Francis J. Fluno, C.S.D., of Oakland, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The claims of Christian Science on the modern world are really the claims of Christian Science on the prehistoric age, the ancient age, the medieval age, the present age, and the ages to come.
It makes no new claims on the modern world; its claims are only new to the limited sense, the finite vision, and the materially-beclouded perception.
The average man, until awakened by Truth in divine Science, is mainly in his mental swaddling clothes, whose horizon is marked by the age in which he lives; or, more limited in his life and living, sees only to the boundaries of his own few years; or, still more limited, sees the way to live, and the ways of life only in his own immediate business, church, or creed.
If anything seemingly new comes to him he is apt to deem it some insane or foolish inconsistency; some infringement upon the Scriptures, or some new attempt of the evil one to win him from his God.
Christian Science is not a discovery of a truth that never was known before; on the contrary, it is rediscovery of a Truth that is ever new, and yet is ever old.
It is as new as the infant thought, and as old as the Ancient of Days. It was, before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Before Abraham was, was Christian Science; yea, —
Before the infant earth was cradled in the sun,
The Science of being spoke, from her eternal throne.
'Twill ever be new, 'twill ever be old;
'Twill ever be telling, 'twill never be told.
The century bells are ringing it in,
Eternity's bells are tolling it on.
If one shall say, My religion is the religion, because it is the oldest religion on earth, and my church is the church, because it is the first church militant, then must divine Science say, My religion is the religion, because it is religion itself; and is therefore the religion of heaven and earth; and is as old as God the Father is; and my church is the church, because it is the church triumphant; the church of the ever-living God, and co-existent man.
Christian Science is the law of divine Principle; and is therefore the Science of sciences; the religion of religions, and the church of all churches.
It is not the gleanings from every other religion; it includes and comprehends the whole of being, or divine existence; hence, every other religion will be found to be gleanings from divine Science; and must eventually gravitate back to the one scientific fact, of a perfect God and a perfect creation, as the basis of every conclusion.
Since God is yesterday, today, and forever the same, unchangeable in all His ways, therefore, what primarily was true, will always be true, is all that is true, or ever will be true.
Christian Science makes no unreasonable claims upon the modern world; its claims are based upon the Spirit of Love, and reflected in health, wholeness, kindness, charity, and good will to all.
It comes as it came to the shepherds of old, heralding "On earth peace, good will toward men."
It comes as it came with Jesus the Christ, not to rob or to plunder, but "That they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." It takes nothing from the world, but gives all to the world.
In the place of war we find peace; and the finite conception of peace is raised to the dawn of that glad day when all shall dwell together, "one fold, and one shepherd."
Instead of quarrels and dissensions, we find friendship and kindness; and the standard of friendship and brotherly love is raised to His kingdom on earth, "as it is in heaven."
Instead of divorce and separation, we find oneness and union. Happy homes and peaceful are raised to a higher standard of union, and a more perfect bond of love; for what greater bond of union could there be than for husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, and finally all mankind, to be students of, and therefore dwellers in, the one divine Mind, the supreme and crowning Principle of being, the Spirit or Principle of Love?
The sick are raised to health, and the healthy are raised to a standard of health far beyond their present conception.
The blind are restored to sight, and the seeing see better and clearer, and grow into a more permanent type of seeing.
The deaf are restored to hearing, and the hearing hear better, and find a more improved kind of hearing.
The lame are made to walk, and those who walk move with more firmness, a more elastic step; and have a more perfect reliance upon their ability to walk, for they learn to walk in wisdom's way.
Christian Science not only heals mortals of sickness, but it corrects the world of such a thing as sickness. It not only heals individuals of sin and iniquity, but it corrects the world of such a thing as sin and iniquity.
It not only raises the dying to health and wholeness, but it tends to correct the world of such a thing as death: to demonstrate over death, until finally death disappears from the world, to be as though it had not been, as in fact it never was.
Christian Science takes the world where it finds it, and raises the lower to the higher; and the higher still higher.
It raises the unreliable to reliability, and the reliable and trustworthy to a state of reliance and trustworthiness that is born of Principle and permanency.
When the unsuccessful business man, on the verge of bankruptcy and failure, finds Christian Science, he finds himself unconsciously, as it were, demonstrating business and success; and when Christian Science in its purity and simplicity comes to the already well-established and successful business man, it raises him to where he sees a standard of business and success as an eternal law, that can no more fail than the eternal God can fail.
From this it follows that failure only is lost; and this is lost and swallowed up of success, as darkness is swallowed up of light; hence nothing is lost, and all is gained.
Christian Science lifts the mentally unbalanced and insane to sanity and mental balance; and the well balanced and sane it lifts to a standard of sanity and equilibrium of mind that can no more fall and be lost than God Himself could be lost, for God in Christian Science is found to be Mind; i.e., the only true Mind.
And the so-called mortal or finite mind that can be lost, is no more mind than darkness is light; and is no more a part of Mind, than darkness is a part of light, or wrong is a part of right.
Therefore Christian Science could no more cause insanity than right could create wrong, or than light could evolve darkness.
It is ignorance of the Truth of being that fills our insane asylums.
As true being is more perfectly understood and demonstrated, insanity will disappear and never be heard of more.
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
The Christ-like understanding of being never brings harm to any, or in any way; it is the idea of scientific religion; the only natural religion there is, or can be.
It reveals and demonstrates toward and up to the ideal man, the man that every one wishes everybody else would be.
As the problem in mathematics is found after the solution to be not only perfect and correct, but is found also that it always was perfect and correct, likewise man in Christian Science is found after the solution of the problem, not only to be perfect like the Father, but it is found at the same time that he always was perfect; that the errors of finite sense never were true, any more than the errors and incongruities of the mathematical problem were true.
Man, in divine Science, is found to be the ideal man; the perfect man representing and expressing the correct and perfect Principle; he is God-like, or like God, but is not God, nor yet a part of God; for God is undivided and indivisible.
The true man of Spirit's reflection, is spiritual, but not Spirit. He is Soul-like, but is not Soul; neither has he a soul of his own, to be lost or saved according to his own volition; he reflects or represents the divine Soul or Spirit that is God, that never can be lost. Hence man, the true man that Spirit evolves, always was saved and never could be lost.
The Master said to know God is life eternal. God, according to divine Science, is found to be the one reliable source for all our needs, our daily supply and present help; and those who know Him best are growing into companionship with that divine Principle.
They find in Him the one who understands them best; the one with whom they are best acquainted; the one with whom they love to walk and talk and hold sweet converse; and this in a most friendly, natural, and unrestrained way.
There is nothing supernatural or far-fetched in the Science of our own being. On the contrary, to spiritual or scientific understanding, it is sublimely natural and beautiful.
It is not hypothetical or speculative; it is the religion that reveals the scientific and natural relation between God and man, between Principle and its expression, between cause and effect.
It is scientific religion; the scientific understanding of man and his Principle, God; which Principle itself is not assumed or hypothecated; nor yet conceded to or adopted on the basis of universal belief or acceptance; but is found to be self-existent, self-evident, and demonstrable Principle, whose evidence and proof of existence is within itself, and is found of necessity to be; which conclusion is reached by a purely scientific and logical reasoning; and is as abstract from the evidence of the senses, both in principle and expression, as the ultimate science of numbers.
Yet it is as practicable, demonstrable, and useful in every-day life and living as the simplest or profoundest branches of mathematics. By it its adherents are enabled to live good and useful lives; to do much good in the world, and to harm no one at all.
Through it they are enabled to demonstrate, not only over sickness and disease in themselves and others, but over poverty, privation, accident, and many of those things over which it is usually conceded that we have no control. Nor is this all; but over hatred, malice, fear, revenge, unfaithfulness, fraud, in fact all the ills and errors of the mortal.
Christian Science, unlike every other religion, admits of no error, either in premise or conclusion, in cause or effect, in Principle or expression. God and His creation always were perfect, are now and forever will be.
Neither are the evils and errors of sense undeveloped good; neither are they spiritual good wrongly understood; but they are the negative of being, as darkness is the negative of light; and as the false is the negative of the true.
Christian Science comes to this material age and throws the X-ray of Spirit and scientific understanding upon all material things; and reveals them to be merely mortal thoughts that have no more existence or reality than the horizon that is seen over the mountain.
With the elimination of all these things, necessarily vanish all their concomitants, sickness, disease, and sin, mortality and death; and everything that in any way limits or seems to limit everlasting Life, or is opposed to God and His spiritual creation.
This material universe is to be scientifically and understandingly rolled up like a scroll and be as though it had not been.
Christian Science is not essentially iconoclasm. It does not break images, tear down altars, and break up churches, clans, and societies; neither does it use the old as a foundation upon which to construct the new.
It educates out of the old into the new; out of the lower into the higher; out of the false into the true, so that the idolater, finding in his god of wood or stone no god at all, neither breaks it nor worships it, but leaves it where it is; leaves the false god for the true God.
He who has a corporeal god, merely to worship, believe in, and die by, but not to live by, finds in Christian Science an ever practical and demonstrable Principle. A God to live by, but not to die by; for God, in divine Science is Life; and the Life that is God, does not admit of death.
The atheist, finding his objections regarding a personal god removed, grows out of his atheism into the one natural divine Principle; such as he can comprehend, understand, and demonstrate; so that instead of believing in no god at all, he grows to understand and demonstrate that God is all, and there is none else beside Him.
The infidel grows out of his infidelity into a great, grand brotherhood; for he finds in Christian Science the one only true and universal religion, that unites all in one great family, that makes all men kith and kin.
The agnostic grows out of his agnosticism regarding God and the universe into a knowledge of God and His creation; grows to know God, to walk and talk with Him as with a brother and a friend.
So, instead of not knowing, and not even knowing that he knows not, he comes not only to know, but to know that he knows and why he knows.
Christian Science comes answering all questions, solving all problems, and settling all controversies regarding God and the universe. It is the final summing up of all things.
God and His idea is all that really is, and Satan and his idea is all that really is not.
God must have all power, else He has no power. He must be omnipresent, else He is nowhere present.
He must have all wisdom, else He has no wisdom. Christian Science is not a reed shaken with the wind. Every statement is built upon the rock of eternal Truth and will stand the test of every storm; 'tis a bulwark that will not yield though pressed by every foe.
Divine Science will stand when the fabrics built upon the shifting sands of belief have crumbled into dust, the dust of their native nothingness.
When pathology, physiology, and materia medica lie mouldering on the dusty shelf, Christian Science will stand like a sentinel rock towering o'er the waste of years, its index pointing upward to the light.
For Science never beats retreat, never rests upon its oars, drifting idly with the tide; never falters by the way, to let the rust destroy and the rot decay; but in the thickest of the fight, and in the front fore rank of life its battle flag is flying, and on its ensign may be seen in glittering golden letters this motto: Upward. Onward. Ever.
It is known by its fruits wherever it is demonstrated: and it is being demonstrated in all parts of the civilized world.
It will continue to spread until it covers with its healing wings the sinning race of Adam, dispelling all the darkness with its wand of truth and love.
It comes kindly to the sick and suffering because it heals them. It is meat and drink to all those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, because it satisfies them.
By all others it is received with more or less antagonism and opposition; and that, because it seems to take away from them something that they believe they have, but which in reality they never had, or it could not be taken away; for no one can possibly be robbed of anything that he really has; i.e., no scientific truth could possibly prove a thing to be false that is real and true; or could by any means demonstrate a thing away that has a real existence.
No one need be afraid of losing any good thing; anything that is really true; i.e., a thing may be true according to the senses — may be a reality according to the senses, that is not real and true in Science.
For example, or rather by way of illustration, — the sun seems to rise and set, seems to go round the earth once in twenty-four hours: but the science of astronomy proves that it is not the sun that is moving at all; i.e., in its relation to the earth.
There seems to be a sky up there; but really we know there is no sky there; all we seem to see is our limit of vision.
When we found what was true about the sun, we only found what always had been true; we did not lose anything but our belief, and that was not true, or we could not have lost it.
When we lost that beautiful blue sky, beyond which we may have thought heaven, God, and the angels were, we did not lose anything that we really had; we only lost that which we thought we had but never had.
So, no one need to be afraid that the scientific knowledge of being will take any good or real or true thing away.
Omnipotence itself is not omnipotent enough to destroy matter, if matter were a reality.
A scientific understanding of being reveals the fact that God is Spirit, divine Principle: and His creation spiritual, and not material.
Therefore His creation is what the Scriptures pronounced it to be, — good, and very good; is now, always was, and always will be.
The Science of being reveals the fact that there are not two eternal causes, Mind and matter; that there is but one cause, one Creator and that one is Spirit, Mind, and hence but one effect, one creation, and that one is spiritual, that the so-called material creation is but the negative of the true, and has no real existence.
The supposed mixture of Mind and matter, of the spiritual and material, of Soul and body, is an impossible mixture because they are opposites that never mingle, in cause or effect, in Principle or expression.
The so-called material or physical creation is false and unreal, because it is unsustained by Science, and is within itself and to itself, self-destroyed; it is self-evidently false, i.e., it has within itself the proof of its own nothingness, both in problem and principle, in cause and effect.
That the spiritual or scientific creation alone is true.
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."
Christian Science is the revelation of that which is; it reveals all that really is. If there were anything true that is not included in the Science of being, then there were no Science of being.
Then being were a farce, and creation a world of chance and change: without stability, permanency, law, or order; and certainly such a world could not be the world that God has made, and in His wisdom pronounced it good.
The Science of Truth like the garment of Christ is a seamless robe, woven throughout from top to bottom; complete in itself; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it; and nothing can be true that is not included in it.
It is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, of being. Nothing that is false can be included in it; and nothing that is true can be excluded from it. It is that which is, and all that is.
It does all for mankind, because it is all, and includes all; in it mankind and the world will find all his needs supplied, and all his real desires fulfilled.
He who studies the laws of God as taught in Christian Science will find entire satisfaction therein: will find nothing lacking: and will find himself growing into newness of life, a more spiritual communion with Christ our Savior, a more constant companionship with God the Father, and a more sacred desire for all that is good and pure and holy.
The psalmist expressed it when he sang his first, most beautiful Psalm, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
"But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
In the study of the Science of Life one finds the laws of the Lord, and finds them of such vital importance, and so grandly interesting, that it becomes his pleasure and delight to meditate upon them night and day.
And since he finds more in those perfect laws of being than can be found anywhere else, hence all things else are laid aside for the one great thing, the "pearl of great price," the kingdom of heaven, that is found in the sacred laws of God.
But the laws of God are not the laws of mortal mind or of matter. The so-called laws of health are no more the laws of God than the law of evil is the law of good, or the law of wrong is the law of right.
The so-called laws of health that civilization makes and breaks, and yet builds upon, are as changeable and unreliable as the wind that blows; and are all built on the shifting sands of physical observation, conjecture, doubt, and fear; having no principle or foundation in fact.
One people have one law and an other another law; and finally each individual has a law to suit his own whims, wishes, or beliefs; and yet no one can rely upon his own law of health, because in fact he knows not what it is; today it is one thing and tomorrow it is another; and these laws of health that civilization makes are unknown to the wandering tribes of the forest who are breaking them every day; and yet the wild Indian by common consent is considered more healthy than we.
Our ancestors were ignorant of the laws of physiology and hygiene that govern our health today, and yet we sigh for the good old days of our forefathers, when people were healthy, vigorous, and strong; and such things as dyspepsia, indigestion, and nervousness, they would scorn to have laid at their door.
But the divine law of health, which is the law of Life, that is the law of God, is as changeless, immutable, pure, and perfect as the eternal God Himself.
Such is the law of health that is the law of the Lord, that is as absolutely free from sickness or disease as heaven is free from sin.
Such are the scientific laws of being, the laws of the Lord, which if you delight to meditate upon, you will be prospered in all you do.
Christian Science deals with the pure, the perfect, the absolute laws of God and nothing else; and finds the so-called laws of mortal man as false, unreliable, and changeable as mortality itself.
It clears up all questions concerning the so-called future: that dread of after death; that which to mortal sense is the unknown and unknowable; that which finite sense must forever shroud in darkness and mystery, and can only explain on the basis of conjecture, speculation, and belief.
Thousands today are suffering, and millions more have passed to the great beyond, a prey to the teaching of eternal damnation.
It never had an origin in Truth, — in God, good. It had its origin in darkness, and to darkness it must return.
Christian Science has come to the world, and is tearing that old fabric into fragments. It dogged our childhood's footsteps, haunted our bed-chamber, disturbed our innocent amusements, and stole away our peace, our happiness, and our freedom.
We are glad to see it go; glad to know that it is eternal damnation that is to be and already is eternally damned, and not a child of God.
Are there any who would like to see it live? Any who need it, with which to frighten themselves and others into heaven?
To all such, if such there be, Christian Science gives a remedy, a panacea; it is this: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494).
And in the Bible the problem is fully solved in these words, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
There is another belief along the same line, and a part of the same proposition, although it is dying out somewhat in the beliefs of men; yet the question is not fully answered, and never can be except as it is answered in Christian Science — the Science of Love.
We refer to the teaching that God foreordained from everlasting to everlasting; a few predestined to eternal happiness, and the many to eternal torment; the few to be saved, and the many to be lost.
This belief has driven thousands to hopeless despair, because conscientiously they were striving to be good, but found like Paul that when they would do good, evil was present with them, naturally and finally, believed themselves of that number, predestined to be lost.
What more discouraging, what more despairing doctrine could be preached? And what doctrine more deserves eternally to be lost?
Christian Science comes as the Christ has always come, not "to destroy the law, or the prophets;" it comes, not to "destroy, but to fulfil."
It will not take one good thing from the world; all that is good or true will remain forever.
The so-called finite world, the world of finite sense, of mortality and matter, is made up of propositions based entirely upon the evidence of the senses, all of which Christian Science, going beyond the evidence of the senses, beyond belief, faith, and even prophecy itself, clears away and leaves the field to wisdom, understanding, intelligence, and God.
One of these propositions is that the devil, whom mortal sense has builded up and made a person of, and who has been pictured and personified, as the one opposed to God, is going about the earth, working upon the children of men, winning more souls to perdition than God can possibly gain to the kingdom of the blest.
Christian Science, the religion of Jesus Christ, honoring God more than it honors Satan, finds God omnipotent, having all power; and hence there is no other power.
And the so-called devil, which is merely an allegorical personification of evil, or physical sense, neither is nor has power.
Christian Science shows that the error of the ages is in having two powers, one good and the other evil; and this belief beclouds the eye of reason, shuts out the true sense of being, and seemingly robs man of his God-given inheritance.
This belief, in belief, makes man mortal instead of spiritual; makes man subordinate to every beast of the field, every fowl of the air, and every plant that springs out of the earth; makes man a slave instead of a master.
When mankind begins to see himself as a child of God, a child of Spirit rather than a child of the dust, then he begins to take possession of himself in the name of Almighty God, and to claim his birthright of health, happiness, harmony, and immortality.
He then begins to take dominion over the beast of the field, and over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over everything that creepeth upon the earth.
But this dominion is not expressed in the power of might, of physical strength and mortal cruelty, but in the power of love, kindness, gentleness, and helpfulness to all that is below him.
That place of perdition, the so-called hell or abode of Satan, so vividly pictured, and so graphically portrayed by masters in the art, as a place, Science shows is as false as the abodes of the gods of ancient mythology. Ere long it will be talked of, and thought of, as an old exploded theological idea that never existed, save in belief and fear.
Even heaven as a locality or place is as much a deception as the opposite place called hell; and is even more deceiving, because it is more luring and enticing.
That heavenly place is purely of mortal origin. It is the "will-o'-the-wisp" that is constantly luring the children of men away from the heaven that is found within, that is all the heaven there is, and where alone it is found.
How could heaven be a locality or place, with boundary lines or limits, when God, whose very presence makes heaven, is the omnipresent one?
They who seek a locality, a place called heaven, and are looking forward to the so-called after-death, to reach that land of the blest, are listening to the song of the siren, who is luring them away from heaven and immortal harmony, to the shores of an unknown and mystified land whose bourn they never can reach; whose harbor they never can enter, and whose glories they never can share; for it is ever like the rainbow, that is never here, but is always "over there."
And yet, Christian Science, ever loving, ever gentle and ever kind, will never take away one single thing that you hold dear, without returning more than it took away, and that which you love better: will never tear one altar down, without building another upon its ruins, far better and more enduring.
So, while it repudiates and destroys altogether that heavenly place, that is not a place, but is only a mortal belief, yet it gives you a heaven, a heaven that is near at hand; a heaven that "is all around, if we but lift our eyes," whose doors are never closed.
"Whose gates are opened wide.
And all who will may enter, and no one is denied.
No need of moon or stars by night, or sun to shine by day,
It is the New Jerusalem, that will not pass away."
The heaven that Christian Science gives is a present reality; it is the reigning and ruling of divine Science, the government of the laws of God, good, where wrong is never known.
That heaven is here and now; in it no sickness, sorrow, pain or death, matter or mortality can be found.
To enter it you must see through the veil of the false, mortal or material sense testimony, into the spiritual unfoldment of divine being, in the understanding of God, and the Christ, His truly and only begotten Son, our Redeemer.
It is waiting for every one, and sooner or later every one must enter its sacred precincts, and none can stay away.
For Love is stronger than all things else, and will bring you at last, by ways that you know not of, however long you tarry, and however far you roam.
Christian Science has come to the world; dawning, as necessarily it must, upon a material age.
It is the light in the darkness, and the darkness of finite sense and of error is slow to give way before the light of divine Truth, that must eventually dispel and eliminate forever all that will not bear the test of the refining fire of the great scientific fact of being.
It is hastening that glorious day — the millennium, when man shall love his neighbor as himself.
Christian Science is not one of the many ways of healing the sick, but it is the only correct way, because it is God's way. It is the way that Truth has of destroying error; not by any physical means (which is only exchanging one error for another), but to correct the wrong, by the right understanding of the Science of Life.
It turns the searchlight on animal magnetism, mesmerism, hypnotism or mental suggestion, and shows them to be dealing entirely with the mortal or finite mind, so called, which is but the negative of the divine Mind, or Mind of God: and has no more existence, compared with the divine Mind, than darkness has, compared with light.
It turns the X-ray of scientific understanding on the so-called material universe, and shows it to be no more the true universe than the problem on the board is the true problem in the science of numbers.
But, since this false universe is to be, and is being corrected by the truth of being; hence, it does not grow less real, but more real; not less beautiful, but more beautiful; not less healthful, but more healthful; not less honest and upright, but more honest and upright.
For the falsities of material being are fading out of human consciousness, and the truth of Being is coming to light.
"When God is seen with man to dwell, then all creation makes anew."
It makes better men and better women; better neighbors and better friends; better husbands and wives; better fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers.
Better business men and business women; better merchants and better patrons; better overseers and better laborers; better masters and better servants; better rulers and better subjects; better doctors and better clients; a better government and a better people.
It makes better teachers, better pupils and better scholars. It educates, edifies, enlightens, purifies, and exalts mankind; it enthrones a pure and undefiled religion; it brings to the world and establishes one government, one language, one religion; one church, one Mind, one God and Father of all, one Life, Truth, and Love; one Spirit, one Soul, one good, one intelligence, one creator and one creation, one cause and one effect.
It shuts the gates of hell and all mortality, and opens wide the gates of heaven and immortal glory, where all must finally enter, and none can stay away.
Christian Science is the wonder of the finite world, and the light of the ages; it is the grandest gift of the nineteenth century to the twentieth.
Its donor, the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, whom we lovingly call "Our Leader," was indeed a most wonderful woman.
To write such a book as Science and Health, and write it in the darksome days of the world's history, when heaven was a far-away place, and God a tyrannical personality, sitting on a throne in some unknown and unknowable locality.
And the dark abyss of hell was yawning for the souls of men, and earth was peopled with poor ignorant mortals, "groping blindly in the darkness;" when matter and mortality, sin, sickness, and death, the devil and hell, and even damnation itself were all the works of a great and good God.
To write such a book at such a time and under such conditions, is the wonder more and more, of all who learn to love its teachings.
As time goes on, and the great facts of being as taught in Christian Science are more clearly seen, and more perfectly demonstrated, and Christian Science, the Science of Life, is better understood and comprehended, the name of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and the author of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," will stand out in the world's great history like a star of the first magnitude; and she herself will be honored and loved for what she has done for mankind and for the world.
When it is better known what she has suffered and endured, what pangs of heartache she has undergone: how she has been torn and tossed at the hands of those who neither understood her writings nor her motives; then will the world be ready to lay its trophies at her feet, and give honor where honor is due.
Those who now are scoffing at what they think is Christian Science, who are taunting and maligning, and would have crucified if they dared the one who has brought the message of Truth and Love and everlasting Life to them and to the world; who heralds "On earth peace, good will toward men."
Those, I say, who are doing this, and yet are bowing the knee in their worshipful manner to Jesus of Nazareth, I would like, in all candor, honesty, and sincerity to ask, "Where would you have been found nineteen hundred years ago, on that never-to-be-forgotten night, when, alone in the garden, bowed beneath the crushing load, with no one to hold watch with him for even one short hour; no sympathetic touch of a human hand, no cheering word, no pitying heart, alone and unaided, he wrestled over the issues of life and death, demonstrating for the world the great life problem.
Where would you have been found on that night of gloom, of darkness, and depression?
Or on that memorable morn, when, alone, he bore his cross up Calvary's rugged heights, forsaken by all save those who were there to scourge and to crucify?
Where would those who now profess to love him so have been found on that dreadful day of the world's dark history?
Is it not strongly indicated that they would have been found then, as they are found now, among those who shouted with the rabble, Crucify him and give us Barabbas?
And yet — and yet — and even so, we still will say with him who suffered, endured, and murmured not, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
Though "Our Leader," Mrs. Eddy, seemingly has departed from us, yet it is only to the finite sense.
From the scientific standpoint, we know that she is with us still, although we may never see her again in the flesh.
Yet, as she so faithfully and lovingly has taught us, it is our privilege now, as ever, to find her as she truly is and always was, a child of Mind and not of matter; of Spirit, not of flesh; a child of Love and not of fear, of Life and not of death.
To walk and talk with her, amid elysian bowers,
In the ever-present spirit world, in the evermore of Life.
[Delivered Sept. 25, 1917, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Twelfth and Felix Streets, St. Joseph, Missouri, which was "filled to overflowing," and published in The St. Joseph Observer, Sept. 29, 1917. The title of the lecture, and a few words inadvertently omitted by the Observer typesetter here and there, have been supplied from other copies of the lecture.]