Addresses

by Martha Wilcox

The Life Story of Martha W. Wilcox, C.S.B.

Compiled and privately published by her sister, Alta M. Meyer, for the students of Martha W. Wilcox, C.S.B. In accordance with the approval of the Executive Board of the Christian Science Students’ Association of Martha W. Wilcox.

1958

One morning late in the fall of 1902, Mrs. Wilcox was seated in the office of the Clerk of the School Board, in Kansas City, Missouri. She had gone there to have the Clerk, James B. Jackson, sign an affidavit in order that she might obtain money on a piece of property. She explained that she needed the money as she had brought her husband from Ottawa, Kansas, to be treated for a so-called incurable disease. Mr. Jackson signed the affidavit, and then asked: “Mrs. Wilcox, did you ever consider having your husband treated in Christian Science?” To which she replied: “No. What is Christian Science? I have never heard of it.” Mr. Jackson kindly explained a few fundamentals of this religion, stressing its healing power, and at the close of the conversation, opened his desk and took out a little black book and handed it to her with the remark: “I always keep in my desk a copy of this book ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures’ by Mary Baker Eddy, to give to someone who might be interested in reading it. It has helped me many times and I am confident that it will help you.”

Mrs. Wilcox took the little black book with her to her rooming place. What she read appealed to her thought and she literally devoured the truth found in its pages, with the result that after a short period she found herself healed of a long-standing physical disorder.

A desire to gain knowledge was a chief characteristic of Mrs. Wilcox. She was born on a farm near Hampton, Iowa, and later her father moved his family to a farm near Ottawa, Kansas. The educational advantages on a farm in those days were very limited, but there were always books and magazines in the home, together with an urgent incentive to progress. Also, there was the influence of a religious family life. Each day was begun with family worship and a deep love for the Bible was cultivated. The country church with its activities was the basis for all social life, and church attendance was a religious duty. From early childhood, Mrs. Wilcox was taught the value of prayer, and prayer exerted a vital influence in everything she did.

After finishing grade school, she studied privately for a teacher’s certificate and later taught in the country and town schools near her home. Little by little, through her active participation in the Methodist Church and in her teaching work she progressed in her desire for knowledge and advancement.

In 1895, before leaving the farm, she married Lynn Wallis, a graduate of Manhattan College, Manhattan, Kansas. They established their home in Ottawa, Kansas, where Mr. Wallis was employed, but within six months, Mr. Wallis was drowned while on a business trip. Mrs. Wallis then turned again to teaching for a livelihood and taught for three years in the Ottawa schools. In 1899, she married Dwight D. Wilcox, the father of a student in one of her classes.

Late in the fall of 1902, Mr. Wilcox became seriously ill and the physician advised that he be taken to Kansas City for special treatment, and it was while in Kansas City for this purpose, that Christian Science was first presented to Mrs. Wilcox.

With her thought awakened to the healing power of Christian Science through the study of the textbook by Mary Baker Eddy, Mrs. Wilcox began at once to apply this scientific truth to her daily needs.

Mr. Wilcox had two sons. The elder son was self-supporting, but it was necessary to educate the younger son. And in order to relieve the financial burden, Mrs. Wilcox established a home in an apartment building and accepted paying guests. At the same time she devoted a part of each day to the healing work of Christian Science. Many severe cases came to her during these formative years, and through the Truth as set forth in the textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, which Mrs. Wilcox accepted and made active as her thought, many were healed.

Always interested in church work, Mrs. Wilcox soon became a member of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Kansas City, Missouri, and associated herself with its activities. In January, 1904, the opportunity of Primary Class instruction came to her and with it came an urgent desire to devote her life work to the Cause of Christian Science.

Later in 1904, Mr. Wilcox passed on, and from this time her whole thought was to progress in the understanding of Christian Science and, eventually, to devote her entire time and energy to its healing work. Later she purchased a home at 2812 Harrison Street, Kansas City, Missouri, from which she carried on her work in Christian Science for many years.

On February 10, 1908, just six years from the time that she first heard of Christian Science, Mrs. Wilcox received a call from James A. Neal, to come to Boston to serve Mrs. Eddy in her home at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Mrs. Eddy had moved from Pleasant View just two weeks before on January 26, 1908. Mrs. Wilcox served in the home until July of that year when she was called to Kansas City by the sudden passing on of her younger step-son. Later she returned to Chestnut Hill and spent the entire years of 1909 and 1910 in the home serving Mrs. Eddy in different capacities.

During this time, Mrs. Wilcox had the privilege of class instruction under Mrs. Eddy. At one time she was under Mrs. Eddy’s personal instruction for seven weeks. During this period of instruction, whenever a higher revelation of truth was presented, there was, at the same time, a requirement of immediate application and demonstration of this truth to some need at hand. This requirement of immediate application and demonstration of scientific truth to a need at hand, was a great influence toward Mrs. Wilcox’s growth in Christian Science.

Later, Mrs. Eddy decided that Mrs. Wilcox was to receive Normal Class instruction at the Metaphysical College in Boston, Massachusetts, beginning Wednesday, December 7, 1910, with Bicknell Young as teacher. It was arranged for Mrs. Wilcox to return to Kansas City for a short visit and then to Boston for class before returning to Chestnut Hill. In Kansas City, while attending Sunday service in Second Church of Christ, Scientist, the announcement was read from the desk concerning the passing on of Mary Baker Eddy on the previous day, Saturday, December 3, 1910. The following day, Mrs. Wilcox left for Boston to be present on Wednesday, at the opening of class in the Metaphysical College, which was held in The Mother Church edifice. Soon after class, Mrs. Wilcox returned to Kansas City.

Early in 1911, Mrs. Wilcox’s card appeared in the Christian Science Journal as teacher and practitioner of Christian Science, in Kansas City, Missouri. During this year, she held her first class, and in 1912, she addressed her first Christian Science Students’ Association.

In 1919, the Christian Science Board of Directors of The Mother Church, created a committee which was called the Committee on General Welfare. Mrs. Wilcox, chosen by the churches of Kansas City, together with six other Christian Scientists, chosen from cities in the United States and in London, England, were to act as members of this committee. The report, compiled by this committee, was completed in March, 1920, but Mrs. Wilcox remained in Boston until after the Annual Meeting in June, to aid in the distribution of the report. She then returned to Kansas City to resume her work as teacher and practitioner of Christian Science.

Mrs. Wilcox, in her chosen life work, was ever loyal to the teachings of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, and she earnestly endeavored to express this loyalty through worthy and valued service to the community in which she lived. Mrs. Wilcox continued an active interest in Christian Science until her passing on in July, 1948.

The following pages are excerpts from the writings of Martha W. Wilcox, C.S.B.

“There is no one in all the world who has used words with such significance of meaning as Mary Baker Eddy. She was a student of the dictionary. And we should use the dictionary and the concordances when we study Christian Science literature. As we do this, we find that the spiritual meaning revealed through words, has the seed within itself, and when active as our thought, will revolutionize our thinking and our world.”

“If we, in our thinking, see ‘a sinning mortal man’ present, where, according to divine Science, a sinning mortal man is not present, then we need to gain within ourselves the Saviour or divine consciousness that beholds man in God’s likeness, present and perfect.”

“There is no material activity. To Mary Baker Eddy, whatever was necessary to be done, even though it were mending stockings or writing a letter, if well done, it was scientific activity. We have been given a Science, which is to be made practical in every aspect of daily living.”

“To Jesus, Life was an eternal actuality. Jesus made this fact of eternal Life active as his consciousness and the concrete evidence of this fact of Life appeared as the life of Lazarus.”

“Whatever good we ascribe to God, we may immediately ascribe to ourselves as God’s reflection. Whatever is not true of God does not exist at all.”

“Christian Scientists are not primarily engaged in demonstrating over sin, disease, and death, but they are earnestly endeavoring to establish as their thought, the Principle of divine Science in which such misconceptions have no being.”

From a letter to a student:

“I am rejoicing with you that you know your husband has entered into a new experience of Life. He knows that Life does not and cannot die; he knows that Truth is true from actual experience, and from this time on, he will progress far more rapidly than if he had not had this experience, not of death, but of awakening into newness of Life.”

“If through old orthodox teaching, we think of ourselves as human beings trying to gain spiritual ideas, we experience an endless struggle. But when we accept the scientific fact, that by reflection, we are the spiritual ideas that God is being, we experience the concrete evidence of these ideas in daily living.”

“We build our universe within individual consciousness.”

“In Christian Science practice we do not get very far, if in our thinking, we swing back and forth like a pendulum from the fact of things to the belief of things. Christian Scientists let the poise of divine Law become so firmly fixed as their thought, that nothing can shake or dispel it.”

“Righteous prayer is the activity of righteous thought within individual consciousness. Many times each day, a Christian Scientist makes active in thought the already established good that Mind is being, and conforms his thinking in oneness with this infinite good. As he does this, more and more, this good that Mind is being, appears as his daily supplies.”

“The greatest good that we can do for ourselves is to gain spiritual understanding and to exercise this understanding in thought until wrought out in daily living. Working in this way, we live our immortality NOW.”

Reminiscences of Mary Baker Eddy

Whenever the name of Mary Baker Eddy is spoken, all hearers think of “an unusual and brilliant woman.” Mr. Clemens, our beloved Mark Twain, in speaking of Mrs. Eddy, said: “Closely examined, painstakingly studied, she is easily the most interesting person on the planet, and in several ways as easily the most extraordinary woman that was ever born upon it.” Charles Francis Potter, in his book, The Story of Religion as Told in the Lives of Its Leaders, says: “Mary Baker Eddy is the most compelling figure in American religious history.” Perhaps Mr. Orcutt, who attended to the business of the University Press with Mrs. Eddy, has best expressed her appearance and characteristics. He says: “She was a slight, unassuming woman, very real, very human, very appealing, supremely content in the self-knowledge that, no matter what others might think, she was delivering her message to the world.” These impressions of Mrs. Eddy are given in Clifford P. Smith’s Historical and Biographical Papers, and these impressions were very pronounced to all of us who knew Mrs. Eddy personally. But the characteristic that endeared her to every member of her household was her motherliness. Indeed, she was nearly always addressed as “Mother” by the members of her household.

We never felt awed in her presence, but never for a minute were we allowed to let our thought rest upon her personality. We understood that that would be a hindrance to her. It was her instructions to us that were paramount, so much so that we could be in the house for weeks and not think of her personality. We attended to her wants and necessities, but always in our mind was what she had given us to be demonstrated. In fact, we all were there not only to help our Leader, but to learn how to demonstrate Christian Science. From morning till night, we were busy applying the instruction she gave us to work at hand, and trying to demonstrate the truth of Christian Science. (See My. 229:9-18)

The members of her household were not supposed to talk or discuss Christian Science at the table or among themselves. We were to live Christian Science and not just talk the letter. This was one place in the world where the chatter about Christian Science was not heard.

I have been asked to tell some of my personal experiences with Mrs. Eddy while a member of her household. These reminiscences may sound ultra-personal because I shall tell you only of my own personal experience with Mrs. Eddy. But my experience will give you an idea of what other members of the household were experiencing in varying degrees according to their individual states of growth. Please bear in mind that I was a very young student in Christian Science, just beginning my sixth year; and although the Principle of Christian Science to be demonstrated was the same for all members of the household, the instructions that Mrs. Eddy gave me were different in their degree from those who were more experienced in Christian Science practice, and it is only fair to Mrs. Eddy and to others that this be taken into consideration. Mrs. Eddy came to Chestnut Hill January 26, 1908, and I became a member of her household Monday morning, February 10, 1908, just two weeks later. After removing my wraps, Mrs. Sargent took me in to Mrs. Eddy’s study and introduced me as “Mrs. Wilcox from Kansas City.” Mrs. Eddy said to me, “Good morning, Mrs. Wilcox, I felt your sweet presence in the house.” Then she seated me directly in front of her and asked: “What can you do?” I replied that I could do almost anything that one would do who has kept house and had a family to care for. Then she asked me: “What are you willing to do?” I replied that I was willing to do anything that she wanted me to do. Then she said: “My housekeeper has had to go home because of the illness of her father, and I should like to have you take her place for the time being.”

Then she began to talk to me on the subject of MENTAL MALPRACTICE. In effect, this is what she said:

Sometimes a sense of personality arises before your thought and leads you to believe that a personality is something outside and separate from your thought that can harm you. She showed me that the real danger was never this threatened attack from outside my thought where the personality seemed to be, but that the real danger was always within my thought. She made it clear that my sense of personality was mental, a mental image formed in my so-called mortal mind, and was never external nor separate from my mind. This supposititious mortal mind outlined itself as a belief of a material personality, with form and conditions and laws and circumstances; in fact, with all of the phenomena that are embraced in what is called a material life or personality; and then she showed me that not one solitary fact in this whole fabric of supposititious evil was true. She showed me that I must detect that all these mental phenomena were only aggressive mental suggestion coming to me for me to adopt it as my own thought.

She showed me that, because mental malpractice is mental, the only place that I could meet it was within what seemed to be my mentality; and the only way that I could meet it was to give up the belief in a power and presence other than God, or Truth. She showed me that this seeming within enemy could never harm me if I were awake to the Truth and active in the Truth; and she illustrated this statement by saying that the cobra (copperhead), a very poisonous snake, never strikes its victim except when its victim is asleep.

This lesson on mental malpractice was quite apropos for one entering the household comprised of never less than seventeen and up to twenty-five personalities. After this talk on mental malpractice, Mrs. Eddy opened her Bible and read to me from Luke 16:10-12:

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

Mrs. Eddy, no doubt, realized that at my stage of growth, I thought of creation, that is, all things, as separated into two groups: one group spiritual, and the other group material, and that somehow I must get rid of the group I called material. But during this lesson, I caught my first glimpse of the fact that all right, useful things, which I had been calling “the unrighteous mammon,” were mental and represented spiritual ideas. She showed me that unless I were faithful and orderly with the objects of sense, that made up my present mode of consciousness, there could never be revealed to me the “true riches” or the progressive higher revealments of substance and things.

The two lessons that I received that first morning were fundamentally great lessons:

I was to handle mental malpractice within my own mentality.
That the “objects of sense,” when correctly understood, are really “ideas of Soul;” and that there are not two groups of creation, but just one.

When she had finished, she said: “Now, take your child down into Egypt and let it grow up until it is strong enough to stand alone.” And, by this she meant that I was not to talk to anyone about what was given me until I had made it substance in my own thought.

Then Mrs. Eddy said to me: “I should like to have you make a pudding for my dinner today, an apple betty pudding. No one seems to get pudding to taste as it used to taste when I lived at Lynn.” It seemed she was not so much concerned about the pudding, and finally I caught from her reflected thought that what she really wanted was for me to see that taste is not in the pudding, that the pudding has nothing to do with the sense of taste. She wanted me to demonstrate that taste is in Mind, or consciousness, and remains unchanged by time or years. I can assure you that this was quite enough instruction for one day. I made the pudding and, when it was served to her, she said to the maid: “Tell Martha that the pudding was very good, but no better than Mrs. Scott made yesterday.” Then I knew that others, too, were learning what and where the senses are.

Exactness and Orderliness

All are familiar with Mrs. Eddy’s exactness and orderliness of thought and action. She showed forth to an unusual degree the exactness and divine order of God, her Mind; and she required perfection of thought and action from those of her household. She, herself, never made a false movement. Even the different lengths of pins had their respective corners in her pin-cushion, and she took out the pin she needed without taking out and putting back the different lengths. No one would have thought of changing a pin in her cushion. Mrs. Eddy believed that if one’s thought was not orderly and exact in the things that make up present consciousness, that same thought would not be exact to give a treatment or use an exact science. These qualities in Mrs. Eddy’s mind were very pronounced far beyond what my so-called human mind could comprehend and sense. She taught me that the Mind I then had was God, and that I was to show forth God, my own Mind, in order and exactness and perfection. I had not been there long until she asked me to make her bed every morning for a month and turn down the upper sheet exactly two and one-half inches. As my thought seemed not sufficiently exact to measure this, I took a tape measure and made a pencil mark where the sheet was to be turned down, so that I might be obedient, and at the same time I gave thanks that she had taught us in Science and Health that God, our Mind, guides us into the right use of temporary as well as eternal means.

She required that we place the furniture just so; and in order to have it at the right angle, I put a tack in the carpet. But I will admit that keeping the numerous things on her “what-not” just at the proper angle was almost my Waterloo. We were to express “man’s dominion” in all things; whether the potatoes to be baked were large or small, they were to be neither over-done nor under-done at the proper time, and mealtime never varied a minute in her house. The meals were exactly on time.

Mrs. Eddy loved a new dress as well as any other woman. And the little lady who made her dresses, while she used a dress form, was expected to have the dresses perfect without fittings. If they were untrue one-sixteenth of an inch at the cuff or neck lines, or anywhere else, Mrs. Eddy was aware of it. Mrs. Eddy knew that Mind’s work and Mind always fit, they are one and the same; and the sense of anything being too large or too small was not found in Mind. Therefore, excuses and alibis were of no avail with Mrs. Eddy.

Perhaps someone is wondering what happened if an individual did not bring out perfection and exactness concretely. Mrs. Eddy clearly discerned if one were striving to show forth God, his own right mind, in and as everything; but if an individual were not spiritually-minded enough to discern Mrs. Eddy’s real purpose in these requirements, or thought them unnecessary, or thought Mrs. Eddy was just exacting and concerned only about the so-called material things, or did not see the necessity of being obedient, such a one did not remain long in the home.

At one time she called me to be her personal maid, and as I knew nothing about the requirements of such a position, she gave me seven finely written pages stating the things that were to be done. These necessitated continuity of action without false moves or forgetting.

When night came I had tucked her in bed, and I said: “Mother, I did not forget once nor make a mistake, did I?” She smiled up at me from her pillow and replied, “No, you didn’t. Night-night.” That night about midnight, she rang my bell. I went to her and asked what she wanted. She said: “Martha, do you ever forget?” I replied, “Mother, Mind never forgets.” Then she said, “Go back to bed.” Mrs. Eddy always required us, whenever appropriate, to answer her questions with the absolute statement of Science. The next morning, after she was seated in her study, she said: “Martha, if you had admitted last night that anyone can forget, you would have made yourself liable to forgetting. Whatever error you admit in yourself as real or in another, you make yourself liable to that error. Admitting error as real produces error and is all there is to it.”

There was another incident that occurred while I acted in the capacity of maid for Mrs. Eddy that was a great lesson to me. It was when Mrs. Eddy wrote and added to Science and Health the two lines at the bottom of page 442: “Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.” She wrote almost constantly for three days. She consulted the dictionary, the grammar, studied synonyms and antonyms, and when she had finished, she had these lines to add to Science and Health. I marvelled at her perseverance and the time she consumed in writing two lines. But she had worked out a scientific statement for Christian Science students that would stand through the ages. After writing for three days, she gave us the two lines. But who of us can estimate the value of these two lines?

Those closely associated with Mrs. Eddy knew when she was giving birth, in thought, to some important decision, such as a change in the church, or the making of a new by-law, or something in connection with her writings. Many times there seemed to be great travail when these things were being born of the spirit. I remember such a time when she abolished the Communion season of The Mother Church, and again when certain by-laws were brought out.

On page 242 of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mrs. Eddy has given us instructions for Christian Science practice. This instruction was given in 1910, just a short time before she left us, and illustrates the quality and vitality of her thought in her ninetieth year.

She wrote as follows: “You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal,” etc. (My. 242:3-7)

Frequently Mrs. Eddy would say to some member of her household, “Now remember what you are,” meaning that if we, to ourselves, do seem to be human, we are instead divine, even though seen “through a glass darkly.” She meant that if we will dispose of the false sense about ourselves, we leave present only noumenon and phenomena, or God and man as one.

I was greatly impressed with Mrs. Eddy’s moods of thought. Sometimes her spontaneity almost took my breath away. One day, upon her return from the drive, we were all asked to come into her study. As we stood about her, Mr. Dickey said: “Mother, this is the cream of the country.” Instantly she flashed back, “The cream? I want them to be the butter!”

Mrs. Eddy expected me to know where everything was in the house, even though she had not had it herself forty years; and why not, when consciousness includes all? She taught me that there was only one consciousness, and that this consciousness was my consciousness and included all ideas as present and at hand; and she expected me to demonstrate it.

In her personal instructions she gave nothing to me but what she had given in her writings to all her students of Christian Science. But what so impressed her instructions upon my mind was that she required of me immediate application and demonstration of what she taught. Without this required application and demonstration, Mrs. Eddy knew that the instruction she gave would be of little value to me.

At one time, I was under her personal instruction and was a mental worker for seven weeks. One evening she gave me a problem to work, and, of course, I had a great desire to prove the reality at hand; so I worked the greater part of the night. In the morning she called me to her and said: “Martha, why did you not do your work?” I replied, “Mother, I did.” She said: “No, you didn’t. You had a good talk with the devil. Why did you not know God’s allness?” I said: “Mother, I tried.” And her reply was, “Well, if Jesus had just tried and failed we would have no Science today.” Then she had a card hung on the inside of my room on which was printed in large letters, “Faith without works is dead.” I looked at that for two weeks!

Another day she said: “Now, Martha, you go upstairs and write out a treatment for rain. We need rain.” And on that special day while it was very sultry, the sun never shone brighter. I had hardly seated myself to write out the treatment when my number rang and I had to go to her. She said, “Well, give me the treatment.” I said: “Mother I did not have time to write it out.” She said: “Well, just tell it to me.” So I started in to show God’s allness, etc. But she soon stopped me and said: “Now, Martha, come down from sailing around up there. It’s rain we need. Let’s have rain.” With the greatest feeling of humility and in tears, I said, “Mother, I can’t do it.” Then she said: “It took Calvin Frye and Laura (meaning Mrs. Sargent) a long time to do it; but you can see that it must be done, and learn somewhat how to do it.”

Then she talked to me about the weather, and when she had finished, I went to my room and wrote down as nearly as I could remember and had understood, some of the things she had told me. In substance, she said: “God does not make sultry weather; and if we through belief have sultry weather, we must unmake it. God governs the weather. He governs the elements and there are no destructive winds or lightning. Love always looks out from the clouds.” And then she added, “Beliefs about the weather are easier healed than sickness.”

When those of her household failed to make a demonstration, there was no spirit of self-justification. We felt very much as I believe the disciples felt when taught by the Master. There were many demonstrations that we made and many that we did not make.

During the time that I was under Mrs. Eddy’s personal instruction and a mental worker, she gave us two lessons from the Scriptures that impressed me very, very much. One was animal magnetism, based on the man who was born blind. She showed us very clearly that “neither hath this man sinned nor his parents,” for they were both the divine man. For a long time I clearly saw that there was no such thing as a “sinning mortal man,” but only “the perfect man,” needing no healing. I saw that my so-called matter man was the divine in reversion, or “seen through a glass darkly,” as St. Paul says. The other lesson was an “Answer to Prayer,” taken from the first chapter of James and the first eight verses. When she read, “but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering,” I saw clearly that a doubleminded man could not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Mrs. Eddy’s Bible lessons were wonderful. She usually began each morning’s instruction with a lesson from the Bible. Holding her Bible between her hands, she let it open where it would, and began with what her eyes first fell upon. It seemed marvelous that the Bible always opened at the right place.

When Mrs. Eddy gave this personal instruction, it was not given to students as in a class, nor was it continuous for a definite period of time. When Mrs. Eddy so desired, she called a student to her, or called her group of mental workers to her, sometimes several times a day. And the individual student or the group of mental workers always stood while she instructed them.

Mrs. Eddy sometimes had guests for dinner, twelve o’clock dinner. And while she always had her place at the table, her dinner was usually served privately in her room. She liked to have to dinner such persons as Bliss Knapp, of whom she was very fond, Mrs. Knott, Mr. Dixon, and others with whom she had interviews. Mr. Bicknell Young was out to dinner and had an interview with Mrs. Eddy a short time before he taught the Metaphysical College in 1910. And when he told Mrs. Eddy that “that was the best dinner that I ever ate,” she expressed just as much satisfaction as any other human woman would have done.

Mrs. Eddy sometimes read the advertised bargains in the Boston newspaper. She was always interested in the affairs of the day and especially was she interested in all inventions. To her these things were “expansive and promoted the growth of mortal mind out of itself.” I think it was in the summer of 1908 that the Wright Brothers gave an exhibition of flying near Boston. Usually Mrs. Eddy did not want the members of her household to be away, but on this occasion she insisted that several of us go to see these flights. Comparatively speaking, it was not much of an exhibition, but it was wonderful in that day. And to Mrs. Eddy it was the appearance of advancing thought, and she was interested in every detail of the exhibition.

Little Tokens of Appreciation

Mrs. Eddy appreciated little remembrances from her friends. She and Mother Farlow, Alfred Farlow’s mother, who lived not far from Mrs. Eddy’s estate, sometimes sent each other flowers from their gardens. Once on Washington’s birthday Mother Farlow sent Mrs. Eddy a little inexpensive token, a miniature cherry tree in a little green bucket. Mrs. Eddy prized this gift greatly. It was on her desk for many months, and I believe it is now on her what-not.

Her Love for Children

Mrs. Eddy had a great love for children and young people. Perhaps some of you remember Mr. and Mrs. Clark, who lived in the northwest and who were miraculously cared for during the raging forest fire. An account of their particular case came out in the Sentinel at that time. This Mr. and Mrs. Clark, with their year-old baby boy, visited Mrs. Eddy’s home and while they were having an interview with Mr. Dickey in the library, I took charge of the baby. When Mrs. Eddy heard there was a baby in the house, she sent immediately for me to bring the baby to her. I held him out before her and she patted his fat little legs and caressed him, but the baby was very much interested in the silver paper cutter and stamp box. So he carried it away, held tightly in his chubby fist, very much more interested in the stamp box than in his distinguished hostess! No doubt he now prizes his souvenir very much. One week later, Mrs. Eddy wanted to know the fare to Montana. She wanted them to bring the baby again.

Her Grandsons

On her birthday in June 1909, I believe, Mrs. Eddy’s two grandsons visited her. They were young men about twenty and twenty-two years of age. One of the boys was a Reader in his little home church. Mrs. Eddy was so pleased with him and wanted them to stay in Chestnut Hill. The older boy said: “Grandmother, we would like to stay, but we are needed on the farm.” She gave them each a Science and Health, and I can assure you that there was plenty of home-made cake and ice cream for those boys, to which they did ample justice. By the way, Mrs. Eddy was very fond of ice cream. She had it always twice a day, for her dinner and for her supper.

Duties of Members

The members of Mrs. Eddy’s household were nearly all experienced practitioners and teachers. There was a group who did mental work, cared for the secretarial work and saw to all the correspondence. Then there was a group of women, usually five in number, practically all of whom left their homes, some of whom were practitioners, and each one a good working student in Christian Science, who took care of Mrs. Eddy’s entire home of thirty rooms and ten bathrooms. We washed and stretched all lace curtains, and washed and ironed Mrs. Eddy’s personal things. There were two colored women, students of Christian Science, who did the household laundry.

Every room in the house was carpeted, and many of them with velvet carpets. These were kept in perfect condition with brooms. There were no vacuum cleaners until I had been there several months. I think we had almost the first one that came out. Then there was all the cooking and the planning of the meals for a family of seventeen regularly, up to twenty-five at times. I usually went to Faneuil Hall Market twice each week, to buy the meats and fish. Most of the groceries were bought at Brookline; and during the summer months a Greek boy came to the house with fruits and berries and vegetables each day.

During the spring of 1908 Mrs. Eddy had her suite of rooms remodeled. A shift of men worked during the day and another shift worked at night. This made the housekeeping quite difficult. Finally, she was again settled in her study and everything was finished but the pink parlor. The men were coming out from Boston to lay the carpets and they were to be put down while she was out for a drive. The floor was covered with fresh plaster. John (Salchow?) usually took care of such jobs, but he was away that morning. So I cleaned the floor and the carpet paper and laid it and had the room ready for the man to lay the carpet, but I myself was a sight to behold. The men were through and gone by the time the carriage returned, and I had a few minutes to freshen myself.

In a very short time, Mrs. Sargent came down and said: “Martha, Mother wants you.” I shall never forget how grateful I was that I had the opportunity to make myself presentable, because I had to go when she called. When I entered, the mental workers were all standing about the room. I went to her and said: “What do you want, Mother?” With tears rolling down her cheeks, she replied: “I have been praying for God to send someone who will stand, no matter what comes up, and He has told me to call you. Now come in every day with the mental workers and have your lessons and do your mental work.” It was at this time that I was under her personal instructions every day for nearly seven weeks.

I would not in any way lead you to believe that I, more than others of her household, was greatly blessed. But it seems only just to let each one in the home tell of his own personal experience. It was quite impossible for Mrs. Eddy to have those who are termed servants care for her home. So this duty fell to those of us who were willing to serve her in that capacity. I have tried here to show something of what we did while in the house, and we were busy from early morning until late at night. Mrs. Eddy’s home was a very practical home. There was nothing mysterious going on, but it was necessary to have around her those who could in a small way understand her mission to the world.

About two weeks before she left us, she called me into her study about five o’clock in the evening. She was resting on her couch, as she usually did before her evening meal. I wish you might have heard her expressions of gratitude for her home and her gratitude to those who were caring for her home. She commented on how clean and beautiful we were keeping it, and what it meant to her to have such a place in which to do her work and carry out the Movement of Christian Science. She said: “You girls are so good to do this for me.” Then she said: “Martha, is there any reason why you should not stay with me forever?” I replied: “Mother, I will stay with you as long as you need me to stay.”

I learned later from Mr. Frye just why Mrs. Eddy wanted my assurance that I would stay with her. Mrs. Eddy decided that I was to go through the Metaphysical College within a very short time, and she thought that I might desire to go home and teach. When I assured her that I would stay with her as long as she needed me, she patted my arm and said: “Oh Martha, I do not like to be fat.” Then she said: “Well, I once weighed one hundred and forty pounds.” This is just one of the many examples of her motherliness.

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy had best expressed her feelings about her home and the members of her household in her “Paean of Praise” in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, with which I shall close: (My. 355:18 to 356:9) “Behind a frowning Providence He hides a shining face.” etc.

Affirmation

While one’s affirmation should be the specific positive statement of Truth with regard to the false claim or suggestion, it should also be so universal that you can feel that all are blessed thereby.

To affirm the Truth in a limited way for a specific situation is to permit the false claim to go unchallenged in its supposititiously universal sense.

When good results are not obtained promptly, one should deny specifically, even though such denial is a purely human auxiliary.

The function of specific denial is to lead thought to that state where the human aspect is gone and pure being remains. (S&H 454:31)

However, though it may appear to be a person denying the claim, the divine “I” of one’s being never becomes identified with the denial. A denial is not Truth denying error; it is error denying itself.

Even though one may appear to be using the divine “I” while denying error, it is still not the divine “I” at all. Nevertheless, such denials do not interrupt the continuity of divine realization. At the same moment one is denying error, at that same moment Truth is declaring itself uninterruptedly. Mind will never cease to be aware of itself.

The absolute is always correct, not the relative. One cannot be too absolute. If one is accused of being too absolute, that is nothing but personal sense. Possibly you have lacked wisdom in your exposition.

Think radically; speak wisely. (B. Young)

There is no restriction to the activity of divine Mind, which is man. Jesus’ work was simply the activity of divine power which becomes available and operates divinely whenever man identifies himself with the divine. He is not a person. We should think of God as activity, using verbs to describe Him rather than by employing nouns which are static.

War, as well as a cut on one’s finger, is an endeavor on the part of mortal mind to disrupt one’s understanding of body, “the tablet of one’s being.” (S&H 227:26)

A material body is mortal mind’s concept of the spurious “I”. It is also its concept of itself as matter. The real body is joy, beauty, loveliness. The divine Mind constitutes its own body, thinking, which is misrepresented by personal sense as its own thinking, body.

One does not look subjectively on the universe, but includes the spiritual universe as one’s own body.

There is nothing in my experience, or body, which is involuntary.

Business: It is almost a prevailing belief that our business activities are dependent on the activities of other persons, or on the government of this or other nations, and that our business is out of God’s hands. As we understand the coordination of things, we shall free ourselves from this mass mesmerism.

Do not think of church officers as persons who are guided by divine Principle, but as the full indivisible operation of Principle itself.

In order to aid the movement, you must see it impersonally. The greatest danger to the Christian Science movement is a false theological approach to Christian Science on the part of the members of the movement itself, who are unwilling to refrain from personalizing God and Mrs. Eddy.

The Mother Church is one’s subjective realization of Being.

How is one to work in order to improve the church, to increase church attendance, etc.? We must change more radically the method of knowing the Truth. Reform in Christian Science comes from doing away with a personal sense of existence, which in turn will appear as a better church movement; in the final analysis, the church as an institution is the effect in human experience of the realization of the first definition of church in the Glossary.

Declare daily that all action is divine action.

All action is God. Just act like God, good. (B. Young)

Ascension begins when one stops thinking of oneself as a person. One ascends as one realizes that there is nothing requiring ascension. To the extent that I think that someone else has not ascended nor should ascend, I myself have not ascended.

The burden of proof of ascension is not on the person who supposedly dies, but on ourselves, who supposedly remain.

Think of your association as a right idea which you include; not as a human organization to which you belong. This concept will result in greater benefit to you.

When you analyze mortal belief you are in a way giving it some reality. Message 1901, p. 12:27-2, is an example of handling evil, though the word “handling” is bad since it gives one a sense of duality.

It is of the utmost importance that there be a proper use of language, and that the statement of Christian Science be correct. (S&H 283:24) On the other hand, one must adapt one’s phraseology, keeping one’s thought clear meanwhile.

Adultery is derived from the Latin root “alter” meaning, “the other of two.” In the case of the adulterous woman, Jesus performed the office of Christ by refusing to accept as true the false suggestion about the woman. By showing the false nature of the accuser, he silenced the condemnation and accusation of those who personalized sin. Then he, as “I,” being conscious of his own loving perfection, could not condemn her either. In other words, he first healed the accusing aspect of sin and then healed the victimizing aspect of sin.

In the measure that we live the divine all-inclusiveness, the more change there will be.

“The Holy sense of God is ALL, and Love, and there is no other Mind to send thoughts. Here is the best way to meet malicious animal magnetism.” (Mary Baker Eddy to Mr. Tomlinson)

The proper way to handle malpractice is always impersonally. That makes it possible to see its unreality, there being no channels nor mediums therefor. Malpractice expresses itself by its own idea and according to its own law.

The aim of the devil is to keep you disturbed, not to see or acknowledge or penetrate the cause, the argument which is handling you. A man throws a stone at you. The devil throws a man at you. Leave the man alone and get after the devil. We may not be able to stop malpractice, but we can rise to where it does not touch us. (A. Greenough)

As hypnotism (animal magnetism) is based upon evil, it cannot be a science, and therefore, it cannot control. It must, however, be denied specifically. Such denials are effective only when done from the standpoint of Mind in active operation, expressing itself lawfully and not from the standpoint of a person giving a treatment. The right kind of denial leads to the spiritual heights of pure being where Being itself replaces the denial. If you think you are a Christian Scientist, one among many in a world of millions of men, you are lost, and start out mesmerized. To avoid being hypnotized, you must declare you are never asleep, especially in the morning after rising. But this declaration must be made about the “I” of your being and not about a Christian Scientist.

We must deny the material sense of earth and world. We are not in it and it is not in us. One should not be reluctant to deny error. Reluctance to deny error permits error to handle you.

Only affirmation from the standpoint of Mind results in healing, and this kind of affirmation includes the best denial.

By admitting the possibility that a difficult situation may arise is to make it possible for that situation to arise in your experience.

Rise into that higher consciousness by knowing that you do not have to rise but already are it. Consciousness must be universal.

With reference to I John 3:1-3, the following interpretation applies: “Now are we the understanding of God.”

Giving always implies duality. God never gives anything. Infinite Truth expresses itself in manifestation.

The real trouble began, not when Adam according to the allegory in Genesis took the apple from Eve and ate it, but when Eve was created, thereby for the first time bringing into the Bible narrative a sense of duality.

We cannot lose our body, for we shall always have, or be, the embodiment of Mind. All that we can lose is the material personal sense of body.

The belief that the body is material is death itself. We can only get out of it by knowing we were never in it.

Friends tried to bring Lazarus back to a sense of life in matter and failed. However, when the belief of life in matter yielded to Truth, it was made evident to the materialists around as raising the dead.

Wishing to restore life to matter resulted, with few notable exceptions, in failure. Instead, realize more constantly that life has nothing to do with death, or matter. Handle the belief of birth and death as applied to a person. One must not think that about himself, or one will open the door to death for himself. Every disease is a symptom of death. Therefore, disease overcome is a reduction of the belief of death.

Truth is its own demonstration by being Truth.

The prerequisite for chemicalization is a sense of duality.

The Christ is the understanding of that which divinely is, as that which I divinely am.

Christian Science is a Science first and not a Christian sect.

Cause is God, Principle; effect is idea, man. However, the discrimination between cause and effect is not in Mind but is a human distinction.

Condemning must be stopped, because by condemning you identify yourself with the claim. By admitting imperfection in others, one limits oneself, for by seeing them, one actually admits imperfections for oneself, through calling it someone else. Criticism and gossip are the evidence of personal sense on the part of the critic or gossiper.

Do not accept the suggestion that one is condemned to suffer for doing wrong. There is no reality to evil. Therefore there is nothing to be punished.

There is no conflict between God, Good, and evil. The only conflict is a conflict between worse and better conditions of mortal belief. As long as you believe that you are in a conflict between good and evil, you are in for a fight. As the belief of fighting decreases, you will progress more easily.

You cannot become conscious of any conflict between a sense of “myself” and a sense of another. That is only possible to personal sense and it is not divine.

By approaching an understanding of God as good persons fighting evil, early Christians experienced martyrdom. Never believe that a lot of error is going on outside of you, for that makes it possible for you to experience all that error which you acknowledge was formerly going on outside of you.

“When being is understood” (S&H 76:6), this “being” means your being, your everyday being. There is no process whereby to become divine manifestation. Man IS the divine manifestation or divine self-knowledge. Be continually aware of the effulgence or state of one’s own being. One’s individual existence is above a mortal sense of being. Nothing is going on outside of me, that is, outside of the “I” of my being. Seek a sense of pure being, without any sense of person. There is no interference from the outside for there is no outside to divine being.

We should rejoice in the completeness of being, in which the realization of divine being does away with the tenseness of human conceptions, and we should live divine Science rather than have a vision about it.

“Be the Mind that never heard of error.” (Mary Baker Eddy to Joseph D. Mann)

Body is consciousness and experience. Therefore only that which constitutes divine consciousness is my body and not what suggestion would suggest. The idea is body; whatever is material about it is the false belief about it. There is no private body, there is but one infinite body, my body, and that body is never touched by anything, but is ever effortlessly maintained by divine Principle.

My thinking or knowing is divine consciousness, body, and nothing else. If a thing isn’t true about the divine Mind, it isn’t true about anything, body included.

The only body there is, is Christian Science. It is never outside of Mind, receiving something from Mind. It is divine consciousness in its all-inclusiveness. Body is the universality of being. Mind being, embracing or embodying within itself all true self-knowledge.

Therefore, in dealing with body, don’t deal with matter. Realize that you do not possess the material body, as Mind realizes that fact, and be convinced that no material body possesses you. Claim no sex.

The purpose of the Christian Science movement is to assist Christian Scientists in becoming more spiritually minded, not to perpetuate the movement.

In church activity one should ask, “Is this activity going to contribute to the demonstration of Divine Science?”

Our value in circulation work lies in what we know rather than what we do.

When we recognize that consciousness is the operation of divine Principle, that is the law to the human situation, and it helps to promote most efficiently the circulation and distribution of literature. Divine ideas do not circulate or go in circles. That is what the committees are doing.

Do not think of a reading room as a room full of people seeking spiritual understanding. There is no human mind to be enlightened. The divine Mind is fully expressed and understands itself.

The Truth will remove the belief that the reading room is not functioning properly. The usefulness of an idea cannot be impaired. All that is going on is the divine Mind expressing itself. When the divine facts are approximated, a reading room is the instrument.

Don’t prepare the soil for human persons. Get away from persons. If one is disturbed about a reading room, it blocks the demonstration. Handle the seeming reluctance of persons to become Christian Scientists. Also handle laziness and fear of losing something pleasing.

Following Mrs. Eddy only as far as she follows Christ, should be our attitude to the Christian Science Board of Directors. The trouble with our movement is that it is being carried on too much as a Christian sect and not as the Science of Christianity.

When there are factions in a church, it is not what it appears to be. Rather, it is an attempt of evil to disrupt your true sense of church. Don’t keep factional strife going by admitting the false suggestion as your thought or as the thoughts of others.

Quoted As From Mrs. Eddy

“Death is an illusion. It is the termination of the universal lie which says that man was born. No person will ever be more conscious of death than he is of birth. Everything that has a beginning must of necessity have an ending. Death is the ending of the beginning called birth. Death is not in the victim we say has died, but in us. It is we who put our friends in the ground and cover them up and ever afterwards declare them gone. All the phenomena are in us and not in them.

“Our verdict of death in our friends does not change them one iota. Jesus was the same after apparent death and burial as before. Again I say, no one will ever be conscious of death. It is absolutely nothing and it is impossible to be conscious of nothing. Man is a coexistent creature with his creator. Man has always existed, and if none of us have ever been conscious of death up to the present moment, it is pretty good evidence that we shall never be conscious of it. The person who says, “I am dying,” is but a helpless automaton who unwittingly becomes a victim to preconceived opinions, and voices the culmination of error. If the senses lie about life, they also lie about death. We lose consciousness of our friends by a change of belief; a stronger belief in the verdict of the world than in the presence of our friends, wipes out their presence and leaves in their place the lost belief.

“We shall exist to them unless they likewise have accepted some other belief similarly destroying their conception of us. The disciples were the same to Jesus after his apparent death as before. We exist (as matter) in each other’s minds, and all we know of our friends is our mortal conception of them. This concept remains until we transpose it with another, when the last becomes the dominant belief. There is nothing gained by waiting for death for it never comes. We must individually lift ourselves above the claims of the senses.” Mary Baker Eddy

“I think it has been my great aspiration that the wave of error, calling itself death, should not pass over me. I see this morning that this aspiration, this thought of itself is error, in that it builds up the belief that there is something to fight, and something to overcome, thus it fosters fear. “What if this wave does seem to engulf me, the opposite fact that it does not, is the Truth and by this seeming I am not changed, not harmed, for nothing can ever have any power to affect us. This view removes fear, and removes the aspiration, and shows us by this means I am doing more towards conquering, more to keep off the wave. We need not take up arms against a shadow when it is clear to us it is a shadow.” Mary Baker Eddy

There is no such thing as a live person. To be a person is to be dead. By acquiescing that you are a person, you accept your death sentence. To see a person is to admit death for oneself by identifying oneself with human personalities. Be concerned with the divine facts and not the human evidence. Utterly reject all suggestions of the inevitability of death, for eternal life is never attained through death. The only death is the death of the human material personal concept. (Dr. deLange)

Every disease is a symptom of death. Therefore disease overcome is a reduction of the belief called death. Handle the belief of birth and death as applied to person. One must not think that about oneself or one will open the door to death. (Dr. deLange)

The following declaration is needed in order to get results: “All there is to me is the divine Mind infinitely manifesting itself.”

The argument that one is a human being must be silenced.

We should start the day by the recognition of the fact that the “I” of my being never slept nor was unconscious. Neither is it limited in space nor does it exist as a person, but it exists always as the oneness and allness of divine Being.

It is never Life itself that hesitates to declare that it is Life. Thinking of oneself as Life is expressing Life, Life uttering itself. (Dr. deLange)

The divine “I” never emerges from yesterday nor goes into tomorrow. If you ascribe power to evil, this “you” is the “you” of ignorance, not the “I” of true being. (Dr. deLange)

Generic man is the right concept about that which to the human concept is the human man, for the term “generic man” refers to the universal concept of being, man’s universal character. (Dr. deLange)

Good whether appearing as your good or my good, is still good, God. Good is always a direct manifestation of God, but it is not expressed through human person. (Dr. deLange)

All is the divine Mind, therefore the false claim cannot hide itself and so becomes revealed.

Happiness is the oneness of God experienced as the oneness of one’s own body. The unfoldment of divine reality experienced as one’s own Ego is happiness, happiness not happy.

Everything which implies happiness in its divine, not personal, sense describes the Allness of Deity, its nature, substance and quality. Mind is supreme happiness. In its highest sense happiness is divine self-completeness as Oneness. This is not a personal condition. There is no dependence on outside circumstances, for in its selfexpression Mind finds its own Being and functions.

This does not mean, however, that one is to get rid of material possessions, but rather that one is reminded that if material possessions appear necessary to one, he is indulging in a limited sense of things which is not productive of true happiness.

We must free ourselves of the suggestion that happiness is a goal to be reached. Such a suggestion implies the reality of imperfection, while happiness can only be visioned from the standpoint of perfection.

It is a good thing to mentally remind yourself daily that God is the only lawmaker for man, morally, spiritually and physically.

There is no future in the eternal now of infinite Mind, hence there is no future in which to realize Truth, or to know God, or to reach perfection, and there is no demonstration to make because the only demonstration that is, was, or ever will be, is God, and is made, and man is the knowledge of this fact. (E. A. Kimball)

Truth is its own demonstration by being Truth.

The greater works referred to by Jesus may quite well be the prevention of problems from arising. Certainly the best demonstration is to prevent a situation from arising. To devote excessive effort to the solution of one’s own problem, to the exclusion of the universal problems, is to limit one’s own demonstration.

The most effectual denial is “There is no mortal mind.” The proper way to handle it is always impersonally. On the other hand if you think about yourself habitually as a person you are in no position to handle it .

If one denies error, and this denial is only for one’s self, or one’s patients, the denial is incomplete, for inferentially you are admitting the reality of error for others. Neither is the denial of error from the standpoint of a person doing the denying, a complete denial. (Dr. deLange) By continual right appreciation of one’s perfection, discordant conditions diminish. This is the exercise of dominion.

Man includes the earth as a spiritual idea. He is not in the earth as a material sphere, nor is he included in earth. God’s supremacy expressed in and as man is dominant power. (Dr. deLange)

“I beg that you will allow no envy or root of bitterness to spring up between you but ‘that you love one another, even as I have loved you’ and may the grace of God and the fellowship of love be and abide with you forever.”

Mary Baker Eddy C.S. Sentinel, Vol. 38, p. 22

Association

The Purpose of Our Association Meeting

May I again remind you of Mrs. Eddy’s purpose in establishing THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION as an activity in the Christian Science movement.

An association meeting is quite different from a lecture. A lecture presents Christian Science to an audience in all states and stages of growth; it is given both to the illumined and unillumined mind, while in an association the work is presented to class-taught students only, or to the enlightened and educated minds of Christian Scientists.

The intent of an Association Meeting is the furtherance of class instruction, and the elucidation of the deep metaphysics in the Bible, in our textbook, and in Mrs. Eddy’s other writings.

Each successive Association Meeting should keep pace with the advancement of the Christian Science Movement; or in other words, the students of the Association should keep abreast of the continuous rise in thought, which is the unfoldment of the revelation of divine Science in human consciousness. The work should be in the nature of instruction and enlightenment, and should be basic in its application to the problems of the hour.

So today we are here for a renewal or a revival in the truth of our being and for further spiritual education concerning our immortality. We cannot hear the words of Truth too often. If we have become dulled by reason of the pressing error of these times, the words of truth will cut through this mesmerism and reassure our thought as to the spiritual facts of being and the power of Mind.

The words of Truth are not mere repetitions, but are constant restatements.

“Our knowing the truth” is a continuous restatement of truth, clung to and trusted. And what does the word of truth do except demesmerize thought and bring to light man’s present immortality?

Unless life is becoming clearer and richer to us, we are not progressing as we should; and today I trust that we shall open our thought to a larger inpouring of the letter and the spirit of truth, so that we may free our thought from its belief in perishable mortality, and plant it more firmly in the fact of our immortality.

Present Events

We are very much aware that the whole world at this present time is going through an experience of great significance, equal to none other since the advent of Jesus. It is important in view of the severe chemicalization which is going on in the world today, that we as Christian Scientists understand what is occurring and through this understanding be “the light of the world, a city that cannot be hid.”

Mrs. Eddy says, “Science only can explain the incredible good and evil elements now coming to the surface”; and she adds, “Mortals must find refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter days.” (S&H 83:6)

She also says, “The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of Truth.” (S&H 490:12)

Christian Scientists must have a higher altitude of thought than the use of personal opinions as their weapons. Mrs. Eddy says, “Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science than a blind belief without understanding, for such a belief hides Truth and builds error.” (S&H 83:9)

The events of this present time are of great significance to the Christian Science Movement in view of the fact that certain prophecies in the Bible and certain prophecies in Mrs. Eddy’s writings are becoming manifest in concrete phenomena.

The event of this day is the coming of the Son of God, visible humanly as the Son of man, in power and great glory. The event of this day is the appearing of our divinity made visible as a purer humanity. Our individual relation to this event is that we are the event itself. The individual Christ, or the reality of the individual man, is becoming appreciable to the world as our “true manhood.” In other words our divinity, which is ever at hand in power and great glory, is becoming visible in human manifestation.

The present event is none other than the great influx of the impersonal Christ or understanding taking place in the consciousness of men and women; and the definite result of this influx of the impersonal Christ or understanding, which is a living, conscious, irresistible power, is the great upheaval and disturbance which is taking place in human consciousness as the mental atmosphere of the human being is being cleared.

Let us remember that each individual human being is a mode of consciousness, or he is a mental world; and this upheaval that is taking place within himself, or within his own mental world, is the result of the conflict that is taking place between his real self, the Christ understanding, and his false educated beliefs.

It is well to remember that all the phenomena that are seen in our world today are formed within our own consciousness, and are wholly mental. All the sin, the war, and greed, and earthquakes that we seem to experience at this time, are phenomena formed by the human mind, and take place within the human consciousness of the individual.

The upheaval and disturbance of this present day is the result of mankind shaking loose and clearing away his false beliefs; it is the dissolving of the false educated beliefs of the centuries, beliefs that have constituted much of the atmosphere of mortals.

It is said that at times when some great revelation of Truth was appearing in Mrs. Eddy’s consciousness, that she heard it thunder. Then she knew that established beliefs in the human mind were being uprooted and displaced.

Our Responsibility

Our responsibility at the present time is to have the spiritual discernment of the Son of God, which is the reality of all things as being at hand, even “though seen through a glass darkly,” and not to be mesmerized with the noise and confusion of the passing away of that which is false belief only.

As Christian Scientists we understand that the fact of the oneness of God and man is demonstrated in human experience. This oneness means that God and man is one Consciousness ever conscious of Itself; it means that everything is in consciousness now, is here now. There can be no there in consciousness.

There is nothing external to consciousness to change or to deal with or to be afraid of. There is no time, no waiting for things to be better, no process by which to make them better. There is nothing going on outside of Consciousness, and all that is going on as Consciousness is Mind consciously being man and the universe.

All things which seem to be transpiring as our world or consciousness, whether at home or abroad, whether the affairs of nations, national or international, are not outside of us where they would be difficult to handle, but we (they) are all here in consciousness as Realities and they should be understood in their reality.

In Infinite Consciousness “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)

This means that there is no Jew, no Greek, no bond, no free anywhere, because there is no there in infinite Consciousness. All these in their true depict are the sons and daughters of God, imperfectly known by us because of material sense. Mrs. Eddy says, “Material sense defines all things materially.” (S&H 208:2)

Scientific Christianity demands that we not only affirm that what we see humanly is the Reality or is the Son of God, here and now, but that we demonstrate this Truth, instead of merely believing in it; and demonstrate it to be a present fact here and now. This is our responsibility as individual Christian Scientists.

Biblical Prophecies

Many men of vision and great thinkers of this age are seeing the signs of fulfillment in the latter part of this century of certain Scriptural prophecies. One of these prophecies is recorded in the 20th chapter of Exodus. It reads as follows: “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: But the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.”

In this prophecy, which dates with the beginning of history, man is allotted six days in which to dispel the darkened sense which he himself created when he erringly assumed his separation from God and wandered far from true Consciousness. “To labor and do all thy work,” signifies that during this period of six days man is to dispel the ignorance and the false beliefs which constitute so-called mortal mind or material sense, and by so doing he returns, or is restored, to his Father’s house or true consciousness.

Saint Peter, in his second Epistle, emphasized the fact that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” Therefore, inasmuch as 4000 years elapsed from the time of this prophecy at the beginning of Bible history to the advent of Jesus on earth, and nearly 2000 years since Christ Jesus delivered the great influx of spiritual light and illumination which aided mankind to work out his salvation, obviously the 6000 years or the six days spoken of in this prophecy will end with our present 20th century or with the close of the year 1999.

Then cometh the seventh or the Sabbath day, the day of rest from our labors, which is called the Millennium. Particularly during the past few years, since the coming of Christian Science, great numbers are accepting and living the teachings of Jesus and are putting into practice the good which is theirs by Divine Right. We are fast awakening to the fact that nothing has changed us from being WHAT WE ARE, Sons and Daughters of God. Is not this a time for rejoicing?

Jesus’ Prophecy Luke 21

In this present day many who have spiritual discernment are seeing and experiencing the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy regarding these latter days. Jesus prophesied these troublous times. He said, “Upon the earth there shall be distress of nations, with perplexity; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after these things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

It should be observed that the words “The powers of heaven shall be shaken” do not refer to real heaven, but merely to the false sense of security which human beings have built up for themselves and now find to be utterly unstable. We are learning that a material concept of things is always an insecure concept.

What is our attitude towards these latter days? Surely not one of fear, and anxiety and confusion. No. Jesus’ admonition to us was, that we ascend upon our housetop, meaning an altitude of understanding, and not come down. He said in connection with this prophecy, “In your patience possess ye your souls,” and “There shall not an hair of your head perish.”

Jesus’ promise for these troublous times was, “Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud of great glory.” He also left for us the scientific admonition, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads (understanding), for your redemption draweth nigh.” Yes, we have the unfailing assurance of rest and deliverance from what seems to be upheaval and disaster.

What is the son of man and what is his coming in a cloud with power and great glory? The son of man is the Son of God perceived humanly. Mrs. Eddy says, “The human manifestation of the Son of God was called the Son of man, or Mary’s son.” (Mis. 84:16)

The Son of God and the son of man are not two separate entities, but one. The Son of man is the Son of God imperfectly known, because seen through the lens of material sense. The Son of man and the Son of God is the human and the divine coincidence that was seen in the man Jesus.

What appears to us to be a human being is, in his real character, deific, and is the Son of God. And if we fully understand ourselves and others as being the Son of God, we would all be seen as having the power and great glory that Jesus had and we would demonstrate it.

Jesus asked his disciples, “But whom say ye that I, the son of man, am?” And the discerning Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

This spiritual fact has been revealed to us, and are we, at least in a measure, demonstrating that we are “now the Sons of God”? Are we demonstrating that each one of us is now the individual Christ-self, seen humanly or seen in his true humanhood?

“The coming of the Son of man in a cloud, with power and glory” refers to the demonstration of Christian Science, which demonstration is the Son of man. The coming in a cloud signifies that the demonstration is often mysterious to mortal mind and yet the power and glory of it is recognized.

Sickness and Sin Aggravated

If sickness seems to be aggravated in these days, it is because we are passing out of the hour when we shall be sick and need healing into the hour when the Son of God, the reality of all things, will so occupy consciousness that what appears to need healing will be revealed as divine ideas which always have been whole and complete.

Are we not ready, today, to leave the belief of sickness without attempting, in some way, to heal it or to destroy it? How can we heal that which is already whole, if we see it as it already is? Let us remember Jesus’ words, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” This means that we fulfill by seeing perfectly a Reality which as yet appears imperfectly.

If sin seems to be aggravated in these days, it is because the dream of corporeality and materiality, the dream of mistakes and frailties and imperfections and failures and the suffering of all of them, is dissolving. These are beliefs only. Because of the revelation that “now are we the Sons of God,” are we not ready to dismiss these beliefs without trying to regenerate and to destroy that which is nothing?

What if, in the dream of material sense, our “sins are as scarlet”? In reality, and that is all there ever has been to us, we were and are “white as snow.” What if, in our dream, our sins and failures and mistakes were “red like crimson”? There never was an instant of eternity when the sons and daughters of God were not as “white as wool.”

No matter what the nature of the dream or the seeming time it has continued, it is only a dream without a dreamer. The hour is passing when we desire to have the conditions of our dream fixed up and then continue our dreaming. The hour has come when we are awakening to our sense of wholeness; we are stepping out of the dream, not just fixing it up.

In this hour of the coming of the Son of man in his power and great glory, men and women, Christian Scientists, are arising as never before, recognizing their true state of Being. As the prodigal son “came to himself,” so are we coming to ourselves, finding ourselves, knowing ourselves.

The time has come when we can present ourselves to the world in the highest human manifestation of the sons and daughters of God, which will be the Son of man or our true humanhood. And our Reality, the Son of God or the individual Christ, will evidence Himself in His divine character, power, and great glory.

The dream, that which is nothing, has not changed us nor can it change us from being who we are and what we are; even the sons and daughters of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of the darkness.” (I Thes. 5:5)

Mrs. Eddy’s Prophecies

In Mrs. Eddy’s writings we find many prophecies concerning the closing years of the 20th Century. In Pulpit and Press (p. 23:18) she writes, “History shows the curious fact that the closing years of every century are years of more intense life, manifested in unrest or in aspiration; and scholars of special research, like Professor Max Muller, assert that the end of a cycle, as is the latter part of the present century, is marked by peculiar intimations of man’s immortal life.”

We hear much in these days about immortal life. Christian Scientists should intelligently reason out that as a scientific fact life is diseaseless and ageless, endless and deathless. Such statements of Truth do not just happen to be spoken; they are not of the personal mind, but they are the appearing of the Son of God, as the Son of man, in human consciousness.

Mrs. Eddy makes a remarkable prophecy concerning the church of this 20th Century. She says, “If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land, and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name. Christ will give to Christianity his new name, and Christendom will be classified as Christian Scientists.” (Pul. 22:9)

This is a remarkable prediction. Some one may say, “It does not look much like it now;” but we must remember that prophecy is the foretelling of the appearance of that which is already finished and complete.

Mrs. Eddy makes another momentous prophecy, the fulfillment of which is appearing at this present time. This prophecy concerns “The New Woman.” (Pul. 81:9)

Before Jesus’ time women were considered of lower rank and of lesser intelligence than men. All Patriarchs and prophets were seers and were supposed to attain much wisdom, and this wisdom was recognized as the masculine element in consciousness. Then according to prophecy there appeared a woman, the virgin Mary, who brought to mankind that which was even greater than wisdom, or the masculine element. She brought to mankind “The Light of the World” illustrating the feminine element in consciousness, which is Love.

The world calls this present time “Woman’s Day.” Since the Christian era began woman has steadily risen to the heights where she now stands. Today woman compels the attention of the world, for she has reached the side of man in nearly every endeavor and is destined to fully succeed in this century.

Before the close of these six days in which we are to labor and do all our work, we shall see woman standing beside man, his right equal, for so she was created.

But in Mrs. Eddy’s prophecy of women, “Woman’s Day” typifies the day of the fullness of Love. Mrs. Eddy is not referring to a corporeal woman or female gender. Woman typifies the female element in consciousness, the female of God’s creating, the fullness of Love. The female element in consciousness is that irresistible Love which ends wars, cancels all misunderstanding, transcends all fears and limitations, scales the heights, and reaches the mount of God who is Love itself.

“Woman’s Day” typifies a state of consciousness wherein Life and Love, man and woman, are seen as one being, not two; and a new state of living begins. Mrs. Eddy has predicted that in this present time there will be marked appearing of the feminine characteristics of thought, the Love characteristic of thought which gave birth to Jesus, and later to the revelation of Christian Science.

Love, or the feminine element in consciousness, is higher than the masculine element and so encompasses the masculine as illustrated by Mary and Jesus. The virgin Mary (woman) gave birth to Jesus (man). This is the day when Love, the feminine element, will encompass the masculine, and they will be one, humanly speaking. The woman thought will rise to see herself as man, the full representation of God, and there will be only that one perfect.

When this misconception of male and female first appeared in man’s thought, it was this belief that the masculine and feminine elements of consciousness were two separate states, instead of a unit wherein and whereof Life and Love combine to operate as one. The male and female of God’s creating are never to be thought of as though they were two entities, distinct one from the other, but must always be seen as one inseparable Being.

This is the day when the female characteristics of thought will understand and be her individual Christ-self, and she will love all men and women and things as her individual Christ-self. This state of thought is purely unselfish and is the Love that “thinketh no evil.”

That old saying, “only that day dawns to which we are awake,” is true, and at this present time we need to be very much awake and alert to what is actually transpiring in our mental world. He that hath eyes, that is, spiritual discernment, sees the mist of material beliefs dissolving, and the Kingdom of Heaven comes on earth.

Body — First Article

The student of Christian Science recognizes the supreme value of his body, because the body identifies or gives evidence to his mind. The individual’s mind would be unexpressed or unknown without his body.

The physical body, one’s physique, is simply one’s thought made manifest. The body, or the expression of the mind, is as mental as the mind and is coincidental with the mind.

Mrs. Eddy says, “all physical effects originate in mind before they can become manifest as matter.” (Hea. 12:10) She also says, “mortal mind creates its own physical conditions.” (S&H 77:8)

Many of the medical profession are convinced that physical inharmonies are largely the expression of mental inharmonies. It was the consensus of the delegates attending the Johns Hopkins Medical Association recently, that high blood pressure is purely mental, a hypertension that is brought on by repeated spells of mental, emotional, or nervous excitement or depression. They summarized the malady as a physical reaction or a bodily reaction to a mental or emotional state of mind, saying that anger, moral indignation and worry, no matter how justified, have a harmful effect on heart action and lead to chronic hypertension or high blood pressure.

Now we who are students of metaphysics, understand that the body is governed by mind, not partially but wholly, and that the only way one can improve the mind and thereby improve the body, is by knowing the truth about both mind and body.

When we understand body, we understand God or Mind. Body is the infinitude of God or Mind expressed. Body is the embodiment of the infinite spiritual ideas of Mind and its divine Science. Man is divine Science, therefore man is God’s or Mind’s body. Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love: the one Being, gives to Itself body by giving evidence to Itself as infinite idea.

There is one body, without parts. It is the one whole, just as the mind is without parts and is whole. There is just one body because there is just one Mind, and it is as important to know that there is one infinite body, as it is to know that there is one infinite Mind.

There is just one body, but this one body is enough for everyone. Just as the bark of the tree is enough for all the branches of the tree. This one body is reflected to human sense as an infinitude of body, and it is essential to understand that each individual’s mind and body is an individual expression or continuation of the one inseparable Mind and body, just as each individual branch of the tree is a continuation of the inseparable tree life and its bark or body.

Man does not have body, man is body. Each individual is mind and body as one, and is an individual expression of the one Mind expressed as body. The body I AM here and now, that I refer to as “my body,” is wholly good and spiritual, because it is the embodiment of the one Mind, a wholly good Mind.

In Christian Science we practice from the standpoint that everything is spiritual creation, so everything that comprises the so-called human or material body is, when correctly understood, spiritual creation.

Much of our work in the practice of Christian Science is the gaining of a true estimate of our human bodies. “We are bringing” every thought, that is, every member of the body, “into subjection to the Christ,” or we are finding the reality of what appears to us as human or material.

We are proving that there are not two groups of creation, the material and the spiritual; there is but one group, the spiritual. We are proving that what appears to us as human or material creation, is the one spiritual creation at hand, imperfectly known because seen through the lens of false material sense. When once we estimate the so-called human body as being the divine body, then our body ceases to be human to us, and is divine.

Many students of Christian Science, as yet, are far from dealing with their present bodies scientifically and intelligently, and according to the facts of spiritual creation. They do not, as yet, understand that any member or any function of their so-called body is something of divine creation, and should be seen in its reality.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected.” (S&H 503:1-2) Therefore any member of my present body or any function of my present body, is the unfolding of the spiritual idea and its corresponding identity.

An infinite, conscious, spiritual idea is ever unfolding itself and its identity right here, in what I know humanly as my heart. This conscious unfolding idea is ever aware of itself as action, and this conscious action is what I experience humanly, as the beating of my heart. This conscious unfolding idea, because it is infinite, is also aware of itself as substance, form, permanency, and is what I know humanly as my heart. This is the heart that is here and it is God’s omnipresence, no matter how it appears to me.

As it is with heart, so it is with stomach, liver, lungs, kidneys, glands, membranes, nerves, blood, etc.; all are the unfolding of conscious, infinite, spiritual ideas and their corresponding identities. These are present here as Mind’s omnipresence, no matter how they appear to us.

Many students consider their present bodies material, and then declare there is no matter. This is a self-destructive thought; our present body is all right, just as God or Mind made it. It is our false material sense of body that is wrong and needs correction.

Many students believe their present bodies are material and that somehow they must get rid of them. This thought is also self-destructive, and is a claim of annihilation. Our body is the identity of Mind, and is as eternal as Mind. There can be no separation of Mind and body.

The so-called human body only seems to be material. When correctly understood it is the spiritual body, the only body, imperfectly known because seen through the lens of false material sense. We must understand that the so-called human body and all of its functions, are divine facts expressed, and they appear human or material to us because of our ignorance of the spiritual fact.

Right where body seems to be as matter, is the spiritual body, visible to our consciousness as outline, form, color, substance, function, and permanency. I want to repeat that we should never think of this body, the body we now have, as a material body, and then try to get rid of it or change it. This is a destructive influence. The only thing we want to get rid of is the belief that our bodies are material. It is only in belief that the so-called human body seems to be material, and it is this false belief that is objectified before the thought.

Matter, or the so-called material body, is just a false sense of the spiritual body at hand. It is through spiritualization, not of the body, but of our thought about the body, that we gain the fact of our so-called body and of all its functions. Body is never matter, but is always a state of consciousness.

Body is always an idea in the divine Mind, and is made visible before the divine Mind as a form or object. My present body is not matter but is a state of true consciousness. My present body is held in my thought in a subjective state and is made visible, or is objectified or identified before my thought as an image, or object, or as my body. My so-called material or human body is either so many ideas in the God-consciousness objectified, or is so many states of human beliefs objectified. Everything that I know is mental. Everything in its reality is some spiritual idea objectified, not as matter, but as thought objectified or identified.

An Organized Body

The false claim of material sense says that the human body is an organized body made up of material organs. And because of this claim that my body is organized, there is also a claim that my body can be disorganized in death. The false claim of material sense also says that the members of my body are dependent upon each other; so much so, that if one member suffers, all members suffer.

Now the truth is, that my so-called human body is not organized. It is not made up of material organs with each organ functioning in and of itself. Each member of my body is an infinite conscious idea of divine Mind and is dependent upon Mind alone, and not on some other idea. Mrs. Eddy says, “It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life is either material or organically spiritual.” (S&H 83:21)

Unfolding Ideas

It is the unfolding spiritual ideas and their identities, and not organs, which determine the outward and actual of my present so-called human body. These unfolding spiritual ideas act upon the false beliefs in my thought about body until these false beliefs yield to the truth of the unfolding ideas.

Conscious unfolding ideas is the substance of my heart, and my stomach and of every organ I know humanly; and is the outward and the actual of my human body, when determined by these unfolding ideas, and not by material beliefs.

As it is with the so-called human body, so it is that these conscious unfolding ideas determine the outward and actual of business, church, home, nation, human efficiency, or anything of which I am conscious. It is well to remember that spiritual ideas always “determine the outward and the actual,” and that the spiritual “dominates all matter.” (See S&H 254:22; 97:18)

Everything of which I am conscious is the spiritual fact of which the belief is about. The unfolding idea is phenomena and determines the human phenomena by acting upon human beliefs. As the right idea acts upon the human beliefs, it brings out better phenomena because of better beliefs.

Conscious unfoldment of right ideas is the vitalizing quality of my present body; unfoldment of spiritual ideas is the stimulus and substance of my present body. My present body is not a changeable body, because its substance is the substance of unchangeable spiritual ideas, and not the substance of matter. Discernment of spiritual ideas is the essence of my conscious at-one-ment with God, and is my body. The realization of the allness of Spirit is the energy, vitality, and virility of my so-called human body. My body is an immortal body because it is the conscious, eternal identity of divine Mind. Unfolding spiritual idea is the buoyancy, symmetry, strength, and vigor of my so-called human body.

God, or divine Mind, is always feeding and clothing my body in better garments of thought which are manifest as the outward and actual. Mrs. Eddy says, “The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily.” (S&H 62:22)

My present body is the “Word made flesh.” The fact of the reality of flesh and bones exists in the divine Mind, so we have no antagonism to flesh and bones. We make flesh of the normal beliefs such as eating, sleeping, breathing, hearing, etc. until the spiritual ideas unfold to us in their fullness and completeness.

Our present state of consciousness is made up largely of God’s ideas and some false beliefs. And as more of God’s ideas unfold and are revealed to us, our present consciousness will have less of false beliefs in it until finally our present consciousness is the God consciousness.

In the God-body there are no false beliefs, no pain, or inflammation, or inaction, or overaction to be objectified. The God-body is complete; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it.

The infinite consciousness, or God-body, does not lack any masculine or feminine qualities. It is every whit whole. It embodies within itself all life, joy, purity, satisfaction, and abundance.

The embodiment of the God-body is my individual body, or, the God-body is what I am as individual man.

The Organ

As we have said before, according to belief the so-called human body is made up of many organs and each organ is supposed to perform some specific function in and of itself. We seem to have many organs because the one organ is reflected infinitely; the multiplicity of organs is only seen in the phenomenon.

Our so-called organs are not created but are reflections of the one organ, and this one organ is enough because it is infinite and is reflected infinitely. Every reflected organ is a sound organ because it is the reflection of the GodMind, which is the one organ.

This one infinite organ is never too large or too small, and never functions imperfectly. It cannot be diseased because it is not matter. All there is to a so-called human organ is the living, conscious, active, idea of Truth, and this Truth is the substance or being of all reflected organs.

Functions

To human sense, every organ appears to function or do some specific thing in and of itself, but we are learning in Christian Science, that the God-Mind is the one and only Organ, and performs all functions in and of Himself. The God-Mind is the Organ that functions as all-seeing, hearing, feeling, and thinking, in and of Himself, and not by means of anything.

Because God or Mind functions, that which I refer to as “My body,” which is the reflection or identity of Mind, functions coincidentally; but never in or of itself. Everything that goes on in “My body” is the reflection of what divine Mind is doing or being; even my present body is doing and being right now what God, my Mind, is doing and being.

Stomach, bowels, lungs, heart, kidneys, never do anything in and of themselves. What they seem to be doing in and of themselves is, instead, the conscious divine Mind functioning in that very place, which appears as the functioning of the God-Mind, reflected infinitely. It is the one sight, the one hearing, the one thinking, the one action, reflected or manifested infinitely.

We do not just happen to have so-called human bodies, and our so-called human bodies do not just happen to function in the manner they seem to function. We do not just happen to see, to hear, to breathe, to digest, eliminate, or generate humanly. We have, or rather are, these organs and functions, individually and humanly, because they are the DIVINE ORGAN, and the DIVINE FUNCTION “seen through a glass darkly.”

“Material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite.” (S&H 208:2) (Mis. 359:11) When the student is convinced, through reason and revelation, that the body he now has, or rather is, is neither human nor material, but is divine and spiritual, and when he is convinced that his so-called bodily functions are neither in nor of material organs, but they are operations of divine Mind, or operations of spiritual, unfolding ideas objectified or identified, then he will give proof to harmonious, immortal body, here and now.

So, we need never fear that our present heart, or lungs, or kidneys will stop doing what they never have done; and we may rest assured that the divine Mind, the Enactor of all so-called human functions, will go on functioning eternally.

Kidneys, as ideas, must eliminate; brain, as idea, must manifest intelligence; bowels, as idea, must act; heart, as the divine idea that it is, must ever beat and circulate. Why? Because these functions forever reflect the one infinite and only ORGAN, the divine Mind and its functionings.

All so-called human organs do not function from any intelligence of their own, but function because they exist as the identity or manifestation of the divine Mind, and because they reflect some scientific activity of the divine Mind.

Many students are calling some functions good, and some functions bad. They want to stop, or suppress, or be indifferent to some functions, and want to perpetuate other functions; but they all agree that the beating of the heart and respiration should go on perpetually; and they will go on forever but in changed forms, as belief changes to understanding, and divine Mind is found to govern the organs and functions of the entire system. (See S&H 12432; 384:30)

Any organ or any function that is natural to the human body is needful. The heart, the lungs, the liver, and kidneys are needful; and the secretions of the glands, the secretions of the liver, and the secretions of the mucous membrane are likewise needful to our present state of existence.

Whatever is natural to our so-called human existence is the divine fact at hand, imperfectly known. What is it that says some parts of the body and their functionings are either common or comely? It is merely our ignorance of the divine fact at hand.

In I Cor. 12:23, we read, “those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.” When ignorance becomes understanding and we see the divine facts of creation, then every organ and function will be seen in its depict.

Do not fear anything that your present body seems to be doing. Every cell, fiber, tissue, gland, organ, or muscle of the human body exists right now in the one Mind as Idea, and each idea is proclaiming, “I am reflecting God, I am expressing God.” Every cell and fiber of my being is expressing the sovereignty of God, or proclaiming, “I AM.” (See S&H 162:12)

Mrs. Eddy says, “Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.” (S&H 427:23)

All facts that we know humanly are summed up in the perception of the one fact that, when we see, know, or understand anything that pertains to our human body, or our present world, it is the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities.

Body — Second Article

At last year’s Association there was read and discussed a paper on the subject of body, and many times since then I have been asked either to read that paper or give something further on the same subject.

In giving the lesson on body last year, it was my hope that it would prove helpful to those who were making the mental adjustment from the false concept that their present body is human or material, to the understanding that their present body is divine and spiritual.

And today my hope is that this lesson on body will help all of us to give up some of the misconceptions that we have concerning our so-called human body and its functions, and help us to establish in our consciousness the spiritual ideas which are the facts about our so-called material organs and their functions.

We should be alert and daily spiritualize our thought about our present body, because the belief is very prevalent that the body is separate from the mind, and that the body in and of itself, performs all functions; whereas it is the God-Mind that consciously performs all functions that appear in outward manifestation to us as bodily functions. For instance, when the stomach, or bladder, or heart do not perform their natural functions, I turn from the belief that these organs in and of themselves function, to the fact that only conscious Mind functions.

Many of us fail to make practical the fact that our present mind is not in our body, but our present body is embraced in our mind. We fail to recognize the fact that our present body is either the phenomenon of right ideas, or the phenomenon of false beliefs, and we fail to recognize the fact that we, individually, govern our own body and delineate upon it either right ideas or false beliefs, whichever we are entertaining in consciousness.

Mrs. Eddy teaches that when we fully understand the eternal relation of the oneness of Mind and body, we will overcome sin, sickness, and death; but to accomplish this overcoming we must understand the divine fact of our present mind and body as being one entity.

The student of Christian Science recognizes the supreme value of a correct sense of his present body. He knows that his body gives evidence to his mind; that his mind would be unexpressed or unknown without his body, which is the expression of his mind; is as mental as his mind; and is coincident with his mind.

Man does not have body, man is body. Man is the body of the one Mind. Man is Mind and body as one Being, and when correctly understood, man or body is immortal and spiritual. The body I am here and now, which I refer to as my body, when correctly understood, is wholly good and spiritual because it is the embodiment of the One GodMind.

Many students consider their present body as material, and then declare there is no matter; or they believe their present body is material and for that reason they try to get rid of it. But what appears to us as a matter body, is a spiritual fact imperfectly known. We do not want to get rid of body but know it as it is. Our present body is now just as God made it, and is mental and spiritual. Our present body identifies our God-Mind and is as eternal as Mind. It is only our false, material sense of body that needs to be corrected.

Our so-called human body seems to be finite and material, but when correctly understood according to the revelation of Divine Science, our so-called human body is spiritual and is the only body at hand. We understand that the so-called human body and all its functions are divine facts, and divine operations expressed, and if they appear human or material to us, it is because they are seen through the lens of false material sense, or because of our ignorance of spiritual facts, and of spiritual operations at hand.

We understand in Christian Science that anything that exists can never be matter, because matter does not exist as something, but as false appearance only. Matter is never substantive, neither does it fill space; so-called matter is misconception or belief only. When correctly understood, anything that fills space and is substantive is Mind or Spirit being, and the false appearance of that thing, which is called matter, is mortal mind’s false estimate of that thing. What appears to be material body is the so-called mortal mind’s mistaken sense, or the caricature of the divine body, and is but our ignorance of the spiritual fact of body at hand.

Because of material sense we do not see the fact of body in its fullness and completeness. We see the spiritual fact of body as it really is, to the degree that we have spiritualized our thought. In other words, we see the fact of body according to our present comprehension of the fact of body. These varying degrees of understanding are our human concepts of the fact of body; and we shall always see our highest human concept of the divine fact, until we have sufficiently spiritualized our thought to see the spiritual body. Matter is never other than a deceptive appearance; whereas our highest human concept of body is the result of some degree of spiritualized thought.

In Christian Science our highest human concept or present body, is always based on the fact that our present body has its origin in divine Mind and is the identity of Mind, no matter how it appears. Hence it is a spiritual body, and the only body at hand, and can never be destroyed.

We never consider our present so-called human body as having its source and origin in the human mind, but we fulfill our concept of our present body through spiritualization of thought, by which the divine body appears to us as a better human body, until full spiritualization is attained, and body is known in its true depict.

Jesus did not destroy the withered hand. He proved it to be the divine idea present and incapable of destruction. Our human body is never other than the divine body at hand, but we know and see it better as we spiritualize our thought and deny the material sense or ignorance of body.

We have body humanly because body exists in this place divinely. And as we more clearly understand that all there is to our human concept of body is the divine idea or fact at hand, then our human body will more clearly approximate the divine facts of body.

If we never separated our present body from its source, divine Mind, and always recognized it as being the divine fact at hand regardless of its material appearance, our present body could never be touched by laws of matter; never be sick or injured; never be imperfect or die.

Right where body seems to be as matter, is the spiritual body, visible to the God-consciousness as outline, form, color, substance, function and permanency.

It is through spiritualization, not of the body, but of our thought about the body, that we perceive the fact, spiritual fact, of body and of all present functions. Our present body is never matter, but is a true mode of consciousness, an idea held in divine Mind, and all functionings are operations of the divine Mind, and are not functionings of material forms or organs. The basis of all demonstration in Christian Science is the consideration of the fact that our present body is the spiritual body and the only body at hand.

Much of our work in the practice of Christian Science consists of gaining a true estimate of our so-called human body, or in perceiving the reality of what appears to us to be a human or material body. And in this practice work we should rejoice that it is a provable fact that each one of us is the divine Body, a body exempt from age, deformity, and imperfections; a body that expresses supernal freshness and fairness, health, wholeness, unlimited activity, strength and agility.

These beautiful qualities are the present fact of man or body. There is not one ugly, or mortal, or material thing in the body of God, which body is man.

In the first chapter of Genesis we read of “the creeping things that creepeth upon the earth” which God saw as good and over which man was given dominion. But mortal man has misinterpreted these creeping things that were good, over which man has dominion, and often designates these creeping things as evil conditions which steal upon us slowly and stealthily, conditions which are not good, and over which we have no control.

Some of mortal mind’s creeping things are expressed in the material body as age, obesity, anemia, deafness, failing eyesight, wrinkles, thinning hair, slowing up of organs, and many other conditions which even Christian Scientists accept as inevitable, and over which they exercise no control.

Where is our dominion with which we were endowed and about which we love to boast? Why do we, as Christian Scientists, permit these so-called creeping things to come upon us, or supinely accept them as beyond our control? And what are we going to do about them in the future?

These seeming conditions are not of God, and they are not the fact of man or body. They inhere in, or are evolved from, human belief, or what is called mortal mind; and by that is meant the material opinions of mankind. If we wish to rid ourselves of these untoward conditions, it stands to reason that we must oppose and overcome these opinions of mankind rather than accept them, and the only place we can overcome them is in our individual thinking. We, as Christian Scientists, are neglecting a very important part of our work when we just let these creeping things of mortal mind do what they will with us.

Much attention is given these days to dieting, and reducing, and exercising the material body. The desire to improve it is always commendable; but in Miscellaneous Writings, page 47:6, Mrs. Eddy has given us one whole page on this important subject. She says, “substance means more than matter: it is the glory and permanence of Spirit.” Spirit is the only substance and man or body is spiritual, not material. This great truth substantiates man’s spiritual coexistence with his Maker.

If we want to gain weight or reduce weight, or in any way improve the so-called material body, we do not work on gaining or reducing or improving. Why? The answer is quite simple. There is no matter, and however hard we might work, we cannot gain or reduce or improve matter, when there is no matter. Our business, as Christian Scientists, is to learn the fact of body, and exercise this fact in our thinking and continue this true exercise until our body appears in its depict.

Mrs. Eddy was once asked, “Is it possible to change the aged form to one of youth and beauty without passing through the change of death?” (From Christian Science Series) In substance her answer was, that it is possible; as we let the spiritual fact of body obtain in our consciousness, the misconceptions of body as matter, give place to that fact. As the misconception of body as matter is dissolved by a truer state of thought activity, there appears a newer and better sense of body.

I want to read something that our beloved Bicknell Young gave to his students along this line of replacing the material concept with the spiritual fact of being. “There are three things to meet in every belief or case: First, a belief of substance matter; Second, a belief of material cause; Third, a belief in material or mortal mind law.

“Every treatment must know that the government of Principle is the activity of operative cause. It is the energy emanating from the right thought.

“The universe is spiritual because all cause is Spirit or Mind. The flower, bird, tree, landscape, rock, house, stomach, eye, hand, arm, head, etc. are all spiritual. Mortals placing substance, cause, law as matter and material, of necessity therefore, view things from a material point of view; and this is all that ever makes them seem material, sick, decaying or dying. When mortals change their viewpoint, we will have flowers that will not fade; birds, animals, and man that cannot sicken, grow old, or die; and stomachs that cannot be disturbed. We will have a man who cannot become lame, blind, or limited.

“As matter, bird, animal, tree, flower, stomach and man are governed by so-called laws of matter, beliefs only, which if not broken by the apprehension of Spirit and spiritual law, will go on being governed wrong to ultimate discord and destruction.

“The flower, bird, animal, stomach, and man, as matter, are evil; in other words, they express the evil sense of what flower, bird, etc. are. Does evil require matter through which to express itself? No. It requires belief only, which fulfills all its conditions; creates its own outlines; deforms its own limbs; all in consonance with its beliefs in matter as substance, Mind as mortal, cause as material, and law as the activity of mortal mind.” (End of Mr. Young’s quote) Mrs. Eddy teaches that all bodily conditions are mental conditions expressed. She says, “all physical effects originate in mind before they can become manifest as matter.” She also says, “mortal mind creates its own physical conditions.” (Hea. 12:10; S&H 77:8)

A Christian Scientist knows that the physical conditions seen in his body are formed by his mind and that in order to have a harmonious body, he must have a harmonious mind. Are we aware of how much of the time our mind is fretting itself, or is in a state of fear or anxious thought? How much of the time our so-called mind is disturbed and dissatisfied? How unaware our mind is of the spiritual facts that make up our present existence? All these mental conditions are expressed outwardly as physical or bodily conditions.

Students of Christian Science are very prone to try to correct their personal inharmonies by correcting them in the body just as materia medica does. They believe their physical inharmonies are formed in and of the body because they see in their body the images of the mind, and they think these images have their source in the body instead of the mind. So-called mortal consciousness endows the body with a sense of life, but there is no life in the false mortal concept that we call body.

Our life is what we are alive to, and we are alive to that of which we are conscious. If we are conscious of seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting material things, then we are alive only to the testimony of the five senses and to the thoughts about such testimony. But when we understand and prove that we see, hear, smell, and taste only our own thoughts, then we can control our consciousness and control our sense life, and thereby overcome all so-called bodily conditions, even to the overcoming of death.

There is only one way to improve our present consciousness, and coincidentally improve our present body, and that is to know the truth about both mind and body. As we hold the vision of the grandeur of reality, we renew our present bodies by the transformation of our mind. Conscious Life or Mind is ever aware of Itself as the idea of action, omniaction, perpetual action, action without variableness or the shadow of turning. This conscious idea is action in what I experience humanly as the beating of my heart, or as any so-called bodily function.

This conscious Life or Mind is also unfolded here as the ideas of substance, form, permanency, and is what I know humanly as my heart. All there is to what I know humanly as heart, is the omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience of Mind, or what conscious Mind knows Himself to be in this place.

This one infinite, particular idea which conscious Life or Mind is, as Himself, is the one and only heart. Every individual’s heart is the one heart in expression. So what I call my heart is the God-heart, the only heart, and it cannot fail. It is the heart in the Mind of God, manifested in man or body.

If we fully understand that what seem to us to be material organs, functioning in and of themselves, are instead divine ideas in operation, we could never again have an evil material sense of our stomach, as a vacuum, as finite, and limited and bounded.

We understand stomach as what Mind is consciously being, and as idea; it is ever manifesting the functions or conscious operations of Mind, such as power, action, form, substance.

What we call stomach secretions are what conscious Mind is being to Himself. These secretions are never nonintelligent matter, and there is never a lack of any needed thing.

Stomach is the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being in particular expression.

As it is with stomach and heart, so it is with liver, lungs, kidneys, glands, membranes, nerves, blood, etc. All are infinite spiritual ideas of the divine Mind, and are manifested or identified in man or body.

When we take the heart, stomach, or any other thing that constitutes body, out of its source of being, which source is the divine Mind, and consider it from the viewpoint of matter or mortal mind belief, then we have separated these ideas from divine Mind and from divine law, and they will appear to us as material, mortal, destructible, sick, and dying.

“Heart trouble or stomach trouble does not require matter through which to express itself. It requires belief only. Mortal belief fulfills all its own conditions in consonance with its belief in matter as substance, Mind as mortal, cause as material, and law as the activity of mortal mind.” (Mr. Young)

Mrs. Eddy says, “It (mortal belief) feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts.” (S&H 86:30)

My so-called material body or human body is either so many ideas in the God-consciousness objectified, or so many states of human belief objectified.

If all so-called material organs that comprise my present body were recognized as divine ideas and demonstrated to be such, perfection and immortality would be the law to every one of them, and the so-called laws of belief would give place to divine law.

Every so-called physical problem is the misconception or miscalculation of the human mind in regard to the source and origin of everything that we know humanly. If a thing exists humanly to us, it is because it exists divinely in fact, and no matter what my human concept of a divine idea is, the divine idea is all there is to my human concept. If I believe the thing at hand is material, or even an improved belief, then I am apt to try to change it or to heal it. If therefore, there is on my part any recognition of the material or human as such, any wish or desire to make something over or better, then I am not considering the thing as the divine idea, or the only creation.

In order to work out the physical or bodily problems, we need to turn completely away from the mistaken or material sense of things and conditions. Turn completely away from improved beliefs, and human concepts, and keep thought on reality; keep thought on the infinitude of Mind as an infinitude of divine ideas.

We cannot think of anything outside of illimitable infinity, and if we keep our thought on the fact that everything in infinity is eternally perfect in Being, and eternally perfect in manifestation, this great truth will spiritualize our thought, and divine ideas will appear to us in perfect forms which we can understand in our present state of consciousness, and according to our present needs. In this way we overcome age, and death, and prove that we are immortal beings here on earth, even as we are in Heaven.

Because the God-Mind functions, my body or any part of my body, being the manifestation or identity of Mind, must likewise function. The function of the God-Mind is its ability to think and know and realize; therefore, my individual Mind, by reflection, thinks, and knows, and realizes. The generative organs, by reflection, create because the function of the God-Mind is to create. The stomach, by reflection, does what we call digests, not because the stomach in and of itself does anything, but because the function of the God-Mind is an infinite function and does all things.

When correctly understood, stomach is an unfolding idea. Its source of being is in the God-Mind, and its functioning is the functioning of the God-Mind. Digestion is the human claim that stomach, in and of itself, digests material food; and indigestion is the human claim that the stomach, in and of itself, cannot digest material food. But stomach, being an idea in the divine Mind, must digest and function perfectly by reflection. Likewise, we know that all there is to indigestion is the reflection of the human belief that stomach is material and acts in and of itself.

The normal functions of my body are merely my highest concepts of the unfolding ideas of the God-Mind. The normal functions of my body are the phenomena of the unfolding ideas in my consciousness, and are the coincidence of the human functionings with the divine functions. The abnormal functions of my body are the phenomena of my false beliefs, which are the reverse of the unfolding ideas in my consciousness. For instance, pain is the phenomenon of my false beliefs which I entertain in consciousness, instead of entertaining the idea, harmony, of the God-Mind.

Secretions

Since there is but one organ, there is but one secretion, and this one secretion is reflected as so-called bodily secretions. The secretions of the glands, the liver, the mucous membrane, etc. are very necessary to our human existence. These various secretions are the various manifestations of the one secretion, which, when correctly understood, is the God-Mind unfolding infinitely as an infinite spiritual idea.

When we fully understand that what we know humanly as secretion, is a divine idea, ever functioning perfectly, then we shall cease looking to the kidneys, the liver, or the mucous membranes as doing something in and of themselves, when there seems to be too much or too little secretion.

Humanly speaking, the function of the liver, the glands, and the mucous membrane is to secrete, and when we understand that these secretions are not matter, or in or of matter, but are unfolding spiritual conscious ideas, there will never be too much or too little secretion. Our so-called bodily secretions are perfect and act in accord with the divine idea. This fact understood, is law to the outward and actual phenomenon of secretion.

Morbid Secretions

The secretions of the glands and mucous membranes are necessary to our present human existence. Today there is too much said about morbid secretions, and how morbid secretions inflame the nerves and render inactive the functions of the body. But we are to remember that there is only one secretion, and this one is the unfolding idea of the God-Mind, and the claim of morbid secretion cannot be formed by this conscious Mind.

A morbid secretion is never a claim about the activity of the one secretion, but is a claim of our entertaining false beliefs, a morbid condition of thought, or a thought that is not active as Truth. It is a claim of the inability to behold God’s idea. This morbid state of thought is usually the result of criticism, condemnation, worry, fear, within our own thought, and is reflected or identified as an inactive or morbid state of existence.

Circulation

The circulation of the blood is considered the vital function of our present body because blood is supposed to nourish and sustain all parts of the human body. Blood needs to circulate humanly, because blood, when correctly understood, is the conscious substance and action of all that constitutes body.

When we think of blood correctly, we think of it as being the conscious omnipresence of Mind or Life, the active, conscious substance of all things. Then blood could not know itself in a state of separation. A part of the blood which is called red corpuscles could not go to the interior of the body and leave the blood in a depleted condition, as in pernicious anemia. Red corpuscles belong to the blood, and blood being an infinite spiritual idea, is always intact eternally. Blood could not know itself as divisible, and experience a loss of a part of itself as in a hemorrhage or excessive flowing.

Blood as spiritual idea reflects infinite Love and harmony, and in the claim of hemorrhage, we must know that the only flowing there is, is the perpetual operation or flowing of divine Love. The belief in my thought, that conscious Love can stop operating or flowing, permits the belief that blood, as matter, began to flow and is now passing away.

Faculty

We are all of us vitally interested in the function that we call faculty. And when we see this function in its true light, it adds much to the enjoyment of our present day. We know there is but one Faculty, which is God, or MindFaculty. This Faculty, functioning as thinking, seeing, knowing, evidencing itself, understanding itself, seeing itself, this one Faculty is enough for everyone; but belief claims five faculties. This multiplicity of the One Faculty is the phenomenon.

The unfolding idea or the One Faculty is objectified as seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling. And being God’s Faculty, it is indestructible because it is God’s vision of Himself, His vision of His infinitude.

Man is forever what God is. Man reflects God or reflects the one infinite Faculty. What the God-Mind unfolds constitutes our seeing, hearing, etc. Mind sees, therefore my sight is eternal by reflection. If I believe that my sight is material, this is the belief of an imperfect faculty, or an imperfect God-Mind, and is a self-destroying belief.

The only reason any faculty seems to be defective is because we believe it to be in and of matter, instead of in the God-Mind.

We believe that our sight is in and of a matter eye; we believe our hearing depends upon a matter ear; and that our feeling depends upon a nerve. But when we realize that our individual seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, is coincident with Mind’s seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, this is enough to heal the belief of imperfect faculties.

What the God-Mind sees is what I see humanly, and is infinite. God sees ideas which appear visible as objects which we behold humanly. Everything is visible to the God-Mind, and is therefore visible to us. Blindness is a belief that ideas are not apparent to us, the belief that sight is material. Eyes as matter do not see, but as ideas are an all-seeing substance.

Channels

Today we hear much talk about channels or mediums. The God-Mind does not see through eyes; Mind does not need a channel or a medium through which to see. Belief always has a channel through which to act or a means by which to function, and claims to use my consciousness to produce the phenomenon of seeing. The belief that I see through my eyes is a belief called mediumship, in a general sense.

There is the belief that a nerve is a channel or a medium through which there is activity or sensation, a means of seeing, hearing, and feeling. Nerves of themselves do not see nor feel. Nerves exist as idea. Paralysis of the nerve is merely the phenomenon of the belief that nerves are material and have sensation in and of themselves. God does not have anything to work with but ideas and He does not use them as channels or as a means. He imparts His ideas to us.

According to the human belief, nerves are the channels or the medium of all activity, all functions, all sensation. The belief is that a nerve has its source in and of the brain. But the fact of what we know humanly as nerve, is an emanation of the God-Mind, and expresses the activity and sensations of Infinite Mind. Nerves of themselves do not feel. When we think of a nerve truly, we think of the idea of omnipresence, conscious action and sensation that the God-Mind is being.

Such claims are healed by the presence of the unfolding spiritual idea, active in our consciousness. All facts are summed up in the perception of the one fact, that we do not see, know or understand anything except as it unfolds as ideas.

Pain, sickness, poison, are only beliefs about the one Body, and are never conditions of our present body. They are the phenomena of false beliefs objectified to our sight and our sense.

Sensations and conditions are always good and harmonious and are the only sensations or conditions present.

Spontaneity

A realization of the truth always comes spontaneously, so every so-called organ must function spontaneously. The heart beats spontaneously. The heart beats spontaneously, and with unlabored motion. The beating of my heart and all other functions are the spontaneous action of my realization that Mind’s spontaneous action is the spontaneous action of my present body.

I hope this lesson on body will be helpful to those who are making the mental adjustment from the concept of their present body as human, to the spiritual fact of their present body as divine idea. In other words, may it be helpful to those who are learning the coincidence of the human body with the divine body.

I hope this lesson will help us to yield many of the misconceptions we have about our human bodies, so-called, and its functions, and establish for us the spiritual ideas which are the facts about our so-called material organs and their functions. We should be alert and daily spiritualize our thought about our present body, because the belief is very persistent that we are separate in Mind and body, and that the body in and of itself, performs all functions.

Many of us fail to make practical the great fact that our present mind is not in our body, but that our present body is embraced in our mind, and is the phenomenon either of right ideas, or the phenomenon of false beliefs, whichever we are entertaining in consciousness; and that we individually govern our own body by delineating upon it right ideas or false beliefs.

It is only through this understanding of our human body, as the divine fact of body, that we attain our perfect humanhood. And when we understand that we exist as the conscious identity of the One consciousness, then there will be no sense of a material body, then the veil will have passed away and we shall have demonstrated the ability to live without it.

Paganism and false theology have educated us to believe that the so-called human body is material. It is an almost prevalent belief that Mind and body can be separated and that the body dies, but the mind and soul live on. This is the basis for the philosophy of “Reincarnation” which is taking such a strong hold on the thought of the people today.

As set out by an author on this subject, “Reincarnation means simply the rebirth of the soul in another human body.” Reincarnation is not only the belief that Mind and body can be separated and that the body dies, but it is also the belief that the soul at some later time is reborn in another human body through the Adam process of generation.

What a wide divergence between the erroneous belief in reincarnation and the truth about man as presented in Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy teaches that, when we fully understand the eternal relation of the oneness of Mind and Body, we shall overcome sin, sickness, and death. And the only way we can accomplish this is to understand the divine fact of our so-called human mind and body, as present here and now.

Mrs. Eddy says, “The night thought, methinks, should unfold in part the facts of day, and open the prison doors and solve the blind problem of matter. The night thought should show us that even mortals can mount higher in the altitude of being. Mounting higher, mortals will cease to be mortal. Christ will have ‘led captivity captive,’ and immortality will have been brought to light.” (My 110:20)

Business

You may be thinking, and quite naturally so, what can she give us on business, other than a few academic statements, which are mostly assumptions on her part. She has never run a business. But neither did Jesus ever run a shoe factory, a drygoods store, a cannery, a grain elevator, or a farm, yet he was the greatest business man in the world.

The world will never know a greater business executive than Jesus. No red tape prevented him from making delivery of the loaves and fishes, the wine at the wedding feast, and the tax money instantly. Jesus knew nothing about delay or future delivery. Jesus recognized omnipresent good at hand and the only thing at hand.

Since Jesus was always about his Father’s business, what was Jesus’ business? Jesus’ business was to express or show forth to the world all the infinite actualities, all the conscious operations of his Father-Mind. Everything of which he was conscious was to him an actuality, one with his Father-Mind. Everything, every actuality was something for him to utilize, and show forth and operate according to His will.

Every activity of the divine Mind is primarily a business activity, and is wholly mental. Humanly speaking, every activity of the divine Mind is for the purpose of supplying wants and needs of mankind. There is nothing going on in the world, whole world, but business activity. Business of every name and nature is infinite activity. Infinite actualities of the divine Mind are expressed humanly, and like Jesus, the business of each one of us is to utilize, show forth, and be this activity and actuality of the divine Mind.

To Jesus, all business activities were evolved by the divine will, and were governed by the divine Mind, even to the slightest detail. To Jesus all business activities went on unceasingly and in divine order. Since divine Mind was infinite business, Jesus, being the full expression of divine Mind, expressed infinite business.

Since we are not separate from God, our own Mind, we are not something separate from our business. All there is to us is divine Mind expressed as business. Our very nature and being is dominion, is possession, is expression, is evidence. We embody opportunity, capacity, ability. Since we express the infinitude of the divine Mind, then whenever a higher realization of business appears as our consciousness, there appears also the inevitable conscious evidence of a better business.

According to sense testimony, and especially in the light of actuality, there is entirely too much feeble thinking about business going on among Christian Scientists. We find it much easier to “walk into or with the currents of mortal thought” concerning our business, than to overthrow within ourselves this disastrous, feeble thinking that is purely mortal mind thinking.

We are the dominion that divine Mind is being, and we should see to it that divine Mind in its fulfillment operates our business. The only way in which we can change business conditions is to change our own thinking. Our thinking and our business are identical. We change our business conditions within our own thought only; that is the only place we know anything about business. So much of the feeble thinking that is being indulged in by Christian Scientists should be “an offense” unto us. As Christian Scientists we should “Awake and Inherit.”

According to belief, or generally speaking, business is the expression of the mass thinking of human beings. The human being and his business are one. Business is the expression of the human being’s thought. What we call business appears very human, very emotional. It appears to have heart and soul. It appears to live and die. According to belief, business is dependent entirely upon the human being who thinks it. Business is very sensitive to the good or bad thinking of the individual business man. Good or bad business germinates in our thinking, from poor judgements, from mental fear, and especially from our own mental malpractice and mental persecution about our own business. Good business prevails with universal good thinking. Good scientific thinking within ourselves, about our own business, germinates security and provides us humanly with right and legitimate wants and needs.

Our highest sense of business is that it will supply our legitimate wants and needs. So long as human beings remain civilized and use their minds to think the wants and needs of the people, there will be in evidence what we call business activity. At this moment the United States is so concerned and so involved mentally with world events, that she is drifting away from the normal wants and needs of mankind. When a people become subnormal in its thinking, the business very quickly becomes subnormal. There has never been a time in all history when unity of thought among men is more vitally needed than it is today. There has never been a time when strong constructive thinking from every human being who knows how to reflect true thought, is so much needed.

Divine Love does not give us things in the usual sense of the word “give.” We already are the all that divine Love is being. The belief that divine Love gives what we desire is comforting, but it is purely a human view, and is only relatively true. The fact is that we cannot even have a desire. Before a desire can be uttered, we already possess that very thing.

God shows forth all that He is, through His manifestation, man. Our business is to utilize, show forth to the world these infinite actualities of the divine Mind that are already ours by virtue of our oneness with the divine Mind. As our thinking becomes like divine Principle, or is the thinking that divine Principle is being, then this divine Principle within us, as us, evidences itself forth as infinite good or as good business.

Have you ever tried to hold your thought in oneness with the divine Principle that governs, for three consecutive days? I wish each one of you would try it. It may seem arduous at first, but when you really start for the Father’s house (true consciousness about business) true consciousness will come out to meet you and will embrace you, and make a feast of good things for you, tangible things, things according to your highest comprehension of what they should be as business.

When working for our business, we do not think as much about ways and means of business, but we think of Principle; that is, we keep our thought active as divine Truth. This Truth active in our consciousness takes care of ways and means in our business. Our individual mind is the one Mind, the one Principle, and is already in conscious expression and operation as the so-called material ways and means. Like Jesus, our business is to recognize this fact of divine Principle, utilize it, and let it express itself.

We do not outline in business. We often feel that certain things in our business should occur in a certain way which we have more or less outlined. But Principle, Truth, alone outlines its own activities and operations, and these go on eternally. And when we think as Principle, or think as though we were Principle, Itself, doing the thinking, then we have real demonstration in our business, demonstration that far exceeds our outlining.

But it is not by thinking only, that we overcome human difficulties in business. We think the Truth pertaining to our business and then we must execute this Truth. The thinking and the concrete evidence is a unit. Jesus always presented the concrete evidence, human or material, of Truth in all his demonstrations.

We might declare Principle or Truth all day, but if this Principle or Truth is not wrought out in concrete human or material evidence, we shall not get very far in our business. It is not enough to just say a lot of statements of Truth. We must declare the truth with full conviction that the Truth is true, and then this truth must be wrought out in our business. In this way only does Truth become a law to our business.

It is our business to make our business pay, and we do this by strict adherence to divine Principle. So-called human business is really divine business appearing humanly. Then because of its divine source, our human business should be better every day. Every Christian Scientist should be getting richer, not because we desire material riches, but because we are demonstrating infinity. And there is no limit to infinity.

Practically all business is carried on in order to have an income, and this is as it should be. And it is natural for us to look to our business for our income, rather than to look to infinite Mind. But we may be sure that our business will yield a better income, when we understand that our business IS infinite Mind itself expressed infinitely as our income. Our business is not a medium for our income, but our business IS our income.

Mrs. Eddy has written the following article, entitled:

My Income

“My income is Life and Love and Truth. It is equal to all demands made upon it. This income is my inalienable possession, derived from no earthly source, supplied through no material channels, dependent upon no personality or personal effort, not even my own, but coming to me direct from God. Mine to receive, to possess, to use, but never to waste or hoard. It is to be received without fear, or doubt, shared without apprehension that all supply can fail. ‘All things that the Father hath are mine.’ These come to me and constitute my income unfailingly, abundant, ample for any demand that can be made upon it.”

Business men often think their business is regulated by the government, or by adverse circumstances over which they have no control. But in reality, business is governed by divine Principle alone. We include our business in our thought and it depends upon the consciousness we entertain about it. We are not in our business, our business is in us. Business cannot think whether it will be good or bad, but is governed entirely by our thought that is Principle or by our thought that is belief. There is nothing enacted by outside circumstances that can interfere with our business.

Adverse circumstances, even the extreme circumstances of death and corruption, did not interfere with Jesus’ business of showing forth the concrete evidence of everpresent Life and wholeness that was Lazarus. To Jesus, Life was an actuality. It came from divine Mind. It was governed and controlled by divine Mind and was forever expressed by the life of Lazarus. Jesus knew that life was a fact of divine Principle; he therefore made this fact active as his consciousness and the concrete evidence of life appeared.

Divine Principle governs our business absolutely and imperatively. We may find it difficult to demonstrate this fact instantaneously, but we shall experience fewer difficulties when we remember that divine Principle demonstrates its own facts. When we clear away false beliefs, the aggressive mental suggestions, the deflections of actualities from our thinking, we shall find the spiritual facts of business at hand, in the same way that Jesus found the fact of Life at hand. We should never permit our thinking to be regimented “into or with the currents of mortal thought” concerning business. Our thought should be kept in line with the facts of divine Principle, and these facts should be kept active as our consciousness.

Every business man should understand his business to the slightest detail. He should manage his business according to the highest business principles. He should fit himself for leadership and earnestly strive to improve the control of his business. When he has others in his employ, he should be able to instruct them in what they should do, and how they should do it, and then see that the work is properly done.

When a Christian Scientist brings himself and his employees and his activities in line with the facts of divine Principle, he has been doing much more than establishing right activity in his business. Such a Christian Scientist is helping to establish Church. He is giving proof that his business is church “because it rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.” Business when correctly understood is never material, but is divinely spiritual.

Whatever the nature of our business activity, we should always be practical. We should become skilled, practiced and experienced in our business. Jesus was practical and he was always successful. What we need to make our business practical is Love and more Love. But there is nothing soft about Love. Love is as keen as steel. Love is Principle, and Principle demands of us that we discipline our thought, and use our God-bestowed dominion in our business.

Sometimes a Christian Scientist whose understanding is somewhat limited will say “All is Love,” and let his business take care of itself the best it can. Through this mistaken sense of Love, his business is very apt to be lost. Just to say “All is Love,” without the concrete evidence of Love’s presence, is not enough. Christian Scientists should be alert, intelligent, prompt, and utilize and show forth the concrete facts of Principle, Love in their business.

In the business world today we seem to come face to face with much personal propaganda, much selfishness and greed, dishonesty and lack of cooperation. All this is animal magnetism and mental malpractice, but as Christian Scientists do we fear these beliefs of life and intelligence in matter, these deflections of actualities? Animal magnetism and mental malpractice are nothing claiming to be something. And Mrs. Eddy says, “Why stand aghast at nothing(ness)?” We should not let these false suggestions in our business deceive us. We know where we contact them and where to destroy them. We control our business through the understanding that business is mental and spiritual and governed by divine Mind, or our business controls us through our belief that it is apart from us and is material and governed by many minds. We control our business with the truth we entertain, or our business controls us through the beliefs we entertain.

One of the first scientific principles that a Christian Scientist puts into practice in the business world is the fact that when he knows a thing humanly, there exists at hand its actuality. The Christian Scientist begins to understand, to have faith, and to demonstrate that the actuality of his business is all there is to his business humanly. And he gives proof that not only his stomach, and his heart, and lungs, but his stocks, his money, his office force, and his salesmen are divine activities, although imperfectly seen by him. Actualities only are at hand. The human concept, like the mirage lake, does not add to the actuality, nor take from the actuality; there is present only divine actuality.

All there is to what we call stocks and bonds, to securities of all kinds, and to our business is the divine actuality at hand. In their reality, these are something that divine Mind is consciously being. They are established and secure, and permanent in the compound idea, man. The human concept of stocks and bonds, of securities, and of business is that they are material, that they are separate from God, and separate from our consciousness. That their value can fluctuate, or they can be lost altogether. What an untrue concept of actuality! What an untrue concept of God and His compound idea, man.

It may be that we have experienced a sense of loss in our stocks, or bonds or our business. But stocks, or bonds or business, even in belief have nothing to do with our sense of loss. This seeming sense of loss is formed wholly by mortal mind. Mortal mind has made the law that if we have stocks, or bonds, or business, that it is possible for us to have the sense of loss. But the stocks and bonds, and business had nothing to do with forming it, and man had nothing to do with forming it. The sense of loss is wholly mortal mind sense. Nobody or nothing caused it. It is mesmerism; a deflection of an actuality.

We have all been on a train that was standing still, when another train passed by, and we all had the sense that our train was moving. Now the sense of moving was wholly within us. But mortal mind alone is the sense of moving. We did not have the sense of movement, neither we nor the train moved.

There is no more truth to our sense of loss than to our sense of movement. We handle any false sense, as no sense, whether it is pain, or disease, or loss. We detach the pain, or disease from the body, likewise we detach the loss from the stocks and bonds, and from our business, and we understand that this false sense was not formed by our Mind and was not formed at all.

We meet the sense of loss when we understand that it is without cause, that it is wholly apart from ourselves, and wholly disconnected from stocks and bonds and business. We meet within ourselves the suggestion that there is a sense of loss, or ever has been a sense of loss. When we understand that a sense of loss is never our sense and is never a reality, then we shall see our stocks and bonds, and our business in their actuality established and unfailing in their perfection.

The only man there is, the real man, does not know a stock market with fluctuations. The real man knows actualities only. The only thing that represents God is God Himself. There are no values outside the infinity of God. Infinite good, by reflection, is possessed by each one of us, and if this infinite good appears to our consciousness as stocks and bonds, or business, then they must have the actuality or quality of actuality. They cannot fluctuate or be lost because they are actualities, even though imperfectly seen by us, and they can only unfold to us as higher good.

The seeming mortal mind that appears to be here, and says there is something that can be lost, is not here. There is no mortal mind. Business cannot be lost because it is an actuality. If we seem to have experienced loss in the past, we can still prove that what seemed to be lost is still intact in its perfect completeness. And if we do not reproduce it in the form in which it seems to be lost, we shall find it in a higher form of good. How can this be true? It is true because our human concept is constantly rising higher, rising into reality. It is never too late to take up the sense of loss and dispose of it scientifically.

Another scientific principle that Jesus practiced in his business was the reciprocal law of Being that governs the relationship of man. According to human sense, business involves many minds, many opinions, many degrees of education, etc. But in all these things Jesus practiced scientific relationship; a relationship that was mental and spiritual, and not personal relationship at all.

Relationship in business always “rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.” Divine Principle has infinite ways and means with which to supply the business man. These ways and means are open, free and unobstructed. They operate as reciprocal laws of Being that coordinate and are fitly joined together. What is apparent to human thought as one person or thing supplying the need of another person or thing, is the reciprocal law of Being reflecting the wholeness of itself to each individual expression of itself. We should, more and more, recognize and utilize this reciprocal law of Being that is ever in operation in our behalf and the behalf of those with whom we deal.

These deeper things of Mind are not always easy to comprehend, but they will unfold to those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear. There are some here today who will go along in the usual grooves of mortal thought for another season, but there are many here who will rise to heights before unknown.

Class Teaching

Your own mind is God, the only God you will ever know or have; you will never need to go farther away to find God, than your own mind. The intelligence of your own mind is the only man you will ever be. God and man, Mind and intelligence, go on together in unity as one Being forever.

ONE VERITY:

God The one Infinite manifestation

Deity I AM that I am

I AM Being, being Mind, intelligence

Being Cause, effect, God, Good

Section I

Christian Science is a science. Science is unalterable Truth. Thinking must be Truth. One Science: God. God: impersonal, unalterable, changeless Truth. God: Truth, all true thoughts.

Everything good, useful, or natural is a thought formed by God in our own mind, always within. Thoughts and things are one and the same thing. The fault is in the way we see and know things.

A problem: wrong thoughts about a right thing.

A personal mind when correctly understood is found to be Divine Mind.

God is our own Mind. God and man are one Being.

One’s own mind is God; the only God you will ever know or have.

Human thinking when right and good is divine thinking, when good and useful and natural and true, appearing through the mists of mortal mind.

The better our thinking the more God appears. Thinking true thoughts is living. Mortal mind is ignorance. Cease to believe our mind is a lesser mind than God. Demonstration is Mind present. In order to demonstrate any good thing, we don’t create through treatment or prayer. Mind is finished; I am not a creator. Treatment or prayer, helps you to see them as they are.

Man is always the good that God is. Through right thinking and right living I think and act as if I were what I am; even the same good that God is. Good is not outside our own mind. Any degree of understanding is potentially all, as the acorn is all of an oak.

Section II

A: necessity of spiritualization of thought.

B: individualization of Divine Science, ignorance referred to as a veil or cloud in the Bible. To thin the cloud or mist through spiritualization, true thought or understanding appears by degrees; each degree swallows up ignorance.

To individualize Truth, each individual becomes actively and consciously that Truth. There are exact rules in our textbook to show us how to individualize Truth, rules on each page. It is necessary to work by rule. Rule is a determined method of thought prescribed that will direct one’s thinking in accord with a science. Every value or fact we will ever know is in Mind. Spiritual facts are tangible and invariable.

Section III

RULES: (S&H 149:11; 123:12) — Three steps.

This Rule is Basic.

Matter is a wrong thought.

Matter is a mental state.

Matter is a misstatement about some thought form; about a right thing.

When I see matter, I see a right thing in the wrong way. Matter is an illusion in my mind. When I exclude matter, I exclude from my thinking my mistaken sense about body and things. Water on the highway, not there. We do not get rid of our bodies, or heal them, or save them. We learn to see and know things as they are in Truth. Resolve things into thoughts, one kind of thought. Replace the objects of sense with spiritual ideas. (Page 208:12) (123:1215)

A problem is mental, in our own mind. A mental conflict between Truth and error. Knowing the Truth includes living the Truth. We are not required to correct and save the world. Our world is in us. All men are saved as God is saved; not material but spiritual. The yoke is easy and the burden light. The seed is in itself. The power to be and to do is in Mind. Subjective.

Class instruction: To teach one how to apply the Truth and how to present this Truth to others. Manual, Page 86. The teachers of primary class. (Recapitulation only)

What Mind is conscious of, as Himself; man is that. Man is Mind’s idea or awareness of Himself: Man is the mental, spiritual isness of Mind.

Body

The word body means being: what Mind is consciously being, that is body. Body is always the expression of (the) Mind, therefore man or intelligence the body of Mind. Mind and body are one and inseparable. So-called mortal mind and body is but an erroneous concept of Mind and body, and is a myth.

Whatever is possible to God is possible to man. Our vision is an exact science. Our vision is the absolute Truth. Where there is no vision, they perish. Faith necessary, conviction in an absolute Truth. Whatever is humanly possible is temporary, eternal means while spiritualizing our thought. Every problem has a solution and we are ready to rise to the solution or we wouldn’t have the problem.

PURPOSE OF THE LESSON

Oneness

To establish a correct scientific sense of God, Oneness, man as one Being. Man’s relation to God is oneness or unity. Man looks out from Mind, God, not up to God. It is false theology to think God (Spirit) and man, universe (matter). Nothing is true of man that is not true of God. Sun and all its rays. All men are individual and spiritual. It is more important to know that I am not a personality, but an individuality, than to know there is no disease or lack.

Man does not have all Mind as God has, but is all God as Mind is. We are both noumenon and phenomenon, God and man, one Being. Man is never God. Wherever man is, there is noumenon and phenomenon. All thought constitutes God or Mind and is unfolded out in expression. S&H 502:29. This I AM is conscious identity. Light emitting itself as light. Strength emitting itself as strength.

Cause and Effect

Effect depends on Cause. There is no place where God ends and man begins. God, Mind, is known by His manifestation, intelligence or man. There is nothing but God.

We will ever know God only as we know each other. Recapitulation: summary or concise statement. This chapter: absolute Truth set out. Great importance in understanding the synonyms, characteristics or qualities. Every good thing, viewed correctly is some concrete evidence of God. God as whole or unity of good, as being self-conscious; God being what He is to Himself. God disclosed to Himself as all that He is, and that is manifestation or man. What a stupendous idea (man) He is to Himself. To demonstrate Christian Science, we must have a spiritual sense of God.

Seven Spirits of God: Rev. 4. Open seven seals of error, Rev. 5. Spirit doesn’t have same office as Mind. Each synonym has a marked difference of meaning.

God, Mind: convey true character to man, to human mind.

Body: being or effect.

Man is body or Mind, Man does not have a body. Always mental, spiritual intelligence. Man is incorporeal as Mind. We don’t have the idea all power, we are the all, power, capacity, ability and efficiency. Nothing is outside or external to consciousness. All this infinitude is making up consciousness. Nothing can stop or hinder what God is.

God or Mind not possessed by man

God self sufficient

God self sustained

God self supported

God self understood

All creation never material, always wholly mental and spiritual. Mind expressed as man is all there is to the universe. Each idea is an infinite idea. Creation always appears first as matter, things, finite sense, and bounded. Reality appears thus because of the mist. All so-called material things are mental, held in one’s own mind. Then spiritual ideas but all the time the one Good, reality. Every existing good and useful thing in the universe is a spiritual fact. We see them differently as we spiritualize our thought, not healing or restoring, but see them as they are in their true depict. Matter is a mistaken sense about some spiritual fact or value that is in this very place. When I see matter, I am seeing a spiritual fact in reversion. Anything I have or know humanly I have because it exists at hand divinely, right here. Keep your vision. We never destroy any material thing. Never destruction, always harmless, always true perception. Serpent to be proved harmless, not destroyed. “Take your young child down into Egypt and keep it there until it grows up,” Mrs. Eddy said. This new understanding of what God is, protect it. Don’t discuss it promiscuously.

III

God, Good, Mind, Spirit, Soul

Everything in man’s consciousness has its identity and reality in Divine Mind, God, good.

Coincidence, human is divine, not just a happen so. Always the reality appearing through the mist. Always subjective. The coincidence is always unfolded out into existence. Coincidence means the same thing, at the same time, at the same place. Man, consciousness, cannot fail because God or good cannot fail, always remains the same. Right here is good consciously omni-present.

Don’t try to outline reality.

How vast is Mind

How vast is man

How vast is body

Spirit: substance (substance not matter) S&H 93:21.

Spirit as a proper noun. Not without form as everything has its form, but without material accompaniments as density, solidity, bounded or limited. Spirit the substance of all things that exist right now. Earth is the same substance as heaven. Matter is never substantive. Anything that fills space is something Mind or Spirit is being. We do not at once see perfectly the actual thing, but we are seeing it more clearly all the time. We see our highest human concept of reality at hand. Our human concept always the actual divine fact appearing. Never believe anything other than the divine fact right there appearing the best you can know it. I is the truth of everybody. “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. Human concept is the divine idea and nothing else, always the divine coincidence.

We will always have a better sense of our world, a change from glory unto glory, until we attain reality. In Science we admit only the divine fact to be at hand. Accept no caricature drawn by mortal mind. A problem is a misconception of a reality at hand.

Planes

Matter accompaniment
Human concept without matter accompaniment
Spiritual consciousness

Soul God

Soul: Body, true sense of body. An idea of the true relation between Soul and body. Unless we have a proper sense of this relation we never can overcome sin, disease and death.

Soul to itself is the one conscious power, and animus to unfold itself out into body. Belief of a soul of our own; this is the root of animal magnetism, false religions, and M.D.’s all working to save souls. This belief worst of superstitions. Soul is God — One infinite one. The sun sends itself forth in many rays, but not many suns. (Each ray possesses all the qualities of the sun.) Before the revelation of Christian Science no one ever dreamed the body and soul he now has is the manifestation of the One Soul or Mind. Christian Science is the only religion that teaches one Soul and one Body.

Body: purely mental and spiritual. We need to enlarge and spiritualize our sense of body. Our sense is all that is wrong. Soul or Mind can only be known through its manifestation, body. Man does not have body, man is body. Man is both the one Mind and body, the noumenon and phenomenon. Everything that constitutes body is spiritual. The seven synonyms give to itself body. Each individual does not have a body. Each individual is body. The fact about body constitutes a treatment. (Man the embodiment of all right ideas.)

The first Truth or Principle we need to understand is the coincidence that exists between the human and the divine; is the same thing, at the same place, at the same time. A true humanhood, visible according to our comprehension. This body here was never born and will never die. Always remember the coincidence between the divine and the human. One has only to turn from false sense to see body as consciousness. The human feminine and masculine qualities are the very life of the divine. All function is the Divine Mind functioning. It is Mind that hears, sees, feels, tastes and smells. The human five senses are the divine, they cannot fail! Because God is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-hearing, etc., subjectively unfolded out in the best we can see it. As more of God’s thoughts are unfolded out in our experience we have the true humanhood. Mrs. Eddy speaks of the divine fact more perfectly understood, may appear as an improved belief, but it is our present world inside our consciousness. Must not think of body as material and want to get rid of it. We want to see our bodies as they are. My humanhood when correctly viewed is the presence of God. Anything we are conscious of as good and useful we do not get rid of. Human-hood (Unity of Good, Page 49:8) “The more I understand true humanhood, the more I see it to be sinless, as ignorant of sin as is the perfect Maker.”

SECTION IV

We do not spiritualize man or the organs of the body or anything, but we spiritualize our thoughts about man and things. Things are not what they seem. They are figures of the true. If our faith were more simple we would see them as they are, expressions of the Divine in forms that we call matter. It is possible for us to see and feel only the contents of our own Mind. Neither you nor I are living life; but conscious Life is living eternally as you and as I.

Creation (S&H 262:24-32)

Primary and Secondary qualities, Light emits light.

Elements and qualities comprised in Mind unfolded out in their identities.

consciousness

God, good, Mind: Man, body, identity

You and I

Action: action Health: health

Strength: strength

Vigor: vigor

Substance: substance

Immortality: immortality

All-in-all

“Martha, we have to know each other forever.” (Mrs. Eddy)

Beginning means God revealed Himself.

God is my Mind. Whatever is in my body is as God is, (my mind is).

Vast difference between what is and what we believe. Jesus expressed true humanhood at the time of the ascension.

Mind and body are one being. What the primary elements are consciously being, that is body, emanating forth from the divine Mind. Just one body and the one body is everybody’s body. No matter what our present state of humanhood seems to be, we must give it its true value. We must think and act as if we were what we are.

What appears as improvement or improved belief is the divine fact more clearly understood. Present humanhood not mortal. The “I AM” right here, unfolded out in its true expressions.

Everything must have body, expression, concrete expression. Mind always manifesting body. My human health or experience identified God. My present health subjectively as God, sameness or oneness. Mind maintains its own identities. Identity appears first a true humanhood, then a real thing. God can’t be separated from His identity. Body is essential.

Reflection

Image always gives back to me just what I am. A reflection always receives; a reflection always gives back in a mirror. The mirror receives everything of you, and gives back what you are. The body I have now must be the real body. My present state of mind must be corrected in my present concept; always begin with my mind, never body. It must correct itself if it sees anything wrong. I do this correcting by knowing what Mind is, God. (S&H 400:20,23). I do everything to my body with my mind. Mind governs my present body. The body I have now is God’s body. And I will always have a body, God’s body. The actual active qualities that comprise God are our body. If we believe our present bodies are mortal and material we will come under decadence and death.

Principle and Love Same Meaning

Principle: that from which all things proceed, from which everything is the outcome. Each one of us proceeds from divine Principle, Love. God loves as the sun shines. The truth about everyone and everything is Love. Love is infinite. No condemnation. Be tolerant. The realization that Love is infinite, heals.

Life

Life: (Ret. Page 59) “Life is a term” eternally conscious, always consciously living as all the qualities of good. As natural for Life to live as for sun to shine. Nothing can become unconscious or die. Conscious action is unfolded out into particular action called bowels or heart. Life or constant action is the substance of all things. Action is; don’t try to bring it into experience. Conscious Life living, not of itself but the one infinite Life. No inaction, overaction, or diseased action. Life, conscious action, never varies. All things are eternal, then conscious eternity is here now. The Life I now live in the flesh is that eternal Life living as me. Any infinitesimal life is that eternal Life. That which has ever lived has never died, but is living eternally. The life I live now is eternal Life. Conscious Life is living as you and me. Life is never young nor old, always at maturity.

Prove our highest conception of man as living, rather than dead. Mind, Love, couldn’t operate in a reverted sense, as a reversion of Truth. Death is an illusion. No person will ever be any more conscious of death than of birth. Death is not in the victim we say has died, but in us. All phenomena are in us. Our verdict of death in our friends does not change them one iota. Jesus was the same after death as before. If the senses lie about Life, they also lie about death. We must lift ourselves above the evidence of the senses.

SECTION V

Good: Consciousness, Identity, body, man. Goodlung; Good-stomach; Good-hand; Good-blood; Goodloaves; Good-flesh.

Mrs. Eddy’s favorite passages: S&H 368:10; 369:13.

We will have our true humanhood until we have our ascension.

Truth Is God

God as entity is Truth in totality. Truth in the unseen or invisible is God. Truth in the seen or visible is Christ. It makes no difference how I see things humanly; there is nothing, there is but Truth. The disclosure of Truth is infinite, Truth not brought about by someone thinking Truth. Truth is that which is, God. Each one of us can say “I am the Truth.” Truth comes to us to show us ourselves and all things as we are. Whenever our thinking is true thought, that is God, Mind, thinking the Truth. God, Mind thinking consciously and actively as you and I. This Truth heals the sick and the sinning. Recognize the Truth we know as being God. If we really know the Truth, we are living the Truth, because knowing includes living the Truth.

The wholeness, essence, and nature of Deity, Divinity a living ever conscious whole, all that is. Infinity in unity. “Unity of Good.” Mrs. Eddy considered her masterpiece, written between the hours of 3 and 5 a.m. One all inclusive unity. Whatever I know humanly is something of this whole. All things have the quality of inseparableness and indivisibility. Every thought form carries every quality with it; to unfold itself out into the expression of all good. Each quality that comprises my mind is infinite and everywhere. Every identity is always at one with its original qualities, its Principle; each quality whole.

All ideas that make up my consciousness humanly cannot fail. Each idea carries with it everything necessary for its completeness. If God gives me a home, all that is necessary to maintain it goes with it. The great unity of conscious good and its identity, man, is here, present, now. There is no place where infinite good is not present, the substance and being of us, no one separate from the oneness and wholeness.

Nature and Character of Deity

That which is natural. In its true sense nature is Deity. Deity or nature unfolds itself out in all phenomena and all material things. It does not create or produce. (Mis. page 217:13; p.331:25)

Deity expresses His divine character when He unfolds Himself in man and the universe. Character of Deity, eternal perfection. Creation is finished, forever intact. All the good I know humanly is the divine fact present. Not one thing in the universe has ever failed, been lost or died.

Essence of Deity

The essence of any particular thing, is the essential qualities of that particular thing, which give it character and substance. Wetness is the character of water.

Life

Omniaction — To be Deity Immortality — To be Deity

Consciousness or intelligence is the character of God or Mind, the essential characteristics. Everything that comprises God is consciousness or intelligence. Every atom of Himself is conscious. We can never go farther back than consciousness or intelligence, which is the essence of God and man. (Un. page 24:12) “All consciousness is Mind.” Each individual has as his essence, substance, or character, the one individual essence, substance, intelligence or character. Each must feel the contents of his one consciousness.

When one sees another, he sees only himself, and his own concept of another. One judges everyone and everything according to his illumined or unillumined state of consciousness. (S&H 573:5) When one sees water he doesn’t see hydrogen and oxygen, the unseen qualities that make up water (H2O) but the seen expression, water. There is no place where hydrogen and oxygen ends and water begins, but the one substance, its primary elements seen as its expression, unfolded out in water; respective seen and felt expressions. No place where unseen qualities end and human begin; but the same divine character. The seen is the unseen. And the unseen is the seen or Deity; just One. (S&H 512:21)

Mental both primarily and secondarily. The seen qualities are mental and spiritual, one and the same essence and substance and have the same character. Bones, flesh, all human good is the same essence as their primary element. Temporary food and clothing we can never be without, always a higher sense of them. Sun does not produce heat, color, etc. The essence and qualities comprise the sun. Just radiate themselves as the sun shines out in their own isness.

All good is; good is finished, in the primary and in the secondary, seen and unseen. We need to recognize all good as the one good. We have an infinity of human good because all good is infinite. (S&H 275) Wherever we see the attributes:

Humanity expresses wisdom. Humanity expresses justice. Humanity expresses mercy.

“God or wisdom would appear to me humanly as whatever is considered the highest human sense of what is right and best to do, under the present human circumstances.” (Mrs. Eddy)

If doubtful, wait for wisdom to show you the way. Justice gives us most concern humanly. (Study in concordance.) Our human consciousness when correctly understood will be found as the real and only one, continued out in all the attributes that constitute man. Mind walking, the conscious idea walking, coincident with the divine, one and the same. Knowing that Soul, God, the great ableto-do, going on as man.

No idea or experience known humanly ever needs to be corrected. It only needs to be understood. It is in unity with its whole forever. We have been educated in false belief; we have taken walking, breathing, sleeping, etc., out of Soul and put them in matter, in illusion. Put them in man as their source. Material personal man is belief only. Scientific man and his Maker are here. Study chapter on Recapitulation.

Principle and Its Idea Is One

(S&H 465:17)

“1. Principle and its idea is one.

This one is God.
Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being.
His reflection is man and the universe.”

There is no statement in the universe that means so much as this one: “Principle and its idea is one.” God and His idea of Himself, man and the universe is ONE. Not man having an idea of God, but God has an idea of Himself and that idea is man and the universe. God, Principle, unfolds itself out in all ideas, man and the universe. Just as the principle of music is unfolded out in its tones. Mind sees all it is through its reflection or idea of itself. Principle is conscious, He has the awareness of all He Himself is, as man and the universe, One, not two. Our awareness of all of ourself is one, not making another one. Our awareness of ourself, working or sitting does not make another one, it is just the I.

The entire Christian Science movement is for the purpose of showing the universe saved, in consciousness.

Say just “God”; Think how God is to Himself; One, conscious, all good. There is nothing beside Him or outside of Him. “The Lord, there is none else beside him.” (Deut. 4:35) “The Lord” God’s idea of Himself. God being there as He is to Himself, there couldn’t be anything wrong. What God is consciously being, that is what I am. There is nothing here but God, all good.

Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being. Omnipotent, God “known to Himself” or has an idea of Himself as “All-knowing Being.” God is omnipotent, all power; man is omnipotence. The idea all, all the power there will ever be. There is power, ability, capacity, and capability in man as idea of all power. Jesus said, “All power is given unto me” because the idea is one with its divine Principle. Omniscience: man; all knowing, all that is going on.

Omnipresence: man.

“His reflection is man and the universe.” God, and the image and likeness is in God. Christian Science the only religion that teaches what reflection is. God is responsible for what man is. Image never another one. Man never another than God. We see ourself in a mirror because of our idea of ourself. God or being, can only know Himself by means of man and the universe; man and the universe, the fact of God, or being. Thus the compound idea of Himself is forever an established being. This reflection always responds and corresponds to what God is to Himself. God knows Himself by means of His body or manifestation in totality.

SECTION VI

Love

(My. page 117:19) “This great truth of God’s impersonality and individuality and of man in His image and likeness, individual, but not personal, is the foundation of Christian Science.”

(No and Yes. page 19:15) “God is individual, and man is His individualized idea.”

(Rud. Div. Sci. page 2:18) “Science defines the individuality of God as supreme good, Life, Truth, Love.” Then man as individualized idea must be one and the same supreme good, Life, Truth, Love.

(Ret. 73:1-24)

(No and Yes. 26:19-25)

(Mis. 104:22-23)

(S&H 491:25-26)

All good never external to consciousness. Some infinite good has unfolded itself out in consciousness as what is called money, home, friends, but it all makes up the human consciousness. Wherever there is consciousness, there is good. Everything is in consciousness, available all the time. There can never be anything absent from consciousness. Only false belief renders some things obscure. It is educated false belief that seems to obscure anything. Evil belief is false belief. God in our consciousness is abundance. We are the good that Mind consciously is. Mind unfolded itself out into good as man. We are the good that God is. The very fact that we exist is the fact that we exist as that good. We must surrender the false beliefs that are obscuring our reality. We must surrender it by degrees, as we understand the true. We must turn from the lie to the Truth of being. Absolute surrender of the false belief results in the miracle, what appears as the miracle to others, but the miracle was the thing always true and at hand. Insufficiency, a tormentor, never an actual condition, always a false belief.

Feeding the 5000

Disciples believed in insufficiency, and that good was external. Jesus looked up to heaven, looked at the fact. Loaves and fishes were infinite ideas. The worst belief that we can have is that there are things to be conscious of and we are not conscious of them. Elisha fed 100 with a few barley loaves and some corn. All good and useful things were already available in his consciousness and in everybody’s consciousness. We can continuously use the number 2 and never use it up. Where do we look for our good? In consciousness. The kingdom of good always within and constitutes our consciousness. There is never a personality or consciousness of our own. Money is something that God is. We have it all in consciousness. We are it as reflection because Mind makes us that.

Function of Man

Man is God’s idea of Himself. It is necessary for God to have an idea of Himself. So great is the function and importance of man; he was made for that purpose, or there wouldn’t be a God. Our divine purpose of existing is that we can give back to God what He is, or be reflection.

Generic man: all men and women as a totality. Individual man is the individualized idea, or is God’s individualized idea of Himself in the universe.

Man

Generic man equals Christ, equals family name, equals all men, the full representation as Truth. Same in scientific meaning. All the sons and daughters of God, who appear humanly as men and women. Not corporeals but individual mentalities, that make up the full manifestation of man. All the mentalities in the universe is the Church. Man in God’s image and likeness means infinity. Man-Christ-Son of God. Each one is a mentality including all the mentalities. The one manifestation made up of all the individual mentalities. A distinct mentality including all mentality (Son of God), a full representation made up of all other mentalities and all these mentalities include Jesus’ individual mentality including the universe. “I am the Christ.” Christ is all men and women or all mentalities taken collectively. A dewdrop reflects the sun. Each one of us reflects the infinite One, all that infinite Mind is. Each one of us reflects the one Christ, but not Christs many or many suns where each dewdrop reflects the entire sun.

Rose — Christ

All petals stand for generic man or Christ. Each petal stands for individual man. Each petal as a mentality. Christ is Truth in totality. Each petal is the rose life itself. At each petal point that rose life is conscious of itself. Where God is self-conscious, there is all good; all consciousness includes the universe. Each individual mentality includes the one conscious universe, an entirety, a totality. Right at the expression point there is all of God. Dewdrop could say “I have the entire sun in me.” Each individual a full representation of God or Christ. One universal Christ is the individual Christ in each of us. Each one of us has reality, or all things, within each of us. One kingdom of heaven within each of us. Each has all, and all has each. Two-fold character of man.

Son of God

Son of Man, Jesus consciousness

(Message 1901 page 20:8) “The Christian Scientist is alone with his own being and with the reality of things.” We have to include the universe in our thinking. Many mentalities collectively are still one man. Man or Christ is seen as an infinite number of seen sons and daughters, the seen phenomena, does not contradict the one manifestation. It takes all mankind undivided to make the one Mind. There is but one Mind, His manifestation is the one character Christ, all men and women. Wherever you see men and women you see this one man. If we see correctly we see divine mentalities, not corporealities. Am I something besides this one presence? An infinite mentality, including all other mentalities. There is just One, but each one of us has that one. We can’t keep it from unfolding as it is the nature and character of Truth to unfold.

Individual man is different from an individual, a physical personality. In Science, individual man is like God, identical with God. Individuality means infinite. The individuality of God and man is the foundation of Christian Science. Physical personality is finite. Man is actively and consciously the same supreme infinite good that God is. Personality is not the individuality of man. When man learns that he is not personal and material, he will see that he is exempt from sin, disease, and death. The spiritual is all that is present. When we understand this we will have an enlightened and changed sense of ourselves and others.

Man, the divine character of God! Drop the belief of personality! Get it wholly out of mind. Keep before us the right model. We are being crucified by letting in the belief that someone can dominate, suppress, or dictate. Without gaining the consciousness that Jesus had, not one of us can heal a single case.

Individuality: Man’s Infinity

The practical sense of individuality. We believe (false belief) that the other fellow can keep us from expressing our individuality. But we are all the one Life unfolded out. Each one, God doing and being.

Man’s Individuality and Identity

Actively and consciously showing forth all the qualities of God, in a particular expression. Individuality in both God and man would be the same, infinity. All primary qualities make God an entity, so man is the conscious identity of what God is. Inherently all men, sons and daughters of God, are alike. Yet there is a way that each child of God differs from every other child of God, entirely different in expression. One life and substance rolled out in expression. Because God’s body is infinity, man is infinite. God never twice alike. Author of a book; thought out characters. His own Mind expressed in different expressions. In the Book of Life, there is just One with His infinite expressions. Each character is an infinite expression of the Mind of the author. God wouldn’t be perfect or complete without each of us or consciousness. These characters in the book do not think or do things of themselves. It is the author’s Mind unfolding out there as characters. There is just one thing that can think, one thinking agent, God, or Mind. One author thinking or doing it, in particular expression of the Father Mind.

God is all there is to me. The one conscious Mind, God, as He is here in this particular expression. Every man, woman, and child as being a particular mental, spiritual member of the one body, Christ. All mentalities there are, that God is being, is church. When we see the characters (mentalities) correctly in the Book of Life, we see God, as He is and does and thinks.

The children of God are the One being expressed as infinite, individual, divine characters. The substance comes from the same source. Each character is conscious identity of the one author, forever preserved, eternal, immortal. The one being expressing Himself. Absolute science by no means destroys one’s individuality and identity, but shows the impossibility of their loss. Jesus demonstrated for us, individual man, his divine reality, proved to be immortal. His mission was to show each one of us what divine individuality is, to each of us. We can recognize ourselves as God’s presence, a celestial being in God’s universe. In as much as God is the author of the universe and all the characters, nothing was written there but eternal joy, peace and harmony.

Humanly speaking we see personality instead of individuality. Individuality not personal; a God being. Eventually Truth will destroy all belief and man will find himself a birthless, deathless being.

My Individuality

Sin and sickness no part of individuality. Each one of us is some distinct and distinguished Mind thinking, and God going on here. That each one of us is independent of every other expression of Mind thinking or God being. Absolutely governed by the God, Mind. Not only what I am, but what everyone else is, unfolding out.

(I Cor. 12:4-31)

From God proceeds all individuality, all being. We are all one infinity, one reality. But we have an individual sense of life, Life is one Being. There is a law of God that cannot be set aside. Because we are each individual, we must each express our individual self. Each has a calling, no one else can fill it. You cannot do another’s work, neither can another do the work that you should do. We are all the fulfillment of God’s great plan. We are distinct in this plan. There must be infinity. The God of individual being must be allowed self-expression. No individual can do a thing of himself. Let ourself be God glorifying Himself, is my self, expressed as my individuality. Let Him fulfill His divine plan and purpose.

One Source, one Cause, one Origin, this one is God. With what rejoicing we should live because He lives. “Did you but know the sublimity of your hope; the infinite capacity of your being; the grandeur of your outlook, you would let error kill itself. Error comes to you for life and you give it all the life it has.” (Mary B. Eddy, Christian Science Journal, 1912, Article “No Evil Power”) What destroys error? “Disbelief in error destroys error.” (S&H 346:15).

animal magnetism

Evil belief mental malpractice

Roman Catholicism

Overcome the belief that there can be so much to be overcome. Animal magnetism, a wrong sense of mind and body make up of a person. The only action there is, is the action of the one Mind. The one substance and essence is the substance and essence of the one Mind and body. Truth is infinite. Besides Truth, there is nothing else. If a thing doesn’t measure up to Truth, it doesn’t exist. Handling animal magnetism is disposing of something I believe to be true, just taking care of my false beliefs. If I knew all Truth, I would wipe out all beliefs. We get Truth as we dispel ignorance. As long as we believe something to be true that isn’t true, we need to be freed from the belief that there are many minds and bodies. (S&H 472:26)

Christian Science was revealed to Mrs. Eddy as a scientific way to dissolve belief. If I make an unreality or belief real, then belief becomes a reality to me. We have been educated to believe that to be true which is not true. The primary belief to be handled is the belief that man is a personality. The personal sense of ourselves and others is unreal.

Man is image, wholly unlike a person or mortal. A false belief of personality is robbing us of our birthright. The false sense of personality seems to be a medium for seeing sin, disease, and death. It is necessary to supplant this false sense with the spiritual fact of man. Back of all appearances lies reality, all there actually is.

Rid ourselves of this false sense of self and others, by replacing with the true, the truth about man or the Christ.

Do this renewing by degrees: this supplants and replaces in consciousness and I gradually find myself here, as I always have been, and the accompanying personality and mortality dissolves.

Personal sense is like a shadow. Sufficient light or Truth always takes up the shadow. I substitute for the belief of a finite mind and body the real body. As we understand that which is, that which is not disappears. Man is infinite and lives throughout all space. Man is all inclusive, consciousness. (S&H 293:6)

When we rid ourselves of mortal mind and body, we do not get rid of something, just a belief of a false representative of man. Personally I do not try to get rid of even a belief; Mind is my intelligence. Understanding is my real self. Christ or Truth is my real self. Evil not from body but from mortal mind. Body never acts, all evil formed by mortal mind. (S&H 393:4)

We never correct the body. Mortal mind projects these false beliefs, then feels and sees its own self-deception. Always turn from body or matter and recognize that in belief it is mortal mind that is being all these beliefs. Handling animal magnetism is taking all sense of pain or stress away from the body. Take the ailment out of body. Omniaction is all the action there is, and it is normal, and God right there can’t be less than harmonious and perfect. (S&H 114:12-17; 29-31)

There is a belief that mortal mind strata can be both good and evil. Evil of every kind and nature has neither power nor reality, not in the universe of infinite good. Get rid of the belief that evil is something to be healed or destroyed. Handle mental malpractice in myself, at the point of consciousness. It is within myself that I blot out the belief that evil is in anyone’s consciousness. The living conscious Truth living as me, destroys the belief that evil can live as consciousness. Keep man individual, and having all that there is, God.

SECTION VII

“Jesus read the minds of his students and he saw their sins but did not believe it was their minds, and this did the healing.” (Mrs. Eddy)

Protective Work

“If we do not control our possessions through the understanding that they are spiritual, they will control us through the belief that they are material.” (Mrs. Eddy)

All is Love, and thoughts of hate and malice are not living, because they have no life or motivating power by which to reach me or to reach my destination.

Malicious Animal Magnetism and Mental Malpractice

The Christian Science religion is the only religion that handles malicious animal magnetism and mental malpractice. It replaces mortal consciousness, the belief that man is mortal and is person, with the Truth that man is immortal and impersonal. There is something right here that is man, and is not personal. The Truth about God and man has entered the consciousness of man. A personality is the reversion of man. All other religions believe a personality or mortal is man, something to be fulfilled and made God-like. A mortal personality is a false image. Jesus proved that the man at hand, was the divine man. But the way he appeared to be was the carnal mind’s conception of man. Materia medica is trying to save the body. I need the Christ or Saviour in myself to see the divine man. Mortal man has no co-partnership with the divine. A mortal personality is illusion. A belief to be dissolved, not to be made into an immortal. Man is already immortal. Our real self or divinity right here, and we shall see it as our true humanhood.

Animal magnetism is the family name for all that appears to be evil. Evil in totality. The terms animal magnetism and mental malpractice are out of the dictionary, not coined by Mrs. Eddy. Students seldom use the terms, as they give the impression of something mysterious. Roman Catholicism used five or six times by Mrs. Eddy. Animal magnetism is discussed on seven pages in Science and Health. Mental malpractice is given one paragraph in Mis. Writ. page 113:21.

There are many terms synonymous with animal magnetism: error, evil, false belief, claim, negation, misconception, misstatement. We need to be specific when talking to young students. Help the patient to see that he is being governed by God, instead of some belief. And this is the truth that makes free. Animal magnetism is the supposititious opposite of everything in divine consciousness. We handle it in our own consciousness. It is no more Christianly scientific to see disease than to experience it. When I see another, I see only myself, must be that here which can see it, same one, mortal mind. One evil and that one only in belief.

The lie about infinite Good is animal magnetism. Never handle animal magnetism personally. It is the Science, the Truth, the living Christ that handles animal magnetism, not me personally. Understanding that handles the mistake in others. We must make nothing of the mistake. Replacing beliefs with Truth, we remove the covering, the veil, for the whole world, thinning the veil of false belief that obscures the reality right there. Find error to be nothing, then, and only then, do we handle it.

Handle the belief or suggestion that you can possibly feel or see an error. What you have seen or felt has never been a condition, a picture. Let go of false belief, and healing is instantaneous. False belief does not and cannot continue itself in consciousness when it is once admitted to be a belief only, and not a condition of the body. Any seeming imperfect thing is already whole. False belief cannot keep us from knowing things as they really are, our real being, right here. Let us begin to rejoice. We can’t see and feel anything but what is in our consciousness. (The withered arm of the woman.) Her first step was when she resolved not to acknowledge it again. The body never tells us what to do.

The great revelation taught by Mrs. Eddy was and is the unreality of life and intelligence in the body. The synonyms of God are not finite, not life in a personality. Sin, disease and death, a mental mortal mind image, the body does not have anything to do with it. The whole family of errors, mortal illusion, does not exist as fact, but mortal mind images, misconception. The one infinite good does not contain evil, a broken bone, or anything that is wrong (not one iota of imperfection, inharmony, or materiality.) The mind we now have is God. To believe otherwise is mental malpractice in us, if we see it in ourselves or others. Jesus knew evil was a deceptive appearance or feeling. Mrs. Eddy understood the deceptiveness of evil to the extent that she healed instantly. She knew God. Good is infinite. Bicknell Young said to me (Mrs. Wilcox) in metaphysical college, “You never can heal an incurable case if you believe they can die.” Let our divinity become our humanity. To some extent heal through argument, through affirmation of Truth and denial of error. Specific error needs to be offset by specific Truth. Keep your mind from combating and resisting evil.

Mental Malpractice

It is not body, but mind we handle. Persons believe the mind of a personality is the center of a thought force and can harm another. It is all in the object mortal mind calls personality. No one else can harm us. One person’s mind does not govern or influence another. There is no transference of mortal thought. Each one responsible for his own beliefs, all the turmoil in the world, a belief, basically wrong mental activity; mortal mind’s pictures. Never ignore an error or an evil, but understand why there can’t be evil. One omnipotent power. We have erroneous conditions as long as we believe in them. Error can be destroyed, because it is mental in mortal mind. IMPORTANT: “The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.” (S&H 353:1) “The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right.” (S&H 368:1) The carnal mind is a murderer from the beginning. The carnal mind is a lie, no Truth in it. It never was intended that we should be overcome of evil.

Evil always impersonal, so it can be overcome in ourselves and others. There is just one thing that thinks, unless God thinks a hateful thing no one can think it. Deal with errors as mistakes but not personal, mine or anyone’s. Overcome the belief that there can be any evil to be overcome. There cannot be unjust personalities in my consciousness or any consciousness. Not persons that think. Only Mind enacts thinking. Only the carnal mind in us, that sees what these many minds seem to be doing. The correction is in ourselves. (S&H 220:18).

Mortal man sees what is in his own consciousness, but sees it inverted. Never correct persons or have a person correct himself. It is the conscious Truth in us that sees erroneous beliefs become nothing. The Truth, the supremacy and allness of good. (My. 364:15: Man. 84) When I think my brother hates me, I am malpracticing on my brother and myself. It is the Christian religion, the understanding of this religion that heals, not me personally.

Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholics are those who have embraced a personal sense of man and things. They have based their religion on this personal sense of man. Roman Catholics think God is Spirit, but man is separated from God, and is material and a sinner, and must be saved only through the Roman Catholic Church.

Christian Scientists are those who have embraced the spiritual sense of man and things. The oneness of God and man. Man not personal but individual and whole. Roman Catholicism: the almost universal misconception of man and church. Christian Science: proper functioning of church.

Personal sense and Roman Catholicism are synonymous. Opposite modes of thought. Personal evil and impersonal Truth. Carnal mind and Immortal Mind. Roman Catholicism should be handled for every case. Satan has bound him.

There is nothing but God in a particular expression. Personal sense always impersonal. Carnal mind being personal sense. Inharmonious conditions can never be disposed of by thinking they come from a person. Not originating in a person, but opposite to what is true, only mental malpractice in our own mind.

Personal sense, Roman Catholicism, seems to be present in my consciousness. I can replace the object or person with the individual man that is present. As I understand, Roman Catholicism or personal sense cannot be my consciousness; God is their Mind and my Mind.

All errors are mental images of mortal mind; take it away from person. It is illusion. Not the person in church affairs that enacts error; wholly mortal mind, picturing as their mind and as our mind. But God is the only Mind.

Truth will order aright what is necessary in human footsteps under any circumstances. Let Mind remove properly all that is offensive in our consciousness. Man governed by one Mind. Personalities powerless to act. The images of personality come to us for life and we give it all the life it has. See that I am living and thinking according to God and man. I handle the belief that there is a personal mind.

Much Roman Catholicism talk is just superstition and witchcraft. All action is the action of the one Infinite Mind. Roman Catholicism impossible to have activity or power. All power or action is God or Mind. No opposition to right endeavor. Opposition and suffering not from others.

Personal sense is self eliminated. Warfare is between personality and individuality.

Materia Medica

Specifically handle materia medica laws. All the beliefs are formed not by M.D.’s but by mortal mind. Reversions are not laws. Doctors do not make materia medica, mortal mind is the culprit. Doctors have the same mind that we have, Divine Mind. This great body of belief is not personal; basic beliefs of mortal mind. The heart, liver, and stomach are divine ideas. All should be released from the dominating influence of mortal minds in a Christianly scientific way. Doctors, nurses, and Christian Scientists are at no time exempt from the one and only law and influence there is, Divine Mind.

The righteous thought of Christian Science in Christian Scientists does not sit in judgment even of doctors; doctors accept mortal mind’s classification. But in reality there is no disease in Spirit. We need to be so filled with the righteous thought of Christian Science that we can nullify the error at the point of consciousness. Doctors, nurses, patients, are not external to ourselves. Our redemption from materia medica is to loose doctors. Bind mortal mind until it ceases to function as materia medica. Mind, the great able-to-do-all things.

Roman Catholicism wholly a personal sense of man and a material sense of church. Personal sense cannot dominate in our consciousness. All malpractice is mental. No power or presence but God.

Healing

(S&H 493:17) (S&H 253:18-31)

Sometimes healing in Christian Science almost drops to the level of materia medica. Those who believe in materia medica want medicine and those who are Christian Scientists want a treatment. The physical body can never be sick independent of mortal mind. The physical body is an unfoldment of mortal mind out in expression. (S&H 208:25) Wherever there seems to be sickness there is only thought. “Too soon we cannot turn from disease in the body to find disease in the mortal mind, and its cure, in working for God. Thought must be made better, and human life more fruitful, for the divine energy to move it onward and upward.” (Mis. 343:5) It is the mortal, material mind that must be healed. Healing is not accomplished by restoring the body, but by restoring the human mind from belief to understanding.

It is Truth, the living Christ that frees the human mind out of itself. Healing is accomplished by perceiving the one infinite body, wholly mental and spiritual, as it is, and its manifestation man. When treating, I see that I am perfectly well. That is my starting point, God is right there, Mind and body in particular expression. As this is actually consciously my mind, that understanding swallows up the beliefs that mortal mind is present. What is called another is only one’s self. Everybody already whole. Those who seem to be in an inharmonious state of mind or body, they believe that they need healing, but they do not need healing, but an understanding that they are already whole. What we really need is no healing, but an awakening to the fact that we are changeless being, having the substance of Spirit.

We need to awaken to see that we accept this true fact of being as true now. Express it in true thinking and living. Healing is not accomplished by making someone or something whole, but by seeing that they are already whole. “Healing” is not a scientifically correct word, but for lack of a better one we have to use it; it is not a good word, so keep your thought right about it.

Jesus had a true concept of man, the man he always saw, man in God’s own image and likeness. He did not see a diseased man, a mortal man. He saw the reality that lies behind all appearances. In this reality he saw the omnipresence of God, and this destroyed the belief of disease in the consciousness of the diseased man. A sick man’s creations are altogether mental, he is making them with his mind, or mortal mind. Being belief only, they are nothing.

Jesus had a right vision. He interpreted everything according to Truth. Jesus always spoke to the perfect man when he told him to rise and walk. He was not addressing a lame man. While others around were seeing their own beliefs, they never saw man.

He knew that false pictures or beliefs are not anything. But we must perceive them to be nothing. Jesus said, “Nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19) To know that all so-called evil is nothing, is what takes the sting out of the serpent.

If the world of Christian Scientists would but see through the veil of matter, we would see all social, economic, and industrial problems cease. Even death would fade from the consciousness of man. In the 9th chapter of Luke, Jesus gave his disciples power over all evil beliefs. Healing was a primary requirement of his followers. When we have become the divine character actively and consciously, we will do as he did. The Christian Science movement is founded on a foundation of Christian healing. The healing is purely mental and spiritual. (S&H xi:9) “The physical healing...” Christian Science is spiritual healing, and its outward effect is seen in the physical body, and in the transformed character. The human body does not need healing, but the mental must be adjusted to correct the trouble. Two modes of healing:

Spiritual healing: done through Love. Love thinketh no evil. Love is not dual. When healing through Love we won’t have anything to be healed.
Metaphysical healing: takes the degree of good that I have, and lets it take off or counteract a corresponding amount of belief. Through denying error and affirming Truth, human thought is spiritualized. “There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful. Through the divine energies alone one must either get out of himself and into God so far that his consciousness is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through argument and the human consciousness of both evil and good, overcome evil.” (Mis. 352:21)

Mrs. Eddy has handled every phase of mortal mind for us in her published works, really just in the one chapter “Christian Science Practice.” Sometimes an analysis of error is necessary. But the fewer times we rehearse the error, the better. Admitting an error produces the picture going on. The admission of the presence of error is all there is to the problem. Admitting there is something besides God, a time when there was a person or channel to have it.

When analyzing error it is to reject the false claim. In the analysis of error great faults of character are sometimes revealed. It is just to uncover these things as nothing. Uncover only to disappear, should be denied as the pain is denied. Delay in recovery is often due to a fault in the patient, that he is holding on to ignorantly or stubbornly. Not personally, but ignorantly. But ignorance must be overcome to obtain harmony. All these errors are but false beliefs. Don’t let us build them up. They cannot bind us as they are not qualities of God or Mind. But must be seen and proved as nothing. We can’t believe it. Do not excuse or make alibis for ourselves and accuse patient. Make them all errors of mortal mind, never personal. “Remove the leading error or governing fear.”(S&H 377:20) The beam must be cast out of the practitioner’s eye to help the patient. If the patient fails to recover, see it as an error and not true. There is one of two causes when a patient is not healed quickly, either some sin lies at the door or some universal law of belief has not been handled.

It is usually the latter, so loose him.

Conscious Life is the rule of all action or law. The practitioner’s attitude is very important. Never personalize. Love is the liberator. Love thinketh no evil. To think or speak of any form of error is metaphysically incorrect. So never believe an error or that mental malpractice is a reality. Evil in any form is never in our own thinking. Mortal mind is the culprit. Mortal mind is not mind at all. So-called wrong thinking is not thinking at all, but right thinking in reversion.

The one Mind is infinite intelligence. Evil intelligence is a belief that requires our attention to un-see it. Mortal mind is the strong man that has to be bound. Truth constitutes an alertness in us. Power is understanding, the Christ in us, and that disposes of the error. Mortal mind of its own consent must yield to Truth.

Christian Science Practitioner

A Christian Science practitioner is God’s presence. A patient is God’s presence.

God Himself is here manifested. There are no channels or mediums for God to express Himself. The word “channel” might imply separation. The practitioner and the patient are God Himself, omnipresent. A practitioner is a veritable angel of light. It is inevitable that we all are practitioners all the time.

The practitioner’s practice is the quality of his thinking, his consciousness, that is, of what is going on. A practitioner’s desire to do good is not enough, there must be the ability, never personal, God’s presence. The ability will be according to the Christ within him, not of himself, but God present. The practitioner’s understanding appears to be the reality of his patient. The desire to do good often holds him from doing that good, he holds mankind separate from God, something that needs treatment, and that he is the channel to bring about the good.

If the practitioner has an understanding, rather than desire, he sees finished perfection, creation finished. The source of his thought must consciously be in the divine Mind. True thought always rejects the suggestions of erroneous beliefs. It habitually thinks Truth. Start the healing work with the patient already whole, as a Son of God. Maintain the spiritual nature of every so-called patient. Maintain the spiritual nature of everything that comes in the range of his consciousness. Understand that God is all there is. Detect error as error, not as something. Divine Mind is his own Mind. Sometimes practitioners look for result, for a sign. Results are already, before he begins treatment. When we know results already are, we get the best results. A practitioner does not send his thought out to a patient, to change the patient’s mind or heal his body. But right here, within his own consciousness, knows what is over there already. The function of a practitioner is to know the Truth. He has divine Mind as his Mind, and includes all. Never blame a patient. All that the patient seems to do is impersonal evil, not the patient. If we see it as the patient, that is mental malpractice. Handle mortal mind, evil, that seems to be the patient’s mind, as malpractice and not having its source in the patient. It is always mortal mind’s bland denial of the Truth. All there is to the patient is what is, and it is right there; God. Mortal mind has not one iota of power or presence.

Patients

A patient has a great part in the recovery. To be obedient, to study, and to hold to the Truth given him. Never let mental malpractice hold sway. If the patient really seems to be suffering, don’t require much of him or do much talking. But hold to reality; individual man in unity with divine Mind. The understanding of the Oneness of Being excludes the need of healing. So there is just the divine Mind here that sees all and knows all, no practitioner or patient present. One all-inclusive being is all. The patient needs his vision restored from belief to Truth. Mrs. Eddy said, “Teach patients not to love to be sick.”

CLASS INSTRUCTION IS THE GREATEST EVENT IN OUR HUMAN EXPERIENCE. (Mrs. Wilcox)

SECTION VIII

Demonstration is concrete evidence. The highest human manifestation is concrete evidence. The highest visible expression of what we can know humanly. (Unity of Good, page 11) We demonstrate by degrees. We have our concrete evidence because we understand. We have to spiritualize our thought to know it is all here. We meet Roman Catholicism, never in some other person or some material church, but within our thinking, no place else. God is all there is to each individual. He is expressing Himself everywhere. These mortal mind images come to us to give them life, but God is all there is. Any personal sense is Roman Catholicism. Always do what divine Mind tells us to do, we are God-governed, an expression in the divine plan. There is in reality no sense of person; it is just a picture, an image, a caricature. We must see it as the divine Mind here, right here, sees it. It is up to us. Divine Mind is omnipresent. Divine Mind is reality.

Prodigal Son

Husks, that which is unsatisfying, a belief in minds many. Father’s house, divine consciousness, the kingdom of heaven within us. He came to himself, found himself, not by going somewhere, but found himself rising in thought, awakening and finding himself. Having the correct view of himself, living as he really is. Not one of us is a mortal now, or ever has been. We don’t change the individual from a mortal to an immortal. But awaken the individual from belief to understanding and give evidence to the fact that we are now immortal.

Our real self is the only self. The false picture is not a self at all. The false picture does not make another self. Turn the lie of false belief to the Truth of being. But do not combat the lie as though it was something. A deception is not a thing. It may seem as if the individual were striving for more things, but one is really seeking his real being, a higher sense of Life and God. His, the individual’s nature, is at one with the I-God-the-unlimited, infinite Mind. Individual man is as all-inclusive as God is all-inclusive. This oneness of Mind insures abundance. It is not from without, but from within; in consciousness. All-inclusive God is our Mind.

The human concept is symbols or figures of the real. “As for me, I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” (Ps. 17:15) Our divinity is understandable. Sooner or later we shall know man; in us and as us. An individual loves his family, relatives, and friends and they are himself, Oneself. He loves everything that comprises himself, or the one universe. Universal. All living things delight in freedom. Every individual is free and unrestricted. He loves immortality. God or Life holds within himself all Life. Man’s life is God, living in man as man. Man cannot show forth sickness, sin, and death.

Truth has within itself the seed to enlarge and unfold into all good. The universal God is all. Christian Science is the greatest thing that can possibly come to a human being. And it has come to us as the Christ appearing in our consciousness. The appearance of Truth is the Christ within us. Our attitude should be one of gratitude and sacred silence toward this Truth or angel presence, God appearing as our true humanhood, a sacred, marvelous thing, that we can talk with God and commune with Him. This understanding or Christ is within us.

Never talk Christian Science. Talk is just our concept of Christian Science. Live it and demonstrate it.

1908: Mrs. Wilcox lived with Mrs. Eddy. Christian Science was never talked in her family but she expected them all to live and demonstrate it. Take your books and talk with God. Study Recapitulation and Christian Science Practice. Daily Lesson is as necessary as food.

The Sections:

Absolute statement of Truth, the Spiritual fact.
(and sometimes 3.) Uncovers the mortal mind belief on the subject.
The next ones. Elucidate and handle the subject. Last. Culminates and sums up the subject.

Unity of Good, Mrs. Eddy’s masterpiece. Miscellaneous Writings very important.

Divine Mind, God. The infinite and only Mind.

Mortal mind, that which has no existence; ignorance, or no mind, educated completely out of itself. It cannot educate itself out of itself. Intelligence does this.

Human mind has some enlightenment. It is in states and stages of improved belief. A transitional experience. A state of mind where an element of good is enlarged upon. Be peacemakers in church activities. Everyone there is God, right there, not corporealities.

Supply

God or Mind does not give to us or to our consciousness material things, but Mind does give us spiritual ideas and these ideas are known to us, as yet, materially or humanly as what we call human good. Spiritual ideas appear to us as material things because the human mind is not sufficiently spiritualized to understand things as they are. All good things that we have or that we desire are now spiritual realities appearing through the mists of mortal mind. And we are to understand that our highest human concept of these things is reality itself, at hand. And because things are reality at hand, things cannot disappear, or be lost, or be absent, or be diminished. But we recognize things in higher, truer expressions according to our higher, truer degrees of comprehension and understanding of Being. God’s gifts as spiritual ideas, always meet our present state of thought, for God’s goodness is always expressed to us in a way that is tangible and practical to our immediate everyday state of consciousness.

Each one of us is entitled to a legitimate and ample maintenance, because each of us includes within his consciousness the kingdom of God or the kingdom of good. As we seek, we shall find this kingdom of realities in our own consciousness, the consciousness we have now. And we shall never have any consciousness other than that God-bestowed consciousness that we have now. And these realities will appear on our present plane of comprehension as the highest good we can understand. God is doing for us more than we can ask or think. And He has designated the ways and means by which His bountiful provision appears to us. These ways and means appear to us humanly as human ways and means. When correctly viewed and understood, there are only God’s ways and means by which idea or man can express, actively and concretely, the abundant provision of Good.

This great fact of Being is counterfeited in mortal mind, as the aggressive suggestion that all men are separated from one another, and are usurping God’s government and control of all mankind.

When any expression of divine Mind appears in my consciousness, this expression is my consciousness and is the Divine Mind consciously present. It is not something external or separate from me, and it is not and it cannot be governed or controlled by another.

All ways and means are divine activity. Man does not originate ways and means of his own, but man, as idea or reflection, consciously repeats the ways and means that are divine activity.

Since God is the source or origin of all things and man reflects God, then all so-called human ways and means are coincident with, and are the same as, God’s ways and means, and all consciousness is coincident with, and is the same as, the one consciousness and, therefore, cannot be interfered with. No matter how fiercely this battle for personal possession of place and power and things is waged, let us remember that the conflict is always within one’s self.

This mental conflict results also from the belief that there are two separate and distinct sets of good, one spiritual, the other material. When we understand that good as reality, and the human concept of good, is the One good, then man finds himself in possession of all good.

This mental conflict results also from the equally tenacious belief that man’s good is separated and external to himself. But we know that all good is the individual’s own consciousness of good, and needs only to be correctly interpreted. We all seem so bound with the belief that we are separated from our abundance of good. Mrs. Eddy says: “Mortals will some day assert their freedom in the name of Almighty God.” (S&H 228:14) And as we more and more assert our freedom in the name of Almighty God, we shall find our good to be at hand, without labor, toil and limits. We shall have a higher sense of what we call “making a living;” we shall be able to demonstrate our supply simply by rising into the spiritual consciousness of Being.

Paradise is a true state of consciousness wherein is all good, and if we, like the prodigal son, are to return to perfection of consciousness, we need to arise and come to ourselves and see and prove that we are already that full and complete state of consciousness.

In applying this Truth to the seeming problems of everyday experience, it is very helpful to apprehend and realize the right interpretations of “time” and “place” and “personality.”

Let us consider “time.” One often feels that next week or next year he will have more good than he has today. It is an easy thing to think that an abundance of good might come in the future, but it is rather hard to understand the fact, that good is at hand now. But if I can receive a certain good next week or next year, I have been receiving the same good for a thousand years.

Eternity is here and at hand, “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” What is called a day, a month, a year, is merely the human concept of indivisible eternity. To the material senses we have “time,” but we should be losing the sense of “time” through our higher understanding of eternity.

Then “place.” A greater abundance of good may seem to depend upon place or location. And while place or location may seem to accompany our human footsteps, it is quite necessary to have the correct interpretation of “place” or so-called mortal mind will fool you. Place, like time, is the false belief in separation or division of Infinity, but Infinity cannot be divided. Whatever is in our location is likewise in another because there or here or everywhere is Infinity.

And last, “personality.” We need to see the nothingness of the belief that our good depends upon personality, and realize that one’s demonstration of good does not depend upon anyone but himself. In our early stages of growth we often feel we must meet certain friends, or individuals who will help us on our way toward prosperity and happiness, and this may seem to be the necessary footsteps at this time. But fundamentally we are looking in the wrong direction; we are not practicing from the right interpretation; we are looking at the external rather than within.

Looking within, one sees always that there is but one Being. And he sees that he and every individual is that one Being, is held by Mind in the right relation, correlation, and inter-relation, to every other individual. He sees and understands himself as being all men, or the one man Christ. When he sees what he calls others, he sees only himself and all others as one man, governed by the one Mind, and each having all.

We must have the vision and we must practice our vision in order to make the demonstration of supply.

Impersonal Truth is God; when you think of God, think of God as Truth, think of that Truth as being God or Mind. God or Truth is the individual Mind. God or Truth is the individual Ego, the individual divine Principle, the individual Being (capital B.) Your own right Mind is God. The only man you will ever be. And that Mind and intelligence go on together in unity forever and forever.

To know the Truth is to be the Truth. We declare Truth that we may find our real nature and being to be Truth, Itself.

The individual’s declaration of his perfection is Truth, but this declaration in no way refers to the mortal condition in which the individual finds himself. This declaration of Truth refers to the individual’s real self-hood of which God is his Father.

Instruction that is Truth is a divine message to man. Truth is God or Mind in self-revelation. Truth is God Himself. Truth is the “I AM” of every individual.

While our method of scientific thinking enables the individual to see what is already perfect, it is not the thought or the thinking that makes us perfect. No! The knowing of Truth is Truth Itself, and is the perfection. To really know the Truth is being the Truth.

One’s individual perfection and harmony, health, and supply are not to be created or acquired through any method of thinking. Absolutely not! But through scientific thinking we find ourselves already perfect, a perfection that embraces infinite good, harmony, health, supply, here and now.

Instruction that is Truth trains the human mind to look upon things as they should be seen, as they really are. Truth is our Life, our Mind.

Scientific thinking enables us to know that the divine idea, or the thing that is in heaven is the same thing at hand on earth. That is, our perfection, our harmony, health, sight, hearing and supply that are realities in the unseen or in heaven, is the same harmony, health, sight, hearing, supply, that we experience in our earthly existence. These realities that exist in Mind or heaven are continued out into expression as our human experiences on earth. If these realities are present in heaven, they do not have to be brought into human existence or brought to earth by means of thinking. Earth is the expression of heaven, therefore the good in human existence is the expression of reality. They are one and the same thing.

Does not impersonal Truth, the “I AM” of each one of us, say, Do not I fill heaven and earth? Am I not expressed in earth as in heaven? Are not the visible expressions of Mind, and Mind, one and the same? What we call our daily experiences all have their source in heaven. Our health, harmony, happiness and supply ever abide in God, our own Mind, or our own Being, and are realized and expressed in daily living. There is no evil in all-inclusive reality, for “the darkness and the light (the human concept of reality) are both alike to Thee.” (Psalms 139:12)

All human good and the good that is reality, one and the same good. Our human concept of good approximates the one good in proportion to our comprehension of the spiritual fact, that our human good is the one good. “Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth.” (S&H 17:2) Scientific thinking, or knowing the Truth is the experience itself, which to our comprehension may appear as the desired wholeness, desired employment. Individual man, being God’s or Mind’s idea of Himself, is as complete, as active, and as employed as is God, his Mind. Let us then individually think, and act, as if we were what we are.

Animal Magnetism

No matter what the inharmonious condition, be it great or small, terrifying or merely disturbing, the cause behind it is but our belief in it or animal magnetism.

We cannot be held in bondage when once we understand that all types and stages of evil, no matter what the experience, is only animal magnetism or false belief. We cannot be held in bondage when we understand the impossibility and nothingness of false belief.

We do not have to give up a disease or an inharmonious experience, but we must give up the belief that there can be a disease or an inharmonious experience. As soon as a lie is seen to be a lie, it has no power or existence. No matter how great the Goliath may seem to be, the recognition of the allness of God, and the nothingness of any power apart from Him, is all that is needed to vanquish false belief or animal magnetism.

Animal Magnetism Impersonal

Animal magnetism cannot operate directly or of itself. It requires support and it exists and continues by means of someone believing in it. Animal magnetism must always find a channel or someone to believe in it in order that it may exist.

But the person believing in error or animal magnetism is never the originator of error. Error originates in mortal mind, therefore all error is impersonal. One must handle the claim that error is personal, thereby freeing the person through which the claim seems to be acting.

A student of Christian Science endeavors to attain and maintain that spiritual altitude of thought that the Master had when he said, “For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (John 14:30) Infinite Truth admits no opposite or evil, and we should mentally oppose evil with Truth, promptly and persistently, whenever it presents itself for acceptance.

When Christian Science was revealed to Mrs. Eddy, she saw that evil was a state of mental blindness, a mesmerism produced by mortal mind thinking. She saw that this mental blindness was a serious thing because it made man incapable of discriminating properly, as to what was real and what was unreal, and it blinded man from seeing the necessity of recourse to the Divine Mind in order to bring about the destruction of that which deceives man into clinging to the finite and human sense of himself, because he believes that sense of existence to be real.

The teachings of Christian Science awaken thought to the true nature of the Infinite and this enables us to make the effort to see as nothing, everything that claims existence apart from God, or that is unlike Truth and Good.

Evil and its seeming operation affect only those who are ignorant of its unreality. It is because man is ignorant of the fact that evil is belief only, that it affects him. He never can appreciate enough the fact that Mrs. Eddy has shown us and proved to us that evil is false belief, only.

When the world comes to appreciate the wonderful thing that Mrs. Eddy has done in uncovering all evil as animal magnetism or false belief, there will be a great increase in spiritual growth for all mankind.

Man and Body

There is one thing of which we are conscious that is all-important to us, and we should always hold it in consciousness in its true depict. This all-important thing is man or body. And each of us is man or body.

The terms man or body are synonymous terms. Their relation to God or Mind is the same, in that they express Mind. The full expression of Mind, as all ideas, is man or the body of Mind. Mind and man are one Being, or Mind and body is one Being. Man or body is the evidence that there is a God. Man or body show forth or exhibit God. There is one infinite Body and that Body is man, or is the body you are now, no matter what false beliefs you hold in consciousness about it. There is one spiritual Body, and that Body is you.

It is scientific to declare that man exists at the standpoint of body, man is body. Pervading this very place where the false belief of man or body seems to be, in this very place, but not limited to it, is the only man or body in existence. Mind, expressed as man or body, fills this place. If this were not true, there could be no false beliefs about them.

It is right to declare that I, meaning this man or body right here, am spiritual, if when you say “this man or body” you mean the only man or body here, and do not have in mind that which is false belief, myth, wholly illusion, nothing.

There is one infinite Mind, and there is but one man or body, and every individual is this one Man or Body.

Because man or body is purely mental and spiritual, it is of utmost importance to declare the truth about man or body, in order to become familiar with the real facts about man or body.

It is almost a universal misconception that man is entirely separated from God, with a private body of his own, which seems to be the source or medium of all his troubles. I urge you to declare frequently the truth concerning your body, in order that the spiritual idea of body may silence and displace the material concept or false belief about your body. Do not be afraid to declare the truth concerning your body.

All the things in the embodiment of Mind or the one Body are eternal, complete, and perpetually active, as ideas, and the law of Mind that governs His embodiment is the law of perpetual harmonious action.

Embodiment or body will always be, and no idea of this body can fail or be sick, or change, or disintegrate or be dead. Everything that constitutes body as vigor, vitality, strength, power, perfect impulsion, symmetry, beauty, is a conscious mode of existence, and if we are conscious of body as it really is, then there is no body that is material, or finite, or sick, or that can be sick.

The true consciousness of body as spiritual and immortal, enables us to put out the false belief that body is a private body of a mortal man or woman.

A Case of Healing

Recently, I was told of an interesting case of healing. There was a woman who had had much help in Christian Science and had been healed of many things, but a belief of a diseased nose did not yield. She said to her practitioner, “I can’t understand why my nose is not healed. I certainly know the truth about it.” The practitioner said, “What is God or Truth?” She replied, “God or Truth is All.” The practitioner said, “Where is God or Truth?” She replied, “God or Truth is everywhere.”

When the practitioner asked her, “Where is everywhere?” she replied, “Everywhere is right here.” Then the practitioner said, “Well, if God or Truth is All and is right here, then your nose is God right here.” To this the woman replied, “Oh, no, my nose is material.” The practitioner said, “Then you do not believe the statements you have just made. You said that God or Truth is All and is filling this place, but you believe a material body is filling this place. Instead of seeing the claim as false belief, you see it as a material body with a diseased nose. Surely that is a false sense of consciousness.”

The woman saw that she had been keeping God or Truth in the abstract, as something separate and apart from body. She saw that she had not believed that her statements of God or Truth were herself, as right ideas there in that place. She saw that she had not known God or Truth at all. She was awakened to see that God or Truth was All and was filling that place, that her body or nose, being what God was right there, needed no healing. God and body were one Being. When she saw the truth about God and body, this truth dispelled her erroneous belief about body and nose, and she was quickly healed.

I want to speak of a case of instantaneous healing which illustrates the point of letting go of false belief. False belief does not and cannot continue itself in consciousness when it is once admitted to be belief only, and not a condition of the body.

A woman had a withered, helpless arm caused by accident. She had exhausted the resources of all the local practitioners, and whenever a lecturer came to the city she talked with them and had some treatments, but to no avail. She traveled much with her husband, and whenever they came to a large city, she immediately hunted up a practitioner, went to him, rehearsed all about this arm and had some help, but to no avail.

Finally, they arrived in New York City, and as soon as they were settled in their hotel, she got out her Journal, because above everything else she wanted that arm healed. She found a name and made an appointment. But as she sat waiting, she said to herself, “I will not tell about this arm another time. I’m tired of repeating that over and over, and it’s only belief anyway,” the saying of which meant little to her.

She said to the practitioner, “You know God heals, don’t you? You know that He can heal anything?” The practitioner answered her, “Why yes, God heals by revealing to us that any seeming imperfect thing is always whole, and false belief cannot keep us from knowing things as they are, perfect and whole.”

He gave the woman a treatment and showed her out of the office. When once outside, she found her arm restored in size and activity, as perfect as her other arm. She had let go her false belief, and her first step in that direction was taken when she resolved not to acknowledge it again. Any wrong belief can be given up “without hindrance from the body.” (S&H 253:23)

So-Called Material Body

So-called material mind and body is but an erroneous concept of the one, infinite Mind and body, and this so-called mortal mind and body is a myth, an illusion. The so-called material body is not something that fills space but is a belief about the only body that is filling space. There is only one infinite body and the belief about this body isn’t another kind of body, but is belief only. Belief is not something, but is a belief about something. The only place we meet belief is in the realm of mortal thought. If I believe two times two equals five, I must meet this belief in mortal thought. The belief is never external to thought. Belief does not and cannot continue itself apart from mortal thought. Let us consider indigestion. Indigestion is the identity of belief, that is, indigestion and belief are one and the same. Then I handle or meet indigestion, as belief, and must meet it in the realm of mortal thought, because belief is never external to or disconnected from thought.

Body has nothing to do with indigestion, except as it is the visible expression of what is in mortal thought. All belief is without a believer. God or Mind is infinite Truth, and Mind cannot be the opposite of Truth and be belief. Mind being the reflection of Truth cannot include belief. There is in reality no such mode of consciousness as belief. Since the material body is belief in mortal thought only, the thing to do is to improve our belief about the body and this is done by gaining a higher understanding of true body. A false sense of body must be replaced with a true sense of body.

As we progress in the understanding of Christian Science, our progress does not destroy a material body; no, it just dispels the belief that the body we now have is mortal, and material, and organic and structural.

As we clear away our beliefs, there appears to our sight and sense, our everpresent, glorious body, the body that was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration.

As we progress in Christian Science, each scientific step should show forth concretely, better bodily conditions and this is accomplished not by destroying what does not fill space, but by bringing to light in consciousness our everpresent spiritual body.

We should see the great importance of never mentally destroying the concrete, progressive unfoldment of what seems to be our body, or any part of our body, but we should hold in consciousness higher concrete expressions of body as it really is, until we come into our perfect humanhood. A Christian Science healing indicates an improved belief about body. When we declare facts of truth about God, we should realize that these facts of truth about God is man, is body. God or Mind is man. God or Mind is body.

Mrs. Eddy says, (S&H 167:26; 111:28; 248:8) “The scientific government of the body must be attained through the divine Mind.” “Mind governs the body, not partially but wholly.” “Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought.”

The body is always the visible expression of the mind. Whatever images of thought are held within our mind, these images are visibly seen in the body which is the expression of the mind.

Whenever our body shows us a certain image of inharmony in our thought, then we should immediately replace this false image in thought with the counterfact image or the Truth. This process restores health and harmony to our mind which in turn is visibly manifested in our body.

It always seems to us that it is the body that ages and grows old, independent of the mind, but man’s body or embodiment is but the garment of his thought. The body always visibly manifests the mind from which it is evolved.

Mrs. Eddy was once asked (C.S. Series), “Is it possible to change the aged form to one of youth, beauty, and immortality without the change called death?”

She replied, “In proportion as the law of Truth is understood and accepted, it obtains in the personality as well as the character. The deformities as well as the infirmities, said to be the inevitable results of age, under the opposite mental impressions, disappear.”

“You change the physical manifestation in proportion to your changed thought of the effect of accumulative years. Expecting an increase of usefulness and vigor from advancing years with as much faith as you look for decrepitude and ugliness, a favorable result would be sure to follow.” The added wisdom of age and experience is strength, not weakness, and we should understand this, expect it, and know it is so. Then it would appear.

Consciousness

There should be firmly established in the mind of every student of Christian Science that there is nothing that can produce consciousness. One can never go further back than consciousness because there is nothing further back. Consciousness is. There is nothing to God and man but consciousness.

God or Mind is infinite, indestructible consciousness at the point of causation, and He is infinite, indestructible consciousness at the point of effect, and cause and effect is one.

God or Mind is the name given to an infinitude of self-conscious Good, and because God or Good is conscious, this results in the infinite conscious idea of Himself which is man. If Mind were not self-conscious, He would have no idea of Himself and there would be no intelligence or man.

Unity of Good (24:12). A practitioner and patient used this paragraph almost exclusively while working through a severe claim. They both held to the fact that all consciousness is God, an infinite consciousness, and that this infinite God-consciousness was reflected in their individual consciousness; they both held to the fact that since their individual consciousness had its source in God, they, as effect, could be conscious only of infinite good. By accepting this consciousness as the only consciousness and as their consciousness, the false beliefs gave place to reality and the patient was healed.

We know only what is in our consciousness, and our consciousness is God or Good. The true idea of God which is man, is not only in consciousness, but is consciousness itself, and is the whole of consciousness. This God-consciousness was the consciousness that Jesus was, and was also the consciousness of “the perfect man in Science” that Jesus saw. If we only knew that the one infinite consciousness is always the consciousness of both the practitioner and the patient, then we too would see “the perfect man.” Jesus understood man to be an eternal, living mode of consciousness, as certainly as he understood God to be an eternal, living mode of consciousness. Jesus was eternally aware of the relationship between God and man.

Four days after the decease of Lazarus, Jesus came to the tomb, having excluded from his consciousness the beliefs of death, and time and disintegration. Jesus knew that such experiences were unknown to God or true consciousness, therefore they were unknown to Lazarus. Jesus knew that Lazarus, as idea, had never lived in matter or material body and had never died out of it. Jesus knew that Lazarus had no more consciousness of matter or dying than God had.

So Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth. He knew that there was nothing in the consciousness of Lazarus that could say, “I am dead, and cannot come forth.” Lazarus and God were one and the same consciousness, and Lazarus came forth, exhibiting that one consciousness, seen to human understanding as the normal appearance of man. Infinite consciousness is never included in anything or in anybody, but consciousness always includes everything and everybody. Consciousness is always all-inclusive, even to the winds, and the waves, and the starry heavens. Anything and everything pertaining to a person or a thing that is real or fundamental, the divine Consciousness includes it.

There was once a student of Christian Science who found it necessary to make a trip around the world. He was far from enthusiastic or happy about it, expressing his fear of sea sickness, or storms, and the dangers of ocean travel. This student failed to remember that the beliefs about man, about the ship, ocean and storms, were all within himself, and because these beliefs were never external to his consciousness, he, therefore, had dominion over them. The practitioner reminded the student that all consciousness is God and that consciousness is all-inclusive good, that consciousness always has dominion, that the ship, sea sickness and weather could not think of him, but that he, being the true idea of consciousness, had within his consciousness these things only as they are fundamentally. This realization that consciousness is all-inclusive met the false beliefs for the man, and proved, also, that false beliefs could not affect realities.

Everything that God or Mind has formed is in my consciousness. Infinite consciousness is ever conscious of all its ideas and, because of this fact, all ideas are in my consciousness.

If I need an idea, I have it, and even before I conceive that I need it, I have it. Consciousness never has to recall something and it never loses anything. Every useful or desirable thing that we have ever needed or known, has always been present in our consciousness. Let us suppose that I desire to think of the name of some certain person. A realization that my consciousness is as all-inclusive as God’s consciousness is all-inclusive, dispels the belief in my consciousness that something is lost or absent when I need it.

This person’s name will be perfectly clear to me when I realize that there is someone present in my consciousness named “The Son of God.” Realizing that the person’s name is “Son of God,” causes me to remember that his name is James Brown.

Infinite consciousness is ever conscious of all of its ideas as they are in their reality. And the consciousness that you have NOW and that I have NOW, is this infinite consciousness.

Our human consciousness is true or false according to our understanding of scientific consciousness or according to our consciousness as false belief. If we understood that the consciousness that we now are, reflects or shows forth the one and only consciousness, then our consciousness is true. But if we believe that we are a personality, and include a consciousness of our own, then our consciousness is false.

In II Kings 4:42, we have set forth for our use an example of a consciousness operating as understanding, and another consciousness operating as false belief. This example of true and false consciousness is set forth when Elisha commanded his servant to feed the one hundred men with twenty barley loaves and some corn. To Elisha, whose consciousness was scientific understanding, all useful things, and necessary things, were never external to his consciousness, but were always in his consciousness and he was always conscious of them. All things were always intact, inexhaustible, always available to every one.

Elisha was not one of those individuals who, through some means, was going to bring good things into existence, or was going to be conscious of good at some future time. Elisha knew that if any good could ever exist humanly, it was because that very good already existed in his consciousness divinely, or in its reality.

To Elisha, all good and useful things were already in his consciousness; they were intact and available, and he was always conscious of them. In so far as Elisha was concerned, everybody in the then universe could have eaten barley loaves and corn day after day without exhausting them, because Elisha knew that the idea of barley loaves and of corn in the individual consciousness would still remain intact, unspent or not used up.

Take the number 2. Everyone in the world may use the number 2 at the same time, yet using it does not use it up. Ideas in consciousness are not subject to diminution or extinction because they are used.

There is never less than all good for every one of us. And where do we look for our good? In consciousness. That is where we shall always find it. The kingdom of good is within us and constitutes our consciousness. The consciousness of Elisha’s servant corresponded to false belief. He believed himself to be a personality with a consciousness of his own, and all things external to his consciousness. His belief was in meagerness, insufficiency, inadequacy, lack, a belief that anything can be used up or be limited in its extent.

The consciousness of Elisha’s servant was the human mind’s misconception of what good is and where it is. His seeming false consciousness was only his human mind’s inverted way of seeing and knowing what really were spiritual facts at hand and in his own consciousness.

As in Elisha’s time, so today, we can give to the world the concrete proof that the living, acting, spiritual ideas or facts that constitute our consciousness, if recognized and employed by us, can and will annul the false beliefs about these facts or annul supposititious consciousness.

Because Elisha recognized and utilized the consciousness that is scientific understanding, he gave to the world the concrete proof that the good which constitutes consciousness is always at hand for the individual to utilize, and is always abundant and unfailing. And today, as in the time of Elisha, Truth says to every hungry heart, “Ye shall eat, and shall leave thereof.”

The so-called material body is not something that fills space. There is only one infinite body, and the belief about this body isn’t another kind of body, it is belief only. Belief is not something, but is a belief about something. The only place we can meet belief is in the realm of mortal thought. If I believe two times two equals five, I must meet this belief in mortal thought. The belief is never external to thought. Let us consider indigestion. Indigestion is the identity of belief. That is, indigestion and belief are one and the same. Then I handle or meet indigestion as belief, and must meet it in the realm of mortal thought, because belief is never external to thought. Body has nothing to do with indigestion, except as it is the visible expression of what is in mortal thought.

All belief is without a believer. God or Mind is infinite Truth, and Mind cannot be the opposite of Truth and be belief. Man, being the reflection of Truth, cannot include belief. There is in reality no such mode of consciousness as belief.

Since the material body is belief in mortal thought only, the thing to do is to improve our belief about the body, and this is done by gaining a higher understanding of true body. A false sense of body must be replaced with a true sense of body.

Progress does not destroy a material body, it just dispels the belief that the body we now have is mortal and material and organic and structural. As we clear away our beliefs, there appears, to our sight and sense, our everpresent glorious body, the body that was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration.

A Christian Science healing indicates an improved belief about the body. When we declare facts of truth about God, we should realize that these facts or truth about God, is man, is body. God or Mind is man; God or Mind is body. The body is always the visible expression of the mind. Whatever images of thought are held within our mind, these images are visibly seen in the body, which is the expression of mind.

Whenever our body shows us that there is a certain image of inharmony in our thought, then we should immediately replace this false image in thought with the counterfact image or the Truth. This process restores health and harmony to our mind, which in turn is visibly manifested in our body.

It seems to us that it is the body that ages or grows old, independent of the mind, but man’s body or embodiment is but the garment of his thought. The body always visibly manifests the mind from which it is evolved.

Definition of Intelligence

Preface

Our next subject is the “Definition of Intelligence.” We are studying a Science that requires Intelligence. Intelligence is the cause and source and manifestation of all Being. Intelligence is divine; it is without limit; and it is the most natural thing to our being. There is nothing in the whole world that is of so much worth to the individual as his intelligence. Do we recognize its worth? Do we recognize its source? Do we even think enough about it to be grateful? There is no other definition in Recapitulation that means so much to the student as the definition of Intelligence. Have we studied it out? Have we thought it out? Many of us do much reading but very little thinking. As we understand our intelligence for what it really is, we shall be able to think things out, and to do the things that we have never been able to do before. We have entered a new age, and this new age will be recorded in history as an era of divine Intelligence, an in-coming of mental strength and mental loveliness. Since mankind is being awakened to the divine source and origin and character of his so-called human intelligence, this new age will be characterized by mental strength and spiritual phenomena.

The Nature of Intelligence

What is the nature of Intelligence? Intelligence to itself is not one of many things. Intelligence, to Itself, is consciously one thing; namely, God, one unity of Life, Truth and Love. Intelligence sees itself as one whole, as both subject and object; it sees and knows itself as being all Intelligence; sees and knows Its own universe of divine Intelligence.

An Understanding of God or Mind

The definition of Intelligence gives a correct understanding of the character of God or Mind. The character of God or Mind is divine Intelligence; just as the character of the sun is light. We do not think of Mind as producing Intelligence; Mind is Intelligence.

We are not separate from God, our own Mind, our Mind is divine Intelligence; we are not separate from this divine Intelligence. We show forth divine Mind, our own divine Intelligence. Wherever individual man is, there divine Intelligence is, in the divine being and divine manifestation. When we think of God or Mind correctly, we think of an infinite, living, active, conscious mode of divine Intelligence. And when we think of man correctly, we think of this infinite mode of divine Intelligence in manifestation as man. Man consciously identifies this infinite mode of divine Intelligence.

The Oneness of God and Man

God and man is one in their character and being, and we think of this unity or oneness as Intelligence expressed as intelligence. The manifestation cannot be separate from or unlike the Manifested. We do not think of man as a personal, material, mortal man; but we think of man as a mode of intelligence (state of being), in oneness with divine Intelligence.

The Substance of Everything is Intelligence

The Mind that we have this morning is divine Intelligence. Each one of us is this one divine Intelligence in manifestation. If we, this morning, comprehended the fact that our own Mind is divine Intelligence, all sin, disease, lack, age, and death would be unknown. Since divine Intelligence, the All-knowing, cannot consciously be the knowledge or experience of sin, disease, lack or death, then such experiences cannot be in manifestation as intelligence, or man. The substance and being of everything in the universe is divine Intelligence. The heart, the liver, the lungs, and blood in their substance and being, are living, conscious modes of divine Intelligence. Since this is true, we should not think of heart, and liver, and lungs, and blood as matter; and finite, changeable, and destructible; but we should understand them as they are in their reality, as divine Intelligence; and then think what divine Intelligence is in fact.

The Human Intelligence

We have been taught to believe that each individual has a mind of his own, called human intelligence. We have been taught to believe that this human intelligence is disconnected from God and can be both good and evil. But in this new age of divine Intelligence, a phenomenon of the first magnitude has appeared and gives proof that the intelligence of man is not human or personal, but is primarily divine Intelligence. When correctly understood, our so-called human intelligence is a holy thing, entirely good. Our so-called human intelligence is the presence of divine Intelligence or is divine Intelligence in manifestation. We, as Christian Scientists, are proving that all things that are good, and useful, and natural to the human intelligence, have their source, and origin, and substance, and being in divine Intelligence. Indeed, all good, and useful, and natural things are divine Intelligence appearing as these things in some degree of their reality.

The So-Called Evil in the Human Intelligence

What seems to be evil in the so-called human intelligence is not Intelligence. The seeming evil has no Principle; it has no motive power to carry it on; it is a misconception, a misinterpretation, a misrepresentation, a perversion, a deflection of some good and eternal fact in divine Intelligence. Evil is nothing. It comes to us for its existence and we give it all the existence that it has. Through our understanding of divine Science, we prove that evil is nonexistent, and that the one divine Intelligence is eternal, unchangeable, the All and Only.

True Evaluation of the Human Intelligence

The true evaluation of our so-called human intelligence as being divine Intelligence, is appearing in divine order, as the wonder of this new age. This divine Intelligence is appearing humanly and rapidly as an infinite variety and diversity of things, things of every sort and kind and description. As yet, we see this infinite divine Intelligence in Its infinite manifestation imperfectly, or we see it with material accompaniments. But in the proportion that we discern the divine character of our human intelligence, the unfoldments of infinite, divine Intelligence will be immeasurable to us.

There is so much noise and confusion at the present time that the unillumined mind fails to see what is taking place in the mental and spiritual realm. To those of clearer vision, these mental and spiritual phenomena are appearing as higher and more efficient modes of intelligence, which are being wrought out in visible, practical forms along all walks of life.

There is an insistent demand that we as human beings express a higher and more active intelligence. We are intelligent humans only as we express divine Intelligence.

And in the measure that we express divine Intelligence, we are not human beings, but are divine beings.

The Coming of the Son of Man

The divine Intelligence that God or Mind expresses is man. This divine Intelligence is the Son of God, and appears to human comprehension as the coming of the Son of Man. This divine Intelligence, or the coming of the Son of Man, appears as higher, truer modes of thought or intelligence within ourselves. And in this new age, our demonstration of Divine Science, visible as divine Intelligence, is appearing not only to the individual, but is appearing universally as well.

Are we as Christian Scientists responsive to this insistent demand from within? Do we express, visibly and concretely, the higher modes and fuller unfoldments of divine Intelligence? Or do we remain in the old grooves of thought until we bury ourselves? Of one thing we may be certain, we either respond to this urgent call from within, and become more active and alert in our thought, or we stagnate and die.

Important Uncoverings

As the facts of divine Intelligence are better understood, and the human mind becomes illumed with facts of its own intelligence, there takes place a great uncovering of the false beliefs in the so-called human mind, and a corresponding desire to free itself from its self-imposed materiality and bondage. One of the first false beliefs of the human mind to be uncovered is that all seeming troubles are not outside of us, but are wholly within the human mind. These seeming troubles are purely mental, never physical, they are never apart, nor outside the human mind. Another false belief that is being uncovered is that the multitudinous troubles of the human mind are not personal troubles, but are deflections of reality.

Mental and Emotional Qualities Uncovered

Today, there is being uncovered and brought to our attention, the many mental and emotional qualities, the traits of character, the attitudes of thought, and the natural tendencies of the individual. These are all being greatly stressed at this time. Under the present world conditions, we have ample opportunity to note the false mental and emotional adjustments, the lack of mental and spiritual poise, and the great need of peace and harmony everywhere. These erroneous experiences are being uncovered to the so-called human mind in order that we may correct them in our individual thinking.

Take, for example, the mental agitations and disturbances we often experience when confronted with some unpleasant circumstance; or when others differ from our way of thinking and doing; or when we must do what we do not like to do; or when we read or hear of some dread disease; or when we fail to accomplish our desires.

All these false emotions are not personal but are the deflections of the one and only emotion of divine Intelligence. And when we correct our thought in regard to them, we must know that they are deflections only, and never facts of divine Intelligence.

Mrs. Eddy once said to a group of us that we should never permit ourselves to react with intensity to every unpleasant thing. She meant that we should so discipline our individual thought with the truth of being, until we could stand in the presence of seeming error, mentally unmoved and steadfast in our faith in divine Intelligence. And why should we be moved by that which is deflection only? Mrs. Eddy says in the foreword to First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany (vii:12), “intelligent thinking untainted by the emotionalism which is largely self-glorification — is a reasonable service which all Christian Scientists can render their Leader.”

The Harmful Effects of Mental Modes and Emotions

When we as students of Christian Science fail to overcome these false mental modes and chronic emotions through the higher, truer modes of divine Intelligence, they result in harmful effects on our health; they incapacitate us for efficient work; and they prevent us from being citizens of strength and usefulness.

Nearly every page of our textbook shows us the necessity of watching our mental states and emotions. We read, “Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will perpetuate or even create the belief in disease.” (S&H 419:2-3) To these we might add irritability, criticism, anxiety, indecision, doubt, pride, self-pity, and fear. If we have any of these mental modes or emotions, it is because our thoughts, feelings, and actions are based upon the deflections as something, instead of being based upon divine Intelligence as All.

Our textbook tells us that, “We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are.” (S&H 8:28-30) In Miscellaneous Writings (p. 355:21) we read, “Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike ‘the anointed,’ and cast it out;” and again, “Thought must be made better, and human life more fruitful, for the divine energy to move it onward and upward.” (p. 343:7)

Universal Uncovering

This uncovering of false modes of human intelligence is appearing not only to Christian Scientists, but is appearing universally to all planes of comprehension of the human mind. In this universal uncovering, the earth is helping the woman. (Rev. 12:16) By this we mean that there are many worthy psychologists, surgeons, physicians and eminent ministers who are educating the unillumined thought to see that all causation is mental, and that all physical effects are the result of mental causes. The little foxes that spoil the vines are being uncovered to the human intelligence, and in a great degree the human thought is being prepared to accept the fact of one divine Intelligence universally.

The Science of Psychology

In speaking of Psychology, let us bear in mind that there is only one Science of Psychology. In Miscellaneous Writings (p. 3:30), Mrs. Eddy writes, “Hence the deep demand for the Science of psychology to meet sin, and uncover it; thus to annihilate hallucination.” And in our textbook, Mrs. Eddy speaks of the science of psychology as the “Science of Spirit, God.” This Science of Spirit, or the laws of divine Intelligence, are appearing to so-called human intelligence and is there doing its effective work. The only psychology, the Science of Spirit, dispels hallucination in no other place than the so-called human intelligence.

Alibis and Excuses

What does the Science of Psychology or the Science of divine Intelligence uncover about alibis and excuses? These laws are uncovering to us that alibis and excuses are the natural tendencies in which our human mind indulges. Practically all of us use alibis and excuses, and sometimes quite unconsciously. We make them a smoke screen for our mistakes, and failures, and imperfections. Our pet alibis are, “It was the other fellow’s fault;” “It was an unavoidable circumstance;” or “We did not have a fair chance.”

The Harmful Effects of Alibis and Excuses

The harmful effect of alibis and excuses on the individual is far more serious than we realize. Many persons are in hospitals, even in insane hospitals, because they have hidden behind an alibi or an excuse until their so-called human intellect is enfeebled and impaired. They permitted their headaches, their indigestion, their nerves, their belief in persons and circumstances, to be an alibi or excuse for something that was hard to do, or that they did not want to do, until they literally lost their power to decide things intelligently. An alibi or excuse is a form of deceit that is used to hide the facts in the case, and the results are most disastrous to the one who indulges in them.

In a book review in the Magazine Section of the Monitor, there was a statement made by a noted surgeon. He said, in substance, that no organic cure could be permanent until a solution for the mental difficulties was found. He said that a lack of harmony in the realm of spirit often led to functional disorders and organic disease, and these could not be cured permanently until there was an adjustment of the underlying mental conflict.

Where Do We Contact Error?

Where is it that we, as individuals, contact and destroy error of every name and nature? Where do we contact the persons in the home, in business, and in the church, that seem to be thinking and acting erroneously? Where do we contact the unpleasant things to which we react so easily?

It is not outside or apart from ourselves that we contact them. We contact them within ourselves only, and at the point of our own belief in them. At no other point than our own belief in them do we have contact with the claim of evil persons and unpleasant things. All temptations to believe in personality and unpleasant things are at the point of our own belief in them, and here alone is where we overcome them.

Revamp Our Thinking and Emotions

It is the duty of each Christian Scientist to examine his own mind and take into strict account what is going on within his own mentality. Today each one of us is being impelled to revamp his mental and emotional existence; each one of us is being forced to change his opinions and attitudes, in order to tune in properly with the incoming of this new order of Life, this age of divine Intelligence.

Each student of Christian Science is required to hear with a new distinctiveness and understanding, and it is necessary to govern his thoughts and acts accordingly. This new order of Life is in divine order, and is characterized as the age in which Christian Scientists are to give to the world the human proof of their divine and spiritual existence, the proof that we are now the sons and daughters of God, the expression of divine Intelligence, exempt from lack, age, decay, sin, and death.

Deflection

Our textbook contains many words that are not only vital in meaning, but a knowledge of which is essential to a student of Christian Science in working out the Science of Being. One of these words we shall consider this morning is “deflection.” “Deflection,” according to Webster, means “to turn aside or deviate from a true course.” In Christian Science, “deflection” has reference to mortal man and to all that constitutes mortal man. Our textbook teaches that the untrue image of God, held in the human mind, is all there is to what we call mortal man. Then the correct sense of mortal man is not that of entity or existence, but is an untrue image or “deflection” of the actual man at hand.

“Deflection” results when the true appearance of actual man is “turned aside” or “deviated” by thought passing through a mind unillumined by Truth. This deviation of thought causes the actual man at hand to appear as sinning mortal man; the actual man is not changed, but his actuality is seen in reversion or as deflection.

Deflection is an untrue image of actuality, and when in our practice work we reverse this deflection or untrue image in order to perceive actuality, we are using the process of thought that is set forth in our Christian Science textbook. When we understand deflection, we do not attach erroneous conditions to actual man, but we deal with the erroneous condition as an untrue image or deflection entirely separate and apart from actual man.

In the correct process of metaphysical work we never have two things present. We understand that the actual thing is always present, and the deflected appearance does not make another thing. Spirit and matter are not two things. Spirit is the actual existence and matter is the deflection or untrue image of Spirit. It is the false appearance only. Actual man and the sinning mortal man do not exist together. Actual man is, while sinning mortal man is a deflection or false appearance of actual man.

Actuality, the only thing that is at hand, does not need healing. It is God’s very presence. The deflection, like the mirage lake or blue door seen through blue glass, is nonexistent, and we cannot do anything to that which does not exist. It does not fill space, it is purely false appearance in the unillumined mind.

Since the prairie grass is still prairie grass and not a lake, the prairie grass does not need anything done to it, regardless of how it appears. All there is to the mirage lake is the prairie grass imperfectly seen; the mirage lake is nothing; it does not fill space and is non-existent.

Deflections do not occupy space and are never things nor conditions. When we really understand this to be a fact, our work in Christian Science will be much easier. The deflection called a horizon does not fill space. All there is to horizon is simply a name for that which does not fill space, is non-existent. Lack, age, and fear are not conditions, and do not occupy space. They are deflections or the untrue image of actuality. The actuality of man imperfectly seen, we have named personal man; the actuality of the universe imperfectly seen, we have named personal universe. But we do not need to do something to our mode of mind that sees things as they are not. We need to enlighten our mind with the Truth or fact of Being. The mode of mind that sees deflection needs enlightenment.

To disarm the claim of personality, we should disarm, that is, render powerless, the deflection or false appearance of actual man that is called personality.

Personality is neither life nor intelligence. It is a mere ghost or shadow and we should behold actual life and intelligence as Mind’s own omnipresence where the ghost or shadow seems to be. Even though with our outer eyes we see personal man, the untrue image, with our inner spiritual vision we are to behold the actual man, the perfect man that Jesus beheld. With our spiritual thought we are to look through deflection or the illusion of matter, and behold the perfect idea of divine intelligence.

Mrs. Eddy once went to call on a patient. After she had looked at the sick man, she turned away and went to the window and looked out saying, “Dear Heavenly Father, forgive me for looking at matter.” The patient was instantly healed. If we see matter as anything other than a deflection of actual man, hence non-existent, we are not practicing the laws of divine Science.

Mental Grooves

Unless we make earnest effort through Christian Science to spiritualize our thought, and to improve our process of thinking, and strive to see actual man and perfect spiritual universe at hand, we are quite apt to lose the process of spiritual thinking altogether.

Mr. Young once said, “We often get into a rut and go right on ‘rutting’!” This might be said of many students and of some practitioners. They get into certain ruts or grooves and go around and around in this fixed routine of thought, with the grooves growing deeper and deeper, until they bury themselves mentally. They have chained themselves to a fixed habit of thought and they have failed to see actual man and the spiritual universe at hand.

Demonstration depends upon improved processes. The demonstration of Christian Science depends upon the degree we attain the Christ Mind in us to see actualities at hand where the deflections or false conditions seem to be. The Christ within us does the healing. It is the “Spirit of Truth and Love” within ourselves that heals. It takes the “one Mind or our conscious Life” that is already the presence and substance of all things, to heal and dispel the deflections of mortal thoughts. We are not to save or reform that which appears to be personal man. Our mission is to give proof that man is not only in God’s presence, but is that presence.

As Christian Scientists, we should not desire to heal in the ordinary sense of healing. To desire to heal a claim or deflection is to have something in our thought beside actuality. But just to say, “There is nothing to heal” will not give proof that error or disease is not present; we must be the actual understanding in which there is no capacity to see or feel anything unlike the Christ image.

It is only as we have (are) the Christ Mind, or are sensibly living Truth within ourselves as our own Mind, that we can see the Christ or the actuality of anyone or anything.

When Peter said to Jesus, “Thou art the Christ,” Jesus immediately answered Peter, “Flesh and blood (meaning the personal mind) hath not revealed it unto thee.” It was the Christ in Peter that could see Jesus as the Christ. (See Matt. 16:16-17)

The Claim of Age

I have been asked to say something about handling the claim of age. What is age? Where is age? Of one thing we may be sure, God is never aged, and His manifestation, actual man, is never aged. Then age is a deflection, an untrue image in the human mind. Age is not a condition to be healed, or to be dealt with. It is not a quality that belongs to God or man.

This deflection, or untrue image of thought, called “age,” claims to out-picture itself as a sense of decline in both power and ability of all the functions or faculties of the human life. It says there is deterioration or decadence of the substance called human body. Do we believe that God, Mind, Life can consciously see within Itself what the human mind calls the “embodiment of all immortal ideas,” can see or feel, or show forth, or experience the untrue image of age?

Mind, or conscious Life, in its very being, is the conscious qualities of enthusiasm, spontaneity, buoyancy, elasticity, agility, vigor, vitality, and these qualities are ever in manifestation as the actual man, the only man.

Does divine Mind ever operate consciously as the deflection of these qualities? Such a thought is unthinkable, unseeable, unfeelable.

Our textbook says: “Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.” Our textbook says, “Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb.” (See S&H 248:5-11)

When our textbook makes these statements, it is Truth or Mind saying them to us, and since Truth or Mind says that we should “ripen,” then we can do it, but we shall not ripen into health and immortality by trying to ripen or make immortality of deflections. Actual man is already ripened and finished as to his health and immortality, and we do not need to do anything to actual man. But we should turn from the deflection and find ourselves in oneness with the infinite, immortal qualities of God.

Science and Health: “Deflection”:

“The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, the ferocious beast, — like the discords of disease, sin, and death, — are unnatural. They are the falsities of sense, the changing deflections of mortal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.” (p. 78:1)

“The inverted images presented by the senses, the deflections of matter as opposed to the Science of spiritual reflection, are all unlike Spirit, God.” (p. 305:20)

“Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to suggest the proper reflection of God and the spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought take on higher symbols and significations, when scientifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminating time with the glory of eternity.” (p. 502:9)

Divine Metaphysics

More than sixty years ago, the first book on Divine Metaphysics, with application to healing human problems, was written by Mary Baker Eddy. This book, Science and Health, is our textbook on the subject of Divine Metaphysics.

Many students of Christian Science are having good results from the intelligent application of Divine Metaphysics to their daily problems; and these students are giving this Science its rightful place in their thinking. Divine Metaphysics is the Way.

Divine Metaphysics is the understanding and the practical application of the mental conceptions, relations, laws, and rules set forth in Science and Health by means of which the human mind reaches the altitude of absolute Divine Science.

If Mrs. Eddy had given us only the revelation of absolute Divine Science, and had not given us Divine Metaphysics, we would be very much like a young student of music who attempts to perform a difficult selection, without having acquired the understanding and practical use of the laws and rules governing the Science of Music.

We all know that in order to become a musician, it is necessary to individualize music; that is, our thought must actively and consciously be the laws and rules of the Science of Music.

Likewise, it is only through the understanding and practice of the laws and rules of Divine Metaphysics as set out in our textbook, that our human thought becomes spiritualized. This spiritualization of thought constitutes our ascending footsteps up to where we reach Divine Science, through which spiritual healing is possible.

The practice of Divine Metaphysics is the mental discipline or thought control exercised by the student, which is preparatory to his being the action of Spirit or Divine Mind.

Mrs. Eddy says, “The utterance of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error” (S&H 233:29), and many of us find it takes the most rigid mental discipline and thought control to continually apply this truth and obey the rules of Divine Metaphysics.

For instance, are we obedient to the rule that requires us to counter-fact every disease and every inharmony? Do we always turn from the lie of false belief to truth? Do we insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God is All? Do we keep in mind the verity of Being? Do we remember that man’s perfection is real and unimpeachable? (See S&H 233:28; 421:15; 414:26-27)

There is only one way to arrive at Divine Science; all Christian Science students reach this spiritual plane of consciousness through the mental discipline and thought control which is provided by Divine Metaphysics.

Metaphysical Science is a study of Divine Life, Truth, and Love which must be wrought out in life practice (S&H 202:4), wrought out in daily experience of good. If we desire healings and blessings from this Science, we must be willing to follow and live its rules and laws. There is no longer any mystery attached to the healing of Divine Metaphysics. If we wish to be well through Mind alone, or desire our affairs to be harmonious, then we must pay the price of obedience to Divine Metaphysics.

We must know the truth; we must live the truth; we must love the truth; we must be the truth actively and consciously. We must gain an understanding and apply this understanding to our individual needs. This is the sure and perfect way in metaphysical science; Mrs. Eddy says, “Divine metaphysics is that which treats of the existence of God, His essence, relations, and attributes.” She also says, “Christian Science is the unfolding of true metaphysics; that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes.” (Mis. 69:1-6)

Semi-Metaphysics

Since the publication of Science and Health presenting Divine Metaphysics, there have come to public notice many authors who have written books on metaphysics, but these books are all semi-metaphysical because they are not based wholly on Truth or Divine Mind.

Mrs. Eddy says, “semi-metaphysical systems afford no substantial aid to scientific metaphysics, for their arguments are based on the false testimony of the material senses as well as on the facts of Mind.” (S&H 268:14)

“These semi-metaphysical systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pandemonium, a house divided against itself.” (S&H 268:18-2)

Semi-metaphysics is sweeping over the world today. There are thousands and thousands of persons who are becoming interested in semi-metaphysics. This is because everyone is becoming aware, more or less, that so-called material things are mental things or mortal thoughts. Semi-metaphysics is a step that must necessarily precede the universal acceptance of Divine Metaphysics. Mrs. Eddy says, “We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end of error, because even human invention must have its day, and we want that day to be succeeded by Christian Science, by divine reality.” (S&H 95:19)

So we rejoice in this day, in which the world is taking its first step in the recognition that all things and conditions are mental, but just to transpose a so-called material thing into a mortally mental thing does not get anyone very far out of the woods. And students of Christian Science need to watch not to come under the mesmeric influence of the many cults which are urging semi-metaphysics upon the public today.

These semi-metaphysicians argue that their systems of metaphysics are clearer and easier to apply than Christian Science; and it may be true that it is easier for mortal mind to understand the contents of its own mind than it is to understand and apply Divine Metaphysics.

Mrs. Eddy says, “We are in the midst of a revolution; physics are yielding slowly to metaphysics; mortal mind rebels at its own boundaries; weary of matter, it would catch the meaning of Spirit.” (Hea. 11:6-9)

Since this is true, we can readily understand why many individuals are saying that a knowledge of philosophy, and of medicine, and a knowledge of so-called metaphysics, is an aid to divine metaphysics; and these same individuals call the attention of Christian Scientists to the fact that none of these things are found in the practice of Divine Metaphysics.

All these semi-metaphysical systems presuppose man, who is immortal in spiritual understanding, to be mortal in material belief. (See S&H 194:15) Practically all of these semi-metaphysical systems set forth the theory of reincarnation. This theory is taking a strong hold on the people who are not instructed in Divine Metaphysics.

Reincarnation means the rebirth of a soul in another human body. Reincarnation is not only the belief in a separation of the body from the mind or soul through death, but is the belief that the soul at some later time is reborn in another body through the Adam process of generation.

Death is not a reincarnation. Since there is no separation of soul and body, there can be no reincarnation. The human consciousness is not in the human body, but includes the human body within itself as one of its material concepts. Through Divine Metaphysics we have learned that consciousness forms a newer and better concept of body as it, itself, becomes a newer and better thought activity.

Mrs. Eddy teaches us through Divine Metaphysics that when we fully understand the eternal oneness of Divine Mind and body, we shall overcome all beliefs in sin, sickness, and death; and we do this through the understanding of the fact of Divine Mind and body present here and now as what appears to us to be our human mind and body.

Besides the many semi-metaphysical books on the market today, there are books written by Christian Scientists who believe that their interpretation of truth is a clearer presentation of truth than the interpretation of truth presented in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy.

If I were under a claim and had not received my health, I would study Science and Health through, and then if I were not healed, I would study it through again, and then if I were not healed, I would study it through again; and I would keep on studying the Truth as presented in Science and Health until my thought gave forth the concrete evidence of Truth.

Why would I do this? Because Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is the Word of God, and from the Scriptures we read, “He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” (Ps.107:20) Science and Health is Divine Mind, your Mind, expressed; “and divine Mind is its own interpreter.” (S&H 577:21)

Many of these books set forth absolute truth and this is quite all right, but they neglect to set forth the necessity of taking the human footsteps whereby we spiritualize our thought; but the student of Christian Science, as yet, needs to understand the necessity of spiritualizing his thought through the process of right thinking, up to where his thought is the truth.

It is no more profitable to recognize absolute truth without progressively spiritualizing our thought than it is to recognize higher mathematics without progressively mathematicizing our thought. So, we as students of Christian Science should be awake to the necessity of taking the required human footsteps of healing, and overcoming, in our individual thinking, and in all the activities of our movement, until we fulfill them in their reality.

In this hour of change in belief from a material to a spiritual basis, let us be awake to the necessity of understanding and practicing Divine Metaphysics as presented in our textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

We do not just happen to have Christian Science, any more than we just happen to have the Science of Mathematics or the Science of Music. Christian Science could not be any other way than it is, any more than the Science of Mathematics and the Science of Music can be other than they are. Basically, the Science of Mathematics and Music are absolute, unalterable truth and they include the way or the laws and rules by which the human mind can attain the altitude of these sciences.

Likewise, Christian Science is absolute, unalterable, impersonal truth and it includes Divine Metaphysics or the way whereby the human mind, through intelligent application of its laws and rules, can attain absolute truth or Divine Science.

But if we fail to regard Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as the Word of God, or the Way, we are apt to be led into thinking that these other works on metaphysics contain something of value that is not found in Science and Health.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is the full and final revelation of God, or Mind, and reveals to the human mind the allness of God and the consequent nothingness of evil, materiality, discord and death. We said in the preceding paper that Christian Science originated in the first chapter of Genesis, and has been on its way until in this present age Divine Science is revealed in its fullness and completeness as Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; and we as students of this Science should recognize and evaluate this impersonal Christ in our midst.

In speaking of these last days, Jesus said, “If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matt. 24:23-24)

Our need today is not more revelation of Truth, but a more consistent and better demonstration of divine Principle and its laws of life and harmony.

Evil Obsolete

Association Notes 1936

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 330, marginal reading), “Evil is obsolete,” meaning that evil is no longer to be in use.

Christian Science gives overwhelming proof that there is one Mind and this Mind is infinite Good, and to a Mind that is infinite Good, there can be no evil, no opposite of Good.

Because of the progress of Christian Science, many theories which seemed to be true in the past, are now obsolete, and so it is with the theory that evil and sin have reality and identity.

A short time ago all ministers and Christian people held evil as the point of attention, and the more pronounced they made evil, the better Christians they were supposed to be. Today this theory, that evil is real, is obsolete, and now the point of attention is that infinite Good is All.

There has never been a moment when evil was real and there never will be such a moment. Many Christian Scientists demand an explanation of evil, where it comes from and why it seems to be. One cannot explain where 2 x 2 equals 5 comes from. One can only explain something which is true. Evil can be overcome and there is no other explanation of evil than the overcoming of it. We must know something of the science of mathematics before we are sure that a mistake is a mistake. We might know that 2 x 2 equals 5 in our mathematical problem, but all the while it is a mistake, nothing.

We as Christian Scientists are to reject evil. We are to refuse to accept the temptation to believe in any form of evil whether sin, disease, worry, lack, or any other form. A Christian Scientist must be a Christian Scientist all the time. As in any other science, we use the truth continuously, not just occasionally.

In educating a student in Christian Science, the first thing we do is to help him to comprehend that evil is not a thing or condition, but a belief. And we help him to see the Truth about what he is believing. Our next step is to help him to comprehend that belief is always mesmeric. By this we mean that the belief of so-called mortal mind is that it sees and feels its own formations of evil and binds itself with them, thus becoming mesmerized. We help him to see that Mind is God and that it is impossible for Mind to see or feel evil.

Then there is the belief of what is called thought transference. A belief that if one person is seeing and feeling evil, soon everyone around him seems to be seeing and feeling that same evil. We must help the student to comprehend that everyone’s thought and feelings have their source in the One Mind and that no one sees or feels evil.

There is no more contention going on between God and evil than there is between the understanding that 2 x 2 equals 4 and the belief that 2 x 2 equals 5. Understanding excludes the belief of evil as real, or at all. Evil does not exist as belief or at all.

Evil Has Neither Reality Nor Identity

I recommend the use of the Concordance for one’s study of this subject.

In Bicknell Young’s last association, he gave much time to this subject. “Identity” was the theme for the day.

Students are quite willing to say that evil is unreal but they are very apt to make that which identifies evil, a reality. They are very apt to continue the identity in consciousness and try to heal it, instead of replacing it with its reality.

The word identity means absolute sameness. That is, a person and his identity are absolutely indistinguishable. In Christian Science the word “identity” refers to that which identifies God or Mind. It refers to that which makes God or Mind evident to our sight or understanding. The identity of God or Mind is identified by His seen creation, the universe and man. They are identical. God or Mind is indistinguishable from the universe and man. They are cause and effect, one Being. We should understand that all forms of life that we see as creation, identify the universal “I Am.” As we look at the grass and the flowers, the sky and the birds, we realize that all these forms of life identify the great “I Am.” These are the same as God or Mind. They are the effect of the one and only cause.

In my relationship to God or Mind, am not I, as man or compound idea, His complete identity? Am not I all identities, the full expression of Mind? The form of life may be named a bird, but there am I as that form, as life, as joy, as song and beauty. Man is all that identifies Mind. The form may be called man, but there am I forever the conscious identity of God or Mind expressed as power, and love and truth and perfection. God or Mind exhibits Himself or identifies Himself as man, in sight, hearing, knowing, feeling, in all forms, colors, beauties and loveliness. God or Mind identifies Himself as health and strength and power and capacity and peace and satisfaction and all that He is. That life which is seen in bird, beast, or man is not a personal, separate life, but identifies the divine Life, seen in eternal continuity in nature. The compound idea man or earth is the identity of Heaven. Heaven and earth are identical, one and the same thing. And also our highest sense of concrete human good is the identity of Reality. Human good and reality are identical, one and the same thing.

Let us cease separating earth from Heaven, and know that we find Heaven as we recognize it here as earth. Let us cease separating our human good from reality, and know that we find reality as we recognize it here as human good. It takes an understanding of the science of Mind and its character as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence to enable us to see that evil has neither reality nor identity. It takes understanding to unsee the belief of a “supposed opposite” or so-called mortal mind and its supposed identities.

All supposed identities as evils are not, because they are not of God, the only Mind. Evil and its identity is one and the same thing, absolutely nothing.

Suppose a man comes to me with a claim of pneumonia. How prone am I to believe there is present a mortal mind, and to give this mind an identity as mortal man with pneumonia, and make this supposed man a medium for sickness or health, life or death, something to be healed or restored. What I should know is that right in the very place where this mortal man seems to stand is the only Mind and His full identity or reflection, man, eternally perfect in life and health and all the identities of Good.

In the case of this man with the pneumonia, suppose the members of the family are much concerned and seem to be making a great reality of what seems to be going on. All this, too, must be seen as evil and this seeming “evil should be denied identity or power.” (S&H 479:28)

In treating against malpractice, the Christian Scientist, himself, must rise into the conscious understanding that all power and action is the Power and Action of the one infinite Mind and is never man or person.

Once when someone spoke of malpractitioners as vindictive, Mr. Kimball answered, “Well, they are only thinking that they think, but we can think, and we think by reflection.”

In denying malpractice, we must understand that that which denies Truth, is not from ourselves personally nor from some other person, but we must see that what denies the Truth is a lie or mortal mind. All mental malpractice is mortal mind arrayed against the Truth or our own right Mind, and is never a person or a lot of persons arrayed against us.

Whenever the opposite of Truth suggests itself to you in your thinking, do not think of these suggestions as something that must be put out, but think of them as never having come into consciousness because impossible to Mind. See that these suggestions which deny Truth are nothing, because conscious Mind could not evolve them as something. Never think of them as something that actually opposes Truth or contends against Truth.

Knowing that there is but one body is sufficient to break the claim of sickness caused by the belief of malpractice, because malpractice cannot act where there is no belief of a material, private body. A real Christian Science treatment is necessarily an adequate denial of error or malpractice. Omnipresence, in the measure that it is attained through understanding, necessarily involves the human being in the rejection of everything unlike Omnipresence.

No Personality

A Christian Scientist finds that the greatest obstacle to spiritual progress is his own mistaken sense of himself, a personal sense, instead of an individual sense of himself. Christian Science teaches us to lose, in so far as possible, the personal sense of anyone, thereby removing much which might cause unwise adoration on the one hand or resentment or hate on the other. Man, instead of being a person or one of a series, is like God, and God being individual, man must be the individualized manifestation of God. And because man or manifestation shows forth consciously all the qualities and characteristics that God is, it makes man the conscious identity of God.

Understanding God as individual and man as an individualized idea, takes away the false sense of God as a person, and also the false sense that we as individuals are personal. (My. 117:19)

Personality is a lie about individual man. Personality is man as he appears to the physical senses, but impersonality or individuality is man as he is.

An understanding of individuality and identity are of the greatest benefit to the student. If the One Being is all being, and there is no personality, this automatically discharges the deceptions called disease, fear, lack, loss, hate and grief.

Our vision should be the vision of the one Being. Then we would see only a great family of brethren, each the same Life, the same Substance, the same Being. We need to practice this vision and live this understanding.

Mrs. Eddy in teaching her class in the Metaphysical College once said, “If you dwell in thought upon any person it will hinder you from overcoming personality in your healing and casting out sin.” She said further, “There is no personality and this is more important to know than that there is no disease. Drop it, and remember that you can never rid yourself of the seeming effects of a personality while holding that personality in thought. The way to put it out, get it wholly out of mind and keep before you the right model.” We know that to have the right model is to have man as individual, not personal.

The fictitious and supposititious mind called mortal mind outlines itself in belief, as a material personality with laws, forms, conditions, circumstances, events, all the phenomena that are embraced in what is called “personal existence.” This belief comes to us for us to accept it as our own thought. And it seems to us that it is we, ourselves, saying and thinking, and being all the phenomena that constitute material existence or personality. If we accept this belief as our own thought, then mortal mind is using us and we are its personality and its activity. All of this comes to us for a name, for a witness, for action and power, and if we accept it we give it all the life or power it has. Let us keep all evil as lie, as mortal mind, then we will not be a witness for evil as a personality. If we give evil all the life it has by attaching it to things and to persons, then how are we to deal with what seems to be a wicked, unkind, unscrupulous person?

The thing to do is to look through the evil appearance and see it as a claim, not as a fact. We should understand that what appears to be a wicked person is mortal mind’s inverted picture of man, in us. The man of whom there is this false picture is the divine man. And we are to love this divine man because he is what he is, no matter what the false picture makes him out to be. There is no other way of meeting the claim that man is a wicked person. The divine fact is that each one of us right now, is the divine Mind manifested, and this Mind cannot be handled to accept any false pictures. It cannot be darkened or deceived.

Each one of us exists in God or Life, as life, itself. Each one exists in Love as love, itself. Each one is the ever presence and full expression of divine Mind. Therefore, each one of us always has been, and is now, a living, conscious, harmonious existence, completely and forever conscious of our own true, individual self-hood. We, never for a moment, have been other than perfect existence. There has never been a relapse from perfect existence and there will never have to be a “return” to it.

There is great need for the impersonalization of both good and evil. We must transfer the source and cause of Good from personality, where it is supposed to be, to Mind or God, where it now is and always has been.

To impersonalize evil, we must transfer the source and cause of all evil from things and persons, to mortal mind, which is the seeming source and cause of all evil.

When we seem to experience some form of evil, we may think this evil has its source in the weather, in food, or in an automobile, or in some person, but this is not true because all experiences of evil have their seeming source in mortal mind. So-called mortal mind is always the culprit, and evil once reduced to mortal mind can be proved to be nothing. When we detach the source and cause of evil from things and persons, and keep evil as negation, as mortal mind, or lie, then evil does not have a foot to stand on, and fades out of consciousness, having neither power nor place nor existence.

Opposing Thought

There is a very prevalent belief among Christian Scientists that there is an active, directed opposition to their individual efforts to demonstrate Truth. A Christian Scientist often expresses the belief that some member of his family or some member of the Church or some member of a business, has an opposing thought that is preventing him from making a greatly desired demonstration. The truth about it is, that a Christian Scientist cannot see or feel opposition to his endeavors, except he first believes in personalities or in minds many. One always sees and feels what he believes, or else he experiences what he understands in Truth. If all men think by reflection, there can be only the one-mindedness of all men. As we individually understand ourselves to be in Truth, so should we understand all mankind to be.

Since to each one of us, the only consciousness in the universe is our own, and we see and feel only the contents and qualities of our own consciousness, it is evident that if we see and feel opposition, it is mortal mind’s opposition to others that we feel, rather than their opposition to us.

Whenever we attribute our failure in making our demonstrations to the opposing thought of others, we are attributing to others our own erroneous sense. The trouble is really within ourselves.

When one begins to see as God sees, he begins to look upon another as being himself. Each individual includes all men.

Our consciousness is the Kingdom of Heaven within us, and includes all men as the expression of the one Mind. If there is only one Mind, and all men have the same Mind by reflection, then there can be no opposing thought. Each student should realize the mighty power of his own thought reflected from God and from no other source. We, as students of Christian Science, are demonstrating the scientific Truth of the omnipotence of God, and we should never allow any fear of any opposition to enter our thought. If we let in fear of some opposition, we mesmerize ourselves in the name of a supposed foe. Then we feel the effects of our own fear and unbelief in the supremacy of God. To know that there is one Power, and this the power of God, should be an ever present fact to us. The only carnal sense we have to overcome is our own. We never need to be troubled with the sense of some external power.

We must strive to know that all mankind is spiritual and to know the one-mindedness of all mankind, then there can be no suggestion of opposition from others. We should be “one with God,” Truth, not one with the world or our own mortal thoughts. As we rise superior to the belief that mortal thought can influence us or hinder our progress or demonstrations, a mighty transfiguration begins to take place in our own lives.

Healing

Several years ago while visiting with Mr. Young, he said to me, “You must learn to read Science and Health correctly in order to do good healing work.” And, if we as Christian Scientists understood the truths in our textbook in the light of Mrs. Eddy’s understanding, we should derive far greater benefits from our practice of Christian Science.

There are two fundamental points in our healing work which should be clarified. The first is that our thought should be especially clear as to the true meaning of healing. Healing is not healing in the usual sense of restoring something, but healing is a process of thinking which reveals that which is already whole and perfect. We might say to a patient, “I cannot heal you, that is restore you, but I can reveal you to yourself as you really are.”

The second fundamental point in our healing work is a true evaluation of the claims of mortal mind. All the claims of mortal mind, such as fear, doubt, worry, hate, anger, lack, and disease are sin. Sin, as used in our textbook is a name which designates that which is never active, never conscious, never presence, never existence. All sin is ignorant of the truth. All sin is the claim that there can be the absence of Mind or the absence of understanding.

In our practice work we do not heal, that is restore these claims of evil to good; neither do we destroy these claims. But through the analysis of the evil and through reason and logic as set forth for us in our textbook, we find that all sin or evil is neither cause nor effect, and is as powerless to harm us as is our ignorance of music or mathematics.

In our textbook Mrs. Eddy did not set out the claims of mortal mind to show us how to heal or destroy them, but through her analysis of the claims and through reason, revelation, and logic, she reduced the claims of mortal mind to their native nothingness. In other words, she took off the chariot wheels of the Egyptians for us. Mrs. Eddy saw the importance of evaluating all claims of mortal mind, not as something to be healed or destroyed, but to be understood as nothing.

The world in general and many Christian Scientists are of the opinion that the practice of Christian Science is for the express purpose of healing; that is, restoring the diseased body and demonstrating supply. But the fact is that healing, as revealed by Christian Science, has little to do with a diseased body or with lack.

Christian Science is the Science of ONE INFINITE MIND, a Mind that includes no evil. Christian Science teaches that the claims of so-called mortal mind are reduced to their nothingness and self-destroyed through analysis, reason, revelation, and logic, which we gain through a deep and intensive study of our textbook.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin.” (Rud. 2:23-27) But the healing of sin does not mean that the claim of sin exists as a fact. Mrs. Eddy, through her analysis of the claim of sin, reduced this claim to its nothingness just as she did the claim of sickness.

Losing the Requirements of Christian Science

Often in our healing work we fail to fulfill the requirements of Christian Science, the Science of ONE MIND. In our treatments, that is, in the use of affirmations of truth and the denials of error, we very often predicate our affirmations and denials on the assumption that there is disease to be eradicated. And when we do this, we let our treatment fall to the plane of materia medica, which always considers disease as an entity or condition to be disposed of.

Also when we use a treatment to eradicate sin or evil, we are placing Christian Science treatment on the same plane as Scholastic Theology, which considers sin and evil as entities, as something to be disposed of or eradicated from the minds of mortals.

The difficulty is that we fail to keep our treatment on the plane of divine Mind where thought operates as Omnipresence. Very often when arguing, we get away from the standpoint of divine Mind. But to keep our treatment Scientific, we must argue from the standpoint of the OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.

Mrs. Eddy says, “The letter and mental argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing thought into accord with the spirit of Truth and Love, which heals the sick and the sinner.” (S&H 454:31)

It is the Christ, the living, conscious, irresistible understanding or true consciousness which heals, and heals by its very all-presence. It is not because of us or because of the human arguments that we employ, that the healing takes place, but it is the Christ, the Truth within that does the healing.

Practitioners

In our healing it does seem that a practitioner does something for someone else, but as practitioners we should always bear in mind that someone else is not someone else to God. We as practitioners realize that the one who appears to be a patient is now the son of God. What appears as a patient is the appearing of man, the coincidence of the human and the divine.

In belief, the dream and the dreamer are one. The practitioner is part of the dream; but when we, as a practitioner, rise out of the dream into true consciousness, we no longer see a patient as a patient, but we see “the perfect man.” The less we feel that we have a patient, the fewer failures we shall have in our practice work. A patient is always the divine Mind unfolding, and there is no place where divine Mind is not expressing Himself as perfect man. There is no patient to the “I AM THAT I AM.”

The Process of Healing

What is the process of healing? Healing is the increasing awareness of perfection, rather than the eradication of disease. We should recognize that the healing process takes place coincidentally with the individual spiritual unfoldment.

The Healing of a Tumor

A faithful student of Christian Science for many years found herself in bondage to what is called a fibroid tumor. For years the growth grew larger and although she had had several practitioners, the condition grew worse instead of better. She was led to ask another consecrated practitioner for help. This practitioner said to the afflicted woman, “Are you looking for ease in matter; are you looking for disease to be removed or eradicated from your body, or are you seeking to love God, Truth, with your whole heart and praying for the Mind of Christ?” The practitioner also said, “All that needs to be removed or dissolved is your belief that you are a self-hood apart from God, constituted of self-will, self-justification, and self-love; and this adamant of error, this belief of two minds, can only be removed or dissolved with the universal solvent of love.” Then she turned to Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy asks the question, “Dost thou ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’?” (S&H 9:17)

The student glimpsed that as this love for the one God became supreme in her affections, it would displace or remove properly, first mentally, then physically, whatever was unlovely or unlike the Christ in her consciousness. For several weeks she spent every spare minute in the prayerful study of the Bible and our Leader’s writings, and she began to have such a mental freedom that she could say, “Even if there does seem to be a tumor attached to me, I am knowing and loving the one God supremely.”

Finally the fear of the growth began to disappear. Then came the joyous realization that since God is all Life, all substance, and all intelligence, surely matter could not make her believe that it was a living, intelligent, growing entity. A few days after this clear view of God’s allness, she saw the result of correct thinking. The tumor passed away painlessly and with no after effects.

This student had found the process for the healing of all diseases, the SPIRITUALIZATION OF THOUGHT. She learned through this experience, as we all have to learn, that we have to earn our understanding of God, just as we have to earn our understanding of mathematics or music. (See Mrs. Teorey’s testimony in the Sentinel, July 30, 1938) Healing does not mean the eradication of disease. If we think that we find health only as we eradicate disease, we perpetuate the disease. A knowledge of the one God is our health and is what banishes disease permanently. When the truth was revealed to us through Christian Science, that man is as perfect as God is perfect, there was also revealed to us the fact that spiritual unfoldment is the healing process.

Everything Exists Perfect Now

Through the science of healing, it is made evident that everything that exists is perfect now. We can all be healed because we are whole now. If we heal a case of so-called heart trouble, it is because the only heart there is needs no healing. The heart we now have indicates a divine fact. It is a divine fact, imperfectly conceived. What appears to us as a material heart is a divine idea, now, and it is perfect now. As this understanding is accepted in consciousness, it excludes the need of healing of so-called heart trouble.

Do Not Place Disease in the Body

Spirit alone constitutes Being. Spirit is substance, infinite substance. Then disease is no part of existence. This is a scientific fact and we can prove it through the science of healing.

Dr. Mayo says, “Disease is rebellion against fundamental law and order. Every abnormal growth is rebellion in a single cell which then multiplies.” From this statement Dr. Mayo thinks, and the world in general thinks, that disease has a mental cause. There is also the popular belief that Christian Science teaches that the human mind is the cause of all disease, and affects the material body for good or ill.

All these beliefs, which are the “isms” of the world, are, of course, untrue. And in contradistinction to these beliefs, Christian Science teaches the ALLNESS OF THE ONE MIND. There is the prevalent belief that fear, anger, disturb digestion; that hate is a deadly poison; that thought can generate lesions; and this has been mistakenly said to agree with the teachings of Christian Science. But all such beliefs are sin and are untrue.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Such theories have no relationship to Christian Science, which rests on the conception of God as the only Life, substance, and intelligence, and excludes the human mind as a spiritual factor in the healing work.” (S&H 185:17)

No Cause in Evil

If we accept the belief that all sin, disease, tragedies, and calamities are caused by rebellion, hate, resentment, worry, doubt, and fear, then we must accept the belief of a material creation governed by a mind capable of evil thinking. But this is all contrary to the teachings of Christian Science.

Emotional disturbances such as rebellion, resistance, worry, hate, or fear have no power in and of themselves, and cannot, therefore, cause bodily derangements or disease. Emotionalism belongs to mortal mind, which Mrs. Eddy teaches is never substantive, but is illusion; is ignorance only; is the false representation of man.

Quotations from our Textbook

It is most necessary to study our textbook with an understanding mind. On page 411 we read, “The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance, and sin.” To the unenlightened thought this might imply that mortal mind does cause disease. But this reference from our textbook is not a statement of fact, but is the analysis of sickness as mental and physical.

On page 419 we find the opposite statement. “Neither disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to cause disease or a relapse.” And on page 415 we read, “Immortal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a cause nor an effect.”

Evils must be disposed of scientifically. We do not experience sin and disease, we sense them in belief, the same as we sensed a green horse because of green glasses. Likewise, we sense perfect creation, man and the universe, as matter, deformed, diseased, insufficient, or dead because we see through the lens of material sense. The imperfections we sense are no more conditions to be eradicated or removed from perfect creation than greenness was a condition to be eradicated or removed from the white horse. Unless we perceive that creation is perfect and spiritual now, we “have no Principle to demonstrate, and no rule for demonstration.” (My. 242:9-10)

Do Not Place Disease in the Body

In our healing work, it is most necessary to understand that we never locate disease in the body. The body has absolutely nothing to do with the experience called disease.

A student in a distant city told her practitioner that she had had liver trouble for thirty-five years. The practitioner insisted that she must not locate the trouble in her body. This student sent a special delivery letter to me, asking if she were wrong in locating liver trouble in the liver.

I replied emphatically, that she was wrong in locating disease in her body; that if she had kept the trouble in her liver for thirty-five years, and continued to do so, she would likely keep it there thirty-five years longer; she could not do anything to it as long as it was in her body. I told her that Christian Science teaches us that all disease is an image in mortal thought, and then gave her the following references:

“Too soon we cannot turn from disease in the body to find disease in mortal mind, and its cure, in working for God.” (Mis. 343:5-7)

“Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body.” (S&H 411:24)

“So-called disease is a sensation of mind, not of matter.” (My. 228:4)

Then I tried to show her that after transposing the trouble from her body to her mind, if she left it in her mind as mental, she would be little better off than before. But if she clearly understood that disease was not a condition in her body, but was an image of mortal thought, then she had dominion over it.

I told her that she was greater than her thoughts and feelings, and could therefore deal with the sense of disease at the point of her own belief in it. Only at this mental point could she actually contact what she called liver trouble and what comprised that sense.

Human Goodness

Human goodness does not work out the problem of Being. We must be scientific Christians. To accept Christianity without its Science, is to accept Scholastic Theology, which is a belief in two minds. Christian Science is the science of One Mind, and humanity’s only sin is believing in, and practicing from, the standpoint of two minds.

Mrs. Eddy clearly states the way of deliverance for all mankind, when she says, “There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality — to have no other consciousness of life — than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.” (S&H 242:9)

I AM

It was not until Mary Baker Eddy gave us “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” that we were able to understand the statement, “I AM THAT I AM.” The unillumined thought has no apprehension of the I or Ego, other than the personal I.

Mrs. Eddy uses the term “I AM” as a synonym for God, and defines I AM as, “God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine Principle; the only Ego.” (S&H 588:20) She says God is “the forever I AM, and All, than which there is naught else.” (’02 7:15) She says, God is “the ever-present I AM, filling all space.” (Rud. 3:27)

When we fully understand the term I AM, it does away with our belief of God as a person, and it takes away our belief in a personal-I self. We often hear such expressions as “I am ill,” or “I am tired,” or “I am poor,” or “I am afraid,” all from the personal-I standpoint.

The one eternal I AM, governing all existence, forever excludes the possibility of there being a personal-I self, and it excludes all sin and suffering and death, which results from the belief in a personal-I self. Jesus beheld “the perfect man;” that is, within his own consciousness he beheld an individual expression of God, the great I AM. But those who accompanied Jesus beheld within their consciousness this expression of the great I AM in reversion. They saw the perfect man as personal, and as entirely separate and apart from God.

We are so prone to think of ourselves and others as good, personal, human beings, or as good spiritually minded personalities, who are trying to find the light of Truth. And while this is a commendable concept, it is a limited human concept.

When correctly understood, we stand for something far greater than just good human beings or good personalities. In our actuality, we are radiant spiritual characters making up the Christ. The I AM is self-revealing, and is forever revealed to Himself as all individual men and women, the Christ. When correctly estimated, each one of us is the revealed Christ.

Where is our true vision? Of what avail is it for us to declare and affirm that God, the great I AM, is the only power, the only Life, the one Presence, the one infinite Being, if we go right on seeing and believing that we ourselves, and every man and woman is a personality, each with a life of his own, who thinks and acts according to a will of his own? Where is our true vision?

“I am this,” “I am that,” “I do this,” “I do that,” “I think this,” “I think that,” is our thought and is on our lips many, many times each day, and always from a personal-I standpoint. But divine Science and our own good vision both indicate that we are I AM in manifestation. The belief that we are a personal I is the fundamental evil, and this false I is to be seen and dealt with as a deflection of the one and only I, the great I AM.

As Christian Scientists, we should yield this sense of personality and claim the real I AM THAT I AM as the ALL and ONLY. All the troubles of the human race are traced directly or indirectly to a false material sense of the one divine I AM. And it is by acknowledging and accepting the one divine I AM as the only I, that we learn to surrender our false beliefs of sin, sickness, lack, and death, which are all incidental to the so-called personal I.

In all her writings Mrs. Eddy has taken particular pains to make clear and definite that the only I AM is never expressed by the finite, material, mortal, or personal. The I AM THAT I AM does not mean the mortal and material, it does not mean personal perfection, it does not mean anything that is limited or finite. The great I AM of all Being is not restricted, neither is it restrictive. I AM does not know fear, and knowing no fear is to be infinitely individual and infinitely universal.

At this very instant, if we were conscious of ourselves as the I AM THAT I AM, what would we be thinking? As the conscious identity or manifestation of I AM, we would be thinking, and our thinking would be our being it, we would be thinking, I AM infinite, eternal Mind, immaculate, immortal. I exist in and of myself. I forever know my own ideas. I know ALL. I am harmonious, joyful, free.

I AM THAT I AM understood, means the one Intelligence, the intelligence that we are now; the one Being, the being that we are now; the one Life, the life we are now; the one divine Principle from which we are never diverted nor subverted.

Right where we think, right where we dwell, right where our consciousness says “I,” right there is I AM THAT I AM. What the personal sense seems to know humanly is not we personally knowing something apart from the divine Mind. It is divine Mind, the only I AM, consciously being HIMSELF as real man. It is never we, as person, who says “God is the only Power, the only Life, the only Presence.” It is always the I AM, and never the personal I that declares Power, and Life, and Presence and declares being it.

This event that is taking place here today, our Association, is a legitimate event, and whatever is true about this event is God, the I AM, being it. If we take a drive this evening, or go to our business next Monday morning, there is no other I than the great I AM being these events. The truth or fact to these events, and to all events, is the I AM THAT I AM.

The divine I AM finds expression in everything that He thinks; He finds expression in all that He knows and does; the divine I AM is the basis of all true action and achievement. There is but one I AM, and this I AM speaks and it is done. When we clearly understand that the only I AM is God, and that we are the evidence or conscious identity of this self-existent God, and when we understand that there has never been a time when this self-existent I AM could get along without what He is, what is man, then we are not afraid to say I AM.

We know that the only thing that is saying I AM is our own infinite, divine Mind. It is our own infinite Consciousness that is saying I AM, and not we personally. When we say I AM, we are really finding our own divine actuality.

Man, the man we are right now, is the evidence or conscious identity of this great I AM. I AM (meaning God) and THAT I AM (meaning man) is in unity, in oneness. We are the expression, the manifestation, the conscious identity of the I AM, God. I AM INFINITY, is man in effect as infinity.

I AM is the only Mind; knowing all. And in the measure that we, the manifestation of the all-knowing Mind, show forth scientific thinking, without selfishness, without greed, without fear, without doubt, without any sense of will or domination, just the knowing, the consciousness, that the divine Mind is being our Mind, the Mind of man, in the measure that we do that, is the divine Mind, the I AM, being the all-knowing, the reflecting BEING.

It is this I AM THAT I AM that heals the sick and the sinner, that reduces every difficulty in our business or daily affairs to its nothingness and brings success and achievement. The term I AM is a most important expression in the unfoldment of Christian Science to the individual consciousness. Without it we are apt to think of God or the “I” as being afar off, when right here is the place that the “I” possesseth. A great sense of freedom and dominion comes to us when we realize that the I AM, being, expressing Himself, is our individual self.

I AM THAT I AM, we should say it, and think it, and be it, all the time. We should say and know I AM THAT I AM from the standpoint of the one divine Mind as being ALL. It is most unscientific to say it from the standpoint of the personal I, and to make the scientific statement, I AM THAT I AM, to the unprepared thought, is not the way of wisdom.

Moses was appointed to deliver the children of Israel from bondage, that is, from all mental darkness, doubt, and fear. Moses demurred, saying, “Who am I that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.” Moses sensed that it would take a greater power than he, as a personal I, to do this mighty task. Then God or true Consciousness said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM.” In this tremendous statement of absolute supremacy, Moses recognized that it is the ever-present I AM, the Christ within, and not a personal I that delivers mankind from all material bondage.

To affirm from the personal standpoint, that I am sick, I am afraid, I am discouraged, I am tired, I am angry, I am poor, or any other erroneous assertions that we are so prone to make regarding our personal-I self, is merely forging another link in our chain of bondage. Our business is to be this truth as ourselves; to be the limitless good; the opportunity; the ability; the possessions; the capacity that God, the great I AM, is expressing as His manifestation, man. Our heritage is dominion, and perfection, and power, because the scientific fact is that now are we the conscious identity of the great I AM.

Mrs. Eddy has beautifully portrayed the limitless horizon of our individual being as the reflection of Spirit, the great I AM. We read: “I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, imperishable glory, — all are Mine, for I am God. I give immortality to man, for I am Truth. I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love. I give Life, without beginning and without end, for I am Life. I am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM.” (S&H 252:32-8)

(From notebook of Mrs. Wilcox as continuation of the article “I AM.”)

All there is to what constitutes me humanly, is now reality, is now Deity, is now the I AM Himself being these formations as divine ideas. They are never matter and there is no disconnection of the so-called human sight from the I AM or Deity which is the all-seeing Mind.

God is my Mind, my own mind is God. The mind that I have right now is God. My own Mind is the only God I shall ever have or know. I never go farther than my own mind to find God, or to find all good. What God, my own mind is, as thoughts and ideas, as intelligence or consciousness, or as experience, is the only man I shall ever be.

Do I understand that every good thing, every useful thing, everything natural to my human existence, is God, my own mind being it right here? These things are not material things; they are forms of thought or divine ideas, which appear to me humanly as material things. They appear to me humanly as material things because of the fog of sense or because they are seen through a glass darkly.

Do you understand that you, as an individual manifestation of God or Mind, do not originate your thoughts, ideas or intelligence? Do you understand that you are all the thoughts, ideas and intelligence that God or Mind is being? God is the substance, wholeness, and action of you. The so-called human being is the one Soul and body, the divine Being, appearing by degrees through the mists of material sense. What appears to be a human being, when correctly understood, is the Son of God, divine in being and divine in all its qualities and attributes.

Any member of our present body or any function of our body is the divine Mind’s expressed activity, and therefore is always perfect and harmonious. Body regarded as matter, is instead spiritual and the only body. When once we estimate the so-called human body, as being the divine and only body, then our body ceases to be human to us, and, like Jesus, we prove it to be divine and spiritual. Jesus’ body seemed to others to be material, but to Jesus his present body was spiritual, else he could not have passed through the closed doors.

“Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” The most important thing about this statement is “Divine Love.” When Divine Love is as present in our human consciousness as the need seems to be, there will be no need, all will be Divine Love.

Neither you nor I are living Life, but conscious Life is living you and me eternally.

Living conscious Truth is the living active substance of everything.

Be Truth itself.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Read S&H 147) At the end of the days I lifted up mine eyes to heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever.

Idealism and Realism

Preface

Before taking up the subject of “Idealism and Realism” I wish to speak of a vital point that will help us to meet our so-called human needs, whether the need is health, a home, a position, or tax money. It is most vital that we clearly understand that all ideas appearing in our human mind are not just mere ideas, but are eternal facts; and we should know and understand these ideas as infinite, eternal facts at hand.

There is only one Mind, and God or Mind expresses His own infinite Being as ideas. These ideas are real and tangible. They are the only things at hand. Everything that exists, everything that is good and useful and natural to human existence, exists as a divine idea. It is a divine fact or entity, and is complete and finished, and is always at hand.

Error would always keep us having two, a divine idea and a human concept about the divine idea. But we are learning that the human concept or material thing is merely our imperfect apprehension of the divine idea or the only fact at hand. Mind evolves its own perfect ideas and their corresponding identities, and if my human sense calls these divine ideas a tree, a heart, a stomach, a house, the tax money, or a person, it makes no difference how they appear, the idea remains forever a divine fact at hand, perfect, immortal, and infinite as divine Mind. They are the phenomena of my spiritual consciousness and my own self.

If we wish to experience these divine ideas in forms that will meet our need, we must understand that each one of us is consciously this infinite compound of divine ideas. In the ratio that we understand that divine ideas have their source in divine Mind and are man, all human limitations will disappear.

Idealism and Realism

We hear much these days about “idealism and realism.” It is easy for a Christian Scientist to be an idealist. And if our ideals have sufficient realization to control our conduct, then we are not only an idealist, but are also a realist. When our idealism controls our conduct, it becomes realism.

An Idealist

We are idealists when we are devoted to good and right ideas, but devoted to ideas that to us are as yet unrealized thought, mere theories, intangible things, ideas that have not as yet been wrought out in life practice. We are idealists only because we do not clearly understand that all divine ideas are tangible things, eternal facts at hand.

Christian Scientists Should Be Realists

As Christian Scientists we should all be realists; that is, we should be devoted to ideas, and at the same time understand that all divine ideas are eternal facts at hand. We should clearly understand that all ideas within our mind are already realities, or eternal facts, and we should establish these ideas as facts in our thinking. And while these facts may not be fully embodied in our mind, we should see to it that they are in the process of being embodied in our mind, and embodied as facts. It is only when these ideas become realized thought, or visible, tangible facts that we can be called realists.

Accumulation of Metaphysical Ideas

As Christian Scientists we have a vast accumulation of metaphysical ideas: good ideas, wonderful ideas. We affirm these ideas and sometimes even exploit them; but much of the time they remain mere abstract ideas in our thought. Many of us build up a world of metaphysical ideas, and still live in a world of unrealized thought. Why is this so? It is because we desire to escape the so-called problems of life, rather than work out the facts of life, and we take refuge in these metaphysical ideas in order to avoid our so-called problems.

There are no problems for us to escape from. The seeming problem is our imperfect apprehension of an actuality at hand. We have permitted our thought to dwell on this imperfect apprehension, have accepted it as a reality, called it a problem, and then resisted it. We should realize that all so-called problems are some reality of Being at hand seen in reversion; and when we work out the so-called problem, we find a reality and reap a rich blessing of fact.

Reiterating Ideas

Many of us iterate and reiterate statements of Truth, profound ideas, and think this reiteration will do for us what we must do for ourselves; that is, live these ideas out into facts or concrete experiences. The repetition of ideas as mere abstract ideas acts upon the human mind as a mental narcotic, and weakens our power to demonstrate. This mere repetition of ideas has a tendency to make a weak student, instead of a strong one. We can repeat the Scientific Statement of Being, the greatest statement of metaphysical fact, until it becomes a mere verbal statement, instead of a vital fact of power.

Since we are the infinite compound idea of Mind, it is quite right for us to possess an immeasurable number of metaphysical ideas. It is God-like to have these ideas. But since the compound idea, man, is constituted of living, conscious ideas or facts, then it is quite logical that we should maintain all ideas as living conscious facts, and not as mere abstract ideas.

Jesus Was a Realist

Jesus was a realist. He possessed a wealth of ideas, but his ideas were to him living, conscious, concrete facts. When Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” he did not mean that the Kingdom was just a beautiful theory. Jesus meant that the Kingdom of Heaven is in us now, as a living conscious fact, and that we are to acknowledge this unseen fact, and identify it concretely. Jesus showed forth the Kingdom. He was the embodiment or the fulfillment of the fact of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Word Made Flesh

Jesus did not just express theories about life, he showed forth life, out of Life, Itself. Jesus’ words and deeds were a unit. They were the “Word made flesh.” Jesus answered the needs of the people not only with the verbal statement of Truth, but with the demonstration or proof of present, concrete facts at hand.

When the idea, life, was present in the consciousness of Jesus, the concrete evidence, or the facts of Life were coincidentally present, so that he could say, “She is not dead, but sleepeth.” And when the idea, money, appeared as his consciousness, the concrete fact which is eternally the idea, instantly appeared as the tax money.

Inoperative Idealism

Idealism in any subject never answers the need of the people, and it will be a great step in growth when the inoperative idealism in Christianity is cleared away. Mrs. Eddy writes, “Truth talked and not lived, rolls on the human heart a stone;” (Mis. 293:27). We should give evidence of divine facts. Are we giving proof or evidence to the world that our bodies, our environments, all circumstances and events connected with our lives, are divine facts at hand? It is our duty to present the concrete proof or evidence to the world, in order that the world may understand the spiritual facts of Life. We must give the so-called material evidence to the world, since it is only the material evidence that mortal mind can understand. The Word or idea must be in evidence in the highest visible form that the human being can comprehend.

Improved Material Conditions

To the world, the proof or evidence appears as improved material conditions, but to us who make the demonstration, the evidence is mental and spiritual. To us, the evidence may appear as a better body, or a better business, but we understand that the evidence is our spiritual discernment that ideas are divine facts. Our idealism has become realism, and the proof or evidence is the result of our mental and spiritual processes through which the Word becomes flesh.

Vital Points

Only that is really ours that we gain from the unfoldment of truth or true ideas within ourselves. There is too much of reaching out to the external for ideas, instead of letting true ideas unfold from within. Let the marvelous truths or ideas in your textbook and your Quarterly Lessons unfold to you and demonstrate them.
Reflect genuine joy and gladness and satisfaction in your daily living, “Joy in the Lord.” The unfolding of true ideas within is your strength and aids you in doing for mankind whatever is necessary to be done.

Individual Service and Love

The Essential Elements of Christianity

I heartily welcome you one and all, on this occasion. Our Association Day should be not only a joyous experience, but a very sacred one. This day should be made holy by our association with our own divine Mind, as well as by our association with each other. And we should remember that those we call “others” are our own divine Mind expressed. The thought of each individual student should be kept inviolate, free from any hurt on this day.

The First Association Meeting

The first association of students, Jesus with his disciples, was held in a little upper room in Jerusalem. It was there that Jesus taught his disciples the essential elements of Christianity: service and love. And after the test of centuries, service and love are still the essential elements of Christianity.

At this first association meeting, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and said, “I am among you as one that serveth” (Luke 22:27). He also said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another” (John 13:34, 35), then he explained to them that they were not to love according to the personal sense of love, but “As I have loved you, ye also (are to) love one another.” Jesus impressed upon the thought of his disciples, that individually they were to love all others, as all others are in Truth.

To love others as Jesus loved them, is to be that conscious Love that is so mighty in power that it heals the sick, forgives sin, and raises the dead.

Changed Natures

The students at this first association meeting needed to be changed in their natures in order to serve and love as did the Master. At this meeting, the power of Truth was so irresistible that the natures of these students were changed, and they gladly obeyed the command, and went forth to teach and to heal, and to establish the Christian Church.

The Second Association Day

Centuries later, another Association of Students was held, a few students with their teacher, Mary Baker Eddy. Again the same essential elements of Christianity, service and love, were given to this little group of students. And likewise, the nature of these students was changed, and the spirit of Truth which wrought these changed natures, involved the divine Power that enabled these students to go forth to teach, to heal, to forgive sin, to raise the dead, and to establish in the world Divine Science, or the Church of Christian Science.

The Significance of Our Association Day

On that first Association Day, Christianity, through its elements of service and love, was given to the world. On the second Association Day, the same Christianity, still expressed as service and love, was revealed to the world in a higher degree, as Divine Science. And today, this same Christianity, through service and love, is culminating in the demonstration of Divine Science, which is the coming of the Son of Man, both individually and universally.

Our Relation to This Unfolding Event

We may ask, what is our relation to this unfolding event, the coming of the Son of Man? There would be no such event today, were it not for the individual student of Christian Science. Individually, we are the coming of the Son of Man. The demonstration of Divine Science, or the coming of the Son of Man, is the appearing of higher, truer, qualities of service and love within the individual mentality. The coming of the Son of Man is a higher spiritual evaluation of the infinite Good that already constitutes our individual consciousness.

All Nations Are of One Blood

The time is at hand when we, as adherents of Divine Science, must demonstrate and give proof to the world that all nations are of one blood (Acts 17:26), that is, all nations and all peoples, when correctly understood, are of the one divine Mind. God is their Maker. All nations and all peoples are the one divine Mind expressed, and we as individuals, must be that conscious Love that sees all nations and all peoples as they are in Truth.

Workers Needed

When this seeming great mental conflict, called war, has spent itself, and we have given to the world the proof of the supremacy of mental and spiritual power over so-called physical power, there will be present a great need for prepared workers, workers who can teach, and heal, and help others to gain an understanding of Divine Science, the truth of their individual Being.

Responsiveness to Truth

How does this spiritual power come to the individual student? Spiritual power comes through our individual responsiveness to Truth. In the proportion that we are responsive to Truth and let Truth be present in us and as us, there is also present active, spiritual power. And all material resistance will disappear from our consciousness in the proportion that we free ourselves from the false claims of error.

Our Pentecostal Day

Today should be our Pentecostal Day, the day on which we are filled with spiritual Power, or filled with the Holy Ghost. If there is any feeling of disturbance in our thought this morning; if there is any bitterness, or dislike, or aversion to anyone, or to anything in all the world; if there is a clouded past or an anxiety for the future, let it all vanish into its native nothingness. And let us breathe in silent prayer the words of our beloved Leader, “Fill us today, with all Thou art, be Thou our stay, alway.” What are the vital points in this prayer? Not only service and love for mankind, but the great need of being responsive to Truth only. In this way, material resistance to Truth is made nothing, and we are free to reflect spiritual power.

Malpractice

A great many things have been said in the past, and many things are being said now about malpractice, which do not tend to clear the thought of Christian Scientists concerning the claim of malpractice. Much time and energy have been worse than wasted on the part of earnest students in the endeavor to handle this particular error. There is a correct way to handle the claim of malpractice, and we should understand the correct way and then follow it effectually.

Two Views Concerning Malpractice

There are two divergent views concerning what is known as mental malpractice. On the one hand, we often find persons looking here and there trying to discover some hidden thing, which they at once label malpractice. On the other hand, we find students prone to ignore the claim of malpractice altogether, when they should recognize it and deal with it effectually.

What is Mental Malpractice?

Mrs. Eddy’s definition of mental malpractice is most enlightening and deserves far more attention than we usually give it. She says, “Mental malpractice is a bland denial of Truth, and is the antipode of Christian Science.” (Mis. 31:2) In other words, mental malpractice is a state of mind which is the exact opposite of Truth or the exact opposite of divine Mind. Now, since the exact opposite of divine Mind is the so-called mortal mind, then mortal mind is all malpractice. This does not mean that all human beings are intentionally malpractitioners, but the majority of human beings, believing in matter instead of understanding Spirit, do unconsciously malpractice upon themselves and others much of the time.

Two Phases of Mental Malpractice

Mrs. Eddy sets forth two phases of mortal mind or mental malpractice. First, the bland or soothing denial of Truth. These bland or soothing denials of mortal mind are never stimulating, rather do they put us at ease in matter. They put us in a state of non-resistance to the beliefs of mortal mind.

These bland and soothing modes of mortal thought impose upon us the mental qualities of indifference, lethargy, apathy, mental laziness, inaction, all of which we may be quite unconscious of. They impose upon us limitations of capacity, ability, endurance, modes of thought which are the very opposite of man’s God-given dominion.

Example of Bland Denial of Truth

Let us illustrate how mortal mind with its bland or soothing denials of Truth, all unconsciously, takes possession of us and puts us to sleep. There was a student of Christian Science who had severe business reverses. He was nearing his sixtieth year, and mortal mind, through its bland and soothing suggestion, had definitely convinced this man that he was shelved for the rest of his life. Mortal mind said there was no position for a man sixty years of age; there was no money to start a new business with; conditions were never so unfavorable; he could not cope with the new ways of doing business. Mortal mind told him it was just impossible for him to again achieve success, and there was nothing for him but to retire from active life and apply for an old age pension. Now such bland denials of Truth did not in any way stimulate this student, but instead they lulled him to sleep. Here was a man in the prime of life, thoroughly mesmerized into a state of non-resistance to the beliefs of mortal mind.

But his little wife recognized these modes of mortal mind thought as the exact opposite of the divine Mind, or the true expansive modes of thought. She took the mental position that man is never separated from God, good, and finally, through Christian Science, the truth prevailed. This man entered upon an entirely new line of work, something quite simple and inexpensive, but something that developed into a very active, remunerative business. He is happy now in proving that any idea, no matter how small to mortal belief, is expansive and infinite when seen from the standpoint of divine Spirit.

The second phase of mortal mind or mental malpractice which Mrs. Eddy sets forth, is a phase that appears to be more aggressive, more intentional, or maliciously directed. It seems that there are persons who would harm us, “morally, physically, or spiritually,” but any such appearance should always be classified as belief, and never as an actuality. Malicious mental malpractice, so-called, is not so much directed thought, since there is no personal mind, as it is universal belief, the universal belief that there are minds many and some very wicked minds.

No Power or Reality to Mental Malpractice

Mrs. Eddy never, in any of her writings, gives power or reality to mental malpractice, but keeps it entirely in the realm of belief. She says, “Its claim to power is in proportion to the faith in evil, and consequently to the lack of faith in good. Such false faith finds no place in, and receives no aid from, the Principle or the rules of Christian Science; for it denies the grand verity of this Science, namely, that God, good, has all power.” (Mis. 31:10) She also says, in substance, that if one retains his faith in mortal mind and personal evil, he is on the “broad road to destruction.”

Deny the Apparent Wickedness of Mortal Mind

Of course it would be absurd for Christian Scientists or any other Christian to ignore the apparent wickedness of mortal mind, and especially the wickedness that is malicious. We are admonished in our textbook to deny malicious malpractice. If we believe that we are the object of some evil thought, mentally directed, we should handle this belief and never admit it as anything other than belief. We should handle the belief that there is a personal wicked mind, and handle it entirely within our own thought, and handle it with the actual understanding that “God, good, is the only Mind.” Only in this way does sin and malpractice become extinct in human consciousness.

War is the Apparent Wickedness of Mortal Mind

War is the apparent wickedness of mortal mind, but when “we know that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness” (S&H 569:10-11), and “the greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right” (S&H 368:1-2), as we are told in our textbook, then we shall understand that war and all the seeming activities of so-called mental malpractice are in the realm of belief only.

Handle Mental Malpractice Daily

Because of the seeming prevalent activity of so-called mortal mind, at this time, expressing itself in calamity, accident, loss and destruction, we should handle malpractice daily. We do not handle it as personal, but we do handle it as opposition or material resistance within the human consciousness to the Truth.

Material Resistance to the Truth

What do I mean by handling material resistance within the human consciousness? Let me illustrate: A Christian Science student called me some time ago and asked for help for herself. She was greatly disturbed because her husband had been drinking heavily. He was not a Christian Scientist. I said to her, “Let us handle material resistance to the Truth within your own consciousness.” She said, “Why, Mrs. Wilcox, what do you mean by that? I do not resist the Truth.” I said, “You know the Truth, and the truth is, that what appears to you as a human being, mesmerized by sin, is in reality the Son of God and divine in being. Now the carnal or mortal mind within your consciousness resists this truth, or contends against this truth, by picturing itself as a personal man mesmerized by the drink habit. The Truth or fact in your consciousness, that man is God’s presence, is resisted by the misconception of man, that he is a personal, mortal, sinning man.”

Let us handle, that is, make nothing of mortal mind beliefs and mental malpractice. Let us see the nothingness of these bland or aggressive denials of Truth within human consciousness. Let us handle them with ever increasing intelligence and effectiveness, but at the same time, let us be wise in dealing with the beliefs of mental malpractice. In the face of the fact that our books abound in the clear explanation of Good, and the allness of the Mind that is Love, the Love that thinketh no evil, yet we find Christian Scientists speaking of evil as if it were actually occurring, and find them constantly contending with what they call malpractice, just as if, were a reality.

Incorrect Treatment

It is incorrect, not to say foolish, for a Christian Scientist to imagine all sorts of evil, and then to proceed to work against the creations of his own imagination. Evil or error or belief is not something, but is always nothing. Evil or error or belief is not something that one fights or rejects or ejects. If we have something that we must reject or struggle to eject, we are making a reality of it, and we are adding more difficulties to what originally appeared to require our attention.

Where Does Mental Malpractice Operate?

Where does mental malpractice operate? Mental malpractice claims to operate or exert itself only in its own realm of belief. If we claim divine being and accept no personal sense of ourselves, in the measure that we do this, we are exempt from any consensus of human opinions, or any specific effort of mortal mind to injure us or make us ill.

Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake

It is surprising to meet student practitioners of long standing who believe that they are suffering for “righteousness’ sake.” Such an attitude of thought is an open door for all kinds of suggestions, and the one who believes that he is attacked because he is a Christian Scientist, needs to handle malpractice not as something directed toward him, but he needs to handle his own mesmeric belief of malpractice.

The significant thing about this particular claim, that one suffers because he is a Christian Scientist, is that the Christian Scientist who is suffering, fails to see that he should handle his own mesmeric belief in malpractice. His own mesmeric belief is rarely ever discernible to the Christian Scientist who imagines that he is subject to malpractice.

It is not humanly reasonable to suppose that, here and there, are certain Christian Scientists being selected by malpractice to be the victims for its ministrations. Let us, more and more, take our thought from malpractice as an entity doing something, and understand it as false mesmeric belief in individual consciousness, or understand it as resistance of mortal mind to the truth of Being in individual consciousness.

Through Fire and Through Waves

If, in any instance, we have seemed to pass through the fire and walk through the waves, we can even now recognize the unreality of all such dreams. If we, as Christian Scientists, had always striven to demonstrate the presence of Mind, instead of merely seeking to bring about some human desire, there would have been no waves and no fire for us to pass through. But if we were not wise enough to avoid the waves or the fire, we may rejoice in a more active awakening through which we are now undeceived.

The Real Man

It is necessary to have within ourselves a clearly defined mental position concerning our oneness with Life, Truth and Love, otherwise our mentality is a constant denial of what we actually are, or is a constant malpractice upon ourselves. The distinctive feature of Mrs. Eddy’s work in behalf of humanity is seen in her clear perception of what man is and his oneness with God.

Old Theology

Prior to the discovery of the Science of Mind, the trend of all religious teaching was to relegate man to the realm of inferiority and sin. The human race accepted the testimony of the senses as real, and believed the personal man to be man. In religion, human beings could hardly do otherwise than believe that they were sinners and inferior to God. Hence, in belief, the malicious malpractice upon one’s self was established in religion.

The tendency of the whole Christian Science movement, at this present time, is to fall back to old theology, and think of man according to the testimony of the senses, as sinners and desperately wicked. This attitude of thought harms the individual who is thinking it, more than it harms anyone else. It is a constant malpractice upon man. There should be a definite mental stand against this tendency by Christian Scientists. We, as exponents of Christian Science, should maintain the theology of Jesus, which was, “perfect God and perfect man,” as the basis of our thought and demonstration.

An Intermediate Realm

Too often, Christian Scientists keep themselves and others in an intermediate realm, wherein they are material mortals now, but through a process of salvation will sometime become immortal. They keep themselves in a realm wherein they affirm the Truth and merely resist the error, instead of extinguishing it. This is particularly true when it comes to the question as to whether we are mortals now, or immortals now.

We should detect and reject this subtle malpractice that would ever keep us believing that we are mortal and sinners now, and that eventually we are to be made immortal and sinless by a process of salvation.

What is our Mental Position?

Is our mental position one of truth about ourselves and others, or is it one of malpractice? Do we have within ourselves a mental position of clearly defined Truth, and are we thinking and living from this position? If we think that we are a sinning mortal and that others are sinning mortals, this thought is a sin against the Holy Ghost, against divine Science. If we think such thoughts, we are mental malpractitioners.

What Are We This Instant?

What is our state of mind this instant? Is it Truth or is it malpractice, a denial of Truth? Are we this instant man, or are we the false concept of man? Are we this instant spiritual, or material? Are we this instant immortal, or a mortal? Are we this instant indwelling in God, His image and likeness, or are we separated from Him and unlike Him in character?

Are we this instant incorporeal, or corporeal? Are we this instant universal, or finite and local? Are we this instant spiritually individual or personal? Is our state of thought the Truth, or is it malpractice, which is the denial of Truth? Mrs. Eddy says, “Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration.” (My. 242:8-10)

Evil is But the Hidden Existence of God

The Christian Scientist who stands fast in the oneness of God and man, and knows there is no man unlike and apart from God, his divine Principle, and knows there is no man with any other mind than the one and only Mind, this Christian Scientist with his pure thought is looking through and beyond the mist of mere appearance of man into the realm of the real, and he beholds and knows that all false appearance is but the hidden existence of Good, just as the mirage lake is the hidden existence of the prairie grass.

We have all been instructed in the letter and spirit of Christian Science and we are equipped to carry on a treatment against malpractice. But we cannot give a good treatment if we believe there is a mind to work against us or to injure us. We must designate mental malpractice purely as belief and never permit it to assume any reality whatsoever in our consciousness. Our textbook tells us, “Until the fact concerning error — namely, its nothingness — appears, the moral demand will not be met, and the ability to make nothing of error will be wanting.” (S&H 92:21)

Uncover Error As Nothing

We need to remind ourselves that error is always to be uncovered as nothingness, and is never uncovered until the nothingness of the error is apparent. This is as true of the error called malpractice as it is of any other error. Error is never uncovered except as nothing. So long as there appears to be reality to that which we call error, just so long error is still uncovered. There are times when we find it necessary to argue against the claims of evil, but the arguments used are valueless, unless they result in a clear realization of the nothingness of error.

True practice uncovers any and all error, that is, true practice destroys the belief in error. But we cannot remind ourselves too frequently that the process by which this occurs should progressively become more spiritualized. There should be less of the human element and more of the divine presence in the work of uncovering error. In reality, it is the allness of Truth which makes nothing of error. Therefore, as workers in Christian Science, our conscious sense of Science must be that of Spirit; that is to say, our thought must not merely be about Truth, our thought must be Truth. When our thought is Truth, then error is nothing.

Disease and Wickedness Are Error

Disease is error. Then, when we are asked to take a case of sickness, we consider it error, nothing less and nothing more. Even when that which confronts us appears as wickedness in some form or other, even when it appears as malicious thought or harmful personality, we deal with it as error or nothingness, no thing, no person. There is no other way to deal with error effectually.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.” (S&H 71:2) She also says, “God’s law reaches and destroys evil by virtue of the allness of God.” (No and Yes 30:7)

Sole Object of Affirmation and Denial

All affirmations and denials that we make, however elaborate, have for their sole object the realization of the omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God, Principle, Love, and we are justified in the use of these words only by the result obtained from their use. We, as Christian Scientists, should present unquestionable proofs of the healing and protective results of our work.

Protective Work

A part of the daily work of every Christian Science student is protection against the possible belief in trouble of any name or nature. And where is this protective work to be done? Protective work is always done in the realm of belief. We should see that mortal mind with all its beliefs of destructiveness and loss and accident, cannot become a part of our consciousness or anybody’s consciousness. That we should constantly know and constantly prove the protective power of omnipotence, need hardly be stated. Our protective work should definitely annul the belief in medical science, together with those of the undertaker, and all other phases of error which claim that every human being must ultimately fall into their hands.

Truth Is Infinite and One

We, as workers in Christian Science, should have the conscious sense of the substance and allness of Spirit, and a consequent realization of the unreality of matter, and the unreality of a material personality. Without such a realization we do not fulfill the metaphysical requirements.

We should associate ourselves with the infinity of Good, and never believe that in so doing, we shall fail in any degree to manifest humanly all that is good for us and for others.

Mind is One and infinite. Mind has no competitor. Nothing is comparable to Mind, for Mind is ALL. An apprehension of this fact is essential to the scientific handling of any phase of malpractice.

The Millennium

“The Greater Works”

The fulfillment of prophecy always seems remote, just as it did in the days of the coming of Jesus. But if we had eyes to see, we would perceive that the fulfillment of prophecy is but the appearing in consciousness of that which is already in existence.

The Millennium is appearing now, and will appear in its full significance at the time that prophecy has fixed for its appearing. The Millennium will appear, just as Christ Jesus appeared at the time prophesied, and as the revelation of Christian Science appeared at the time of the fulfillment of prophecy.

The Coming of the Millennium

We do not think that as the hour strikes at midnight in the year 1999 that we shall awaken in the Millennium or in an entirely different state of consciousness; but Christian Scientists and great thinkers believe that the Millennium is appearing now, and that in the closing years of this century will have appeared in great significance.

What Is the Millennium?

According to the dictionary, the Millennium is a period of a thousand years during which time holiness is to be triumphant throughout the world. It is a period of great happiness, good government, and freedom from wickedness. Some believe that during this period, Christ will reign on earth in person.

But all Christian Scientists understand the Christ is not a person, but is the impersonal Truth about everyone and everything that we now know humanly and materially. The Millennium is that period in which the impersonal Christ or the Son of God is appearing on earth, or in human consciousness as the Son of man. It is a period of consciousness in which men and women are coming into their true humanhood.

In Christian Science we learn that Christ, the Son of God, is the divine actuality of all existing persons and things. And, according to prophecy, this divine actuality of all persons and things is now appearing in concrete phenomena as the Son of man in power and great glory, which means that divine actualities with their power and glory are appearing in the highest forms appreciable to human consciousness.

To a Christian Scientist, the Millennium will be the state of his own consciousness. It will be his freedom to think without constraint from so-called mortal mind, for as our thought is constrained, just that long is divine power lacking. When we are free to think divinely, without the constraint of mortal mind, then we are free to act divinely; without constraint; then we can walk over the waves, calm the storm, and feed the multitude if need be.

The infinite God-Mind seems to be hidden because we seem to have a mind of our own, but as thought attains something of its right origin, the divine Mind, the power, the omnipotence of Good, is available to us and we shall naturally do the “greater works” that the Master said we would do. (See John 14:12)

Only those who have spiritual discernment realize what is taking place and the import of the present time. Those of discernment realize that the world is passing out of a certain mental cycle or mode of thinking and living, into another cycle of enlarged thinking and better living, and of spiritual power.

When this great chemicalization has done its work, we shall find error destroyed and we shall discern that good only is at hand. And, in the meantime, we should understand that what appears so distressing in this present day is not crucifixion, but resurrection.

The following question was asked in the last metaphysical college class: “Is the world situation a chemicalization brought about by the revelation and demonstration of Christian Science, and is it so severe that it is destroying rather than redeeming?”

Mr. Young’s answer was: “We cannot say that Christian Science demonstration as partially appearing, produces chemicalization that will destroy rather than redeem; but we can take the attitude that Christian Science demonstrated by you and me does not chemicalize beyond our ability to take care of the chemicalization. So if your thought takes on something of the grandeur of God, that will take care of the situation. (See S&H 401:16)

“If Mind takes care of the situation we can do something more practical than answer the question. As the terror that seems so intense in other nations disappears, the evil itself will disappear. When we see it as God sees it, its terrors begin to disappear. If God were demonstrated this instant, the error would have no terror because we would recognize what is actually going on.

“As Christian Scientists, we should not make evil either real or personal, but we should not ignore it. Christian Scientists have a responsibility in this matter because Truth has been revealed to them.”

The Christian Scientist realizes that his consciousness, which is his world, with its people, and its religions, and its governments, and politics are within himself, and that it depends largely upon himself whether his is the Kingdom of Heaven or a misconception of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Every Christian Scientist should know the nothingness of Fascism and Communism, for both would bind us so that we could not think, and human beings must be free to think. Anything that threatens free thought is dangerous and we should demonstrate its nothingness.

The Passing Away of Matter or Mortal Mind

According to prophecy and actual experience, this is the day when much of mortal mind and materiality is passing away, and it is passing away with much noise and disturbance. And all this is taking place within the individual’s own consciousness, or he could not be aware of it, although it all seems to be taking place external to us.

The discerning Peter foretold this day; he said, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (II Peter 3:10)

The World Must Be Spiritualized

Our world to a great extent is mentalized; that is, people in general believe that everything of which they are conscious is mental. But in the Millennium a GREATER WORK than mentalization will be consummated. Then the world and everything of which the world consists, will be spiritualized. And, it is the duty of every Christian Scientist to see that this GREATER WORK is active in his individual consciousness in this present day.

As students of Christian Science, we are learning that we do not change our world simply by transposing it from a material world to a mental or thought world; we are learning that in order to see our world as spiritual instead of material, we must set aside that which is causing the material sense of our world.

Why Our World Seems to Be Material

The people, things, and conditions of our world seem to be material because so-called mortal mind’s concept of itself and all that it is, is always matter. Mortal mind sees and feels itself as matter; its objectifications are matter. The seeming material world is mortal mind as it is to itself.

What Is Matter?

What is matter? Matter is the primal concept of mortal mind; matter is the mortal perishable sense of the imperishable; matter is a misstatement; it is delusion; an illusion; a deception. But in the Millennium we shall see the people and all things of our world in a truer depict and realize that they are God-being, and are spiritual.

We who are students of Christian Science understand and demonstrate the GREATER WORKS. We are proving that all things of which our world consists, are God’s creation, and have always been the actualities of Spirit. They only appear material or mortally mental because we still see them through the lens of false material sense.

Dematerialization

Let it be clearly understood that we do not spiritualize matter, because matter is not something or a condition to be dealt with, to be fulfilled, or to be destroyed. Matter is a deception; it is a false appearance of the actuality at hand. And the actuality does not need to be spiritualized, and matter is not something which can be spiritualized. Rather do we dematerialize Spirit, or dematerialize these actualities by removing from them the false appearance or “material accompaniments,” the false sense of density, weight, finiteness, and impermanency. We as Christian Scientists have done much dematerialization up to the present time.

We Have Come a Long Way on the Journey

Yes, we have come a long way on our journey from sense to Soul. It is difficult to conceive just how far we have come since we began our “six days of labor,” and to what extent we are equipped to do THE GREATER WORKS.

Personal Improvement

Let us consider just how much of the demand “TO DO ALL THY WORK” has been fulfilled, and see if we are not more fully qualified to do the Greater Works than the false sense of humility is permitting us to admit. When we first took up the study of Christian Science, it was for personal improvement, either to gain health, harmony, or supply and that was perfectly legitimate at that stage of our growth; but it is a far greater work to do what we are now doing, demonstrating our oneness with God; our oneness with GOOD; demonstrating that man as idea or reflection already has health, harmony, and supply and could not be without them.

Thought Has Been Educated to Apprehend Realities

The thought of Christian Scientists has been vastly improved in the understanding of the Science of Mind and in its application to our human needs. Our thought has been gradually educated to the apprehension of things as they are.

The Coincidence of the Human and the Divine

At the time of coming into Christian Science, about the only thing we were sure of was that we were alive, and that we existed as human beings. At that time we believed that human beings were mortals, and that somehow through Christian Science, mortals would become immortals; we believed that mortal mind was an entity, and that somehow it was to be transformed into a divine Mind; we also believed that God’s “good and very good” had lapsed into evil, and that there must be regeneration and restoration.

But now we understand and prove that what appears to be ourselves as a human being is not a mortal, but is our divine Self appearing, and because our divine Self, the only Self here, is imperfectly known because seen through the lens of material sense, it appears to our sight and sense as a human being. It is clearly seen that we have some discernment of the divine fact of ourselves at hand, or we would not be conscious of ourselves as even a human being.

As the mist of ignorance about God and man thins, our divine self appears in truer depict or as a better sense of man.

This is our “true humanhood” appearing as the Millennium or true consciousness, in which man is as sinless as his Maker. Our “true humanhood” is from above, never of mortal mind. Our true humanhood is not a mortal man at any stage of its appearing. We should never consider ourselves a mortal. We are never other than the divine man appearing in fuller degree.

The true humanhood or divine Self will never disappear, but will appear from glory to glory until its completeness and perfection is made manifest. Herein is the coincidence of the human and divine as exemplified in Christ Jesus.

Is it not a far greater work to understand our divinity to be at hand, than to believe that man is a mortal who can sin, suffer, and die, and must be healed and saved? so-called mortal mind expressed as mortal man is a myth, a state of deception, and is not an entity to be healed or saved. And the so-called human being is already the divine Self, and it surely does not need healing and saving. All good, actualities, have never lapsed into evil and they need no restoration.

Divinity Expressed as Humanity

All there is to what constitutes me humanly is now the Divine, imperfectly known. All is now Reality. All are now actualities. All is now Deity. All is “I AM,” Himself, being all formations as divine ideas.

She made it clear that matter is a mis-statement, a mis-conception, a false appearance only of the actuality at hand. She made it clear that as misconception is dissolved, the actuality, though imperfectly seen and known, is the only presence.

Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Kimball, and others who taught in the College classes to instruct those who were to be sent out into the field to teach, taught that anything that exists is never to be destroyed but fulfilled.

The impersonal Truth unfolded into another period of fuller revelation, and certain teachers announced that organs and functions of our present body are spiritual, are divine ideas consciously unfolding. How mortal mind did resist this unfoldment of Truth, and everyone who made these statements was accused of spiritualizing matter. Mortal mind said they were trying to make material organs into Realities, or divine ideas.

It was and is amazing to see how mortal mind clung and still clings tenaciously to itself as matter. To mortal thought matter was something, and to admit that it was only an illusion, a mis-statement, or a deception was to be its own undoing.

But at this present stage of illumination or understanding in human consciousness, the students of Christian Science do not hesitate to say that what appears to be matter is Spirit; that the so-called organs of our present body are Ideas, actualities, are Spirit, Itself, being spiritual formations. We understand and prove that our present body and all that constitutes our present body, even though regarded as matter, is demonstrated to be spiritual or Spirit expressed.

Today we understand that what appears to be matter is Spirit in expression. Spirit and matter are not two but one. Mrs. Eddy says, “Good and evil are not two, but one, for evil is naught, and good only is reality.” (See Un. 21:7) When we see evil we are seeing Good in reversion, and when death appears to our sense, we are seeing Life in reversion.

The Greater Works

Do we not see how Truth and true thinking have been expanding and ascending naturally, until it has resulted in the GREATER WORKS? This ascendancy of thought has not been personal thinking, but has been the unfoldment of the Christ as individual man.

Someone may think, how can there be greater works than the work of Jesus? Can there be anything greater than the healing of the sick instantly; making the blind to see; the deaf to hear; the lame to walk; the dead to live; and all instantly? Can there be greater works than these? Jesus himself said so, and that we should do them.

Jesus said, “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.” (John 14:12)

This “I” that went unto the Father did not mean a personal “I,” the Ego of anyone is always TRUTH. This I or TRUTH of Jesus turned to God absolutely. This I or Truth of Jesus did not turn to any person or to a personal self, but went unto his Father, Truth. So, in order that we do the Greater Works, the “I” of us must go to our Father, Truth, absolutely.

Healing Works Revived

In speaking of the healing works, Mrs. Eddy says, “This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived. A healing that is not guess work — but instantaneous cure.” (Mis. 355:6)

At this time, according to prophecy, the Christ, the Reality of all men and women and all things, the Son of God, is appearing in human consciousness, in such irresistible activity and power, with such illumination of understanding, that ignorance of God and man and the universe is being swept away and the “New Heaven and New Earth are being revealed.”

The Greater Works Are Equivalent to No Works

These greater works are equivalent to no work to be done. If we start our thinking from the standpoint of having something to do, we shall never get it done. Mind declares Itself and Its manifestation, man, is finished and complete as Mind, Itself. Man, as idea or reflection, has nothing to do but unfold in accord with his Maker.

The Seventh Day is the Millennium

Let us read again from the prophecy from Exodus: “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day (the Millennium) is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” The statement, “thou shalt not do any work on the Sabbath day,” is not a command to us to cease work, but it is a revealment that in the Millennium or the Sabbath day of the Lord, it will not be necessary to labor. The Seventh Day or the Millennium is the climax of ascending thought, wherein we realize the finished Kingdom within us.

Money

There is, perhaps, no other one thing of which we are conscious that gives us so much concern as money. This is because we have been educated to believe that our wants and needs can be supplied only if we have money. But in our study of Christian Science we understand that we have all things, money included, because divine Mind expresses all things, all actualities, as man. It is as much a fact that we have money, as it is a fact that we have food, or clothing, or health, or heart, or hand, or air to breathe.

Money Correctly Understood

When correctly understood, money is one of Mind’s divine ideas. Incorrectly considered, money is the false human concept of a divine idea. In its actuality, money is a very high idea in its expression of Substance. Hence, in our human expression of substance, the desire to have money seems greater than all other desires.

When we lose the material sense of money, and understand it as divine idea in oneness with divine Mind, then we shall find it always present and established in our consciousness. Since money is an infinite idea in the compound idea, man, it is inevitable that each and every individual must have money in some form and must have it all the time. Our textbook tells us that “Man is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas.” Then we already include the right idea, money. When we clearly understand that money is a divine idea, and that we include this divine idea in consciousness, then the world’s false sense of money, as material, and as separate from divine Mind, and as separate from man, will not touch us, and humanly we shall have all the money we need all the time.

A Scientific Mental Position

We, as Christian Scientists, should maintain a fixed scientific mental position in regard to money. As long as it seems necessary to have money humanly, we should be persistent and insistent in our thinking that we always have money in its actuality. When once we have established the fact that money in its actuality is a divine idea in consciousness, and we already include it, and include it eternally, then we shall have its corresponding identity humanly. When Jesus needed the tax money, he had it because he knew that he already possessed the actuality or the divine fact of money eternally. Jesus dealt with actualities or facts only, and he had the corresponding identity instantly at hand, humanly or materially.

Earning Our Money

Mrs. Eddy says, “Till Christian Scientists give all their time to spiritual things, live without eating, and obtain their money from the fish’s mouth, they must earn it in order to help mankind with it.” Nevertheless Mrs. Eddy, herself, proved that money was ever a divine idea in consciousness. It is recorded that for many mornings, when her need was very great, she found a dollar bill inside her door, and it was placed there by no human hand. And today we shall have our money readily, and the earning of it made easier, when we clearly understand that both the money and the earning of it, are the divine Mind expressed humanly. Again, “Let us awake and inherit.”

No Malpractice

Will you carry in thought four scientific facts that will help us in the consideration of our subject, “NO MALPRACTICE”?

First: Since Mind is one infinite, self-conscious Being, then everything in the universe exists because this Mind has unfolded Itself, out into all existing things, out into infinity.

Second: One infinite eternal Mind precludes the possibility of a lesser mind. Therefore, so-called mortal mind is never an entity or a mind, but is that which has no existence, does not fill space. It is ignorance or a false sense of the allness of God.

Third: We can “sense” things which we are not experiencing, which are not going on. For instance, we can “sense” that we are moving on a train that is standing still, or we can sense falling in our sleep. When we sense things which are not taking place at all, this illustrates what Mrs. Eddy terms false belief or false sense. Such is all mental malpractice. Mental malpractice is something that we sense, but which is not going on at all.

Fourth: Please bear in mind that the one infinite consciousness is every individual’s consciousness. We do not have a consciousness of our own, any more than an individual ray of light has light of its own. The light of the sun is the light of every individual ray. Just so, Truth, being universal consciousness, is the consciousness of every individual.

But malpractice claims to be a universal consciousness with everything in a sense of reversion. It claims that this universal false sense consciousness is the false consciousness of every individual man and woman. This false claim is what we, as Christian Scientists, are to uncover as nothing and nobody.

We often hear Christian Scientists say quite glibly, “There is no such thing as mental malpractice.” But to know theoretically that there is no malpractice, and then talk and act as if there were such evil going on around us, is of no practical value to the student.

Conception of Malpractice Personal

We should understand that mental malpractice is false sense only, and not something that we are experiencing. Usually we believe that some person is thinking evilly about another person, thereby harming that person through this mental process.

But mental malpractice is entirely impersonal. A person has nothing to do with this false sense, and to be effectually dealt with, it must be so understood. Mrs. Eddy says, “Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright, then reducing its claim to its proper denominator, nobody and nothing” (Mis. 108:11-14), and “then we are its master, not servant.” (Mis. 108:24-25)

Knowing Evil Aright

So-called mortal mind, which is all there is to malpractice, is a lie, ”a bland denial of Truth.” (Mis. 31:2) It is the assumption that life is in matter and that man is personal and material. So-called mortal mind, the ignorance of God and man as one Being, causes the sense of the opposite of Truth, or causes malpractice. And mortal mind or mental malpractice cannot disappear until understanding, or the reality of all things, appears in consciousness.

No Personal Mind

There is no personal mind either as a claim or a fact. What appears to us as many minds, is the one infinite Mind disclosing Itself infinitely. We have no mind which we alone possess, but the one universal God-Mind is the mind of each one of us. And because of our ignorance of this one universal, impersonal God-Mind, there seems to be the one universal, impersonal claim of false sense appearing to us as many mortal minds.

Awareness Is Mental and Spiritual

Everything of which we are conscious constitutes our consciousness. Everything is mental or is a form of spiritual sense. Everything of which we are conscious, even in belief, is a mental, spiritual fact in consciousness. All sense testimony, as sensations of pain or pleasure; all sensations of form, color, substance, and tangibility are modes of consciousness and are the infinite, spiritual sensations of the one Mind. They are Mind consciously Being; they originate in the God-Mind and are never of the world; never of a person or of the body, no matter what false sense testimony says to the contrary.

Our world is purely a sense world. All the circumstances, events, and experiences of our world are transpiring as consciousness. Our present sense world, in its actuality, is a spiritual sense world, but because of the belief of false sense, our present sense world appears progressively more real and substantial in the ratio that spiritual sense appears as our consciousness.

The Relative Mode of Consciousness

Our individual consciousness, in its actuality, is a mode of absolute Truth, but at the present time, because of false sense, it appears relative rather than absolute. This is because of our ignorance of God and man as one Being. At the present time, in belief, we are all relatively the one and the same sense of limited consciousness; otherwise, we should have no awareness of each other as we appear today; we should have no point of contact, and we should not have the same sense world.

The Universal Claim Impersonal

Mortal mind, or the universal false sense of things, is seemingly our individual false sense of things. Each of us seems to have a varying degree of the one and the same universal false sense and this results in me as false sense, or mass mesmerism, or mental malpractice. For example: my consciousness, in its actuality, is a living, conscious sense of infinite GOOD, but because of my ignorance of this fact, there is the mental malpractice or the false sense of limitation. I may sense only five dollars, but because my individual consciousness, in its reality, is the spiritual sense of infinity, I have the assurance that this malpractice or sense of limitation can be set aside, and that it is possible for me to have many times five dollars.

Since each of us has a varying degree of the one and the same universal false sense, John D. Rockefeller sensed the same false limitation that I sense. He, no doubt, sensed five million dollars, but because of conscious Infinity at hand, he sensed that it was possible for him to have many times five million dollars. Both John D. Rockefeller and I had one and the same sense limitation only in different degrees. This limited sense is not my personal sense, and it was not Mr. Rockefeller’s personal sense, but it is the false, limited sense common to us all. It is mass sense, or mass mesmerism, or mental malpractice.

What appears as your world, appears as my world. What appears as my personal disease, is not personal but impersonal disease; what appears as anyone’s personal hate or resentment, or injustice is impersonal hate, resentment, or injustice. The one universal, false sense of hate, resentment, and injustice operates consciously or unconsciously, as personal sense or mental malpractice.

Each So-called Mind a Universe

My individual mind is my universe, but my false sense which is a mass sense, or mass mesmerism, makes my individual universe the universe of all. We read in Cor., “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” (I Cor. 10:13) Likewise, there is no temptation that is common to mass sense or mass mesmerism that is not common to me. The good or evil of my individual universe is always impersonal. It is never my good or evil; but the good of my world is the universal, impersonal good that is God; and the evil of my world is the claim of universal false sense, or mass mesmerism or mental malpractice, which is common to all in varying degrees.

Error to be Handled as Impersonal and at the Point of Consciousness

All error must be handled as impersonal, as false sense, as mental malpractice. If we hear of theft or murder; if we sense disease or disaster; if we sense limited health or limited success; we are not conscious of these until they appear in our consciousness, but they existed in belief as false sense or mass sense, or mental malpractice, else they could not have appeared as our sense world.

To myself, I am not the murderer or the thief, or the sick man, or the disaster; the limited health, or the limited success; yet I sense these experiences in belief, and whatever I sense in my world as evil, is the one universal claim of false sense, or mass mesmerism, or mental malpractice, appearing at the point of my individual consciousness, and at no place else. And until I have awakened to the spiritual fact of the one Mind, as revealed in Christian Science, my universe will continue more or less to be a universe of false sense, or mass mesmerism, or mental malpractice. I am as much the murderer as he is, as I allow this false sense, or mass mesmerism, or mental malpractice, to be something in my consciousness instead of nothing and nobody. In proportion that I make a reality of a false sense or mass mesmerism or mental malpractice, I perpetuate my present sense world as such.

But when I return to my “Father’s House,” or true consciousness, I individualize my world in the ratio of my understanding of Truth. But so long as I sense error of any kind, it must be handled as impersonal; as mass mesmerism; as mental malpractice; as ignorance of God; as nothing claiming to be something or somebody, or claiming to be individual consciousness, or my world.

Because there is no evil, it is impossible for me to experience it, even in belief. I can only sense it in belief. In fact, I am always functioning as Mind, and I am experiencing only good that Mind is being.

This Present State of Our Growth

At this stage of spiritual discernment, we cannot rest on the assumption that the apparent unconsciousness of error protects us from error; neither can we rest from our vigilance because error seems to belong to someone else. When an error appears in our world, it is mental malpractice being uncovered as our conscious or unconscious thought, and is a demand upon us to heal ourselves only, and we do this at our individual point of consciousness.

Mankind Slow to Reform This World

The same unlovely traits of character and disposition; the same calamities and tragedies; the same limitations, which have been the world down the ages, are our present world today. And they will continue to be our world until we learn that the universal false beliefs or mass consciousness or mental malpractice, which claim to be our individual false consciousness, are malpractice, and also learn that all false consciousness, being impersonal, can be overcome. We reform our (the) world only as we reform ourselves. We change our false sense of things only as we perceive and understand the allness of God, Good.

Point of Our Own Consciousness

All false sense: war, famine, flood, lack, hate, all of which are the phenomena of our ignorance of God, and constitute mental malpractice, are met only at the point of our individual consciousness. This is the only place it can be met because it is the only place where it is going on, so far as we are concerned.

When we learn that Truth is uncovering the conscious and unconscious beliefs which claim to be our world, we will not look outside our own consciousness for the healing of murderers and thieves and lack and war and earthquakes and floods, which seem to go on as our world.

There is in reality no wrong-doer, no wrong-doing, no sick man, no lack, no war, no floods, even in belief. I sense these things in belief because I, individually, am ignorant of the Truth about these things, and it is ignorance that causes actualities which are everpresent to be seen in reversion or as a “bland denial of Truth.” (Mis. 31)

What Thou Seest, That Thou Beest

All things of which we are conscious, even though appearing as the experience of someone else, are as much our experience as theirs, and as little their experience as ours and must be handled this way. When we clearly recognize that “What thou seest, that thou beest,” this fact will heal all criticism, all condemnation and self-righteousness that we may be harboring in our thought.

Since everything is transpiring as consciousness, then all false sense or mental malpractice is at the point of our own consciousness. Plato said, “What thou seest, that thou beest.”

Universal Malpractice

Malpractice is purely wrong practice. Since Christian Science is the SCIENCE OF THE ONE MIND, then malpractice is the acceptance of the suggestion of the belief of two minds which results in the belief of a matter body and a matter universe. This is the malpractice or wrong practice which is common to all.

It is not the suggestion or the belief that is the malpractice, but we malpractice when we acquiesce to the suggestion or the belief of two minds. All crime, evil, lack, sickness, and death exist as a state of consciousness only, and these are active in our individual experience as false sense or mental malpractice and appear in our consciousness because of our ignorance of ONLY ONE MIND.

Nothing External to Consciousness

There is nothing external to our consciousness. If we seem to be ill, or seem to lack, or hate, it is because we have consented, consciously or unconsciously, to the suggestion that we have a mind apart from God. It is all purely a belief of two minds. We may not have consciously thought disease or consciously accepted beliefs that go with a mortal sense of existence; but if we do not consciously through accurate, scientific right thinking, assume the attitude of the one omnipresent, omnipotent Mind, we are not a law to our experience and anything which mortal mind believes may claim to be our belief.

No Outside World

There is no outside world. Everything which we experience is in our consciousness and exists to us, according to our sense of the Truth about it. Since our understanding of God is man and is our world, then if our understanding of God is limited and imperfect, we shall be a limited and imperfect man or world.

The evil-doer that we seem to see outside of us, is no more an evil-doer than we are when we consent to or recognize the evil as an evil-doer, instead of recognizing the evil as nothing and nobody. The only way to handle malpractice effectually is not to malpractice. We should never personalize evil because evil is never a person, but is a lie about the Truth that is present. It is our ignorance of this everpresent Truth that is the malpractice. If the Christ-Truth is not present as our consciousness, then the lie or ignorance is present. There is no one to blame for our troubles; there is no enemy nor so-called organized evil. We need only blame our own ignorance or our own limited understanding of the one Mind which is eternally omnipresent and omnipotent.

Acknowledgment of Good

We are either acknowledging God, Mind, in all our ways, or we are consenting to, or unconsciously accepting the prevailing beliefs of the world. Then we say to ourselves, “O Lord, how long?” And the answer comes back, “Just as long as you deny My omnipresence.” To whine and complain as if something or somebody were doing something to us, unbidden and unbeknown to us, only adds to the confusion; for after all, we are merely the victims of our own ignorant and limited sense of God.

There is a tendency among Christian Scientists to look upon the one Mind as a lovely ideal to be attained at some future time, and then talk and act as if another mind is also going on. There is a tendency to hold to the belief or suggestion of two minds.

Mortal mind, or mental malpractice, invariably claims to have a channel or medium, always someone thinking wrongly. But when we reject the suggestion that mortal mind is an entity or a mind, we also reject the channel to the personal medium. One of the errors of our movement is the belief that somebody is malpracticing. But if we accept this suggestion, we unwittingly become a malpractitioner, in belief, because we are believing in two minds and this is a “bland denial of Truth.”

Malpractice is not a reality, it is always a belief, and since there are no beliefs in infinity, and infinity is All, then we deal with malpractice as belief only. If someone is malpracticing on me, he is malpracticing on his own belief about me, therefore he is malpracticing on himself because he is malpracticing on his own belief.

What difference does it make if ten thousand so-called people are saying 2 and 2 are 5; this does not change the fact that 2 and 2 are 4. And if many people work erroneously, what of it? They cannot harm or change anything. Why? Because they can never get their thought beyond themselves, beyond their own beliefs. (See S&H 234:31-3) There is only one Mind and that Mind is the one Lawmaker, then there are no malpractitioners who are making laws that can affect us, and since there is only one Mind, there is no malpractitioner because there are not many minds. We never need to fear the so-called malpractitioner because there is merely a false belief about individual man. It is a great mistake to cause people to fear malpractice. Since our belief in malpractice and a malpractitioner necessarily exposes our own ignorance of God, then the less we say about them, the better it will be for us and for others.

Someone asks, “Shall we take cognizance of the claim of malpractice or just ignore it?” There is a vast difference between taking cognizance of a claim and ignoring a claim. When we scientifically cognize the claim of malpractice as a belief or false sense only, this destroys the claim of malpractice. We shall always keep on top of the situation if we realize that the claim of malpractice is nothing and nobody; therefore we do not have to resist it. No matter what the claim appears to be, it should be recognized basically as fear. If we fear evil of any nature, then we are believing in it. The great thing is to be unafraid. The only Mind there is, is not afraid; and there is no other mind to be a channel for fear. We should deal with malpractice with the confidence that there is only ONE MIND, and this confidence is IMMANUEL OR MIND WITH US.

That which handles all malpractice is the fact that Infinity is ever expressing ITSELF, and that which represents Infinity is man, and man is always in accord with Infinity.

Our Mission in the World Is Individual

In our work today, I shall speak much of the individual; I shall stress the importance of the individual, and I shall emphasize the need of the individual doing much metaphysical work within himself and for himself. Scientifically speaking, there is no one else but himself for whom the individual can work. Scientifically speaking, we, as individual man, include the universe, or we include all others and everything within our individual self, and as our individual self. When we see what we call another, we are seeing somewhat of ourselves; and in order to respect and love ourselves or love individual man, we must respect and love others. In order to serve others, we must likewise serve ourselves. As we, individually, are lighted with Truth and Love, we find that our whole world of people and things within ourselves is automatically lighted. All men in unity is the one Christ within us, is individual man, our real self.

We Must Be True to Ourselves

“Thou must be true thyself, if thou the truth would’st teach; Thy heart must overflow, if thou another’s heart would’st reach.” (Mis. 98:27) And Mrs. Eddy emphatically tells us that Truth must be written “first on the tablet of one’s own heart” (’02 2:5), in order to serve one’s self and, in this way, serve others. The past few years the Christian Scientists have prayed, and worked, and struggled to disperse the Truth of Christian Science throughout the world, but today we are praying and striving as never before to gain a rapid spiritual growth within ourselves. Why? Because today it is demanded of the Christian Scientist that he be so clear in his mentality, that he is able to translate every phase of human life into its reality, and give concrete proof of healing and salvation to a sick and war-torn world.

Prayer

Each Christian Science practitioner and student should be so filled with the spirit of service and love, that he can instantly answer the urgent calls for help. But such proofs can be given only by those individuals in Christian Science whose natures are transformed through prayer, righteous prayer, fervent prayer; prayer as understood in Christian Science, which is an “absolute faith that all things are possible to God.” (S&H 1:2) Mrs. Eddy speaks with emphasis about prayer. She says, “One thing I have greatly desired, and again earnestly request, namely, that Christian Scientists, here and elsewhere, pray daily for themselves; not verbally, nor on bended knee, but mentally, meekly, and importunately.” (My. 18:4-7; Mis. 127:7 11) Do we as individuals pray daily for ourselves? Not for someone else, nor for something else, but for ourself? Jesus is our example, and he spent hours in prayer.

Pray Mentally

First: Mrs. Eddy requests us to pray mentally. I wonder if we really understand how blessed we are, to be able to pray mentally. How blessed we are that our individual mind, through the enlightenment of Truth, can become that state of spiritual understanding wherein Christ or individual man is the only man.

Pray Meekly

Second: Mrs. Eddy requests us to pray with a spirit of meekness; that is, we are to pray, and realize, and understand with the sense of peace, and calmness, and sureness that David had when, without armor or sword, he slew Goliath. David spoke with a sense of meekness when he said, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name (meaning the character) of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied. The battle is the Lord’s.” (I Sam. 17:45, 47)

When we pray meekly, our state of mind is one of calmness, and sureness, and innocency; a state of pure consciousness wherein God’s reciprocal law of Being is in operation universally. Daniel, when in the lions’ den, understood this reciprocal law of Being. His mind was not dual. He did not believe that his mind was God’s presence and also believe there was a wicked king and ferocious beasts outside his mind. Daniel, because of his conscious oneness and completeness and perfection with divine Mind, knew that he included the king and the lions of God’s creation within himself. And Daniel knew that the king and the lions, because of their conscious oneness and completeness and perfection with divine Mind, included him within themselves. The king and the lions were in Daniel’s completeness and perfection, and Daniel made up something of the king’s and the lion’s completeness and perfection.

Daniel knew that God or Mind was verified in that very place as one and all. He knew that he and the king and the lions were reciprocal to each other, and each and all were governed by God’s reciprocal law of Being. It was Daniel’s sureness of this reciprocal law of infinite Good that dispelled the seeming evil in his individual consciousness, and in the consciousness of the king and the lions.

Pray Importunately

Third: Mrs. Eddy requests us to pray importunately; that is, insistently. When our need is very great, when we are sorely perplexed, when our whole heart and being yearn to be uplifted, then we are to pray importunately. Jesus prayed importunately when Lazarus came forth from the grave. To pray importunately does not mean to reach out or up desperately to some power outside our own self. To pray importunately is our own persistent and insistent effort to be that state of truth or understanding or realization that is the Christ, the real man that we already are.

In proportion as we pray daily for ourselves; that is, pray mentally, meekly, and importunately as the occasion demands, we gain spiritual growth rapidly. It might be well for each individual here today to look deep into his own heart and see if he really desires rapid spiritual growth, and if he is earnestly striving and praying for it. If we really desire rapid spiritual growth, we must work and pray to accomplish two things. First, we must dematerialize matter; and second, we must impersonalize personality.

Dematerialize Matter

Do we understand that what we call matter is merely a phase of mortal mind? Do we understand the illusory character of matter? Do we understand that matter is never substance, is never presence, and never occupies space? Do we understand that matter is non-existent, nothing? Do we understand that matter cannot do anything to us, and that we cannot do anything to matter, any more than the horizon can do something to us, or we can do anything to the horizon? Matter is like the horizon; it is delusion, deception, false appearance only, a false image in the human mind. To dematerialize matter, we must see to it that our individual consciousness is not active as these phases of mortal thought. In the practice of Christian Science, there is nothing more important than the dematerialization of matter.

The Qualities of Matter

The qualities of mortal mind which seem to make matter something are the qualities we call density, finiteness, boundary, divisibility, mutability, destructibility, separability, mortality; qualities which are unknown and unthinkable to conscious Mind. By dematerialization, that is, by taking all these qualities or characteristics from person and things, we have left only the pure qualities of conscious Mind; we have left only divine ideas or real man.

Impersonalize Personality

We find it no small task to dematerialize matter, and it seems even greater to impersonalize our belief in personality; but in order to grow spiritually, we must understand that personality is belief only, a false phase of mortal thought. Personality, like matter, has no real existence.

Personality is a lie or false human concept about our true individuality.

How do we impersonalize our belief in finite personality? We do it by stripping a so-called personality of all the qualities and characteristics that seem to constitute a personality; the qualities and characteristics of finiteness, corporeality, physicality, mortality, organic existence, etc. When we impersonalize these qualities and strip them from a so-called personality, we find at hand the individual man, the real man, still seen as our humanhood.

Jesus Impersonalized His Belief of the Multitude

Jesus impersonalized his belief of personality when he encountered the multitude. How did Jesus do this? It is recorded that he went at once up into a mountain or a high altitude of understanding that he might unsee the demands of these seeming many minds or many personalities. When we encounter the multitude, do we not see the multitude with its beliefs as external to us? Do we not at times go out to greet the multitude and try to meet its demands through human efforts and human responsibilities? Do we not sometimes even try to manage persons? Jesus did not do so. He went at once to a higher understanding of individual man, and we should do likewise. The multitude is always a false concept within our own mentality, and it is through our own within wisdom of Truth and Love that we see individual man as the only man present. It is the Christ within us that dispels the belief in personality and sees the Christ or real man in others.

Benevolence

In speaking of benevolence, it is far from my thought to belittle the support of our church organization. The maintenance of the Christian Science church organization is a duty and a privilege of each individual Christian Scientist, but there is a marked tendency on the part of Christian Scientists to substitute personal benevolence for scientific demonstration. Scientific demonstration in the matter of benevolence is a within process, wherein we see Christ or individual man present in his fullness and completeness. Scientific demonstration permits of no belief of depletion for anyone or anything, but reveals a greater fullness for the whole world.

Peter and John set an example for all of us in spiritual giving. They said to the lame man at the gate of the temple, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” (Acts 3:6) Peter and John gave what each man owes his brother, even a recognition of him as God’s own image. Such Christly perception heals and saves and is the greatest benevolence there is.

There is a marked tendency to bestow our goods upon others without a proper provision for ourselves, which often results in our own self-depletion. To be neglectful of oneself under the guise of unselfishness is not the way of wisdom. This is letting our benevolence drop to the level of a personal giver and a personal receiver. It is a far greater sense of benevolence to understand that man moves in reciprocal relation to every other idea. Man receives all that God gives, and through reflection gives all that he receives. We are being most benevolent when we refuse to accept the personal sense testimony of limitation and poverty, and understand that man consciously exists at the standpoint of infinite supply or infinity.

Selectivity in Our Practice

There are many students in the Association who are entering upon the practice of Christian Science. It is always well to do earnest praying in regard to taking patients. Not everyone who is sick is ready for Christian Science or even desires the spiritual awakening which is necessary for complete healing. Jesus counseled selectivity. He said to his disciples, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles (meaning those who did not want to worship God), and into any city of the Samaritans (meaning any evil consciousness) enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (meaning those who are trying to find the way).” (Matt. 10:5, 6) We wrong our cause when the choosing of our patients is not of divine guidance. Mrs. Eddy says, “Millions of unprejudiced minds — simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert — are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ’s name.” (S&H 570:14)

Vital Points

Our mission in the world is as individual as Jesus’ mission or Mrs. Eddy’s mission.

And we should be supremely content in the self-knowledge that we are fulfilling our individual mission in the world.

Our nature can be transformed only through prayer. We should understand and use the reciprocal law of Being.

We should dematerialize matter, and impersonalize personality.

Our Practice Governed by Our Viewpoint

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

Spiritual Vision

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

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

Enlarged Spiritual Vision

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

All Troubles Result From an Incorrect Viewpoint

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

Right Interpretations Give Correct Viewpoint

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

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

Perfect Man and Perfect Universe

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

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

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

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

An Age of Power, and Action, and Works

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

Vital Points

We need within ourselves, a clearly defined mental position from which we never swerve.
We should always, not sometimes, but always interpret man and the universe from the standpoint of Divine Science, not from the standpoint of material sense.
Our viewpoint is reflected in our bodies, in our business, and in all our affairs.

Overcoming by Obedience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overcoming means nothing else than the gaining of further good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Power of a Right Idea

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

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

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

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

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

The Prophet Isaiah

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

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

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

Isaiah’s Vision

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

Isaiah visioned the joy in heaven and in earth when this mighty idea, God and his manifestation, man, as one inseparable Being, would be presented in concrete form to the world, even though to material sense this divine idea appeared as a babe. Millions of babies had been born before this particular baby was born in the little town of Bethlehem, but not one of these millions had been heralded by an angel throng, or a star in the East.

A Savior Was Born Which Is Christ, the Lord

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

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

Caesar’s Reign as Governor of Rome

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

Mary’s Concept of Jesus

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

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

Mary at the Wedding Feast

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ideas Should Become Tangible

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

Statements From Mrs. Eddy

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

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

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

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

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

Angels

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woman

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

Growth of the Divine Idea as Portrayed in Biblical History

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eve

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

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

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

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

A Religious Fable

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

Modes of Consciousness

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

The Enmity of the Serpent

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

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

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

Hope Was Born in Eden

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

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

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

The Virgin Mary

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

The World of Mary’s Day

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

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

A Group of Metaphysical Thinkers

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

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

Deliverer of Israel

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

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

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

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

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

Mary’s Vision of the Deliverer of Israel

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

Mary’s Preparation

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

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

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

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

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

Things and Events Do Not Just Happen

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

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

The Annunciation

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

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

Mary Called Her Son, Jesus

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

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

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

A Fundamental Law in Christian Science

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

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

Summary

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

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

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

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

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

The Woman in the Apocalypse

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

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

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

John’s Apocalyptic Vision

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

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

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

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

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

The Complete Demonstration

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

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

Mary Baker Eddy

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

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

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

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

Truth’s Volume

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

The truth that we have today, is the same truth that unfolded in the Garden of Eden in the consciousness of Eve. It appeared in a much fuller degree in the spiritual thinking of the Virgin Mother. And this same truth has come to us as a full, complete, divine Science through the purity of our beloved Leader.

Things Do Not Just Merely Happen

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

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

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

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

Practical Operative Christianity

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

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

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

Mrs. Eddy’s Definite Life-Purpose

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

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

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

Jesus’ Definite Life-Purpose

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

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

Our Definite Life-Purpose

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

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

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

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

We Should Impress Humanity With Operative Science

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

Jesus Impressed Humanity With Practical Results

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

Mrs. Eddy Also Impressed Humanity With Practical Results

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

Each Individual Must Impress Humanity With Practical Results

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

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

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

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

Jesus’ Prophecy

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

The Coming of the Son of Man

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

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

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

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

His Elect

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

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

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

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

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

Spiritual Power

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

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

Prepared Thought

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

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

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

How Do We Spiritualize Thought?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translation Gives Us a New Tongue

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

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

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

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

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

Honesty

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

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

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

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

Unselfish

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

Power

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

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

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

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

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

The Theology of Jesus

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

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

The Theology of Jesus Was Divine Science

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

The Theology of Other Religions

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

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

Scholastic Theology

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

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

Pure Religion or Vital Christianity

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

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

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

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

Redemption From Scholastic Theology

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

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

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

Our Former Concept of God

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

Our Present Concept of God

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

Our Former Concept of Man

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

Our Present Concept of Man

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God and Man as One Being

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

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

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

Introduction

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

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

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

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

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

Practice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note marginal heading “Mortal existence a dream.”

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

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

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

The Scriptures

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

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

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

For three years Mrs. Eddy withdrew from the world to meditate and pray and search the Scriptures, and she enjoined all students of Christian Science to study the Scriptures and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures habitually. And we should value daily our study before everything else, for this study promotes the individualization of the Science of Life. The Scriptures, when understood in the light of the revelation of our textbook, become fundamental and very sacred to the student of Christian Science.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Chain of Spiritual Existence Appearing

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

The Line of Divine Light

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

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

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

Enoch

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

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

Noah

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

Abraham

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Melchizedek

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

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

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

Moses

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

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

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

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

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

Elijah and Elisha

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Appearing of the Christian Era

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

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

Isaiah

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

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

Christ’s Appearing

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

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

Not Enough to Perceive and Present the Christ

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

The Positive Rule

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

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

Comforter Is Divine Science

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

All Prophecy Is Fulfilled

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scientific Translations

Subject 3

Association Meeting 1935

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

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

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

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

From these references, we see that the purpose of Christian Science is to translate matter into Mind, or Spirit. According to the dictionary, “Translation” means to repeat or to carry forward one mode of expression into a better or higher mode of expression. For instance, the translation of Greek into English, is the interpretation of the mode of language called the Greek into a more useful and comprehensive mode of language, called the English. In the process of translation, it may seem that the Greek language was destroyed, but the translator saw in the Greek language the substance of a more useful and comprehensive language, which we now call the English language. When Enoch was translated to heaven, his continuity and identity were in no way destroyed. By translation, Enoch, as a mode of consciousness, was forwarded, or was expressed in a higher or heavenly mode of consciousness.

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

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

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

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

Ishmael

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

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

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

What Is Matter?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Meaning of the Word “Thing”

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

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

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

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

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

Man and the Universe Translated

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PART II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Homes — Lands — Money

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

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

Demonstration of These Things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supply

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

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

The Results of Our Thinking

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

Supply Exists Fundamentally

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

Supply Is Mental

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

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

Everything in Consciousness

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

Infinite Good Is the All of Each of Us

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

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

Excerpt from Mr. Young’s Writings

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

We Possess Everything

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

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

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

Establish the Sense of Supply

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

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

The Harvest Is Mental

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

Supply — Infinite Ideas

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

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

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

The Problem of Supply — Lack of Understanding

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

The Mass Mesmerism of this Question

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

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

Law of Coordination and Man’s Oneness with God

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

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

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

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

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

Consciousness

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

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

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

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

We Do Not Evaluate the Things in Consciousness Correctly

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

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

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

Two Groups of Creation

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

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

Animate and Inanimate

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

Horse

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

Loaves and Fishes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

War

Association Address — 1941

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A New Age

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moral Chemicalization

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

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

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

Chemicalization Purely Mental

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

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

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

The Making of Civilization Causes Chemicalization

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

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

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

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

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

God Governs the Universe

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

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

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

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

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

Preparedness and Defense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Word Made Flesh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SECTION II

The Word Was Made Flesh
The How of the Way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

True consciousness is the needful and only possible emancipator.

SECTION III

The Word Made Flesh
Illusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Function of Man

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

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

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

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

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

I want to repeat about reflection:

You can see that humanly you would not exist to yourself, if it were not for the idea of yourself.
The idea of yourself establishes you to yourself as an entity.
Does not the idea of consciousness of yourself equal you? Would not this idea of consciousness include all that you are?

Reflection

Now Divine Mind has an idea of Himself, and Mind’s idea of himself is man.
Then Mind is established to Himself, as Mind, or as existence, because of His idea of Himself. His idea gives back to Him the fact of His own Being.
Now you can see the divine purpose or function of man, as idea or reflection.
There would not be the established fact of one thing in Mind’s creation, were it not for man as idea or reflection.
Then is not Mind’s idea of Himself equal to Him, although dependent upon Him? Then does not idea or consciousness include all that Mind is? You will admit that Mind’s idea is all inclusive, as is Mind.

Reflection Practical

Then why should a Christian Scientist select some certain things that he would like to have true and try to bring it to pass?
There is a tendency among Christian Scientists to demonstrate something, to demonstrate health or to demonstrate abundance, which is perfectly legitimate.
But the fact is that the Divine Mind is now, and He is All. Man, the idea or reflection, is now. One cannot make a demonstration by believing that something is going to take place which is not already true and in existence, and is not already ours.
There is not a man in the universe that is less than the absolute expression of an infinite God, and that is not the idea of all-inclusive good.
There is one infinite idea or consciousness, and that includes all things, includes the universe, includes all that place means, all that plan means, and all that opportunity means.
There is nothing bigger, or besides God’s idea of Himself. God’s all-inclusive abundance is made. God and man are one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Addresses

Table of Contents

The Life Story of Martha W. Wilcox, C.S.B.

The following pages are excerpts from the writings of Martha W. Wilcox, C.S.B.

Reminiscences of Mary Baker Eddy

Exactness and Orderliness

Little Tokens of Appreciation

Her Love for Children

Her Grandsons

Duties of Members

Affirmation

Quoted As From Mrs. Eddy

Association

The Purpose of Our Association Meeting

Present Events

Our Responsibility

Biblical Prophecies

Jesus’ Prophecy Luke 21

Sickness and Sin Aggravated

Mrs. Eddy’s Prophecies

Body — First Article

An Organized Body

Unfolding Ideas

The Organ

Functions

Body — Second Article

Secretions

Morbid Secretions

Circulation

Faculty

Channels

Spontaneity

Business

My Income

Class Teaching

Section I

Section II

Section III

Body

PURPOSE OF THE LESSON

Oneness

Cause and Effect

III

God, Good, Mind, Spirit, Soul

Planes

Soul God

SECTION IV

Reflection

Principle and Love Same Meaning

Life

SECTION V

Truth Is God

Nature and Character of Deity

Essence of Deity

Life

Principle and Its Idea Is One

SECTION VI

Love

Feeding the 5000

Function of Man

Man

Rose — Christ

Individuality: Man’s Infinity

Man’s Individuality and Identity

My Individuality

SECTION VII

Protective Work

Malicious Animal Magnetism and Mental Malpractice

Mental Malpractice

Roman Catholicism

Materia Medica

Healing

Christian Science Practitioner

Patients

SECTION VIII

Prodigal Son

Supply

Animal Magnetism

Animal Magnetism Impersonal

Man and Body