John W. Doorly, C.S.B.
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Should humanity pause in its headlong course of materialism long enough to consider, calmly and dispassionately, where this course is leading it to, it would certainly be astounded and perhaps horrified to find how great a part material theories play in human calculations and conditions, how small a recognition or acceptance is given to spiritual facts. Our world of today accepts as science that which deals wholly with material things, and whatever thought enters into its so-called scientific calculations, is always mortal or material. This world likewise accepts a theology which is supposed to be quite apart from science, and indeed until recently it was considered little less than blasphemous to couple theology and science. It may well be asked: If science is not akin to Christianity or Christliness is it of any value to humanity and indeed is it not anti-Christian unless based on spiritual facts? Also if theology is not related to science can it possibly be true, for to be true it must be scientific, since the word science means only exact knowledge? These material views of science and theology have naturally evolved a healing system which is based wholly on material theories and which its own advocates would hardly claim to be an exact science. Indeed many of its most ardent adherents have themselves frequently denied that the material drugging system is in any way an exact science.
The conscientious mortal then must face the fact that he is today basing his existence, his salvation and his happiness on three things: first on a science which only pertains to material conditions and never to spiritual facts, second on a theology which does not claim to be scientific or exact, and third on a healing system which is neither spiritual nor truly scientific. What a picture of materialism this is for humanity to face after thousands of years of human effort! It is true that many of the thinking people of today are deeply troubled at the evidence that theology, or our systems of salvation, seems to save from so little, and that the material, healing systems have to stand helplessly by whilst men and women are devastated by epidemics and by a host of so-called incurable diseases. Also that the efforts of material science have in many cases been utilized not for the benefit of men, but for the destruction of men through the most horrible methods of warfare. Is humanity never to stop and consider these indisputable facts seriously? Shall men forever persist in their course of materialism, remaining content to believe that these things must be so and that there is no permanent and fundamental remedy for human woes?
Christian Science, on the other hand, teaches that there is an exact Science which is true to Christ and Christianity, that there is a theology which is wholly scientific or true, and that there is a divine healing method which is both Christlike and scientific. These three, this Science, this theology and this healing method, Christian Science declares to be eternal, ever-present, demonstrable facts of being, for they are the Science of Life, the theology of Spirit, and the healing method of Truth. Christian Science teaches that these are the divine systems which Jesus lived and labored to reveal to mankind. In fact these are the systems which all reformers have perceived dimly and have labored to reveal to men. Christian Science utterly refutes the suggestion that reformers such as Abraham or Moses, Luther or Wesley were striving to bring to humanity some indefinite and impracticable idealism. It declares without hesitation that they perceived and understood to some extent the only real Science, the absolute Science of spiritual being, which explains God's true nature and the relationship of true being to God, the only true theology, the exact, scientific, saving and redeeming effect of Truth upon human thought, and the only true healing method, the infinite ability of spiritual understanding or of spiritual thinking to deliver from the diseases of mortal thought and experience. Christian Science teaches that these are also the divine systems which are revealed and outlined throughout the Scriptures, and that the Bible is no fairy story, but is, when its teachings are properly understood, the book of absolute Science, of pure theology and of scientific healing.
Christ Jesus the Saviour of men foresaw and foretold that these three systems revealing the eternal facts of being should some day appear to humanity in all their certainty and science. This appearing he foretold as the coming of "the Spirit of truth," (John 16:13-16) and Christian Scientists know that today there has been revealed to humanity that for which men have prayed and suffered, that for which they have lived and died and for which they have been willing to sacrifice all. This blessed thing is the absolute Truth, about God and about existence, which expresses itself through divine Science, and which Mary Baker Eddy has discovered in this age and founded.
Truly has Whittier written: —
"Oh, sometimes gleams upon our sight,
Thro' present wrong, th' eternal Right;
And step by step, since time began,
We see the steady gain of man.
"That all of good the past hath had
Remains to make our own time glad,
Our common, daily life divine,
And ev'ry land a Palestine.
"Thro' the harsh noises of our day,
A low sweet prelude finds its way;
Thro' clouds of doubt, and creeds of fear,
A light is breaking calm and clear.
"Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more
For olden time and holier shore:
God's love and blessing, then and there,
Are now and here and ev'rywhere."
(Christian Science Hymnal, p. 18.)
Christian Scientists recognize that they are only beginners in the understanding of the Science of Christianity and they do not claim to be absolute and complete demonstrators of this Science. In fact they freely admit that there has only been one perfect demonstrator of Christian Science and that is Jesus the Christ. They do know, however, that God has revealed to the world through Mary Baker Eddy, this divine Science, the Science of the Christ, which includes in itself all true Science, theology and medicine. They also know that as their fellow men and women understand and accept this Science that its accomplishments in the way of healing and saving will be even greater than they are at present, and will indeed be so overwhelmingly conclusive that no man will be able to doubt the origin of this Science as being divine.
It cannot be too frequently affirmed that Christian Scientists have no quarrel with their fellow religionists, with their friends who believe that science is wholly material or with their medical friends. Indeed Christian Scientists desire to have the greatest love and respect for every one of their fellow men, no matter what their religious, scientific or medical opinions. Let the critic of Christian Science who thinks that Christian Scientists are attacking his particular system, because they are declaring the Science of Christ, remember that there are on earth today some millions of people who at one time believed that Christian Science was trying to take something essential from them through its teachings, but who now gladly acknowledge that they also have found in Christian Science more than they ever hoped for in the way of holiness, happiness and health.
Let me then invite you to consider this Science of the Christ which embodies, and is based wholly on the idealism of Christ Jesus. As Christian Science pertains wholly to God and to His creation or to true being, it is of course necessary for us to consider what God is before we can proceed.
Popular theology has regarded God as a distant being to be sought, in times of need, through prayer. These prayers, in a few instances, seemed to be answered but in the majority of cases they remain unanswered. Material science has, with its material theories, removed God even farther from the ken of mortals, and material healing systems have educated thought to consider God as a being who works through material processes. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view. Christian Science declares that God is an ever-present divine realty, who is ever available to His own creation and is infinitely knowable. His presence and power, Christian Science teaches, are essential to every right activity and consequently to all health, holiness or happiness, and to all true existence. God, Christian Science also teaches, has nothing in common with materiality, but He and His creation exist independent of suppositional matter and its so-called laws. In fact Christian Science teaches that God is the source and cause of all that is true and, therefore, of true existence.
The Scriptures use several terms for God which all Christians have accepted but which few Christians have understood practically and intelligently. Mrs. Eddy has applied these same terms to God, but she has logically accepted the conclusion about God which these terms indicate. For instance, the Scriptures teach that God is Love, but they also teach that God is Spirit, consequently Mrs. Eddy has concluded that Love is Spirit and therefore that Love is not to be found in material conditions. Also the Scriptures declare that Spirit or God is infinite and Christian Science likewise logically concludes that matter, or material existence, is not the truth of being. In the same way the Scriptures teach that God is the only cause and creator and Christian Science therefore accepts the fact that the only real or true existence there is or can be must be the emanation or expression of this one and only cause, God. As God is immutable and is without shadow of turning, His creation must be an emanation or expression of immutable Spirit and must consequently be wholly spiritual.
It is evident to anyone who has studied the Scriptures closely that when Jesus declared God to be Spirit he was not declaring God to be some indefinite abstraction, but he was revealing and describing the most certain, the most available and the most stable entity that could possibly be imagined, — Mrs. Eddy has once and for all taken this word Spirit out of the realm of mysticism and superstition and placed it in the realm of reason and science by explaining that Spirit is really divine Mind, or is the infinite Intelligence which knows, and knows divinely or truly. It is certain that when Jesus used the term Spirit he meant divine Mind, for on one occasion he explained quite naturally to his listeners "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, . . ." (John 6:63). In fact infinite Truth, which includes all divine mentality, is Spirit. Christian Science, therefore, teaches that God is divine Mind or Spirit and that divine Mind is Love. As God is everpresent and omnipotent, the divine Mind which is Love must therefore be the only Mind. Also divine Mind and its right mental activity must be omnipotent and irresistible. Even if one did not believe in the Scriptures and he reasoned logically he would naturally arrive at these same conclusions. Material existence shows that evil is destructive and that material conditions pass away. Therefore being, to be eternal, must be spiritual and wholly good. Jesus in his teachings frequently tried to show men that Spirit could not produce matter, and he was simply explaining the great metaphysical and scientific fact that God is the only cause, and that existence must be exactly like that cause and so wholly spiritual, and not what the human senses declared it to be when he uttered such a statement as "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6.)
Mrs. Eddy has summed up the essence of her teachings in a short statement which she calls the "scientific statement of being.” This statement is given on page 468 of her text book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and is as follows: — "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is moral error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." As time goes on it will be found that in this statement lies the crux of all true Science, theology and medicine.
Here then we have the following conclusions: —
(1) The physical scientist believes that existence is finite and material and his thinking relates wholly to so-called material substances and their actions. The Christian Scientist declares that true existence is absolutely spiritual or divinely mental, is wholly in and of God, or Spirit, and his thinking relates to divine facts.
(2) The theologian of today offers an indefinite concept of God as a distant, indescribable Being, whose power and presence are sometimes manifested in extraordinary or miraculous ways to deliver men from evil or to plague them with evil, and who manifests Himself through material conditions. Christian Science, on the other hand, teaches that God is divine Mind and that this Mind is Love. Also that this one Mind which is Love is most truly understandable and is ever available to men through right mental activity or spiritual thinking. Christian Science further teaches that this one infinite Mind, God, forever operates through spiritual thinking to deliver men from all that is unlike Himself. In fact Christian Science teaches that the divine Mind, God, operates not through material conditions, but to deliver from material conditions.
(3) The material healing systems of today rely on non-intelligent material drugs for health, which drugs express the contrary of the nature of God, or Spirit, and the effects of which are highly uncertain. These healing systems also teach that God or Spirit works through material means. Christian Science, on the other hand, teaches that disease is an effect of mortal thought and of false medical laws and opinions, and that acquaintance with God, the one and only Mind, brings into operation the true healing law, the law of God, or of divine Mind which frees from the mortal mind and its diseased beliefs.
In fact, the three material systems deal with both matter and Spirit as realities, cooperating and coalescing. Christian Science, however, declares there is but one reality, namely Spirit, God, divine Mind, and its expression: also that material existence is but a temporal falsity which only seems real to the mortal or carnal thought. Christian Science further declares that an understanding of God and of spiritual being will deliver from mortal thought or from the carnal mind and from its dream, mortality. This absolute, invariable understanding or spiritual thinking is what the Scriptures describe as the Mind of Christ, or the Mind which was in Jesus Christ.
I would ask you to consider seriously whether the Christian Scientist is less intelligent, less scientific, less cultured, or less Christian because he devotes his time and energies wholly to the effort of attaining the Mind of Christ and to understanding the divine Mind, God, and His spiritual creation, rather than to the study of fleeting, material conditions which have no true science, no stability, no actual law and no divine reality? It must be admitted that it is the lack of this very spiritual thinking which has caused mankind to wander so far from the understanding of divine law and divine realities, and to wallow in the mire of material intellectualism in which there is and can be no real Science, no divine theology, and no true healing. It must also be admitted that it is through this constant study of spiritual facts, or through divine communion, that mankind will be led out of the by-ways of materialism and will be awakened to the great spiritual and scientific fact of one infinite, ever-present God, divine Mind, and one infinite, indestructible creation, absolute spiritual being, never beginning, never ending, but perfect and eternal as the Father Himself. It is also in this study that the truly wise man will find his solace and comfort, that the truly intellectual man will find his joy, and that the true reformer will discover man's infinite ability to help and to heal his fellowmen.
How, then, is the Science of Christ, or Christian Science, which includes in itself all true Science, theology, and medicine, going to reveal to men the truth of being which Science should reveal, the saving and redeeming theology which alone can deliver humanity from sin, and the healing grace which alone heals. One of the greatest aids to the understanding and demonstration of this Science of being, is prayer. What a wealth of deep and consecrated thought that word prayer stirs in us all. As long as the word prayer exists, human hope can never be entirely lost. Then is the Christian Scientist who depends so largely on prayer, not in accord with humanity's purest and highest desires? It is true that prayer has been so misunderstood and misused that much of its effulgence and true meaning has been lost, but even yet no word means more to poor sick and suffering humanity than does this word prayer. What then is the prayer of a Christian Scientist? It is not a spasmodic attempt to perform the impossible, that is to change or to influence the immutable, divine Mind, God, who is always Love. It is not an attempt to obtain from Deity something that we do not deserve in order that we may continue on our material course. Neither is it an attempt to deliver ourselves from sickness, from poverty, from worry, nor from any vicissitude of human experience simply in order that we may be free from pain and trouble.
The prayer of a Christian Scientist is his constant, conscious, unremitting mental desire to live above the mortal and in accord with the divine. It is his unceasing attempt to commune with the divine Mind, God, and so to utilize the true Science which reveals true existence, the true theology which inevitably delivers from sin, and the true healing power which always heals disease. The Christian Scientist's prayer is his persistent daily and hourly affirmation of divine Mind's infinite presence and power, and of evil's nothingness. It is his increasing knowledge of God and of absolute spiritual being, and before this the so-called carnal mind, and its falsities of sense, material existence, sin, disease, and death grow fainter and finally disappear. This is the prayer of which Paul speaks as praying without ceasing. True prayer is one of the tenderest, most certain, most scientific and most intelligent things on earth or in heaven. The Christian Scientist's prayer is, in fact, his spiritual thinking and living, or his right mental activity.
When a man thinks rightly he is expressing his true being as the likeness of God, divine Mind. Spiritual thinking is, therefore, really Immanuel, or God with us. Just as soon as a man recognizes that his constant right thinking and right living, or his right mental activity, that is his true consciousness, is indeed Immanuel, or divine Mind, God, with us, he at that moment begins to understand why true prayer is infallible and is infinite in its ability to reveal divine facts which save and heal. Thinking divinely, or having the Mind of Christ, is attaining somewhat to man in God's image, the true and only man, the man God made, the man who is forever an expression or emanation of God, to whom belongs dominion over all material things.
Prayer is as infallible, as certain. as definite and as irresistible as God Himself, for it is God, divine Mind, with us, expressing Himself through the Mind of Christ, or through spiritual thinking. Such prayer knows no failure and no fear. It honors God in a way that a poor attempt to change or influence God can never do. Prayer recognizes and abides by God's allness and evil's nothingness. This is the prayer Jesus described when he stated, in accord with all true Science, all true theology, and all true medicine, "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John viii., 32). Prayer demands absolute life-long consecration of thought, desire, activity, intellect and purpose to spiritual law and divine facts. It teaches us to acknowledge God in all our ways, and to recognize no other source or cause. Prayer demonstrated is heaven here and now and within us, for it includes in itself all health, all holiness, happiness, peace and assurance. Such prayer is God's law to every condition for it is the very presence and power of divine Mind, God.
It might be well to explain that Christian Scientists make much of the healing of disease for the same reason that Jesus did, and that is because the healing of disease through spiritual means is accepted as a clear and indisputable proof of Immanuel, or God with us. As a matter of fact, Christian Science teaches that what humanity really needs to be healed of primarily, is its faith in things material, or of its material thinking. Every sin, every disease, every sorrow, every material condition, every catastrophe, every phase of fleeting mortality, Christian Science declares to be but an effect of material thinking. or of the carnal mind. and Christian Science therefore proposes to heal the individual and the world of these things by first correcting their material thinking, or their false material theories, with the Mind of Christ, or with spiritual thinking. The real mission of Christian Science, therefore, is to destroy men's false faith in things material by demonstrating beyond a doubt the allness and supremacy of Spirit or of the divine Mind, which is God.
Let me remind you that the Christian Scientist's prayer does not succeed because of a merely intellectual attempt to know the Truth at the moment of prayer, but it succeeds because of his life-long struggle to understand God and spiritual being, and to utilize divine Science in every event of life. Even the casual thinker will see that there is no connection between such prayer which understands and demonstrates the infinite presence and power of the Mind which is God and the pitiful attempts of mesmerism, or of hypnotism, to heal men. Christian Science healing dispels the mortal or mistaken sick or sinning sense which claims to bind man, and proves the divine fact that God, divine Mind, is the only Mind, and that this Mind alone governs and controls man.
Christ Jesus, the master Metaphysician, when he made the statement, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John xv., 13) gave an exact rule by which men could prove their Christlikeness, or their willingness and ability to demonstrate divine law. Christian Science, therefore, teaches that in proportion as a man understands the allness and the infinite reality of Spirit, God, divine Mind, and the temporal nature of material existence, in proportion as he strives to lay down his false sense of life as material and finite, and to attain his true life as God's expression, wholly spiritual or divinely mental, in that proportion is he truly adhering to Christ Jesus' teaching. In fact, as a man banishes from his thinking the qualities of the carnal mind such as idolatry, hatred, wrath, and many other phases of the carnal mind, all of which Paul describes as "the works of the flesh" (Gal. v.), and as he attains in his daily life those qualities of thought which Paul describes as "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. v.), then he is truly laying down the false sense of life. This process of spiritual thinking and living demonstrates the infinite presence and power of the divine Mind, God, before which the so-called carnal mind, with its false mental conditions and its materiality gives place. Paul further says, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," (Gal. v.), and he adds, "against such there in no law." (Gal. v.). A Christian Scientist, therefore, finds that as he strives to let his thinking and his life express these divine qualities, or as he strives to gain the Mind of Christ, the qualities of the so-called carnal mind and their effects, sin, disease and death lose their suppositional presence and power in his thinking and in his life.
The Christian Scientist, recognizing that disease is always the effect of false mortal law and of false thinking, destroys disease through spiritual thinking or right thinking about God and about His creation. This spiritual thinking, combined with the desire to know God and to overcome the qualities of the carnal mind in our thoughts and lives, constitutes true prayer, and this prayer reveals to men the Science of the Christ which includes all true Science, theology and medicine. Furthermore, as a man understands this Science of the Christ and strives to live it, so that he may demonstrate it both for himself and for his fellow men, he is obeying Jesus' command as given to Peter, "Feed my sheep" (John xxi, 17), for it is only through the understanding of divine law as revealed in the teachings of Christ Jesus that men are going to be delivered from evil. Humanity does not need to be fed any longer on the husks of material theories, for it has already been overfed on them, but it does need to be fed on the divine facts which Jesus revealed to men and demonstrated for their benefit. These facts, lived and practised in their purity and Science, must eventually deliver mankind from all evil.
It is sometimes objected that Christian Scientists are establishing an unnatural antipathy between the flesh, or the material, and the spiritual, because they teach the infinite allness and supremacy of Spirit, God, divine Mind, and the temporal nature of materiality. To such objections one need only quote Paul's statement that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other:" (Gal. v. 17). Mrs Eddy, however, although teaching the allness of Spirit, particularly states that Christ is the friend of mortal man (Science and Health. p. 433), and this because Christ saves mortal man from himself by revealing man's true nature as the son of God. The effect of prayer in Christian Science is not to deprive men of anything that is worth having, but to remove materiality and its effects, sin, disease and death, from their thoughts and experience, and to establish in their thoughts true health, holiness and happiness which are eternally based on God, divine Mind, and are attained only through spiritual thinking.
Christian Science handles all mortal discord with divine law. If the mortal discord be poverty, if it be accident, if it be worry or sorrow, if it be human trouble of any kind, the Christian Scientist recognizes that these things can only afflict the mortal mentality, because the body without a mentality would be unconscious of any of these things. Recognizing that these are all trouble of the carnal mind or of mortal thought, he deals with them through divine thought or the Mind of Christ. The wise Christian Scientist in his prayer, or his treatment, will always deal resolutely and unfailingly with the human belief of fear. As he gains experience in Christian Science healing he will find that fear is an active agent in nearly every human ill, and in most cases if he succeeds in removing and casting out the fear from his patient's mentality he will heal him of his trouble at once. Since God, the only presence and power, is divine Love, fear can have neither presence nor power and the Christian Scientist through understanding the allness of divine Love proves that "perfect love (or God) casteth out fear:" (I John iv. 18).
Spiritual thinking, that is a right understanding of God and of existence or spiritual idealism, is not only the way of salvation for the individual, but humanity as a whole owes every step it has taken out of materialism to this very process of spiritual thinking. As humanity has turned thought actively and unreservedly, not to the things which are seen, but, to the things which are not seen, and which are divinely real, then it truly has prayed, and this prayer has to some extent delivered from mortality and from the effects of mortality, sin, disease, death and limitation of every kind. Since salvation, however, is individual, the important factor is the consecrated thinking of the individual.
All thinking people recognize that we are today living at a time when humanity's sense of divine law has not sufficed to deliver it from war, from bolshevism, from class hatred, and from other dangerous tendencies. The fact is that humanity is still working on the old basis of the Mosaic law, which says an eye for an eye, and men have not yet begun to perceive and to demonstrate the law of Love which Jesus declared and reiterated time and time again to be the only way of freedom from human unrest. Mrs. Eddy has revealed to her followers that just as health and holiness are divine facts which the individual must obtain and retain for himself through spiritual thinking, so also law is a divine attribute which every individual must demonstrate for himself. Thus the community will obtain law and government based, not on human opinions, but on universal obedience to the one divine Mind, God.
Mrs. Eddy was so certain of the fact that true government is based wholly on spiritual thinking and not on human arrangements that in her own Church, which she considers to be all-important, since she knew that it was destined to bring the idealism of Jesus to humanity in a clearer and more practical way than ever before, she established a form of government from which she had removed every possible human equation except a Board of Directors of five people. These Directors she did not expect to govern her Church, but they were to transact the business of her Church. The government of her Church she left to the attainment and demonstration of divine government by the individuals comprising that Church. In the same way that she expected her followers to demonstrate the divine fact of ever-present health, just so she laid upon them the onus of demonstrating ever-present divine law. She also laid upon them the restriction of not interfering with the government of that Church in any human way, because she had no faith in human ways and means. In fact, Mrs. Eddy realized so clearly the necessity for demonstrating divine law in her Church and in human affairs, that she devoted one of her books entirely to the subject, and this book is known as the Manual of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. Mrs. Eddy knew that the by-laws in this Manual were divinely inspired, and that they were therefore unalterable. She writes of this book: "Notwithstanding the sacriligeous moth of time, eternity awaits our Church Manual, which will maintain its rank as in the past, amid ministries aggressive and active, and will stand when those have passed to rest." (The First Church of Christ Scientist & Miscellany, page 230, 1-4).
The demonstration of divine law by the individual is the only pure democracy, for in it every man has an equal right to bring into operation true law and power through his unlimited God-given ability to express the divine Mind, God, as the result of his spiritual thinking or of having the Mind of Christ. This demonstration of government through spiritual idealism alone can deliver humanity from war, distrust among nations, greed, hatred, injustice, and other national and class dangers and divisions. The individual who recognizes and lives the divine fact that God is Love is praying aright, and his prayer will remove hate and war from among men, just as surely as light destroys darkness. Until men recognize and live these eternal facts, war, sin, disease, death, unrest and evil of every kind will continue among mortals.
My friends, we Christian Scientists are declaring no new and strange doctrine to you. We are simply reiterating that the spiritual idealism of Christ Jesus is real and true, that it is scientific in the highest sense, that it is truly theological and infallible in its healing effect. Christian Scientists have, in fact, learned that the only way of deliverance from evil or mortal woe of any kind is spiritual thinking or the divine idealism which Jesus revealed to mankind. You may not at this time be ready or willing to accept or to admit these things, but I want to say to you with all respect, but with absolute assurance, that you and every human being must eventually accept, live, and prove this teaching, for there is no other way to salvation, and there is no other way of attaining heaven or of being freed from mortality. Let me therefore advise you to study the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, and see if it does not make the Bible a new book, a more sacred book to you.
One earnest, consecrated thinker, a loving, lovable woman, Mary Baker Eddy, has accomplished these things for humanity in her day. It is not possible for me to speak as I would desire of Mrs. Eddy and of all that I owe to her. If there is today anything that is good, that is pure, that is healthy, or that is God-like in my life, I owe it to the consecrated thought and life of Mary Baker Eddy, and millions are telling this same story. It is true that one only begins fully to appreciate Mrs. Eddy and her lifework as he understands and demonstrates Christian Science, although a great multitude of men and women who are not Christian Scientists have also recognized Mrs. Eddy's great contribution to the salvation of humanity. Mrs. Eddy not only discovered Christian Science, but as the result of years of struggle and toil she founded it on a practical, demonstrable basis. No forward step in this great movement has ever been taken but as the result of her initiative and advice, and every step initiated by her was the result of deep and consecrated prayer. Christian Scientists regard Mrs. Eddy as God's messenger to this age, and they know that through her revelation many of them have been delivered from sin and disease and even from death.
Think what this world of ours will be like when more of us are enabled and emboldened to put away our material theories and dependencies and to rely wholly on the divine Mind, God, operating in human experience through spiritual thinking or through true prayer. Then will sin and sorrow vanish from men's thoughts, then will pain be stilled and the dread of disease be cast out, then will the lame man leap with joy and the leper be cleansed, then will war cease and the reign of divine Love be established. These very things are indeed being accomplished to some extent today, but the harvest is still great and the laborers few. We Christian Scientists therefore long for the time when our fellow men and women shall recognize the all-importance of spiritual things and come to work and to pray in this vineyard with us. Then will be fully established the reign of true Science, the Science of Christ, the true theology, the theology of divine Mind, God, and the true healing, the healing through the understanding of the complete spiritual facts of being. Then will all men gladly recognize that Mary Baker Eddy is indeed God's messenger.
In conclusion, let me draw your attention to the fact that Christian Science is not an easy path for the loose thinker, but is the way for the simple and consecrated as well as for the profound thinker. Such thinkers find peace and joy, health and life in divine facts, or in knowing God and true being, and it is through such thinking that the individual, as well as humanity as a whole, is going to be enabled to understand and prove that: —
"There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
"For the love of God is broader
Than is seen by human mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
"If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord."
(Christian Science Hymnal. p. 236.)
[1921-1923.]