Bible Lessons
From Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy
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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. 12, 13.
25 Here, the apostle assures us that man has power to
become the son of God. In the Hebrew text, the word
“son” is defined variously; a month is called the son
of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both
a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak
30 of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of man; but
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1 Jesus said to call no man father; “for one is your Father,”
even God.
Is man’s spiritual sonship a personal gift to man, or
is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man’s
5 knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to dem-
onstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite
in order to understand his sonship, or unity with God,
good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to
the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of
10 Science, unless that requirement should express the claims
of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite
Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over
what is the person of Spirit,—if we recognize infinitude
as personality,—for who can tell what is the form of
15 infinity? When we understand man’s true birthright, that
he is “born, not … of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God,” we shall understand that man
is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize
him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard
20 him as spiritual, and not material. His sonship, referred
to in the text, is his spiritual relation to Deity: it is not,
then, a personal gift, but is the order of divine Science.
The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact:
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power
25 to become the sons of God.” Mortals will lose their sense
of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death—in
the proportion that they gain the sense of man’s spirit-
ual preexistence as God’s child; as the offspring of
good, and not of God’s opposite,—evil, or a fallen
30 man.
John the Baptist had a clear discernment of divine
Science: being born not of the human will or flesh, he
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1 antedated his own existence, began spiritually instead
of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the im-
possibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through
violent means or material methods.
“As many as received him;” that is, as many as per-
5 ceive man’s actual existence in and of his divine Princi-
ple, receive the Truth of existence; and these have no
other God, no other Mind, no other origin; therefore, in
time they lose their false sense of existence, and find
10 their adoption with the Father; to wit, the redemption
of the body. Through divine 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
15 the flesh.” This passage refers to man’s primal, spirit-
ual existence, created neither from dust nor carnal desire.
“Nor of the will of man.” Born of no doctrine,
no human faith, but beholding the truth of being; even
the understanding that man was never lost in Adam,
20 since he is and ever was the image and likeness of God,
good. But no mortal hath seen the spiritual man, more
than he hath seen the Father. The apostle indicates
no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite;
but the possibility of all finding their place in God’s great
25 love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and
daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of existence
as Principle and idea, wherein man and his Maker
are inseparable and eternal.
When the Word is made flesh,—that is, rendered
30 practical,—this eternal Truth will be understood; and
sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did
more than eighteen centuries ago. The lusts of the flesh
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1 and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine
Science of being; in the ever-present good, omnipotent
Love, and eternal Life, that know no death, In the great
forever, the verities of being exist, and must be acknowl-
5 edged and demonstrated. Man must love his neighbor
as himself, and the power of Truth must be seen and
felt in health, happiness, and holiness: then it will be
found that Mind is All-in-all, and there is no matter to
cope with.
10 Man is free born: he is neither the slave of sense, nor a
silly ambler to the so-called pleasures and pains of self-
conscious matter. Man is God’s image and likeness;
whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God’s
reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn
15 this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scrip-
tures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall
be filled—not by reason of the schools, or learning, but
by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed
on him, to give utterance to Truth.
20 “Who hath believed our report?” Who understands
these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is re-
vealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence,
that equips man with divine power while it shames human
pride. Asserting a selfhood apart from God, is a denial
25 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 refute the evidence of material
30 sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true
status of man because of it. The material senses would
make man, that the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker,
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1 the very opposite of that Maker, by claiming that God is
Spirit, while man is matter; that God is good, but man is
evil; that Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and
sense conflict, from the revolving of worlds to the death
of a sparrow.
The Word will be made flesh and dwell among mortals,
only when man reflects God in body as well as in mind.
The child born of a woman has the formation of his
parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material.
10 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,
“Who healeth all thy diseases.”
If man should say of the power to be perfect which he
15 possesses, “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 that he is sick and a
sinner. If he says, “I am of God, therefore good,” yet
20 persists 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 destroys his self-de-
ceived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives
back the lost likeness and power of God as the seal of
25 man’s adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable,
which casteth out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death;
that seeketh not her own, but another’s good; that saith
Abba, Father, and is born of God!
John came baptizing with water. He employed a type
30 of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity,
even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and
submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the
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1 lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker.
None but the pure in heart shall see God,—shall be able
to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle
of Christian Science. The will of God, or power of Spirit,
5 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 achievement of his
10 spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that
opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good
flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of
all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demon-
strating the true image and likeness. There is no other
15 way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man
be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality.
“As many as received him,”—as accept the truth
of being,—“to them gave he power to become the sons
of God.” The spiritualization of our sense of man opens
20 the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses
would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright,
pure, and free; having no need of statistics by which to
learn his origin and age, or to measure his manhood, or to
know how much of a man he ever has been: for, “as
25 many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God.”
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.—1 COR. xv. 45.
When reasoning on this subject of man with the Corin-
30 thian brethren, the apostle first spake from their stand-
point of thought; namely, that creation is material:
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1 he was not at this point giving the history of the spiritual
man who originates in God, Love, who created man
in His own image and likeness. In the creation of Adam
from dust,—in which Soul is supposed to enter the
5 embryo-man after his birth,—we see the material self-
constituted belief of the Jews as referred to by St. Paul.
Their material belief has fallen far below man’s original
standard, the spiritual man made in the image and like-
ness of God; for this erring belief even separates its
10 conception of man from God, and ultimates in the opposite
of immortal man, namely, in a sick and sinning
mortal.
We learn in the Scriptures, as in divine Science, that
God made all; that He is the universal Father and Mother
15 of man; that God is divine Love: therefore divine Love
is the divine Principle of the divine idea named man;
in other words, the spiritual Principle of spiritual man.
Now let us not lose this Science of man, but gain it clearly;
then we shall see that man cannot be separated from
20 his perfect Principle, God, inasmuch as an idea cannot
be torn apart from its fundamental basis. This scien-
tific knowledge affords self-evident proof of immortality;
proof, also, that the Principle of man cannot produce a
less perfect man than it produced in the beginning. A
25 material sense of existence is not the scientific fact of
being; whereas, the spiritual sense of God and His universe
is the immortal and true sense of being.
As the apostle proceeds in this line of thought, he
undoubtedly refers to the last Adam represented by the
30 Messias, whose demonstration of God restored to mortals
the lost sense of man’s perfection, even the sense of the
real man in God’s likeness, who restored this sense by
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1 the spiritual regeneration of both mind and body,—
casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead.
The man Jesus demonstrated over sin, sickness, disease,
and death. The great Metaphysician wrought, over and
5 above every sense of matter, into the proper sense of the
possibilities of Spirit. He established health and har-
mony, the perfection of mind and body, as the reality of
man; while discord, as seen in disease and death, was to
him the opposite of man, hence the unreality; even as in
10 Science a chord is manifestly the reality of music, and
discord the unreality. This rule of harmony must be ac-
cepted as true relative to man.
The translators of the older Scriptures presuppose a
material man to be the first man, solely because their
15 transcribing thoughts were not lifted to the inspired sense
of the spiritual man, as set forth in original Holy Writ.
Had both writers and translators in that age fully com-
prehended the later teachings and demonstrations of
our human and divine Master, the Old Testament might
20 have been as spiritual as the New.
The origin, substance, and life of man are one, and
that one is God,—Life, Truth, Love. The self-existent,
perfect, and eternal are God; and man is their reflection
and glory. Did the substance of God, Spirit, become a
25 clod, in order to create a sick, sinning, dying man? The
primal facts of being are eternal; they are never extin-
guished in a night of discord.
That man must be evil before he can be good; dying,
before deathless; material, before spiritual; sick and a
30 sinner in order to be healed and saved, is but the declara-
tion of the material senses transcribed by pagan religion-
ists, by wicked mortals such as crucified our Master,—
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1 whose teachings opposed the doctrines of Christ that
demonstrated the opposite, Truth.
Man is as perfect now, and henceforth, and forever,
as when the stars first sang together, and creation joined
5 in the grand chorus of harmonious being. It is the trans-
lator, not the original Word, who presents as being first
that which appears second, material, and mortal; and
as last, that which is primal, spiritual, and eternal. Be-
cause of human misstatement and misconception of God
10 and man, of the divine Principle and idea of being, there
seems to be a war between the flesh and Spirit, a contest
between Truth and error; but the apostle says, “There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
15 Spirit.”
On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis
of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses;
thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense;
and right there he leaves the subject.
20 Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where
the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian
Science. And she has not left it, but continues the ex-
planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning,
its allness. The recognition of this power came to her
25 through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal
or mortal sense of things; not that there is, or can
be, an actual change in the realities of being, but
that we can discern more of them. At the moment
of her discovery, she knew that the last Adam, namely,
30 the true likeness of God, was the first, the only man.
This knowledge did become to her “a quickening
spirit;” for she beheld the meaning of those words
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1 of our Master, “The last shall be first, and the first
last.”
When, as little children, we are receptive, become
willing to accept the divine Principle and rule of being,
5 as unfolded in divine Science, the interpretation therein
will be found to be the Comforter that leadeth into all
truth.
The meek Nazarene’s steadfast and true knowledge of
preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God
10 and man,—made him mighty. Spiritual insight of
Truth and Love antidotes and destroys the errors of flesh,
and brings to light the true reflection: man as God’s
image, or “the first man,” for Christ plainly declared,
through Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
15 The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into
matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false
sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it
away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and per-
fection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as
20 God. The Scriptures declare Life to be the infinite I
AM,—not a dweller in matter. For man to know Life
as it is, namely God, the eternal good, gives him not
merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying con-
sciousness of spiritual power that subordinates matter
25 and destroys sin, disease, and death. This, Jesus demon-
strated; insomuch that St. Matthew wrote, “The people
were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them
as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” This
spiritual power, healing sin and sickness, was not con-
30 fined to the first century; it extends to all time, inhabits
eternity, and demonstrates Life without beginning or
end.
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1 Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the
energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the out-
come of life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth,
Life, defiant of error or matter. Divine Science demon-
5 strates Mind as dispelling a false sense and giving the
true sense of itself, God, and the universe; wherein the
mortal evolves not the immortal, nor does the material
ultimate in the spiritual; wherein man is coexistent with
Mind, and is the recognized reflection of infinite Life and
10 Love.
And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to
pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.—LUKE xi. 14.
The meaning of the term “devil” needs yet to be
learned. Its definition as an individual is too limited
15 and contradictory. When the Scripture is understood,
the spiritual signification of its terms will be understood,
and will contradict the interpretations that the senses
give them; and these terms will be found to include the
inspired meaning.
20 It could not have been a person that our great Master
cast out of another person; therefore the devil herein
referred to was an impersonal evil, or whatever worketh
ill. In this case it was the evil of dumbness, an error of
material sense, cast out by the spiritual truth of being;
25 namely, that speech belongs to Mind instead of matter,
and the wrong power, or the lost sense, must yield to the
right sense, and exist in Mind.
In the Hebrew, “devil” is denominated Abaddon; in
the Greek, Apollyon, serpent, liar, the god of this world,
30 etc. The apostle Paul refers to this personality of evil
as “the god of this world;” and then defines this god
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1 as “dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God
deceitfully.” The Hebrew embodies the term “devil”
in another term, serpent,—which the senses are supposed
to take in,—and then defines this serpent as “more
5 subtle than all the beasts of the field.” Subsequently,
the ancients changed the meaning of the term, to their
sense, and then the serpent became a symbol of wisdom.
The Scripture in John, sixth chapter and seventieth
verse, refers to a wicked man as the devil: “Have not
10 I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Accord-
ing to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is
more than one devil. In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty-
eighth verse, it reads: “Master, we saw one casting out
devils in thy name.” Here is an assertion indicating
15 the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the
first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found
to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth,
casts out. By no possible interpretation can this passage
mean several individuals cast out of another individual
20 no bigger than themselves. The term, being here em-
ployed in its plural number, destroys all consistent sup-
position of the existence of one personal devil. Again,
our text refers to the devil as dumb; but the original
devil was a great talker, and was supposed to have out-
25 talked even Truth, and carried the question with Eve.
Also, the original texts define him as an “accuser,” a
“calumniator,” which would be impossible if he were
speechless. These two opposite characters ascribed to
him could only be possible as evil beliefs, as different
30 phases of sin or disease made manifest.
Let us obey St. Paul’s injunction to reject fables, and
accept the Scriptures in their broader, more spiritual
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1 and practical sense. When we speak of a good man, we
do not mean that man is God because the Hebrew term
for Deity was “good,” and vice versa; so, when referring
to a liar, we mean not that he is a personal devil, because
5 the original text defines devil as a “liar.”
It is of infinite importance to man’s spiritual progress,
and to his demonstration of Truth in casting out error,
—sickness, sin, disease, and death, in all their forms,—
that the terms and nature of Deity and devil be understood.
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.—
JOHN xiv. 12.
Such are the words of him who spake divinely, well
knowing the omnipotence of Truth. The Hebrew bard
15 saith, “His name shall endure forever: His name shall
be continued as long as the sun.” Luminous with the
light of divine Science, his words reveal the great Principle
of a full salvation. Neither can we question the practi-
cability of the divine Word, who have learned its adapta-
20 bility to human needs, and man’s ability to prove the
truth of prophecy.
The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing
belongs to every period; as the above Scripture plainly
declares, and as primitive Christianity confirms. Also,
25 the last chapter of Mark is emphatic on this subject;
making healing a condition of salvation, that extends to
all ages and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can
be more conclusive than this: “And these signs shall
follow them that believe; … they shall lay hands on
30 the sick, and they shall recover.” This declaration of
our Master settles the question; else we are entertaining
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1 the startling inquiries, Are the Scriptures inspired? Are
they true? Did Jesus mean what he said?
If this be the cavil, we reply in the affirmative that the
Scripture is true; that Jesus did mean all, and even more
5 than he said or deemed it safe to say at that time. His
words are unmistakable, for they form propositions of
self-evident demonstrable truth. Doctrines that deny
the substance and practicality of all Christ’s teachings
cannot be evangelical; and evangelical religion can be
10 established on no other claim than the authenticity of
the Gospels, which support unequivocally the proof that
Christian Science, as defined and practised by Jesus,
heals the sick, casts out error, and will destroy death.
Referring to The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,
15 of which I am pastor, a certain clergyman charitably
expressed it, “the so-called Christian Scientists.”
I am thankful even for his allusion to truth; it being
a modification of silence on this subject, and also of what
had been said when critics attacked me for supplying the
20 word Science to Christianity,—a word which the people
are now adopting.
The next step for ecclesiasticism to take, is to admit
that all Christians are properly called Scientists who
follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth;
25 and that no one is following his full command without
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; for this is Christlike,
30 and includes the understanding of man’s capabilities and
spiritual power. The condition insisted upon is, first,
“belief;” the Hebrew of which implies understanding.
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1 How many to-day believe that the power of God equals
even the power of a drug to heal the sick! Divine Science
reveals the Principle of this power, and the rule whereby
sin, sickness, disease, and death are destroyed; and God
5 is this Principle. Let us, then, seek this Science; that we
may know Him better, and love Him more.
Though a man were begirt with the Urim and Thum-
mim of priestly office, yet should deny the validity or
permanence of Christ’s command to heal in all ages,
10 this denial would dishonor that office and misinterpret
evangelical religion. Divine Science is not an interpo-
lation of the Scriptures, but is redolent with love, health,
and holiness, for the whole human race. It only needs
the prism of this Science to divide the rays of Truth, and
15 bring out the entire hues of Deity, which scholastic theol-
ogy has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine
power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy
of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.
The context of the foregoing Scriptural text explains
20 Jesus’ words, “because I go unto my Father.” “Because”
in following him, you understand God and how to turn
from matter to Spirit for healing; how to leave self, the
sense material, for the sense spiritual; how to accept
God’s power and guidance, and become imbued with
25 divine Love that casts out all fear. Then are you bap-
tized in the Truth that destroys all error, and you receive
the sense of Life that knows no death, and you know that
God is the only Life.
To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that
30 is God, good, we must comply with the first condition
set forth in the text, namely, believe; in other words,
understand God sufficiently to exclude all faith in any
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1 other remedy than Christ, the Truth that antidotes all
error. Thence will follow the absorption of all action,
motive, and mind, into the rules and divine Principle of
metaphysical healing.
5 Whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science but
possesses not its spirit, is unable to demonstrate this
Science; or whosoever hath the spirit without the letter,
is held back by reason of the lack of understanding. Both
the spirit and the letter are requisite; and having these,
10 every one can prove, in some degree, the validity of those
words of the great Master, “For the Son of man is come
to save that which was lost.”
It has been said that the New Testament does not au-
thorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period.
15 We ask what is the authority for such a conclusion,
the premises whereof are not to be found in the Scriptures.
The Master’s divine logic, as seen in our text, contradicts
this inference,—these are his words: “He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” That per-
20 fect syllogism of Jesus has but one correct premise and
conclusion, and it cannot fall to the ground beneath the
stroke of unskilled swordsmen. He who never unsheathed
his blade to try the edge of truth in Christian Science, is
unequal to the conflict, and unfit to judge in the case;
25 the shepherd’s sling would slay this Goliath. I once be-
lieved that the practice and teachings of Jesus relative to
healing the sick, were spiritual abstractions, impractical
and impossible to us; but deed, not creed, and practice
more than theory, have given me a higher sense of
30 Christianity.
The “I” will go to the Father when meekness, purity,
and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter,
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1 lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in
matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one
Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God.
Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds
5 and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner
of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in
the beginning, “Believe in me, and I will make you as
gods;” that is, I will give you a separate mind from God
(good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open
10 your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become
material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent
said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind,
good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the
words of our Master: “He is a liar, and the father of it;”
15 also, the character of the votaries to “other gods” which
sprung from it.
The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man’s
unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present
existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good.
20 It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness,
and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall ap-
pear, “we shall be like Him;” we shall do the works of
Christ, and, in the words of David, “the stone which the
builders refused is become the head stone of the corner,”
25 because the “I” does go unto the Father, the ego does
arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted,—
not through death, but Life, God understood.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.—ACTS
xvi. 31.
30 The Scriptures require more than a simple admission
and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they
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1 require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons
into our lives that these truths become the motive-power
of every act.
ur chosen text is one more frequently used than
5 many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin
and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import
of this text is not yet recognized. It means a full salva-
tion,—man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for,
unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven
10 in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers
pursue.
In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let
us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion
entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God,
15 or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more
help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical
event or person. But it does mean so to understand the
beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus
presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will
20 compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to “let
this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
(Phil. ii. 5.)
Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life
in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelli-
25 gence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both
good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and there-
fore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Command-
ment of God.
Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God,
30 recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and,
placing his trust in this grand Truth, and working from
no other Principle, he can neither be sick nor forever a
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1 sinner. When wholly governed by the one perfect Mind,
man has no sinful thoughts and will have no desire
to sin.
To arrive at this point of unity of Spirit, God, one must
5 commence by turning away from material gods; denying
material so-called laws and material sensation,—or mind
in matter, in its varied forms of pleasure and pain. This
must be done with the understanding that matter has no
sense; thus it is that consciousness silences the mortal
10 claim to life, substance, or mind in matter, with the words
of Jesus: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own.” (John viii. 44.)
When tempted to sin, we should know that evil pro-
ceedeth not from God, good, but is a false belief of the
15 personal senses; and if we deny the claims of these senses
and recognize man as governed by God, Spirit, not by
material laws, the temptation will disappear.
On this Principle, disease also is treated and healed.
We know that man’s body, as matter, has no power to
20 govern itself; and a belief of disease is as much the prod-
uct of mortal thought as sin is. All suffering is the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil; of
adherence to the “doubleminded” senses, to some belief,
fear, theory, or bad deed, based on physical material law,
25 so-called as opposed to good,—all of which is corrected
alone by Science, divine Principle, and its spiritual laws.
Suffering is the supposition of another intelligence than
God; a belief in self-existent evil, opposed to good; and
in whatever seems to punish man for doing good,—
30 by saying he has overworked, suffered from inclement
weather, or violated a law of matter in doing good, there-
fore he must suffer for it.
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1 God does not reward benevolence and love with pen-
alties; and because of this, we have the right to deny the
supposed power of matter to do it, and to allege that only
mortal, erring mind can claim to do thus, and dignify the
5 result with the name of law: thence comes man’s ability
to annul his own erring mental law, and to hold himself
amenable only to moral and spiritual law,—God’s gov-
ernment. By so doing, male and female come into their
rightful heritage, “into the glorious liberty of the children
10 of God.”
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.—2 COR.
xii. 10.
The miracles recorded in the Scriptures illustrate the
15 life of Jesus as nothing else can; but they cost him the
hatred of the rabbis. The rulers sought the life of Jesus;
they would extinguish whatever denied and defied their
superstition. We learn somewhat of the qualities of the
divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of
20 his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it
gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mor-
tals name matter.
The Principle of these marvellous works is divine; but
the actor was human. This divine Principle is discerned
25 in Christian Science, as we advance in the spiritual under-
standing that all substance, Life, and intelligence are
God. The so-called miracles contained in Holy Writ are
neither supernatural nor preternatural; for God is good,
and goodness is more natural than evil. The marvellous
30 healing-power of goodness is the outflowing life of Chris-
tianity, and it characterized and dated the Christian era.
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1 It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the
mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instan-
taneous. Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man,
and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as
5 the better representatives of God than sin, disease, and
death. The master Metaphysician understood omnipo-
tence to be All-power: because Spirit was to him All-
in-all, matter was palpably an error of premise and
conclusion, while God was the only substance, Life,
10 and intelligence of man.
The apostle Paul insists on the rare rule in Christian
Science that we have chosen for a text; a rule that is sus-
ceptible of proof, and is applicable to every stage and
state of human existence. The divine Science of this rule
15 is quite as remote from the general comprehension of man-
kind as are the so-called miracles of our Master, and for
the sole reason that it is their basis. The foundational
facts of Christian Science are gathered from the supremacy
of spiritual law and its antagonism to every supposed ma-
20 terial law. Christians to-day should be able to say, with
the sweet sincerity of the apostle, “I take pleasure in
infirmities,”—I enjoy the touch of weakness, pain, and
all suffering of the flesh, because it compels me to seek the
remedy for it, and to find happiness, apart from the per-
25 sonal senses. The holy calm of Paul’s well-tried hope
met no obstacle or circumstances paramount to the tri-
umph of a reasonable faith in the omnipotence of good,
involved in its divine Principle, God: the so-called pains
and pleasures of matter were alike unreal to Jesus; for he
30 regarded matter as only a vagary of mortal belief, and sub-
dued it with this understanding.
The abstract statement that all is Mind, supports the
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1 entire wisdom of the text; and this statement receives
the mortal scoff only because it meets the immortal de-
mands of Truth. The Science of Paul’s declaration re-
solves the element misnamed matter into its original sin,
5 or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the
qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought
death; and death is an element of matter, or material
falsity, never of Spirit.
When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he
10 revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its power-
lessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the
Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error
and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great
somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit,
15 and immortal.
Understanding this, Paul took pleasure in infirmities,
for it enabled him to triumph over them,—he declared
that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death;” he took
20 pleasure in “reproaches” and “persecutions,” because
they were so many proofs that he had wrought the prob-
lem of being beyond the common apprehension of sinners;
he took pleasure in “necessities,” for they tested and de-
veloped latent power.
25 We protect our dwellings more securely after a robbery,
and our jewels have been stolen; so, after losing those
jewels of character,—temperance, virtue, and truth,—
the young man is awakened to bar his door against further
robberies.
30 Go to the bedside of pain, and there you can demon-
strate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities;
because it illustrates through the flesh the divine power
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1 of Spirit, and reaches the basis of all supposed miracles;
whereby the sweet harmonies of Christian Science are
found to correct the discords of sense, and to lift man’s
being into the sunlight of Soul.
5 “The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileged beyond the walks of common life,
Quite on the verge of heaven.”
