Deification Of Personality

         Notwithstanding the rapid sale already of two editions
         of “Christ and Christmas,” and many orders on hand, I
         have thought best to stop its publication.

15    In this revolutionary religious period, the increasing
         inquiry of mankind as to Christianity and its unity—
         and above all, God’s love opening the eyes of the blind—is
         fast fitting all minds for the proper reception of
         Christian Science healing.

20    But I must stand on this absolute basis of Christian
         Science; namely, Cast not pearls before the unprepared
         thought. Idolatry is an easily-besetting sin of all peoples.
         The apostle saith, “Little children, keep yourselves from
         idols.”

25    The illustrations were not intended for a golden calf,
         at which the sick may look and be healed. Christian
         Scientists should beware of unseen snares, and adhere
         to the divine Principle and rules for demonstration.
         They must guard against the deification of finite personality.
30    Every human thought must turn instinctively to

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1      the divine Mind as its sole centre and intelligence. Until
         this be done, man will never be found harmonious and
         immortal.

         Whosoever looks to me personally for his health or
5      holiness, mistakes. He that by reason of human love or
         hatred or any other cause clings to my material per-
         sonality, greatly errs, stops his own progress, and loses
         the path to health, happiness, and heaven. The Scrip-
         tures and Christian Science reveal “the way,” and per-
10    sonal revelators will take their proper place in history,
         but will not be deified.

         Advanced scientific students are ready for “Christ
         and Christmas;” but those are a minority of its readers,
         and even they know its practicality only by healing
15    the sick on its divine Principle. In the words of the
         prophet, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one
         Lord.”

         Friends, strangers, and Christian Scientists, I thank
         you, each and all, for your liberal patronage and scholarly,
20    artistic, and scientific notices of my book. This little
         messenger has done its work, fulfilled its mission, retired
         with honor (and mayhap taught me more than it has
         others), only to reappear in due season. The knowledge
         that I have gleaned from its fruitage is, that intensely
25    contemplating personality impedes spiritual growth; even
         as holding in mind the consciousness of disease prevents
         the recovery of the sick.

         Christian Science is taught through its divine Prin-
         ciple, which is invisible to corporeal sense. A material
30    human likeness is the antipode of man in the image and
         likeness of God. Hence, a finite person is not the model
         for a metaphysician. I earnestly advise all Christian
         Scientists to remove from their observation or study

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1      the personal sense of any one, and not to dwell in thought
         upon their own or others’ corporeality, either as good or
         evil.

         According to Christian Science, material personality is
5      an error in premise, and must result in erroneous con-
         clusions. All will agree with me that material portraiture
         often fails to express even mortal man, and this declares
         its unfitness for fable or fact to build upon.

         The face of Jesus has uniformly been so unnaturally
10    delineated that it has turned many from the true con-
         templation of his character. He advances most in divine
         Science who meditates most on infinite spiritual sub-
         stance and intelligence. Experience proves this true.
         Pondering on the finite personality of Jesus, the son of
15    man, is not the channel through which we reach the
         Christ, or Son of God, the true idea of man’s divine
         Principle.

         I warn students against falling into the error of anti-
         Christ. The consciousness of corporeality, and what-
20    ever is connected therewith, must be outgrown. Corporeal
         falsities include all obstacles to health, holiness, and
         heaven. Man’s individual life is infinitely above a
         bodily form of existence, and the human concept an-
         tagonizes the divine. “Science and Health with Key
25    to the Scriptures,” on page 229, third and fourth para-
         graphs, elucidates this topic.(5)

         My Christmas poem and its illustrations are not a text-
         book. Scientists sometimes take things too intensely.
         Let them soberly adhere to the Bible and Science and
30    Health, which contain all and much more than they
         have yet learned. We should prohibit ourselves the

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1      childish pleasure of studying Truth through the senses,
         for this is neither the intent of my works nor possible
         in Science.

         Even the teachings of Jesus would be misused by sub-
5      stituting personality for the Christ, or the impersonal
         form of Truth, amplified in this age by the discovery of
         Christian Science. To impersonalize scientifically the
         material sense of existence—rather than cling to per-
         sonality—is the lesson of to-day.