Pond and Purpose

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1      Beloved Students:—In thanking you for your
         gift of the pretty pond contributed to Pleasant View,
         in Concord, New Hampshire, I make no distinction be-
         tween my students and your students; for here, thine
5      becomes mine through gratitude and affection.

         From my tower window, as I look on this smile of
         Christian Science, this gift from my students and their
         students, it will always mirror their love, loyalty, and
         good works. Solomon saith, “As in water face answereth
10    to face, so the heart of man to man.”

         The waters that run among the valleys, and that
         you have coaxed in their course to call on me, have
         served the imagination for centuries. Theology religiously
         bathes in water, medicine applies it physically, hydrology
15    handles it with so-called science, and metaphysics appro-
         priates it topically as type and shadow. Metaphysically,
         baptism serves to rebuke the senses and illustrate Christian
         Science.

         First: The baptism of repentance is indeed a stricken
20    state of human consciousness, wherein mortals gain
         severe views of themselves; a state of mind which rends
         the veil that hides mental deformity. Tears flood the eyes,

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1      agony struggles, pride rebels, and a mortal seems a
         monster, a dark, impenetrable cloud of error; and falling
         on the bended knee of prayer, humble before God, he
         cries, “Save, or I perish.” Thus Truth, searching the
5      heart, neutralizes and destroys error.

         This mental period is sometimes chronic, but oftener
         acute. It is attended throughout with doubt, hope, sorrow,
         joy, defeat, and triumph. When the good fight is fought,
         error yields up its weapons and kisses the feet of Love,
10    while white-winged peace sings to the heart a song of
         angels.

         Second: The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the spirit
         of Truth cleansing from all sin; giving mortals new
         motives, new purposes, new affections, all pointing up-
15    ward. This mental condition settles into strength, free-
         dom, deep-toned faith in God; and a marked loss of faith
         in evil, in human wisdom, human policy, ways, and means.
         It develops individual capacity, increases the intellectual
         activities, and so quickens moral sensibility that the
20    great demands of spiritual sense are recognized, and they
         rebuke the material senses, holding sway over human
         consciousness.

         By purifying human thought, this state of mind per-
         meates with increased harmony all the minutiae of human
25    affairs. It brings with it wonderful foresight, wisdom,
         and power; it unselfs the mortal purpose, gives steadi-
         ness to resolve, and success to endeavor. Through the
         accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of
         Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition,
30    and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence
         and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry,
         evil thinking, evil speaking and acting; and mortal

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1      mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of
         itself.

         This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind,
         the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists
5      of materiality and melting away the shadows called sin,
         disease, and death.

         In mortal experience, the fire of repentance first sepa-
         rates the dross from the gold, and reformation brings
         the light which dispels darkness. Thus the operation
10    of the spirit of Truth and Love on the human thought,
         in the words of St. John, “shall take of mine and show it
         unto you.”

         Third: The baptism of Spirit, or final immersion of
         human consciousness in the infinite ocean of Love, is the
15    last scene in corporeal sense. This omnipotent act drops
         the curtain on material man and mortality. After this,
         man’s identity or consciousness reflects only Spirit, good,
         whose visible being is invisible to the physical senses: eye
         hath not seen it, inasmuch as it is the disembodied in-
20    dividual Spirit-substance and consciousness termed in
         Christian metaphysics the ideal man—forever permeated
         with eternal life, holiness, heaven. This order of Science
         is the chain of ages, which maintain their obvious corre-
         spondence, and unites all periods in the divine design.
25    Mortal man’s repentance and absolute abandonment of
         sin finally dissolves all supposed material life or physical
         sensation, and the corporeal or mortal man disappears
         forever. The encumbering mortal molecules, called man,
         vanish as a dream; but man born of the great Forever,
30    lives on, God-crowned and blest.

         Mortals who on the shores of time learn Christian
         Science, and live what they learn, take rapid transit to

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1      heaven,—the hinge on which have turned all revolu-
         tions, natural, civil, or religious, the former being servant
         to the latter,—from flux to permanence, from foul to
         pure, from torpid to serene, from extremes to intermediate.
5      Above the waves of Jordan, dashing against the receding
         shore, is heard the Father and Mother’s welcome, saying
         forever to the baptized of Spirit: “This is my beloved
         Son.” What but divine Science can interpret man’s
         eternal existence, God’s allness, and the scientific inde-
10    structibility of the universe?

         The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained
         through growth, not accretion; idleness is the foe of
         progress. And scientific growth manifests no weakness,
         no emasculation, no illusive vision, no dreamy absentness,
15    no insubordination to the laws that be, no loss nor lack
         of what constitutes true manhood.

         Growth is governed by intelligence; by the active,
         all-wise, law-creating, law-disciplining, law-abiding Prin-
         ciple, God. The real Christian Scientist is constantly
20    accentuating harmony in word and deed, mentally and
         orally, perpetually repeating this diapason of heaven:
         “Good is my God, and my God is good. Love is my God,
         and my God is Love.”

         Beloved students, you have entered the path. Press
25    patiently on; God is good, and good is the reward of all
         who diligently seek God. Your growth will be rapid, if
         you love good supremely, and understand and obey the
         Way-shower, who, going before you, has scaled the steep
         ascent of Christian Science, stands upon the mount of
30    holiness, the dwelling-place of our God, and bathes in the
         baptismal font of eternal Love.

         As you journey, and betimes sigh for rest “beside the

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1      still waters,” ponder this lesson of love. Learn its pur-
         pose;and in hope and faith, where heart meets heart
         reciprocally blest, drink with me the living waters of the
         spirit of my life-purpose,—to impress humanity with
5      the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian
         Science.