Martin Broones, C.S.B., of Beverly Hills, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecture was given April 2 at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Tampa, Florida.
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
We are going to consider, in this lecture, the answer which Christian Science offers to the demands which confront us all in the very interesting age in which we live.
To the many demands of personal life today there has been added the demand to learn how to live within vastly enlarged boundaries. In the past few years, new concepts of physical power have brought into close proximity people of diverse backgrounds and ideologies. Africa, India, and China, for instance, instead of being oceans away, now sit on our very doorstep. Sooner or later our spacemen will be moving about amongst the planets.
A man said to me the other day, "It's hard enough to meet the problems of my business, without having to worry about what they are doing in the Congo!" And right here, my friends, is where Christian Science is coming to the rescue of those who find themselves bogged down by the demands of life as it is lived in what is called in Christian countries, "the year of our Lord."
It really is the year of our Lord in a very wonderful and practical sense for those who are students of Christian Science, for they are learning how to apply the laws which were operating in the healing works of Jesus to the demands of their everyday life.
The first demand, today, is that we live and this is both a personal and a national concern. The answer of Christian Science to this demand is summed up in the first Tenet of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. As is generally known, this Church was established by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. The Tenet reads (Church Manual, p. 15): "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."
The King James Version of the Bible is used in Churches of Christ, Scientist, in the English-speaking countries. The inspired Word of the Bible is the guide that is accepted by the Christian Scientist as sufficient in meeting the demands of his daily life.
"Well," one may say, "isn't it true that all Christian faiths take the Bible as a guide to life? Why do you make a special point of this in discussing your religion?" The answer is, "Because it is a special point to be considered in understanding Christian Science, and the effect which it has upon the lives of its followers."
The Christian Scientist accepts the Bible as a presentation of metaphysical truth. The historical portions are understood as illustrating the metaphysics it sets forth. A cardinal point in the practicality of the Bible as a guide to life is the way in which its opening chapter is regarded.
Although it has satisfied many religionists to take the first chapter of Genesis as a literal account of the creation of the material universe, this interpretation has been known to lead serious thinkers down the unhappy path of atheism. Taken, as it is in Christian Science, as a metaphysical presentation of the nature of spiritual creation, it has served to uplift thousands of lives above the burdens and tragedies of human experience.
Let us see how it serves to do this. The first verse of the first chapter of Genesis reads (Genesis 1:1): "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
This verse has been explained by Mrs. Eddy as follows in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science (pp. 502, 503): "The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe. The creative Principle Life, Truth, and Love is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected."
This is a purely metaphysical statement of cause and effect, showing the indestructible relationship which exists between God and His spiritual creation. Mrs. Eddy arrived at this conclusion as the result of a revelation as to the nature of existence, which came to her through her own turning to the inspired Word of the Bible.
She had suffered what was considered a fatal injury from a fall. In pursuance of a life-long practice, she turned to her Bible as her "sufficient guide to eternal Life."
We can imagine her exaltation on finding that this guide led to an immediate renewal of life. On reading the ninth chapter of Matthew which records the Master's healing of the palsied man, she found herself not only completely recovered from the accident for which she was condemned to die, but also in better health than she had enjoyed for many years.
It was after this healing that she entered upon the stupendous task of discovering the spiritual laws employed by Jesus in his healing works; the elucidation of these laws in a textbook which could educate others in their use; and the founding of a Church which was to be the custodian of her discovery and the agency through which it could be made available throughout the world.
Recently at a luncheon with some friends a young man whom I had never met before, and who is about to receive his college degree, asked me, "Is there any connection between The Christian Science Monitor and the Christian Science religion?" and before I could answer, he said: "That sure is a wonderful newspaper."
I told him that the Monitor is published by The Christian Science Publishing Society, within the organization of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, which was founded by Mary Baker Eddy. He then asked me if there were any other Christian Science publications, or if the Monitor was the only one. And I explained that Mrs. Eddy also founded a monthly magazine called The Christian Science Journal, and a weekly magazine called the Sentinel, which contain articles, editorials, and testimonies of spiritual healing; and that she established The Herald of Christian Science which is now printed in several languages. Then, at the age of eighty-eight, Mrs. Eddy founded The Christian Science Monitor which is upholding the ideal of the brotherhood of man which Jesus taught, by presenting the news of the day impartially, accurately, and with good will to all. Today, it is printed simultaneously six days of the week in Boston, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, California, and London, England.
I told the young man that some years ago I had the privilege of knowing a newspaper publisher, who at times when he felt very satisfied with himself would say that he had accomplished his life purpose in the successful publication of his own daily newspaper. This was what he considered the fulfillment of a life purpose.
At an age when most people would have considered her life work to be fully accomplished, Mrs. Eddy established a great international daily newspaper, the Monitor. She had already founded a religious movement which has restored to the world the spiritual healing of Christ Jesus and his disciples. Her newspaper has not only survived all of its many years of publication but is vigorously pressing forward when many other newspapers have dropped by the wayside during the same period. And the monthly, weekly, and quarterly periodicals which she established are increasing in world-wide acceptance and influence for good.
These and many other activities for the good of mankind are embraced within the framework of The Mother Church, which has branches throughout the world.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states, as we have quoted, "The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe." Having no beginning, the eternal verity and unity of God and man also have no ending. According to Mrs. Eddy, the universe is included in this eternal verity and unity.
The endlessness of all that is real is especially important to us today. Unless we accept and in a measure understand it, we may be tempted to succumb to the suggestions embodied in that seductive little sentence, "What's the use?" and dig ourselves into a mental fallout shelter through fear of the threats of destruction that are resounding around the world. We may be tempted to ask: "If things are as they seem to be, what hope is there for lasting peace on earth today?" In answer to this question, let us look back at the period in history preceding the breakup of the Roman Empire. Materialism was rampant. Corruption of every sort prevailed. The barbarian hordes from the North were closing in on Rome. And the end of the civilized world seemed to be at hand.
But right in the midst of it all, there was a group of Christians, sometimes hiding in caves to escape persecution for their faith. They had a new teaching of God as wholly a God of Love, and of man as the child of this all-loving Father.
These people held the torch of Christ Jesus' teaching, which was later to light the way for mankind out of the darkness of the Middle Ages. Christianity had come to the world and was functioning as a power of deliverance for humanity. Can we not expect this power to function in the crisis in the world today?
The Christian Scientist not only believes this power to be at work, he identifies it as the power of God acting in the human consciousness as a divine influence for good. This divine influence is understood in Christian Science as the Christ, or Truth, which was manifested by the man Jesus. It is referred to in the Bible (John 1:9) as "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." When cherished and reflected, this Christ-light illumines the atmosphere around it.
It was his expression of the Christ-light throughout his human life which won for Jesus the title of Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ. Christ, Truth, has always been and ever will be present, in the power and grace which redeems mankind from sickness, sin, and death. Jesus brought to humanity the demonstration of this power and grace through his individual reflection of God's nature. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 333): "Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment."
Shining in the consciousness of the early Christians, the light of the Christ, Truth, saved mankind from total submergence in barbarism. Later, it brought the Reformation and more enlightened modes of government, under which the individual could demonstrate his God-given qualities.
And so the world was prepared for the elucidation of the teaching of Jesus which we have in the revelation of Christian Science. The power of the Christ at work in the consciousness of mankind has brought to light the spiritual laws by which the healing works of Jesus can be done today.
According to John, the Master said (John 14:12): "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Surely these greater works must include the healing of the world-disease of strife and war!
When Mrs. Eddy was led to the discovery of the spiritual laws underlying the healing work of Jesus, she perceived that these laws expressed a divine Principle which is Love. Every aspect of the life and teaching of Christ Jesus which were the data from which she arrived at her conclusions, testifies to Love as its motivating force.
The universal and impartial nature of divine Love is expressed in the term Principle. This term for Deity sums up the different phases of God's nature, which are portrayed in the Bible, and have been expressed by Mrs. Eddy in the following synonymous terms (they are given in this order in the chapter "Recapitulation" in Science and Health): Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love (p. 465).
From these synonyms are derived the attributes that determine the nature of man as the effect of God as cause. The universe, as well as man, expresses the nature of God. Thus, the sum-total of creation is seen to be included in the eternal verity of divine Love.
With this truth established in his consciousness, the Christian Scientist is in a position to meet the demands of his religion which, in turn, enable him to meet the demands of his daily life. Discussing the demands of the Science of Soul, Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 467): "The first demand of this Science is, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established."
The demands of the Science of Soul are of course an amplification of the two great commandments stated by Christ Jesus (Mark 12:30,31): "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
And now, let us look at some of the demands of daily life and see how they are met through conformity to the law of divine Love, stated by Jesus in the two great commandments and elucidated by Mrs. Eddy in the demands of the Science of Soul.
I shall illustrate the operation of this law by telling you of the experience of a man who holds a position of high regard today. He utilized the law of divine Love in a very effective manner in meeting the demands of life in the midst of the depression of the 1930's. He had just completed several years of graduate study at a leading institute of technology in which he had prepared himself as an aeronautical engineer, and he sought employment in the airplane industry. But no openings were available in his highly specialized field.
Having a wife and two young children, he needed to become established in business. In addition to his technical training, this young man had the equipment gained by attendance from an early age in the Christian Science Sunday School. He now turned to what he had learned in this school for a solution of his problem of unemployment.
As a Sunday School student he had been given a very interesting method of applying one of Mrs. Eddy's most profound and practical statements. This statement from Science and Health is to be found on the walls of many Christian Science churches, and has often brought healing to persons who have read it when attending our church services for the first time. It reads (Science and Health, p. 494), "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."
This man had been told as a boy always to see himself "on the divine Love side of this equation." While he knew that no need exists in God's spiritual universe, yet there obviously are human needs to be reckoned with in daily life. Understanding the eternal verity and unity of God and man, in which man is God's reflection, he could see that he could be the instrument of divine Love in meeting the needs of others, and thus find his own need met.
By keeping this clearly in mind, while looking to God for guidance, the young engineer soon found an excellent opening with a firm in an entirely different line of business from the one for which he had been trained, but where his engineering skills were greatly needed. By the outbreak of World War II he had become a junior partner in this firm.
Then came another opportunity to apply the law of divine Love which he had learned in Sunday School. A call came from the university where he had been trained, to take charge of a bureau in Washington so as to free one of their research professors to continue a vital project at the university. At the end of the war he himself was asked to return to the university to carry on a research program coupled with teaching and administrative work.
The business in which he had been engaged offered prospects of greater material rewards, and again, the law of divine Love which he had learned in Sunday School had to be applied. Seeing himself once more "on the divine Love side of the equation," he answered the call of his university.
In the years that have intervened,
this man has had the opportunity to serve in the meeting of what has been one
of the greatest needs of our nation, the development of its institutes of
science and technology. Truly, "Divine Love always has met and always will
meet every human need." All we have to do is to trust it and obey its
demands. We need to know this truth, today, not only for ourselves, but also
for our nation and our world!
Being "on the divine Love side of the equation" meant to the young engineer a recognition of man's nature as reflection. Identifying himself as the reflection of divine Love, he found himself continuously engaged in useful and meaningful employment.
If one is faced with the necessity of making an important decision or carrying out a business project, he may identify himself as the reflection of Mind, and find instant recourse to the resources of divine intelligence. If faced with illness, accident, or loss of vigor, he may identify himself with the incorruptible substance of Spirit and experience its recuperative action.
One need not accept the suggestions of unattractiveness, deformity, or decrepitude, if one will recognize man as the reflection of Soul, which expresses the beauty and grace of fadeless being. Suggestions of disorderliness, lack of punctuality, or dishonesty go down, as one identifies himself with God, divine Principle. The ever-active ageless nature of existence is expressed as one identifies himself with God, eternal Life.
And don't we all need to know today that God is good, and right is might? Then let us identify ourselves and others as the sons and daughters of God, who is infinite Truth.
All of the wonderful qualities and attributes of God belong to man as His reflection, and a Christian Scientist is learning how to bring them out in his human character through staying on the side of the equation which identifies him with the nature of God as expressed in the synonyms.
And now let us see how this relates to the subject of physical healing as it is brought about by Christian Science treatment. Foremost among the demands upon mankind are those which are made by the human body. To many, the body seems to be a tyrant, holding over them the whip of diseased conditions, or declining strength, and slowed-up action.
The demand of Christian Science with which we can meet such a situation is phrased in the following quotation from the chapter entitled, "Christian Science Practice" in Science and Health (p. 393); "Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action." If one has read the pages leading up to this statement he knows that he must take possession of his thinking, for it has been made plain that mortal mind and body are one, as understood in Christian Science.
I should like to give you a very simple illustration of the way an understanding of this truth works out in human experience.
A little boy with whom I am acquainted had been troubled for several days with an incessant cough. His mother had tried to get him to stay in bed while she applied Christian Science treatment as she had done successfully at other times for her two children. But you know how boys are about staying in bed! And how mothers sometimes are about applying discipline, even when they are Christian Scientists! So the little boy didn't go to bed. Neither did he stop coughing. Friction was apparent between him and his slightly older sister, and his mother finally decided that it was time to call grandmother in on the situation. She was told to bring the child over to grandmother's house for the day.
So the little boy came and brought his cough with him. For one hour, two hours, three hours, he kept on coughing. All this time his grandmother was quietly affirming the truth of God's presence and power, and of man's unbreakable unity with God, trusting divine Love to meet the little boy's need, whatever that might be. Suddenly he stopped coughing, ran over and put his arms around her neck, and said, "Grandma, I'm sleepy! I want to go home and go to bed." His mother was called and drove him home, tucked him into bed, and heard not a sound from him until the next morning, when he came down to breakfast smiling and free. When his father made some remark about his healing the little boy said, "I got comfortable in my mind!"
And that, my friends, is where healing occurs in every instance. The sufferer gets "comfortable in his mind"!
The comfort which Christian Science brings to the human mind, and which is translated into terms of bodily comfort as illustrated in the healing of the little boy, is the effect of prayer. It may be brought about either by one's own prayers, or those of others. Such prayer conforms in every particular to the teaching of Jesus, including the signs following, which he promised to those who believe on his word.
The chapter entitled "Prayer," with which the textbook opens, lifts prayer from the level of liturgy and places it firmly on the basis of spiritually scientific research. We read (p. 2): "Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it. Goodness attains the demonstration of Truth."
And, again, in "No and Yes," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 39), "Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good. It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power."
In the chapter "Christian Science Practice" in Science and Health, we are given explicit instruction as to how this is done. The first six pages of this chapter, which describes the healing method of Christian Science, point out the spiritual preparation which is required in order to pray the prayer that heals. Over forty God-derived qualities, including patience, meekness, purity, and love are enumerated as necessary in the healing work of Christian Science.
A consistent cultivation of the spiritual qualities which identify man with the nature of God, places one in a position to pray the prayer of affirmation and denial, which is taught in Christian Science and results in physical and moral healing. To develop and express these qualities, the Christian Scientist must strive daily and hourly to keep his thought in harmony with God, so that he is always ready to affirm the truth and deny whatever is unlike God's perfect creation.
The love of God for His creation is the basic truth which underlies every Christian Science healing. Every Christian Science treatment is prompted by the sincere desire to serve both God and man, thus fulfilling the demands of the Science of Soul, and the two great commandments cited by Christ Jesus. The impelling force in Christian Science healing is this love for God and man.
We put off resentment, criticism, self-justification, and pride, as we put on spirituality, demonstrating man's original scientific sonship with God. Establishing through prayer our true relationship to divine Love, we are able to reflect it in the love that heals.
We have spoken of the prayer of affirmation and denial which is taught in Christian Science, and have seen the importance of maintaining the truth of God's spiritual creation. Before we leave this subject, something should be said about the part that denial plays in the Christian Scientist's prayer. What is it that he denies? And how does he deny it?
In Christian Science we deny the reality of anything unlike God and His spiritual creation. We may do this either silently or audibly in giving a Christian Science treatment. We do it most effectively when our daily living is a denial of all that is unlike God. The Apostle James perceived this truth when he wrote in his Epistle (James 5:16): "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
We see that healing comes about not just because one prays. It is one's righteousness or right-mindedness expressed in right action that brings the answer to prayer.
Denying the reality of all that is unlike God, we are attesting the unreality of evil, and this is fundamental to the understanding and demonstration of Christian Science. It is of the greatest assistance in meeting the demands of human relationships, in which close association serves to highlight human frailties.
We learn in Christian Science, not only to make nothing of evil by not indulging it ourselves; but also through seeing it as unreal when someone else is manifesting it. This applies equally to the man who is storming at the bus driver for being late at his street corner, and making him late to his office, and for the heads of government who hurl threats around the world.
Let me tell you a little story that will illustrate this:
Some time ago, Mrs. Broones and I spent many years in England, where we lived and worked. During the spring and summer, when we had the opportunity, we would drive down on a Sunday to the river the Thames usually down the quiet country roads to Maidenhead for a day's relaxation.
We had a driver who knew what we wanted in these quiet Sunday drives. The front part of our car was open to the skies, and I used to sit there with him to get the sun that is, whenever it was shining. One particular Sunday, driving along at his usual steady pace, I gradually became aware of another automobile that evidently was trying to pass us.
Finally, it succeeded in doing so, and stopped suddenly just ahead of us. Naturally, we had to come to an abrupt halt. The driver of the other car jumped out and ran over to our car with fire in his eyes, which very shortly crept over into his cheeks and neck.
He fairly screamed to our driver something to this effect:
"Where's your manners? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, blocking the road, and not letting me pass you. Your driving license should be taken away from you. You ought to be you should be ." And, as he went on with this tirade, his eyes seemed to be fairly popping out of his head.
All this time our driver just looked calmly straight ahead, and never opened his mouth. Finally, when the other man was completely spent, and had to stop from sheer exhaustion, our driver turned slowly towards him, and in a quiet, pleasant voice, just said, "Piffle! Piffle!"
The other driver gasped; started to talk back, thought better of it; returned to his car; and we all went quietly on our way back to London.
The lesson learned from this experience was that our driver did not meet personal attack with anger or resentment. His "piffle" had reduced it to its native nothingness. There is an old saying that a match cannot strike unless you present a rough surface.
This happened a long time ago, but even now, if I ever show signs of disturbance, Mrs. Broones looks at me with a smile, and says, "Piffle!" and I always calm right down!
One of the most important demands of the Science of Soul is to meet hatred, which often parades as criticism or resentment, with love. In Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, given in Science and Health, she writes (p. 17): "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And Love is reflected in love." Love is reflected in love as we realize the unreality of evil and the allness of God, divine Love.
Jesus understood the unreality of evil so completely that he could meet the threat of Pilate without fear. When asked by Pilate (John 19:10-11): "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" Jesus answered, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above."
The Master was to prove in his resurrection and ascension that all materialism is an unreal concept of the human mind, and need not be feared (either as sin, disease, or death) by one who knows the glorious fact that God is All, and God is Love, and obeys the demands which this knowledge implies.
As understood in Christian Science, the ascension of Christ Jesus was the natural and inevitable experience of one who reflected completely the qualities of God. All of God's qualities were reflected by the Master. Taken together, they are the measure of man in the image and likeness of God.
One who reflects these qualities which Jesus expressed with steadfastness and undeviating continuity will be in a position to reflect upon the human scene the Love that heals. He will be contributing not only to those with whom he comes in contact, but to all mankind whom he embraces in his healing thought.
During the past year, I have often listened on the radio to the deliberations of the United Nations. In listening to the people of the world one can hear the overtones of love and the undertones of hate. The ferment in the world which is bringing to the surface the smoldering fires of hate, makes it imperative that we understand this aberration of the human mind.
We find that one who thinks he hates, almost always thinks that someone else has made him hate or hates him. Something done to him, as it would seem, has brought about this state of mind. This is an impossibility, as Christian Science shows. Persons cannot make other persons hate, for each individual is responsible for his own thinking.
It is impersonal evil, named in Christian Science "animal magnetism," that seems to make persons hate. And it is God, divine Love, that makes them love Him, and all of His creation. The activity of the Christ in human consciousness has brought this truth to the world in the teaching of Christian Science.
If we know this, and apply it, can anybody make us hate? Can anybody make us feel hurt? Can anybody make us want to hurt back? No! The understanding of divine Love, and the acceptance of divine Love as the ruling influence in one's thought and life, places one above the reach of hate, or any of its little brothers and sisters.
Not one of them can climb into our consciousness and be coddled there by self-pity or self-love. The great releasing fact that the nature of God is Love therefore, the nature of man and the universe must be love protects us from the evil influence of animal magnetism, which claims that it can cause us to hate.
How can animal magnetism cause anything, when God, divine Love, is the only cause and creator? Has animal magnetism ever caused anything? No! The very worst that hatred could attempt was proved unreal when Christ Jesus rose from the grave, then rose out of mortal sight in the ascension, through the power of Love. When he left the human scene in this way rather than through death, Jesus proved the real man to be inseparable from Life which is God, This perfect relationship, of Principle and its idea, man, is immune to every claim of causation apart from God.
Animal magnetism never caused anything, and it never caused anyone to remember any grievances! It is important for us, today, to watch what we hold in memory. Paul, who understood Christ Jesus' teaching, told us what we should remember. In his Epistle to the Philippians, he wrote (Phil. 4:8): "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
The things to which Paul referred are the expressions of the true selfhood of man, which we are learning to bring forth in human experience, through the teaching of Christian Science.
We need to take hold of the question of memory for ourselves and for the world, today, if we are to cope with the destructive forces which have been evolved by material science. The measure of the hydrogen bomb is the measure of the pent-up hates and fears of many people. There is only as much danger of destruction in the atomic or hydrogen bomb as there is belief in evil in the human mind.
The lessons of the Bible were never more pertinent than they are right now. Both the Old Testament and the New hold the analysis and the remedy for the problems of the world today. The story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is of special significance in the light that it throws on the expression of love as a factor in human progress.
Joseph's refusal to indulge in resentment when left in a pit by his brothers helped open the way for the stream of thought that was bearing Israel on to the advent of the Messiah. He helped again by refusing to entertain hate and vengefulness when unjustly thrown into prison. By refusing to gloat over his brothers' discomfiture when famine struck and they were obliged to turn to him in Egypt, once more he helped open the way for the tide that was pushing on events to the incarnation of the Christ, in Christ Jesus. Joseph did not yield to the temptation to meet injustice with resentment, hate with hate.
There is only one answer to injustice, for the individual and for society. The answer is to forgive and to forget. We cannot hold on to real or imaginary wrongs, and find a remedy for these wrongs. The remedy is to turn away from them, drop them, and listen to the divine message of the Christ, that God is All and God is Love; that God made all and made it good!
In the record of the true creation given in the first chapter of Genesis, we read (Genesis 1:31); "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." So, anything that isn't good, isn't going on! We have to train our thought to this point of view, and hold it there, in order to cope with the situation which is before the world today. Nothing short of Jesus' proof of the total unreality of evil, and the allness of God, divine Love, can resolve the threats of destruction with which we are faced today.
A Christian Science healing will show a practical method of dealing with resentment, and its destructive effects. A practitioner was called to help a woman apparently fatally ill. She was a student of this Science, and though she had had much Christian Science treatment, her difficulty had failed to yield. This woman was a schoolteacher, who for twenty years had cared for an invalid mother while carrying on her profession. Others in the family had shirked their responsibility, and she believed that this had worn her out. She said that although her mother was now gone, she just couldn't forget those twenty years.
The practitioner told her if she couldn't forget, to try remembering to remember back of the twenty years to how things were before they started, and then back some more and some more, until she got back to what she was before she was born. When she got back there, she was to pray the prayer of Jesus, recorded in the book of John (17:5): "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."
This woman undertook the mental discipline involved in turning her thought away from the years of injustice which she had come to resent, and began to reach out for a realization of the selfhood God had given her, and to claim the glory of this selfhood. And she was completely healed, stopping treatment after a short time.
The world consciousness is a composite consciousness. Each one of us contributes to its content. Moreover, its content contributes to us. Are we going to resent with those who resent, fear with those who fear, and hate with those who hate? Or are we going to be in the company of those who are rejoicing in the divine nature of Love, listening to the divine message of Love, bringing forth the divine manifestation of Love, and thus taking part in the second coming of the Christ, the Comforter of all the world's ills, which has come to the world in Christian Science?
Mrs. Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 131:30-2): "There is with us at this hour this great, great blessing; and may I say with the consciousness of Mind that the fulfillment of divine Love in our lives is the demand of this hour the special demand."
[Delivered April 2, 1964, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Tampa, Florida, and published in The Palma Ceia-MacDill News of Tampa, Florida, April 9, 1964. Also published in The Gulfport Tribune & The Citizen of Gulfport, Florida, Jan. 25, 1963.]