Mankind"s concept of Jesus was a babe born in a manger, even while the divine and ideal Christ was the Son of G.o.d, spiritual and eternal. In human conception G.o.d"s offspring had to grow, develop; but in Science his divine nature and manhood were forever complete, and dwelt forever in the Father. Jesus said, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of G.o.d." Mortal thought gives the eternal G.o.d and infinite consciousness the license of a short-lived sinner, to begin and end, to know both evil and good; when evil is temporal and G.o.d is eternal,--and when, as a sphere of Mind, He cannot know beginning or end.
The spiritual interpretation of the vicarious atonement of Jesus, in Christian Science, unfolds the full-orbed glory of that event; but to regard this wonder of glory, this most marvellous demonstration, as a personal and material bloodgiving--or as a proof that sin is known to the divine Mind, and that what is unlike G.o.d demands His continual presence, knowledge, and power, to meet and master it--would make the atonement to be less than the _at-one-ment_, whereby the work of Jesus would lose its efficacy and lack the "signs following."
From Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures teach an infinite G.o.d, and none beside Him; and on this basis Messiah and prophet saved the sinner and raised the dead,--uplifting the human understanding, buried in a false sense of being. Jesus rendered null and void whatever is unlike G.o.d; but he could not have done this if error and sin existed in the Mind of G.o.d. What G.o.d knows, He also predestinates; and it must be fulfilled. Jesus proved to perfection, so far as this could be done in that age, what Christian Science is to-day proving in a small degree,--the falsity of the evidence of the material senses that sin, sickness, and death are sensible claims, and that G.o.d substantiates their evidence by knowing their claim. He established the only true idealism on the basis that G.o.d is All, and He is good, and good is Spirit; hence there is no intelligent sin, evil _mind_ or matter: and this is the only true philosophy and realism. This divine mystery of G.o.dliness was the rock of Truth, on which he built his Church of the new-born, against which the gates of h.e.l.l cannot prevail.
This Truth is the rock which the builders rejected; but "the same is become the head of the corner." This is the chief corner-stone, the basis and support of creation, the interpreter of one G.o.d, the infinity and unity of good.
In proportion as mortals approximate the understanding of Christian Science, they take hold of harmony, and material inc.u.mbrance disappears.
Having one G.o.d, one Mind, one consciousness,--which includes only His own nature,--and loving your neighbor as yourself, const.i.tute Christian Science, which must demonstrate the nothingness of any other state or stage of being.
IS THERE NO INTERCESSORY PRAYER?
All prayer that is desire is intercessory; but kindling desire loses a part of its purest spirituality if the lips try to express it. It is a truism that we can think more lucidly and profoundly than we can write or speak.
The silent intercession and unvoiced imploring is an honest and potent prayer to heal and save. The audible prayer may be offered to be heard of men, though ostensibly to catch G.o.d"s ear,--after the fashion of Baal"s prophets,--by speaking loud enough to be heard; but when the heart prays, and not the lips, no dishonesty or vanity influences the pet.i.tion.
Prophet and apostle have glorified G.o.d in secret prayer, and He has rewarded them openly. Prayer can neither change G.o.d, nor bring His designs into mortal modes; but it can and does change our modes and our false sense of Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer humiliates, purifies, and quickens activity, in the direction that is unerring.
True prayer is not asking G.o.d for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us. Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good.
It makes new and scientific discoveries of G.o.d, of His goodness and power.
It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what G.o.d is. Advancing in this light, we reflect it; and this light reveals the pure Mind-pictures, in silent prayer, even as photography grasps the solar light to portray the face of pleasant thought.
What but silent prayer can meet the demand, "Pray without ceasing"? The apostle James said: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to consume it on your l.u.s.ts." Because of vanity and self-righteousness, mortals seek, and expect to receive, a material sense of approval; and they expect also what is impossible,--a material and mortal sense of spiritual and immortal Truth.
It is sometimes wise to hide from dull and base ears the pure pearls of awakened consciousness, lest your pearls be trampled upon. Words may belie desire, and pour forth a hypocrite"s prayer; but thoughts are our honest conviction. I have no objection to audible prayer of the right kind; but the inaudible is more effectual.
I instruct my students to pursue their mental ministrations very sacredly, and never to touch the human thought save to issues of Truth; never to trespa.s.s mentally on individual rights; never to take away the rights, but only the wrongs of mankind. Otherwise they forfeit their ability to heal in Science. Only when sickness, sin, and fear obstruct the harmony of Mind and body, is it right for one mind to meddle with another mind, and control aright the thought struggling for freedom.
It is Truth and Love that cast out fear and heal the sick, and mankind are better because of this. If a change in the religious views of the patient comes with the change to health, our Father has done this; for the human mind and body are made better only by divine influence.
SHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?
History repeats itself. The Pharisees of old warned the people to beware of Jesus, and contemptuously called him "this fellow." Jesus said, "For which of these works do ye stone me?" as much as to ask, Is it the work most derided and envied that is most acceptable to G.o.d? Not that he would cease to do the will of his Father on account of persecution, but he would repeat his work to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his Father.
There are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look for perfection in churches or a.s.sociations. The life of Christ is the perfect example; and to compare mortal lives with this model is to subject them to severe scrutiny. Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to force the doors of Science and enter in; but this white sanctuary will never admit such as come to steal and to rob. Through long ages people have slumbered over Christ"s commands, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel;" "Heal the sick, cast out devils;" and now the Church seems almost chagrined that by new discoveries of Truth sin is losing prestige and power.
The Rev. Dr. A.J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist clergyman, said in a sermon: "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and it is doing it to-day; and as the faith of the Church increases, and Christians more and more learn their duty to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will such manifestations of G.o.d"s power increase among us." Such sentiments are wholesome avowals of Christian Science. G.o.d is not unable or unwilling to heal, and mortals are not compelled to have other G.o.ds before Him, and employ material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit supplies all human needs. Jesus said to the sick, "Thy sins are forgiven thee; rise up and walk!" G.o.d"s pardon is the destruction of all "the ills that flesh is heir to."
All power belongs to G.o.d; and it is not in all the vain power of dogma and philosophy to dispossess the divine Mind of healing power, or to cast out error with error, even in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal the sick. While Science is engulfing error in bottomless oblivion, the material senses would enthrone error as omnipotent and omnipresent, with power to determine the fact and fate to being. It is said that the devil is the ape of G.o.d. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring itself both true and good. The path of Christian Science is beset with false claimants, aping its virtues, but cleaving to their own vices. Denial of the authorship of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" would make a lie the author of Truth, and so make Truth itself a lie.
A distinguished clergyman came to be healed. He said: "I am suffering from nervous prostration, and have to eat beefsteak and drink strong coffee to support me through a sermon." Here a skeptic might well ask if the atonement had lost its efficacy for him, and if Christ"s power to heal was not equal to the power of daily meat and drink. The power of Truth is not contingent on matter. Our Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Truth rebukes error; and whether stall-fed or famishing, theology needs Truth to stimulate and sustain a good sermon.
A lady said: "Only He who knows all things can estimate the good your books are doing."
A distinguished Doctor of Divinity said: "Your book leavens my sermons."
The following extract from a letter is a specimen of those received daily: "Your book Science and Health is healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, preaching deliverance to the captive, convicting the infidel, alarming the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian."
Christian Science Mind-healing is dishonored by those who take it up from mercenary motives, for wealth and fame, or think to build a baseless fabric of their own on another"s foundation. They cannot put the "new wine into old bottles;" they can never engraft Truth into error. Such students come to my College to learn a system which they go away to disgrace. Stealing or garbling my statements of Mind-science will never prevent or reconstruct the wrecks of "_isms_" and help humanity.
Science often suffers blame through the sheer ignorance of people, while envy and hatred bark and bite at its heels. A man"s inability to heal, on the Principle of Christian Science, substantiates his ignorance of its Principle and practice, and incapacitates him for correct comment. This failure should make him modest.
Christian Science involves a new language, and a higher demonstration of medicine and religion. It is the "new tongue" of Truth, having its best interpretation in the power of Christianity to heal. My system of Mind-healing swerves not from the highest ethics and from the spiritual goal. To climb up by some other way than Truth is to fall. Error has no hobby, however boldly ridden or brilliantly caparisoned, that can leap into the sanctum of Christian Science.
In Queen Elizabeth"s time Protestantism could sentence men to the dungeon or stake for their religion, and so abrogate the rights of conscience and choke the channels of G.o.d. Ecclesiastical tyranny muzzled the mouth lisping G.o.d"s praise; and instead of healing, it palsied the weak hand outstretched to G.o.d. Progress, legitimate to the human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love into every wound. It rea.s.sures us that no Reign of Terror or rule of error will again unite Church and State, or re-enact, through the civil arm of government, the horrors of religious persecution.
The Rev. S.E. Herrick, a Congregational clergyman of Boston, says: "Heretics of yesterday are martyrs to-day." In every age and clime, "On earth peace, good will toward men" must be the watchword of Christianity.
Jesus said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."
St. Paul said that without charity we are "as sounding bra.s.s, or a tinkling cymbal;" and he added: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; ... doth not behave itself unseemly, ... thinketh no evil, ... but rejoiceth in the truth."
To hinder the unfolding truth, to ostracize whatever uplifts mankind, is of course out of the question. Such an attempt indicates weakness, fear, or malice; and such efforts arise from a spiritual lack, felt, though unacknowledged.
Let it not be heard in Boston that woman, "last at the cross and first at the sepulchre," has no rights which man is bound to respect. In natural law and in religion the right of woman to fill the highest measure of enlightened understanding and the highest places in government, is inalienable, and these rights are ably vindicated by the n.o.blest of both s.e.xes. This is woman"s hour, with all its sweet amenities and its moral and religious reforms.
Drifting into intellectual wrestlings, we should agree to disagree; and this harmony would anchor the Church in more spiritual lat.i.tudes, and so fulfil her destiny.
Let the Word have free course and be glorified. The people clamor to leave cradle and swaddling-clothes. The spiritual status is urging its highest demands on mortals, and material history is drawing to a close. Truth cannot be stereotyped; it unfoldeth forever. "One on G.o.d"s side is a majority;" and "Lo, I am with you alway," is the pledge of the Master.
The question now at issue is: Shall we have a practical, spiritual Christianity, with its healing power, or shall we have material medicine and superficial religion? The advancing hope of the race, craving health and holiness, halts for a reply; and the reappearing Christ, whose life-giving understanding Christian Science imparts, must answer the constant inquiry: "Art thou he that should come?" Woman should not be ordered to the rear, or laid on the rack, for joining the overture of angels. Theologians descant pleasantly upon free moral agency; but they should begin by admitting individual rights.
The author"s ancestors were among the first settlers of New Hampshire. They reared there the Puritan standard of undefiled religion. As dutiful descendants of Puritans, let us lift their standard higher, rejoicing, as Paul did, that we are _free born_.
Man has a n.o.ble destiny; and the full-orbed significance of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-enslaved. For the unfolding of this upward tendency to health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to labor and wait.