Chapter 18
The Scriptures plainly declare the allness and oneness of G.o.d to be the premises of Truth, and that G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d.
The sinner and the sin are the twain that are one flesh,- but which G.o.d hath not joined together.
CHAPTER IV. ADDRESSES.
[Page 95.]
Christian Science In Tremont Temple.
From the platform of the Monday lectures.h.i.+p 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 mediums.h.i.+p; but I clearly understand that no human
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 G.o.d is an ever-present help in all times of trouble,- have found Him so; and would have no other G.o.ds, no [5]
remedies in drugs, no material medicine.
Do I believe in a personal G.o.d?
I believe in G.o.d as the Supreme Being. I know not what the person of omnipotence and omnipresence is, or what the infinite includes; therefore, I wors.h.i.+p 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, G.o.d becomes to me, as to the apostle who declared it, "G.o.d is Love,"-divine Prin- ciple,-which I wors.h.i.+p; and "after the manner of my [15]
fathers, so wors.h.i.+p I G.o.d."
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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d beside me."
Is there a personal man? [20]
The Scriptures inform us that man was made in the image and likeness of G.o.d. 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]