Chapter 15
thought,-and must proceed from G.o.d; hence it must [1]
be sinless, and dest.i.tute 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.
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_Did the salvation of the eunuch depend merely on his_ [1]
_believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of G.o.d?_
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 a.s.serted 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,-G.o.d made manifest through [10]
man,-but even the eternal unity of man and G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. It was to understand G.o.d and man: it was sternly to rebuke the mortal [25]
belief that man has fallen away from his first estate; that man, made in G.o.d'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
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that Life, G.o.d, is not buried in matter. This is the spirit- [1]
ual dawn of the Messiah, and the overture of the angels. This is when G.o.d is made manifest in the flesh, and thus it destroys all sense of sin, sickness, and death,-when the brightness of His glory encompa.s.seth [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
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 pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d is the Principle of man (and He is), man is the idea of G.o.d; 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]
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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, G.o.d's perfect likeness, that reflects all whereby we can know G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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]
G.o.d'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 G.o.d. "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 a.s.sist-because they chance to be [30]
under arrest-vendors of patent pills, mesmerists,
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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 cla.s.s of people. [15]
Unconst.i.tutional 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 G.o.d, 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. G.o.d 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 pract.i.tioners, 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
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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 G.o.d's dear love, into more spiritual [5]
lines of life-let each society of pract.i.tioners, the matter- physicians and the metaphysicians, agree to disagree, and then patiently wait on G.o.d 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 sh.o.r.e?_
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]
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the mind with spiritual ideas, reconstructs the Judean [1]
religion, and reveals G.o.d 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 sh.o.r.eless 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 G.o.d, reach the sure foundations of time, stand [10]
upon the sh.o.r.e of eternity, and grasp and gather-in all glory-what eye hath not seen.