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
[pg 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
[pg 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
[pg 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
[pg 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
[pg 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
[pg 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
[pg 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.
[pg 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
[pg 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.
Beloved brethren, Christ, Truth, saith unto you, “Be
not afraid!”—fear not sin, lest thereby it master you;
but only fear to sin. Watch and pray for self-knowledge; [30]
since then, and thus, cometh repentance,—and your
superiority to a delusion is won.
[pg 110]
Repentance is better than sacrifice. The costly balm [1]
of Araby, poured on our Master's feet, had not the value
of a single tear.
Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and
more as children than as men and women: it needs your [5]
innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontami-
nated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you
preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through
contact with the world. What grander ambition is there
than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to [10]
know that your example, more than words, makes morals
for mankind!
Address Before The Alumni Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, 1895
My Beloved Students:—Weeks have passed into [15]
months, and months into years, since last we met; but
time and space, when encompassed by divine presence,
do not separate us. Our hearts have kept time together,
and our hands have wrought steadfastly at the same
object-lesson, while leagues have lain between us. [20]
We may well unite in thanksgiving for the continued
progress and unprecedented prosperity of our Cause. It
is already obvious that the world's acceptance and the
momentum of Christian Science, increase rapidly as
years glide on. [25]
As Christian Scientists, you have dared the perilous de-
fense of Truth, and have succeeded. You have learned
how fleeting is that which men call great; and how per-
manent that which God calls good.
[pg 111]
You have proven that the greatest piety is scarcely [1]
sufficient to demonstrate what you have adopted and
taught; that your work, well done, would dignify angels.
Faithfully, as meekly, you have toiled all night; and
at break of day caught much. At times, your net has [5]
been so full that it broke: human pride, creeping into
its meshes, extended it beyond safe expansion; then,
losing hold of divine Love, you lost your fishes, and pos-
sibly blamed others more than yourself. But those whom
God makes “fishers of men” will not pull for the shore; [10]
like Peter, they launch into the depths, cast their nets
on the right side, compensate loss, and gain a higher sense
of the true idea. Nothing is lost that God gives: had He
filled the net, it would not have broken.