Blanche K. Corby, C.S.B., of Los Angeles, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
"The time for thinkers has come," writes Mrs. Eddy in the preface of her great work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." In the recorded history of man, there has never been such intense thinking on things spiritual and religious as there is today. Advanced thinkers are realizing that the world can never be rebuilt from the old basis of materiality and continue in a state anything short of anarchy; and that a true constructive league can be founded only upon the basis of spiritual regeneration. Consequently there are more people seeking sincerely and earnestly for a knowledge of the truth than ever before. The old theological concepts and philosophical theories no longer answer an inquiring people; the demand today is for proof or demonstrated evidence. Wherever lectures on Christian Science are given, large numbers congregate in the hope of hearing something helpful, something usable in the nature of religion.
A Christian Science lecture is not for the purpose of proselyting or of urging Christian Science upon the unwilling; it is simply to give to enquirers a better understanding of God and his relation to man. Christian Science, known to the world only a little more than fifty years, has had an unprecedented growth. The majority of its adherents have been healed of sickness or saved from wretchedness and despair. Its great ranks are largely made up of those who have been compelled to turn to God for aid when all other means have failed. Few people turn to God for daily and hourly help in times of adversity until all material means have proved unavailing. Man has not believed that God is an available and immediate help under all conditions, but those who have been denied all hope of healing from the popular systems, those who have suffered discouragement and who despair with the poor comfort of expected death as a release, and who at last have turned to Christian Science and have found a knowledge of God which gave health and happiness, rejoice in the conviction that Christian Science is the revelation of truth to which Jesus referred when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." When one is made free through the demonstration of the truth, he is free indeed, because God is the liberator. God has revealed himself to man whenever man has been in greatest need of deliverance. A savior has always appeared to humanity when there was the greatest need for a savior; always the need is for deliverance from the evils of material sense, and the efforts of those great men and women who saw the necessity of replacing materialism by spiritual regeneration have made immortal history.
Every thinking person in this audience is conscious of the existence of things. He knows also that all things to exist must have cause, government, and law, and consequently that there is the truth about all existing things. Christian Science proclaims that the one and only cause of all things is God. It declares that God is infinite and is therefore divine Mind; the infinite cannot possibly be other than Mind, for with all that is less than mind we associate the limitations of form, size, length, breadth, color, and the like. Christian Science declares that the one infinite Mind or one infinity of good is all life, law, power, intelligence, activity, and is the Principle underlying all. Then it declares that Mind can be expressed only in thoughts or ideas; it therefore follows that God's universe, including man, is mental, is composed of spiritual ideas, and that these ideas range from the least up to man in the image and likeness of God. The Scripture says that God was satisfied with his creation which is pronounced good.
The one infinity of good does not include the so-called mystery of evil, for to the infinity of good there can be no consciousness of evil. Man, the divine image and likeness, can know and express only that which God ordained for man.
Christian Science teaches that to know God aright it must be understood that God is Principle. Why should it be thought strange that Christian Scientists believe God to be divine Principle? Christian Science is the science of Christianity and all scientific demonstrations, whether physical or mental, are the result of an understanding of laws and the employment of them. Mathematics, music, architecture, everything that is worked out according to rule or method is in accordance with principle; then it should not be considered inconsistent that man, the spiritual image and likeness of God, is governed by the law of divine Principle instead of being left to chance and change of human belief. The meaning of the word principle is basis or foundation which governs all that proceeds from it; we find therefore that it is the most appropriate term for God.
The highest concept of God to be attained is that of Love, expressed in the compassionate, loving Christ Jesus, who "came to save that which was lost." Through what is called the supreme sacrifice he overcame death on the cross, revealing to men their God-given dominion. The one consciousness of Love can have no consciousness of anything but love. It is universal love poured out to all mankind. Jesus taught that the tender love of the fatherhood of God is greater and can do more for us than the limited human concept of love. He said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:11) Another example of Love understood and practiced is found in this age in the life of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. Because of Mrs. Eddy's love for humanity, her life was one of loving obedience to God, devoted to the establishment of Christian Science on earth, that all might share the blessing it bestows in health and happiness. Her whole concern was to reveal to her fellowmen Christ's plan of salvation. This concept that God is Love, is made practical in a more loving brotherhood; it destroys all strife, hatred, and revenge, and takes away the desire to injure in any way one's brother. A right sense of love is not talking, but doing. As Mrs. Eddy has so beautifully expressed it, it is "Love reflected in love." (Science and Health, p. 17.)
We have barely touched the hem of Christ's garment today in our understanding that God is Love, but the glimpses already gained have enabled Christian Scientists to heal the sick and to be helpful to humanity. This impelling force of Love will continue until "all shall know Him, from the least unto the greatest," and God's love be manifested among men.
It is because humanity has believed that it is subject to the chance and change of human conditions that it has desired an adequate savior. It has believed that man is fallen and subject to all manner of suffering and disease. It has inwardly protested against the cruelty and injustice of intolerable conditions caused by the inhumanity of men: but the protest was feeble and of little avail, because mankind has been educated to believe that evil is inevitable and that there is no way of escape but through death. Splendid men and women have devoted their lives to the amelioration of the wrongs of their fellowmen; here and there love's sacrifice has made a bright spot for a day, but the ceaseless tragedy of human life goes on. The recent war raised humanity to great heights of sacrifice, but the aftermath does not reveal a purified world, and warfare continues. This condition exists because of the false concept of God that has been instilled into consciousness from generation to generation. Religionists have given too much thought to original sin and have dwelt too little upon such passages of Holy Writ as, "Now are we the sons of God."
When we believe that God sends or permits suffering, that he takes our loved ones from us as a means of disciplining us, are we not trudging along with the old theological beliefs which close the door to the goodness of God in human experience and to the great blessings that inevitably follow the recognition of man as the image and likeness of God?
While in religion the old concept of God has been tenaciously held, there have been progress, discovery, and invention in connection with all other things. The business world of today could not continue its great activities with the systems of hundreds of years ago; indeed, its ideals and methods are continuously changing. The conduct of business upon a more systematic, a more scientific basis, as it were, is constantly sought; and yet, a scientific knowledge of God is far more important for the welfare of mankind than a scientific business system. Christian Science improves every department of life and aids in the accomplishment of every right purpose. A correct, demonstrable knowledge of God made practical in right thinking will regulate business and bring out a high standard of business activity.
We all have encountered the condition of thought called pessimistic; it is always gloomy, downcast always prophesying evil. This state of thought manifests itself in the many careworn, anxious faces that we see on the street, in the cars, and in all public assemblies. It induces a constant state of torment and casts a shadow on everything with which it comes in contact. Its unfortunate effect is illustrated by the following incident. A little boy returned from his first day of school in tears, saying he wasn't going to school any more because he didn't like the teacher. He was persuaded to go on several subsequent days, but he grew only more unhappy. He was asked if his teacher scolded him. "No," he said, "she doesn't scold me." "Well, does she punish you?" they asked. "No, not that, but I just don't like school for that teacher is never glad about anything." It is all a matter of thought. If the mental viewpoint could be changed an entirely different man would be expressed. To accomplish good we must expect to accomplish good, and this joyous expectancy will be apparent, for we should go about radiating the gladness of living. We read in Proverbs (17:22), "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."
Christian Science brings the cheering message that there is an escape from evil, a way out of it all, a way complete in its salvation. It is not a new savior; it is the savior of the prophets and of Jesus who declared the way of salvation to be at hand. Jesus taught that it is the evil which proceeds from the heart that injures a man, in other words that it is wrong thinking and not conditions of matter that must be corrected. In the degree that man ceases to think evil and sin, and learns to dwell in good, will evil and sin disappear. It is the carnal mind that is at enmity with the divine Mind. The Scriptures say that the carnal mind is death; then as man ceases to think after the manner of the carnal mind, he gains life and health.
The sense of fear and death came with the mist that arose from the earth of material sense as it is related in the second chapter of Genesis. It obscured the heavenly vision which showed God to be Spirit and man to be wholly spiritual. Christian Science is restoring this vision today in all its beauty, power, and grandeur. It is the revelation of truth bringing salvation to the inhabitants of the earth. Jesus drew a sharp line between spirit and matter when he said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24). He declared also, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," showing that there is no connecting link between matter and spirit. He showed clearly that salvation is found only in the spiritualization of thought.
It is generally considered that spirituality is a supernatural, vague, or indefinite condition of being which cannot be made practical. Christian Science removes spirituality from the the realm of the supernatural and impractical and reveals it as a normal condition. Spirituality is right thinking, and can be applied in all of the detail and routine of every day life. Christian Science has taught us that we can think rightly about all that we have to do. The remedy for all evil lies in the power of right thought; there is nothing that can be substituted for it. Our highest concept of everything is the best that we can express; therefore the more spiritual the thinking, the more is expressed of health, harmony and better environment. All is mental whether upon a good or an evil plane. The history of the past is the record of the expression of thought; all present activity is the expression of thought. The most dramatic event in all history, as well as the most tragic, was the crucifixion of Jesus, when the evil thought of his time found expression in the thought of one man; while the most sublime event, the most divine expression of God's love to humanity, was the resurrection of Jesus brought about by Jesus' right thinking when he overcame death and revealed the way of salvation for all mankind.
Everyone yearns for health, peace, and life in abundance. Throughout the world not one man can be found who will say that he does not want these things. Christian Science can bestow them, not in the way or after the manner of the world, but by taking away the sins of the world through the spiritualization of thought. Christian Science does not require the giving up of anything that is good and true. It is only the false gods of material beliefs that must be gotten rid of in order to gain that which is altogether lovely. Christian Science teaches that only as we know God can we possess and express the things most desirable. Paul, referring to what had been written hundreds of years before by the prophet Isaiah (64:4), writes in his first letter to the Corinthians (2:9), "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.'' Christian Science replaces the old theological concept of heaven as a place of inaction with nothing to do with a heaven of activity, the activity of right thought. This is identical with Jesus' concept, when he plainly said that heaven is not a place nor a locality, but that it is found within; and he never said that one must die in order to reach it. It is through the purification of thought, the regeneration of individual consciousness that heaven is gained, it is therefore a present possibility. If the thought of every man, woman, and child were purified to the Godlike point of knowing nothing but good in daily and hourly thinking, that for which Jesus prayed, God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, would appear. The kingdom of heaven is found in individual consciousness.
Whatever will destroy fear becomes the benefactor of humanity, because fear is the cause of most of the wretchedness and woe, sickness, poverty, and death of the world. Every human being is subject to the continual and aggressive arguments of fear. Many people live in constant fear of death, and millions are dying every year because they believe that suffering, disease and death are inevitable. The desire to live is innate and natural, but constant fear and the contemplation of disease and death bring disastrous experiences. The so-called laws of the human mind are based upon fear and limitation, because of the ignorance of what constitutes real law, and as a result man limits himself in every direction. This state of thought results in discouragement and weakness. It enfeebles man's ability to accomplish the good that he desires to accomplish. In other words, it is the claim of evil that God is limited in his opportunity to express good to man. When it is understood that all thought is expressed after its own kind or quality, men will be more watchful of their thought processes. Mrs. Eddy has given the remedy for the correction of all erroneous thinking in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," when she says, "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously." (Science and Health, p. 392). God gave man dominion over the whole earth, and this certainly means dominion over fear, and over his own body.
One of the most pernicious beliefs which beset humanity is the fear of inherited disease or of the inherited tendency or inclination to certain diseases. The law of heredity was completely annulled when Jesus healed the man blind from his birth. If man is the image and likeness of God, he cannot inherit discord or any evil, and there is no law of heredity to bind him. God is infinite good and sends no punishment and no curse upon his creation. That portion of Scripture which refers to visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation is sometimes understood as a contradiction of this, but when the second commandment is read in its entirety it is found to be a warning of the penalty which follows hatred of God. It carries with it a rich promise for those who are loving and obedient.
The success of the Christian Science movement does not depend upon the great numbers of its adherents, but wholly upon its works, the healing of all manner of disease and discord which it is accomplishing with such marked success. This is the justification of its existence and the assurance of its great future on earth. When John the Baptist, whose spiritual perception went far beyond that of those about him in the discernment of the Christ, was assailed by doubt, he appealed to Jesus to know if he really were the Christ who was to come, Jesus sent back not a long theological discourse, but the simple appeal to let the works bear witness to his Messianic mission. "Tell John," he said, "what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." (Luke 7:22,23). This covers the whole of human need and this proof of the practical operation of Christianity will always be the witness of Christ, Truth. For centuries mankind has been trying to solve the problem of healing. So far in the history of mortal man, there is nothing known in so-called science, philosophy, or medicine that equals the scientific healing of Jesus. No other system, claims to be an exact science; the Christ method of healing is an exact science and does heal.
Jesus announced that he came to destroy the works of the devil and to do his Father's will. His professed followers cannot question that he came to do that which was lawful and right. In the destruction of all evil he proved that disease as well as sin is not in accord with the law of God, but is the work of the devil or one evil. He devoted his whole life to proving the availability of God for man under every circumstance. He used no material means, he ascribed no credit to himself, but always gave God the glory. If Jesus healed in accordance with the will of God, it must have been in accordance with the law of God, and this law is as effective today as when Jesus was upon earth. Salvation is a divine idea, therefore, for all eternity. Jesus did not limit the healing to his day alone, when he instructed his followers to go out into the world to preach the gospel to every nation and to heal the sick. Added to this was his admonition to those who believe on him to do greater works than he had done, not greater in quality but in quantity. Jesus individually did all there was to do; he worked out his own salvation and clearly defined the way whereby man can individually work out his own redemption. He said, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."
There are many professing Christians today who say that they believe in the omnipotence of God, but is this true when recourse is constantly taken to material systems of healing? The application of matter to matter for the healing of disease is the practice of pagan centuries. It may be applied today in changed forms, by methods believed to be more progressive and efficacious, but diseases have continued to multiply, and humanity goes on suffering because God is left out of these systems of healing. This omission accounts for the long list of so-called incurable diseases, believed incurable only because men have said that they could not heal them, Jesus never said that any case brought to him was incurable or difficult to heal. He resolved disease into the mental realm and said to the man who was brought to him on a bed, sick of the palsy, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matthew 9:2) and when the scribes accused him of blasphemy, he replied, "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk?" (Matthew 9:4, 5). This showed that he considered the infirmity mental, the result of wrong thought. At another time he said to a man whom he had healed, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14). Christian Science makes men whole by the destruction of a desire to sin. It creates a natural desire to know God's will and overcomes a love of ease in matter, thereby giving freedom and activity to thought.
The purpose of a Christian Science treatment is not to make a man comfortable in materiality that he may go on living at ease in matter, neither does it enable one to sin without the forever consequences of suffering as the result of sin. Its purpose is the sublime one of regeneration, that man may overcome sin, sickness, and death.
Christian Science is not a faith cure. The healing is not accomplished through the mere concentration of thought, holding thought for another, nor through the exercise of the human will; that is, by willing the sick to recover. The entire teaching and practice of Christian Science rests upon the basic fact that God is all. The power of a Christian Science treatment lies in the fact that it is the realization of the omnipotence of God, of the power of truth over all error in accordance with the divine will or law. When all mankind can say with understanding, "Thy will be done," then shall we have God's kingdom on earth as in heaven, because the will of God is health, harmony, peace, and plenty. The will of God is the reign of good; the manifestations of good are natural and right though the world has so long thought of evil as natural and inevitable that it seems a miracle to human sense when good appears. When the positive light of truth is brought to bear upon the false sense of evil, evil disappears.
The objection is sometimes made by those who do not understand the method of Christian Science healing that nothing is being done for the sick who have turned to it for aid. Is one relying upon nothing, when one turns to the supreme source and cause of all things, the power which created the universe and man? Because God is the only creator He is abundantly able to care for His own creation and to keep His divine law in operation. God is greater than any disease or evil condition and there is nothing to fear from looking to the only source and origin of all that exists for help and healing. Does not Scripture say that God is a God at hand and not afar off, an ever present help? Christian Science declares that all that is necessary for the healing of the sick is included in the one omnipotent Mind.
There are today great numbers of people on earth who, in time past, in hopeless bondage to fear, misery, and disease, were compelled to turn to God for help because all else had failed them. Ask these people if they were doing nothing when they turned to Christian Science for healing. They will tell you that after everything else had failed, they learned that the only thing to do is to rely upon God. For many years in every Christian Science church throughout the world, on Wednesday evening a testimonial or experience meeting has been held. During this time millions of authenticated cases of healing have been related, authenticated in the sense that those giving the testimony are generally those who have had the actual experience of healing. Many of these people say that by the reading of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, known as the textbook of Christian Science, they have been healed of diseases classified as incurable. From cover to cover of this wonderful book, Mrs. Eddy declares the power and availability of God. These people, redeemed from disease and sin, say that they are better men and women because of the ministration of Christian Science; they say that through the textbook, they have learned to understand and love God, that it has made them devout students of the Bible, and that it has taught them to pray intelligently. They express the deepest gratitude for having been delivered from paralyzing fear, from bad disposition, and temperamental tendencies, the direct cause of much disease and discord. These people who have learned the majesty and might of goodness and the utter powerlessness of evil are not a deluded people. They know that the kind of mentality which causes disease cannot cure it, and that this change did not take place through any ism or mental suggestion, or through the withering influence of hypnotism, but that it came through the hallowing influence of Christ, Truth, ever operating through divine law.
The consecrated study of Science and Health is moulding the lives of thousands upon thousands into better health, honesty, justice and purity. As time goes on, it will find its place in human history, as the greatest benefactor of this age; and no attempt of evil can ever displace it or overthrow it.
The purpose of Christian Science practice is to help others and to enable them to learn from the textbook how to practice and to demonstrate the truth taught therein. The practitioner who realizes most clearly that there is no disease in matter to be treated, but rather that there is a false sense of the patient to be corrected, will accomplish the best results and gain a victory over error. If disease is absolutely ruled out of thought it will not be found in the body.
Throughout all time the Christ mind has appeared as the Saviour. It was revealed through the teaching of the prophets; it was demonstrated to its fullness in the life and work of Christ Jesus; it is declared as the only way of salvation by Paul; it was brought to this age by Mrs. Eddy through the revelation of Christian Science; throughout the successive steps of this revelation, the healing is conspicuous. Is it not then incumbent upon every professed follower of Christianity to prove in some degree the mind that was in Christ by casting out evil and healing the sick? Any effort to retard the progress and unfoldment of the Christ idea is but an incident in its history. Mrs. Eddy refers to the eternality of the Christ in Science and Health as follows: "Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries, gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My weary hope tries to realize that happy day when man shall recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as himself, — when he shall realize God's omnipotence and the healing power of divine Love in what is has done and is doing for mankind." (Science and Health, p. 55)
No right-thinking Christian Scientist claims that he has attained perfection today. He does not claim that the full scope of healing has yet been accomplished, but he is striving constantly for more of the mind which was in Christ Jesus and is therefore a better man and a more desirable citizen in any community; he thinks more seriously of his vote that it may be cast on the side of civic righteousness; he is in sympathy with every effort to bring about better conditions for humanity through the regeneration of mankind.
Autocracy was not destroyed nor even rendered inactive on that day in November, 1918, when the armistice was signed. Many ramifications of autocracy are appearing today, which must be recognized and resisted in order to preserve the liberty and freedom of our homes, of our children, and of our greatest American institution, the public school system. Throughout the country there is a concerted effort to force compulsory vaccination and objectionable so-called health laws into the public schools through legislation. If vaccination has all the virtue claimed for it by certain individuals, people would not have to be forced to accept it. Some of the best medical authorities consider it dangerous and the cause of some of the most malignant diseases. For the few to impose that which is considered dangerous and malignant upon the many through the process of law, is far from the ideals of those who founded this great democracy. The framers of the Constitution of the United States discerned in part our rights as sons of God, and incorporated them in that document as the inalienable rights of man. We must prevent the slightest intrenchment upon these rights if we would save this great republic for posterity.
The Bible, often referred to as the book of books, is too seldom read and too little understood. Too often is it shut away in the bookcase, or is made a depository for all sorts of memoranda, a collection of what-nots. Because the Bible depicts different conditions of thought, it is of especial interest to Christian Scientists, for they recognize in the history of the prophets, the children of Israel, and that of the disciples their own experience in the warfare between good and evil as it takes place in each individual consciousness. Christ Jesus, through his teaching, entrusted to his followers the spiritual warfare. The struggle at present seems to be between the material and the spiritual sense of things, but progress makes it less struggle and more triumph of good over evil, as it should be. Problems do not discourage or dismay the one who is thinking rightly, for he regards them as opportunities to prove God's allness. Paul said, "Thy grace is sufficient," and the Christian Scientist learns that God's grace is always sufficient unto the day or hour of seeming evil.
For centuries the world has stumbled on without a definite understanding of what constitutes true prayer. Under great stress of suffering or disaster there is sometimes a desire to know how to pray, but in spite of tears and importunate yearning, much of the prayer of the world is never answered. In James we read, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss" (James 4:3).
Mrs. Eddy teaches that the only effectual prayer is the prayer of Jesus — the recognition of the allness of God and the availability of that allness for every human need. True prayer is not a supplication through blind faith, in other words, asking God to answer prayer; it is utilizing and making practical the goodness of God. True prayer brings thought into accord with divine Mind and declares and demonstrates the spiritual facts of being.
There are today more than a hundred different sects claiming to be followers of Jesus, none of which make the healing of the sick imperative. Jesus' whole mission was one of healing, and the need of the world today is for a return to the primitive Christianity which inspires its followers to emulate Jesus in his teaching and practice. Christians must prove that they accept the teachings of Jesus by fulfilling his commands — by doing his works.
It is sometimes asked by those turning to Christian Science for help if it is necessary to have faith in order to be healed. It would be unreasonable to expect those who have no understanding of Christian Science to have faith in it. There are many in the ranks of Christian Science who experienced the most violent antagonism when Christian Science was first presented to them, but after seeing what it did for others, they consented to make the experiment and were touched by its beneficent influence.
Little more than fifty years ago there was just one Christian Scientist on earth, Mary Baker Eddy. She says in "Retrospection and Introspection," a short biographical account of her own life, that from her very childhood she was impelled by a hunger and thirst after divine things, a desire for something better than matter and apart from it. This spiritual desire made her always consecrated to the endeavor to know and understand God. With maturing years came the conviction of the unreliable nature of all things material. A time came when she was given up to die from the effects of an injury supposed to be fatal; she then called for her Bible, and while reading of the cures wrought by Jesus, realized that God is able to heal now as in centuries past, and she immediately arose from her bed returned to health. With her healing came the determination to know the science or truth which had wrought such a change in her life. She devoted years to the research; and at last in the divine and natural order of events, in 1875, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" was given to the world.
In this book Mrs. Eddy has set forth a scientific system with definite rules for practice, which will enable any sincere seeker to prove the truth of her revelation. In the early years of her ministry, with sublime patience and courage she waited, worked, and prayed, until she gained a handful of students to assist her in establishing Christian Science on earth. Today Christian Science is known throughout the whole world; in many remote places there is a society or church organization, while the larger cities have many overflowing churches. Mrs. Eddy also founded and directed many activities in connection with her church, which will always be of great benefit to humanity.
Christian Science does not advocate the superiority of woman; its appeal is for a universal spiritual suffrage, which equalizes and unifies the thought of men and women and will emancipate the whole human race. Mrs. Eddy never encouraged the slightest personal adoration, but always turned her followers to the worship of God, away from personality to Principle. Humanity will sometime realize that it can never repay its debt of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
The Christian Science Church, with its form of government founded by Mrs. Eddy, stands for pure democracy, the brotherhood of man, universal participation, growth, and culture. Each individual has his place in divine Mind and cannot usurp the place of another. The by-laws of the Church, contained in the Church Manual, originated by Mrs. Eddy, are for the purpose of maintaining and preserving the integrity of the organization and its activities, and are requisite as long as material organization is necessary. The tenets of the Christian Science Church, set forth in Science and Health, teach its followers to be "merciful, just, and pure"; and this means obedience to the highest moral standard. To digress in moral integrity is fatal to the progress of a student of Christian Science.
It is evident that the sinning man held in bondage by ignorance and superstition is not God's man. Before mortal man reaches the consciousness of his oneness with God, he has a battle to wage within. All error must be overcome within, and individual consciousness is the scene of conflict. The Christian Science Church stands for absolute reliance upon God and his Christ. It stands for the achievement of every good thing, and for complete salvation from sickness and sin through man's dominion over all evil.
In closing I will also say for your remembrance, he who has suffered the pangs of keen disappointment, the sorrow of great loss, the humiliation of broken pride, will surely find in Christian Science a solace. It is indeed the Comforter which wipes away all tears, binds up the broken hearted, and restores all things.
[1921.]