Hugh Stuart Campbell, C.S.B., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecturer spoke in part as follows:
People all over the earth seem to be drinking a cup of bitterness in a degree unparalleled in all history. Yet Christian faith glows brightly; and on battle fronts and home fronts multitudes are seeking God and finding that He is a present help in trouble. The Bible has become to them a beacon light of hope, shining in the darkness of pain and sorrow, fear and strife. Probably the Scriptures have never been studied with more diligence than at this very hour; and thoughtful citizens, those engaged in a conflict for lasting freedom, believing that their own experiences equal the tribulations of Job, now listen expectantly to these comforting words which helped to support him in time of need: "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee."
What marvelous good tidings for the heavy-laden! Actually, to become acquainted with God, and to grow to know Him as an intimate friend, is a wonderful experience which may come to any sincere seeker and definitely prove to him that to find God is to find omnipresent and infinite good.
In her reply to the question, "What is God?" Mrs. Eddy reveals His nature. She writes (Science and Health, p. 465), "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." Of the seven synonyms which thus describe God as He is, four of them, namely, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, are defined in the textbook as "the Scriptural names for God" (p. 275). Mind and Soul, spiritually discerned in the Scriptures, also refer to God and were so used by Moses. In fact, all but Love were used by Moses as synonyms for God, and it was the Apostle John who declared that "God is love." Mrs. Eddy included one more synonym for God, namely, the inspired word Principle, which is briefly defined in a modern dictionary as "beginning, ultimate cause, source, fundamental truth."
With these seven terms (seven, as you know, is the religious symbol of wholeness, completeness) our Leader has forever answered the most perplexing question of all ages, "What is Truth?" To present divine Science still clearer to all mankind, Mrs. Eddy says of these synonymous terms for Deity that they are "the same in essence, though multiform in office" (Science and Health, p. 331). Further she has pointed out the special characteristics or attributes of each synonym, thus enabling us to lay hold upon those qualities which Christ Jesus reflected and which distinguished his mission.
It is most helpful for students of the Christian Science textbook to ponder the significance of the seven synonyms used by Mrs. Eddy to define God and to observe their exact relationship to each other.
God as Mind
For example, God is Mind and Mind is God. In Christian Science we learn that Mind is not in man but it is that which spiritual man fully reflects or expresses. Thus, this Mind is expressed or reflected by complete intelligence or wisdom, which is the office of Mind. Each one of us possesses intelligence, for Mind is ever-present reality. All ideas or identities coexist with Mind. Mind is the producer of all action. Mind as God is ageless. Mind has infinite capacities and makes no mistakes. Active Mind is restful. All immortal ideas dwell in the peaceful realm of eternal Mind. As a child of God you reflect Mind and nothing else. God is All, and all is Mind, for Mind is God.
By such reasoning is our vision of God broadened and strengthened.
Christian Science has restored original Christianity to this age. It is rightly named Christian, because it is beneficent and helpful. It is rightly named Science, because it is based upon exact knowledge of the divine laws of God.
There is every reason why Mary Baker Eddy was the one best fitted to give this priceless message to the world. Reared in a home where faith in good found expression in prayer, Mary Baker grew to womanhood disciplined by mental self-knowledge, which enabled her in an ever-increasing degree to recognize and obey the laws of God.
It was an instantaneous healing from an injury caused by an accident, and pronounced fatal by her physicians, which led to her important discovery of scientific Christian healing. On the third day following this accident, Mrs. Eddy opened her Bible and read the narrative of Jesus' healing of the palsied man (Matt. 9:2-6). She then and there realized the healing Christ as the ever-present Savior of mankind, and arose from her bed of pain perfectly well. This experience convinced her that the miracles recorded in the Bible are divinely natural results of spiritual law. For the following three years she expectantly searched the Scriptures, found the rules of divine healing, proved them to be effective, named her discovery Christian Science, and gave her revelation unselfishly to the world. Mrs. Eddy's God-inspired study of the Bible and the record of God's revelation to her form the basis of her book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." There she tells the secret of her healing in the following words (p. 275): "Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood." It is as simple as that. Through the study of this book multitudes of grateful folk have been lifted from the bondage of poverty and disease into affluence and health.
This textbook destroys all misapprehension as to the mission of Christ Jesus. In Christian Science we learn that Jesus was the name of the human man and that Christ is his divine title. Jesus, the human, best expressed the Christ in words and deeds among men. Mrs. Eddy refers to Jesus (Science and Health, p. 589) as "The highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality."
[1944.]