Peter"s impetuosity was rebuked. He had to learn from experience; so have we. The methods of our [20]
Master were in advance of the period in which he per- sonally appeared; but his example was right, and is available at the right time. The _way_ is absolute divine Science: walk ye in it; but remember that Science is demonstrated by degrees, and our demonstration rises [25]
only as we rise in the scale of being.
Science And Philosophy
Men give counsel; but they give not the wisdom to profit by it. To ask wisdom of G.o.d, is the beginning of wisdom. [30]
[Page 360.]
Meekness, moderating human desire, inspires wisdom [1]
and procures divine power. Human lives are yet un- carved,-in the rough marble, enc.u.mbered with crude, rude fragments, and awaiting the hammering, chiselling, and transfiguration from His hand. [5]
Great only as good, because fashioned divinely, were those unpretentious yet colossal characters, Paul and Jesus. Theirs were modes of mind cast in the moulds of Christian Science: Paul"s, by the supremely natural transforming power of Truth; and the character of [10]
Jesus, by his original scientific sonship with G.o.d. Phi- losophy never has produced, nor can it reproduce, these stars of the first magnitude-fixed stars in the heavens of Soul. When shall earth be crowned with the true knowledge of Christ? [15]
When Christian Science has melted away the cloud of false witnesses; and the dews of divine grace, fall- ing upon the blighted flowers of fleeting joys, shall lift every thought-leaflet Spiritward; and "Israel after the flesh," who partaketh of its own altars, shall be [20]
no more,-then, "the Israel according to Spirit"
shall fill earth with the divine energies, understanding, and ever-flowing tides of spiritual sensation and consciousness.
When mortal mind is silenced by the "still, small voice" [25]
of Truth that regenerates philosophy and logic; and Jesus, as the true idea of Him, is heard as of yore saying to sensitive ears and dark disciples, "I came from the Father," "Before Abraham was, I am," coexistent and coeternal with G.o.d,-and this idea is understood,- [30]
then will the earth be filled with the true knowledge of Christ. No advancing modes of human mind made
[Page 361.]
Jesus; rather was it their subjugation, and the pure [1]
heart that sees G.o.d.
When the belief in material origin, mortal mind, sen- sual conception, dissolves through self-imposed suffering, and its substances are found substanceless,-then its [5]
miscalled life ends in death, and death itself is swallowed up in Life,-spiritual Life, whose myriad forms are neither material nor mortal.
When every form and mode of evil disappear to hu- man thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual con- [10]
cepts testifying to one creator,-then, earth is full of His glory, and Christian Science has overshadowed all human philosophy, and being is understood in startling contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato, Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer [15]
sit at the feet of Jesus.
To this great end, Paul admonished, "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our [20]
faith." So shall mortals soar to final freedom, and rest from the subtlety of speculative wisdom and human woe.
G.o.d is the only Mind, and His manifestation is the spiritual universe, including man and all eternal indi- [25]
viduality. G.o.d, the only substance and divine Principle of creation, is by no means a creative partner in the firm of error, named matter, or mortal mind. He elucidates His own idea, wherein Principle and idea, G.o.d and man, are not one, but are inseparable as cause and effect. If [30]
one, who could say which that "one" was?
His ways are not as our ways. The divine modes
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and manifestations are not those of the material senses; [1]
for instance, intelligent matter, or mortal mind, material birth, growth, and decay: they are the forever-existing realities of divine Science; wherein G.o.d and man are perfect, and man"s reason is at rest in G.o.d"s wisdom,- [5]
who comprehends and reflects all real mode, form, indi- viduality, ident.i.ty.
Scholastic dogma has made men blind. Christ"s _logos_ gives sight to these blind, ears to these deaf, feet to these lame,-physically, morally, spiritually. Theologians [10]
make the mortal mistake of believing that G.o.d, having made _all_, made evil; but the Scriptures declare that all that He made was good. Then, was evil part and parcel of His creation?
Philosophy hypothetically regards creation as its own [15]
creator, puts cause into effect, and out of nothing would create something, whose noumenon is mortal mind, with its phenomenon matter,-an evil mind already doomed, whose modes are material manifestations of evil, and that continually, until self-extinguished by [20]
suffering!
Here revelation must come to the rescue of mortals, to remove this mental millstone that is dragging them downward, and refute erring reason with the spiritual cosmos and Science of Soul. We all must find shelter [25]
from the storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit.
Truth is won through Science or suffering: O vain mor- tals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward, except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform the sinner. And pleasure is no crime except when it [30]
strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens the activities of virtue. The more nearly an erring so-
[Page 363.]
called mind approaches purity, the more conscious it [1]
becomes of its own unreality, and of the great reality of divine Mind and true happiness.
The "ego" that claims selfhood in error, and pa.s.ses from molecule and monkey up to man, is no ego, but is [5]
simply the supposition that the absence of good is mind and makes men,-when its greatest flatterer, identifica- tion, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with nothingness, dust with dust!
The mythology of evil and mortality is but the ma- [10]
terial mode of a suppositional mind; while the immortal modes of Mind are spiritual, and pa.s.s through none of the changes of matter, or evil. Truth said, and said from the beginning, "Let us [Spirit] make man perfect;" and there is no other Maker: a perfect man would not desire [15]
to make himself imperfect, and G.o.d is not chargeable with imperfection. His modes declare the beauty of holi- ness, and His manifold wisdom shines through the visible world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even through the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His [20]
coming.
We must avoid the shoals of a sensual religion or philosophy that misguides reason and affection, and hold fast to the Principle of Christian Science as the Word that _is_ G.o.d, Spirit, and Truth. This Word cor- [25]
rects the philosopher, confutes the astronomer, exposes the subtle sophist, and drives diviners mad. The Bible is the learned man"s masterpiece, the ignorant man"s dictionary, the wise man"s directory.
I foresee and foresay that every advancing epoch of so [30]
Truth will be characterized by a more spiritual appre- hension of the Scriptures, that will show their marked
[Page 364.]
consonance with the textbook of Christian Science Mind- [1]
healing, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
Interpreting the Word in the "new tongue," whereby the sick are healed, naturally evokes new paraphrase from the world of letters. "Wait patiently on the Lord, [5]
and He will renew your strength." In return for indi- vidual sacrifice, what a recompense to have healed, through Truth, the sick and sinful, made the public your friend, and posterity your familiar!
Christian Science refutes everything that is not a [10]
postulate of the divine Principle, G.o.d. It is the soul of divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It is not a search after wisdom, it _is_ wisdom: it is G.o.d"s right hand grasping the universe,-all time, s.p.a.ce, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; con- [15]
st.i.tuting and governing all ident.i.ty, individuality, law, and power. It stands on this Scriptural platform: that He made all that was made, and it is good, reflects the divine Mind, is governed by it; and that nothing apart from this Mind, one G.o.d, is self-created or evolves [20]
the universe.
Human hypotheses predicate matter of Spirit and evil of good; hence these opposites must either cooperate or quarrel throughout time and eternity,-or until this impossible partnership is dissolved. If Spirit is the [25]