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:

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

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

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

Reflection Practical

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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