Margaret Morrison, C.S., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
A lecture on Christian Science was given under the auspices of Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Chicago, in the church edifice, Michigan Avenue and 44th Street, Tuesday evening, February 8, by Miss Margaret Morrison, C.S., of Chicago, member of the Board of lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
The subject of the lecture was "Christian Science Reveals the Unity of God and Man." Miss Morrison spoke substantially as follows:
No other subject has so agitated or so occupied the thoughts of mankind as has the question of the origin of man and the universe. Where and how did things begin?
Believing that the great First Cause is unknowable or as yet unknown, the human mind confines its reasoning to secondary causes in the realm of the material senses. The testimony or phenomena of these senses always has been and must continue to be an enigma. Mythical in their nature, based on a suppositional premise, having no origin in Mind — in reality — the senses exist only in the realm of supposition; the supposition that life is evolved from non-intelligence, that matter exists as the effect of its opposite, Mind.
One reads with interest of a group of scholarly men spending months in the jungle studying anthropoid apes, hoping to find the "missing link" that would prove man's development from those apes, the belief being that they are man's immediate ancestors.
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 497), has given the first religious tenet of Christian Science as follows: "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life." The question may be asked: Why, in this age of great physical research, so-called science and discovery, did Mrs. Eddy turn to the Bible for a knowledge of the source of life? She did so because her keen insight, her spiritual vision, enabled her to pierce the veil of material supposition and see God as Jesus saw Him and declared Him to be — Spirit. She knew, as did Jesus, that "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." She saw that non-intelligent matter, regardless of how finely organized it may seem to be, can never evolve intelligence and that intelligence cannot produce non-intelligence or matter. Mrs. Eddy brought to her study of the Bible not only this spiritual vision, unparalleled since Jesus the Christ, but also a keen and cultivated intellect. She saw that we must look away from physics to metaphysics to find an intelligent source of existence. In physics is found only an enigmatical, false, limited sense of life, inevitably ending in death, and so it was to divine metaphysics, that which is above physics, that Mrs. Eddy looked for true causation.
The Bible gives us the clearest exposition of divine metaphysics which we have, culminating in the life of Christ Jesus, who exemplified eternal life and taught the manner of its attainment, and who said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life." Through her consecrated study and searching of the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy was enabled to recognize that "all causation is Mind, acting through spiritual law" (Science and Health, p. 417).
She then set about to demonstrate this law, and saw it heal, through her understanding, all manner of sickness and disease, all manner of sin, sorrow, and distress. She thus became the Discoverer of Christian Science. This, however, was but part of her work. There remained for her the great task of elucidating her discovery for mankind and establishing the means of protecting its dissemination among the nations of the world. This arduous self-abnegating task began with the writing of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the reading of which has brought healing to innumerable persons in all parts of the globe. Then followed the establishment of that world-wide organization known as The Church of Christ, Scientist, with all its wide activities. Thus she became not only the Discoverer but also the Founder of Christian Science, that Science which stands revealed the great emancipator of the world from the beliefs of ignorance, superstition, sin, disease, and death.
Christian Science, then, would
have us know that man did not begin with Adam or anthropoidal apes, but with
Mind, supreme intelligence, God. Before Adam was, man is, and his immediate
ancestry is in Spirit, in the purity, strength, and beauty of intelligence, an
emanation of that Mind which Christian Science defines as the great "I AM.
God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine Principle; the only Ego"
(Science and Health, p. 588).
As we thus turn to the Bible as our guide, we find that in the light of Christian Science the old familiar record of creation, as given in the first chapter of Genesis, becomes illumined, vitalized. It springs into pure glory, revealing infinite possibilities of freedom, power, beauty, and goodness. Of prime importance are the first three words of that spiritual record: "In the beginning." If we believe the evident absurdity that causation was at one time nonexistent and had to have a cause to cause it to be or a beginning, we will be forever confronted with the unanswerable question, What caused causation, and we will be going back into the vague nothingness of the past to find an origin from which to attain unto something. My father had a father, his father had a father — and so on through all the myths, legends, and genealogies of the ages.
Let us turn from this untenable position, and accept the dictionary definition of beginning as "principle" and Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of the word as "the only" (Science and Health, p. 502). This enables us to find the origin of all being in omnipresent Mind or Principle, without beginning or ending. Every moment is "in the beginning" for us, or in "the only." Every moment is a new beginning, a new opportunity to discover new truths about our origin and true being — an opportunity to redeem the past; to waken from the dream of mortal, material history and to know that in reality evil has no history.
Each day we can reckon ourselves anew, learn to know our true self-hood anew, as coexistent with God, an eternal expression of infinite Life, timeless Principle, individual and indestructible.
One of the first recorded efforts
to discover the origin of man in matter is the allegorical description of
creation in the second chapter of Genesis, where man is supposed to have been
made from the dust of the ground, and his life, in some mysterious way, to have
been injected into this dust, giving him a personal life or soul of his own,
imprisoned in matter, subject to the laws and elements of matter; a body of his
own over which he seems to have little or no control. This mythical record of
creation, which has been the basis of theological teaching, presents to us a
sense of mind or life separated from that which it desires or considers
necessary for its own expression, maintenance, and satisfaction, separated from
its origin — in other words, an effect separated from its cause. So there is in
that so-called mind a perpetual striving to obtain something it believes it has
not, and that it must find outside of itself. Mortals, the suppositional
creation of this belief of life
in matter, are, consequently, in the state of being perpetually unsatisfied.
Believing good to be in matter and dependent on matter, they believe they can
be and are separated from their good and that they must in some way get that
good. When they have once attained what they believe to be their good, there
ensues the struggle to keep it because innumerable things may happen to rob
them of it. It is this belief in separation from good that is the suppositional
basis of every evil that mortals seem to experience, that makes life appear to
be a thing of uncertainty and struggle, rather than what it really is, a
certainty of good and radiant joy.
Turning again to the inspired word of true origin or spiritual being, we are able to see the indivisibility of God or Mind and the consequent unity of Mind and its creation. We find ourselves dealing, not with a so-called mind that is searching for Truth outside itself, but with the Mind that is Truth, self-causative and self-sustained. Divine Mind being thus infinite and self-contained must and does contain within itself its entire creation. No least idea could be outside of its conscious care and government. Each idea must be one with the Mind that evolves it, in origin, nature, and activity. A spiritual idea cannot be changed into a material object, and so be separated from its source.
As mathematics is the most exact thing known to the human mind, it is often used to illustrate divine facts, so we may use the science of numbers to exemplify unity as it exists between Principle and its creation, God and man. One cannot think of the principle of numbers as possible of existence or operation, lacking a single number. Mathematics would be useless, in fact, would cease to be, without a seven or three or eight or any least integer. The whole system of numbers would collapse were one least number missing. In the same way, any least number would be useless, inconceivable, separated from its principle and its relationship to every other number. Can you think of seven existing and being operative by itself? While each number is individual, its very individuality depends on its principle and its relationship to every other number. Working within this principle of mathematics all is harmony. It is only when, through ignorance, one works outside of or in disobedience to the rules of mathematics that one gets into difficulties with his sums. So within the Principle of Life or God, all is harmony. It is only when, through ignorance or self-will, one works contrary or in disobedience to the law of Love that one gets into difficulties with his living. This may help us to understand Mrs. Eddy's definition in the Glossary of the textbook of "I" or "Ego," a part of which reads, "There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle" (Science and Health, p. 588).
As in the realm of mathematics there cannot be an isolated number, so in the realm of spiritual reality there cannot be an isolated idea. As no number can interfere with another or deprive it of its rightful place and activity, so no individual idea of God can possibly interfere with or deprive another of his rightful place, activity, and abundant good. As good is infinite, there is always enough for all. Will not an understanding of this truth heal all envy and jealousy, correct misunderstandings, and establish harmony between nations as well as individuals?
As man, then, is one with, inseparable from, that Mind which is the creative Principle of his being, man finds every good thing, everything that relates to his well-being in that Mind, in the truth of his own being. It is to Mind he turns to find the pure substance and reality of all good. Where, then, can health be found but in Mind, where wealth but in Mind, where life itself but in Mind?
Jesus said, "I and my Father are one," and as a correlative, Mrs. Eddy says, "Man is the expression of God's being" (Science and Health, p. 470).
Let us consider what may be the
nature of God's expression of Himself. Is it not inconceivable, nay, is it not
blasphemous to think that God could or would express Himself in evil, sin,
sickness, old age, poverty, disease, or death? Yet is not this the inconsistent
teaching of false theology, when it declares man to be the image and likeness
of God, and then finds in man the expression of all evil tendencies,
limitations, and passions? Is it not also the inconsistent reasoning of
physical or material science that finds in causation the elements of its own
destruction? Is it not clear, then, that man, the expression of God's being,
must continuously be expressing that which is God-like? His inseparability from
God forever separates him from all the evils that seem to result from the
ignorant false beliefs and superstitions of that carnal mind which is opposed
to God.
Because of this belief in separation from God we have one of the greatest of all human ills, fear. Because they believe these things outside of their own consciousness and control, mortals fear they may be separated from health, wealth, companionship, home, happiness, life itself. They fear either their inability to get the good they desire, or having attained it, that they may in some way lose it; and so there is too often the greed of getting and keeping rather than the grace of giving and sharing. One of the most immediate blessings that come from the realization of our at-one-ment with God, the source and substance of all good, is a lessening of fear.
Fear of sickness and disease will lessen because one does not, one cannot, think of God as being sick, and so thinking truly of himself as the expression of God one cannot think of himself as sick without denying God. Surely it is the conceit of mortal mind that says, "Oh, yes, of course, God cannot be sick, but I can be and am." To many of us, who have been educated in false theology, it may seem presumptuous to claim that one's self is the expression of God's being, and so it would be if we were claiming that for the creation of mortality, for a mortal; but finding our origin in Principle, we see that it is impossible for the expression of a perfect Principle to be less than perfect. We find that man cannot be the expression of holiness or wholeness, of purity and righteousness or exactness and at the same time be sick. So fear of sickness is lessened, and ultimately will be entirely overcome.
Fear of lack will lessen because man cannot be the expression of infinite goodness, the beloved of Love, and at the same time lack any good thing. This truth is especially helpful in relation to one's business. Strictly speaking, a human being is not "in business." Business is an activity in his consciousness, and it is governed by that of which he is conscious. One's business will, therefore, show forth what governs him, whether it is limitation, fear, greed, a mere desire to make money, or whether it is courage, honesty, alertness, wise zeal, and a righteous desire to serve. The mental nature of business shows that it is not primarily outward conditions that need to be watched, — stocks, markets, prices, etc. — but first and always one's state of consciousness, which determines one's thinking and acting. In the light of this understanding it is seen that no business is basically supported by money or carried on by money. It is carried on by right ideas, supported by Mind. Men may believe that money only is needed, and that, lacking money, they are separated from that which is necessary to the support and success of their business. This material belief it is, and not the actual lack of money, which causes fear, worry, and despair. In such a case, Mind, God, is believed either to be absent or unable to aid, and this state of thinking causes the business to collapse.
In innumerable instances the light of Christian Science has brought to such a situation a knowledge of the supporting and supplying power of Truth. Thought has turned intelligently to God, the governing Principle of the universe. Through the acknowledgment of His allness and nearness, courage has displaced fear, hope has routed despair. Thus right ideas have appeared to the receptive thought and have been acted upon. Divine qualities of character have begun to reflect the presence and power of omnipotence, unity with good has been established, fear has been conquered, outward needs have been supplied through this inward grace, and in consequence the business has been saved and brought into a state of success and prosperity.
Fear of loneliness will lessen because man cannot be one with the infinite and lovely ideas of divine Mind and not be companioned by the "angels of His presence" (Science and Health, p. 512). Entertain those angels. Let Love be your companion, governing your thinking, and beauty, harmony, true companionship, and the loveliness of Life will unfold in your daily living. "God would have to cease to be to leave you all alone."
The fear of death will lessen
because it will be found that every faculty of man is a faculty of Mind, not
matter, therefore incapable of loss and impairment. Every quality of divine
Mind is a life-giving and life-preserving quality. Man having an indestructible
Mind necessarily has an indestructible body. Death is not a decree of God, but
a lie against God. The Bible is full of statements to that effect. One such is
found in Ezekiel: "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye
have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye
die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,
saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye."
The fear of fear will diminish. We will begin to see that since Mind expresses man in His own likeness and equips him with His own qualities, fear is no part of man's being, is entirely foreign to his true nature, and is always to be mastered, not submitted to. In the strength of this knowledge we can refuse to accept fear; we can refuse to be afraid.
You will be surprised to see what a coward fear is, and how it flees before an intelligent and unwavering refusal to own it as a part of one's nature. "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Fear is no part of a sound mind. What God does not give man, the expression of God cannot possess. Whence, then, cometh fear? It comes only as an illusion of the senses, the tempter who would have us believe in a power, a condition, apart from Love. So let us refuse to be afraid. Let us claim that which God has given us — power, love, and a sound mind.
Shepherds tell us that when in the fields with their flocks, should any unusual, unfamiliar thing happen to alarm the sheep, they never look towards the place or thing which alarms, but instantly look or turn to their shepherd. We can learn a lesson from this instinctive, confident turning of the sheep to their shepherd for protection, and intelligently, confidently turn away from that which threatens and alarms to the tender, shepherding Principle of our being. If we do this promptly and unreservedly, destroying all fear, the thing of which we seem to be afraid will disappear. The Christian Science textbook says, "If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, your patient is healed" (Science and Health, p. 411).
In all the realm of true creation there is nothing of which to be afraid. Every created thing, all that exists in the infinite universe of Mind, is good, like the Mind that evolves it. It follows that anything of which we can be afraid is a myth, without real existence, an illusion of the senses. Jesus' word for it was "a lie." Just as there is nothing to fear, there is nothing that can be afraid. Man has not the capacity to fear. In its every aspect, then, fear is an illusion, without substance or identity. Do not give it identity. Oh, never say: "I am afraid."
Can there be a more ennobling mission, a more exalted purpose than that of freeing the world from fear? It can be made an individual purpose. Is it not worthy our individual effort each day to know more clearly the origin of all things as Love and all things at-one with that Love? Who would not strive to help bring to pass that shining day when fear will no longer be seen in the eyes of a little child, when it will no longer darken or distort the light of love and joy which is natural to all of the children of Mind?
As individual consciousness is thus purified of fear, one will look out upon the universe from Mind with the vision of Truth and Love and see creation as it is seen by its creator, in all its loveliness and unity. Fear and its consequent ferocity will disappear from the wild beasts of the field, timidity from the little creatures near our door — our often faithful friends — and the peace and harmony that is the law of creation, the love that governs all of Mind's ideas, great and small, will be revealed.
Where and how shall we begin to correct this belief of separation from good? Why, in the beginning, of course. Beginning with Truth, with Mind, with God, rather than Adam. It is an interesting thing that almost every farce that has been written for the stage has been written around a case of mistaken identity, so we find, that what seems to be the farce of mortal existence is based on a matter of mistaken identity. Mortals believe themselves to have been born of matter, to be imprisoned in matter, dependent on matter, subject to matter, and all its illusions. This is the Adam-dream, the farce of false identity. Man is coexistent with God, Mind. His individuality is determined by Mind, proceeds from Mind, and remains in Mind. We can see the possibility and naturalness of this as we realize its mental nature. An idea may come to you, go from you to another, and yet remain in your consciousness. When you part with or express an idea to another you do not lose it. It remains in your consciousness. So man, as image or idea, emanates from Mind, expresses Mind in all its freedom, beauty, power, and goodness, and remains in divine Mind.
The basic belief of separation, then, is the hidden belief of separation from one's true identity. To the extent that one is willing to reject the claims of this false identity existing as a physical body, and turn to man's true origin and existence in Mind, as image or idea, does one come into his true identity as an expression of infinite, eternal Life. Indeed, it is the imperative duty of each one of us to enter into his birthright, to deal with the infinite rather than the finite, the true, the divine, with reality, with that which is. It is a question of how willing we are to give up this dear, familiar thing we call our body, whose pleasures and pains, desires, ambitions, aspirations, experiences, etc., have claimed to be our identity, and whose claims we have accepted. Yet that is what the Master, Christ Jesus, stated must be done, when he said, "Ye must be born again," and St. Paul reiterated when he admonished us to put off the old man and put on the new. Even as far back as the prophet Isaiah we have the command, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"
What is this human body, to sense sometimes too ponderous, sometimes too tenuous, too fat, or too thin, tired or diseased, young or old, ugly or beautiful? Well, Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 177), "Mortal mind and body are one," and so the human body must be a mental concept, the product of the human mind, manifesting that mind's vagaries, its concepts of substance and intelligence, its fears, anxieties, false appetite, false pleasures — and false pains — all this the result of false theological and physiological education. As this false education is put off and spiritual understanding attained we learn to think body, not about body.
One of the most important things to know about body is that it is not self-acting. We see that body cannot have a will of its own or an activity of its own apart from Mind. It cannot make decisions for itself, nor can it hinder or reverse our decisions for it. It has no obstructive power to prevent our enjoyment of the health, activity, and freedom that is rightfully ours as the expression of God.
Mortal mind has never been very intelligent about its concept of body. It creates its body out of perishable stuff; believes it can be discordant, diseased, old, and disintegrating. It is convinced that its destruction is inevitable, then spends all its time trying to preserve that body, trying to prevent or postpone what it thinks is inevitable; in other words, trying to do something it thinks it has no power to do.
Rather contradictory and non-intelligent, isn't it? Yet, if we examine our thinking we may find how shockingly much we believe we possess just such a personal, material, destructible sense of body — how tenaciously we cling to it and try to preserve it, as matter. Our effort should be not to preserve matter but to glorify Spirit, whose perfection is reflected in our human living in the proportion that it constitutes our consciousness. The human concept of body must be made harmonious through dominion over it, proving it subject to Mind.
In Spirit, man has a mental, perfect, indestructible being, the embodiment of Mind's infinite, perfect ideas. This being, or identity, reflects all the qualities and capacities of the Mind which is its cause and in which it is held in the immutable bonds of Science. So man has, in Truth, an indestructible, harmonious, eternal body.
Perhaps no better illustration of the effect of differing concepts of body can be found than in the record of the incident of Jesus walking on the water and Peter asking that he might go to him. Jesus and Peter seemed to have exactly the same kind of body, and yet Jesus walked over the waves and Peter sank beneath them, until upheld by Jesus. Jesus knew the truth about body and had complete dominion over it. Peter believing his body to be something apart from Mind, over which he had no dominion and believing life to be at its mercy, came under the mesmerism of fear, and the weight of that fear caused him to sink beneath the waves.
We are taught in Christian Science that "Consciousness constructs a better body when faith in matter has been conquered;" that correcting "material belief by spiritual understanding, . . . Spirit will form you anew" (Science and Health, p. 425). All in keeping with the admonition in the Bible to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Every practitioner of Christian Science has seen this transformation take place — has seen a face and form become beautiful, speech corrected and purified, health restored under the transforming power of spiritual thinking. Said St. Paul, "Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Thus being born again, we do not give up our substantiality, true identity, or practical living. Rather do we come into the only substantial, practical, living, and truly active identity man possesses.
In Science and Health (p. 317) Mrs. Eddy says: "The individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and enables him to conquer sin, disease, and death." And again she says (p. 265), "This scientific sense of being . . . confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace;" "Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action" (p. 393).
In that allegorical account of creation, found in the second chapter of Genesis, the story presents woman as taken out of man. It reads, "And Adam said . . . she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." This is one of the first arguments of separation: that man and woman became separate entities, each a fraction, not a complete individuality; man separated from the qualities of woman and woman from the qualities of man.
What are some of the qualities which have been considered as primarily masculine? Strength, intelligence, power, dominion. Separating these qualities from those considered more feminine, do we not find that strength untempered by tenderness develops into brute force, oftentimes manifesting cruelty and destruction? Does not intelligence without faith and intuitive wisdom become cold, lifeless, most frequently cynical and hopeless? Power without mercy becomes ruthlessness; dominion without love becomes personal dictatorship or domination, smothering individuality and vision. In Truth, man has never been separated from the qualities of womanhood. He expresses, in their completeness, strength and tenderness, intelligence with faith and intuitive wisdom, power and mercy, dominion and love.
Christian Science, in revealing the oneness of God, His indivisibility, reveals the womanhood of God, and restores to man and woman complete individuality; each complete in identification or union with God; neither superior to the other, but equal in origin and capacity. So today, as never before, woman is finding her complete individual expression of all the qualities of Mind, and her ability to express them in the varied activities of living. She is learning that love must be guarded by intelligence, in order that it may not become sentimental indulgence; faith must be allied to spiritual understanding, and so not be misplaced; tenderness and gentleness must be supported by Principle, in order rightly to bless; and the assertion of individuality must be the unselfed individualized expression of divine qualities of Mind.
Thus beginning with his true origin one begins to discover his true selfhood or individuality, which, coexistent with God, ever has been and everlastingly will be complete and perfect, maintained in completion and perfection by the complete and perfect Principle of all being. Then one begins to see the difference between human personality and true individuality. Human personality is, of course, based on the belief of selfhood apart from God, which one personally endeavors to govern and direct. Mortals too often attempt to achieve what they call individuality by cultivating and exaggerating personal idiosyncrasies, inherited tendencies, weaknesses, artistic temper, sometimes called temperament, etc. — anything to be different. There is a tendency to believe that by somehow or anyhow being different one can be individual. This too often makes for selfishness and domination, by personal whims or so-called charm. Pursuing this lure of personality, one finds one's self enclosed in habits and false traits of character that bring bondage of thought and action, and often end in suffering, at times in chronic illness and invalidism. This spurious individuality involves what is called disillusionment.
Personal ambitions and achievements bring no lasting satisfaction; the promises of good in matter are unfulfilled. The bright expectancy of youth fades into what is called old age, with dulled perceptions, faculties, and activities, and one is said to have been disillusioned. This process is accepted as an inevitable decree of an anthropomorphic god, against which men cannot and should not contend. But as we discover our true individuality in Spirit we become truly disillusioned. We become educated out of the illusions of the senses, the beliefs of selfhood in matter and waken to the truth of life in Spirit, in Love divine, individually reflecting the intelligence and glory of infinite Mind.
One may rejoice in the discovery of his individuality already established in Mind, determined by God, never fearing monotony and sameness, or being like everybody else. Individuality is dear to Deity. There are countless numbers of snowflakes, no two alike. So dear is individuality to God. It is one of the most sacred things in the universe; a thing to be cherished. God gives man dominion over everything but man. God alone has dominion over man, and man reflects this dominion in goodness. God gives each individual his own decisive power. No one can decide for him or force a decision upon him, and he can always decide with God. Each individual is free to be self-governed by reflecting the government of Principle. God, indeed, gives to His beloved child freedom to reflect His government of intelligence and love.
In the false belief that man is separated from God, having personal power and identity apart from Principle, human beings have felt that they must do in order to be, that they must achieve worldly honors, important or exalted positions, in order to have power or prestige, influence in world affairs. This leads many times to false ambitions, self-seeking schemes, unscrupulous designs and practices. Mrs. Eddy never speaks of the Science of doing, of having, or of giving, but she does speak frequently of the Science of being. In the Science of being, we see that no exalted position, no worldly honor, can add to the dignity, power, or prestige of man in the image and likeness of God, but that man is in himself representative of true power and authority, has within his own being all the elements of true greatness. He dignifies and uplifts any position he may be called upon to fill, be it great or small, world-known or obscure, and his scientific right thinking is of paramount influence in world affairs. In her book "Pulpit and Press" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 87), "More effectual than the forum are our states of mind, to bless mankind."
This learning to know one's self, to discover one's identity, does not involve anything of a morbidly introspective, self-absorbed, or selfish nature. Rather is it an unselfed and unselfish desire and effort to know and express the divine qualities of divine Mind. It is a striving to allow God's expression of Himself to appear unhindered in individual living. One will find his selfhood unfailingly tender and compassionate, as Love is compassionate, intelligent as Mind is intelligent, wise as God is wise, healthful or holy as God is holy, affluent as God is affluent, living as God is living. His living will be lifted from self-centered personality into infinite individuality, universal thinking, world citizenship.
Through a knowledge of his unity with God one finds that one does not have to go outside of the truth of his own being to find and experience all good. Each one will find his own good established in Mind as he looks steadfastly to Mind for it. Claiming and maintaining as consciousness this truth, that the substance of all good is in Mind, and that each one as an individual expression of Mind has all good, is all good expressed, we will find that good manifested in human affairs. The law of Spirit, God, is a law to all human experience, and annihilates all claims to any so-called laws unlike itself. Mind alone is causation.
Every time one discovers or has unfolded to him something new of the beauty, intelligence, and power of God he has discovered something new, intelligent, and beautiful in his own identity. Thus one finds in the truth of his own being completeness, satisfaction, all joy, activity, health, beauty, and serenity. Thus truly to know one's self is an invigorating task, a vivifying discovery, an eternally fresh experience.
Today we can say with St. Paul: "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." And we may rejoice in these words of Mrs. Eddy to be found in the Christian Science textbook (p. 481): "God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss;" "Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else."
[Delivered Feb. 8, 1938, in Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist, Michigan Avenue and 44th Street, Chicago, Illinois, and published in The Chicago Leader, Feb. 11, 1938. A few overly long paragraphs have been split up in this transcript for the benefit of today's readers.]