Frank T. Hord, C.S., of Washington, D.C.
Member
of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
This is the text of the lecture
given Sunday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Washington Gardner high school, Albion,
by Frank T. Hord, C.S.
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
Through the ages men have turned to God in times of distress and danger. In this divine Presence they have found healing and protection. The Psalmist declared (Ps. 46:1), "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
Today the daily press, radio, and television are constantly telling us of rumors of war, depression, and possible destruction. We see in our public buildings warning signs marked "Shelter" and arrows pointing to places of safety for refuge from atom bombs. But these signs do not comfort us; rather do they alarm many.
We are confronted with the question: "Where is safety? What is security? Where can we find peace and protection?" Christian Science replies that all safety, security, and protection are to be found in the spiritual understanding of God, divine Mind, the Life or Principle of man and the universe.
One may say, "I try to know God, but He seems so far away, so indefinite, even vague at times." My friend, are you trying to know God as a corporeal person, an enlarged mortal in a remote heaven? If so, you are entertaining a finite material concept a misconception of the one true God. And it is this misconception of God that is the cause of all fear, limitation, and suffering.
Our great Master, Christ Jesus, taught his followers that they must know God, "the only true God," to experience eternal Life; that is, they must understand the true nature or character of God and His creation. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has revealed to this age the allness, oneness, perfection, and wholeness of God. She writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465), "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love."
In this illuminating definition, the incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite nature of God as All-in-all is revealed. As the spiritual understanding of God's allness, perfection, and infinity unfolds, the words of the Apostle Paul are fulfilled, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Cor. 3:18). Thus as one finds the true nature of God, he finds man's true selfhood to be the image and likeness of God, spiritual, perfect, and immortal.
This spiritual knowing, or understanding, of the true nature of God and man reveals the Christ, the Son of God, and the real man, your own divine identity here and now. This understanding is the "pearl of great price." To obtain it, no sacrifice of materiality is too great.
Do you ever ask yourself the questions: "How much consecrated thought do I give to the understanding of God? How much energy and purified desire do I exercise for the sheer joy of knowing the truth of God, and for the glorious opportunity of reflecting His divine presence and power?"
It requires sincere and faithful endeavor to be successful in any field of activity. A hit-or-miss effort never turns out a professional.
We should devote our consecrated thought to the understanding of God. Christian Science is the Science of Life, and its rules and laws must be obeyed and demonstrated if we are to experience the presence of harmony, safety, and happiness in our daily affairs.
As one abides in the consciousness of Love's presence, aware of its tender assurance, even if faced with seeming danger or disaster, protection and safety will be made evident in the most natural way. Thus we prove the truth of Mrs. Eddy's words, "Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection" (Science and Health, p. 424).
I should like to tell you of a
proof of divine protection that a friend experienced through the understanding
of the omnipresence of Mind. She was traveling by train through the mountains,
and suddenly sensed impending danger.
The coach in which she was riding began to lurch back and forth violently. The
passengers became frantic and crowded into the aisle. My friend, too, felt the
panic and half rose from her seat. At that moment she turned wholly to God as she had learned to do in Christian
Science. Her understanding of the true nature of God assured her, "I do
not need to move a step to find God; God is right here." Obediently she
resumed her seat. Then came the threat of utter annihilation. Again the
assurance came: "My life is not in a material body; it is in God! Mind is
omnipresent!" Then the omnipresence of God, divine Mind, was manifested
through a small boy who jumped on a seat and pulled a cord signaling the
engineer. The train stopped almost immediately.
The rear wheels of the coach had slipped off the track just before they
were to cross a frail bridge spanning a canyon hundreds of feet deep. The
conductor and brakeman had abandoned the train. But when the presence of divine
Mind was realized by the student of Christian Science, intelligence functioned
as the alertness of the young boy and everyone was saved from impending danger.
This proof of divine protection through the understanding of the omnipresence of Mind appeared in an article on The Home Forum page of The Christian Science Monitor.
It was Christ Jesus' recognition of the omnipresence and reality of
divine Life that demonstrated the unreality, the nothingness of death. He
dispelled the illusion of death, and restored to life the daughter of Jairus.
He touched the bier of the son of the widow of Nain, and immediately he arose.
He called forth from the grave his friend Lazarus. After three days in the tomb
Jesus presented himself alive and triumphant over death. Jesus made these
exalted demonstrations, not only for himself and his friends, but for the salvation
of the entire world.
Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, from the basis of demonstration, writes in our
textbook (Science and Health, pp. 289, 290): "Because Life is God, Life
must be eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I am, the Being who was and is and shall
be, whom nothing can erase." She further defines God, or Life, as Spirit,
Mind, Principle, Soul, Love, and Truth.
Life is Spirit, incorporeal, ever present, and omnipotent. Life by its very nature as Spirit is infinite good, everywhere present, everywhere available for healing the sick, comforting the sorrowing, and reforming the sinner. Life is Mind, divine consciousness always joyous, radiant intelligence. Life is the animating eternal Principle, the only creator, the source and condition of all harmonious being. Life is infinite, perfect, immortal, without beginning and without end. Life is changeless and indestructible. Life is diseaseless, sinless, and deathless here and now.
God, the great I AM, omnipresent and omnipotent Life, is forever reflected by man, God's manifestation or expression. Hence the man of God's creating, the image of Life, must be incorporeal, spiritual, mental, and immortal.
The absolute truth of the allness and omnipresence of Life as I AM, or self-existent Being, establishes the fact that man, the expression of God, is eternal and indestructible and can never be injured, annihilated, or erased.
True safety lies in the acceptance of man's oneness with Spirit, Life. If you will only acknowledge your indivisible coexistence with Life, you will experience its vigor, vitality, and continuity. Health, abundance, and freedom will be realized, and you will manifest intelligent activity. Latent abilities and possibilities will appear to your delight and satisfaction.
Mrs. Eddy writes in her book, "Unity of Good" (p. 42), "With Christ, Life was not merely a sense of existence, but a sense of might and ability to subdue material conditions." Let us demonstrate this true idea of Life, and with its might and ability let us cast off a belief in physical life with its limitations, disappointments, and death. Let us feel the divine energy of Life with all its newness, freshness, and spontaneity. Let us live lovingly, joyously, and harmoniously.
Beloved, we are the sons of God now! We are cared for, protected, and cherished by our Father-Mother, Love, the all-embracing divine Love that sustains man in the eternal bliss of abounding good.
Mrs. Eddy tells us that the Bible was her only textbook, and that she founded Christian Science on the teachings and demonstrations of Christ Jesus, and on the lives of the apostles and prophets.
The Bible is essential in the life of every Christian Scientist. We daily and hourly turn to its inspired pages for life, health, protection, supply, and happiness. It is the King James Version of the Bible that we use. It is read in Christian Science churches in all English-speaking countries in conjunction with Science and Health which interprets its spiritual meaning.
Throughout the Scriptures there is
a continuous record of the protection and safety that inspired men and women
have experienced through their faith in God. The Apostle Paul writes in
substance that "time would fail . . . to tell" of the saving power of
the faith in God; how Enoch was translated and did not see death because
"he pleased God"; how Noah, a righteous man, saved himself and his
house from a great flood; how courageous Moses led the children of Israel
through the Red Sea and the wilderness into the land of freedom and abundance.
The loved narratives of young David and his victory over Goliath, Daniel's
deliverance from the lions' den, and the victory of the three young men in the
fiery furnace, all prove that the law of safety is ever present and operative
in the midst of seeming danger. We know that this law is the quickening power
of Spirit, the presence of the healing Christ
The question is sometimes asked. "Does Christian Science teach the divinity of the Christ?" Christian Science not only teaches the divinity of the Christ, but it also demonstrates the divinity of the Christ by healing the sick, reforming the sinner, and overcoming death.
Jesus was the highest earthly concept of the divine idea or Christ. The Christ was the divinity of the man Jesus, and the Christ is the divine nature of the real man, the godliness that animates him. Jesus understood God as source, primal cause, "Our Father which art in heaven." He discerned that man is the image and likeness of God and that everything that was true about God was true about himself as God's reflection. He said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). And to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).
Jesus recognized that this understanding was the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour. In his daily affairs he expressed the Christ, or true idea of God. This spiritual power healed the multitudes, reformed the sinner, and raised the dead. In the words of our Leader (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 166): "This spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiζ of the life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified." Mary Baker Eddy discovered that what Jesus understood and claimed for himself is the truth about every man and is here to be proved by every one of us.
A woman of my acquaintance asked for Christian Science treatment for a large growth on the back of her head. The practitioner did not begin the treatment by seeking to remove the growth from her head. He began his treatment by affirming the true nature of God and man. He realized that God is the cause and origin of man, and that man, the image and likeness of God, was never born a mortal and therefore was not the victim of false mortal beliefs.
Christian Science treatment is based on the perfection of God and man. It denies the reality of sin, disease, and death on the basis that God never made them. What appears as disease, sin, and death is a false image; it is a perversion of true being. The practitioner was led to deny the reality of false beliefs of tradition, environment, and heredity. As he turned to the Christian Science textbook, the following statement was very clear to him (Science and Health, p. 63): "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry." He understood that false beliefs of heredity could not hide the true nature of man and his true inheritance. The fact was realized that all that was true about this woman was the reality of her being as the reflection of Mind, and that Mind's idea is perfect, pure, and intact.
Within a week the woman telephoned
that the growth had disappeared. She also expressed her gratitude that she had
sold two city lots, inherited years ago, which had been a source of expense and
worry to her. Soon after this she was elected to a useful position in her city
government. These blessings prove how far-reaching Christian Science is in its
operation. It is the law of harmony to every phase of our daily activity.
The revelation of Christian Science has appeared in this age through a gentlewoman who loved God above all else. She reflected divine Love in unsurpassed tenderness to humanity. Her name is Mary Baker Eddy.
From young womanhood until her discovery of Christian Science her human experience had been filled with grief, deprivations, disappointments, and ill-health. In 1866 she met with what was considered by the attending physician to be a fatal accident. When the end seemed near Mrs. Eddy asked for her Bible. In reading the ninth chapter of Matthew about the healing of the man with the palsy her consciousness was so illumined by the spiritual power of Truth that she was instantly healed.
Mary Baker Eddy was not only a consecrated spiritual Leader; she was a scientific, far-seeing Leader. More than half a century ago she ordained the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as pastor of The Mother Church and its branches.
She established the Christian Science Lesson-Sermons which are comprised of twenty-six subjects, each to be read twice a year in our churches all over the world. These Lesson-Sermons are studied daily by Christian Scientists. One of the subjects deals with atomic action: "Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?"
We are all aware that fifty years ago no layman and but few physical scientists were interested in atomic action. But it was of vital interest to Christian Scientists and is so today. The Christian Scientist's approach to this subject has always been from a spiritual, positive point of view based on our two textbooks, the Bible and Science and Health. We read in Science and Health, "Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal" (p. 547). The spiritual universe, including man, must be interpreted from the divine Principle, God. The one divine universe of Spirit is the emanation of Life, Truth, and Love. It never came out of chaos and old night and can never be turned back into chaos through atomic action as presented by material science. The true universe is wholly spiritual, created in and of Spirit, and therefore is eternal and indestructible.
As we study the first chapter of Genesis we find the record of spiritual creation, a revelation of one creator, infinite and perfect, who made everything and saw that it was good. This creator is Mind, one Mind, omnipresent and omnipotent. The one Mind is the source of all action. All activity proceeds from the divine Mind, and must be like its source, harmonious, intelligent, lawful, and beneficent.
Mrs. Eddy makes a profoundly scientific statement concerning the action of Mind, or true atomic action. On page 190 of her "Miscellaneous Writings" she writes: "Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the outcome of life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth, Life, defiant of error or matter."
Throughout our Leader's writings she affirms that Spirit is All and there is no matter. In her "scientific statement of being," which is to be found on page 468 of Science and Health, she strips matter of its false pretensions to life, substance, and intelligence. She declares; "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." Thus she restores all life, truth, intelligence, and substance back into Mind, their rightful classification.
God, Spirit, the great I AM, has
never relinquished the divine power and presence to a supposition, a mirage, an
illusion called matter. Matter, without life, truth, intelligence, or
substance, is reduced to its native nothingness. Atomic action is Mind and
cannot be seen in matter. This true concept of atomic action as the action of
divine Mind quiets fear and reveals the infinite possibilities of good for the
progressive advancement of mankind.
Christian Science is the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus. It is restoring to the world the understanding of his practical teachings and the lost art of spiritual healing.
This Comforter, or "spirit of Truth," is the very presence of the Christ, saying, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). This kingdom is at hand. Christ Jesus said it is within you. It is the understanding of man's coexistence with his divine Principle, Love. This heavenly harmony of Soul is a state of divine consciousness, a mental state of concord and bliss. It is your inheritance, your riches, and your security.
All over the world thousands are bearing witness to the healing and saving power of Christian Science. At our Wednesday meetings, in our periodicals, and wherever Christian Scientists gather, they are praising God and speaking of this power of the Christ to heal and to save.
A friend told me of a man who suffered acutely from a disease the physicians named "shingles." He received no help from medical aid. My friend asked him why he did not turn to God for healing. The man replied, "I cannot do that. God sent this disease on me," and so he rejected my friend's recommendation. If God is recognized as the creator of good alone, the belief that He sends disease or affliction to His children is recognized as a religious delusion, a misconception of God, the divine Principle of man's being. God, our tender Father-Mother, eternally blesses His creation and could never send disease or affliction on man, the very expression of His being.
I know a man who was healed through Christian Science of a case of shingles. This man's joy at the opportunity to tell others about the healing power of Christian Science treatment exceeded his joy over the healing. He said, "Just think of the privilege of bearing witness to God's love and healing power." This spiritual joy was indeed the health of his countenance.
Joy and gratitude dispel the heaviness of gloom and doubt, which would deprive us of our happiness and security. Joy is a health-giving and inspiring quality of Soul. It is wise to be alert and maintain our joy. Jesus exhorted those he healed to be of "good cheer." He said, ". . . your joy no man taketh from you" (John 16:22). Spiritual understanding is always radiant, poised, and joyous.
The purpose of Christian Science treatment is to heal physically, morally, and spiritually. It is "the power of God unto salvation."
For those who are attending a Christian Science lecture for the first time I should like to say that Christian Science treatment is spiritually mental. It is prayer, scientific prayer, based on the understanding that God is All-in-all, that God is good, ever present, and all-power; and that man, the real man, your divine selfhood, is the image and likeness of this one perfect Being.
The compassionate appeal of Christian Science is reaching the heart of the fearful, the suffering, the sinning reaching it through the tender presence of the healing Christ, the true idea of Love. There is no one so ill, so poor, or so sinful that he cannot turn to this radiant presence and feel its healing power.
Christian Science practice is founded on divine Principle and its unvarying laws. It is not one human mind acting upon another human mind; it is not mind over matter; it is the divine law of Truth dispelling false beliefs. In our textbook we read (Science and Health, p. 482), "Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis of the one Mind or God." The absolute knowledge that God is Mind, one Mind, infinite and omnipresent, forever disposes of the belief that there is a mind separate from God. The one infinite Mind is all-knowing consciousness, and what Mind knows about itself its infinity, allness, and perfection is manifested by its creation, man and the universe. Christian Science declares that Mind, Spirit, is All, and that all creation, being in Mind, must be spiritual and mental.
The one infinite Mind or divine consciousness, is forever reflected by its spiritual ideas. These ideas manifest the intelligent, spiritual, loving nature of Mind. Scientific, righteous thoughts or right ideas find expression in right activity, and in the demonstration of health, prosperity, and safety. Sinful, lawless, and unloving thoughts are manifested in disease, accidents, and poverty.
True Christian Science practice is based on right knowing. Such knowing emanating from divine Principle operates as the law of Truth which blesses and heals.
The spiritual understanding of the incorporeal nature of God and man is a vital part of Christian Science healing. God, Mind, is incorporeal, that is, without a fleshly or material body; man, the image of Mind, is incorporeal, that is, without a fleshly or material body.
Man is the compound idea of God, the embodiment of spiritual ideas. Does not the Bible tell us, "Ye are the temple of the living God"? (II Cor. 6:16) Man's real body, or spiritual identity, constituted of spiritual ideas and governed by the law of Spirit, is indivisible and indestructible. None of these ideas can be broken, severed, or mutilated. No suggestion of discord, disease, or sin can enter it. No ugliness of age or decrepitude can deface it. No arguments of a personal sense of life or of a finite material body can hide the glorious spiritual body, the true body of the real man.
What appears as a mortal man with a material body made up of brain, heart, lungs, and other material organs is a misconception of the real man and real body. When the fact that man is not a material physique is admitted, the ills of the flesh begin to disappear. Taking less thought of a material body, we shall experience more freedom and dominion.
Even some physical scientists tell us that all there is to matter or a material body is a sense impression objectified. Then, why should we spend our time being afraid or worried over a sense impression, an illusion, or a myth? Mrs. Eddy tells us many times in Science and Health that our freedom is won through the understanding that there is no life in matter, no substance in matter, and no intelligence in matter; that matter is only the belief of mortal mind objectified. The denial of matter and the denial of a personal human sense of self enables us to discern our real spiritual selfhood; thus corporeal personality with all its sinful tendencies gives place to true individuality, which is wholly spiritual.
The healing of disease is a very
important part of Christian Science, yet it is only the bugle call to arouse
thought to the healing of sin, which our Leader tells us is "the emphatic
purpose of Christian Science" (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 2).
Sin is a delusion; it would pervert all that is good and true. Sin is a state of self-deception, of
believing that there is pleasure, satisfaction, and power in evil. Every claim
of sin must be exposed and stripped of its false pretension and disguises. Sin
must be denounced for what it is a lie, an illusion, the Adam-dream that has
befooled mortals through the ages. Sin is finity, limitation, disease, and
death. It cannot really enslave man or hold him in bondage to false appetites,
dishonesty, hatred, disease, and death.
Every lying suggestion of sin is written in the sand. There is no sin
in the divine Mind, therefore no sin in man, the real man, your own true
selfhood. This scientific knowing regenerates and heals. It enables us to put
off the old man with his fears and vicissitudes and to put on the new man, that
is to experience our true safety and security as a son of God.
Does not the Apostle Paul tell us that salvation is not a future state
of being, but that salvation is come, is here and now? Today is the day of
salvation, the redemption and immunity from all the ills of the carnal mind.
Salvation is the understanding and demonstration of the omnipresence of
Life, Truth, and Love as All-in-all.
Living the life that is Truth is indeed eating the bread that cometh down from heaven; it is drinking the cup of salvation, and being baptized with the Holy Ghost, the power of Spirit. We rejoice in this salvation that is an accomplished fact as Mrs. Eddy tells us in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 261), "Man as God's idea is already saved with an everlasting salvation."
The destruction of fear relieves the symptoms of every disease, and is
the "peace, be still" in every Christian Science treatment.
When our Master walked on the wind-tossed sea to his disciples, he
spoke with the authority of the Christ, "Be not afraid" (Mark 6:50).
With the ability and might of Truth he calmed the disciples fear and the raging
sea. He proved that the harmony of divine Mind is ever present to silence the
chaos of mortal mind.
John, the beloved disciple, who companioned so closely with Jesus,
understood the power of divine Love and the unreality of fear. In his writings
he assures us that fear is no part of divine Love and that omnipresent Love
casts out fear.
The dream nature of fear must be seen for what it is, an illusion of the carnal mind. Fear does not exist as an entity or a fact. It is without basic cause and has no law to support it. Fear is therefore not a determining influence. It has no power to act, or to delineate its false images of disease and destruction. It has no reality or presence. Mrs. Eddy writes in her "Miscellaneous Writings," "If Mind, God, is all-power and all-presence, man is not met by another power and presence, that obstructing his intelligence pains, fetters, and befools him" (p. 173). We know that the consciousness of the real man is the reflection of God and can never be hypnotized nor fettered by the aggressive arguments of fear. If fear seems to come in like a flood, we can quietly say, "This is not my thinking; this is an imposition of the carnal mind; it is not true." Thus in the strength of our spiritual identity we lift up a standard against the enemy.
Jesus never admitted that error
was any part of his consciousness. He maintained his Christliness in the face
of every circumstance. He is our Way-shower.
There is a great need today that children should have the most careful spiritual education in the home as well as in our Sunday Schools. Parents should equip their children with fundamental truths to ensure their safety and security, not only from so-called physical dangers, but from the vicious errors that threaten to undermine their moral integrity and spiritual ideals.
Children should be taught from their early youth that God is Mind, divine Principle, Love, and that man is the intelligent, lawful, and loving expression of God. They should be taught that good is real, attractive, and satisfying; that evil is unreal, unattractive, and disappointing.
I should like to tell you of the experience of a young Christian Scientist during World War II. One night he became so ill that the man in the next bunk called a medical officer. After examining the soldier, the medical officer said: "You will not leave with your unit tomorrow. You are going to the hospital in the morning for a long stay." While praying over this situation a statement of truth that the soldier's father had made years before came to him, and he was healed. When the medical officer examined him again the following morning he was completely well, much to the officer's amazement.
Every statement of truth that has
ever been made, every section of the Lesson-Sermon a child has ever read, every
experience in which he has felt the power of the Christ, remains a present and
active influence for good in his life.
Christ Jesus taught his followers
one short prayer which is called the Lord's Prayer. Mrs. Eddy tells us that it
is the "prayer of Soul" and that it "covers all human
needs" and heals the sick instantaneously when understood and lived. As we
study this prayer, we discern that it explains all cause, effect, law,
sufficiency, and salvation. In Science and Health, pages 16 and 17, we find
this prayer, together with our Leader's spiritual interpretation of it.
Our great Master not only gave us the Lord's Prayer, but taught us how to utilize it. He said, ". . . when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matt. 6:6).
To enter the sanctuary of prayer we must silence the demands and desires of material sense. We must shut the door, that is, exclude from consciousness all personal sense of self and others. Then we pray to our Father. We realize the presence of divine Love and acknowledge our sonship, our oneness with our Father-Mother God. This is Immanuel, "God with us." It is in this purified consciousness of prayer that the human yields to the divine, and healing is demonstrated.
The Psalmist must have glimpsed the coexistence of God and man, when he wrote in the much-loved ninety-first Psalm, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Christian Science teaches that this "secret place" is the status of man in God's image and likeness. In this inner sanctuary of Spirit man finds his safety, his security, and his shelter. In this secret place there is sure deliverance from the snares and the craftiness of mortal mind; here there is protection from the mesmeric suggestion of accidents, plagues, and destruction.
The Psalmist realized, that the tender love of God is so all-encompassing and its gentle presence so near that the terrors of night, doubt, and insecurity have no power to harm man, God's idea. In this safe abiding we know that the power of almighty Truth is ever present to resist, correct, and dispel every false belief of the carnal mind calling itself evil, plagues, or atom bombs.
We are comforted by the beautiful promise, "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways" (Ps. 91:11). God's spiritual ideas, the "angels of Love's presence," guard, guide, and direct us in all our ways.
Science and Health teaches throughout its inspired pages that there is one God, infinite, supreme, and perfect; that man, the image and likeness of this perfect creator, reflects His power, presence, and perfection; that God is good and man is the expression of good; therefore, good is All-in-all. These truths were revealed to Mary Baker Eddy through her earnest, consecrated study of the Bible.
Our safety and security are assured and maintained by divine Science, the law of God, which forever sustains the unbroken harmony of God and man. The all-inclusive Christ-consciousness is our ark of serenity and safety that lifts above the floods.
My friends, I leave you with a tender benediction from our Leader's writings:
"Divine presence, breathe Thou Thy blessing on every heart in this house. Speak out, O soul! This is the new-born of Spirit, this is His redeemed; this, His beloved. May the kingdom of God within you, with you alway, reascending, bear you outward, upward, heavenward" (Pulpit and Press, p. 10).
[Delivered May 5, 1957, at Washington Gardner High School in Albion, Michigan, and published May 9, 1957, in a newspaper, the identity of which is unknown.]