any kind, in whatever country, cannot be made the basis of value; indeed, there is no real intrinsic value there.

Robinson Crusoe — whether the story itself be fact or fable matters not, the principle remains the same, and one instance cited there, serves our purpose here — when he found himself alone on the island, among other things, had saved from the wreck a number of English sovereigns, all of which, after a few months, he would have given for a pair of English hose. Another, the old threadbare story of the man who found a nugget of gold so heavy that he could hardly lift it, who tugged it along until, tired out and almost starved to death, he finally traded it to some travelers for a plate of beans. Under one train of circumstances, we are loathe to give a dollar for a sack of flour, and under another train of circumstances, we are eager and anxious to give five. Where is the value that men would place in gold which a train of circumstances or conditions will change without limit, or destroy altogether?

And where shall value be found, but in the “kingdom of heaven” — the pearl of great price. When men learn through Christian Science, “In God we trust,” learn it really, and truly, and scientifically, as taught in the Science of being, then, every dollar and everything will be transformed. Then gold, or silver, or any other thing, will be found having no value of its own, but will still be found of value, and invaluable, whose value cannot change or be lost, because it is based upon divine Principle, the basis of all things, “That is yesterday, today, and forever the same.”

The World Needs Christian Science to Settle Its Religious Controversies

Looking down through the vista to six thousand years, since the alleged beginning of time, the eyes grow dim and the cheek grows pale at the rivers of blood that man has drained from his fellowman on account of some religious differences that neither one knew anything about, but each thought he had sufficient proof to sustain him in his belief.

And from this finite and limited conception, or rather misconception, and consequent misjudgment, religious controversies, quarrels, feuds, and wars have arisen that have separated kindreds and friends, alienated peoples and nations; man going forth with fire and fury, his merciless sword reeking with the blood of his fellowman, and all in the name of a changing belief that was built upon the sands.

The peoples of the world have, from time immemorial, been founding their religion upon the shifting sands of belief, and the evidence of the senses. And to this end the world has been preached to death. Yes, preached to death! Yes, “talk is cheap.” If we all had to pay a good square price for every word we uttered, there would be less talk and more practice.

The pulpits today are storming the citadel of man’s greatest capacities, trying to get him to believe something that they themselves only half believe and do not at all understand. Each separate church, and almost each separate preacher, has his own peculiar belief or doctrine that he is trying to impose upon his fellowman, until no one knows what to believe, or whether to believe anything. And if he does finally contrive to believe something, he is still in doubt as to the truth of it, since the belief implies a doubt. No matter what the belief may be, whether it be good or bad, true or false, so long as it remains a belief, it has not reached the understanding, and consequently remains to be proven, and is, therefore, an open question. And because of so many doubts and so little proof, and so much hawking of beliefs, the religious world is in a dreadfully scattered, torn up, and unsettled state, and needs something to rescue it from its own unsettled, dissatisfied, and doubtful condition, and where no controversies are ever settled.

The honest inquirer is met everywhere with beliefs, opinions, dogma, until discouraged and disgusted, he concludes, and rightly, that one belief is about as good as another, and that to have no belief is about as good as any. But Christian Science comes to settle controversy. It does not come adding another belief to the already countless numbers, for it has no beliefs to offer to anyone; it has nothing but facts to present to the world. Every fact is proof positive and conclusive; every fact is irrefutable and undeniable; every fact is practical and demonstrable.

Christian Science comes, based upon the eternal Principle of intelligence itself, the eternal God, and answers every question, solves all problems, settles all controversies. But it is neither Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, or Baptist. It is neither this nor that way — neither my way nor thy way. It is His own way. “God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.”

The world needs Christian Science to settle the question of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is as much an unsettled question of today as it was fifty or a hundred years ago. The Christian churches, like so many quarrelsome children, are bickering over this point and that point and the other point, but arrive at no settled conclusion. And the reason why the points that were once up for discussion are not now being discussed is not because they have been settled, but because they have not been settled, and could not be, and have therefore ceased in a measure to be agitated.

But Christian Science settles the question of the Eucharist, settles it in every way and from every standpoint, settles it perfectly, finally and forever. And if you would like to know just what that settlement is, I advise you to read Science and Health. Read it from cover to cover, and then read it again, and continue to read it until you find the bread of Life and the water turned to wine.

The Christian world needs Christian Science to settle the problem of baptism. Many a battle has been waged over this bone of contention, and it is no nearer a solution today than it ever was. It will never be solved until it is settled by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, that leads the way to all Truth; that comes today in the name of Christian Science, the Science of being. Christian Science settles the question and settles it once and for all. It is found to be neither immersion, sprinkling, nor pouring; neither kneeling, standing, nor sitting; neither this way nor that way, but Christ’s way, who baptized “with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Christian Science teaches that baptism is spiritual and is not material, that the true baptism is to be baptized into the spirit of Truth that cleanses of all sickness and sin, mortality and matter, and finally, of death itself. The true baptism is the washing away and purifying of all that is adverse to Spirit, of all that is opposed to God, the only good.

Spiritualism

The Christian World needs Christian Science to lead it out of spiritualism. Everybody outside the Christian Science ranks believes in spirits many; believes in a spirit inside this material body which, in some mysterious way, at the point if death, escapes from this body and becomes a disembodied spirit. Many believe, and profess with great firmness, that these departed spirits “return, to revisit mortal eyes.” Many think this may be possible, but the Christian Scientists have positive proof that it is not so.

Christian Science comes, settling the question of spiritualism for good and forever. Go where you will be among Christian Scientists, those who are honest and loyal students of Science and Health, who understand its teachings, and you will not find one who believes in spiritualism, who believes in departed spirits or in a spirit’s return. They not only do not believe in these things, but they know that these things are not true, and they know why they know. Christian Science teaches that God is Spirit, and since there is but one God, therefore there is but one Spirit; hence, there is no such thing as departed spirits, or spirits many, for God is One, and ever-present. Man, being the image and likeness of God, and yet not God, is therefore not Spirit, nor matter, but spiritual — the image and likeness of Spirit.

Christian Scientists are students of the Science of being, which does not speculate or hypothecate, but answers all questions scientifically, understandingly, and demonstrably. Yet Christian Scientists are not bigoted in their knowledge of Truth or true being. It is not their Truth; it is the universal Truth, the eternal Truth, the eternal fact. They have no jurisdiction over it; they have nothing to say in the matter; they merely voice what Science reveals to them.

If Christian Science seems to take away from the world some of its pet theories and beliefs,and if those theories and beliefs are not really true, then surely the world needs the revelation of Truth and true being to lead it out of its own darkness “into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

The Religious World

The religious world needs Christian science to lead it out of pantheism! The majority of people outside of the Christian Science ranks, believe that in some unknown and unaccountable way, God puts His own life in this mortal body, which in some equally unknown and unaccountable way, at the point of dissolution, is withdrawn and returned to God who gave it. This, therefore, is a belief of God in mortal man; and furthermore, a belief of God in a material universe. And finally and virtually, that the whole material universe is God, (for what were the universe without life?) and this is pantheism, pure and simple. It is just the opposite of the Science of being; and is the source of all evil in the world, the parent of all discord, and the embodiment of all that is false, unreal, and untrue.

This belief or false doctrine, is what Jesus of Nazareth denounced when he said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it.” And Christian Science comes to the world in its hour of greatest need, to liberate it from the quagmire of pantheism and the dire effects of it; to take its feet from the mire and clay of its own deception of life in matter, and plant them on the rock of eternal Life, Truth, and Love, where all being is found to be spiritual, pure, and perfect, and where matter is unknown.

The world needs Christian Science to lead it out of mesmerism, hypnotism, and animal magnetism. The world of sense is believing in many minds; is believing that each individual person has a mind of his own, which is being influence by, and is influencing every other mind; hence the world of sense is a seething sea of mesmerism, hypnotism, and animal magnetism. Each one is mesmerizing another, until no one knows himself, where he stands, what he believes, and whither he is going.

But Christian Science comes, teaching one Mind — the Mind of God — the Mind that was in Christ Jesus. And the individual mind is but the carnal mind, the false mind, the mortal mind, the belief of mind in matter, wherein dwelleth sickness, sin, and death, which must be overcome by the understanding that God is Mind, and therefore the only Mind, in whom is no sickness, no sorrow, pain, or death, “nothing that defileth or maketh a lie.”

What Is Man?

The world needs Christian Science to answer the question, What is man? Pope said (and truly), “The proper study of mankind, is man.” The question, What is man, his mission here, his future, and his ultimate? has ever been an open question; has ever been a theme for speculation, and ever will be so long as judgment is taken from the evidence of the material senses. Jesus said, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

So long as mankind continues to study man from the standpoint of appearances, just so long will he continue to be deceived in man; and the question, What is man? will be unsettled and unsolved. Mankind will never know man, his origin, and his ultimate; his past, present or future; his whence, his where of, his whither; his how, his what, or his why, until he knows man according to Divine Science, the Science of being. When mankind begins to study man scientifically, from the standpoint of perfect Principle, unchanging Truth, unselfish Love, and undying Life, then, and not until then, will he begin to know man, his relation to his Maker, the position he must occupy, and the station he must fulfill.

And it is self-evidently true, that whenever the question of man is settled satisfactorily, it must be done scientifically, and it is also evident that the science that does it, must be the Science of being. And now that the Science of being is come to the world, the question of man and the universe is being settled, the problem is being solved, the mysteries of being are clearing away, and the sunshine of Truth and true being is coming now to light. And man is found, not what the senses declare him to be, but spiritual, pure, and perfect, the image of his Maker.

The religious world needs Christian Science to settle the question of a literal place of punishment, called hell. This question is still an open question, and will forever remain unanswered until it is answered by divine Science, the Science of being. Now that Christian Science is come to the world, that question is answered. Christian Scientists no more believe in a literal place of punishment than they believe in the mythology of ancient Rome.

The religious world needs Christian Science to settle the question of a literal place of rest and reward called heaven, where the so-called righteous dwell when they go from hence away. This question is fully answered and finally settled in Christian Science, which shows what and where heaven is, that it is not a locality or place, but a state and condition; and that this state and condition is all that really is. On that point Christian Scientists are at rest; for they know and are sure that when they have attained to it, it will be theirs; and that it will not be theirs until they have attained it any more than an education is theirs until they have gained the knowledge, or that a goal is theirs, until they have reached it.

The religious world needs Christian Science to reveal and make known to it the risen Christ — the divine, ever-living Son of God, of which Jesus of Nazareth was the only true representative; who, before he went from earth, in speaking to his disciples, said, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also,” showing his ever-living and ever-presence to those of his students, who had learned to know him in spirit and in truth. And to John the Revelator, he said, “Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen.”

And Christian Scientists find the living Christ: sitting today at the right hand of the Father! Find him “the one altogether lovely;” risen to the majesty of life eternal; having “the keys of death and of hell,” and all power given to him, both in heaven and in earth. And the world will find in Christian Science, not a dead Christ, but an ever-living, pulsating Christ, “The lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” The same today as when he walked on the shores of Galilee, and through the power of God the Father, cast out sins, and healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of diseases among the people.

The religious world needs Christian Science to answer the problem, What and where is God? and, Is there a God? Few, if any, believe in no God at all. Most believe in some kind of a God. Some, eager to be thought substantiated in their belief, emphatically declare they know there is a God! But when questioned closely as to how they know, they have no positive proof to offer; and, in fact, there is no positive proof (judging from a finite standpoint, and that is the direction in which all are looking, outside the Christian Science ranks), I say, judging from a finite standpoint, there is no positive proof to the question, what and where is God? or if there is a God. And it will forever remain a question of doubt and dogma, and can never be answered, until it is answered according to Divine Science.

The undiscovered country, from whose shore no traveler returns, is dark and silent on this question, and answers even the most earnest and ardent inquirer, not a word.

And the question, What and where is God, and if there is a God, is left to human conjecture, speculation, and dogma, and is merely something to be believed in, like the old superstitious notion of the giant under Mount Vesuvius, “rather than Divine Principle, to be understood and demonstrated.”

And God, being a mere belief, is almost as worthless to the world as though there were no God; for a mere belief of a God, with no certain knowledge about Him, can never be that “refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” of which the Psalmist sang. And this is the reason professed Christians go to a physician in time of sickness and suffering, instead of to their God.

But Christian Science comes to the world with positive and undeniable proof of every statement, and demonstration for every step, and finds God what the Master declared Him to be — the one, the only, good. Not merely a good person, as finite sense would have Him be, but universal good, the substance of which is good, in whom no evil is.

When will the world wake up to know that only God is good, and God is only good? When will the world be glad to know a God so good that He Himself knows only good, and yet knows all there is to know, but knows no ill at all?

When will the world be glad to know a God of Love, whose loving Love fill immensity, and leaves no room for aught but Love, whose love is All-in-all?

When will the world be glad to know a God of Life, who knows no death; a God of Life, who knows the Life that lives throughout eternity; a God of Life, in whom we live forever and forever?

When will the world be glad to know His kingdom has come, His will is done on earth, as it is in heaven?




A Christmas Lecture

About three thousand years ago, (as finite sense counts time), in the little town of Bethlehem, (House of bread), was born David, (well-beloved), the youngest son of Jesse, who, in subsequent years, upon those grassy plains and verdant slopes, watched his father’s flocks. And as he kept his lonely vigil, doing his duty well, learning thereby contentment, constancy, faithfulness and carefulness, his heart went out to higher things, yet still of earthly type, for he learned to read the skies and enumerate the stars. And catching tones of harmony from the music of the spheres, he tuned his harp, that in after years rang out in song and psalm to chord with notes celestial.

And in the direct lineage of this child, this Sweet Singer of Israel, as was foretold by the Prophet, although a thousand years before, was born of lowly birth, and yet of heavenly parentage, Jesus the Christ, the Anointed, the pure and perfect one. His coming was told to those who watched their flocks upon those self-same plains and on those mountain slopes, and whose eyes were opened to behold the heavenly visitant that came to them in a light from heaven, shining around. And as they saw the light, they were filled with consternation and alarm.

When the light of heavenly good first dawns upon our vision here, we are filled with alarm, lest not being true, it bodes no good to us.

When, after that night of storm and adverse winds on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples saw the Master walking on the waves and drawing near to them, they trembled and were afraid, for they thought it was a spectre come to tell them of their doom. But as they looked, filled with fear and trembling, he did not upbraid them, but calmly and with loving tone said, “It is I, be not afraid.” And when they had admitted him into the boat with them, “immediately they were at the land.”

So, the shepherds on that night, when the light of heaven shone round about them, although they trembled and were sore afraid, yet waiting, it said to them, “Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The angel of Truth brings nothing but good tidings. It could not be a message from the spirit of Truth, and bring anything else. And whatever brings anything else, cannot be of Truth. A message from Spirit brings healing on its wings, and as it flaps its broad pinions, the breath of love is stirred, eternal light comes flooding in, and glory shines around. And the dark pall of sickness, sorrow, pain and death, is lifted, is vanquished, and driven quite away. It brings no tidings of evil, no dark forebodings of sorrow, no midnight ghosts of fear.

It bears on its pinions of light,
A message of peace from above:
And heralds the Christ-born infant,
Begotten of Truth and Love.

All nations in peace are included,
To all people the message is given:
Not a soul is cast out or forgotten,
For nothing is wanting in heaven.

To the heart of the savage, it whispers:
Let your faces of war-paint be clean,
Let the war-echo die in the forest,
And the smoke of the calumet seen.

Let brotherly love between nations,
Remain in your breasts evermore;
Thus, the Christ-light, born in the natives,
Breaks on the bright golden shore.

The shepherds who watched their flocks upon those Bethlehem plains, to them, the Christ was born when the light of heaven came. But finite sense must have a sign, a something as a positive proof that the heavenly message is true. And, as though willing to make concession, the finite proof appears, for, “If ye seek, ye shall find.” And ye shall find that for which ye seek.

And it said, “This shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And they said to one another, “Let us go even unto Bethlehem,” for thus it had been foretold by the prophets: “Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel.” And as they went, the star went before them and they found the babe with Mary, his mother.

And the child that was born grew up and became “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” For so much did the spiritual contradict the mortal, that all he saw in finite sense was fickle, false, and foolish.

And although he went about doing many wonderful works, and doing nothing but good, yet so much did his teachings and his works contradict the material sense of things, that the world he sought to bless, returned cursings on his head. And so much is the carnal mind the enemy of good, that it would not let him live, but went about to slay him. Yet so much was the mortal man overcome in him, and the true man apparent to him, that he knew they could not harm him. Do with him as they would, he would show himself alive, and prove himself immortal. But before his last and final demonstration, he told his immediate followers that it was expedient for them that he should go away, for if he went not away, the Comforter would not come unto them — which was clear evidence that they were depending more upon the human than upon Divine Principle.

But if he went away, the Comforter would come unto them, and he intimated, that if he went away, he would only go from their sense away, and hence he would in truth go not away; but in reality would be with them always, and therefore would come, or appear again in Spirit and in Truth.

And his youngest and most beloved disciple, because of his simplicity, went far beyond his elders; and saw wonderful things of spiritual type and order. The revelations he wrote, finite sense could not then understand, and the world has not yet been able to interpret them. But, in the light of Divine Science, they begin to glow with beauty and effulgence; and in the halo of their glory the Christ is seen.

For low! in the land where liberty enlightens the world, the star again appears, and sheds its rays abroad.

Oh! beauteous gem of Bethlehem,
Oh! bright and glorious ray!
Thy brilliant light dispels the night,
And terrors flee away.

Oh! star of peace, that brings release,
To captive hearts, and sad!
No sin is found, for all around,
Thy light makes all things glad.




Articles




God Is Truth

God is Life, Truth, and Love. How may we know this? Is it simply because the Bible says so, or does the Bible say so because it is so? “Let us know the root of the whole matter.” If the former, then we might safely worship the Bible; if the latter, worship God. And this not because we value the Bible less, but God more. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The Bible is our textbook; it is true, but not Truth. God is Truth. We can not put Principle in a book, or in finite words. Shall we be led by the Truth, or, shall we seek to lead the Truth? “God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.” God is Truth, because there is nothing truer than truth out of which Truth could be evolved. It would ever require the principle and understanding of truth to make Truth. God did not make truth; He is Truth. And in like manner, it must ever require life to make Life. God did not, could not, therefore, make life. He is Life. And on the same basis, we see that God is Love — unselfish Love — and there is in reality no other.

It is therefore clear that Life, Truth and Love are self-existent, and hence positive, and that which is positive must be embodied in the generic term truth. God is therefore Truth, Life and Love, the impersonal triune Deity, the three-in-one Principle, self-evident, self-existent, invincible, immutable Truth. The spirit of Truth, and he who is led by it, will be led in the way of all Truth. For one ray of divine light let in through the portals of understanding, if followed to its ultimate, will open wide the gates of that city, of which it said, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of mortal man to conceive the things that are in store for them that love Him.” He who dwells in this, "dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High,” and “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” ’Tis the right hand of God that leadeth by the side of still waters, and in green pastures, because it leads into harmony, and the reign of harmony is heaven, a state or condition, and not a locality or place.

With God, the infinite and omnipresent Spirit, there is, or could be no place; ’tis one eternal here. Where God is, there is heaven, and God is everywhere; hence, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” “If so be that the spirit of Christ [Truth] dwelleth in you,” is understood and realized by you, the absence of which realization, there could be no heaven for you.

That which is true, always bears the evidence of truth within itself. Truth can result in nothing but harmony, and harmony can result from nothing but Truth. Hence, it saith to the winds and waves, Peace, be still! and there is a great calm. As God is omnipresent, and heaven is where God is, so heaven is everywhere. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Wherever invincible Life, immutable Truth, and unselfish Love reign supreme, there is heaven. When will this be understood and realized, as it is with God? If we seek, we shall find, and if we knock, the door of understanding will be opened unto us. Then shall we see as we are seen, and know as we are known. Now if God, the spirit of Truth, or true Spirit, is something and everywhere, then Satan, the spirit of evil, or false spirit, is nothing and nowhere; else Satan must be in God, error in Truth, which is impossible. The true Spirit is something; the false spirit is nothing.The sin is that we make something out of nothing, thus recognizing another power besides the one power. Moreover, if there be a devil and he has power, God, the omnipotent and only creator, made him, and gives him power. Satan, or evil, only seemeth to be, but is not, and that seeming has no power except what we give it. We give the hobgoblin power — by running before it; or by following it; or the temptation to commit suicide, by yielding to it; or the desire for revenge, by thinking there is pleasure in it. But Michael (the spirit of truth,) will war with the old dragon (the spirit of evil,) and will cast him out of heaven (the realm of the real), and down to earth (the realm of the unreal), and put him into the bottomless pit (the nothing, into the great nowhere), annihilation.

Again, error is, and must be, a departure from Truth; hence Truth must be first, else there could be no departure. But out of truth there could come no error, therefore evil has no entity or origin, except as a deception, a delusion. A lie always has its origin in nothing; it therefore must return to its native nothingness. Evil can result in nothing but discord, and discord can result from nothing but evil. And sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, are discords, the fruit of evil, which Truth can, and will destroy. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.”




Spirit as Substance and Unity

The substance of Life, Truth, Love, wisdom, Principle, is Spirit. Spirit is therefore real; matter is unreal; Truth is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that shall break in pieces the image — materiality — and scatter it like chaff of the threshing-floor, that no place shall be found for it. “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not.” “He that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna” — the divine Spirit of life, visible only to the eye of understanding — “and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written” — “the new, best name of love” — “which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it” — no one can experience it for another. Hence, the time cometh, when, like the oil in the virgins’ lamps, there will not be enough for me and thee. Every statement becomes at once a problem, and if true, must bear the evidence of truth within itself; we cannot prove one statement by making another.

True Science will bear scrutiny, will invite investigation, always asks and answers the ultimate what, how, and why. Pure Science alone builds a perfect cube; mechanics have tried and failed. Divine Science is the New Jerusalem let down out of heaven, the length and breadth and height of which all are equal. Pure Science begins with, and is founded upon, self-evident truth, fundamental Principle, and reaches out to greater and greater possibilities. But theory, creeds, doctrines, etc., begin with the greatest possibilities in the evidence of the senses, and tries to reach foundation or fundamental principle, but never finds it, never answers, but evades the ultimate what, how, and why. Some of these are evolution, materiality, materia medica, pathology, physiology, hygiene, and all the two hundred and fifty “isms” founded upon the shifting sands of belief. But all these, when the floodgates of immutable truth shall open against them, must fall, and great will be the fall thereof; and over the ruins Science will walk unfettered, unshackled, and undismayed.

A good example of this is seen in the old theory of the earth and its foundations. And why did they not find the material foundations of the earth? For the very same reason that all other theories fail, the simple reason that it had none. But all these must have their day, in order to show their baselessness. When they are met by unchanging truth, they will fall, and be forever falling from the fact of their ever being removed from the possibility of being true (here see again the bottomless pit). While truth will, as it were, rise higher and higher, from the fact of its ever being removed from the possibility of being false; “we rise by the things that are under our feet.” If we try to prove false that which is true, we must of necessity find our mistake. Thus we work for the truth, whether we take the positive side or not.

The question is, Shall we take the positive side, and reap the reward of joy and satisfaction; or will we take the negative side, and reap the reward of disappointment and shame? Every person, animal, bird, fish, insect, plant or thing, represents, in a greater or lesser degree, that infinite Principle — God, Life, Truth, Love, intelligence, wisdom, Mind, Spirit; and each one is complete within itself, as the numbers one, two, and three is each complete within itself; yet it requires one, two, and three, and one more, to make four. So each and every lower order, and something more, are requisite to make the next higher, up to mankind, the highest. Man and the universe represent, express, and reflect Him; are co-existent with, are accountable to, and are nothing, without Him; yet are not Him, and He is not us. But as the government would be void without the governed, so God would be a nullity without His expression, and would be less than infinite without His infinite expression in variety, species, or individuality. But it is not lacking; go where we will, search how and at whatsoever length we may, and we will find some new character, element, or expression still, revealing to us the infinite principle of God’s eternal entity.

Life, we have seen, is self-existent Principle, and cannot therefore be slain; Life is positive, death is negative, and the positive cannot result in the negative. Death is a deception; knowing and realizing fully this fact, we could never pass through the phenomenon of death. But the two-edged sword of Truth will forever guard the Tree of Life, that we may not eat the fruit thereof, and live forever in selfishness and sin. “God — the Truth — is a jealous God;” He will admit of nothing less than the whole. “We cannot serve God and mammon.” “The pure water of the river of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,” is the all-supporting and sustaining Principle, in which we live, move, and have our being, and is constantly and forever flowing to us through the avenue of Mind, expressed in pure thoughts winged with Truth and Love — giving the strength that is infinite — for thought is our motor-power, and comes from an infinite source; hence we can “run and not be weary, walk and not faint,” giving us also courage and fortitude against the dark forebodings of sin, sickness and death.

Will we open the door to these angel-visitants, and have our life, our strength, our intelligence, our all, in Him who is invisible? Shall we eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, that is growing on the banks of this river? and have our life hid, now and forever, with Christ in Him, whom we then shall worship in spirit and in truth, and whom to know aright is Life eternal?

Or, shall we close the door, shutting out the light, and listen to the music of that Siren whose beguiling song is death; and eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying that Life is in the body, that Spirit is in matter, that strength is in muscle, that sensation is in a nerve, that intelligence is in the brain, that good and evil mingle, and that evil is as real as good? — until our eyes, being blinded, are opened only to the darkness, and we make ourselves as gods, thus linking our lives to mortality’s self, whose galling chains will fester as they lead to the nether depths of misery and woe.




Infinite Traits in True Manhood

The spirit of the Lord is Mind — infinite, and therefore omnipresent. Where He is, sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, and death can never come. He is everywhere; therefore the fundamental sin is, that we are looking at these seemings, and admitting them as realities in His presence — virtually saying that discord exists in Him. By recognizing them as real, we put ourselves in bondage to that which seemeth to be, but is not. When to know the Truth about them, is to be freed from their giant grasp, since we are freed from the bondage of the ghost, by knowing its nothingness.

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Our God-given birthright is liberty! Toward it, mankind and all things tend. Go where we will, and into whatsoever house we enter — that of the tiniest plant or insect, or of man — and we see written upon the face of all, in language full and clear, this one injunction, Be free! Of all that God has made, we may not seek to fetter aught; for eternity is thereon inscribed, and progress must be everlasting. Concerning everything we see, and every statement made, there is the true and there is the false. The true is, but the false is not — it only seems to be.

From this seeming, we may not strive to make ourselves free, but to know ourselves free. We need not strive to make ourselves better, but to know ourselves better — not to make ourselves perfect, but to know ourselves perfect. We can not “add one cubit to our stature,” or make “one hair white or black.”

To know ourselves perfect, we must perfectly know ourselves; and to arrive at this, we must know perfectly our true origin. We can not of ourselves create anything, except (it may be) error, mortality, which cannot favor us, but must be against us — because having no foundation in the Truth, for there is no Truth in it. This must fall, and reveal its nothingness, causing us to look away from ourselves to the true source of all. The one creative Principle is Spirit, Mind — the embodiment of all good.

We can not have evil unless we first have good; hence good must be the primal, and from the primal, all things must proceed. Since nothing but good can come from the substance of all good, we must therefore be “perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.” As we can not realize in ourselves the opposite of what we know ourselves to be, we must grow out of the false conception of ourselves, and into the realizing sense of our true being:

Out of the false, into the true;
Out of the old, into the new;
Out of the wrong, into the right;
Out of the darkness, into the light;
Out of the cloud, into the sun;
Out of the many, into the One;
Out of the impure, into the pure;
Out of the mutable, into the sure;
Out of the sickness, into the health;
Out of the poverty, into the wealth;
Out of the matter, into the Mind;
Out of the flesh, the Spirit to find;
Out of mortality, into God.

This is the way our Master trod.

We, the children of self-existent and eternal Life, are as primal as infinity, and as lasting as eternity. “Before Abraham was, I am.” We are children of Truth. In Truth, we are free moral-agents, having absolute liberty; but in error we have nothing but disappointment and bondage; and this lesson we all must learn, either through acceptance of His loving-kindness, or by being driven by terrible experience, though in confusion and shame, to Truth at last.

We are the children of Love divine; hence the desire of all, like their Parent-principle, to love and be loved. Love is active.’Tis “the fulfilling of the law.” He who is prompted by its unselfish nature, will never be idle. Love seeks no reward and fears no punishment. Its motives are fair and perfect, and will never yield to discouragement.

We are the children of wisdom and intelligence; hence the tendency and desire to be, and to be considered, intellectual, and wise.

We are children of omnipotence; hence our tendency is to become like Him, omnipotent. Leaning upon the infinite for strength, and knowing whence and through what avenue it comes, we must grow into companionship with Jesus, our Elder Brother, who said, “All power is given unto me, both in heaven and in earth.” We should fulfill also that other Scripture: “Nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Wisdom is Science, and all Science is divine. There is nothing that Science will not interpret. We, the children of omniscience (omni-science), are indeed omniscient. “Nothing is hid that shall not be revealed.” “We shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known.” We are children of omnipresence; hence the tendency is to grow and expand, until our influence, our character, our real selves, will be felt to earth’s remotest bound — like Jesus Christ’s.

We are out on a boundless ocean. Infinity is the sea, eternity is the haven, Life is the voyage, Principle is the ship, Spirit the sail, Truth the compass; and with the gentle breath of Love wafting our vessel onward, and wisdom at the helm, we may not swerve to the right hand nor to the left, but press steadily forward in the way of Truth’s appointing, knowing, even though it be at the fourth watch of the night, that we shall hear His voice saying to us, “It is I, be not afraid.” The waves will be stilled, the adverse winds be calmed, and immediately, we shall be in port.

Representing, as we do, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, let us not be content with gathering up the dew upon the grass — so inconstant and impure, at best; but let us rather dig down to the clear running water, and drink deeper draughts of the celestial fount, that “shall be in us a well of water, springing up into everlasting Life.”




Good Counsel

[Letter to one suffering from reflections of discord in those about her.]

YOU SEEM TO BE GOING through the Red Sea of fear, and looking too much at the waters on each side. You are no doubt trying, though unconsciously to yourself, to overcome mortal conceptions; and in so doing, you are making something of them. Do not try to walk the waters, or go through Jordan, for when you are equal to it, there will be no Jordan to pass, and no waters to walk upon. Science, received through the understanding, will lead you calmly and peacefully all your journey through. Obstacles which now seem insurmountable will sink to nothingness. The golden gates of promise will swing open to your coming. Let Love be your prompter in every action, and the reflection therefrom will be soothing and mild. Sweet rest will surely follow, for nothing but harmony can come from the hallowed influence of unselfish Love.

There is, in Truth, no antagonism. All the universe reflects God and nothing else, and with the armor of Love about us, we may never see the darts of the enemy, nor feel their poisonous sting. Striking the breastplate of Love, triple-plated with wisdom, intelligence, and Truth, these darts recoil upon themselves, and slay the aimer. Keep your armor on! Fear no evil! Many have passed the Rubicon before you. Many are passing it now, and many will follow after. Never seek to create a chemical in your treatment, but rather to realize nothing but harmony. Remember, “The measure you mete shall be measured to you again, pressed down and running over.” “Cast thy bread upon the waters, and it will return unto you after many days.”

I am glad now that you were alone during that severe reflection, for if we have a lesson to learn, we might as well learn it first as last. Each must learn to stand alone; for alone we are, though thousands press around us. Yet we are not alone; for there is One, the ever-present intelligence, upon whom we must all, sooner or later, learn to depend for our support. This is the true presence of Mind — the consciousness of the ever-presence of the true Mind. This Mind is the embodiment of all good (God), forever coming to us, pure as the fountain, unsullied in its stream, and saying to us, in thoughts of solace: “No harm shall come nigh thy dwelling,” “None shall take you out of My hands;” for “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler,” “Nothing shall be impossible unto you;” and, “Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the Word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”




Human Limitations

“And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz."

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years
I am so weary of toil and of tears,
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain, —
Take them, and give me my childhood again.

The apostate Ahaz, king of Judah, was a barbarous, unprincipled and unscrupulous fellow believing in and practicing idolatry, witchcraft, and spiritualism — anything and everything void of principle, uprightness, and honesty; but Hezekiah, his son, was of a different mold. He was one of the finest and most worthy kings that ruled over Israel. Hezekiah signifies “the might of Jehovah.”

Ahaz had invented and left to the world the sun-dial. This was perhaps the only thing of value that he did give to the world — and even this was of very little account compared with the chronometers we have at the present day, though of great importance in those days — it being perhaps somewhere near the first, if not the very first time-piece that was ever constructed, or of which we have any historical account. According to this dial, it seems that Hezekiah, his son and successor, counted time.

But Hezekiah fell sick, and thought his end approaching. He had a boil, the record tells us — no doubt a carbuncle — one of those painful, inflammatory beliefs or appearances that cause great disturbance in the alimentary system, resulting very often in a belief of fatality. At least, the king was frightened. He supposed his time had come, and that he would have to give up the kingdom while as yet he had no son to reign after him; and he thought this would be the certain downfall of the kingdom and the destruction of the Jewish nation.

At this juncture, the king called upon the prophet Isaiah, which name signifies “Salvation of Jehovah”— that is, the king called upon the saving power of the Lord. He wanted to know what salvation there was for him, and in his extremity he turned to the prophetic thought. At first, it seems, the prophet was struck with the king’s manner, and told him to set his house in order — that is, to prepare to meet his God, to get his heart right toward God, his thoughts in the right channel — since he would not live. But the king’s beseeching look, his agonizing cry for help, and his willingness to throw all upon the infinite, broke through the gloom of mortal thought, and the prophet was enabled to see then and there a chance for his recovery. So strong did the thought come to him, that he went immediately back and told the king that the Lord had given him fifteen years; not only this, but that he would deliver the king and the city from the hand of the Assyrians, for His own sake and for His servant David’s sake.

“And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.” Now, a boil is significant of great fear, while the fig signifies spiritual good. The spiritual good had power to quell the mortal fear; and that done, the king soon recovered.

There were added unto his days fifteen years — but, why not more? He was a young man in belief, only forty or forty-one years of age, and had reigned only fourteen years in Israel. Was there any good reason why he should not live twice or even three times fifteen years? Is there any limit to the length of days that eternity can give? Did the Ancient of Days limit the king to fifteen years more of life, or was it the prophet’s limited conception as to the time that might possibly be added to the king’s days? — not that we would make the prophet or his prophecy less, but God more. In other words, does the Lord limit our days and possibilities, or do we, as it were, limit ourselves, and then charge it to God? “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”

What does eternal Life know of fifteen years — or what does He know of years at all? What does He, the Ancient of Days, who is eternity itself, know of the end of His creation or when aught that He has made shall cease to be?

What do you or I, with all our boasted wisdom and education, know of fifteen years or of one year, one month, week, day, hour, minute, or second? Can we tell how long one of these divisions of time is? We have no more conception of the length of a second, a day, year, or fifteen years, than we have of fifteen thousand, or fifteen million years. We think we have a vast amount of knowledge and are wondrously wise, because we have been to school a few days or years, and have gone through our arithmetic and have learned to say: 60 seconds make 1 minute, 60 minutes make 1 hour, 24 hours make 1 day, 7 days make 1 week, 4 weeks make 1 month, 12 months make 1 year, 100 years make 1 century.

But of all that, we know absolutely nothing; and of it, there is nothing, because there is no basis, no foundation, no principle. What we seem to know, we don’t know; what we seem to see, we don’t see; what we seem to be, we can’t be. We see what we call days, months, and years, and count our days accordingly. We limit our own selves and others as to the number of years that we or they can live, or that can be added after a severe illness. We cut our own selves short and think, forsooth, ’tis all that God has given! When the shadow has sunk low in the dial, when we are sick and ready to die, then we come to Christ in Divine Science. We seek aid in the spirit of good; but, all unconsciously to ourselves, we place a limit for our recovery — beyond which we cannot seem to reach. We see eternal Life, and know ’tis there, and know ’tis ours, but we cannot seem to claim it as our own, and so come into full possession of it now, with all the rights and titles of perfect ownership, with all restrictions and encumbrances now, henceforth and evermore removed.

Moses on the Mount saw the promised land; but Jordan rolled between, and he could not cross the rolling stream, since he thought within his heart that God had said [to] him “Nay.” So we, today, may climb the heights of Science, until eternal Life spreads out in grandeur there before us. But if we harbor in our hearts the thought that Life is still beyond, that the dark, cold river of death is rolling there between, we’ll die (to mortal sense) on this side of Jordan’s wave, and think that God has so decreed it.

If Moses could have overcome his own limited belief concerning God’s decree, he would have led his people on across the Jordan into the promised land. If he could have overcome his own limited sense of what he thought possible unto him,

Not Jordan’s wave, nor death’s cold flood,
Could fright him from that shore.

If the prophet, in behalf of the king, could have overreached his own limit, the fifteen years’ extension might have lengthened into eternal life. When we, for ourselves or in behalf of another, throw ourselves upon eternal Life, we can have added to our years, our health, our strength, our happiness, all that we at the time can conceive as possible to us.

God, the infinite and eternal, never set a boundary line beyond which we could not reach. The infinite and eternal Spirit has said to all mortality, “Thus far and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed”; yet, to His own in Spirit and in Truth, God never said, “I have eternal Life, but you can never reach it.” On the contrary, to those that love God, the Christ has ever said, “Nothing shall be impossible unto you,” and “Ye shall ask what ye will in my name, and it shall be given you of my Father.”

We set our own limits, saying, This thing is possible unto us, but that is impossible; this we can do, but that we cannot do; this we can have, but that we cannot have; here we can go, but there we cannot go; thus far we can reach, but no farther; we can be healed of this, but not of that; we can be healed to such an extent, but not beyond. Our eyesight has failed us! We call upon divine wisdom to open our eyes, and our eyes are opened, and we begin to see; but, immediately we limit our conceptions as to what infinite wisdom will do for us, saying, This much we can see, but beyond that we shall not be able; we can be enabled to read such a grade of print, but another grade we cannot read. Again, we say: We can be healed of such and such diseases, but if a certain other disease comes upon us, we shall have to die; certain conditions of the disease in question can be removed, but certain other conditions will linger round us still; we can be healed of our diseases for so many years, but then we will have to be sick again, with the same or some other disease, and so be gathered to our fathers; the shadow will turn back ten degrees in the dial, but beyond that it will not go; we can be healed of our malady on the third day, but how impossible to have it done right now; we can heal, or be healed, in so many treatments, but how impossible to have it done in one. Oh! how we do put shackles upon ourselves.

In further skepticism: Divine Science can stop toothache, but it cannot fill cavities or stop decomposition; it may do some things that surgery year after year has failed to do, but it cannot set a recent fracture, or replace a recently disjointed member. We limit ourselves, and say with the prophet, “Thus saith the Lord”!

Old and infirm, having lived our three score years and ten, our days well-nigh told, we see the end approaching; but we hear that a balm is found in Gilead. We hear that Christ, the Truth, is now healing all who come to Him; and so we come, that if at all possible, something might be done for us. We throw ourselves upon the altar, and, there before the spirit of hope, we beg divine assistance. We hear the law, obey its injunctions, and learn our way in Science. We climb the heights a little way and see, just o’er the summit of the hill — eternal Life bursting on our view; but, instead of pressing on and claiming it in the name of Christ, immortal Life and glory, we stop there; we linger awhile to view the scene, and say, It is enough. There is added to our life, one, five, or fifteen years; and, in proof of this, the shadow in the dial has turned back ten degrees — to the appearance of youth and freshness on our faces, elasticity in our step, health and vigor in our bodies. Yet, we insist, more than ten degrees of youthfulness and health it cannot show, and more than fifteen years we cannot presume to claim, for then, “we’ll be gathered home.”

How can the shadow be made to turn back in the dial? The jovial old man and pleasant old lady say, “If you would have the shadow turn back, you must be youthful, mingle with the young, shout with the young, and join in their sports. Don’t walk with a cane until you have to, and don’t walk with an old man’s staff when a little limber stick will do. Don’t put on glasses until you are obliged to. Don’t mingle with those who are always talking about their ills, their diseases, their aches and their pains, their hardships and trials, their vexations and annoyances. Don’t mingle with those who always have rheumatism and are forever talking about it; who are always grumbling because their food doesn’t digest well, and their clothes don’t fit good. Don’t stay in a damp, dingy and dark old basement when you can have a bright, sunny, upper room. Don’t wear old shabby clothes when you can have good, new ones.”

Now, this is all well enough on the finite plane, but it will never turn the shadow back. It may, if you can keep clear of all these, prevent the shadow from going down so fast. You can, perhaps, keep clear of all these in a measure — but only by not being one of them yourself. Yet, you have no standard for all this, and it will be seen at length that all is done only by the human will, which is evil trying to predominate over error.

But, when you turn to the spirit of Truth and cry mightily to the Father of all good, then find your way in Science up to the summit and view the Promised Land in eternal Life and light and glory — where nought is to be seen but one vast panoramic view of health, and youthfulness, and vigor, and joy, and peace, and rest, for yourself, for me, for all, forever and forever — then will the flush of youth and vigor settle on your face, and elasticity come into your step. You will spontaneously mingle with the young, for old age will have vanished away and be as though it had never been. You will not mingle with the sick, for sickness will disappear and be heard of no more forever. The staff will fall from your hand, for infirmity has fled away, and strength is present with you now. The glasses will fall from your eyes, for you see as you never saw before. The shadow will turn back on the dial not ten degrees only, but back, Back, BACK, until no shadow can be seen, for infinite and eternal light is recognized now, and darkness has fled away. Not only fifteen years is added to our days, but eternal Life, whose limit can not be found, is with us here and now, and we are “gathered home.”




Criticism

Criticism is fault finding. It will shut you out of heaven; it will darken all your skies; it will keep you from demonstrating for yourself and others; it will bar your progress; it will stop your onward going; it leads you into all trouble; it leads you into discord, into unkindness, unfriendliness, impatience, hardheartedness, and finally into all evil, hatred, hatefulness, and envy. Just as long as that spirit of criticism remains in your thought, and you leave it there, just so long will you not progress, just so long will you not be able to demonstrate, just so long will you not be able to find your way in Truth, because you will be looking for faults constantly; you are fault-finding on a mortal, material plane.

You will criticize everybody and everything. You will criticize people in every way — the clothes they wear, the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they read, the way they pronounce their words and the way they sing; in everything they do in every possible way — and that is all you will do.

If the spirit of criticism is abroad in your heart, it is growing. I do not mean to say it is there; but if it is there and is not removed after being detected, it will, of course, remain there and grow. Then by and by, you will want to know why you do not know and cannot demonstrate the truth as you would like to. It is because you are fault-finding with people, fault-finding with what they do and what they say. You are not looking for the Truth, and so you are not finding the Truth in what is done, but you are studying faults; faults are what you are looking for; they are all you are thinking about.

Criticism is the worst thing that you can get into a community; it is one of the worst things you can get into a church; it is one of the worst things you can get into your thought. It is one of the keys to perdition, because it leads there. It leads into all unkindness; it leads into ingratitude; it leads into everything but love for your neighbors and friends.

Anyone can criticize. I never saw a person so great an idiot, if he could talk at all, but that he could find fault with others. I never saw a man so drunk, if he had sense enough to say anything, but that he could find fault with others. Anyone can do it, and just as soon as you let it enter your thought and leave it there, it will grow until you soon think that you are an elected critic, and that is what your mission is, and that is what you are here for, and that is the work you are to do.

Criticism is an awful thing. It never did any good, and will never do good. It never can because it is all on a mortal plane, every bit of it. You are not helping others; you are not helping yourself. It does not belong to Christian Science, for there is nothing Christian about it, and there is surely nothing scientific about it, not one thing. I have seen it all my life; I have seen it from earliest childhood, and I know that everyone of you has, and it is a thing that ought to be well looked into, to see whether you have it or not. Look well into your heart and see whether you have it or not, because you are a student of Christian Science; you are a student of the Science of being. If you are studying that, you will progress in everything you do. Nothing you touch, but you will do well with it, because Christian Science leads to wisdom, love, kindness, and satisfaction. It leads the way to live kindness for everybody, to live helpfulness for everyone, and it will lead you to see opportunities and will open up opportunities to you that you never saw before, in everything, in every walk of life, to become better in everything you do. Everything you touch will grow out of plainness before you; everything is elucidated, everything is made plain, and everything is made easy. There are no hard roads and no hard work. In fact, you will find no such thing as hard times, and no hard work to get along, if you are studying the great facts of being themselves. The great trouble is to let go of mortal sense and study Truth, study the facts of being. Do you think you have to hold on with one hand to mortal law and its way of living? If you will let go, you will find your living sure, and you will find a better living and an easier life than you ever had before.

We lose our sense of worry; we lose the worry of losing business; we lose the worry of finding business; we lose the thought of our body. You will then lose the thought of losing your life, of losing your health, because you are growing into strength, life, health, freedom, because you are growing into manliness and womanhood. You are growing to be better scholars of yourself and of students of Christian Science. You are not students of the way people walk along the street, finding fault with the way they walk, with the cut of their dress, with the cut of their coat, finding fault with their habits, their little shortcomings, their little faults and their little failings. You are students of Christian Science!

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Love is the liberator.