Chapter 19
Science And The Senses.
Substance of my Address at the National Convention in Chicago, June 13, 1888
The National Christian Scientist a.s.sociation 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 inst.i.tutions; and to find strength in union,-strength to build up, through G.o.d's right hand, that pure and undefiled religion whose Science demonstrates G.o.d 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."
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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 pa.s.s away, but my words shall not pa.s.s 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 G.o.d'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
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spake of Truth and Love to artless listeners and
disciples. His immortal words were articulated in a decaying language, and then left to the providence of G.o.d. 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, friends.h.i.+p, 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 G.o.d 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
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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, "G.o.d 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 G.o.d is All, and G.o.d 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]
G.o.d is individual Mind. This one Mind and His individuality comprise the elements of all forms and
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individualities, and prophesy the nature and stature of [1]
Christ, the ideal man.
A corporeal G.o.d, 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 G.o.d is not personal.
His infinity precludes the possibility of corporeal person- [10]
ality. His being is individual, but not physical.
G.o.d is like Himself and like nothing else. He is uni- versal and primitive. His character admits of no degrees of comparison. G.o.d is not part, but the whole. In His individuality I recognize the loving, divine Father-Mother [15]
G.o.d. Infinite personality must be incorporeal.
G.o.d's ways are not ours. His pity is expressed in modes above the human. His chastis.e.m.e.nts 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 G.o.d's side is a majority."
Science defines _omnipresence_ as universality, that which
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