Charles I. Ohrenstein, C.S.B., of Syracuse, New York
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
With an audience of approximately 1,000 present, a lecture on Christian Science was given in Scenic Temple on Sunday afternoon. The lecturer was Charles I. Ohrenstein, C.S.B., of Syracuse, N.Y., a member of the Board of Lectureship of the Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and he presented the subject in a manner which held the close attention of his large audience throughout. The lecture was under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, of this city, and the first reader of that church, Robert E. Buffum, Esq., introduced the speaker.
The lecture was repeated under the same auspices on Tuesday evening in the town hall in Belmont, and there, too, a considerable number gathered to listen to the Truth as propounded by Mr. Ohrenstein. There the speaker was introduced by Torrance Parker, Esq., a resident of that town.
In presiding at the Cambridge lecture, Mr. Buffum spoke as follows:
Friends: One of the first things that an earnest investigator observes about the teachings of Christian Science is the encouragement that is given for individual, spiritual thinking. One may read the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, from beginning to end, and nowhere will he find a word of discouragement or mysticism. Nowhere is it stated or indicated that truths are to be understood by only a privileged few. On the contrary one soon perceives that the benefits of Christian Science are for him as well as for others and that it offers a logical, comprehensive and satisfactory explanation of those questions which may have perplexed and disturbed him for years. Although Christian Science may not be comprehended at first, there is always the comforting assurance that an honest and persistent effort to understand and prove its teachings is abundantly rewarded. All may now, in some degree, understand, live and demonstrate it. Indeed the great growth of the Christian Science movement is due to the fact that Christian Science is a demonstrable religion.
In chapter XVI of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mrs. Eddy, the book of Revelation is beautifully illuminated and explained and it is pointed out that the spiritual consciousness attained by St. John, who saw the "new heaven" and the "new earth" free from pain, sorrow, crying and death, is a present possibility. Could there be a worthier and nobler, aspiration than the attainment of this consciousness? Is not this the desire of tired and troubled humanity, which longs to be freed from its fears and from conflicting, unsatisfying and binding human opinions, theories and creeds and which yearns to see God's kingdom realized "in earth, as it is in heaven?" Christian Science shows how this consciousness may be attained.
The one who is to address you is well qualified to speak on the subject of Christian Science, being a member of the Board of Lectureship of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. I take pleasure in presenting Charles I. Ohrenstein, C.S.B., of Syracuse, N.Y.
Probably no idea has taken possession of the human thought during recent years like that of the need of preparedness, safety and efficiency; and certainly these factors are indispensable for achievement or success of any kind. Every activity is spurred by this idea. The home, the school, the playground, the factory, the office — all are aflame with it. Preparedness, safety, efficiency may be said to be inscribed upon the mental banner leading all endeavor.
Now, let us look over history, and find its best prepared, safest, most efficient character. Instantly, what name comes to the thought of all? Just one; the name of him who was indeed "armed and well prepared," armed with the sword that was the destruction of every ill, every hardship, every wrong — the sword of Truth that meant life, freedom, peace, to every living thing, peace in all trials, all circumstances, a peace that still passes mere human understanding; the name of one who upon sea and land, in turmoil, storm, stress, in contact with depravity, contagion, sickness, calamity, death, demonstrated perfect safety and immunity; the name of one who assuaged all sorrows, healed all diseases, dispelled all sins, fed multitudes, stilled storms, raised the dying and the dead; the name of one whose one — to his enemies — seeming failure was but the forerunner of the crowning achievement of all efficiency — the achievement of the resurrection and ascension, the demonstration for all time of immortality. Would not all in sacred reverence breathe just this one name, the name Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ!
What gave Jesus the Christ this supreme preparedness, safety, efficiency. Was it mentality, spirituality, or was it materiality, corporeality? Was it not his Christianity, and was not this Christianity his demonstrable knowledge or Science, that is, Christian Science? Either it was such knowledge or science or it was its opposite, ignorance, superstition, illusive belief. Let those who will take this view.
The preparedness, safety, efficiency of Jesus were the result of his demonstrable knowledge, the science of being which constituted his Christianity. This Christianity was no mere ceremonialism or belief. It was the science of living and of living more abundantly, the science of health, of peace, of blessedness; the science that made Jesus the Saviour, deliverer, redeemer; the science which he came to teach mankind. In a word, it was the understanding of God, the supreme power that is all good and always with us.
Must not we then in order to be Christians, to benefit by this Christianity, gain this understanding of God? Must not we ask who or what is this God of whom Jesus had such intimate, exact knowledge or science?
Going to this master Jew, this master Christian, what do we learn God is? Something different from what was in the beginning? Not at all.
It should be remembered that Jesus did not write; he spoke. He spoke to his own people, the common people who heard him gladly; and he spoke in their tongue. The only instance preserved to us of what he said in that tongue is in the words which preceded his giving up the "ghost," the mere semblance of life, which he said he could lay down and could take up again, as he later proved. These words, all will remember, were, "Eloi, Eloi! lama sabachthani?" which are translated, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The word Eloi, which Jesus used, is the Old Testament Hebrew word for what in English is called God. It means strength, or power, a meaning which is entirely devoid of anthropomorphism or corporeality. According to Jesus, then, God was his power, the power upon which he always relied, with which he accomplished everything. Nor did he leave us in the dark as to just what this power is. In speaking to his disciples he said, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." In other words, there is only one creator or cause, and the universe including man is its product, the product of Eloi, the one and only power.
Again, speaking to the woman at the well, Jesus said, "God is Spirit," which would certainly mean that his power, the only power he ever used, the true cause of all, and consequently the cause of only that which is true, was Spirit or Mind, not matter of any kind or physique. And looking at the teachings of Jesus, looking at his words and at his works — words and works due to, impelled by, emanating from this Eloi or power, Spirit, Mind, or intelligence — are we not bound to conclude that this power, Spirit, Mind, was infinite Love, and that this divine Love was the very life of Jesus which nothing could destroy and which was able to raise him up at the last day? This one power, then, this one Spirit, Soul, or Mind, this one existence or Life, this one reality or Truth, this one infinite Love, this divine Principle, was all that constituted the Saviour who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," who is with us alway. This is just what Christian Science defines God to be, as will be seen from the following passage: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." (Science and Health, p. 465).
Not only did Jesus illustrate, not only does Christian Science teach what God is, but in doing this Jesus illustrated and Christian Science teaches what man is.
Does not the father want the son to be like himself, and does not a son want to be like his father? So true is this, that right in the beginning we read that "God created man in his own image, . . . male and female created he them." In other words He created them just like Himself. Now, how do we know what a man is like? Do we not know it by what he expresses? Was it not the manifestation, the expression of the power, the Mind, the Spirit, the Life, the Truth, and the Love, which are altogether good, God, that made Jesus the best prepared, the safest, the most efficient, the most able or powerful, the most godlike man that ever lived? Did it not make him so godlike that all Christendom has called him God, worshiped him as God? It has done this, too, notwithstanding the fact that Jesus rebuked the man for calling him, not God, but merely good, saying, "There is none good but one, that is, God." He did this because he recognized, as no one else ever has, that even all that he manifested of God did not begin to express, but only indicated the infinite good that is God. This is shown by the fact that he expected not only the emulation of his example by his followers, but more — "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall be do; because I go unto my Father;" because I illustrate the way, and show, as he again said, that "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."
That this knowledge of God and of man, the knowledge that was taught, illustrated, and demonstrated by Jesus the Christ, is Christian, all will concede. But, it may be asked, is it scientific?
This question can be answered, must be answered in one way alone — that of demonstration or proof. It was so answered when Jesus did his marvelous works; it was so answered when his disciples or students repeated these works; it was so answered when for over two centuries after them their followers, the early Christians, did these works.
It is in this way that for the past fifty years it has been answered and is now being answered. It was so answered when Mrs. Eddy, through the spiritual illumination to her of a Bible text — through the coming to her of the right idea, the true meaning of this text — was healed; it was so answered when she, through this true sense of the nature, the presence, and the power of God, healed others, and taught them to do likewise. It was so answered when her students through the presentation of her teachings — given to them in the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" — reformed, healed, made the abundance of good manifest for others, and in turn taught them to do likewise. It was so answered when this reformed, healed, regenerated, saved multitude established churches and societies of Christ, Scientist, in every part of the habitable globe until it is safe to say that there is no one here who does not know of some one whose life, health, mode of thought, increased usefulness, and freedom from want and woe do not bear witness to this. It has been so answered, and is being so answered here by the fact that this lecture is given to make these facts known; for were it not that some few or many in this community were so benefited, this lecture would not, could not be given, for there would be no one here who would cause it to be given. There is, therefore, abundant proof that this Christianity is Science, demonstrable and demonstrated knowledge. Neither do thinking people deny this overwhelming proof. But the question still remains: How is this accomplished?
Unaccustomed as most people are to any expectancy of direct help from God, it may be said that even after the nature of God and of the true man is indicated there is still skepticism as to whether the benefits experienced are due to God, due to the knowledge or science of Him. For this reason those cured by Christian Science are assured that they would have got well anyway, or that they had nothing the matter with them. Again, the favorite explanation is given that the drugs which had been taken, perhaps for years and years, without doing any good, had just commenced to work, and so on. If, on the other hand, the case is one of reformation or improved fortune, the assurance is most promptly given that, in the one case, the change would have occurred anyway, and, in the other, that the individual's luck had changed. In other words, the vague religious beliefs that people have entertained, the vague notions they have had of God, and the wrong sense they have had of man, have made them discredit the idea that a genuine, applicable knowledge of God, or the science of being, exists or can exist. Yet Jesus said that "with God all things are possible."
All will concede that all things would be possible to one having sufficient life, to one who could live long enough, and who possessed adequate intelligence, power, love, and opportunity for the accomplishment of them. All will concede that such an one would be thoroughly prepared, completely safe, and absolutely efficient. Adam, for example, if he had lived long enough, if he had known enough, and so on, could have accomplished any of the things that have been accomplished since. But he did not, and others have not. Experience consequently has convinced mankind that all are limited in every way — limited as to life, and so in vitality, energy, endurance; limited in mentality, which means of perception, initiative, will; limited in power, and so in capacity and ability; limited in love, consequently, in devotion, incentive, impulsion, endeavor, for it is love that is the incentive of all effort and of all achievement; limited in environment, which means opportunity for the employment of capacity, intelligence, will, and so on.
Nor is it strange that these limitations are accepted as absolute, final; that they are solid convictions. Are not all taught, and do not all believe that everything is evolved from, is due to, or dependent on matter; that life is organic, physical, inherent in the body; that all the faculties also inhere in it; that intelligence is in the head or brain; strength, power, capacity, in muscles; love in the heart; that environment consists of a material world in which everything is again due to matter and not to God, the primordial essence or substance of all, in whom "we live, and move, and have our being?"
Yet, every little while some one accomplishes something which experience has shown to be impossible. What happens in such a case? A human need cries and cries until some one is awakened to the recognition of the fact that there is power enough, intelligence enough, love enough to meet it, and that the opportunity to do so is always at hand. It is not the believer in but the disbeliever in present limitations that transcends them, breaks them. The transmission of the force of a Niagara by means of a wire, the transmission of messages, even of the human voice, over continents and oceans without wire, the utilization for flight of heavier-than-air machines, are sufficiently illustrative of this. Is not this all answer to prayer? Is it not all the result of appeal? Appeal to what? Appeal to the one only and last resort; appeal to the only power there is, intelligence, Mind.
We have seen what was the power, the Life, the Mind, the whole reality or Truth, the Love that animated, enlightened, impelled, capacitated, and enabled the man Jesus. We have seen that it was omnipotence, omniscience, God, and that the expression of this made him the godlike and true man that he was.
We have also seen the kind of power, life, mind, spirit, truth, and love that are expressed or manifested by mankind or a kind of men. We have seen that this power, life, mind, spirit, truth, and love are all believed to inhere in the flesh, matter. Is not this true?
The man whom Jesus presented is spiritual, and spiritually minded, the real man. The man that humanity insists upon as real, the kind that is really no man, is fleshly or carnally minded. Yet Christianity teaches that "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." To be the one kind of man, then, is to be the son of God. To be the other kind of man is to be like those of whom Jesus spoke when he said, "Ye are of your father, the devil," and the devil he called "a murderer," that which is destructive, and "a liar," that in which there is no truth.
All Christians have certainly called Jesus their pattern and their guide; and he spoke of himself as "the way, the truth, and the life." All Christians are also instructed, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." If this teaching be correct, should not every Christian claim for himself and for others the spiritual power, intelligence, Life, Truth, and Love which constitute the one true good of all, or the one true God, infinite, eternal, indestructible, incapable of impairment, loss, or lack? And should not every one disclaim a limited material power, mind, life, truth, love, subject to disease, decay, and death? Can one be a Christian without claiming the former and disclaiming the latter?
Now let us take one who is learning to know this Christ-way, and beginning to walk in it. What effect has this upon him?
He has been believing, like everyone else, that he is a material organism with his life, health, strength, intelligence, and love all inside of him; that all that he is and all that he has is limited by heredity and environment. He knows it because he has been experiencing it. Of course he is unprepared for any emergency, feels unsafe, is inefficient. It is not strange, if he is discouraged, perhaps sick, dissipated.
Now, the unheeded Christ, the spiritual idea of being, the Truth, comes to such a one in Christian Science. He hears, and hears for the first time with this new meaning, that God is the only and all power; that God is all his God; that God is Life — his life; that God is Mind, Truth, Love, and that God, who is all this, is all his God. If he admits this — and slow or fast, if he ponders it, he is bound to admit it — will not everything that is right become more and more possible to him, and will not everything that is wrong become less and less dominant over him, and finally impossible to him? Will he not at once be better prepared for every demand upon him, feel more safe, more efficient than before? If he is fallen, will this not uplift him; if he is sorrowful, will this not comfort him; if he is discouraged, will this not encourage him; if he is sick, diseased, will not this ease him until it heals him; if he has been a failure, cannot he with this Christian, this right idea of being rise to success? Let me say that in thousands of industries this has been demonstrated, and examples are not far to seek. The neighbors, friends, relatives of many of you here can tell you their experiences, and I am sure you will find them corroborative of this. Neither should these experiences seem so strange after it has been indicated, as it has, what God is and what man's relationship to God is; and I am sure it does not seem so strange as it did that God should comfort the sorrowing, make the weak strong, heal the sick, yes, raise the dying and the dead. But perhaps it can be made still plainer.
You have all been taught to be truthful and honest, I am sure. If the temptation came to any of you to tell an untruth, or to take something that does not belong to you, this education, not something inherent in your brain or anywhere in your body, would recall to you that you must not do so. I remember that as a very little boy, whenever I touched anything not mine at table, my mother very quietly said, "Heis!" meaning that taking things not mine would burn me. Throughout all the years that have gone by, when about to touch things not mine without permission, I have heard that word. Is it in my brain? No; it is in my education. We are the children, not of flesh and blood, but of our education; much of it, the most important part of it, not obtained in the schools, and it is our education that we constantly express, live out.
Now, suppose that we not only learn the letter, but become imbued with the spirit of what has been said, and so learn the truth that the kind of God that has been indicated here is the only God there is; that only he is man, male and female, who is like this God, the reflection or image and likeness of God; suppose, when we have done this even in the smallest degree, we always ask of this very primary education: What belongs to us, any one of us, as the image, and likeness of God? Could we not thus get correct answers? What, for instance, belongs to the reflection of power, infinite power? Do powerlessness, inability, incapacity? What belongs to the reflection of Mind? Do lack of purpose, lack of will, and ignorance of what we need to know? What belongs to the reflection of divine Spirit, infinite Truth, Love, Life? Do sensualism, untruthfulness, fear, distrust, aversion, hate, sickness, death? Would not the truth about what man is and what man has be just the opposite of all such claims, and did not Jesus say, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free?"
Suppose that the likeness in a looking glass of any of us here was claimed to be unlike us, to lack something we possess, or to possess something foreign to us, would we admit the claim? If we did, would we be truthful or honest? Would we not be claiming for it something that it did not possess, claiming a distortion rather than a reflection, a fraud and an imposition as our likeness? Can your image and likeness in the glass have something or take something that you do not have or take? Can man, then, the image and likeness of God, be different from God? Can he be unprepared for anything, unsafe, inefficient, helpless; can he take a cold, sickness of any kind, and die? Not unless God is and does these things. How truthful, how honest is one then who claims to be man, meaning man or woman, the image and likeness of God, and also claims to be, to do, and to have everything contrary to God? Is he then declaring the truth which alone makes free; is he obeying the commands "Thou shalt not bear false witness" and "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment?"
We all need assurance. All will agree that if God is the Principle, the basic reality of all, claims contrary to him are not true. Yet these claims, the education of generations upon generations, crowd upon us, clamor for admission at every turn, upon every hand. They assure as at every impact, every contact, that there is danger; danger that we cannot, that nothing can ward off, that cold, heat, dry, wet, everything we breathe, drink, eat, touch, smell, feel, everything we undertake to do, is fraught with danger, danger that we have not sufficient intelligence or power to cope with; that all these things have power over us, not we the power over them which God gave us and constantly gives us. We have plenty of assurance, our whole education is the assurance of struggle, of strife, of ultimate defeat, disaster, death.
How like "the gentle rain from heaven" dropping upon the dry earth beneath comes the opposite assurance that "now are we the sons of God," even though this "doth not yet appear;" that as such we are the reflections of God; that because of this we now have just what God has, all that is good and nothing else; that now is all this available to us through being truthful, honest, through, not bearing false witness, not claiming and not taking what does not belong to us as the sons and daughters of God, so heirs of God with Christ; by not entertaining, not appropriating in thought, not expressing in word or deed aught contrary to this new, this higher education.
If God is the all-enabling power, and God is Mind, the operation of this power must primarily be by way of ideas, thoughts. Who can straighten out his finger or bend it without thought dictating the action? Who can bend it when thought dictates to hold it straight? Try it. Will the hand not do kind things under the impulsion of loving thoughts; will it not do cruel things under the impulsion of contrary beliefs? Will it not do brave, powerful, steady, skillful, efficient things under the direction of confident, intelligent guidance, and trembling, weak, inefficient things under the impulsion of fear? All have experienced this. Is it not a common saying that one is paralyzed with fear? Do not people die of fear? Does any part of the body not reached by thought do anything or feel any way? If it does, how do you know it without thought?
The schools are beginning to recognize, and in some degree to acknowledge, that in Christian Science a light has come into the world, but they are not able to see that it is all light, and that in it is no darkness at all. Theology is beginning to teach an incorporeal God, but not one who is the Spirit that is all Love, too pure to behold iniquity, evil of any kind, to cause it or to permit it. The healing arts are beginning to teach that mind is at least in part cause, but without recognizing that Mind is God, good, so never the cause of disease and death, but always the cause of restoration, of health, and of life. They call that mind which is but false education, illusion, suggestion, the ultimate cause of sin, sickness, death. But the human beliefs that still obscure cannot forever hide the true light which shines, and shines unto a perfect day when all shall be illumined by it, and there shall be no darkness, ignorance, illusive suggestion, disease, fear, and so no sin, no disease, no death.
"And the angel of his (God's) presence saved them," we read in Isaiah. We are also told that after Jesus had withstood being tempted by the devil, and all should now be able to see that the devil was just what Jesus called him — "a murderer," that which is destructive, and "a liar," that in which there is no truth — angels came and ministered unto him. What does this mean? Does it mean that corporeal beings with wings healed the people spoken of in the Bible, and ministered unto Jesus?
In the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mrs. Eddy, on page 581, we read: "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality."
Cannot all see how such angels could and did indeed heal the children of Israel; how they could and did minister unto Jesus; how they can heal you and me and everyone, and minister to us all? Have not all of you entertained just such angels, time and time again, unawares? Have not pure, spiritual intuitions, inspirations of goodness, come to you and to all, and have they not been helpful to you? Where did they come from; from your brain, or from anyone's brain? They came from Mind, the only true Mind, God, to inspire, to enlighten you, to bear you up, and to set you up on high. Have we all been inspired then? Of course we have. Have we always heeded these inspirations? That is the question. It is not uncommon to hear that some one is inspired by malice or hate. Everyone is ready to credit this, but let some one be said to be inspired by God, who is infinite power, intelligence, Life, Truth, and Love, and derision and reviling are sure to be his lot. Is not everyone inspired with Life? If not, how then does anyone live? Are not all inspired by Mind, Truth, Love? If not, how do you express intelligence, how is it that you are truthful, kind, loving? Does this surprise you? Then let me say that you were inspired before you ever breathed or saw the light of day, and that inspiration is the one essential of existence.
Everyone is most particular as to the air he breathes. No one without absolute necessity would for a moment breathe foul air. Everyone is most particular as to the food he eats, what raiment he puts on, and so forth. How much more particular should all be as to what they are inspired by; for whether the thought that comes to us be good or bad, it is one that comes to us, not one that originates with us, and sooner or later we are bound to express it. Is it pure, beautiful, good, true, the thought of health, of life, of immortality, of courage, and of love for all? If so, it comes from the one true source. Bid it welcome; let it abide with you, entertain it, make it your honored and your welcome guest. It comes from God, and is the word of God, an angel visitant, sent as of old to heal, to minister, to save. Is that which clamors for admission a base, sinister, degraded thought, a thought of want, discouragement, hate, fear, anger, sickness, death? Then bar it out, for it will express itself, bear fruit after its kind. How bar it, say you? By recalling and recalling the thoughts, the angels of God and of His Christ, the truths taught in the Bible by Jesus, emphasized, illumined, and made practical by Christian Science, until these shall be an angel legion round about you to guide you, guard you, and have charge over you.
How often do we hear the question: How can I help what I think? and the assertion; No one can help what he thinks. We not only can help what we think, but in order to do better, feel better, be better, we must help what we think, for as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he;" and the way that has been indicated, the way that Christian Science teaches, is the only way in which this help can come; the only way under heaven in which men can be saved here, now, anywhere, everywhere, from ills of any kind and of every kind. It is the only way in which one and all, irrespective of time, place, vocation, circumstances, can be truly armed and prepared, have absolute safety and complete efficiency.
The one thing desired by all is contentment, peace, Does this mean that Christian Scientists are non-resistants, that they must suffer wrong of any and of every kind?
Not at all. Christian Scientists are unequivocal, uncompromising resistants. Christian Science teaches them that wrong of any kind must not be submitted to, but overcome. It does more than this, it teaches how it must be overcome. This teaching is the teaching of the New Testament: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Are we then to have peace at any price? No. We are to have peace at only one price, the price of righteousness, the price of thinking what is right, saying what is right, doing what is right ourselves. Again there is no other way under heaven in which we can have peace, or have a right to have it. Let individual destroy individual, let nation destroy nation, let destruction and desolation have their uttermost results, until there is but one individual left, and that individual will have, can have no peace in any other way. Peace does not come with or as a result of turmoil, destruction, death; it is an attribute of God, of Life, Truth, and Love, and "Great peace have they which love thy law (the law of Love): and nothing shall offend them," sang the psalmist.
Every wrong, whether in ourselves or others, must be corrected, must be overcome. Love tolerates no wrong. But every wrong in the individual, family, community, industrial, social, national and international economy, life or existence, must be corrected, overcome in the right way. To overcome it in the wrong way is to cry "Peace, peace; when there is no peace," where there is no peace, and is but a new incitement to strife, war. Christian Scientists believe in peace, individual, universal peace. They believe in it at one price only, however, the price of obedience to law, the law of God, the love of every man.
What has been said will but dimly indicate the teachings of the ideal, yet most practical and scientific system of ethics and healing discovered in the words and works of our Master by Mrs. Eddy. Through her faithful, loving, Christlike leadership Mrs. Eddy founded this system, Christian Science, and advanced it to its present world-wide acceptance. Bringing what she did to the world — the "pearl of great price," the applicable, demonstrable Christianity of Christ Jesus, which has proved itself such by comforting, reforming, and healing the vast majority of those who have honestly, earnestly studied her books — she has enriched the world beyond all reckoning. Hundreds of thousands of her beneficiaries rejoice in bearing grateful witness to their appreciation of her divine service to them and to all mankind.
As one who had the privilege of visiting her home, let me say that all about Mrs. Eddy was of the very simplest. In her the world indeed had a true example of simple living and high thinking. Those who were with her bear loving witness to the fact that she watched, worked, prayed without ceasing, and that she did this for all alike. That this untiring consecration has borne fruit — the fruit of purer, happier, healthier, more useful and loving lives — is attested on every hand. The modest fortune that came to Mrs. Eddy through the publication and sale of her written works is by her direction, like her life, being devoted to the promulgation of her high teaching, to the establishment of "on earth peace, good will toward men;" to the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, in which there can be no sorrow, no pain, no death.
Mrs. Eddy was at times reviled, but she reviled not again. So unmindful of the world was she and so mindful of God that His thoughts, messages that came and do come with healing and with blessings in their wings, were always her thoughts. Her one prayer was to be God's faithful messenger. The answer to this prayer was certainly vouchsafed to her. Mary Baker Eddy founded a world-wide religion, a religion that is Science, a Science that is Christian and that both heals and saves. In doing this she has risen to her rightful place in divine Love — Love that is reflected by the constantly increasing esteem of the world, and the grateful appreciations of hundreds of thousands of her beneficiaries.
[Delivered March 4, 1917, at Scenic Temple under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and published in The Cambridge Tribune, March 10, 1917. The exact title of this lecture is unknown. A few excessively long paragraphs have been broken up for this transcript.]