G.o.d"s idea the ideal man
It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate the idea of G.o.d, or treat it for disease," as is alleged 346:1 by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds _man_ with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in G.o.d"s 346:3 image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting G.o.d"s likeness.
Nothingness of error
346:6 It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches how this nothingness is to be saved and healed.
346:9 The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in 346:12 order to prove the somethingness - yea, the allness - of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer 346:15 from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught 346:18 with falsities painful to behold"?
Truth antidotes error
We treat error through the understanding of Truth, because Truth is error"s antidote. If a dream ceases, it 346:21 is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality in his belief of pain, - because matter has no sensation, 346:24 hence pain in matter is a false belief, - how can he suffer longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious?
346:27 Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the forceps are unchanged.
Serving two masters
Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for 346:30 spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both G.o.d and mammon at the same time; but is not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: 347:1 "The flesh l.u.s.teth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?
347:3 It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real- 347:6 ness. Nothing really has Life but G.o.d, who is infinite Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it 347:9 must be the one G.o.d, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo- gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth- ing left to be doctored.
Essential element of Christianity
347:12 Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the signs of Christ"s coming. Christ, as the spir- 347:15 itual or true idea of G.o.d, comes now as of old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal- ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which 347:18 is restoring an essential element of Christianity, - namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light 347:21 shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends not.
If Christian Science takes away the popular G.o.ds, - 347:24 sin, sickness, and death, - it is Christ, Truth, who de- stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.
The dream that matter and error are something 347:27 must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness.
347:30 The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo- nious unreal. These critics will then see that error is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for 348:1 naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor nor to fear.
348:3 Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve 348:6 any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear to be - what it really is - an illusion?
All disease a delusion
Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how 348:9 one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy have not learned this, for Jesus established 348:12 this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast out and the dumb spake.
Elimination of sickness
Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much 348:15 power to G.o.d, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil, because I desire to have no faith in evil or in 348:18 any power but G.o.d, good. Is it not well to eliminate from so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and 348:21 death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering dis- ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, 348:24 especially when by so doing our own condition can be im- proved and that of other persons as well?
Full fruitage yet to come
I have never supposed the world would immediately 348:27 witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin, disease, and death would not be believed for an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, 348:30 as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and temperance have received all impulse, health has been restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres- 349:1 ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is more generally understood?
Law and gospel
349:3 As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal- ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law, 349:6 dishonorest thou G.o.d?" We have the gospel, however, and our Master annulled material law by heal- ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master"s 349:9 example. We should subordinate material law to spirit- ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are, that neither Life nor man dies, and that G.o.d is not the 349:12 author of sickness.
Language inadequate
The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like 349:15 all other languages, English is inadequate to the expression of spiritual conceptions and propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms 349:18 in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris- tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of 349:21 this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with new tongues."
349:24 Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on a material plane, material terms must be generally em- ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the 349:27 higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu- cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent this is equally true of all learning, even that which is 349:30 wholly material.
Substance spiritual
In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 350:1 substance to be matter. They think of matter as some- thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which 350:3 pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view.
Both words and works
350:6 To understand all our Master"s sayings as recorded in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important, his followers must grow into that stature of 350:9 manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His 350:12 words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which must be understood. Unless the works are com- prehended which his words explained, the words are 350:15 blind.
The Master often refused to explain his words, because it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual 350:18 Truth. He said: "This people"s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their 350:21 eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."
The divine life-link
350:24 "The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind, before the Science of being can be demon- 350:27 strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar- nate Jesus, - that life-link forming the connection through which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and 350:30 Truth destroys error.
Truth a present help
In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained, and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The 351:1 religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose 351:3 faith in G.o.d"s power to heal, we distrust the divine Principle which demonstrates Christian Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can 351:6 we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves on a material basis.
The author became a member of the orthodox Con- 351:9 gregational Church in early years. Later she learned that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers of her devout parents and the church; but when the 351:12 spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a _present help_. It was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which 351:15 healed the sick.
Fatal premises
We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity, which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and 351:18 real to us as Truth, and while we make a per- sonal devil and an anthropomorphic G.o.d our starting-points, - especially if we consider Satan as a 351:21 being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.
Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian 351:24 healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord, by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious Truth.
Fruitless worship
351:27 The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow.
351:30 They thought to worship Spirit from a ma- terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no 352:1 proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently understand G.o.d to be able to demonstrate His power 352:3 to heal, - to make harmony the reality and discord the unreality.
Spirit the tangible
Our Master declared that his material body was not 352:6 spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be- lief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not 352:9 materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man"s ex- istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi- ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.
Ghosts not realities
352:12 Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear: "I know that ghosts are real. They exist, 352:15 and are to be feared; but you must not be afraid of them"?
Children, like adults, _ought_ to fear a reality which 352:18 can harm them and which they do not understand, for at any moment they may become its helpless victims; but instead of increasing children"s fears by declaring 352:21 ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water- ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should be a.s.sured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts 352:24 are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and man-made.
In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, 352:27 because there are no such things. If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be re- stored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth- 352:30 ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to tell the truth about ghosts.
The real and the unreal
353:1 The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.
Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un- 353:3 real in divine Science. The physical senses and Science have ever been antagonistic, and they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical 353:6 senses yields entirely to Christian Science.