Chapter VI Sermons
A Christmas Sermon
Delivered in Chickering Hall, Boston, Mass., on the
Sunday Before Christmas, 1888
Subject:
The Corporeal and Incorporeal Saviour
Text: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the [5]
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.—Isaiah ix. 6.
To the senses, Jesus was the son of man: in Science,
man is the son of God. The material senses could [10]
not cognize the Christ, or Son of God: it was Jesus’
approximation to this state of being that made him the
Christ-Jesus, the Godlike, the anointed.
The prophet whose words we have chosen for our
text, prophesied the appearing of this dual nature, as [15]
both human and divinely endowed, the personal and the
impersonal Jesus.
The only record of our Master as a public benefactor,
or personal Saviour, opens when he was thirty years of
age; owing in part, perhaps, to the Jewish law that none [20]
should teach or preach in public under that age. Also,
it is natural to conclude that at this juncture he was
specially endowed with the Holy Spirit; for he was given
the new name, Messiah, or Jesus Christ,—the God-
anointed; even as, at times of special enlightenment, [1]
Jacob was called Israel; and Saul, Paul.
The third event of this eventful period,—a period of
such wonderful spiritual import to mankind!—was the
advent of a higher Christianity. [5]
From this dazzling, God-crowned summit, the Naza-
rene stepped suddenly before the people and their schools
of philosophy; Gnostic, Epicurean, and Stoic. He must
stem these rising angry elements, and walk serenely over
their fretted, foaming billows. [10]
Here the cross became the emblem of Jesus’ history;
while the central point of his Messianic mission was peace,
good will, love, teaching, and healing.
Clad with divine might, he was ready to stem the tide
of Judaism, and prove his power, derived from Spirit, to [15]
be supreme; lay himself as a lamb upon the altar of
materialism, and therefrom rise to his nativity in Spirit.
The corporeal Jesus bore our infirmities, and through
his stripes we are healed. He was the Way-shower, and
suffered in the flesh, showing mortals how to escape from [20]
the sins of the flesh.
There was no incorporeal Jesus of Nazareth. The
spiritual man, or Christ, was after the similitude of the
Father, without corporeality or finite mind.
Materiality, worldliness, human pride, or self-will, by [25]
demoralizing his motives and Christlikeness, would have
dethroned his power as the Christ.
To carry out his holy purpose, he must be oblivious of
human self.
Of the lineage of David, like him he went forth, simple [30]
as the shepherd boy, to disarm the Goliath. Panoplied
in the strength of an exalted hope, faith, and understand-
ing, he sought to conquer the three-in-one of error: the [1]
world, the flesh, and the devil.
Three years he went about doing good. He had for
thirty years been preparing to heal and teach divinely;
but his three-years mission was a marvel of glory: its [5]
chaplet, a grave to mortal sense dishonored—from which
sprang a sublime and everlasting victory!
He who dated time, the Christian era, and spanned
eternity, was the meekest man on earth. He healed
and taught by the wayside, in humble homes: to arrant [10]
hypocrite and to dull disciples he explained the Word
of God, which has since ripened into interpretation
through Science.
His words were articulated in the language of a de-
clining race, and committed to the providence of God. [15]
In no one thing seemed he less human and more divine
than in his unfaltering faith in the immortality of Truth.
Referring to this, he said, “Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away!” and
they have not: they still live; and are the basis of divine [20]
liberty, the medium of Mind, the hope of the race.
Only three years a personal Saviour! yet the founda-
tions he laid are as eternal as Truth, the chief corner-stone.
After his brief brave struggle, and the crucifixion of [25]
the corporeal man, the incorporeal Saviour—the Christ
or spiritual idea which leadeth into all Truth—must
needs come in Christian Science, demonstrating the spir-
itual healing of body and mind.
This idea or divine essence was, and is, forever about [30]
the Father’s business; heralding the Principle of health,
holiness, and immortality.
Its divine Principle interprets the incorporeal idea, or [1]
Son of God; hence the incorporeal and corporeal are
distinguished thus: the former is the spiritual idea that
represents divine good, and the latter is the human
presentation of goodness in man. The Science of Chris- [5]
tianity, that has appeared in the ripeness of time, re-
veals the incorporeal Christ; and this will continue
to be seen more clearly until it be acknowledged, under-
stood,—and the Saviour, which is Truth, be compre-
hended. [10]
To the vision of the Wisemen, this spiritual idea of the
Principle of man or the universe, appeared as a star. At
first, the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from
the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the
beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonder- [15]
ful manifestation of Truth and Love.
In our text Isaiah foretold, “His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace.”
As the Wisemen grew in the understanding of Christ, [20]
the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it
will continue, as it shall become understood, until man
be found in the actual likeness of his Maker. Their
highest human concept of the man Jesus, that portrayed
him as the only Son of God, the only begotten of the [25]
Father, full of grace and Truth, will become so magnified
to human sense, by means of the lens of Science, as to
reveal man collectively, as individually, to be the son of
God.
The limited view of God’s ideas arose from the testimony [30]
of the senses. Science affords the evidence that God is the
Father of man, of all that is real and eternal. This spir-
itual idea that the personal Jesus demonstrated, casting [1]
out evils and healing, more than eighteen centuries ago,
disappeared by degrees; both because of the ascension
of Jesus, in which it was seen that he had grown beyond
the human sense of him, and because of the corruption of [5]
the Church.
The last appearing of Truth will be a wholly spiritual
idea of God and of man, without the fetters of the flesh, or
corporeality. This infinite idea of infinity will be, is, as
eternal as its divine Principle. The daystar of this appear- [10]
ing is the light of Christian Science—the Science which
rends the veil of the flesh from top to bottom. The light
of this revelation leaves nothing that is material; neither
darkness, doubt, disease, nor death. The material cor-
poreality disappears; and individual spirituality, perfect [15]
and eternal, appears—never to disappear.
The truth uttered and lived by Jesus, who passed on
and left to mortals the rich legacy of what he said and
did, makes his followers the heirs to his example; but
they can neither appreciate nor appropriate his treasures [20]
of Truth and Love, until lifted to these by their own
growth and experiences. His goodness and grace pur-
chased the means of mortals’ redemption from sin; but,
they never paid the price of sin. This cost, none but the
sinner can pay; and accordingly as this account is settled [25]
with divine Love, is the sinner ready to avail himself of
the rich blessings flowing from the teaching, example,
and suffering of our Master.
The secret stores of wisdom must be discovered, their
treasures reproduced and given to the world, before man [30]
can truthfully conclude that he has been found in the
order, mode, and virgin origin of man according to divine
Science, which alone demonstrates the divine Principle [1]
and spiritual idea of being.
The monument whose finger points upward, commemorates
the earthly life of a martyr; but this is not all of
the philanthropist, hero, and Christian. The Truth he [5]
has taught and spoken lives, and moves in our midst a
divine afflatus. Thus it is that the ideal Christ—or
impersonal infancy, manhood, and womanhood of Truth
and Love—is still with us.
And what of this child?—“For unto us a child is [10]
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall
be upon his shoulder.”
This child, or spiritual idea, has evolved a more ready
ear for the overture of angels and the scientific under-
standing of Truth and Love. When Christ, the incor- [15]
poreal idea of God, was nameless, and a Mary knew not
how to declare its spiritual origin, the idea of man was
not understood. The Judæan religion even required the
Virgin-mother to go to the temple and be purified, for
having given birth to the corporeal child Jesus, whose [20]
origin was more spiritual than the senses could inter-
pret. Like the leaven that a certain woman hid in three
measures of meal, the Science of God and the spiritual
idea, named in this century Christian Science, is leaven-
ing the lump of human thought, until the whole shall [25]
be leavened and all materialism disappear. This action
of the divine energy, even if not acknowledged, has
come to be seen as diffusing richest blessings. This
spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiæ of the
life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, [30]
a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make
him the glorified.
The material questions at this age on the reappearing [1]
of the infantile thought of God’s man, are after the man-
ner of a mother in the flesh, though their answers per-
tain to the spiritual idea, as in Christian Science:—
Is he deformed? [5]
He is wholly symmetrical; the one altogether lovely.
Is the babe a son, or daughter?
Both son and daughter: even the compound idea of
all that resembles God.
How much does he weigh? [10]
His substance outweighs the material world.
How old is he?
Of his days there is no beginning and no ending.
What is his name?
Christ Science. [15]
Who are his parents, brothers, and sisters?
His Father and Mother are divine Life, Truth, and
Love; and they who do the will of his Father are his is
brethren.
Is he heir to an estate? [20]
“The government shall be upon his shoulder!” He
has dominion over the whole earth; and in admiration
of his origin, he exclaims, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto [25]
babes!”
Is he wonderful?
His works thus prove him. He giveth power, peace,
and holiness; he exalteth the lowly; he giveth liberty
to the captive, health to the sick, salvation from sin to [1]
the sinner—and overcometh the world!
Go, and tell what things ye shall see and hear: how
the blind, spiritually and physically, receive sight; how
the lame, those halting between two opinions or hob- [5]
bling on crutches, walk; how the physical and moral
lepers are cleansed; how the deaf—those who, having
ears, hear not, and are afflicted with “tympanum on the
brain”—hear; how the dead, those buried in dogmas
and physical ailments, are raised; that to the poor— [10]
the lowly in Christ, not the man-made rabbi—the
gospel is preached. Note this: only such as are pure
in spirit, emptied of vainglory and vain knowledge, re-
ceive Truth.
Here ends the colloquy; and a voice from heaven seems [15]
to say, “Come and see.”
The nineteenth-century prophets repeat, “Unto us a
son is given.”
The shepherds shout, “We behold the appearing of
the star!”—and the pure in heart clap their hands. [20]
Editor’s Extracts From Sermon
Text:
Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of
God.—Matt. xxii. 29.
The Christian Science Journal reported as follows:—
The announcement that the Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy [25]
would speak before the Scientist denomination on the
afternoon of October 26, drew a large audience. Haw-
thorne Hall was densely packed, and many had to go
away unable to obtain seats. The distinguished speaker
began by saying:— [30]
Within Bible pages she had found all the divine Science [1]
she preaches; noticing, all along the way of her researches
therein, that whenever her thoughts had wandered into
the bypaths of ancient philosophies or pagan literatures,
her spiritual insight had been darkened thereby, till [5]
she was God-driven back to the inspired pages. Early
training, through the misinterpretation of the Word,
had been the underlying cause of the long years of in-
validism she endured before Truth dawned upon her
understanding, through right interpretation. With the [10]
understanding of Scripture-meanings, had come physical
rejuvenation. The uplifting of spirit was the upbuild-
ing of the body.
She affirmed that the Scriptures cannot properly be
interpreted in a literal way. The truths they teach must [15]
be spiritually discerned, before their message can be
borne fully to our minds and hearts. That there is a
dual meaning to every Biblical passage, the most eminent
divines of the world have concluded; and to get at the
highest, or metaphysical, it is necessary rightly to read [20]
what the inspired writers left for our spiritual instruction.
The literal rendering of the Scriptures makes them noth-
ing valuable, but often is the foundation of unbelief and
hopelessness. The metaphysical rendering is health and
peace and hope for all. The literal or material reading is [25]
the reading of the carnal mind, which is enmity toward
God, Spirit.
Taking several Bible passages, Mrs. Eddy showed how
beautiful and inspiring are the thoughts when rightly
understood. “Let the dead bury their dead; follow [30]
thou me,” was one of the passages explained metaphysi-
cally. In their fullest meaning, those words are salvation
from the belief of death, the last enemy to be overthrown; [1]
for by following Christ truly, resurrection and life im-
mortal are brought to us. If we follow him, to us there
can be no dead. Those who know not this, may still
believe in death and weep over the graves of their beloved; [5]
but with him is Life eternal, which never changes to
death. The eating of bread and drinking of wine at the
Lord’s supper, merely symbolize the spiritual refresh-
ment of God’s children having rightly read His Word,
whose entrance into their understanding is healthful life. [10]
This is the reality behind the symbol.
So, also, she spoke of the hades, or hell of Scripture,
saying, that we make our own heavens and our own hells,
by right and wise, or wrong and foolish, conceptions of
God and our fellow-men. Jesus interpreted all spirit- [15]
ually: “I have bread to eat that ye know not of,” he
said. The bread he ate, which was refreshment of divine
strength, we also may all partake of.
The material record of the Bible, she said, is no more
important to our well-being than the history of Europe [20]
and America; but the spiritual application bears upon
our eternal life. The method of Jesus was purely meta-
physical; and no other method is Christian Science. In
the passage recording Jesus’ proceedings with the blind
man (Mark viii.) he is said to have spat upon the dust. [25]
Spitting was the Hebrew method of expressing the utmost
contempt. So Jesus is recorded as having expressed
contempt for the belief of material eyes as having any
power to see. Having eyes, ye see not; and ears, ye hear
not, he had just told them. The putting on of hands [30]
mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power.
“Hand,” in Bible usage, often means spiritual power.
“His hand is not shortened that it cannot save,” can [1]
never be wrested from its true meaning to signify human
hands. Jesus’ first effort to realize Truth was not wholly
successful; but he rose to the occasion with the second
attempt, and the blind saw clearly. To suppose that [5]
Jesus did actually anoint the blind man’s eyes with his
spittle, is as absurd as to think, according to the report
of some, that Christian Scientists sit in back-to-back
seances with their patients, for the divine power to filter
from vertebræ to vertebræ. When one comes to the age [10]
with spiritual translations of God’s messages, expressed
in literal or physical terms, our right action is not to con-
demn and deny, but to “try the spirits” and see what
manner they are of. This does not mean communing
with spirits supposed to have departed from the earth, [15]
but the seeking out of the basis upon which are accom-
plished the works by which the new teacher would prove
his right to be heard. By these signs are the true disciples
of the Master known: the sick are healed; to the poor
the gospel is preached. [20]
Extract From a Sermon Delivered in Boston, January 18, 1885
Text:
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.—Matt.
xiii. 33.
Few people at present know aught of the Science of
mental healing; and so many are obtruding upon the
public attention their ignorance or false knowledge in
the name of Science, that it behooves all clad in the shin-
ing mail to keep bright their invincible armor; to keep [30]
their demonstrations modest, and their claims and lives [1]
steadfast in Truth.
Dispensing the Word charitably, but separating the
tares from the wheat, let us declare the positive and
the negative of metaphysical Science; what it is, and [5]
what it is not. Intrepid, self-oblivious Protestants in
a higher sense than ever before, let us meet and defeat
the claims of sense and sin, regardless of the bans or
clans pouring in their fire upon us; and white-winged
charity, brooding over all, shall cover with her feathers [10]
the veriest sinner.
Divine and unerring Mind measures man, until the
three measures be accomplished, and he arrives at
fulness of stature; for “the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth.” [15]
Science is divine: it is neither of human origin nor of
human direction. That which is termed “natural science,”
the evidences whereof are taken in by the five personal
senses, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite
law of God; which law is written on the heart, received [20]
through the affections, spiritually understood, and dem-
onstrated in our lives.
This law of God is the Science of mental healing,
spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed.
Mental Science, and the five personal senses, are at [25]
war; and peace can only be declared on the side of im-
mutable right,—the health, holiness, and immortality
of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and funda-
mental rule of Science must be understood and adhered
to; namely, the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture [30]
that God is good; hence, good is omnipotent and
omnipresent.
Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, or [1]
man’s theorems, misstate mental Science, its Principle
and practice. The most enlightened sense herein sees
nothing but a law of matter.
Who has ever learned of the schools that there is but [5]
one Mind, and that this is God, who healeth all our sick-
ness and sins?
Who has ever learned from the schools, pagan phi-
losophy, or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of
Mind and not of matter, and that this law has no relation [10]
to, or recognition of, matter?
Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God,
omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an oppo-
site so-called science, which says that man is both matter
and mind, that Mind is in matter? Can the infinite [15]
be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted
in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without
space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that
it is man?
If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter [20]
is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power
and all-presence, man is not met by another power
and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—
pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man
is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that [25]
is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man’s creator?
Surely not from God, for He made man in His own
likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called
matter? Have attraction and cohesion formed it?
But are these forces laws of matter, or laws of [30]
Mind?
For matter to be matter, it must have been self-created.
Mind has no more power to evolve or to create matter [1]
than has good to produce evil. Matter is a misstatement
of Mind; it is a lie, claiming to talk and disclaim against
Truth; idolatry, having other gods; evil, having presence
and power over omnipotence! [5]
Let us have a clearing up of abstractions. Let us
come into the presence of Him who removeth all iniqui-
ties, and healeth all our diseases. Let us attach our sense
of Science to what touches the religious sentiment within
man. Let us open our affections to the Principle that [10]
moves all in harmony,—from the falling of a sparrow
to the rolling of a world. Above Arcturus and his sons,
broader than the solar system and higher than the at-
mosphere of our planet, is the Science of mental
healing. [15]
What is the kingdom of heaven? The abode of Spirit,
the realm of the real. No matter is there, no night is
there—nothing that maketh or worketh a lie. Is this
kingdom afar off? No: it is ever-present here. The
first to declare against this kingdom is matter. Shall [20]
that be called heresy which pleads for Spirit—the All of
God, and His omnipresence?
The kingdom of heaven is the reign of divine Science:
it is a mental state. Jesus said it is within you, and
taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come;” but he did [25]
not teach us to pray for death whereby to gain heaven.
We do not look into darkness for light. Death can never
usher in the dawn of Science that reveals the spiritual
facts of man’s Life here and now.
The leaven which a woman took and hid in three [30]
measures of meal, is Divine Science; the Comforter;
the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the “still,
small voice” that breathes His presence and power, cast- [1]
ing out error and healing the sick. And woman, the
spiritual idea, takes of the things of God and showeth
them unto the creature, until the whole sense of being
is leavened with Spirit. The three measures of meal [5]
may well be likened to the false sense of life, substance,
and intelligence, which says, I am sustained by bread,
matter, instead of Mind. The spiritual leaven of divine
Science changes this false sense, giving better views of
Life; saying, Man’s Life is God; and when this shall [10]
appear, it shall be “the substance of things hoped for.”
The measure of Life shall increase by every spiritual
touch, even as the leaven expands the loaf. Man shall
keep the feast of Life, not with the old leaven of the
scribes and Pharisees, neither with “the leaven of malice [15]
and wickedness; but the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.”
Thus it can be seen that the Science of mental healing
must be understood. There are false Christs that would
“deceive, if it were possible, the very elect,” by institut- [20]
ing matter and its methods in place of God, Mind. Their
supposition is, that there are other minds than His; that
one mind controls another; that one belief takes the
place of another. But this ism of to-day has nothing
to do with the Science of mental healing which acquaints [25]
us with God and reveals the one perfect Mind and His
laws.
The attempt to mix matter and Mind, to work by
means of both animal magnetism and divine power, is
literally saying, Have we not in thy name cast out devils, [30]
and done many wonderful works?
But remember God in all thy ways, and thou shalt
find the truth that breaks the dream of sense, letting the [1]
harmony of Science that declares Him, come in with
healing, and peace, and perfect love.
Sunday Services on July Fourth
The great theme so deeply and solemnly expounded
by the preacher, has been exemplified in all ages, but
chiefly in the great crises of nations or of the human race.
It is then that supreme devotion to Principle has espe-
cially been called for and manifested. It is then that we [10]
learn a little more of the nothingness of evil, and more
of the divine energies of good, and strive valiantly for the
liberty of the sons of God.
The day we celebrate reminds us of the heroes and
heroines who counted not their own lives dear to them, [15]
when they sought the New England shores, not as the
flying nor as conquerors, but, steadfast in faith and love,
to build upon the rock of Christ, the true idea of God—
the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.
When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth [20]
Rock, frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted
away in the fire of love which came down from heaven.
The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom,
in the rights of conscience.
But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? [25]
Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and
responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve
them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith
we are armored?
Never was there a more solemn and imperious call [1]
than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent de-
votion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and
holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great
battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil [5]
are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the
Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and opera-
tive in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate
malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action
against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and [10]
they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-
bearers.
What will you do about it? Will you be equally in
earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid
zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will [15]
you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great
work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science
which are necessary to the salvation of the world from
error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practi-
cally, and answer aright! [20]
Easter Services
The editor of The Christian Science Journal said that
at three o’clock, the hour for the church service proper,
the pastor, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, accompanied
by Rev. D. A. Easton, who was announced to preach [25]
the sermon, came on the platform. The pastor introduced
Mr. Easton as follows:—
Friends:—The homesick traveller in foreign lands
greets with joy a familiar face. I am constantly home-
sick for heaven. In my long journeyings I have met [30]
one who comes from the place of my own sojourning [1]
for many years,—the Congregational Church. He is
a graduate of Bowdoin College and of Andover The-
ological School. He has left his old church, as I did,
from a yearning of the heart; because he was not sat- [5]
isfied with a manlike God, but wanted to become a God-
like man. He found that the new wine could not be
put into old bottles without bursting them, and he came
to us.
Mr. Easton then delivered an interesting discourse [10]
from the text, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the
right hand of God” (Col. iii. 1), which he prefaced by
saying:—
“I think it was about a year ago that I strayed into [15]
this hall, a stranger, and wondered what sort of people
you were, and of what you were worshippers. If any
one had said to me that to-day I should stand before
you to preach a sermon on Christian Science, I should
have replied, “Much learning”—or something else— [20]
“hath made thee mad.” If I had not found Christian
Science a new gospel, I should not be standing before you:
if I had not found it truth, I could not have stood up
again to preach, here or elsewhere.”
At the conclusion of the sermon, the pastor again came [25]
forward, and added the following:—
My friends, I wished to be excused from speaking
to-day, but will yield to circumstances. In the flesh, we
are as a partition wall between the old and the new;
between the old religion in which we have been educated, [30]
and the new, living, impersonal Christ-thought that has
been given to the world to-day.
The old churches are saying, “He is not here;” and, [1]
“Who shall roll away the stone?”
The stone has been rolled away by human suffer-
ing. The first rightful desire in the hour of loss, when
believing we have lost sight of Truth, is to know where [5]
He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these
questions:—
Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we
any other consciousness than that of good? If we have,
He is saying to us to-day, “Adam, where art thou?” We [10]
are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and
death. This is the old consciousness.
In the new religion the teaching is, “He is not here;
Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become
more to us,—more true, more spiritual.” [15]
Can we say this to-day? Have we left the conscious-
ness of sickness and sin for that of health and
holiness?
What is it that seems a stone between us and the
resurrection morning? [20]
It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come
into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old con-
sciousness of Soul in sense.
These flowers are floral apostles. God does all this
through His followers; and He made every flower in [25]
Mind before it sprang from the earth: yet we look into
matter and the earth to give us these smiles of God!
We must lay aside material consciousness, and then
we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, “Rabboni!”
—Master! [30]
In 1866, when God revealed to me this risen Christ,
this Life that knows no death, that saith, “Because he
lives, I live,” I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the [1]
flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease
my warfare.
When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from
the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were [5]
frightened at beholding me restored to health.
A dear old lady asked me, “How is it that you are
restored to us? Has Christ come again on earth?”
“Christ never left,” I replied; “Christ is Truth, and
Truth is always here,—the impersonal Saviour.” [10]
Then another person, more material, met me, and I
said, in the words of my Master, “Touch me not.” I
shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went
out to God, and I found the open door from this sepulchre
of matter. [15]
I love the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and
not of death.
Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his
resurrection.
Bible Lessons
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God.—John i. 12, 13.
Here, the apostle assures us that man has power to [25]
become the son of God. In the Hebrew text, the word
“son” is defined variously; a month is called the son
of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both
a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak
of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of man; but [30]
Jesus said to call no man father; “for one is your Father,” [1]
even God.
Is man’s spiritual sonship a personal gift to man, or
is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man’s
knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to dem- [5]
onstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite
in order to understand his sonship, or unity with God,
good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to
the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of
Science, unless that requirement should express the claims [10]
of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite
Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over
what is the person of Spirit,—if we recognize infinitude
as personality,—for who can tell what is the form of
infinity? When we understand man’s true birthright, that [15]
he is “born, not... of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God,” we shall understand that man
is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize
him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard
him as spiritual, and not material. His sonship, referred [20]
to in the text, is his spiritual relation to Deity: it is not,
then, a personal gift, but is the order of divine Science.
The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact:
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God.” Mortals will lose their sense [25]
of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death—in
the proportion that they gain the sense of man’s spirit-
ual preexistence as God’s child; as the offspring of
good, and not of God’s opposite,—evil, or a fallen
man. [30]
John the Baptist had a clear discernment of divine
Science: being born not of the human will or flesh, he
antedated his own existence, began spiritually instead [1]
of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the im-
possibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through
violent means or material methods.
“As many as received him;” that is, as many as per-
ceive man’s actual existence in and of his divine Princi- [5]
ple, receive the Truth of existence; and these have no
other God, no other Mind, no other origin; therefore, in
time they lose their false sense of existence, and find
their adoption with the Father; to wit, the redemption [10]
of the body. Through divine Science man gains the
power to become the son of God, to recognize his perfect
and eternal estate.
“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh.” This passage refers to man’s primal, spirit- [15]
ual existence, created neither from dust nor carnal desire.
“Nor of the will of man.” Born of no doctrine,
no human faith, but beholding the truth of being; even
the understanding that man was never lost in Adam,
since he is and ever was the image and likeness of God, [20]
good. But no mortal hath seen the spiritual man, more
than he hath seen the Father. The apostle indicates
no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite;
but the possibility of all finding their place in God’s great
love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and [25]
daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of existence
as Principle and idea, wherein man and his Maker
are inseparable and eternal.
When the Word is made flesh,—that is, rendered
practical,—this eternal Truth will be understood; and [30]
sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did
more than eighteen centuries ago. The lusts of the flesh
and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine [1]
Science of being; in the ever-present good, omnipotent
Love, and eternal Life, that know no death, In the great
forever, the verities of being exist, and must be acknowl-
edged and demonstrated. Man must love his neighbor [5]
as himself, and the power of Truth must be seen and
felt in health, happiness, and holiness: then it will be
found that Mind is All-in-all, and there is no matter to
cope with.
Man is free born: he is neither the slave of sense, nor a [10]
silly ambler to the so-called pleasures and pains of self-
conscious matter. Man is God’s image and likeness;
whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God’s
reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn
this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scrip- [15]
tures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall
be filled—not by reason of the schools, or learning, but
by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed
on him, to give utterance to Truth.
“Who hath believed our report?” Who understands [20]
these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is re-
vealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence,
that equips man with divine power while it shames human
pride. Asserting a selfhood apart from God, is a denial
of man’s spiritual sonship; for it claims another father. [25]
As many as do receive a knowledge of God through
Science, will have power to reflect His power, in proof of
man’s “dominion over all the earth.” He is bravely
brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material
sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true [30]
status of man because of it. The material senses would
make man, that the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker,
the very opposite of that Maker, by claiming that God is [1]
Spirit, while man is matter; that God is good, but man is
evil; that Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and
sense conflict, from the revolving of worlds to the death
of a sparrow.
The Word will be made flesh and dwell among mortals,
only when man reflects God in body as well as in mind.
The child born of a woman has the formation of his
parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material.
Paul refers to this when speaking of presenting our bodies [10]
holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service;
and this brings to remembrance the Hebrew strain,
“Who healeth all thy diseases.”
If man should say of the power to be perfect which he
possesses, “I am the power,” he would trespass upon [15]
divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power;
even as when saying, “I have the power to sin and be
sick,” and persisting in believing that he is sick and a
sinner. If he says, “I am of God, therefore good,” yet
persists in evil, he has denied the power of Truth, and [20]
must suffer for this error until he learns that all power is
good because it is of God, and so destroys his self-de-
ceived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives
back the lost likeness and power of God as the seal of
man’s adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable, [25]
which casteth out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death;
that seeketh not her own, but another’s good; that saith
Abba, Father, and is born of God!
John came baptizing with water. He employed a type
of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity, [30]
even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and
submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the
lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker. [1]
None but the pure in heart shall see God,—shall be able
to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle
of Christian Science. The will of God, or power of Spirit,
is made manifest as Truth, and through righteousness,— [5]
not as or through matter,—and it strips matter of all
claims, abilities or disabilities, pains or pleasures. Self-
renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material
man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his
spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that [10]
opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good
flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of
all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demon-
strating the true image and likeness. There is no other
way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man [15]
be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality.
“As many as received him,”—as accept the truth
of being,—“to them gave he power to become the sons
of God.” The spiritualization of our sense of man opens
the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses [20]
would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright,
pure, and free; having no need of statistics by which to
learn his origin and age, or to measure his manhood, or to
know how much of a man he ever has been: for, “as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become [25]
the sons of God.”
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.—1 Cor. xv. 45.
When reasoning on this subject of man with the Corin-
thian brethren, the apostle first spake from their stand- [30]
point of thought; namely, that creation is material:
he was not at this point giving the history of the spiritual [1]
man who originates in God, Love, who created man
in His own image and likeness. In the creation of Adam
from dust,—in which Soul is supposed to enter the
embryo-man after his birth,—we see the material self- [5]
constituted belief of the Jews as referred to by St. Paul.
Their material belief has fallen far below man’s original
standard, the spiritual man made in the image and like-
ness of God; for this erring belief even separates its
conception of man from God, and ultimates in the opposite [10]
of immortal man, namely, in a sick and sinning
mortal.
We learn in the Scriptures, as in divine Science, that
God made all; that He is the universal Father and Mother
of man; that God is divine Love: therefore divine Love [15]
is the divine Principle of the divine idea named man;
in other words, the spiritual Principle of spiritual man.
Now let us not lose this Science of man, but gain it clearly;
then we shall see that man cannot be separated from
his perfect Principle, God, inasmuch as an idea cannot [20]
be torn apart from its fundamental basis. This scien-
tific knowledge affords self-evident proof of immortality;
proof, also, that the Principle of man cannot produce a
less perfect man than it produced in the beginning. A
material sense of existence is not the scientific fact of [25]
being; whereas, the spiritual sense of God and His universe
is the immortal and true sense of being.
As the apostle proceeds in this line of thought, he
undoubtedly refers to the last Adam represented by the
Messias, whose demonstration of God restored to mortals [30]
the lost sense of man’s perfection, even the sense of the
real man in God’s likeness, who restored this sense by
the spiritual regeneration of both mind and body,— [1]
casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead.
The man Jesus demonstrated over sin, sickness, disease,
and death. The great Metaphysician wrought, over and
above every sense of matter, into the proper sense of the [5]
possibilities of Spirit. He established health and har-
mony, the perfection of mind and body, as the reality of
man; while discord, as seen in disease and death, was to
him the opposite of man, hence the unreality; even as in
Science a chord is manifestly the reality of music, and [10]
discord the unreality. This rule of harmony must be ac-
cepted as true relative to man.
The translators of the older Scriptures presuppose a
material man to be the first man, solely because their
transcribing thoughts were not lifted to the inspired sense [15]
of the spiritual man, as set forth in original Holy Writ.
Had both writers and translators in that age fully com-
prehended the later teachings and demonstrations of
our human and divine Master, the Old Testament might
have been as spiritual as the New. [20]
The origin, substance, and life of man are one, and
that one is God,—Life, Truth, Love. The self-existent,
perfect, and eternal are God; and man is their reflection
and glory. Did the substance of God, Spirit, become a
clod, in order to create a sick, sinning, dying man? The [25]
primal facts of being are eternal; they are never extin-
guished in a night of discord.
That man must be evil before he can be good; dying,
before deathless; material, before spiritual; sick and a
sinner in order to be healed and saved, is but the declara- [30]
tion of the material senses transcribed by pagan religion-
ists, by wicked mortals such as crucified our Master,—
whose teachings opposed the doctrines of Christ that [1]
demonstrated the opposite, Truth.
Man is as perfect now, and henceforth, and forever,
as when the stars first sang together, and creation joined
in the grand chorus of harmonious being. It is the trans-
lator, not the original Word, who presents as being first [5]
that which appears second, material, and mortal; and
as last, that which is primal, spiritual, and eternal. Be-
cause of human misstatement and misconception of God
and man, of the divine Principle and idea of being, there [10]
seems to be a war between the flesh and Spirit, a contest
between Truth and error; but the apostle says, “There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” [15]
On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis
of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses;
thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense;
and right there he leaves the subject.
Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where [20]
the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian
Science. And she has not left it, but continues the ex-
planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning,
its allness. The recognition of this power came to her
through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal [25]
or mortal sense of things; not that there is, or can
be, an actual change in the realities of being, but
that we can discern more of them. At the moment
of her discovery, she knew that the last Adam, namely,
the true likeness of God, was the first, the only man. [30]
This knowledge did become to her “a quickening
spirit;” for she beheld the meaning of those words
of our Master, “The last shall be first, and the first [1]
last.”
When, as little children, we are receptive, become
willing to accept the divine Principle and rule of being,
as unfolded in divine Science, the interpretation therein
will be found to be the Comforter that leadeth into all
truth. [5]
The meek Nazarene’s steadfast and true knowledge of
preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God
and man,—made him mighty. Spiritual insight of [10]
Truth and Love antidotes and destroys the errors of flesh,
and brings to light the true reflection: man as God’s
image, or “the first man,” for Christ plainly declared,
through Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into [15]
matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false
sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it
away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and per-
fection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as
God. The Scriptures declare Life to be the infinite I [20]
am,—not a dweller in matter. For man to know Life
as it is, namely God, the eternal good, gives him not
merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying con-
sciousness of spiritual power that subordinates matter
and destroys sin, disease, and death. This, Jesus demon- [25]
strated; insomuch that St. Matthew wrote, “The people
were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them
as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” This
spiritual power, healing sin and sickness, was not con-
fined to the first century; it extends to all time, inhabits [30]
eternity, and demonstrates Life without beginning or
end.
Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the [1]
energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the out-
come of life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth,
Life, defiant of error or matter. Divine Science demon-
strates Mind as dispelling a false sense and giving the [5]
true sense of itself, God, and the universe; wherein the
mortal evolves not the immortal, nor does the material
ultimate in the spiritual; wherein man is coexistent with
Mind, and is the recognized reflection of infinite Life and
Love. [10]
And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to
pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.—Luke xi. 14.
The meaning of the term “devil” needs yet to be
learned. Its definition as an individual is too limited
and contradictory. When the Scripture is understood, [15]
the spiritual signification of its terms will be understood,
and will contradict the interpretations that the senses
give them; and these terms will be found to include the
inspired meaning.
It could not have been a person that our great Master [20]
cast out of another person; therefore the devil herein
referred to was an impersonal evil, or whatever worketh
ill. In this case it was the evil of dumbness, an error of
material sense, cast out by the spiritual truth of being;
namely, that speech belongs to Mind instead of matter, [25]
and the wrong power, or the lost sense, must yield to the
right sense, and exist in Mind.
In the Hebrew, “devil” is denominated Abaddon; in
the Greek, Apollyon, serpent, liar, the god of this world,
etc. The apostle Paul refers to this personality of evil [30]
as “the god of this world;” and then defines this god
as “dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God [1]
deceitfully.” The Hebrew embodies the term “devil”
in another term, serpent,—which the senses are supposed
to take in,—and then defines this serpent as “more
subtle than all the beasts of the field.” Subsequently, [5]
the ancients changed the meaning of the term, to their
sense, and then the serpent became a symbol of wisdom.
The Scripture in John, sixth chapter and seventieth
verse, refers to a wicked man as the devil: “Have not
I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Accord- [10]
ing to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is
more than one devil. In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty-
eighth verse, it reads: “Master, we saw one casting out
devils in thy name.” Here is an assertion indicating
the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the [15]
first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found
to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth,
casts out. By no possible interpretation can this passage
mean several individuals cast out of another individual
no bigger than themselves. The term, being here em- [20]
ployed in its plural number, destroys all consistent sup-
position of the existence of one personal devil. Again,
our text refers to the devil as dumb; but the original
devil was a great talker, and was supposed to have out-
talked even Truth, and carried the question with Eve. [25]
Also, the original texts define him as an “accuser,” a
“calumniator,” which would be impossible if he were
speechless. These two opposite characters ascribed to
him could only be possible as evil beliefs, as different
phases of sin or disease made manifest. [30]
Let us obey St. Paul’s injunction to reject fables, and
accept the Scriptures in their broader, more spiritual
and practical sense. When we speak of a good man, we [1]
do not mean that man is God because the Hebrew term
for Deity was “good,” and vice versa; so, when referring
to a liar, we mean not that he is a personal devil, because
the original text defines devil as a “liar.” [5]
It is of infinite importance to man’s spiritual progress,
and to his demonstration of Truth in casting out error,
—sickness, sin, disease, and death, in all their forms,—
that the terms and nature of Deity and devil be understood.
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.—
John xiv. 12.
Such are the words of him who spake divinely, well
knowing the omnipotence of Truth. The Hebrew bard
saith, “His name shall endure forever: His name shall [15]
be continued as long as the sun.” Luminous with the
light of divine Science, his words reveal the great Principle
of a full salvation. Neither can we question the practi-
cability of the divine Word, who have learned its adapta-
bility to human needs, and man’s ability to prove the [20]
truth of prophecy.
The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing
belongs to every period; as the above Scripture plainly
declares, and as primitive Christianity confirms. Also,
the last chapter of Mark is emphatic on this subject; [25]
making healing a condition of salvation, that extends to
all ages and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can
be more conclusive than this: “And these signs shall
follow them that believe;... they shall lay hands on
the sick, and they shall recover.” This declaration of [30]
our Master settles the question; else we are entertaining
the startling inquiries, Are the Scriptures inspired? Are [1]
they true? Did Jesus mean what he said?
If this be the cavil, we reply in the affirmative that the
Scripture is true; that Jesus did mean all, and even more
than he said or deemed it safe to say at that time. His [5]
words are unmistakable, for they form propositions of
self-evident demonstrable truth. Doctrines that deny
the substance and practicality of all Christ’s teachings
cannot be evangelical; and evangelical religion can be
established on no other claim than the authenticity of [10]
the Gospels, which support unequivocally the proof that
Christian Science, as defined and practised by Jesus,
heals the sick, casts out error, and will destroy death.
Referring to The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,
of which I am pastor, a certain clergyman charitably [15]
expressed it, “the so-called Christian Scientists.”
I am thankful even for his allusion to truth; it being
a modification of silence on this subject, and also of what
had been said when critics attacked me for supplying the
word Science to Christianity,—a word which the people [20]
are now adopting.
The next step for ecclesiasticism to take, is to admit
that all Christians are properly called Scientists who
follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth;
and that no one is following his full command without [25]
this enlarged sense of the spirit and power of Christianity.
“He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do,”
is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and
power of Christianity to heal; for this is Christlike,
and includes the understanding of man’s capabilities and [30]
spiritual power. The condition insisted upon is, first,
“belief;” the Hebrew of which implies understanding.
How many to-day believe that the power of God equals [1]
even the power of a drug to heal the sick! Divine Science
reveals the Principle of this power, and the rule whereby
sin, sickness, disease, and death are destroyed; and God
is this Principle. Let us, then, seek this Science; that we [5]
may know Him better, and love Him more.
Though a man were begirt with the Urim and Thum-
mim of priestly office, yet should deny the validity or
permanence of Christ’s command to heal in all ages,
this denial would dishonor that office and misinterpret [10]
evangelical religion. Divine Science is not an interpo-
lation of the Scriptures, but is redolent with love, health,
and holiness, for the whole human race. It only needs
the prism of this Science to divide the rays of Truth, and
bring out the entire hues of Deity, which scholastic theol- [15]
ogy has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine
power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy
of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.
The context of the foregoing Scriptural text explains
Jesus’ words, “because I go unto my Father.” “Because” [20]
in following him, you understand God and how to turn
from matter to Spirit for healing; how to leave self, the
sense material, for the sense spiritual; how to accept
God’s power and guidance, and become imbued with
divine Love that casts out all fear. Then are you bap- [25]
tized in the Truth that destroys all error, and you receive
the sense of Life that knows no death, and you know that
God is the only Life.
To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that
is God, good, we must comply with the first condition [30]
set forth in the text, namely, believe; in other words,
understand God sufficiently to exclude all faith in any
other remedy than Christ, the Truth that antidotes all [1]
error. Thence will follow the absorption of all action,
motive, and mind, into the rules and divine Principle of
metaphysical healing.
Whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science but [5]
possesses not its spirit, is unable to demonstrate this
Science; or whosoever hath the spirit without the letter,
is held back by reason of the lack of understanding. Both
the spirit and the letter are requisite; and having these,
every one can prove, in some degree, the validity of those [10]
words of the great Master, “For the Son of man is come
to save that which was lost.”
It has been said that the New Testament does not au-
thorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period.
We ask what is the authority for such a conclusion, [15]
the premises whereof are not to be found in the Scriptures.
The Master’s divine logic, as seen in our text, contradicts
this inference,—these are his words: “He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” That per-
fect syllogism of Jesus has but one correct premise and [20]
conclusion, and it cannot fall to the ground beneath the
stroke of unskilled swordsmen. He who never unsheathed
his blade to try the edge of truth in Christian Science, is
unequal to the conflict, and unfit to judge in the case;
the shepherd’s sling would slay this Goliath. I once be- [25]
lieved that the practice and teachings of Jesus relative to
healing the sick, were spiritual abstractions, impractical
and impossible to us; but deed, not creed, and practice
more than theory, have given me a higher sense of
Christianity. [30]
The “I” will go to the Father when meekness, purity,
and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter,
lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in [1]
matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one
Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God.
Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds
and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner [5]
of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in
the beginning, “Believe in me, and I will make you as
gods;” that is, I will give you a separate mind from God
(good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open
your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become [10]
material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent
said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind,
good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the
words of our Master: “He is a liar, and the father of it;”
also, the character of the votaries to “other gods” which [15]
sprung from it.
The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man’s
unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present
existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good.
It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness, [20]
and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall ap-
pear, “we shall be like Him;” we shall do the works of
Christ, and, in the words of David, “the stone which the
builders refused is become the head stone of the corner,”
because the “I” does go unto the Father, the ego does [25]
arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted,—
not through death, but Life, God understood.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.—Acts
xvi. 31.
The Scriptures require more than a simple admission [30]
and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they
require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons [1]
into our lives that these truths become the motive-power
of every act.
ur chosen text is one more frequently used than
many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin [5]
and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import
of this text is not yet recognized. It means a full salva-
tion,—man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for,
unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven
in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers [10]
pursue.
In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let
us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion
entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God,
or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more [15]
help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical
event or person. But it does mean so to understand the
beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus
presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will
compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to “let [20]
this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
(Phil. ii. 5.)
Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life
in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelli-
gence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both [25]
good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and there-
fore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Command-
ment of God.
Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God,
recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and, [30]
placing his trust in this grand Truth, and working from
no other Principle, he can neither be sick nor forever a
sinner. When wholly governed by the one perfect Mind, [1]
man has no sinful thoughts and will have no desire
to sin.
To arrive at this point of unity of Spirit, God, one must
commence by turning away from material gods; denying [5]
material so-called laws and material sensation,—or mind
in matter, in its varied forms of pleasure and pain. This
must be done with the understanding that matter has no
sense; thus it is that consciousness silences the mortal
claim to life, substance, or mind in matter, with the words [10]
of Jesus: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own.” (John viii. 44.)
When tempted to sin, we should know that evil pro-
ceedeth not from God, good, but is a false belief of the
personal senses; and if we deny the claims of these senses [15]
and recognize man as governed by God, Spirit, not by
material laws, the temptation will disappear.
On this Principle, disease also is treated and healed.
We know that man’s body, as matter, has no power to
govern itself; and a belief of disease is as much the prod- [20]
uct of mortal thought as sin is. All suffering is the fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil; of
adherence to the “doubleminded” senses, to some belief,
fear, theory, or bad deed, based on physical material law,
so-called as opposed to good,—all of which is corrected [25]
alone by Science, divine Principle, and its spiritual laws.
Suffering is the supposition of another intelligence than
God; a belief in self-existent evil, opposed to good; and
in whatever seems to punish man for doing good,—
by saying he has overworked, suffered from inclement [30]
weather, or violated a law of matter in doing good, there-
fore he must suffer for it.
God does not reward benevolence and love with pen- [1]
alties; and because of this, we have the right to deny the
supposed power of matter to do it, and to allege that only
mortal, erring mind can claim to do thus, and dignify the
result with the name of law: thence comes man’s ability [5]
to annul his own erring mental law, and to hold himself
amenable only to moral and spiritual law,—God’s gov-
ernment. By so doing, male and female come into their
rightful heritage, “into the glorious liberty of the children
of God.” [10]
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.—2 Cor.
xii. 10.
The miracles recorded in the Scriptures illustrate the
life of Jesus as nothing else can; but they cost him the [15]
hatred of the rabbis. The rulers sought the life of Jesus;
they would extinguish whatever denied and defied their
superstition. We learn somewhat of the qualities of the
divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of
his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it [20]
gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mor-
tals name matter.
The Principle of these marvellous works is divine; but
the actor was human. This divine Principle is discerned
in Christian Science, as we advance in the spiritual under- [25]
standing that all substance, Life, and intelligence are
God. The so-called miracles contained in Holy Writ are
neither supernatural nor preternatural; for God is good,
and goodness is more natural than evil. The marvellous
healing-power of goodness is the outflowing life of Chris- [30]
tianity, and it characterized and dated the Christian era.
It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the [1]
mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instan-
taneous. Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man,
and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as
the better representatives of God than sin, disease, and [5]
death. The master Metaphysician understood omnipo-
tence to be All-power: because Spirit was to him All-
in-all, matter was palpably an error of premise and
conclusion, while God was the only substance, Life,
and intelligence of man. [10]
The apostle Paul insists on the rare rule in Christian
Science that we have chosen for a text; a rule that is sus-
ceptible of proof, and is applicable to every stage and
state of human existence. The divine Science of this rule
is quite as remote from the general comprehension of man- [15]
kind as are the so-called miracles of our Master, and for
the sole reason that it is their basis. The foundational
facts of Christian Science are gathered from the supremacy
of spiritual law and its antagonism to every supposed ma-
terial law. Christians to-day should be able to say, with [20]
the sweet sincerity of the apostle, “I take pleasure in
infirmities,”—I enjoy the touch of weakness, pain, and
all suffering of the flesh, because it compels me to seek the
remedy for it, and to find happiness, apart from the per-
sonal senses. The holy calm of Paul’s well-tried hope [25]
met no obstacle or circumstances paramount to the tri-
umph of a reasonable faith in the omnipotence of good,
involved in its divine Principle, God: the so-called pains
and pleasures of matter were alike unreal to Jesus; for he
regarded matter as only a vagary of mortal belief, and sub- [30]
dued it with this understanding.
The abstract statement that all is Mind, supports the
entire wisdom of the text; and this statement receives [1]
the mortal scoff only because it meets the immortal de-
mands of Truth. The Science of Paul’s declaration re-
solves the element misnamed matter into its original sin,
or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the [5]
qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought
death; and death is an element of matter, or material
falsity, never of Spirit.
When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he
revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its power- [10]
lessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the
Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error
and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great
somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit,
and immortal. [15]
Understanding this, Paul took pleasure in infirmities,
for it enabled him to triumph over them,—he declared
that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death;” he took
pleasure in “reproaches” and “persecutions,” because [20]
they were so many proofs that he had wrought the prob-
lem of being beyond the common apprehension of sinners;
he took pleasure in “necessities,” for they tested and de-
veloped latent power.
We protect our dwellings more securely after a robbery, [25]
and our jewels have been stolen; so, after losing those
jewels of character,—temperance, virtue, and truth,—
the young man is awakened to bar his door against further
robberies.
Go to the bedside of pain, and there you can demon- [30]
strate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities;
because it illustrates through the flesh the divine power
of Spirit, and reaches the basis of all supposed miracles; [1]
whereby the sweet harmonies of Christian Science are
found to correct the discords of sense, and to lift man’s
being into the sunlight of Soul.
“The chamber where the good man meets his fate
[5]
Is privileged beyond the walks of common life,
Quite on the verge of heaven.”