Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures

by Mary Baker Eddy

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John viii. 32.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Shakespeare

Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer;
And I am blest!
This is Thy high behest :-
Thou here, and everywhere. Mary Baker Eddy

Table of Contents

Page vii

1 To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is
 big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds
3 the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance
 of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet-
 shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in
6 cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human
 herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to be-
 nighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ
9 Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morn-
 ing beams and shine the guiding star of being. The Wise-
 men were led to behold and to follow this daystar of
12 divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony.

 The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent
 of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the
15 portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and
 the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling
 away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-
18 stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a
 right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is
 Life eternal. Though empires fall, "the Lord shall
21 reign forever."

 A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make
 them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy
24 pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough
 granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer
 has accomplished.

27 Since the author's discovery of the might of Truth in

Page viii

1 the treatment of disease as well as of sin, her system has
 been fully tested and has not been found wanting; but
3 to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live
 in obedience to its divine Principle. To develop the full
 might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense
6 must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the
 science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet con-
 cord to sound.

9 Theology and physics teach that both Spirit and
 matter are real and good, whereas the fact is that
 Spirit is good and real, and matter is Spirit's oppo-
12 site. The question, What is Truth, is answered by
 demonstration, by healing both disease and sin; and
 this demonstration shows that Christian healing con-
15 fers the most health and makes the best men. On this
 basis Christian Science will have a fair fight. Sickness
 has been combated for centuries by doctors using ma-
18 terial remedies; but the question arises, Is there less
 sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous
 "No" is the response deducible from two connate
21 facts, — the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians,
 and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of
 diseases since the flood.

24 In the author's work, Retrospection and Introspec-
 tion, may be found a biographical sketch, narrating
 experiences which led her, in the year 1866, to the dis-
27 covery of the system that she denominated Christian
 Science. As early as 1862 she began to write down and
 give to friends the results of her Scriptural study, for
30 the Bible was her sole teacher; but these compositions
 were crude, the first steps of a child in the newly dis-
 covered world of Spirit.

Page ix

1 She also began to jot down her thoughts on the
 main subject, but these jottings were only infantile
3 lispings of Truth. A child drinks in the outward world
 through the eyes and rejoices in the draught. He is
 as sure of the world's existence as he is of his own; yet
6 he cannot describe the world. He finds a few words,
 and with these he stammeringly attempts to convey his
 feeling. Later, the tongue voices the more definite
9 thought, though still imperfectly.

 So was it with the author. As a certain poet says of
 himself, she "lisped in numbers, for the numbers
12 came." Certain essays written at that early date are
 still in circulation among her first pupils; but they are
 feeble attempts to state the Principle and practice of
15 Christian healing, and are not complete nor satisfac-
 tory expositions of Truth. To-day, though rejoicing
 in some progress, she still finds herself a willing dis-
18 ciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of
 Christ.

 Her first pamphlet on Christian Science was copy-
21 righted in 1870; but it did not appear in print until
 1876, as she had learned that this Science must be
 demonstrated by healing, before a work on the subject
24 could be profitably studied. From 1867 until 1875,
 copies were, however, in friendly circulation.

 Before writing this work, Science and Health, she
27 made copious notes of Scriptural exposition, which
 have never been published. This was during the years
 1867 and 1868. These efforts show her comparative
30 ignorance of the stupendous Life-problem up to that
 time, and the degrees by which she came at length
 to its solution; but she values them as a parent

Page x

1 may treasure the memorials of a child's growth, and
 she would not have them changed.

3 The first edition of Science and Health was pub-
 lished in 1875. Various books on mental healing have
 since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory
6 and filled with plagiarisms from Science and Health.
 They regard the human mind as a healing agent,
 whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of
9 Christian Science. A few books, however, which are
 based on this book, are useful.

 The author has not compromised conscience to suit
12 the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and hon-
 estly given the text of Truth. She has made no effort
 to embellish, elaborate, or treat in full detail so in-
15 finite a theme. By thousands of well-authenticated
 cases of healing, she and her students have proved the
 worth of her teachings. These cases for the most part
18 have been abandoned as hopeless by regular medical
 attendants. Few invalids will turn to God till all
 physical supports have failed, because there is so little
21 faith in His disposition and power to heal disease.

 The divine Principle of healing is proved in the
 personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its
24 purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more po-
 tent than that of any other sanitary method. The un-
 biased Christian thought is soonest touched by Truth,
27 and convinced of it. Only those quarrel with her
 method who do not understand her meaning, or dis-
 cerning the truth, come not to the light lest their
30 works be reproved. No intellectual proficiency is req-
 uisite in the learner, but sound morals are most de-
 sirable.

Page xi

1 Many imagine that the phenomena of physical heal-
 ing in Christian Science present only a phase of the
3 action of the human mind, which action in some unex-
 plained way results in the cure of disease. On the con-
 trary, Christian Science rationally explains that all
6 other pathological methods are the fruits of human
 faith in matter, faith in the workings, not of Spirit,
 but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science.

9 The physical healing of Christian Science results
 now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine
 Principle, before which sin and disease lose their real-
12 ity in human consciousness and disappear as naturally
 and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and
 sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works
15 are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are
 the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us," — a divine
 influence ever present in human consciousness and re-
18 peating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,

 To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
 And recovering of sight to the blind,
21 To set at liberty them that are bruised.

 When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel
 to this age, there came also the charge to plant and
24 water His vineyard.

 The first school of Christian Science Mind-healing
 was started by the author with only one student in
27 Lynn, Massachusetts, about the year 1867. In 1881,
 she opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in
 Boston, under the seal of the Commonwealth, a law
30 relative to colleges having been passed, which enabled
 her to get this institution chartered for medical pur-

Page xii

1 poses. No charters were granted to Christian Scien-
 tists for such institutions after 1883, and up to that
3 date, hers was the only College of this character which
 had been established in the United States, where
 Christian Science was first introduced.

6 During seven years over four thousand students
 were taught by the author in this College. Meanwhile
 she was pastor of the first established Church of
9 Christ, Scientist; President of the first Christian Sci-
 entist Association, convening monthly; publisher of
 her own works; and (for a portion of this time) sole
12 editor and publisher of the Christian Science Journal,
 the first periodical issued by Christian Scientists. She
 closed her College, October 29, 1889, in the height of
15 its prosperity with a deep-lying conviction that the
 next two years of her life should be given to the prep-
 aration of the revision of Science and Health, which
18 was published in 1891. She retained her charter, and
 as its President, reopened the College in 1899 as auxil-
 iary to her church. Until June 10, 1907, she had never
21 read this book throughout consecutively in order to elu-
 cidate her idealism.

 In the spirit of Christ's charity, as one who "hopeth
24 all things, endureth all things," and is joyful to bear
 consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, —
 she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth.

Mary Baker Eddy

 NOTE. — The author takes no patients,
 and declines medical consultation.

Page 1

Chapter 1 — Prayer

 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this
 mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and
 shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those
 things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
 whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things
 soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
 and ye shall have them.
 Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask
 Him. — Christ Jesus.

1 THE prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the
 sick is an absolute faith that all things are
3 possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him,
 an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say
 or think on this subject, I speak from experience.
6 Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-im-
 molation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing
 whatever has been successfully done for the Christian-
9 ization and health of mankind.

 Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine
 Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from
12 trusting God with our desires, that they may be
 moulded and exalted before they take form in words
 and in deeds.

Page 2

Right motives

1 What are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to
 make ourselves better or to benefit those who hear us,
3 to enlighten the infinite or to be heard of
 men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes,
 the desire which goes forth hungering after righteous-
6 ness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return
 unto us void.

Deity unchangeable

 God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more
9 than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less
 than bestow all good, since He is unchang-
 ing wisdom and Love. We can do more for
12 ourselves by humble fervent petitions, but the All-lov-
 ing does not grant them simply on the ground of lip-
 service, for He already knows all.

15 Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it
 tends to bring us into harmony with it. Goodness at-
 tains the demonstration of Truth. A request that
18 God will save us is not all that is required. The mere
 habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads
 with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as
21 humanly circumscribed, — an error which impedes spirit-
 ual growth.

God's standard

 God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is
24 intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind of any-
 thing He does not already comprehend?
 Do we expect to change perfection? Shall
27 we plead for more at the open fount, which is pour-
 ing forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire
 does bring us nearer the source of all existence and
30 blessedness.

 Asking God to be God is a vain repetition. God is
 "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" and

Page 3

1 He who is immutably right will do right without being
 reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not
3 sufficient to warrant him in advising God.

The spiritual mathematics

 Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the
 principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The
6 rule is already established, and it is our
 task to work out the solution. Shall we
 ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own
9 work? His work is done, and we have only to avail
 ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His bless-
 ing, which enables us to work out our own salvation.

12 The Divine Being must be reflected by man, — else
 man is not the image and likeness of the patient,
 tender, and true, the One "altogether lovely;" but to
15 understand God is the work of eternity, and demands
 absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire.

Prayerful ingratitude

 How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit
18 theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omni-
 present, infinite, and then we try to give
 information to this infinite Mind. We plead
21 for unmerited pardon and for a liberal outpouring of
 benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good
 already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the
24 blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.
 Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of
 thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.

27 If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and
 yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are in-
 sincere and incur the sharp censure our Master pro-
30 nounces on hypocrites. In such a case, the only
 acceptable prayer is to put the finger on the lips and
 remember our blessings. While the heart is far from

Page 4

1 divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingrati-
 tude of barren lives.

Efficacious petitions

3 What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire
 for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness,
 love, and good deeds. To keep the com-
6 mandments of our Master and follow his
 example, is our proper debt to him and the only
 worthy evidence of our gratitude for all that he has
9 done. Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to
 express loyal and heartfelt gratitude, since he has
 said: "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

12 The habitual struggle to be always good is unceas-
 ing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the
 blessings they bring, — blessings which, even if not
15 acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness
 to be partakers of Love.

Watchfulness requisite

 Simply asking that we may love God will never
18 make us love Him; but the longing to be better
 and holier, expressed in daily watchful-
 ness and in striving to assimilate more of
21 the divine character, will mould and fashion us
 anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the
 Science of Christianity through demonstration of the
24 divine nature; but in this wicked world goodness
 will "be evil spoken of," and patience must bring
 experience.

Veritable devotion

27 Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual
 understanding, which regenerates; but silent prayer,
 watchfulness, and devout obedience enable
30 us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers,
 superstition, and creeds clip the strong pinions of love,
 and clothe religion in human forms. Whatever mate-

Page 5

1 rializes worship hinders man's spiritual growth and keeps
 him from demonstrating his power over error.

Sorrow and reformation

3 Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform
 and the very easiest step. The next and great step re-
 quired by wisdom is the test of our sincerity,
6 — namely, reformation. To this end we are
 placed under the stress of circumstances. Temptation
 bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in return for
9 what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that there
 is no discount in the law of justice and that we must pay
 "the uttermost farthing." The measure ye mete "shall
12 be measured to you again," and it will be full "and run-
 ning over."

 Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always
15 in this world. The followers of Christ drank his cup.
 Ingratitude and persecution filled it to the brim; but God
 pours the riches of His love into the understanding and
18 affections, giving us strength according to our day. Sin-
 ners flourish "like a green bay tree;" but, looking farther,
 the Psalmist could see their end, — the destruction of sin
21 through suffering.

Cancellation of human sin

 Prayer is not to be used as a confessional to cancel sin.
 Such an error would impede true religion. Sin is forgiven
24 only as it is destroyed by Christ, — Truth and
 Life. If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is
 cancelled, and that man is made better merely by praying,
27 prayer is an evil. He grows worse who continues in sin
 because he fancies himself forgiven.

Diabolism destroyed

 An apostle says that the Son of God [Christ] came to
30 "destroy the works of the devil." We should
 follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the de-
 struction of all evil works, error and disease included.

Page 6

1 We cannot escape the penalty due for sin. The Scrip-
 tures say, that if we deny Christ, " he also will deny us."

Pardon and amendment

3 Divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may
 pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the
 sinner. God is not separate from the wis-
6 dom He bestows. The talents He gives we
 must improve. Calling on Him to forgive our work
 badly done or left undone, implies the vain supposition
9 that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and
 that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence.

 To cause suffering as the result of sin, is the means
12 of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin
 will furnish more than its equivalent of pain, until be-
 lief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach
15 heaven, the harmony of being, we must understand
 the divine Principle of being.

Mercy without partiality

 "God is Love." More than this we cannot ask,
18 higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go. To
 suppose that God forgives or punishes sin
 according as His mercy is sought or un-
21 sought, is to misunderstand Love and to make prayer
 the safety-valve for wrong-doing.

Divine severity

 Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it
24 out. Of a sick woman he said that Satan had bound
 her, and to Peter he said, "Thou art an of-
 fence unto me." He came teaching and
27 showing men how to destroy sin, sickness, and death.
 He said of the fruitless tree, "[It] is hewn down."

 It is believed by many that a certain magistrate,
30 who lived in the time of Jesus, left this record: "His
 rebuke is fearful." The strong language of our Mas-
 ter confirms this description.

Page 7

1 The only civil sentence which he had for error was,
 "Get thee behind me, Satan." Still stronger evidence
3 that Jesus' reproof was pointed and pungent is found
 in his own words, — showing the necessity for such
 forcible utterance, when he cast out devils and healed
6 the sick and sinning. The relinquishment of error de-
 prives material sense of its false claims.

Audible praying

 Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary
9 solemnity and elevation to thought. But does it pro-
 duce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply
 into these things, we find that "a zeal ...
12 not according to knowledge" gives occasion for reac-
 tion unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and
 wholesome perception of God's requirements. The mo-
15 tives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of
 applause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment.

Emotional utterances

 Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ec-
18 stasy and emotion. If spiritual sense always guided
 men, there would grow out of ecstatic mo-
 ments a higher experience and a better life
21 with more devout self-abnegation and purity. A self-
 satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes
 a Christian. God is not influenced by man. The "di-
24 vine ear" is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing
 and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is
 always known and by whom it will be supplied.

Danger from audible prayer

27 The danger from prayer is that it may lead us into temp-
 tation. By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, ut-
 tering desires which are not real and consoling
30 ourselves in the midst of sin with the recollection
 that we have prayed over it or mean to ask for-
 giveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.

Page 8

1 A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-
 justification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite.
3 We never need to despair of an honest heart; but
 there is little hope for those who come only spasmodi-
 cally face to face with their wickedness and then seek to
6 hide it. Their prayers are indexes which do not correspond
 with their character. They hold secret fellowship with
 sin, and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like
9 unto whited sepulchres ... full ... of all uncleanness."

Aspiration and love

 If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful,
 is impure and therefore insincere, what must be the
12 comment upon him? If he reached the
 loftiness of his prayer, there would be no
 occasion for comment. If we feel the aspiration, hu-
15 mility, gratitude, and love which our words express,-
 this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive
 ourselves or others, for "there is nothing covered that
18 shall not be revealed." Professions and audible pray-
 ers are like charity in one respect, — they "cover the
 multitude of sins." Praying for humility with what-
21 ever fervency of expression does not always mean a
 desire for it. If we turn away from the poor, we are
 not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses
24 the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart
 and ask that it may be laid bare before us, but do
 we not already know more of this heart than we are
27 willing to have our neighbor see?

Searching the heart

 We should examine ourselves and learn what is the
 affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way
30 only can we learn what we honestly are. If a
 friend informs us of a fault, do we listen pa-
 tiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not

Page 9

1 rather give thanks that we are "not as other men"?
 During many years the author has been most grateful
3 for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited cen-
 sure, — in the falsehood which does no one any good.

Summit of aspiration

 The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these
6 questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of
 this asking? Do we pursue the old selfish-
 ness, satisfied with having prayed for some-
9 thing better, though we give no evidence of the sin-
 cerity of our requests by living consistently with our
 prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness,
12 we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless
 them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great
 duty simply by asking that it may be done. There is
15 a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition
 of our hope and faith.

Practical religion

 Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy
18 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind"?
 This command includes much, even the sur-
 render of all merely material sensation, affec-
21 tion, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity.
 It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the
 divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master,
24 and material sense and human will have no place.

The chalice sacrificial

 Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and
 so be counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire
27 to attain this point? No! Then why make long
 prayers about it and ask to be Christians,
 since you do not care to tread in the footsteps of our
30 dear Master? If unwilling to follow his example, why
 pray with the lips that you may be partakers of his
 nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right.

Page 10

1 Prayer means that we desire to walk and will walk in
 the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleed-
3 ing footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord,
 we will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him.

 The world must grow to the spiritual understanding
6 of prayer. If good enough to profit by Jesus' cup of
 earthly sorrows, God will sustain us under these sor-
 rows. Until we are thus divinely qualified and are
9 willing to drink his cup, millions of vain repetitions
 will never pour into prayer the unction of Spirit in
 demonstration of power and "with signs following."
12 Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the
 world, the flesh, and evil, and thus destroying all error.

 Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving that enables
15 us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a
 higher understanding of the divine Life.

Perfunctory prayers

 One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a
18 praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the
 doors to earn a penny by grinding out a
 prayer. But the advance guard of progress has
21 paid for the privilege of prayer the price of persecution.

Asking amiss

 Experience teaches us that we do not always receive
 the blessings we ask for in prayer. There is some mis-
24 apprehension of the source and means of
 all goodness and blessedness, or we should
 certainly receive that for which we ask. The Scrip-
27 tures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
 amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." That
 which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always
30 best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will
 not grant the request. Do you ask wisdom to be mer-
 ciful and not to punish sin? Then "ye ask amiss."

Page 11

1 Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer,
 "Forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of
3 forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he
 said, "Go, and sin no more."

Remission of penalty

 A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this
6 may be no moral benefit to the criminal, and at best, it
 only saves the criminal from one form of
 punishment. The moral law, which has the
9 right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitu-
 tion before mortals can "go up higher." Broken law
 brings penalty in order to compel this progress.

Truth annihilates error

12 Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine
 Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they
 are corrected) leaves the offender free to re-
15 peat the offence, if indeed, he has not already
 suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it
 with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but
18 wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered
 for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an in-
 dividual's sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering.

Desire for holiness

21 Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mor-
 tals' own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is
 requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we
24 desire holiness above all else, we shall sac-
 rifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this,
 that we may walk securely in the only practical road
27 to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable
 Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding
 of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual
30 desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us
 into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible
 expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life.

Page 12

Prayer for the sick

1 "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the
 Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere re-
3 quest that God will heal the sick has no
 power to gain more of the divine presence
 than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of
6 such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, mak-
 ing it act more powerfully on the body through a blind
 faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out
9 another, — a belief in the unknown casting out a belief
 in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which
 acts through blind belief, nor is it the human under-
12 standing of the divine healing Principle as manifested
 in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and con-
 scientious protests of Truth, — of man's likeness to
15 God and of man's unity with Truth and Love.

 Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a
 drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its
18 power from human faith and belief. The drug does
 nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal
 belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a
21 drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative.

 The common custom of praying for the recovery of the
 sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come
24 from the enlightened understanding. Changes in belief
 may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of
 human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science.

Love impartial and universal

27 Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper,
 and not help another who offers the same measure of
 prayer? If the sick recover because they
30 pray or are prayed for audibly, only peti-
 tioners (per se or by proxy) should get well. In divine
 Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail them-

Page 13

1 selves of God as "a very present help in trouble."
 Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and
3 bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho,
 every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."

Public exaggerations

 In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions,
6 beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we
 are not secretly yearning and openly striv-
 ing for the accomplishment of all we ask,
9 our prayers are "vain repetitions," such as the heathen
 use. If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we
 ask; and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward
12 us openly. Can the mere public expression of our de-
 sires increase them? Do we gain the omnipotent ear
 sooner by words than by thoughts? Even if prayer is
15 sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our
 fellow-beings about it. If we cherish the desire hon-
 estly and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and
18 we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real
 wishes with a torrent of words.

Corporeal ignorance

 If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will
21 prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and
 fears which attend such a belief, and so we
 cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infi-
24 nite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible.
 Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle,
 Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal
27 creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely
 physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or re-
 flection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The
30 world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind
 to the reality of man's existence, — for the world of sen-
 sation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.

Page 14

Bodily presence

1 If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipo-
 tence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we
3 would gain, we are not "absent from the
 body" and "present with the Lord" in the
 demonstration of Spirit. We cannot "serve two mas-
6 ters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not
 mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demon-
 stration and understanding of Life as revealed in
9 Christian Science. To be "with the Lord" is to be in
 obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed
 by divine Love, — by Spirit, not by matter.

Spiritualized consciousness

12 Become conscious for a single moment that Life and
 intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of
 matter, — and the body will then utter no
15 complaints. If suffering from a belief in
 sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow
 is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spir-
18 itual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the
 promise Jesus bestows: "He that believeth on me,
 the works that I do shall he do also; ... because I
21 go unto my Father," — [because the Ego is absent from
 the body, and present with Truth and Love.] The
 Lord's Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material
24 sense.

 Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate-
 rial living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual under-
27 standing and the consciousness of man's dominion
 over the whole earth. This understanding casts out
 error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak
30 "as one having authority."

 "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and,
 when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father

Page 15

1 which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in
 secret, shall reward thee openly."

Spiritual sanctuary

3 So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of
 Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but
 lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to
6 error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa.
 The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses,
 but He knows all things and rewards according to
9 motives, not according to speech. To enter into the
 heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be
 closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent,
12 that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine
 Principle, Love, which destroys all error.

Effectual invocation

 In order to pray aright, we must enter into the
15 closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and
 silence the material senses. In the quiet
 sanctuary of earnest longings, we must
18 deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to
 take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to
 work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We
21 must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is an-
 swered, in so far as we put our desires into practice.
 The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and
24 let our lives attest our sincerity.

Trustworthy beneficence

 Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden
 from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness,
27 purity, and affection are constant prayers.
 Practice not profession, understanding not
 belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and
30 they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthi-
 ness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a
 fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness.

Page 16

Loftiest adoration

1 A great sacrifice of material things must precede this
 advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer
3 is not one of faith merely; it is demonstra-
 tion. Such prayer heals sickness, and must
 destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth
6 that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense.

The prayer of Jesus Christ

 Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer,
 which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Mas-
9 ter said, "After this manner therefore pray
 ye," and then he gave that prayer which
 covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt
12 among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an
 addition to the prayer by a later copyist; but this does
 not affect the meaning of the prayer itself.

15 In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original
 properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one." This
 reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the peti-
18 tion, for Christian Science teaches us that "the evil one," or
 one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.

 Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and
21 sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spir-
 itual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's
 Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.
24 Here let me give what I understand to be the spir-
 itual sense of the Lord's Prayer:

 Our Father which art in heaven,
27 Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

 Hallowed be Thy name.
      Adorable One.

30 Thy kingdom come.
      Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.

Page 17

1 Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
      Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is
3       omnipotent, supreme.

 Give us this day our daily bread;
      Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;

6 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
      And Love is reflected in love;

 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
9        evil;
      And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth
       us from sin, disease, and death.

12 For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
       glory, forever.
      For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
       all, and All.

Page 18

Chapter 2 — Atonement and Eucharist

 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
 affections and lusts. — Paul.

 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
 — Paul.

 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine,
 until the kingdom of God shall come. — Jesus.

Divine oneness

1 ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man's unity
 with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life,
3 and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated
 man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him
 endless homage. His mission was both in-
6 dividual and collective. He did life's work
 aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to
 mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do
9 it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.
 Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the
 senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he
12 refuted all opponents with his healing power.

Human reconciliation

 The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not
 God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God,
15 and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ
 is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself.
 The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ,
18 Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived

Page 19

1 from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose
 to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and
3 Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness.
 Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him-
 self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
6 Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon-
 ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love,
 the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer
9 sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter,
 sin, and death by the law of Spirit, — the law of divine
 Love.

12 The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, de-
 claring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and
 death, although his teaching set households at variance,
15 and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a
 sword.

Efficacious repentance

 Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort
18 for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to
 understand Jesus' atonement for sin and aid
 its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray
21 and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atone-
 ment, — in the at-one-ment with God, — for he lacks the
 practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables
24 man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot dem-
 onstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teach-
 ings and practice of our Master have no part in God. If
27 living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no secur-
 ity, although God is good.

Jesus' sinless career

 Jesus urged the commandment, "Thou shalt have no
30 other gods before me," which may be ren-
 dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as
 mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life,-

Page 20

1 even God, good. He rendered "unto Caesar the things
 which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
3 God's." He at last paid no homage to forms of doctrine
 or to theories of man, but acted and spake as he was moved,
 not by spirits but by Spirit.

6 To the ritualistic priest and hypocritical Pharisee
 Jesus said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
 kingdom of God before you." Jesus' history made a
9 new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he
 established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men
 can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the
12 clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet
 be sensual and sinful.

Perfect example

 Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal
15 belief, and "with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are
 healed." "Despised and rejected of men,"
 returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor-
18 tals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God;
 and when error felt the power of Truth, the scourge and
 the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet he swerved not,
21 well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God,
 saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to
 holiness.

Behest of the cross

24 Material belief is slow to acknowledge what the
 spiritual fact implies. The truth is the centre of all
 religion. It commands sure entrance into
27 the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, "Let us
 lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
 easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
30 is set before us;" that is, let us put aside material self
 and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of
 all healing.

Page 21

Moral victory

1 If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and
 conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a
3 good fight ... I have kept the faith," be-
 cause you are a better man. This is having
 our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love.
6 Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting
 because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph,
 that they shall reach his harmony and reward.

9 If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striv-
 ing to enter in. He constantly turns away from ma-
 terial sense, and looks towards the imperishable things
12 of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the
 start, and gain a little each day in the right direction,
 till at last he finishes his course with joy.

Inharmonious travellers

15 If my friends are going to Europe, while I am en
 route for California, we are not journeying together.
 We have separate time-tables to consult,
18 different routes to pursue. Our paths have
 diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor-
 tunity to help each other. On the contrary, if my
21 friends pursue my course, we have the same railroad
 guides, and our mutual interests are identical; or, if I
 take up their line of travel, they help me on, and our
24 companionship may continue.

Zigzag course

 Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at
 the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither-
27 ward. He is like a traveller going westward
 for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring
 and the pleasures exciting. After following the sun for
30 six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can
 only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By-
 and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow

Page 22

1 the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid
 of this to find and follow the right road.

Moral retrogression

3 Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope
 of forgiveness, — selfishness and sensuality causing con-
 stant retrogression, — our moral progress will
6 be slow. Waking to Christ's demand, mortals
 experience suffering. This causes them, even as drown-
 ing men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and
9 through Christ's precious love these efforts are crowned
 with success.

Wait for reward

 "Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
12 Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you.
 "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your re-
 ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If
15 your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive
 no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a
 sluggard in the race.

18 When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis-
 cern the good you have done, and receive according to
 your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from
21 temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and
 purified.

Deliverance not vicarious

 Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in
24 immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not
 reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning
 one's faith without works to another's vicarious
27 effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or
 that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not
 understand God.

Justice and substitution

30 Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy
 cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge
 is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not

Page 23

1 destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love
 may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin.
3 One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to
 pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires
 constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That
6 God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is
 divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The
 atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien-
9 tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense
 which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf-
 fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.

Doctrines and faith

12 Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine,
 firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him."
 This preaching receives a strong rebuke in
15 the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead."
 Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be-
 tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith,
18 advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained
 from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab-
 lishes the claims of God.

Self-reliance and confidence

21 In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the
 words corresponding thereto have these two defini-
 tions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One
24 kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others.
 Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how
 to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trem-
27 bling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!"
 expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the
 injunction, "Believe ... and thou shalt be saved!"
30 demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir-
 itual understanding and confides all to God.

 The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or

Page 24

1 to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love
 understood and practised. Firmness in error will never
3 save from sin, disease, and death.

Life's healing currents

 Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness
 to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and
6 instigated sometimes by the worst passions of
 men), open the way for Christian Science to be
 understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where
9 the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed
 out.

Radical changes

 He to whom "the arm of the Lord" is revealed will
12 believe our report, and rise into newness of life with re-
 generation. This is having part in the atone-
 ment; this is the understanding, in which
15 Jesus suffered and triumphed. The time is not distant
 when the ordinary theological views of atonement will
 undergo a great change, — a change as radical as that
18 which has come over popular opinions in regard to pre-
 destination and future punishment.

Purpose of crucifixion

 Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus
21 chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who
 ask for it and are willing to be forgiven?
 Does spiritualism find Jesus' death necessary
24 only for the presentation, after death, of the material
 Jesus, as a proof that spirits can return to earth? Then
 we must differ from them both.

27 The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical af-
 fection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The
 truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that
30 it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own
 disciples could not admit such an event to be possible.
 After the resurrection, even the unbelieving Thomas was

Page 25

1 forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of
 Truth and Love.

True flesh and blood

3 The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The effi-
 cacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely greater than
 can be expressed by our sense of human
6 blood. The material blood of Jesus was no
 more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed
 upon "the accursed tree," than when it was flowing in
9 his veins as he went daily about his Father's business.
 His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat
 his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine
12 Life.

Effective triumph

 Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that
 we may understand how this divine Principle heals
15 the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over
 death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better
 than could any man whose origin was less spiritual. By
18 his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritu-
 ally than all others the Principle of being. Hence the
 force of his admonition, "If ye love me, keep my com-
21 mandments."

 Though demonstrating his control over sin and disease,
 the great Teacher by no means relieved others from giving
24 the requisite proofs of their own piety. He worked for
 their guidance, that they might demonstrate this power as
 he did and understand its divine Principle. Implicit faith
27 in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow
 on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We
 must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the
30 great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to
 bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made
 manifest in the humanity of Jesus.

Page 26

Individual experience

1 While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with
 gratitude for what he did for mortals, — treading alone
3 his loving pathway up to the throne of
 glory, in speechless agony exploring the way
 for us, — yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe-
6 rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all
 have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion
 to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed
9 through divine Love.

Christ's demonstration

 The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his
 own statements: "I am the way, the truth, and the life;"
12 "I and my Father are one." This Christ,
 or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine
 nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth,
15 Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,
 and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of
 celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does
18 for man.

Proof in practice

 A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he
 teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-
21 tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching and
 practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice
 as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was
24 the precious import of our Master's sinless career and
 of his demonstration of power over death. He proved
 by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin,
27 and death.

 Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.
 It was the divine Principle of all real being which he
30 taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no
 form or system of religion and worship, but Christian
 Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.

Page 27

1 Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in-
 tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had
3 come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have
 seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk,
 the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
6 to the poor the gospel is preached." In other words:
 Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is,
 and he will at once perceive that God is the power in
9 the Messianic work.

Living temple

 That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance
 after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-
12 tific statement: "Destroy this temple [body],
 and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up."
 It is as if he had said: The I — the Life, substance,
15 and intelligence of the universe — is not in matter to
 be destroyed.

 Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with
18 sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root
 of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut
 down the false doctrine of pantheism, — that God, or
21 Life, is in or of matter.

Recreant disciples

 Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only
 eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits
24 him with two or three hundred other disciples
 who have left no name. "Many are called,
 but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because
27 they never truly understood their Master's instruction.

 Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the
 essential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu-
30 tors made their strongest attack upon this very point.
 They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and
 to kill him according to certain assumed material laws.

Page 28

Help and hindrance

1 The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di-
 vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus'
3 mission. Even many of his students stood
 in his way. If the Master had not taken a
 student and taught the unseen verities of God, he would
6 not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit
 in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and
 Love.

9 While respecting all that is good in the Church or out
 of it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the ground
 of demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we
12 cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understanding
 more of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, we
 are enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin.

Misleading conceptions

15 Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of
 Jesus was generally understood. Not a single compo-
 nent part of his nature did the material
18 world measure aright. Even his righteous-
 ness and purity did not hinder men from saying: He
 is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is
21 his patron.

Persecution prolonged

 Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough if
 thou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy
24 Master's feet! To suppose that persecution
 for righteousness' sake belongs to the past,
 and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world
27 because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mis-
 take the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself.
 The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle,
30 "of whom the world was not worthy," await, in some
 form, every pioneer of truth.

Christian warfare

 There is too much animal courage in society and not

Page 29

1 sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms
 against error at home and abroad. They must grapple
3 with sin in themselves and in others, and
 continue this warfare until they have finished
 their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the
6 crown of rejoicing.

 Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis-
 belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly
9 in times of persecution, because then our labor is more
 needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we
 may never receive it in this world.

The Fatherhood of God

12 There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to
 the authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus be-
 lieve him the Son of God." Those instructed
15 in Christian Science have reached the glori-
 ous perception that God is the only author of man.
 The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and
18 gave to her ideal the name of Jesus — that is, Joshua,
 or Saviour.

Spiritual conception

 The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to
21 silence material law and its order of generation, and
 brought forth her child by the revelation of
 Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of
24 men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed
 the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog-
 nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever
27 an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the
 man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea,
 though at first faintly developed.

30 Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit,
 is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious and
 man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-

Page 30

1 conscious communion with God. Hence he could give
 a more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could
3 demonstrate the Science of Love — his Father or divine
 Principle.

Jesus the way-shower

 Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook
6 partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was en-
 dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with-
 out measure. This accounts for his struggles
9 in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and this enabled him to
 be the mediator, or way-shower, between God and men.
 Had his origin and birth been wholly apart from mortal
12 usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortal
 mind as "the way."

 Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said:
15 "An eye for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
 by man shall his blood be shed." Not so did Jesus, the
 new executor for God, present the divine law of Love,
18 which blesses even those that curse it.

Rebukes helpful

 As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to
 rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death, —
21 to point out the way of Truth and Life. This
 ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole
 earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between
24 the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and
 of error.

 If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of
27 material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we
 shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask. Only
 in this way can we bless our enemies, though they
30 may not so construe our words. We cannot choose for
 ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way
 Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found

Page 31

1 preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfit
 to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place
3 it in such hands.

Fleshly ties temporal

 Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Call
 no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father,
6 which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Who
 is my mother, and who are my brethren," im-
 plying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We
9 have no record of his calling any man by the name of
 father. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and
 therefore as the Father of all.

Healing primary

12 First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol-
 lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached
 no importance to dead ceremonies. It is the
15 living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes
 Jesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow him
 in deed. Obeying his precious precepts, — following his
18 demonstration so far as we apprehend it, — we drink of
 his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his pu-
 rity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full
21 understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs
 over death. For what says Paul? "As often as ye eat
 this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's
24 death till he come."

Painful prospect

 Referring to the materiality of the age, Jesus said:
 "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor-
27 shippers shall worship the Father in spirit
 and in truth." Again, foreseeing the perse-
 cution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus
30 said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea,
 the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think
 that he doeth God service; and these things will they

Page 32

1 do unto you, because they have not known the Father
 nor me."

Sacred sacrament

3 In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear
 allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath
 was sacramentum, and our English word
6 sacrament is derived from it. Among the
 Jews it was an ancient custom for the master of a
 feast to pass each guest a cup of wine. But the
9 Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier's
 oath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions and
 in Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows
12 forth his bitter experience, — the cup which he prayed
 might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submis-
 sion to the divine decree.

15 "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed
 it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
 Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and
18 gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all
 of it."

Spiritual refreshment

 The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is
21 confined to the use of bread and wine. The disciples
 had eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave them
 bread. This would have been foolish in a
24 literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat-
 ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the
 material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with
27 spiritual views.

Jesus' sad repast

 The Passover, which Jesus ate with his disciples in
 the month Nisan on the night before his crucifixion,
30 was a mournful occasion, a sad supper taken
 at the close of day, in the twilight of a
 glorious career with shadows fast falling around; and

Page 33

1 this supper closed forever Jesus' ritualism or concessions
 to matter.

Heavenly supplies

3 His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hour
 of their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna,
 which of old had fed in the wilderness the
6 persecuted followers of Truth. Their bread
 indeed came down from heaven. It was the great truth
 of spiritual being, healing the sick and casting out error.
9 Their Master had explained it all before, and now this
 bread was feeding and sustaining them. They had borne
 this bread from house to house, breaking (explaining) it to
12 others, and now it comforted themselves.

 For this truth of spiritual being, their Master was about
 to suffer violence and drain to the dregs his cup of sorrow.
15 He must leave them. With the great glory of an everlast-
 ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said,
 "Drink ye all of it."

The holy struggle

18 When the human element in him struggled with the
 divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but
 Thine, be done!" — that is, Let not the flesh,
21 but the Spirit, be represented in me. This
 is the new understanding of spiritual Love. It gives all
 for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the
24 sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses
 and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek
 in heart.

Incisive questions

27 Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you
 shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions
 which attend a new and higher understand-
30 ing of God? If not, can you then say that
 you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all
 who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing

Page 34

1 truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for
 the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira-
3 tion to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out
 error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God,"
 that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ,
6 Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other com-
 memoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel,
 or God with us; and if a friend be with us, why need we
9 memorials of that friend?

Millennial glory

 If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really
 commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of
12 his cup, they would have revolutionized the
 world. If all who seek his commemoration
 through material symbols will take up the cross, heal
15 the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth,
 to the poor, — the receptive thought, — they will bring
 in the millennium.

Fellowship with Christ

18 Through all the disciples experienced, they became more
 spiritual and understood better what the Master had
 taught. His resurrection was also their resur-
21 rection. It helped them to raise themselves and
 others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into
 the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this
24 quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again
 in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above
 their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness,
27 he would disappear to material sense in that change which
 has since been called the ascension.

The last breakfast

 What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and
30 his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples
 in the bright morning hours at the joyful
 meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom

Page 35

1 had passed into glory, and His disciples' grief into repent-
 ance, — hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced
3 of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened
 by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned
 away from material things, and cast their net on the right
6 side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of
 time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal
 sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new-
9 ness of life as Spirit.

 This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a
 new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists
12 commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to re-
 ceive more of his reappearing and silently to commune
 with the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their
15 Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh
 after death, its exemplification of human probation, and
 his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh,
18 when he rose out of material sight.

Spiritual Eucharist

 Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our
 church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can
21 unite with this church only as we are new-
 born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which
 is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth
24 the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the
 sick. Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one
 God. Our bread, "which cometh down from heaven,"
27 is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspira-
 tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com-
 mended to his followers.

Final purpose

30 The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the
 sinner's punishment here has been insufficient to re-
 form him, the good man's heaven would be a hell to

Page 36

1 the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by
 experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of
3 Truth and Love simply through translation
 into another sphere. Divine Science reveals
 the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after
6 death, to quench the love of sin. To remit the penalty
 due for sin, would be for Truth to pardon error. Escape
 from punishment is not in accordance with God's govern-
9 ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy.

 Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour his
 dear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his
12 earthly reward? He was forsaken by all save John,
 the beloved disciple, and a few women who bowed in
 silent woe beneath the shadow of his cross. The earthly
15 price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral
 distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude
 Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-
18 minded.

Righteous retribution

 A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-
 limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as
21 well as of mercy. It is quite as impossible for
 sinners to receive their full punishment this
 side of the grave as for this world to bestow on the right-
24 eous their full reward. It is useless to suppose that the
 wicked can gloat over their offences to the last moment
 and then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven,
27 or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only
 toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock-
 ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.

Vicarious suffering

30 Religious history repeats itself in the suf-
 fering of the just for the unjust. Can God
 therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-

Page 37

1 stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show that
 sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They
3 who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, it
 shall be measured to you again."

Martyrs inevitable

 History is full of records of suffering. "The blood of
6 the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Mortals try in
 vain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake,
 but error falls only before the sword of Spirit.
9 Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with
 another in the history of religion. They are earth's lumi-
 naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of
12 material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals.
 Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but
 not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated
15 by lookers-on.

Complete emulation

 When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate
 him in all his ways and to imitate his mighty works?
18 Those who procured the martyrdom of that
 righteous man would gladly have turned his
 sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May
21 the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im-
 port of that career! It is possible, — yea, it is the duty
 and privilege of every child, man, and woman, — to follow
24 in some degree the example of the Master by the demon-
 stration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness. Chris-
 tians claim to be his followers, but do they follow him in
27 the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative com-
 mands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
 which is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world,
30 and preach the gospel to every creature!" "Heal the
 sick!"

Jesus' teaching belittled

 Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration

Page 38

1 to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are
 assured that this command was intended only for a par-
3 ticular period and for a select number of fol-
 lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious
 than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a
6 few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will
 be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced
 by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of
9 divine Science.

 Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that be-
 lieve; ... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
12 shall recover." Who believes him? He was addressing
 his disciples, yet he did not say, " These signs shall follow
 you," but them— "them that believe" in all time to come.
15 Here the word hands is used metaphorically, as in the text,
 "The right hand of the Lord is exalted." It expresses
 spiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have
18 been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not
 for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe
 "through their word."

Material pleasures

21 Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical
 senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo-
 ple's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ,
24 his spiritual selfhood, never suffered. Jesus
 mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ,
 the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the
27 belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the grati-
 fication of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes
 ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should un-
30 derstand and be converted, and I might heal you. He
 taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its
 healing power.

Page 39

Mockery of truth

1 Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog-
 nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol-
3 lowers will endure until Christianity's last
 triumph. He won eternal honors. He over-
 came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving
6 their nothingness. He wrought a full salvation from sin,
 sickness, and death. We need "Christ, and him cruci-
 fied." We must have trials and self-denials, as well as
9 joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.

A belief suicidal

 The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes
 mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone
12 out of mortality into immortality and bliss.
 The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus
 overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them.
15 He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was not
 the threshold over which he must pass into living
 glory.

Present salvation

18 "Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-
 hold, now is the day of salvation," — meaning, not that
 now men must prepare for a future-world salva-
21 tion, or safety, but that now is the time in which
 to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is
 the time for so-called material pains and material pleas-
24 ures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible
 in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get
 the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists
27 and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought is
 apprehended slowly, and the interval before its attain-
 ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as
30 triumphs.

Sin and penalty

 Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believes
 in the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that

Page 40

1 evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove error
 from thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad-
3 vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv-
 ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing
 and its Science, will support them. Another will say:
6 "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient
 season I will call for thee."

 Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted
9 it. Science removes the penalty only by first removing
 the sin which incurs the penalty. This is my sense of
 divine pardon, which I understand to mean God's method
12 of destroying sin. If the saying is true, "While there's
 life there's hope," its opposite is also true, While there's
 sin there's doom. Another's suffering cannot lessen our
15 own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola make
 the crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal?

Suffering inevitable

 Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was
18 inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way
 and the power of Truth. If a career so great
 and good as that of Jesus could not avert a
21 felon's fate, lesser apostles of Truth may endure human
 brutality without murmuring, rejoicing to enter into
 fellowship with him through the triumphal arch of
24 Truth and Love.

Service and worship

 Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all
 men should follow the example of our Master and his
27 apostles and not merely worship his personal-
 ity. It is sad that the phrase divine service
 has come so generally to mean public worship instead of
30 daily deeds.

Within the veil

 The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed,
 but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of

Page 41

1 hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the
 Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and
3 this advance beyond matter must come
 through the joys and triumphs of the right-
 eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions.
6 Like our Master, we must depart from material sense
 into the spiritual sense of being.

The thorns and flowers

 The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with
9 bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap
 what they now sow. The pampered hypo-
 crite may have a flowery pathway here, but
12 he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the
 penalty due.

Healing early lost

 The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave
15 by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his
 earthly mission; but in the Christian Church
 this demonstration of healing was early lost,
18 about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient
 school of philosophy, materia medica, or scholastic theol-
 ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of
21 absolute Science.

Immortal achieval

 Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would have
 before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered
24 him not. He fulfilled his God-mission, and
 then sat down at the right hand of the Father.
 Persecuted from city to city, his apostles still went about
27 doing good deeds, for which they were maligned and
 stoned. The truth taught by Jesus, the elders scoffed at.
 Why? Because it demanded more than they were willing
30 to practise. It was enough for them to believe in a national
 Deity; but that belief, from their time to ours, has never
 made a disciple who could cast out evils and heal the sick.

Page 42

1 Jesus' life proved, divinely and scientifically, that God
 is Love, whereas priest and rabbi affirmed God to be a
3 mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the-
 ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God.

A belief in death

 The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It
6 cannot make Life or Truth apparent. Death
 will be found at length to be a mortal dream,
 which comes in darkness and disappears with the light.

Cruel desertion

9 The "man of sorrows" was in no peril from salary or
 popularity. Though entitled to the homage of the world
 and endorsed pre-eminently by the approval
12 of God, his brief triumphal entry into Jerusa-
 lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends,
 who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross.

Death outdone

15 The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God's
 power was the proof of his final triumph over body
 and matter, and gave full evidence of divine
18 Science, — evidence so important to mortals.
 The belief that man has existence or mind separate from
 God is a dying error. This error Jesus met with divine
21 Science and proved its nothingness. Because of the won-
 drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temp-
 tation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus.
24 Let men think they had killed the body! Afterwards he
 would show it to them unchanged. This demonstrates
 that in Christian Science the true man is governed by
27 God — by good, not evil — and is therefore not a mortal
 but an immortal. Jesus had taught his disciples the
 Science of this proof. He was here to enable them to
30 test his still uncomprehended saying, "He that believ-
 eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." They
 must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting

Page 43

1 out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as
 they did understand it after his bodily departure.

Pentecost repeated

3 The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappear-
 ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled
 the disciples to understand what Jesus had
6 said. Heretofore they had only believed;
 now they understood. The advent of this understanding
 is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, — that
9 influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos-
 tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.

Convincing evidence

 Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing,
12 the most profitable to his students. The malignity of
 brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of
 his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to
15 the glorification of the man and of the true idea of God,
 which Jesus' persecutors had mocked and tried to slay.
 The final demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught,
18 and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the
 world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetu-
 ated and extended it.

Divine victory

21 Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup
 of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned
 him, but he was demonstrating divine Science.
24 Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies,
 he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of mat-
 ter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him.
27 The divine must overcome the human at every point.
 The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over
 all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-
30 gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such
 beliefs.

 Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must

Page 44

1 seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns
 can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow,
3 "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the suprem-
 acy of Spirit be demonstrated.

Jesus in the tomb

 The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
6 from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
 problem of being. His three days' work in
 the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time.
9 He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas-
 ter of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Chris-
 tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims
12 of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

 He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not
 depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted
15 energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to
 heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and
 lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove
18 the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ
 his feet as before.

The deific naturalism

 Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature
21 to sustain Jesus in his proof of man's truly derived power?
 It was a method of surgery beyond material
 art, but it was not a supernatural act. On
24 the contrary, it was a divinely natural act, whereby divinity
 brought to humanity the understanding of the Christ-
 healing and revealed a method infinitely above that of
27 human invention.

Obstacles overcome

 His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was
 hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon-
30 strating within the narrow tomb the power
 of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.
 There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great

Page 45

1 stone must be rolled from the cave's mouth; but Jesus
 vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law
3 of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place,
 crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting
 victory.

Victory over the grave

6 Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci-
 ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus'
 deed was for the enlightenment of men and
9 for the salvation of the whole world from sin,
 sickness, and death. Paul writes: "For if, when we were
 enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death
12 of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
 by his life." Three days after his bodily burial he talked
 with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-
15 mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre.

The stone rolled away

 Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!
 Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-
18 man hope and faith, and through the reve-
 lation and demonstration of life in God, hath
 elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
21 idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

After the resurrection

 They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection
 and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,
24 misconstrued that event. Even his disciples
 at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,
 for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was:
27 "Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
 The reappearing of Jesus was not the return of a spirit.
 He presented the same body that he had before his cru-
30 cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over
 matter.

 Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-

Page 46

1 derstand their Master's triumph, did not perform many
 wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion
3 and learned that he had not died. This convinced them
 of the truthfulness of all that he had taught.

Spiritual interpretation

 In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends
6 by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,
 and by the breaking of bread. The divine
 Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries
9 ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak
 through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the
 receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and
12 healing the sick.

Corporeality and Spirit

 The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,
 and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses
15 that his body was not changed until he himself
 ascended, — or, in other words, rose even
 higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince
18 Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-
 prints and the spear-wound.

Spiritual ascension

 Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed
21 to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-
 terial conditions; and this exaltation explained
 his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a
24 probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.
 Jesus was "the way;" that is, he marked the way for
 all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-
27 sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose
 above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the
 material senses saw him no more.

Pentecostal power

30 His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is
 meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they
 were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-

Page 47

1 ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment
 of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them
3 a faint conception of the Life which is God.
 They no longer measured man by material
 sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master,
6 they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,
 but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of
 light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming
9 power as on the Day of Pentecost.

The traitor's conspiracy

 Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitude
 and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal.
12 The traitor's price was thirty pieces of silver
 and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his
 time, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus'
15 teachings.

 A period was approaching which would reveal the in-
 finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas
18 Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness of
 that Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,
 and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas' envy. The
21 greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a time
 quieted his remorse. He knew that the world generally
 loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-
24 trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti-
 mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the
 traitor fell with it.
27 The disciples' desertion of their Master in his last
 earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio-
 lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no
30 record.

Gethsemane glorified

 During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,
 Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-

Page 48

1 ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the
 staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-
3 dents slept. He said unto them: "Could Ye
 not watch with me one hour?" Could they
 not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-
6 less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?
 There was no response to that human yearning, and so
 Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from
9 sense to Soul.

 Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy
 benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-
12 blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the
 same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt-
 ing ordeal of sin's revenge on its destroyer? Truth and
15 Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a
 life-work.

Defensive weapons

 Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one
18 of them, and chose not the world's means of defence.
 "He opened not his mouth." The great dem-
 onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before
21 envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of
 his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re-
 sentment or animal courage. He said: "Put up thy
24 sword."

Pilate's question

 Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,
 "What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence
27 with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate
 was ignorant of the consequences of his awful
 decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing
30 not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what
 life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for
 man.

Page 49

1 The women at the cross could have answered Pilate's
 question. They knew what had inspired their devotion,
3 winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-
 ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples
 to say to their Master: "Even the devils are subject
6 unto us through thy name."

Students' ingratitude

 Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were
 all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the
9 great exponent of God? Had they so soon lost
 sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,
 sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-
12 quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last
 human yearning with one sign of fidelity?

Heaven's sentinel

 The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-
15 tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with
 God. No human eye was there to pity, no
 arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had
18 blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest
 post of power, charged with the grandest trust of
 heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing
21 of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ
 is not subject to material conditions, but is above the
 reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth,
24 Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and
 the grave.

Cruel contumely

 The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly
27 walked, and those to whom he had given the highest
 proofs of divine power, mocked him on the
 cross, saying derisively, "He saved others;
30 himself he cannot save." These scoffers, who turned
 "aside the right of a man before the face of the Most
 High," esteemed Jesus as "stricken, smitten of God."

Page 50

1 "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
 before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
3 "Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decide
 what truth and love are?

A cry of despair

 The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-
6 ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude
 of his work, wrung from Jesus' lips the awful
 cry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
9 This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would
 impugn the justice and love of a father who could with-
 hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so
12 faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both to
 his divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,
 Love's pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken
15 him in his highest demonstration? This was a startling
 question. No! They must abide in him and he in them,
 or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the
18 human race.

Divine Science misunderstood

 If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo-
 ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses,
21 what would his accusers have said? Even
 what they did say, — that Jesus' teachings
 were false, and that all evidence of their cor-
24 rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
 could not make it so.

The real pillory

 The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human
27 conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving
 the purpose of his mission, was a million
 times sharper than the thorns which pierced
30 his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill
 of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love. Not
 the spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful

Page 51

1 lips the plaintive cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" It
 was the possible loss of something more important than
3 human life which moved him, — the possible misappre-
 hension of the sublimest influence of his career. This
 dread added the drop of gall to his cup.

Life-power indestructible

6 Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies.
 He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his
 spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine;
9 but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-
 tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnish
 the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life
12 of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his
 enemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accom-
 plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal,
15 was found forever the same. He knew that matter had
 no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no
 more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could
18 be extinguished.

Example for our salvation

 His consummate example was for the salvation of us
 all, but only through doing the works which he did and
21 taught others to do. His purpose in healing
 was not alone to restore health, but to demon-
 strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by
24 Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives
 of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,
 inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-
27 ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.

 Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him
 from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist
30 to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled
 Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the
 dead.

Page 52

Master's business

1 From early boyhood he was about his "Father's busi-
 ness." His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-
3 ter was Spirit; their master was matter. He
 served God; they served mammon. His affec-
 tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in
6 the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their
 senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi-
 dence of sin, sickness, and death.

Purity's rebuke

9 Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present
 rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world's
 hatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the
12 prophet's foresight of the reception error would
 give him. "Despised and rejected of men," was Isaiah's
 graphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace.
15 Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unite
 in putting to shame and death the best man that ever
 trod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again
18 make common cause against the exponents of truth.

Saviour's prediction

 The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing-
 ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-
21 tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were
 the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or
 Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-
24 est earthly representative of God, speaking of human
 ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his
 disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time:
27 "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
 also;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe."

Defamatory accusations

 The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-
30 dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-
 auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton
 and a wine-bibber. They said: "He casteth out devils

Page 53

1 through Beelzebub," and is the "friend of publicans and
 sinners." The latter accusation was true, but not in their
3 meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did
 the Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so far
 removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene.
6 He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because
 he was their friend; hence the cup he drank.

Reputation and character

 The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his
9 character. Why? Because the divine Principle and
 practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He
 was at work in divine Science. His words
12 and works were unknown to the world because above
 and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals be-
 lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine,
15 infinite Love.

Inspiring discontent

 The world could not interpret aright the discomfort
 which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which
18 might flow from such discomfort. Science
 shows the cause of the shock so often pro-
 duced by the truth, — namely, that this shock arises from
21 the great distance between the individual and Truth.
 Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of
 denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which
24 goodness makes for the destruction of evil.

Bearing our sins

 Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the
 mortal errors which constitute the material body, and
27 could destroy those errors; but at the time
 when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not
 conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma-
30 terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of
 spiritual power.

 Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would

Page 54

1 have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the
 magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine
3 Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de-
 fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished
 error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness,
6 seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified
 example introduced.

Inspiration of sacrifice

 Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All
9 must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true
 idea of God. That he might liberally pour
 his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-
12 filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus'
 intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com-
 mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and
15 Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over
 death through Mind, not matter. This was the highest
 proof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers
18 understood neither his words nor his works. They
 would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor
 follow his example.

Spiritual friendship

21 His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the
 dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious
 friends, whose religion was something more
24 than a name. It was so vital, that it en-
 abled them to understand the Nazarene and to share
 the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol-
27 lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con-
 firmed the prediction.

Injustice to the Saviour

 If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on
30 earth to-day, would not some, who now pro-
 fess to love him, reject him? Would they
 not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter-

Page 55

1 tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?
 The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the
3 invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment and
 usage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; but
 this does not affect the invincible facts.

6 Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no more
 injustice than the later centuries have bestowed upon
 the healing Christ and spiritual idea of being. Now
9 that the gospel of healing is again preached by the
 wayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? But
 that curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a
12 clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be
 left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of
 the synagogue.

15 Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries,
 gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My
 weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall
18 recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as
 himself, — when he shall realize God's omnipotence and
 the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done
21 and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful-
 filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing
 is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly
24 all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's
 cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of
 Christian healing.

27 In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another
 Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." This
 Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.

Page 56

Chapter 3 — Marriage

 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put
 asunder. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given
 in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. — Jesus.

1 WHEN our great Teacher came to him for baptism,
 John was astounded. Reading his thoughts, Jesus
3 added: "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us
 to fulfil all righteousness." Jesus' concessions (in certain
 cases) to material methods were for the advancement of
6 spiritual good.

Marriage temporal

 Marriage is the legal and moral provision for genera-
 tion among human kind. Until the spiritual creation
9 is discerned intact, is apprehended and under-
 stood, and His kingdom is come as in the vision
 of the Apocalypse, — where the corporeal sense of crea-
12 tion was cast out, and its spiritual sense was revealed from
 heaven, — marriage will continue, subject to such moral
 regulations as will secure increasing virtue.

Fidelity required

15 Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge
 of all races, "the pestilence that walketh in darkness,
 ... the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
18 The commandment, "Thou shalt not com-
 mit adultery," is no less imperative than the one, "Thou
 shalt not kill."

Page 57

1 Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress.
 Without it there is no stability in society, and without it
3 one cannot attain the Science of Life.

Mental elements

 Union of the masculine and feminine qualities consti-
 tutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a
6 higher tone through certain elements of the
 feminine, while the feminine mind gains cour-
 age and strength through masculine qualities. These
9 different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and
 their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes
 should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attrac-
12 tion between native qualities will be perpetual only as it
 is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like
 the returning spring.

Affection's demands

15 Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the
 demands of the affections, and should never weigh
 against the better claims of intellect, good-
18 ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual,
 born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore
 it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to
21 share it.

Help and discipline

 Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even
 though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, en-
24 larging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry
 blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affec-
 tion, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance
27 of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to
 God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases
 to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for
30 heaven.

 Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the disap-
 pointments it involves or the hopes it fulfils. To happify

Page 58

1 existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to
 elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of
3 spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy's drooping
 wings trail in dust.

Chord and discord

 Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the
6 human mind may be different, but they should be con-
 cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish
 ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, —
9 these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute in-
 dividually and collectively true happiness, strength, and
 permanence.

Mutual freedom

12 There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the
 horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of
 all another's time and thoughts. With ad-
15 ditional joys, benevolence should grow more
 diffusive. The narrowness and jealousy, which would
 confine a wife or a husband forever within four walls, will
18 not promote the sweet interchange of confidence and love;
 but on the other hand, a wandering desire for incessant
 amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for
21 the happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on
 earth, and it should be the centre, though not the bound-
 ary, of the affections.

A useful suggestion

24 Said the peasant bride to her lover: "Two eat no more
 together than they eat separately." This is a hint that
 a wife ought not to court vulgar extravagance
27 or stupid ease, because another supplies her
 wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or the
 chance for ill-nature in the marriage relation, but noth-
30 ing can abolish the cares of marriage.

Differing duties

 "She that is married careth ... how she may please
 her husband," says the Bible; and this is the pleasantest

Page 59

1 thing to do. Matrimony should never be entered into
 without a full recognition of its enduring obligations on
3 both sides. There should be the most tender
 solicitude for each other's happiness, and mu-
 tual attention and approbation should wait on all the years
6 of married life.

 Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact
 which might otherwise become unbearable. Man should
9 not be required to participate in all the annoyances and
 cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be ex-
 pected to understand political economy. Fulfilling the
12 different demands of their united spheres, their sympa-
 thies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each
 partner sustaining the other, — thus hallowing the union
15 of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace
 and home.

Trysting renewed

 Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes the
18 welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more salutary
 in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid
 indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this
21 and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the
 old trysting-times.

 After marriage, it is too late to grumble over incompati-
24 bility of disposition. A mutual understanding should
 exist before this union and continue ever after, for decep-
 tion is fatal to happiness.

Permanent obligation

27 The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long as
 its moral obligations are kept intact; but the frequency
 of divorce shows that the sacredness of this re-
30 lationship is losing its influence, and that fatal
 mistakes are undermining its foundations. Separation
 never should take place, and it never would, if both

Page 60

1 husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists.
 Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of
3 harmony and happiness.

Permanent affection

 Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary
 to the formation of a happy and permanent companion-
6 ship. The beautiful in character is also the
 good, welding indissolubly the links of affec-
 tion. A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her
9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and con-
 stancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal
 affection lives on under whatever difficulties.
12 From the logic of events we learn that selfishness
 and impurity alone are fleeting, and that wisdom will
 ultimately put asunder what she hath not joined
15 together.

Centre for affections

 Marriage should improve the human species, becoming
 a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to
18 man, and a centre for the affections. This,
 however, in a majority of cases, is not its
 present tendency, and why? Because the education of
21 the higher nature is neglected, and other considerations,
 — passion, frivolous amusements, personal adornment,
 display, and pride, — occupy thought.

Spiritual concord

24 An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciat-
 ing concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true
 happiness of being, places it on a false basis.
27 Science will correct the discord, and teach us
 life's sweeter harmonies.

 Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind,
30 and happiness would be more readily attained and would
 be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher
 enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal

Page 61

1 man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the
 limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real
3 enjoyment.

Ascendency of good

 The good in human affections must have ascendency
 over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happi-
6 ness will never be won. The attainment of
 this celestial condition would improve our
 progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambi-
9 tion. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every
 mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway
 of our God may be prepared in Science. The offspring
12 of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better
 balanced minds, and sounder constitutions.

Propensities inherited

 If some fortuitous circumstance places promising chil-
15 dren in the arms of gross parents, often these beautiful
 children early droop and die, like tropical
 flowers born amid Alpine snows. If perchance
18 they live to become parents in their turn, they may re-
 produce in their own helpless little ones the grosser traits
 of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what noble
21 ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities
 that must either be overcome or reduce him to a loath-
 some wreck?

24 Is not the propagation of the human species a greater
 responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of
 your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks
27 and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be
 transmitted to children.

 The formation of mortals must greatly improve to
30 advance mankind. The scientific morale of marriage is
 spiritual unity. If the propagation of a higher human
 species is requisite to reach this goal, then its material con-

Page 62

1 ditions can only be permitted for the purpose of gener-
 ating. The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the
3 period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity.

 The entire education of children should be such as to
 form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law,
6 with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-
 called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.

Inheritance heeded

 If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant
9 amusement, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked
 to, those parents should not, in after years,
 complain of their children's fretfulness or fri-
12 volity, which the parents themselves have occasioned.
 Taking less "thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or
 what ye shall drink"; less thought "for your body what
15 ye shall put on," will do much more for the health of the
 rising generation than you dream. Children should be
 allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should
18 become men and women only through growth in the
 understanding of man's higher nature.

The Mind creative

 We must not attribute more and more intelligence
21 to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and
 healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the
 bud and blossom, will care for the human
24 body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal inter-
 fere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of
 erring, human concepts.

Superior law of Soul

27 The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower;
 if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed.
 Our false views of life hide eternal harmony,
30 and produce the ills of which we complain.
 Because mortals believe in material laws and reject the
 Science of Mind, this does not make materiality first and

Page 63

1 the superior law of Soul last. You would never think
 that flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease
3 than the controlling Mind, if you understood the Science
 of being.

Spiritual origin

 In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beauti-
6 ful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is
 not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor
 does he pass through material conditions prior
9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ulti-
 mate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the
 law of his being.

The rights of woman

12 Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the
 rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no
 precedent for such injustice, and civilization
15 mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a
 marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than
 does either Christian Science or civilization.

Unfair discrimination

18 Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their
 discrimination as to the person, property, and parental
 claims of the two sexes. If the elective fran-
21 chise for women will remedy the evil with-
 out encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us
 hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational
24 means of improvement at present is the elevation of
 society in general and the achievement of a nobler
 race for legislation, — a race having higher aims and
27 motives.

 If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, certainly the
 wronged, and perchance impoverished, woman should be
30 allowed to collect her own wages, enter into business
 agreements, hold real estate, deposit funds, and own her
 children free from interference.

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1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the
 selfishness and inhumanity of man. Our forefathers
3 exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle
 James, when he said: "Pure religion and undefiled before
 God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and
6 widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
 from the world."

Benevolence hindered

 Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to
9 be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Chris-
 tianity. When a man lends a helping hand
 to some noble woman, struggling alone with
12 adversity, his wife should not say, "It is never well to
 interfere with your neighbor's business." A wife is
 sometimes debarred by a covetous domestic tyrant from
15 giving the ready aid her sympathy and charity would
 afford.

Progressive development

 Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further-
18 more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he
 declared that in the resurrection there should
 be no more marrying nor giving in marriage,
21 but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul re-
 joice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then
 white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wis-
24 dom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and per-
 petual peace.

 Until it is learned that God is the Father of all, mar-
27 riage will continue. Let not mortals permit a disregard
 of law which might lead to a worse state of society than
 now exists. Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of
30 the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its
 own, — all that really is, — and the voices of physical
 sense will be forever hushed.

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Blessing of Christ

1 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human
 happiness should proceed from man's highest nature.
3 May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal
 altar to turn the water into wine and to give to
 human life an inspiration by which man's spiritual and
6 eternal existence may be discerned.

Righteous foundations

 If the foundations of human affection are consistent
 with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces
9 should warn the age of some fundamental error
 in the marriage state. The union of the sexes
 suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and its
12 harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded.

Powerless promises

 The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day
 show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of
15 the age, struggling against the advancing
 spiritual era. Beholding the world's lack of
 Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home
18 happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher
 affection.

Transition and reform

 There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many
21 other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of
 truth, and impurity and error are left among
 the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is
24 not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never
 desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once
 a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot-
27 ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more
 spiritual adherence.

 The mental chemicalization, which has brought con-
30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off
 this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum
 is gone.

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 Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of
 humanity:
3  Sweet are the uses of adversity;
      Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
      Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Salutary sorrow

6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, —
 a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not
 half remember this in the sunshine of joy
9 and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through
 great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are
 proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germi-
12 nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,
 but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher
 joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc-
15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
 goodness and love.

 Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-
18 member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal
 infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on
 divine wisdom to point out the path.

Patience is wisdom

21 Husbands and wives should never separate if there
 is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the
 logic of events than for a wife precipitately
24 to leave her husband or for a husband to
 leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must
 always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good
27 company. Socrates considered patience salutary under
 such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for
 his philosophy.

The gold and dross

30 Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us
 where it found us. The furnace separates
 the gold from the dross that the precious metal may

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1 be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father
 hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons
3 He teaches?

Weathering the storm

 When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds
 lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds,
6 and the waves lift themselves into mountains.
 We ask the helmsman: "Do you know your
 course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?" He
9 answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not
 sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the
 Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under-
12 standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on
 and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves
 on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work-
15 ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible
 propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens
 the troubled sea.

Spiritual power

18 The notion that animal natures can possibly give force
 to character is too absurd for consideration, when we
 remember that through spiritual ascendency
21 our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised
 the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to
 obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other
24 means and methods.

 The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration
 of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor
27 of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is
 needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death
 presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.

Basis of true religion

30 Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains
 and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any
 such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the

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1 understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of
 true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for
3 fear of being thought ridiculous. They are
 slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some-
 time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has
6 created men and women in Science. We ought to weary
 of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which
 hinders our highest selfhood.

9 Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of
 mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flowers
 of Eden and scatters love's petals to decay. Be not
12 in haste to take the vow "until death do us part."
 Consider its obligations, its responsibilities, its rela-
 tions to your growth and to your influence on other
15 lives.

Insanity and agamogenesis

 I never knew more than one individual who believed
 in agamogenesis; she was unmarried, a lovely charac-
18 ter, was suffering from incipient insanity, and
 a Christian Scientist cured her. I have named
 her case to individuals, when casting my bread upon
21 the waters, and it may have caused the good to ponder
 and the evil to hatch their silly innuendoes and lies, since
 salutary causes sometimes incur these effects. The per-
24 petuation of the floral species by bud or cell-division is
 evident, but I discredit the belief that agamogenesis
 applies to the human species.

God's creation intact

27 Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion;
 it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind,
 but an impartation of the divine Mind to man
30 and the universe. Proportionately as human
 generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, har-
 monious being will be spiritually discerned; and man,

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1 not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will
 appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe
3 are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in
 divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense
 of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease.
6 Mortals can never understand God's creation while believ-
 ing that man is a creator. God's children already created
 will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being.
9 Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion
 as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry
 or to be "given in marriage" neither closes man's con-
12 tinuity nor his sense of increasing number in God's in-
 finite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but
 one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scrip-
15 tures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain,
 and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.

 If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring
18 spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not
 conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation. Some
 day the child will ask his parent: "Do you keep the First
21 Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or
 is man a creator?" If the father replies, "God creates
 man through man," the child may ask, "Do you teach
24 that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that
 Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the ques-
 tion?" Jesus said, "The children of this world marry,
27 and are given in marriage: But they which shall be ac-
 counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur-
 rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in
30 marriage."

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Chapter 4 — Christian Science versus Spiritualism

 And when they shall say unto you,
 Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,
 And unto wizards that peep and that mutter;
 Should not a people seek unto their God? — ISAIAH.

 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he
 shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we
 know that thou hast a devil. — John.

The infinite one Spirit

1 MORTAL existence is an enigma. Every day is a
 mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses
3 cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but
 the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures
 of Truth. Whatever is false or sinful can
6 never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There
 is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man,
 made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific
9 reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. The
 supposition that corporeal beings are spirits, or that there
 are good and evil spirits, is a mistake.

Real and unreal identity

12 The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade
 of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal. The
 questions are: What are God's identities?
15 What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing
 formed?

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1 Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but
 God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither
3 person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion
 of material sense.

 The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever;
6 but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not in Spirit's
 formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the
 creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form,
9 which forms only reflect.

Dream-lessons

 Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a
 flower, — that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn
12 that the flower is a product of the so-called
 mind, a formation of thought rather than of
 matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see land-
15 scapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these
 also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves
 and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence. From
18 dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor
 matter is the image or likeness of God, and that im-
 mortal Mind is not in matter.

Found wanting

21 When the Science of Mind is understood, spiritualism
 will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis
 nor origin, no proof nor power outside of
24 human testimony. It is the offspring of the
 physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit. I never
 could believe in spiritualism.

27 The basis and structure of spiritualism are alike ma-
 terial and physical. Its spirits are so many corporealities,
 limited and finite in character and quality. Spiritualism
30 therefore presupposes Spirit, which is ever infinite, to be
 a corporeal being, a finite form, — a theory contrary to
 Christian Science.

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1 There is but one spiritual existence, — the Life of
 which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The
3 divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense.
 If a material body — in other words, mortal, material
 sense — were permeated by Spirit, that body would
6 disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con-
 dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of
 spiritual life.

Spirits obsolete

9 So-called spirits are but corporeal communicators. As
 light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all
 is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God,
12 is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de-
 stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal
 belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth
15 (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which
 are not united by progress, but separated.

 Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.
18 Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti-
 pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through
 which truth can be strained.

Scientific phenomena

21 God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine
 logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never
 present. In Science, individual good derived
24 from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow
 from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com-
 municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is
27 not the reality of Life nor the medium through which
 truth passes to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes
 the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable.
30 Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com-
 municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and
 humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as

Page 73

1 Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support
 the other.

3 Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, ma-
 terial, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup-
 posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a spirit.
6 The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite
 Spirit, for Spirit is God, and man is His likeness.

One government

 The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an-
9 other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and
 the Science of man, for man is image. God
 controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any
12 other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal
 belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, — the repe-
 tition of evil.

15 If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled
 them through electricity or any other form of matter, the
 divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent
18 Spirit would be destroyed.

Incorrect theories

 The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter
 to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and
21 desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the
 belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma-
 terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when
24 it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa-
 tions belonging to that body.

No mediumship

 It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part
27 of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and
 matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can
 commune together. This error Science will
30 destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of
 the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of
 the infinite. There is no communication between so-

Page 74

1 called material existence and spiritual life which is not
 subject to death.

Opposing conditions

3 To be on communicable terms with Spirit, persons must
 be free from organic bodies; and their return to a mate-
 rial condition, after having once left it, would
6 be as impossible as would be the restoration
 to its original condition of the acorn, already absorbed
 into a sprout which has risen above the soil. The seed
9 which has germinated has a new form and state of exist-
 ence. When here or hereafter the belief of life in matter
 is extinct, the error which has held the belief dissolves
12 with the belief, and never returns to the old condition.
 No correspondence nor communion can exist between
 persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having
15 died and left a material body and the belief of still living
 in an organic, material body.

Bridgeless division

 The caterpillar, transformed into a beautiful insect,
18 is no longer a worm, nor does the insect return to
 fraternize with or control the worm. Such
 a backward transformation is impossible in
21 Science. Darkness and light, infancy and manhood,
 sickness and health, are opposites, — different beliefs,
 which never blend. Who will say that infancy can utter
24 the ideas of manhood, that darkness can represent light,
 that we are in Europe when we are in the opposite hemi-
 sphere? There is no bridge across the gulf which divides
27 two such opposite conditions as the spiritual, or incor-
 poreal, and the physical, or corporeal.

 In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step,
30 never a return to positions outgrown. The so-called dead
 and living cannot commune together, for they are in
 separate states of existence, or consciousness.

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Unscientific investiture

1 This simple truth lays bare the mistaken assumption
 that man dies as matter but comes to life as spirit. The
3 so-called dead, in order to reappear to those
 still in the existence cognized by the physical
 senses, would need to be tangible and material, — to have
6 a material investiture, — or the material senses could take
 no cognizance of the so-called dead.

 Spiritualism would transfer men from the spiritual sense
9 of existence back into its material sense. This gross mate-
 rialism is scientifically impossible, since to infinite Spirit
 there can be no matter.

Raising the dead

12 Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;
 but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus
 restored Lazarus by the understanding that
15 Lazarus had never died, not by an admis-
 sion that his body had died and then lived again. Had
 Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his
18 body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of
 belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have
 resuscitated it.

21 When you can waken yourself or others out of the belief
 that all must die, you can then exercise Jesus' spiritual
 power to reproduce the presence of those who have thought
24 they died, — but not otherwise.

Vision of the dying

 There is one possible moment, when those living on the
 earth and those called dead, can commune together, and
27 that is the moment previous to the transition,
 — the moment when the link between their op-
 posite beliefs is being sundered. In the vestibule through
30 which we pass from one dream to another dream, or
 when we awake from earth's sleep to the grand verities
 of Life, the departing may hear the glad welcome of those

Page 76

1 who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper
 this vision, name the face that smiles on them and the
3 hand which beckons them, as one at Niagara, with eyes
 open only to that wonder, forgets all else and breathes
 aloud his rapture.

Real Life is God

6 When being is understood, Life will be recognized as
 neither material nor finite, but as infinite, — as God,
 universal good; and the belief that life, or
9 mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in
 evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that
 Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never
12 raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being
 and the understanding of God, man can no longer com-
 mune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more
15 than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem
 to be corporeal, but he will be an individual conscious-
 ness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter.

18 Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When
 divine Science is universally understood, they will have
 no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by
21 divine authority.

Immaterial pleasure

 The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality
 of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness
24 without a single bodily pleasure or pain, —
 constitutes the only veritable, indestructible
 man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence
27 is scientific and intact, — a perfection discernible only
 by those who have the final understanding of Christ in
 divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of
30 existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to,
 before immortality appears.

 The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not

Page 77

1 suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
 "I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do
3 other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth
 at a single bound.

Second death

 Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
6 until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its
 own self-destruction both here and hereafter,
 for mortal mind creates its own physical con-
9 ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence
 as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is
 reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon-
12 strated that "the second death hath no power."

A dream vanishing

 The period required for this dream of material life,
 embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish
15 from consciousness, "knoweth no man ...
 neither the Son, but the Father." This period
 will be of longer or shorter duration according to the
18 tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be
 to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and
 so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning,
21 suffering sense, — a so-called mind fettered to matter.

Progress and purgatory

 Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
 sciousness were possible, such communications would
24 grow beautifully less with every advanced stage
 of existence. The departed would gradually
 rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists
27 would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism.
 Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling
 that of blighted buds, — to a wretched purgatory, where
30 the chances of the departed for improvement narrow
 into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of
 matter.

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Unnatural deflections

1 The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak,
 the ferocious beast, — like the discords of disease, sin,
3 and death, — are unnatural. They are the fal-
 sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor-
 tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.

Absurd oracles

6 How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing
 out life and hastening to death, and that at the same
 time we are communing with immortality!
9 If the departed are in rapport with mor-
 tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still
 be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why
12 look to them — even were communication possible — for
 proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com-
 munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in
15 tendency.

 Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would
 destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all
18 space, it needs no material method for the transmission
 of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order
 to be omnipresent.

Spirit intangible

21 Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it
 communicate with man through electric, material effects?
 How can the majesty and omnipotence of
24 Spirit be lost? God is not in the medley
 where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes
 many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed
27 to be the agents of God's government.

 Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence
 it cometh." By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are
30 comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the
 effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling
 in eternal Science.

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Thought regarding death

1 The act of describing disease — its symptoms, locality,
 and fatality — is not scientific. Warning people against
3 death is an error that tends to frighten into
 death those who are ignorant of Life as God.
 Thousands of instances could be cited of health restored
6 by changing the patient's thoughts regarding death.

Fallacious hypotheses

 A scientific mental method is more sanitary than the
 use of drugs, and such a mental method produces perma-
9 nent health. Science must go over the whole
 ground, and dig up every seed of error's sow-
 ing. Spiritualism relies upon human beliefs and hy-
12 potheses. Christian Science removes these beliefs and
 hypotheses through the higher understanding of God, for
 Christian Science, resting on divine Principle, not on ma-
15 terial personalities, in its revelation of immortality, intro-
 duces the harmony of being.

 Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle
18 Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ.
 Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: "My
 Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He never de-
21 scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels,
 but he healed disease.

Mistaken methods

 The unscientific practitioner says: "You are ill. Your
24 brain is overtaxed, and you must rest. Your body is
 weak, and it must be strengthened. You have
 nervous prostration, and must be treated for it."
27 Science objects to all this, contending for the rights of in-
 telligence and asserting that Mind controls body and brain.

Divine strength

 Mind-science teaches that mortals need "not be weary
30 in well doing." It dissipates fatigue in doing
 good. Giving does not impoverish us in the
 service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.

Page 80

1 We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of
 the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving
3 utterance to truth. A cup of coffee or tea is not the equal
 of truth, whether for the inspiration of a sermon or for
 the support of bodily endurance.

A denial of immortality

6 A communication purporting to come from the late
 Theodore Parker reads as follows: "There never was,
 and there never will be, an immortal spirit."
9 Yet the very periodical containing this sen-
 tence repeats weekly the assertion that spirit-communica-
 tions are our only proofs of immortality.

Mysticism unscientific

12 I entertain no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy
 of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their
 views. It is mysticism which gives spiritual-
15 ism its force. Science dispels mystery and
 explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never
 removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the
18 realm of mysticism.

Physical falsities

 It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the
 aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know
21 that it is mind-power which moves both table
 and hand. Even planchette — the French toy
 which years ago pleased so many people — attested the con-
24 trol of mortal mind over its substratum, called matter.

 It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter.
 These movements arise from the volition of human belief,
27 but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind
 produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and
 believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and elec-
30 tricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that
 mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly,
 hence that matter is intelligent.

Page 81

Poor post-mortem evidence

1 There is not so much evidence to prove intercommuni-
 cation between the so-called dead and the living, as there
3 is to show the sick that matter suffers and has
 sensation; yet this latter evidence is destroyed by
 the Mind-science. If Spiritualists understood the
6 Science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish.

No proof of immortality

 At the very best and on its own theories, spiritualism
 can only prove that certain individuals have a continued
9 existence after death and maintain their affili-
 ation with mortal flesh; but this fact affords
 no certainty of everlasting life. A man's assertion that
12 he is immortal no more proves him to be so, than the op-
 posite assertion, that he is mortal, would prove immor-
 tality a lie. Nor is the case improved when alleged spirits
15 teach immortality. Life, Love, Truth, is the only proof
 of immortality.

Mind's manifestations immortal

 Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science can-
18 not help being immortal. Though the grass seemeth to
 wither and the flower to fade, they reappear.
 Erase the figures which express number, silence
21 the tones of music, give to the worms the body
 called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine
 Principle lives on, — in the case of man as truly as in
24 the case of numbers and of music, — despite the so-called
 laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though
 the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the
27 harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine
 Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality de-
 pends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary
30 consequence of the immortality of good.

Reading thoughts

 That somebody, somewhere, must have known the
 deceased person, supposed to be the communicator, is

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1 evident, and it is as easy to read distant thoughts as near.
 We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one
3 present. It is no more difficult to read the
 absent mind than it is to read the present.
 Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought
6 in his verse. What is classic study, but discernment of
 the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal exist-
 ence we may be in doubt?

Impossible intercommunion

9 If spiritual life has been won by the departed, they
 cannot return to material existence, because different
 states of consciousness are involved, and one
12 person cannot exist in two different states of
 consciousness at the same time. In sleep we
 do not communicate with the dreamer by our side despite
15 his physical proximity, because both of us are either un-
 conscious or are wandering in our dreams through differ-
 ent mazes of consciousness.

18 In like manner it would follow, even if our departed
 friends were near us and were in as conscious a state of
 existence as before the change we call death, that their
21 state of consciousness must be different from ours. We
 are not in their state, nor are they in the mental realm
 in which we dwell. Communion between them and
24 ourselves would be prevented by this difference. The
 mental states are so unlike, that intercommunion is as
 impossible as it would be between a mole and a human
27 being. Different dreams and different awakenings be-
 token a differing consciousness. When wandering in
 Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their
30 snow huts?

 In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a
 greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to

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1 consider whether it is the human mind or the divine
 Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of
3 Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet
 artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the
 work of wisdom.

6 Science only can explain the incredible good and evil
 elements now coming to the surface. Mortals must find
 refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter
9 days. Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science
 than a blind belief without understanding, for such a
 belief hides Truth and builds on error.

Natural wonders

12 Miracles are impossible in Science, and here Science
 takes issue with popular religions. The scientific mani-
 festation of power is from the divine nature
15 and is not supernatural, since Science is an
 explication of nature. The belief that the universe, in-
 cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but
18 that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, — this be-
 lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the
 precedence over Spirit.

Conflicting standpoints

21 It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life
 is either material or organically spiritual. Between
 Christian Science and all forms of superstition
24 a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that be-
 tween Dives and Lazarus. There is mortal mind-reading
 and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation
27 of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by
 which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of
 all things. Mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-
30 reading are distinctly opposite standpoints, from which
 cause and effect are interpreted. The act of reading
 mortal mind investigates and touches only human beliefs.

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1 Science is immortal and coordinate neither with the
 premises nor with the conclusions of mortal beliefs.

Scientific foreseeing

3 The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a
 spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing
 evil and mistaking fact for fiction, — predict-
6 ing the future from a groundwork of corpo-
 reality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced
 in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men
9 become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not
 by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit.
 It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and
12 of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know
 the past, the present, and the future.

 Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to
15 commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee
 and foretell events which concern the universal welfare,
 to be divinely inspired, — yea, to reach the range of fetter-
18 less Mind.

The Mind unbounded

 To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by
 corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for
21 sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones
 for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind-
 science by which we discern man's nature and existence.
24 This true conception of being destroys the belief of spirit-
 ualism at its very inception, for without the concession of
 material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no
27 basis upon which to build.

Scientific foreknowing

 All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine
 Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian
30 Science. If this Science has been thoroughly
 learned and properly digested, we can know
 the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read

Page 85

1 the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading
 is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of
3 the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca-
 pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense
 comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the
6 divine Mind.

Value of intuition

 Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-
 petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not
9 evil. You will reach the perfect Science of
 healing when you are able to read the human
 mind after this manner and discern the error you would
12 destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a
 man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this
 the Christ?"

15 It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his
 students, "knew their thoughts," — read them scientifi-
 cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed
18 the sick. After the same method, events of great mo-
 ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our
 Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said:
21 "O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky;
 but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

Hypocrisy condemned

 Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal
24 senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the
 generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek-
 ing the material more than the spiritual. His
27 thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never
 spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation.. He said:
 "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
30 undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and
 effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never
 imparts error.

Page 86

Mental contact

1 Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
 this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone,
3 his disciples answered, "The multitude throng
 thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that
 it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called
6 for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the
 faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this
 mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples'
9 misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus
 possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.
 Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce
12 unlike results.

Images of thought

 Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
 to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-
15 rious only because it is unusual to see
 thoughts, though we can always feel their
 influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual
18 noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances
 either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and
 sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing
21 is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then
 why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?
 Education alone determines the difference. In reality
24 there is none.

Phenomena explained

 Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
 ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences,
27 can all be taken from pictorial thought and
 memory as readily as from objects cognizable
 by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as
30 certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and
 sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed
 before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it

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1 with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive
 these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce
3 them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind
 in which they are discoverable.

Mental environment

 It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-
6 ing the transferred picture to be individually and con-
 sciously present. Though individuals have
 passed away, their mental environment re-
9 mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though
 bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten,
 their associations float in the general atmosphere of human
12 mind.

Second sight

 The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when
 really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents
15 primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables
 one to read the human mind, but not as a
 clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but
18 not as a mesmerist.

Buried secrets

 The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its
 rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns,
21 of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships
 that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which
 lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not
24 suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do
 not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The
 strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend-
27 ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind-
 readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions.

Recollected friends

 Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We
30 have but to close the eyes, and forms rise
 before us, which are thousands of miles away
 or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and

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1 this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can
 recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the
3 heart's desire, —
      the touch of a vanished hand,
      And the sound of a voice that is still.

6 The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and
 odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent
 salutes the nostrils.

Illusions not ideas

9 How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from il-
 lusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are
 emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts,
12 proceeding from the brain or from matter, are
 offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material be-
 liefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs
15 proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one
 time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another
 are called spirits.

18 To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea;
 but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood
 through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven-
21 eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests
 profound adoration. Excite the opposite development,
 and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro-
24 ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena,
 for both arise from mortal belief.

Trance speaking illusion

 Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love.
27 It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows
 the possibilities derived from divine Mind,
 though it is said to be a gift whose endowment
30 is obtained from books or received from the
 impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds
 from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who

Page 89

1 can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of know-
 ing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the
3 beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her igno-
 rance in the belief that another mind is speaking through
 her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav-
6 ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing
 that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she
 talks freely.

9 Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence
 disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She
 says, " I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un-
12 educated." This familiar instance reaffirms the Scrip-
 tural word concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart,
 so is he." If one believes that he cannot be an orator with-
15 out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds
 to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before
 was eloquent.

Scientific improvisation

18 Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational
 processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry,
 and the power of expressing them. Spirit,
21 God, is heard when the senses are silent. We
 are all capable of more than we do. The influence or
 action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe-
24 nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.

Divine origination

 Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is
 not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of
27 music, and man is not the father of man. Cain
 very naturally concluded that if life was in the
 body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away.
30 This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was
 "a murderer from the beginning."

 If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to

Page 90

1 produce flour, or if one animal can originate another,
 how then can we account for their primal origin? How
3 were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of
 Galilee, — and that, too, without meal or monad from
 which loaf or fish could come?

Mind is substance

6 The earth's orbit and the imaginary line called the
 equator are not substance. The earth's motion and
 position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest
9 yourself of the thought that there can be sub-
 stance in matter, and the movements and transitions now
 possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally
12 possible for the body. Then being will be recognized
 as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now
 some insist that death is the necessary prelude to
15 immortality.

Mortal delusions

 In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend.
 The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed
18 inhabitant of that body carries it through
 the air and over the ocean. This shows the
 possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters men-
21 tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay
 in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and
 knowledge are.

Scientific finalities

24 The admission to one's self that man is God's own like-
 ness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This con-
 viction shuts the door on death, and opens it
27 wide towards immortality. The understanding
 and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may
 as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being
30 through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present
 we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know
 this when man reflects God.

Page 91

1 The Revelator tells us of "a new heaven and a
 new earth." Have you ever pictured this heaven and
3 earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme
 wisdom?

 Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated
6 from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and
 Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true
 spiritual growth.

Man's genuine being

9 It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science,
 because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner
 error is reduced to its native nothingness, the
12 sooner man's great reality will appear and his
 genuine being will be understood. The destruction of
 error is by no means the destruction of Truth or Life, but
15 is the acknowledgment of them.

 Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect
 but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of
18 material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spirit-
 ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous
 knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed
21 the material senses.

Erroneous postulates

 Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered
 in order that the spiritual facts may be better
24 apprehended.

 The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance,
 life, and intelligence are something apart from God.
27 The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both
 mental and material.

 The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil
30 and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the
 medium of evil, for Mind is God.

 The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in-

Page 92

1 telligent, and that man has a material body which is part
 of himself.

3 The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in
 itself the issues of life and death, — that matter is not
 only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also
6 capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion
 implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of
 mortal bodies in what is termed death.
9 Mind is not an entity within the cranium with the power
 of sinning now and forever.

Knowledge of good and evil

 In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around
12 the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve.
 This represents the serpent in the act of
 commending to our first parents the knowl-
15 edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter,
 or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still
 graphically accurate, for the common conception of mor-
18 tal man — a burlesque of God's man — is an outgrowth
 of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of
 material sense.

Opposing power

21 Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until
 the fact concerning error — namely, its nothingness —
 appears, the moral demand will not be met,
24 and the ability to make nothing of error will
 be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is
 only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief
27 in something besides God. This belief tends to support
 two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth
 alone. The mistake of thinking that error can be real,
30 when it is merely the absence of truth, leads to belief in
 the superiority of error.

The age's privilege

 Do you say the time has not yet come in which to

Page 93

1 recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the
 body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries
3 ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said,
 "He that believeth on me, the works that I
 do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour
6 cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold,
 now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of sal-
9 vation," said Paul.

Logic and revelation

 Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe
 otherwise, we may be sure that either our
12 logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted
 revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught
 that can cause evil.

15 Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing
 evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of
 creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in-
18 finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the
 divine Esse, though human faith may clothe it with angelic
 vestments, is without foundation.

Derivatives of spirit

21 The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has
 darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a
 proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being.
24 It means quantity and quality, and applies ex-
 clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word
 spirit refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual.
27 He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men
 would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal,
 and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi-
30 nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to
 becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and
 of the reign of harmony in the Science of being.

Page 94

Scientific man

1 Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man
 in the image and likeness of Himself, — of Spirit, not of
3 matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and
 Love. The nature of man, thus understood,
 includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and
6 "likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian
 and scientific statement of personality and of the relation
 of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa-
9 nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him,
 crucify him ... by our law he ought to die, because he
 made himself the Son of God."

12 The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov-
 ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent.
 Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found,
15 arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the
 pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.

Ingratitude and denial

 The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our
18 Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing-
 power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be-
 trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten
21 lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God
 thanks, — that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle
 which had healed him.

Spiritual insight

24 Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and
 this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts
 aright; but what would be said at this period of an in-
27 fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in-
 cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind
 on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind.
30 An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual
 growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one
 Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading.

Page 95

1 The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save,
 and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal
3 mind. His holy motives and aims were tra-
 duced by the sinners of that period, as they
 would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul
6 said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach
 God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel-
 ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all
9 human need and are able to discern the thought of the
 sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them.
 Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God.

12 Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good-
 ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The
 greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern
15 thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit-
 uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance,
 but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the
18 special characteristics thereof.

Christ's reappearance

 We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end
 of error, because even human invention must have its
21 day, and we want that day to be succeeded
 by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid-
 night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid
24 the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship
 of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he
 beholds the light which heralds Christ's eternal dawn
27 and describes its effulgence?

Spiritual awakening

 Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep
 in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.
30 Material sense does not unfold the facts of
 existence; but spiritual sense lifts human
 consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances

Page 96

1 slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding;
 unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen-
3 dom with chains.

The darkest hours of all

 Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-
 itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error
6 is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup-
 tions of the general material routine. Earth
 will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter,
9 seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will
 continue unto the end, — until the final spiritualization of
 all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn."

Arena of contest

12 This material world is even now becoming the arena
 for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord
 and dismay; on the other side there will be
15 Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-
 rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want
 and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new
18 phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb-
 ances will continue until the end of error, when all
 discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.

21 Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization.
 This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue
 until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is
24 changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.

Millennial glory

 As this consummation draws nearer, he who has
 shaped his course in accordance with divine Science
27 will endure to the end. As material knowl-
 edge diminishes and spiritual understanding
 increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally
30 instead of materially.

 During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
 to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but

Page 97

1 those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in
 check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They
3 will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the
 certainty of ultimate perfection.

Dangerous resemblances

 In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and
6 so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the
 more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-
 cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce
9 and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science
 the flight of one and the blow of the other will become
 harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the
12 more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches
 its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The
 nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing
15 the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine
 Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes
 for destruction. The more material the belief, the more
18 obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do-
 main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-
 ness of Spirit, his original being.

21 The broadest facts array the most falsities against
 themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It
 requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth
24 lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in-
 articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.

 "He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-
27 ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the
 supremacy of Spirit.

Christianity still rejected

 Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is
30 Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos-
 tolic work of casting out error and healing the
 sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which

Page 98

1 attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom-
 pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex-
3 istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.

Spiritual foreshadowings

 The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon
 the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris-
6 tianity which heals the sick and destroys error,
 and no other sign shall be given. Body can-
 not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris-
9 tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the
 healing influence of Spirit (not spirits) which the material
 senses cannot comprehend, — which can only be spiritu-
12 ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses
 do not express Christian Science; much less can they
 demonstrate it.

Revelation of Science

15 Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the
 loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian
 Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical
18 Science. It is imperious throughout all ages
 as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which
 remains inviolate for every man to understand and to
21 practise.

Science as foreign to all religion

 For centuries — yea, always — natural science has not
 been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not
24 excepted. Even now multitudes consider that
 which they call science has no proper con-
 nection with faith and piety. Mystery does
27 not enshroud Christ's teachings, and they are not theo-
 retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and
 being practical and complete, they are not deprived of
30 their essential vitality.

Key to the kingdom

 The way through which immortality and life are learned
 is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine,

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1 not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien-
 tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super-
3 stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle
 by which mortals can escape from sin; yet
 to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work
6 out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says
 the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God
 which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
9 pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished
 the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci-
 ence has opened the door of the human understanding.
12 None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door.
 The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual.
 Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and
15 divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring
 and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it
 is human.

18 Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism,
 or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others
 who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is
21 not with the individual, but with the false system. I
 love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.

 The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the
24 manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-
 immolation, must deepen human experience, until the
 beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi-
27 tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place
 to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to
 God's spiritual, perfect man.

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Chapter 5 — Animal Magnetism Unmasked

 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
 adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
 blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man.
  — Jesus.

Earliest investigations

1 MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought
 into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac-
3 cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this
 so-called force, which he said could be ex-
 erted by one living organism over another, as
6 a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were
 as follows:

 "There exists a mutual influence between the celestial
9 bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies
 are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat-
 ing itself through the substance of the nerves."

12 In 1784, the French government ordered the medical
 faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to
 report upon it. Under this order a commission was
15 appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com-
 missioners. This commission reported to the govern-
 ment as follows:

18 "In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag-
 netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that
 there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic

Page 101

1 fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in
 the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula-
3 tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the
 impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one
 more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of
6 the human mind, and an important experiment upon
 the power of the imagination."

Clairvoyance, magnetism

 In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed,
9 among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo-
 quet, which tested during several sessions the
 phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their
12 report stated the results as follows:

 "The facts which had been promised by Monsieur
 Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to
15 throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions,
 are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of
 animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with
18 either physiology or therapeutics."

 This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of
 Medicine in Paris.

Personal conclusions

21 The author's own observations of the workings of
 animal magnetism convince her that it is not
 a remedial agent, and that its effects upon
24 those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do
 not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death.

 If animal magnetism seems to alleviate or to cure dis-
27 ease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot
 remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is
 preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of
30 animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other
 than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived
 from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic.

Page 102

Mere negation

1 Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for
 God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and
3 His power is neither animal nor human. Its
 basis being a belief and this belief animal, in
 Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is
6 a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power,
 nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so-
 called mortal mind.

9 There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The
 pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-
 embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind.

12 The planets have no more power over man than over
 his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man,
 reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth
15 and its hosts.

Hidden agents

 The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappear-
 ing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front.
18 The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re-
 cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav-
 ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the
21 present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare
 the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on
 the subject which the criminal desires. The following
24 is an extract from the Boston Herald:

 "Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy
 explanation and development. It implies the exercise
27 of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused
 by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the in-
 dividual or society."

Mental despotism

30 Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-
 called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian
 Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently

Page 103

1 promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore
 in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the
3 personification of evil as "the god of this
 world," and further defines it as dishonesty
 and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.

Liberation of mental powers

6 The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through
 Science, by which man can escape from sin
 and mortality, blesses the whole human fam-
9 ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera-
 tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of
 both good and evil, for the latter is unreal.

12 On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate
 from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind-
 science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle,
15 working out the purposes of good only. The maximum
 of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all.
 Evil is a suppositional lie.

The genus of error

18 As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or
 hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind.
 It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and
21 is both evil and good; that evil is as real as
 good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual-
 ity of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious. The
24 malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy.
 The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni-
 hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy
27 pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and
 fall into dust.

Thought-transference

 In reality there is no mortal mind, and conse-
30 quently no transference of mortal thought
 and will-power. Life and being are of
 God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for

Page 104

1 scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God
 to man.

3 When Christian Science and animal magnetism are
 both comprehended, as they will be at no distant date,
 it will be seen why the author of this book has been
6 so unjustly persecuted and belied by wolves in sheep's
 clothing.

 Agassiz, the celebrated naturalist and author, has
9 wisely said: "Every great scientific truth goes through
 three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.
 Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly,
12 they say they have always believed it."

Perfection of divine government

 Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action,
 and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of
15 all divine action, as the emanation of divine
 Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the
 opposite so-called action, — evil, occultism,
18 necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism.

Adulteration of Truth

 The medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty,
 sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, are animal pro-
21 pensities and by no means the mental quali-
 ties which heal the sick. The hypnotizer
 employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sick-
24 ness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the
 sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the
 lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground,
27 leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the
 stronger error.

Motives considered

 Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as
30 well as the commission of a crime. Is it not
 clear that the human mind must move the
 body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur-

Page 105

1 derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them,
 could not commit a murder.

Mental crimes

3 Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order
 to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish
 them. To say that these tribunals have no
6 jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind,
 would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the
 power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal
9 mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is
 recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime?
 Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men-
12 tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction?
 Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case;
 and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea-
15 sonably pass sentence, according to the motive.

Important decision

 When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental
 crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical
18 offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of
 Boston will become historic: "I see no reason
 why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to
21 mechanics or mathematics."

Evil let loose

 Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es-
 caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc-
24 curs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di-
 vine justice will manacle him. His sins will
 be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the
27 depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er-
 ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom:
 "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."

The misuse of mental power

30 The distance from ordinary medical prac-
 tice to Christian Science is full many a league
 in the line of light; but to go in healing from the use of

Page 106

1 inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will-
 power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood
3 into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free
 course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against
 the current running heavenward.

Proper self-government

6 Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration
 of Independence. God has endowed man with inalien-
 able rights, among which are self-government,
9 reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-
 governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by
 his Maker, divine Truth and Love.

12 Man's rights are invaded when the divine order is in-
 terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine
 penalty due this crime.

Right methods

15 Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian
 Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable
 in Truth and known by their fruit, and classify
18 all others as did St. Paul in his great epistle
 to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows:

 "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
21 these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
 strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
24 revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before,
 as I have also told you in time past, that they which do
 such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
27 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
 gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against
 such there is no law."

Page 107

Chapter 6 — Science, Theology, Medicine

 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
 of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither
 was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. — Paul.

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

Christian Science discovered

1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or
 divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and
3 named my discovery Christian Science. God
 had been graciously preparing me during many
 years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab-
6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.

Mission of Christian Science

 This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of
 Immanuel, "God with us," — the sovereign ever-pres-
9 ence, delivering the children of men from
 every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through
 Christian Science, religion and medicine are
12 inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions
 are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac-
 quaint themselves intelligently with God.

Discontent with life

15 Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life
 inheres in the body, yet remembering that in
 reality God is our Life, we may well tremble
18 in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I
 have no pleasure in them."

Page 108

1 Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, — a con-
 viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses?
3 According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of
 God given unto me by the effectual working of His power."
 It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me
6 the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen-
 sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity
 of all material things; and that immortal cravings, "the
9 price of learning love," establish the truism that the
 only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot
 suffer.

Demonstrable evidence

12 My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence
 of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty
 and the lesser demonstration to prove the
15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by
 three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times
 three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, — not
18 a fraction more, not a unit less.

Light shining in darkness

 When apparently near the confines of mortal existence,
 standing already within the shadow of the death-valley,
21 I learned these truths in divine Science: that
 all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and
 that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-
24 present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin,
 sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false
 material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense
27 evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which
 this same so-called mind names matter thereby shutting
 out the true sense of Spirit.

New lines of thought

30 My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed
 mind produces all the organism and action of
 the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels,

Page 109

1 and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that
 Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in
3 Mind-science.

Scientific evidence

 Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind
 is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind
6 and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen
 to be supported by sensible evidence, until its
 divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and
9 thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen,
 no other conclusion can be reached.

Solitary research

 For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu-
12 tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip-
 tures and read little else, kept aloof from so-
 ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis-
15 covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and
 buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew
 the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God,
18 and that cures were produced in primitive Christian
 healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the
 Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute
21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem-
 onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand-
 ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine
24 power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the
 prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
 "Unto us a child is born, ... and his name shall be
27 called Wonderful."

 Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not
 mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will,
30 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or
 whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16,17.)

God's allness learned

 The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni-

Page 110

1 presence, omniscience, — Spirit possessing all power,
 filling all space, constituting all Science, — contradict
3 forever the belief that matter can be actual.
 These eternal verities reveal primeval exist-
 ence as the radiant reality of God's creation,
6 in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis-
 dom good.