[Page 57.]

over again materially; and, by the aid of mankind, all [1] was later made which He had made. If the first record is true, what evidence have you—apart from the evi- dence of that which you admit cannot discern spiritual things—of any other creation? The creative "Us" [5] made all, and Mind was the creator. Man originated not from dust, materially, but from Spirit, spiritually. This work had been done; the true creation was finished, and its spiritual Science is alluded to in the first chapter of Genesis. [10]

Jesus said of error, "That thou doest, do quickly." By the law of opposites, after the truth of man had been demonstrated, the postulate of error must appear. That this addendum was untrue, is seen when Truth, God, denounced it, and said: "I will greatly multiply thy [15] sorrow." "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The opposite error said, "I am true," and declared, "God doth know ... that your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods," creators. This was false; and the Lord God never said it. This history of a falsity [20] must be told in the name of Truth, or it would have no seeming. The Science of creation is the universe with man created spiritually. The false sense and error of creation is the sense of man and the universe created materially.

Why does the record make man a creation of the sixth [25] and last day, if he was coexistent with God?

In its genesis, the Science of creation is stated in mathe- matical order, beginning with the lowest form and ascend- ing the scale of being up to man. But all that really is, always was and forever is; for it existed in and of the Mind [30] that is God, wherein man is foremost.

[Page 58.]

If one has died of consumption, and he has no remem- [1] brance of that disease or dream, does that disease have any more power over him?

Waking from a dream, one learns its unreality; then it has no power over one. Waking from the dream of [5] death, proves to him who thought he died that it was a dream, and that he did not die; then he learns that con- sumption did not kill him. When the belief in the power of disease is destroyed, disease cannot return.

How does Mrs. Eddy know that she has read and studied [10] correctly, if one must deny the evidences of the senses? She had to use her eyes to read.

Jesus said, "Having eyes, see ye not?" I read the in- spired page through a higher than mortal sense. As matter, the eye cannot see; and as mortal mind, it is a [15] belief that sees. I may read the Scriptures through a belief of eyesight; but I must spiritually understand them to interpret their Science.

Does the theology of Christian Science aid its heal- ing? [20]

Without its theology there is no mental science, no order that proceeds from God. All Science is divine, not human, in origin and demonstration. If God does not govern the action of man, it is inharmonious: if He does govern it, the action is Science. Take away the [25] theology of mental healing and you take away its science, leaving it a human "mind-cure," nothing more nor less, —even one human mind governing another; by which, if you agree that God is Mind, you admit that there is

[Page 59.]

more than one government and God. Having no true [1] sense of the healing theology of Mind, you can neither understand nor demonstrate its Science, and will prac- tise your belief of it in the name of Truth. This is the mortal "mind-cure" that produces the effect of mes- [5] merism. It is using the power of human will, instead of the divine power understood, as in Christian Science; and without this Science there had better be no "mind- cure,"—in which the last state of patients is worse than the first. [10]

Is it wrong to pray for the recovery of the sick?

Not if we pray Scripturally, with the understanding that God has given all things to those who love Him; but pleading with infinite Love to love us, or to restore health and harmony, and then to admit that it has been [15] lost under His government, is the prayer of doubt and mortal belief that is unavailing in divine Science.

Is not all argument mind over mind?

The Scriptures refer to God as saying, "Come now, and let us reason together." There is but one right Mind, and [20] that one should and does govern man. Any copartnership with that Mind is impossible; and the only benefit in speaking often one to another, arises from the success that one individual has with another in leading his thoughts away from the human mind or body, and guiding them [25] with Truth. That individual is the best healer who as- serts himself the least, and thus becomes a transparency for the divine Mind, who is the only physician; the divine Mind is the scientific healer.

[Page 60.]

How can you believe there is no sin, and that God does [1] not recognize any, when He sent His Son to save from sin, and the Bible is addressed to sinners? How can you believe there is no sickness, when Jesus came healing the sick? [5]

To regard sin, disease, and death with less deference, and only as the woeful unrealities of being, is the only way to destroy them; Christian Science is proving this by healing cases of disease and sin after all other means have failed. The Nazarene Prophet could make the unreality [10] of both apparent in a moment.

Does it not limit the power of Mind to deny the possi- bility of communion with departed friends—dead only in belief?

Does it limit the power of Mind to say that addition [15] is not subtraction in mathematics? The Science of Mind reveals the impossibility of two individual sleepers, in different phases of thought, communicating, even if touch- ing each other corporeally; or for one who sleeps to communicate with another who is awake. Mind's possi- [20] bilities are not lessened by being confined and conformed to the Science of being.

If mortal mind and body are myths, what is the con- nection between them and real identity, and why are there as many identities as mortal bodies? [25]

Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material be- lief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that ma- [30]

[Page 61.]

terial belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be [1] found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand.

The education of the future will be instruction, in spir- itual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit [5] sciences. All the knowledge and vain strivings of mortal mind, that lead to death,—even when aping the wisdom and magnitude of immortal Mind,—will be swallowed up by the reality and omnipotence of Truth over error, and of Life over death. [10]

"Dear Mrs. Eddy:—In the October Journal I read the following: "But the real man, who was created in the image of God, does not commit sin." What then does sin? What commits theft? Or who does murder? For instance, the man is held responsible for the crime; for I went once [15] to a place where a man was said to be "hanged for mur- der"—and certainly I saw him, or his effigy, dangling at the end of a rope. This "man" was held responsible for the 'sin.' "

What sins? [20]

According to the Word, man is the image and likeness of God. Does God's essential likeness sin, or dangle at the end of a rope? If not, what does? A culprit, a sinner, —anything but a man! Then, what is a sinner? A mortal; but man is immortal. [25]

Again: mortals are the embodiments (or bodies, if you please) of error, not of Truth; of sickness, sin, and death. Naming these His embodiment, can neither make them so nor overthrow the logic that man is God's like- ness. Mortals seem very material; man in the likeness [30]

[Page 62.]

of Spirit is spiritual. Holding the right idea of man in my [1] mind, I can improve my own, and other people's individ- uality, health, and morals; whereas, the opposite image of man, a sinner, kept constantly in mind, can no more improve health or morals, than holding in thought the [5] form of a boa-constrictor can aid an artist in painting a landscape.

Man is seen only in the true likeness of his Maker. Believing a lie veils the truth from our vision; even as in mathematics, in summing up positive and negative [10] quantities, the negative quantity offsets an equal positive quantity, making the aggregate positive, or true quantity, by that much, less available.

Why do Christian Scientists hold that their theology is essential to heal the sick, when the mind-cure claims to heal [15] without it?

The theology of Christian Science is Truth; opposed to which is the error of sickness, sin, and death, that Truth destroys.

A "mind-cure" is a matter-cure. An adherent to this [20] method honestly acknowledges this fact in her work entitled "Mind-cure on a Material Basis." In that work the author grapples with Christian Science, attempts to solve its divine Principle by the rule of human mind, fails, and ends in a parody on this Science which is amus- [25] ing to astute readers,—especially when she tells them that she is practising this Science.

The theology of Christian Science is based on the action of the divine Mind over the human mind and body; whereas, "mind-cure" rests on the notion that the human [30] mind can cure its own disease, or that which it causes,

[Page 63.]

and the sickness of matter,—which is infidel in the one [1] case, and anomalous in the other. It was said of old by Truth-traducers, that Jesus healed through Beelzebub; but the claim that one erring mind cures another one was at first gotten up to hinder his benign influence and to hide [5] his divine power.

Our Master understood that Life, Truth, Love are the triune Principle of all pure theology; also, that this divine trinity is one infinite remedy for the opposite triad, sick- ness, sin, and death. [10]

If there is no sin, why did Jesus come to save sinners?

If there is no reality in sickness, why does a Chris- tian Scientist go to the bedside and address himself to the healing of disease, on the basis of its unreality? Jesus came to seek and to save such as believe in the [15] reality of the unreal; to save them from this false belief; that they might lay hold of eternal Life, the great reality that concerns man, and understand the final fact,—that God is omnipotent and omnipresent; yea, "that the Lord He is God; there is none else beside Him," as the Scrip- [20] tures declare.

_If Christ was God, why did Jesus cry out, _"_My God,_ _why hast Thou forsaken me?_"_

Even as the struggling heart, reaching toward a higher goal, appeals to its hope and faith, Why failest thou [25] me? Jesus as the son of man was human: Christ as the Son of God was divine. This divinity was reaching humanity through the crucifixion of the human,—that momentous demonstration of God, in which Spirit proved its supremacy over matter. Jesus assumed for mortals the [30]

[Page 64.]

weakness of flesh, that Spirit might be found "All-in-all." [1] Hence, the human cry which voiced that struggle; thence, the way he made for mortals' escape. Our Master bore the cross to show his power over death; then relinquished his earth-task of teaching and dem- [5] onstrating the nothingness of sickness, sin, and death, and rose to his native estate, man's indestructible eternal life in God.

What can prospective students of the College take for preliminary studies? Do you regard the study of litera- [10] ture and languages as objectionable?

Persons contemplating a course at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, can prepare for it through no books except the Bible, and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Man-made theories are nar- [15] row, else extravagant, and are always materialistic. The ethics which guide thought spiritually must bene- fit every one; for the only philosophy and religion that afford instruction are those which deal with facts and resist speculative opinions and fables. [20]

Works on science are profitable; for science is not human. It is spiritual, and not material. Literature and languages, to a limited extent, are aids to a student of the Bible and of Christian Science.

Is it possible to know why we are put into this condition [25] of mortality?

It is quite as possible to know wherefore man is thus conditioned, as to be certain that he is in a state of mortality. The only evidence of the existence of a mor- tal man, or of a material state and universe, is gathered [30]

[Page 65.]

from the five personal senses. This delusive evidence, [1] Science has dethroned by repeated proofs of its falsity.

We have no more proof of human discord,—sin, sickness, disease, or death,—than we have that the earth's surface is flat, and her motions imaginary. If [5] man's ipse dixit as to the stellar system is correct, this is because Science is true, and the evidence of the senses is false. Then why not submit to the affirmations of Science concerning the greater subject of human weal and woe? Every question between Truth and error, [10] Science must and will decide. Left to the decision of Science, your query concerns a negative which the posi- tive Truth destroys; for God's universe and man are immortal. We must not consider the false side of exist- ence in order to gain the true solution of Life and its [15] great realities.

Have you changed your instructions as to the right way of treating disease?

I have not; and this important fact must be, and al- ready is, apprehended by those who understand my in- [20] structions on this question. Christian Science demands both law and gospel, in order to demonstrate healing, and I have taught them both in its demonstration, and with signs following. They are a unit in restoring the equipoise of mind and body, and balancing man's ac- [25] count with his Maker. The sequence proves that strict adherence to one is inadequate to compensate for the absence of the other, since both constitute the divine law of healing.

The Jewish religion demands that "whoso sheddeth [30] man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." But this

[Page 66.]

law is not infallible in wisdom; and obedience thereto [1] may be found faulty, since false testimony or mistaken evidence may cause the innocent to suffer for the guilty. Hence the gospel that fulfils the law in righteousness, the genius whereof is displayed in the surprising wisdom [5] of these words of the New Testament: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." No possible injustice lurks in this mandate, and no human mis- judgment can pervert it; for the offender alone suffers, and always according to divine decree. This sacred, [10] solid precept is verified in all directions in Mind- healing, and is supported in the Scripture by parallel proof.

The law and gospel of Truth and Love teach, through divine Science, that sin is identical with suffering, and [15] that suffering is the lighter affliction. To reach the sum- mit of Science, whence to discern God's perfect ways and means, the material sense must be controlled by the higher spiritual sense, and Truth be enthroned, while "we look not at the things which are seen, but at [20] the things which are not seen."

Cynical critics misjudge my meaning as to the sci- entific treatment of the sick. Disease that is superin- duced by sin is not healed like the more physical ailment. The beginner in sin-healing must know this, or [25] he never can reach the Science of Mind-healing, and so "overcome evil with good." Error in premise is met with error in practice; yea, it is "the blind leading the blind." Ignorance of the cause of disease can neither remove that cause nor its effect. [30]

I endeavor to accommodate my instructions to the present capability of the learner, and to support the

[Page 67.]

liberated thought until its altitude reaches beyond the [1] mere alphabet of Mind-healing. Above physical wants, lie the higher claims of the law and gospel of healing. First is the law, which saith:—

"Thou shalt not commit adultery;" in other words, [5] thou shalt not adulterate Life, Truth, or Love,—men- tally, morally, or physically. "Thou shalt not steal;" that is, thou shalt not rob man of money, which is but trash, compared with his rights of mind and character. "Thou shalt not kill;" that is, thou shalt not strike at the [10] eternal sense of Life with a malicious aim, but shalt know that by doing thus thine own sense of Life shall be forfeited. "Thou shalt not bear false witness;" that is, thou shalt not utter a lie, either mentally or audibly, nor cause it to be thought. Obedience to these command- [15] ments is indispensable to health, happiness, and length of days.

The gospel of healing demonstrates the law of Love. Justice uncovers sin of every sort; and mercy demands that if you see the danger menacing others, you shall, [20] Deo volente, inform them thereof. Only thus is the right practice of Mind-healing achieved, and the wrong prac- tice discerned, disarmed, and destroyed.

Do you believe in translation?

If your question refers to language, whereby one ex- [25] presses the sense of words in one language by equiva- lent words in another, I do. If you refer to the removal of a person to heaven, without his subjection to death, I modify my affirmative answer. I believe in this removal being possible after all the footsteps requisite [30] have been taken up to the very throne, up to the

[Page 68.]

spiritual sense and fact of divine substance, intelligence, [1] Life, and Love. This translation is not the work of mo- ments; it requires both time and eternity. It means more than mere disappearance to the human sense; it must include also man's changed appearance and diviner form [5] visible to those beholding him here.

The Rev. —— said in a sermon: A true Christian would protest against metaphysical healing being called Christian Science. He also maintained that pain and disease are not illusions but realities; and that it is not [10] Christian to believe they are illusions. Is this so?

It is unchristian to believe that pain and sickness are anything but illusions. My proof of this is, that the penalty for believing in their reality is the very pain and disease. Jesus cast out a devil, and the dumb spake; [15] hence it is right to know that the works of Satan are the illusion and error which Truth casts out.

Does the gentleman above mentioned know the meaning of divine metaphysics, or of metaphysical theology? [20]

According to Webster, metaphysics is defined thus: "The science of the conceptions and relations which are necessary to thought and knowledge; science of the mind." Worcester defines it as "the philosophy of mind, as distinguished from that of matter; a science of which [25] the object is to explain the principles and causes of all things existing," Brande calls metaphysics "the science which regards the ultimate grounds of being, as distinguished from its phenomenal modifications." "A speculative science, which soars beyond the bounds of [30] experience," is a further definition.

[Page 69.]

Divine metaphysics is that which treats of the exist- [1] ence of God, His essence, relations, and attributes. A sneer at metaphysics is a scoff at Deity; at His goodness, mercy, and might.

Christian Science is the unfolding of true metaphysics; [5] that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests on Principle and demonstration. The Principle of Chris- tian Science is divine. Its rule is, that man shall utilize the divine power.

In Genesis i. 26, we read: "Let us make man in [10] our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air."

I was once called to visit a sick man to whom the regular physicians had given three doses of Croton [15] oil, and then had left him to die. Upon my arrival I found him barely alive, and in terrible agony. In one hour he was well, and the next day he attended to his business. I removed the stoppage, healed him of en- teritis, and neutralized the bad effects of the poison- [20] ous oil. His physicians had failed even to move his bowels,—though the wonder was, with the means used in their effort to accomplish this result, that they had not quite killed him. According to their diagnosis, the exciting cause of the inflammation and [25] stoppage was—eating smoked herring. The man is living yet; and I will send his address to any one who may wish to apply to him for information about his case.

Now comes the question: Had that sick man dominion [30] over the fish in his stomach?

His want of control over "the fish of the sea" must

[Page 70.]

have been an illusion, or else the Scriptures misstate [1] man's power. That the Bible is true I believe, not only, but I demonstrated its truth when I exercised my power over the fish, cast out the sick man's illu- sion, and healed him. Thus it was shown that the [5] healing action of Mind upon the body has its only ex- planation in divine metaphysics. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." When the mortal thought, or be- lief, was removed, the man was well.

_What did Jesus mean when he said to the dying thief,_ [10] _"_To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise_"_?_

Paradisaical rest from physical agony would come to the criminal, if the dream of dying should startle him from the dream of suffering. The paradise of Spirit would come to Jesus, in a spiritual sense of Life and [15] power. Christ Jesus lived and reappeared. He was too good to die; for goodness is immortal. The thief was not equal to the demands of the hour; but sin was de- stroying itself, and had already begun to die,—as the poor thief's prayer for help indicated. The dy- [20] ing malefactor and our Lord were inevitably sepa- rated through Mind. The thief's body, as matter, must dissolve into its native nothingness; whereas the body of the holy Spirit of Jesus was eternal. That day the thief would be with Jesus only in a finite [25] and material sense of relief; while our Lord would soon be rising to the supremacy of Spirit, working out, even in the silent tomb, those wonderful demon- strations of divine power, in which none could equal his glory. [30]

[Page 71.]

Is it right for me to treat others, when I am not entirely [1] well myself?

The late John B. Gough is said to have suffered from an appetite for alcoholic drink until his death; yet he saved many a drunkard from this fatal appetite. Paul [5] had a thorn in the flesh: one writer thinks that he was troubled with rheumatism, and another that he had sore eyes; but this is certain, that he healed others who were sick. It is unquestionably right to do right; and heal- ing the sick is a very right thing to do. [10]

Does Christian Science set aside the law of transmission, prenatal desires, and good or bad influences on the unborn child?

Science never averts law, but supports it. All actual causation must interpret omnipotence, the all-knowing [15] Mind. Law brings out Truth, not error; unfolds divine Principle,—but neither human hypothesis nor matter. Errors are based on a mortal or material formation; they are suppositional modes, not the factors of divine presence and power. [20]

Whatever is humanly conceived is a departure from divine law; hence its mythical origin and certain end. According to the Scriptures,—St. Paul declares astutely, "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things,"—man is incapable of originating; nothing can [25] be formed apart from God, good, the all-knowing Mind. What seems to be of human origin is the counterfeit of the divine,—even human concepts, mortal shadows flitting across the dial of time.

Whatever is real is right and eternal; hence the im- [30] mutable and just law of Science, that God is good only,

[Page 72.]

and can transmit to man and the universe nothing evil, [1] or unlike Himself. For the innocent babe to be born a lifelong sufferer because of his parents' mistakes or sins, were sore injustice. Science sets aside man as a creator, and unfolds the eternal harmonies of the only living and [5] true origin, God.

According to the beliefs of the flesh, both good and bad traits of the parents are transmitted to their help- less offspring, and God is supposed to impart to man this fatal power. It is cause for rejoicing that this belief [10] is as false as it is remorseless. The immutable Word saith, through the prophet Ezekiel, "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, [15] ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel."

Are material things real when they are harmonious, and do they disappear only to the natural sense? Does this Scripture, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have [20] need of all these things" imply that Spirit takes note of matter?

The Science of Mind, as well as the material unii verse, shows that nothing which is material is in perpetual harmony. Matter is manifest mortal mind, [35] and it exists only to material sense. Real sensation is not material; it is, and must be, mental: and Mind is not mortal, it is immortal. Being is God, infinite Spirit; therefore it cannot cognize aught material, or outside of infinity. [30]

The Scriptural passage quoted affords no evidence of

[Page 73.]

the reality of matter, or that God is conscious of it. [1] The so-called material body is said to suffer, but this supposition is proven erroneous when Mind casts out the suffering. The Scripture saith, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth;" and again, "He doth not [5] afflict willingly." Interpreted materially, these pas- sages conflict; they mingle the testimony of immor- tal Science with mortal sense; but once discern their spiritual meaning, and it separates the false sense from the true, and establishes the reality of what is spiritual, [10] and the unreality of materiality.

Law is never material: it is always mental and moral, and a commandment to the wise. The foolish disobey moral law, and are punished. Human wisdom therefore can get no farther than to say, He knoweth that we have [15] need of experience. Belief fulfils the conditions of a be- lief, and these conditions destroy the belief. Hence the verdict of experience: We have need of these things; we have need to know that the so-called pleasures and pains of matter—yea, that all subjective states of false sensa- [20] tion—are unreal.

"And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the [25] twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. xix. 28.) What is meant by regeneration?

It is the appearing of divine law to human under- standing; the spiritualization that comes from spiritual sense in contradistinction to the testimony of the so- [30] called material senses. The phenomena of Spirit in

[Page 74.]

Christian Science, and the divine correspondence of [1] noumenon and phenomenon understood, are here signi- fied. This new-born sense subdues not only the false sense of generation, but the human will, and the un- natural enmity of mortal man toward God. It quickly [5] imparts a new apprehension of the true basis of being, and the spiritual foundation for the affections which en- throne the Son of man in the glory of his Father; and judges, through the stern mandate of Science, all human systems of etiology and teleology. [10]

_If God does not recognize matter, how did Jesus, who was_ _"_the way, the truth, and the life,_"_ cognize it?_

Christ Jesus' sense of matter was the opposite of that which mortals entertain: his nativity was a spiritual and immortal sense of the ideal world. His earthly mission [15] was to translate substance into its original meaning, Mind. He walked upon the waves; he turned the water into wine; he healed the sick and the sinner; he raised the dead, and rolled away the stone from the door of his own tomb. His demonstration of Spirit virtually van- [20] quished matter and its supposed laws. Walking the wave, he proved the fallacy of the theory that matter is substance; healing through Mind, he removed any sup- position that matter is intelligent, or can recognize or express pain and pleasure. His triumph over the grave [25] was an everlasting victory for Life; it demonstrated the lifelessness of matter, and the power and permanence of Spirit. He met and conquered the resistance of the world.

If you will admit, with me, that matter is neither [30] substance, intelligence, nor Life, you may have all that

[Page 75.]

is left of it; and you will have touched the hem of the [1] garment of Jesus' idea of matter, Christ was "the way;" since Life and Truth were the way that gave us, through a human person, a spiritual revelation of man's possible earthly development. [5]

Why do you insist that there is but one Soul, and that Soul is not in the body?

First: I urge this fundamental fact and grand verity of Christian Science, because it includes a rule that must be understood, or it is impossible to demonstrate the Sci- [10] ence. Soul is a synonym of Spirit, and God is Spirit. There is but one God, and the infinite is not within the finite; hence Soul is one, and is God; and God is not in matter or the mortal body.

Second: Because Soul is a term for Deity, and this [15] term should seldom be employed except where the word God can be used and make complete sense. The word Soul may sometimes be used metaphorically; but if this term is warped to signify human quality, a substitution of sense for soul clears the meaning, and assists one to [20] understand Christian Science. Mary's exclamation, ""My soul doth magnify the Lord," is rendered in Sci- ence, "My spiritual sense doth magnify the Lord;" for the name of Deity used in that place does not bring out the meaning of the passage. It was evidently an [25] illuminated sense through which she discovered the spiritual origin of man. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," means, that mortal man (alias material sense) that sinneth, shall die; and the commonly accepted view is that soul is deathless. Soul is the divine Mind,—for [30] Soul cannot be formed or brought forth by human

[Page 76.]

thought,—and must proceed from God; hence it must [1] be sinless, and destitute of self-created or derived capacity to sin.

Third: Jesus said, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." This statement of our Master [5] is true, and remains to be demonstrated; for it is the ultimatum of Christian Science; but this immortal saying can never be tested or proven true upon a false premise, such as the mortal belief that soul is in body, and life and intelligence are in matter. That doctrine is not [10] theism, but pantheism. According to human belief the bodies of mortals are mortal, but they contain immortal souls! hence these bodies must die for these souls to escape and be immortal. The theory that death must occur, to set a human soul free from its environments, [15] is rendered void by Jesus' divine declaration, who spake as never man spake,—and no man can rationally reject his authority on this subject and accept it on other topics less important.

Now, exchange the term soul for sense whenever this [20] word means the so-called soul in the body, and you will find the right meaning indicated. The misnamed human soul is material sense, which sinneth and shall die; for it is an error or false sense of mentality in matter, and matter has no sense. You will admit that Soul is the [25] Life of man. Now if Soul sinned, it would die; for "the wages of sin is death." The Scripture saith, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." The Science of Soul, Spirit, involves this appearing, and is essential to the fulfilment [30] of this glorious prophecy of the master Metaphysician, who overcame the last enemy, death.

[Page 77.]

Did the salvation of the eunuch depend merely on his [1] believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God?

It did; but this believing was more than faith in the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Here the verb believe took its original meaning, namely, to be firm,—yea, to [5] understand those great truths asserted of the Messiah: it meant to discern and consent to that infinite demand made upon the eunuch in those few words of the apostle. Philip's requirement was, that he should not only ac- knowledge the incarnation,—God made manifest through [10] man,—but even the eternal unity of man and God, as the divine Principle and spiritual idea; which is the in- dissoluble bond of union, the power and presence, in divine Science, of Life, Truth, and Love, to support their ideal man. This is the Father's great Love that He [15] hath bestowed upon us, and it holds man in endless Life and one eternal round of harmonious being. It guides him by Truth that knows no error, and with supersensual, impartial, and unquenchable Love. To believe is to be firm. In adopting all this vast idea of [20] Christ Jesus, the eunuch was to know in whom he be- lieved. To believe thus was to enter the spiritual sanctuary of Truth, and there learn, in divine Science, somewhat of the All-Father-Mother God. It was to understand God and man: it was sternly to rebuke the mortal [25] belief that man has fallen away from his first estate; that man, made in God's own likeness, and reflecting Truth, could fall into mortal error; or, that man is the father of man. It was to enter unshod the Holy of Holies, where the miracle of grace appears, and where the miracles of [30] Jesus had their birth,—healing the sick, casting out evils, and resurrecting the human sense to the belief

[Page 78.]

that Life, God, is not buried in matter. This is the spirit- [1] ual dawn of the Messiah, and the overture of the angels. This is when God is made manifest in the flesh, and thus it destroys all sense of sin, sickness, and death,—when the brightness of His glory encompasseth [5] all being.

Can Christian Science Mind-healing be taught to those who are absent?

The Science of Mind-healing can no more be taught thus, than can science in any other direction. I know [10] not how to teach either Euclid or the Science of Mind silently; and never dreamed that either of these partook of the nature of occultism, magic, alchemy, or necro- mancy. These "ways that are vain" are the inventions of animal magnetism, which would deceive, if possible, [15] the very elect. We will charitably hope, however, that some people employ the et cetera of ignorance and self- conceit unconsciously, in their witless ventilation of false statements and claims. Misguiding the public mind and taking its money in exchange for this abuse, has become [20] too common: we will hope it is the froth of error passing off; and that Christian Science will some time appear all the clearer for the purification of the public thought con- cerning it.

Has man fallen from a state of perfection? [25]

If God is the Principle of man (and He is), man is the idea of God; and this idea cannot fail to express the ex- act nature of its Principle,—any more than goodness, to present the quality of good. Human hypotheses are always human vagaries, formulated views antagonistic [30]

[Page 79.]

to the divine order and the nature of Deity. All these [1] mortal beliefs will be purged and dissolved in the cru- cible of Truth, and the places once knowing them will know them no more forever, having been swept clean by the winds of history. The grand verities of Science [5] will sift the chaff from the wheat, until it is clear to hu- man comprehension that man was, and is, God's perfect likeness, that reflects all whereby we can know God. In Him we live, move, and have being. Man's origin and existence being in Him, man is the ultimatum of per- [10] fection, and by no means the medium of imperfection. Immortal man is the eternal idea of Truth, that cannot lapse into a mortal belief or error concerning himself and his origin: he cannot get out of the focal distance of infinity. If God is upright and eternal, man as His like- [15] ness is erect in goodness and perpetual in Life, Truth, and Love. If the great cause is perfect, its effect is per- fect also; and cause and effect in Science are immutable and immortal. A mortal who is sinning, sick, and dying, is not immortal man; and never was, and never can be, [20] God's image and likeness, the true ideal of immortal man's divine Principle. The spiritual man is that per- fect and unfallen likeness, coexistent and coeternal with God. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." [25]

What course should Christian Scientists take in regard to aiding persons brought before the courts for violation of medical statutes?

Beware of joining any medical league which in any way obligates you to assist—because they chance to be [30] under arrest—vendors of patent pills, mesmerists,

[Page 80.]

occultists, sellers of impure literature, and authors of [1] spurious works on mental healing. By rendering error such a service, you lose much more than can be gained by mere unity on the single issue of opposition to unjust medical laws. [5]

A league which obligates its members to give money and influence in support and defense of medical char- latans in general, and possibly to aid individual rights in a wrong direction—which Christian Science eschews —should be avoided. Anybody and everybody, who [10] will fight the medical faculty, can join this league. It is better to be friendly with cultured and conscientious medical men, who leave Christian Science to rise or fall on its own merit or demerit, than to affiliate with a wrong class of people. [15]

Unconstitutional and unjust coercive legislation and laws, infringing individual rights, must be "of few days, and full of trouble." The vox populi, through the provi- dence of God, promotes and impels all true reform; and, at the best time, will redress wrongs and rectify injus- [20] tice. Tyranny can thrive but feebly under our Govern- ment. God reigns, and will "turn and overturn" until right is found supreme.

In a certain sense, we should commiserate the lot of regular doctors, who, in successive generations for cen- [25] turies, have planted and sown and reaped in the fields of what they deem pathology, hygiene, and therapeutics, but are now elbowed by a new school of practitioners, outdoing the healing of the old. The old will not patronize the new school, at least not until it shall come to understand [30] the medical system of the new.

Christian Science Mind-healing rests demonstrably on

[Page 81.]

the broad and sure foundation of Science; and this is [1] not the basis of materia medica, as some of the most skil- ful and scholarly physicians openly admit.

To prevent all unpleasant and unchristian action—as we drift, by right of God's dear love, into more spiritual [5] lines of life—let each society of practitioners, the matter- physicians and the metaphysicians, agree to disagree, and then patiently wait on God to decide, as surely He will, which is the true system of medicine.

Do we not see in the commonly accepted teachings of the [10] day, the Christ-idea mingled with the teachings of John the Baptist? or, rather, Are not the last eighteen centuries but the footsteps of Truth being baptized of John, and com- ing up straightway out of the ceremonial (or ritualistic) waters to receive the benediction of an honored Father, and [15] afterwards to go up into the wilderness, in order to over- come mortal sense, before it shall go forth into all the cities and towns of Judea, or see many of the people from beyond Jordan? Now, if all this be a fair or correct view of this question, why does not John hear this voice, or see the [20] dove,—or has not Truth yet reached the shore?

Every individual character, like the individual John the Baptist, at some date must cry in the desert of earthly joy; and his voice be heard divinely and humanly. In the desolation of human understanding, [25] divine Love hears and answers the human call for help; and the voice of Truth utters the divine verities of being which deliver mortals out of the depths of ignorance and vice. This is the Father's benediction. It gives lessons to human life, guides the understanding, peoples [30]

[Page 82.]

the mind with spiritual ideas, reconstructs the Judean [1] religion, and reveals God and man as the Principle and idea of all good.

Understanding this fact in Christian Science, brings the peace symbolized by a dove; and this peace floweth [5] as a river into a shoreless eternity. He who knew the foretelling Truth, beheld the forthcoming Truth, as it came up out of the baptism of Spirit, to enlighten and redeem mortals. Such Christians as John cognize the symbols of God, reach the sure foundations of time, stand [10] upon the shore of eternity, and grasp and gather—in all glory—what eye hath not seen.

Is there infinite progression with man after the destruc- tion of mortal mind?

Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, [15] whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love.

Infinite progression is concrete being, which finite [20] mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory. As mortal mind, or the material sense of life, is put off, the spiritual sense and Science of being is brought to light.

Mortal mind is a myth; the one Mind is immortal. [25] A mythical or mortal sense of existence is consumed as a moth, in the treacherous glare of its own flame— the errors which devour it. Immortal Mind is God, immortal good; in whom the Scripture saith "we live, and move, and have our being." This Mind, then, is not [30] subject to growth, change, or diminution, but is the divine

[Page 83.]

intelligence, or Principle, of all real being; holding [1] man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss, as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good.

In your book, Science and Health,(3) page 181, you [5] say: "Every sin is the author of itself, and every invalid the cause of his own sufferings." On page 182 you say: "Sickness is a growth of illusion, spring- ing from a seed of thought,—either your own thought or another's." Will you please explain this seeming [10] contradiction?

No person can accept another's belief, except it be with the consent of his own belief. If the error which knocks at the door of your own thought originated in another's mind, you are a free moral agent to reject or [15] to accept this error; hence, you are the arbiter of your own fate, and sin is the author of sin. In the words of our Master, you are "a liar, and the father of it [the lie]."

Why did Jesus call himself "the Son of man"? [20]

In the life of our Lord, meekness was as conspicuous as might. In John xvii. he declared his sonship with God: "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." [25] The hour had come for the avowal of this great truth, and for the proof of his eternal Life and sonship. Jesus'

[Page 84.]

wisdom ofttimes was shown by his forbearing to speak, [1] as well as by speaking, the whole truth. Haply he waited for a preparation of the human heart to receive start- ling announcements. This wisdom, which character- ized his sayings, did not prophesy his death, and thereby [5] hasten or permit it.

The disciples and prophets thrust disputed points on minds unprepared for them. This cost them their lives, and the world's temporary esteem; but the prophecies were fulfilled, and their motives were rewarded by [10] growth and more spiritual understanding, which dawns by degrees on mortals. The spiritual Christ was infal- lible; Jesus, as material manhood, was not Christ. The "man of sorrows" knew that the man of joys, his spiritual self, or Christ, was the Son of God; and that the mor- [15] tal mind, not the immortal Mind, suffered. The human manifestation of the Son of God was called the Son of man, or Mary's son.

_Please explain Paul's meaning in the text, _"_For to me_ _to live is Christ, and to die is gain._"_ [20]

The Science of Life, overshadowing Paul's sense of life in matter, so far extinguished the latter as forever to quench his love for it. The discipline of the flesh is designed to turn one, like a weary traveller, to the home of Love. To lose error thus, is to live in Christ, Truth. [25] A true sense of the falsity of material joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, takes them away, and teaches Life's lessons aright. The transition from our lower sense of Life to a new and higher sense thereof, even though it be through the door named death, yields a clearer and [30] nearer sense of Life to those who have utilized the present,

[Page 85.]

and are ripe for the harvest-home. To the battle- [1] worn and weary Christian hero, Life eternal brings blessings.

Is a Christian Scientist ever sick, and has he who is sick been regenerated? [5]

The Christian Scientist learns spiritually all that he knows of Life, and demonstrates what he understands. God is recognized as the divine Principle of his being, and of every thought and act leading to good. His pur- pose must be right, though his power is temporarily lim- [10] ited. Perfection, the goal of existence, is not won in a moment; and regeneration leading thereto is gradual, for it culminates in the fulfilment of this divine rule in Science: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." [15]

The last degree of regeneration rises into the rest of perpetual, spiritual, individual existence. The first feeble fluttering of mortals Christward are infantile and more or less imperfect. The new-born Christian Scientist must mature, and work out his own salvation. [20] Spirit and flesh antagonize. Temptation, that mist of mortal mind which seems to be matter and the environ- ment of mortals, suggests pleasure and pain in matter; and, so long as this temptation lasts, the warfare is not ended and the mortal is not regenerated. The pleas- [25] ures—more than the pains—of sense, retard regenera- tion; for pain compels human consciousness to escape from sense into the immortality and harmony of Soul. Disease in error, more than ease in it, tends to destroy error: the sick often are thereby led to Christ, Truth, [30] and to learn their way out of both sickness and sin.

[Page 86.]

The material and physical are imperfect. The in- [1] dividual and spiritual are perfect; these have no fleshly nature. This final degree of regeneration is saving, and the Christian will, must, attain it; but it doth not yet appear. Until this be attained, the Christian Scientist [5] must continue to strive with sickness, sin, and death— though in lessening degrees—and manifest growth at every experience.

Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are noth- ing and exist only in imagination? [10]

Nothing and something are words which need correct definition. They either mean formations of indefinite and vague human opinions, or scientific classifications of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is some- [15] thing to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief, of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and [20] earth, the harmony of body and Mind.

Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the gran- deur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is [25] the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmos- phere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal envi- ronment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings [30] to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall

[Page 87.]

soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue tem- [1] poral sky.

To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature God's creation, which is unjust to human sense and [5] to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spirit- ual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and [10] knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail con- ception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind."

Please inform us through your Journal; if you sent [15] Mrs. —— to ——. She said that you sent her there to look after the students; and also, that no one there was working in Science,—which is certainly a mistake.

I never commission any one to teach students of mine. After class teaching, he does best in the investigation of [20] Christian Science who is most reliant on himself and God. My students are taught the divine Principle and rules of the Science of Mind-healing. What they need thereafter is to study thoroughly the Scriptures and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." To [25] watch and pray, to be honest, earnest, loving, and truth- ful, is indispensable to the demonstration of the truth they have been taught.

If they are haunted by obsequious helpers, who, un- called for, imagine they can help anybody and steady [30] God's altar—this interference prolongs the struggle

[Page 88.]

and tends to blight the fruits of my students. A faith- [1] ful student may even sometimes feel the need of physical help, and occasionally receive it from others; but the less this is required, the better it is for that student. [5]

_Please give us, through your Journal, the name of_ _the author of that genuine critique in the September_ _number, _"_What Quibus Thinks._"_

I am pleased to inform this inquirer, that the author of the article in question is a Boston gentleman whose [10] thought is appreciated by many liberals. Patience, ob- servation, intellectual culture, reading, writing, exten- sive travel, and twenty years in the pulpit, have equipped him as a critic who knows whereof he speaks. His allu- sion to Christian Science in the following paragraph, [15] glows in the shadow of darkling criticism like a mid- night sun. Its manly honesty follows like a benediction after prayer, and closes the task of talking to deaf ears and dull debaters.

"We have always insisted that this Science is natural, [20] spiritually natural; that Jesus was the highest type of real nature; that Christian healing is supernatural, or extra-natural, only to those who do not enter into its sublimity or understand its modes—as imported ice was miraculous to the equatorial African, who had never [25] seen water freeze."

Is it right for a Scientist to treat with a doctor?

This depends upon what kind of a doctor it is. Mind- healing, and healing with drugs, are opposite modes of medicine. As a rule, drop one of these doctors when you [30]

[Page 89.]

employ the other. The Scripture saith, "No man can [1] serve two masters;" and, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation."

If Scientists are called upon to care for a member of the family, or a friend in sickness, who is employing a [5] regular physician, would it be right to treat this patient at all; and ought the patient to follow the doctor's directions?

When patients are under material medical treatment, it is advisable in most cases that Scientists do not treat [10] them, or interfere with materia medica. If the patient is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings, although the medical attendant and friends have no faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian, to do him all the good you can; but your good will gen- [15] erally "be evil spoken of." The hazard of casting "pearls before swine" caused our Master to refuse help to some who sought his aid; and he left this precaution for others.

If mortal man is unreal, how can he be saved, and why [20] does he need to be saved? I ask for information, not for controversy, for I am a seeker after Truth.

You will find the proper answer to this question in my published works. Man is immortal. Mortal man is a false concept that is not spared or prolonged by being [25] saved from itself, from whatever is false. This salva- tion means: saved from error, or error overcome. Im- mortal man, in God's likeness, is safe in divine Science. Mortal man is saved on this divine Principle, if he will only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and recog- [30]

[Page 90.]

nize his Saviour. He must know that God is omnipo- [1] tent; hence, that sin is impotent. He must know that the power of sin is the pleasure in sin. Take away this pleasure, and you remove all reality from its power. Jesus demonstrated sin and death to be powerless. This [5] practical Truth saves from sin, and will save all who understand it.

Is it wrong for a wife to have a husband treated for sin, when she knows he is sinning, or for drinking and smoking? [10]

It is always right to act rightly; but sometimes, under circumstances exceptional, it is inexpedient to attack evil. This rule is forever golden: "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Do you desire to be freed from sin? Then help others to be free; [15] but in your measures, obey the Scriptures, "Be ye wise as serpents." Break the yoke of bondage in every wise way. First, be sure that your means for doing good are equal to your motives; then judge them by their fruits. [20]

If not ordained, shall the pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, administer the communion,—and shall members of a church not organized receive the communion?

Our great Master administered to his disciples the [25] Passover, or last supper, without this prerogative being conferred by a visible organization and ordained priest- hood. His spiritually prepared breakfast, after his resurrection, and after his disciples had left their nets to follow him, is the spiritual communion which Chris- [30]

[Page 91.]

tian Scientists celebrate in commemoration of the Christ. [1] This ordinance is significant as a type of the true worship, and it should be observed at present in our churches.

It is not indispensable to organize materially Christ's church. It is not absolutely necessary to ordain pas- [5] tors and to dedicate churches; but if this be done, let it be in concession to the period, and not as a per- petual or indispensable ceremonial of the church. If our church is organized, it is to meet the demand, "Suffer it to be so now." The real Christian compact [10] is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual and inviolate.

It is imperative, at all times and under every cir- cumstance, to perpetuate no ceremonials except as types of these mental conditions,—remembrance and [15] love; a real affection for Jesus' character and example. Be it remembered, that all types employed in the ser- vice of Christian Science should represent the most spir- itual forms of thought and worship that can be made visible. [20]

_Should not the teacher of Christian Science have our_ _textbook, _"_Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,_"_ _in his schoolroom and teach from it?_

I never dreamed, until informed thereof, that a loyal student did not take his textbook with him into the class- [25] room, ask questions from it, answer them according to it, and, as occasion required, read from the book as au- thority for what he taught. I supposed that students had followed my example, and that of other teachers, sufficiently to do this, and also to require their pupils to [30] study the lessons before recitations.

[Page 92.]

To omit these important points is anomalous, con- [1] sidering the necessity for understanding Science, and the present liability of deviating from Christian Science. Centuries will intervene before the statement of the inex- haustible topics of that book become sufficiently under- [5] stood to be absolutely demonstrated. The teacher of Christian Science needs continually to study this textbook. His work is to replenish thought, and to spiritualize human life, from this open fount of Truth and Love.

He who sees most clearly and enlightens other minds [10] most readily, keeps his own lamp trimmed and burning. He will take the textbook of Christian Science into his class, repeat the questions in the chapter on Recapitula- tion, and his students will answer them from the same source. Throughout his entire explanations, the teacher [15] should strictly adhere to the questions and answers con- tained in that chapter of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is important to point out the lesson to the class, and to require the students thor- oughly to study it before the recitations; for this spirit- [20] ualizes their thoughts. When closing his class, the teacher should require each member to own a copy of the above-named book and to continue the study of this textbook.

The opinions of men cannot be substituted for God's [25] revelation. It must not be forgotten that in times past, arrogant ignorance and pride, in attempting to steady the ark of Truth, have dimmed the power and glory of the Scriptures, to which this Christian Science textbook is the Key. [30]

That teacher does most for his students who most divests himself of pride and self, spiritualizes his own

[Page 93.]

thought, and by reason thereof is able to empty his stu- [1] dents' minds, that they may be filled with Truth.

Beloved students, so teach that posterity shall call you blessed, and the heart of history shall be made glad! [5]

Can fear or sin bring back old beliefs of disease that have been healed by Christian Science?

The Scriptures plainly declare the allness and oneness of God to be the premises of Truth, and that God is good: in Him dwelleth no evil. Christian Science au- [10] thorizes the logical conclusion drawn from the Scriptures, that there is in reality none besides the eternal, infinite God, good. Evil is temporal: it is the illusion of time and mortality.

This being true, sin has no power; and fear, its coeval, [15] is without divine authority. Science sanctions only what is supported by the unerring Principle of being. Sin can do nothing: all cause and effect are in God. Fear is a belief of sensation in matter: this belief is neither main- tained by Science nor supported by facts, and exists only [20] as fable. Your answer is, that neither fear nor sin can bring on disease or bring back disease, since there is in reality no disease.

Bear in mind, however, that human consciousness does not test sin and the fact of its nothingness, by believing [25] that sin is pardoned without repentance and reforma- tion. Sin punishes itself, because it cannot go unpun- ished either here or hereafter. Nothing is more fatal than to indulge a sinning sense or consciousness for even one moment. Knowing this, obey Christ's Sermon on the [30] Mount, even if you suffer for it in the first instance,—

[Page 94.]

are misjudged and maligned; in the second, you will [1] reign with him.

I never knew a person who knowingly indulged evil, to be grateful; to understand me, or himself. He must first see himself and the hallucination of sin; then he [5] must repent, and love good in order to understand God. The sinner and the sin are the twain that are one flesh,— but which God hath not joined together.



CHAPTER IV. ADDRESSES.

[Page 95.]



Christian Science In Tremont Temple.

From the platform of the Monday lectureship in [2] Tremont Temple, on Monday, March 16, 1885, as will be seen by what follows. Reverend Mary Baker G. Eddy was presented to Mr. Cook's audience, and allowed [5] ten minutes in which to reply to his public letter con- demning her doctrines; which reply was taken in full by a shorthand reporter who was present, and is transcribed below.

Mrs. Eddy responding, said:— [10]

As the time so kindly allotted me is insufficient for even a synopsis of Christian Science, I shall confine my- self to questions and answers.

Am I a spiritualist?

I am not, and never was. I understand the impossi- [15] bility of intercommunion between the so-called dead and living. There have always attended my life phenomena of an uncommon order, which spiritualists have mis- called mediumship; but I clearly understand that no human agencies were employed,—that the divine Mind [20] reveals itself to humanity through spiritual law. And to such as are "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body," Christian Science reveals the in-

[Page 96.]

finitude of divinity and the way of man's salvation from [1] sickness and death, as wrought out by Jesus, who robbed the grave of victory and death of its sting. I understand that God is an ever-present help in all times of trouble,— have found Him so; and would have no other gods, no [5] remedies in drugs, no material medicine.

Do I believe in a personal God?

I believe in God as the Supreme Being. I know not what the person of omnipotence and omnipresence is, or what the infinite includes; therefore, I worship that [10] of which I can conceive, first, as a loving Father and Mother; then, as thought ascends the scale of being to diviner consciousness, God becomes to me, as to the apostle who declared it, "God is Love,"—divine Prin- ciple,—which I worship; and "after the manner of my [15] fathers, so worship I God."

Do I believe in the atonement of Christ?

I do; and this atonement becomes more to me since it includes man's redemption from sickness as well as from sin. I reverence and adore Christ as never before. [20]

It brings to my sense, and to the sense of all who enter- tain this understanding of the Science of God, a whole salvation.

How is the healing done in Christian Science?

This answer includes too much to give you any con- [25] clusive idea in a brief explanation. I can name some means by which it is not done.

It is not one mind acting upon another mind; it is not the transference of human images of thought to other minds; it is not supported by the evidence before [30] the personal senses,—Science contradicts this evidence; it is not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. It is Christ come

[Page 97.]

to destroy the power of the flesh; it is Truth over error; [1] that understood, gives man ability to rise above the evi- dence of the senses, take hold of the eternal energies of Truth, and destroy mortal discord with immortal har- mony,—the grand verities of being. It is not one mortal [5] thought transmitted to another's thought from the human mind that holds within itself all evil.

Our Master said of one of his students, "He is a devil," and repudiated the idea of casting out devils through Beelzebub. Erring human mind is by no means a de- [10] sirable or efficacious healer. Such suppositional healing I deprecate. It is in no way allied to divine power. All human control is animal magnetism, more despicable than all other methods of treating disease.

Christian Science is not a remedy of faith alone, but [15] combines faith with understanding, through which we may touch the hem of His garment; and know that om- nipotence has all power. "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me."

Is there a personal man? [20]

The Scriptures inform us that man was made in the image and likeness of God. I commend the Icelandic translation: "He created man in the image and likeness of Mind, in the image and likeness of Mind created He him." To my sense, we have not seen all of man; [25] he is more than personal sense can cognize, who is the image and likeness of the infinite. I have not seen a perfect man in mind or body,—and such must be the personality of him who is the true likeness: the lost image is not this personality, and corporeal man is this [30] lost image; hence, it doth not appear what is the real personality of man. The only cause for making this

[Page 98.]

question of personality a point, or of any importance, is [1] that man's perfect model should be held in mind, whereby to improve his present condition; that his contemplation regarding himself should turn away from inharmony, sick- ness, and sin, to that which is the image of his Maker. [5]



Science And The Senses.

Substance of my Address at the National Convention in Chicago, June 13, 1888

The National Christian Scientist Association has brought us together to minister and to be ministered [10] unto; mutually to aid one another in finding ways and means for helping the whole human family; to quicken and extend the interest already felt in a higher mode of medicine; to watch with eager joy the individual growth of Christian Scientists, and the progress of our common [15] Cause in Chicago,—the miracle of the Occident. We come to strengthen and perpetuate our organizations and institutions; and to find strength in union,—strength to build up, through God's right hand, that pure and undefiled religion whose Science demonstrates God and [20] the perfectibility of man. This purpose is immense, and it must begin with individual growth, a "consum- mation devoutly to be wished." The lives of all re- formers attest the authenticity of their mission, and call the world to acknowledge its divine Principle. Truly [25] is it written:—

"Thou must be true thyself, if thou the truth would'st teach; Thy heart must overflow, if thou another's heart would'st reach."

[Page 99.]

Science is absolute and final. It is revolutionary in [1] its very nature; for it upsets all that is not upright. It annuls false evidence, and saith to the five material senses, "Having eyes ye see not, and ears ye hear not; neither can you understand." To weave one thread of [5] Science through the looms of time, is a miracle in itself. The risk is stupendous. It cost Galileo, what? This awful price: the temporary loss of his self-respect. His fear overcame his loyalty; the courage of his convictions fell before it. Fear is the weapon in the hands of [10] tyrants.

Men and women of the nineteenth century, are you called to voice a higher order of Science? Then obey this call. Go, if you must, to the dungeon or the scaf- fold, but take not back the words of Truth. How many [15] are there ready to suffer for a righteous cause, to stand a long siege, take the front rank, face the foe, and be in the battle every day?

In no other one thing seemed Jesus of Nazareth more divine than in his faith in the immortality of his words. [20] He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away;" and they have not. The winds of time sweep clean the centuries, but they can never bear into oblivion his words. They still live, and to-morrow speak louder than to-day. They are to-day [25] as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make straight God's paths; make way for health, holiness, universal harmony, and come up hither." The gran- deur of the word, the power of Truth, is again casting out evils and healing the sick; and it is whispered, "This [30] is Science."

Jesus taught by the wayside, in humble homes. He

[Page 100.]

spake of Truth and Love to artless listeners and dull [1] disciples. His immortal words were articulated in a decaying language, and then left to the providence of God. Christian Science was to interpret them; and woman, "last at the cross," was to awaken the dull senses, [5] intoxicated with pleasure or pain, to the infinite meaning of those words.

Past, present, future, will show the word and might of Truth—healing the sick and reclaiming the sinner— so long as there remains a claim of error for Truth to [10] deny or to destroy. Love's labors are not lost. The five personal senses, that grasp neither the meaning nor the magnitude of self-abnegation, may lose sight thereof; but Science voices unselfish love, unfolds infinite good, leads on irresistible forces, and will finally show the fruits [15] of Love. Human reason is inaccurate; and the scope of the senses is inadequate to grasp the word of Truth, and teach the eternal.

Science speaks when the senses are silent, and then the evermore of Truth is triumphant. The spiritual mon- [20] itor understood is coincidence of the divine with the human, the acme of Christian Science. Pure humanity, friendship, home, the interchange of love, bring to earth a foretaste of heaven. They unite terrestrial and celes- tial joys, and crown them with blessings infinite. [25]

The Christian Scientist loves man more because he loves God most. He understands this Principle,—Love. Who is sufficient for these things? Who remembers that patience, forgiveness, abiding faith, and affection, are the symptoms by which our Father indicates the dif- [30] ferent stages of man's recovery from sin and his en- trance into Science? Who knows how the feeble lips

[Page 101.]

are made eloquent, how hearts are inspired, how heal- [1] ing becomes spontaneous, and how the divine Mind is understood and demonstrated? He alone knows these wonders who is departing from the thraldom of the senses and accepting spiritual truth,—that which blesses [5] its adoption by the refinement of joy and the dismissal of sorrow.

Christian Science and the senses are at war. It is a revolutionary struggle. We already have had two in this nation; and they began and ended in a contest for [10] the true idea, for human liberty and rights. Now cometh a third struggle; for the freedom of health, holiness, and the attainment of heaven.

The scientific sense of being which establishes har- mony, enters into no compromise with finiteness and [15] feebleness. It undermines the foundations of mortality, of physical law, breaks their chains, and sets the captive free, opening the doors for them that are bound.

He who turns to the body for evidence, bases his con- clusions on mortality, on imperfection; but Science saith to man, "God hath all-power." [20]

The Science of omnipotence demonstrates but one power, and this power is good, not evil; not matter, but Mind. This virtually destroys matter and evil, in- cluding sin and disease. [25]

If God is All, and God is good, it follows that all must be good; and no other power, law, or intelligence can exist. On this proof rest premise and conclusion in Science, and the facts that disprove the evidence of the senses. [30]

God is individual Mind. This one Mind and His individuality comprise the elements of all forms and

[Page 102.]

individualities, and prophesy the nature and stature of [1] Christ, the ideal man.

A corporeal God, as often defined by lexicographers and scholastic theologians, is only an infinite finite being, an unlimited man,—a theory to me inconceivable. If [5] the unlimited and immortal Mind could originate in a limited body, Mind would be chained to finity, and the infinite forever finite.

In this limited and lower sense God is not personal. His infinity precludes the possibility of corporeal person- [10] ality. His being is individual, but not physical.

God is like Himself and like nothing else. He is uni- versal and primitive. His character admits of no degrees of comparison. God is not part, but the whole. In His individuality I recognize the loving, divine Father-Mother [15] God. Infinite personality must be incorporeal.

God's ways are not ours. His pity is expressed in modes above the human. His chastisements are the manifestations of Love. The sympathy of His eternal Mind is fully expressed in divine Science, which blots [20] out all our iniquities and heals all our diseases. Human pity often brings pain.

Science supports harmony, denies suffering, and de- stroys it with the divinity of Truth. Whatever seems mate- rial, seems thus only to the material senses, and is but the [25] subjective state of mortal and material thought.

Science has inaugurated the irrepressible conflict be- tween sense and Soul. Mortal thought wars with this sense as one that beateth the air, but Science outmasters it, and ends the warfare. This proves daily that "one [30] on God's side is a majority."

Science defines omnipresence as universality, that which

[Page 103.]

precludes the presence of evil. This verity annuls the tes- [1] timony of the senses, which say that sin is an evil power, and substance is perishable. Intelligent Spirit, Soul, is substance, far more impregnable and solid than matter; for one is temporal, while the other is eternal, the ultimate [5] and predicate of being.

Mortality, materiality, and destructive forces, such as sin, disease, and death, mortals virtually name substance; but these are the substance of things not hoped for. For lack of knowing what substance is, the senses say vaguely: [10] "The substance of life is sorrow and mortality; for who knoweth the substance of good?" In Science, form and individuality are never lost, thoughts are outlined, indi- vidualized ideas, which dwell forever in the divine Mind as tangible, true substance, because eternally conscious. [15] Unlike mortal mind, which must be ever in bondage, the eternal Mind is free, unlimited, and knows not the temporal.

Neither does the temporal know the eternal. Mortal man, as mind or matter, is neither the pattern nor Maker [20] of immortal man. Any inference of the divine derived from the human, either as mind or body, hides the actual power, presence, and individuality of God.

Jesus' personality in the flesh, so far as material sense could discern it, was like that of other men; but Science [25] exchanges this human concept of Jesus for the divine ideal, his spiritual individuality that reflected the Im- manuel, or "God with us." This God was not outlined. He was too mighty for that. He was eternal Life, infinite Truth and Love. The individuality is embraced in Mind, [30] therefore is forever with the Father. Hence the Scrip- ture, "I am a God at hand, saith the Lord." Even while

[Page 104.]

his personality was on earth and in anguish, his individual [1] being, the Christ, was at rest in the eternal harmony. His unseen individuality, so superior to that which was seen, was not subject to the temptations of the flesh, to laws material, to death, or the grave. Formed and gov- [5] erned by God, this individuality was safe in the substance of Soul, the substance of Spirit,—yea, the substance of God, the one inclusive good.

In Science all being is individual; for individuality is endless in the calculus of forms and numbers. Herein [10] sin is miraculous and supernatural; for it is not in the nature of God, and good is forever good. Accord- ing to Christian Science, perfection is normal,—not miraculous. Clothed, and in its right Mind, man's individuality is sinless, deathless, harmonious, eternal. [15] His materiality, clad in a false mentality, wages feeble fight with his individuality,—his physical senses with his spiritual senses. The latter move in God's grooves of Science: the former revolve in their own orbits, and must stand the friction of false selfhood until self- [20] destroyed.

In obedience to the divine nature, man's individuality reflects the divine law and order of being. How shall we reach our true selves? Through Love. The Prin- ciple of Christian Science is Love, and its idea represents [25] Love. This divine Principle and idea are demonstrated, in healing, to be God and the real man.

Who wants to be mortal, or would not gain the true ideal of Life and recover his own individuality? I will love, if another hates. I will gain a balance on the side of [30] good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of God wherewith to overcome all error. On this rests the

[Page 105.]

implicit faith engendered by Christian Science, which [1] appeals intelligently to the facts of man's spirituality, in- dividuality, to disdain the fears and destroy the discords of this material personality.

On our Master's individual demonstrations over sin, [5] sickness, and death, rested the anathema of priesthood and the senses; yet this demonstration is the foundation of Christian Science. His physical sufferings, which came from the testimony of the senses, were over when he resumed his individual spiritual being, after showing [10] us the way to escape from the material body.

Science would have no conflict with Life or common sense, if this sense were consistently sensible. Man's real life or existence is in harmony with Life and its glorious phenomena. It upholds being, and destroys the too [15] common sense of its opposites—death, disease, and sin. Christian Science is an everlasting victor, and vanquish- ment is unknown to the omnipresent Truth. I must ever follow this line of light and battle.

Christian Science is my only ideal; and the individual [20] and his ideal can never be severed. If either is misunder- stood or maligned, it eclipses the other with the shadow cast by this error.

Truth destroys error. Nothing appears to the physi- cal senses but their own subjective state of thought. The [25] senses join issue with error, and pity what has no right either to be pitied or to exist, and what does not exist in Science. Destroy the thought of sin, sickness, death, and you destroy their existence. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." [30]

Because God is Mind, and this Mind is good, all is good and all is Mind. God is the sum total of the

[Page 106.]

universe. Then what and where are sin, sickness, and [1] death?

Christian Science and Christian Scientists will, must, have a history; and if I could write the history in poor parody on Tennyson's grand verse, it would read [5] thus:—

Traitors to right of them, M. D.'s to left of them, Priestcraft in front of them, Volleyed and thundered! [10] Into the jaws of hate, Out through the door of Love, On to the blest above, Marched the one hundred.



Extract From My First Address In The Mother Church, May 26, 1895

Friends and Brethren:—Your Sunday Lesson, com- posed of Scripture and its correlative in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," has fed you. In addi- [20] tion, I can only bring crumbs fallen from this table of Truth, and gather up the fragments.

It has long been a question of earnest import, How shall mankind worship the most adorable, but most unadored,—and where shall begin that praise that shall never end? Beneath, above, beyond, methinks I hear [25] the soft, sweet sigh of angels answering, "So live, that your lives attest your sincerity and resound His praise."

Music is the harmony of being; but the music of Soul affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling and awaken the heart's harpstrings. Moved by mind, [30] your many-throated organ, in imitative tones of many

[Page 107.]

instruments, praises Him; but even the sweetness and [1] beauty in and of this temple that praise Him, are earth's accents, and must not be mistaken for the oracles of God. Art must not prevail over Science. Christianity is not superfluous. Its redemptive power is seen in sore trials, [5] self-denials, and crucifixions of the flesh. But these come to the rescue of mortals, to admonish them, and plant the feet steadfastly in Christ. As we rise above the seem- ing mists of sense, we behold more clearly that all the heart's homage belongs to God. [10]

More love is the great need of mankind. A pure af- fection, concentric, forgetting self, forgiving wrongs and forestalling them, should swell the lyre of human love.

Three cardinal points must be gained before poor humanity is regenerated and Christian Science is dem- [15] onstrated: (1) A proper sense of sin; (2) repentance; (3) the understanding of good. Evil is a negation: it never started with time, and it cannot keep pace with eternity. Mortals' false senses pass through three states and stages of human consciousness before yielding error. [20] The deluded sense must first be shown its falsity through a knowledge of evil as evil, so-called. Without a sense of one's oft-repeated violations of divine law, the in- dividual may become morally blind, and this deplorable mental state is moral idiocy. The lack of seeing one's [25] deformed mentality, and of repentance therefor, deep, never to be repented of, is retarding, and in certain mor- bid instances stopping, the growth of Christian Scientists. Without a knowledge of his sins, and repentance so severe that it destroys them, no person is or can be a Christian [30] Scientist.

Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin.

[Page 108.]

The sensitive, sorrowing saint thinks too much of it: the [1] sordid sinner, or the so-called Christian asleep, thinks too little of sin.

To allow sin of any sort is anomalous in Christian Scientists, claiming, as they do, that good is infinite, All. [5] Our Master, in his definition of Satan as a liar from the beginning, attested the absolute powerlessness—yea, nothingness—of evil: since a lie, being without founda- tion in fact, is merely a falsity; spiritually, literally, it is nothing. [10]

Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright, then reducing its claim to its proper denominator,— nobody and nothing. Sin should be conceived of only as a delusion. This true conception would remove mortals' [15] ignorance and its consequences, and advance the second stage of human consciousness, repentance. The first state, namely, the knowledge of one's self, the proper knowledge of evil and its subtle workings wherein evil seems as real as good, is indispensable; since that which [20] is truly conceived of, we can handle; but the misconcep- tion of what we need to know of evil,—or the concep- tion of it at all as something real,—costs much. Sin needs only to be known for what it is not; then we are its master, not servant. Remember, and act on, Jesus' [25] definition of sin as a lie. This cognomen makes it less dangerous; for most of us would not be seen believing in, or adhering to, that which we know to be untrue. What would be thought of a Christian Scientist who be- lieved in the use of drugs, while declaring that they have [30] no intrinsic quality and that there is no matter? What should be thought of an individual believing in that

[Page 109.]

which is untrue, and at the same time declaring the unity [1] of Truth, and its allness? Beware of those who mis- represent facts; or tacitly assent where they should dis- sent; or who take me as authority for what I disapprove, or mayhap never have thought of, and try to reverse, in- [5] vert, or controvert, Truth; for this is a sure pretext of moral defilement.

Examine yourselves, and see what, and how much, sin claims of you; and how much of this claim you admit as valid, or comply with. The knowledge of evil that [10] brings on repentance is the most hopeful stage of mortal mentality. Even a mild mistake must be seen as a mis- take, in order to be corrected; how much more, then, should one's sins be seen and repented of, before they can be reduced to their native nothingness! [15]

Ignorance is only blest by reason of its nothingness; for seeing the need of somethingness in its stead, blesses mortals. Ignorance was the first condition of sin in the allegory of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Their mental state is not desirable, neither is a knowledge of [20] sin and its consequences, repentance, per se; but, ad- mitting the existence of both, mortals must hasten through the second to the third stage,—the knowledge of good; for without this the valuable sequence of knowledge would be lacking,—even the power to escape from the [25] false claims of sin. To understand good, one must discern the nothingness of evil, and consecrate one's life anew.