Violet Ker Seymer, C.S.B., of Boston, Massachusetts
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Given under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Kalamazoo, Michigan, at Central High School Auditorium, Sunday afternoon, Oct. 13, 1940 at 3:00 o'clock, E.S.T.
The purpose of this message is to show you how Christian Science works redemptively in behalf of every human being. Good is understandable. Evil is never understandable. Why consent to a more or less rudderless, drifting existence, when one can learn the way of achievement through spiritual understanding? This way is open to all, safe for all, glorious for all, not later, but now.
Whatever cannot be reconciled with divine logic is an imposition — the opposite of real being. Revelation, taken in its highest sense, brings to light the spiritual facts of creation and their power of redemption in human experience. Revelation unfolds the realism of good and lays bare the deception of evil. The last book in the New Testament is called "Revelation," and the Revelator is believed to have been John, one of the twelve disciples. Through Mary Baker Eddy came the revelation of Truth in our age.
Now revelation is perhaps the last thing the average human being wants to think about. He says, "I am concerned with the practical affairs of everyday life." In revelation, however, there is enlightenment; without it there is confusion.
The revelation of real being is the most practical thing on earth. Among other things it dissolves the unreal fetters of sin and disease, and annuls man-made laws of heredity. All that is divinely good, men can have in common, and in abundance.
Christian Science stands neither for pantheism, a material sense of creation; nor for polytheism, belief in many gods, many minds, many powers. It stands for monotheism, one God, good, one power. It stands for the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." On this basis Christian Science carries on the works of spiritual healing, in accord with the example of Christ Jesus and his early followers. It reveals to us the true nature of God, the only cause.
The cause which is good is not evil in effect. The cause which is Life knows no death. The cause which is Love knows no hate. Does infinite Truth know another unlike itself? Is there anything to know but Truth? Does Spirit create matter? Does Soul, God, inhabit a physical body? No.
In God and His creation, the one cause and effect, we find absolute consistency. And Christian Science shows forth this consistency. There is not a law of righteousness and health for one and sin and sickness for another. How, then, does Christian Science deal with the phenomenon of evil? It deals with it as a libel against God, a libel that is without an origin. Therefore Christian Science diverts thought from the futile search for the origin of evil to the fruitful discovery of the origin of good, namely, God. Spiritually speaking, there is no original sin; there is only original good. As we learn more of man's divine origin and respect it, we naturally express more of the qualities of spiritual man, and fewer of the characteristics of a mortal.
God, Truth, is untouched by libel, and so is man, His reflection. It is helpful to know this. Supposing, for instance, that someone here suffers from chronic headaches, or is sometimes sick at heart and discouraged. These mistakes, shall we call them, are no more real or necessary than are the mistakes a child makes in arithmetic through ignorance. There is no law for his mistakes. There is no law for headache or heartache; no law for sickness or sin. They are lawless. They have no cause. Christian Science provides for the merciful elimination from human consciousness of discord, because all discord is contrary to the one cause and effect, contrary to monotheism. When we understand and obey the laws of creation, all of them beneficent, which Christian Science reveals to us, we shall know and express only harmony.
Many are the aspirations of humanity, but often they fade out, owing to lack of spiritual education. Fundamentally, education starts not from human knowledge, but from God, omniscient divine Mind. In families where Christian Science is lived and loved, the characters of both parents and children are divinely molded. As genuine qualities appear, mortal faults disappear. Thus self-will and friction yield to the supremacy of the one divine will. As each member of the family learns to be governed by divine Principle, the true sense of relationship is established on the basis of one perfect Mind, one universal Love. In Christian Science, human classifications by which some, for instance, are labeled quick but unreliable, and others steady but slow is barred. The law of divine Mind is completeness for each spiritual idea.
When, in due course, young people reared in Christian Science go to college, they may come up against fashionable pessimism and even presumptuous atheism. Their spiritual ideals may be scorned by brilliant professors whose academic standard commands their respect. Whilst appreciating everything of value, and studying such subjects as are required, the young Christian Scientist should continue to hold to the perfection of the real man. He can be what is called a "good mixer," without getting mixed in his thinking, and without surrendering his ideals. When, later on the student faces the demands of business, he does well to put first the business of understanding and expressing his genuine individuality, in whatever human environment or society he finds himself. Then his services are certain to be valuable to his employer, and his opportunities should improve correspondingly with the improvement in his thinking.
Real education develops fidelity to Principle, alertness, intelligent discrimination, wise choice of companions. Friendship in Christian Science rests on one's demonstration of the divine nature. No one need be lonely because of his high standard. In fact, loneliness, carried to excess, may foster selfishness, and selfishness is stagnation. Rather does the student learn to see more good reflected in himself and his fellows. In this oneness of good he finds the foundation of friendship. Whoever chooses well his path in life finds heavenly signposts all along the way, and must follow their directing.
The attitude of Christ Jesus towards his disciples is helpful to parents when young people leave the shelter of the home. With profound confidence in his disciples' ability to walk uprightly in the world's highways, serving God and their fellows, Jesus uttered these words recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
The appearing of Jesus was the appearing of the greatest educator the world has ever known. To those who could only partially follow his teachings, his works spoke louder than his words. Everywhere he taught divine truths, and everywhere he lived what he taught. Had his character not measured up to his spiritual understanding, he would not have been the world's greatest benefactor. His was no personal power, now vanished; it was the power of Christ, Truth, forever available. In his daily life he was nomadic, but in his spiritual understanding, he was immovable. A poet writes:
"His home was where men needed him;
He dwelt in no place very long."
Jesus demonstrated the truth about inheritance. When a man blind from birth was brought to him, his disciples inquired of their Master whether this man was blind because of his sins, or because of the sins of his parents. He accorded no reality to disease or sin in any generation, but saw here an opportunity to demonstrate Christ's healing power in behalf of a stricken mortal, and the man born blind received his sight.
The healing power of Christ, Truth, is invariable and impersonal. Hence Christ Jesus could send forth his disciples to do the works which he did. Hence the book in the New Testament, "The Acts of the Apostles." Hence the chapter in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, "Christian Science Practice" (pp. 362-442).
The power of Christ, Truth, silences fear and other anti-Christian suggestions. Whatever whispers doubt, fear, weakness, confusion — the reverse of true thinking — is antichrist, anti-Truth. The disciple John wrote, "Even now are there many antichrists." Through spiritual illumination, Christian Science rouses us from submission to untruths. Without spiritual illumination we could have no understanding of our true individuality. Christ, the true idea of being, is the haven which false belief and unbelief cannot enter. It is Christ which says to you, "Walk as children of light."
Christian Science introduces you to your true selfhood, and teaches you how to reject estranging suggestions of fear, disease, and sin, which are never real.
Take restlessness, for instance. Perhaps someone in this audience longs to get away from his present environment. He feels that if only he could move to some other place he would more easily find happiness, opportunity, success, which seem at present to be denied him. Through this kind of thinking he deliberately subordinates himself to a locality. He mentally restricts himself. Actually, the environment which seems to be external is included in one's consciousness. So, also, in reality, is abundant supply.
Christian Science teaches one how to prove the ever-presence of supply in every sense of the word — the supply of righteousness, health, happiness, vision; also employment, home, food. God's law of supply is impartial and eternally operative. Jesus proved this for a hungry multitude in a desert. The disciples wanted to send several thousand men, women, and children to distant villages to seek food for themselves, and protested, "This is a desert place, and the time is now past." To this he replied with the utmost confidence and love, "They need not depart; give ye them to eat." Then and there the multitude was superabundantly fed.
Not the removal of our body to another place, but the removal to no place of false belief and unbelief from our consciousness is what is needed and can be had. In Love's tender presence there is no desert, no deserted mortal. In the eternality of supply the time for the demonstration of abundance is not past, but present. Although anxiety may attempt to obscure this fact, supply in every sense of the word is right where we are. We should be on guard against the common tendency to be disagreeable as an outlet for something that is troubling us.
There are certain phases in human character which one might designate as kinks. Usually people pay little attention to them. What are some of these kinks? A crotchety attitude towards trifles; irritability when things are not done just the way we like; the making of comparisons, usually favorable to oneself and unfavorable to one's neighbors; dislike of being found fault with.
A kink is a sort of mental knot; and, like a knot in string, the longer it is there, the tighter it gets. There is another curious kink called "righteous indignation." Character kinks! Let us not be lenient with them; they are no part of our individuality.
At times our individuality may seem woefully far away, but it is not. On page 53 of "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy states, "The reality and individuality of man are good and God-made, and they are here to be seen and demonstrated: it is only the evil belief that renders them obscure." In true individuality there is no obscurity, no personal self-love. There is a love of real selfhood, a love so strong, so staunch, that it is not shaken by false evidence. Man, the reflection of Spirit, is never dis-spirited.
The Christian Scientist learns to
be calm in the face of fear, wise in the face of foolishness, firm in the face
of temptation. He rejoices in the truth of Paul's statement, "God shall
supply all your need according to his riches." He notes that supply is not
according to mortal poverty, but "according to his riches." With this
understanding of supply, all may follow the counsel of Nehemiah, "Go your
way, eat the fat and drink the sweet."
The testimony of spiritual sense is always clear and calm. "Spiritual discernment" and "spiritual understanding" are included in the definition of "eyes" and "ears" in the chapter "Glossary" in Science and Health (pp. 586, 585). The inspiration gained through these definitions has healed blindness and deafness, and countless cases diagnosed as defective sight and hearing. On page 258 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual man and of the infinite range of his thought."
I gained much inspiration from
this statement when a girl asked for treatment in Christian Science for
imperfect eyesight. The treatment began, and after a few days she reported that
she had, for the first time, been able to see certain objects on a table. Then
she saw a church which before had seemed beyond her range of vision. Soon she saw
the face of a clock in the church tower. And so the improvement went on until
she was healed. In the realm of infinite Mind, all ideas and objects are
spiritual and spiritually discerned. "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye,
the Lord hath made even both of them." Everywhere spiritual light is
shining.
This reminds me of an incident related at a Christian Science testimony meeting which I attended in the Middle West. A young man told us of the first time his consciousness was touched by the light of Christian Science. He said that one night some years ago, when he was lying sick and helpless in a hospital ward, longing for relief, the words "Christian Science" came to his thought. He was surprised, knowing nothing of the subject. As he lay there, pondering what might be the meaning of those two words, and their connection, they brought him hope and a measure of comfort. His interest and curiosity aroused, he took the first opportunity to study Christian Science, and said that it had been a practical blessing to him ever since that time when the light came to him in the night.
Human beings, curious about many things, are strangely in-curious when it comes to investigating spiritual facts. Yet when we reflect spiritual light, we cease our mental groping and see things aright.
Near the beginning of this lecture I told you about the woman who fell and injured her ankle, and of her recovery when she realized that divine Mind supports its ideas. This same thought can be applied when the human situation seems to be that one has to support himself and others through his earnings. In such a case there may be a haunting sense of responsibility and anxiety lest one should be unable to find steady, remunerative employment. Perhaps a vivid picture looms up of losing one's home or facing acute want. Fear also tempts the wage earner to believe that his prospects fluctuate according to general economic conditions.
Anxiety centers on the belief that intelligence, health, and strength are in the physical body and dependent upon it. This seems to be the human situation, but it is not a divine fact. Here is an illustration of this. A woman turned to Christian Science for the healing of very pronounced varicose veins. Some years previously a doctor had warned this woman that if she ever had much physical work to do there would be trouble. At that time she was prosperous. Later, as a widow with two children to support, she earned for the family through going out to do daily work. The work was heavy, and the medical prophecy came true. The practitioner told me she turned her thought away from the pitiful picture of death and starvation, to the fact of divine Love's provision for all creation. So clear was the realization that no idea of divine Mind could be starved, impoverished, or in any way handicapped, that the woman's fear was overcome. New confidence came to her, and as a result of this mental change, the healing of the varicose veins was prompt, and she was able to return to her work. There is no penalty for purposeful activity.
Often a person says, "I earn my own living." Yet God is Life. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Money and material food have not one iota of life in them. Whether or not he is aware of this fact, every individual is dependent upon the one Life, the one Mind, without which he could not express even a semblance of existence.
As one ceases to think of himself as only a self-supporting human being, and begins to understand that in his real being, as an idea of divine Mind, he is dependent upon this Mind for everything in the nature of support, fear diminishes, supply is manifested, and he builds on a foundation that never fails.
As, through the study of Christian Science, spiritual understanding develops, we discover that although to human sense we seem to be moving in the midst of things impermanent, we are companioning in thought with the eternal facts of spiritual being. We are not, then, moving on through old age to dissolution, but actually demonstrating life eternal.
Business being primarily a mental activity, Christian Science is a help to the business man. As his thoughts are governed by divine Principle, this establishes right motives and methods in the conduct of his business. Thus, in place of striving for success through merely competitive effort, he seeks for success through understanding that for all there is abundance. His business is likely to show financial profit when he acknowledges to himself that the only thing that is really profitable is spiritual profit, and values this profit above all other. The Christian Scientist's main motive in business should be to demonstrate the perfect action of divine Mind and its ideas, and the potency and precision of spiritual law. When considering the assets of his business, the Christian Scientist reminds himself that spiritual understanding is the asset on which he may draw with limitless confidence.
Thus primed, he resists the would-be contagion of impatience, agitation, despondency. While paying proper attention to the requirements of his business, there is, in this attention, no nervous tension. His vital and joyous incentive, here as elsewhere, is to express more of his spiritual individuality, and to behold, through the mask of personality, the individuality of others.
The prophet Joel writes, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." In every business the need of making decisions is constant. How does the Christian Scientist set about this? He acknowledges that in the one divine Mind there is no indecision and no wrong decision, and that every idea of divine Mind is conscious of the government and control of the one Mind.
Mrs. Eddy states (Science and Health, p. 187), "The divine Mind includes all action and volition, and man in Science is governed by this Mind." The only man there is, is God-governed; he expresses wisdom and order. Decisions arrived at on this basis and accompanied by right actions bless all concerned in a human situation on which Christian Science has thrown divine light.
The resolve to depend upon the faculties of divine Mind develops wisdom, initiative, spontaneity. Should there seem to be an inadequate demand for merchandise or uncertainty as to its distribution, one may realize that there is abundance in infinite Mind, there is nothing wasted, nothing superfluous, nothing obsolete or unwanted. Mind's provision and man's reflection are one. Man in God's likeness has all good by spiritual reflection, and nothing by merely personal possession. So no one really owns his business.
Sometimes a business man fears that his health may fail, owing to the demands of his business. But health is a manifestation of divine Love, which "never faileth." Health is forever included in man's consciousness. Whoever is mentally obedient and gives first place to the demands of divine Principle will be able to meet the demands of his business. He will also understand the basis on which the world's great need of unity, peace, and prosperity can be established.
Mary Baker Eddy has brought to humanity the revelation of real being. She had spiritual vision, moral courage, love for God, and love for humanity so great that, for the last forty-five years of her life on earth, she gave up everything to establish the Cause of Christian Science for the benefit of all the world.
The revelation of Christian Science is radical and revolutionary, hence its profound value. And because of this, Mrs. Eddy was subjected to persecution. Her exile was that of one whose spiritual vision ranged beyond that of her contemporaries, and this brought on modern persecution. Especially during the early years of her Discovery, she was exposed to the reproach of orthodox ministers, the hostility of physicians, and the derision of materialists in general. In "No and Yes" (p. 34) she writes, "Physical torture affords but a slight illustration of the pangs which come to one upon whom the world of sense falls with its leaden weight in the endeavor to crush out of a career its divine destiny." To this "world of sense" she brought the gift of gifts — spiritual healing. Gradually she won her way through persecution to recognition, from recognition to esteem, from esteem to the gratitude of countless thousands, who through Christian Science have been freed from physical and moral torments, and have had their feet set upon the Rock.
Earnestly pondering the life of Christ Jesus, she discerned the spirit of his words, and the spiritual law which explained his healing works.
In 1879, because the orthodox churches would not or could not understand this revelation of pure Christianity, she established the Christian Science Church. Through the various activities of the church organization, the healing power of Christ, Truth, is being widely demonstrated. In place of personal preaching, she instituted the Christian Science Bible Lessons, compiled from the Bible and from Science and Health. The twenty-six subjects selected by her for these Lesson-Sermons include several which are designed to open one's eyes to the fallacy of man-made creeds, and to reveal instead the healing and redeeming power of true Christian doctrine.
To Christian Scientists in this and every generation is entrusted the heavenly task of bringing to the world the evidence of full salvation. So is the prophecy of Isaiah, the seer, being fulfilled, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
Human reason rebels at the doctrine which asserts that sickness is a chastening experience imposed by God, and that men must bow before it. This view is not religion. It savors of what Jesus referred to as "Satan." To the woman "whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years," he said: "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity. . . . And immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." The human belief in matter and its supposed laws of sin and disease is "Satan." To every mystifying suggestion of the carnal mind, the alert Christian should say, as did Jesus to the temptations in the wilderness, "Get thee hence, Satan."
Jesus understood God, and with this understanding he healed men.
Physicians today usually agree that a patient's mental state is largely responsible for the physical condition which he is called upon to treat. Fear, for instance, is an element to every case of sickness, and fear is admittedly a mental condition, which cannot be changed by a change of diet, a change of climate, or a medical prescription. Some physicians recommend hypnotism when they see that their patient's mental state requires correction.
The so-called human mind cannot rectify its own condition. Hypnotism is unable to help a human being in any dilemma. In fact, it claims to deprive a person of his right to think for himself. Only the influence of divine Mind effaces the false mental pictures of both sin and disease.
Therefore, many a one is turning to Christian Science for the healing of disease, because everything else he has tried has failed him. He learns at once that Christian Science treatment cannot be mixed with material medicine. He also learns that when the pure light of Truth lays bear some phase of error, one must be honestly willing to let go of it, whether it seems pleasant or unpleasant, recent or remote.
In the revelation of real being, there is no dark dream of matter, sin, and suffering. "Awake thou that sleepest, . . . and Christ shall give thee light." Spiritual awakening is perfectly natural. Healing in Christian Science is simple, provable, satisfying.
The Christian Scientist looks with loving compassion on humanity's fears and sufferings. This compassion is not mere pity; because, whereas pity may kneel helplessly beside a sufferer, Love-illumined compassion raises him. This compassion is unafraid and mightily redemptive.
God's law provides for unsullied righteousness, unassailable health, everlasting joy. In eternal right there is no temporal wrong.
To behold the perfect man in place of the material sense evidence of a sick and sinful mortal is the way of true healing. Spiritual man knows only perfection. There is nothing else to know.
Often, in the working out of the great variety of human problems, including that of health, there is need for patience. Patience, as understood in Christian Science, is not passive endurance. It is persistent acknowledgment of the operation of spiritual law and its harmonious evidence. Christian Scientists are called upon to heal cases of sickness regarded as hereditary.
A friend of mine who expresses excellent health and is now healing others through Christian Science told me that several years ago she turned to this Science for her own healing. Her mother had for a long time been laid low with consumption, and she, the daughter, was at that time manifesting what are considered advanced symptoms of the same trouble. She had the help of a practitioner for a very short time, and then felt she could complete the healing through her own study of the Christian Science textbook. She told me that one day, when symptoms seemed alarming, the conviction of man's inheritance came to her very clearly. She saw that, God being the only creator, in reality her mother had nothing to give but what she had received from God, and that from God comes perfect health for all. So spiritually convinced was she of this truth that her healing was rapid, complete, permanent. Her mother, who knew nothing about Christian Science, was healed at the same time. True thinking heals. Spiritual conviction heals. Truth and spiritual conviction are ever present.
The following incident, which is not connected with Christian Science, illustrates the physical effects of fear.
There is a hospital record of a man who had been rambling in the countryside when he was bitten by a snake and taken to this hospital for the treatment of a venomous bite. Although every care was shown him, he was intensely fearful and got rapidly worse. It occurred to the hospital authorities to ask a naturalist, who specialized in the study of snakes in that locality, to come and examine the wound. He did so, and pronounced it the bite of a nonpoisonous snake. Immediately the man's fear vanished; the wound soon healed up, and he was discharged.
You may ask, Supposing the bite had been that of a poisonous snake, what then? The true answer from the standpoint of Christian Science would be that in the realm of the real there is no poison. Jesus said of his followers that they could "take up serpents," and that "if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." Now if the man in the hospital could be released from fear and its consequences by a simple human verdict, what cannot the all-liberating verdict of spiritual law do for a stricken human being? Truth's verdict is freedom, wholeness. Why not accept it?
In the Preface of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes (p. xi), "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation."
Health is the harmony of divine Mind, forever reflected in the consciousness of man. Health is inseparable from Life, God. Health is harmonious, substantial, law-governed, and unfolds forever. Health is one with Love and holiness. Health is in the realm of reality, untouched by the dream of materiality. Man is always health-conscious. He could no more lose his health than he could lose his God. Thank God for health, power, joy — one in man, as they are in God.
In these days of general upheaval, men are asking themselves: What next? When will it be our turn? It seems as though the picture of today were the one drawn centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah, "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter."
Christian Science shows us how to steer a straight mental course through the maze of sensational reports, vivid broadcasting, hypnotic propaganda, which attempt to distress and demoralize one. For all who have eyes to see beyond the horrors of modern warfare, there is already apparent the coming of greater security and greater unity than has ever been known in the history of nations. Truth is not fallen, and equity is entering in, though not yet universally, as it is destined to do.
There is no law for war, transient and recurring. There is a law for eternal peace, the peace of Spirit and spiritual understanding. Lawless war cannot prevail against lawful peace.
One of the signs of these times is that latent evils, long secret, have been brought to the surface. Concealment of evil aims and subtle propaganda is no longer possible. "There is no darkness, . . . where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves," we read in the book of Job. Primarily, "the workers of iniquity" are densely material motives, devoid of Principle or law, also, desire for material possession and fear of dispossession. Evil, humanity's common enemy, is being unmasked as deception, in accord with the prophecy found in the book of Revelation, "That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world . . . was cast out." The remedy for human domination is spiritual dominion. A more general desire for national and international cooperation for the good of all is appearing in the thoughts and plans of men, and underlying these commendable efforts is the spiritual and everlasting unity of good.
We hear much today regarding the military defense of this great country, and this vital question is being dealt with in practical ways. Yet national preparedness, in a military sense, necessary though it undoubtedly is, is no guarantee of right adjustment or permanent peace between nations.
Recurring wars are the objectification of human thinking, the worship of materiality. Actually, then, what constitutes defense? Monotheism, the recognition of one Mind, one Life, one divine Principle, all-encompassing. "The whole armour of God," to which Paul referred, is defense. It is "the breastplate of righteousness," unpierced by sin; "the shield of faith," invulnerable to doubt; "the sword of the Spirit, . . . the word of God," which heals. It is "the helmet of salvation," spiritual wholeness.
To the children of Israel, hesitant on the brink of the Red Sea, and with the host of Pharaoh in pursuit, came the command through Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." Today, each one of us is called to go forward to clearer vision, higher attainment; forward to fuller understanding and proof of the oneness of God and man.
Whoever preserves true peace in
his heart throughout the seeming vicissitudes of everyday life is a peacemaker
on earth. He cherishes in himself and shares with others, "the peace of
God, which passeth all understanding." This is a
precious contribution which each one of us can make to world peace.
In the book of Revelation it is written, "There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." "Silence in heaven!" This is not a critical, disapproving, aloof, cold silence. It is a healing silence, the silence of true thinking, true loving, true being. Silent true witnessing in Christian Science brings comfort to those who are anxious about their health, their income, their children, and are uneasy in regard to the larger question of the world's present upheaval and its bearings on individuals all over the world. What comes to the ear of the true listener? The conviction that there is in reality no sick, sinful, oppressed humanity, no wicked world. There is only heaven, harmony, everywhere. Through silent realization of the very presence of Love, purity, and health, the sick are healed.
In the silence of true witnessing, we are in the sanctuary of prayer. In this spiritual sanctuary, the voice of God is heard, and conflict is hushed. In the sanctuary of prayer, obedience is found, confidence is felt, Love is reflected.
True prayer is the reflection of God, inspired by the First Commandment, of which Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 340): "The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."
[Delivered Oct. 13, 1940, at Central High School Auditorium, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Kalamazoo, and published in The Ostego Union of Ostego, Michigan, Oct. 17, 1940. The experience of the healing of a woman's ankle is not related toward the beginning of the lecture in this report, as the lecturer states, nor is it related in a newspaper report of the lecture given on another occasion. This leads one to suspect that, in preparing the copy to give to all newspapers, someone shortened the text and omitted the healing, without realizing that it was referred to later in the lecture.]