Lucia C. Coulson, C.S., of London, England
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The present age is above all else a practical age, and so it is natural that everyone who approaches the subject of Christian Science should ask first of all, What has Christian Science to offer, and does it make good? The best answer I can think of is that it offers a present, practical, provable salvation from whatever troubles you, whether ills of body or mind; and that it makes good by open positive proof, by demonstration. In the words of its Discoverer, "The Principle of Christian Science is divine. Its rule is, that man shall utilize the divine power" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 69).
This age is also one of progress and discovery, and Christian Science presents progress in the spiritual realm, the discovery of the Science of Christianity. Progress is an awakening. The history of the human race is the record of its gradual awakening to the realization of its inherent powers, and the inherent resources of the universe. Consequently, its progress has consisted of the increase of knowledge or the elimination of ignorance. All of our modern wonders, our up-to-date inventions, were present for the ancients to discover and use. They were right there all the time, and nothing but ignorance kept them from seeing them and enjoying their benefits. The savage with his rude club and the civilized barbarian with his war-god and his trained legionaries may be likened to a giant fast asleep, dwelling in a world of wonders with closed eyes.
Roughly speaking, it may perhaps be said that humanity's progress can be divided into three stages. The first was the belief that all is matter. The second that man and the universe are a mixture of matter and mind. The third stage, which we are now entering upon, is the conviction that all is Mind. Let us very briefly trace the history of these three stages. If we glance at the art, at the monuments, above all at the idols of Egypt, we are appalled by the dense materiality of their conception. The huge chariots, which literally ground humanity to dust, the colossal stone images before which the best educated worshippers of that day bowed in terror, all give us an overwhelming sense of oppression; a sense of the hopelessness of matter and the worship of matter. Yet behold the helplessness of all this ponderous materiality when confronted with one right idea, a faint concept of the one God, a glimpse of the power of right thinking, of righteous prayer. With no human power to help him, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, and because of their higher understanding, they went out fullhanded; their needs were supplied.
The government and glory of ancient Rome with its mythology showed the same material basis, ending in the hopeless corruption and destruction of its civilization. In the fulness of time Jesus the Christ appeared to awaken mankind from the night of paganism and bring the pure concept of God as Spirit and as Father. Signs and wonders again followed this further step out of the tyranny of matter. Fetters were stricken from human consciousness and it rose higher, rose to the concept of Life as immortal and of man as the child of God. This glorious light which enabled the early Christians to heal the sick and raise the dead, and rise above the fury of persecution, was lost sight of in the third century, through the influx of paganism and the corruption of the early church; and the Dark Ages followed.
With the translation of the Bible and the invention of the printing press came another awakening. Human consciousness freed itself from more of the fetters of ignorance and superstition, and the barbarism of the Middle Ages abated. The Renaissance brought with it literary giants, and those single-hearted intrepid reformers, known as the Pilgrim Fathers, who came from Great Britain across the ocean to found this great country, and whose pure motive in coming was to find freedom to worship God. In this age the dual concept of creation as material and spiritual flourished and continued until, in our day, physical science admits matter to be a practical negation, and modern thinkers and modem psychology have advanced the opinion that mind controls matter and that mind is primarily both cause and effect. These thinkers, however, did not advance this opinion until after Mrs. Eddy's discovery that all is Mind; but, with this step forward has come a wonderful increase of opportunity and dominion. Human consciousness has freed itself from limitation in every direction. We have today navigation of the air, wireless telegraphy, the radiocasting which makes it possible for the secluded, the bedridden, and the village inhabitants to be present mentally at the greatest public events, at the triumphs of music and oratory. Where are the limits, the boundaries, the restrictions of former ages? "They have melted into thin air." And will progress be stayed here? Rather shall we advance to ever greater freedom and achievement! But right here comes a momentous question. If we concede that all is mind and that mind is the human mind, have we not substituted for the tyranny of matter the tyranny of mind? Are the sorrows of humanity thereby lessened? Have its sufferings abated? While we look to the human mind for relief, we are still without God in the world. This mind which can be used for good can be used just as easily for evil. There seem to be minds many, and the stronger mind will control the weaker, will dominate and tyrannize, so that the tyranny of Egypt and the Dark Ages will merely assume subtler and more elusive forms.
Just at this point comes the immense value, the great deliverance of Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the one divine Mind and its availability, which brought forth that tremendous declaration known to Christian Scientists as the "scientific statement of being." I will read you the first part of it (Science and Health, p. 468): "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." This discovery was not made by a college professor, steeped in scientific research. It came from a gentle New England woman and it came not from the intellect, but from the Spirit, — through revelation. It was Mary Baker's purity that enabled her to look through the apparition of matter and discern the things of God, the facts of Spirit. Her purity of desire and of purpose enabled her to be the first to awaken mankind to the wonderful possibilities lying within its reach and springing from the truth that God is Mind and man is His manifestation. This step in advance may seem transcendental to some of us today; but before registering an opinion on it, let us consider how transcendental our everyday beliefs and experiences would have seemed to bygone ages. Imagine the derisive laughter with which they would have greeted the suggestion of the possibility of the telephone or the radio or any other of our modern resources!
From the belief of gods many we have advanced to the worship of the one God. From the belief of minds many, may we not advance to the concept of the one Mind? Now, let us consider for a moment the present salvation of this concept of one divine Mind. Think of it! One infinite Mind, and its universe of ideas, all in accord, all dwelling together in perfect harmony, infinite cooperation, universal agreement; the good of one the good of all, each living to bless and serve the other because in so doing he is himself blessed and enriched, each going to make up good's completeness. And this ideal state is the present fact of being according to Christian Science, the perfect concept to which humanity must attain, hidden from us by ignorance, superstition, and a limited and mistaken concept of things, and the great object of life is to gain an understanding of this divine Mind, a knowledge of how to bring its stupendous benefits into our experience, how to apply it to our present problems. To gain an understanding! that is all that is required. More understanding, further enlightenment, a still higher concept of God, even to awaken to the fact of His omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, which will break the last fetters that bind us to this world of sense and usher us into the universe of pure Mind.
In a beautiful passage dealing with the progress of the race, the present Prime Minister of Great Britain, Ramsay MacDonald, has written that "the transformation is to come by the complete awakening of everything that quickens to higher and higher endeavor, to more and more truth and beauty. We might well go to where the spring is to be found, and knowing what a mysterious choir of joyful sound and wonderful blend of beauty it is, turn to our work with the secret of success in our possession — the cooperation and harmony of all the qualities of good directed to universal ends" (New Leader, April 27, 1923).
Everything that has ever been gained for humanity has been gained as we have seen, through education. The struggle has always been between ignorance, mistaken beliefs, and true knowledge, true understanding. True knowledge is power and it is salvation. In proportion then as we know more of this infinite divine intelligence, we have that much more of power, that much more of dominion, that much more of substance, for true knowledge is substance as well as power. Let us take a purely human illustration to show why this is so. Any man who knows more than his fellows along a certain line has that much advantage over them, greater power in that direction. The trained musician, knowing more of the laws of harmony, and possessing greater skill than his fellows in the application of those laws and in the management of his instrument, has power to thrill vast audiences, power to uplift and inspire himself and his hearers, a power which may seem miraculous to those whose untrained and ungifted hands would produce discord rather than harmony. The same is true along any other line. The more we know of the principle of mathematics, the higher and harder the problems we are able to solve. In short, the more we get out of mathematics.
In one of Plato's Dialogues he stresses this point in a most humorous paragraph, showing that even the heir to the throne must give place to the cook when it becomes a matter of cooking. He says: "But come now, I asked, what will the great king do? When his meat is cooking, will he allow his eldest son, heir to the throne of Asia, to throw into the gravy whatever he chooses; or us, rather, if we come before him, and prove that we have a better idea than his son has, of dressing a dish?
"Us, to be sure, said he.
"And so, with everything else whatsoever, he would entrust it to us rather than to himself or his son, if he believed that we knew more about it than either of them did.
"Necessarily he would, Socrates."
"You see then, said I, how the case stands, dear Lysis. In matters of which we have knowledge all people will trust us, whether Greeks or Barbarians, men or women."
We possess only what we know. Truth is in reality the only possession. The millionaire's wealth may vanish in a night, but the wealth and substance of the gifted author or the famous inventor cannot vanish as long as he continues to think. It must remain because it represents what he knows, what he has to give to the world.
Now there is one subject which is of greater value and importance than any other, which brings a greater return than any other to those who study it, for it is an infinite subject; and there is one Principle which is greater than any other and which includes every other, for it is divine Principle, and this divine Principle is God.
Here the question arises, What do we mean by God and how can we be sure that He exists? At this point I am reminded of the story of two Arabs who were camping side by side in the desert. Through the long watches of the night one of them wrestled with the great problem of being, with doubt and fear as to whether Truth could indeed be known and found of men. Weary with the fruitlessness of speculation he wandered out at the dawning of the day and beheld his brother, with his face towards the sunrise and his voice uplifted in prayer and praise, vibrant with the ecstacy of faith. Aching to share that assurance, he threw himself down beside his friend and asked, "How dost thou know that any Allah is?" The Arab flung out one bronze arm toward the glowing, reddening east about to flood the desert with light, and with the fire of the zealot in his eye he cried, "Dost need a torch to see the rising sun?"
There are the two types of mankind, the skeptic and the saint! And the skeptic will never answer to any but the appeal of reason. That is why the Science of Christianity is come to convince those who cannot respond to the appeal of faith alone.
To return, however, to the question, What do we mean by God, and how can we be sure that He exists? There is one point upon which every one of us is agreed, one thing of which every one of us is certain, and that is that he himself exists. We are conscious of existence. Therefore consciousness is. We know too that this consciousness includes thinking and feeling, the ability to reason and to love. From this it surely follows that some force, some Creator must have brought us into being, must have been the Cause of our existence: and since the faculty of thinking is that which enables us to know that we exist or to be conscious, the Creator of consciousness must be Mind. We are probably all of us familiar with Descarte's great statement, "Je pense, donc je suis." (I think, therefore I am.)
It would seem self-evident that this creative Mind could not be evil or contain evil, since evil is self-destructive, — that is its nature; and so we arrive at the conclusion that Mind, the Creator, is good, constructive, not destructive. This Mind must also be omnipresent, since whatever is wholly mental is not bounded or limited by space. Twice two are four is always present without respect to clime or continent, because it exists as idea without any material accompaniments. Our thoughts can go as quickly and easily to Europe as to the next room; it is the material body which prevents our accompanying them. The radio is showing us how to accomplish the elimination of space. Therefore pure Mind is omnipresent as well as good and creative. And, as the Creator of the universe, this Mind must be omniscient. It naturally knows all that it creates. Christian Science therefore speaks of God as the divine Mind, and declares that the product of Mind must be mental. What is Mind conscious of? Ideas. Therefore the universe of divine Mind is a universe of spiritual ideas.
So we come back to the premise of Christian Science that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation," and that this Mind is God. Now just what is the value of this discovery? And is there any need of it today? First, as to its value. It is proving effectual in the healing of lack, of sin, disease, and sorrow, in the elimination of fear, worry, and decrepitude, for it is, to quote its Discoverer, "bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies" (Science and Health, p. 210). Is there any need of such a Science? There can be little doubt as to the answer. In spite of all the achievements of human intelligence, as we look upon the world today, the question arises, Of what avail these inventions, this intensive civilization when the humanity they subserve is still no happier, no healthier, no holier, for them? As you go through the streets of a great city, the majority of the faces, are graven with the evidences of inward trouble, turmoil, sickness, or vice; the shoulders of many are bowed with burdens grievous to be borne. Where is the radiance, the dominion, the glory of the man who was made in the image of God? Human intelligence is not enough! It does not hinder "man's inhumanity to man." "Who will show us any good?" is still the cry. Who will right the pitiful inequalities of men and nations? What is it that will bring happiness to the heart of humanity? And there is no answer, there can be no answer until we reach the discovery of a higher, a divine intelligence, and find that intelligence to be Love and to be here available. That is the answer to humanity's need — a God who is Love. Power and Love synonymous! For if these two are one, where is there any room for cruelty or for oppression, where is there room for suffering, for sorrow or for fear? Power and Love united and available! Love that is all-power, omnipotent! Power that is infinite Love!
It was of such a God that Jesus the Christ spoke and such a God that he proved for three years among men. Lack fled before him, the five thousand were fed in the desert in an hour. Sickness vanished, sin melted, and where was there any place left for sorrow, since the dead were raised at his word and restored to their beloved? Because he taught and proved such a God of love, the man who lived only thirty-three years among men, who had no learning according to human methods of education, but who knew "letters, having never learned;" who lived in an obscure province of Judea, and spoke in a dying tongue, who had no one to take down his words, and no press to print them, yet dates our era! His words live as no other words have ever lived. His code has become the highest standard of righteousness for the nations. Since the third century, however, the healing works, the signs following, have not been given. The God of love has been preached but not proved as Jesus proved Him until our day, and so mankind, tired of faith without works, has turned restlessly in every direction for a present-day salvation.
Right here Christian Science steps into the breach, and declares that the healing Christ, which Jesus demonstrated, is here today as much as it was nineteen centuries ago. Veiled, as it has been by the rubbish of materiality, this Christ, Truth, has risen to human consciousness and cast aside the graveclothes and is once more meeting humanity's present need.
"But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He;
And faith has yet its Olivet,
And love its Galilee."
(J. G. Whittier)
Yes, the healing Christ is still the eternal hope of mankind, because, as the Christian Science textbook tells us (p. 18), "Christ is Truth," the truth about everything, the highest knowledge available, that which will break the worst fetters that bind us, the fetters of disease and sin.
You know the progress of mankind has all along kept pace with man's concept of Deity. As that concept advanced, civilization in its truest sense advanced. All through the Christian era, we have realized God's Fatherhood, to some extent, in our better concept of justice. Government has slowly become less tyrannical and more paternal in conception. Democracy has approximated the ideal of one universal family. It remained, however, for Christian Science to reveal the fulness and wholeness of Deity by representing God as Mother.
It is a familiar experience with most people to watch the sunrise. There is the stir and shiver of the grey dawn and the gradual brightening of the sky, and then it seems as if the sun, gathering momentum, bursts through the clouds in the full splendor of a new day, awakening the whole earth. So, slowly through the centuries the right idea of God has advanced, gathering momentum in its stride, until it has burnt upon this age in the full glory of completeness, the Father-Mother God, the divine Principle of all that exists, proclaiming Deity as All-in-all.
In a sermon entitled "The People's Idea of God" (p . 14) Mrs. Eddy has written, "Our ideas of divinity form our models of humanity." If there is one quality which our human models, our models of correction, our moral and civil codes, lack, it is the quality of true motherhood. With that quality, permeating our governments, how greatly would likelihood of war be lessened! For if our model of divinity includes the Motherhood of God, it will readily be seen that such an ideal excludes the thought of war. The god of vengeance which is always a war-god and which, in spite of progress, seems still to linger in our midst, would make its exit and give place to gentler qualities of Mind. The patience that would reason and wait and strive to eliminate misunderstanding — the compassion that would take in another's point of view and consider another's advantage and desire the universal good — those would come to the front.
Even today our concept of God is too often that of a punishing God, too little that of a Comforter. I remember struggling to bring to a beginner in the study of Christian Science the sense of the fulness of good and of blessing that were her birthright, but which the teaching of false theology did not allow her to claim. She argued something in this way: "Yes, but I don't deserve all those good things. God is just, and I may not be ready for healing, and it may not be God's will for me to have the happiness and the plenty you speak of." "But God is your Mother!" I replied at last, and then the argument yielded. "Oh, I see!" she said, "the mother doesn't wait for the child to deserve her love. She just delights to make him happy."
And then we spoke together about the true office of a mother. It is her business in the first place to protect and cherish, then to feed, to train, to comfort, to wipe away the tears. She gives and gives, and forgives! So, as we glimpse the tender Mother-love of God, justice is united to a fuller measure of mercy, vengeance and wrath melt before the infinite divine compassion which, seeing, in the words of a poet,
"Of what toys we make our joys,
How little understood
Thy great commanded good.
Thou'lt leave Thy wrath and say,
'I will be sorry for their childishness'."
For we are children, all of us, children in understanding, foolish and wicked children sometimes, but still children, "toy-bewitched" as Coleridge puts it. That is why it is necessary to take the attitude of a child in approaching Deity, and why Christ Jesus told us we must become as little children. Does the child ever question where the next meal will come from or worry as to whether the home is secure? In absolute confidence he lives from day to day. Whatever he needs he claims as the natural and free gift of his parents. So we, who are children of a larger growth, should turn to our heavenly Parent, divine Mind, our Father-Mother God, and claim our birthright.
And what has Mind to bestow upon us? Not matter, not houses and barns, but simply ideas. Perhaps here the man who needs a roof to cover him or the wherewithal to pay his rent may exclaim, "Cold comfort!" But what after all is his real need? Is it just a roof or a sum of money that will satisfy? Surely in every case the need is for substance, for an income that will take care of all requirements. Well, enduring substance can only come through right ideas and their application, only through having something to give to the world which consequently brings us in a return. And the only sure and certain income which will never come to an end is the perpetual income of right ideas; for as we saw at the start, the man who knows more than his fellows along any line is served by them and supported by them in return for the service which he himself renders. Turning thus from matter to Mind, we perceive the inexhaustible nature of supply. You cannot corner a divine idea. It belongs to all men equally, and each — as he applies it — can get the same amount out of it. The good of one becomes the good of all.
When we regard supply from this standpoint how foolish the idea of sparing and hoarding for an uncertain future becomes! While in our human working out, right economy is always essential, yet how can we save up ideas, and how can we imagine a day when divine Mind will cease to impart them? It is not our bank account that needs so much attention as our thinking; for positive, right thinking will look after our bank account.
I remember that at one time in my own experience I wanted to make the demonstration of self-support, and I was talking over the subject with a friend who was a Christian Scientist. "Well, what can you do?" he asked. "What training have you had?" Now, I had had no training in any direction. It had never occurred to me to learn to be self-supporting, and so, after considering his question as to what I could do I answered, "Nothing! Nothing at all!" "Well, there is one thing you can do," he replied, "you can think!" "Yes," I rejoined, "I can think." And through the teaching of Christian Science I had learned that right thinking is productive and right ideas become fruitful and externalize themselves. So I started to think, to understand more of the riches of infinite Mind, and to apply my understanding in the healing of the problems that presented themselves. And then, almost before I was aware of it, the problem of self-support was solved.
Now, how does this understanding help us in regard to health? The Christian Science textbook tells us on page 421 that disease is really disarrangement. Mrs. Eddy saw clearly that the body answers to thought, that it is, as it were, the photograph of the mind. We all know that a thought of anger makes the face flush by quickening the circulation of the blood, that a thought of fear will make a man tremble, affecting the muscles and the nerves, that a thought of grief is manifested on the body by affecting the glands of the eyes so that the tears begin to flow. So you see, a disarranged thought is manifested in a disarrangement of the functions and organs of the body. In the science of numbers every figure has its right place and value. One five misplaced or one seven subtracted instead of added puts the whole sum out of order. In much the same way, if our thoughts are misplaced, if a wrong thought is in the place of a right thought, if a thought of anxiety occupies the place of a thought of confidence, the whole body is put out of order and there is disarrangement. Now, Christian Science shows us how to differentiate between the false and the true, between human and divine thoughts. It teaches us how to refuse the one and choose the other. The thoughts that come from God are always harmonious, healthy, confident of good, and we can learn how to entertain such thoughts and dismiss the others. In her book, "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 268), Mrs. Eddy has written, "God's preparations for the sick are potions of His own qualities." If you administer a dose of cheer and confidence and gratitude to someone struggling with discouragement, or a dose of unselfish love to someone afflicted with resentment and self-righteousness and then watch the effect, you will be surprised at the result.
What is the connection then between this infinite reservoir of right ideas — divine qualities — and the human need? Here we come to the function of prayer, and here is where the little child's outlook becomes important. Divine Mind does not withhold from its offspring their daily bread. Divine Love responds instantly to the desire of its children; but there must be desire, for as Science and Health tells us (p. 1), "desire is prayer."
Here most probably the question will be asked as to the difference or distinction between the popular notion of prayer and Christian Science treatment. I think it may be said that this lies mainly in the approach.
Turning from the contemplation of himself as mortal, with all a mortal's fears and failings, the Christian Scientist fixes his gaze steadily upon the divine perfection, and claims the divine sonship, which the error and ignorance of mortal selfhood is hiding. Faithfully he seeks to identify himself with the purity and harmony, the wholeness and beauty of the child of God, and the Father who seeth in secret hears and rewards him openly. Thus it may be said that Christian Science treatment is the prayer of affirmation.
In a pamphlet entitled "No and Yes" Mrs. Eddy has given us such a wonderful description of true prayer that I should like to read a part of it to you: "The silent intercession and unvoiced imploring is an honest and potent prayer to heal and save. . . . True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. . . . Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good. It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, 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 God is" (p. 39).
To see and understand more of what God is, more of the great I AM, means to come closer and nearer to divine intelligence, closer and nearer to divine power, to divine Love, consequently to know and to manifest more of intelligence, more of power, more of love, to approach nearer to the man who is image, the image and likeness of God.
In olden days the courtier who stood at the king's right hand enjoyed more of his confidence and favor than the beggar in the outer court. Indeed, his power was second only to the king's. The book of Revelation speaks of Christ Jesus as being at the right hand of the throne of God, the highest degree of understanding and power, and in the ratio of our approach to his understanding shall we manifest his power. The higher our understanding of God the higher necessarily becomes our experience, the higher our human models.
Therefore whatever problem confronts us in Christian Science, we have been given the key to the same, and consequently Christian Scientists are a grateful people, and they are grateful to the one who gave them this key, who forged it in loneliness and struggle. When Mary Baker Eddy proclaimed the nothingness of matter and the allness of Mind, she met with ridicule, for natural scientists had not then discovered the mythical nature of the atom. It has since become common knowledge. When she declared that all true healing is spiritual, and that the healing of primitive Christianity is possible and natural today, she met with bitter antagonism, but now mental and spiritual healing are broadly acknowledged, and faith-healing is practiced by those who reject Christian Science. It is time that we awakened to perceive and recognize who was the pioneer in these matters, and to give Mrs. Eddy her rightful place in history. She has her place in history also as the Founder of the Christian Science church and the Leader of the movement. In the Church Manual she laid down all the rules that are to guide it safely on, and in this Manual the relation of The Mother Church to its branches throughout the world is set forth.
Mrs. Eddy called her great work "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and this is just what every student finds it to be. The Bible, generally speaking, has been read as something of the past, and its promises have been looked upon as only capable of fulfilment in the future; but to students of Christian Science it is a treasure house to which they have been furnished the key. The Bible was merely so much beautiful literature to me until I began reading Science and Health. Then the Scriptures became alive, vital, practical. I felt that the comfort, the promises in it were meant for me, and that there were stores of hidden wisdom for me to gather from its pages.
Sometimes we have been accused of having a different Bible, a Bible of our own. A more untrue statement could not be made. Mrs. Eddy has written on page 126 of Science and Health: "I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only authority." Consequently we love the Bible and study it.
It has also been charged that we change the meaning of the Scriptures to suit ourselves, but the fact is that we base our whole teaching on the literal truth of the statements that God gave man dominion over the whole earth, that "now are we the sons of God," and on the command to heal the sick. I remember hearing of a woman who went to a Christian Science practitioner for treatment, and in the course of conversation when certain passages of the Bible were quoted, the patient said, "I don't like the word death, so instead I always use the word promotion." "Well," the practitioner said, "we will always say promotion when the word death comes and see how it works." Then she began to quote one of the sayings of Jesus, "He that keepeth my sayings shall never see promotion." Also, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is promotion." So the patient decided it was better to accept the words as they are written, which is what Christian Scientists do.
I have heard it said that Christian Science is simply suggestion. The answer to that charge is already given in the doctrine of Christian Science that there is only one Mind, which necessarily consists of what is, or absolute Truth. Now, you cannot suggest the truth. If you tell a child twice two are four, that is not suggestion, but just the truth. You can suggest to him that twice two are five, and if he does not know enough he may accept the suggestion. The basis of suggestion and hypnotism is the belief of minds many, and as we saw, the deliverance from the conflict of many minds lies in the fact of one divine Mind. As we enter that region we are safe.
In conclusion, if this lecture has brought hope to some, if it has stimulated enquiry, and convinced any that there is comfort and healing for every problem, then I can only say that as you pursue this subject you will awaken to a new life, to new joys, new possibilities, new opportunities, and that you will find that this Science does indeed make good.
In the words of our Leader:
For Christian Science brings to view
The great I Am, —
Omniscient power, — gleaming through
Mind, mother, man.
(Christ and Christmas, p. 39)
[1924.]