Paul A. Harsch, C.S.B., of Toledo, Ohio
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Paul A. Harsch, C.S.B., of Toledo, Ohio, lectured on "Christian Science: The Religion of Realty," Tuesday noon in the Keith Theatre, under the auspices of the six Churches of Christ, Scientist. Mr. Harsch is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. The lecturer was introduced by Frank C. Ayres. His lecture follows substantially as it was given.
We have come together to consider the real as opposed to the unreal, the untrue, and insubstantial. What is reality? We constantly ask ourselves this question. It is life, indestructible and eternal. It is love that never falters, fears, or changes. It is truth, which has no element of falsity. It is mind expressing itself in boundless and unvarying intelligence. It is the spiritual fact as opposed to the material fable. It is spiritual understanding, the understanding that there is an inexhaustible and always-available source of good, that is, an ever-dependable Principle. It is God made manifest.
Because we are glimpsing this reality in some measure, our lips continually praise the Father of all in words which are an echo of Peter's on the mount of transfiguration, "It is good for us to be here." Or we say with the Psalmist, "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph." Then we add: What priceless knowledge it is to be assured that only good is real, that life alone is the fact, that truth can never be altered, that love is ever about us, caring for and protecting against all claims of evil! This is a glimpse of reality.
The interval between the year 1866, when the healing Christ, Truth, appeared to Mary Baker Eddy, and this present year of grace, 1943, constitutes a lapse of only a century. Yet during that extraordinarily brief period the thinking of the world has experienced a transformation so profound and so radical that few as yet perceive its significance and still fewer recognize its source.
This altered thinking cuts deep into the very heart of accepted theory and practice along almost all material lines. We are convinced that this change in thinking has stemmed from an improved concept of man's responsibility to his fellow man. This in turn is the result of a bettered understanding of Deity, and a realization, at least in part, that in their true spiritual nature all men are sons of God, endowed with the dignity, rights, and privileges of such sonship. In other words, mortals are beginning to glimpse the underlying reality of all things.
Dimly yet, as through a mist, but nevertheless with a growing degree of clarity, mortals in rapidly increasing numbers are seeing that man is not two beings. They are seeing that he is not material today and spiritual tomorrow, or perhaps a strange admixture of both matter and spirit now. They are seeing with a clearer perception than before that man expresses divine qualities, and that these qualities are real, undying, indestructible. They are seeing, as a consequence, that this real man is clothed with the dignity and dominion of the son of a royal Father.
There is growing in human consciousness slowly, painfully, but surely, the conviction that the spiritual universe alone is real and that man is spiritual. It is this conviction which is producing the changing thought of humanity. It is not being argued here that mortals in the mass have followed this line of reasoning or accepted these conclusions and are acting in accordance with them. Our only claim is that many thinkers are uneasily conscious that their long-accepted concepts are no longer tenable. They realize that the old foundations are crumbling. Oftentimes they feel themselves swept away as by some fierce flood with no rescue in sight.
But, notwithstanding this state of semi-confusion and uncertainty, the conviction of man's indivisible relationship with the Father grows. Openings in the clouds of material sense occur more frequently and glimpses of the real are obtained more often and for longer periods. As this conviction becomes stronger it takes hold of the individual, as truth always must, and becomes a more controlling influence in his entire thinking, and consequently in all his human relationships. It is this vital force which we now declare to be operating in human consciousness more powerfully and visibly than ever before in human history.
Centuries of slow and intermittent progress have brought us at last to this period of global unrest. Let us look back for a moment over the three quarters of a century since the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science found the priceless truth of man's real being and began her teaching that Mind is all and matter nothing. What was the state of consciousness in our own United States in that year of 1866? What, at that period, seemed a vast and terrible war had just been concluded. African slavery in this country had been legally abolished. One of the most significant strides humanity had made in its progress out of darkness into reality its recognition of the truth about man had been taken.
Coincident with this great forward step, other links in the chain of mortals' enslavement were broken. Religious, social, and economic theories, and practices long held, and in some instances even more deadening and destructive than physical slavery, began to lose their hold.
God's law of unfolding good, always in operation, was being more clearly seen and understood. The forward steps we are taking today are the inevitable result of the operation of this law. Not that evil ever results in good, but rather that evil pushed to its extreme limit destroys itself, and the reality the good, the true, and the everlasting becomes more apparent to mortals as the mists of personal sense fade away.
Again, truth, irresistible in its advance, has brought mankind to this new crisis. Again we are deep in the throes of a mighty contest, the great battle of mortal mind to retain its hold on humanity. It is the battle of wrong against right, of error against Truth, of human hate against divine Love, the battle which can have but one ultimate result, namely, the complete destruction of the so-called forces of evil. This battle will be concluded only when the reality of all things is brought to light and it is found that "man does stand as God's own child, the image of His love" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 51).
Here it should be said that the words Truth and Love as just used when capitalized always stand for Deity in Christian Science. They are synonyms for God together with five others, namely, Life, Mind, Soul, Spirit, and Principle. It will be well to bear this in thought throughout as we proceed.
In the Preface of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the author, Mary Baker Eddy, says (p. vii), "Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away." It may require courage and understanding to march forward joyously when so many long-cherished beliefs seem to be crumbling away.
But at such times it is only necessary to remember that nothing real, good, lasting, true, substantial can crumble away or disappear. It is only the false, the unreal, the unworthy, the base, and useless that are thus disappearing. These latter are always the trouble-producing elements, whether we realize it at the time or not. We should never allow blinding tears of regret to obscure our vision and prevent us from seeing the good which is certain to result from the crumbling away of the false and the outworn.
A statement in the Christian Science textbook is of particular significance here (pp. 323, 324): "Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony." "To become as a little child" what humility and confidence this requires! Difficult as this step may seem to be at times, it is always possible. For there is a peculiarly indefinable something in human consciousness which renders such a step easier perhaps than at first glimpse seems possible.
What is this something, this difficult-to-define quality or condition in human consciousness? It is an immortal, an indestructible, eternal something possessed by every individual on earth, lying deep in the heart of all humanity. It is a vital, vigorous germ demanding light and air and the opportunity to grow and find expression. It is a deathless germ of desire possessed by every individual to know more about himself, his creator, and the creation of which he believes himself to be an integral part. It is the seed of desire for a larger knowledge of his true selfhood, his real being. It swells within the breast of every mortal, ever ready to burst forth at the slightest opportunity.
Responding to this inner urge many are constantly asking whether this human experience is the ultimate. Or is it, perhaps, they ask, a preliminary stage for something more real and important? Others, and these in increasing numbers, are putting the question in more concrete form. They say: May it not be true that my present existence is the real? Am I not at this very moment the eternal and inextinguishable expression of a perfect creator? May it not be true that I am only prevented from realizing this fact because of my own false, erroneous, or defective thinking? Am I not man in the fullest, truest sense now and may I not become conscious of that fact by refusing to entertain any longer, believe, or be governed by, the falsities to which I seem to have been in bondage for so long a time?
To these stirrings of consciousness, these deep and vital queries, Christian Science answers positively and emphatically, "Yes." The presence in human consciousness of the truths presented by Christian Science on these vital points, explains the reason why in so many instances the germs of desire so long latent and so long denied an opportunity to develop are at last bursting out of their long confinement.
It is in the sunlight of this new understanding, this light of divine Science, that we now pursue our investigation of God and man. This divine or Christian Science is now an acknowledged, widely recognized, and largely accepted religion. Hence a word about religion per se may be included here. Just what is religion? We do not ask for a dictionary definition of the word, but seek rather for a clear and simple one that will take us to the very heart of the word at once.
Religion basically is that which concerns our true being. This of course is the very root of it all. Hence genuine religion must include all that relates to true being, and conversely must exclude all that falsely claims or pretends to be a part of true being. Anything calling itself religion in order to establish its right to that name must begin at a point of absoluteness, that is from the basis of one absolute principle, and must then continue logically to an incontestable conclusion and be provable at any stage of its development. This of course is pure science, it is also pure and absolute religion.
The teaching of Jesus was pure science. His every statement, his every act was supported by demonstration by proof. It was also pure and absolute religion, for it dealt only and always with that which concerned the true being of those to whom he ministered. His teaching was Christian, because it was Messianic, that is, it the teaching was the Saviour, that which saved and healed. Any religious teaching to be scientific must follow this method of Jesus it must submit proof. To be Christian it must also be Messianic, healing, saving. These should be the true tests of any religious teaching that claims for itself a divine origin.
Here a slight digression will serve to clarify the foregoing and at the same time explain an important point in the teaching of Christian Science. In the chapter in her textbook bearing the significant title "Science of Being," Mrs. Eddy, in simple and direct words, removes once and for all any question in regard to the relationship between Jesus and the Christ. These are her own words (p. 332): "Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." A few lines farther on she says, "Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth."
Again in the same chapter (p. 334) she points out that while Jesus, the human man, disappeared to the material senses at the time of his ascension, "the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes." Because Jesus manifested the Christ so perfectly he has been rightfully accorded the title "the Christ." This Christ-manifestation or expression of God is the Messiah, Immanuel, or God with us.
Once having felt the comforting presence of the Christ, one can never again be quite satisfied or whole or complete without it. Striving ever to remain in this Christ-light, as he journeys along the highway leading from sense to Spirit, the faithful and conscientious Christian Scientist finds his pathway less arduous. It is true of course that an ever-busy mortal mind places many obstacles in his way. The unreality of these obstacles is quickly seen in the bright sunshine of the Christ-truth and they are easily surmounted. Then the real comes quickly into view. The miracle to sense has occurred. Mrs. Eddy describes the process thus (Science and Health, p. 264): "As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible."
When this Christ-light or divine understanding has been gained, there is no longer any question in the thought of the searcher for divine Truth, in regard both to his human and divine status. But he quickly realizes that the newly found light gleams brightly or seems to fade away in exact proportion to the effort he puts forth to exclude from his thinking everything which is unlike the Christ-truth. Failure to exclude such thoughts means a greater effort to reject them later. But to exclude or reject them, or both, is an indispensable condition of his advance toward the realm of the real and his eventual realization of his true being.
It is perfectly obvious that in this state of true being this real and perfect man cannot die nor can he be subject to those discordant conditions we call disease, decay, and dissolution. As a closer mental approach to this real condition is made, it is entirely logical to assume that the mortal experience should be hampered less by material limitations. It is then quite as logical a deduction to make that mortals should forever lack a complete sense of ease and should experience disease from time to time, unless and until they recognize the eternal fact that diseaseless perfection exists in the divine Mind alone and is reflected eternally by its ideas and by naught else.
The healing of physical disease is, as all are well aware, an outstanding and important phase of Christian Science. It was so with Jesus' teaching. In both the Christian faith as taught by Jesus and in Christian Science, such healing is not however submitted as the ultimate, the grand purpose, but merely as proof of its correctness. Without such proof Christian Science would be but the "sounding brass" and the "tinkling cymbal" of St. Paul. So we rejoice that discordant physical conditions of every sort are constantly yielding to the ministrations of Christian Science.
In these healings, many today, as in the days of Jesus, see clear evidence of a divine power, that of Principle, God, which bases the great Science of being. This has sometimes been called the mystery of being. This so-called mystery has been dissipated by Christian Science. On this point Mrs. Eddy says of her discovery, Christian Science, that it "explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought" (Science and Health, p. 114).
What a tremendous challenge were the words of Jesus to the young Jewish nobleman, Nicodemus, who came to him in the darkness of the night: "Ye must be born again." The answer given by the Master when pressed for more light contains the very essence of his teaching: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Here was revealed the sum and the substance of Jesus' message. The promise of everlasting life, without beginning or end. Not an "everlasting life" which should begin after the experience of death here, but a life that could neither terminate nor be terminated. He taught that man is already in possession of his deathless or everlasting life; that man is one with the creative power, divine Life, and so cannot possibly experience death. Mortals are as dead now as is their thinking, and awaken to life only as they emerge from the darkness of mortal beliefs. The deeper this darkness the more it resembles death. Paul says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
Both Christianity as taught by Jesus and Christian Science as taught by Mrs. Eddy emphasize the fact that man is indeed now the son of God. Both explain that man need not constantly look for a perfect life hereafter when he is already in possession of that priceless gift. Both clearly establish the fact that eternal life is the fact now and that mortals will become conscious of that fact when they reject the false or defective thinking that the mortal is the real man. Both teachings assert in unmistakable language that Paradise may be gained not in some future state but here and now, even during this so-called human experience.
How different these sentiments are from those of many religious teachers of the past centuries. In the main, these conventional teachings have been based on the assumption that the mortal experience, through which all seem inevitably to pass, is merely a training ground or preparatory state for a life hereafter. This future life has been painted as pleasant, or otherwise, in proportion as certain prescribed rules were observed in the present life. Yet religionists of one period have differed so radically from later generations that little, if any, similarity in their rules could be discerned. How was one to know what the true standard was?
True the Mosaic Decalogue has been presented as a model for a very long time. Yet the interpretation and application of the rules it includes have not always been uniform. Even that wisest of all books, the Bible, must be read in the light of divine understanding if it is not to appear contradictory and confusing.
The Old Testament is rich in proofs of God's care for His children and replete with grand promises such as that concerning the coming of the Prince of Peace, foretold by the inspired prophet Isaiah. It glows with warmth and beauty in the Psalms, and provides the foundation of all human law in the Ten Commandments. Sometimes, nevertheless, these life-giving, life-preserving portions seem obscured to one who is uninstructed by Christian Science.
He reads the account of creation, for example, as given in the second chapter of Genesis without realizing its allegorical nature, and is puzzled by the emphasis upon mortality. The first man, Adam, is here condemned to sin, sorrow, and evil. The very ground itself is cursed for his sake and he is consigned to the dust from which he was taken. Sin and its fruits resulting in death! Mortality and its destruction.
The New Testament, on the contrary, carries throughout the glad news of man regenerated and restored to his birthright of life, deathless and eternal, life the glorious fact now and always. How different is this Scriptural record, when after a lapse of several hundred years a new group of writers took up the story of man and his place in the great universe of good. The great Way-shower had come and gone, and under the benign influence of his glorious example and teaching, his followers now write of life and joy and peace life here, now, and eternal.
John thus quotes Jesus, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Observe closely the present tense of this statement; note that the one who hears, understands, and believes, has, not will have, but has, life now. Not the finite and temporal life in which mortals believe, but everlasting life. Furthermore, with this change in the individual's thinking he passes from death into life, not will or may or can pass, but has passed from death into life. Consider now that this is an instantaneous change, a mental transition, not something that requires a violent physical experience such as human death is considered to be, but a mental change.
True religion proves scientifically that mortal man is a false belief man, the result of erroneous or defective thinking. Such defective thinking, Christian Science teaches, may be rejected and real manhood recognized by the application of this scientific and purely mental process. In this matter of rejecting the false claims or arguments of mortal mind, Christian Science does not attempt the spectacular or sensational, nor does it profess to perform great and startling wonders. It begins in modest and simple ways. It endeavors to uproot habits of carelessness, it challenges slothfulness, insists on moral and bodily cleanliness, rebukes dishonesty, exalts unselfishness, magnifies clean and simple living, emphasizes the necessity of casting out personal sense, declares that no seeming slight or unkind word or thought can harm the one whose thinking is hid with Christ in God.
In those and scores of other like ways it constantly holds before the gaze of those who seek a larger knowledge of God, of man, and of life eternal, a road which may be traveled joyously as that goal is sought. In doing this it demonstrates the fallacy of much of the old and mistaken religious teaching. Goodness pays, it says. It is not true that the righteous must necessarily suffer. Man was made to have dominion. His ways are ways of peace.
For an illustration of the way in which right thinking operates, and a practical proof of the effectiveness of true religion when rightly applied, come with me for a few moments to the land of Jesus. Amongst the Old Testament characters there are few more lovable than the Moabitish maiden, Ruth. Coupled with a deep sense of loyalty and devotion to her mother-in-law she must have had some perception, even though small, of a quality in Naomi's thinking which reflected a higher concept of Deity than that held by her own people. "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God," was her choice.
This devotion to her highest sense of good was joined with a rare humility. In the heat, dust, and sweat of the torrid harvest fields, Ruth followed the reapers, gathering here and there an occasional stalk that fell from their hands. No task was too trivial, no labor too heavy in the service of the one whom she loved and trusted. Both a material and a spiritual reward came quickly. She became the wife of the lord of the fields in which she had labored so unselfishly and the ancestress of the great national hero of the Hebrews, David. Ruth must have concluded that she had found a most practical religion. Moreover the love she manifested, human though it was and only type and shadow of divine Love, still was unquestionably inspired from above. This was true, accurate, scientific religion in operation.
Nothing in the story of Ruth would indicate that there was present in her thought at any time the idea of getting something for herself. Her one object was to give. First, she gave loyalty and devotion, surrendered all thought of self. Next she gave service, gave of her physical strength and served in a most humble capacity. In all these things she reflected the great Giver, God, the Father and Mother of us all. Hence her spiritual and material reward.
Her experience illustrates accurately the operation of a divine law. Creation is but the evidence, the outpouring of that creative power which Christian Science designates as Principle. That is, it creation is but the effect of the constant, ceaseless giving of the loving and beneficent Father. It is perhaps gratuitous to observe that God alone gives, nevertheless it is well to recall that fact more frequently than is customary.
Our knowledge of the solar system gives us no reason to believe that the sun is ever replenished though it is constantly giving out light and heat. Our present knowledge of Deity gives us no reason to believe that Principle ever draws from another source to maintain its fullness. The function of divine Love, God, is only and always to give. Hence the ideas, the sons of God, in order to express His nature and be like Him must also give and do so constantly, and without interruption.
This giving does not originate with the idea but is a reflected action. Such giving is the best, in fact the only, proof that can be submitted by any individual that he understands Principle and recognizes his relation to it. In fact, only when he is thus giving, thus reflecting his source, his Principle, can he be held to be a son of God.
All manifestations of material life on this planet, for example, are believed to be the result of the light and heat of the sun. Were the sun to be obliterated, in our present stage of understanding at least, material life would cease. Do mortals contribute to the flow of light and heat from the sun? No, they only get, they are always on the receiving end. So the divine Giver always shares, never receives. Similarly the children of God can never contribute aught to the creator. They can only give through reflection. Were it possible for them to cease to give they would at once cease to be the image and likeness of the Father.
If men and women would keep this concept of Principle more frequently in thought they would avoid much sorrow and discord. How often one seeks health, for example, when it is already his by reason of the great fact that he reflects divine Life. Tricking him into believing that he must get health instead of giving out joyously the sense of it he already actually possesses, is mortal minds way of blinding him to the fact of health. There are those too who strive earnestly to get friends when they already possess by reflection a profusion of desirable and beautiful qualities which if allowed to shine forth would draw to them all those who are in possession of similar qualities. And in this connection it should be remembered that all are, in truth, ideas of divine Love; thus friends are not necessarily restricted to certain groups or name classifications.
Yet others may strive in and out of season to accumulate material substance. These are often under the impression that by so doing they may assure themselves against future want and lack. In the effort to get, these individuals often fail to recall that they already have, in reality, everything needful for their well-being. The great Giver has not ceased to function. He is still giving and will never cease to give. Mortals can scarcely be ready to enter that Paradise where all such mortal striving must cease until they have learned that they have only to give, never to get. That, in fact, they have no power to do aught but give.
Mere getting of material things has never satisfied. It only begets a desire for more more amusement, more friends, more things, more leisure, more time, more of this and that and the other. Never enough of anything. How mesmeric is this matter of getting, this urge to have! All the time it is a denial of the eternal fact that Principle is all and supplies its ideas with everything needful for a happy, joyous, and constructive experience. Nor must we forget in our consideration of other things that it is eternal, present, continuous, and uninterrupted life that the Father has given us and that we live eternally by reflection. To the woman at the well at Sychar, Jesus said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
Jesus lived only to give. He freely gave even his human sense of life, but, in doing so, demonstrated for himself and all mankind that he had already received far more. This gift was the consciousness that eternal life now was the unalterable fact. Thus were the gates of Paradise opened for him. In like manner do these gates open for all mortals, at least in some degree, when they begin to reflect the unexpendable bounty of the Father, the great Giver.
Mary Baker Eddy too lived to give. From the moment of her first glimpse into the real, she sought through every possible channel to share the fruit of her vision with others. This was not easy. Material sense always finds so many ways to obstruct or hinder the progress and development of the real. But one thing was clear. The spiritual vision which she had caught had brought health and strength to her physical body, which before was ill and weak. What it had done for her it would do for other mortals.
Then why not offer this healing message to those whose need was greatest? Perhaps when their material need was met they might be inclined to listen. This was exactly what Jesus had done. Surely no example could be more worthy of emulating. Furthermore, this was a form of evidence, or proof, that would be irrefutable. The blind man, whose sight was restored by Jesus, could not be shaken from his conviction by all the sophistry of the scribes. His answer was, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." This ground could be maintained against all opposition.
It was upon exactly such ground that Mrs. Eddy took her position. She never abandoned that advanced and impregnable position. Thus, as had been given to her, she too gave. Thus she reflected freely the rich gift of her Father. The desire for spiritual understanding, characteristic of her thinking from childhood, had thus grown. It was now fruiting in a rich and generous form. Deep-rooted in love and understanding, this holy planting was secure against every form of mortal mind attack. These assaults were often fierce. The human struggle was frequently so great as to seem unbearable. But the storms passed, and the command of divine Love calmed the waves of mortal mind with its "Peace, be still."
Is it not clear then that the first and great gift of the Father to mortals is this undying seed of desire? Mrs. Eddy's experience is ample proof. It is this seed which germinates in hope, sends forth its first tender shoots in faith, and flowers in understanding. Therefore, understanding, spiritual understanding, is an essential if mortals are ever to reach that degree of perfection which St. Paul describes as "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." This understanding Christian Science enables them to acquire.
This is the salvation we all seek. It is salvation in its truest sense. By this means men are saved daily from their fears, their doubts, their discouragements, their selfishness, their diseases. Salvation comes with the understanding that Principle, God, is all, omnipotent, and through its Christ, ever present to heal and preserve.
Can you think of a better way of praying than to thus use this Christ understanding? This is prayer as one should pray in Christian Science. Earnest and frequent declaration of God's goodness and allness is praying aright. Denial of the presence, power, or reality of personal sense and any or all of its demands or claims, is also prayer. Such prayer is always answered, because it leaves all to the divine will and puts personal sense under foot.
This then is the message of the real which Christian Science has for us and for all mankind. It speaks of perfection, completeness, satisfaction, salvation now. It promises an inward peace and spiritual poise now, not hereafter. All this and more it offers to those who will accept its teachings, use the Principle it sets up as All-in-all, and gladly accept the government of that perfect Principle.
Matthew's report of that remarkable recital of the essentials of right living, known as the Sermon on the Mount, includes these words from the Master's lips, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Luke alone of the other Gospel writers refers to this great Christian code. In it the statement nearest to the one just quoted, reads, "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Is it not then perfectly clear that the man here referred to is the real man we have just visualized? This man is complete, finished, merciful, kind, true, deathless, indestructible, the man made in the image of God.
Everyone who hears this message is in reality such a man. To this real man, this man who is made in the image of the one perfect Mind, it can be accurately and truthfully said: "You are the finished, complete, and all-inclusive idea of Mind. You can lack nothing now or ever in the way of health, vigor, joy, peace, supply, for all these things are a part of your infinite completeness. Whatever is necessary to your well-being, whatever enables you to manifest greater completeness, is already the truth about you. You accept this completeness, you declare it to be the reality about yourself. You refuse to accept any falsehood, any argument of mortal mind that this is not the fact about you. You are complete, whole, the reflection of the one and only creator, the infinite Father-Mother God, which was, and is, and ever will be, complete, one, indivisible."
[Delivered Dec. 5, 1944, at the Keith Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana, under the auspices of the six Churches of Christ, Scientist, of Indianapolis, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, Dec. 8, 1944.]