Extract From A Sermon Delivered In Boston, January 18, 1885

         TEXT: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
         took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was
         leavened.—MATT.
         xiii. 33.

         Few people at present know aught of the Science of
         mental healing; and so many are obtruding upon the
         public attention their ignorance or false knowledge in
         the name of Science, that it behooves all clad in the shin-
30    ing mail to keep bright their invincible armor; to keep

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1      their demonstrations modest, and their claims and lives
         steadfast in Truth.

         Dispensing the Word charitably, but separating the
         tares from the wheat, let us declare the positive and
5      the negative of metaphysical Science; what it is, and
         what it is not. Intrepid, self-oblivious Protestants in
         a higher sense than ever before, let us meet and defeat
         the claims of sense and sin, regardless of the bans or
         clans pouring in their fire upon us; and white-winged
10    charity, brooding over all, shall cover with her feathers
         the veriest sinner.

         Divine and unerring Mind measures man, until the
         three measures be accomplished, and he arrives at
         fulness of stature; for “the Lord God omnipotent
15    reigneth.”

         Science is divine: it is neither of human origin nor of
         human direction. That which is termed “natural science,”
         the evidences whereof are taken in by the five personal
         senses, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite
20    law of God; which law is written on the heart, received
         through the affections, spiritually understood, and dem-
         onstrated in our lives.

         This law of God is the Science of mental healing,
         spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed.

25    Mental Science, and the five personal senses, are at
         war; and peace can only be declared on the side of im-
         mutable right,—the health, holiness, and immortality
         of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and funda-
         mental rule of Science must be understood and adhered
30    to; namely, the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture
         that God is good; hence, good is omnipotent and
         omnipresent.

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1      Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, or
         man’s theorems, misstate mental Science, its Principle
         and practice. The most enlightened sense herein sees
         nothing but a law of matter.

5      Who has ever learned of the schools that there is but
         one Mind, and that this is God, who healeth all our sick-
         ness and sins?

         Who has ever learned from the schools, pagan phi-
         losophy, or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of
10    Mind and not of matter, and that this law has no relation
         to, or recognition of, matter?

         Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God,
         omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an oppo-
         site so-called science, which says that man is both matter
15    and mind, that Mind is in matter? Can the infinite
         be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted
         in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without
         space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that
         it is man?

20    If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter
         is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power
         and all-presence, man is not met by another power
         and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—
         pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man
25    is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that
         is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man’s creator?
         Surely not from God, for He made man in His own
         likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called
         matter? Have attraction and cohesion formed it?
30    But are these forces laws of matter, or laws of
         Mind?

         For matter to be matter, it must have been self-created.

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1      Mind has no more power to evolve or to create matter
         than has good to produce evil. Matter is a misstatement
         of Mind; it is a lie, claiming to talk and disclaim against
         Truth; idolatry, having other gods; evil, having presence
5      and power over omnipotence!

         Let us have a clearing up of abstractions. Let us
         come into the presence of Him who removeth all iniqui-
         ties, and healeth all our diseases. Let us attach our sense
         of Science to what touches the religious sentiment within
10    man. 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 solar system and higher than the at-
         mosphere of our planet, is the Science of mental
15    healing.

         What is the kingdom of heaven? The abode of Spirit,
         the realm of the real. No matter is there, no night is
         there—nothing that maketh or worketh a lie. Is this
         kingdom afar off? No: it is ever-present here. The
20    first to declare against this kingdom is matter. Shall
         that be called heresy which pleads for Spirit—the All of
         God, and His omnipresence?

         The kingdom of heaven is the reign of divine Science:
         it is a mental state. Jesus said it is within you, and
25    taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come;” but he 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 here and now.

30    The leaven which a woman took and hid in three
         measures of meal, is Divine Science; the Comforter;
         the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the “still,

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1      small voice” that breathes His presence and power, cast-
         ing out error and healing the sick. And woman, the
         spiritual idea, takes of the things of God and showeth
         them unto the creature, until the whole sense of being
5      is leavened with Spirit. The three measures of meal
         may well be likened to the false sense of life, substance,
         and intelligence, which says, I am sustained by bread,
         matter, instead of Mind. The spiritual leaven of divine
         Science changes this false sense, giving better views of
10    Life; saying, Man’s Life is God; and when this shall
         appear, it shall be “the substance of things hoped for.”

         The measure of Life shall increase by every spiritual
         touch, even as the leaven expands the loaf. Man shall
         keep the feast of Life, not with the old leaven of the
15    scribes and Pharisees, neither with “the leaven of malice
         and wickedness; but the unleavened bread of sincerity
         and truth.”

         Thus it can be seen that the Science of mental healing
         must be understood. There are false Christs that would
20    “deceive, if it were possible, the very elect,” by institut-
         ing matter and its methods in place of God, Mind. Their
         supposition is, that there are other minds than His; that
         one mind controls another; that one belief takes the
         place of another. But this ism of to-day has nothing
25    to do with the Science of mental healing which acquaints
         us with God and reveals the one perfect Mind and His
         laws.

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

         But remember God in all thy ways, and thou shalt

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1      find the truth that breaks the dream of sense, letting the
         harmony of Science that declares Him, come in with
         healing, and peace, and perfect love.