Thomas E. Hurley, C.S.B., of Louisville, Kentucky
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
Are you in need of restoration — of restoration of health, of happiness, of supply, of usefulness, of joy, or perhaps of your self-respect? If you are, my friends you are in good company, for everyone is in need of restoration in some respect, even if he is not aware of it. But all are aware of the pressing need of restoring peace to a troubled world, of restoring right order to an economy that seems to be sadly awry, of restoring a sense of honor and cooperation between nations and a higher sense of morals and ethics on the part of individuals. Yes, and many thinking people are beginning to recognize the fundamental need of restoring to humanity a true sense of spiritual values, or spiritual understanding.
The latter is one of the most hopeful signs on the mental horizon of today, for, as Christian Science reveals, spiritual understanding — the understanding of God and His law — is the key to scientific restoration of health and harmony. In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures;" Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and the Leader of its movement, writes on page 390: "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony."
But, someone may ask, how can a right understanding of God restore my health, usefulness, joy, or abundance? And how can it possibly bring peace to the world and the proper adjustment of our economy?
In his great Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus prophetically declared (Matt. 5:17), "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Then, throughout his brief ministry, he showed how the operation of the Christ to human consciousness fulfills the law of God by restoring health in place of sickness, purity and holiness in place of sin, life in place of death, abundance in place of lack, harmony and peace in place of discord and turbulence. Yes, the fulfillment of God's law to human experience is always the restoration of harmony. Since this spiritual restoration is the effect of God's law and is brought about by the utilization of it, true restoration must be and is scientific, never a question of chance, circumstance, or any so-called material condition.
Is it not heartening to realize that scientific restoration is as available and near at hand as is God's law? And Christian Science provides us with the understanding of this divine law and shows us how to use it. Its method of restoration is the same as that employed by Christ Jesus. It may be illustrated by a story that I recall reading many years ago of a great masterpiece.
An expert art critic examining an old but very mediocre painting detected that it was not the picture that had originally been painted on the canvas, but that it had been painted over the original. Since the painting was so old, he was eager to discover what the original painting might be. So he took the canvas to a fine artist and craftsman who undertook to restore the original painting by removing the poor picture that was concealing it. After much painstaking effort, the paint that had been superimposed on the original was completely removed, revealing the work of a famous artist – a great masterpiece.
Scientific restoration as taught by Christian Science is along much the same line. For Christian Science reveals that where material sense presents to human consciousness a material, imperfect, discordant concept of creation, right there in reality is God's perfect, spiritual creation, harmonious, beautiful, complete in every respect – just as the masterpiece was present all the time men were beholding the mediocre picture.
Now nothing had to be done to improve the original masterpiece – there was no need to change it in any respect. Likewise nothing has to be done to change or improve the real creation, or man. But in order to see the masterpiece, the picture that was hiding it had to be removed. So to behold God's masterpiece, man in His image and likeness, the false mental picture of an imperfect, discordant mortal, which claims to hide the perfect man, must be eliminated from human consciousness. The process of removing the false and restoring the true takes place on the canvas of individual human consciousness, and the process is entirely mental, that is, spiritually mental.
As the art critic's knowledge of genuine art enabled him to detect the spurious nature of the superimposed picture, and to discover and bring to light the original masterpiece, so it was Mrs. Eddy's spiritual-mindedness, her understanding of God, that enabled her to detect the spurious nature of the so-called material creation and to discover and reveal to mankind the present reality of God's genuine spiritual creation, including man in His likeness. This final revelation of Truth, which Mrs. Eddy denominated Christian Science, provides you and me and all mankind with the truly scientific method of restoration by which all problems claiming presence to human experience may be solved, and by which one may scientifically work out his own salvation here and now.
It was Mrs. Eddy's spiritual-mindedness that made her the revelator of Truth to this age and enabled her to fulfill the prophecy of the Scriptures. She manifested this spirituality of thought to an extraordinary degree even as a child, taking a deep interest in the discussions of religious topics which frequently occurred in her home. Even at an early age, she felt that Jesus' followers should be able to heal the sick as he had commanded them to do. She felt this even more keenly in young womanhood when she became an invalid. She sought help without success from all types of human healing agencies and became convinced that they were effective only in proportion to the individual or general faith in them and had no intrinsic healing power of their own. This caused her to seek more and more diligently for the true idea of God which Jesus taught and demonstrated, and which she was convinced would heal her.
Then, in 1866, at the age of forty-five, given up by a physician to die, she put away the material remedies the doctor had given her and turned completely to God for her help. As she studied the Bible, she caught a glimpse of the truth of being and found herself suddenly well. As she later wrote in Science and Health (p. 14): "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, – neither to nor of matter, – and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief to sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well."
Mrs. Eddy knew that she had
touched the hem of Christ's garment, but, as she put it, "I must know the
Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through
divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" (ibid., p. 109). This was
not the work of a moment, however. She diligently searched the Scriptures
seeking their spiritual meaning. This was gradually revealed to her, and nine
years later she published her textbook, Science and Health, in which is set
forth the complete statement of this final revelation of Truth.
On page 468 of this textbook, Mrs. Eddy gives in one paragraph, which she has designated "the scientific statement of being," the epitome of this revelation. The first sentence of this powerful statement, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," was and is a challenge to all human thinking based on the belief in the reality of matter — to science, theology, and medicine — and it stirred, and continues to stir, the human mind to its depths.
Of course, no one has, ever discovered what matter is or where it comes from, but the audacity of declaring it nonexistent was too much for the materialistic thought of that time. Her revelation of the nothingness of matter and allness of Spirit subjected Mrs. Eddy to all sorts of unjustified attacks. But she stood her ground without flinching and proved the unreality of matter, in the same way that Jesus had demonstrated it – by healing the sick as well as the sinning – thus proving herself to be a true follower of the Master. And those who have accepted her as their Leader, and follow her as she followed Christ, are today demonstrating the unreality of matter by healing the sick and the sinner, and successfully meeting the many problems that claim to be present in human experience.
Perhaps someone is thinking, Why is the recognition of the unreality, the nothingness, of matter so important? What has this to do with gaining a correct understanding of God? It is important because the Bible teaches that God is Spirit and clearly implies that He is infinite – All. Since matter is the opposite of Spirit, it is impossible to believe in the reality of matter and at the same time to understand that Spirit is All — infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Where Spirit is, there can be no matter. The presence of one precludes the presence of the other. Hence the understanding that God is Spirit, infinite, real, and ever present, must necessarily include the recognition that matter, the opposite of Spirit, is unreal, nothing, without presence or power.
Every follower of Christ Jesus accepts his statement that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). The Christian also accepts the Master's teaching that God is "our Father which art in heaven." Then, in spite of the universally recognized fact that like produces like, most Christians fall into the error of believing that a perfect God, Father, or creator, who is Spirit, creates an imperfect man who is material — the very opposite and unlikeness of his creator.
Of course, this concept of man is the evidence of the material senses, but if this evidence is contrary to both revelation and reason, should we be so gullible as to accept it? As a matter of fact, we reject material sense evidence at the start of every day, for none of us believes that the sun rises. We reject this evidence in many other ways. In order to believe in immortality, one must reject the material sense evidence that man is a mortal being having a material body, for this same evidence declares that man dies and returns to dust, or nothingness. No Christian is willing to accept this denial of man's immortality, and so, as soon as such a one appears to die, the Christian rejects the material sense evidence that man is material, returning to dust, and insists that man is spiritual and immortal. But why wait till man is declared dead before recognizing his true being as spiritual and immortal? If he is spiritual and immortal in one instance, he must be so in the other. What possible basis is there for thinking that the material sense evidence regarding man is true when he is alive, but false when he is dead? Even in our human courts, the minute a witness perjures himself on a single point his whole testimony may be rejected. Therefore, would it not be wise to reject the whole of material sense evidence as false when we inherently know that the denial of man's immortality is a lie?
To return to our illustration of the masterpiece: if the art critic had been satisfied with the superimposed picture, had he not detected its spurious nature, he might merely have cleaned it or touched it up without ever bringing to light the original masterpiece. And if one accepts the material sense evidence as to man as true, he may try to doctor it or improve it, but he will never bring out the real or perfect man by so doing. Furthermore, it is obvious that the art critic could not keep the mediocre picture and still have the masterpiece. He had to be willing to give up the former in order to gain the latter. So we must be willing to give up the false, material sense of man in order to gain the spiritual understanding of man as God's image and demonstrate this understanding in our daily lives.
I wonder if someone is questioning, If the material sense evidence is false, how can we know what is true about man, how can we know what he really is? Mrs. Eddy tells us she arrived at absolute conclusions "through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" (Science and Health, p. 109). We can follow the same method, for we have both the revelation of the Master and this final revelation, which he prophesied would come as the healing Comforter. As we reason from the standpoint of divine revelation, that is, from the standpoint of perfect God and perfect man, we too shall arrive at absolute conclusions and see these spiritual facts proved in our experience through the restoration of health, purity, harmony, and abundance where there seemed to be sickness, sin, discord, and lack.
The basis of all correct reasoning is the truth about God, for the Bible tells us that "all things were made by him" (John 1:3) and that He made man in His image and likeness. The Bible tells us furthermore that God is Spirit, Truth, Life, and Love. Mrs. Eddy has given us three other terms — namely, Principle, Mind, and Soul — all of which are clearly implied in the Scriptures. It reasonably follows that the image of Spirit must be spiritual, not material; the image of Truth must necessarily be as real, perfect, and unchangeable as Truth itself, never imperfect or changeable. The likeness of immortal Life must be eternal, healthy, harmonious, without beginning or end, never mortal, sick, discordant, and dying. The perfect expression of Love necessarily possesses and expresses all the qualities of Love, such as fearlessness, kindness, unselfed love. It could not include fear, envy, jealousy, hatred, or self-love. The image of divine Principle must be under the perfect government of Principle, in perfect adjustment with Principle and with all of its ideas, never misgoverned, maladjusted, displaced, or lacking a place. The perfect likeness of divine Mind necessarily knows as Mind knows. He is conscious only of the ideas of divine Mind, never of the false beliefs of error or mortal mind. And the perfect expression of Soul must be as sinless and immortal as Soul itself.
As we grasp the truth about God and man in His likeness, we experience the restoration of our spiritual sense — the unfoldment of spiritual understanding. The spiritual fact displaces the false belief in individual human consciousness, and the result is healing — the restoration of health, harmony, happiness, and abundance.
Spiritual restoration is brought about through prayer. We might say that prayer in Christian Science is the restoring of the spiritual fact in the place of the false belief. Or to go back to our illustration, it is removing the false mental picture and, thereby, recognizing and acknowledging the presence of the masterpiece, the true spiritual creation, or man, in all his perfection and beauty.
The art critic could not and did not have to beseech the artist to change his masterpiece, for there was no need to change it. Nor does the student of Christian Science beseech God to change His creation, for it must be as perfect as the creator. On the contrary, the student immediately recognizes that perfect God and perfect man is the omnipresent fact of being, and then he proceeds to wipe out the false mental picture that is claiming to hide or conceal this spiritual fact. He recognizes that whatever is contrary to spiritual reality must be false, a false belief about the perfect man of God's creation. So he denies the false belief, or lie, which is always some aspect of the belief in the reality of matter, and affirms the truth, or spiritual fact, for that case. He continues along this line until thought is corrected and the spiritual idea clearly realized. And the moment the spiritual fact is actually realized, the false mental picture is wiped out of individual human consciousness, and one becomes conscious in like measure of the truth of being, which is altogether harmonious.
A case that came to my attention some time ago may be used to illustrate what I have just said. A Christian Scientist, while traveling with some friends, was suddenly seized with acute appendicitis. He called on a member of the group, who was a Christian Science practitioner, to help him, as the pain was so severe that he seemed unable either to think for himself or to read the Bible and Science and Health. Now the practitioner did not start from the standpoint of a fearful, sick, suffering man in great need of healing. On the contrary, he insisted that right where this mental picture was presented, right then and there perfect God and perfect man in His likeness was the omnipresent and only fact of being. Right where the material senses were presenting the mental picture of man as material, fearful, diseased, and in great pain, right there the ever-present fact was that man as God's idea was wholly spiritual, fearless, healthy, painless, manifesting only the qualities of harmonious being.
It was clearly realized that God, Spirit, never made matter. Consequently there was no material body in which disease could originate, exist, or develop; in which it could produce pain, fever, poison, or death; or in which it could have any activity, effect, or manifestation. The true and only body was seen to be altogether spiritual — the embodiment of spiritual ideas, perfect, painless, healthy, pure, harmoniously active. Since a spiritual idea could not possibly be infected, irritated, inflamed, ruptured, painful, or destructive to other ideas, it was obvious that any claim of acute appendicitis as having origin, existence, activity, effect, or manifestation in body was a lie. It was without Principle or law to support it, and without mind or man to believe it, since God is Mind and man reflects God's knowing.
It was also realized that since God is the one universal Mind, never creating or knowing disease, there could be no general mortal belief or law causing disease or giving it name, nature, development, symptoms, effect, or aftereffect. Nor could any collective mortal thought prescribe the remedy for disease or declare it incurable.
The case seemed to be extremely acute, requiring considerable treatment along these lines for a period of three days. By the fourth day the patient was able to get up, dress himself, and drive over two hundred miles to his home.
This healing was brought about through spiritual means alone — through knowing the truth about God and man as revealed by Christian Science. Is it not apparent that if what was known had not been the truth, the truth that Jesus said would make man free, there would have been no healing?
This truth of being coming to the human consciousness to heal and save is the Christ, which Mrs. Eddy defines as (Science and Health, p. 583) "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." The Christ is the true idea of God, and since God is all inclusive, the Christ must likewise be the true idea of all that He includes — of all that comprises the divine creation. In brief, the Christ is the consciousness of spiritual reality, or spiritual consciousness. Every true or spiritual idea is a Christ-idea, and the unfolding of these ideas in individual human consciousness is the coming of the Christ, before which the false beliefs of matter, evil, sin, disease, and death vanish as necessarily as darkness disappears before the light.
Jesus was the great demonstrator of the Christ, showing by his example how each one may work out his complete salvation here and now through attaining and demonstrating this true consciousness, or consciousness of Truth. He knew that the Christ was his true, spiritual selfhood. He identified himself so completely with it that he was able instantaneously to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, and even life to those who had been pronounced dead. Jesus refuted the material sense evidence at every point through his understanding of the Christ, and the result was the restoration of life, harmony, health, completeness, and supply. Also he taught his followers that they should follow in his footsteps and do the same works by demonstrating the Christ as he had done, for he said (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
Through her spiritual discernment, Mrs. Eddy has made it possible for every sincere seeker for Truth to see the way Jesus marked out and to follow in it. For Mrs. Eddy discerned the true idea of God which the Master presented and has set it forth so clearly in her textbook, Science and Health, that anyone can understand it. And in the degree that one understands this Christ, Truth, he demonstrates it by doing in some measure the works that Jesus said his true followers would do. In short, as one understands the Christ, as one exemplifies it in his own life, he demonstrates scientific restoration. Healing ceases to be a matter of chance and becomes the certain effect of demonstrated law.
Prayer or treatment in Christian Science is really the utilization and demonstration of spiritual law, which nullifies the so-called law of matter and its effects of sin, disease, and death. The truth that two times three equals six is the mathematical law that corrects the false belief that two times three equals seven, thereby removing the wrong answer and restoring the right one. So the truth about man as God's spiritual image and likeness is the divine law that corrects the false belief that man is material, together with its wrong answer of sin, disease, and death, thus restoring the right answer — the manifestation of purity, health, and life. We utilize spiritual law by maintaining the spiritual fact and denying its material counterfeit. When one really knows or realizes the spiritual fact, his thought is at one with God, divine Mind, and his knowing is his individual reflection of God's knowing. This divine knowing is the law of God in operation and has the omnipotence of God with it. Consequently it must be effective. When a case is correctly analyzed and the false beliefs are replaced through the realization of the true, spiritual facts, the treatment is the law of God as applied to that case and must be effectual. Irrespective of the material sense evidence, both the practitioner and patient should understand this and insist on it.
Error, or animal magnetism, the suppositional opposite of Christian Science, claims to oppose and deny it, and would deny the effectiveness of Christian Science treatment. Consequently the student must be alert that he in no wise consents to any such denial. Sometimes when no immediate change or improvement in the material evidence follows the treatment, there is a strong temptation to consent to the suggestion that the treatment has not been effectual. The moment one admits that the treatment is not effective, he is in a fair way to be robbed of its efficaciousness by his very denial of it. Furthermore, if one admits that the treatment that has been given a case has been ineffective, his failure to stand for the effectiveness of treatment might well limit the efficacy of further treatment.
The patient's consenting to error's denial of the effectiveness of treatment is due, of course, to his looking to material sense or mortal mind, which, according to Jesus, is "a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44) — to find out if the treatment is efficacious. But when one realizes that Christian Science treatment is the Christ, Truth, for that case and so has the omnipotence of God with it, he stands radically for the treatment's perfect effectiveness and insists that no argument of error or material sense evidence can deny its efficacy or delay or prevent its manifestation.
I have always been grateful that my first healing in Christian Science clearly illustrated this point. When in my early teens, I became completely deaf in one ear and practically so in the other. I was not interested in Christian Science at the time; in fact, I thought I was opposed to it. But some neighbors who were earnest Christian Scientists, hearing of my difficulty and learning that my case had been pronounced hopeless by a specialist, lovingly presented Christian Science to me as the certain way out of my trouble. As it alone offered a ray of hope, I turned to it wholeheartedly, began to study Science and Health, and sought treatment from a Christian Science practitioner.
One of the main things I remember about this experience was the intensive way I studied the textbook, usually putting in two or three hours a day, though I seemed to understand little of what I read. I also had daily treatment from the practitioner. But, there was not the slightest improvement or change in the material evidence from the day the treatment was begun until the moment when the hearing was perfectly restored. I am grateful to say that the healing was accomplished quickly. Obviously, the treatment was effective — every treatment was effective, not just the last one.
The student of Christian Science needs to be alert that he is not tempted to classify certain diseases as difficult to heal. It makes no difference how dark a room is if the light that is turned on is sufficiently bright. Nor does it make any difference how long the room has been dark. Darkness is merely the absence of light and vanishes before it. And disease is merely the suppositional absence of harmony and goes out before the realization of the omnipresence of harmony.
Error would like one to believe that some diseases, such as deafness, are difficult to overcome, and for this very reason this false argument should be vigorously rejected. Certainly God never made a law that it is difficult to heal any disease, and in reality there is no mortal mind or collective mortal thought that can make such a law. The healing of deafness is brought about in Christian Science by proving the spiritual fact that the real and only hearing is a faculty of Soul, divine Mind, not of matter. Consequently it must be eternally perfect and perfectly expressed by God's image, individual man.
Mrs. Eddy has defined "ears" as (Science and Health, p. 585) "Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding." How obvious it is, therefore, that one's hearing cannot be limited by any belief of imperfect or diseased matter, when it is seen that man really hears through spiritual understanding. In reality, man reflects spiritual understanding without limit. Its unlabored and harmonious unfoldment constitutes his normal hearing, which never has been and cannot be impaired. This spiritual fact, realized, dispels the false belief that man has a personal hearing, derived from and dependent on matter, which is or can be impaired. When this false belief is blotted out of individual human consciousness its manifestation disappears from individual human experience, and the result is normal hearing.
Perhaps one of the problems most generally requiring attention today is that of restoring a right sense of adjustment — a right sense of place, usefulness, and supply. Many good people have a sense of being displaced, out of place, or lacking place, with the attending beliefs of lack of usefulness, of right employment, supply, home, companionship, happiness, and harmony. So let us consider how this deceptive sense of maladjustment and lack may be removed and the spiritual sense of right adjustment, usefulness, and abundance restored.
The Scriptures, referring to God, tell us that "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Christian Science reveals God as infinite, divine Mind, Spirit; hence man, God's idea, really lives, moves, and has his being in infinite, omnipresent, spiritual consciousness. This really is the only place man can be, the only place he ever has been or ever will be. The man of God's creating is an individual spiritual consciousness. This individual consciousness is not separate and apart from infinite divine Mind, but is its individualized manifestation. In "Unity of Good" by Mrs. Eddy, we read (p. 24), "All consciousness is Mind; and Mind is God, — an infinite, and not a finite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual consciousness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind. There is no really finite mind, no finite consciousness." So we see the only place man really is, ever has been, or ever will be is in his God-given identity and individuality as spiritual consciousness. He is established, fixed, and held here by spiritual law throughout eternity. Furthermore, man, understanding this, knows what and where his right place is, so is never ignorant, undecided, or confused about it.
In his individuality as spiritual consciousness, man is the image and likeness of God, spiritual not material, perfect not imperfect, harmonious not discordant, complete not limited, useful and not useless. He is at one with infinite good, hence he is entirely separate from evil. "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas" (Science and Health, p. 475). All right ideas, having their source in God, divine Mind, must be useful. Now for something to be useful, it is obvious there must be the opportunity to use it. For something to be continuously useful, the opportunity to use it must be unceasingly present. The real man, including all right ideas, all of which are useful, must exist not only at the standpoint of unlimited usefulness, but also of unlimited opportunity to be useful. This spiritual fact, realized, eliminates the false belief that man is a poor, limited mortal, lacking in usefulness or opportunity, and restores the spiritual sense of right adjustment, usefulness, and opportunity to be useful.
The question of adequate supply, or of a right adjustment of supply and demand, is often a pressing one, and here again Christian Science provides the demonstrable truth which restores a right sense of adjustment and abundance.
A fundamental error that results in lack and limitation is the belief that supply and demand are material; hence that they are subject to material conditions and laws. Christian Science reveals that (Science and Health, p. 468) "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" — its infinite ideas. Divine Mind, God, supplies these infinite ideas and needs every one of them for the perfect expression of His infinite selfhood. God is everywhere, and everywhere perfectly manifested or expressed, thus requiring the ever-present activity of His infinite ideas. If there were some place where even a few of God's ideas were not actively expressing Him, there would be a place where God was not perfectly expressed — where He was not perfect — which is impossible. So we see that there is an ever-present need for God's infinite ideas, and these infinite ideas are always present to meet the need. Supply and demand, therefore, exist eternally at the standpoint of perfect adjustment, of perfect balance, maintained by spiritual law. This truth, understood and realized, eliminates from individual human consciousness the false concept of supply and demand as material and out of balance, and restores the spiritual sense of right adjustment. And the manifestation in human experience is that supply is adequate to meet the present need.
Most people, certainly most Christian Scientists, recognize lack of employment or lack of supply as problems demanding prompt solution, certainly not as something to be accepted or condoned. But many of these same people unresistingly consent to other arguments of lack, such as indifference or lack of interest, lack of joy, or lack of enthusiasm. Such phases of lack, entertained or unresisted, might well be the erroneous thought that was being objectified in individual human experience as unemployment or lack of supply.
Jesus has given us a clear statement of the spiritual law of supply (Matt. 6:33): "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." In order to seek first the kingdom of God, one must be primarily interested in spiritual things, particularly in those things which are essential to his spiritual growth and progress. One who is indifferent to such things cannot possibly put spiritual things first and thus, demonstrate this law, because one always puts first that in which he is primarily interested. So how important it is that we watch our interests and guard against indifference towards the things of Spirit.
Since divine Mind, God, is the source of all action, all right activity must be joyous. There can be no greater joy than in expressing the continuous unfoldment of divine Mind, Life, Truth, and Love. When one is knowing as divine Mind knows, he cannot help being joyous. Hence, if one is lacking joy, it means that his thinking is in accord with mortal mind and not with the divine Mind. He is contemplating mortal mind's false beliefs instead of rejoicing in divine Mind's perfect ideas. To restore his joy, he needs only to change his thinking from a material to a spiritual basis.
Scientific restoration is in itself a joyous process, for it is the utilization of one's understanding of God and man. When one contemplates what the image of divine Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love must be, and when he realizes that this perfect man of God's creating is his real selfhood, how can he help but "rejoice, and be exceeding glad"? The Christ, Truth, which has come to him through Christian Science has removed the false mental picture that has claimed to hide God's masterpiece, and lo! he finds that in reality he is this masterpiece.
[Oct. 12, 1950.]