Chapter 20
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 G.o.d.
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 "G.o.d with us." This G.o.d 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 G.o.d at hand, saith the Lord." Even while
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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 G.o.d, this individuality was safe in the substance of Soul, the substance of Spirit,-yea, the substance of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d and the real man.
Who
good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of G.o.d wherewith to overcome all error. On this rests the
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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 G.o.d is Mind, and this Mind is good, all is good and all is Mind. G.o.d is the sum total of the
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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 wors.h.i.+p 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
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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 G.o.d.
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 G.o.d. [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 pa.s.s 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 r.e.t.a.r.ding, 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.