«Разные сочинения, 1883–1896»

mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power.

“Hand,” in Bible usage, often means spiritual power.

[pg 171]

“His hand is not shortened that it cannot save,” can [1]

never be wrested from its true meaning to signify human

hands. Jesus' first effort to realize Truth was not wholly

successful; but he rose to the occasion with the second

attempt, and the blind saw clearly. To suppose that [5]

Jesus did actually anoint the blind man's eyes with his

spittle, is as absurd as to think, according to the report

of some, that Christian Scientists sit in back-to-back

seances with their patients, for the divine power to filter

from vertebræ to vertebræ. When one comes to the age [10]

with spiritual translations of God's messages, expressed

in literal or physical terms, our right action is not to con-

demn and deny, but to “try the spirits” and see what

manner they are of. This does not mean communing

with spirits supposed to have departed from the earth, [15]

but the seeking out of the basis upon which are accom-

plished the works by which the new teacher would prove

his right to be heard. By these signs are the true disciples

of the Master known: the sick are healed; to the poor

the gospel is preached. [20]

Extract From A Sermon Delivered In Boston, January 18, 1885

Text: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman

took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.—Matt.

xiii. 33.

Few people at present know aught of the Science of

mental healing; and so many are obtruding upon the

public attention their ignorance or false knowledge in

the name of Science, that it behooves all clad in the shin-

ing mail to keep bright their invincible armor; to keep [30]

[pg 172]

their demonstrations modest, and their claims and lives [1]

steadfast in Truth.

Dispensing the Word charitably, but separating the

tares from the wheat, let us declare the positive and

the negative of metaphysical Science; what it is, and [5]

what it is not. Intrepid, self-oblivious Protestants in

a higher sense than ever before, let us meet and defeat

the claims of sense and sin, regardless of the bans or

clans pouring in their fire upon us; and white-winged

charity, brooding over all, shall cover with her feathers [10]

the veriest sinner.

Divine and unerring Mind measures man, until the

three measures be accomplished, and he arrives at

fulness of stature; for “the Lord God omnipotent

reigneth.” [15]

Science is divine: it is neither of human origin nor of

human direction. That which is termed “natural science,”

the evidences whereof are taken in by the five personal

senses, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite

law of God; which law is written on the heart, received [20]

through the affections, spiritually understood, and dem-

onstrated in our lives.

This law of God is the Science of mental healing,

spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed.

Mental Science, and the five personal senses, are at [25]

war; and peace can only be declared on the side of im-

mutable right,—the health, holiness, and immortality

of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and funda-

mental rule of Science must be understood and adhered

to; namely, the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture [30]

that God is good; hence, good is omnipotent and

omnipresent.

[pg 173]

Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, or [1]

man's theorems, misstate mental Science, its Principle

and practice. The most enlightened sense herein sees

nothing but a law of matter.

Who has ever learned of the schools that there is but [5]

one Mind, and that this is God, who healeth all our sick-

ness and sins?

Who has ever learned from the schools, pagan phi-

losophy, or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of

Mind and not of matter, and that this law has no relation [10]

to, or recognition of, matter?

Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God,

omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an oppo-

site so-called science, which says that man is both matter

and mind, that Mind is in matter? Can the infinite [15]

be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted

in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without

space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that

it is man?

If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter [20]

is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power

and all-presence, man is not met by another power

and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—

pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man

is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that [25]

is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator?

Surely not from God, for He made man in His own

likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called

matter? Have attraction and cohesion formed it?

But are these forces laws of matter, or laws of [30]

Mind?

For matter to be matter, it must have been self-created.

[pg 174]

Mind has no more power to evolve or to create matter [1]

than has good to produce evil. Matter is a misstatement

of Mind; it is a lie, claiming to talk and disclaim against

Truth; idolatry, having other gods; evil, having presence

and power over omnipotence! [5]

Let us have a clearing up of abstractions. Let us

come into the presence of Him who removeth all iniqui-

ties, and healeth all our diseases. Let us attach our sense

of Science to what touches the religious sentiment within

man. Let us open our affections to the Principle that [10]

moves all in harmony,—from the falling of a sparrow

to the rolling of a world. Above Arcturus and his sons,

broader than the solar system and higher than the at-

mosphere of our planet, is the Science of mental

healing. [15]

What is the kingdom of heaven? The abode of Spirit,

the realm of the real. No matter is there, no night is

there—nothing that maketh or worketh a lie. Is this

kingdom afar off? No: it is ever-present here. The

first to declare against this kingdom is matter. Shall [20]

that be called heresy which pleads for Spirit—the All of

God, and His omnipresence?

The kingdom of heaven is the reign of divine Science:

it is a mental state. Jesus said it is within you, and

taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come;” but he did [25]

not teach us to pray for death whereby to gain heaven.

We do not look into darkness for light. Death can never

usher in the dawn of Science that reveals the spiritual

facts of man's Life here and now.

The leaven which a woman took and hid in three [30]

measures of meal, is Divine Science; the Comforter;

the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the “still,

[pg 175]

small voice” that breathes His presence and power, cast- [1]

ing out error and healing the sick. And woman, the

spiritual idea, takes of the things of God and showeth

them unto the creature, until the whole sense of being

is leavened with Spirit. The three measures of meal [5]

may well be likened to the false sense of life, substance,

and intelligence, which says, I am sustained by bread,

matter, instead of Mind. The spiritual leaven of divine

Science changes this false sense, giving better views of

Life; saying, Man's Life is God; and when this shall [10]

appear, it shall be “the substance of things hoped for.”

The measure of Life shall increase by every spiritual

touch, even as the leaven expands the loaf. Man shall

keep the feast of Life, not with the old leaven of the

scribes and Pharisees, neither with “the leaven of malice [15]

and wickedness; but the unleavened bread of sincerity

and truth.”

Thus it can be seen that the Science of mental healing

must be understood. There are false Christs that would

“deceive, if it were possible, the very elect,” by institut- [20]

ing matter and its methods in place of God, Mind. Their

supposition is, that there are other minds than His; that

one mind controls another; that one belief takes the

place of another. But this ism of to-day has nothing

to do with the Science of mental healing which acquaints [25]

us with God and reveals the one perfect Mind and His

laws.

The attempt to mix matter and Mind, to work by

means of both animal magnetism and divine power, is

literally saying, Have we not in thy name cast out devils, [30]

and done many wonderful works?

But remember God in all thy ways, and thou shalt

[pg 176]

find the truth that breaks the dream of sense, letting the [1]

harmony of Science that declares Him, come in with

healing, and peace, and perfect love.

Воскресные службы 4 июля

Extempore Remarks

The great theme so deeply and solemnly expounded

by the preacher, has been exemplified in all ages, but

chiefly in the great crises of nations or of the human race.

It is then that supreme devotion to Principle has espe-

cially been called for and manifested. It is then that we [10]

learn a little more of the nothingness of evil, and more

of the divine energies of good, and strive valiantly for the

liberty of the sons of God.

The day we celebrate reminds us of the heroes and

heroines who counted not their own lives dear to them, [15]

when they sought the New England shores, not as the

flying nor as conquerors, but, steadfast in faith and love,

to build upon the rock of Christ, the true idea of God—

the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.

When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth [20]

Rock, frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted

away in the fire of love which came down from heaven.

The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom,

in the rights of conscience.

But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? [25]

Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and

responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve

them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith

we are armored?

[pg 177]

Never was there a more solemn and imperious call [1]

than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent de-

votion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and

holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great

battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil [5]

are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the

Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and opera-

tive in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate

malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action

against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and [10]

they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-

bearers.

What will you do about it? Will you be equally in

earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid

zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will [15]

you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great

work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science

which are necessary to the salvation of the world from

error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practi-

cally, and answer aright! [20]

Пасхальные службы

The editor of The Christian Science Journal said that

at three o'clock, the hour for the church service proper,

the pastor, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, accompanied

by Rev. D. A. Easton, who was announced to preach [25]

the sermon, came on the platform. The pastor introduced

Mr. Easton as follows:—

Friends:—The homesick traveller in foreign lands

greets with joy a familiar face. I am constantly home-

sick for heaven. In my long journeyings I have met [30]

[pg 178]

one who comes from the place of my own sojourning [1]

for many years,—the Congregational Church. He is

a graduate of Bowdoin College and of Andover The-

ological School. He has left his old church, as I did,

from a yearning of the heart; because he was not sat- [5]

isfied with a manlike God, but wanted to become a God-

like man. He found that the new wine could not be

put into old bottles without bursting them, and he came

to us.

Mr. Easton then delivered an interesting discourse [10]

from the text, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek

those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the

right hand of God” (Col. iii. 1), which he prefaced by

saying:—

“I think it was about a year ago that I strayed into [15]

this hall, a stranger, and wondered what sort of people

you were, and of what you were worshippers. If any

one had said to me that to-day I should stand before

you to preach a sermon on Christian Science, I should

have replied, “Much learning”—or something else— [20]

“hath made thee mad.” If I had not found Christian

Science a new gospel, I should not be standing before you:

if I had not found it truth, I could not have stood up

again to preach, here or elsewhere.”

At the conclusion of the sermon, the pastor again came [25]

forward, and added the following:—

My friends, I wished to be excused from speaking

to-day, but will yield to circumstances. In the flesh, we

are as a partition wall between the old and the new;

between the old religion in which we have been educated, [30]

and the new, living, impersonal Christ-thought that has

been given to the world to-day.

[pg 179]

The old churches are saying, “He is not here;” and, [1]

“Who shall roll away the stone?”

The stone has been rolled away by human suffer-

ing. The first rightful desire in the hour of loss, when

believing we have lost sight of Truth, is to know where [5]

He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these

questions:—

Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we

any other consciousness than that of good? If we have,

He is saying to us to-day, “Adam, where art thou?” We [10]

are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and

death. This is the old consciousness.

In the new religion the teaching is, “He is not here;

Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become

more to us,—more true, more spiritual.” [15]

Can we say this to-day? Have we left the conscious-

ness of sickness and sin for that of health and

holiness?

What is it that seems a stone between us and the

resurrection morning? [20]

It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come

into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old con-

sciousness of Soul in sense.

These flowers are floral apostles. God does all this

through His followers; and He made every flower in [25]

Mind before it sprang from the earth: yet we look into

matter and the earth to give us these smiles of God!

We must lay aside material consciousness, and then

we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, “Rabboni!”

—Master! [30]

In 1866, when God revealed to me this risen Christ,

this Life that knows no death, that saith, “Because he

[pg 180]

lives, I live,” I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the [1]

flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease

my warfare.

When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from

the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were [5]

frightened at beholding me restored to health.

A dear old lady asked me, “How is it that you are

restored to us? Has Christ come again on earth?”

“Christ never left,” I replied; “Christ is Truth, and

Truth is always here,—the impersonal Saviour.” [10]

Then another person, more material, met me, and I

said, in the words of my Master, “Touch me not.” I

shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went

out to God, and I found the open door from this sepulchre

of matter. [15]

I love the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and

not of death.

Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his

resurrection.

Библейские уроки

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the

sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born,

not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of

God.—John i. 12, 13.

Here, the apostle assures us that man has power to [25]

become the son of God. In the Hebrew text, the word

“son” is defined variously; a month is called the son

of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both

a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak

of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of man; but [30]

[pg 181]

Jesus said to call no man father; “for one is your Father,” [1]

even God.

Is man's spiritual sonship a personal gift to man, or

is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man's

knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to dem- [5]

onstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite

in order to understand his sonship, or unity with God,

good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to

the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of

Science, unless that requirement should express the claims [10]

of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite

Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over

what is the person of Spirit,—if we recognize infinitude

as personality,—for who can tell what is the form of

infinity? When we understand man's true birthright, that [15]

he is “born, not ... of the will of the flesh, nor of the

will of man, but of God,” we shall understand that man

is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize

him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard

him as spiritual, and not material. His sonship, referred [20]

to in the text, is his spiritual relation to Deity: it is not,

then, a personal gift, but is the order of divine Science.

The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact:

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power

to become the sons of God.” Mortals will lose their sense [25]

of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death—in

the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spirit-

ual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of

good, and not of God's opposite,—evil, or a fallen

man. [30]

John the Baptist had a clear discernment of divine

Science: being born not of the human will or flesh, he

[pg 182]

antedated his own existence, began spiritually instead [1]

of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the im-

possibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through

violent means or material methods.

“As many as received him;” that is, as many as per-

ceive man's actual existence in and of his divine Princi- [5]

ple, receive the Truth of existence; and these have no

other God, no other Mind, no other origin; therefore, in

time they lose their false sense of existence, and find

their adoption with the Father; to wit, the redemption [10]

of the body. Through divine Science man gains the

power to become the son of God, to recognize his perfect

and eternal estate.

“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of

the flesh.” This passage refers to man's primal, spirit- [15]

ual existence, created neither from dust nor carnal desire.

“Nor of the will of man.” Born of no doctrine,

no human faith, but beholding the truth of being; even

the understanding that man was never lost in Adam,

since he is and ever was the image and likeness of God, [20]

good. But no mortal hath seen the spiritual man, more

than he hath seen the Father. The apostle indicates

no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite;

but the possibility of all finding their place in God's great

love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and [25]

daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of existence

as Principle and idea, wherein man and his Maker

are inseparable and eternal.

When the Word is made flesh,—that is, rendered

practical,—this eternal Truth will be understood; and [30]

sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did

more than eighteen centuries ago. The lusts of the flesh

[pg 183]

and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine [1]

Science of being; in the ever-present good, omnipotent

Love, and eternal Life, that know no death, In the great

forever, the verities of being exist, and must be acknowl-

edged and demonstrated. Man must love his neighbor [5]

as himself, and the power of Truth must be seen and

felt in health, happiness, and holiness: then it will be

found that Mind is All-in-all, and there is no matter to

cope with.

Man is free born: he is neither the slave of sense, nor a [10]

silly ambler to the so-called pleasures and pains of self-

conscious matter. Man is God's image and likeness;

whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's

reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn

this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scrip- [15]

tures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall

be filled—not by reason of the schools, or learning, but

by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed

on him, to give utterance to Truth.

“Who hath believed our report?” Who understands [20]

these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is re-

vealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence,

that equips man with divine power while it shames human

pride. Asserting a selfhood apart from God, is a denial

of man's spiritual sonship; for it claims another father. [25]

As many as do receive a knowledge of God through

Science, will have power to reflect His power, in proof of

man's “dominion over all the earth.” He is bravely

brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material

sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true [30]

status of man because of it. The material senses would

make man, that the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker,

[pg 184]

the very opposite of that Maker, by claiming that God is [1]

Spirit, while man is matter; that God is good, but man is

evil; that Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and

sense conflict, from the revolving of worlds to the death

of a sparrow.

The Word will be made flesh and dwell among mortals,

only when man reflects God in body as well as in mind.

The child born of a woman has the formation of his

parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material.

Paul refers to this when speaking of presenting our bodies [10]

holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service;

and this brings to remembrance the Hebrew strain,

“Who healeth all thy diseases.”

If man should say of the power to be perfect which he

possesses, “I am the power,” he would trespass upon [15]

divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power;

even as when saying, “I have the power to sin and be

sick,” and persisting in believing that he is sick and a

sinner. If he says, “I am of God, therefore good,” yet

persists in evil, he has denied the power of Truth, and [20]

must suffer for this error until he learns that all power is

good because it is of God, and so destroys his self-de-

ceived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives

back the lost likeness and power of God as the seal of

man's adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable, [25]

which casteth out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death;

that seeketh not her own, but another's good; that saith

Abba, Father, and is born of God!

John came baptizing with water. He employed a type

of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity, [30]

even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and

submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the

[pg 185]

lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker. [1]

None but the pure in heart shall see God,—shall be able

to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle

of Christian Science. The will of God, or power of Spirit,

is made manifest as Truth, and through righteousness,— [5]

not as or through matter,—and it strips matter of all

claims, abilities or disabilities, pains or pleasures. Self-

renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material

man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his

spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that [10]

opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good

flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of

all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demon-

strating the true image and likeness. There is no other

way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man [15]

be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality.

“As many as received him,”—as accept the truth

of being,—“to them gave he power to become the sons

of God.” The spiritualization of our sense of man opens

the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses [20]

would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright,

pure, and free; having no need of statistics by which to

learn his origin and age, or to measure his manhood, or to

know how much of a man he ever has been: for, “as

many as received him, to them gave he power to become [25]

the sons of God.”

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;

the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.—1 Cor. xv. 45.

When reasoning on this subject of man with the Corin-

thian brethren, the apostle first spake from their stand- [30]

point of thought; namely, that creation is material:

[pg 186]

he was not at this point giving the history of the spiritual [1]

man who originates in God, Love, who created man

in His own image and likeness. In the creation of Adam

from dust,—in which Soul is supposed to enter the

embryo-man after his birth,—we see the material self- [5]

constituted belief of the Jews as referred to by St. Paul.

Their material belief has fallen far below man's original

standard, the spiritual man made in the image and like-

ness of God; for this erring belief even separates its

conception of man from God, and ultimates in the opposite [10]

of immortal man, namely, in a sick and sinning

mortal.

We learn in the Scriptures, as in divine Science, that

God made all; that He is the universal Father and Mother

of man; that God is divine Love: therefore divine Love [15]

is the divine Principle of the divine idea named man;

in other words, the spiritual Principle of spiritual man.

Now let us not lose this Science of man, but gain it clearly;

then we shall see that man cannot be separated from

his perfect Principle, God, inasmuch as an idea cannot [20]

be torn apart from its fundamental basis. This scien-

tific knowledge affords self-evident proof of immortality;

proof, also, that the Principle of man cannot produce a

less perfect man than it produced in the beginning. A

material sense of existence is not the scientific fact of [25]

being; whereas, the spiritual sense of God and His universe

is the immortal and true sense of being.

As the apostle proceeds in this line of thought, he

undoubtedly refers to the last Adam represented by the

Messias, whose demonstration of God restored to mortals [30]

the lost sense of man's perfection, even the sense of the

real man in God's likeness, who restored this sense by

[pg 187]

the spiritual regeneration of both mind and body,— [1]

casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead.

The man Jesus demonstrated over sin, sickness, disease,

and death. The great Metaphysician wrought, over and

above every sense of matter, into the proper sense of the [5]

possibilities of Spirit. He established health and har-

mony, the perfection of mind and body, as the reality of

man; while discord, as seen in disease and death, was to

him the opposite of man, hence the unreality; even as in

Science a chord is manifestly the reality of music, and [10]

discord the unreality. This rule of harmony must be ac-

cepted as true relative to man.

The translators of the older Scriptures presuppose a

material man to be the first man, solely because their

transcribing thoughts were not lifted to the inspired sense [15]

of the spiritual man, as set forth in original Holy Writ.

Had both writers and translators in that age fully com-

prehended the later teachings and demonstrations of

our human and divine Master, the Old Testament might

have been as spiritual as the New. [20]

The origin, substance, and life of man are one, and

that one is God,—Life, Truth, Love. The self-existent,

perfect, and eternal are God; and man is their reflection

and glory. Did the substance of God, Spirit, become a

clod, in order to create a sick, sinning, dying man? The [25]

primal facts of being are eternal; they are never extin-

guished in a night of discord.

That man must be evil before he can be good; dying,

before deathless; material, before spiritual; sick and a

sinner in order to be healed and saved, is but the declara- [30]

tion of the material senses transcribed by pagan religion-

ists, by wicked mortals such as crucified our Master,—

[pg 188]

whose teachings opposed the doctrines of Christ that [1]

demonstrated the opposite, Truth.

Man is as perfect now, and henceforth, and forever,

as when the stars first sang together, and creation joined

in the grand chorus of harmonious being. It is the trans-

lator, not the original Word, who presents as being first [5]

that which appears second, material, and mortal; and

as last, that which is primal, spiritual, and eternal. Be-

cause of human misstatement and misconception of God

and man, of the divine Principle and idea of being, there [10]

seems to be a war between the flesh and Spirit, a contest

between Truth and error; but the apostle says, “There

is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in

Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit.” [15]

On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis

of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses;

thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense;

and right there he leaves the subject.

Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where [20]

the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian

Science. And she has not left it, but continues the ex-

planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning,

its allness. The recognition of this power came to her

through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal [25]

or mortal sense of things; not that there is, or can

be, an actual change in the realities of being, but

that we can discern more of them. At the moment

of her discovery, she knew that the last Adam, namely,

the true likeness of God, was the first, the only man. [30]

This knowledge did become to her “a quickening

spirit;” for she beheld the meaning of those words

[pg 189]

of our Master, “The last shall be first, and the first [1]

last.”

When, as little children, we are receptive, become

willing to accept the divine Principle and rule of being,

as unfolded in divine Science, the interpretation therein

will be found to be the Comforter that leadeth into all

truth. [5]

The meek Nazarene's steadfast and true knowledge of

preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God

and man,—made him mighty. Spiritual insight of [10]

Truth and Love antidotes and destroys the errors of flesh,

and brings to light the true reflection: man as God's

image, or “the first man,” for Christ plainly declared,

through Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into [15]

matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false

sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it

away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and per-

fection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as

God. The Scriptures declare Life to be the infinite I [20]

am,—not a dweller in matter. For man to know Life

as it is, namely God, the eternal good, gives him not

merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying con-

sciousness of spiritual power that subordinates matter

and destroys sin, disease, and death. This, Jesus demon- [25]

strated; insomuch that St. Matthew wrote, “The people

were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them

as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” This

spiritual power, healing sin and sickness, was not con-

fined to the first century; it extends to all time, inhabits [30]

eternity, and demonstrates Life without beginning or

end.

[pg 190]

Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the [1]

energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the out-

come of life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth,

Life, defiant of error or matter. Divine Science demon-

strates Mind as dispelling a false sense and giving the [5]

true sense of itself, God, and the universe; wherein the

mortal evolves not the immortal, nor does the material

ultimate in the spiritual; wherein man is coexistent with

Mind, and is the recognized reflection of infinite Life and

Love. [10]

And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to

pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.—Luke xi. 14.

The meaning of the term “devil” needs yet to be

learned. Its definition as an individual is too limited

and contradictory. When the Scripture is understood, [15]

the spiritual signification of its terms will be understood,

and will contradict the interpretations that the senses

give them; and these terms will be found to include the

inspired meaning.

It could not have been a person that our great Master [20]

cast out of another person; therefore the devil herein

referred to was an impersonal evil, or whatever worketh

ill. In this case it was the evil of dumbness, an error of

material sense, cast out by the spiritual truth of being;

namely, that speech belongs to Mind instead of matter, [25]

and the wrong power, or the lost sense, must yield to the

right sense, and exist in Mind.

In the Hebrew, “devil” is denominated Abaddon; in

the Greek, Apollyon, serpent, liar, the god of this world,

etc. The apostle Paul refers to this personality of evil [30]

as “the god of this world;” and then defines this god

[pg 191]

as “dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God [1]

deceitfully.” The Hebrew embodies the term “devil”

in another term, serpent,—which the senses are supposed

to take in,—and then defines this serpent as “more

subtle than all the beasts of the field.” Subsequently, [5]

the ancients changed the meaning of the term, to their

sense, and then the serpent became a symbol of wisdom.

The Scripture in John, sixth chapter and seventieth

verse, refers to a wicked man as the devil: “Have not

I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Accord- [10]

ing to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is

more than one devil. In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty-

eighth verse, it reads: “Master, we saw one casting out

devils in thy name.” Here is an assertion indicating

the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the [15]

first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found

to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth,

casts out. By no possible interpretation can this passage

mean several individuals cast out of another individual

no bigger than themselves. The term, being here em- [20]

ployed in its plural number, destroys all consistent sup-

position of the existence of one personal devil. Again,

our text refers to the devil as dumb; but the original

devil was a great talker, and was supposed to have out-

talked even Truth, and carried the question with Eve. [25]

Also, the original texts define him as an “accuser,” a

“calumniator,” which would be impossible if he were

speechless. These two opposite characters ascribed to

him could only be possible as evil beliefs, as different

phases of sin or disease made manifest. [30]

Let us obey St. Paul's injunction to reject fables, and

accept the Scriptures in their broader, more spiritual

[pg 192]

and practical sense. When we speak of a good man, we [1]

do not mean that man is God because the Hebrew term

for Deity was “good,” and vice versa; so, when referring

to a liar, we mean not that he is a personal devil, because

the original text defines devil as a “liar.” [5]

It is of infinite importance to man's spiritual progress,

and to his demonstration of Truth in casting out error,

—sickness, sin, disease, and death, in all their forms,—

that the terms and nature of Deity and devil be understood.

He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and

greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.—

John xiv. 12.

Such are the words of him who spake divinely, well

knowing the omnipotence of Truth. The Hebrew bard

saith, “His name shall endure forever: His name shall [15]

be continued as long as the sun.” Luminous with the

light of divine Science, his words reveal the great Principle

of a full salvation. Neither can we question the practi-

cability of the divine Word, who have learned its adapta-

bility to human needs, and man's ability to prove the [20]

truth of prophecy.

The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing

belongs to every period; as the above Scripture plainly

declares, and as primitive Christianity confirms. Also,

the last chapter of Mark is emphatic on this subject; [25]

making healing a condition of salvation, that extends to

all ages and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can

be more conclusive than this: “And these signs shall

follow them that believe; ... they shall lay hands on

the sick, and they shall recover.” This declaration of [30]

our Master settles the question; else we are entertaining

[pg 193]

the startling inquiries, Are the Scriptures inspired? Are [1]

they true? Did Jesus mean what he said?

If this be the cavil, we reply in the affirmative that the

Scripture is true; that Jesus did mean all, and even more

than he said or deemed it safe to say at that time. His [5]

words are unmistakable, for they form propositions of

self-evident demonstrable truth. Doctrines that deny

the substance and practicality of all Christ's teachings

cannot be evangelical; and evangelical religion can be

established on no other claim than the authenticity of [10]

the Gospels, which support unequivocally the proof that

Christian Science, as defined and practised by Jesus,

heals the sick, casts out error, and will destroy death.

Referring to The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,

of which I am pastor, a certain clergyman charitably [15]

expressed it, “the so-called Christian Scientists.”

I am thankful even for his allusion to truth; it being

a modification of silence on this subject, and also of what

had been said when critics attacked me for supplying the

word Science to Christianity,—a word which the people [20]

are now adopting.

The next step for ecclesiasticism to take, is to admit

that all Christians are properly called Scientists who

follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth;

and that no one is following his full command without [25]

this enlarged sense of the spirit and power of Christianity.

“He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do,”

is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and

power of Christianity to heal; for this is Christlike,

and includes the understanding of man's capabilities and [30]

spiritual power. The condition insisted upon is, first,

“belief;” the Hebrew of which implies understanding.

[pg 194]

How many to-day believe that the power of God equals [1]

even the power of a drug to heal the sick! Divine Science

reveals the Principle of this power, and the rule whereby

sin, sickness, disease, and death are destroyed; and God

is this Principle. Let us, then, seek this Science; that we [5]

may know Him better, and love Him more.

Though a man were begirt with the Urim and Thum-

mim of priestly office, yet should deny the validity or

permanence of Christ's command to heal in all ages,

this denial would dishonor that office and misinterpret [10]

evangelical religion. Divine Science is not an interpo-

lation of the Scriptures, but is redolent with love, health,

and holiness, for the whole human race. It only needs

the prism of this Science to divide the rays of Truth, and

bring out the entire hues of Deity, which scholastic theol- [15]

ogy has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine

power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy

of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.

The context of the foregoing Scriptural text explains

Jesus' words, “because I go unto my Father.” “Because” [20]

in following him, you understand God and how to turn

from matter to Spirit for healing; how to leave self, the

sense material, for the sense spiritual; how to accept

God's power and guidance, and become imbued with

divine Love that casts out all fear. Then are you bap- [25]

tized in the Truth that destroys all error, and you receive

the sense of Life that knows no death, and you know that

God is the only Life.

To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that

is God, good, we must comply with the first condition [30]

set forth in the text, namely, believe; in other words,

understand God sufficiently to exclude all faith in any

[pg 195]

other remedy than Christ, the Truth that antidotes all [1]

error. Thence will follow the absorption of all action,

motive, and mind, into the rules and divine Principle of

metaphysical healing.

Whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science but [5]

possesses not its spirit, is unable to demonstrate this

Science; or whosoever hath the spirit without the letter,

is held back by reason of the lack of understanding. Both

the spirit and the letter are requisite; and having these,

every one can prove, in some degree, the validity of those [10]

words of the great Master, “For the Son of man is come

to save that which was lost.”

It has been said that the New Testament does not au-

thorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period.

We ask what is the authority for such a conclusion, [15]

the premises whereof are not to be found in the Scriptures.

The Master's divine logic, as seen in our text, contradicts

this inference,—these are his words: “He that believeth

on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” That per-

fect syllogism of Jesus has but one correct premise and [20]

conclusion, and it cannot fall to the ground beneath the

stroke of unskilled swordsmen. He who never unsheathed

his blade to try the edge of truth in Christian Science, is

unequal to the conflict, and unfit to judge in the case;

the shepherd's sling would slay this Goliath. I once be- [25]

lieved that the practice and teachings of Jesus relative to

healing the sick, were spiritual abstractions, impractical

and impossible to us; but deed, not creed, and practice

more than theory, have given me a higher sense of

Christianity. [30]

The “I” will go to the Father when meekness, purity,

and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter,

[pg 196]

lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in [1]

matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one

Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God.

Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds

and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner [5]

of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in

the beginning, “Believe in me, and I will make you as

gods;” that is, I will give you a separate mind from God

(good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open

your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become [10]

material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent

said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind,

good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the

words of our Master: “He is a liar, and the father of it;”

also, the character of the votaries to “other gods” which [15]

sprung from it.

The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man's

unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present

existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good.

It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness, [20]

and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall ap-

pear, “we shall be like Him;” we shall do the works of

Christ, and, in the words of David, “the stone which the

builders refused is become the head stone of the corner,”

because the “I” does go unto the Father, the ego does [25]

arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted,—

not through death, but Life, God understood.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.—Acts

xvi. 31.

The Scriptures require more than a simple admission [30]

and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they

[pg 197]

require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons [1]

into our lives that these truths become the motive-power

of every act.

ur chosen text is one more frequently used than

many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin [5]

and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import

of this text is not yet recognized. It means a full salva-

tion,—man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for,

unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven

in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers [10]

pursue.

In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let

us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion

entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God,

or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more [15]

help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical

event or person. But it does mean so to understand the

beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus

presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will

compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to “let [20]

this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

(Phil. ii. 5.)

Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life

in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelli-

gence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both [25]

good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and there-

fore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Command-

ment of God.

Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God,

recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and, [30]

placing his trust in this grand Truth, and working from

no other Principle, he can neither be sick nor forever a

[pg 198]

sinner. When wholly governed by the one perfect Mind, [1]

man has no sinful thoughts and will have no desire

to sin.

To arrive at this point of unity of Spirit, God, one must

commence by turning away from material gods; denying [5]

material so-called laws and material sensation,—or mind

in matter, in its varied forms of pleasure and pain. This

must be done with the understanding that matter has no

sense; thus it is that consciousness silences the mortal

claim to life, substance, or mind in matter, with the words [10]

of Jesus: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his

own.” (John viii. 44.)

When tempted to sin, we should know that evil pro-

ceedeth not from God, good, but is a false belief of the

personal senses; and if we deny the claims of these senses [15]

and recognize man as governed by God, Spirit, not by

material laws, the temptation will disappear.

On this Principle, disease also is treated and healed.

We know that man's body, as matter, has no power to

govern itself; and a belief of disease is as much the prod- [20]

uct of mortal thought as sin is. All suffering is the fruit

of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil; of

adherence to the “doubleminded” senses, to some belief,

fear, theory, or bad deed, based on physical material law,

so-called as opposed to good,—all of which is corrected [25]

alone by Science, divine Principle, and its spiritual laws.

Suffering is the supposition of another intelligence than

God; a belief in self-existent evil, opposed to good; and

in whatever seems to punish man for doing good,—

by saying he has overworked, suffered from inclement [30]

weather, or violated a law of matter in doing good, there-

fore he must suffer for it.

[pg 199]

God does not reward benevolence and love with pen- [1]

alties; and because of this, we have the right to deny the

supposed power of matter to do it, and to allege that only

mortal, erring mind can claim to do thus, and dignify the

result with the name of law: thence comes man's ability [5]

to annul his own erring mental law, and to hold himself

amenable only to moral and spiritual law,—God's gov-

ernment. By so doing, male and female come into their

rightful heritage, “into the glorious liberty of the children

of God.” [10]

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,

in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.—2 Cor.

xii. 10.

The miracles recorded in the Scriptures illustrate the

life of Jesus as nothing else can; but they cost him the [15]

hatred of the rabbis. The rulers sought the life of Jesus;

they would extinguish whatever denied and defied their

superstition. We learn somewhat of the qualities of the

divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of

his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it [20]

gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mor-

tals name matter.

The Principle of these marvellous works is divine; but

the actor was human. This divine Principle is discerned

in Christian Science, as we advance in the spiritual under- [25]

standing that all substance, Life, and intelligence are

God. The so-called miracles contained in Holy Writ are

neither supernatural nor preternatural; for God is good,

and goodness is more natural than evil. The marvellous

healing-power of goodness is the outflowing life of Chris- [30]

tianity, and it characterized and dated the Christian era.

[pg 200]

It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the [1]

mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instan-

taneous. Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man,

and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as

the better representatives of God than sin, disease, and [5]

death. The master Metaphysician understood omnipo-

tence to be All-power: because Spirit was to him All-

in-all, matter was palpably an error of premise and

conclusion, while God was the only substance, Life,

and intelligence of man. [10]

The apostle Paul insists on the rare rule in Christian

Science that we have chosen for a text; a rule that is sus-

ceptible of proof, and is applicable to every stage and

state of human existence. The divine Science of this rule

is quite as remote from the general comprehension of man- [15]

kind as are the so-called miracles of our Master, and for

the sole reason that it is their basis. The foundational

facts of Christian Science are gathered from the supremacy

of spiritual law and its antagonism to every supposed ma-

terial law. Christians to-day should be able to say, with [20]

the sweet sincerity of the apostle, “I take pleasure in

infirmities,”—I enjoy the touch of weakness, pain, and

all suffering of the flesh, because it compels me to seek the

remedy for it, and to find happiness, apart from the per-

sonal senses. The holy calm of Paul's well-tried hope [25]

met no obstacle or circumstances paramount to the tri-

umph of a reasonable faith in the omnipotence of good,

involved in its divine Principle, God: the so-called pains

and pleasures of matter were alike unreal to Jesus; for he

regarded matter as only a vagary of mortal belief, and sub- [30]

dued it with this understanding.

The abstract statement that all is Mind, supports the

[pg 201]

entire wisdom of the text; and this statement receives [1]

the mortal scoff only because it meets the immortal de-

mands of Truth. The Science of Paul's declaration re-

solves the element misnamed matter into its original sin,

or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the [5]

qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought

death; and death is an element of matter, or material

falsity, never of Spirit.

When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he

revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its power- [10]

lessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the

Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error

and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great

somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit,

and immortal. [15]

Understanding this, Paul took pleasure in infirmities,

for it enabled him to triumph over them,—he declared

that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath

made me free from the law of sin and death;” he took

pleasure in “reproaches” and “persecutions,” because [20]

they were so many proofs that he had wrought the prob-

lem of being beyond the common apprehension of sinners;

he took pleasure in “necessities,” for they tested and de-

veloped latent power.

We protect our dwellings more securely after a robbery, [25]

and our jewels have been stolen; so, after losing those

jewels of character,—temperance, virtue, and truth,—

the young man is awakened to bar his door against further

robberies.

Go to the bedside of pain, and there you can demon- [30]

strate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities;

because it illustrates through the flesh the divine power

[pg 202]

of Spirit, and reaches the basis of all supposed miracles; [1]

whereby the sweet harmonies of Christian Science are

found to correct the discords of sense, and to lift man's

being into the sunlight of Soul.

“The chamber where the good man meets his fate [5]

Is privileged beyond the walks of common life,

Quite on the verge of heaven.”

[pg 203]

Глава VII. Пруд и цель.

Beloved Students:—In thanking you for your [1]

gift of the pretty pond contributed to Pleasant View,

in Concord, New Hampshire, I make no distinction be-

tween my students and your students; for here, thine

becomes mine through gratitude and affection. [5]

From my tower window, as I look on this smile of

Christian Science, this gift from my students and their

students, it will always mirror their love, loyalty, and

good works. Solomon saith, “As in water face answereth

to face, so the heart of man to man.” [10]

The waters that run among the valleys, and that

you have coaxed in their course to call on me, have

served the imagination for centuries. Theology religiously

bathes in water, medicine applies it physically, hydrology

handles it with so-called science, and metaphysics appro- [15]

priates it topically as type and shadow. Metaphysically,

baptism serves to rebuke the senses and illustrate Christian

Science.

First: The baptism of repentance is indeed a stricken

state of human consciousness, wherein mortals gain [20]

severe views of themselves; a state of mind which rends

the veil that hides mental deformity. Tears flood the eyes,

[pg 204]

agony struggles, pride rebels, and a mortal seems a [1]

monster, a dark, impenetrable cloud of error; and falling

on the bended knee of prayer, humble before God, he

cries, “Save, or I perish.” Thus Truth, searching the

heart, neutralizes and destroys error. [5]

This mental period is sometimes chronic, but oftener

acute. It is attended throughout with doubt, hope, sorrow,

joy, defeat, and triumph. When the good fight is fought,

error yields up its weapons and kisses the feet of Love,

while white-winged peace sings to the heart a song of [10]

angels.

Second: The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the spirit

of Truth cleansing from all sin; giving mortals new

motives, new purposes, new affections, all pointing up-

ward. This mental condition settles into strength, free- [15]

dom, deep-toned faith in God; and a marked loss of faith

in evil, in human wisdom, human policy, ways, and means.

It develops individual capacity, increases the intellectual

activities, and so quickens moral sensibility that the

great demands of spiritual sense are recognized, and they [20]

rebuke the material senses, holding sway over human

consciousness.

By purifying human thought, this state of mind per-

meates with increased harmony all the minutiae of human

affairs. It brings with it wonderful foresight, wisdom, [25]

and power; it unselfs the mortal purpose, gives steadi-

ness to resolve, and success to endeavor. Through the

accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of

Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition,

and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence [30]

and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry,