Elisabeth F. Norwood, C.S.B., of Brookline,
Massachusetts
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:
Christian Science is metaphysics, above the physical realm, beyond the range of material vision. Christian Science is divine revelation and is spiritually discerned. This, however, does not make it difficult for one to understand Christian Science; for, being a Science, it is logical, and that which is logical is easily understood when earnestly approached with an open, unbiased mind.
When turning to any religion, the first question one generally asks is, "What does this religion teach concerning God?" In the first epistle of John we read, "God is love," and on this statement and the authority of the Bible that God is All, Christian Science is based.
Sometimes we find a person who considers himself an atheist, that is, one who disbelieves in the existence of a God, or a Supreme Being. But truly there is no such person as an atheist; for any thinking person knows that he is not self created, that he does not govern the universe or control events. He knows that there is something outside of himself, above, beyond himself, which is in control. He may call that something power, force, or some other name, but that something is his God.
In Christian Science God, who is Love, is incorporeal, that is, without a material body. If God, Love, were corporeal, somehow, somewhere, sometime, someone would have seen God. But in Exodus (33:20) it is recorded that God says, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." Although Love cannot be seen by the material senses, the presence of Love is mentally realized.
Incorporeal God is infinite, that is immeasurable, boundless, unlimited. A corporeal God, with the largest conceivable body, would be outlined, limited, and finite, and could occupy only the space which that corporeality could fill. In the Bible we read, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer. 23:24).
A corporeal, finite God would be available only to those who were in the very place where this corporeality might be, while the Christian Science God, filling all space, is available to all mankind, at all times.
God, who is infinite, incorporeal Love, is also divine, meaning heavenly, holy. In that which is divine there is nothing more to be desired. Divine Love is the healing presence, and its infinitude, its all-inclusiveness, forbids the existence or presence of another power. This divine presence being everywhere, man is always in the healing presence.
When Moses, who brought the children of Israel out of bondage, was told by God to "go up hence," he asked God whom He would send with him, and God answered, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Ex. 33:14), it was as if God had said, "My presence fills all space, therefore you will always be in My presence wherever you may be; you can never be out of My presence, and in My presence is all that you can ever need."
God also is Mind, and because this Mind is infinite there can be no other mind. Because this Mind is good, there can be no evil mind. In "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, we read (p. 173), "If Mind, God, is all-power and all-presence, man is not met by another power and presence, that — obstructing his intelligence — pains, fetters, and befools him." This one Mind, divinely intelligent, this all-knowing Mind, controls and governs the entire universe, including man. It was Mind which rolled back the river Jordan; it was Mind which parted the Red Sea for the children of Israel to walk through; it was Mind which rolled away the stone from the sepulcher. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we read (p. 143), "If Mind was first chronologically, is first potentially, and must be first eternally, then give to Mind the glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its holy name."
God also is Spirit, incorporeal and supreme, the divine Being in which there is nothing physical. Understanding the infinitude of the one Spirit, good, enabled the Master to cast out evil spirits, and thus prove them to be unreal.
In Soul, another name for Deity, we find the sinlessness, the holiness, the immortality of God. Only that which is sinless can be immortal, for sin is identical with mortality. Because Soul is infinite, there can be but one Soul. Soul is Love, and because Love is easily understood, Soul is easily understood.
Principle is another name for God. It is not difficult to realize that Principle is incorporeal, but Principle is no more incorporeal than Life and Love. All adjectives describing God are applicable to all synonyms for God. Principle, supreme and infinite, is the great Lawmaker. His laws are spiritual and divine, and they are destruction to material so-called laws, which would hold man in bondage to sin, to sickness and death. Principle never sways one hair's breadth from perfection.
God also is Life, divine Being, which is ever conscious; and because Life is infinite, filling all space, there can be no death. To really understand the infinitude, the supremacy, of Life means victory over death. "Life demonstrates Life," we read in the Christian Science textbook (p. 306).
God also is Truth, always highest in authority, always operating, ever present. The very mission of Truth is to destroy error, which, because of the infinitude of Truth, must be unreal.
We have found that there is but one God, by whatever name He may be called. Let us stop for a moment and realize the wonders this great fact demonstrates. The understanding that there is but one Mind means no controversy, no quarreling, no disputes in the home, in the office, in social, political, business, or church affairs. The realization that there is but one Life means spiritual existence only, Life never interrupted by death. The understanding that there is but one Truth means no misconception of God or of man, of substance or law, employment or supply. The result of knowing that there is but one Love is happiness for all. One infinite Love means no envy, no jealousy, no sense of personal possession, no slights, no unkindness, no fear, for Love never faileth.
We have still more to learn about God in Christian Science. He is self-existent. God exists because of Himself; man exists because of God. God is individual, all-inclusive, the center and circumference of man's being. God is the only creator; He is our Shepherd, and as Mrs. Eddy declares in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 150), "He guards, guides, feeds, and folds the sheep of His pasture; and their ears are attuned to His call."
God is our Minister, ministering to our every need; God is the great Physician, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases" (Ps. 103:3). God is our Father-Mother. I should like to tell you how God, expressing motherhood, healed a little boy, about three years old, of grief. The mother of this little boy had passed on, and from the moment the child knew about it he had cried night and day, until the physician who attended the family — no one in the household was a Christian Scientist — despaired of the child's welfare. However, a neighbor told the little one's father that she had heard that Christian Science was a very helpful religion, and perhaps if he should take his child to a Christian Science Sunday School it might help him. The father did so. I recall seeing him come in with the child in his arms. The little one was still crying, but in a few moments he looked up with a smile and said, "I have found my mother." He had found his Father-Mother God in the Sunday School of The Mother Church.
In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 151): "Brother, sister, beloved in the Lord, knowest thou thyself, and art thou acquainted with God? If not, I pray thee as a Christian Scientist, delay not to make Him thy first acquaintance." The Godlike qualities which one exemplifies in his everyday life reveal how well one is acquainted with God.
It has just been said that God, Mind, is the only creator. Mind creates ideas, for in no other way could Mind find expression. His entire universe consists of ideas, humanly viewed as lesser and greater ideas, all reflecting Him in various degrees. Mind's highest idea is man, His image and likeness. This spiritual idea, man, is as eternal as God: he knows no birth, no death; he is forever complete by reflection, and always at the point of perfection. This spiritual idea is the male and female of God's creating. Being the reflection of Love, man is lovely, loving, and lovable. He is the living idea, for he is the reflection of Life. This idea, man, lives in the bosom of his Father-Mother God. What could be closer to infinite Being! Man in God's likeness knows all that God knows, for God is the Mind of man. God's perfect idea, man, is a compound idea because he reflects all the qualities of God and expresses all right ideas, the right idea about substance and law, supply, employment, relationship, business, and home. Knowing the truth, that these are all spiritual, perfect, eternal, and present, man cannot know any thing untrue about them. He cannot be holding to matter as substance, to law as man-made, to supply or employment as lacking, to relationship and home as unhappy and mortal. Spiritual understanding and material believing cannot dwell together in the consciousness of God's man. God's man has not a mortal consciousness, separated from God by fear, ignorance, or sin, because his consciousness is divine, and is at one with his God. This idea, man, is spiritual, holy, and free; no sorrow, no envy, no fear or ingratitude blurs the holiness of his thought; no sickness, disease, poison, or pain mars the transparency and holiness of his substance, for his substance is Love, perfect Love.
Having found the man of God's creating, never unhappy, dying or sick, never burdened or impoverished, never in bondage to fleshly inheritance, but always an heir with Christ, let us take heed lest we forget the man of God's creating, when we look into the mist of mortal mind, the mist of corporeal sense testimony, which would obscure the spiritual idea, man, and try to befool one into believing that mortal, material man is God's man. When we look into the dream existence, which tells of mind and matter, pleasure and pain, good and evil, the dream existence where one child appears brilliant, another dull, one child rich, another poor, one child well, but another sick, one child happy, but another unhappy, let us remember that God, who is Love, is not responsible for the dream, which will become unreal in individual consciousness as one finds his true existence in divine Mind.
One should always strive to see himself not as a mortal, but as God's man. A little boy, who had been brought up in Christian Science and had been taught that he was a child of God, on going to school, and being told to write his name on the blackboard, wrote "Johnny Jones, child of God." He did this several times, when his teacher told him to write "Johnny Jones," and no more. The child obeyed, but he was so faithful in holding to the spiritual fact that he was a child of God, that every time he wrote "Johnny Jones" on the blackboard, on a slip of paper he wrote, "child of God" and put the paper in his pocket. The faithfulness of this little child in accepting only the truth about himself is a lesson to us all.
In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy refers to Christian Science as the "Science of Soul," and asks (p. 467), "What are the demands of the Science of Soul?" She answers, "The first demand of this Science is, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'" In proportion to one's love for God he desires to obey Him, and reflecting God, he has the ability to do so. One keeps the First Commandment by refusing to accept as true that which corporeal sense reports about substance and Life, by rejecting mortal mind's false reports about intelligence and Love.
The second command does not read, "Thou shalt not hate;" it reads, "Thou shalt love." Some people seem to think that there is a middle ground between loving and hating. Really there is not; one either loves or he hates. There is nothing between honesty and dishonesty; an act is either honest or dishonest. There is nothing between reality and unreality; a thing is either real or it is unreal — it cannot be both. If one's thought for his neighbor (and one's neighbor is not just one who lives in his neighborhood, but everyone of whom he thinks) is without a tinge of envy, criticism, unkindness, or any quality unlike love, then one is loving his neighbor. But if there is in one's thought anything unlike love, then, sad to say, he is hating his neighbor.
One is not required to love any error which a neighbor may express, but one should separate error from person and see man as God sees him, perfect and upright. Doing this, it is not difficult to love one's neighbor.
Sometimes fear prevents one from loving his brother man. For instance, a little girl, about seven years old, moved with her family into a new locality, and one day she remarked to her mother that she was afraid of Mr. A, that whenever she saw him approaching, she stepped behind the hedge. Her mother, who was a Christian Scientist, replied, "Why, Mr. A cannot be more than God's image and likeness, and you cannot be less." No more was said until a few days later, when the child volunteered that she was no longer afraid of Mr. A, that she enjoyed seeing him and speaking to him, and that he spoke lovingly to her. Mr. A had not changed; he was a loving, kind man, though his manner seemed somewhat pompous to a little child. But when he and the child were placed on the same basis, children of God, there was nothing to fear, and they loved one another. The child could not be afraid of God's man, and Love's likeness could not reflect anything that could cause fear.
I knew a woman who thought that she loved everyone, but when she encountered a problem which caused her great suffering she examined her thinking more carefully; she turned the searchlight of Truth into every nook and corner of her consciousness to see what unlike the Christ might be lurking there. Before long she thought of a person whom she could not honestly say she loved, and in a few moments another one came to her thought whom she could not truly say she loved, and in a short time she had quite a group of persons on whom she was not showering love; and right then and there she demanded of herself that she be obedient to the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It was not long before she was physically free, and the ugly manifestation which had been visible disappeared.
In Science and Health we read (p. 494), "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." Almost two thousand years ago the world was in great need of a way-shower, and divine Love met that need by sending Christ Jesus to redeem mankind, to show mankind the way of Life.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, who heard and accepted the angel message that she was to become the mother of the babe Jesus. The angel told her, "He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:32,33). According to the Scripture, at the early age of twelve years Jesus was found "in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions." And when sought by his parents and asked by his mother as to why he had not followed them on their journey home from Jerusalem, he answered, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:46,49.) In the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 589) Mrs. Eddy defines "Jesus" as follows: "The highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality." Jesus consecrated himself to God; he glorified God and prayed, "Not my will, but thine, be done."
The Christ was the incorporeal, spiritual man, the divine idea forever dwelling in divine Mind. The material Jesus was visible to the material senses; the Christ was invisible to the material senses. There is but one Christ, and there will never be another Christ. The Master's true selfhood never knew matter, sin nor death; his true selfhood knew God and Life eternal. Jesus was so conscious of the facts of his true being that he could take refuge in Truth and find himself free from all evil, even the malice of his foes.
In Science and Health (p. 333) we read, "Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature." Surely Christ Jesus exemplified the divine nature, at all times and under all circumstances. Even on the cross, he had compassion for his mother, healing for the thief crucified beside him, and forgiveness for his enemies. In the Christian Science textbook it is written (p. 26), "His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man."
Before his crucifixion and ascension, the Master said to his disciples, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever . . . I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:16,18). The teachings of Christian Science parallel the teachings of the Master, therefore it is easy to realize that Christian Science is the other Comforter, promised by the Master. It was necessary for this other Comforter to be discovered in order that mankind might know and understand it, and Mary Baker Eddy, who from childhood turned to God in prayer and steadfastly communed with her heavenly Father, was called by God to reveal the Comforter. Christ Jesus was Mrs. Eddy's pattern in her great work, and the Bible was her only authority, teacher, and textbook.
Prior to Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science, she met with a severe accident, and although medicine and surgery could not heal her, she recovered immediately after calling for the Bible and reading the account of the Master's healing of the palsied man. After this experience, she spent three years studying the Scriptures to gain an understanding of God's great power to heal and His spiritual law. With her thought illumined by the inspired Word of the Bible she wrote the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
It was not a path of roses which Mrs. Eddy trod to give Christian Science to the world, for like the Master she encountered opposition and persecution, but she worked on, to bless even those who opposed her. She worked to bring holiness to the unholy and loveliness to the unlovely. Like the Master, she worked in "wondrous love," and was "glorious in humility." All Christian Scientists and many others are profoundly grateful to Mrs. Eddy. They love her, and well they may, for she has brought to the consciousness of mankind an understanding of the great and only God; she has opened for them the very gates of the Holy City.
In her textbook Mrs. Eddy writes, "When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard" (Pref. xi:22). Always obedient to God's call, Mrs. Eddy, after writing the textbook, established the Christian Science organization, thus becoming the Founder of Christian Science as well as the Discoverer. Mrs. Eddy wrote the Church Manual, which governs the Christian Science organization. Each By-Law in this book was God's answer to her prayer. Also Mrs. Eddy founded the Christian Science periodicals, and at the age of eighty-eight, The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper. The periodicals and the religious article which appears in every edition of the newspaper take healing messages to mankind, messages of encouragement and joy, messages which enable their readers to gain some understanding of Christian Science.
Perhaps we may liken these messages to fresh seeds, to be sown in the gardens of thought, to be nourished by Love and strengthened by Truth. In the consciousness prepared for these seeds, they quickly spring up, yielding an abundant harvest of lovely and helpful thoughts, blessing the one in whose garden they grow and blessing those to whom they are given. What a happy experience always to have in one's mental garden a strong, sturdy blossom of courage and gratitude, a delicate bloom of goodness, compassion and culture, and a sweet smelling blossom of kindness and Christly affection, to pluck for a brother in need of these qualities. If tares should creep in, through some hidden working of error, the seedlings of Truth would uproot them; and where tares had seemed to be, lovely blossoms would grow, expressive of grand and unselfish thoughts. As these messages reach numberless people seeking the Christ, the whole world will become a garden of beauty, filling the air with the fragrance of Love.
Mrs. Eddy not only gave to the world the glories and beauties of the healing Christ, but she courageously uncovered the workings of the carnal mind, the subtle activities of evil. She did this in order that mankind might recognize these evils for what they seem to be and what they claim to do, and then, through the understanding of the all power of Love, reduce them to their nothingness, their powerlessness.
The purpose of evil always is to block the activity of good, to stop right thinking and right acting. The carnal mind claims the power to direct mortal man's thinking and acting, and make him believe that such suggested evil thought is his own. The activity of the carnal mind would cause one to be mentally lazy, and to let the persuasive or dominant thinking of another control him. To one under the seeming influence of material personality, no uncovering of error, no true presentation of a situation makes the slightest impression until Truth awakens him to realize that God has given him the right to think for himself, that, in reality, he is God-directed. In Science and Health (p. 106) Mrs. Eddy writes: "God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love."
Christ Jesus demonstrated supremely the religion of Love, which heals, and he promised his followers that they should do the same works, provided they believed on him, for he said (John 14:12), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." The Master's treatment was true prayer, and he worked to glorify God. Christian Science treatment is prayer, and every honest Christian Scientist works to glorify God. The prayer of a Christian Scientist is one of gratitude to God for having made man spiritual and perfect, and for having maintained man's perfection and his at-one-ment with God.
Disease is not ignored in Christian Science practice; it is recognized as a false belief, without intelligence. There is nothing good about disease, therefore it cannot be of God's creating, for in Genesis (1:31) we read, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Since God is the only creator, in reality disease has never been created, and therefore does not exist.
The way to diagnose a case in Christian Science is to discover the quality of a patient's thinking — whether his thoughts are lovely or unlovely, honest or dishonest, of human or divine origin; for every thought finds expression on the body. In each case there are human needs, mental and physical, to be met by Truth and Love. The greatest human need in every case is a higher understanding of God and a greater faith in His healing Christ. And there are other needs. In every case there is the need of freedom from conscious or unconscious fear, freedom from believing in the error, sometimes the need of freedom from pain, inflammation, or swelling. But whatever the need, divine Love is ever present to meet it. Regardless of what name mortal man may give to disease, God's name for it is always the same — illusion, a lie, unreality.
The Master demanded two things in his healing work: a change in the consciousness of his patient and a change in the physical evidence. The thought of the patient was changed from believing in the error to understanding the truth of his being, and the physical condition was changed from a discordant to a harmonious one.
When one understands that divine Mind is all there is to govern in every realm, then mortal mind surrenders its false claims. In the well-known hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers," there are the lines, "Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe." Christ is Truth, and the foe is mortal mind. Christ, Truth, leads against every false argument of mortal mind and destroys it, setting free the sufferer.
All mortals encounter problems in their human experience, and this is not surprising, for the Master said to his disciples, "In the world ye shall have tribulation," but he did not leave them victims of the tribulation, for he added, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
Through his understanding of God and God's love for His children, the Master overcame all the errors which the world presents.
The testimonies which appear in the chapter "Fruitage" in Science and Health were written by those who were healed by reading this book, and they give conclusive proof that Christian Science represents the healing Christ. On the cover of Science and Health, encircling the cross and the crown, are these four commands of the Master: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons;" and the contents of this book explain the Master's teaching and enable one to fulfill his commands, to prove that "being is holiness, harmony, immortality" (Science and Health, p. 492).
Sometimes, under the weight of problems, there comes the temptation to assume a false sense of personal responsibility when there should be complete reliance on God. Many years ago, Mrs. Eddy appointed one of her students to a position which was new in the Christian Science organization, and realizing that this student might assume a sense of personal responsibility for the work, sent her this message, "God has undertaken for you." Immediately all sense of carrying a burden rolled away, and the student went joyously forward with her work. The message of Love had healed her of the false sense.
A healing message never ceases to function; a declaration of Truth never dies, but continues to live, to operate, and fulfill its mission.
Many years after Mrs. Eddy sent that message, a young mother, whose little boy was perilously ill, went to a Christian Science practitioner for help for the child. She went to the very person to whom that message had been given, so long before. The practitioner, seeing that the mother was filled with fear and a great sense of personal responsibility for the safety of her child, gave her the message just quoted, and she started home holding to these words of Mrs. Eddy, "God has undertaken for you." When she arrived at her home her child was well. A message from divine Love never loses its power to heal.
Not long ago I was talking with a young Christian Science practitioner, and having heard of several beautiful cases of healing accomplished by her work, I asked what she felt was the outstanding point in her practice. She quickly replied, "I cannot help loving those who come to me for healing." Here was the answer: the divine Love which this practitioner exemplified, touched the consciousness of her patients, and they were healed. "Love never faileth."
When one perceives that God is the Father of man and that man is the spiritual idea in divine Mind, when one perceives that there is, in reality, but one existence, spiritual existence, and receives these truths into consciousness, he has taken two of the steps necessary to make his own demonstration and to heal others. The intellectualist may perceive the logic of these statements, but sometimes, because of his pride of intellectuality, does not receive into consciousness that which he has logically perceived. The materialist may perceive these truths, but because of his materiality is not interested to take them into his consciousness. However, the spiritually minded person, after having perceived the truth about God and man, opens his consciousness and receives this truth.
There is still another step to be taken, in order to bring out a demonstration, and that is, to conceive, or hold in consciousness, that which one has perceived and received. When one's mental picture of man is permanently spiritual, he finds man without sin, without disease, without death, perfect as his creator.
In Philippians (2:12,13) Paul writes, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
In the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 593) Mrs. Eddy gives the definition of "salvation" as follows, "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed."
Christian Science teaches a full salvation, a present-day salvation, an individual salvation. No one can work out another's salvation, however much he would like to do so. Even the Master could not work out the salvation of another, but by his consummate example of Christliness he showed others how to work out theirs. Each individual must see the necessity of working out his salvation and be willing to do it. One works out his salvation as he overcomes sin by learning that sin has no intelligence to attract him, that sin gives no real pleasure, but delivers one to the suffering which sin always brings. There are three steps to be taken in overcoming sin. The first step required is to recognize sin as sin, not to ignore it, not to excuse it, by merely declaring that sin is unreal, for sin is real to an individual as long as he serves sin. The second step necessary is to repent of sin, and the third step is reformation. Having taken these three steps, one is free to serve good and good only. The Christ, Truth, comes to individual consciousness to destroy all sense of sin. God's great law teaches that he who sins must suffer.
Paul indicated that "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (II Cor. 10:5) is working out one's salvation. Nothing short of spirituality, honesty, and consecration will enable one to advance Spiritward. To think for one moment that the consciousness of the Christ, Truth, could be attained without these qualities would be to misunderstand our Master, who stood pre-eminently among men, the most honest, the most consecrated, the most spiritually-minded person that ever walked the globe. The commands of the Master to heal the sick and raise the dead make healing a necessity in working out one's salvation. Christ Jesus is the Wayshower, and he healed the sick and raised the dead. In Acts (4:12) we read, "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." In her Message for 1901, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 10), "Theoretically and practically man's salvation comes through 'the riches of His grace' in Christ Jesus." Whatever would deprive mortal man of working out his own salvation, whether he advances slowly or rapidly, is opposed to the teachings of Christ Jesus and Christian Science.
The real man, a spiritual idea in divine Mind, has never had to work out his salvation, for he is already at one with the Father, with an eternal salvation. In belief, it is mortal man who has his salvation to work out, and he will do it only as his thought becomes spiritualized; materiality blocks the way. "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:8).
Christian Science calls upon each one to adore God, to understand God, and to demonstrate God; to acknowledge Christ as God's Son, and to accept Jesus as the Wayshower, and to obey Paul's admonition, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).
The Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Christian Science says, "Come to the Comforter, the healing Christ, and all your needs will be met; 'Love never faileth'."
[Nov. 2, 1947.]