Rev. Andrew J. Graham, C.S.B., of Boston,
Massachusetts
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The auditorium and stage of Players' Hall, West Newton, were filled by the audience which greeted the Rev. Andrew J. Graham, formerly pastor of a large church in Rochester, N. Y. The lecturer, who received the closest attention was introduced by Mr. Harry I. Hunt, First Reader of the Christian Science Church of Newton in these words:
In its attempt to interpret the God of the Bible Theology has given to the world a concept of God as a mighty Ruler who loves and hates, a Creator who makes man capable of sin and then punishes him for sinning by sending upon him disease and disaster; a God who lives far away in a place called Heaven, entrance to which is gained only through the gateway of death. Theology, however, has not been able to furnish rational proof that this concept of God is correct.
Jesus the Christ taught a God who is good, a heavenly Father, the source of all life and of all truth, a God who is love, and he furnished overwhelming proof that his was the true idea of God by healing mankind of sickness and sin and showing others how to do the same works. Jesus revealed a God the understanding of whose ever-presence brings the Kingdom of Heaven to man here and now in this present state of existence, a God whom to know aright is life eternal.
The theology of Jesus the Christ is the theology of Christian Science, because Christian Science is the demonstrable knowledge of the truth taught by the Master. For close upon half a century students of this Science have furnished proof of this, preaching the gospel as Jesus commanded it should be preached, "with signs following," healing sickness and sin and showing man how to become better physically and morally.
The speaker of the evening, having been an expounder of the old theology before he learned the truth about God and man as taught in Christian Science, is particularly well equipped to present the gospel message of healing which is being given to mankind through these lectures on Christian Science. It is my pleasant privilege this evening to introduce to you a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Rev. Andrew J. Graham, of Boston, who will now address you.
Mr. Graham spoke as follows:
Mary Baker Eddy, on page 597 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, gives a common sense and metaphysical definition of the word wilderness. This definition is two-fold, thus conforming to the redemptive experience of man as he passes from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom, from fear of condemnation to the joy of salvation. Here is the two-fold definition of the word wilderness: "Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."
In speaking of the subject: Christian Science: The Voice in the Wilderness, we are seeking to elucidate the fact that Christian Science, through its literature and treatments, raises a voice of hope and confidence in all periods of mental darkness and depression, and expresses a voice of gratitude and love, when peace and harmony come into experience.
Perhaps it will be said that all of the Christian churches make the same claim, the reply to which is, that Christian Science not only promises but also fulfils. Let this be clearly understood, that Christian Science rests its claim entirely upon demonstration. It neither asks nor expects anyone to accept it on any other basis. It is known by its fruits.
An almost innumerable throng of men and women throughout the world testify that Christian Science fulfils its promises; that in loneliness, doubt, darkness and depression it has given a hope when all other hopes were dead; that its unfolding of spiritual Truth has been the vestibule or pathway leading to the apprehension and understanding of the infinite, ever-present love. To this hungry age Christian Science proves to be "the world's great altar stairs which wind through darkness up to God."
The human mind is never at peace. It is always in quest of satisfaction, seeking rest and finding none. This is because mortal mind does, not understand the saying of Jesus, "in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world"; "peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you." The Apostle Paul, understanding this situation, states the need for peace most clearly when he writes, "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together . . . waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." The wayside flower perishing for lack of moisture, the helpless bird amid the wintry blasts, the lion roaring and seeking his meal from God, mortal man, sinning and sick, these all are evidence that the whole creation is reaching out blindly for help. Like Frankenstein, it aspires to satisfaction and finds no way to attain it. Now the fundamental panacea for this unrest is to know God. In an early Christian century, the Roman aristocrat, Augustine, after trying all material, pleasures, cried out thus to the God of peace: "Thou hast made me for Thyself, O God, and my soul can never find rest until it rests in Thee."
In the first chapter of Genesis, man is recognized as being at one with God, made in His image and likeness, dwelling in peace and harmony. In the second chapter of Genesis, it is said,"there went up a mist from the earth." This mist marked the beginning of the 'groaning creation.'
In the early days of Moses and the Hebrew prophets, as preparation was going on for the establishment of the Jewish church, men communed with God as familiarly as man now converses with man. As time went on the mist of disobedience and self-righteousness rose up and the Jewish church became a part of the groaning creation. In time began the dawning of a new era. In the days of Jesus and the apostles, while the Christian church was being realized, the presence of God was a reality to men and peace and power were ever present and were manifested in destroying sickness and sin. Again there went up a mist from the earth, the mist of human domination and materiality, then the Christian church joined its groanings with those of its predecessor.
Again we say, the fundamental panacea for unrest is 'to know God': And now after fifteen hundred years of theological mist, darkening the human mind, comes Christian Science in this age, teaching men how to know God, by dispelling and destroying the veil of evil beliefs which obscure Him.
We pause here for a brief moment to elucidate the thought concerning the mist which obscured the spiritual sight, first of the Jewish church and later also that of the Christian church.
Perhaps most of us recall how it is said in one of the Gospels that when Jesus died upon the cross the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. What does this statement mean? Let us see. The purpose of the life of Jesus Christ was to reconcile man to God, to bring him back, in consciousness, so that he might commune directly with his Father. Now the beautiful Temple at Jerusalem was to the devout Jew the place where God peculiarly dwelt. In one part of that Temple was a wonderful curtain or veil of rich cloth, beautifully embroidered, which shut off from the outer congregation, the place known as the Holy of Holies. Here, behind this veil was claimed to be the special presence of God. Into this sacred place only one man was ever permitted to go, and he entered only once a year. This man was the High Priest of the Jewish church. All others who received any special benefits from God, must receive them through the illumination and instrumentality of the one man who had been permitted to enter the place where God was. Now the Apostle Paul speaks of this veil as representing the body, or flesh, or matter, which separates man from God. When Jesus completed his work on the cross this veil was miraculously rent in twain from top to bottom, thus signifying that henceforth the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. That veil was the symbol of the mist which blinded the Jewish church to the Fatherhood of God because that church had forgotten that man was the child of God.
For a good many years after Jesus' ascension into heaven the veil remained rent asunder, that is, the early Christians recognized and practiced the right of each one to commune directly with God. This period witnessed many marvelous works done by the early church, because as yet God was believed to be no respecter of persons, or in the language of the later centuries, "quit thy state; all are equal within the church's gate." After three hundred years of the open veil, began that period of creed making and doctrine making, when theorizing about God gradually took the place of knowing God. And thus the mists of self-righteousness and human domination obscured the spiritual vision of the Christian church.
Christian Science is the realm of knowing. Ecclesiastical theology is the realm of believing. Now, as we have indicated, both in the Jewish and Christian churches, theology gradually came to teach that God is a mysterious person, remaining unrevealed to a large extent, and incapable of being known clearly by men until after death.
The Bible passage which says "clouds and darkness are round about him" was taken to mean that God wrapped himself in an impenetrable cloak. All those texts in the Bible which seem to indicate that God cannot be clearly known and that he is shrouded by clouds and darkness, deserve special attention; for in a sense they are all true, by which it is meant that God is indeed behind a veil, but that curtain of cloud and darkness is not made by God, rather is it the result of mortal-mind ignorance and sinful thoughts. In other words, the mist that seems to separate man from God rose from the earth. It was not a curtain let down from heaven.
Now to the sick and sinful and troubled, brooding over the thought of an unknowable God, Christian Science comes and says: "Your sores and sickness and sins and broken hearts may be healed here and now." The veil which seems to shut out from God may be destroyed through the aid of healing, coming directly through Christian Science treatment or through the reading of its text-book. The only Comforter in the universe is God, and Jesus Christ said: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent."
Now the puzzle to the human mind has always been this, since God is so infinitely great and man seems so small, how can man expect the Omnipotent One to take note of himself. The psalmist voiced this when he exclaimed: "When I consider . . . the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him."
For his comfort and encouragement man needs something concrete, individual. He needs something which he is capable of understanding, and this concreteness we find in the teaching of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy in using the abstract noun "good," in apposition with the word God, has bequeathed to mankind an illuminating thought. By it she enables us to make active and real a religious expression which has been a dead letter, for practically fifteen hundred years, namely, "to love God." The pulpit, has preached that to love God is absolutely necessary to salvation and the pew has silently answered: "How can I love God unless I know Him? I can love a friend because I know him; this is concrete experience and I can understand it, but to love God seems intangible, because to know Him seems so difficult." It is a thought which seems altogether abstract and yet men are commanded to love God as a means of salvation.
Now Christian Science individualizes God, good. St. James says: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." All good motives, aspirations, thoughts; all kind, gentle, loving words and deeds come from God. There is nothing in the whole universe which is loving, protecting, saving or compassionate but comes from God and centers in God. Any of these qualities manifested in men and women are positive proofs of the presence of God. Therefore we repeat, that when Mrs. Eddy employs the word "good" in apposition with the word God she causes us to see at once how simple and practical it is to love God and to know that we love Him. To love the manifestation of anything which is true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report, is to love God. Therefore in the wilderness of darkness and fear wherein one feels that he is without God in the world, comes the voice of Christian Science, and through its treatment, its services, or the reading of its literature, one is assured of the wonderful fact that he can know God here and now with as much certainty as he can know the truth of mathematics, and knowing Him, can love Him.
The only chance that evil ever has to succeed is by simulating good. Under this pretense of good for mankind old theology and materia medica have been busy, for ages, in making pictures, the main feature of which has been the claim that good can be born out of evil. One of the Christian churches has a hymn beginning: "O felix culpa, O! happy fault"; that is, I am so glad that I sinned for by repenting of it I have learned how sweet forgiveness is. Out of wretched teaching like this comes such apothems as the following: "a young man must sow his wild oats." Is that true? Must one be dishonest and hateful before knowing how to be honest and loving? Paul says: "Shall we do evil that good may come of it? God forbid."
Beginning with about the fourth century of the Christian era the teaching became prevalent that the only way or method by which man could attain to holiness was to withdraw himself from the rest of mankind; that is, he stood in fear of associating with others, and so there appeared these abodes or retreats known as monasteries into which men betook themselves from their fellows, and this, contrary to Jesus' prayer in John xvii: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil." In connection with this picture of fear as a means of salvation there arose what are known in history as the Morality Play, the entire feature of which was to frighten men away from hell and to frighten them into heaven. Within the past twenty-five years an attempt was made in this country and England to revive the Morality Plays; and one recalls the rendition in various cities of a play known as Everyman with all its ghastly and horrible scenes. The age, however, had advanced too far in right thinking to encourage this sort of teaching. The appeal of that play was altogether to the element of fear and the public repudiated it.
In the later middle ages artists were busy with the brush, painting, in various places, pictures known as the Dance of Death. In the old covered bridge, crossing the Swiss river at Lucerne, one finds nearly half a hundred such paintings, on the large triangular panels; and these represent the most notable of all the paintings known as the Dance of Death. Their purpose was to inspire fear in the thought of all who saw them. Beginning with infancy, passing through youth and manhood, and embracing every business and every profession of man, the panels represent various individuals busy and happy with the affairs, of life, while near at hand, unseen by them, is peering the ghastly feature of a skeleton. This was supposed to be a series of religious paintings, intended to lay a pall of fear over every human scene and to remind men constantly of the one enemy they all feared. The great movement known in history as the Reformation did away with the worst features of this practice, and yet it survives in hymns, poems, sermons and funeral orations of the Reformation period; and these are still accompaniments of a great many services and sermons in modern orthodox churches. What inspiration, for instance, can one find in a hymn beginning on this wise: Soon as the infant draws its breath, At once spring up the seeds of death. Or this:
There is a time we know not when,
A point we know not where,
That marks the destiny of men
To glory or despair.
One does not care to advertise some modern preachers by mentioning names, but they should certainly cease from making these terrible word pictures and claiming them to be efficacious as means of spiritual growth.
Materia medica has also added its contribution to the element of fear exercised over mankind; but it may be said, and said truthfully, that the pictures drawn by materia medica in the dark ages were not nearly so fear inspiring as those traced by theology. This is because the medical profession in the middle ages while familiar with the outward form of man had not sufficiently accurate knowledge of anatomy and physiology to enable them to paint the horrible pictures of so-called diseased organs of the body, which descriptions are now found, too often, in magazines, papers, and charts of modern days. Furthermore in the middle ages the material medicine men had not yet discovered that great multitude of germs or bacilli which have since become household possessions — I had almost said household friends, for we are informed that some of these germs are friendly, sort of domesticated animals, while others are deadly enemies. The great ray of hope in connection with these germs or bacilli lies in the fact that the anti-toxins which the medical men are advertising as safeguards against them are often so deleterious in their effects on the human system that men and women are developing more fear of the remedy than of the disease. This is what is called a mortal mind cure, destroying one fear by conjuring up a greater one, or as the poet says:
One master passion in our breast
Like Aaron's serpent swallows up the rest.
A medical diagnosis of any so-called disease, given either verbally or in writing, is a mental picture which the frightened human mind, unaided, finds it impossible to cast out. It is little less than a crime against children and even older people to display to them the horrible condition of diseased organs of the body and then after a diagnosis declare that individuals are suffering from such diseases. This is a wilderness of fear from which many fail to emerge. Christian Science is the only church which is combating this evil today, and deserves the aid of all fathers and mothers who should know that the medical profession has no more right to frighten their children with pictures of disease than theology has to frighten them with pictures of ghosts. Fear has always preached the eternal damnation of a large part of the human race.
Christian Science teaches with logical and spiritual exactness that it is utterly impossible for any one to be lost eternally; that nothing but error shall be cast out as rubbish to the heap. This salvation has been the universal quest of mankind, and its realization is foreshadowed in the Old Testament wherein it is written, "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," and in the New Testament by such passages as, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," and "he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet."
Human language has endeavored to picture this state of salvation in many ways, and probably no picture is more beautiful than that given in the closing chapter of the Revelation of St. John, the Divine, wherein the state of salvation is likened to a beautiful garden. Now let us for convenience do what is perfectly legitimate, suppose salvation to be represented by a beautiful garden, which all men at some time desire to enter, and which all men eventually will enter. Let us say there are two ways leading to this garden, one over a corduroy road, the other by a beautiful gravel walk. The corduroy road represents much suffering and much cleansing by the wayside before one enters the garden; the gravel walk is a direct and more beautiful way accompanied by less pain and sorrow.
The children of Israel coming out of four hundred years' bondage in Egypt marched up to the border of the promised land in the brief period of six days on what may be called the gravel walk and might then, had it not been for their cowardliness, crossed at once over Jordan into the Fatherland. Being disobedient, however, they turned back and wandered forty years in the wilderness over what we have designated as the corduroy road.
Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, in speaking of release from discord, uses the expression, "suffering or Science." Now Science stands for what I have called the gravel walk and suffering for the corduroy road. What specifically is meant by these two words, "suffering or Science"? This, namely, that those who know something of Truth and earnestly seek to realize it in their daily livings are taking the more direct and pleasant path, through Science, toward the garden of salvation, while those who see some of the Truth and are disobedient to it are walking in the path of suffering and following the same course that led the children of Israel, for forty years, through the wilderness. On page 167 of Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence, — our health, our longevity, and our Christianity."
Christian Science is exact. We may trust it absolutely. If today we add 1 per cent to our stock of love and obedience we shall experience so much the less suffering and so much the more joy. Always as we add to our stock of love and obedience we are thereby forsaking the corduroy road and gaining the gravel walk. Or as Mrs. Eddy so beautifully teaches, we are approaching and entering the wonderful gardening of salvation through Science instead of through suffering; the wilderness gradually blossoms as the rose, and blossoms abundantly. This gravel walk is that “spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence." (Science and Health, page 597.)
In the world's business when there is need of effective work the applicant for position is not asked: “What do you believe about this situation, but what do you know?" He is not asked: "What do you think, but what can you do?" In other words it is not theory but practice that is required. Faith without works is dead. For many centuries membership in the Christian churches has depended upon the answer to the question: “Do you believe so and so and will you adhere to it?" The essential question which Christian Science asks is: "What do you know and how much have you demonstrated?" The so-called creeds of Christendom have resulted in divisions instead of in unity. This necessarily is so for creeds always are to some extent collections of man-made definitions, open to various interpretations. They are the products of and in turn have produced confusion, bitter discussion, theological logomachies and persecutions unto death. They have held mankind in a wilderness of contradictory beliefs. There is no creed in the Old Testament nor any in the New Testament. Jesus used no creed nor did he bequeath any to his followers. For more than a third of a century I was a devout follower of creeds and many a time have I read the Sermon on the Mount and experienced a sense of keen disappointment because I found therein no statement of doctrine — no creed; — just a repeated emphasis laid upon the importance of compassion and loving deeds.
Out of the wilderness of beliefs Christian Science leads mankind back to the Sermon on the Mount. On page 40 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "It is sad that the phrase divine service has come so generally to mean public worship instead of daily deeds." One says to a friend of a Sunday morning: "Are you going to service today?" What does he mean by that question? Generally this, that in a material building called a church people assemble for an hour to pray or to hear some one talk about religion. That may be called worship but certainly it is not service. Service does not end with talk: it issues in visible results. One says to an acquaintance: "Are you a Christian?" The reply is apt to be: "Yes, indeed." Is that true? What does indeed mean? It is composed of two words — in and deed. The word appears in Jesus' statement, "if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." Christian Science accounts no prayer effectual unless it results in works. This is why Christian Science, following Jesus, has no creeds. Other churches say: "Credo — I believe." Christian Science says: "Scio — I know." That which supports Christian Science and keeps it on the Rock, Christ, is its works, not its words.
By much the largest part of Christendom today holds to the declaration that "the unworthiness of the minister hindereth not the nature of the sacrament"; or to put it more plainly, that a public teacher of religion may in his daily life, be godless and yet this moral turpitude will not prevent his teaching and ministration from advancing the spiritual growth of those to whom he ministers. This pernicious teaching, advanced in order to excuse an ease-loving and sin-loving priesthood has for centuries tended to lower the standard of Christian character. The common sense of humanity has, however, coined a phrase which runs like this, "like priest like people," and this saying demonstrates its own truth. It is not listening to correct teaching, but observing and assimilating spiritual living that realizes real Christianity. The power of Jesus' words came from his holy, obedient living. No words he ever spoke can justify anyone in claiming that a disobedient, unholy life can impart health and holiness to another. "For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man." (Science and Health, page 141.) "Expect to heal simply by repeating the author's words, by right thinking and wrong acting, and you will be disappointed." (Science and Health, page 452.)
Who has not heard the phrase, 'striking personality?' In the sense in which it, is generally understood, personality is a deadly bane. It leads to hero worship of the baser sort; it is of the earth, earthy. Those who are acknowledged to have 'striking personalities' are the same who dominate over other men and women, either through wealth, position, voice, eye, feature, attire or some other physical manifestation. Such submission is nothing less than slavery. Sir William Hamilton speaks of it as the "sign of a feeble mind." I would rather say that it produces a feeble mind; for many otherwise noble men and women have been drawn into this wilderness of drought and serpents, through admiring or adoring personality.
The basic law for the guidance of Christian Scientists in this matter is found on page 40 of The Manual of The Mother Church, by Mary Baker Eddy: "Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man." Perhaps Mrs. Eddy has stressed none of her teaching more emphatically than when she warns against following personality. Personality is material and temporal; individuality is spiritual and eternal. Personality vaunteth itself, is puffed up, behaveth itself unseemly, seeketh always its own, is easily provoked, thinketh evil. Individuality "vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." The reflection of God, good, in men and women constitutes their individuality. Such men and women we love and in loving them we love God. What we Christian Scientists love in Mary Baker Eddy is her individuality. She manifested so much of good, increasingly she strove to take her personality away from thought. The greatest reformation ever known in the realm of teaching was begun when Mrs. Eddy eliminated the personal preacher, and instituted the Bible and Science and Health as our only preachers. Every Christian Scientist knows that Mrs. Eddy's teaching leads from personality to the Christ, Truth and that is the reason why we all love her and are safe in so loving.
I am going to discuss here briefly a phase of error which is the greatest imposter of the whole brood of evils. It claims to hold all men in a fatal grip from which there is no escape. Mortal mind names this imposter death, and while men flee from it and seek to avoid it, yet they are apt to admit and declare that finally they must submit and that death becomes the master of Life and the master of man. This is the supreme lie; because it is the greatest pretension that evil ever made. For after all death is nothing but a shadow. The Psalmist calls it the shadow of death, that is, the shadow, the shade, the supposition, that is called death. That it is only a shadow is proven by the words of Christ Jesus: "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die . . . shall never see death."
When man awakens 100 per cent to spiritual truth he can no more pass through the experience called dying than could God. To this wonderful fact St. Paul alludes in First Corinthians wherein he writes, "we shall not all sleep" — the literal translation of which is, "we shall not all die." Now Christian Science teaches that man has the right to be immune from this physical episode called death. The first effect of Christian Science treatment or enlightenment is to begin to destroy fear in human thought. As the Christian Science truth unfolds to one he thinks more and more about Life and less and less about death. Thai is, death is dying daily in his consciousness.
Let us here employ a simple illustration. Grant for the sake of brevity that there are five so called causes, any one of which may produce death. Let us say these causes are tuberculosis, anger, liver trouble, drunkenness and cancer. Suppose now, as often happens, that a man is healed of tuberculosis, that means that one of the five causes of death is destroyed; in other words, that 20 per cent of death is dead. Then let him be healed of the vicious habit of anger and another of the so called causes is eliminated, This means that 40 per cent of death is destroyed. This progressive destruction of death is what is taking place in the consciousness of every active Christian Scientist; and on this plane of existence he may destroy so much of the death thought that if the change called death does come he may have scarce any fear at all in connection with it and it may be as painless an operation as the laying off of a wornout garment.
Who shall say how much of the death thought was destroyed by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, before she passed on?
Remarkable testimony bearing on this question was given by a medical man, Dr. George L. West. Obedient to civil law, the morning after Mrs. Eddy's decease, Dr. West was called in to sign the required certificate. At the time of his official visit he did not know who the woman was whose remains he was viewing. He subsequently made this impressive comment of the occasion: "To me it merely was the performance of a perfunctory duty, although had I realized at the moment that I was in the presence of the body of a woman who had ruled thousands for many years, I might have been impressed with the importance of the official service I was performing. What struck me most as I looked into the dead face was its extraordinary beauty. She must have been a beautiful child, a beautiful maiden, and extraordinarily beautiful in the full flower of womanhood. There still were substantial traces of beauty left in the white face reposing on the pillow. Time indeed had laid its hand lightly on her all through the years. Wrinkles there were, of course, — but the wrinkles that she bore looked more as if some one had been playing a little prank, and as if they might be brushed away with the gentle smoothing of the hand. They did not seem to belong amid those features. The entire countenance bore a placid, serene expression, which could not have been sweeter had the woman fallen away in sleep in the midst of pleasant thoughts. I do not recall ever seeing in death before a face which bore such a beautiful and tranquil expression." (Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur).
Such testimony shows to what remarkable degree in the case of Mrs. Eddy, Mind had dominated, destroyed matter, so that as in the case of St. Stephen, Spirit broke through the veil of flesh proving the nothingness of death and the allness of Life.
In no way has the theological teaching of the past fifteen hundred years involved more confusion and bad results than the statements about, 'this life and the next life,' 'time and eternity,' 'now and then,' 'here and there.' The prevalent teaching has been that everything this side of what has been called death constitutes, 'this life,' 'time,' 'here' and 'now' and all beyond death is known as 'the other life,' 'eternity,' 'there' and 'then.' The practical results have been that preachers have stressed the importance of getting ready for the next life instead of teaching the importance of rightly living in this one, and this has kept mankind in the wilderness of uncertainty, looking for a good time or a bad time to come instead of knowing that the good time or bad time is already here.
It has been one of the mental habits of ecclesiasiticism to point to eternity as the state or place of so-called heaven and hell, understanding by eternity what is beyond death. Neither Jesus nor the Scriptures in their teachings justify anyone in claiming that there is, in any real sense, any other time than the time in which man now lives. In other words he is in eternity now.
A simple allusion to the Scriptures will make this meaning plain. By his own declaration, God's name is 'I AM' — the verb 'to be' in the present tense, indicative mode. God's name is not I was, or I shall be, but, 'I AM,' pointing to existence without beginning and without ending. Now man is created in the image and likeness of God, that is he is the reflection of 'I AM' — the God who is existence without beginning and without ending. Of course in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, the words past and future are used but this is a condescension to the limited human mind, and as that mind gives way to spiritual understanding men begin to think and speak in terms of eternity instead of terms of time.
Let it be understood then, that when we say, in accord with the teachings of Christian Science, that we are in eternity now, we mean that the same experience of joy and peace and love which constitutes harmony or heaven in its completeness, is with us now in its beginning, and to endeavor to live up to the light we possess is to approach nearer that state of thought where sickness, sin and death cease to trouble and the weary are at rest.
As man approaches the 'there' he discovers it is the 'here,' and as he reaches the 'then' he finds it to be the 'now.' From which it follows that Christian Science teaches the observance and rewards of the religion of Jesus are for the 'here' and the 'now' rather than for the 'there' and the 'then.' This sense of a present God and a present heaven encourages, builds up, energizes, and rejoices the heart. On page 39 of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy we read, "'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,' — meaning, not that now man must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life."
No religious teacher can consistently remain silent concerning the universal social and business unrest prevailing throughout the world today. During the last fifty years distance and time have been destroyed to such an extent by inventions and discoveries that the peoples of the earth are now one family for weal or for woe. A discordant nation in any quarter of the globe becomes a problem which all other nations must help to heal, or suffer inevitable consequences. The whole world at the present time is in just this condition. The great homicidal war not yet finished, has thrown into view this illuminating fact that the nations of the earth can no longer dwell apart as separate entities. God is the one Father and all His children are included in His family. The loving recognition of this fundamental fact is the only solution for the world's problem.
Some one nation must be first in setting an unselfish example, rising above greed of territory and coin, patiently and irresistibly drawing to its own ideals the other nations of the earth. Opportunity is waiting at our doors and we have good hope that the United States of America, notwithstanding its internal difficulties, will prove to be the rallying point for a disunited world-wide family. This hope is the more radiant because here the modern Star of Bethlehem arose, here Christian Science clear in thought, patient in love, and calm in endeavor is influencing and molding the national thought. With unerring prophetic instinct Mary Baker Eddy has written concerning distressing times, in these words, "those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check," (S. & H. p. 97.) The learners and doers of Christian Science are examples in this very condition. Unlike their ancestors of the elder dispensation, when trouble comes, they do not sit down [by the waters] of Babylon and [weep, nor do they] hang their [harps upon the trees] therein, but [singing and making melody] in their hearts they look to the ever-present Christ as they sing:
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.
(Mary Baker Eddy, p. 14, Poems.)
I would feel that I have neglected a privilege and a duty were I to close this lecture without some allusion to my own physical healing and to my mental release from the old theology. In 1872 I became a member of an orthodox church. The six years following were passed in preparing for the ministry. Beginning in 1877 and for thirty-four years thereafter I preached and ministered in that church, standing sincerely and loyally by its doctrine, discipline and worship. As a clergyman I was bitterly and unreasonably opposed to Christian Science and frequently denounced both Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy publicly and privately.
During the three years prior to 1911 I suffered increasingly, from indigestion, liver trouble and, as diagnosed by one physician, chronic appendicitis. A so-called nervous breakdown ensued and an horrible, never-absent fear which filled my thought with distressing pictures day and night. At that time, against my mortal will, I was led to receive treatment in Christian Science, which resulted in physical healing, and what proved of a still greater relief, the destruction of the beliefs in old theology. There was only one thing I could do and that was to follow the light which came to me as I sat in darkness and the shadow of death.
A few weeks before I was to take final leave of the church and the loving people to whom I had ministered for eleven years, I was suddenly awakened at midnight, out of a sound sleep and in the darkness I seemed to see an interrogation point a mile high and it said to me: "What if it is all a mistake, and you find you are giving up your long ministry, your church and your loving people for something that proves itself to be a lie?" My heart was so full of love and gratitude for my healing that I was not taken unaware. I instantly said to the midnight spectre: "I will answer you by applying Jesus' rule: 'By their fruits ye shall know them.'" Then I said to myself: "Do you love God as much as in other days?" Answer: "There is no comparison." Question: “Do you love mankind as much as of yore?" Answer: "I did not seem to know universal love for mankind until my healing in Christian Science." With that the midnight spectre vanished forever. Other trying problems have arisen but they have been uniformly destroyed through the spiritual law of Christian Science.
If the time shall ever come when we as Christian Scientists seem to yield to that physical episode, which mortal mind calls death, we will not go "like the quarry slave scourged to his dungeon, not like the weary traveler who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams," but we will go with our spiritual eyes open, dwelling in the Lord's house, consciousness, knowing that our Redeemer liveth, and that because he lives we live also. For this beginning of the destruction of death and the little understanding of Life that has come to us, we are ever grateful to our Leader. Mary Baker Eddy is not the saviour of mankind, but she is leading us out of the wilderness of confusion back to the Saviour.
The regnant thought of those who are suffering is not, "How can I learn more of God?" but "How can I find surcease from this trouble?" Jesus did not condemn such desires; he was compassionate; so also is Christian Science; it begins by relieving men and women of their sense of human suffering. This initial help through Christian Science should be gratefully received and acknowledged. He that is faithful over a few things shall be made ruler over many things. There are multitudes of people who in times of great need have turned to Christian Science and found relief; then, either afraid or ashamed to acknowledge the Truth openly, they continue to drift along under the influence of old theology and materia medica and find themselves making no progress with perhaps discordant conditions recurring. Why halt ye in the valley of decision? In Blackstone is a saying that "Mistress Common Law brooketh no bedfellow". It is equally true of Christian Science. We cannot advance in Science and still hold to the old theology and material medicine. Christian Science is the truth about God and man. It is equal to the solution of every problem. As we study it and are obedient to it our capacity for receiving and understanding increases and the confusion of thought and infirmity of body which have held us in the wilderness of loneliness, doubt and darkness gradually disappear and "spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence." — S. & H. p. 597.
[Delivered May 4, 1920, in Players' Hall, West Newton, Massachusetts, under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Newton, and published in The Newton Graphic, May 7, 1920. The date of the lecture and its sponsor are taken from an announcement in the Graphic, April 23, 1920. Harry I. Hunt, who introduced the lecturer, was Publisher's Agent for the writings of Mary Baker Eddy between 1922 and 1939.
[This thorough report replaces a partial one previously on the site, which was published in The Chicago Leader, Feb. 5, 1937. That text was unsatisfactory, having been taken from a newspaper page from which the bottom was missing. In the section "The World-wide Problem," above, text that was unreadable in the Graphic has been supplied by recourse to another report of the lecture as delivered the previous month and has been set off in brackets. Some Scriptural quotations in this report were rendered somewhat freely by the lecturer and they have been corrected to correspond with the King James Bible text. The Pauline statement above condemning doing evil that good may come is not a direct quote; it is a paraphrase of the tenor of Romans Chapter Three and is left here as such. Paragraph breaks have been introduced to this report to render the lecture more friendly to the modern reader. Capitalization has been changed in certain places to correspond to standard Christian Science usage.]