Christian Science Series, Volume 1




Table of Contents



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SERIES, VOLUME 1




Answers to Questions of Inquirers in Regard to Christian Science

by Mary B. G. Eddy

“Must I have faith in Christian Science in order to be healed by it?”

This is a question that is asked every day. We have not found it difficult to heal those who, when they commenced treatment, had no faith whatever in the Science other than to put themselves under the care of a Christian Scientist, and follow the directions given; such persons naturally gain faith in the Science as they recognize the help they are deriving from the treatment.

“Can I be treated without being present during treatment?”

Mind is not confined to limits, and nothing but our own admissions of limitation prevent our demonstrating this great fact. Christian Science recognizes the capabilities of Mind to act outside of personality and independent of it, and this enables us to heal cases without having even seen the patient, simply by being made acquainted with his mental condition.

“Is it not presumptuous to consider yourself an instrument by which God reaches others to heal them?” We assume no more in claiming to work with God to heal the sick than do those who claim to convert the sinner; one work is as necessary as the other. Heaven is a state of harmony that can never be attained while there is either sin or sickness, and the process of Truth that is effectual in destroying sin is equally efficacious to destroy sickness. The divine Principle of healing demands from men this cooperation, and it requires absolute reliance on itself alone. Its work will be arrested if we mix material methods with the spiritual,—if we mingle drugs and prayers to a personal God, with treatment in Science, or serve other gods by resorting to hygienic methods. hath uses some persons as instruments for its work of healing sickness, just as it does for healing sin, because their understanding is less opaque, and its care manifests itself through them for such healing. “Why do you charge for teaching Christian Science? Ought we not to do all the good we can freely?”

Teaching this Science imparts the ability to gain and maintain health, heals and elevates man, physically, morally, and spiritually. No person, fit to receive these benefits and with worldly means to pay for them, would expect or be willing to receive them without such material acknowledgment as is necessary for the maintenance of the person and the cause through whom these benefits are derived. The whole system of education, secular and religious, is based on this idea. It is right that they who give their time and efforts for the physical and spiritual improvement of their fellow men should have their physical needs provided for from their work.

“If we have sown unto yon spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?”

But no Christian Scientist ever refuses to administer physical healing, or neglects to give the instruction that leads to spiritual healing, to any person applying for them, because of inrtbHity to pay. As a matter of fact, it is well known that a considerable part of the work of almost every practising Scientist is done without other compensation than that they follow the injunction of the Master: “Freely ye have received; freely give.”

“Can an atheist, or a prone man, be cured By metaphysics, or Christian Science?” The moral taus of such a man team the remedy of Truth more than most cases; hence, this Science manifests its power most distinctly in the treatment of moral ailments. Error is not the master of truth in Science, but vice versa; and when Science alone decides the conflict, the senses are silenced, and the patient is healed, morally and physically.

“Can all classes of disease be healed by Christian Science?”

Yes, Mind is the architect that builds its own body and produces all changes that appear; there is no (the actor in the case. If mind through the action of fear manifests inflammation and a belief of disease, by removing the cause in mind the belief of disease will disappear and health will be restored, for health, alias harmony, in the normal manifestation of Mind. The Principle which governs the result in one case is able to heal in all cases; the immediate result in a particular case depends on whether the practitioner’s own realization of Truth is equal to bring out the result of the Principle that he knows to be true.

“Can I resort to Christian Science in acute cases, as in membranous croup, where there is necessity of immediate relief?”

You can, for the remedial power of Christian Science is positive, an its application direct. It cannot fail to heal in every case of disease, if that case is conducted by one who understands the Science sufficiently to demonstrate its possibilities. “Can Christian Science cure intemperance?”

Yes; Christian Science “lays the axe at the root of the tree,” its antidote for all ills is God, the perfect Mind, whose office it is to correct mortal thought, the source whence appetites spring. The God-thought can destroy the thought that leads to intemperance—to the imlulgence of any appetite- as it can find does the thoughts that lead to sickness or sin. It is thus that a cure results in either case.

“Do you sometimes find it advisable to use medicine to assist in producing a cure, when it is d,fcult to start the patient’s recovery?”

Yon only weaken your power to heal through Mind by any compromise with matter. To resort to any mat,ria.1 method is virtually to acknowledge that the former is not equal to the latter nuder difficulties. He that resorts to physics, seeks what is below, im;tead of above, abandons the standard of metaphysic, shows his ignorance of the meaning of the word, and of the term Christian Science.

“Is it necessary to study Christian Science in order to be healed by it, and keep well?”

It is not necessary to make every patient a student to cure his disease, if this is what you mean. Were it so the Science would be of less practical value. i\fany who apply for help are not fitted to take a course of instction in Christian Science. Physical healing is a step toward spiritual healing, and is al ways to be so regarded.

To never again be subject to disease means much, and to reach this condition of health or wholeness, requires the understanding of how you are healed. This perfect understanding can to-day be obtained only at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. There is much grossly incorrect and false teaching of what is termed Christian Science, by persons who pretend to have reached in a day the understanding of Truth that the Founder of Christian Science was ers in giving birth to. The sense yon gain of this Science by reading SCIENCE AND HEALTH is far more advantageous to the sick and to the learner than to the risk of the spurious teachings or pnwtice of such pretenders.

Those students who speak the Truth about the Teacher, through whom God has made known the Science to this generation, and are not working alone for money, are competent to teach to the people profitably its rudiments, and they can be fully relied on for the healing of sickness which is the easiest work of Christian Science.

“Are there not many who pretend to teach Christian Science and to heal, who are incompetent for either work?”

There never was a science so abused as Christian Science is to-day. This is owing to the incapacity of the public to recognize the errors taught by pretenders to the name of “Scientist,” and to ignorance of the aging effects of their practice on the health of the community and the progress of Science.. The greatest care needs to be exercised by those lit Regard who are thinking of talking a course of lessons, or who are about to call in a practitioner to treat sickness. For the geneml public, unacquainted with the characters and claims of those who bear the name of Scientist, there is no present means of information :o reliable as THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE Journal. No professional cards are admitted to its columns except those of my own students, or students of theirs, or persons who have come into the Science through the study of SCIENCE AND Her, and are vouched for by persons of known fidelity to Christian Science.

Those who misrepresent the Discoverer of Christian Science are sure to pervert the Science. They do great injury to the cause in their desire to use Th for gain. Such persons are incapable of either practising or teaching Christian Science.

“If Chrh;tian Science is the same method of healing that Jesus and the Apostles used, why do not your students perform, in all cser, instantcmeous cure?”

Our method of healing is governed by and demonstrated on the very same Principle as theirs, namely, the action of the divine Spirit and the power of Truth to destroy error. The only reason that the results do not in all cases follow as immediately as then is that the particular student does not possess as much of this Spirit and its power to meet and master sin.

The Founder of Christian Science teaches her students thoroughly, and imbues them with Truth and Love so that when they leave her class they have power over sickness; she abe teaches them how to reach-through Truth and Love—the same power over sin in themselves, and over the element of sin in others. In the measure that the student approaches this altitude of Christian Science we the power of instantaneous healing be reached.

“If Christian Science is the same as ,Jesus taught, why i: it not more simple, so that all can readily understand it?”

The teachings of Jesus were simple, and yet he found it difficult to make people understand him, because of their great lack of spirituality. The Science is simple, it is more readily unden;tood by children than by adults. The reason is that they have not yet confirmed the Belie of their parents by their own human reason, and made them their own. The child accepts and sees the truth of the most abstract propositions of Science as soon as they are stated, and sees their applications with a corresponding quickness. lauy scientists even at this day testify that they are taughtin the realization of Science by their children. The worlLL will see a wonderful elevation in the consciousness of the children of those who, as children, are now coming into Science. It is only the thought educated away from Science in worldliness that finds it abstract or difficult to perceive. Its only abstraction is the mystery of godliness, and godliness is simple to the godly, but to the unspiritual, the ungodly, it is dark and difficult. It is the carnal mind that cannot discern spiritual things.

Every added year of human life passed in the beliefs of matter only increase the Blindness of the mortal mind to the Truth of Science. Every increase in the supposed knowledge of this world, even in “natural” science—where the ills is unilluiue by Science—only carries man further from the Truth. Instruction in dogmatic religion is worse in it eectt than “natural” science, because in these tcie11ces there is, instilled,—when the teaching is not densely material,—a rational principle that leaves the mortal mind more open to the approaches of Truth. “Can Scientists take care of themselves?”

Yes; unlike them. D.’s, we are not afraid to take our own medicine, for our medicine is lind, au well the Body we enough leaven of Th to keep it in god cu11<JitioH. There may be exceptional cases, where one Clnistian Scientist who has more to bear than others needs their suppu1 it at times; then, its right to heal one another’s Burdens, all so full the law of Christ.

“If I have a sieve toothache, that yields to no material remedies until I have it extracted, and then the pin cease:, has Mind or the extraction, or both, caused the pain to cease?”

What you thought was pain in the bone or nerve was only a belief of pin in matter, for matter has no feeling; it was a condition of mortal thought embodied, made manifest in the th. You call this body, in your dream, whether waking or asleep, matter; but it is no more matter in our waking dream, than when asleep. By having the tooth extracted, you satisfy the demands of that mortal thought and belief; then this mortal thought is embodied in a new mrs,—it says, “There is no more pain,” and the belief of pain ceases. In both cases you. have only the operation of belief. Matter has no sensation; it cannot feel pain. If you had applied the mental remedy,—the understanding of this Truth, he true antidote to your belief of pain,—he pain would have been destroyed without extraction of the tooth. It is daily proven that Christian Science and the Principle of metaphysical healing is able to do much greater things than to cure a toothache. As in all other cases of merging, it is uud invaluable in the practice of dentistry; it allays fear, prevents inflammation, and thus avoids the necessity for ether.

“How can I believe there is no such thing as matter, when I weigh over two hundred pounds, and carry about this weight daily?” By learning that matter is but the manifestation of mortal mind, and your weight is an adipose belief of substance; but Substance means more than matter,—even the glory and per manence of Spirit; it is that which is hoped for but unseen; what the sense: cannot take in. Have you never been so occupied in thought, that you over your body without the conscioess of its weight? The fact that you can lose the consciousness: of weight even for au in:taut proves that weight is only a matter of consciousness, and proves also the pos:iLility of the absolute llestructioa of this sense or you sciousnes:; and if it can be destroyed it is destitute of per maneuce or Principle, hence is unreal.

If you never live in your waking hours experience this freedom, you owe in dreams. This action in dreams demonstrates the unreal llature of matter, and the possibilities of mind just as clearly as though it occurred in your waking hours.

I in dreams the sense of the body accompanies thought with less impediment than when wkiug. Thu use of freedom, whether experienced in waking or in sleep, is the true sense of being in Science, in which we hold our body, the servant of mind and not its master. Mind is supreme, and Christian Science simply reverses the evidences of material sense, with divine Science in which God, Spirit, is the only Substance; and man, as His image and likeness, must be spiritual and not material. This great truth does not destroy man’ identity, But proves his immortality, because of his prey-evil- once, or spiritual coexistence, with his Maker. That which hath a beginning must lrnve an ending. This preexistence of man in God, Spirit, must not be confounded with the old opinion, or the vague sentimental notions of to-day on the subject of embodied pro-existen9e, which are wholly contrary to divine Science.

“What is the distinction between mortal mind and Immortal Mind?”

Mortal mind embraces all thought and belief relative to the so-called material laws and all material objects, and i the law of sin, sickness, and death. The Scripture says, 11 The carnal mind,” alias mortal mind, “is at enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of Go, neither indeed can be.” That man has a mortal mind is an illusion, as much in our waking moments as in the dreams of sleep. The belief of an Intelligence, Truth, and Love separate from Go, is an error; for there is no intelligent evil, and no power beside Go; for God would not be omnipotent if there was in reality another mind creating or governing man, or the universe.

Immortal find is God, and His min is made manifest in all those thoughts and desires that draw mankind toward purity, health, and holiness.

Jesus was the offspring of God, and governed by the Immortal Mind more than any other being on the globe. He recognized this relation so clearly that he said, “I and my Father are one.” In proportion as we oppose the belief in material see, that is, the beliefs in material mortals, in sickness, sin, and death, and recognize ourselves as under the control of the spiritual and Immortal Mind, we shall go on to leave the animal or material for the spiritual, and learn the meaning of those words of Jesus, “The works that I do, ye shall do.”

SCIENCE AND HEALTH says: “That which is erring, sinful, sick, and lying is termed mortal, and is neither God’s man nor Mind. To be understood, we shall classify evil and error as mortal mind, in contradistinction to goo and Truth, or the Mind which-is immortal” “Do animals and beasts have a mind?”

Beasts as well as man express God as their Creator, but they manifest less of Him. The small amount of mind seen in the beast that is harmless proceeds from God, for this Least is “the lion that lieth down with the lamb.” Appetites, passions, anger, revenge, and subtlety are the animal qualities of sinning mortals, and the Least having these propensities expresses the lower qualities of the so-called animal man, or mortal mind.

“After the change called death takes place, does Christian Science teach that we meet those gone before, or does life continue in thought only, as in a dream?”

Man is not annihilated, nor does he lose his identity by passing through the belief called death. After this momentary belief passes, at the moment of death, from the erring mortal mind, man finds himself still in a conscious state of existence, and that he was but passed through an extreme moment of mortal fit to awake with thoughts and being as material as before. Scrn^CE AND HEALTH say, Spiritualization of thought is not attained by the death of the body, but through a conscious union with God. when we are on the same plane of conscious existence with those gone before, we shall be able to communicate with them and recognize them, and when we have done our work here ,fell enough not to do it over again, that change increases all our joys and means of advancement. The difference between a material Belief of existence and the spiritual fact of Life is, that the first is a dream, and no more real in our own waking moments than the dream of sleep.

As we understand God and learn that good and not evil lives and is immortal, we shall drop our false sense of Life in—in and mute and recognize a better state of existence, and that immortality belongs only to spiritual perfection, and is gained just in the degree that material sense is lost.

“Is it possible to change the aged form to one of youth, beauty, and immortality, without the change called death?” In proportion as the law of Truth is understood and accepted, it obtains in the personality as well as character. The deformities and infirmities said to be the inevitalile results of age, under the opposite mental impressions, disappear.

Yon change the physical manifestations in proportion to your changed thoughts of the effect of accumulative years; expecting an increase of usefulness and vigor from advanced 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 exp01·ience is strength, not weakness, and we should understand this, expect it, and know that it is so, then it would appear. “Does Christian Science teach that man is equal with God?”

I see no indication in the premises or proof of Christian Science for such a conclusion. Man is not equal with his Maker; that which is formed i not cause, but effect, and has no power underived from its Creator. But it is possible, and man’s duty, to throw the weight of his thoughts and acts on the side of right and Truth; thus, he is found in the scale with his Oretor,—not weighing equally with Him, but growing into that attitude of mind which was also in Christ Jesus, and comprehending in divine Science every footstep toward the recognition of what the apostle meant, when saying: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, tim, we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” In Science, man represents his divine Principle,—the Life and Love that are God,—even as the idea of sound in tones represent harmony. But mortals have not yet arrived, in their understanding of the Science of Being, where man is perfect, even as the Father, his divine Principle, is perfect.




The Way out of Sense into Soul: An Allegory

by Mary B. G. Eddy

· PICTURE to yourself “a city set upon a hill’ built above the clouds in serene azme and unfathomable glory. No temple therein, for God is the temple thereof; nor need of the sun, neither of the moon, for God doth lighten it. Then from this sacred summit behold a Stranger wending his way below, where a few laborers in a valley at the foot of the Mountain are working and watching his coming. The descent is beset with peril, privation, temptation, toil, suffering; venomous serpents hide among the rocks, beasts of prey prowl in the path, wolves in sheep’s clothing are ready to devour him. But he meets their secret and open attacks with the serene confidence of everlasting victory. The Stranger finally stands in the valley at the foot of the outain. He saith unto his patient toilers, “What do ye here? Would ye ascend the mountain,—climbing- its giant dis,; and bathe in its streams, rest in its cool grottoes, and drift from its living fountains? The way winds and widens,.: in the ,valley; up the hill it is straight and narrow, and few ·y,:·^^^:^e’-that find it.”) ·. ·, Hffi converse with the watchers and workers in the all closes, and the Stranger goes into the streets of a city made with hands. Pausing at the threshold of a palatial dwelling, he knocks and waits. The door is shut. He hears the sounds of festivity and mirth; youth, manhood and age gaily tread the gorgeously tapestried parlors, dancing- halls and banquet rooms. But a little while, and the music is dull: the wine is 1nsipped; the footfalls abate; the laughter ceases. Then from the window of this dwelling a face looks out, anxiously smveying Him who waiteth at the door.

Within this mortal mansion are adulterers, fornicators. idolaters, witchcraft, variance, envy, emulation, hatred, wrath, murder. Appetite and passions have dimmed their sight, so that he alone who looks through the transparent pane of that dwelling can see the Stranger.

Startled beyond measure at beholding him, he withdraws his face, but growing troubled, he seeks to leave the odious company and the cruel walls. Stealing cautiously away from his comrades he departs; then turns back; he is afraid to meet the Stranger. So he returns to the house; but only to find the lights all wasted and the music ed. Finding no happiness within, he rushes again into the lonely streets, seeking peace but finding none. Naked, hungry, athirst, he struggles on, and reaches at length the pleasant path of the Valley at the foot of the Mountain.

The Stranger next enters a dark, shabby dwelling, and he saith unto the inmates, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” But they understand not his saying. They have no conception of spiritual riches or immortal cravings; they are thieves, puffed up by stealing in the name of Truth, and they fall upon the Stranger and take his pearls, and would kill him.

Undiscouraged, He seeks another mortal dwelling; its inmates are asleep at noontide! Robust forms, with manly brows, nod in cushioned chairs, sleep on footstools, or, at on their backs, dream away the hours. Balancing on one foot, with eyes half open, the porter starts up in blank amazement, calls out, rubs his eyes, stupefied that anybody is animated with a purpose, and is to be seen working for it. They in this house are those that “Provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert.” Away from the charnel house of the so-called living, the stranger turns quickly to wipe o the dust of his feet, as a testimony against sensual lethargy. As he departs, he sees robbers finding ready fogress to that dwelling without watchers, and with doors unbarred.

He enters a place of worship, where are ritual and ceremonial, and he saith unto them, “Go ye into all the world, preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead. Seek ye at the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness. For the few of the spirit of Christ Jesus hath made you free from the law of sin and death.” And they cast him out.

Once more he seeks a dwelling-place of mortals, and knocks loudly. The door is burst open, and they shriek for help; the hone is on fire! The flames caught in the dwelling of luxury, where the blind saw them not, but the flesh must feel them; they spread to the house of slumberers who, buried in sloth, heeded them not until it was too late; they were fed by the filth of hypocrisy and theft which they consumed, then crept unseen into the synagogue of Material Worship, licking up the blood of martyrs, and wrapping their altars in ruins. Truly the Scripture saith, “God is a consuming fire.”

Thus were they all driven out of their dwelling-places, and homeless wanderers in a beleaguered city, they now seek the Stranger, and cry to be led to the Valley and up the Mount. But being the wisdom of withdrawing from those who bad persistently rejected him, the Stranger returned to the Valley to meet bis own with joy, and called them toil- low him up the Mountain. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not; behold their house is left unto them desolate.”

Beholding on his way him who, nearly blind, had groped his way from the dwelling of luxury, standing afar o, the Stranger said unto him, “Wherefore comest thou hither?” He answered: “Thy touch unveiled the falsity of my life, and turned my misnamed joy sorrow. When I went back into the house ‘to take something out of it,’ my misery increased, and I came hither that I might follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” And the Stranger said unto him, 11 Wilt thou ascend the Mountain, and take nothing of thine own with thee?” He answered, “I will.” Then said the Stranger, “Thou hast chosen the goo part.”

Those who had entered the Valley to speculate, or for wealth or fame, he heavy baggage of their own, and they insist 011 the possibility of taking that with them, rich hindered their ascent. The journey commences; the encumbered travellers halt and quarrel; they envy those who have less baggage, and so ascend faster than they, and burden them with their own betimes to hold them back. Despairing of the summit, burdened in this way, they stop and lay down a few heavy weights, but take them up again, more than ever determined not to lose their baggage. All this time the Stranger is pointing the way, rebuking their pride, consoling their afflictions, and helping them on, saying, “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Held back by their burdens, they lose sight of the Stranger; then they stumble, and at last they fall upon the jagged rocks. Then he who has no baggage goeth back, and binds up their wounds, and would help them on. But the Stranger shouts, “They are joined to their idols; let them alone.” Make thine own way, and if thou strayest, listen for the mountain horn, and it will call thee back to the path that goeth upward.

Dear reader, dost thou suspect that the Mountain is Christian Science, crowned with heaven; and the Stranger, Christ Jesus, who came from the summit of Soul to the vale of the flesh to show sensual and blind mortals the way to heaven; to test the eternal allness of Spirit, unchanging Good, and to burst the bubbles, matter and evil? The personal Christ of the past is replaced by the spiritual idea of the present, as presented in SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and “it waiteth and watcheth for thee.” Hast thou not heard this Christ knock at the door of thine own heart, and closed it against him to “eat and drink with the drunken”? Hast thou been driven by suffering to the foot of the Mount, but earth- bound and burdened by pride, sin, and self, bast thou turned back, stumbled, fallen, and gone headlong to its foot? Or hast thou tarried in the habitation of the senses, pleased and studied, until wakened through a baptism of fire?

He alone ascends the hill of Christian Science who follows Christ, the spiritual idea, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Whatever obstructs this Way, causing mortals to stumble, fall or faint, Divine Love will remove; it will uplift the fallen and strengthen the weak, if only they will forsake their earth-weights, and “forgetting the things which are behind, stretch forth to the things which are here.” Then loving God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, they will safely bear the cross up the hill of Science.




How Men Become Sons of God

by Mary B. G. Eddy

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”- JOHN i. tal, 13.

HERE the apostle assures us that men have power to become the sons of God. In the Hebrew text the word “son” is defined variously; a month is called the son of a year. This term applied to man signifies spiritual offspring, the child of God and not man. Jesus said: “Call no man father; for one is your father, even God.”

Is man’s spiritual sonship a personal gift, or is it the understanding of Spirit gained through Divine Science? Man’s acquaintance with his Maker, and power to demonstrate bis divine Principle, is requisite to the understanding of this sonship or unity with the forever Good. A personal requirement of obedience to the law of man’s being is contrary to the order of Science, unless the demand of obedience Le based on the understanding of the realities of Being, that is conferred only by Christian Science; when it is so based it expresses the claims of its Principle, and not of a person. The Divine Principle is not more and cannot be less, than the Divine Person, since both are Spirit and must be one. What need, then, to quarrel over what is the person of Spirit, if we recognize and obey its laws?

When we understand man’s true birthright, namely, that be is born “not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” we shall understand man only as the son of God, and recognize him through spiritual and not material sense, and as a spiritual and not material man. His sonship referred to in the text is this very relation to Deity; it is not, then, a personal gift, but the order of divine Science. The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact; “for as many as believed, to them he gave power to become the sons of God.” Mortals will lose their sense of mortality- sickness, sin, and death—in proportion as they gain the sense of their spiritual preexistence and a higher sense of man as God’s child, the offspring of all that is good and eternal.

John had a clear discernment of divine Science. Being born not of the will of the flesh, he antedated bis own existence, began to reckon himself spiritually, instead of materially; hence the impossibility of putting him to death through violent means, or material methods as was attempted when he was put in the boiling oil. “As many as received him,”—as perceive man’s actual existence in and of his divine Principle; as receive the truth. of the forever existence, and have no other God, no other Mind, no other origin, lose in Science their false sense of existence, and find their adoption with the Father; to wit: the redemption of the body. Through Science, man gains the power to become the son of God, to recognize his perfect and eternal estate.

“Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.” This birth refers to man’s primal, spiritual existence, created not from dust or carnal desire. “Nor of the will of man”; that is, newborn from no human hope or faith to become better, but from beholding the truth that man was never lost in Adam, since he is, and ever was, the image and likeness of God, good. But no man bath yet seen man only as far as he hath seen the Father.. · The apostle indicates no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite; but the possibilities of all finding their place in his great love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, his sons and daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of Principle and idea, wherein man and bis Maker are inseparable and eternal.

When “the Word is made flesh,” that is, rendered practical, this eternal Truth will be understood, and sickness, sin, and death yield to it, even as they did over eighteen centuries ago. The lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine Science of Spirit dwelling among us, ever present to destroy all error, with omnipotent Love to annihilate impotent hate, and with eternal Life to destroy death. In the great forever, these grand verities of being have existed, and they must be acknowledged and demonstrated. Man will then love his neighbor as himself, the contagion of Truth will be greater than the infection of error, and Love will have its reward in health, happiness, and holiness. Then it will be found out that thought shapes its own forms in so-called physical outlines, and all must be resolved into the supremacy of Spirit.

Man is he-no; he is neither the slave of sense, nor a silly dupe to the so-called pleasures and pains of self- conscious matter. Stand before a mirror, and to illustrate, suppose yourself Deity, the mirror, divine Science, and the image it reflects, man. Then note that whatever you do is reflected by your image and likeness in the mirror; when you speak, the lips that are reflected move, and whatever is possible to .you, is possible to your reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn this, however, and accept it; learn that man can full the Scriptures in every instance; that if he opens his mouth it shall be filled, and not by reason of the schools or learning, but from the natural capacity bestowed to give utterance to Jehovah.

“Who hath believed our report?” Who understands these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed, to whom divine Science unfolds the omnipotence that equips human weakness with divine power, sbamiug his pride, and showing that man has 110 power of himself. Self-hood apart from God is a denial of man’s spiritual sonship, for it claims another father. As many as do receive a knowledge of God “through Science,” will have power to reflect His power in proof of man’s “dominion over all the earth.” He is bravely brave who dares at this date reject the evidence of material sense i favor of the facts of Science, and thus arrive at the true status of man. The senses material would make man, who the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker, the very opposite of Him, by claiming that God is Spirit, while man is matter; that God is good, man evil; Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and sense conflict from the revolution of worlds to the death of a sparrow.

The Word will be made flesh and dwell among us only when man reflects God in body as well as mind. The child born of a woman has the formation of his parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material. Paul refers to this when speaking of” presenting our bodies holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service; “and this brings to remembrance the Hebrew strain,” He healeth all our diseases.”

If man should say of the power he possesses to be perfect, “I am the power,” he would trespass upon Divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power; even as when saying, “I have the power to sin and be sick,” and persisting in believing himself sick and a sinner. If he should say, “I am of God, therefore good,” and persist in evil, he has denied the power of Truth, and must suffer for this error until he learns that all power is good because it is of God, and so destroy his self-derived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives back the lost likeness and power of God as the seal of man’s adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable that cast out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death; that seeketh not its own but another’s good; that saith, Abba, Father, and is born of God!

John came baptizing with water; he employed a type of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity, mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the lost sense of man in unity with and reflecting his Maker. Non but the pure in heart shall see God, shall be able to discern fully and demonst:ti verily the divine Principle of Christian Science. The will of God, alias the power of Spirit, is made manifest as Truth, and through righteousness, not as or through matter, and it strips matter of all claims, abilities or disabilities, pains or pleasures. Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievee11t of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very good-gates of heaven, whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, erecting the true image and likeness. And there is no other way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality. “As many as believe on him,” as accept this Truth of :being “to them gave he power to become the Sons of God.” The spiritualization of our sense of man opens the gates of paradise, that the so-called material senses have caused to seem closed, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright, pure, and free, having no need of calendars to learn his origin and age; or to measure the size, or consult the state of brains or body to know how much of a man he is, and ever has been.

“IF God made all that was made, and it was good, where did evil originate?” It never did exist as an entity; it is but a belief that there is an intelligence named. evil, opposite to God, Good, or Mind. This belief is idolatry, is the having “other gods before me.” In the Scripture we read: “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” The .mortal admission of the reality of evil perpetuates the belief or faith in evil, and the Scriptures declare that “to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.” This leading, self-evident proposition of Christian Science, viz., that good being real, its opposite is unreal,—needs to be accepted in connection with its divine requirements; by this I mean that this proposition must be adopted as true, and then turned to the destruction of the sense of evil in ourselves,—the only existence or reality that it has.

Scholastic theology elaborates the proposition that evil is a faeto1· of good, and that belief in the reality of evil is accessory to a rounded sense of the existence of good.

This false hypothesis is based on material and mortal evidence—on what the senses represent and human reason accepts. The Science of Soul reverses this proposition, overturns the testimony of the five erring senses, and reveals in clearer divinity the sole existence of Good, that is God, and His idea. This is a postulate of divine Science that must be conceded in order to bring forward the proof of its correctness, and to permit the clearer discernment of Good. Take the original term” God,: and you will find it good; then define good as God, and you will find that good is Omnipotent, has all power; hence, it lletb all space, being omnipresent, and there is no power or place left for evil. Divest your thought then of the mortal and material view which contradicts the all-presence and all-power of Good, and take in only the immortal facts that include these, and then you will see or feel that evil, or the existence of evil, is not necessary to the origin or the ultimate of good.

It is urged that man has fallen from his original estate of perfection into the imperfection that requires evil through which to understand good; If we admit this vague proposition, the Science of man can never be learned, for we must begin with the correct statement—the harmony and its Principle. This is necessary in order to learn music. So, if man has lost his Principle and its harmony, and is incapable of knowing the facts of existence and its concomitants, from the evidences placed before him by the personal senses, he must give up the discord, and shalt from the Principle of harmony. What appears to him the necessity of evil, from the standpoint of the evidence from material sense, is proven, by the law of opposites, to be without necessity. Good is the primitive principle of man, and evil, its opposite, has no principle, and therefore is not the derivative of Good; then evil is neither a primitive nor derivative, but is suppositional, in other words, a lie that is incapable of proof, therefore only a supposition.

The Science of Truth annihilates error, deprives evil of all power; but the sinner must not take courage because of this, for he is making evil more real, and, to himself, more powerful than good, and is “heaping up wrath against the day of wrath,” and he must reap what he has sown.




Principles of Christian Healing

by Mary B. G. Eddy

THE theology and materia medica of Jesus were one, and this divine unit of Truth that healed the sick and cleansed from sin is the method of mental healing that I !et forth and lrnve named CHRISTIAN Science. us What are the advantages of your system of healing over the ordinary method: of healing disease?” We claim for healing by Christian Science the following advantages: is. It does away with all material medicine, and recognizes the ct that the antidote for all sickness, as well as sin, may be found in Mind; in mind, also, is the cause of all “the ills that flesh is heir to.” cl It is more effectual than drugs, and cures where they fail, thus proving that metaphysics is above physics. do. A person who has Been healed by Christian Science is not only healed of beliefs of disease, but is, at the same time, improved morally. The body is governed By mind, and mind must be improved before it can govern the body harmoniously. The body is but thought male manifest.

I hold that good is more natural than evil, and that spirit- gal understanding, even the true knowledge of God, alone imparts the power to heal, and that we should demonstrate in our lives this power of Truth,and Love. The lessons of Christian Science as applicable to all the needs of man. Jesus taught them for this very purpose, and his demonstration hath tugbt us that “through his stripes,”—his bitter experience,—and his divine Science brought down to human understanding, is man healed and saved.

No opinions of Gnostic, Pantheist, or Spiritualist enter om line of thought or action. Drugs, inert matter, we nell’ recommend, since mind is more potent than they to govern the .body. Hygiene, manipulation or mesmerism, is not our. medicine; the Principle of our cure is God, unerring and immortal Mind. And wherefore? Because we have learned that the erring or mortal thought holds in itself all sin, sickness, and death, and imparts these states to the body, while the supreme and perfect Mind, as learned in the Truth of being, antidotes and destroys those material elements of error.

Since God is supreme and omnipotent, materia medica, hygiene, and animal magnetism are impotent, and their supposed power is shown only in deluding reason, denying revelation, and dethroning Deity.

It is often said, “You must have a very strong will-power, to heal,” or,” It must require a great deal of faith to make your demonstrations “; and when it is answered that there is no will-power required, that something more than faith is necessary, we meet with an expression of incredulity. But our mission is not alone to heal the sick; we add to that the destruction of sin in mortal thought. Truth elevates and purifies the thought that it reaches.

The practitioner of Christian healing needs great charity and humility in his work. The loving patience of Jesus we must strive to emulate. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” has daily to be exemplified, and although we meet with skepticism and incredulity in places where we should least expect it, it cannot harm us; if we are serving Christ, Truth, what can mortal opinion avail against us? We cast not our pearls before the swine; and if we cannot bring the peace that ii the growth from Love to all, we can—if we are faithful laborers in His vineyard—to many.

The substitution of good words for a good life, fair seeming for a straightforward character, is a poor shift of the weak and worldly, who did the standard of Christian Science too high for them. What would you think of the student of mathematics who Should find fault with the exactness of the rule because unwilling to work hard enough to practice it? Perfection in following the rule of Christian Science is what makes its utility. But having a standard, if some fall short, others will approach it, all they are those only who will adhere to it.

If we can aid in abating suffering and diminishing sin, we shall certainly have accomplished much; if we can bring to the majority the understanding that “In Him we live, and move, and have our being,” and that drugs are not necessary to bring out health and honey, we shall have done still more in routing error. We do not intend to be classed with mediums or mesmerists, and we have something to do in overcoming error in that direction. whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science without its Spirit, is unfit to demonstrate it; or who hath the Spirit without the letter, cannot demonstrate it. Both the Spirit and the letter are requisite; having these, every one can, in a degree, prove to Lis own understanding, the authenticity of those words of the great Metaphysician: “The works that I do, ye shall do.” All who are inquiring about Christian Science should be careful to shun those who teach and practice in the name of Science, without knowing its fundamental, which is Love. Remember that mental malpractice brings out results worse than those produced under any form of medical practice. To take the livery of heaven to cover iniquity with, is the most fearful error that mortal man can commit. I should have more faith in the power of an honest drugging doctor, who abides by his statements and works upon a high a principle as he understands, to heal me, than I could or :would have in a mental hypocrite, or alpractitioner.

Metaphysical healing is falsie and misrepresented as by all who try to put into the old garment of drugging the new cloth of metaphysics, that is, pretend to use both medicine and Christian Science, or trust to the fatal magnetic or mesme1-in force of mortal mind, and call that

The weak, foolish pride—fanned by mental malpractitioners—of those who call themselves Metaphysicians or Scientists, but are such in name only, is the death’s head at the feast of Truth,—the monkey in harlequin jacket that arrests for a moment the onward march of this life-giving Science. Their attempts must be withstood and destroyed. Those who are thinking of resorting to Christian Science healing should exercise the greatest care to avoid all these forms of error. I know no way that persons unacquainted with them can protect themselves, except, by consulting the “professional cards” in the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL, and addressing themselves for information to some of the perrnns, or institutes, whose names they there find, or to the Christian Science Reading Rooms there announced, or to the ,JOURNAL itself.

This Science that reveals man spiritual, harmonious and eternal, should be generally understood. From classes and institutes should be crowded with students desiring to con:;e- crate themselves lo this Christian work. many say, “I should like to study, But I have not sufficient faith that I have the power to heal”; but the healing power is Truth, and it never fail; us in our great emergencies. Christian Science healing is not a personal gift, and God is no respecter of pen;ons. A good and honest heart in which to receive the seed of Truth is all that is needed to bring out its power. Mothers would be enabled By the study of Christian Science to. bring out perfect health and perfect morals in their children. it i: a noticeable fact that in families where laws of health are strictly enforced, and great caution is obsened in regard to diet, and the conversation relates largely to ailments of the body, the is the most sickness. In a large family of children, where the mother has all that she can attend to in keeping them clothed and fed, health is generally the rule; whereas, in small families of one or to children, sickness is by no means the exception. They are not allowed to breathe the cold air, because there is danger in it; they are loaded down with clothing, and a constant worry attends upon them. The result is that the mother of one child is often busier than the mother of eight.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH is a complete text-book of Christian Science, and the metaphysical method of healing is there given as clearly as it is possible to express metaphysics in physical terms. There is no additional secret outside of its teachings that gives one the power to heal. But it is very essential that the student gains the spiritual understanding of the contents of that book, which none but its Author is aulc to impart at this period. This book is the only safe guide for the student of mental healing.

Mind governs all. That we exist in harmony of Soul, perfect, there is no doubt. The conceptions of Life, Truth, and Love must be perfect, an with that Truth we conquer sickness, sin, and death. Quite often it requires time to overcome our patient’s faith in drugs and plasters, but when once convinced of the uselessness of such material methods, they are convinced for all time.

Christian Science healing is a mimcle and a mystery to many, because they do not understand that Spirit controls the body. They acknowledge a mortal mind, but believe it to emanate from the brains; that man is the idea of Infinite Mind and is always perfect in Truth, Life, and Love, is something not easily accepted, weighed down as mortal mind u:;ually is with material beliefs. The body which has no real existence, seems to them a solid substance. More thought is given to the body that is a material illusion, than to a spiritual body kept perfect in Life, Truth, and Love. It is much easier for people who reflect the current thought, but do not think, to believe that the body affects the mind, than that the boy i, an expression of the mind, and reflects harmony or discord, according to our thoughts.

When one looks over the newspapers of the day, the reflection is suggested that it is dangerous to live so loaded seems the very air with disease. These descriptions carry fears to many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon the body. This error we can in a great measure cou11terct; for at the prices at which our literature is now being published, we shall lie able to reach my home:. A great work has already Been dune, but a greater work yet remains to be done, Ministers preach from the pulpits that sickness is sent as a discipline to man to bring him nearer to God, when really,—the claims of sickness leave him usually but little time that is free from complaints and fretfulness, that are its attendants. Most clergymen of the current forms of Christianity say: “The New Testament does not authorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period.” We would ask, what is the authority for such a conclusion, the premises whereof are not found in the Scriptures? The premises of our Master’s divine logic, as seen in the text, are the very opposite.

He said, “He that believeth in me, the works that I do, shall he do also.” That perfect syllogism of Jesus has but one conclusion, and does not fall to the ground before such lame attacks. He who never unsheathed bis blade to try the edge of Truth in Christian Science is unequal to the conflict, though the shepherd’s sling would slay the Goliath. I once believed the teachings of Jesus relative to healing the sick, spiritual abstractions impracticable to man; but deeds, not creeds, and practice, instead of theory, have taught me a higher sense of Christianity.

Most of the practitioners of Christian Science have plenty to do, but many more are needed for the increasing demand. At present, the most acute cases of disease are given to them. Dis, and those cases that are pronounced incurable are given to the Scientists. “Materia medica” says, “I can do no more; I have done all that can be done. There is nothing to build upon; there is no longer any reason for hope Then metaphysics comes in, armed with the power of Truth, and takes up the case hopefully. Because it acts upon mind and through mind, and not upon matter, it always has something to build upon, and is usually successful. These cases should certainly prove to all minds the power of metaphysics, and the rapid growth of the work proves that it does to many. At no distant day Christian liealiug will rank, in the popular apprehension, far ahead of allopathy and homop- thy; for Truth will in the end conquer error.

We are oftentimes denied the results of our labors Because people do not uuderstaud the power of metaphysics. When healed through a Scientist, they often think that health and srengh have returned naturally, without any assistance. This is not so much from a lack of generosity, or sense of justice, as because they are not sufficiently enlightened on this great subject. it is wonde1fol and difficult to conceive how this mighty system of Metaphysical or Christian Science Healing has been planted in the human mind, and has made such progress; how we have seen so far into the spiritual facts of being that constitute physical and mental perfection, in the midst of an age so sunk in sin ai1C1 sensualism.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH is changing the belief that the heart is matter and sustains life—to the understanding that” God is our Life,” that “in Him we Jive, move, and have our being.” This change of heart would deliver man from heart disease and advance Christianity a hundred fold. There is another heart in us that needs to be changed; namely, the human affections. Changed from selfishness to benevolence and love for God and man; changed so As to have but one God and to love Him supremely and our brother man as ourselves. This change of heart will have its effect physically as well as spiritually, and heal disease sooner than but offerings or drugs.

“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 the Father.” John xiv. 1:.

Such are the words of him ·’ who spoke as never man spake:” and knowing the immortality of Truth, said boldly, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” And they have not; luminous with the light of Christian Science, they reveal the great Principle of salvation (Truth) from sin, sickness, and death. We, who have learned its adaptability to human need, and man’s ability to prove the truth of prophesy, cannot question the practicability of the divine promise.

The fullme11 fat of the grail verities of Christian healing belong to every period, at the above scripture plainly declares. Also, the last chapter of Mark it emphatic on this point, making healing condition of salvation that extends to all ages, and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can be more conclusive than the following: “He that believeth in me shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe, they shall fly hands on the sick and they shall recover.” This declaration of our divine Master settles the question. Did Jesus mean what he said? We reply in the affirmative; that the scripture is true, and the meaning of Jesus’ words is unmistakable, for they form propositions of evident, demonstrable Truth.

Doctrines that deny the substance and practicability of all Christ’s teachings, cannot be evangelical, and evangelical religion can be established on no other basis than the authenticity of the gospels. These, an the history of primitive Christianity, afford unequivocal proof that Christian Science, as defined ,rud practised by Jesus, heals the sick, casts out error, and thus destroys sin and death. The cat conclusion is, that all who follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth, are properly called Christian Scientists, and that no olle is following His full command who does not possess and exercise this enlarged sense of the spirit and power of Christianity. “He that Believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do,” is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and power of Christianity to heal, if only that Christianity is efficient, and includes the understanding of Jesus’ method. The first condition insisted upon is, “belief,” the Hebrew of which implies understanding. Now, how many believe or understand to-day, that the power of God equals even the power of drug to heal the sick’? Christian Scieuee reveals the very Principle of the power lo save from sin, sickness, and death. God or Truth is this principle. Let us then learn this Science, that we may know Him Letter, and so love Him more.

Though a mr Le begirt with the Urim and Thummim of priestly office, he lovers that one and mi:iuterprets evangelical religion, if lie denies the validity or permanence of Christ’s comnntl lo heal in all ages. The truths of divine Science are not mere interpretations of the scriplme^, but laden with love, they brillg health and holiness to the whole human race. The prism of Science divides the rays of Truth, and brings out their colors so long absorbc<l by scholastic theology. The understanding of spiritual truth magnifies the divine power in human apprehension, and makes evident the supremacy of Spirit, and the nothingness of matter, to heal. The context of the foregoing text explains these words; “because I go unto the Father.” Because we understand how to leave self for God, to leave a sense material for the sense spiritna.1, we can believe, understand, God’s power and guidance, and through this understanding become imbued with the divine Love that casts out fear and heals the sick; we can Le baptized into the Truth that destroys all error, and the sense of Life the knows no death, for God is our Life.

To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that is good, God, we must comply with the condition set forth in the text cited, namely, believe, that is understand, sufficiently to exclude all faith in other mehols than the Christ method. Thence will follow the absorption of all action, motive, and mind into the great divine Principle of Mental Healing.

The miracles recorded in the Scriptures illustrate the life of Jesus as nothing else can. We learn somewhat the qualities of the divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it gave him over the opposite qualities of Spirit, named matter.

The Principle of the marvellous works is the divine Christ, but the actor was the human Jesus. This divine Principle i discerned in Christian Science, as we all vance in the spiritual understanding that all Substance, Life, and Intelligence are God. The so-called miracles contained in Holy writ are neither supernatural nor preternatural, since their principle is Go, good; and good is more natural with God than evil. The marvellous works of goodness as the outowing of the Principle which constitutes the life of Christianity, and which dated the Christian era.

It was the consummate naturalness of good in the mind of Jesus that made his healing easy and instantaneous. With .Jesus, good was the normal state of man, and evil the abnormal; holiness, Life, an health are better representatives of God than sickness, sin, and death. Jesus of Nazareth, the great Master Metaphysician, understood omnipotence; to him all power belongs to God, and because Spirit was all in all to him, matter was an error of premise and conclusion, and God the only Substance, Life, and Intelligence of the man Jesus.

“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Cor. x.

The apostle Paul lrnre insists on a rare rule that we have laid down in Christian Science, a rule that is susceptible of proof, and applicable to every stage and state of human existence. The divine Science of this rule is quite as remote from the general comprehension of this period as the so-called miracles of our blessed Master, and for the very reason that it is their basis. The foundation facts of Christian Science are gathered from the supremacy of spiritual law, and its antagonism to every supposed law material. Christians, to-day, should be able to say with the sweet serenity of the apostle, “I take pleasure in infirmities,” I enjoy weakness, pain, and. every other suffering of the flesh, because they compel me to find happiness apart from a human sense of happiness. The holy calm of Paul’s well- tried hope met no obstacle or circumstance paramount to the triumph of a reasonable faith in the omnipotence of good as involved in its divine Principle, God. The so-called pains and pleasures of matter were alike unreal to him, for he regarded matter as a thing of mortal belief, and subdued it with this understanding.

The abstract statement that all is Mind supports the entire wisdom of the text and receives the scoff only because it meets the higher demands of Truth. The Science of Paul’s statement resolves the element misnamed matter into its original sin, or human will, and that will which opposes the qualities of Spirit is brought into subjection to it. Sin brought death, and death is an element of matter, never of Spirit.

When Jesus reproduced bis body after its burial, he established the mythical character of matter, and the omnipotence of Mind; he abe showed forth the error and nothingness of supposed life in matter, al the great somethingness of the good we possess, which is Spirit, which of itself is immortal. Understaudiug the, Paul took pleasure in infirmities Lecapse he triumphed over them. “The law of the Spirit of Life had made him free from the law of sin and death.” He took pleasure in “proacbes” and “persecutions” because they were so many proof that he had wrought the problem of his being beyond the comprehension of sin and sense. He took pleasures in “necessities,” for man’s necessity is God’s opportunity.

Go to the bed of pain and there yon can demonstrate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities; Because it illustrates the divine power of find through the flesh, and reaches the basis of all supposed miracles, whereby the sweet harmonies of Christian Science are found to correct the discords of sense and lift mans being into the sunlight of Soul.

“The chamber where the good man meets bis te Is privileged beyond the walks of common life, Quite on the Verge of heaven.”




The New Birth and Immortality

by Mary B. G. Eddy

ST. PAUL speaks of what is understood in Christian Science to be the new birth, as “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.” The Scripture saith, “None out the pure in heart shall see God;” nothing a^iue from the spiritualization, yea, the highest Christianization of thought and desire, can give the true perception of God and of Christian Science, and their results, which are bud in health, happiness, and holiness.

The new birth in Science is not the work of a moment; but it begins with moments, and passes into years:—moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecra- tian, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love. Time may commence, but it cannot complete the new birth,—eternity does this,—for progress is the law of Infinity. Only through the sore travail of mortal mind can Soul be satisfied, and man become His likeness. what a Soul-lighted thought is this, that mortals can lay o the “old man,” the false mortal sense—until they reflect only and all of the infinite good that we name God, and arrive at the fulness of the stature of rnauhood in Christ. In mortal and material man goodness fail in embryo; he met, by suffering for since developed into an infant Christian; and feeding at mrs on the milk of the word, he drinks in the sweet revealings of a new and more spiritual Life and Love. These nourish his hungry hopes, satisfy more fully his immortal cravings; and so comfort, cheer, and bless him, that he saith, “In mine infancy, this is enough of heaven to come down to earth.” But as he grows into the manhood and womanhood of Christicmity, he finds so much wanting, and so very much requisite to become Christ-like, that he saith, “The Principle of Christianity is infinite, it being God, and this infinite Principle hath infinite claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human: and man’s ability to meet them is from God; for being His likeness or image, he must reflect the full dominion of Spirit, even its supremacy over sin, sickness, and death.” Here, then, is the awaking from the dream of Life in matter, to the great fact, that God is our Life, and we thus come progressively into a higher sense of both Go and. man. We must learn that Deity is more than a person, or finite form; that God is a ivi11e whole, an all-pe1·vading Intelligence and Love, yea, divine Principle, and Christianity is divine Science. This newly awakened sense is wholly spiritual; it emanates from Soul instead of body, and its appearance constitute the new birth in Christian Science.

Now dear reader, pause for a moment with me to contemplate this new-born attitude of thought, for the spot whereon thou treadest is holy ground. Here you stand face to face with the infinite demands of infinite Spirit; you behold for the first time the irresistible conflict between the flesh and Spirit; and instead of the awful detonations of Sinai, you hear and record the thunderings of the spiritual law of Life as opposed to the material law of death; the spiritual law of Love as opposed to the material sense of Love; the law of omnipotent harmony and good, as opposed to any supposed law of sin or sickness. Before the flames have died away on this mount of revelation, like the patriarch of old, you take o your shoes, Jay aside your material appendages of understanding; you give up your more material religion, with its rites and ceremonies, and put o yam materia medica and hygiene as worse than useless, to sit at the feet of Jesus; you meekly bow before the more spiritual idea that our Llesse Master gave of the power of God, Th, to heal and save. Then you behold, for the first time, the spiritual and divine Principle that redeems man from sin, sickness, and death.

This age seems reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things, pushing toward perfection in art, inventions, and manufactures. Why, then, should religion be stereotyped, and we not obtain a more perfect and practical Christianity? It will never do to be behind the times in the things that a1:e highest and most essential. Human skill only foreshadows what is soon to be manifested as of divine origin. Proportionately as we part with material systems and theories, personal doctrines ah dogmas, to meekly ascend the hill of Science, shall we reach the maximum of perfection in all things.

Spirit is omnipotent; hence a more spiritual Christianity will be one having more power, and that will perfect, in Christian Science, that most important of all arts,—healing. Metaphysical healing, or Christian Science, is a demand of the times; every man and woman will desire it, when they learn its value and firm basis. The unerring and fixed Principle of all healing is God; and this Principle must be sought from the love of good,—the most spiritual and unselfish motive. It is only in this way that Science can be understood. Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition of Deity, whereby we discern the divine power of Truth and Love to heal the sick. Pride is ignorance, and those assume most who have least wisdom or experience, and they steal from their neighbor because they have so little of their own. The signs of these times portend a long night to the traveller, when we remember that God is just, and the total depravity of mortals, alias mortal mind, must first be seen, all then it must be subdued and recompensed by justice, that eternal attribute of Truth. To-day we behold But the first faint beams of a more spiritual Christianity, that embraces a deeper and broader philosophy and a more rational and divine healing. The time approaches ,when divine Life, Truth, and Love shall be found alike the remedy for sin, sickness, and deal he, and man’s sn.Ying Principle, the Christ, learned through Chrbtian Science.

In this new departure made by Christian Science, Go is regarded as absolute and supreme, is man’s savior from sickness, sin, and death, all is clad in a brighter glow. His fatherliness, as Life, Truth, and Love, makes His sovereignty glorious. Man, too, is changed in this relation to God; he is no longer oblige to sin, be sick, and die to reach heaven; but is required to conquer sin, sickness, and death, and to reflect the image and likeness of Him who destroys death and hell. By this reflection man becomes the partaker of that Mind whence the universe sprang. Leamecl of Christian Science, progress is demonstration, not doctrine; it i: ameliora and regenerative, delivering mankind from all error by the light and love of Truth. It gives loftier desires and new possibilities to the ice.

Christian Science is laying the axe at the root of the tree of knowledge, to cut down all that bringeth not forth good fruit; “And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended because of it.” It touches mind to more spiritual issues, systematizes action; gives a keener sense of Truth and a stronger desire for it. Hungering and thirsting after a better Life, we shall reach it, arn.l then we become Christian Scientists, learn God aright, and to know something of the ideal man, the real man, that is harmonious and eternal. This movement of thought is ad vaucing the age, directing reason aright, educating the affections to higher objects, an fleeing Christianity from the superstitions of its later period.

The birth spiritual, whereby we gain divine power to heal the sick, rebuke the sinner, and destroy error with Truth, consists in working our way. into a higher and holier sense of Truth. This improved sense brings to our consciousness a realization of the supremacy of Spirit, of universal harmony and God’s entirety, and the nothingness of matter. What is termed a material birth is the developmellt of the entire material form of the human, but not the divine being. This birth is more or less prolonged and. painful, according to the timely or untimely circumstances, the normal or abnormal conditions, attending it. So with the spiritual birth: man’s primitive, spiritual, sinless existence is unfolded through travail in mortal mind, hope deferred, the perishing pleasures and accumulating pains of sense, through which man loses himself as matter, and gains realization of his estate in Spirit. The purification or baptism that come from Spirit develops step by step the original likeness of perfect Spirit, and effaces the mark of the beast. “God loveth those whom He clrnsteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Therefore rejoice in the difficulties that attend your struggles against mortal sense,—at those spiritual signs of a new birth under the law auric gospel of Good.

Matter must be understood as a belief of mortal mind, whereby we see and feel matter only as we see and feel disease, namely, through to belief; then the sense of matter will no longer make us blillcl to Spirit, and clog the wheels of progress. We try in vain to soar above error by speculative views of Truth. Love is the Principle of Divine Science; and Love is not learned of the material senses, or gained by culpable attempt to seem—as in the case of Christian Science malpractitioners—what we have not lifted ourselves to be, namely, a, Christian. In love for man is gained a sense of the Love that is God; and in no other way can the spiritual sense that gives the power of Christian Science In-healing be reached; in 110 other way can we rise and still rise, to the sense of things that are essential and divine. What hinder: man’s progress is his vain conceit, the Phariseeism of these times,—mortal follies that can never find a place in Science. Empirical knowledge is worse. than useless; it never Jias advanced man a single step in the scale of ueiug.

The laws, through observance of which birth in the divine order of Science takes place, are these: “Thou shalt have no other god: before me,” au,” Love thy neighbor as thyself.” These ,ire the conuuaucb of inuite wisdom, which, translated into the new tongue,—their spiritmtl meaning,—signify, Thou halt love Spirit only, and not its opposite, in every God-quality that we term matter: Thou shalt recognize thyself, and every man and woman of God’s creating, as the children of one common Parent, whose father and mother, the divine “Us,” are the one God, our spiritual Father, who made one in Good and good in One. ,with this recognition, man can never separate himself from goodness or God, and must entertain habitual love for his fellow-man. Only by admitting evil and entering into a state of evil thoughts can we separate in belief one man’s interest from that of the whole human family, or separate life i God. Envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, covetousness, lust, hatrell, or malice break the rule of Christian Science, and prevent its demonstration. Between the centripetal and centrifugal moral forces of mind, its material and spiritual gravitation, we go into, or we go out of, materialism or error, and shall choose our course and pursue it. Which, then, shall be our choice’? what is termed the temporal, material, au perishable, or the spiritual and eternal? The diviner sens of Life and its grand pursuits is of itself health-giving and joy-inspiring. This is the elixir’ of Life that heals man, morally and physically, and carries the meaning of Jesus’ own words, “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

The spirit of truth will lead into all Truth and enable man to discern .between the real and the unreal. A beHef in the opposite of goodness opposes the leadings of the divine Spirit that helps man Godward, and prevents a recognition of the nothingness of the dream or belief that Spirit is in matter-Intelligence, in non-intelligence, sin, and death. Any capacity for error never proceeded from Truth. Jesus said, “I am the Truth and Life”; hence God never created such a capacity, and He made all that was made. Error is an illusion, therefore God is not its author.

The task of healing the sick is far easier than to teach the divine Principle and rules of Christian Science so that they are adopted in the affections au motives of men, and brought out in their lives. He who has named the name of Christ so as to acknowledge in his daily life the spiritual claims of Truth and Love in Christian Science is daily removing himself from evil. All the wicked enticements of material sense can never to the current of that life from steadfastly flowing on to Roll, its divine source. “I go unto the Father”; when meekness, purity, and love, are informed by divine Science,. we shall learn that there is but one God, and the ego is Mind; hence there is but one Mind, and man cannot claim a separate mind from God. Idolatry is sin, and the first :in was: the supposition of more than one Goes; idolatry has throughout time repeated sin in all manner of subtilties, saying, as in the beginning, “Believe in me, and I will make you as goth;;” I will give a mind separate from good, named evil, did this so-called mind shall open your eyes, and make you as gods. A serpent is not Mind; that saying was not Truth, and Goes was not the author of the saying; hence, the words of our Master, “You are a liar, and the father of it.”

The sweet and sacred some of the permanence in Science, of man’s unity with his ifaker, can illumine our present condition with the continue presence and power of good, and open wide the portal upon the life that is God, good, and that is salvation from sin, sickness, or death; and when this Life shall appear“we :hall Left like unto Him,” and “the ll’orks that I do, shall ye do all, because I go unto the Father,”—not through death, but Life

“And so it is written,’ The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last man Adam was made a quickening spirit’” (1 Cor. xv. 45).

The apostle, when reasoning with the Corinthian brethren, spake first from their stamlpoit of n^terial creation; and is not giving the history of spiritual man, whose origin is Spirit, even the eternal Us, who said, “Let us make man.” The original material, in ,which Soul, Milld, i: suppm;ed to enter the emyro man after his birth, was the Adam, or self. constituted Belief of a material man, that he referred to. This nterial Belief ha: fallen far follow the original state. men of ruau in the image and likcne:s ut Got1. It separates man from Gold, and would climax in the oppu:ite of immortal man, namely, a :trick au :inning mortal. He learn of divine Science, that God is the Father of man, and God is Love; hence Love is the divine Principle of the divine, ideal man, the spiritual Principle of spiritual man. Now, let us not lose the Science of that man but regain it more clearly, and learn that man cannot Be separated from Hu, inasmuch as the idea cmmot be to apart from its principle that reproduces it in proof of its immortality, and never produces it less perfect than at first. A material sense of existence is not the truth of’being, and no proof of it. A spiritual sense of God and man is the only right sense of them. The apostle Paul refers to the last Adam as the Messias, our blessed lfaster, whose interpretation of God and man restored to mortal sense somewhat of the lost sense of perfection or the likeness of God, and restored it through the spiritual regeneration of mind and body—by casting out devils, errors, healing the sick, and restoring the spiritual sense of man as immortal instead of mortal, made him the victor over death and the grave. Our Liter was the great metaphysician, who wrought over and above every sense of matter into the higher sense of the possibilities of Spirit, and established man’s spiritual harmony as the reality of his being. Discord, the opposite unreality, shows us that spiritual man alone is eternal, and the so-called material man but temporal This is :shown, even as a chord is seen the reality of music, and no, discord its unreality.

The tmnslntor of the Scriptme may have it that a material man, to his sense, was the first man, because the sense-transcriliing mind has not been lifted to the i11spirecl sense of Holy ,writ, au so does not comprehend folly the blessed teachings and demonstrations of our human and divine Master, the oracle of God. The substance of Go and man is Life, Truth, and Love. The self-existent and eternal are God of whom man is the reflection an glory. And did such substance become an, exod to create its own image and likeness? The primal facts—harmony, perfection, and eternity,—were nut ixtinguiohe<.l in the night of discord, sin, sicken, and death.

That man must be evil before he can be good, dying before cleathl:t, matter before Spirit, is an error of the senses, and the very opposite of this error is the Truth and Science of being. Man is as perfect now and forever as ,when the stars first sang together, and nJl creation joined in the grand chorus of harmony. To my understanding it is the translator, and not the original won, that makes first that which is material and mortal, and that last which is spiritual and eternal. Because of the misstatement of the Principle and idea of divine Science, there i the war between ch and Spirit, the contest between Truth and error, but the apostle says: “There is no condemnation to them who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” St. Paul reasons this question rest from that ch is seen, the evidence of the material senses, up to the unseen, the evidence before spiritual sense; and there is where I would leave it with the reader, and that is where I found it, when I discovered the power of Spirit to destroy the discords of matter through a change of the mortal sense of thing, as not their leah ties. It was then I discerned that the lat man Adam became a q nickening Spirit; and beheld the meaning of those words of our Saviour, “The fast shall be fast, and the last first.”

When, as little children, we are willing o accept the Principle of divine Sc.;ience, God and His rdlections will be seen to be the Comforter that leadeth into all Tmth. It was the a11tedatecl State of the meek and mighty Nazarene, his life, truth, and love spiritual, that antidotes the ills of the ebb, all were the first man; it was Jesus, as he expressed himself, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Soul living in matter is a false sense of existence. The q nickening spirit takes it away, and reveals the power and perfection of this released sense of life in matter, which funds that Life i God, as the Scrip tures declares, an God too infinite to well in a finite sense of life. With our later, life was not merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying sense of power that subdued matter and brought to light immortality, itJsomuch that the people “were astonished at his doctrines, for he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Life defined By Jesus, land no beginning; it was not the result of organization, or infused into matter; it was Spirit. Truth, defiant of error or matter, is Science dispelling a false sense, delivering it from itself out of the false and into the true sense of man and Goes, in which the mortal develop: not the immortal, and the material, the spiritual; hut disappears in the radiance of eternal being and its perfections.

This life i: a. problem to be wrought out in its divine Science. That progress would the student of science make, if, when tired of mathematics, or failing to demonstrate one rule readily, he turned to a rule further on? In that case be would he olJiiged to ten back and work ont the previous example before solving the advanced problem. We have the problem of Being to work out and up to its spiritual standpoint. we must work out of the dream or false claims of matter to sensation and life, up to the spiritual realities of existence, hefol’e the dream is—wholly dispelled. Committing suicide to dodge the question is not the way to work it out. He can destroy the errors of supposed life and intelligence in matter, only as we master the error with Truth. Not t1·ou9ll sin, but by overcoming it, shall we escape the weariness of mortality ml gain heaven—the harmony of being.

Man’s probation after death is the necessity of his immortality; for good dies not, and evil is self-destructive, therefore evil must Left mortal. If man should not progress after death, lot should remain in error, he would be inevitably. destroyed-self-annihilated. “They are those upon whom the second death hath no power,” who progress here and hereafter out of evil, their mortal element, and into good that is immortal- thus laying o the material belief that war against Spirit, and putting on the spiritual elements of goodness, purity, and Love.

“Relieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” In order to comprehend the meaning of these words, we must first understand what it is to Believe. It means more than an opinion entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of Go, 01· is God; such an action of mind would be of no more help to save from sin than belief in any other historical event, or person. It means so to understand the beauty of character and divinity that he presented. and his power to heal, that it will lend us to pattern Loth; in other words, to “Let this Mind be in you which was also in Clnh!t Jesus.” (Phil. ii. 5.)

Mortal man believes there is another power or intelligence that rules over a kingdom of its own that is Loth good and evil, divided against itself and therefore cannot stand. Let man deny this theory, that is in opposition to God, and recognize God as omnipotent, placing his trust in and working om no other Principle, and he can neither be sick nor a sinner.

When wholly governed by the one perfect Mind which has no sinful thoughts, man will have no desire to sin. To arrive at this point of unity of Spirit, Go, we must commence by turning away from material deities, and deny material sensations in their varied forms of pleasure and pain, with the understanding that matter has no sense, and silence its claim in the words of Jesus: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a lie and the fat or of it.” (John viii. 44.)

When te ted to sin we should know that evil proceedeth not from God, but is a belief of personal sense, and if we deny the claims of such a belief, and recognize man as the idea of God and governed by Spirit, not matter, the temptation will disappear. On this Principle sickness is treated. We know that man’s body as matter has no power to change or to govern itself, and a belief of disease is as much the product of his thought as sin is. Man should suffer for nothing but sin. All suffering is the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and arises from some belief, fear, theory, or bad deed based on personal and material law as opposed to Science, divine Principle and its spiritual laws. It flows from the supposition of another intelligence than God, and this so-called mind, believed self-existent,—evil opposed to good,—is that which punishes man for dung good by saying that he has overworked, been exposed to inclement weather, or violated some of the laws of evil in doing good, and so he must suffer for it. God does not reward benevolence and love with penalties; therefore we have the right to deny the supposed power of evil, although digni^d with the name of law, and to understand our ability to annul its false claims, and be amenable only to moral and spiritual law—God’s gove1·11meut. By so oillg we shall come “into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Rom. viii. 21.) numbers will be published during the you, each of twelve pages, with the same

‘l’he main purpose of the EHIES will be to furn:^h :aiisfctory answers to the questi,ns most frequently asked nhout Christian Science; to make clear and unmistuk:ible the wide rid i:crcncc between true Christian Science :find the isms and factions it without warrant as:mme the name; and to {·lcr al·tn.y prej ad lee ntl prepare the push Inintl for ti-ne r✓hrhitiu Science

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Reports by Scientist Contributors to the JOURNAL, of Cases of Spiritual and Physi<’ai Healing, with instructive discussions of the principles nucl practice of Christian Science And-Healing. PULI:HED O THE FIST OF EACH lONTlI. ‘ERIS l!’OR SUBSCHIPTION.

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What Christian Science Is and Is Not

by Mary B. G. Eddy

THE question is often asked, “Is not Christian Science opposed to Christianity?” SCIENCE AND HEALTH contradicts this allegation in every line. It asks: “Are you living right, approximating to Divine Love?” Then is your Life hid with Christ in God and the harmony of Christian Science will unfold to you more and more until the perfect day; our explanations will seem clearer, and your good works prove what the understanding of God does for man.

Christian Science reveals the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, in which is contained the Science of the works of Jesus; it demonstrates Christianity in Truth and Love, without which we have not arrived at what that word includes. It shows how to follow all the footsteps of Jesus, in the healing of sickness and sin. It is the perfect demonstration of Spirit, the destruction of all beliefs of materiality.

Christian Science has healed more intemperance, licentiousness, and sickness within the past twenty-three years, than the united power of creeds since Jesus walked the earth. To the accusation “Its ministry of healing has for its ends conversion to a hew creed,”! reply: It has no creed, but leaves people to their own convictions. It has no system of begging money or men; the strong cry for it has bee brought out by its benefits to mankind; it reclaims sinners in the way of His appointing.

A distinguished clergyman came to be healed; he said, “I have great nervous exhaustion; have to eat beeteak and drink strong coffee or tea to support me through my sermon.” I replied, If my toils are severe and unremitting, I look to Christ for ret and find it; the Truth of my being rebukes its error. A lady said to me yesterday, “Only He who knows all things can estimate the good your books have done humanity.”

A distinguished doctor of divinity of Boston said: “Your book leavens my sermons.” The following om a letter post-marked Philadelphia: “Your books are binding up the broken-hearted, preaching deverance to the captive, convicting the infidel, alarming the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian.” Are these the fruits of blasphemy? Does the same fountain send forth sweet and bitter water?

I love Christianity wherever it may be found; and my own personal history affords a practical answer as to the relation of Science to Christianity.

At an early age, I united with a Congregationalist church, at Tilton, In. Ch., of which I remained a member in good standing over thirty years. Before leaving my native State I communicated to my pastor the new and more spiritualized sense I entertained of the power of Christianity, its cause and effect, requested a letter of dismission from my church, gave the pastor my published works to examine before granting it, and received the following reply: JAN. 13, 1875.

This certifies that Mrs. Mary Mrs. Glover is a member of this church in good and regular standing. At her own request, she is di:unissed from this and recommended to any evangelical church in Lynn.

When received there her particular connection with us will cease. THEODORE O. PRATT,

Pastor of Cong’! Church, Tilton, In. Ch. (The initial “Mrs.” was dropped at my last marriage, to retain my maiden name.)

“Is not Christian Science in harmony with spiritualism?” I rep there is not one Christian Scientist who, is a spiritualist, nor can one who has gained even a little understanding of Science ever become one. The case is different with all the current Christian systems or beliefs, in the actual membership of every one of which are great numbers of spiritual, fists, and from whom many have withdrawn to associate themselves exclusively with believers in spiritualism.

I have no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy of many spiritualists, but mediumship is either a and for a delusion. The mood called mediumship is brought on by the demand from the minds of the living who believe in communication with those who have passed from this plane, for intercourse with such persons. The growth of the belief brings out the phenomenon of mediumship proportionately. The so-called medium who comes into even a partial understanding of Christian Science, can no longer produce the manifestations said to originate with the departed. Spiritualism is a belief of error and even a little understanding destroys belief. The only scientific demonstration of the impossibility of so-called spiritual communications is found in SCIENCE AND HEALTH. In Science it is seen that the word” spiritualism” is a misnomer; since the belief is pure materialism. Spiritualism affords no evidence of immortality. A man’s assertion that he is immortal does not prove him to be so, any more than the opposite assertion would prove immortality a lie. The case is not made stronger where it is an alleged returned spirit that asserts his immortality. Spiritualism, even if we concede all it claims, only proves that certain individuals continue to exist after death, and maintain an affiliation with mortality. This affords no certain of a life that will last forever. Only Science demonstrates the reality of Spirit and consequent immortality. In reply to many inquiries I quote from. SCIENCE AND HEALTH the following: “The opinion that I must be a spiritualist or medium, because I am not a materialist or creedist I desire to correct; I never was a spiritualist, nor a medium.”

“Is Christian Science in agreement with pantheism?” I reply, l)y quoting from SCIENCE AND HEALTH, statements that are maintained throughout my entire works: “be Science of Soul is this, ‘Thou shalt not have other gods before me; Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Heathen mythology and scholastic theology would perpetuate the fallacy of intelligence in matter, and idolatry and ritualism have sprung from this false belief. The visible universe and material man are counterfeits of God’s creation—the spiritual universe and man. mortal man has made a corn entrant with his eyes to belittle Deity with human conceptions. Materiality is an atom of dust thrown into the face of immensity, a flickering sense, instead of an abiding fact of creation!’

“Does Christian Science deny the existence of a personal God?” I reply in the following words from SCIENCE AND HEALTH: “God is infinite; neither a limited Mind, nor a limited body. ‘God is Love,’ and Love is Principle, not person. What the person of the infinite is I have no evidence to sustain a conclusion. The five personal senses have no cognizance of the infinite; finite sense is inadequate to recognize it.”

We can have no personal sense of Deity without limiting him. The term Principle seems distant and cold until it becomes through understanding only another name for the supreme Being, and we recognize the divine presence and power of this Being. We do this proportionately as we seek and find the Divine Science-the truth of Life, and the life of Truth-and demonstrate it. Omnipotence and omnipresence can be understood only as divine Principle. Personal omnipotence or omnipresence is not conceivable, nor how an everywhere-present body or mind can start from limits or be limitless. An impersonal sense of omnipotence prevents man from having other gods; from to common idolatry-faith in the power of drugs, hygiene, etc. When Deity is understood we shall find no power besides him, and all power in him.

“Does Christian Science recognize a personal devil?” I reply, No man hath seen the person of good or the person of evil; neither are included in person. The Scriptures speak of more than one devil: “He cast out devils.” Again, “Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” This defines “devil” as evil in man. Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan I” but this meant not that he was a devil to whom was given the keys of the kingdom; neither were seven persons cast out of Magdalene.

The most distinguished divines in Europe and America admit the Scriptures have both a literal and moral meaning; but which is the most important: a literal or the moral sense of God, man, and devil? Christian Science gives a broader view of Deity than personality can, and it elevates and dignifies man proportionately. Deity is greater in Science than creeds; not only a definite omnipotence and intelli. gence, but a practical power—Truth and Love.

In Science, man is more than sense, and evil is both more and less; more, because the evil we once saw not we now see; and less, because we have more power over it. St. Paul said, “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

“Does Science recognize the personal man?” I reply, Man means more than person, even as mind means more than matter; he outlives it; or, to speak scientifically, he outlives the sense of matter. This is the real “survival of the fittest.” Man is the image and likeness of God, the representative of infinity; but the personal man is not this representative. Man cannot lose his identity in Science more than can notes or numbers.

By the statement,” No personal man,” I mean precisely what Bishop Foster said in a lecture in Boston: “No man living hath yet seen man.” When his personality disappears man is immortal. Who can say what his personality becomes as the “image and likeness” of its Maker? But a finite mind is not man in th image and likeness of infinite Mind. A Boston clergyman said in a sermon some time ago, “The forgiven soul in a sick body is not half a man.” Is it “blasphemy” to say man is impersonal? What, then, of saying a pardoned soul is but half a man? I shudder at the thought suggested by the phrase.

“Does Christian Science teach there is no such thing as sin?” If any one says this, my meaning is misapprehended It is only on the basis of the opposite to that which is real,—the good alone being real,—that I say eve is unreal. My faith is founded on reform, repentance; and this destroys sin according to divine law. To illustrate: I believe the attempt to stop, by misrepresentation, the sale of SCIENCE AND HEALTH,—a book that was healed tens of thousands,—or retard a cause that, like Christian Science, heals the sick and promotes Christianity is evil; but I shall try in Christian Science to reduce this evil in my own mind and the mind of others to its common denominator, nothing, because it is not of God; and I shall go on to bless them that curse me, and “overcome evil with good.”

“Does Christian Science teach that there is no forgiveness of sin?” I reply, Jesus said, “I am the Truth and the Life.” Truth does not forgive error; it pursues it unrelentingly,and will not let it alone until destroyed; but when destroyed there is nothing left to forgive. God is Good, and Good annihilates Evil; in this sense only—it forgives it. Your forgiveness is my destruction of sin. Our terms vary; but I insist on its destruction when God forgives it.

The Psalmist said, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” Disease is not healed until extinct; and Jesus healed sickness as he healed sin. His physical and mental healing were one: he cast out devils-evils-and healed the sick. But how could he both cast them out and forgive them? Had he forgiven them in the sense you employ they would have remained in man, and this very interpretation has retarded the Christianization of man.

A magistrate pardons a criminal; but that may encourage crime. It has not extinguished the motive for crime, or the crime which is the effect of that motive. Sin should suffer, since suffering destroys sin; hence the law of God, “Thou shalt die.”

“Does Christian Science teach that. there is no sacrificial atonement?” The earthly history of our Lord was a sacrifice beyond tears or prayers to reward or human power to understand. It is apprehended only in the measure that we drink of his cup, suffer for righteousness’ sake, and are baptized with his baptism; are cleansed by Truth, which is the puri- cation of Spirit; and are willing to give up the false sense of mortal life, its mistaken claims of please and pain, for the le of Christ, spiritual life.

The blood of Jesus speaketh better things than that of Abel. The body and blood of Christ were not material offerings; the blood of Spirit never flowed from human veins. Jesus said, “Spirit hath not flesh and blood.”

The sacrificial atonement by which Jesus’ struggle and triumph showed man his way out of sin, sickness, and death is too great, too glorious to be comprehended except as we come to love the Father, and sacrifice human affections to the divine. Not to appease the wrath of Love, but to destroy the human sense of hate and sin, Jesus suffered and gave his body a sacrifice to mortals.

A human sense of love sees no further than to die for a friend; but divine Love includes its enemies; and Love so great destroys hate, blessing itself in blessing its enemies. Any other than this spiritual signification of atonement removes its efficacy from Spirit to matter.

The merit of Jesus’ atonement was increased instead of diminished, became more to me than to you, when I learned in Christian Science that it revealed the way out of sickness and death as well as sin.

“Does Christian Science discard intercessory prayer?” I reply, Prayer is desire either uttered or unexpressed. I have found inaudible prayer more efficient to heal than the audible. The prayer that heals is not begging God to do more than He does, but calling on man to recognize what He does. This prayer leads man to love Him, instead of asking Him who is only Love for more love. Instead of asking universal Love to include us in His affections, let us utilize the Love and Truth that already and ever wait on us to make it ours. This prayer makes new and scientific revelations of what we have, and of the power of spiritual light, like as photography has revealed the powers of solar light.

Silent prayer, and none other, can meet the demand “Pray without ceasing,” and is the “prayer of the righteous that heals the sick.” It is intercessory when effectual, and effectual if sincere. Words may belie desire, and utter the hypocrite’s prayer. The apostle says, “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amos; to consume it on your lust.”

What do you think of those who say to their flocks, “Let Christians beware of this system?” I reply, Jesus said, “or which of these works do ye stone me?” The apostles were persecuted and misrepresented by the church of their time. The gathering storm of ecclesiastical fury must needs burst before the full significance of such lives could appear.

Alas for religion! when the watchmen sit in judgment on good works and condemn them, sending forth false alarms, and slumbering themselves over Christ’s command,” Heal the sick and cast out evil.” Their systems require three personal gods to make one, and that one unable or unwilling to heal the sick, necessitating other gods for this department of human need.

The heretics of yesterday are to-day acknowledged martyrs. Jesus said, “I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast led these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes.” May such Christianity come to this age. Without charity we are as sounding brass; charity “suffereth long and is kind, doth not behave itself unseemly, thinketh no evil, but rejoiceth in the Truth.” According to the words of opposers of Christian Science, a personal man with his Boulforgiven, and sick, is but “half a man.” (If they understood forgiveness they would know man is not sick when his sins are forgiven.)

Their personal devil seems more omnipotent than their Deity; he has the balance of power, and it is not in all the vanity of their system in the name and for the sake of Christ to cast out this devil and heal the sick.

The God of Christian Science is omnipotent: it has but one God, and this One an ever-present help, able and ready to make whole all who come unto Him.

The only satan is the false sense of evil as something. This satan Christian Science is destroying through spiritualization of human thought, and he will thus be chained and engulphed in the bottomless, from which evil has no resurrection and Good be realized supreme. Man, according to Christian Science, is every whit a man, healthy, holy, of the Elohim of His creation, coexistent and coeternal with God.

Science is divine. It has neither a human origin nor direction, that which is termed “natural science,” the evidence whereof the five personal senses take in, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite law of God; this law is written on the heart, received through the affections, spiritually understood, and demonstrated in our lives.

The Science of Mental Healing is this law of God, spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed.

Christian Science and the five personal senses are at war, and peace can only be declared on the basis of immutable right, that of the health, holiness, and immortality of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and fundamental rule of Science,—the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture that God is all and that He is good; hence good is omnipotent and omnipresent- must be understood and adhered to. Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, and all the theorems of mortal man, misstate Christian Science, its Principle and practice. How can it be otherwise since the highest human intelligence instructed through material sense only, can see nothing but a law of matter. Who hath ever learned of the schools based on knowledge gained through the personal senses that there is but one Mind, and this is God, who healeth all our sickness au i sins?

Who has ever learned from tbm era schools, from pagan philosophy, or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of Mind, and not of matter, and that this law has no relation to, or cognizance of, matter?

Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God, omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an opposite (so-called) science that saith man is both matter and Mind, and Mind is in matter? Can the Infinite be within the finite? Or can man resist the All and Only? If God is All, does an evil mind exist, without space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend it is man?

If God is Mind, and lieth all space-is everywhere matter is nowhere, and sin obsolete. If Mind- God-is all—power and presence,—man is not met by another power and presence that obstructs his intelligence, pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man is intact. Whence, then, is the something that is not the counterpart. but the counterfeit of man’s Creator? Not from Him; for He made man in His own likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called matter? Have attraction and cohesion and it? Are these forces laws of matter or laws of Mind?

For matter to be matter it must have been self-created. Mind hath no more power to evolve or to create matter than good to produce evil. Matter is a mitatement of Mind-a lie, claiming to talk and declaim against Truth. The belief of matter is idolatry, having other gods; evil, having power and presence over omnipotence.

The attempt to mix matter and Mind, to work by means of animal magnetism and divine power, is literally saying, “Have we not in Thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful works?”

Thus it can be seen that the science of mental healing must be understood. There are false Christs that would “deceive, if it were possible, the very ele^t/’ instituting matter and its methods in place of God, Mind. Their supposition is, there are other minds than His; that one mind controls another; that one belief takes the place of another. But this barbarism of mortal mind has nothing to do with the Sense of mental healing, which acquaints us with God, and reveals the one perfer, Mind and His laws.

Let us have a clearing up of abstractions. Let us come into the presence of Him who 1·emoveth all our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases. Let us attach our sense of science to what touches the religious sentiment with awe. Let us open our affections to the Principle that moves all in harmony, from the falling of a sparrow to the rolling of a world. Above Arcturus and his sons, broader than the universe and higher than the heavens of your astronomy, is the science of mental healing!

What is the kingdom of heaven? The abode of Spirit; the realm of the real. No matter is there; no night is there; and nothing that maketh or worketh a lie. Is this kingdom afar o? No; it is ever present, here. The fast to declare against this kingdom is matter. Shall that be called heresy which pleads for Spirit-the all of God and His omni- presence?

The kingdom of heaven is the reign of divine Science; a mental state. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” but did not teach us to pray for death whereby to gain heaven. We do not look into darkness for light. Death can never usher in the dawn of Science that reveals the spiritual facts of man’s Life as here and now.

Remember Truth in all thy ways, and thou shalt find the Truth that breaks the dream of sense, Jetting the harmony of Science that declares Him come in with healing, and peace, and perfect Love.




Christian Science a Revelation

by Joshua F. Bailey

Jesus’ demonstrations over the beliefs of matter made him “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” for them, and for them only, who follow in the footsteps of his demonstrations.

He did not-it is evident from the tenor of the Gospels,—communicate the formula of his demonstrations to his disciples; or, if communicated the human mind was not on plane high enough to receive it, or to maintain its practice. Hence—the rule of the operation of divine power in the healing of sickness as well as of sin, being imperfectly understood,—the manifestations, as practiced by him and them, ceased and passed into tradition. Jesus’ contribution to human consciousness was the demon- stration of Love, Truth, and Life as the realities of being, and evil, sickness, and death as unrealities. What had been a state of perception, and could, therefore, only be shadowed by Moses, David, and Isaiah, Jesus advanced to understanding. He made the Life that is Spirit real to? human cocious- less. He and his apostles established in human apprehension to Cistian ware as the struggle between the carnal, fleshly mind or sense, and Spirit. Neither from the Scriptures of the Old nor the New Tries- ent ch be deduced formulas by which the men and women of to-day can heal sickness and sin, in themselves or in others, by clearly defined scientific methods, and with the certa of process and result, that characterize the operation of Divine Law; by which individuals can determine, day by day, their exact position in the Christian life with the same definiteness as the navigator dermines that of his ship by the aid of instruments and charts.

To the contrary of this, ministers of the religion of Christ join to-day with doctors of medicine in denouncing, as visionaries or impostors, those who teach and practice—as Jesus taught and practiced—Divine Healing. A few ministers of religion, and some doctors of medicine, accept the Truth of Science, but ye have received the understanding, not directly from the Scriptures, but from SINCE AND HE or from the living word of its Author.

Christian theology has maintained but imperfectly, even as theory, the epoch in consciousness opened BY Jesus; it has sunk back into the affirmation of the reality of evil, sickness and death, and “stands before a blackboard and prays the Principle of mathematics to work out the problem.” SCIENCE AND HEALTH declares with Paul “the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is Life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Theology, instead of recognizing the oppositeness and ineradicable hostility of material and spiritual sense, brings in medicine and hygiene as its allies, simply modemtes the excesses of the flesh, doctors it with drugs, bolsters it up with laws of health, makes it more comfortable and respectable, and gives it a longer lease of apparent life. It declares that the mind of the flesh is not “enmity against God,” that it can be” subject to the law of God,” and affirms that“they that are in the flesh” can“please God.”

SCIENCE AND HETH lays the axe at the root of the tree, In the proposition “All is Mind, there is O matter.’1 It proves the truth of this proposition by showing the way to annie- hate the conditions or beliefs of the alleged unreity. It gives plain rules. compreheible to any or intelligence, by which supremacy over sin and sickness can be versed in an endless progression. The authority over the supposed conditions of matter was completely demonstrated by Jesus. The Science of the life of Jesus, in its dominion over matter and its beliefs, is fully set forth in SCIENCE AND HEALTH.

Christian Science as there set forth, is the Science of Life. “Its anatomy is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the art of dissecting thoughts, in order to discover their goal- its, quantity, and origin; it teaches how and when to probe the self-inflicted wounds of malice, envy, and hate; how secure the hallowed influences of unselfishness, philanthropy, spiritual love, and the government of the body, th in health and sickness; its ontology is the nature and essence of all being-Mind and its essential qualities; its pharmacy is moral, and its medicine is intellectual and spiritual for physical healing.” (Is. & Rah.)

SCIENCE AND HEALTH reaffirms all. that Jesus said; it cries out with Paul, “0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” and it does what Jesus did not- because humanity was not ready for it,—what the apostles could not,—it states the Principle and the rule of their demonstrations, with such minuteness of detail that the simplest and most unlettered can follow the foot steps of Jesus in demonstration.

Humanity is wrestling with the dream of matter. Evil, error, and sin are the realities of human sense; Immortality, Truth, and Love are held only as a hope, where they should Le understood as an antidote. The cry ascends, “How long, O Lord, how long?”

Now the Word of Science comes and declares: “these beliefs of sin, sickness, and death are one l1eliefa; they are not realities of being; God is Love, and He has not bound on you these burdens; you are not the hateful beings you believe; you were made in, and you are, the image and likeness of God; Jesus’ labor: and sufferings opened the way of escape from the prison of material sense; his footsteps have been hidden from you by the craft of evil; here is the chart of his path; take and study it; come into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God in which oneness with him and with the Father becomes reality.”

Hundreds of thousands of persons, and in every ci, town, and village, are living this Science. In the measure of their several understandings they have destroyed the beliefs and fears of matter, and have come into a state of relative, measurable health and harmony.

What place belongs to the book that teaches how every man may come into that divine union declared by Jesus to be the goal of humanity; that shows how to change speculative faith and mere sentiment into the full understanding and absolute certainty that belongs to the Science of sciences, the Science of God?

Can they who have experienced the divine power of healing- whether spiritual or physical- that goes out from SCIENCE AND HEALTH, hold otherwise than that the Bible and SCIENCE AND HEALTH are the text-books of the Christian life; that SCIENCE AND HEALTH, no more than the Bible, is not a book among books, but is distinctly a Revelation from God, the divinely inspired Key to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, making with them the Word of God, Truth,—the whole vesture of Life?

First came the Law—Moses and the prophets; then the Demonstration of Spirit—Jesus and the apostles; and finally, the statement of the Principle and rule, in SCIENCE AND HEALTH. Here are three epochs of consciousness, three dispensations or evangels, three Revelations from God. All—are coexistent and to-eternal in Him, but each has been foreshadowed in human perception by many messengers before it became defined and distinct in nal and complete presentation on the stage of human consciousness.

Consciousness is related to two distinct classes of phenomena: one of them relates to impressions received through the five personal senses, and constitutes what is called material or physical life. They are all summarized in the word matter. This consciousness of life in matter, in the material body, Science shows to be a false consciousness, and teaches how to destroy. The impressions of Spirit, Truth, and Love do not come through the senses, but are spiritually understood, live in the affections and are demonstrated in our lives. The are distinct or obscure, st as the individual is immersed in, or withdrawn from, the objects of material sense, and the impressions derived from them.

SCIENCE AND HETH gives simple, practical rules, by which the origin and proper classification of all the objects that appear in consciousness can be instantly determined; and also how to deal with them understandingly and on their merits. It teaches how to eliminate from consciousness all objects that are opposed to harmony, through the cultivated understanding of Truth. States and conditions of consciousness are thus a dually and progressively controlled and changed from fear and suffering to happiness and serene confidence. The operation of this understanding is the grad. nal destruction of material sense, and beliefs of matter that are its concomitant, in the individual, and thus in the race, consciousness. This improved state of consciousness is what constitutes Christian Science Mind-healing.

Every mortal belief and fear overcome by each individual, every growth in Truth and Love, since the advent of humanity, has been a step towards the complete dominion over evil and elon that is to he gained through Science; the sum of these steps at given moments are milestones, that mark the progre of Humanity on its journey out of the house of bondage-false, material sense—towards the promised land, realization of Spirit as all.

This is not theory or dogma; it is realization of a present state of health in consciousness as contrted with the pure. vious opposite state; it is recognition of a change through the teachings of SCIENCE AND HETH, that is nothing le than what the apostle calls “a new creation.” Here is the standard by which the claims of Science are measured. Rea}. ization of Science as Divine occurs only from the standpoint of this new creation; when this is reached recognition of its divine character follows of neceity.

The gradual growth in distinctness of apprehension of Science, that has marked its replanting in our day, is a repetition of what took place in Jest’ time. After our Master had walked long time with his disciples, had given them the Sermon on the Moon and performed many ghty works, when he asked them—the chosen twelve—“Who do men say that the Son of man is?”—he had to repeat his question, and even then only one of them answered, “Thou art the Christ, the So of the living God!; This one reply was made in the letter and not in the realization of Spirit, or Peter could not have denied his Lord before the crucifixion. The multitudes who have found in the understanding of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and of the living word of Science, the promised second appearing of Christ, Truth, and have verified the” lo, the kingdom of God is thin you,” prove how much further man has now progressed towards spiritualization than in the time of Jesus.

The Master said, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth,” and, “The kingdom of heaven comes not with observation.” Have not our “eyes been holden that they (we) should not know him,” and has not “our heart burned within us while he spake to us in the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures”?

If SCIENCE AND HEALTH be a Revelation of God, the person through whom it has been given is a Messenger of God. The Voice of God to this age is a Mediator between be present state of human consciousness and that higher God-thought to which it is introduced by the new Revelation. Do we then, the question will be asked, say that the Author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH is “equal with Jesus”?

The question rests on misapprehension of the relation to humanity of the personal Jesus, and .forgetfulness of the distinction between him and the impersonal Christ.

The only measure we have of spiritual state, or position or function, in ourselves or others, is found in the degree of realization of the Life that is Spirit gaiMd by the individual, and made manifested by the result produced on the collective human consciousness, in the warfare against the supposed life of material sense. Jesus demonstrated over all the beliefs of this false sense of life, even over the belief of doth, “the last enemy to be overcome.” He was” tempted in all points like as we are, yet thou so,; the veil of flesh was rent by him and he entered within the Holy of holies-the perfect consciousness of Life as God, Spirit. He thus became for mortals the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the perfect Way out of the false consciousness of Life in matter to the true consciousness of Life as Spirit only; to the absolute consciousness or realization of God as all- presence and all.power—“God in all and over all.” Jesus is our Saviour in that he did this for us, and so made it not only possible, but certain, that every mortal not only could, but will and must, sooner or later, pass over the whole of this way of demonstration, and enter with him into the Holy of holies—become one th him and with the Father. It is thus that he has redeemed us, that he has bought us with a price,—the price of his own immeasurable sufferings in overcoming all the temptations of material sense. He he thus, “through his own blood,”—by demonstrating matter to be lifeless and God our only Life,—“entered in once for all into the holy place.” This work has been done, and it has to be repeated in te flesh, by every man because it was and is the “Way” out of the flesh. Jesus is thus our great High Priest, and he remains that with none to share. the office with him, or to dispute it, through all the ages of eternity. His work of demonstration in human consciousness will be repeated, for has he not said, “The works that I do ye shall do”?

Mortals were not ready for the Science of Jesus’ demonstrations at the epoch of their performance, hence the Science did not appear to them in its letter, but the Spirit of Christian Science rested on him without measure. There is the clearest evidence not only that he was not apprehended by his students, but that they did not understand even the real siguicance of his demonstrations till after the Resurrection. The history in the Gospels of the period intervening between the passion of Gethsemane and the Ascension shows this: beyond a peradventure. The continuation of this history in the Acts and Epistles shows not only that the disciples came slowly and step by step, the recognition of Jesus in his full Sonship an Kiugshi11 to the inn God and Father of all; it shows that they never attained to the life Science of his demonstrations, for it is nowhere and stated.

To put it more definitely, the Principle of Jesus’ demon- stration-Spirit as all-was discerned and its consequence the destruction of material sense by spiritual, was declared; but neither the scientific statement of the Principle nor the rule its demonstration is anywhere given in the New Testament. By rule of demonstration is meant the full, scientific explanation of the methods by which any and eve mort can follow the footsteps of the Master in his demonstration of the unreality, the absolute nothingness of what we call “natural” law, based on material sense, and the somethingness or absolute reality of spiritual law, founded on spiritual sense. The practical outcome of this demonstration will be the final victory by each individual mortal over sin, sicken, and death, find entrance through this victory into immortal—absolute, scientific oneness with Christ in God.

In the light of this understanding, the question whether the Author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH is “equal’with Jesu” has no significance or place. The New Testament declares and SCIENCE AND HEALTH demonstrates, that the Principle of Jesus—in other words the Christ-is the name for that · state of consciousness which is the goal, the inevitable, ultimate state of every mortal; that Jesus is, not in a figure but in scientific fact, our “ensample,” our Gat High Priest, our elder Brother, who has entered within the vail only in advance of us. The Author of SCIENCE Do HEALTH has repeated most of the demonstrations of Jesus, so as to bring out for us their Science; to show us the way, in Science, into oneness with Jesus Christ, and-through his “way” of demonstration-up to the Father, the divine Principle of man. The Jews said, the culmination of their accusation of Jesus, “He maketh himself equal with God.” We, too, shrink from entering into our high estate. Jesus, instead of being looked to as a model and ensample, is made a rich; the Christian world worships the personal Jesus, instead of following the impersonal Christ in the footeps of demonstration. Chrtn Science proves that equality with Jesus is the spiritual estate that he showed us the way to enter into. This function of Jesus, this place in human consciousness, is his by acquisition and consummation; that of the Author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and every mortal who follows him, both in the spirit and letter of divine Science, is in the course of accomplishment.

Jesus himself said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the Truth.” How could he tell us these things except through a messenger? and what messenger could he employ but one of ourselves?

Divine messages have never been communicated instantaneously to the whole human race; that is, they have not appeared in the consciousness of all individual members of the race at the same moment, because the states of consciousness of Man, who reflects the infinite God, are unfolding infinitely; also, the kingdom of God has never come with observation) that is, how and where human reason was looking for it.

To-day Truth has come through the person of a New England girl, born of God-fearing parents, in the middle walks of life, reared with only the education that all daughters of New England may share, gifted with the fullness of spiritual life, and giving from the cradle indications of a divine mission and power, that caused her mother’ to “ponder them in her heart.” She came to the full understanding of Christian Science,—the Science, that is, of Jesus’ demonstration- through the ministry of suffering-the divinely appointed way of illumination-and demonstrated the truth of Christian Science and its power to heal, first in her own body and life. Christian Science for its Discoverer, at this period, no more than for its first and greatest Demonstrator, has not been a way of flowers. It has been a “strait and na1Tow way,” for there is no other way out of the life of material sense into thy of Spirit.

· She first showed, by herself “healing all manner of diseases,” that the so-called “miracles” of Jesus were simple phenomena of Spirit. The Principle and rule of Jesus’ demonstrations thus became are in our individual human nsciousness; then, through nine years of repetition by her of these demonstrations, the statement of Principle and rule were worked out in minute detail, and, only then, were set down in SCIENCE AND HEALTH, The Science of Christ has thus been proven by its Author, and the way shown us to do, for ourselves and others, the same works.

The Author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH has worked out before us as on a blackboard, every point in the temptations and demonstrations—or so-called miracles- of Jesus. She shows us how to meet and overcome the one, and to perform the other. She says, “This is your problem,—not in a vague, general, for-o way, but precisely, and now: to work your way out of the false consciousness of life in matter, in me flesh, into the real consciousness of God, Spirit, as all; understand through demonstration,—realization, not theory,—that there is no Life, intelligence, or sensation in matter; that “man is; not will be immortal,” that we are here and now in eternity. “Not one drop of the cup that he drank”- says SCIENCE AD HEALTH-” can he spared to any mortal.”

It is the Principle and the footsteps of this life of demonstration that SCIENCE AND HEALTH discloses to us. They had first to be realized, Lived by its author, before they could be set forth. Not one word is written from theory, or speculation, any more than the words of Jesus were uttered from that basis. Were this the case it would not be ienae. Spiritual fact is the only fact, and in SCIENCE AND HEALTH these facts are stated and handled with tend more clearness and certainty than are the elements of material science.

It is on this scientific basis that the facts of human con. sciousness are arrived at in SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and the solution of its problem is deteriue. The book is “Science left subject to proof, based upon Principle, governed by given rules, the demonstration whereof is left to you.” No one knows, or can learn any more of the Science than he has demonstrated,—live. The uniform, concurrent testimony of multitudes who have verified, in higher or lower degrees, the method revealed by Go, Truth, through this Book, prove that the facts and the premises are correctly stated, al the conclusions certain and invariable.




What Christian Science Teaches about Marriage

by Joshua F. Bailey

THE impression is general that our Master’s action in the case of the woman taken in adultery, implied-in some vague way and within limits not well defined—relaxation, by the Gospel, of the strict moral requirement of the Mosaic law in regard to marriage. Quite universally it is believed to indicate a more benevolent attitude, a greater charity in general, on the part of God, toward human weakness as manifested in offences against the moral law; men, and especially professing Christians, are supposed to be called by the Gospel, to the exercise of a greater leniency of judgment, and to cast the mantle of charity over the offence as well as the offender. Christians are thus placed in a position of qualified indulgence and complicity that, if plainly stated, would be repudiated with horror and disgust. The increasing frequency of divorce, irregular separation, and aroer offences against chastity, in Christian communities,—the levi with which they are passed over or are need at as venial,—are the evidences and measure of this involunta Christian tolerance for fleshly lusts.

From its present standpoint, the Christian Church has only simple disapprval or my deprecaon to oppose to their encroachments. It has no well-defined position from which to withstand,—to say nothing of attacking- the constantly growing spirit of licentiousness.

The idea of personal, Divine pardon of sin conies with it as a necessary sequence that of human tolerance. It effaces the line of eternal separation between chastity and indulgence, and thus abandons the only position from which licentiousness can be effectually rested and destroyed.

Influenced by this idea, Christianity has been detached from the austere purity of Jesus, and swung into muddy currents of opinions that tend toward free lust. Because it has accepted the idea of a God swayed in His purposes and actions by human influence, the Christian Church is as unequal to dealing with the swelling tides of human lust, as it confessedly is in the questions of modern thought, or with the higher developments of human selfishness now coming to the surface. The advancing columns of humanity do not look to the church for guidance; instead of directing or controlling their movements, she, the supposed image and representative of immutable Truth, is being changed into the image of the world. “The carnal mind is enmity against God;” no truce is possible between flesh and Spirit; it is annihilation for one or the other. Current Christian thought rests on a mistaken apprehension of the attitude and action of Divine love toward evil and^in. If Jesus pardoned the sin of the woman,—if Go ever pardons or can pardon sin,—then adultery and every other form of human lust, rightfully claim shelter uu^er the mantle of Christian charity.

Christian Science brings out the eternal oppositeness of Good and evil—the impossibility of Good mingling with 01· pardo1Jiug evil, tolerating or even seeing it. SCIENCE AND HEALTH reveals God as Principle; teaches that “Divine Principle corrects and governs man”; that “Person may pardon but Principle reforms the sinner.. Personal pardon- and there is no other, for Principle never pardons either sins or mistakes- leaves the offender free to repeat the offence, if indeed he has not already suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing.” “Tru bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence against wrong, but to stop the sin, and show that it must bring inevitable suffering.”

“Christian Science reveals the necessity of overcoming the world, the flesh and the evil. We cannot escape the penalty due for sin.” “Sin is forgiven only as it is destroyed by Christ,” Truth. “To destroy sins in the divine method of

From this standpoint Christianity will again speak “as one having authority.”

Another capital cause of the weakness of the Christian Church is its reliance on the literal sense of the Scriptures. Their spiritual sense is the only armory from which the weapons of warfare against “spiritual wickedness in high places” that now manifests itself, can be drawn. The literal sense, as in the history of the woman taken in adultery, is misleading, and can be turned to the purposes of error. The Christian Church must come into this higher sense of the Scriptures, or see them continually wrested to the purposes of evil, and be itself more and more transformed into the image of the world. It is only by this and by planting itself on God as absolute Principle-the ultimate, and the beginning of all-that it can become in these days as it was for some centuries after the Ascension-the beacon light of humanity.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH is the “Key” to the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, which it declares “is their one important interpretation.” It is the key to the spiritual sense, hut not in the day, teclmical meaning of the word. The earnest student of SCIENCE AND HEALTH does not” learn” the spiritual interpretation, but finds, built up in himself, through its study, a new individual consciousness, on the eld of which the spiritual sense is represented as he reads. The; i to have that well of water, of which Jesus spoke, tat springs up to eternal life; this is to gain the spiritual understanding by which spiritual things are discerned and are compared with spiritual- by which its possessor is enabled to “judge all things, but is judged of no man.” Through this sense The italy in ten quotaons om Since and Heth are ours. (AuTHOlt.) comes the discernment of the “simple teaching and life of Jesus as the only true solution of the perplexing problem of human existence.”* A living cloud of witnesses: spread all over our land to-day bear witness to the truthfulness of the statement here made.

The Christian Church of today has now been driven where it must learn Christianity in this new, old, absolute sense, from Christian Science—that “there is no discount in the law of justice; that we must pay the uttermost farthing “to; that “the measure we mete will be measured to us again, and it will be full and running over,” tor cease to be called Christian, or become a reproach to the name. Let us now consider, from the standpoint of Christian Science, the real position of marriage,—and some errors and abuses, for which the mistaken charity towards evil, misnamed “Christian,” is largely responsible.

The Master said: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for cation, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; and he that marrieth her when she is put away, committeth adultery.” The Gospel here reaffirms the Mosaic law of marriage in its integrity.

In the case of the woman taken in adultery, his action had two objects, so far as her accusers were concerned; first, to rebuke their self-righteousness; second, to enforce on them and on the men of all generations-for whom his words were spoken—the higher, spiritual obligations of the law, the establishment of which in human consciousness was the end of all his teachings and life. In the simple words, 11 He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” the dominion of the law was extended from actions to the thoughts and intents of the heart, without surrender or limitation of authority. over the former. His listeners went out “one after another,” under judgment of this higher spiritual consciousness. It was an object lesson for the spiritual law already delivered at an earlier period in his ministry- “Ye have heard that it was said,” (in the Mosaic law) “Thou shalt not commit adultery; hut I say unto you that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath Unity of Good. to Science an Health. committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Thus he laid “the axe at the root of the tree,”-thus he attacked adulteries and fornication in the nest where they are bred- the thoughts-instead of waiting for or simply repressing their outward manifestations.

Does the injunction to destroy vipers in their nest, give license for them to run abroad?

The words addressed to the woman, “Neither do I condemn thee; go thy way; from henceforth sin no more,” implied neither pardon nor charity. Penalties are inherent to sin itself; “Sin’s necessity is to destroy itself.”* Prin ciple inflicts no penalties. Christ, Truth, the Principle of Jesus said to the woman, “From henceforth sin no more;” present to-day and evermore, it repeats the words to us.

Jesus foresaw the plea of exemption for the outward act that licentiousness would set up on the spiritual law, and annulled it in advance. “Think not that ram come to destroy (to relieve you from) the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to full” (full, make full). “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished,” Laws are for individuals, not communities, and only when all that they enjoin has been perfectly done by each and every one, can they be said to be “filled up” or accomplished.

Paul well expressed the character and function of the spiritual law, as a higher expression, not a relaxation, of the moral law, when he said, “Jor the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit,” (sense personal and sense spiritual)... “and quick to discern te thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Abolition of the ceremonial observances of the Mosaic law was not an indication of benevolence in God, or a turning of God towards evil, but resulted from the growth of man towards God, Truth. Those who discern the higher, spiritual requirements of the law o not gain thereby, and cannot claim, release either from its moral obligations, or from the regard to decency in outward conduct that is the • Sdeuco us Health. inseparable companion and necessary expression of moral purity. As Paul declares, “The law is holy, the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.”

The freedom of the sons of God is not the freedom of centiousness, nor the exercise of liberty that violates moralities elementary in civilized society, nor that outrages decencies i outward conduct that are respected even by the vicious whom vice has not yet rendered callous. The freedom that leads to such manifestations is “freedom om te law of righteousness.”

The morals of Cistian Science enjoin with Paul, “That by well-doing ye (we) should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free and not using your (our) freedom for a cloak of wickedness.” “Shall we sin (break the law) because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer liveth if no no fhlQ, tun,—an Aa5ia a Science of Christ,—is not freedom to sin, but freedom om the bondage of sin. “Every one that doeth sin, doeth lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness,” and lawlessness is sin!

The Science of Christ enjoins upon men to “take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men,” and to follow “whatever things are true, honorable, and pure.”

In the chapter on “Marriage” in SCIENCE AND HEALTH (published in 1875), we read, “The commandment ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’ is no less imperative than that other, ‘Thou shalt not kill,;” “Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the scourge of all races, the pestilence that wast- eth and walketh at noonday.” “Be not in haste to take the vow ‘until death do us part.’ Consider well its obligations, its responsibilities, and its relations to your future happiness; and when your vows are taken, preserve them stainless.”

Christian Science brings the Science (full understanding) of Christ, Truth; it holds to all the words of Jesus, and ads with Paul, “let marriage be held in honor among all,” “let the bed be undefiled, for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Concerning divorce we have seen that Jesus recognized the sole ground of fornication. As to separation SCIENCE AND HEALTH says, “O husbands and wives, never separate if there is no Christian cause for it.” The “Christian cause” grew out of the acceptance of Christianity by one married partner, the other remaining an unbeliever. Concerning this case Paul, writing not of himself, but from the Spirit of God, enjoins that if the unbeliever is content to remain with the believer, the believer do not depart. And he adds, “Yet if the unbeliever departeth, let him (or her) depart; the brother or sister is not under bondage in such case; but God hath called us in peace.” In the case of such separation Paul declares that “A wife (or husband) is bound for so long time as her husband (or we) liveth; but if the husband (or we) be dead she (or the) is free to be married to whom she will, but only in the Lord,” i. me. to a believer.

In 1875 SCIENCE AND HEALTH declared,—“The last infirmity of evil, that would fasten itself on society, to see it bop and hobble under a new burden of guilt, is named’ free love’ wherein’ they declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not,’ but the boldness of depravity will show its deformity.”

Concerning the later subtleties and shifts of lust the author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH wrote in the Oliristian Science Journal in June, 1889: “In the present or fit use some extra throe of error, ready for copyright, may conjure up a new style conjugality, which, ad libitum, severs the marriage covenant, puts virtue in the shambles, and coolly notifies the pub of broken vows. Springing up from the ashes of free love, this nondescript phoenix, in the face and eyes of common law, common sense, and common honesty, may appear in the role of a superfine morality, but having no truth it will have no past, present or future.”

We thus see that neither in the teaching of Jesus, hor of he Founder of Christian Science is there one word about “affinities” or “twin souls,” or any of the cant of the modern apologists of adultery and fornication; not one word that can be wrested to recognition of the vagaries, immoralities, and impndicities—an 9bsceue broo<-that to- day steal the name of the Science of Christ to cover their shame.

The law for Christian believers is first; 110 divorce except for fornication; the procuring of divorce under other conditions is blood-guiltiness; remarriage under other conditions is adultery: ‘second, no separation between believers; in case the unbeliever withdraws, no remarriage by the believer except in case of his (or her) death, and then only to a believer.

Christian Science demonstrates that the moral law is the expression of immutable Principle, and raises anew the standard of Christ. It calls on all who hear this sacred name to come onto the platform of morals, as well as of Christian healing as laid down by Jesus. The BIBLE and SCIENCE AND HEALTH are the expression of Principle, and Principle always agrees with itself. Christian Science is the Principle of Jews-the Christ-realized in consciousness, the promised second coming. It, no more than Jesus, does not loose where the law bound. We become free from the law in the measure that we ham “died to that wherein we were holden; so that We serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” They who have presented their bodies a “living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,” are above the law; not they who abuse their freedom to the sanctification of the lusts of the flesh; who seek to cover flagrant violation of the precepts of the law, by the impudent pretext of “living above” them; who “rob God and slay man; spread their table with cannibal tidbits, giving thanks to God meanwhile.”*

There remains yet one phase of marriage, an the highest in significance, to Le considered. Jesus said: “Ye do err. not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. Or in the resurrection they neither marry 01· nrc given in marriage; bttt are i angels in heaven.” And elsewhere, “The sons of this world marry and are given in marriage; but they that arc nccountcd wordly to nttaiu Lo that world, and the rest-rcctlon from the end, neither marry nor are they given in marriage, for neither can they be any more, for they arc equal unto the nngds, and are sons of God, b<ilug sous of the resurrectiou.”-Rev- Version. IN the same line of thought, SCIENCE AND HEALTH says, ·” The time also cometh of which Jesus spake, when he declared that in the resurrection there should be no more trying or giving in marriage, but mortals should be as the lend He. angels.” But “until the spiritual creation is discerned, and the union of male and male apprehended as in the vision of the Apocalypse—where its spiritual sense was revealed from heaven,—this rite should continue, under such moral regulation, as will secure increasing virtue:” and

“Truth is ‘the resurrection and the Life,’ for it destroys the belief that Mind, the only immortality of man, can be buried in the body, and Life be subject to death.” “When the supposed pleasures and pains of sense pass away, that is a sign of the burial of error and the resurrection to spiritual understanding.”

Maniage is thus referred to by Jesus and by SCIENCE AND HEALTH as a temporary institution, conditioned on man’s reaching a state that Jesus terms “the resurrection;” in SCIENCE AND HEALTH the same meaning is conveyed by the words “until the spiritual creation is discerned” and “resurrection to spiritual understanng.”

Jesus rebuked the material conceptions entertained by those whom he addressed, in the words “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” and ended by emphasizing, in the words “Ye do greatly err,” the declaration with which he commenced. The words of Paul to the Ephesians, “And you did he quicken when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,” bring out the same spiritual, present meaning of the words“life” and “death,” in which they are constantly employed in both the Old and New- Testaments. Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” and Paul speaks of himself and other believers as being already “buried with Christ through baptism into death,” and is already “walking i newness of life;” as already” quickened with Christ” and “raised up with him’ and “made to sit with him in the heavenly places.”

Jesus said, “If thou wilt enter into Le, keep the commandments.” “I am the bread of Life,” “He that eateth of this bread shall live forever,” “The words that I have spoken unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life.”

It is evident from these passages that the words “life,” “death,” “burial” and “resurrection,” when used in the Scriptures refer to actual, present, spitu states or conditions—to a life above that of the senses, and which is the true Life; also, that men are “sons of God,” or“sons of the

In the passage! cited from SCIENCE AND HEALTH, a higher actuality, a greater definiteness of statement is reached than in the words of Jesus, but the meaning,—to the dullest apprehension—is identical. The life of the senses is treated by both as unreal, as not constituting the life of man. By Jesus, as well as in SCIENCE AND HEALTH, the apparent life of the senses is plainly declared notitJ, and the reality and allness of spiritual Li-of God, Christ, Truth—are affirmed. Jesus simply ignores the life of sense; he says to his interlocutors,”Ye do err,”-then he explains clearly the error of material sense, and from the height of serene, pitying, spiritual consciousness, he mildly adds, “Ye do greatly err.”

The machinery and contrivances of laws and customs make part of the life of personal sense. Humanity, through gradual spiritualization of thought, is ever passing into new conditions, and becoming dead to old environments that are cast o and left strewed along its path. But through all the ages the Life is one. What is cast o is the seeming, the unreal; Life is indestructible, unchanging, eternal.

The law was given by Moses with ceremonial observances, required to keep it alive in human consciousness. Jesus- the manifestation of perfect spiritual consciousness—swept away these scaoldings and proclaimed from his clearer sense the law as spiritual. The law itself was the same, but stood with fairer proportions to man than before. So rance AND HEALTH makes manifest to the simplest ulerstanding that the law is not external to man, but is the expression of his own consciousness,—the “Kingdom of God” that is with- in. It teaches how to demonstrate the Science of Christ in progressive, final destruction of the false, material sense, constantly ignored or denounced by Jesus.

The laws of manage are incidents of the seeming life of man in material sense; so are the law against theft, arson, and murder. All have the same sanction; all manifest low forms of consciousness that am gradually rising towards God, Truth: forms change, but all are manifestations of the one Life, eternal and unchanging. Truth does not grow and advance to higher forms, but to the consciousness of man it takes fairer and fairer proportions, because in his progressive states it shines “more and more unto the perfect day.”

SCIENCE AND HEALTH says: “Chastity is the backbone of civilization and progress; without it there is no stability in society, and it would be impossible to attain the Science of Life.” As to those who to-day not only violate chastity, but besmirch the decencies that are its outward garments, and nay their filthy coverings kings’ robes,—are not these words of Paul their judgment?—“Shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature (those who make no pretenses to religious life) if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who with the letter and the circumcision (discernment of the spiritual law), art a transgressor of the law?”

Marriage-including in the term the moral requirements of the Mosaic law, and the higher and still higher demands of the Gospel, and of Science,—and all else embraced in the ten commandments, will be outgrown when personal sense shall have been put wholly o,—and only then; when we shall “see as we are seen.” Till then the only honest utter- ane will be “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

So deep and form and strong does Christian Science place the foundation of marriage, and of all the institutions of the law that is our “schoolmaster” to bring us unto Christ, Truth,—the reality of Spirit. The pure portals of the Temple of Spiritual Sense will ever remain closed to “the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie,” under whatever it names or stolen garments they may claim entrance.

The attitude of Christian Science towards marriage and the institutions, that manifest the present, mortal conceptions of virtue, has thus been declared. Some hints of its disclosures as to their intrinsic nature—thr relations to absolute Principle—have also been given.. Some glimpses of the glories of the spiritual universe now fully opened to mortals in SCIENCE AND HEALTH have been afforded. In another number of the Series to be entitled, “The Marriage of Christian Science,” the doctrines of Science will be more fully set forth and applied to this and other fundamental questions of human morals. The present discussion is thy closed with the following page from SCIENCE AND HEAL:

The Scriptures are very sacred to me. I aim only to have them understood spiritually, for thus only can Truth be gained. The true theory of man and the universe is not in material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, an mort& theory of the universe and man, and adopt^the spiritual and immortal.

It is this perception of Scripture tat lifted me out of dh1ease and death, and inspires my writings. At the threshold of the grave I saw the falsity of a belief in intelligent matter. I heard “the Spirit and the bride say. Come; Whosoever will, let him drlok of the waters of Life freely.’” Humbly and fervently I throw in my lot with Divine Science; for it separates error from Truth, and breathes throng the sacred pages the spirit sense of Life, Substance, and Intelligence. In this Science I discover man in the image and likeness of God. I see that man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal harmony.

How Httle light or heat reach our earth when cloud’s cover the sun’s face- · So Christian Scene can be seen only as the clouds of sense roll away, and it gives Jlttle joy and light to mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error helps to destroy itself, and so aids the apprehension of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, whereby men may enter the true Idea of God, or the spiritual sense of being.




Moses, Jesus, and Science; or, Spirit Discerned, Revealed, Understood

by Zoe Seymour Loveland

Revised by the Editor of the Christian Science Journal

THE uplifted rod that in Moses’ hand led Israel out from Egyptian bondage signifies the power that lies in a clear, Spiritual conception of God. The barren rod- emblem of the first perception of Truth—put forth leaf and bud in the Prophetic era; these buds of thought flowered in the understanding of Christianity. The fructifying rod of spiritual perception, crowned by the power of Christianity, has again put forth its strength, and the ripened fruit of spiritual understanding is presented in Christian Science. Careful study of the lives of Moses and Jesus, as each is presented in Scripture, reveals many points of analogy and contrast.

In Scripture, ideas are expressed in figures in the wouaer- ful word pictures of the Old Testament and the more spiritual parables of the New. Putting aside preconceived theories, and the speculations of theological dogma, the Bible is seen to be a rhythmic portrayal of man’s struggle after and gradual growth in righteousness. Continuity of thought exists between the Old and New Testaments, the New being a growth out of the Old. The his cal is often blu or even hidden, for the spiritual is the primary sense. It was for this that the history was written, and it is in this the inspiration exists, and it is this that makes it the “Word of God.” As a mere history or record of occurrences visible in material sense it has little distctive value. The understanding of Science makes the spiritual sense apparent.

Christian Science “resolves things into thoughts”; * it declares thought to be the actor in every instance; that which is termed a physical being is merely its expression in terms of material sense. In studying the lives of Moses and Jesus care must be taken that the figure is not confounded with the idea. The more absolute the separation of the thought from its personal expression, the clearer will be the spiritual lesson.

Moses was born of the tribe of Levi, nod or zealous patriotism and the fierce courage that belongs to physical strength.

Jesus came of the tribe of Judah, ch had remained the most loyal to Israel’s higher calling, and in which burned most brightly the spiritual impulses of the people.

The resolute courage of Levi manifested the moral power that delivered from material chains; the pure impulses of Judah gave birth to the spiritual Light that was to emancipate from the worse slavery of material belief. loses was drawn forth from the water, Jesus was laid in a manger; the one arose, the other descended. Water symbolizes purification; Moses, the idea of moral drawn forth from the waters of purification of physical sense. At the time of Moses’ birth Israel was in bondage, and Pharaoh, alarmed at the increasing numbers of the people, had issued an edict that all male children of the Hebrews should be slain at birth. Jesus, too, was born when the Jewish people were sore oppressed by a foreign nation and the murderous mandate of a king hung also over his infancy.

Woman’s watchful care shielded the infancy of Israel’s moral leader. In infancy, Moses was secreted by his sister Miriam, amidst the rushes of the Nile, and there and by Pharaoh’s daughter, who had compassion upon hand adopted him as her own son. Jesus, spirituality, was laid in the manger of material consciousness. It was the pure thought of woman (Mary, another form of the name Miriam) that gave unto Israel her spiritual Ideal, made manifest in the flesh.

Moses’ thought, apprehending Truth, threw o the gross sensualism of his age, and started on its journey toward the promised land of spiritual realization. In the mind of Israel he sowed the seeds of holy aspiration and lifted the thought of the people to the contemplation of purer ideals.

Forty years an inmate of Pharaoh’s household, Moses was instructed in all the learning of his time. There of Hebrew patriotism smoldering within him, flashed into same as he walked abroad and witnessed the brutality of the Egyptian task-master toward his oppressed brethren. His slaying of the Egyptian was betrayed by a fellow Hebrew whom he had rebuked; this compelled him to seek refuge in Midian, where he abode forty years. After events showed this period of banishment to have been the preparation for the mission that lay before him. In the desert the impetuosity of his nature softened into the indomitable energy of pure purpose and the q niet patience of moral power that can afford to wait, because certain of ultimate victory. Here “the angel of the Lord appeared unto him” in the midst of the burning bush; the Lord announced Himself as Jehovah, and prevailed upon the humbled and shrinking Moses to accept the Divine commission.

Jesus also edom the presence of a king who sought his life; he likewise sojourned in the wilderness previous to his entrance upon his ministry.

The infant Jesus seeking safety from Herod and the man Moses fleeing from Pharaoh bring out the attitude of mortal mind toward the spiritual idea of Truth and the thought of morality. The pure conception of Truth is hateful to material sense from the instant of its birth in the understanding and materiality seeks the life of the young idea which, even in infancy, strikes at the root of erring beliefs. Morality, until it becomes a rebuke to the error of material sense, is regarded with pride and is allowed to flourish, but when it attains reproving power, the Pharaoh of malice seeks its extermination. Spirituality requires no tedious term of intellectual instruction, as it is the ever present wisdom of Mind.

The kings that compelled their respective rights, had passed a way and their successors reigned when Moses and when Jesus returned to Israel.

There is more of contrast than of comparison between other incidents of the two lives. Moses was learned in all the arts and sciences of materiality; Jesus grew spiritually wise in the simplicity of humble life, so that at the age of twelve he confounded the learned doctors of the law in the Temple at Jerusalem.

The forty years’ education of Moses in Pharaoh’s court, represents the tedious effort to reach Truth by material culture of the human intellect. The youthful idea of Truth enters the temple of Spirit and puts to confusion the proud theories of materialism, whose knowledge is expressed in the graven image of sense. “Every man is brutish in his knowledge; every founder is confounded By the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and. there is no breath in them.” The material culture received by Moses was of no avail when he was called on to act for the right. He could only oppose wrong and injustice with the futile weapons of materiality. The act of violence he committed obliged his flight into the mental desert of humiliation and reflection. In the quietness of solitude, the voice of Righteousness spake unto Moses from out the burning bush of holy aspiration and bade him loose from o his feet the shoes of selfishness, and stand upon the consecrated ground of Love. The apprehending thought of morality discerned the law of Spirit, Mind, and rose to that conception of God declared in the name, Jehovah.

Moses sojourned in the wilderness forty years, Jesus forty days; the one was encouraged to venture forth from the solitude by the voice of God, the other, as he came forth from the desert, was “tempted of the devil.” Jesus, the pure idea of Truth, was driven by the spirit of Love into the wilderness of human beliefs, “there to be tempted (tried) by the devil” of material sense; but it had not long to tarry therein, for the claim of error is quickly recognized and put to fight. With purer purpose and clearer spiritual understanding, Moses again entered Egypt and demanded Israel’s relee.

It is noticeable that Moses’ power of action was not, as was the case with Jesus, within himself but in the rod which he carried. With this contrast between the rod of Moses and the word of Jesus, the respective power of each should be noticed. Also, that neither Moses’ threat nor entreaty prevailed with Pharaoh, but his use of the rod broke the stubborn monarch’s purpose. The ten plagues followed one another; the first, the changing of water into blood, the last, the slaying of the first-born. Spiritual perception is the rod whose use overthrows the selfishness and cunning of material sense, that would never enslave the higher impulses of man that seek egress from the Egypt of ignorance and superstition.

That the first recorded action of Moses on returning to Egypt, should have been the turning of water into blood is significant when contrasted with the first miracle of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, namely, the changing of water into wine. Water symbolizes purification; blood typified atonement, sacrifice and consecration. The former referred more especially to moral cleansing, the latter to spiritual purification. The apprehending thought of Moses was first purified morally, then, discerning more spiritually, moral purity was changed into consecration. Wine signifies inspiration; Jesus, the spiritual idea, changed the water of moral cleansing into the wine of spiritual inspiration. The rod of spiritual perception is mighty to deliver from the chains of sense, but the simply spoken word of Truth understood, reveals the omnipotence of Spirit, and puts to silence the lie of matter that declares itself a law. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was Go.”

In ancient times the first-born was supposed to enjoy special Divine for, the ,younger members of the family Being esteemed as little more than serfs of the privileged elder son. The slaying of the first-so of the Egyptians struck at the heart of the people, and compelled Pharaoh to release Israel Spiritual perception warring with material sense seeks to release from the claims of error the thoughts born of higher understanding; ignorance, superstition, and the lusts of the flesh clamor for continued dominion over aspiring thoughts that desire release from the fetters of accepted beliefs, that they may journey into the harmony of Mind, there to” worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.” The firstborn—the cherished idols of opinion, and venerated institutions pertaining to personal sense—must be destroyed before spiritual freedom can be realized.

Truth discerned in the institution of the Passover, was revealed in the Lord’s Supper; Israel’s exodus finds its completed spiritual expreion in the resurrection of the Christ. Hyssop was used to sprinkle the blood of the passover lamb upon Israel’s door posts; the sponge of vinegar given Jesus on the cross was placed on a rod of hyssop. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year... and thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feat, and your staff in your hand; and you. shall eat it in haste’ Such were the commands unto Israel, who came forth from Egypt in the night. Contrast the hurried repast of the twelve tribes, selfishly anxious for their personal ferity, with the quiet meal of Jesus partaken with bis twelve disciples. Himself risen above the claims of personality, the Master declared its utter nothingness; he had before, in the washing of the disciples’ feet, set forth its abasement.

Morality applies only to personality; its first apprehension of Truth is the spiritual food of which it partakes as one prepared for the long journey from sense to Soul; and starting from the basis of sense, it goes out from gross materialism in the midst of the night of error. Spirituality bids to the fat of revelation wherein God is found to be Mind, and man, no longer identified with personal sense, wears the likeness of Spirit and is forever harmonious. 11 All is harmony outside of a personal sense of things.”*

The slaying of the passover lamb and the command to barak no bone of its body betrays a faint conception of two ideas, sacrifice and unity. The Hebrews would never have • “Science all Health.” frown o the Egyptian yoke had they not moved as one man th but one mind. The resistless force that lies in united purpose and resolve is beyond the comprehension of nite mind, hence the wonderment and doubt aroused by seemingly miraculous movements. Unity, discerned by Moses, Jesus revealed as the Truth of being. The sacrificial rites enjoined by Moses and their completed expression in Jesus’ offering of himself. Not the slaying of a lamb, but the destruction of personality brings release from sin. The crucifixion of material concepts embodied in the flesh destroys the dream of sense and its sin, and reveals spiritual Life and man.

Israel, encamped by the Red-Sea, discovered the Egyptians pursuing them; then Moses stretched forth his Tod, divided the waters, and his people passed over in safety. Contrast the exodus with the resurrection. The aspiring thought venturing from the realms of sense, is met by the dark waves of fear, but the rod of spiritual perception cleaves them asunder and thought passes through on the dry ground of understanding. The spiritual idea of Truth rolls away the stone of material sense that would ever bold man in the bondage of so-called material law, and he then issues from the tomb of mortal belief. Truth, realized in the understanding—risen and gloried—exclaims: “0 death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?”

With the rod Moses drew water from the rock to quench the material thirst of the people.

The rising thought, struggling to reach God, strikes the rock of Truth that it may obtain the waters of higher understanding. The first demonstration of the new understanding is the alleviation of physical distress. Jesus talking with the woman by the well at Samaria, admitted, no material needs, but offered unto her water unseen by material sense, and said: “’Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.” Truth realized and mae manifest, offers to man the waters of perfect understanding, which “shall be in him a well of water spl’iugiug up into everlasting life.”

Israel’s hunger was satisfied with mamrn, an Moses led the thought of the people spiritwa1·d, by commanding that none should be gathered upon the Sabbath day, as that day should be devoted to the service of God. Moses first fed the people, then instructed them. Jesus instructed the multitude before he gave unto them to eat; witness his feeding of the five thousand. The densely materialistic mind is made to awaken unto spiritual things by its appreciation of the material benefits to be derived from a higher order of thought. Spirituality reveals Truth; it feeds the hungering hearts of men by instructing them in its understanding, and declares that man being spiritual in origin, he II shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Israel’s forty years’ wanderings in the wilderness was one long term of contention with opposing nations. The pure idea of Truth is hated by the error of personal sense which seeks to keep it out of the realms of understanding. With this long warfare of Israel and the final overcoming of those who sought to impede its progress, contrast the three short years of Jesus’ 111ini^try, i ‘lliicl1 he lifted him hand ng^inst 110 man as he was driven from the cities of Judea. Moral growth is slow of process; starting from a. material premise, it gets its way through the wilderness of sensuous belief and must destroy the long list of supposed physical desire which oppose it. Spirituality resting in Truth, is forever at peace in the consciousness of omnipotence. But hated, it hates not in return, to spirituality expresses Love, and seeks to lead the thought of man into the harmony of the One Mind.

From bleak :Mount Sinai Mose issued the moral law. At the foot of this mc,nnt Israel encamped for one year while receiving the most minute instructions regarding every relation and action of life. “As long as the moral law” is a common expression; its mandates are issued upon the basis that the” natural” man is evil, and a long succession of thou shalt not’s” i necessary to restrain his erring impulses. The negations of the moral law were trauslate<l on the mount of Beatitudes into the positive terms of spiritual law, whose words are we. “Blesetl are they” is the language of the law of Spirit. There is no list of penalties affixed to the tables of this law, nor does the language of Jesus include the possibili of transgression.

Moses increased Israel’s strength by bringing the straggling tribes together and binding them into an organization with but one purpose-aspiration after righteousness. Moses discerned the unity of God and in the name Jehovah—a tribal Deity—conveyed to the crude conception of his people the idea of His self-existent being as Spirit. The stern, harsh Power that Israel feared, Jesus revealed as “our Father” whose name is Love, an “whose mercy endureth forever.” Into one common brotherhood he resolved the differences of mankind. His teachings and demonstrations affirmed that man was not an humble suppliant- before an avenging Deity, but that he was the son of Joel, created in the likeness of the All-Good, and having “dominion over all the earth.”

Moses commanded the building of the temple, where through rite and ceremonial the thoughts of the people reached out after Truth. Mere apprehension of truth supports its faith by means of symbols. Jesus cleansed the desecrated temple and cast out those who polluted it. The spiritual idea destroys material concepts and casts out from the temple of prayer (aspiration) the lingering elements of personal sense.

The Israelites crossed a tract of wilderness. infested with serpents whose bite was poisonous; their higher sense of morality gained through the teachings of Moses, held this visitation to be a punishment for their gracele:s murmuring. The Mosaic law had already discovered to them that sin was the only cause of suffering. Moses made a serpent of brass and set it on high—that whomsoever was bitten should look upon it and live. There was no peculiar healing efficacy in the brazen image nor in the act of gazing upon it, but the idea dimly perceived through the symbol sufficed to preserve from destruction. The unity of law, and that law spiritual, was implied by the image. of physical ills resulted when the. serpent that stung and its harmless image were found to be identical, their only difference lying in the belief all fear with which the one was regarded. With the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness shod be compared the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, “that whomsoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In each instance the same idea is enforced. The supposed life of matter, and the realization of spiritual Life, depend upon the state of belief, or understanding. Not the personal Jesus, but the Truth revealed by him, gives eternal life. Believe in the Son of God; let man understand himself as spiritual, the perfect expression of the One, Perfect Mind.

The resolute Leader of Israel for an instant overcome by their murmuring, struck the rock in his own name; for this he was not permitted to enter the promised land. To conclude that au offended personal Deity kept Moses from entering the land to which he journeyed, is to subvert the spiritual lesson conveyed in the narrative of his life. Entrance into the consciousness of harmony toward which morality aspires, is gained through selabnegation; pride and self-assertion shut out from it. :Mrs assured them that another prophet like unto himself should come to guide them, continued prosperity should attend the keeping of the law he gave them, but the most a-i punishment would attend their disobedience. The Leader then placed the guidance of his people in the hands of Joshua, he and Caleb being. the only ones that had left Egypt with Moses, who survived to enter Canaan. Although the Leader was debarred from entering the land of promise, let it be observed that none but the two who had remained faithful to him did so; the caviling and seditious perished in the desert. After bidding farewell to Israel], Moses alone ascended an high mountain, looked out upon the fair laud into whose border he had brought his children..... and Israel saw him no more. Morality upon the sublime heights of spiritual aspiration reaches that altitude of understanding wherein the infinite harmony of Mind is discerned, but not realized. Joshua (saviour) is a Hebrew name of which the name Jesus is another form. The rod of spiritual perception laid down by morality, becomes the rod of spiritual understanding in the hands of Joshua (spirituality), which when raised, separates material from spiritual sense and Israel, the children of Spirit, enter their home of harmony. The self-assertion of morality striking the rock of Truth to exalt ielf, finds contrast in the dark hour of Me semane, wherein Jesus destroys the sense of self and with it the belief of man’s separateness from God, saying “Not my will, but thine, be done.” It was here that Jesus met and overcame the last enemy, death, his agony and bloody sweat tesfying to the awful throes of personal sense, as Truth wrestled with the lie of material life and crushed it. He arose in the conscious strength of having already conquered. All struggles and victories are mental. The ordeal dreaded and feared is met and mastered in mind an when this is understood its so-called physical action is passed through undisturbed.

The risen Lord was seen by few. Malice having slain Truth manifest in the flesh, and believing it destroyed, cannot recognize the more spiritual expression that rises from the tomb of belief. Recognition is mental; the low concept of sin and sense can never see the gloried manifestations of purity and Truth.

Contrast the last commands of Moses to Israel, with the final words of Jesus to his disciples. No prophet like unto Jesus was to be raised up, but he himself should come again. The second coming of the Christ, Truth, which Jesus revealed, was to consist in full understanding brought through Science, which was to succeed perception. No denunciations, no penal. ties, no suggestion of his not being obeyed, acco pained the words of love and blessing with which Jesus sent his disciples forth. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” No further cause of condemnation came into the world through Jesus of Nazareth,—“repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name.” Repenting, turning from belief in sin, and enlightenment of the understanding through the Truth that Jesus revealed, was to be the remission, the blotting out, of sin.

Jesus upon the mountain with bis disciples “was parted from them,” and “a cloud received him out of their sight.” The spiritual idea of Truth upon the heights of realition enters heaven, harmony. The cloud of material sense hides spirituality from the view of men. The apostles waited in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost when the baptism of spiritual inspiration came upon them and further illumined their understanding. Then ye went forth and spake with the “new tongue” of Truth revealed.

The apprehending thought of Moses was the fountain of Hebrew liberty and progress; it set forth law as Principle unchangeably just. The first expression of this idea was a stern morality. Mortal thought must be purged of materialism in the school of morality, and then pass on to spiritual purity. The liv discerned by Moses, and promulgated as moral, was in Jesus revealed as spiritual; the stern rule of morality in due course of time appeared to man in the semblance of mercy; changeless Justice understood, came the mercy of infinite Love. The Mosaic apprehension of Principle grew into the Christ idea. Moses sounded the key- note of harmony, saying: “Hear, O Israel I the Lord our God is one Lord., He discerned the Light as. Jesus revealed the Light, and made it manifest to the world. On the way from the plains of morality to spiritual heights the heart of man aspires to God. When at last the revelation of Truth is made in the understanding, through Christian Science the glad song of praise arises from them that serve the Good, saying: “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of thy people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people jael.”




Truth’s Appearing

by Mrs. G. P. Noyes, C.S.D.

WE must desire to have Righteousness or Good before we can become conscious possessors of it. Desire for better condition precedes that condition. Truth does not come to the apprehension of men unless they first desire, seek for, and pursue it, but all who really desire the Truth may come into possession thereof.

That which is not worth seeking and asking for is value- les to any one; if some sacrifice is necessary to obtain any object of our desire, so much the more will the object, when obtained, be appreciated. If we hide the light of Truth under a bushel we cannot expect it to be seen of men. We may know that the light of Truth is there, but what avails it to others? We must show it to the people. The ;method of doing this calls for the exercise of the highest degree of Wisdom. The thought must be adapted to the hearer.

Were a mother, immediately after the birth of her babe, shown a child of two or three years of age as hers, she would at once declare that it was not hers. She must see it as the newly-so babe to be convinced that it is her own.

The Virgin Mary received the Truth as the faintest conception of the Spiritual Idea, of which at first she was only partial conscious. It go with her until the birth of the Infant Jesus. This Spiritual Idea, Truth, then became constantly visible to her, but as a weak, helpless babe that needed constant watching; guarding; and care; for in the case of her babe, its life was sought as soon as it was born; so that in its most helpless state of infancy its earthly guardians were obliged to conceal it from the gaze of the world.

Truth came as a babe; came as the weakest possible manifestation; to the material sense it was a material manifestation. Mary, its mother, saw it as the new-born Spiritual Idea. All along she bore it next her heart, not daring to make it no until it was fully formed for its presentation. It raw a Spiritual or mental formation, although it appeared a physical one; it was presented Spiritually, or Mentally, although it appeared a physical, or material presentation.

Joseph saw the formation of the Spiritual Idea. At first he had misgivings, but the messenger, or thought of God, Truth, came to him, and he recognized the pure Spirituality of that which was soon to be manifest; he thus showed the purity of his own mind, “only the pure in heart can see God.” He also displayed wisdom, for, besides him, only the wise men and the shepherds saw in the birth of the Infant Jesus, with its attendant circumstances, the Truth, or Christ, the fact of God’s Fatherhood made manifest.

True wisdom is humility; those who are meek and lowly in heart feel that through worldly wisdom they know nothing of the Truth. Such are truly wise-wise in humility. Those who have leaeu all that the world can teach, and then say that they know nothing, are entitled to the name wise, for they have the wisdom of humility-a modest and humble mind; “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”

It was such as these that recognized the advent of the Spiritual Idea, and hastened to offer to it the homage of their choicest gifts or thoughts.

The wise men waited not for the world to lead them to the Infant Christ, but followed the gleam of light that appeared to them, and it was a faithful guide that led to where the young Child lay. By owg closely to light, deflating neither to the right nor left, they were correctly guided to Truth, slight and weak to human sense, yet still an unmistakable and never to be forgotten vision of Truth.

It was the strong conviction and courage of Divine Love, that enabled Mary to present her Child and tell the true history of its birth; she knew well that mortal mind would see in the event she announced a falsehood,—would see only a lsier in the one who had been chosen to present the Christ, or Truth, to the world. Had it not been for the purity of her own mind, she could not have conceived the pure thought, the Spiritual man.

Mary concealed not her child; she gave it to the world, for to the world it belonged, sent of the Father. “He came to the world, and the world received him not”-” Him who had made all things, and without whom there was not anything made that was made.” It was the “light shining in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not”—shining as it has .ever shone, and as it ever will shine, still forever unknown to the darkness.

The gleam of Truth in the individual consciousness of each one is like the star of Bethlehem that shone so brightly in the darkness of the night.

The happiness of the mother must have been unspeakable, knowing as she did the gift that had come to men. Se could only realize Heaven and Harmony about her. She heard the heavenly chorus, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Herod had not yet sent out his emissaries of destruction, and no fear for the safety of the Spiritual Idea, or Son of God, bad as yet entered her thought; but later on she discovered that she had to guard and protect her Child from the highest power in the country where the Christ was born; for in a very short time this apparently helpless infant had arrayed against him, Herod the Great, Csar’s most powerful prince.

What had the little Child done to be the object of such malignancy and fear?

The Child had not yet spoken, but its mother had spoken for it, had told who it was and its mission. The wise men had seen and recogzed i got as we Truth that mt sooner or later, most surely rule the world. That was enough to alarm the guilty tyrant who held the reins of mortal power. His alarm was well grounded, for to the Truth “Every knee must bow, and every tongue confess that it is God.” Truth, even though itself innocent and unconscious of error, strikes at the highest forms of error.

So, before the power of this Child must that of Sar, the then ruler of the world, sink into insignificance; for not only was the rule of the Christ to extend all over the then known world, but worlds still undiscovered would own his sway, and unborn millions would, as did the wise men, lay at his feet their choicest possessions, their purest and most precious thoughts. To all men be must become the highest conception, creation or thought of God.

Jesus said, “Follow me and have life everlasting,” for “I am the way, the Truth and the life.” It was men’s false idea of creation-their belief in the actuality of the material—that he begged them to leave, and accept with him the actuality of the Spiritual- Spirit as the only Creator, and the Spiritual man as the real creation. Therefore it was that he called himself the Spiritual man, the Son of God.

Christian Science repeats the command of the Christ-lay aside or reject the material world, the world of sense, as real, and accept, believe in, and understand the Spiritual to be the real.

Christ says of his kingdom that it shall have no end; it is the Spiritual Kingdom; he is King over all; as it is the spiritual of which he is King are we not to conclude that there is no material Kingdom?

Again has the Truth appeared to us, and this time it has been called by the one who has discovered and brought it forth, Christian Science; again has the pure mind conceived, formulated, and presented it. This time, too, it comes to us as a gleam of light, and it will lead us, if faithfully followed, to a clear vision of Truth and God. She who has brought to light this apparently buried Truth endeavors to destroy the accumulations of the beliefs of ages and to lift, as it were, the curtain of the night that has enshrouded us, and says: Behold the star! it shine in your own mental horizon, and it says to you, Good is the reality and the Allness of Being; its opposite, evil, is the unreality or nothingness of Being; Good is Spirit and Truth; evil is matter and untruth.

This is the first beaming of the light; follow faithfully on, turning neither to the right nor Jest, and it will lead us to where the young Child lies. ,following this light in humility and unquestioned trust, leads us to where the infant Christ or Truth lies in our own thoughts. To each of us it is born, to each of us it appears, not again as a shy or mortal embodiment, but what it truly is, a :Mental or Spiritual Idea.

To every mortal mind it must come, and to this Spiritual coming, as it appears to each, must the knee bow, and the heart acknowledge that it is the Christ or Truth.

It is prophecy that “the seed of the woman is to bruise the serpent’s head;” “Christian Science resolves things into thoughts;” it is the conception or thought of the male mind, that is to deal its death-blow to evil.

To a material observer, Mary’s Infant, which she called by the name of Jesus or Joshua, looked like the children of other mothers; no difference was perceptible to mortal apprehension, and men failed to see in it the Son of God made manifest to the vision of man.

The Spiritual Idea which we call Christian Science, appears to mortal mind to be in nothing different from its own conceptions, though we know that when fully apprehended, it will save man from sickness, sin, and death.

To the mortal sense or mind of man no difference is observable between the thought, or conception, called Divine, or Christian Science, and the mortal mind-cure or other mesmeric methods; the methods of operation,—a silent, invisible production of certain visible or physical results-being the same to this sense.

What, then, is our safeguard in the espousal and adoption of this new, and to us unfamiliar Truth, which can only be correctly recognized or known by the Spiritual sense, since at times that sense is so clouded that we cannot distinguish between Truth and error?

At the time of the Jewish.Passover Jesus accompanied his pen to Jeralem. Dung the money homeward the lad Jesus was missing. Joseph and Ma turned about and reaped their footsteps to the city, and within the Temple was the Child Sviour found.

Though she knew him and his mission, she knew, also, at during his tender years he must be cared for and guarded by a mother’s love, and she returned to seek him tough he had arrived at the age of twelve years. The mother always knows what is best for her own child. She knows its disposition, endurance, and amity, and the particular manner in which it is best to manage it. So Mary knew her child as no one else can, and must have had a distinct idea of God’s real man, or the Spiritual Creation, or she could not have conceived and brought him forth. In addition to this, she had been constantly with him, observing his every act and word, and “had pondered them in her heart:’

Christian Scientists understand that in this Science they have the reappearing of Christ or. Truth. What is the proper course for them to pursue, when the Spiritual per caption is darkened, when the healer is to heal, and there is no apparent reaction of the disease? Is it not a sign that a closer and more rigid following out of the line of Christian Science as laid down by its Author is requisite? Is it not reasonable to in ufre what does the mother say of her child? She knows better than we.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH unfolds the Scientific Theology that heals the sick. By its illumination of the Gospel of Christ, it is the guide in the Science that heals sickness and casts out error.

In some way, often unconsciously, the Spiritual Idea becomes obscured, through some deviation, perhaps a slight one, from the strict pathway of Truth. How true it is that the pathway of the scientific Christian is a straight and narrow one!

As the prophet Isaiah expressed it, “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and Righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep a way the refuge of lies, and the waters shall’ overflow the hidden place.”

It is by this line and plummet that the Truth is laid down SCIENCE AND HE

What says the builder · his work is out of plumb and the pieces do not accurately fit together? Bring me the instru^_. meets that I may properly adjust the matter, or my work ^. be worthless. By the line and plummet must his work_jf”/ tried, adjusted, and readjusted until it is absolutely coJt. Can the mental bui^der be lee particular in his work I must be night or failure will ensue. By ^ ·

What seems to be T^uth,Jtndis partly error, is n<tf^tth. for Truth and error never really mingle. Whatef, then, has a blending of error, an^lpresents itself to us ruth, is not what the strictly scie_ptjc Christian cane Of i · his practical demon^ations; in ct, such blending, instead of bringing inspiraon ad help, brings darkness to the men vision, as is proven-the we attempt demostrate.

Practical demonstration is the test of: his Spiritual Theology that has the sick. Christ made no exception when he said, “In my name shall they caat^out devils,” etc.

We see in these’.words that all Christi Scientists must prove their ability in this line, and if. thy il, they should say as does the :carpenter, “Bring me te line and plummet; there is something the matter here; Must have deviated from the strict lin-of Science, for I have failed to bring out • the harmony of health.”

We should, in{such case, extra ourselves to discover wherein we have strayed from it-straight and narrow path of Science; for in some way weave. Very likely the literature that has a blending of/Truth and error, or verbal teaching of like character, he i confused, bewildered, and darkened the Spiritual pefcepon and the beloved Son—the Truth-has disappeared fro!;our spiritual view.

The precious light that is come to our thought must be carefully guarded, for the;erod of mortal mind still attempts to snatch it from us, stiU,eks to destroy it, is still ceaselessly endeavoring, to turn us see from the straight path of Christian Science, to where the star of Truth will cease to shine for us. We should ^ careful not to deviate a hair’s breadth from the line of Try as laid down for us in · SCIENCE AND HEALTH. If we gJ/o light will go out, and we she fail in our efforts to demonstrate or show the Truth to other It is in vain that we endeavor to show to others what we ourselves have lost sight of. This is again “the blind leading the blind, and they both fall into the ditch.”

The Truth of God has been lost sight of when we are unable to heal the sick. We shall find that looking into SCIENCE AND HEALTH, the original source of our inspiration and knowledge of healing, helps to lift us out of dark places, if we take note of and carefully follow what is therein laid down.

Some are leaving the straight and narrow pathway of Science, seeking a way of their own, where there will be no star to guide them, for there was, and there is, but one star, one way, one Mother, and one Child.

Many are saying, “Lo here, and Lo there;” here is a way—an easier, a pleasanter way; a way wherein, if we travel it, we shall not have to give up our ambition, our self-glorica- zion and love of leadership; forgetting that it is only the faithful! willing follower that ever possesses the qualities of a leader.

Contentment with his lot, and an ever increasing happiness in being able to demonstrate the Truth to the help, benet, and advancement of suffering humanity, characterizes the Christian Scientist.

The earthly starting place of Christ was a lowly manger among the animals. Have any of his followers a more humble or lowly starting place? But the Truth, or God, was there, and where God is must be Heaven and Harmony. No wonder the heavenly chorus sounded” Peace on earth goodwill toward men,” for God Himself had been manifested to the vision of mortals. Low down amidst the animal instincts of man Truth first appears and finds a resting place, But by for a short time does it rest among the animals. Truth must necessarily appear first to the lowest or animal instincts of man.

To destroy his animal nature the light of Truth must first illuminate the understanding. Observe how when the inoffensive, animal instincts of man were brought me to be with Truth, or Christ, the most cruel and destructive animality-the Herod of mortal mind-was aroused, and immediately proceeded to destroy what had throw upon its false claims to sensation, intelligence, But the escape of the Infant Jesus demonstrates it structibility of the true or Spiritual Idea; th although themselves innocent, were the children who communed not with God, and their parents we not directed by Infinite wisdom in that most tryi were the guardians of the Infant Jesus. This sh however innocent and pure the mortal thought, i down before the higher forms of evil, unless guided dom, and protected by Love. Wisdom and Love rep the Father and Mother in Divine Science; protect guided by Wisdom and Love, the innocent mortal as. Divine Love protects the innocent mortal my Mary, the Mother, protected and shielded the ma festation as a babe in her bosom. Mortal error, magnetism-received its death wound when Truth in the manger of mortal mind, but in its death to destroy the Spiritual Idea that has struck i Now, as in the beginning, send forth the word of Truth to meet the raging sea of error. Let it be spoken it, for Christ, the Truth, speaks now as of old, sin will be st. Truth ever has power to still belief, if spoken with assurance, and the court conviction of its power.

Let the word of Truth and Love go forth to meet cruelty of mortal belief, called malicious aim it has been wounded by Truth’s appearing and my to rise no more. Error shows a brave front but a coward, for it is made up of fear.

Error seems great and overwhelmingly powerful parent magnitude, but speak the Truth to it and

We must arouse the Spiritual Man or Idea, that sleeps, and we shall hear the “Peace be still” waves.

Be not frightened at the roaring and tumult of mind in its material expressions. Power lies no The Mind that is Truth is silent in its working were of the vi God th it.

The strongest errors of mortal mind must disappear before the word of Truth spoken with trust in its power. Let us not, when attending to the lesser evils, leave the higher ones to manage themselves. They will manage themselves, and us, too, if left alone.

It is not reasonable to assert that disease is to be handled with intent to destroy it, and that higher forms of evil are not to be treated in a similar manner. The method of Christian Science is the most effectual for the destruction of the lesser evils of sickness and it is found just as effectual in destroying the greater and higher forms of evil that we call sin.

We have, however, no occasion for any uneasiness as regards the reception of Christian Science. Truth always finds a responsive chord in the mind of the people. The multitude followed Jesus gladly and desired him, wanted to make him king. The people always want Truth, or Christ., and desire it to rule over them. And they receive Christian Science when it is fairly presented; if they do not hail it with acclamations of joy, it is because the error of mortal mind tries to make them believe that it he, not the Truth.

Long ago in connection with the Christ the question was asked: “Have any of the Rulers or Scribes-the people of worldly wisdom and knowledge-believed on him?” To any great extent they had not, but. those who were not blinded by prejudice had, and did believe on him, thus proving the saying that “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” The mind of the people, now, is thirsting for the Truth which alone will satisfy it. Let us not, therefore, be afraid to speak it; it is needed and desired; “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation for the Sons of God.”

We must present Christian Science, how it to others, but be governed in our presentation of it by the capacity to receive. As a new-born Infant, or the slightest possible thought, must it first be seen by all. Let the slightest thought of Truth go forth from us and be seen.

We need not fear for the safety of this course; as in the time heretofore, the young Child is guarded by Wisdom and protected by Love.

The Idea of Christian Science has in creed, strengthened, and grown, unfit mortal mind can-no longer hope to crush or injure it. As in the parable of the mustard seed, what was the smallest of all seeds has grown, expanded, and flourished, until we, like the birds, can rest in its arches, and be protected by its sheltering shade, from both sun and storm.




Words of Jesus and Christian Science

by The Editor, Christian Science Journal

To those who are not students of Christian Science, its declarations of the unreality of matter, its denial of the real existence, and the authority of the personal senses, and its constant affirmation of the reality and allness of Spirit, God, seem fanciful and arbitrary. The denial of life in the body, and of all commerce between soul and body, are received with incredulity, and often considered as inventions of seekers after notoriety. “What,” says a surprised inquirer, “do you deny that my soul gives life and vitality to my body?” When told that he has no soul he turns away in utter bewilderment and despair. And yet there is not one of the declarations of Christian Science that strikes on the ears of this generation as so incredible, that has not awakened the same emotions, and drawn the same exclamations from the men of nineteen centuries ago. The words of Jesus are simply the texts of Christian Science.

Suppose that our children and our young men and women were turned into their school rooms without a teacher, and an arithmetic with only the rules of that science, and a geometry with only the propositions or theorems, were put into their hans from which to learn geometry and aiithme- tic. Suppose further that they were not only deprived of examples and demonstrations, but the employment of them and all materials for their production, were forbidden. Their situation would be not unlike that of men and women in their readings of the Gospels and epistles, since direct tradition from Jesus, and the practice of Christian healing as taught by him, died out.

The texts, or theorems, of Christian Science—the words of Jesus—have been studied all these centuries. Parti understanding, glimpses of the Truth, and guesses innumerable, have not been wanting. Devout souls have seen far into the mysteries hidden in the declarations of Jesus and his apostles. From time to time great lightning flashes of spiritual intelligence and insight have illumined the darkness, and for a while the problems of existence have seemed to be solved. In these later centuries Luther, Calvin, Knox, Swedenborg, Fox, vVesley, Edwards, and hosts of great or lesser lights, have each advanced theories that led towards solutions; all have helped spiritualization of human thought; all have led humanity towards that plane where the fuller light announced by Jesus could break on human conscious less. But all have lacked the one criterion- demonstration—that alone could set the seal of absolute certainty on their teachings. They were only theories, and without demonstration there is no science. In the absence of it, experience and further growth always developed weakness and incompleteness. Perplexed by the images and illusions of the personal senses, men only went further in the mazes of conjecture. At last honest inquirers, wearied with these perpetual failures to reach the absolute Truth of Being, turned with disgust from theology to the so-called “natural” sciences.

Jesus, because of perfect spiritual consciousness, was the perfect Demonstrator of Christian Science. It is his demonstrations more than even his teachings, that have fixed and compelled attention, through centuries after their practice and rule had been lost. Plato, Confncius, Buddha, have all been cited as rival teachers, but Jesus’ demonstrations have given him, by universal consent, a unique position.

They are commonly styled in the original tongue of the Gospels and epistles “sign” or “power,” but in o tnsla rations these words are generally rendered by “miracle,” by which is understood a supernatural, exceptional occurrence, produced arbitrarily through a special exercise of Divine power simply as attestations of the title to Sonship of Jesus.

11 All that is not understood is wonderful” is an old and true saying. Since Franklin drew lightning from the clouds, this and other phenomena of electricity have successively been counted marvels, and have, finally, passed into the categories of scientific classification as mere common acts. The development of human knowledge, in all directions, follows the same line.

In SCIENCE AND HEALTH the understanding of the demonstrations of Jesus is brought within the reach of any honest, spiritually minded person. These marvels are—the same the former marvels of natural Science,—classified and shown according to a strictly scientific method, to be simple, spiritual facts. The Science of Jesu works of healing is taught by the only method that justifies the name of Science—by demonstration. The student is enabled to take the texts in which Jesus gave the fundamental rules and theorems of Scientific Being, and which have stood as unsolved problems, and work them out by the same demonstrations that Jesus used when they were given and that he promised should follow “them tat believe” without limitation of time, race, or place.

The similarity of the texts or propositions of Jesus and those of SCIENCE AD HEALTH, is striking and convincing proof that Christian Science is in reality the Science of Christ. They are identical in expression except that in SCIENCE AND HEALTH language is used that makes them more comprehensible, as propositions, and from the standpoint of a demonstrator Before a class. The Principle and the rule are laid down with directions so minute that all who follow them, verify the promise, “in my name they shall cast out evils;.... they shall lay hans on the sick, and they shall recover.” Jesus laid down at the outset of his mission the fund mental proposition,—“that which is born of the flesh is :flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Here the eternal separation between Mind and matter, flesh and Spirit, is clearly declared. Christian Science makes the same as- motion in these terms:

* “Science reveals notlring in Spirit, out of which matter can be created. To Spirit there is no matter, even as to Truth no error, and to Good no evil. As we approach Spirit, we lose all consciousness of matter.” “Neither partnership nor fellowship can exist between opposites. One can 110 more create the other than ‘ruth can create error, or vice versa.” “Nature and revelation inform us that like produces like. Matter 1^ to be cliisslOed as error, because it faliely claims Life, Substance, and Intelligence-a claim ignored by Spirit.” “Spirit creates and fashions all things spiritually, after its own like- _ness. Life is reflected in life, Truth in truth, God in good. Truth imparts it own true peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and good.”

“Matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. Truth has no home In cor, and error no foothold In Truth. Intelligence cannot pass Into non-Intelligence and matter, nor can non-Intelligence become Splrlt. At no point can these opposites mingle or unite.”

When Simon Peter answered Jesus, with discernment of the Principle he manifested, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the king God,” Jesus replied, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, or flesh and blood” (personal sense) “hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven.”

Are not these words illustrated perfectly in the following from SCIENCE AND HEALTH,-

“The five physical senses are the avenues of mortal mind, and they indicate the common human belief-namely, that Life, Substance, and Intelligence are a blending of matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and carries within its bosom the seeds of all error.”

“The five personal senses are unrecognized in the realm of Spirit; they neither lead to God, Spirit, nor can Spirit use them as avenues for coming to man.”

“Can Matter recognize Mind? Can Deity be known by the bodily senses,—taste, touch, sight, smell, hearing? Can these senses, which afford no direct evidence of God, give correct testimony as to Life, Truth, or Love? Could God create such false representations of Himself as sin, sickness, and death? The answer must be in the negative.” • SCIENCE .AND lLTB, th He, pp. that understanding of Spirit confers on man is set forth in the words of Jesus to Peter, that follow the above. In the gross, material sense, these words have been wrested as though conferring a personal authority on Peter. But almost precisely the same words are repeated two chapters further on (Matt. xviii. 18), where Jesus is ad4ressing all the disciples, “What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” These words, in both instances, refer to the dominion spiritual understanding confers over the supposed principles and objects of material sense, and to the ogressive unity of human consciousness. This same dominion, as conferred on the Son, is more explicitly referred to by Jesus in the words (John xvii. 2), “Even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh.”

Take again, Jesus’ declaration of the coming, clearer understanding of Spirit and the falsity of matter, or Spirit and matter worship, and of his own mission as the demonstrator of Spirit as made to the woman of Samaria: “But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth... God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

Here is the text of SCIENCE AND HEALTH that declares anew, in the light of full understanding, the words of Jesus:

“We worship Aplrltually only as we worship less materially. Spiritual worship is Christianity; material worship” (worship in which enters any thought of matter) “i ldolntry. The true worshipper shall worship the Father in Spirit and In Th. The ^uhstance of all devotion is the demonstration of Love. Our Master said,’ If ye love me, keep my commandments.’ The baptism of Spirit washes the body of all the Impurities of flesh, and iignifles that such as see God are approaching Rpil’it nal life and its demonstration,—healing the sick and destroying error.”

In these words the thought of Jesus, obscured to human sense by being handed down through a material medium, and through ages of grossly material thought, live again in the brightness and glory of new realization, on the same plane of consciousness as that from which it was spoken. • th pp. 78, 80.

Nothing could be more explicit than Jesus’ declaration, but it fell on the dead ears of materialism. It has been partly apprehended by modern Christian thought, but the words of Jesus must be repeated to-day; it is still to: the hour cometh and now is.” The Christian church is still bound in the fetters of matter, by the twin conceptions of man as spiritual and material, and of sin and sickness as equally real, and of, at least, equal power with God. In practice it gives to the appearances, presented through the personal senses, an authority superior to that of God, for it has recourse to mteial remedies for the ills inherent in beliefs of matter, and devotes what it calls” life” to the pursuit of enjoyments and rewards, cognized only by them. God-as declared by Jesus—can be worshipped only through the destruction of the belief of life and intelligence in matter. It is only on this bis that the demonstrations of Jesus can be repeated, and the experiences of all Scientists prove that on this bis they can be. Here is the point at which the Christian church and humanity stand to-day.

As long as the declarations of Jesus stood unsupported by proofs within the cognance of human consciousne,—the existence of Science unknown, and demonstration, therefore, impossible,—the sophistries of personal sense could not be met. With the coming of Christian Science all is changed.. The absolute, scientific truth of every word of Jesus is not only proven, but countless witness are repeating the proofs and pressing them on human consciousness. In the mind · of every Scientist, the separation is taking place between Spirit and the beliefs of matter; harmony is replacing the sense of discord, and Life, Love, and Truth are becoming the reality of being, instead of evil, error, and death. Jesus reproached the Pharisees for their spiritual blindness, and their adherence to material sense in the words, “Ye judge after the flesh,” and declared that he judged no man after the senses, and that his own judgment-after Spirit- was true. That the physical senses not only cannot report the things of God, but that they are the parent of and report • Juhn vih, 1. falsities only, he affirmed in perhaps the most cutting words that ever fall from his lips. “Why do ye not hear my word; ye are of your father the devil (evil) and the lusts of your father, it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the Truth: because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he Is a Har, and the father thereof. But because I say the truth, ye believe me not He that is or God (Spirit) beareth the words of God; for this cause ye hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (Rev. Version.) SCIENCE AND HEALTH says * of these senses that they declare that: “Matter has intelligence and sensation; nerves feel; brains think and sin; the stomach can make a an cross; limbs can cripple and matter kill him. This verdict of the five material senses victimizes mortals, taught as they are by physiology, and in Materia medica, to revere these five personal lies that our master so sharply referred to,—lies which are destroyed by Truth, through spiritual sense and understanding. But Christian Science does not stop with setting forth the doctrine of Jesus in other and plainer words; it gives the clearest and most detailed proofs, and on a scientific basis, of itstruthfulness. His words are shown to be never “gura- be,” but in all cases literal statements of scientific fact, and they are confirmed by innumerable, independent demonstra- trans, .of the present, healing power of Truth. Through the instructions of Science, spiritual sense is made the reality; becomes a constant monitor—by which the reports of the senses are corrected; every one of them is checked o “lie,” as st as rude, and the contrary, true, spiritual fact is affirmed. This gradual substitution of material by spiritual sense, proceeds on a basis as truly scientific as that by which astronomy, optics, and other sciences correct reports of the senses about the relations and movements of the earth, the planetary and stellar worlds, and their countless other errors and illusions, in all directions and on all subjects. This substitution is actual, and-in the measure it takes place,—brings about the displacement of material sense by spiritual; te report that come to conscious- nets are gradually spiritualized. During this, process man is actually passing here in the body from the supposed material universe into the spiritual unh•Prse. This is the only way in which the transition we ever take place. Not death, but Life, is the portal of Spirit. Thus mortality, and thus only-in “this world” or in “the next”- puts on immortality. Thus can “the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved,” and thus only can “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” .Thus “what is mortal may be swallowed up of Life. He that hath wrought us for this he thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” When this snbstitu tian, this “earnest of the spirit,” begins to be realized, we have a right to say with Paul “for when we were in the flesh.”

Jesus on several occasions sought to impress on his hearers the difference in himself, between the personal man and the Christ, Truth, Divine Principle, that it manifested. To the man who kneeled to him and called him “Good” Master (Teacher), he laid, “Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, even God.” (Rev. version.) It was clearly the “me” vh;ible to personal sense that he referred to, and in this declaration he drew as sharply the line of separation between the man of the senses and the man made in the image and likeness of God, as it is drawn in SCIENCE AND HEALTH To the multitude that came to him at Capernaum, “on the other side of the sea,” he said,

“Ye seek me not because ye saw signs, but because ye ate of the loaves and were filled. Work not tor the meat that perisheth, but for the men which al>idetb unto eternal Life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for him the Father, even God, hath seah:d.” Nowhere is the teaching of Jesus, as distinctly scientific, thrown into clearer relief than in what he further said on the occasion just referred to in the sixth chapter of John, and in his words to Martha in the eleventh of the same Gospel. When read in the realization of Science his words on these occasions burn and blaze with the light of Spirit. All the lies of personal sense disappear in their effulgence, and the veritable transfiguration is reenacted to-day on the open stage of human consciousness.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth HATH eternal Le. I te bread of Life.”

Then he turns for a moment, to destroy the possibility of his hearers attaching a material or “figurative” meaning to his words, and then draws anew the ineffaceable line of separation between the material and spiritual man. “Your fathers di eat the manna in the wlldernes!, and they did. This is the bread which cometh own out of heaven, that a man may not thereofand not die.” Then he speak again from puresplritunl consclon:—ness. “I am the Irving bread which came down out of heaven; i for any meat of this bread he shall live for ever.”

Row he wrestles, in the following passage, with the material conceptions that darkened his words to his hearers!

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye ent the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, ye have not Life In yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood HATH eternal Life. For my flesh Is (true) meat and my blood i (true) drink. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood ableth in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the ‘father, so he that eateth me, he also shalllive because ofme, (Truth.).” (Rev. version.)

In the words to Martha he rebuked the material, Jewish belief (and the Christian belief of to-day) of death, and of the resurrection. “I am the resurrection and the Life; he that believeth on me, hongb he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me hall never die;” and also declares as plainly as Words can declare that there is no such change as death-” Thottgh he die yet shall he live;” and folly that his words do give here and now eternal Life. SCIENCE AND HETH teaches how to demonstrate Jesus’ words. Every scientist can prove in himself that Truth,—not in a figure, but as an actual, spiritual fact,—is Life; that he that hath Christ, Truth, HATH eternal Life. How is it proven? By the action of Life, Love, and Truth, in the destruction in himself, of the sense of matter,—its only reality-with its attendant beliefs of sin and sickness, and the resulting consciousness of their opposites. The steps in this process are just as distinctly cognizable in consciousness, are just as clearly marked by distinct stages or occurrences, in which the relation of cause and effect is traced—yea, more clearly-than to the geometrician are the steps of demonstration in the proposition that “the sum of all the angles in .a tangle is equal to two right angles.” The steps in consciousness from the postulate “that the immortal basis of Life is Soul, not body-Life, not death,”-to its realization, will bear all the tests to which the steps in mathematical reasoning are subjected. Therefore it is Science.

The immortal Life that Jesus demonstrated, and that Christian Science has brought again to realization through practical demonstration, is not a fancy.

“THE BIBLE TEACHES THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE BODY BY THE RENEW AL OF SPIRIT,” and: THE TRANS- NATION OF MAN AND THE UNIVERSE FROM MATTER BACK TO SPIRIT

Christian Science repeats to-day these words of Paul as an exhortation to a work it has proven to be practical. ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Spiritual worship).” (Rev. version.)

The prophet declared, centuries before Jesus, the great Demonstrator of immortal Life as a present reality, came upon the scene, “Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption.” Peter declared to the Jews at the Pentecost what the disciples had just learned through demonstration,—“Nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnees.”

But our materialist will say, “I care nothing for your prophecies; we done know that the history of Jesus’ demonstrations, as you call them, was true, nor that the testimony of Peter and his fellow disciples,—all interested in having the story believed—as to the Resurrection was not false witness, or an error of ignorant men. This last stage of demonstration has not been reached, and the failure or the lack of that destroys the whole argument.” This is a futile attempt to resist the force of the conclusion. The last stage of demonstration lias been reaclted.

Christian Science has destroyed this last stronghold of unbelief. It has gone over the ground of Jesus demonsha• rations up to the last, and from repetitions of these demonstrations,—not from the written record,—has proven their reality. It has gone further; from these actual demonstrations—not from the record—it has deduced and verified • SENC AD HEALTH, th En., p. 00. the Principle and rule, (which are nowhere set down in the original record) of these fresh demonstrations, and thus, of the so-called “miracles” of Jesus. It has thus transferred them from the category of marvels to that of spiritual fact, and by processes recognized as valid in every department of us natural “science.

From Principle and rule, thus reached, through the whole chain of connection, from the lowest manifestation of Life up to the holy of holies—the perfect consciousness of Life as Spirit, God-it has owed the footsteps of Jesus. His disciples when they “Saw him after the resurrection, and beheld the final proof of all Jesus had taught, called him a personal spirit, ghost, or spectre, for th believed his body to be dead. His three days’ work In the sepulchre set the all of eternity on time, He proved Life to be deathless, and Love be the ter of bate. He met and settled all the claims or medicine, surgery, and hygiene, with the power of Mind, and mastered them on th basis. Can this be called supernatural? •.. It was not a supernatural act, but one divinely natural, when divlnlty brought to humanity the understanding of the Christ-hearing, and revealed a method above human Inventions.” in that incomparable delineation of the passion, crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus that closes, the chapter “Imposition and Demonstration,. the successive scientific phases of the closing scenes in the career of the great Demonstrator of the Science of Being are fully presented; to this the reader must be referred for their complete elucida- on. But in leaving its consideration in this place citation is made—for those who have been told that in the scheme of Christian Science Jesus finds no place, and that, therefore, it is not the Science of Christ,—of the llowi1g passage.t

“The sclentlftc origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate the One Mind which made and governs man and the universe. The Science of Creation, so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus, inspired his wisest and least.understd sayings, and was the basis of bis marvellousdemomitrattons. Jesus was the offspring of Spirit, and his existence shows that Spirit creates neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sickness, and death.”

When mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, that before were invisible, will become visible.—Sense and Health. • 80IENCE AD HE.LTR, th Ed., pp. 2, 286. fit SOIDOB Rid HEALTH, th., rip,




Thoughts in Christian Science

Selected from writings in the Christian Science Journal

success in overcoming even the uneducated forces of mortal mind. There should be the bond of union and sympathy between us that comes from the spiritual sense of our oneness in Christ- a practical Christianity, wherein the Spirit should supersede the letter, and technicalities should give place to the demonstrable. A veneering of Christianity does not make a man a Christian. Nay, if he is not honest in his profusion, it makes him a greater villain. Our motives need looking after, not by each for others, but by each for himself; and we must be positive that the objective point is Truth. If our own motives are pure, then we shall be better able to discuss the worthiness of others, as is sometimes necessary; but we can not sit in cool judgment upon any, and should extend helpful thoughts to all.

We should have charity,—not the charity that covers sin, but that which gives the brother or sister a chance to work out his or her salvation. If we remember the command of our Master, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” we should have, perhaps, a greater disgust for error, beginning with that in our own thought, and so become more deserving of the appellation, Christian Scientist The demand upon us as individuals, to meet every emergency with courage and patience, was never greater than now. The difficulties that beset us seem many; but if we are faithful, we have much to hope for in the result. At times, apparent obstacles block the way, and the dark sea of tribulation seems ready to engulf us. Trust and faith in infinite Love must sustain us, until we realize in some small degree that we cannot be swamped in the dark morass of doubt and fear, which tempts us to swerve from our allegiance to Divine Principle. What shall be the rules or methods that are to help on this work of unification? First, is hearty recognition and understanding of the Scriptures. Christian Scientists know the rock on which they build; i. be., Christ Jesus. We give a hearty adherence to the letter and the spirit of that article of the tenets of the mother church in Boston which reads, “As adherents of Truth, we take the Scriptures for our guide to Life On this plank every Christian Scientist stands squarely. Inseparably connected with this and growing out of it is, second, the recognition of the sacredness of the teachings of SENSE AND HEALTH, and the relation of sympathy and loyalty that we one and all sustain to our Teacherand Leader. This means that we will listen in the future even more wlingly than we have in the past to the voice that comes to us through the personality of her whom God has sent to be o Leader through the“Red Sea” of animal magnetism. If we have learned anything in the- bitter experience of the past it is the danger, the peril there is in not heeding her counsel. On this point, also, all Christian Scientists are a unit. These are the keynotes of Christian Science orthodoxy.

But, brothers and sisters, loyalty to our Teacher does not mean that we shall harass and annoy her with all the pet details that come up in the daily management of the churches. She must not be made to“serve tables,” as she is made to serve by our running to her with all our complaints and troubles. Hers is a higher mission. She is called up into the Mount of Transfiguration.

An incident that he come under my own observation is to be pot: A western church which once sought to have her settle some minor matter received this common sense and spiritual reply: “Be loyal to the spirit of my teachings, then do your work in your own way.” On all occasions of immor once, at critical moments where the danger signal is shown, we shall seek her advice. It will be gladly given, and we shall loyally follow it; but we must learn to go alone. The child is old enough and big enough to walk.

In hours of darkness And despair, in moments of pain and weakness, one’s sorrow is not lightened by cold words of clean.cut logic. The wounds more quickly heal when into them is poured the wine of true sympathy and the oil of Love, and they are bound up by the hand of tenderness and compassion.

When one is weary with the pressure of many burdens, it is not logic, but the friendliness of Love, which gives inward peace. It is not logic, but Love, shining out upon the stormy sea of error, which leads the wanderer home. Love, not logic, bends above the couch of suffering. Love sheds the light of hope across the way, as the frail bark glides out upon the waters which break on the shores of eternity. Love is the bow of promise set amidst the clouds of human woe; its piercing rays transform the cloud’s seeming blackness into glistening gold.

Logic is the tool by which material mind accomplishes results; and, before the dawn of spiritual perception it serves Truth negatively, by continually proving the falsity of the physical senses. Logic is the stay at which man grasps, to draw himself out of the waters of belief which threaten to engulf him. Love is the strong arm which, encircling him, places his feet upon the dry land of spiritual intelligence. Intellectual apprehension is the “voice of one crying in the wilderness” of material belief, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our Go,” He for whose approach we watch, is Love, “in whom shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The light of intellect is the gray dawn of the lying which heralds the coming day, “wherein is needed no sun, Neither light, for the Lord God giveth light;” and God is Love.

To manifest wisdom, and not Love, is an attempt to divide the seamless robe, wherein blend in eternal harmony both Love and Wisdom. Their union is indissoluble in Truth. Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. It is only the wisdom of this world that exalts the reasoning faculties; and silences the voice of the heart,—the open sesame of man’s spiritual nature. It is impossible to confound true wisdom with that which emanates from mortal thought. The wisdom of God, simultaneously with its apprehension, opens the floodgates of the heart; and the gentle and sweet peace of Love takes the place of doubt and despa.

Much has been said for and against Truth, as declared in Christian Science. Much is said for it; because no one can come to know its meaning, and the power it gives for good, without feeling that it is beyond all things else,—that in—Ahl:^••

It is seen that in God’s government there can be no discord. Harmony reigns throughout; for all is governed by divine law,—the law of Love, or spiritual law. This understanding is not gained through the human mind, for all that this mind is capable of reaching will come to naught, because it is not of God. It is the carnal mind spoken of by Paul, through which man can gain nothing eternal, or really good; for all good is eternal.

All that pertains to the human mind can never get beyond materiality. Whatever may be said of its capacity, the human mind can never be said to lead into the spiritual. There is a wide gulf between human thought and man’s great capacities for good, attainable through his spiritual attainments; and he is truly great only as he is spiritual and good. The human mind, not being spiritual, must be material; and as all Truth is spiritual, for God is Truth and is All-in-all, then the human, or material mind, must be an error of belief.

Christ’s lowly and quiet workers unconsciously bless the world. They come out every morning from the presence of God, do go to their business or their household work. All day long they toil. They drop gentle words from their lips, and scatter little seeds of kindne about them; and to-mor- row flowers of God spring up in the dust streets of earth, and along the hard path of toil on which their feet tread.

More than once, in the Scriptures, the lives of God’s people are compared in their influence to the dew. There may be other points of analogy, but especially noteworthy is the quiet manner in which dew performs its ministry. It falls silently and imperceptibly. It makes no noise. No one hears its dropping. It chooses the darkness of night, when man is sleeping, and when no one can witness its beau- til work. It covers the leaves with clusters of pearls. It steals into the bosom of flowers, and leaves a new cupful of sweetness there. It pours itself down among the grass, and tender herbs, and plants, and in the morning there is fresh beauty everywhere. The fields look greener, and the flowers are more fragrant. All life sparkles with new splendor.

Is there no lesson here, as to the manner in. which we should do good in this world? Should we not scatter blessings so silently, so sweetly, yet secretly, that no one should know what hand dropped them?

We hear the inquiry: How is it possible for us, while burdened with the cares and perplexities of this life, to hold ourselves in that realm of thought whereunto the Psalmist calls us? That is attainable only through spiritual growth away from sense, into the higher altitude of Soul. We can but “see through a glass darkly” now; but as the darksome mists of sensualism and error shall roll away, the brighter sunlight of immortal Truth will increasingly appear, till we shall have overcome the belief of te former, bask in the glorious realities of the latter, and enter into a building, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Such are the teachings of Truth. Just in the ratio in which we understand and apply the law of Christ-Truth—in our daily life, will the Divine promises appear in demonstration. The first requisite is the elimination from our thought of every phase of error, remembering that whatever appears real to mortal sense is unreal to Soul. Only from this basis of thought will Divine Truth, spiritual law, respond to our call. Truth never responds to error’s cart, nor Soul to sense, any more than harmony responds to discord, or Love to hate. They being opposites, only the still small voice of Soul will open the spiritual fountain whereof we may partake and be healed,—with the promise also, that “It will be in us a well of living water, springing up into everlasting Life.”

The understanding that God is our Life; that there is no mortal life, no mortal mind; giving up our claim to a life separate from God; yielding to the divine law, and understanding that mortality is nothing but an illusion, an error, the work of evil, and that we have all this time been in bondage to it,—slaves not knowing our way out into the light,—all these ideas are included in the text.

11 O fools and blind,” to yield to low beliefs, letting them master us at every turn; even after we are taught, wandering in the wilderness of doubt and fear, not being brave enough to start out. Ob, the light of the glorious Gospel of Truth, which sets us free from this law of sin and death I Oh, the blessedness of this knowledge of the infinite Love of God!

While we are rejecting Him, and turning constantly from Him to evil, still this Love reaches out its arms of mercy; calling us back to Him, begging us to come to the feast prepared for those who are willing to leave their fishing, their life in matter, and come to the understanding of Life in God. Walk in the light, as He is in the light, and gain your liberty,—freedom from the law of sin and death.

Now can we truly say: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, because I have tasted of his mercy,—I have realized the nothingness of matter, the falsity of all material joys, and have gained a glimmer of light from the true source. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through Christ.” Oh, to be worthy to follow in the Master’s way! How unsatisfactory are the joys of this mortal life,—apples of Sodom, which turn to ashes in your grasp. When we think we have them, and can hold them, behold, nothing remains but the ashes of material hopes and joys; while the joys of Soul, of knowing God, will never endure! Every ray of light brings peace, happiness, and joy, the owledge that God is our Father. and we His children,—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. To me, this knowledge has come this morning with such light, I feel like saying Praise God! all the tim. It seems now that no darkness could ever come again, nor wrong beliefs; for this light has shined into my heart. I can realize God’s Love, His grace and mercy, as never before, and our freedom from the bondage of sin and death. I do not wonder that at times the disciples of old could not see for the glory that shone around them. This is holy ground. We must remove our shoes, laying aside all mate-iality, and every mortal · weight and sin—“the sin that doth so easily beset us,” for we have touched the hem of His garment, and gained a gleam of light, a int realization of what may be ours when we gain more of the Truth. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land; Ring in the Christ that is to be.—The sweet chimes of thought are ushering in the Christ. Streams of light gleam from the four corners of the earth, very zenith of Christian Science. The dome of Heaven resounds with the chorus of angelic voices, chanting throughout immeasurable space the divine salutation of joy, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”; while borne on the zephyrs of Love comes the prophetic message: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son i given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, .the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

What a word is this! Catching fra gleam of this wonderful light, which we heralds the promised millennial day, the world is awakening slowly. it trans from its bed of ease, error, and wonders if it really is time to arise, wash in the Siloam of Truth, and put on its wedding-garment. Dreaming over the supposed pleasures of mortal sen, little does the world know of the loving-kindness of Father—in giving this blessed Christ-child, the true God, as present in Christian Science. It loses the bait .might obtain by a conscientious · investigation glorious Light, which is the Truth, the Life, and the by stopping to argue and wrangle over its own erring of the Teacher whom God has chosen and endowed with excellency of His grace, “not in the wisdom of this but in demonstration of Spirit and of power.”

One there is who stands to-day as the faithful and to watchman on the watchtower of Zion, voicing the insp of the Word in the language of the New Tongue, which gives the true call, “Behold the bridegroom cometh: out to meet him with lamps trimmed and burning, lie with the consecrating oil of Divine Love, which, in shining, will be as a light set on a stand.” She sen myriads of rays through th darkness, to guide the few In

Some are hearing that” voice as of many waters,” few penetrates the dark recesses of the heart) wakenin slumbering energies of thought; and with rejoicing, are hastening to make the needful preparations for go forth, while others are turning away with the respon thy fair this time; when I have a convenient season, will call for thee.”

The Mount of Transfiguration is an elevation of though a condition of mind. The unknown location of the Era figuration scene shows that the condition of mind nec to reproduce Such a spiritual vision has not since by reached. Christian Scientists only can reproduce such condition. No physical perception can reveal the Mourn Transfiguration. Its locale is mental.

Into this holy height Truth carried the three disci Up to its very summit they climbed, beyond all human conception and earthly din. Matter and the world lay beneath their feet. The other nine disciples, not so as the trio, were at the foot of the mountain, ^triv heal an epileptic, ting to impress manna with a sens of divine intelligence which the world did not afford. Although these nine were not spiritual enough to carry their thoughts into the lofty spiritual height with their companions, still they were in the way whose end was Christ. They were demonstrating the efficacy of divine understanding, for only by demonstration can mortal claims be overcome.

Earthly victories lift us to a consciousness of our eternal heritage. Through demonstration only do we scale the mountain-heights of Truth. No sickness, no discord, meet the three disciples on the Mount of Holy Assurance. Only the valley can discord be seen.

We must look upon Jesus as condition of Mind, the manifestation to mortals of Divine Truth, the expression of me infinite idea.

SCIENCE Do HEALTH is both the exponent of and Key to the Bible, and will live when all. books, except the Bible and itself, have died of their own nothingness. “Ye do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures,” said the Master Christian Scientist. We of this period of thought need no longer err on such a basis, since, read by the understanding gained from the inspired pages of SCIENCE AD HEALTH, the Bible becomes like a “lamp to our feet,” and sheds its beauty of hope and promise upon the children of light.

Well may we who love it (and who does not, who has ever known it?) rejoice to see the mighty upheaval of error it has caused. What a history has it had! Where are those who said it would never be read? It is still centuries ahead of the world in its teachings. When its author planted her feet on the rock of Truth twenty years ago,—saying, “All is Mind, there is no matter; all is Life, there is no death; all is Good, there is no evil; all is Love, there is no hate,—who listened, who saw, who read, who cared? Sojourners in a misty land of dreams, the dreamers slumbered on, drugged into apathy by musty Indian ghosts and bless. Did she change her war-cry, or cease to proclaim it from the housetops? No! the dreamers dreamed other dreams, but the Truth was unchangeable. Just as she uttered it at first, it stands to-day, proof again the whole tissue of error.

This is the crucial test of effectiveness in rebuke, that we give it with all long-suffering. “Simon, put up thy sword again into its place,” said the Lord to Peter. He would not have said it, had it been the Sword of Spirit that Simon was wielding; for the Sword of Spirit lays open the heart, while the sword of the flesh only cuts o the ears.

Now there has been a long succession of Petrine apostles, starting from this point, valiant Swordsmen of the Faith, whose principal trophies are severed ears, and not converted hearts,—who have preached with such two-edged severity as to alienate their hearers, when they should have won them.... We are not to rebuke for the sake of showing our valor or sharpness, but to win the offender.

Of course the simple Truth will often repel men, and drive them from us; and we are not to be alarmed for ourselves, and, least of aU, for the Truth, on that account. It is an evidence of a genuine truth that, like its Master, it is spoken in an lXT” 1,nA’ ho ho hoo finn fn;+ Fit he number of clubs and stones which lie about it in the autumn; and so those evangelical truths which, in all ages, have. borne the richest products, have been most clubbed and pelted. One may preach a hard truth in a very soft and winning way. What else does the Scripture mean, when it says, “By manifestation of Truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience, in the sight of God.” Ah I a minister never seems so lovely to a hearer, as when that hearer looks at him through a conscience which has first been wounded by the Sword of Spirit, which he wields, and is then healed by the Anointing of Spirit. If we ever have those in our flock who esteem us very highly in the Gospel, be sure it will be those who were once slain by the Word of our Testimony, and then made alive through Jesus Christ. Therefore with what gentleness and tenderness should we rebuke! Hear the direction of Scripture on this point, “Ye who are spiritual restore such a one.” “To be carnally minded is death,” always and everywhere............................ Let us not forget that we are sent to save men, not to destroy them,—to win them, and not to wound them.

It is for us to set forth the beauty and exceence of Jesus Christ, and not to exhibit the follies ad blemishes of human nature. For in either case we shall be unconsciously assimilated to the image of that on which we dwell. “I do not allow myself to look at a bad picture,” said Sir Peter Lely, the artist, “for if I do, my brush is certain to take a hint from it.” It is so, likewise, that caricaturists of human nature come at last to present very bad specimens of human nature in their own characters. They learn, unconsciously, to personate their own pictures, and to exemplify their own exaggerations. Take now and then a sorrowful look at human nature; but for one look in this direction, take ten toward the perfect Christ. Hold him up steadily and faithfully, and all the while you will be growing into the same image, from glory to glory. This is the sublime end of our preaching, not to picture brilliantly and pointedly the imperfections of humanity; but to exhibit the perfection of Jesus Christ, and to confirm men to his glorious example, “warning every man, teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.” I TROD the path where once we walked together; Old leaves and withered for-cones strewed the way, And cows1ips nodded in the breezy weather, This Easter Day. Across the windy slopes sweet bells were ringing, A skylark’s song came downwnrd, clear and gay; And my full heart broke forth in joyous singing, This Easter Day. My risen Lord, I felt Thy strong protection, I saw Thee stand among the graves toay; “I am the Way, the If, the Resurrection,” I heard Thee say. And an the burdens I had carried sadly, Grew light blossoms on an April spray; My cross became a sta, I journeyed gladly, To Enter Day.

The ruin purpo^e of the Seas will be to furn!h satisfacto answers the questions must frequently asked about Chrlstlan Science to make dear and unmistakable th wide dtifrence between true Chriti^n Science and the isms and faction that without warrant assume the name; and to




Reconciliation

by Rev. E. R. Hardy

“That he might create in himself of the twain one new an, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.”—Eph. ii. 16.

IT hath but faintly dawned upon the hearts of Christians that the solution of the all-important problem concerning life is to be found in the living example of Jesus, and consists in the simple demonstration of the divine nature and infinite qualities of Good. Jesus said, “Why callest thou me Good? There is none Good save one: that is God.” This should at once remove our sense of goodness from person to Principle, for he here declares Good to be God, and so demonstrated it.

Gaining our understanding of the nature of Good, though it be but feeble, from this standpoint, we are led to love it supremely; we learn that in Good is included every manife tation of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience; we learn wherein we are God’s image and likeness.

This shows us at once the royal highway of Love- the fulfilling of the law; it declares the Good to be all-power, and renders powerless the seeming evil. Following in this. way we learn the force of the expression, “Tries make for-· fection, but perfection is no true.”

The apostle, in the words of our text, has spoken of one who better understood the requirements of harmonious being than do any other: for he not only comprehended the blood, and brains neither define nor locate Truth” and the apostle declares, “they who are in the flesh cannot please God.” “But ye are not in the flesh if so be that the Spirit dwell in you,” i. be. in consciousness.

The circumcision of the heart which comes of the Word of God, brings purification from all the desires of the flesh; uncovers or lays bare the belief that Life and Intelligence germinate in matter. This circumcision declares creation as spiritual and not material; it also reveals the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Man. The revelation that comes through circumcision of Spirit brings clear recognition of the real manhood, and frees us from the limitation of Truth to a dead rite or to the mere ceremony of worship; it shows us that without the power of demonstrating the supremacy of Spirit, all ceremonies of worship are anti-Christian. Jesus was governed wholly by spiritual law, because “In him was no sin at all.” When we yield the belief that man is governed by material law, to the demands of Truth, us the ago in. + ,11.u ••••ho+..,4 ‘cine then “no longer you who work, but God who worketh both to will and to do.” Thus both volition and action of the individual are from divine Mind, in all good abiding in this Truth. Jesus demonstrated spiritual law as superseding every claim in Matter. He declared this to be the Way and the Life.

The words of Jehovah to Israel were that Loving the Lord their God, walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments, they shout live (and should not die). But they could not so walk while following what they believed to be a law in matter that wars against the law of Go- Mind—for they that believe in the laws of matter and “sow unto the flesh” must reap corruption. In Truth we learn through the revelations of Christian Science, that God is the only Life. This changes mortal belief concerning Life, from the basis of a supposed law in matter to Mind, wherein we become conscious of Life. This should awaken mortals from the dream of sense to see that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity (sin, sickness, or death), and that He governs the universe and man in spiritual instead of material channels (1 John, ii. 16).

In proportion as we bring the pure, the good, the beautiful, and the enduring into ascendency in our affections, do we come to see mortals “transformed by the renovation of their minds,” and so” proving what is the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Spiritualization of thought destroys all faith in matter, even in a material body. It elevates our experiences above the pains and discords of sense, by divesting mortal or carnal mind of i supposed sense of pleasure and pain in matter, while it invests tho who live the life of Science, the children of Good, with the blissful joys of Soul.

Inasmuch as Mind, and not matter, Good and not evil, and in Science, to outline and define manhood, let us to and seek the Son of God where he may be found. “When I come again shall I find the faith on the earth?”

He, the likeness of divine Mind, hath created in himself out of this seeming duality of natures-mind and matter- one new man, this man being spiritual and not material (1 Peter, ii. 5). The Son of God becomes manifested to us the qualities of mind expressing Truth and Love, all that acknowledges the supremacy of Good. To as many as receive this light it is given to become children of God.

Mortals must yield the mortal and material sense of life (which is but illusion) in order to gain the spiritual and immortal (Matt. x. 39). Taking this first step, which is the first demand, nay, the privilege of our Master, we no longer war according to the flesh battling against sin with sin’s own weapon—will-power; against sickness with drugs, and pain with lotions. Seeking for life while still believing that the enemies’ weapons will produce death, is sowing to the wind and reaping the whirlwind. Paul tells us that the Christian’s “weapons of warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God, to the casting down of every form of sin and disease that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.” Armed with the power of Spirit, the disciple is no longer the servant of the so-called laws that govern sin sickness, and death, and He goes forth” in newness of life,” strou in the might of Mind, to preach the Gospel, and to heal the sick, thus demonstrating his love for the Master by keeping his commandments. Israel, governed by God’s law, represents this state of Mind. Disbelief in the omnipresent potency of such a law, hides the demonstration of this mind, and results in the pr^oent universal belief of mortal mind in the presence and potency of material law. “As a man believeth in his heart so is he.” This state of mortal experience represents the uncircumcision, or they who are not purified from the flesh. This same state of experience is found to be present with the circumcision of the flesh as with the uncircumcision, save that the former professes to be more than the latter and to hold the uncircumcision in contempt. Here Science appears and lifts the veil of mystery from religious worship; declares that man neither worships God in matter, (idols) rite nor ceremony, but in Spirit (Mind) and in Truth (Good) admitting neither power nor presence to aught beside his law. Mortal belief says, “matter possesses law,” and that “God --.—:——1-^••—1, .,^. -:—1 --^-^ ^ -^-^, _.-:, and evil:, this belief also involves another conclusion in error, viz.: that the mind in matter is better than the body, hence must become spiritual and immortal while the unoffending body is to he destroyed because of sin and material laws.

In Christian Science we learn that the body is no less material and mortal than the Mind that governs it, and that by turning from the whole phenomena of mind in matter we gain the true sense of Life as Spirit and this “healeth all our diseases,” enabling us to lift all who seek health into a truer sense of manhood, by healing their belief of disease and in. parting something of the knowledge of this mental and physical redemption from material law.

Through understanding of the infinite sources and resources of Mind, Jesus was able to subjugate completely the claims of the false, material senses, and thereby to bring out in himself a form of manhood that expressed harmony, holiness, and immortality. Through the cross he effectually reconciled in himself unto Go (Good) these false, warring elements in which error claims that mind is finite and evil, and that body is material and subject to decay. By walking over their false claims he established the harmony and in. mortality of man, in human consciousness. The pages of SCIENCE AND HEALTH—which, with the Bible, is the only text book of Christian Science—fairly overflow with affirm give evidence that proves the might of Mind. Through the simplest illustrations, its theory is shown to be demonstrable; it shows the power of mortal thought upon its body in the effect of the pleasing or the angry thought that finds its expression in the smile, or frown, or in the mental state of fear imaged in the fevered pulse and palsied limbs. Throughout the book, the signs of mental origin for every form of disease are traced in unanswerable evidence; and it teaches how, by correcting thought, to erase these images from the body. The Science of Mind is thus shown to be one with Divine revelation; we are taught bow to heal the sick and to cast out evil; we find that as we walk in the ways of Love, mortality is swallowed up of Life, and we enter into the Life that is Good.




The Way to Begin in Christian Science

by L. J. N.

A tract, from a letter written to a friend in the darkness, crying for light

I DO not know that you could have written to one who he greater reason for gratitude than I have; for I have been lifted out of the abyss in which all was lifeless and when all material supports had failed I But I then learned that with God they are no degrees nor distinction in degrees. Know as a certainty that God is your life; this is absolute; then, with this realization, know that God is not the author of disease. “You live and move and have your being in God. You are created in His image and likeness. You are spiritual and not material, min and not matter.” * I am now writing of your real self, the spiritual, which is perfect and cannot he sick- cannot suffer. “Spirit does. not suffer. Yon are an image of Spirit and your body is a creation of Mind. Thuht externalizes itself in the body.”• These are truths which those who have not tested them do not know, consequently cannot deny.

Now let every thought from morning until night, and from whom you live and move and have your being. God is not sick- is not diseased, and He is for le, and there can be no other life. It is hard (at first) to ignore the old race beliefs, sense testimonies, and material evidences, for they seem to carry conviction,—but, dear sister, it is certain that every thought externalizes itself on the body, and brings-its corresponding sensation. Remember this awful truth. So, also, every time you declare you are perfect in God, there goes through the body a health giving power. “When you can realize this truth of truths, that you are now- not will be—perfect in God, without a single doubt, wonderful changes will come to pass.

“The word was with God, and the word was God.” Christ came to save from these terrible material beliefs. Is it any wonder we find such dark places, when we remember that in coming out of these beliefs we must pass through the same Gethsemane,—must tread the winepress and share the crucifixion of him who is our“Way, our Truth, and our Life”? These dark places you speak of are stages in our progress out of darkness into light. But let me urge you, however difficult it may seem, to declare that all is Taught. Deny all physical suffering. • Declare times without number that you are peaceful, joyful, triumphant. ‘this is the spiritual and not the material which we are considering. We are in this little talk, going to ignore the physical. The words of Spirit that you thus silently utter will come to pass no matter what the physical may affirm contrariwise. Declare the truth of Spirit. The moment you do this, the way is prepared for the triumph of Spirit over discord, health over sickness. You will not understand this; do not try to yet. You are the child of Omnipresent wisdom and Love, whether you have entered into the realization of it or not. Your unconsciousness of this does not change the truth. My dear sister, this atonement with Christ is a wonderful work. The healing of your body is a very small affair compared to what is to be accomplished in the “putting o of the old an the putting on the new.” Say often, “God is my life, my strength, my health, in Him is my dominion, my wisdom, my understanding.” You have dominion, in Him, over the world, he flesh, and the evil,—dominion that is omnipotent. You cannot be Overthrown, for He hence and Health.”’ is not only omnipotent, but omnipresent; and your life is in Him. No power can limit you.

My first upward step out of the darkness into the light, out of sickness into health, was through persistently forming, for three days and nights, “God is my life, God is my life.” At the expiration of this time the symptoms were—as we measure physical conditions—worse. I would not allow this to move me, but still continued to silently declare truly, God i my left, for four days more; then there came a .perceptible change. From that on, I slowly but steadily improved, until those who were opposed to Christian Science, learning I had repudiated the old ways, rolled upon me their opposing thoughts. (This you cannot yet comprehend, but you will.) With this came the need of help,—for I had then no understanding of animal magnetism,—and with help from a Scientist, victory was again: reached. I then resumed the work alone. Through all this time, some weeks, I never ceased to affirm my place in God.—Yours in the triumph of Christ.




David and Saul: An Allegory

by Rev. Geo. B. Day

THE history of Saul and David has passed in review before us in a series of recent Sunday-school studies. Before dis- missing this part of the Bible narrative, it seems wise to use it allegorically, and to make such an application of the story as may best lead to a broad survey of the progress of the world towards its final and complete redemption.

Saul was the anointed of the Lord, as was David also. The former had occupied the throne of Israel some years before the selection of the latter. The word anointed, as translated from the Hebrew, has the same meaning as Christ, rendered from the Greek. The anointing of each by Samuel the prophet was the outward act by which they were vested with kingly power. An obligation was involved in this divine appointment to kingship. Saul was expected to regard religiously the commandments given by Moses. As—a personal or visible king, he was to rule over a people who had no other conception than that of personality in the flesh. The commandments to be obeyed were literal and concerned the relations of mortal men to their fellows, and to Jehovah, their God. A strict obedience to these by Saul, and their enforcement on he subjects, god have been regraded as righteousness, and he would have retained the throne undisturbed had he been faithful to the injunctions of Samuel.

No n1isrtune caul ave happened, nor could his energies have defeated his armies, had he. not lost the protection of Jehovah by his disobedience. He was unfaithful, and in consequence, disasters and death marked even the earlier years of his reign. His disobedience was continuous, and the Jehovah wisdom determined that he should be superseded. David was ordained to be his successor.

Saul was a man of mark; his anointing had been done in public, and he was presented to the nation as their king with some ceremony. David was a shepherd lad, comparatively unknown, and his consecration to kingship had been privately performed. For years it was only suspected by the people that he was Jehovah’s representative. His prowess, his wisdom, and his uprightness, revealed that the Lord was with him, and the eyes of the people slowly stoned themselves upon him. He assumed, however, no authority except that bestowed upon him by Saul.

Samuel had warned Saul that his course had been displeasing to the Lord, and a consciousness of his mwortbiness to occupy the throne had been confirmed by numerous instances in which the Divine power had deserted him in moments when he most needed it, and when, had he been worthy, he could have depended upon it. But the love of authority and the dazzle of royalty were too strong to be resisted. Ambition, the fiercest of human passions, would not suffer him to abdicate and leave the sceptre to worthier hands.

Saul early suspected that David was chosen to succeed him. At times his letter nature prompted him to assist David in his wise designs to promote the good of the nation; but unwilling to be superseded, his friendliness changed to hate, and he began to seek the young man’s life. David read time heart of the king and by shrewdness defeated all his deadly plots. His forbearance to retaliate. and his constant regard for Saul as a divinely appointed king, sometimes touched the conscience of his enemy, and once at least extorted the confession from Saul that David was more right eons than he. Years passed in which the wickedness of the one king constantly increased, and the wisdom and uprightness of the other grew in equal degree. The enemies of the nation defeated the armies of Saul constantly, and the career of the unrighteous sovereign terminated in the violent death of his sons and the suicide of Saul himself. David came to the throne at last, and his reign was marked by such righteousness as is typical of the world’s final deliverance from its evil.

The anointing of Saul an his unsuccessful reign can type only that true anointing in which Jesus bestowed a spiritual power upon his church, and commissioned it to bring the world to a knowledge of the true God. This church was not a personal king, but a spiritual sovereign, and it was anointed not with oil but with the wisdom of the Infinite one to bring the world to a knowledge of spiritual righteousness. Its crown was a divine understanding; its sceptre the power to overcome sin, sickness, and death; its reign to bring peace, and joy, and everlasting life to the nations. At first it was obedient to its trust, and the great nations recognized Christianity as the anointed of God. The great and the small, the rich and the poor, hastened to place themselves under its dominion to learn of and enjoy the blessings of the Divine Love. But two or three centuries had passed on, before like Saul it became intoxicated with the love of power, and began to rule only for its own glory and the praise and gifts of men. The Holy Catholic Church became the supreme spiritual power and sits to-day upon a weakened throne, claiming to be the Christ of God. Its sons are the established churches of Europe aid the sects of America. Its enemies are philosophy, and physical Science, and socialism. Its prestige has departed and its subjects look to it in vain to deliver them from internal evils or to overcome their enemies. It has been defeated in a hundred spiritual conflicts, and the Philistines are in possession of many of its strongholds. The Christianity of to-day is God-forsaken and looks in vain for the hand of its God to interfere in i behalf.

In the consciousness of Christian Science a second David has been anointed to fill the tone so unwary occupied It has been gifted anew with the wisdom that is from above and the understanding that is divine. It would teach men the way of Life and enable them to shake o the shackles of sin and break the bonds of disease. Its anointing has been done privately and without display. It can only reach its spiritual supremacy by the recognition of the world that it has been selected by God, to do that in which sectarian Christianity has made so signal a failure. Like David it may discern the motives and selfish spirit of the reigning spiritual power; its greed, its loss of authority, and infidelity to Christ lie open to its view. It perceives, also, that insignificant as it is, Christianity has suspicions of its divine appointment and is learning therefore to hate it. But if Christian Science be the second anointed, it must learn many a lesson from David, its prototype. It must respect Christianity as the first anointed. The church traces its ordination back to the twelve apostles, and none can gainsay its historic claim. It sits a queen and declares that it is no widow. Christian Science must lift no hand against Christianity, no matter how clearly it perceives her faults and foresees her destiny. David had. no hand in Saul’s overthrow. He perished through his own wickedness. Christian Science must avoid the wickedness of Christian- i. It must have no delight in that honor which comes from men. It must not seek the world’s money or its valuable gifts. It must not grow proud, and assume kingly airs, and boast of its thousands slain in war, and its deeds of peace. It must not compass the heathen to make proselytes, or spare the enemies of man to grace its triumphs with a train of captives. It must hew Agag to pieces and destroy the Amalekites root and branch. It must rejoice only in seeing sin destroyed and sickness overcome. Christian Science, if it has put on the armor of Saul, must lay it o again. Jehovah gave Saul no shield, or breastplate, or sword.

These were fabricated by artificers. David was furnished with his sling and stones from the brook. These weapons were ready at his hand, and they were efficient because a divine power was in the hand that slung them. The institutions of Christianity were not inaugurated by Jesus. The church had them made to order. The vast enginery of Christianity, its means and appliances were devised as a substitute with which to meet the enemy when the spirit of the Lord bad departed. Christfn Science may be advised to institute churches, and. have dignitaries; to create a literature and establish councils; to open a treasury and amass funds; to build cathedrals, and universities, and colleges; to seek the aid of the learned, and wealthy, and great of the world, and thus appeal to the senses of men. It he already essayed all this, but has not tried them. If it be the Lord’s anointed it will lay all these aside, and depend, like David, upon .such means as may come to its han. Its weapons must be spiritual and if it seeks other than these and has dependence upon such agencies as Christianity is using, then will it prove itself an aspirant, self-chosen, which must fall before the first sturdy attack of thee.

If Christian Science be a second David it must grow into power by doing in a lowly way what Saul failed to do in a kingly one. The latter magnified himself and with the best trained bands of Israel went out to war only to be defeated by the philistines. David trusted in Jehbvab, and with a few camp followers met the enemy and was victorious.

Christianity is in command of mighty forces. Wise, learned, and disciplined hosts are ready and obedient to her commands, but in almost all her conflicts she is routed, because she has no dependence upon the Lord who anointed her. The forces which oppose her, defeat her with hell own weapons. Philosophy and Physical Science are more than a match for the church, and the newspaper has the pulpit always at a disadvantage. Christian Science, if true to her Lord, will not seek to dispute the mastery of the world with Christianity in this proud, boasting way. It will work beneath the surface of society and gain the favor of men only as it delivers individuals from fear an peril by the omnipotence of Love. It will rescue men one by one from the dominion of evil, and have as its adherents the sinner saved from sin anu the sick man rested to heal

Christianity when fully awake to the ct that Christian Science has been anointed with its lost power, may begin to hate it and seek its life. But Christian Science, if true to its high calling, will not defend itself; it will with superhuman wisdom escape from the toils of the church without even cutting o its skirts. The commands of its authority will be respected and it will never be found amongthe enemies of the church with any intent to conspire against its unworthy master. If it seeks a refuge among the Philistines it will not be to become an enemy to Saul, but to secure itself from violence and craft. It will be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove. To all the world it shall be evident that the old anointed is an enemy to the young king, but that David bears no malice to his insane master.

The patience of David will mark the career of Christian Science unless this Science be a delusion. Christianity is near its end. He who can at all read the inner meaning of Old Testament predictions, or has caught the spirit of the new, perceives that its days are numbered. Jehovah did not dethrone or destroy Saul. He was left to fill up the measure of his iniquities to the full, and he lost his life by his own sword. As far as the ends of his government were concerned Israel might as well have been under the dominion of the Philistines as under his. Philosophy and material science are honest in the conviction that they could reign as well as Religion, if not better, and Socialism is crying with a voice so loud that all the world can bear, that the church must go. The Lord of the church that once anointed her will not interfere. She must get her own battles, since now formally centuries she has ceased to depend upon the arm of the Lord.

Christianity was commissioned to preach the Kingdom of God, to heal the sick and cast out devils.

This she can do no longer, but instead claims that she is the author and supporter of a great civilization. She points to commerce, the.printing-press, to art and Science, to a world of wealth, and learning, and reucment, and ends the obedience and loyalty of the world, because of the magnificence of these. The spirit of progress and Physical Science disputes her claim and is ready to prove from history that the world is great, and rich, and intelligent, not through, but in spite of Christianity. Christian Science does not side with her enemies, but perceives that the world’s greatness is not what Christianity was ordained to accomplish. Even if the glory of this greatness belongs to her, that glory is her shame. Instead of preaching the Kingdom of God, she has preached the Kingdom of the church. Instead of healing the sick, she has surrendered them to the doctors to be killed with drugs. Instead of casting out devils, she has elected to confine those possessed in mad- houses, and remanded them to cells and strait-jackets. Alas for Christianity I She is beset and bewildered. But she cannot abdicate. Her love of dominion is too great. She has tasted of power so long, and the world has submitted to her reign so loyally, that she cannot bear the thought of ceasing to rule.

At intervals the church is conscious of her delinquency and laments her weakness. She perceives that her rule has not brought the world to righteousness and peace, and she has no hope that it will ever be delivered from evil through her instrumentality. There are moments when she perceives that in her work Christian Science is more righteous than she. But if the stripling is destined to succeed her, she will hate the youth to the end.

As the battle goes on and defeat is manifest, the church will come itself to see that it is without hope, The Philis^ trees will be too much for her. Her sons will fill Before the enemy and the old papacy will call upon the State, her armor bearer, to put an end to her life. The State will refuse. It has looked so long upon this sovereign as its dependence, and believed in her pretensions so sincerely, that it dare not put an end to Christianity. The church must take its own life, and cease to be of its own volition and in despair.

Christian Science will not rejoice in the suicidal end of Christianity. It will revere the Lord’s anointed to the last, respect its posterity, and join with Israel in lamentation. It will bewail the untimely death of Jonathan whose only fault was loyalty to his sire, but it will profit by the errors of it fortunate predecessor. It will en no damion through 8 Te he is &st and Peace on earth. material means, right no battles in which it must put me peudeuce upon the arm of flesh. It will shun ambition and the love of glory. It will draw men to it because of the world’s perception that God is with it, and its dominion will be that of Love, and gratitude inspired by unselfish works of devotion to the highest good of carnal man.




There Is Rest and Peace on Earth

by E. H. B.

YES, here now; not idle words, but words of hope and strength,—sure as that God is Love. It is not too late for you, despaired of by the doctors, for you, bereft of all worth living for. This very depth of suffering has made you willing to give up what separated you from that Infinite Love that can and will make you” every whit whole,” body and soul. Face to be with death we think deeply.

The Science of Life is sought after to-day with more earnestness and depth of spiritual thought than ever before. Each one for himself desires to know the foundation of the “hope that is within him.” The old “these things are not for us to understand” no longer satisfies. If medicine is a science why so much guesswork and failure? If virtue and Truth are of God, why do the good so often suffer and the wicked flourish? If God is Love, whence comes evil? If Jesus was a divine teacher why do not his professed followers verify his wonderful promises?

Whenever there has been a universal demand for any- thing it has come; but the new invention, or the. Truth when first revealed to human consciousness, Jias always been at fist opposed as the work of the devil. Jesus was thus met; and now the Science that explains his works, and gives practical demonstration of all his statements, meets with the same reception.

The healing power over sin, sickness, and death, lot through persec-tian all corruption, has been rediscovered. and is now practically in the reach of all who will accept i It is not possible, in this space, to explain Christian Science Mind-healing, as now understood and demonstrated, nor to discuss the truth or falsity of other methods, but to state facts.

What you need now is to know how to get reliable information to guide you mong so many conflicting statements. There is now obtainable so much positive evidence of cures without medicine or other material means, “covering te whole range of ills that flesh is heir to,” that no one is justified in refusing investigation. Thousands of happy men, women, and children to-day are living in health and usefulness, who, a few years since, were physical, mental, or moral wrecks, pronounced incurable by any human means. If others are cured, you can be. There is not a pain, disease, habit, sin, infirmity, fear, accident, or heartache that cannot, by means of Christian Science, be relieved or entirely cured. That this sweeping statement seems incredible to the common sense, does not change the facts. The living witnesses are with us, and they will gladly tell or write you their wonderful experience When you understand that the power that does these works is Infinite Mind, you will simply know that all things are possible with God. One will say “Very true, if God wills”; another “I have no faith”; or “I am too bad”; or “the day of miracles is past!’ All these i and doubts are met by the fact, that as many as truly desire are healed. You will be satisfied when you can say with the others: “Whereas I was sick and in bonds, now I am whole and he.” Only one class is not reached: those not willing to be helped by God in the way of His appointing. Many forms of so-called mind-healing are taught and practised, but as there is but one Divine Mind, there is but one divine way. This way has been named Christian Science by the one who discovered its scientific demonstration. No other method has any right to the name. She defines it in SCIENCE AND HEALTH” as the law of God, Good, which interprets the Principle and rule of universal harmony and the demonstration of it.” “This Principle is God, the supreme Being, Infinite Mind, the Soul of man and the universe.” “It rests on proof, not profession. It is not a theory but a demonstrative system of healing, and it must be supported by its power to heal.” It is only in this way that the false Scientist and the true are discerned and the people undeceived.

“Clnistian Science can stand on no other foundation than Christ, Truth, and demands obedience to all the Master’s commands.” “Preach the gospel (good-spell), heal the sick.” “The Church of Christ (Scientist) like the primitive church stands on no creed, ritual, or personality.” It is not “my” church, it rests on no foundation visible to the senses, “not even the man Jesus, but is founded on the God-Principle, the Christ-truth that ‘worketh in me’ and does now by the same Spirit, mighty works through its followers who prove their faith by their works and thus verify the promise that ‘these signs shall follow them that believe.’”

The claims and practices of the false, and blunders of wonid-be, Scientists have given to many who are iii.inrmed the erroneous impression that “Christian Science” is neither Christian nor scientific; that it is in a line with spiritualism, mind-cure, magnetism, theosophy, will-power, massage, a disguised “free-love,” and that it tolerates sin and self-in- dulgence.

Christian Science is the direct opposite to all these; their only resemblance to it is the similarity that a counterfeit has to the true. This can only be fully manifest to one who understands the real. Spiritual things are only spiritually discerned. No one can find the Spirit that is Life, and · that is revealed in the Bible and in SCIENCE AND HEALTH, by human reason or what is known by the world as “intellect.” The faith of a little child interprets where wise men stumble or condemn.

Until you learn in Christian’ Science how to handle the adversary-sickness or sin-by spiritual law, you need to employ a Scientist. Select with care one who is Christian in the highest sense-in deed rather than “profession,—then go in a frank, honest spirit of trust, and if you faithfully follow directions you will be healed. It may be at once;—but if slow, persist, and you will find her peace and rest.

You should as surely pay a Scientist as a doctor or minister—pay him for his time. The healing is God’s and free, but you don’t yet know how to get it. The county records are free, but you pay the clerk for bis time searching out your abstract-work that you may o when you learn how.

The author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH has taught some 4,000 students the past years, and these in turn have taught thousands more. Over 40,000 of SCIENCE AND HEALTH have carried blessings to those who follow its teaching. Many churches and still more Sunday Bible meetings have been organized in the past year. In connection with many of these is a Dispensary work for healing and spreading the Truth to the poor. The Scientists’ time is given, but the patient is expected to pay something, if but a dime each treatment, toward supporting the work. Dispensary and reading- rooms are to be found as advertised in the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL, published at 24 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. You can learn of reliable practitioners by addressing the persons in charge of any of these places, or by consulting personally or by letter the practitioner nearest to you, whose card you find in the same JOURNAL.




Christian Science Judged by Its Fruits

by L. P. Norcross, C.S.B.

Is Christian Science worthy of being. called a religion? Can it take its place in the world’s systems of it? Will its principles do for the guidance of men and women? Will they help mould character? Can they be reduced to practice in the affairs of daily .life? and what sort of people are the adherents of this new order

Are they honest, pure, and true? Are they intelligent and sensible folks? Are they spiritually-minded people? Do their lives and characters compare favorably with those who are members of other churches, either orthodox or liberal? Now these are pertinent questions, and, what is more, they offer a practical method of deciding whether Christian Science is entitled to the world’s respect. If the principles of this system are as good as those of any other with, it is en. titled to respectful consideration. If they are better, then they will in the end supersede all other faiths. But how are we to decide whether they are superior to all the current religions of Christendom?

Now creeds are numerous, and theories are cheap. There srcely one ch has not found plenty of advocates. 2 Leaves from a Pastor’s Note-Boo. And so, when a new order or a new faith arises and claims attention, it must be able to show to the world, by its fruits, that it is a spiritual force among men.

Can it be shown that the daily lives of Christian Scientists are equal if not superior to, the lives and characters of those in other churches? · More than this, can it be proved that these people who hold this new faith are equal or superior to, what they were in the old churches before they became Christian Scientists? Honest inquirers are asking this very question. What is likely to be the result of Christian Science on my life and character if I become one?

That diseases of every description are being cured by it daily, yes, hourly, is a well-established fact-. we close and impartial observers would care lo deny this statement. This is a matter of history as well settled as any other. But how about its spiritual, its moral and religious drift? Now mere assertions will settle nothing here. We who are Christian Scientists will, of course, readily accept and believe all such assertions. Those who oppose it, or ridicule it, will be slow to believe that this faith is a force on charac- te. They even say it is of the devil.

Will the Catholic admit that Protestantism is a good faith? And do Protestants, on their part, confess that the Catholic th is safe for this world or the next? Does the Repu lican admit what the Democrat does in political economy, and vice-versa? Who of us has not seen how honest. and well-meaning people die here? But who is to O decide when doctors di agree”? And so it is not strange that the world is slow to accept what it knows, confessedly, nothing of

It would seem clear that this new religious movement must prove itself; that it must make good its claims to be a better and higher faith, as it does claim to be. And it is also equally clear that this will take time. Time is an important element in all human growths. We who are Christian Scientists have no reason to complain that this is so. But we do have a right to insist that men shall divest themselves of all prejudices and become willing, as little children, know what are the facts. Not becae it seems new Leaves from a Pastor Note-Book. 3 carnal sense shall we demand its acceptance. Not because to long-established usage it is not in accord with what the world calls old, shall men reject it. The Truth, the Truth is what we want.

This article, or series, is written to assist those who desire to know what the real facts are. It will be a comparison of the daily Lives and characters of this class of people when placed alongside with the lives and characters of those holding other faiths. Some sharp contrasts will be pointed out by the writer who, if he has not had exceptional opportunities for observation and comparison, has, at least, had excellent chances for making this comparison. He was for many yes a pastor in a well-known denomination, one of the oldest in America. During this period he came in daily intercourse with the people in this denomination, besides many people in all churches. He mingled with them at all times and places; saw them in their homes and at their business; met with them in a social way, as well as in ecclesiastical relations. He attended, during these years, many convocations and religious gatherings of all so. Now, any one with eyes and ears could not fail to see and learn many things. The temper, the disposition, and the mode of action under a given stress of circumstances, would be sure to manifest themselves time and again.

During the past three years his life has been among Christian Scientists. He has helped organize several churches of this new and beautiful it. He has been a pastor, and is now, of a Church of Christ, Scientist, which is the name they wish to be known by. During these three years past he he been in constant intercourse with these people and has seen much of them. This has given him excellent opportunities to learn of what temper and disposition they are possessed, and how, when placed under trial, they will accept those trying ordeals in life which none escape, and which determine what character is.

And what follows is the result of a careful and studious comparison of these two widely-different systems, one of which has a material basis, in part, to rest upon, as all reli- our beliefs save Christian Science do have; while this one, 4 Leaves from a Pair’, Note-Book. in., Christian Science, recognizes spirit and i laws as the only force in the universe.

In saying what follows, there will be no attempt to disparage the old systems of faith. It is a poor ,way to build up a new faith by reviling long-established and cherished beliefs. It is mean and unjust to do this. Yet it is fair and honorable to point out a better way, if one is known to exist; nay, it is a duty to do this. Yet it can be done in such a way as to concede heartily and frankly the debt of obligation we owe to these old systems of it for the service they have rendered mankind in the past. They have been schoolmaster to lead us to Christ (Truth), stepping-stones to higher things. There have been rare and beautiful lives and scattered all along the centuries. There are such still, and this in spite of the materialistic tendencies of their creeds. There have always existed in our churches some who are more spiritual by nature and training, and who look behind the letter which killeth, to the inspiring spirit. But this does not prevent there being a better way, a dispensation of life and joy to the world.

What are some of the points of difference between those who cherish a belief of life and substance in matter, and whose conduct must be modified and largely shaped by these convictions and that increasing class who believe that In- nite mind is all, and that the beliefs of the senses are lies?

A first point of examination will be the relative estimate which each class places upon the Holy Scriptures, for all will agree that the best test of Chrh,tian character is love for, appreciation and faithful study of, the Bible. a The entrance of thy word giveth light,” and so we will begin here.

Let it be confessed that there is much lover and some sincere and earnest study of the Bible among out religious people, in., the members of our churches. But what a woful lack of study, else why o all the preachers enlarge so much upon it? Why, it is a staple theme at all their associations and church congresses. If the people in these churches were living up to the “high water mark” in this. matter, would it be necea exhort and freon with them? Is it asked: “Do Christian Scientists read and study the Scriptures?” Well, for reply, go among them. and see. They literally pore over the Bible. Instance upon instance can be given, which has come under my observation, where it is the only book read, that with Science AND HEALTH, and current Science literature.

A practical way to decide whether Christian Scientists really do love and study God’s Word would be to compare the amount of study they performed before coming into Science and since that event. It would astonish our critics could the facts on this one point alone be tabulated and given to the world..

When I was a pastor in the old church, I had in nearly every case, when calling on my people, to introduce that and kindred topics, if they were introduced at all. Upon coming into Science and visiting any of the people of my new charge and new faith, it was a welcome and delightful surprise to find how easily, naturally, and beautifully these topics introduced themselves; and what a novel sensation it was, on visiting the homes of these people, to be greeted almost the first thing with, “Have you read such and such a chapter or passage, and have yon received such an experience of it?”

So accustomed does one get to it among our people that the novelty wears away. The old stereotyped, lifeless expression was gone, and one of joy, exhilaration, and a new, sweet sense of conscious power had come in its place.

What stories and incidents could be told, were there time, many of them pathetic and some with a humorous side to them! Nut in this age has there been such an atmosphere of earnest, faithful, loving study of God’s Word as is to be found among the adherents of this faith.

A lady in one of our small Western cities, a leader in its social life, and connected with an orthodox church, we making a call on a friend who had become a Scientist, and she found her poring, as usual, over her Bible. “Mrs. As.,” she at last broke forth with, “do you never get tired of such unremitting study of the Scriptures? Do you never read anything else? You used to take pleasure in other reading and other things; now it is all Bible and Science AND HEALTH.” 6 Leaves from a Pastor’s Note-Book.

The fact is, that Christian Scientists read scarcely any of the books, journals, and magazines of the day. Many of them never read the daily papers. So that instead of Christian Science doing away with love for and study of the Scriptures, it is exactly the other way. No one gets deeply into the spirit of this wonderful and uplifting growth without finding that his taste and love for all other forms of study is growing weaker because this new study supersedes them.

It seems idle to ask, after what has been said, Do Christian Scientists believe the Scriptures? Yet a wide-spread impression prevails where we are not known, that we do not believe and accept them. We do accept them, and our acceptance is of that practical sort which seeks to reduce them to practice.

We hold that all which Jesus taught and commanded is to be observed by us, and not a part. Certainly the gift of healing was a part. We hold that Christians have no more right to limit Christ’s words in this respect than they have in any other. “Now are we become sons of God,” and what sonship but a call to exercise dominion?

We do, indeed, attach little or no importance to creeds and definitions, so that if by belief is meant the “ipse dixit” of some out-worn council of forgotten fathers of the church, we might be found deficient; but for this we care little, since the living attest of the Spirit follows in demonstration of our work.

Another point of contrast is the marked change which invariably takes place in looks, demeanor, and outward expression.

It denotes a healthy growth in public sentiment within the past twenty-five years, that the world is demanding a form of faith which makes men cheerful. Asceticism is no longer considered the mark of a saint. Yet is this demand for a happier life and a sunny temper an assured fact? Is it not in some future possibility rather than a present attainment?

But let one come into Christian Science and be much in their company, he cannot fail to be impressed with the cheer- Leaves from a Pastor’, Note-Book. 7 fulness and unaffected gaiety of their dispositions. They are a happy people. One will not be long in it before the gloomy, careworn expression wears o. The hard lines which care and the belief of suffering have ploughed into many an aching brow begin to soften and give place to plumper faces and smiling countenances.

They are a mirthful people, especially among themselves; and what is quite to the point, they do not ned the excitement which comes from balls, picnics, concerts, and the ceaseless round of entertainments to keep them happy and good-natured. They certainly afford some contrast to the people of this age, churches included, who must have a ceaseless round of amusements to keep them in “spirits” and prevent themselves from wearing out. The whole troupe of actors and amusement-makers would starve were they to depend on these people for subsistence.

It may seem strange that we care so little for these gairish shows and amusements and still keep so well, joyous, and contented, but the reason is not for to seek. A growing conviction of the unreality of the senses, of their delusive appearance, and the allness of the one Eternal and Infinite Mind explains all this. Happiness and joy, to be real and permanent, must spring from some more spiritual fountain than the senses can offer.

But, passing on, take notice of another fact concerning the lives and dispositions of the people who are of the new faith.

No better test of the merits of a religion can be offered than the spirit it gives to its followers to meet criticism and encounter opposition; above all, the temper they manifest when rebuked for shortcomings and faults. This is a delicate point to treat of, yet it can hardly be omitted if we are to form a correct estimate of the two systems. And let it be borne in mind that the writer is speaking here of what has come under his own observation.

Is it claimed that we who alert Christian Scientists have risen above all caprice and sensitiveness in this matter? With Hamlet can we say: “Let the galled jade wince; our vithers are unwrung”? 8 Leave, from a Pastor’, Note-Boo. Indeed we cannot. And yet I am fully persuaded that the followers of this new .itht as the world calls it, are gradually getting the victory over this infirmity of human nature. And the reason is plain enough to any Christian Scientist why this is so.· Learning as we have that error is not a real quality of the spiritual man, the practical conclusion is soon reached that we can bear with equanimity the rude jostling that come to personal sense. And it is hard to .see how the followers of other systems can bear reproof at all, since evil is to them such a reality, almost the only one that some of them know, and so to accuse them of it becomes the severest trial to which they can be exposed, and no wonder they either break down under it or become incensed, for one of these two results invariably happens. There are workers a plenty in the older communions, but the number who will endure rebuke or be patient’ under opposition can be counted upon the fingers of one’s hands. Christian Scientists are learning to do this because they are · sing out of the beliefs of the senses into the realization of Infinite Mind and its ineffable harmonies. Again, in the matter of unworldliness, by which is meant all those inner thoughts and feelings which He hidden out of sight and so never appear on the surface; those subtle promptings to appetite, caprice, and gratification of the passions-it will be enough to say that when they are destroyed in mind, and their powerlessness made manifest, they will disappear. The real mischief of all current systems of human beliefs, is that they “make clean the outside of the platter,” while the inside is full of all manner of rottenness. They must be destroyed in mind first, and, whether people believe it or not, this is done in Christian Science, and done effectually. More than one person has confessed to the writer his inability to grapple with and master these inward motions, till he learned how to do it through the understanding of Mind. And many are the cases on record where the victim of ] us and drink has been not merely forgiven in the human sense, but saved, is., made secure in the conscious possession of being set free from the old law of sin and death. Leaves from a Pastor’s Note-Book. 9

This is so, and here are to be the future triumphs of this grand and spiritual it, not merely in healing the sick of possession their physical ills. I come to my last point, and it must not be overlooked, for it is of vital importance. I refer to the difference between Christian Scientists and all others, when confronted with death and the sepulchre. We will dismiss theorizing here and confine ourselves strictly to its. What preacher or pastor of all the churches who believe in the reality of matter, has not had his heart wrung time and again when called to the house of mourning, where death has been with ruth- less hand, and snatched away the loved ones? How like mockery sound all his words of comfort, and how feeble all his efforts to impart joy and hope! And what is equally true and sad is the ct that in the homes of those confessedly Christian the task is just as hard. My experience among them was that it was harder. Their religion does so little for them at such a time. Death becomes a terrible reality. It is as it has been painted—the king of terrors. But how is it with the believers of the new faith? True, death does not often enter their homes; yet it has been there. Christian Scientists are called upon to part with friends who are not of their faith. I only wish. it were possible to convey an impression of the contrast that exists on this one point, and when a funeral does occur among them, it is not so much a funeral as it is the crowning or the coronation of one of the sons of light.

Christian Science my not have succeeded in abolishing death as yet, but it has entered many a home of darkness and taken all the sting out of it. It has brought life and immortality to light. I know that to many of our people this is so.

The foregoing are a few of the contrasts between the adherents of this grand, uplifting faith, which rests on a basis of Infinite Mind alone, and those beliefs which are predicated largely on matter; and they are leaves out of the chapter of my own personal observation and experience. Poorly as they may have been told, they afford abundant food for reflection. And they are harbingers of the day-star which, ere long, will burst in beauty “o’er” all the earth. 10 Leaves from a Scientist’s te-Boo.

EDITOR JOURNAL.—With a sense of the great practical good resulting from the plan of “Healing and Reports of Cases” in the February JOURNAL, some experiences are here presented. Mindure teaching and its healing had, in this part of California convinced the public that it was neither scientific nor Christian before true · Science was taught or practised. There was at first more zeal in the letter than apparent demonstration on the part of young Scientists, and the public was, therefore, slow to discover any special difference. Indeed, more immediate results were at first seen from the material “laying on of hands,” and patients under Christian Science treatment chemicalize and returned to old ways as often as with the mind-cure practitioners.

Slowly, but surely, the light of Truth began to dawn on individuals, and then cases of cure through the spiritual understanding occurred. It was seen that healing was not through any gift or power in the “healer,” but that the patient must “be not conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewal of the mind,” in order to be every whit whole. Trials and discouragements were met and overcome through the abiding trust in Christ—Truth and .BY,

One life and mother was dragging on a miserable existence, with a complication of troubles that culminated in consumption in belief, and who had been sustained mainly by the iron will of the husband, until that stimulant, like all others, failed, is now well and strong with a strength not mortal. That household he been brought to Truth through the mother’s cure. The change came not all at once, but through trial and holding to Christ, Truth, on the mother’s part, in the face of seeming failure and opposition. To a friend she said, “This is not a Christianity that you go to church and hear preached Sunday, thinking only what a beautiful sermon it was—it is a Christianity that must be lived every day, and all the time.” The child of this lady was at one time suffering from a return of trouble the doctors could not relieve, when the father said, “for. --(the Scientist who had treated her) had better attend to this!” She answered: “Does Mr.-·- do the healing—or God? You must support me instead of antagonizing, and it will be done through us as well as through if.--” He did, and the child experienced immediate relief. But the child (ten years of age) was not free from returns of illness till she herself lived up to what she knew, and helped all she could; a truth that all must len, by suffering, if not by willing obedience. Leaves from a Dentist’s Note-Book. 11 An army veteran, very much broken down by consumption, chronic diarrha, etc., and his wife—with whom troubles and worries were never absent from thought or conversation,—were treated and raised up only to go down on the first trial of the new strength. To mortal thought this result was anything but complimentary to Christian Science. He wanted to try again, but said it was no use while she so opposed it. Finally, he broke down entirely, sold out is business, and laid down to die. The wife then, seeing no other hope, returned to the Scientist. On her promise to do her part faithfully, treatment was resumed, with the result that the man soon returned to business, and is now better than for twenty years. But he did not have all easy work, and the wife weakened more than once. He never wavered in his trust and loyalty to the word of God in dark and fearful experiences, and finally overcame, and now knows, and fears not.

A lady under treatment a few weeks, stopped because of opposition at home. She continued, however, to study SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and came in the other day, saying: “I am so well now, and my lameness does not trouble me; and my husl)and and children are so different; better every way, I thought I was a Chris tian before, but this is so much deeper and purer, and I am so peaceful and happy all the time.” Her younger children are applying the principle for themselves through both her silent and verb teaching. Her little girl complained of headache. “Dismiss it, my child.” “Like you dismiss school, mamma?” “Yes, and have nothing more to do it 11; and it was done at the word.

One of her boys received an injury that he was told would necessitate the use of a mechanical support all his life. She explained Science to him, showing how God is all, and there is no power for evil; that he must dismiss the thought of need of a supporter, etc. He tried it, and said soon after, “:Mother, I believe I have something that I can depend on all my life”; and he found his faith not misplaced.

It is not the attainment of the letter that results in healing, but the apprehension of Spirit, attained only through earnest desire to do good in the one way of Truth and love that knows no self. The undercurrent of voluntary thought shows at the line of thought is, and if not pure and unselfish, it can and will become so when guided by Spirit-only.—Era. Rah. Feb.




Our Understanding of God

by Mary Brookins

NE.—It is the object of these Readings to cite scriptural authority for the teachings of Christian Science on the subjects named. They are adapted to the use of Bible classes and students’ associations, and are conducted in the following manner: Slips of paper, properly numbered and each bearing one of the references, are distributed among the members of the class, who are also furnished with Bibles. The leader then reads the exercise, and in the course of the reading, as each is called for, by .its corresponding number, the pages indicated are read by the holders of the slips. DOES it seem presumptuous for us to enter upon the contemplation of this theme-- or have we scriptural warrant for such investigation? (1.) “With Him,” means” with God” the translators have stated in the margin. Besides, there is the Divine invitation as spoken by the prophet (2). Then we may; but this leads to another important question (3). OanBt thou? How heartily we would echo Job’s exclamation! (4) and how readily we are apt to ache to the hopelessness of the quest! (5, 6, 7, 8.)

Well, what then? Shall we give up the search? Is there any use in trying to go further? (9.) At the very outset, this one fact must be accepted as indisputable, viz., that personal sense can have no knowledge of God: Why? (10) In the margin of the revision, the translators have given a more accurate interpretation, and at the same time a better statement of the Truth, By omitting the article and rendering the passage: II God is Spirit,” the Spirit, instead of one among many. other verse be upon the same point (11). personal sense is utterly useless in the apprehension of Spirit and spiritual things, it must be wholly set aside in any attempt to them the mysteries of God. To spiritual insight only these things are apparent. Viewed in that way, they stand revealed, no longer mysterious and miraculous, but as phases of the unending, unalterable Truth (12, 13). It was this spiritual perception that inspired Peter’s answer to the Master’s question: “Whom say ye that I am?” (14.) While, as one has said: “It will be the work of eternity to understand God,” it is well to realize that we have entered upon eternity’s task and try immediately to accomplish as much as possible. “Is there more than one God?” (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.)

Combining the thought of the unity of God, Spirit, with His infinity, naturally there follows the idea of His omnipresence. Since Spirit is one, and infinite, He must fill all space, to the exclusion of every other presence (22, 28). We have been taught this always. We have sung repeatedly: “God is present everywhere,” yet, how feebly we realized what we were saying; never grasping the full meaning of the wonderful Truth!

Paul felt the assurance and power of the Omnipresence (24), and Solomon in his dedicatory prayer also voiced his sense of its limitless extent (25). Note the import of His self-conferred name (26). This infinite Presence takes no cognizance of time. To Him there is no past, no future, but one eternal Now. “I am that I am.” what ofthe Wisdom, the omniscience of God?” (27, 28.)

Is there any other Power? Paul, in his letter to the Romans, speaks very plainly on this point (29), and others of the sacred writers acknowledge His Power alone (30, 31, 32). That this Omnipotence i always exercised to promote justice and righteousness, we shall soon see (33, 34, 35). · A term comprehensive of all that is highest, best, and most enduring is applied to the Supreme Being (36, 37, 38). It is a noticeable fact that the words signifying God and Go are identical in the Anglo-Saxon and in the old Saxon. Is it not reasonable to suppose thtGod was named “the Good” from His goodness in these instances at let, though the idea was above the grasp of most of His early interpreters? In their appellations they sought rather to express His power and majesty, losing sight of the ct that these are perfectly consistent with the infinite Good—indeed, must be coexist- ent with it, since all power is vested in good, and there is none other.

Holy means whole, and expresses the wholeness and one- 41, 42, 43).

How restful and reassuring is the idea of the eternity, the unchangeableness of God (44, 45, 46, 47, 48). From these texts we learn that what God is to-day, He always was and ever will be (49). As the old hymn has it:—“From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same.”

Now, what light does the Sacred Word throw upon the relation of God to the creation? (50.) Then He is the Creator, the only one there is, and there is nothing that He did not create. Other evidence to the same effect may be found (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56). Being the only Creator, the All-Good, He merits the endearing names often ascribed to Him in the Bible (57, 58, 59). So near and intimate is this relationship, that terms heretofore supposed to express qualities or attributes of His, are found to be only other names for the Supreme (60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65). Then He is not a personality, more or less remote, who bestows strength and life. He is the Life itself, the mighty, moving Power that actuates and sustains all things—a Life Principle, whose action is so constant, so regular, so invariable, that men, catching some faint realization of its working, have named it “Law.” We have yet to consider the highest, holiest name of all for God (66, 67),. “God is Love.” How plainly that is stated! Not somebody who deals out love as a commodity, but Love itself- the whole infinite ocean of Love, so broad and deep as to include all His creation; so all-pervading and infinite as to preclude the possibility of existence of aught unlike Himself. How feeble, ter all, is language—even that of Holy Writ- to depict the unsearchable riches of the Mind of God! He is Supreme, and there is no other power. We cannot assert His Omnipotence; and at the same time admit that any other agent can overthrow His works. BIBLE REFERENCES. 1. Jobxxil 21. 2-Tal Acts xvii. 27-28. 47. Malachi iii. 6. 2. Isaiah i. 18. 25. 1 Kine viii. 7. 48. Hebrews i. 10, 11, 12. As. Job xi. 7. :few. Exodus iii. 14. 49. Hey. fit. 8. 4. Job. xxiii. 3. :a. Pass xci. 5. .50. John l. 3. 6. Psalmscxlv.28. 3. Romans xi. 33-3 51. Col. I. 16-17. 6. Ecclesiastes viii. 2. Romans xiii. 1. 52. Uev.iv.11. 7. Isaiah xl. 28. :a. Prov. viii. 15-Hl. 53. Isaiah xliii. 7. 8. Romans xi. 33. Hl. 2 Sam. xxii. 33. 54. Psalms xxxiii. 6. 9. 1 John iv. 12. at. John xix. 11. 55. Job xxxiii. i. 10. John iv. 2. aria. Psalmd xcll. 15. 56. Psalms cxlvi. 5-6. 11. 2 Cor. mrs. 17. 34. Deut. xxxii. 4. 57. Malachi ii. LO. 12. Romans Yiil.:1.1. 16. Isaiah xlv. 1. 58. Iatt. xxlil. 9. 13. i John iv. 2. fife. Matt. xix. 17. form. 2 Cor. vi. 17-18. 14. Iatt. xvi. IN-17. :17. l’,alms cvi. Raj. 60. Isaiah all. 2. 15. Eph.iv. 4, 5, 38. G.l’salms cxix. Fig. 61. I Sam. xv. 29. 16. Mark xii. a. 39. Psalms xcix. 9. 62. Psalms xxvii. l. 17. Exodus xx40.3.Psalms cxlv. 17. 63. Psalms xlvi. I. 18. Deut. iv. 35. 41. Rev. iv. 8. 04. J>^alml lxxii. 26. 19. 1 Corinthians viii. Fig. 42,! Peter i.15-in. 65. l^xotlus xiii. 14. 20, !/:1iah xlvi.. 43. Leviticus xix. 2. Burn. 1 John iv. 8. 21. Deut. vi. 4. 4. Deut.. xxxiii. i. 67. 1 John iv. 16. 22. Ps. cxxxix. 7-10. 45. Psnlms x,·.. 23. Jer. xxiii. 23-24. 46. James i. It. THE DIVINITY O’ MAN.

THERE is nothing startling in the announcement of the Divinity of Man. Let it be well understood that in aspiring to Divinity, man is not usurpig, even in claim, the place or Being of God. Divinity, not Deity, is meant. This distinction is forever fixed and immovable: that man is never God and God is never man. While they are coexistent and coeternal, they never become confused nor intermingled. This is no Pantheistic doctrine, showing man to be a part of Joel, or God to be incarnate in man. Of course Divinity does not apply to Job’s man, the mortal man, born of woman, and compared to the ding power and withering grass. Job sees him so frail and eetiug that he is led to query, “If a man die, shall he live again?” But that there is an entirely dis- fe1eut man, having valid claims to divinity, we shall find if we examine the inspired record. He is divine by origin. What was the origin of man? (1, 2, 8, 4.) The plural form The Divinity of Man. 5 shows that man is the generic term that includes the whole creation, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Let it be understood that we are at present considering the term in that sense.

In whose image was man made? (5, 6.) God is Spirit, and, as He could create nothing unlike Himself, “Spirit gal and immortal man alone is His likeness, and that which is mortal is not man in a spiritually scientific sense” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). The scientific statement of Being declares it to he the absolute truth, that man is spiritual and not material.

Was God satisfied with His work? (7.) Surely nothing short of perfection could have merited the divine approbation. How are man’s good qualities specified? (8, 9.) |

So by nature man is divine. Being. born of God, he is’ Godlike. A child resembles its parents. How much does this mean for the spiritual man? It means to be immortal, unchanging, pure, and every whit whole.

“No man hath seen God” (10, 11, 12), and, we may add, neither has anyone, through the medium of mortal sense, ever beheld God’s reflection, man (13, Us). We find that man created in the likeness of God must and does reflect the characteristics of Spirit: that “man is divinely endowed with ability-to meet all God’s claims upon him, thus enabling him to preserve harmony and health throughout his being” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). (15). “Man is not matter, brains, blood, bones, and the material rest. Man is spiritual and perfect, and Because of this, is so understood in science” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). (leg). Is the life of man in the flesh? Paul’s denial is emphatic (17, 18). So we see “man is not a material habitation for Spirit, he is Spiritual” (19, 20, 21, 22, 23). Though inseparable from God, “man is not absorbed in Deity, for he is forever individualized. What this everlasting individuality is, remains to be learned. Mortals have not seen it. That which is born of the flesh is not man’s eternal identity” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). It is none the less certain, however, that in his real, spiritual being, man has lasting identity that is never diminished nor lost, but which will be revealed in due time (2!, 25, 26).

God is the Mind of man, and he has no other (27, 28, 29,’ I 6 Tlte Divinity of fan. 80, 31). All through the Scriptures the theory of the oneness of Mind is emphasized, and this unity is one of the foundation stones of Christian Science. In this lies the possibility of harmonious, right living. Thus is destroyed the common error that man has a mortal mind; that each possesses a separate life and intelligence, having varying and conflicting interests. As your supposed thoughts or beliefs dwell in your mortal mind—so called—so man, the Spiritual Idea of God, lives, moves, and has his being in the Infinite Mind (32, 33, 84).

The spiritual man has not a single quality, attribute, or power, that is not bestowed upon him by his laker (35, 86, 37). These gifts of God are the heritage of man, revealed by Jesus, the Christ (38). There is no limit to His bounty. These gifts are not to be man’s in some future time. He has them now. They are ours; and just so far as we reach out with our understanding and grasp and appropriate them, so far they will come into our consciousness and so into our experience (39, 40, 41). Man, the real and immortal, is in eternal harmony with Good, God. Being the expression of Divinity, he is incapable of sickness, sin, or death (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50).

Man reflects the dominion of Spirit (51, 52, 53). Why does he not make better use of it?

The one Mind has its full, complete expression in the creation, and this brings to light the true brotherhood of man (54, 55). Jesus evidently made little account of human relationship (56, 57, 58). He taught the brotherhood of man on a spiritual basis. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” ale commands of Infinite Wisdom, which translated into their spiritual meaning, signify: Thou shalt love Spirit only in every God-like quality, and, Thou shalt recognize thyself and every man and woman of God’s creating as the children of one common Parent; the one God, our Spiritual Father, who made man one in Good and good in One. With this recognition, man could never separate himself from Goodness, and must entertain habitual love for his fellowmen (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). (59; 60, 61, 62, 63, 6). Phe ivinitv of Man. 7

Our master taught that this brotherly love was to be practised in every-day life. A state of harmony among brethren is in accord with his teachings. He placed a higher value on living peaceably with all men, than upon the observance of outward forms and ceremonies (65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71).

So no term short of Divinity, can apply to the real, ideal man. This should be taught and preached in school and pulpit. Tell people that, in reality, man is divine; make them know it, and they will act divinely, and sole able to meet those, otherwise, most exacting of requirements (72, 73).

Bible References

1. Gen. t. 26. 26. Eph. Iv. 15. 51. Gen. i. 26.
2. Psalms c. 3. 27. Phil. U. 5.
52. Psalms viii. 5-8.
3. Psalms cxix. 73. 28. Phil. ii. 2. 53. Matt. fx. 8.
4. Acts xvit. 26. 29. Job. xxiil. 13. 54. Matt. xxilt. 8.
5. Gen. t. 27. 30. Phil. i 27. 55 Acts vii. 26.
6. Col. m. 10. 31. 2 Cor. xiii. 11. 66. Matt. xxili. 9.
7. Gep. i. 31. 32. Acts xvii. 28. 57. Matt. xxit. 45-46.
8. Rom. vi. 22. 33. l'salms xci. 1. 58. Matt. xii. 48, 49, 50.
9. Eph. iv. 24. 34. Psalms xci. 9. 59. 1 John iv. 12.
IO. John i. 18. 35. 1 Cor. viii. 6. 60. l John iv. 20.
11. 1 'l'lm. vi. 16.36. Rom. viii. 17. Gl. I John ii. 10.
12. l Pet. i. 8. 37. Eph. iv. 7. G2. l John iv. 7.
13. 1 Cor. xiii. 12.38. John i. 16. 63. 1 John iv. 8.
14. J Cor. ii. H. 39. Mark xi. 24. ca. John xiii. 85.
i5. Heb. ii. G, 7, 8.40. Prov. xxiii. 7. 65. Mtt. v. 23-24.
16. Rom. viii. I. 41. 1 John v. 14-15. 66. Heb. xiii 1.
17. Rom. viii. 9. 42. 1 ,John lli. 9. 67. Homans xiii. 8.
18. Rom. viii. J , 13,
43.14.1 John v. 18. 68. Romans xll. 17.
19. l Cor. UL JG-17.H. Psalms·xcl. 10. 69. Romans xii. 18.
20. 1 Cor. vi. 19. 45. Psalms xcl. 3. 70. Luke x. 36-37.
21. 11 Cor. vi. JG. 4. Psalms xcl. G. 71. Romans xiii. 10.
2. John iii. 31. 47. Isaiah xxv. 8. 72. Mutt. v. 44.
2:^. 1 Cor. xv. 50. 48. 1 Cor. xv. 56-57.78. Matt. v. 41.
^4. Eph. lv. 22, 23.4.
49. Rev. xx. 14.
2.. Eph. iv. 13, 50. 1 Cor. xv. 25-26.

JESUS THE CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES.

IN the foregoing readings we have sought to understand the one, all-pervading Spirit, Good, the Power that made and governs all, and His true ideal creation. Now, we will con. side the one, perfect manifestation of this Divine Principle, by whom he is made known to men; Jesus, the Christ (1).

As the title is of so much more importance and significance than the simple, every-day name, we will consider that first. 8 Jesus the Ohriat and He, Di,ciples.

“The Christ is the Principle of the mortal man Jesus. It’ this Principle that is his real, divine nature, (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). He is the Truth made manifest. Truth without expression is merely an abstraction. Expression is necessary for its apprehension. The Christ is the complete and perfect expression of Truth, or God. Herein lies the force of his declaration of oneness with the Father (2, 3). How long has he existed? (4, 5.) The Infinite hath no beginning. This word “beginning” is employed to signify the first, that is, the eternal verity and unity of God, the universe and man” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH).

Whence came the Messiah? (6.) Where is he al ways and? (7.) He was and is and always will be present with his followers, an unseen, but none the less real and palpable presence (8). What power has be and by whom bestowed? (9, 10, 11.) But, through the medium of mortal sense, no man hath seen God at any time. No more can the perfect Son of God be so discerned. On what authority then, do we found our understanding of these grand vsritias of Being? Truth need not be followed blindly through mere belief, but it can be understood and demonstrated with the accuracy and certainty of a mathematical problem—its Principle none other than God,—Christ over-ruling all (SCIENCE AND HEALTH).

In order to make His nature and purposes better known to dull, erring human sense, God sent a representative of Himself, the man Jesus, who lived the Life, demonstrated the Truth, and manifested the Love to the point of absolute perfection (12, 13). Was he at first received as the Di vine representative? (14, 15.) Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of Jesus was: understood. Not a single compo next part of his being did the material world measure aright. Even his righteousness and purity did not hinder men from saying: “He is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is his patron.” Only those who came near to him in spirit comprehended and followed him (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). The name Jesus means the Saviour. Who gave him this name, and why? (16.) No name could have been more appropriate, for the Truth he demonstrated and claimed Jesus the Christ and His is pies 9 as his real being does save from all error as it is manifested in sin, sickness, and death. What name did he most frequently give himself? (17, 18, 19.) Thus did he identify himself with the race. His divine origin gave him untold power to discern and interpret the depth, breadth, and meaning, as well as the duties and capabilities of men. While through the medium of his human organism he was able to demonstrate the whole divine science of Being, and show that although “tempted in all points like as we are,” he could live without sickness or sin. It ii quite as noticeable that he was always well as that he was spiritually pure. A sound body is the reflection of a pure and enlightened mind.

In all things Jesus was governed directly by Divine Principle, and never admitting any other authority or paying allegiance to any other power, he was al ways in perfect unison with God—at one with the :Father. While in the mortal frame, he bore for a time the image of the earthy, he showed that we may and do also bear the image of the Heavenly.

· Some one has drawn this striking comparison: When Dante walked the streets of Florence with downcast eyes and stricken race, people looked compassionately upon him, and said: “Behold the man who has been in hell!” When Jesus of Nazareth walked among men, with the halo of God’s light and love resting upon him, well might the beholders have said of him: “Behold the man who is in Heaven!” Indeed, he spoke of himself in this way (20).

Thus divinely and humanly equipped, was he doubly prepared to full the mission whereunto he was sent; to prove what God is and what He does for man. Here is a statement of his mission in his own words (21). Well did he name himself the Light of the world (22, 23, 2). It was as if a lamp were brought into a darkened room, where one sits in ignorance of the presence of a friend. So Jesus revealed to darkened mortal sense, the actual presence of God in our midst. Not that he brought God any nearer, that would be impossible; not that he wrought any change in the unchangeable attitude as the Father toward His children; but, being a brightness from ch glory, he showed us the Father, an at 10 Job the rest and is Dis plus. the same time, by his stainless, painless life, indicated the ghost human possibility of perfectness.

With what indorsement did he come? (25, 26, 27.) His teaching, without deviation, voices the science that has been named for him. His Sermon on the Mount, in particular, is called the essence 31, 32). ·

How did his teaching impress his hearers when they listened to him? (33.)

But he expressed in deeds as well as words, his authority and power. These practical demonstrations are briefly summarized in a little work called Christian Science, and the Bible, as follows—“He did many wonderful works because God was with bim” (34, 35. 36, 37). When ,John sends to ask if he is the true Messiah be returns this answer (38). He does not say: “Go and tell John what good morals I teach and practice, or how many men I have persuaded to pray and repent,” but out of six proofs to which he refers five are what are called miraculous. The only exception is the last, preaching the gospel to the poor.

To whom does he always give credit for his wonderful words and works? (39, 40, 41, 42, 43.)

Why did he not remain? (44.) They depended too much upon his personality, his material presence. They needed to learn that this was only the shadow of the real Christ, the ever-present one. What legacy did he leave? (45, 46,) Whom did Jesus select to help carry on his work of redemption? (47, 48.) Afterward, who were chosen? (49.) What was their commission? (50, 51.) Did he give them power to meet the demand? (52.) What guaranty of success had they? (53, 54.) On what conditions? (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60.) What reassurance did he give them? (61) What glorious consummation was in view? (62, 63, 64, 65.) Were they the only ones? (66, 67, 68, 69, 70.) If we are numbered among those who believe on him, are we not his disciples as truly as those who walked and talked with him? May we not claim the promises he made, as Peer expresses it, “to you and to your children, and to all that are afar o”? (71, 72, 73.) Would we attest our disci- Jews the ,fat and Bis Disciples. 11 pleship; we can only do so by obedience to his will. “Preach the gospel” and “Heal the sick,” if not synonymous commands, are at all events inseparable, because the sick are all those who, through mortal belief in error, are out of tune with the eternal harmony, either morally or physically, or perhaps both. Heal the sin-sick and the bodily infirm, and it is said that the gospel well-preached will heal the sick.

Spirit never suffers pain. He whose name is Holy is never sick. The word holy means whole; hence the Master’s allusion to one he had healed (74) implies the same possibilities in man as do these injunctions (75, 76, 77). “Our Master cast out devils and healed the sick. It should be said of his followers that they cast evil out of themselves and others, and heal the sick Truth casts out error now as surely as it did eighteen centuries ago” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). (78). A mind of perfect self-forgetfulness, of love and reverence for the Father, of love and solicitude for the needy neighbor.

Bible References

1. 1 John iv. 9. 27. Matt. xvii. 5. · 53. John xiv. 12.
2. John x. 30. 28. Matt. v. 8. 54. Matt. xx.I. 21.
3. ,John xiv. 9. 29. Mott. vi. 24. 55. John xv. 7-8.
4. .John viii. 58. 80. Matt. v. 16. 56. John xv. 16.
5. John I. 1-2. 31. Matt. vii. 7. 57. Matt. xvii. 20,
6. Jo}lu xvi. 30. 32. Matt. vi. 19-21. 58. John xv. 10.
7. Matt. xviii. 20. 33. Matt. vii. 28-2\t 59. ,lohn xiv. 21.
8. John xx. 20. 84. ,Tobu ll. 7-10. 60. John xiv. 23.
9. Matt. xxvfll. 18. 35. Mark vi. 41-44. GI. Matt. .XXili. 20.
10. John xvii. 2. 36. Matt. viii. lG. 62 John xvii. 21, 22, 23.
11. JoJm xiii. 3 37. Luke iv. 40. 63. John x. 16.
12. Johll I. 14. 38. Matt. xi. 4 5. 64. Romans xi!. 5.
18. Uom. i. 3. 39. John v. IO, 20. G5. Gal. iii. 28.
H. John I. 5. 40. John v. 80. 6. Acts ii. 3!l.
15.John i. 10-11. 41. Johu viii. 28-29. 67. John xvii. 20.
lG. Matt. I. 21. 42. John xii. 49-50. 68. Eph. ii. 18.
17. John v. 27. 48. John xiv. IO. G!l. Eph Ii. 18.
18 John vi. 27. 44. John xvi. 7. 70. Marie xvi. 15-18.
l!>. Matt. xii. 8. 45. John xiv. 27. 71. ,John xiii. 35.
20. John Iii. 13. 46. ,John xvi. 83. 72. ,John xv. 10.




Bondage or Freedom

by Sue Ella Bradshaw

MAN’S conscious condition as regards bondage or freedom is determined by the sense entertained of the ruling Power of the universe. The varied beliefs as to its nature,—whether good or evil, one or many—have formed the basis of mythologies of the past, also of philosophies and religions of later date. In the light of the Science of Christ, we begin to see, what we shall completely understand, only when fully divested of mere opinions, all of which grow out of belief in the personality of God and man.

Christian Science comes as did Jesus in the spirit of fulfilment. It proves beyond doubt what has hitherto been but half believed. It makes clear the scientific and spiritual fact that man has a divine Principle of existence, of which he is the full and perfect expreion; and that God (Good) is this Principle. Must not his true freedom consist, then, in rfect harmony with all that is included in his Principle,—Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Substance, and Intelligence? In Science this relation is indestructible.

Man’s freedom to exercise inalienable rights is established and maintained Principle alone. The permanence of human affairs or institutions depends upon conformity to Prince. We cannot even conceive of existence out i Civil law shadows forth tis truth in its treatment of criminals. One accounted wholly unprincipled is either denied the right to exist at all, or he loses his freedom, .through imprisonment, virtually- as to relations with society- ceasing to exist.

If everything that exists requires a principle of existence does that necessitate many principles? Human reason has never been able to reconcile its conflicting theories, because they were not based on apprehension of the unity of Truth.

It has separated from their one, infinite Principle, its varied manifestations, and discord has resulted. Christian Science reveals this divine Principle as the ruling power of the universe and man. It makes clear that to admit anything can hinder man from manifesting perfectly the harmony of th government is to set up a power antagonistic to it. Admitting one Principle of existence the conception of another power becomes impossible.

Misunderstanding of this Truth is the only bondage. It i the contrary “beliefs of the human mind which rob and enslave it.” * Paul in his letter to the Galatians expresses the same thought. “Howbeit, at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods: but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments (elements) wherein ye desire to be in bondage over again?” Since man is not self-existent, but coexistent with and manifests God, his Father, to know one is to know the other. Man, as the son of God, has al ways been be. The understanding of what this sonship means delivers from the supposed bondage of beliefs. It is our beliefs about God that enslave us. Lip service, tithes of our wealth, sevenths of our days are not offerings worthy of the God we worship. While God is conceived of as a tyrant with man for His slave, the greater the humility with which man prostrates himself before us master in worship, the more completely will he reflect this idea of God through tyranny over he weaker brethren. •ScIE!CB AD HEALTH, Every wrong sense of God is ^anisted in wrong action. In the acknowledgment and understanding of God as Principle, Spirit, Truth, “Tyrants and saves are like shadows of night, In the van of the morning light,” Jesus said: “No longer do I call you servan; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known unto you”; and, “The bond-servant abideth not in the house forever; the son abideth forever. If therefore, the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The understanding of these words will destroy the false sense of God, and bring out the true.

Many look to political freedom as the means of salvation from the innumerable ills that oppress humanity. But Jesus ignored the political bondage of the people, and addressed himself directly to freeing them from belief in another power than God, Good. He made himself a living demonstration of the powerlessness of evil, and of the nature and relation of Father and Son, that they might learn their oneness with himself and the. Father. Jesus never represented God as being other than all Good; he contradicted by word and deed the thought that He could be the Author of sickness, sin, or death, or that they existed by any divine law. They invariably disappeared before his presence and word.

To acknowledge the right of any power to rule by obeying its supposed laws, is to support it as a power, even though of itself it may be utterly devoid of power. It is thus that man has given power to sin, sickness, and death, and this general belief in their power and necessity is their only support. It is said in SINCE Rid HETH that could the mention of disease be ruled out of all conversation and reading, and replaced by the ideas taught in Christian Science, a modern miracle would be manifested, in the marvellous change in the health of the people that would ensue.

The work has begun. The knowledge that disease is contrary to the law of God, and therefore not a human necessity, supports the hope of freedom om its bondage. Christian Science is defined as “the law of God, Good, which interprets the Principle and rule of universal harmony and demonstrates it.”... “The understanding of Spiritual truth magnifies the divine power in human apprehension, and makes evident the supremacy of Spirit and the powerlessness of matter to heal.” * There is no danger to a man who knows what life and death are. Jesus of Nazareth understood that Life is, and that death is not; he established the immortality of the one, and the unreality of the other by absolute proof. What clearly understood as based on Science can be demonstrated. The shape of the earth, and the ct that there was another continent, may have been believed by others at the time of Columbus, but these facts had no practical value until they were proven by his faith and courage. Since the understanding has now come, that we may be free from the bondage of sin and sickness—the “beggarly elements” as Paul calls them—and that we can overcome evil with Good, why not hasten to acquaint ourselves with the scientific rule of demon- tl.UIV,... ^,. vu,1A. 11,vw VIAl 1VVV& .JURA “1 -.^ .^,.^g Odes to Freedom and invectives against Tyranny naturally kindle a desire to obtain the one and be rid of the other. But there can be neither tyranny nor bondage when we fully understand the Principle of Omnipotence and obediently identify ourselves therewith. There will be no wrongs to redress when once we appreciate and stand for our right: viz: entire freedom from all evil and destructive influences through the understanding that they are without principle or support. Christian Science presents mankind as the expression of the glory and likeness of Infinite Good, Divine Principle whose substance is Spirit, Mind; not in bondage to the illusions of materiality, sin, and death.

God is represented as saying to Ezekiel: “Son of Man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee.” To hear the messages of Truth we must stand upright before every claim of bondage, and so honor and glorify our Maker.

Jesus declared against belief in another power than God (Good) in the words to the woman: “Thou art loosed from thine infirmity.” The belief that apparently deprived her of fence AND HEALTH. the sustaining power of Life, was found to be of none effect in the presence of the exponent of the true law, “And immediately she was made straight and gloried God.” He knew it was not as the result of his Father’s will that this woman was “bowed together so that she could not lift herself up.”

He finds no fault with her, convicts her of no transgression of law, but speaks of her to the ruler of the synagogue as “a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years,” and asks: “Should she. not be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” The case illustrates the fact that it is only the universal! belief, in the power and ality of evil—Satan as opposed to Good,—that constitutes the infirmity of mortals, that is their bondage.

The text-book of Christian Science states that “a lie is the only Satan there is.” This statement is in perfect harmony with Jesus’ declaration that” he was murderer from the beginning and abode ;not in the truth, because there is no truth in him,” and “when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and either thereof” If the time spent in trying to find the origin and foundation of evil and its necessity in the universe, were devoted to understanding the Source of good, and eradicating every claim not in harmony with that principle, the results would be more satisfactory. We know enough of the lie, when we understand how to destroy it with Truth. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone us (Rev. xx. 10). Who will send his cause?

The claims that would enthrone evil or Satan, and make him ruler over all, in Science are proven false, and his seeming subjects are set free. When there are no subjects. over which to exercise power what becomes of the power? What he become of the institution of chattel slavery which seemed to have so am a foothold in this country? There was sued a proclamation of freedom; and when slaves were aves no longer, the seeming power of that institution hold men in bondage ceased to exist as a power. Those who had compassion on. the negro, deprived of his rights and wed in bondage, spent little time in discussing the origin of the evil, or its necessity,—or whether it might not be authorized by divine law. Those who courageously grappled with this monstrous claim, spent their time and energy solely in proving it wrong in both principle and practice, and demonstrated the rights of man to be a man to the full limit of his capabilities. When the evil was dethroned its ignoble origin was seen, and it is fast drifting into te oblivion of nothingness.

Christ came “anointed to preach good tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the captive, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Did not those who believed his word and freedom om their bondage to evil, whether in the form of disease or sin? The law of Life, Truth, and Love which he declared, abolished the supposed law of sickness, sin, and death.

How many to-day believe this glad tidings and follow the command to preach it to the poor; to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, and raise the dead? These are the signs that Jesus positively and without limitation of time or race, declared should be the proof of having believed and understood his words.

When we ask the question: “Why do you not prove the truth of Christ’s teaching?” the answer romes: “Sickness and sin are real masters and we can never in this world expect to be free from them- nor from death; all must submit to these masters i” Yes; so long as they are feared and served they will seem masters indeed. We, however, have the example of One who neither feared nor served them, but proved himself their master; before him they trembled and ed. This life is the accepted model of the Christian world; the early believers proved, as he had declared believers should, the truth he taught. Why do we continue in bondage? Because either we fail to discern our rightful liberty based on the Principle of Truth—or through fear dare not maintain it. “They have rights who dare maintain them.” To believe ourselves in line with popular theological and medical teaching, helpless, will not destroy our sense of bondage. The sense of God or Good must replace the sense of evil. Good must become the all power and evil the powerless. If this view shakes theological creeds, they must be recast, and based upon Principle that cannot be shaken. One minister of the Episcopal with, seeing more clearly than many, says: “The practical issue of all the present tendency of human life must be, that the best thought of the world will overcome the worst thought. There must come a natural selection of religious, a survival of the fittest among faiths.” The Principle and Science of Christianity will survive, and will awaken humanity to discern-and to maintain-rights which are God-given and inalienable. We need to understand our inherent right to express the divine character and individuality of Good; the right to be wholly governed by Principle whose law sustains health and harmony; the right to the liberty of the sons and daughters of God.

Jerusalem in bondage with her children is not the divine idea of motherhood. “But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mothEr.” The Truth convinces us we are not the children of bondage. If we, shall we not enter into our inheritance? “With freedom did Christ set us free; stand st therefore and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.” Understanding of the Principle and Science of Truth, as brought to light in Christian Science, delivers us from the bondage of fear and ignorance; it relieves us from service in the warfare that materia medica seems to wage against the government of the One Mind. When we decide whether to give our allegiance to good or evil, we shall no longer try to honor the living God through lip service in acceptance of theological doctrines neither understood nor believed. The human family is now being awakened from the dreams of modern mythologies, and sees its hope of me- Jiverance in the interpretation of Divine Principle, the all- power of Good afforded by scientific Christianity.

When Christ sets us free, we have courage to refute the doctrine of the divine institution of slavery to sin and sickness, with the logic of Divine Love. Is true Freedom but to break Fetters for our own dear sake; And with leathern benrts forget That we owe mankd a debt? ye are slaves who fear to speak For the fled and the weak I They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think, They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.




The Kingdom of Heaven

by Mary Brookins

Our Understanding of God, concluded

THE thought has been developed in the former readings that it was the mission of Jesus the Christ to bring mankind into right apprehension and so into full possession of his God-given dominion, the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now, for a little while, let us ponder this kingdom in the light of the Bible and Christian Science.

A kingdom implies two elements- the ruler and the ruled. No better understanding of a kingdom can be had, than that gained through a correct estimate of its king. To the student of Christian Science, God is Infinite Spirit, Mind, Soul, terms synonymous and interchangeable. “Life, Truth, and Love,” are not qualities of His, but are the highest terms we may use to express Him (SCIENCE AND HEALTH). Under His supreme sway, His kingdom, spirit and lasting, is eternal harmony, 8, 4, 5, 6). Not in some distant sphere, not as “some for-o, divine event,” but on earth, here and now, may man realize its peace and joy, and enter upon his inheritance (7). What of the Gospel, good news, of 10.)

It was the burden of the preaching of John the Baptist, as he heralded the Messiah (11). It was the keynote of Christ’s message to the world (12, 13). And finally, wen he was preparing to leave the work in the hands of his disciples it was his most urgent and oft-repeated charge to them, that they should proclaim the actual presence 16). Although this kingdom was preached as an actual and present reality, we are given understand plainly, that it is not at all of a material nature (17, 18). Neither that it is a temporal kingdom, enduring only for a time (19, 20, 21, 22).

May we look for this kingdom here? (23.)

Are we to expect it to come unsought? (24.)

Shall we depend upon outside assistance in the search? (25.) How astonishgly near is it found to be, when rightly sought! (26.)

Our Master taught of this kingdom by parables. The sower, the leaven, the grain of mustard seed, all illustrate the growth of the kingdom of God within. The fulness of the tree is in the seed; the action is in the leaven; the power to express perfect righteousness is in the man who reflects eternal Life—God.

It is necessary to clear the way, cleanse the thought, for the establishment of this kingdom (27). Belief in matter, with all its accessories of pain and pleasure, must be scared to make room for the pure consciousness of spirit. Are we willing to part with all we have for the pearl of great price, the Truth that the Christ is the complete Saviour? This pearl is richly worth the price, though all be given, for God gives only Good in exchange (28, 29, 30, 31).

How can we grasp this Truth? (32, 33, 34, 35, 86.)

How is the way clearly set forth by Paul? (3-7, 88, 39.)

On a material plane, we should say that the kingdom of an earthly ruler extends to all that is governed by him. As God’s power and dominion extend over the whole universe, His authority is supreme over all, His influence is spiritual and all-pervading. It is the reign of Harmony, real and indestructible, holding absolute sway throughout (40, 41).

It is changeless as its ruler, forever shielding its subjects in perfect safety (42, 43, 44, 45). What position then, is it our right and our duty to take? The sons and daughters of God are not held in slavish subjection to a tyrannical power (46, 47, 48). The Master, even, preferred a term of nearer relationship than that of servants (49).

The only bondage is the voluntary submission mortals field to the false claim of a supposed power. But in the spiritual version of the Lord’s Prayer, is this assurance:” Thy Truth destroyeth the claims of error.”

Thus man is found to be gloriously he—not be to do right or wrong, whichever seems to him most expedient or profitable- but free as a child of God; incapable of sin, sickness, or death (50, 51, 52, 53, 54). The question suggested by these statements is a common one, and it is answered by Paul’s summary of the work of redemption. Shall any presume to say that mortals may take advantage of this sense of liberty and abuse its opportunities? Paul asks (55) and himself answers in language more forcible and beautiful than we could devise (56) and Peter adds (57).

This conception of the freedom, security, and harmony of God’s Kingdom, does away with a supposed element of much mischief, fear, a belief to which every child of God should be a total stranger, and yet the most comrr.on of all false claims (58). Is it a legacy from our Father that we should so appropriate it? (59, 60.) Judging from the long. list of “Fear-note” in the Bible, it is no part of the Divine economy. Let us hear some of them (61, 62, 68, 6).

Yet we are commanded in a certain sense to fear God (65, 66, 67, 68). The Wise Man said (69, 70,) and Moses gives the best example of this allowable fear (71). This is the only justifiable fear and is the real liberty.

With all servile fear destroyed, and the people of God acting in eternal liberty of spirit, they will experience the blest atmosphere of the Kingdom of Heaven, that was proclaimed at the birth of the Saviour (72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77), and will come into something of a realization of the grand consummation referred to by Paul (78).




The Way

by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy

THE present stage of progress in Christian Science presents two opposite aspects: a full-orbed promise, and a gaunt want. The need however is not of the letter, but of the Spirit.

Less teaching and good healing is to-day the acme of “well done”; a healing that is not guess-work,—chronic recovery ebbing and owing,—but instantaneous cure. This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived. To consummate this desideratum, mortal mind must pass through three stages of growth.

First, self-knowledge. Physician, thou must know thyself, and understand the mental state of thy patient. Error and out is two-thirds destroyed; for the remainder only stimulates and gives scope to higher demonstration. To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea. Mental darkness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power an its victim is responsible for its supposititious presence. “Cast the beam out of thine own eye.” Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike the Anointed, and cast it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient’s mind, making his body sick; remove it, and reS like the dove from the deluge.

“Physician, heal thyself.” Let no clouds of sin gather and fall in mist and showers from thine own mental atmosphere. Hold thy gaze to the light; and the iris of faith, more beautiful than the rainbow seen from my window at the close of a balmy autumnal day, will span thy heavens of thought.

A radiant sunset, beautiful as blessings when they take their flight, dilates and kindles into rest. Thus will a life corrected illumine its own atmosphere with spiritual glow and understanding.

The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate, need no temporary indulgence that they may be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom. My students with cultured intellects, chastened affections, and costly hopes, give promise of grand careers. But they must remember that the seedtime is past, the harvest hour has come, and songs should ascend from the mount of Rev- tation sweeter than the sound of vintage bells to villagers on the Rhine.

The seed of Christian Science which” when sown, was the least of all seeds,” has sprung up, borne fruit, and the birds of the air,—the uplifted desires of the human heart-have lodged in its branches. Now, let my faithful students feeding the hungry hearts carry the fruit of this tree into the rock-ribbed nests of the raven’s callow brood.

The second stage of mental development is humility. This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of Christian Science. One can never go up, until one has gone down in his own esteem. Humility is lens and prism to the understanding of mind-healing; it must be had to understand its text-book; it is indispensable to personal growth; it is the chart of its divine Principle and rule of practice.

Guard humility. “Watch and pray without ceasing,” or you will miss this way of Truth and Love. Humility is no busybody: it has no moments for trafficking in other people’s business; no place for envy; no time for idle words,—vain. amusements, or do all the et cetera of the ways an means of per- Sonal sense.

Let Christian Scientists minister to the sick;—the school- room is the dernier resort. Let them seek the lost sheep who, having strayed from the true fold, have lost their great Shepherd and yearn to find living pastures, and rest beside still waters. They long for the Christlikeness that is above the present status of religion, beyond the walks of common life, quite on the verge of heaven. Without the cross and healing, Christianity has no central emblem, no history.

The seeds of Truth fall by the wayside, on artless listeners’ itching ears and dull disciples; they fall on stony ground, and shallow soil. The fowls of the air pick them up. Much of what has been sown has withered away; but what remaineth, has fallen into good and honest hearts, and is bearing fruit.

The third stage of mental growth is manifested in love, the greatest of all stages and states of being. Love that is irrespective of self, rank, or following. For some time it has been clear to my mind that those students of Christian Science whose Christian characters and lives recommend them, should receive full fellowship from us, no matter who has taught them. If they have been wrongly taught, they are not morally responsible for this, and need special help. They are as lambs that have sought the true fold and the great Shepherd, and have strayed innocently; hence we should be ready and glad to help them and point the way.

Love is the substance of Christian Science, the basis of its demonstration—yea, its foundation and superstructure. Love impels good works. Love is greatly needed, and must be had to mark the way in Divine Science.

The student who heals by teaching and teaches by healing, will graduate under Divine honors which are the only appropriate seals for. Christian Science. State honors perish, and their gain is loss to the Christian Scientist. They include for him at present, naught but tardy justice, hounded footsteps, false laurels. God alone is his help, his shield, and Great Reward He that seeketh aught beside God, loseth in Life, Truth, and Love. All men “shall be satisfied when they awake in His likeness,” and they never should be until then. Human pride is human weakness. Self-knowledge, humility, and love are divine strength. Christ’s vestures are only put on when mortals are “washed in the blood of the lamb.” We must walk in the way which Jesus marked out if we would reach the heaven-crowned summit of Christian Science.

Be it understood that I do not recommend Christian Scien- tis to stop teaching, to dissolve their organizations, or to desist from organizing churches and associations.

The first and only College of Christian Science Mind- healing, after accomplishing the greatest work of the ages, and at the pinnacle of prosperity, is closed. Let Scientists who have grown to self-sacrifice do their present work awaiting, with staff in hand, God’s commands.

When students have fulfilled all the good ends of organization, and are convinced that by leaving the material forms thereof a higher spiritual unity is won, then is the time to follow the example of the Alma Mater. Material organization is requisite in the begin11i11g; but when it has done its work, the purely Christly method of teaching and preaching must he adopted. On the same principle you continue the mental argument in the practice of Christian healing, until you can cure without it instantaneously, and through Spirit alone.

St. Paul says: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish thing:. For now we see through a glass darkly, but thence to face.” Growth i: restricted by forcing humanity out of the proper channels for development, or by holding it in fetters.

For Jesus to walk the water was scientific, insomuch as he was able to do this; but it i, neither wisdom nor science for poor humanity to step upon the Atlantic, until we can walk on the water.

Peter’s impetuosity was rebuked. He had to learn from experience; so have we. The methods of our Master were in advance of the period in which he personally appeared; but he; example was right and is available at the right time. The way is absolute Science. Walk ye in it; but remember “Thy be one.” demonstrated by degrees, and that our demonstration rises only as we rise in the scale of being. “THY WILL BE DONE.” THIS is the law of Truth to error: “Thou shalt surely




“Thy Will Be Done”

by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy

THIS is the law of Truth to error: “Thou shalt surely die.” This law is a divine energy. Mortals cannot prevent the fulfilment of this law; it covers all sin and its effects. God is all; and by virtue of this nature and allness He is cognizant only of good. Like a legislative bill that governs millions of mortals whom the legislators know not, the universal few of God, with no knowledge of evil, enters unconsciously the human heart, and governs it.

Mortals have only to submit to the law of God, to come into sympathy with it, and to let His will be done. This unlabored motion of the law of divine Love gives, to the weary and heavy laden, rest. But who is willing to do His will or to let it be done? Mortals obey their own wills, and so disobey the will of God.

All states and stages of human error are met and mastered by divine Truth’s negativing error, in the way of God’s appointing. “Those whom He loveth He chasteneth.” His rod brings to view His love, and interprets to mortals the gospel of healing. David said: “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word.” He who knows the end from the beginning, attaches due penalties to sin, as its antidotes and remedies.

Who art thou, vain mortal, that usurpeth the prerogative of divine wisdom, and wouldst teach God not to punish sin; that would shut the mouth of His prophets, and cry, “peace, peace,” when there is no peace—yea, that “healeth the wounds of my people slightly”? “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have him in derision.,

The Principle of divine Science is Love. The divine rule of this Principle demonstrates Love, and proves that human belief fulfils the law of belief, and dies of its own physics. Metaphysics also reveals this Principle of cure when sin is self-destroyed. Short-sighted physics admit the so-called pains of matter that destroy its more dangerous pleasures. Insomnia compels mortals to learn that neither oblivion nor dreams can recuperate the life of man, whose Life is God; for God neither slumbers nor sleeps. The loss of gustatory enjoyment and the horrors of indigestion, tend to rebuke appetite and to destroy the peace of a false sense.. false pleasure is, and ever will be, chtened; it has no right to be at peace. To suffer for having other Gods before Me,. is divinely wise. Evil passions die in their own flames, but are punished before extinguished. Peace has no foothold on the false premises that evil should be concealed, and that Life and happiness should still attend it. Joy is self-us- tained; goodness and blessedness are one; suffering is self- inflicted, and good punishes evil.

To this Christian logic and the logic of events, egotism and false charity say: “Not so, Lord;” it is wise to cover iniquity and punish it not; then shall mortals have peace. Divine Love, as unconscious as incapable of error, pursues the evil that hideth itself, strips o its disguises, and-be- hold the result- evil uncovered is destroyed.

Christian Science never healed a patient without proving this with mathematical certainty, namely; that error when found out is self-destroyed. Do men whine over a nest of serpent, and post placards around it warning people not to stir up these reptiles because they have stings? Christsaid: “Handle serpents,” and, “Be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.” The wisdom of a serpent is to hide itself. The wisdom of God as revealed in Christian Science brings the serpent out of his hole, handles it, and takes away its sting. Good deeds areharmless. He who has faith in woman’s special adaptability to lead in Christian Science, will not be shocked when she puts her foot on the head of the serpent, and it bitelh at the heel.

Intemperance begets a belief of disordered brains, membranes, stomach, and nerves; and this belief serves to uncover and kill this lurking serpent, intemperance, that hides itself under the false pretense of human need and innocent enjoyment. The belief in venereal diseases tears the black mask of the shameless brow of licentiousness, torments its victim, that thus it may save him from his destroyer.

Charity baa the courage of conviction. It may suffer long; but has neither the cowardice nor foolhardiness to cover iniquity. Charity is Love; and Love opens the eyes of the blind, rebukes error, and casts it out. Charity never flees before error, lest it should suffer from an encounter. Love your enemies or you will not lose them; and you love them, you will try to reform them.

Christ points the way of salvation. His mode is not cowardly, uncharitable, nor unwise; but it teaches mortals to handle serpents and cast out evil. Our eyes must be open in order to open the eyes of others; else the blind will lead the blind and both shall fall. The sickly charity that supplies criminals with bouquets has been dealt with summarily by the good judgment of people in the old Bay State. Inhuman medical bills, class legislation, and Salem witchcraft are indigenous to her soil.

“Out of the depths have I delivered thee.” The drowning man just rescued from the merciless wave is unconscious of suffering. Why then do you been kra his peace and cause him to suffer in coming to life? Because you wish to save him from death. Then if a criminal is at peace, is he not to be pitied and brought back to life?—Or are you afraid to do this lest he suffer, and turn on you and rend you? Cowardice is selfishness. When one protects himself at his neighbor’s cost, let him remember: “He that would save his life shall lose it.” He risks nothing who obeys the law of God; but instead, he shall find the Life that cannot be lost.

Our Master said: “Ye shall indeed drink of my cup.” Jesus stormed sin in its citadels and kept peace with God. He drank this cup, giving thanks, and he said to his followers: “Drink ye all of it,,—drink it all, and let all drink of it. He lived the spirit of his prayer—“Thy kingdom come.” Shall we repeat our Lord’s Prayer when the heart denies it; refuses to bear the cross, and to full the conditions of our petition? Human policy is a fool that saith in his heart: “No God “-a caressing Judas that betrays Christ and kills itself. This Godless policy never knows what happiness is nor bow it is to he obtained,

Jesus did his work, and left his glorious career for our example. On the shore of Gennesaret he tersely reminded his students of their worldly policy. They had suffered and seen their error. This experience caused them to remember the reiterated warning of their Master, and to “cast U1eir nets on the right side.” When they were fit to be blessed they received the blessing. The ultimatum of their human sense of ways and means ought to silence ours. One step from the direct line of divine Science cost them—what? A speedy return under difficulties, darkness, unrequited toil; a night without a star.

The currents of human nature rush in against the right course; health, happiness, and life or not into one of their channels. The law of Love saith:” Thy will, not mine, be done;” and Christian Science proves that human will is lost in the divine, and Love, the white Christ, is the remunerator.

If, consciously or unconsciously, one is At work in a wrong direction, who will step forward and open his eyes to see this error? He who has cast the beam out of his own eye; who speaks plainly to the offender, and tries to show his errors to him before letting another know it.

Pitying friends took down from the cross the fainting form of Jesus and buried it out of their sight. They who had not drunk of his cup, lost sight of him. They could not behold this immortal Life and the form of Godlikeness. All that I have written, taught, or lived that is good, flowed through self-forgetfulness and my faith in right. Suffering or Science, or both in the proportion that their instructions are assimilated, will point the way, shorten the process, and consummate the joys of acquiescence in the methods of divine Wisdom and Love. The scripture saith, “He that covereth iniquity shall not prosper.” No risk is so stupendous as to neglect opportunities ,which God giveth- to fail to forewarn and forearm our fellow mortals against the evil, which, if seen, can be destroyed.

May my frieus and my enemies so profit by these way- marks, that what has chastened and illumined another’s way, may perfect their own live by gentle benedictions. In every age, the pioneer reformer must pass through a baptism “Put up Thy Sword.” 9 of fire; but the faithful adherent of Truth have gone on rejoicing. Christian Science gives a form foundation and fear- Jess wing. These are its inspiring tones from the lips of our Master: “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me, and none shall be able to pluck them out of my hands.” He is but “An hireling who fleeth when he seeth the wolf coming.”

Loyal Christian Scientists be of good cheer. The night is far spent, the day dawns. God’s universal kingdom will appear. Love will reign in every heart, and His will will be done on earth as in heaven.




“Put Up Thy Sword”

by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy

AT the meeting of the Association at Hotel Boylston, February 5, ’89, in the course of a discussion of certain proposed disciplinary action towards students who were expelled mme months ago for “immorality,” a student cited the words of Jesus: “Put up thy sword.”

At the conclusion of the discussion, our Teacher said the following “word in due season”: While Jesus’ life was full of Love, and one prolonged demonstration of Love, it appeared hate to the carnal mind, or mortal thought, of his time. He said: “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”

This action of Jesus was stimulated by the same love that closed- to the senses—that wondrous life; and that summed up its demonstration in the command, “Put up thy sword.” The very conflict his Truth brought, in accomplishing its purpose of Love, meant, all the way through, ‘Put up thy sword”; but the sword must have been drawn before it could be returned to the scabbard.

My students need to search the Scriptures and SCIENCE AND HETH to understand the personal Jesus’ labor in the flesh for their salvation. They need to o this to understand my works and motives, with their aims and tendencies.

The attitude of mortal mind in being healed morally, the same as its attitude physically. A Christian Sure cannot heal the sick and take error along with Truth—in the recognition or the approbation of it. This you vent the possibility of destroying the tares. They muff separated from the wheat before they can be burned; Jesus foretold the harvest hour and the final destruction error through this very process—the furnace and the The tendency of mortal mind is to rush from one extre another. Truth comes into the intermediate space, say “I wound to heal; I punish to reform; I do it all in my peace I leave with thee; not as the world giveth go unto thee. Arise, let us go hence; let us depart omit material sense of God’s ways and means, and gain a spiritual understanding of them.”

But let us not seek to climb up some other way, as we do if we mistake the end for the beginning. Chrb:tian Science demands order and Truth. To abide by these we must first understand the Principle of our work, and be that it is peace but not hate. Then we shall demonstrate the Principle in the way of His appointment, and not acco to the infantile conception of our way—as when a child sleep walks safely on the summit of the roof, because a funambulist thinking himself where he is not, though he fall immediately if conscious of his position and its ant perils.

My students are at the beginning of their demonstra They have a long warfare with error in themselves and i others to finish, and they must, at this stage, use the of Spirit.

They cannot now take the attitude nor adopt the words that Jesus used at the end of his demonstration.

If you would follow in his footsteps, you must not try gather the harvest while the corn is in the blade, no when it is in the ear. A wise Spiritual discernment mused in your application of his words and ac to your state of combat with error. “There remaineth,” it is true, “a Sabbath rest for the people of God”; but we must have done our work, to enter into our rest, as God di




Christ My Refuge

by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy

O’ER waiting harpstrings of the mind
There sweeps a strain,
Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
The power of pain;

And wake a white-winged angel throng
Of thoughts, illumed
By faith, and breathed in raptul’ed song,
With love perfumed.

Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show
Life’s burdens light.
I kiss the cross, and wait to know
A world so bright.

And o’er earth’s troubled, angry sea
I see Christ walk,
And come to me, and tenderly,
Divinely talk.

Thus Truth engrounds me on the Rock
Upon Life’s shore,
Against which the winds and waves can shuck,
Oh, nevermore or

From tired joy and grief afar,
And nearer Thee,—
Father, where Thine own children are,
I love to be.

My prayer, some daily good to do
To Thine, for Thee,-
An offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me.




Love or Conscience;—Which?

by Rev. L. P. Norcross

A sermon preached in Chickering Hall, Boston, Mass.

Love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. xiii. 10.

WE are met here with one of those enigmatical statements that St. Paul lights to make use of. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, does it not? What can he mean by it? Does he mean absolutely, without qualification, what he appears to be saying? Is the mere sentiment of love all that we need for the daily business of the world—and how is love fulfilling of law? Suppose, for instance, I owe a man thousand dollars; will he accept the statement that I love him in lieu of payment? How would State street and Wall street like to conduct busine on that plan? Will love pay the butcher, and tis the baker and coal dealer? Does the mother’s love for her ch appease its hunger and its want of clothes and shelter? Is this what Paul means by the statement? We live in a matter of-fact world—at least, we think we do. This is what our senses tell us. Cold, hunger, and nakedness are facts that we are confronted with every day; so that a good bank account is a desirable thing to have, Tax day and pay day come with invariable regularity; so that we all feel the need of “a friend at court” in the shape of solid cash. This would be the human way of putting the matter.

Are we not all of us discovering, by rough experience, that we live in a world where level-headed, pln, sene men and women are needed-not enthuas and star gaze? That love is a most excellent thing to have in the home, we all admit. It is beautiful in the prayer meeting and the class room. It will help to soften many of the hard and ting condions of le. Doubtless most men have moments when they regret that they have so few opportunities to practice it. But then, 4’ business is business”; and would not be strange if many excellent and sensible people, who would not for the world think of cain Paul’s orthodoxy in question, and who do not mean to dispute his claims upon them as a religious guide and teacher, yet have a feeling that he must be mistaken in its statement about love being aJullment of the law.

They do not mean openly to put any slight upon him, yet they find it hard to understand fully what his meaningis-at any rate to reduce it practice in the every-day ai of life. They are apt think that Paul led in an age he conditions of which were not as hard and material as the one that we live in; and that were he og in this th century, surrounded by our civilization and the hard conditions of life which we have to canon he would be more col than to have made such a statement as he did. But Paul did live in as hard and as material an age as our own- in fact one that was for woe; for humanity has advanced many degrees since his day. He had his frau quota of burdens and evils. He knew about the dark, or the night side of things, but then he knew the power and omnipotence of Love; and so be says: “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Why do we fail to understand him?

The reason is, that we have revers the conditions of things.

Suppose, now, we began to say,—and realize what we say: “God, Truth, and Heaven, are real facts; they do est. We do not merely believe in them, we know and understand them: while as for our senses or our material beliefs, they may seem real, but there is no certainty that they exist at all.”

In a word, could we change our conscioness of ourselves and of the universe, we should come to be things from the correct point of vision.

Now ere are two words here that demand our attention. They are LAw and LOVE; and to them we will confine our attention. What I will ask you to do, is to follow me as I attempt to draw out the lessons which they have for us on this higher plane of Divine understanding.

Beginning here at this point, notice first: The lowest form of life that we are acquainted with is the vegetable kingdom; such as the trees and plants. They have no perception, and cannot know what love is. There is, in belief, a simple law of growth to which they are subject, which causes them to pile layer upon layer until some of them, like the cedars of Lebanon, pierce the clouds. Advancing a step, you come in contact with the lowest forms of animal existence, such as the fishes, the reptiles. Here you can discover very little of nsibility; very little of the feeling that belongs to the higher orders of Being. Rise a step higher and we come to the brute creation; the wild beasts, the lion, the tiger, and the elephant. They appear to have more of intelligence. Some of them, as the elephant, even seem to reason and judge on a limited scale; But do they know anything of love as a rule of action? There is not a spark of it to be detected in them.

Going higher still, we come to the domestic animals; so called because man has associated them with him for certain uses,—as the horse, the dog, and the ox. They become a part of him and are woven into his thought; so much so that they reflect his will and his intelligence in a measure—yet love, conscience, and truth, are not expressed therein.

Still advancing in our thought we come to man himself But we no sooner begin to study him from the standpoint of the five senses, than he appears to be about as much of an animal as the brute order below him. He has the appetites of the animal, and the instincts of the animal. Regarded from a high spiritual standpoint, be would not seem to possess much of a religious nature or inspiration, save in solitary instances here and there.

You will notice that race feeling is a dominant one with 11 men. They are governed by passion, caprice, and prejudice. The African will associate only with the African. John Chinaman cares for none but Chinamen. The European discourse in the ordinary every-day use of it, in ch mrs and omen of plain common-sense and practical affairs employ it.

Now, my heart, whence comes this faculty of conscience? Did God create it? We are told in that marvellous account of the creation, recorded the first chapter of Genesis, that “God made man in his own image and likeness-” that; he reflects Spirit, Li, Light, Truth, Love, and Intelligence. As such, he surely needs no conscience; and since there can be nothing reflected in him which is not in the Infinite Mind itself, there can be no faculty in him-nor any expression of one-which was not in the Infinite Mind. So, if conscience is not a faculty that God has any use for, should we look for its reflection in a being made in His “image and likeness 11? If man had never come under a belief of the material senses, then there would sell be no need of conscience for him. Conscience was not in existence in Adam till after the. story of the fall. It is most-Edenio, not ante-Edenic. It came into play after the exile, not before. ?or that in his own consciousness he has fallen under a curse, and so out of harmony, he comes under another king; and that king to him is Conscience.

You cannot fail, my friends, discover that I am discussing this topic to-day mainly from the practical side of things. This is the side in which Truth must come to us, if it comes at all. Now let us proceed in our examination of this law of conscience, and its manifestations. Conscience is perpetually imposing restraints and checks upon us. It is a police officer, or sheriff, standing over us with a raised club-if we fail to comply, ready to fell us to the ground-but it is powerless to give any aid. It never inspires or imparts courage, love, hope, or joy. It can make rules plenty for us to keep; but can do not the slightest thing towards making it easy for us to full obligations.

Do you not know full well that a man may be ever so conscientious, keep all the law from the conscience side of it, and still be a bigot and a pmitan? How sour, narrow, and gloomy men can become under the incessant lashin of conscience, let the records of the old colonial scenes which were once enacted here in Boston bear witness toil In ct, till am comes into higher .atmosphere, he is but ha a man.

Again: it ought to be perfectly evident to any thinking person, that conscience is not a safe and unerring guide; because there no unity and harmony in its tones at all. It never gives a universal verdict on any one point of duty so that the universal consciousness of men read it alike. There is in it no clear Spiritual ring or tone of love or right as a principle of the Divine Mind which is eternally reflected in men and women-and through all realms and world. Thus it tells the Jew one thing, the Catholic another, and the Prestant still another. It has many voices as there are parties, sects and races of men.

Let me give you a forcible, and somewhat amusing instance of this fact told in connection with Count Agenor Do Gparin, a noted french author and publicist. Some of the older persons in my audience may possibly recall him as the warm friend and ally of our government, in putting down the rebellion. He represented the highest type of French thought and French Christianity in his day, and was to France, in moral elevation, what Gladstone is to England, or Lincoln was to America. This it is which makes him all the more valuable for my purpose.

To an American friend he is reported as saying, immediately after the assassination of our martyred Lincoln, that he deplored not only his death but the manner of his taking of Why? What was there in the mode of the great American statesman and hero’s death to trouble and distress this gifted French admirer? Was it because he met his death in a theatre?—a fact which filled so many sensitive American consciences at the time with poignant grief. Oh no; not in the least; for Count Me Gasparin often visited the theatre himself, so he said, but he never went on the eve- in of god Friday,—the evening, you will recollect, that Lincoln was assassinated. You see Good Friday had all the sacredness to the; high-minded French Christian, that the Puritan Sabbath has to the typical Americ^n one; and, true to his French instincts, he could not help regretting it he American friend was guilty of going to the theatre on the evening of Good Friday. Now: does this law of conscience play fast and loose in this manner? Does it tell the American Christian that theatre-going is a sin in itself, “per Be” as we say; while it tells the French disciple of Jesus he may go and be amused with fine acting-only he must abstain being seen before the footlights on Good Friday?

Does it enjoin on the Catholic, that his soul will be imperiled by eating meat on a certain day in each week, at the same time along the Protestant to eat meat whenever he feels like it? Yes; this is just what is faculty we call conscience is doing; and it fshes clear evidence that it belongs to the senses-or to what we in Christian Science denominate” mortal mind” There is no unity, no harmony in Conscience, whatever.

Conscience is another tower of Babel, and sends forth many new and voices of discord. See what crimes have blotted the page of history, stigated by oonsoienoe alone! By it the Quake were hanged. By it Roger Williams was sent into exile. By it the Covenanters were burned-Bunyan put into prison. And so it will continue to be, till men and women learn that this human consciousne of theirs, made up of the evidences of the senses, is false and not to be trusted.

Now Love speaks a univerl language. What it says to one it says to all It is the reflection of the Divine Consciousness in which are Purity, Peace, Joy, Life, and Spiritual Intelligence. What conscience does, is to stand under a heavy been and attempt to lift it; while Love bends down from above and enables a man to carry it easily. Conscience is sallow, dyspeptic, and lean. Love is strong, buoyant, and full of Life and hope. Conscience performs a duty because it feels that it must. Love does it because it delights in it. Conscience is afraid of consequences. To Love all things are pure. Conscience is said it will go to hell. • Love has no fear of hell; because were it in it, it would tum that hell into heaven and joy. Conscience keeps the Ten Commandment of the Mosaic decalogue as me police regul- rations. Love deghts to put spitu meanings into them. Conscience is perpetuly asng how little can I do and be saved. Love magnifies the law, going higher and clearer peeptions of. its Divineness and beauty; it wants more worlds to conquer. Conscience is a or passenger trudging wearily the road. Love is a bird of passage soaring toward the sea, and basking its was in the golden rays of the sun.

But would I do away with conscience some will ask. Indeed I would not. Have I not already answered this question? Certainly while men are living in a belief of me senses, and most men are, we must not snatch away the only guide the senses are cognizant of.

We who are Christian Scientists, and have but just commenced to learn a better way, should be careful, even for Love’s sake, not to take away the only guide the world, as yet, is acquainted with. It is but as yesterday that we were in thrill to these me senses. Were we all shut up in a dark, loathsome cavern. Would we not call that a cruel hand which would reach out and extinguish the taper or candle which enabled us with difficulty to pick out our way and avoid the rocks, briars, and wild beasts? But when the splendors of noon-day illumine the dungeon, and chase its black clouds away, what do we longer want of the rush-light and taper?

To men and women in the beliefs of the senses, is sure strictly applies. Conscience must be to them a schoolmaster teaching them, by suffering and pain, to gain a higher sense of life in which these laws and precepts of the senses will fade and disappear, even as it is beginning to fade out of our consciousness. We begin to see that neither we nor the world need longer remain under the law of the flesh. Yet uni the world does see this great fact, the law of conscience will still remain to scourge them. They must be saved by snoring, if they cannot gain this higher sense through the sight of Love. And so, while we no longer heed the voice of conscience in the slavish way we use to heed it; while we no longer fear its voice or heed its control; yet, for Love’s sake, we ought to be all the more careful not to take away the only rule of action which the world knows anything of-and we can cheerfully yield compance laws and regulations for which we have little respect, simply for Love’s sake. Yet, it will not always be so; “When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away.” But until that perfect day comes, we must give all the sole heed to its suggestions, for the world’s sake, though not for our own growth.

There are three practical thoughts to which I desire to call attention in closing.

First:—All the training of the past and that of our age, almost, if not entirely, under the sanction of this material sense of conscience; because the past and the present are intensely material. The culture of the schools, of the pulpits, and that of the rostrum and the press, is almost entirely a train in the realm of the senses. It is a training which is being forced by fear, or conscience. It seems almost needless to add that the belief of retribution, both here and hereafter, follows as a logical necessity. What ____,. -··- ----------------------- ----------—Tal: _ _! Tal __:.,_ ___—1.—11 back up and enforce its mandates? And this belief of hell must remain while men cherish, as they do now, a belief of life, substance, and intelligence in what they call matter. They cannot escape this belief of retribution, nor should they attempt to; since retribution is an absolute necessity from their point of view.

The second suggestion is this:—That just as st as we come under the law of Love, we begin to see why it is that sin, sickness, and death yield so readily and so rapidly to its sovereign touch. We can see, what others do not, why it was that our Lord and Master was able to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and raise the dead. It was because of the supremacy of Love. We can see that what appears supernatural and miraculous to the world, or to mortal man, is simply the Divinely natural. And we get out from under the control of all the fleshly beliefs, and away from the dominion of the senses, we begin to see how a better understanding of Life, Truth, and Love will be able to save all who come under its Divine control-not as though we had a tied or were.already perfecbut we press on toward the goal. The perfect day is coming, and we shall enter on our dominion as the sons of God.

Lastly:—Christian Science as understood and practised to- day-is not the highest, and best, and let rest of the kingdom of God. It is a John the Bapst; a forerunner of that which is to come. Understand me. I am not saying that what is true now will not be true then. The Truth does not change; but as we go higher up on to the transfigured mount of Life and Love, we ourselves shall be changed. When we all come out of these beliefs which now make this law of conscience a necessary stepping-stone out of the lower into the highest things, we will then be cooks of reflecting infinite Beauty, Love, and Intelligence; and Love will then be recognized by all as the fulfilling of the law of spirit: for since Spirit or Infinite Mind is all, there can be no other law but the universal, immo, and cngele LAw OF LOVE, for all beings to full




“Daughter, Thy Faith Hath Made Thee Whole”

by J. P. Filbert

NOTE these words of Jesus, uttered centuries ago, when he rejoiced to find “such faith.” He did not say “I, Jesus, make thee whole, or heal thee,” but simply “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” This is precisely what Christian Science is doing to-day. It practises and uses nothing whatever but what our great teacher, Jesus the Christ, practised and used in his healing the sick, and casting out devils. If other methods be employed, it assuredly is not Christian Science that proposes or sanctions. · Christian means Christ-like. What misnomer then, to term Christian Science, that which is palpably and diametrically opposed to both teaching and practice of Christ! Experience has taught us, as Scientists, that wherever one ray of the sublime faith exhibited by this “daughter” is male manifest, a shelter man or woman is the inevitable result. Christih Science demonstrates daily—yea, hourly—that the scientific methods employed by Jesus of Nazareth are every whit as live and efficacious to-day as ever they were; that they make whole the daughters of the nineteenth, no less than this daughter of the first century. “What is Science?” one asks. We answer, simply an emanation from Divine Mind- God. Jesus declared: “I say nothing unto you save that which I have received of my Father”—the Mind that always dwelt with him. A careful, reverent study of his words reveals, in all its absoluteness, the ct that this extend and exalting with which entirely supplants physical sense, is received direct from God; and in one word is—Science. This is not to be confounded with faith in visible “mate- uality,” however. Faith in all the physical phenomena of all the so-called sciences; faith in the entity of visible sun, moon, stars, trees—of animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms throughout; this faith never healed a human being I Our master here refers exclusively to the sublime faith in unseen” substance of Spirit. That it is which heeds the utterances of the” still, small voice, of Truth, and is always “saves to the uttermost.” That it is that unweariedly, uninterruptedly is abroad on errands of mercy and truth; that is, in fact, the” child of God,” Spirit, in whom the Father is “well pleased.” That it is which by Jesus was often termed understanding; which has healed its multitudes; which continues to, and ever will continue to heal multitudes on multitudes, until all shall be made free by the same benevolent, beneficent “Son of God.” is faith, this Son, this Christ to-day makes whole and free every daughter and son that touches the hem of its garment; and “whom the Son makes free is free indeed” I “But;” asserts carnal mind, in horrified remonstrance, “Jesus was the Son of God!” This assertion stands flatly contradicted by authority of that very Jesus himself. Follow us a moment. All “Christians” undoubtedly concede the ct that the Son of God, He of the “immaculate conception,” enters the kingdom of heaven. All such will still further concede that Jesus was made flesh (sin) for our sakes. In all reverence we ask: “Own sin enter the kingdom heaven?” Down. the ages the answer echoes: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven’ Can we not discriminate clearly between the fleshly Jesus and the Spiritual Christ? Indeed, that is our only way out. Jesus self never claimed personally to do the mighty works recorded as miracles. Distinctly he states: “It is not I, but the Father that dwelleth in me; He doeth these mighty works,” John—v. 30, 31. Again: “Of mine own self I can do nothing.”. • • “If I bear witness of myse, my witness is not true.” Jesus, to mortal sense, has gone from us; but his words—the words of the Christ, we Father that dwelt in him—“shall never pass away.” Jesus, the Christ! In this duality we recognize both Lord and “elder brother”—the One to serve, the other to indicate “our acceptable service.” Far be it from Christian Sci- tists to disregard either the letter or the Spirit of that obscurely brilliant career. A staunch adherence alone con- 1titutes us Christian Scientists.

“Thy faith hath made thee whole.” This faith- or light of understanding-this offspring of Spirit, is present with every human being; obscured by the seeming veil of error, personal sense, though it be. By it is made whole every creature under the “Sun of Righteousness,” wherever and whenever exercised, as by the “daughter” of the text. If not exercised, it is but the “buried talent.” Let the urn” that separates wheat from cha (personal sense) but blow upon this spark of the lunite, however, and the “buried talent” speedily becomes a flame of infinite, omnipotent faith, sufficient to destroy every appearance of evil, and bring out in bold relief the “image and likeness” of God, intact, as before “the fall”—before “mortality” took knowledge of Good and evil. Such faith finds no evil in all God’s creation, for all He made was good, and He made all that was made; hence it at once and absolutely deprives “evil” of all entity.

Of all sects on the globe, Scientists are the ones to agree with Holy Writ in its claim “God is All.” From this they understand Him to be all Individuality, Law, and Power. True faith, also, is one with God, and constitutes prophet, seer, and revelator. Whatever this exalted with promises, God fulfils. The prophet walked by faith, and Jesus came to full their prophecies. Ancient seers caught faint glimpses of the perfect fruitage of Spirit-that makes whole mentally, morally, physically,—and sighed for one worthy to unfold to them the full, blessed Truth. Jesus declared that many desired to see his day, and saw it not. How plain to us, then, that faith, understanding that apprehends the One Mind that dwelt with Christ Jesus, is the legitimate childof God, or Christ, that makes a “new creature”; if so be the creature surrenders its gros faith in matter, and accepts Spirits as the “substance of things hoped for.”

We greatly rejoice to note we steady increase of faithlessness in “material phenomena.” By this is indicated the certain fact that mortal sense has had sufficiently bitter experience through its faith in “matter,”—through repeated disappointment, in finding absolutely no permanence or rest or pleasure in the fullmen^ of materialitfs promises. Faith in matter promises grandly—but never fulls. In early life, it declares happiness to be attained in perceptible attractions-in the achievement of certain ends and aims. Lured on by its own false hope in and desire for godly ver and honors, it feeds itself greedily upon thought of prospective satisfaction in the attainment of its object- only to realize, in its mature gauntness, that its feeding was of “husks.” Especially is this true where the false faith settles upon securing to itself one of those “four winds of the earth,” the “learned professions.”

The would-be doctor dreams of a “finished course,” diploma in hand; the latter to place him before the world in his true light, as a learned benefactor to the race-but his career never satisfies him. His “golden apples” prove sawdust in the eating; and thus mortal sense is proved but the emptiest of empty dreams.

The lawyer prospective starts nimbly out upon his “course,” full of vim and “importance.” The day is an- 1-ived for “admission to the bar “-and he truly feels that, were the successful collegiat to be suddenly lost to existence, the world would indeed lose its chief i uinary. But subsequent years of sunrise and sunset cause him, too, to exclaim: “All is vanity and vexation of spirit!” The average aspirant to the pulpit receives us “deed,” is impressively ordained, and lot a glorious career stretches before him in mind’s perspective. In grand edifice he finds himself “breaking bread”- of Life?—but, alas! in bdef season he, too, finds himself face to face with an empty dream. Why? Because the error in the premise unmistakably must show forth in the conclusion. His faith was not in the unseen substance, which Jesus called “the Father.” What ecclesiastic predicts the fulfilment in this world, of all prophecies? What one prays manhood and whom. anbood in full possession here, of the exalted and exalting faith referred to by the Nazarene—and in possession, too, at no distant date; each becoming bis or her own physician, priest and prophet, Jesus-like? This is the rare example our “elder brother” left us to imitate, and none other life is purely Christly; yet, ignoring all this, these same divines assure us of their form, theoretical intention to aim to become Chrisike I Do not understand us to denounce humanity. We simply denounce error in falling short in both conception and imitation of that sublime, perfect pat- tarn-Jesus, the Christ.

The church militant is, however, begging to realize and acknowledge its lack of faith Spirit, and to deplore its consequent fragmentary, abortive work- its utter failure to reach the true goal of life: thus there is hope for it. Error discovered to be error, is the first grand stride taken in the way out of it. Humanity needs to discover its lack of this sublime, energizing faith in Spirit; this faith that Chr- tian Science triumphantly upholds with the declaration that the time is not far hence when sin, with every consequent form of error and discmd, will pass way from the face of the earth; that Christ shall reign in the hearts of men until the whole earth shall redound with the glory of the King, and every kingdom shall become the wing subject of our blessed Lord.

Without this divine faith it is impoible to please God-and without its attendant hope there is no “new creature;” rite natal cord uniting the Obrist in eve human being to God. · God declares to Ezekiel that He will garner Ch elect from the four winds of the earth; that the wind of Mind will blow upon the dry bones the breath of the Holy Ghost, until bone and sinew shall come together; and that He will cover them all with the flesh that Jesus ate. Thus will they rise from the dead sense to the Living sense, and so pass “from death unto Life”—a mighty army for God, from the whole house of Israel.

Paul tells us our faith must be “exercised.” Like a musical instrument, its keys must be touched to discourse sweet harmony- healing. Once touched, however, the sweetness and power of its vibrations become attractive; and the more attractive, the more we cause to vibrate, until finally, the discordant din of mortal sense is completely drowned by the resonant, sweet harmonies of Spirit.

Mortal sense always dies the moment we withdraw our faith in it-from pure lack of support and faith in the unity of Good turns the scales, and “adjusts the balance.” The light chaff of erring sense is fanned out, cast into the fire or Love and consume. To consummate this work, i our “reasonable service”—and it becomes our delightful service the moment its first fruit is tasted; for it is the fruit of the “tree of Life” that stands “in the midst of the Pain- adise of God.” The leaves thereof are for the healing of nations; while its fruit is joy and Life Eternal.

We all have had glimpses of the “perfect man”—the “stranger within our gates”—the “Immaculate Concept.” Who of us has not at the wholesome effect of all-absorbing, Spiritual thought? Do we not, every one, recall such blessed moments of heavenly silence? This is communion with the Angel of Light, the Christ who thus purifies, perfects, and exalts our faith and its accompanying hope; and we walk many years thereafter in the strength of it. In a word, it is the maturing of the “man of God.” We then are beginning to see, through the veil of the flesh, the beauty and symmetry of a life “hid with Christ in God.” Thus this hidden Life becomes—not theory- not idle opinions and vain speculation—but actual, living reality of experience revealing to us the full, true meaning of those memorable wor of Jews; “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.”




Life and Its Manifestations

by H. Larmie

THE highest understanding of Life the world has known since the time of Jesus, was taught in the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. Its teachings were for the purpose of bringing out, in the fullest and highest sense, the spiritual interpretation of Life and its manifestations. For eight yea the Founder taught the way of righteousness to thousands who are now rejoicing in the new interpretation; in the new sense of Life that has been revealed; that a Child is born to rule the world in mercy and justice.

The College, Church, and Journal are all an outgrowth of the teachings of SCIENCE AND HEALTH. The College, so dear to all ,ho love the Truth, taught the primary lesson of faith, meekness, and love of the Good (these include the primary idea of sonship); whioh infant lesson is learned only as opposite errors (distrust, pride, and love of evil) are overcome through demonstration in Science. If students do not possess the love of Good sufficiently to meet the demands of Truth, they either drift back to sickness and death, or maliciously turn against their Teacher; under- king to and antagonistic “schools’ of Science upon envy, hatred, and malice, and using the name of Christian Science for a cloak under which to blaspheme the name of God. Error always seeks to rival Good in power and glory until it reaches its final limits; when .meek but mighty Truth brings it to the surface to be destroyed. If unconsciously living in error, nothing but Truth can awaken us to a sense of its hideousness; when once that consciousness is awakened, we are in a comparatively safe place.

From the “College” came forth the Church-Spirituality, Purity, and Righteousness-the child of the true and faithful teachings of the College. This Child sends forth the songs of Zion. It gives the true bread of Life, and real wine of inspiration to worshippers of the living and true God (Spiritual Consciousness) and accompanies them with the burnt and peace offerings of Truth and Love, that destroy the opposite claim of error.

The Journal is the voice of both College and Church, and its name is Generosity, Mercy, and Fidelity. Every month it sends forth messages of love to the world; istibu^ ting seeds of Truth and Righteousness to the needy multitude, and making thousands of homes glad with the good news of progress in the kingdom of Christ.

SCIENCE Do HATH is the “promised land, of Spirit- up ctivity, divine intelligence, and loving forbearance; the home of the Hebrew children: and this beautiful land is owing with” milk and honey” (Truth and Love). Dear reader, have you ever realized what a wonderful volume SCIENCE AND HETH is? It is a limiess eld of beauty and delight to those that love the true and the beau. tiful; for its wonderful teachings include the whole of Life. It gives consolation to the worn and weary traveller, while bringing disturbance to the lover of sinful pleasure. It upholds the life of the good and true sons of God, but condemns sin in every form. It honors God as an book save the Bible does, and is a reach to every form of sensuality. When we read the book unde1·standigly, we shall know the meaning of His name, the beauty of its character, the right. less of its claim.

SCIENCE AND HETH, Mind and body, Principle and Idea, are in Science synonymous for Life and its manifestations. “Image and likeness” express the nature and character of Mind; Science is Divine Mind manifested in heth; Mind is Divine Principle governing the body in health, holiness, purity, and goodne. Principle is the Science of Mind reflected in the healthy boy—the true idea of Life. Mind created all that is true a beautiful. Heth is simply another term for purity and goodness. Body is an idea of

Mind; the image of Truth; the likeness of Love. Idea signifies relation to Principle; it is an object of affection in the mind of God, effecting the nature of good. All Power, all Presence, all Knowledge is God—the Principle that governs the univer and man—the only Life and Light.

Science Life, Light, and Health. It destroys mortality’s ignorance and its false sections and inclinations.

Mortal aspirations. affections, and intuitions, are the fowl of the air, the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea, that roam without reason when left to fancy and imagination. These form the ruling power in mortal man, which, if ungoverned by the highest sense of good, destroy all that is noble and true in his nature. The Spirit of Love, of Truth, of Good, is the sustaining power in man,—the very substance of his being. These faculties that seem to be mortal, are in reality spiritual powers of Mind. Through Science, the consciousness is quickened to spiritual realities that bring peace and joy; and Good becomes the law of life. They constitute the” heaven above, the earth beneath, the water under the earth,”—the all of Le.

God’s creating the heaven and the earth, was the creating of man, and placing all the conditions of life at his disposal. Is there another mind, beside God, that can pervert the Truth of being? In belief, there seems to be another mind, and that is the extent of it. We have been educated into grave error of eJief; and now Truth recalls us to the true sense of Being. Christian Science is the “Light House,” on the shores of time, that was man from the reefs “of sickness and death, and guides him to the eternity of Life.”

Sickness comes of selfishness and sensual. No one can prove him or herself free from these claims by wrapping completely in a cloak of self-righteousness; a state of deception that Science is sure to bring to judgment. All that are in the flesh are under the law of sin and death until they intelligently undo the error through Science. The carnal mind is enmity against God. We have but to learn the hidden motives that rule the affections, to know how little we love Spirit, and how selfish our lives are. Through the understanding—i. be., demonstration of the teachings of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, we rise above the claims of sin, sickness, and death, and are renewed daily by the inspiration of Truth.

Divine Life and Love have never been absent. O of their absence is occasioned wholly by our self Self separates us from God. It is the false into life, that cannot see one thing aright.

The Good we see in ourselves is visible to sense of Good and exists only in the measure that selfishness is destroyed. We constantly reflect Good or evil upon each other. Evil reflected upon the Good is destroyed by the light of its opposite,—if we are in Science. Good reflected upon the evil sense brings out the opposite, evil sense of Good, to be destroyed. This is why the spiritually minded are often misunderstood. Jesus was constantly misunderstood by the people, because his understanding of God was impossible to their materialistic conception; hence, their envy and hatred.

In proportion to our demonstration over pride, self-will and self-love, we shall realize the presence of Omnipotent Life, Love, that has no consciousness of sin and death. The body has no life of its own with which to see, hear, smell, trite or touch one thing. The only evidence of this falsity is drawn from blind belief, which is utterly destroyed by Science. The five personal senses are faculties of Mind, perceptions of Spirit; all reflected by man, Ideal Mind. Man is deal Life manifest, not in the flesh, but to spiritual discernment. Sensual belief could never attain spiritual consciousness of the All Good. As we, through Science, destroy the supposition of mind or life in the body, we appreciate the pen, spiritual sense of life in God,—he Divine Principle.

In the flesh, God is not honmed; His presence is unwel- come and unknown. The bodily senses are supposed creal one of mortality, based on the belief that Life and death, Mind and matter, Good and evil, positive and new- give, something and nothing dwell together; they are the effort to bring harmony out of opposite conditions.

When we realize Good as the only power, Tth as the only law, and Love toward our neighbor as the Principle of Life we shall have attained the first resurrection from the dead—from personal sense of evil belief. There is One Mind, and hut one man manifesting the many ideas of Life fc. There is but one Christ that is “all in all,”—one paternal and maternal Principle in all, ruling all,—the only In telli- gence governing man and the universe. We are blind to this fact because we are holding to man-made theories and opinions about God-theories that never saved our human being from sickness or the grave [ at is a religion worth, if it does not lift us out of the sense of physical suffering and death?

Beloved reader, Chrisan Science has a claim upon you. As a child of God you are bound to listen to Truth that is daily demonstrated at your do. You cannot, from any selfish interest, pass by indifferently. The voice of Truth calls you back to Life and its Realities. You are, in the reality of your being, a child of the living and tue God; a son of Righteousness. You cannot afford longer to be a prodigal son of material consciousness. The way is made clear in Christian Science for you to return.

Life always was and always will be. We have but to learn the right way, to enter into its joys and peaceful surround. kings. The child Jesus was born in the manger—meekness and humility- and thus must all Christians come into this new birth in Science. It is through abnegation of self, that we become as little children, and grow into this new understanding of Life. We must lay aside our self-gained knowledge, and learn that all intelligence is from God; all Love i, God; all Truth and Wisdom are in Divine Principle, the Law of Man.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, conceived and brought forth her ideal son—that represented the fatherhood of God (Divine Mind); and now the motherhood of God stands healed in Science. Does not motherhood conceive the ideas of Life,—and is not Divine Mind, Mother? Was not Jesus an idea of the mind of the mother, Mary?

The first Christ came through the birth of matter and demonstrated over the belief of death; the second Christ comes through the death of matter and demonstrates over the belief of birth. Out of the destruction of the fulness of error will come forth the fulness of Life.




Loss of Healing Faith in the Christian Church

by Rev. Theodore L. Dean

To most believers in Jesus, the history of healing in the Christian Church ends very abruptly with the apostolic age. Paul writes to the Corinthians that the then-still-alive body of Christ, with feeble and strong members, all needing each other, included, so his metonomy runs, “apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” Christians now affirm that a part of the members are withered or dead, and that it is no shame to the crippled body of Christ that they are so; that, because of its occurrence it is doubtless right, and the intention of the Master. We are told by them that unbelievers then needed these evidences, to cause men to flock to hear Jesus, but they are not, now necessary in heathen China to crowd a missionary’s house; nor in heathen New York, to induce them to all the half empty churches, nor to throng the McAuley Mission. We must now be content to bridge with a guess, the broad chasm existing between Paul’s “miracles”—shaking of unharmed, the “deadly viper,” the healing of Publius’ father, and others on Melita,—and the position of the church to-day praying God to heal men of diseases first sent by Him in punishment of broken material and moral laws; such healing only to be accomplished by a visionary divine force super- added to the “real” power of a physician’s experimental drugs. The healing, when brought about, to be passed to the credit of God- or the doctor-in considerable uncertainty!

Greek and Roman priests may recount wonders-mostly of tears and blood-spots; portray visions of Mary and Christ; may present the much magnified “preserved true cross” all of which is perhaps attended by a mere modicum of healing. Catholic and Protestant masses alike hold all this in light esteem-:uding in what little they concede to be real nothing to convey to themselves the full power and liberty which Jesus predicted should “follow them that believe.”

Some though honestly recoiling from this picture, claim that the New Testament gives us no right to expect to realize miraculous healing at the present date-yet confusedly admit their failure to understand the loss of that power, save by virtue of the pleased assent or decree of the Founder of Christianity, Himself. Their difcuity lays in their ignorance of what the healing power really was and is; and how closely its exercise is confined to the essential principles of that “Kingdom of God” which Jesus sought to establish. To them the Power of God is a force, capable of turning aside the natural processes of Life and death, of Health and disease. The “finger of God,” the “arm of the Lord,” are to them suggestive only of such ideas. Never a conception of real, spiritual, substantial force, do these expressions convey; never the true idea that thought is power. · When one suggests to these people the existence of a Spiritual Healing Force, one is instantly supposed to be reeling o empty formulas of words—to be talking of “charms” and “magic spells.” They say: “Jesus should have taught his formulas distinctly. All he has left us is sin- ply,-’In the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk.’” These potent words do not mean to them what they do to us, viz: “By the power with which Jesus, the Anointed, healed, arise and walk.”

Again, there are others who intelligently ask: “Could not Jesus, by explaining his methods, have prevented this loss of healing power?” Admitting, temporarily, that Jesus did conceal his real methods, we still have to declare that Jesus could not so easily have prevented the “degenerating of Christianity.”

But did Jesus really conceal his Principle of healing? No! In all Scripture there is nothing more noticeable than the recognition, By Jesus’ own self; of a moral, spiritual,—le. mental-cause of disease. When talking of the needed moral renovation of men, he says,—indicating the presence in their mind of the thought of sin and disease-They that are whole, need not a physician, but they that are sick.” He heals a impotent cripple of thirty-eight years’ disablement-but afterward takes occasion quietly to say to him:—“Go, and sin no more, lest a worse evil come upon thee.” This a materialist might construe to mean, “Go, and keep out of the draft. st A reasonable thinker, however, must see in it Jesus’ recognition of the ct that moral evils, anger, hatred, envy, falsehood, or, licentiousness, reflect themselves in bodily weakness and pain until the wages of mental sin become physical death. This, Jesus did not, after our logical manner, dogmatically dilate upon any more than upon many other facts which his words positively imply. He was pressing home the duty of love, obedience; the recognition of the Fatherhood, the Brotherhood; the need of repentance, forgiveness, and with, the variously named panacea for all human ills. He said: “Take, and give this medicine;” not, “This is the diagnosis of your case, and here is the formula of my prescription which you may compound for your neighbors’ ills, and your own in future.”

This minute analysis of his method of healing is but one among many desiderata which Jesus did not, according to record, transmit to his disciples; and which earnest Christian believers have wished he had given, as undoubtedly proving of great benefit to the church. The makes also feel that he left us creedless; when, by giving one full and deny as have the Westminster divines, he might have quelled needle strife and prevented untold agony of bloodshed and torture—po^sibly thereby have converted this chaotic world into a peaceful Eden! He might, they think, have sealed the lips of those who affirm or deny the existence of a personal devil who takes absolute possession of weak humanity. This could so easily have been done by a few learned dissertations, a les modem divines, on the subject perhaps of “origin of evil,” or by a few pertinent chapters on the peculiar reason Omnipotence had for allowing possession of devils and disease just at that time for Jesus to prove his healing power upon I

But in this II imperfect” gospel record we seem, however to have clearly stated the essential features of healing, as well as its essential limitations; together with the greatly missed “creed,” all of which are liable to be disputed or denied out- right, for the same reasons as heretofore.

Whatever “imperfections” do exist in the record, are attributable solely to those carnal weaknesses of the disciples, which, intensified in their disciples, led to the time, foretold by Jesus Himself, when“The love of many would wax cold, and many would be offended, betray one another, and hate one another,” and thus hating, they of necessity would lose all the healing power of Love—God.

What are the hints about healing in the New Testament?

To begin with, .Jesus says that God gives to men what they ask for seek for, knock for; good gifts; His Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit by which Jesus said he cast out demons. Unasked, nothing comes. Pearls are not pearls to swine. Jesus brought “peace and good-will to men” who could see him, and could grasp the object lesson of his life, crucifixion and resurrection. He can force nothing upon men,—neither can the Father.

Those who ask must believe. At Lazarus’ grave, four days occupied by the “corpse,” Jesus did not stop at the assurance, ,is if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” “If tlwu wilt believe,” he says, “thou shalt see the glory of God.” The same Jesus is there, with the same power as when, at Nazareth, he” could not do many wonderful works because of unbelief.” What constituted“belief,’, especially, in the case of Lazarus? Plainly, it must be what constituted belief in the case of the maid who, he said, “is not dead but sleepeth,” while the materialists “laughed him to scorn.” Mary and Martha evidently must believe that the sleeping Lazarus could be awakened out of his sleep. The voice of an asking believer penetrates the walls of this sleep; for faith is of God, rests in God, and is mighty through God. Seeing a man tearing himself, among, gnashing his teeth,—a clear lunatic;—the unbelieving disciples “could not cast out the demon.” In giving the key to this special case, Jesus unfolds the method yet further. “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Prayer: more thought of God, and Jess of visible matter. Fasting: be averted from dr eyes closed to the intense realism of the evils we would remove. Yet more; the “sting” of Jesus must have been sting from sin, strife, debate, and “smiting with the st of wickedness,., set forth even by Isaiah. The di ciples could not live in their selfish thought:” Who shall be greatest?” and heal. They could not heal, when living to the last degree possible, in sensual pains and pleasures. They could not live at once to eat, and to heal; live intensely to mortal sense, and all intensely to Spirit, Power,

Love. Again: Healing could not he complete and permanent, when merely aggravated effects, symptoms, were removed, and nothing further done for the healed. This fact is At forth plainly by Jesus in regard to the unclean spirit which, cast out of a man, vainly walks about for rest, and going back finds his old home unused, “swept, and garnished.” He gets” seven other spirits more wicked than himself” to come with him into that home, and the last state of their victim is worse than the first. The law of the Spirit of Life must, in everyone tlly healed, supersede “the law .of sin and death.” These are freed from the law given By men to matter and “physical life,” but only as they come under the law of Christ, God, God. When the “healed” are not filled full of Christ, and rejoicing in this liberty, guarding it by giving it freely as received, they lose their Christ, and return into bondage to the “beggarly elements” of the death- fearing world. In other words the “healed by Christ” must have “Chrhtt dwelling in their hearts by faith,” in Love; and set about doing the things formerly done by Jesus because of the Christ Spirit dwelling in him. Jesus was not always talking about healing outward evils, but inner disease of fear and of selfishness. He laid the axe at the loot of the tree. He dug out that root and then planted the fruitful seed of Good, Love, Faith, (multi-named, but essentially one) in all who, having been sick, could accept of the True Physician.

What, then, caused the belief that healing power is lost, or indeed by God intended only for the apostolic age? The key to this lays in what has been said. We will find mrs the letter to the Corinthians with which we began (in its affirmations of then-present healing power), statements that this church was proving itself carnal; that it was walking after the manner of unsaved men, divided into quarrelsome, disputatious factions; that they met to celebrate “the Lord’s Supper” in contempt of the poor, or in responsive anger, and thus “ate and drank condemnation,” so that “many among them were weak and sickly, and many slept.” They could. not remain in health themselves, nor heal others, because the conditions were not complied with. This grew more universal as the Church came out of its persecutions, and grew ch. Love died as safety and outward prosperity revived; and healing died with that Love.

Not only did quarreling prevent healing, but the matters wrangled about, were, themselves, of a carnal, material nature:—circumcision; meats offered to idols; the body that should appear in the much-doubted resurrection; all materialities were discussed at Corinth. Later, they disputed about the body of Jesus; as to its reality and possibility of physical sufferings. Those who, as gnostics, held to the most positive and spiritual views, and were sure something could be ready known, were in the same carnal spirit of persecution and anger towards their adversaries. It is a dreary waste of strife,—this history,—varied by dreams of a coming millennium with a visible reign of the personal Jesus. It is prolific of carnal enjoyments, of ascetic separations of hermits in brotherhoods, from the carnal world; separations for selfish culture and salvation, which left carnality still alive in pride and narrowness of heart. A present, realized health, liberty, and salvation obtained in Love, through Love, was thus superseded by a far-o, after-death heaven, with its antietical hell to be feared and possibly escaped from,—but always a convenient place to consign one’s “enemies,” heretic!, and heathen to. Both of these localities were intensely material, and filled with material pleasures and pains. That “God is Spirit” was forgotten, Tertullian was soon followed by the whole Western church rejoicing that he would have the pleasure of beholding all the renowned of the heathen world roasting in flames. Origen and Clemens, and the other “merciful doctors” of that time, defending themselves and their thoughts of God’s goodness, and no time to realize now the heaven they anticipated sometime for all. Even they, while calling God Father, admitted a” fall of man “and real inheritance of evil. “Sonship” was really to be recovered, not rediscovered in the rubbish of falsehood, crammed into the minds of men.

It is no wonder that healing in its narrow sense was lost, when in its broader sense the so-called healed lay prostrate on this ed. of he thought and falser feeling. When the true God, and the te, loving Jesus, were lost in the angry Judge and his “bleeding sacrifice” demanded and accepted, there was no healer left in the universe. To see our sin, or a sin ana false thought Wee on, crucifying Jesus the Christ; and to adore the love that faithfully bore it for us that we might see Divine love and hate our unloving, unforgiving thoughts;—this, is healing. To see Divine Being filled with pleasure by the bodily pain of another, satisfied by it, is not a conception to make one think pin other than most real. It is often the supposed solemn reality of physical suffering- the nearly divineness of it, the thought that it was holy in Jesus and, consequently that sickness and suffering is holy now—that antagonizes the ideas of Christian Science Healing to-day—yes, even the healing itself. We must become Christian Healers by really believing, what so often is repeated without understanding, viz: “God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting Life”—the true, deep, real Life of gospel days; the life that 8 Familiar Tallc on iristian Science. destroys death and all thoughts of fear and sin; that destroys them now by replacing with thoughts of goodness, love, and life to crowd the ransomed mind, bringing the God of the universe down out of the far-away heavens, into the near heaven of the human heart, till He no longer is believed about, but “known with joy unspeakable, and full of lo,, FAMILIAR TALK ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.




Familiar Talk on Christian Science

by Mary Brookins

THE subject of Christian Science is fairly before the people, and is being investigated and tested in every conceivable way. All new ideas and theories must necessarily pass through the fame process. Through this ordeal their claim to general acceptance, and their right—if such they have—to remain, to established. “Is it reasonable?” “Has it accomplished anything?” “Does it meet a general need?” These are among the queries that greet any proposed “new departure.” As to Christian Science we know that all these questions can. be answered afnnative1y. Scientists are ready to give a reason for the faith that is in them; to tell what has been done by it and what may be expected therefrom. There is nothing forced or unnatural about the advent of Christian Science. It comes, like all good and perfect gifts, simply because people need and are ready for it. That they are ready is proven by its rapid growth. Ruskin says: “It is the strength of Divinity which we have to recognize in all mighty things.” This is just what we seem never to recognize, but to think instead that we personally are to do great things by dint of ilividual effort and determination. We shall accomplish nothing in that way, but rather lose. Step by step men grow away from the grosser elements, learn to take cognizance of the greater power of the silent Unseen. Four years ago, an mrs tide on Christian Science was sent for publication to Te Century, but was promptly returned with the comment that no rnoh subject was of general public interest. Two years later, in the same magazine, an article appeared handling the subject quite thoroughly. The critic. ism was adverse; but it is worthy of note that in this) brief space the topic found entrance upon their pages. These points indicate the foothold Science has gained.

Let us now consider some of the questions oftenest asked regard to our doctrines.

“Do we believe in God?”

Those who gain only an inkling of the Truth, declare: “Christian Science has taken away our God and we know not where it has laid Him “; when in.reality Scice so clears away the false conceptions that have hidden Him from view, that they are dazzled by the brightness and nearne of His actual presence. They are in the position of one who, with vision focused for long range, is suddenly trying to see objects .close at hand. At first he seems fairly blinded and is ready to declare there is nothing to see.

We are forcibly reminded of the following anecdote. An admirer of a noted philosopher was once asked: “Does he believe in God?” “Believe in God!” ejaculated the friend, “why he believes in nothing else!” Says the author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH: “I believe in God more than do most Christians; for I have no faith in any other Being.” True Scientists understand that God is «I all in all,” and that nothing exists but Him and His spiritual creations. We believe in the literal truth of the Scriptural statements that us There is no power but of God,, and that He is the “Truth and the Life;”—not that He is a remote personality, emitting life, but that He is the Left itself · This is the Power that moves, that actuates, and sustains all things; whose action is so constant, regular, ad invariable that men call it” Law.” •, God is Love.” How plainly that is stated I Not somebody who deals out love as a commodity, but Love itself. One of our poets sings it in this way:—“The longer I live, and the more I see Of the struggle of souls toward the heights above, he stronger this truth comes home to me, That the universe rests on the shoulders of Love. A love so llmltless, deep, and broad That men have renamed it and called it God.”

This sene of Him brings that “perfect Love that casts out fear.”. “We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry “Abba Father.” This word “Abba” is, in the original, the most particularly endearing term for Father, and, as no English word exactly expressed it, it is simply transplanted instead of translated. Such is the Scientists idea of the Heavenly Parent from whose presence we can never for a moment be absent; that cannot be outlined nor circum. scribed, since “His presence fills all space.” “Do we believe in Christ?”

We believe in Jesus Christ as the perfect manifestation of the Truth; the one faultless example of the true Life; the Divine Teacher of men. Always in perfect unison with the Father, he did “many wonderful works”—not in violation of Law—but in consonance with the higher spiritual code that cannot, and need not, ever be changed. He himself demonstrated the supremacy of Mind over every material condition, and commissioned his disciples, in all ages, to carry on their warfare against error upon this basis alone. “Do we believe in the Bible?”

This paragraph may at first seem superfnous; but, with week, a lady has said to me: “You don’t use the same Bible as other people, do yon?” I assured her at once that we do use the same, dear old Bible. So perhaps it is well to place on record the ct that we most emphatically do believe in the Bible. SCIENCE AND HEALTH says: “Christian Science draws its support from the Bible.” The first tenet of our church is this: “As adherents of Truth, we take the Scriptures as our guide to Life eternal.” Moreover, we take the wlwle Bible. Spiritually interpreted, it is consistent and harmonious throughout. “Does Christian Science do away with prayer?”

Another common error jg expressed in this question. Available testimony develops the fact that, more nearly than others, Scientists obey Paul’s injunction: “Pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.” Prayer is mole to us to-day than ever it was prior to our acceptance of the Truth of Christian Science. Believing, as we do, that we are constantly provided for by Him who gives and does “exceeding more abundantly than we can kor think;’ our prayers assume less the form of petition and more that of grateful acknowledgment and thanksving. Does your child appear at your well-filled table only to beg for bread? Does he ask you every day to love him and care for him? Does he not rather thankfully accept your bountiful provisions and est in the serene consciousness of your care? “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things unto them that ask Him!” Jesus said, too: “Therefore, I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask or, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” The perfect realization of the eternal and unchanging supremacy of Good, is the “prayer of faith” that heals the sick and casts out all error. “What is our idea of man?” We consider man the child of God, created in “His own image and likeness” and pronounced “good.” As nothing could be more directly opposite than Spirit and matter, it is very evident that the material flesh-and-blood man apparent to the senses is not the image and likeness of Spirit, God; hence, he cannot be the real man, who is so described. If he is not real, there is just one other thing for him to be—that is, unreal. This is just what Science declares the mortal, sinning, dying man to be,—an unreality; a claimant without warrant. Having two coins, one good and the other counterfeit, and knowing the difference in value, it matters little to us what become of the spurious; but we carefully preserve the true metal. Thus, while denying the use, the unreal man, we carefully, prayerfully contemplate the real, the only one, so as to bring him more clearly and completely into our consciousness and experience. The real man, the child of God, is by origin, nature, and destiny, divine; like unto his Heavenly Parent. Deriving his qualities om no other source, he must be pure, whole, and indestructible; not liable to fall into disease, discord, and decay. ‘or the same reason he must be unchangeable and immortal. “Because I live, ye shall live also,” said Christ Jesus. If this is at one time sufficient reason for man to live, why not at another? Why not for all time and eternity—so long as Christ shall live? The assertion that life results in death, and death in turn gives place to Life Eternal, seems a most extravagant paradox, since death is the very polite of Life. Does the sun ever produce darkness? Can Life, the all-pervading, never-changing Principle of Being, end in death? Says Phbe Cary:—·• We only know that faith is life, And death is the fear of death, When we suffer up to the solemn heights Of a firm and living faith; When we do not say the dead shall rise At the resurrection’s call; But when we trust the Lord, and surely know That we cannot die at all.”

This is the understanding needed to lift mankind to its true level. Teach man that he is divine, make him know it, and he will act divinely. This is what Christian Science aims to do. Teaching man how to discriminate between the real and the unreal; how to “prove all things all hold fast the good,” aids him to shake o the shackles of false authority, and enjoy the freedom that rightfully belongs to him. It brings him from the bondage of corruption to the glorious “liberty of the sons of God.”

It is not the province of Christian Science merely to teach a system of mental healing. It is not a profession for a few fortunate to practise as a means of Livelihood. It is vastly more than that. It is a system for bringing man to his Spiritual consciousness, and thus make him master of the seeming ills that beset him, and that restores to him his birth- right of “dominion over all the earth.”

Eternity has already begun, and he who would enter into its peace and harmony, finds an ever open door in Christian




Theory vs. Realization

by G.

DESIRE to make. of use to others my experiences of the efficacy of Christian Science, prompts me to submit the result of a personal effort at self-treatment, begun with little light, and imposed by the urgency of pressing need.

I have known of this blessed Science ur years, and more; but, for a long time, while I thought myself benefited and was greatly interested, I failed to trust entirely to its sustaining power, and consequently found only partial relief. My present understanding came to me through recent experiences following a more careful study of the teachings of SCIENCE Do HEALTH, and a more earnest, determined endeavor to realize them in consciousness.

Previous to this time-though I made the closest and.most protraoted effort to gain a healing sense of Truth-I only, in belief, grew worse. I could sleep but little, work or read scarcely at all, and apparently digest no god to speak of. I was haunted by vague though acute are of impending evil, which I was unable to master. Life was a sense of wretchedness to me most of the time. I believed a vacation would cure me; but felt I could not afford to take on I believed also that cancer was developing, from what I could judge of the symptoms; a description of which had been deeply impressed upon my mind i reading a celebrated book years ago.

Long before, a friendly Christian Science practitioner had led me my feeling worn out from overwork was a belief only, which a right understanding of Truth would destroy. I could not then believe this susceptible of demonstration, but the time had come when I must do something. The thought came: “Why not test thoroughly and in earnest, the efficacy of Christian Science treatments to destroy the belief of no-out nerves and exhausted vitality?” I determined to attempt, by self-treatments, to overcome these mortal claims of disability and exhaustion, without resorting to vacation for rest.

In my treatments I followed, closely as I could without a teacher, the rules for such practice given in SINCE AND HEALTH. I first, by sober, earnest thought, satisfied myself intellectually of the absolute, logical truth of leading state. tents of SCIENCE AND HETH, by which I was to be governed; then made it my task to force this home upon my realization by repeated affirmations, by eve convincing I went in my unconscious thought. One of the chief and most successful arguments was: that God (or Christ) and the Bible were on my side, hence it was neither preposterous nor foolish; but other, sound common-sense which must necessarily win if persisted in. I treated myself in this fly about three weeks, daily, and as often as serious discords of belief demanded; but without apparent effect. I persisted in it until I became thoroughly tired of it- tired of trying to realize by argument that all is good, perfect, and harmonious; tired of trying to realize that in Truth material evidences are nothing, Spiritual evidences are all.

I can see how, that I became weary of it because I had no abiding sense of Love and Truth, with the- infinite, eternal l1armouies to accompany the logical letter; but instead, did have the almost constant consciousness of the hateful discords of materiality. “The letter”—which I had—“without the spirit, killeth;” hence my weariness of it.

After this, I concluded that a week in change of scene and retirement was best; especially as I did not yet feel willing to give up of-treatments and depend upon another to treat me. In this change of scene I sought the out-door, muscular actity of farm life, at the home of a friend. At the end of a week I returned feeling much restored in belief; but through this, an unspiritual sense of physical might began to be it. Now mortal mind reasoned: “What a fool you have been not to rest here! instead of trying to follow out, and prove adaptable to this stage of your existence, Christian Science—which may be suitable for angels, but not for one utterly worn out in this world. Rest one half of your time, and you will do more in the other half than you do now, and have no further trouble.” Nevertheless, I was in my old condition again after four days of fairly close application; whereupon I fled to the form again for a short respite, and returned feeling renewed as before—only to be again nearly prostrated in three days at my old-time labor. I now began to see that if rest and change of scene alone were to restore me, it would take a long time; more than I could afford to give to it. Thus Christian Science became my sole hope, and I resorted to the treatments again. In about a week more the light began to

dawn, through closer self-examination to which I was led by the obstinacy of my case.

In regard to the affairs of my visible life mortal mind said: “Here you are wholly engrossed in your work- reading and walking, almost your only diversion. Having no home life, and going into no society, your mind is constantly on the one subject of your labor—wholly experimental in its character, and largely uncertain in resul. Besides, you are involved in financial difficulties, to overcome which you are worrying and calculating in order that you may satisfy the demands of waiting creditors. No wonder you are nearly prostrated with nervous exhaustion! Straighten out your affairs in some way and start afresh. Take it easy awhile and you will be all right; but this is the only way for you to do.” To this the angel of Christian Science replied: “Le is Peace, and Harmony, and Spirituality; and is not dependent upon material circumstance for tis complete supremacy.” What are poverty, debt, close application, unsuccessful error or any other like conditions? They are dreams, merely, of mortal belief. Once let the Light of Truth, which is Spirit, shine fairly upon them, and they will disappear before its radiant consciousness which knows no evil; but, instead, rejoices in the allness of Infinite Harmony. No! these outward circumstances are not your trouble. You lack this consciousness of truth. Your mind is full of self-sufficiency, pride, and vanity. You are proud of your patient applica- cation under difficulties; proud of your natural appreciation of and liking for metaphysical thought as reflected in the writings of Emerson, George Eliot, Ruskin, and others; of you love (you think it) of progress; of your imagined superiority of mind and purpose to that of most other people. You are even proud of your knowledge of Christian Science, and of your natural leaning toward such advanced Spiritual leading which, after all, you have not yet proved yourself worthy of. Empty out these vanities of pride, and thus give place to a consciousness of Spiritual Realities. mony (an attribute of Love and Truth) manifests itself, by the law of mind, in peace, and health, and strength; which are the realities of Spirit. Of course, opposites cannot simultaneously occupy the mind or consciousness, and manifest themselves at the same time.

A little later, at about two or three o’clock in the morning, I was awakened from an unusually laborious and painful sleep full of ugly dreams. Instantly, before I was fairly awake, seemingly like a separate entity, mortal mind began aga:—“Your trouble is this: Your nerve tissues have wasted away by long continued application, until now they have no perceptible recuperative power; so, although you work but a little each day, it is just enough, in their weak state, to undo the benefit reaped from what little rest you do get in your three or four hours’ sleep only.”

Immediately my mind seemed illumined by a wonderful intelligent and lovely light, as Dine Science responded this from the infinite comprehension of Spirit: “Spiritual harmony is Left, se-existent and eternal, and does not depend on nerves and nerve tissues. oh they were wasted infinitely faster (to mortal sense), yet Spiritual harmony would repair them equally fast (to that Sense), and to be spent in the left.” With this came actual Spiritual understanding. I saw at once, with perfect clearness, how indisputably true these words were; and passed, in a few minutes, into quiet, peaceful sleep and rest that restores completely.

The Light was there through the sleep, through all the following day and throughout the next three days; during which time I was able to apply myself with my old-time enthusiasm, without incurring the weariness at night that. had, here are, debarred me of rest in sleep. Now, I slept and rested in peace. Here was a definite demonstration plainly and unmistakably attributable to conscious understanding of Truth; an understanding that reached throughout my whole being; a direct result of meeting the etToneous claims of mortal sense, with the infallible truths of Christian Science. This is the simple, yet wonderful Idea given us from above, through the Spiritual individuality of the Author of SCIENCE AND HEALTH.

This positive Spiritual consciousness continued about the space of four days; during which time I felt perfectly at one with Truth and Love, which is God. Nothing but the Spiritual now seemed real. Everything “physical” appeared but a transient symbol pointing to absolute, eternal fact cognizable by Mind only. My heart was full of exclamations of grateful conviction: “This is the normal state in which we ought always to be found! This is, indeed, the real manhood revealed; in which is perfect health, and strength, and joy, and peace with boundless love for all humanity for Behold I the, realization it is the avowed mission of SCIENCE AND HEALTH to bring about in every human being. This is what is iterated and reiterated in every conceivable way upon eve golden page of that blessed book; and I have been utterly blinded to it until now!” I began to inquire: “Whence cometh this new sense of wholeness and power; this harmony and deep peace so effectually supplanting all sense of evil,—consigning it to its native nothingness, and bringing heaven to me here and now? Let me but know, with Scientific accuracy, whence cometh this heavenly Canaan, and I will here forever abide, through obedience to the revealed Truth.” Now, it was, in the marvellous vividness of the reality, that I perceived it to be man’s privilege not only, but his duly to retain the sense of real Being; that this, in fact, is true Christian Science exemplified.

In a few days, however, the vivid Spiritual sense perceptibly dimmed. Little by little the old mortal dream again stole over me, while I seemed powerless to prevent. Vainly I sought, by every means apparent, to discover why this awakened sense could not be retained to confer its blessing upon me not only, but, through its sanctifying influence upon thought, word, and deed, to extend to and bless others. To treat myself with the measure of self-knowledge then possessed, availed nothing. To read the TABLE or SCIENCE AND HEALTH proed equally fruitless; for I seemed already full of the “letter.” Careful investigation of motives alone remains. I began the search, and shortly discovered selfishness and pride in subtlest form, lying close at their root. I had wished to retain this Spiritual consciousness mainly for its attendant health, happiness and ability to achieve in line of personal ambition. Some effort was made to overcome this; yet I cannot honestly say I succeeded in desiring the real sense of Life on really impersonal ground. There became apparent, however, the utter impossibility of setting aside selfish motives by any means save by replacing with those nobler and purer. These I manifestly could not create. The inspiration of God, of divine Truth and Love, alone could do this for me,—the inspiration which seemed so surely, so tally disappearing:

I now see that the din of mortal sense, with which my ears seemed completely filled, had temporarily drowned the tones of the “still, small voice”—my only safe and sure guide; hence, I seemed left to the slower process of mortal tribulation whose wearing experience is the only effective one for the “dull of hearing.” The experience in my case was happily abridged, however, by the really eager and deeply rooted desire to know the Truth, and again to enter the Kingdom.

Before the week was ended, my mental examinations probed to the bottom and revealed the reassertion of my old pride, and I found that I had been actually pluming myself upon my former success with self-treatment I The good results reached, though so transient, were still highly valued as indicating a long stride toward the Light which I hoped ultimately would become permanent brightness. My discovery proved not only startling, but seriously disheartening.

“Yes,, asserted mortal mind,” this seems the inevitable result of every successful effort to grow more Spiritual. It simply ends in self-righteousness-which Jesus condemned more than aught else. There certainly is little use in tying to gain the realization of true Being, if the attempt only brings one face to face with this impassable wall of self righteousness.” Absolute, hpeless discord reigned supreme; aggravating, of course, the physical expression in cancer.

At the very climax of utter despair, I was a second time, late at night, awakened from restless, painful sleep; this time, by noisy drunken revellers in an adjacent room. In a struggle of baffled pride and self-sufficiency, mortal thought forced the exclamation: “What a strange Providence I Here I, struggling to attain excellence of living and doing must suffer the consequences of broken rest, while these, worthless to themselves and society, are seemingly secure in the pleasures of 1fotous wickedness I This truly is deplorable.” Then a tenderer point was attacked. “Yes,” reiterated the tormenter, “it is deplorable-but your present thought shows you are not equal even to these revellers; for whatever else they may be, they are not se-righteous.” “Oh, this human consciousness!” thought I, “how shall I ever escape its constant blight? Why are we incarnate in visible darkness; yet commanded to live worthily, under penalty of suffering and death? O A moment, and then on my ear stole words of healing from the messenger of Light as Before: “In the real and only Being you are not self-righteous, but perfect. This weak human nature is not the real self; but is mortal belief, illusion-lo destroy which, is the blessed mission (through Christian Science) of Love and Truth.” As lightning clears the air on a mm^ky day, that gleam of divine Light illumined and cleared up the mental atmosphere; and again I found myself in the realm of infinite Harmony. Again I pass into restful slumber; awaking next morning to find all evidences of “exhaustion” effectually banished-and fur days to come.

I yet lacked a vital point of derstanding requisite to sure permanent results, however. This lack was bene cony made manifest as follows-about a week later wben,in belief, I again became involved in “mental darkness”: One day, when the “cancerous devepment” seemed more marked. than usual, I repaired to neighboring knoll for observation and reflection; gloom was depicted upon the whole face of Nature. The unwelcome thought of death persistently pressed upon me. Life, to me, emed about to close, and to have been a complete failure. My late good purposes had proved abortive, so far as permanent results were concerned; while the utter emptiness of all former hopes and aspirations, even had they been realize, was paraded before me in thought. Nothing seemed worth living and striving for. At, to me, a most important moment, there stole on my ear that blessed voice:—“Seek to do the will of God only; that is sweetness to the soul, the only life worth living. Make Christian Science living your sole aim and purpose in life.”

It is not wise to ignore the promptings of Spirit, or belief in the reality and goodness of material things must eventually be sacrificed at all hazards. Given time enough, they expose their own illusive nature, and we finally are driven by sorrow and regret, to do what might so easily have been done in joy and thanksgiving. So, from the depths of my heart I now thanked the Creator for those well-remembered visions of divine Love and Truth, which enabled me instantly and unhesitatingly to heed the heavenly mandate. A fresh, hopeful life, replete with the unspeakable joy of acceptable service of the Master in the legitimate eld of Christian Science. opened up before me. What, indeed, is any work, compared to the rare usefness of leading hopeless fellow- beings under bondage to mortal belief, into the glorious light and liberty of real Being, wherein is found health, and every soul-satisfying aspiration!

A day later, the Spirit suggested to my now more attentive ear that I might be dog—in fact needed at once to be doing- something to bring this great Truth of Christian Science to others; that otherwise I would soon forget my new resolutions, and il to retain this Spiritual sense longer than before. “The soul of Spirituality has its expression in action. You must live Christian Science, or you cannot retain its divine understanding, or consciousness of real Being. In this consciousness, it will be an easy and welcome task to undertake any work that promises to aid in bringing even one to the blessed sense of real harmony in God.” The full import of this thought did not at once dawn upon me; but later, when I began to obey, I began also to see that right here was the Rock for which I had been groping.

Truth and Love lived, constitutes the real existence. Whatever interferes with the actual living of Truth, interferes with the real existence,—with i harmony and supremacy. Love benignly requires the sacrifice of these mortal interferences, whenever and wherever recognized; for the simple reason that true living, so precious when once you, must otherwise (to our sense) be replaced by the darkness and death of belief. From this, arose a truer sense of the meaning of the cross as “the central emblem of Christianity.” I saw that we should bear the cross-not simply because Jesus, our great exemplar, did; but because, in the five order of things, we cannot live with Love, for Truth and our fellow-beings, in the heart, with sacrificing all that which mortal sense, stands in the way of its expression. Jesus had such love for Truth and man, that death upon me cross was, at that stage of mortal-mind development, an inevitable sequence of that Love’s full expression;—not that suffering must always attend living for Love; but it must seem mortal sense, so long as anything of that sense remains unsacrioed. Love-Christ-never demands the sacrifice of anything real. He simply requires the surrender of false beliefs revealed to us by Truth as false:—and this, only to the end that we may go towards our rightful home in harmony, Life Eternal. This welcome home is reached when, through denial of mortal sense, we can receive i Heaven is here and now; whenever we give up belief in the lies that keep us out of it. Manifest, discord (errors believed) cannot be taken to heaven, harmony, and there cherished; hence, when mortal life seems so interwoven therewith, how are we ever to gain heaven save by sacrifice of them? It is utterly useless to seek any other way; for this “mortal sense” is the sole obstacle between us and the only heaven in the universe; Love and Truth, realized.

Eight months have elapsed since the above unfolding to me; and the reader will naturally ask: “How have the tests of time and practical living affected your sense .of the absolute reliability of this idea of DOING (with its consequent resolute sacrifice of mortal sense hindrances) to enable one with certainty to know that thereby they may regain when lost, or retain when and, this sense of Light or consciousness of Real Being, so essential to growth and successful living?” I reply, They have made it absolute.

For many years, I have been artful, but mainly unsuccessful, seeker of that Life, the brief taste of which in chance experiences had led me to believe might be, and should be, Thooo ;of.v. 5.^yuvu self-Sacrifice and action for the sake of the Truth; but, not knowing the Science of it, I was unable to take action that I could certainly know would retain or bring to my consciousness again what I so much prized when it was with me-and it was a long time after I learned the letter of this Science before I really found out the infallible Way. I believed there was such a Way, but I could not find it. I now have to say: “The Hock of Truth is a certain refuge to all who desire to rise higher in the scale of Being; who desire to realize Life as it is.” By this I am not to be understood that life has become one steady consciousness of Truth. So far from conscious realization proving uninterrupted, I seem to have advanced by impulses-a step at a time. Sometimes I have seemed to retrograde, and have had to go over the ground a second time; but when fight, sharpened by sense of deeper need, has enabled me to get my bearings, and to find the te path again, the Rock is always disclosed- the same sure refuge as at first.

With the pe1·ceptible, continued presence of Spiritual light, physical disabilities (including the cancer belief) have dis peared; while ability to accomplish tasks in my old line of work has greatly increased. I am not “worn:, as before; for Spiritual Consciousness proves proportionately useful as work seems more arduous and exhausting to mortal sense. This Spiritual sense proves equally efficacious when, instead of originating in my own thought, beliefs assail me as the prevalent expression of popular mind.

Beliefs in certain pleasures of sense, also, that hitherto had been a continuous drag upon me, seriously impeding Spiritual progress-beliefs which, while regarding as real, I vainly strove to set aside—have entirely disappeared from mind, through the new light of unreality cast upon them by Christian Science. The results more than repay every effort made.

Mortal beliefs occasioned by life-long habits of wrong thinking, seem so closely interwoven with every thought, that the wonder is-even with all the humble, earnest desire of which we are capable, with all the understanding of Truth so clearly manifested in SCIENCE AND HEALTH-that we are able to disentangle ourselves at all. We surely could never accomplish our purpose in pride of mortal strength; but, through the divine Spirit of Love that is Truth, and Truth that is Love, we can do all things given us to do.

Christian Science indeed opens a new world of constant glory to the Father, and to the Son-a world more worth living in and for than all beside. It brings to us again the primitive salvation of Christ, which the meek and lowly Jesus, in Divine Love, came to bring to the consciousness of all. It enables us voluntarily to listen to and obey the loving call of Spirit to leave mortality behind and “come up higher.”




Does Christian Science Teach the Whole of Truth?

by Mrs. G. P. Noyes

Delivered before the Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago, Ill.

IN this declaration Christ is shown to be identical with the Truth: he is the Saviour of man, and has so declared himself-and further: he declares the Truth is to set us see, or save us, when we know what the Truth is. The Truth being one-with him, when we know either, we know the other.

We claim that Christian Science teaches the whole, the all of Truth, and that our understanding of Science is the measure of our understanding of Truth.

The Teacher of Science says the whole of Christian Science is contained in SINCE AND HEALTH. If the whole of Science is there, then the whole of the Truth is there also. This is a very hard statement for the world to take quietly; and when, in addition, it finds that the book making this startling claim is written by a woman, then it is that the world declares it to be a monstrous, an impious statement. But she says, “The Bible was my sole teacher”; that it. “contains receipts for all healing”; that her only aim is to have it “understood spiritually, for thus only can Truth be gained, and that Science “breathes through its sacred pages be spiritual sense of Life, Substance, and Intelligence.” Jesus Christ embodied or manifested the all of God, inasmuch as he declared himself to be one with the Father. “All things are delivered unto me by the Father; and no man knoweth the So but the Father, neither any man the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.’· These sayings imply that he expressed. or showed forth the all of God; yet he was the son of woman. He called no man his Father. God we his Father, and he himself was the saviour of the world—Truth or God made manift.

SINCE AND HEALTH is the gift of God to the world, tough a woman. When inclined to question on that account the statement that it expresses the whole of Truth, and that the understanding of it will save an not fly from sickness, but from sin and death, it should be ye-- membered that Jesus, also, was a woman’s gift to the world; and he says: “Knowing the Truth is to set us free.” Thus, in both instances the highest Truth has come to the world through woman. SCIENCE is systematized knowledge or understanding, and HETH signifies wholeness; hence the title expresses both understanding and wholeness, or the whole Truth; for the holy, and pure in heart see and know God; they understand, instead of blindly believing in Him. Christian Science is the understanding of the works of the Christ. It has been said that “to love God and keep His commandments, is the whole duty of man;” yet none of us can really love what we do not know; so we must know what God is, Here we can love Him. Scripture says: “Acquaint thyself with God and be at Peace,” which means that we are to try to know Him; that while in ignorance of God we cannot have Peace. SINCE .Rid HEALTH, in teaching us what God i, gives us the first intimations of true Peace.

How do we know that it teaches us what God is?

Because Spirit is God, and it teaches us what Spirit is, It reveals Spirit, by showing the unreality of what obscures it.

In SCIENCE AND HEALTH the dividing line is drawn between Spirit and matter, and the true distinction mae manifest, as in no other book. Several imitations now extant, in every case, fail to draw this life,—rather they obscure it; yet it must be drawn before we can reason intelligently on the true basis of either Spirit or matter. The statement o Scripture is, in SCICE Rid HEALTH, repeated, viz.: that Spirit is God, or, as given in the original, Spirit is Good. Christian Scientists adhere more closely to the original text, using the term Good when referring:to the Creator, or the Supreme Being, it: because it is the correct term, and secondly: that naming God aright opens to us the door of Truth.

Declaring, then, that Spirit is Good, what must its opposite be? The opposite of Good being essentially eve, it flows that if matter is Spirit’s opposite, it must also be. Good’s opposite. Matter is therefore evil.. We have discovered the agreement of Scripture with one of the first state- men of this wonderful book.

Let us dwell for a moment upon this expression which always draws forth the query: of’ What” is ere about matter that can be evil? Why need we say that?” Hear the Master’s reply: “The same fountain bringeth not forth sweet and bitter water;” and again: “A good tree does not bear evil it, nor an evil tree good fruit.” The question to be determined then, is this: In matter a good tree? What is arsenic, strychnine, prussic acid, or other poisons? What the venom of the rattlesnake, the cobra, the scorpion, the asp? What are the various poisonous gases? Are not all these material? Are not all these of the tree of matter? The tree that produces evil, is evil.

Another fact therein stated, one of like character, is this: Good and evil do not mingle. In reality, they never mix; but to appearance, they grow side by side, like the” wheat and—the tree, till the harvest.” Christian Science draws the line of separation, and tells us how to distinguish between Truth and falsity; between the Real and the unreal. It was said of the Son of the woman: “He spake as never man spake before;” So it can be said of this book, of a woman am: it tells what book never told before.

But we have not ended our talk upon matter; for our Teacher’s thought goes still higher upon this point. Anger, jealousy, envy, malice, revenge,—evil passions of all kinds—are not good, and cannot come from a goo tree; their source, then, must be evi Their origin is matter; the character material; and they are manifestly the direct opposites of the legitimate fruits of Good.

Says St. Paul: “The works of the flesh are manifest, and are these: Adultery, fornication, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, vace, emulation, strife, seditious, envyings, murders, and such like.” All these are the fruits of the flesh; of matter. Going further, he declares the fruits of the Spirit to be “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” These do not come from the same source the former. The first are from matter, or evil; the ll, om Spirit, or Good. Is it unscriptm·al, contrary to teachings of the TABLE, for our text-book to put be identical statements of St. Paul into the tongue of the present age, in order to bring them more fully within scope of our comprehension? Paul would no more be tolerated in the world to- day, than he was eighteen hundred years ago. His bold declaration of Truth would be just as displeasing to mortal sense now as then; and again he would meet his Nero.

Why need the world be stared by the declaration of SCIENCE AND HEALTH that matter is evil, since the BIBLE has always so taught it? “Carnal mind” has always been understood to mean the fleshly or material mind; and is said to be “at enmity with God.” Matter is constantly declared in the Bible to be God’s opposite, inasmuch as it is at enmity to Him; and indeed cannot be otherwise.

Thoughtfully considered, we find matter (or evil,) and its fruits are one and the same; that Spirit and its fruits ye one and the same also in essence. In the foregoing quotations from St. Paul, we have the very thoughts, and the very line of separation drawn between them, that are given in SCIENCE AND HEALTH; proving it to be what it justly claims to be—“a key to the Scriptures.” So much for one of the statements of Christian Science, that has created much antagonism in the minds of many.

Still higher, consequently harder to accept, rises the following statement, viz: That all is mind, there is no matter; or, as matter is proven to be evil, that there is no evil. This is the highest claim of Science. In this statement, and its elucidation, lies proof that the book teaches us the whole of Truth

When evil is declared nothingness, and by logical reasoning, proven so to be, (to say nothing of demonstrations of the fact, which are the “signs following,”) the line of separation is drawn through to the end; and our path lies open before us, although the world jostles rudely against all travelers alg this true thoroughfare. rid declares Himself to be all in all Spirit, then, must be all; the true Entity. This declaration of Spirit annihilates, when fully comprehended, all claim of matter (evil) to reality of existence. Do the teachings of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, then, conflict with this declaration of Scripture? Not at ll; they simply reiterate in the statement that there is nothing hut Spirit; that Spirit is all. Why is the world shocked at this simple repetition of the word of God? No reason can be discerned but the one already given, viz.: because it expressed in plain, matter-of-fact terms, and thus is brought to us in a most practical way. People expect to find impossible things in the Bible, set forth in statement that are incomprehensible. Let us not forget the promise of Jesus: “Ye shall know the Truth;” or his statement that “all things are possible to God.” When we know the Truth we shall know God and discover, in lieu of human impossibilities in the Bible, simply divine possibilities. It is just this, and such as this, that SCIENCE AND HEALTH teaches- the book condemned as “unchristian.”

Were the world willing to accept the idea of true progress, instead of rebelling against it as “startling,” it would discover in Christian Science,—not the unchristian,—but a higher, nobler, truer. Christianity; Christianity that looks beyond the world of physical sense for the true Cause of all; for Power, Life, and Mind. As the natural outcome of that one Cause, it would find the one true effect; in other words: Divine Mind recognized as the true Entity, discloses the fact that Mentality, mrs: Spiritual creation, is the direct result of that one, true Entity. It would see in evil, or matter, afalBe claim to Entity; with effects or results like unto itself, mate- al. It would detect unsoundness in the still greater claim of sin that God created these effects; when, instead of being the “fruits of Spirit,” they are the fruits of matter solely.

The- declaration that there is no evil, gives no license to sin. It is the enemies of Science, only, who interpret thus. These declare that Christian Scientists say there is no sin; hence can sin with impunity, and feel they are doing no harm. Did all such truly understand us they could gain no such impression. The difference lies in the Spirit, or understand, back of the word. Making the statement that there is no sin for the sake of committing sin, and so easing one’s conscience, could not be attempted from the basis of Christian Science. We are to work towards the full consciousness in reality that there is no sin-the goal of all our efforts and labors—knowing well that this realization can be the result only of most rigid observance of the Ten Commandments. It is so laid down in the Platform of Christian Science, and also is embodied in-the Tenets of the Scientist Church.

Oh1istian Science comes not to dtroy the law; but to gulf it in every point until, through faithful observance thereof, we pass from under the law—having grown out of material into Spiritual sense. “For such,” St. Paul says, “there is no law.” It is not claimed that any are now in that condition, but that all must faithfully observe every moral law; since the breaking of this must preclude all possibility of advancement and growth in Science. A Christian Scientist must be a Christian; and all that this term implies, We must leave the standpoint whence man is seen as material, for the one whence he is discovered to be Spiritual; then he will be seen to be without sin. We must, at the outset, see this as the true position of man, having it in view as our goal, and then bravely work towards it; growing more and more like this Divine Ideal, through destruction of all that is material or sinful. It is not the mere saying there is no sin—shutting our eyes to what claims to be sin—that brings us out from its false claim. But instead, making he declaration and then verifying it in our lives while in the flesh; we shall say with Job: “Even in my flesh shall I see God.” SCIENCE AND HEALTH teaches that we are to recogni all of the claims of error—not to say there is none, but to face them, fully appreciating the power they appear have over poor human nature; measuring our enemy, it were, and conceding it all the power that has been given to it by the world of sense;—then proceed to prove the unreality of all such false pretensions by overcoming with the “Sword of Spirit’ which is the word of Truth.

Our text book, therefore, in saying there is no so, does not deny that there is this great appearance of it, any more than denying the reality of matter denies the appearance of matter. This seeming is ever with us. We are sulounded by it; so with sin, we do not deny that it is apparently ever present. What we do deny is that it has real Entity or Essence; or by so doing, Christian Science is able to remove its seeming manifestations-which is the “casting out devils”

Jesus says his true followers shall heal the sick, and cast out evils, which is casting out sin. How is it possible to cast out evil except we first see its false basis, and acknowledge and declare it to be such? So long as we admit that it was true Entity, and thus assign it a rightful place in the economy of the universe, how can it be possible ever to cast it out,—to gain the final victory over it that we are promised. We must of the Truth in order that the Truth may have power to set us free. Christian Scientists believe this saying of Jews, and are assiduously studying and demonstrating in order to know more of the Truth; for they desire to be free from the claims of error. To know Truth, is to know Christ, for He says that He is “the way and the Truth.” So, to learn and follow me Truth, is the way to Immortal Life. He came to teach the Truth in person, but he said to bis followers: “It is expedient that I go from you.” His personality must leave them for the Holy Spirit to come to them, which was to lead them into all Truth.

The understanding of Truth is the door through which all must reach Spirit, or God; thus we come to the Father through the Son. SCIENCE AND HEALTH teaches that there is no other way by which we ca come to God; it leads us out of the finite sense of God to the infinite sense of Him, thus showing us the. Principle of all Being. We are thus enabled to see the unlimited, infinite Son of God; the express Likeness of the fofnite Father and Mother, and so doing, we gradually’ lose the sense of our own city or mortality. Jesus Christ, the Spiritual man, is our ideal. In learning the Principle of his Being, we learn the Principle of our own and learning this Truth of our own Being, brings us into. our true Brotherhood with him. We must grow towards, or like, our ideal. If he be lifted up in our thoughts from humanity to Divinity, he lifts us up. He says: us If I am.lifted up I draw all men unto me.” If our thoughts are lifted towards the Divine, we will grow in the direction our thoughts take. and as the result of that growth towards the Divine, we must timately arrive at our own true Sonship to God. SCIENCE AND HEALTH teaches us this; and in so teaching it reveals the ultimate Truth,—for Sonship to God, and Brotherhood to Christ Jesus, must be the whole lesson of Truth.

Can the book be anti-Christian which teaches that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and that “no man cometh to the Father except by Him,.,—that there is no other Way, no other Truth, no other Life than that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? It is in this recognition of no other Life or Mind than his, that SCIENCE AND HEALTH declares evil to be unreal. The Christ expressed no sin; He expressed he Truth, the whole Truth; therefore sin or evil cannot be the Truth. If it is not the Truth, or of the Truth, it is nothing but a false claim to reality; and as man learns this it will lose its hold upon him. Its power by virtue of its false claim to reality or existence, will be gone. This is to be brought about by understanding or knowing God aright; and thus teaching, SCIENCE AND HEALTH proves its claim to be a true revelation of the Scriptures.

As these great facts of Being are brought out and lived by the followers of Christian Science (none can justly claim to have truly ppropriated what they do not live), we shall see all true believers able to do what Jesus promised they should do, viz.: handle serpents. If they are bitten, as we Paul, no evil consequence will ensue.

Isaiah saw the powerlessness and unreality of evil, and knew it would be manifest to man when the Spiritual Idea, or the’Truth, should come to him; for he says: “The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den.” “They shaft not hurt or harm in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” As is prophecy declares, the knowledge of the Lord is to make all this possibfo, and on earth. Christian Scientists realize that in this Science is revealed the correct Spiritual Idea which is to lead us on to this great and gloria understanding, and which will give to man his dominion over the earth and all that therein is; that in consequence of that dominion, he will fear no creature that God has made. Christian Science shows us the possibility of all this, not only, but how it may be and is to be brought about; that God’s kingdom is to come here upon earth, and through the simple understanding of the truth—“More to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” 10 God is..




God Is All

by Kathleen

IF God is All in All
His children cannot fear.
See baseless evil fall,
Knowing that God is here!
For God is All.
If God is All, in space
No subtile error creeps.
We see Truth’s glowing face,
And Love that never sleeps,
If God is All.
The Principle, the Life;
There Soul and Substance and,
But never discord, strife,
If God is All.

If God is All in All

Where is the sin we knew-
And death with dark’ning pall
That hid for joy from view?
If God is All.
There is the mortal pain,
The grief and care of earth?
I ask for them in vain.
Could such dead things have birth
If God is All?

If God is All in All

He made all that is made;-
Not mortal man to fall,
To suffer, sin, and fade,
But perfect man, His thought
Harmonious and pure:
In His o likeness wrought,
In His great Love secure;
For God is All.

“And all is works were good.”
Can Truth create a lie?
Can Goodness change his mood,
And form a thing to die,

His child, I know that Life
Is my sure heritage.
I know no death, nor strife,
Nor time, nor loss, nor age,
If God is All.

I know no se to claim
Wisdom, power, and pride.
I bear Thy oriflamme,
And have no thought beside
For God is A.

Oh, Perfect and Divine!
We hear Thy loving call,
And see no earthly shrine
But” crown Thee Lord of All,”
For Thou art A.




Righteousness;—or Purity?

by Ellen Brown Scott

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.—Matt. v. 20.

THESE words were spoken by Jesus, to his disciples, almost in the beginning of his ever-to-be-remembered Sermon on the Mount;—the sermon which embodies the all of Christian Science.

The words and acts of Jesus are identical with the teachings of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, both in terms and Principle. The one virtually illustrates and supports the other. As Jesus taught, so SCIENCE AND HEALTH teaches that works (demonstrations) are the only proof of any degree of understanding. Both teach that progress is the law of God; that His law never requires of us more than we can perform; that “We must begin right if we would end right.”

“Error in the premises will be carried out in the conclusions.”. “Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.,

From the words of Jesus, and om an attentive study of his history as recorded in the Gospels, it becomes evident that he progressed in the understanding of divine law up to and beyond the time of his so-called “ascension.” In “The Personal and Impersonal Saviour,” by the author of SCIENCE AND Healer, we read that Jesus had to be “an honest rpenter before he could become the gloried Son of God.” Honesty the fat step towards righteousness. Honestly following our highest sense of right, leads us to greater rightfulness.

Matthew tells us that when the“Great Demonstrator of Truth and Love” went to John to be baptized, John forbade him, saying: “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Jesus answered: “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteouess.” At the time of his baptism we are told the heavens opened (Spiritual Understanding) and the Spirit of God (Good) descended like a dove and rested upon him. Not until this had occurred, was he ready to enter upon his public ministry.

Now: what was the first step in this ministry? To deny himself; to conquer all sense of life, substance, intelligence and power in matter. During his sojourn in the wilderness, he met and mastered every one of these claims, from their lowest to their highest phases. He met and overcame the adversary at every point. How? By declaring the law of God, Good; by declarations of divine Truth. This is precisely what SCIENCE .AND HEALTH teaches us to do—and how to do.

He was tempted in all points; yet without sin. In al his combats with evil (error) he fulfilled the law and kept the first great commandment. Neither in thought, word, nor act, did he acknowledge for a single instant any power superior to, or other than, God.

Hear the words of SCIENCE AND HEALTH: “To gain the reality and order of Being, we must begin by acknowledging God as the only Power, the only Intelligence and the only Substance.” This was Jesus’ first step; as it must be of his followers, if they would “do the works that he did,” and as he did.

Jesus came out of the wilderness more than conqueror. From that time, he began to preach; to call to mankind: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He went about all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues; preaching the Gospel of the kingdom; “healing all manner of sicknesses and all manner of diseases.” His me spread throughout all Syria. Multitudes of people followed him wherever he went; and Brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and he healed them.

Note here again his honesty I He asked no one to believe on him except for the works. He would prove to himself, and to others, by works, the power and efficacy of divine Truth to heal and reform—despite the established, material modes and laws to the contrary; and he did prove it to all who bad “eyes to see and ears to hear.” SPICE AND HEALTH states the divine Principle and gives the rules whereby Jesus’ followers in this age may prove, to themselves and to others, that the declarations of divine Truth in Scripture have lost none of their power to heal and save from sin, sickness and death.

About this time in his ministry, he doubtless saw the great necessity for having help to carry on his work, in order to meet the increasing demand for healing. Accordingly “the twelve” were called. Jesus recognized the world’s great need of Truth. The people sat in darkness; ignorant of their divine right and God-given power. Within his heart burned the desire to lift them out of their ignorance; to bring them into a knowledge of the Father—the divine Principle of Being. Love had sent him abroad upon this heavenly mission. It must Le fulfilled at any cost. Love is the fulfilling of the law;—Spiritual law.

The first instructions given his disciples, so far as we can learn, were embodied in this marvellousSermon on the Mount. Very soon after opening His discourse, He declared to them the words: “For I say untoJOU, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Who were the scribes and Pharisees?

They represented the scholastic and religious thought of that time. The scribes were doctors of the law; men of learning skilled in the law; men who read and explained law to the people; were therefore men called upon by the people to settle difficulties arising amongst themselves. “The Pharisees were a Jewish sect noted for strict observance of rites, ceremonies, and traditions of the field. Their pretended holiness led them to separate themselves from other Jews.” To separate is the meaning of the word Pharisee. “They must be regarded as having been some of the most extreme formalists the world has ever seen.” It is alleged against them, on the highest Spiritual authority, that they “made the word of God of none effect by their traditions.” It also stands against them that they held the common people in extreme contempt; hence, when the “Holy One of Israel,; appeared among them as a teacher, they would not receive him; but sought to put him out of the synagogues. Why? Because they did not, and could not, “understand his words’ What, therefore, was the basis of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? Christian Science reveals the fact that it was purely personal and material. Jesu.s·had studied their doctrines and practices. He well knew that his followers must gain a higher sense of divine law; else they eonld •·’·in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus reversed every testimony of material or personal use. Science teaches us to.; go and do likewise.’^

The religion of the scribes and Pharisees was one of professions; Jesus’ religion was one of works. Their sense of the divine character was personal and material; His, impersonal and Spiritual. They professed to love their neighbor in the restricted sense of the word, but hated their enemies; Jesus included all mankind in the term “neighbor,” and both loved his enemies and taught his disciples to do the same. The Pharisees gave alms to be gloried of men; Jesus said: “Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.” They made long prayers to be heard of men; Jesus taught his disciples: “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” They sought the high places; Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, and taught them to do likewise for each other. The Pharisees fasted by abstaining from material food, and held to uncleanness of certain flesh; Jesus said: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat nor what ye shall drink.” Again: “take no thought for your body,—“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness do all these things will be added to you.” He located all sin and evil in mind; not in body, or matter. The scribes and Pharisees sought personal aggrandizement; Jesus sought the honor and glory of his heavenly Father, the divine Principle of Christianity.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH accords with all these teachings of Jesus. It says: “Each day calls upon us for higher proofs. These are the claims of progress, and progress is the law of God.”

The Apostle says: “Show me thy faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works”; works (demonstrations) therefore, are the proofs of righteousness. “The prayer of the righteous availeth much.”

Who can tell what righteousness is? In the highest sense, there is but One righteous, even God. Divine Principle, therefore, is the source of all righteousness. By the words of the text we are led to believe that Jesus meant his disciples must gain a higher sense, or concept, of divine Principle, in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven- the perfect consciousness of harmony and Love.

On the lower plane, the best of the recognized authorities define the word as meaning uprightness, Godliness, equity, purity, justice, integrity, honesty, faithfulness; also, in a life conformed to Spiritual law.and comprehending holy principles, certainly, these qualities are manifested as belonging to righteousness. All who are advancing toward that beatific state, must be bringing out these qualities in daily. life and practice. Jesus, in the instructions that follow the declaration of the text, lays great stress upon some of these terms. It is so plain that “be who runs may read,” viz: If his words and commands in that wonderful discourse he not canied into effect by his professed followers—of any age- what better are they than the scribes and Pharisees of his day?

Jesus marked out the way, the perfect way, to attain righteousness and perfection. He asked no impossible thing of his followers; and yet he commanded them to “be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect.” I luwe said that he marked out the way, in his Sermon on the Mount. He did more. He demonstrated in My lie every statement that he uttered. He proved to his followers, in all ages, the Principle of his life and practice to be unerringly demonstrable; and at with this Principle all things are possible.

“Ye are mine, if so be that ye keep my commandments’ What were these commandments?’ Let us read his Sermon on the Mount nay, study it; ponder upon it,—and then kra ourselves if we are keeping these, his commandments. (I say let us ask ourselves; not our brother. let us cast the beam out of our own eye, instead of pondering the mote that is in OUR brother’s.) Are we growing less selfish; more charitable? Are we loving the things of the world less; God more? Are we learning that ,Ch what is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the light of God”? Do we desire or covet the “high places”? Are we overcoming evil with Good;—mastering hate with Love? Are we dealing justly, equitably, honorably with our neighbor- our fellow men? Are we fthl over all that has been committed to our care? Are we meeting and overcoming all the claims of error with the word and power of Truth? Do we acknowledge God as the only Life, Intelligence, Substance and Power? Are we striving to love one another, and our neighbor as ourselves?

The first and the last commandment form the keynote of Christianity; and Christianity is Science. Science; because based upon divine Principle. The understanding of this Divine Science, even in a slight degree, reveals’ it to be possible not only, but easy to do all this. Science deals wife causes only. The only enemy we can have is evil; and evil is a belief of mortal mind,—hence nothing. “The flesh prot- eth nothing Raj” because it is nothing.

Do we really believe that Christian Science is the Truth If the Truth, it must be identical with that which Jesus taught and practised; for there is but one Truth;—one Principle. If thoroughly persuaded in our own minds that it is, shall we not see that the most simple-minded man or woman, (in point of worldly learning) may proclaim it to the world, after once knowing it to be the Truth of Christ Jesus?

Some say: “I have had 110 training in speaking or writing, and felon that account that I should not do well.” The Apostles had no “training;, .but the Spirit prepare them, and they spake eloquently and in a tongues. Scholarly attainments, wisdom of man, “rudiments of this world,” philosophies, may for a time guide and satisfy the human intellect; but they can never kindle the fire of divine Love in the heart. It was divine Love that sent Jesus the Christ, our standard of perfection,—to a darkened, sin-sick world. It was this that enabled him to triumph over the world, the flesh, and the evil. It has lost none of its power to heal and redeem from sin, sickness and death—“the last··enemy_ to be overcome.” The divine Love and Light shines in the world to-day, and awaits our acceptance It never has been absent from the world. It is ever present; waiting to be appropriated and demonstrated. We not only need, but may consciously possess it every hour and moment of our lives. It speaks to us again in SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and, as of old, bids us go up into a mountain (as did the disciples) and listen to the voice of True; meet its requirements; obey its commands. It bids us manifest Principle and not person; fearlessly, but humbly, to proclaim it to the world—so far as we under- Stand it. If we have accepted Christian Science as the Truth, it is culpable in us to “hide our light under a bushel.” There can be but two reasons for hiding this Light; one: fear of me opinions of worldly mind; the.other: doubt as to its being the true Light. “The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” Why? do Because of unbelief,—or lack of understanding. Can we not learn a lesson from the past? What became of those who rejected the light, or of those who proved unithf to it? Think; ponder; and be wise in season. Let us make our choice while there is yet opportunity;—know that the kingdom of heaven, the reign of righteousness, has come nigh unto us, and that we are graciously bidden o enter. Hear Christ: “Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shat i.” Spiritual perception is he door-divine Science is ,the way-to ultimate perfection. Take courage; we are moving up toward the Door-soon we shah reach it. Once across the teshold, we shall find ourselves admitted to the vast realm of the Real; the Spir itual and Eternal. Then the boundless domain of infinite Spirit will stretch out before us. We shall know that its unfathomable riches are ours; that they have been ours from the undo- lion of the world. All the treasures of Love and Wisdom await the faithful. Press on toward the mark; “fight the good fight;” keep the faith; finish your course. He that persevereth unto the end shall be saved from sin, sickness, death-sense, and self. Beloved; let us with every breath declare: “God is All in All; Love is omnipotent-.tbe only power-the only Life.” According to the measure of our love-and only thus far—do we live to Christ; and in Him. “He Uveth most, who loveth most. Oh! Life and Light celestial, Oh I Charity Ineffable, Come in Thy hidden majesty; Fill us with Love—fill us with Thee.”




Self-Treatment

by C. L. B.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my word that I speak in thee, receive In thine hurt and hear with thine ears.” •. • THE question of TREATMENT, is one of vital interest to a who have welcomed the Christ; to all who look, with longing, for Truth’s appearing. A just conception of Christian Science, even though it be a very limited one, clearly reveals the fact that” its Theology and its Materia Medica are one.” Thus, at the very beginning of this way, all who would walk therein, realize that each step is a demonstration; that without demonstration they but stand at the gate; no step beyond the portal has been taken. From very necessi, therefore, the practical applation of Truth, as expressed in Treatments, is one of the first questions to confront the beginner; and one that every subsequent experience is made to illuminate. · The above verse, when first read, came to me as a direct and explicit word; and it ever since by been treasured as one of the Bible lights thrown upon this subject. It is wonderful to note how passage after passage in the Bible, answers the longing to understand and practically apply the Truth, we. go: “All my words that I speak unto thee, receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears.” “The letter killeth-but the Spirit giveth life.” The message of Spirit must be spiritually received; must enter the heart. Without this, to hear with the sea is but to catch the letter, and the letter killeth; it is limitation and dwarfs all growth. The less may be found within the greater but the one who seeks the greater within th less will seek in vain. PRINCIPLE is ALL; and all.iswithin the Principle. Having the Infinite for our source we shall not need to go outside for our supply.

“If there is any mystery in Christian Healing, it is the mystery that godliness always presents to the ungodly, the myste arising from the ignorance of the laws of eternal and unerring Mind.” (SCIENCE AND HEALTH.) The letter of the law, a formula, or an intellectual dissertation on healing, is not the key to Christian Science; neither is it the way through which the deep things of God are revealed us. To know this will help to overcome the fear anxiety and impatience that hover near many earnest, seeking ones; and so will insure them greater fitness to receive the teachings of Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit, we cannot be empty. To eat of the bread “that cometh down from Heaven,” satisfies; to feed upon the husks of the letter, only, is to continue to be hungry. We ourselves must first receive our message, here we can speak to any other; we must hear the, “Thus saith the Lord,” before there can be any message for us to transmit. I myself now have only some simple, direct words for the hgry and thirsty ones who have come to realize the desolate and we places of Sense; who are entering into the con- sciou^ recognition that all is Mind; to whom the power of THOUGHT is beginning to be revealed. I know the warmth of your enthusiasm; the eagerness with which you would make hate to reach the place where you can “just help your. of, your own family and friends,”- and I would not put one obstacle in the way of this achievement. It is for the very purpose of helping you, that I speak. There are in Science no cross-roads, no short-cuts to success: knowing this, why should I let you defeat your own purpose; put farther o the consummation you desire, by takingsteps away from Truth—when in Truth alone is salvation? The transforming through the renewing of the mind, is not the work of an hour-even though” There are swift hours in life—strong rushing hours, That do the work of tempests in their might.”

Many things are adjusted, ad and their rightful place as we continue in the Truth. The Truth does not change; but your conception of it surely will, as its infiniteness is made apparent. You are ready to affirm the teachings of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, and yet daily do violence to the explicit directions given therein; simply because you have not given Bnfcient time to the study And assimilation of its words to grasp their true meaning.

The desire to give is right; so beautifully right, it ought to destroy selfishness, and lead to earnest consecration; to se-work; that you may have something to give others and be fitted to give it. You cannot begin with all the world; but you can begin with yourself. As the Truth of Being is wrought out in your own li; as God and your true relationship to Him become recognized, the veil—mortal belief—will be swept aside, and darkness (ignorance) will give place to light (understanding). Learn the truth in regard to yourself, and you learn it in regard to every other human being. There is one God; one Father over all. In Chris tian Science, the II brotherhood of man” means something.

Don’t begin by treating everybody and everything. The following, from SCIENCE AND HEALTH, is a plain word in regard to this, and I give it verbatim: “Like the Commonwealth, Christian Science has its Bill of Right:: God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self- government, reason, conscience.

“Man is self-governed only when guided by 110 other mind than his Maker’s and loving his neighbor as himself. The Divine Principle, the loving Father which formed him, keeps him in perfect peace, and this harmony is not to be tampered with. “Man’s rights are invaded when this divine order is interfered with. The human trespasser necessarily incurs the divine penalty due to this human error. The heavenly law is broken by this trespass upon man’s individual right of self-government. We have no more moral right to secretly attempt to influence the thoughts of another,—unless the privilege is personally granted us,—than a man has to strike a blow, except in self-defense.

“The erring opinions of mortals, their conflicting, selfish motive, and ignorant attempts to do good, often render them incapable of knowing or judging accurately the needs of their fellowmen, unless this need is expressed and aid solicited.

“Any interference of one mortal mind with another, apart from the exception herein named, is opposed to the order of Divine Science, and inca certain punishment—the darkening of the transgressor’s mind, and the lessening of his power to heal. Indeed, this power will be destroyed, if the mental power is persistently misused.” Again, from the same book I quote: “If Christian Healing is abused by a mere smattering of Science, it becomes a shocking. bore. It starts a petty cross-fire over every cripple and invalid, sending into him the cold bullet, ‘Nothing ails you,’ instead of cheerfully effecting a cure.”

Error must be met in all cases. “In the world, but not of it,” the false claims of the world must be met in ourselves and in others. To take no step whatever in the matter is an impossibility;—even if such inaction should Seem desirable.

How, then, can error be met in all cases, yet the Scientist in no way invade the domain of another’s mind; or be guilty of trespass? How can the claims of sense be denied in their seemingly ever-present manifestations?

This question was first put to me by myself; and as I answered it then for myself, so will I now answer it for the hen- feet of others. We began with the thought of self-work; and in these closing words, I wish simply to emphasize the me thought. The words I would speak after years of experience, can all be summed up in the brief charge: Tre Yourself

I long ago was told to treat myself; but it brought little light. I did not clearly see how and why; but, “a little leaven will leaven the whole lump,” and a glimpse of Truth will show the way to the fulness of Truth. Whenever we see any error in another, selfishness, impatience, hatred or any error of disease, we can and ought to deny this seeming in ourselves. The very fact that there appears to us this seeming of evil in another, is proof that in our own mortal mind, (conscious or unconscious) is to be found a belief of the same kind, or we had not recognized it. It may be one we have never manifested; it may be one that does not even tempt us; nevertheless, in our own mind is held a belief in the power of mortal mind to o this evil,—to be angry, impatient, seish, to hate; to have this or that disease. “All knowledge is through correspondence.” We see no evil in another, that our own mind does not claim to be a possibility; hence the reason for, and the need of, treating self.

Destroy the claim in yourself, and no personal right is invaded; but, in place of the seeming error, stands its opposite—The Truth. The evil is denied, and the Truth is affirmed. If in yourself you are at one with the Divine Mind, you do not, even in belief, shut out the presence of Conscious Good. It is this consciousness of Good that knows no evil, that makes its seeming manifestations impossible.

Self-work does not necessarily imply selfishness. Rightly understood, it makes selfishness impossible. It opens the way to most effectual work for others; for then, only, can one obey the directions given in the latter part of the verse, · “And o get tee to tem, of the captivity,—unto the children the people, and speak unto tem and say unto tltem, Titus saith te Lord God, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.”




One Health;—Many Diseases

by C. S. McLaury

The logic or fostering health all morality, os1u tile guess-work of gl1tlng 1llsc0 and sin.

WHEN we consider the changes made in the fundamental principles of religious beliefs during the last few centuries, there is certainly much to encourage us; we must conclude also that had they been wholly right, there would have been no need of change: and going still further, to contemplate the conditions under which some of those changes were made, we may well entertain doubts as to whether they a not yet susceptible of further improvement. Because they have changed, we may be sure they formerly were not wholly right; trough this fact may not imply that they are wholly wrong. The observer at present sees much to indicate the tendency to disregard ancient beliefs; or at least to refuse to accept them simply because they may have come to us through channels to which we are willing to concede perfect respect. He also finds in humanity an increasing desire to raise their coverings and search for their hidden PRINCIPLE,—thus showing man’s inclination to “Prove all things and hold fast that which is good.”

Beliefs of a spiritual nature are not only satisfying to the believer, but they usually point to a higher goal. Their tendency is to elevate thought; and from this higher attitude of thought a much higher conception is reached. It is certainly fair to presume that any advanced condition that is conceivable, can be attained. The mere fact that man conceives of a spiritual existence, must be accepted as a proof of such exis once; and the fact that each new conception is in advance of its predecessor, proves the prime Cause still to bear in advance of any position of thought yet attained. Again: the fact that each attitude of thought is in advance of and better than the last, is worthy of consideration as proof that the great causative PRINCIPLE is infinite goodness; and that man actuated by such PRINCIPLE, may, in his own consciousness, and conceptions that, by putting o the things that are of the past, would place him at point far beyond the scenes of discord known only to the mortal senses. Inasmuch as there always has been much discussion in regard to the likelihood of existence beyond what is called time, it may not be out of place to ask for some proof of such existence, other than simple assertions born of mere belief; belief indulged practicallyto the same extent by both civilized and uncivilized nAt.1mu:1 -··--·------------------------------------------ onnmA in of short of the ideal, they are but little in advance of“Faith without works;” which St. James tells us “is dead.” A firm belief in the principles of mathematics without understanding of those principles, certainly would not enable us practically to demonstrate them; but, it is safe to rely upon a rule positively proving a small proposition, to continue in the same line even the most extreme limit. The simple rule that multiplies two by itself, loses neither its simplicity nor reliability by being applied to the largest number conceivable. So positive are we of this fact, that we ask no further proof; being willing to rest upon the conclusion drawn from a logical premise. A number cannot be conceived so great but that it can be multiplied by itself; and this process can be continued ad infinitum, hence all mankind have come to one harmonious conclusion upon this point. Thus, though in Christian Science we have a Science that is infinite, we must still rely upon belief for a part of our conclusion; it being as impossible at this stage of our understanding to prove it ourselves all the way through, has to fathom eternity. This lack in our own demonstration, however, has been supplied by Jesus the Christ; by him who demonstrated over the whole 0£ the way. Christian Science imply gives us the PRCIPLE and rule of his demonstration. The part we have proven by this Principle and rule, enables us to feel perfectly sure of the whole. Late improvements in a material way may be suggestive of man’s real relations. The most powerful agencies now known are invisible not only, but he discernible by any of the five senses only by their effects. This shows quite plainly the necessity of approaching closer to Mind, to secure greater power; and, as this can be secured only by divesting the power of materiality, these late successes distinctly indicate the tendency to abandon materiality; to accept Mind as the only Cause, and matter as its only seeming hindrance. For example: Steam is absoluly visible, and undisceible to the senses in any way, except by its effects, when in condition to give the greatest power. This condition is brought about only by the attenuaon of materiality through use of fuel. Electric power, likely to supersede steam, is still further divested of material aspects, both in point of production and application. A hundred mes to-day, are as one a few years since, and the conclusion now evident is this: that miles are but a human conception; and that their annihilation would not of necessity be attended by any perceptible degree of disturbance.

To bring out an understanding of eternity, time (another human conception) must be destroyed; for time is no part of eternity. By electricity thought is transmitted instantaneously. Already there are indications that even the little materiality now regarded as necessary for its transmission may be removed; with this may vanish the little time; hence, practically, the distance separating those in communication. The fond mother is not separated from her son 011 the other side tho globe; but at midnight springs from her couch to describe the scene being enacted wherein he suffers from the hand of an assassin; and so vividly is the scene flashed into her thought, that she has been able to sketch the features and identify the murderer. Thought will, undo cultivation, not only respond to the cry of the falling lad, but also flash Lack the light of Truth and Love that will stay the hand uplifted to strike the fatal blow. Words a inadequate either to express or apply thought when thus conceived. Man seems to have no limitations except those imposed by his individual degree of understanding; and there is no thought, in the wide expanse of infinite Wisdom, that is not within the possible scope of complete consciousness. With the left hand wipe out all knowledge of the past, with the right, all thought of the future, and you will be found living in the eternal now; and “time” will have become a forgotten term.

We have now proceeded well out from the material and visible in the realm of mortal thought; but it is not intended to suggest the possibility of man’s evolving from materiality to Spirituality. This possibility would imply or admit his material origin. We must of necessity abandon the belief in such an origin if we find that man has any Spirituality; because man could not rise above his own origin, nor could the material endow its creation with attributes of a spiritual nature unknown to itself. Matter in itself-that he, as matter—has no intelligence, and to itself is not. But we must go much further before a resting place can be found. We must, in ct, go entirely out of mortal mind, and know that its productions are not lasting. This brings us back to man’s real existence. Man cannot be both spiritually an materially created; because Spirit an matter must never be opposites, never real nor coexistent, unless the law of reality and unreality be destroyed so that two opposites caul commingle. Light cannot mingle with darkness; Truth with falsehood; Good with evil. These are forever opposite. The nile and infinite bear no relation to each other. The reflection of Spirit and Perfection can not he matter and imperfection; imperfection cannot come from perfection. Truth must be real; hence, falsehood can not have reality. The one is a positive thought, and the other simply the negative of that thought. If God create sin or its author, would they not needs be eternal? And would not His intelligence be contaminated by evil, if his creations were endowed with it? But we are told-that He “is too pure to behold iniquity.” Surely, “bitter and sweet water can not come from the same for fountain.” Are we not safe in saying that God is good? And did He not pronounce His creation good? These premises are mstainable far beyond he point easily admitted by the careful student and believer who may have accepted a creed, and who endeavors to follow the precepts of the Bible with a belief not altogether free from material conclusions handed down by those who have relied upon the uncertainties of material science. The considerations just cited, indicate the likelihood of man’s origin in Spirit rather than in matter. If correct to say that a fountain can not rise above its source, is it not safe to say that man’s struggle in a spiritual direction is indicative of an infinitely good source?

To one who carefully analyzes his own aspirations, it will clearly appear that the progress of man indicates relationship with a great causative Principle; the better understanding of which will more fully establish, in his own consciousness, the right of this Principle to the title of Divity, not merely, but will ascribe to Divinity absolute supremacy. Close adherence to the teachings of the Bible, tends to divest man of all materiality, .and to establish his identity in Divine Mind, as the likeness and image of a spiritual Creator. Man can never go beyond his ideal; but, an ideal of infinite goodness must be entitled to most profound respect, inasmuch as the attitude Of thought it involves brings man to a full understanding of this Spiritual birthright, and thus establishes his absolute dominion by means of absolute demonstration of bis Spiritual origin. If, at this age, it can .not yet be clearly proven to the majority that the prime cause of all action and of all reality is divine Intelligence, it still must be admitted by those who give the subject due consideration, that there is much evidence that this attitude of thought will surely bring about a condition much more harmonious than that we now have.. It is a common thing to hear the same person with one breath claim that God is supreme goodness; and with the next flatly contradict himself by admitting the existence of an opposing power. UNTO God HAS ABSOLUTE SUPREMACY Tal OU& OWN CONSCIOUSNESS, WE FAIL TO ASCRIBE SUPREM- ANY TO DIVINE lIND. Christian Science declares that it is thin the reach of man to live at a conscioness of Truth which will enable him to dissipate the diseases manifest upon individual of the race. Such demonstrations are common among Christian Scientists. Must not these demonstrations be accepted as a proof of the existence of an all- powerful God, as taught by the Bible? Are they not entitled to be classed with the very best evidences of the divine inspiration of the Bible? It is niceable not only that the thought (of those who reflect the light that heals) is entirely freed from the reality of matter, but, that in belief of the reality of matter, the demonstrations cannot be brought out.

Let us suppose, now, that the whole world, for one hour, could banish from thought all knowledge of sin. That hour would be one of absolute purity and good, and a condition of perfect harmony would exist. Would not this be laying the axe at the root of the tree? Does this occur to you now as possible? Some one says it is not possible because sin is real, and as an existence outside of human thought and we must fight it as long as we live, If this be true; the world doomed. We honor the clergyman who, far as he sees, has been ithlly maintaining truth and fighting sin; the doctor, too, who leaves his own home and exposes his life and the lives of his family by going to the home of contagion that he may save the lives of others, and further advance a science he deems worthy his greatest efforts; also, the lawyer who diligeny labors for justice—oftentimes without hope of reward. But the condition which we have to take into account is this: that while the clergy has been with us in all ages; while doctors have practiced for an indefinite period, really antedating many diseases now known to man; yet, to-day, there is even greater need than ever there was. In fact, there appears no indication that the evils against which both are fighting will ever be lessened by their mode of warfare. The medical schools were never—so numerous, nor so well attended, as to-day; this indicates a large demand for doctors with but little hope for the destruction of disease. · Theological Seminaries, for training of ministers to fight sin, are not decreasing in number; showing that there is no hope of their work ever ceasing. The struggle goes on, and on; and the recruiting stations are kept busy filling the ranks of those who are fighting a foe that Chrisan Science declares has no existence save in human thought. Indeed, this Science proves that in the case of all these evils and sufferings we get only the reflection of our own thought; we plant the storm and reap the whirlwind. So far as the present agencies are concerned, we live in a hopeless world; a world in which according to the faith and works of mankind, evil and suffering are destined to perpetuate themselves. There is no prospect that sin ever will bene less, and righteousness more. Everywhere the cry goes up for more ministers, evangelists and missionaries; indicating the increase of evil and the decrease of good. With regard to the work the doctors have in hand the situation is the same. Do we ever hear from medical schools a report that there is a he, some- time, of the world’s having no need of doctors; and that this grand victory will be erected either in a near or remote generation? No: the world has no hope of reaching that condition through these learned professions. Perpetuation of evil, and of its results, is the thought of the.human mind. Now, is there not a reason for this? If you say that evil is a part of the constitution of the individual, social, political and universal body corporate, and that our life must be spent in fighting it without even a hope of victory, I declare to you that it may be a belief; but it comes far short of being the reality of Truth. Let us think, for a moment, upon the line of action pursued by these professional sin and disease :fighters, and see what their method is. I think we will find, as a rule, that it is more to fight against the evil, than to develop the good. The negative side of humanity is regarded as needing the most attention. 011 the part of the lawyer, it is to fight injustice as a means of promoting justice; of the master, more to fight evil than to promote righteousness; of the doctor, not to foster health, but to cure disease. Life is thus made a perpetual struggle, by the belief that evil is a stern reality; and that it is necessary to fight the evil rather than to develop the good. I can only view their position as that of one earnestly striving to drive arkness fro a room with a fan, instead of by opening the blinds. The human mind has always substituted negaons for the positive; it defines disease, but not health; sin, but not righteousness. Thus the world makes evil, with all its inharmonious results, a reality; and loses sight of the good which is the real Evil can never be removed from the world while considered in this way. It is as impossible as for a child to sweep the stars from space. The simple statement of Christian Science is this: that evil has no existence except in human thought; that divine Mind knows it not. That God knows it not is the reason that no effort of the human mind can definitely locate evil, so as to attack it effectively. “God is too pure to behold iniquity.” Truth is not conscious of falsehood.

Let us go a little farther and see if we cannot make this more plain. Consider all the names of sickness and sin, and you will find, if persistent in your analysis, that that which. lies behind them, and to resist which the learned professions have been maintained from earliest ages, exists only in human thought. You will find, too, that the manifestation of it is always a negative. When I say that injustice is something, I have only called your attention to the fact tbt it is the negative of justice; and while justice is a positive thought, injustice can only be the negative of that thought. Remove justice, and there remains—nothing. The idea before you when a disease (is for example diphtheria) is named, is simply the power of the name. If the doctors had never named disease, man never would have feared it. The name, with the fear, is all there is of it. If from the memory of every man, woman and child, the name of diphtheria and its manifestations could be dislodged, there would never again be a case of diphtheria; unless the doctors could le vent the name, and he-describe the symptoms. Health is the positive Th of Being; but you perceive that its absence is viewed as a positive reality, an as having different mani- stations. These mauifestatious are noted by the doctors with great care, until many pages upon “mauistations” are made up; and then a name i: affixed; all that name enters the human thought to be scattel’e abroad in the world; to produce fear, anxiety, despair. Yet you may clearly perceive that nothing but a name has Become a power,—according to human thought,—an indestructible nothing to There is nothing behind the name “ghost,” but fear; but that fear might cause convulBions; then all there is behind those “convulsions II is fear.

The absence of health is called disease, and disease is simply no health. While there is but one health. however, there are thousands of diseases in the human thought; this suggest the following query: If diseases continue increasing as rapidly as during the past few centuries, and the history of these diseases keeps growing in volume, how long will it be before the doctor will not live long enough to familiarize himself with diseases and their remedies? Where affection reigns, there is no law. None is there needed to maintain justice, an injustice is naturally forgotten,—destroyed. So with health and holiness: If ministers could tell what righteousness is, and men would think only of righteousness, there would be no sin. Did you ever known man to do evil while he was thinking of good? Did you eYer know a man to be unjust to his fellow men, when he was studying to be just? Did you ever know Truth to present error? Does God know evil? Why cannot the world receive a little positive teaching? Because it believes in the names of evil. We shall never overcome vice by fighting it; we must develop virtue. We shall never overcome disease by fighting it; we must believe in salt. We shall never attain ri_qltfeousness by fighting sin. Truth will destroy evil as a consuming fire—I care not what the evil may be. Before the name of Truth even’ other name must go down.

Christian Science stands to represent the positive side; the Truth against the error. If we will believe in Truth as we have believed in error, we shall no that Truth will destroy the error and we shall be saved. Now, there is some of the truth taught in the church. The minister will say that he is no longer a firmer and is saved from his sin. It is true; but in how limited a sense it is true! What we want to-day, is to catch the whole scope of the power of this thought: that the Truth of Being, is; that good, health, virtue and justice he ealities; that they are words behind which there is SOMETHG;—and that their opposites are unreal, are names behind which there is NOTHING. To know the unreality of evil and suffering, is to destroy their manifestations, and to understand health.

Here is another thought that we may do well to consider: what part of man is represented by the pronoun “I”? Does ccI” mean all of me? If so, what condition am I in when speaking of the component parts of the body? I speak of my hand in the same way that I do of my cow, my horse, my head; of my foot, my firm; of my heart, my house. Here we admit of a distinct separation; simply classing the body with our other possessions. Where i the individuality represented by the pronoun ^? Is it not the reality of man,

—indefinable to the material senses—but the indestructible, unchangeable, real existence that has been lost sight of under the teaching that negative thoughts were the real? Without mind, you have nothing; neither good nor evil. in!—even that which results in material productions, only follows thought. May there not be a principle here that can be understood and demonstrated to the benefit of mankind? Is it unreasonable to say that light will destroy darkness? far it unreasonable to say that Truth will destroy falsehood- that Love will destroy hate? far it then so very unreasonable to say that a well directed thought of health will destroy sickness? “Perfect love casteth out fear.” Light, Truth, Love and health, are positive, Spiritual tLonghts,—and no man can define them; their opposites are negative thoughts, behind which there id nothing—and yet you may find whole lib1·aries denying their manifestations and giving them names. Why can we not understand the supremacy of Life, Truth and Love as we now understand light, though unable to dene it? If we will so understand it, the scales will fall from our eyes; the negative thoughts will be banished from our consciousness, thus proving theirnothingness. Iritis frequently said that God is all-powerful. This jg either true or it is untrue. If true, there can Left no power in anything else; untrue, if any other power has a real existence. For ages, the common of pr. ch th. fnspl 1HHl hu !lCp^,l; while flu remainder of the command, “he the sick,” has been disregarded. If one part of this passage or command is true, is it not all true? And if any part is not true, does it not cast serious reflection upon the remainder? If the demonstration of divine Principle will heal the sick, is it not envied to the most careful consideration as proof of the truthfulness of Christ’s teaching? “I am the way,” “the works that I do ye shall do, and greater, for I go unto the Father.” These words do not convey the idea that we can do these works or leave them undone as we choose, and find the rewards that were promised for obedience; to the contrary, it is said: “ye shall do them,” and “whosoever climbeth up any other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” If the Bible is true, God is all-powerful; and it must follow that if God is not all-powerful, his supremacy is in question, and the Bible is not be.. As the understanding of these great truths lights up consciousness, the darkness of a belief to the contrary will decrease proportionately, together with its inharmonious results. Should not a full realization of all power in God totally destroy the beliefs ,of power in anything else? And may we not accept the healing, seen through Christian Science, as a manifestation of this divine Omnipotence? Great indeed must be the works of a consciousness divested of all beliefs; of a realization that God is all Power, all Presence, all Truth, all Love, all Intelligence, all Goodness, and endowed with absolute supremacy to The light of such a consciousness must—as it did in the case of Jesus—heal as surely as the light of the noon-day sun dissipates darkness. Such a consciousness must stand as a beacon light, ashing out its rays of Truth until disease becomes ever banished from the realm of thought.

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Love is the liberator.