J. Hamilton Lewis, C.S. of
Concord, New Hampshire
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:
Throughout the ages mankind has sought security and peace. Many have sought in vain until the advent of Christian Science, which has given thousands upon thousands the peace and security that is rightfully theirs.
How can we gain this security and peace?
People all over the world are demonstrating in their daily lives that a spiritual understanding of God and of man as His perfect reflection is bringing them a peace and security never before experienced. This has been done through the correct application of the teachings of Christian Science.
When I was a youngster, I was placed on a farm for the vacation periods. In the farmhouse there was a room used only for funerals, weddings, and to receive the minister when he called. One approached the parlor door and turned the doorknob with great reverence, for this room was reserved for God's use. I was told that God was always looking at me and recording every naughty thing I did, and that this record would be used to pass judgment on me. It was impressed upon me that the deity residing in that room was not to be disturbed, and so I always tiptoed past the closed parlor door.
I often wondered how the deity in that room could judge all other little boys in the world, and I came to believe that somehow God was many persons, residing in many places.
This material concept of God is held by many, and it can bring no sense of security or peace. A corporeal sense of God is inevitably unreliable and limited.
Through the Bible we find references to God as Life, Truth, and Love. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, not only acknowledges these synonyms for God, but gives us several additional ones. In answer to her question, "What is God?" found on page 465 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she states: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love."
Let us take just one of these words which has the same meaning in Christian Science as God, such as Mind, written with a capital M. Now, divine Mind is not merely a great human mind, but Spirit — pure Mind, without a single element of materiality. Mrs. Eddy gives us this definition (Science and Health, p. 591): "Mind. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined." As this definition is carefully and prayerfully studied and accepted, one finds spiritual enlightenment and experiences healing, thus gaining a sense of security and peace.
When we recognize that there is but one God, divine Mind, governing the universe of His own creating, the false belief of many finite or limited minds fades from consciousness. Mrs. Eddy states (Science and Health, p. 469): "There can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, sin would be unknown." This profound statement shows clearly that there are two fundamental steps to be taken when we turn wholeheartedly to Christian Science for healing. We need to claim only one Mind, or God, and we need to accept that fact in order to discover that sin has no reality. In this way we gain the God-governed peace and security, which the man of God's creating actually is forever experiencing. We gain this security and peace as we claim and accept and understand the one God and man's true relationship to Him.
In the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, it is stated that God saw everything that He had made and He pronounced all that He had made "very good." Christian Science teaches us that God was completely satisfied with what He had created. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 519), "Deity was satisfied with His work." Then she poses the question: "How could He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self-containment and immortal wisdom?"
The truth is that God, good, made everything that was made. God, being Mind, must express Himself. In Science and Health we read (p. 310), "God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all." Since Mind expresses all, man is the expression of God and so exists in Mind alone as its spiritual idea. Then man can only experience the harmony, joy, peace, and security that is conferred by divine Mind.
Christian Science teaches us to firmly claim our position of dominion as stated in Genesis (1:26): "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion." As we steadfastly claim the eternal fact of man's dominion, we must just as firmly accept, and understand, the dominant position of supremacy which God already has given His children. This dominant position of supremacy is proved in individual experience when we understand that God is Love, Life, Mind, and claim that man is His image and likeness.
Through this understanding, each of us can wipe out of our experience the hate, prejudice, and resentment and other false beliefs which are holding the world in bondage. Only as these beliefs are destroyed and harmony experienced individually, can peace and security be established in the world.
Let me tell you how peace and security replaced unhappiness and insecurity in the business and home life of a young man of my acquaintance. He went to the home of a Christian Science practitioner to do some minor repair work. In conversation he told the practitioner that two days previously, as he lay on the floor of the workshop where he had fallen, he heard a physician state that he would never be able to work again.
He said that he had no one to blame but himself for his condition, as he had drifted away from Christian Science after leaving the Christian Science Sunday School. He was filled with fear and anxiety over the condition of his business and over unhappy home relationships.
"You couldn't possibly drift away from God," the practitioner said, "for God is all-power and all-presence, and man is the perfect idea of God, good. You can't leave God, because God's love, power, and presence fill all space, for He is All."
"Never left God," the young man said thoughtfully. "Never left God! Of course I couldn't possibly leave the all-presence of God's infinite love!"
This simple statement of truth was claimed by him, and not only did he assert the truth but he accepted and understood this truth. He arose to his feet and exclaimed, "I am healed! The pain is all gone, and my heart feels normal."
A year later it was necessary for him to be examined by the same physician for insurance purposes. The doctor, after giving him a particularly thorough examination, pronounced the heart to be normal in every way. This young man had proved that after claiming the truth of God and man he needed to accept what he had claimed, in order to experience the healing power of God, Mind, manifesting Himself and establishing a sense of security and peace.
He then asked the practitioner for Christian Science treatment, or prayer, to help him overcome the tobacco and alcoholic habits, which had caused him and his family much unhappiness. It was pointed out that Christian Science reveals that God is Love, and no matter what the illusion seems to be, man is never beyond God's tender love. Love removes enslaving desires and the blackness of remorse and self-condemnation from individual thought. The understanding of God as the only Mind and the source of all being destroys the claim of the carnal or mortal mind, which seeks peace and satisfaction through stupefaction. The practitioner told him that man as God's likeness includes all right ideas and such qualities as strength, intelligence, loveliness, purity, and that God maintains His creation in absolute perfection.
In Christian Science we learn that man cannot be robbed or cheated of his God-given heritage of security and peace. He cannot be mesmerized into believing that he can be imposed upon by an enslaving appetite, for such an appetite is a false mortal claim about man. Christian Science shows that the knowledge of man as forever enfolded in God's love wipes out the sense of insecurity in human affairs.
The realization that man is not fighting himself, and that he is never touched by the beliefs of the carnal or mortal mind and the testimony of the five physical senses, eliminates self-condemnation. The practitioner explained that man's real identity is God's own image and likeness, forever intact. He affirmed the fact that true knowing destroys false desires, for it destroys the belief in a mortal mind which claims to produce these desires.
The young man sat thoughtfully throughout this audible Christian Science treatment or prayer. He began to feel a sense of quietness and peace such as he had not known for many years. In the ensuing weeks, as he claimed the truths presented to him in the treatment, and accepted them, he found himself free from the enslaving beliefs, and this freedom has been maintained.
These healings of heart trouble, alcoholism, and the smoking habit took place several years ago. The young man has lived a very active and useful life in the subsequent years. He saw that he must have a better understanding of Christian Science and earnestly began to study the Bible and Science and Health. He found that as his study and understanding progressed, his business improved. Life in his home became harmonious, and fear and anxiety were replaced by security and peace.
This young man established the practice of visiting a Christian Science Reading Room for quiet study and prayer. He made a point of going in sometime during the day to study the Lesson-Sermon, which may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. Through the study of six sections consisting of quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible and from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, he gained a well-rounded explanation of the subject for each week.
Christian Scientists find it helpful to study the Lesson-Sermons daily. They then go to church on Sunday to hear two Readers, elected from church membership, read the same Lesson-Sermon which has been studied during the week. Christian Scientists are thus familiar with the Sermon wherever they may be, for the same Lesson-Sermon is read in The Mother Church in Boston and in all its branch churches throughout the world.
People in all walks of life who visit a Christian Science Reading Room find it a quiet haven for prayer and study. The study of the Lesson-Sermon clarifies thought, destroys fears, and answers questions regarding the perplexities of the day. Thorough study of the Lesson-Sermon results in a spiritual understanding of God and of the universe including man as His perfect expression, complete and whole. This understanding applied in daily living establishes peace and security. You, my friends, are lovingly invited to use your nearest Reading Room.
If you were given some wonderful gift that brought you a peace and security you had never before experienced, wouldn't you have unbounded gratitude for the giver?
Many thousands feel gratitude for the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, for she has given to the world the "Key to the Scriptures" in the textbook, "Science and Health." This book illumines the pages of the Bible and brings out their spiritual significance.
In the year 1866, Mrs. Eddy fell on an icy street in Lynn, Massachusetts, and was so badly injured that she was not expected to live. From her early years she had been an earnest student of the Bible. It was natural for her, in this extremity, to turn to her Bible for comfort. She opened to the chapter in Matthew (9:2) that gives an account of Jesus' healing of the palsied man. As she read, her thought was so enlightened that she saw this healing as a natural result of the application of a rule of Principle, God. She realized, as she never had before, that Life in and of Spirit is the only reality of existence.
She arose from her bed, dressed herself, and went into the parlor, where her friends and the minister were awaiting her death. They were astonished to find her greatly improved, and she tells us that after that she experienced better health than before the fall on the ice.
From that day on, Mrs. Eddy searched the Bible with the sole purpose of discovering the rules by which Christ Jesus did his marvelous healing work. She says in her autobiography that the Bible was her only textbook.
To many millions of people throughout the centuries, the Bible has been the most important book ever written. It records the history of a people in their search for God. It points the way to the salvation which includes freedom from all that encumbers human experience, and conveys to its readers the spiritual comfort and assurance of good for which humanity longs.
The books comprising the Bible were written over a period of more than a thousand years by numerous authors. Yet, the Bible maintains a unity throughout its entire length. Most of the books were written in a small country called Palestine, which is about the size of New Hampshire. Yet the influence of the ideas contained in the Bible has gone far beyond the borders of that country to the remotest bounds of the earth, and this influence is steadily growing.
The Old Testament records many healings of sin and of sickness brought about through the understanding of the Messiah or Christ, God's spiritual, eternal nature.
The New Testament includes a record of the life and teachings of Christ Jesus, whose words and works have changed human thought to a greater degree than has any other individual who has lived on this planet. The New Testament is full of accounts of healings of sin and sickness by the Master and many of his followers, through their understanding of God.
The Bible became illumined to Mrs. Eddy, and she saw the spiritual import of the ideas contained therein. She realized that it answers the most searching, the most important questions of mankind. It satisfies the earnest longings in its assurance that God is ever present and all-power. It brings to those who understand its message the peace and security that belong to the sons of God. As Mrs. Eddy searched the Scriptures, she saw that there was an underlying Science to Christ Jesus' teachings, which can be demonstrated today, just as in his time. She was inspired of God to discover this Science and make it available to all mankind and to present it in such a way that it could be understood and demonstrated.
Let me give you an example of how the inspired Word of the Bible is illumined by the understanding of Christian Science. In Proverbs we read (2:11,12): "Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things." In Science and Health we find (p. 227): "Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to foresee the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free." Further she says: "All men should be free. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.'"
Now, the understanding which preserves us from all enslaving beliefs is surely based on the great fact that since God is Spirit, therefore man, His spiritual idea, can only express spiritual freedom. This liberating thought helps you and me to establish peace and security in the world.
Mrs. Eddy labored for freedom for all mankind. All her life she worked for world peace through her writings and teachings. Her views were sought by many. In 1905, at the conclusion of the Japanese-Russian War, the editor of the Boston Globe sent telegrams to representative citizens requesting a sentiment on some phase of the subject. Mrs. Eddy replied to this request, in part (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 282): "Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, nations are helped onward towards justice, righteousness, and peace, which are the landmarks of prosperity. In order to apprehend more, we must practice what we already know of the Golden Rule, which is to all mankind a light emitting light."
For nine years following her healing, Mrs. Eddy studied and prayed to prove each statement that went into the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," before the volume was printed. She felt that a book presenting mere statement without proof was not enough. Many thousands of well-authenticated healings have been recorded since her book was published in 1875. In the last chapter, entitled "Fruitage," are found carefully verified accounts of healings of all kinds, which brought the testifiers peace and security.
Mrs. Eddy is known as both the Discoverer and the Founder of Christian Science. Each of these titles is significant. To refer to Mrs. Eddy as Discoverer points to the fact that Christian Science is the discovery of God's law, or the truth which has always existed, and which, indeed, will always exist. Jesus prophesied the revelation of Christian Science when he said, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (John 14:16). The Comforter is the Science of Christianity, which heals and regenerates. The revelation of the Comforter, Mrs. Eddy named Christian Science.
She is called the Founder, which refers to her establishment of the Christian Science organization. She labored unselfishly for years to establish the Christian Science church with its branches and activities, which now encircle the globe in their healing ministry.
While Mrs. Eddy resided in Concord, New Hampshire, just a few miles from her birthplace in Bow, many very important steps were taken in the development of her plans for the Christian Science movement. Her final revision of Science and Health was made in Concord. The revelation of Christian Science as given us by Mary Baker Eddy is complete. It is the final revelation of the truth concerning God, Spirit, and His perfect spiritual creation. Most of the By-Laws in the Manual of The Mother Church, which provides the rules governing the organization, were written during Mrs. Eddy's long period of residence in Concord.
A beautiful full-length portrait of Mrs. Eddy hangs in a conspicuous place in the State House in Concord. The people of New Hampshire are very proud of this portrait, and there are increasing evidences of respect accorded the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science in her native state.
The discovery of Christian Science, and its firm establishment by Mrs. Eddy, has brought freedom from enslaving beliefs concerning health and happiness to millions of people. Through the teachings of Christian Science the world has been given the knowledge of how to use divine power for good in meeting its paramount need for peace and security.
Christ Jesus demonstrated the truth concerning God and man made in His image and likeness. He showed how mankind can establish and maintain peace and security. He did this not only for himself but to help all men and told us, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" (John 14:12).
Jesus healed the sick, reformed the sinner, raised the dead, stilled the tempest. He showed the way to the healing of the political and social ills of society, he fed the multitudes, cured racial problems, healed prejudice and hate, solved economic problems. Jesus demonstrated the Christ in his daily living, thus bringing peace and security to himself and others, and he left his example for all mankind. This was accomplished through his understanding of God and His Christ, Truth. He was able to overcome material law through the application of spiritual law, based on divine Principle, God.
His understanding of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man made it possible for Christ Jesus to bring to the world the assurance of peace and security for all mankind. Hear his promise: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
Jesus early became conscious of God's presence and power. He said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19). And he said, "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:30). He recognized God as the source of all power and gave to Him the glory in all that he did. This eliminated all sense of selfishness from Jesus' thought and explained the success of his healing ministry.
Jesus taught and demonstrated his understanding of spiritual law so clearly that the Christ, Truth, man's pure, Godlike selfhood, was apparent to his disciples, who called him Jesus the Christ, or Christ Jesus. This Truth, or Christ, enabled him to do all his wonderful works.
Jesus promised the coming of another Comforter sent of God, and according to St. John's account in the Bible, this "Spirit of truth" was to abide forever. This Comforter, which is Christian Science, cannot be materially perceived or received. It can be understood only through spiritually enlightened consciousness.
As this spiritually enlightened consciousness is acknowledged and demonstrated, we shall all experience the universal peace foretold at the birth of Jesus as follows: "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:13,14).
The Comforter is eternal and ever present and is available here and now to help us to emulate the works of the Master. Indeed, it is here and now being demonstrated in Christian Science and is bringing peace and security to the individual and to the world.
Through understanding prayer we demonstrate peace and security in daily living. Christian Scientists do not petition God to make something available to them which they might not have unless they particularly asked Him for it. True prayer is never a petition for material things or power, or a request asking God to do what He has not already done.
In Christian Science, prayer is based on the understanding of the allness of God, Mind, and the perfection of man as reflecting the divine nature. True prayer is spiritual understanding, which brings our thinking into accord with the eternal fact of perfect God, Spirit, and perfect man as His image and likeness.
Mrs. Eddy says, "Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good" (No and Yes, p. 39). True prayer affirms God's infinite goodness and man experiencing that goodness. The desire for spiritual understanding and growth in grace leads to spiritual communion with God, to a realization of God's presence, and to the recognition of the unity of God and man. Through spiritual communion thought is lifted above matter and all material suggestions and recognizes man as the living, spiritual idea of divine Love.
The Lord's Prayer, which Christ Jesus taught his disciples, is based on the understanding of God as Principle. Principle, being the source of divine law, can only operate on a fixed and firm basis. True and effective prayer is not based on faith but on demonstration of the law of God.
Mrs. Eddy has given in Science and Health the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, the prayer of prayers. As we attain the spiritual consciousness indicated in the Lord's Prayer we see ourselves and all our loved ones enfolded in God's love, dwelling in His kingdom now. Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of "Thy kingdom come" is (Science and Health, p. 16), "Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present." And the last sentence of the prayer, "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever," spiritually interpreted reads (ibid., p. 17), "For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All."
The understanding and demonstration that man is governed by God is mankind's salvation. Salvation is knowing and proving man's oneness with God, daily and hourly, not sometime in the future. We experience salvation as we turn away from the false concept of man as mortal and material and realize that the only existence man has or has ever had is in God. This understanding brings the sunlight of peace and security to you and to me.
The recognition of the oneness, or unity, of God and man through effective prayer so illumined the thought of a young man, who had served his country in World War II, that he was healed of a broken back.
In attempting to reach his home after an evening engagement, he traveled well into the night and was involved in a serious automobile accident which completely demolished the car. He was unable to extricate himself from the wreck. Shortly, however, police arrived and aided him in getting out. He fell into unconsciousness when he tried to walk, and awakened in an ambulance. He asked not to be taken to a hospital, as he was a Christian Scientist and wished to work out this problem relying solely on Christian Science. However, the attendants insisted on taking him there. The X-rays showed a fractured back.
The young man insisted upon reliance on Christian Science, and a hospital attendant kindly called a Christian Science practitioner for him. He asked the practitioner to pray for the young man. The man's wife was also called. She at once called the same practitioner, who agreed to continue on the case provided the young man was removed from the hospital. A few hours later the wife arrived at the hospital, having borrowed a station wagon, which she had equipped with a mattress and blankets. The hospital authorities expressed great fear and concern over further transportation. They stated that to move the man might produce a complete fracture, which would result in severing the spinal cord.
The wife, sustained by the prayer of the practitioner, was enabled confidently to maintain her stand, and she quietly insisted that her husband be released from the hospital at once. After some delay, she was asked to sign papers releasing the hospital from all responsibility. The young man was tenderly placed in the station wagon by the hospital attendants. The sixty-mile drive home was then commenced. During this time, the practitioner was constantly and consistently supporting them both. The husband and wife sang hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, rejoicing in God's goodness and knowing that man as God's perfect child is not subject to any law of accident or destruction.
The practitioner told the young man that he would find healing as he examined his thoughts and rooted out false beliefs. He was reminded of Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 379): "The Christian Scientist finds only effects, where the ordinary physician looks for causes. The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind."
The practitioner had discerned through prayer that the young man was nursing a deep-seated resentment because of being separated from his family during his years of military service. He was deeply irritated at what he felt was the stupidity of warfare. He was told that the only warfare going on for him at this time was in his own thinking.
It was pointed out that he was helping to build a better world as he saw the unreality of the discordant evidence presented to human thought. As he became conscious only of man's perfect being, reflecting Life and Love, he would have a better concept of the brotherhood of man. He would then be fulfilling the Scripture, "Love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt. 19:19).
He began to see that in the oneness of Mind man is not divided into races, nationalities, creeds, or social strata. He saw that Mind holds within itself no discordant element, no possibility of division, misunderstanding, no strife. He learned that these belong to the human, material belief of existence, not to the reality of spiritual being.
He was asked to memorize a statement made by Mrs. Eddy. It is (Science and Health, p. 340): "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."
As he claimed and accepted this truth, he found all resentment over the "lost years" leaving his thought. As he was freed from making a reality of the carnal or mortal belief of warfare, he found a peace and security which lifted him above thoughts of mortal conflict.
In less than a week he was walking about his house, and in a month he was back at his work. The following summer he took part in many outdoor activities, including mountain climbing which required the carrying of a heavy pack. This healing took place several years ago, and since then the young man has led a very active and strenuous life as a business executive.
The teachings of Christian Science are for the healing of the nations as well as for the healing of the individual. By rejecting the falsity of mortal mind claims and realizing the truth of God, and man in His likeness, the Christian Scientist proves disease and other discords to be nothing. They disappear, and the evidence of harmonious being appears. Healing has come in this way to millions of people. Christian Science has proved effective in the adjustment of human relationships involving both small and large groups.
A Christian Scientist demonstrates every step of the way that he is under the government of God alone. The hatred, dullness, and ignorance of mankind do not stay his progress in demonstrating the ever-present government of God. He experiences this government and helps those around him to experience it as he consistently recognizes the presence and power of divine Principle.
We often hear people say, "I know that conditions in the world are awful, but what can I do about it?" They can pray effectively for world peace. The Apostle James writes, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).
The Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 4) gives us a beautiful prayer which Mrs. Eddy requests Christian Scientists to use each day. Mark her words: "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: 'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!"
God's kingdom, of course, is come. We experience this reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love as we accept God's government and live according to the teachings of Christian Science. Certainly, God's law governs His universe, and this includes man. There can be no human will expressed in God's government, since the law is the expression of God's will.
Discordant conditions are healed as we recognize that there are not finite minds governing the world, but one Mind, God, governing the universe of His own creating and controlling human affairs through His unerring laws.
Much is being said by eminent men and women today about how to build a better world. Indeed, these people are dedicating their efforts to the realization of security and peace for mankind. It is gratifying to find more and more people in all walks of life — in government, business, industry, religion, research and education — stressing the spiritual as necessary to peace and security. This better world is already coming into being.
Our contribution to a better world is expressed by our righteous thinking. It is certainly logical to state that this world will be no better than the thinking of the individuals who inhabit it. Fear, discouragement, and frustration are destructive to achievement, individually and collectively. If we are fearful for the future of mankind because of the destructiveness of the hydrogen bomb, we are not strengthening the cause of peace and security. As we recognize and accept God's love and power as one and all, fear is destroyed.
Our beloved Master, Christ Jesus, based all spiritual progress on love for God and man. Hear his stirring words as given in Matthew (22:37-40): "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
When you love God, you love good, and as you love good, you will be good. As you do good, you will see good evidenced in your business, in your home, in your attitude toward your community, your country, and as far as your mental horizon reaches.
As you learn the meaning of honesty and integrity, and live them, you are building a better world. Each one of us knows that there can be no compromise with popular practices no matter how attractive and persuasive the billboards, radio, television, and some of the newspapers and magazines appear to make them. There is no safety, peace, or security in wrongdoing.
When we are living and demonstrating the moral and spiritual power and the courage that are necessary to the exposing and destruction of corruption and vice in government, we are helping to build a better world.
The spiritual incentive starts with the realization by the individual that man is one with God, and man can only be the expression of God. God is Love, and so man is expressing love, friendliness, tenderness, patience, joy. We experience these qualities as we understand man's oneness with the Father and love Him and His beloved children. Then we are loving our neighbor as ourselves.
As you learn to mentally embrace your neighbor in your thoughts or prayer, and that means to be righteously concerned in his happiness and well-being, you will find that the brotherhood of man is taking shape in the brotherhood of nations. This spiritual consciousness brings security and peace to all.
The reality, dignity, and greatness of man as the son of God come clearly to us individually and collectively as we claim our oneness with our Father-Mother God. Discerning the activity of Christ, Truth, in the affairs of men, individually and collectively, you and I become aware, now, that man's sonship with God has appeared through the advent of Christian Science. The great and glorious facts of spiritual creation accepted and demonstrated will build better governments, better business, better labor conditions, and a better society on earth. Thus we hasten the approach of world peace and security.
Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 96): "This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth." Truth is being demonstrated today through Christian Science, and this demonstration will result in universal peace and security.
In conclusion let me read to you a verse from a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (p. 136):
I climb, with joy, the heights of Mind,
To soar o'er time and space;
I yet shall know as I am known
And see Thee face to face.
Till time and space and fear are naught
My quest shall never cease,
Thy presence ever goes with me
And Thou dost give me
peace.
[Probably delivered circa
1958-1961.]