Will B. Davis, C.S., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Delivered under auspices of Fourteenth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Los Angeles (Palms) California, in the Culver City City Hall, 9770 Culver Blvd., Culver City, Sunday afternoon, Mar. 26, 1944, at 3:00 o'clock.
The lecturer was introduced by Mr. George Ward, First Reader, with the following words:
Friends, Fourteenth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Los Angeles, welcomes you to this lecture. Our lecturer, who is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., is well qualified to tell us of the efficacy of Christian Science healing as discovered by our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy.
It is my pleasure to introduce to you Mr. Will B. Davis, of Chicago, Illinois, who will address you on the subject, "Christian Science: Scientific Mind-Healing."
— Mr. Davis —
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
Men and women down through the ages have vainly searched for a material solution of the manifold problems of human living. When material methods have failed to bring them lasting comfort and healing they have turned in earnest supplication to their highest sense of Deity. "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" has been the plaintive cry of the multitudes.
When troubles have continued and appeals to God have seemed to be either unheard or unheeded, men have often become discouraged, doubtful, and even agnostics. While they have continued to believe that there is and must be a creative intelligence, Mind, or power governing the universe, many have considered God to be beyond human comprehension.
There is nothing new about this state of thought. It was quite evidently prevalent in Athens when Paul found, an altar dedicated to "The Unknown God." But Christ Jesus had come to make God knowable and to prove that His laws are demonstrable. Paul, having been awakened from his cruel and bigoted persecution of the early Christians, was now able to declare to the Athenians, "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."
Seekers of the true concept of God may learn much from this immortal sermon delivered from Mars' Hill. I shall read a few of the verses from the account in Acts; and may I say that this is the King James Version of the Bible used by all Christian Scientists. "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being."
This doctrine of man's forever at-one-ment with his creator was taught by Jesus of Nazareth; and it was through an acknowledgment that the offspring of the perfect God or Father must express perfection that Jesus and his early followers healed all manner of sickness, discord, lack, and disease.
For a few centuries healings continued through adherence to the method Jesus had taught. Then the greed, fear, sensuality, and matter worship of mankind seemed to obscure the marvelous light. No longer were healings accomplished in any considerable number. Those that did come seemed for the most part to be the result of blind faith in God rather than through the understanding that man's very being is in God and therefore that the spiritual man must express the perfection of his creator.
But Jesus had promised "another Comforter," which he said would "abide . . . for ever." And he had called this Comforter "the Spirit of truth."
Those who have been healed in these present times by the ameliorative ministrations of Christian Science have not the slightest doubt that this prophecy of our great Master has been fulfilled. The forever Comforter has come to mankind through Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
This may seem a bold statement to one who has not studied the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," written by Mrs. Eddy, but anyone who will carefully study this book with a receptive and unprejudiced state of thought may learn to heal himself and others just as Jesus did. An honest investigation which casts aside all preconceived, critical attitudes, cannot possibly prove harmful. And after all, to accept the concept of God as ever present and all-powerful, and feel that our problems are insurmountable is inconsistent, to say the least.
We must remember that Christian Science was a discovery. Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer, had always been an earnest student of the Bible and she had long hoped to be able to find the method or system of healing employed by Jesus. She felt that his healing work had not been accomplished simply through faith in God, but rather through a scientific understanding of His laws.
Mrs. Eddy's thought, thoroughly instructed in the things of Spirit, was ready to receive the Comforter, and an extreme physical problem presented the occasion.
You will recall that in this lecture I am dealing with the subject "Christian Science: Scientific Mind-Healing." Christian Science was discovered when Mrs. Eddy, having no further hope of receiving material help, was pondering an account of a healing which is related in the ninth chapter of Matthew. She arose from her deathbed healed.
In the narrative which Mrs. Eddy read we are told that on one occasion Jesus said to the man sick of the palsy, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." We are warned by the Apostle James against being double-minded. Mrs. Eddy makes it plain that to believe in minds other than the divine Mind, God, is error, a mistaken sense. When Jesus said, "Thy sins [or thy double-mindedness] be forgiven thee," he made it very plain that a mental condition needed to be healed in this instance. Sin, being a belief in a power apart from God, a belief in more than one Mind, was healed through the clear understanding of our Master that there could be no intelligence or reality in any condition unlike the divine perfection.
In the sixth verse of this same chapter we read, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house." Scholastic theology has assumed that God sends suffering to improve us, but Jesus declared in this instance, and in many others, that a false sense of God which is called sin, produces seeming discord. And he proved that when God is understood as the only Mind, discord immediately disappears, or is seen to be nonexistent for there is nothing in the infinite Mind, God, to give it support.
Some of the facts about Mrs. Eddy's prophetic discovery are given in such healing and instructive words on pages 108 and 109 of Science and Health that I urge each of you, when you return to your homes or when you visit a Christian Science Reading Room, to study these two pages. Let me read two paragraphs from them, and as I do so may I ask you to listen carefully that you may catch a glimpse of their profound meaning. Let the God-given inspiration that enabled Mrs. Eddy to write our textbook illumine your thought as you consider these scientific declarations:
"When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit.
"My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organism and action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in Mind-science."
A glorious feature of studying the Christian Science textbook is that one may glean new, inspiring, healing thoughts from passages that have been read over and over again. So it is with these paragraphs I have just quoted. Each time one turns to them receptively there comes a firmer conviction of the all-presence of the one and only all-powerful Mind and of the impossibility of any other law, power, intelligence, or mind. The true man is not a material body but a spiritual being, the perfect expression of Spirit, of the divine Mind. When such uplifting thoughts enlighten consciousness, we recognize the coming of the Christ.
The word "Christ" is not used in Christian Science as a synonym for Jesus. The human Jesus, the man, came to express the Christ. The Christ, Truth, makes God comprehensible to human understanding. It was the dawning of the Christ in human consciousness that brought healings both before and after the advent of the man Jesus. Through the study of Mrs. Eddy's writings we are learning the Science of the Christ. The application of this Science is enabling her followers to rule out sickness, lack, fear, false appetites, and every other type of human discord in demonstration of the Christ, Truth.
Human consciousness which acknowledges the presence, here and now, of God's perfect, indestructible, spiritual creation is imbued with the healing Christ. Even children when they accept God's goodness naturally and spontaneously are able to heal through Christian Science. Let me relate an incident of a little four-year-old girl who, at the age of only a year and a half, was enrolled in a Christian Science Sunday School by her mother, and had begun to think in terms of spiritual perfection. A young woman in college, a friend of mine, had been taking care of her one afternoon as the little girl and her dog were playing on the front lawn. My friend was called into the house for just a minute or two, and as she came out she heard the screeching of automobile tires. The dog was lying in the street and was apparently seriously injured. The driver stopped, and as he was getting out of his car the little girl said to him, "Mister, please don't see what you are looking at." That was the child's response to the Christ-consciousness which admits no accidents or imperfection in a God-controlled, God-governed universe; and soon the dog got up and ran over to his little mistress. This youngster had learned to look away from the material picture and to discern God's creation as unblemished and perfect. Instead of blaming the driver and thus making the accident appear real and dangerous, she was able to say, "Please don't see what you are looking at." Her pure child thought knew nothing of the belief called death and therefore she did not fear it. As she had never learned to believe in accidents she did not yield to resentment. She had healed her pet not through any conscious reasoning but through her simple acknowledgment of the presence of the Christ in her consciousness. Mrs. Eddy says of healing in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 359): "You continue the mental argument in the practice of Christian healing until you can cure without it instantaneously, and through Spirit alone."
The dawning of the Christ in her consciousness brought healing to our Leader; and this divine inspiration impelled her to devote the next forty-five years of her earthly experience to accepting and recording divine revelation and founding and establishing the Cause of Christian Science.
How could we express enough gratitude for the courage, perseverance, and unselfed love expressed by this truly great woman, who has done so much for men and women in every part of the world! Her unquestionable accomplishments in healing, reforming, and uplifting mankind remind me of some verses in the last chapter of Proverbs. The tenth verse reads: "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubles."
The original root from which the Hebrew word translated "virtuous" is taken means "to bear, or bring forth, to wait carefully or patiently." The verse might be given this liberal translation: "Who can find a woman who can bring forth good in unlimited abundance?" Mrs. Eddy was indeed such a woman. The earnest Christian Scientist does not cease to glorify God for the completeness of her work.
A well-known translator renders the last verse of the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs: "Give her due credit for her deeds, praise her in public for her services." Christian Scientists give Mrs. Eddy "due credit" for her magnificent human life of Christian demonstration; and they justly honor her and "praise her in public" as well as in private for her devoted services to humanity. Their hearts are full to overflowing with gratitude and love for the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. With God-bestowed discernment she established Christian Science on a solid spiritual foundation, so that her teachings will always continue to bless mankind.
One of the impressive features of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration was the overcoming of lack or limitation in her own experience. This triumph was inevitable. As we grow in spiritual understanding, God's abundance unfolds in our experience.
It is no more scientific to tolerate lack when it comes in the guise of insufficiency of daily supplies, than when it is expressed as bodily sickness.
Students of Christian Science soon learn that the truths in the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, which they may have thought at first were applicable only to the cure of physical disease, are just as available in solving all of our human problems. For example: it is easily discernible that a business must exist in thought before it becomes visibly manifest. How logical it is, then, to expect that successful business activities should stem from enlightened, alert, and God-inspired thinking. The daily lives of business men and women who are Christian Scientists should never become so involved in the routine of business days that there is little time available for spiritual regeneration and refreshment.
While we may sometimes seem to have little time available, my own personal experience and my observation of other Christian Scientists in the business world have convinced me that no one engaged in business can afford to be so occupied with worldly, material affairs that he neglects consistent and regular study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook.
We can all make an analysis of an average day and insist on so arranging our time that there is made available regular opportunity for the contemplation of the spiritual and real, as opposed to the material and unreal. No matter what your vocation, you can find many, many moments in your day which could be employed to better advantage. First things should be given first consideration.
I can almost hear someone saying, "He doesn't know how busy I am." Another may say, "That might be a good plan for some kinds of business, but it wouldn't work in my situation." Another may be thinking, "If he had all the things to do that come my way every day he would realize that there are some folks who simply do not have the time to study the Christian Science Lesson-Sermon, Mrs. Eddy's writings, and our periodicals."
But, my friends, the reason I am so positive that everyone can find a way to reach out very often for spiritual ideas in order to satisfy his need for spiritual food, is that I did it myself in a very busy business. I learned to study Christian Science en route.
Many of the Christian Science books are published in a size which will fit conveniently in a man's pocket or a woman's handbag. I always carried one of these in my pocket, and found opportunities during the day to study it for a moment or two or for longer periods. In doing this I would find sentences which I could refer to and think over as I went about my business. Thus I found it possible to remain aware of the fact that divine Principle governs man and is ever operative and always available. As a result of this practice, which enabled me to keep thought in close communion with the one source of all right ideas, I made more business progress in a single year than in the fifteen previous years.
When one learns to study Christian Science for the sheer joy of gaining a more continuous awareness of man's at-one-ment with the one perfect Cause, even though one is not seeking to solve some specific problem, the divine Mind spontaneously expresses itself in such an affluent and abundant sense of health and happiness that the problem which seemed so real is solved and disappears. The Bible Lesson-Sermons offer an opportunity for self-instruction in Christian Science. Learn to study them unselfishly, seek to understand them because of the divine blessings which may unfold to all mankind through your joyous, scientific understanding of their message. When we instruct human thought to acknowledge spiritual facts, our body, and our human experiences, will inevitably and spontaneously express more freedom and harmony.
Once when I was referring to Science and Health, I noticed this thought-provoking sentence on page 196: "Sickness, sin, and death are not concomitants of Life or Truth. No law supports them. They have no relation to God wherewith to establish their power." That word "concomitant" means associated with, synchronized with. In other words, sickness, sin, and death have no association, no connection with Life or Truth; they are not geared up to, or synchronized with Life or Truth. They, therefore, have no law to give them support, that is, they have no relationship to God through which to establish their claim to power. This trio, sickness, sin, and death, are entirely powerless, because they are not concomitants of the divine All-power, God.
To bring harmony to light in our
daily affairs we need to know: First, that sickness, sin, and death are not
concomitants of, are not associated with, are not linked to, or synchronized
with Life or Truth; and therefore have no law, no science, no power supporting
them. Second, we need to know that the real man's relationship to God is
indissoluble and permanent; and because of this at-one-ment man has all he
needs in the way of strength, health, ability, right ideas, and adequate supply
of all good at every moment. God maintains the divine likeness at His
standpoint of perfection.
The first tenet of The Mother Church reads (Manual, p. 15), "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life." It can never be forgotten by Christian Scientists that Mrs. Eddy obtained the recipe for healing, which she completely set forth in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," from the Bible. Within its sacred pages is enough inspiration to heal any discordant condition. For example, let us consider those three commands which are given in the fifth chapter of I Thessalonians: "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks."
If you will take just these inspired verses of the Bible; and try to live them all day some day, all week some week, and then for a month, you will demonstrate Christian Science more successfully than you have ever done it before. "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks." Some days it seems as though we have nothing whatever to rejoice about. We can always rejoice that we know that God is everywhere, all-powerful, filling all space; and therefore that discord, separation from good, all inharmony are, in reality, illusive and unreal. Could we ever rejoice enough for the grand privilege of having access to this system of healing which enables us always to rise above inharmonious conditions?
If supply seems variable or limited, we can rejoice right then in the fact that supply is unlimited, always at hand, never variable, and that in reality every one of God's ideas is manifesting unlimited good. We can rejoice that we realize that there has never been any sickness, pain, or unhappiness. There isn't room in God's universe for such things.
Suppose someone near and dear to us has received an alarming diagnosis from a physician. We can rejoice in the fact that God is Principle, the only law, and that that law governs man; that laws of mortal mind have no stability or principle to give them continuity or support. Spiritual man cannot be seen by mortal man, and therefore a materia medica diagnosis is neither to be feared nor desired. It is not useful nor will it be harmful if it is clearly understood that erring mortal thought cannot be transferred into the experience of God's man. Rejoice that the man made by Spirit cannot be seen or examined humanly. He can only be discerned spiritually.
When we contemplate the difficulties in world affairs we can rejoice that Christian Science has enabled us to know that in these troubled times the light of Truth is actually at hand and available, and that man can see this Truth, in fact is seeing it.
What is prayer? Knowing God; understanding that good is here; understanding that there is no matter creation, but rather a spiritual universe, filled with right ideas; understanding that man's function is to be God's image and likeness, to serve Him; this is prayer. Desire to look away from matter to the spiritual source of all good. When such a state of mind is put first in our lives, we are praying without ceasing.
Let us rejoice that we know what prayer is, that we know how to reason from the one First Cause to the inevitable perfect effect, that is, from that one Cause to the perfect man God made. We must be glad that Mrs. Eddy left us the truths of Christian Science in writing, so that we can replenish our thought and attain the inspiration which is prayer.
Rejoicing and giving thanks are much the same, but that there is something to be thankful for and grateful about in everything, may not be fully realized. Even when troubles seem to come our way, how grateful we should be that we have the one sure method of rising above adversity. If we regard each hurdle, in the course of a human experience, as an opportunity to prove the truths of Christian Science, it will become a blessing.
Try reading Science and Health from the standpoint of "in every thing give thanks." Just let me give you an illustration of what I mean. One day, with this thought in mind, I opened to the chapter "Science, Theology, Medicine" and read on page 108, "The only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot suffer." What a great thing Mrs. Eddy has done for mankind, I thought, by making this discovery, the discovery that matter has no sensation or intelligence, that God does not know seeming discord, and that therefore it could not be in the divine Mind; and finally, that all suffering must be the product of mortal mind. I wonder, I then asked myself, whether I am really grateful enough that I can now comprehend these facts, even though most of mankind seem still in bondage to the illusion of matter beliefs. Am I grateful enough that I know that in reality there is no mortal mind, and that the divine Mind and its expression never suffers, and is not now suffering?
Then looking over to the opposite page, I saw the words, "devoted time and energies to discovering a positive rule." Never must we cease to be grateful that Mrs. Eddy did, that the rule is positive, a workable system of healing which is always demonstrable, and that God gives us the ability to understand it.
Let me tell you a story of a woman whose healing from a disturbing internal pain came when she contemplated, with gratitude, a citation in Science and Health which is familiar to almost every student of Christian Science. The practitioner on whom she had called for help had been working for her every day for about two months, and during this period had given her a number of references in the Bible, Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy's other writings which had helped him, and which he thought would help her; and among these was the citation just mentioned, which reads (Science and Health, pp. 393, 394), "It is well to be calm in sickness; to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sickness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the universal and perfect remedy."
"It is well to be calm in sickness." Have I been calm? she asked herself. Surely the sense of calm I have had is truly remarkable compared to the fear and turmoil which would have been mine without Christian Science. Yes, I have been calm to a considerable degree, she thought; but have I been grateful for the calm which I have experienced? I must be grateful for the good received if I am to have more. She read on, "to be hopeful is still better." How hopeless I would be without Christian Science! she thought. Yes, I have been hopeful in spite of the discouragement which has tried to come in at times; but have I been grateful for this hope? Unless I am sincerely grateful to God for the calm and the hope I have had, I will not be ready for more calm and more hope. Again she referred to the sentence, which continues, "but to understand that sickness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the universal and perfect remedy." What is the remedy? she asked herself. The understanding that sickness is not real. Of course it is not real, she thought. God made everything real and He never made sickness. If He did not make it, it does not need to be healed, even through Christian Science treatment. At that moment the seeming discord vanished into its native nothingness.
Be willing to take a step at a time and to give thanks for the understanding of God's law which has come to you, even though you feel inadequate at times because there is so much to learn about an all-knowing God.
I feel sure that we all accept the conclusion that the only possible solution of the problems which seem to be confronting this nation and the nations of the world will come through the intelligent application of the Science or system of healing which Jesus taught. This being the case, we should be asking ourselves each day, What am I doing about the international situation?
Beyond any question, Mrs. Eddy expected us eventually to stifle human warfare by the understanding of God's law as brought to us through Christian Science. In our Church Manual we have this definite instruction (Art. VIII, Sect. 16): "It shall be the duty of the members of The Mother Church and of its branches to promote peace on earth and good will toward men."
On every hand one hears disturbing news or sees some discordant mortal mind picture that seems very real to the material senses. Returning from lunch one day I noticed some headlines about the war situation. Would I believe that story, I asked myself, if someone told me it was true about his family life? Certainly not! Then why should I accept such evils as aggression, animality, and hate, which would tempt me into believing they are attached to the family of nations?
Students of Christian Science may well remind themselves, as they read and hear reports of international turmoil and disaster, that actually such news is no more to be accepted as the true picture of God's creation than are the adverse reports which come to them concerning individuals. In spite of the seeming repetition of medieval brutality, of human injustice, and unprecedented lawlessness, the spiritual fact remains that eternal Principle, divine Love, the one Mind, is being expressed by every tribe and nation on earth. The man of God's creating, actuated by the one all-loving intelligence, could not be warlike; he could not start a war, be in a war, or perpetuate a war. Man is spiritual and must, of necessity, follow the dictates of Spirit.
The only Mind that exists is operating for the benefit, not for the destruction, of God's children. How sorely mankind needs to learn this; and how important it is for those who have learned it to realize each day that all evidences of the carnal mind's operations, in our nation and in every other nation, are illusive error, without identity. Evil is never a person.
I have been greatly helped in considering, again and again, a citation on page 419 of Science and Health, which reads: "Your true course is to destroy the foe, and leave the field to God, Life, Truth and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone are real and harmonious." Earlier in this same paragraph Mrs. Eddy lists some of these foes. They are such errors as "lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate." The foe, then, is never a person, only a belief in mortal thought.
How can we destroy such a foe as envy, for example? Envy is really ignorance — ignorance of the fact that God's goodness, abundance, harmony, and love are everywhere. We do not receive good from others or take it away from others in order that we may have more, because all good is supplied by divine Love, the infinite Giver. So we heal envy by realizing that there is no reason for it. We annihilate envy by knowing that God's spiritual bestowals are adequate and available to all.
Of course, it is always scientific to destroy any foe or mental suggestion presenting itself to us. Even though the person to whom it seems to be attached has not asked us for help, we may leave the individual alone, but clearly see evil as nothing. When we realize that the foe has no support from divine Principle, no law to uphold it, that it was never made and therefore does not exist, it will no longer continue to present itself to us in the guise of a person. We may eradicate any foe or evil belief by separating it from person, and then giving it no life, no intelligence. Let us make a thoroughly energetic attempt to stop bearing false witness against our neighbor, to cease adding to the burdens of our brother man by seeing evil as attached to him.
Are we declaring that the executives in our nation, or some other nation, are greedy, envious, fearful, hateful, corrupt, dishonest, or revengeful? If we believe that these qualities of mortal thought are real, we can have the result of such thinking in our own affairs. Do we call the other fellow confused, or say that he lacks vision? We can seem to manifest in our own bodily experience what we believe to be true about others. If we do not wish to see the material manifestation called war in our homes, our churches, our businesses, or our city, we must stop believing in war as a reality. If we persist in beholding a world of turmoil, not only shall we seem to have the turmoil we believe, but we are unintentionally malpracticing.
I once knew a young lady who was working for an employer whom she considered unjust, unfair, and unreasonable in every way. She went to a Christian Science practitioner and asked him to help her find a new position. The practitioner explained that the evil, coming to her as person, was not a person, and that it would not help her to run away from such beliefs as injustice and greed. However, she finally persisted in her desire and secured a new position. It is not startling that she began to see the same beliefs in the new employer. So it is with us. Complaining about conditions in our government will not heal them, but knowing that such evils are mindless, and are not attached to people in any city or nation, will eradicate them.
In thinking of governmental affairs, may I call your attention to a verse in Isaiah, chapter 33, verse 22: "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us."
How beautifully this awakens us to the spiritual fact that in every division of our governmental system, God is supreme. "The Lord is our judge," supreme in judicial affairs; "the Lord is our lawgiver," governing all legislative activities; "the Lord is our king," the only director or power, supreme in the executive branches of government.
We know that God, Soul, divine consciousness, is beholding the perfect man constantly. We know that God is not conscious of discord, of evil of any sort. Therefore, as His ideas, let us conceive of man as he is; let us think in terms of the completely supplied spiritual likeness of the one omnipotent Mind. Let the male and female of God's creating appear to us as the only reality. Let us refuse to believe the foe, the evil, regardless of the disguise in which it seems to present itself.
Do not read in the newspapers, listen to over the radio, or accept into consciousness from individuals, any sort of inharmony, unless an attempt is made to correct the discord through an understanding of its unreality.
If such inharmonies as war, lack, dislocation, pain, misplacement, and injustice are actually true, through what mentality, consciousness, or mind did they come into being? Whether it is international or individual, we may rob the discord of its seeming continuity by refusing to give it a mind, an intelligence, or consciousness through which it could be produced. In proportion as we do this well will sin, disease, war, fear, aggression, hate — all evil — disappear for lack of a mind through which they could be expressed.
In closing I shall repeat the words of a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 74):
Go forth and stand upon the mount,
For Truth is at thy side;
The very rocks may seem to break,
And earth to open wide;
Yet error's tempest and its fire
Before that still small voice retire.
Go, take the little open book
From out the angel's hand;
The word of Truth is there for all
To read and understand.
What though the seven thunders roll?
That still small voice shall make thee whole.
[Delivered March 26, 1944, at Culver City City Hall, 9770 Culver Blvd., Culver City, California, under the auspices of Fourteenth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Los Angeles (Palms), California, and published in The Evening Star-News of Culver City, March 25, 1944. Also published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, Indiana, Dec. 17, 1943.]