William W. Porter, C.S.B., of New York, N.Y.
Member
of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,
The
First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
William W. Porter, C.S.B., of New York, N.Y., a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, delivered a lecture entitled "Christian Science: Its Value to Humanity," at noon (12:15) today under the auspices of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, in Tremont Theater.
The lecturer was introduced by George Shaw Cook, C.S.B., First Reader in The Mother Church, who said:
The constantly increasing attendance at these mid-day lectures is an encouraging sign of the times. It is significant of progress that so many busy men and women are willing and eager to devote their noon hour to seeking spiritual enlightenment and refreshment at these lectures on Christian Science.
And today we are met here to learn more of God so that we may do more good, — that we may be of greater service to our fellow men.
I am pleased, indeed, to present to you our lecturer, Mr. William W. Porter, of New York City, a 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:
A little over half a century ago an unusual woman appeared upon the highway of human endeavor. She saw about her humanity's sins, sufferings, and sorrows. A night of terror seemed about to engulf her.
She turned away from earth and looked towards heaven and God. Nothing was important to her but God. The outlook changed and gave brighter promise. Through the mists of earth the woman saw a beckoning path, and into this path she turned her footsteps. As she journeyed her vision grew, and she saw exceedingly near those many mansions which are spoken of by the Master in the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John; she learned that these mansions are mansions of health, mansions of happiness, mansions of peace and prosperity; she found her own confidence and courage ever mounting to meet opportunity; there came to her unbounded and unexpected ability and success, and a higher sense of Life as God.
Mindful of humanity's sufferings, sins, and sorrows, the woman began to mark the path on which she journeyed, so that others might not lose the way. Multitudes of men, women, and children have since found the path which the woman discovered, and have followed the waymarks which she established for their guidance from mortal sense to the harmony of immortal being — to Life as God.
This woman was the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, the author of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." In the year 1866 Mrs. Eddy was brought back almost from the grave through her spiritual understanding and pure desire. Her expectancy of good pushed back the dread shadows of ignorance, fear, and superstition, and she was restored to a life of usefulness and goodness unparalleled in the annals of Christian history. Following her remarkable healing and at an age when most women of her day fell under the mesmeric suggestion of declining years, Mrs. Eddy launched forth upon an undertaking which was destined to become her crowning life-work, the demonstration of Christian Science, and its presentation in such a way that humanity could not fail to understand its meanings and receive its benefits.
Mrs. Eddy tells us in her writings that in the demonstration and establishment of Christian Science she had no other guide than the Bible. This was her only textbook; and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" testifies to the consistent fidelity with which the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science maintained the relationship of her thought to the spiritually illuminated pages of this Book of books. In view of this relationship one is not surprised to find that in due time, and by a proper By-Law in the Manual of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy ordained the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" for all time and in all lands as the Christian Science pastor.
In the orderly process of arriving at the correct statement of the problem of being, one finds himself confronted with the question, "What is God?" We are told by Mrs. Eddy that one of the chief difficulties encountered in her early writings was that of finding words or language which would adequately express the spiritual ideas which she sought to impart. The same difficulty still exists, but in a lesser degree, because today the language of Christian Science is more widely disseminated and better understood. Today when one refers to God a generous part of one's listeners is found to be more or less in harmony with the definition in the Christian Science textbook (p. 465), namely, that "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." In the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John we find these impressive words of Jesus: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." The Master laid great emphasis upon the necessity of knowing God. It is perfectly clear that mere belief is insufficient. We must understand God in order to experience confidence, reliance, and trust in the divine nature.
The discords of humanity accounted as sin, sickness, and disintegration are inconsistent with the perfection of creative Cause. In Science creation reflects the perfection of the creative Cause from which it springs. Sin, sickness, and death are inconsistent with this idea of creation. Therefore these evils cannot be considered as the outgrowth of a perfect Creator.
In the ordinary processes of belief humanity has been led to assume that upon the completion of His creation God left this creation to shift for itself without guidance, and without preservation from sin, sickness, and dissolution! But this sense of creator is inconsistent with the idea of perfect creation. The creative Cause — God — because of its constant imparting nature must be the Preserver as well as the Creator of that which is created. How much stronger would be our trust and assurance in the hour of need did we but grasp a little more simply the nature of God as the Preserver of all.
There is cause for great rejoicing right here, however, because that through the demonstration of Christian Science there is building up universally a quiet, inescapable conviction that the divine Life and Love called God in reality not only creates but preserves all that He brings into manifestation.
Christian Science shows sin, sickness, and death to be the effect of an imperfect, incomplete, and misleading sense of God implanted ignorantly in the consciousness of men. This imperfect and incomplete sense of creator reproduces itself in an imperfect and incomplete sense of created things.
Someone is going to say: Well, how has this mischievous and misleading sense been implanted in the consciousness of men? The answer is: Through ignorance and fear. Ignorance of God, and fear springing therefrom.
It may be asked: How can one gain a proper sense of the perfect Creator? And who shall describe the infinite God? The Scriptures are worthy of deep respect. We read in the book of Genesis: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Here is a simple and direct statement of completeness which indicates the fatherhood and motherhood of God. Without the inclusion of this full nature in the Godhead the idea of Deity is imperfect and incomplete; and the sense of creation consequently is inadequate, discordant, and destructive.
By giving proper emphasis in her teachings to the motherhood of God, Mrs. Eddy has brought to human thought the recognition in Deity of those characteristics of wisdom, tenderness, and completeness which quiet humanity's fears and restore the hope and courage of men. In the opening line of the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, given in the Christian Science textbook (p. 16), we read: "Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious." Here is the thoughtful and prayerful acknowledgment of one source or origin, and hence of the equality or kinship of all under the fatherhood and motherhood of God. Moreover, this recognition of the fatherhood and motherhood of God imbues thought with a larger idea of wholeness and a more perfect understanding of completeness, which dispel ignorance and fear, and impart health, happiness, and prosperity in the hour of human need. This is the way of righteousness, the ever-operating process of creation, in which the nothingness of mortal conceptions disappears and the harmonious realities of the divine Mind appear, demonstrating the omnipotence, love, and perfection of the one infinite Father-Mother God — the Preserver of all.
Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 170): "Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress."
In the Scriptures we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." On page 465 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe."
What is this, without which not anything was made that was made? Bearing in remembrance that creation must follow the Creator, and that at no point can it depart from its true genesis, and bearing in mind that causation must include the quality of immortal Mind, the creative Principle, it must be seen that that without which not anything was made that was made, is the Word of God, which manifests and expresses the creative nature; and that man is the image or idea of the creative Mind. Hence all that exists in the realm of the real exists as the impartation of Life or God, and moves as idea or image; forever expressing the nature of the eternal Principle, Love, in obedience to the command: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion."
The effect of Christian Science is plainly seen in the building up and preservation of health and strength, happiness and success, wherever this Science is known and practiced. This declaration should not be accepted as a mere theoretical statement of doctrinal belief. It records a specific fact demonstrated and proved in the lives of men and women throughout the world. An unusual admission of this is found in the following incident: A number of years ago a Christian Scientist was being interviewed by the representative of a large insurance company who, at the close of the interview, said to the Christian Scientist, "Will you pardon me it I ask you an unusual question? Are there any rules in your organization which require a definite standard of physical perfection among those who represent the organization?" Being assured by the Christian Scientist that there were no such rules or requirements, the examiner continued and said; "I was impelled to ask this question because I have made a number of examinations under similar circumstances, and in each of these cases I found such uniformly perfect physical conditions that I concluded there must be a rule in the Christian Science organization which required a certain definite physical perfection among its representatives."
Christian Science demonstrates the everyday value of spiritual ideas in the building up of health and prosperity as well as of holiness. The incident just recorded proves this to be true. The circumstance related may be accepted as a twentieth-century demonstration of another incident which is recorded in the first chapter of the book of Daniel, wherein Daniel and three companions who desired not to defile themselves with the king's meat and wine were permitted for ten days to subsist on pulse, a leguminous plant of the order of the pea or bean. According to the Scripture it was found after ten days that "their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat." Daniel and his companions had learned that sustenance and strength were neither in the king's meat nor in the pulse. They had learned something of the great truth which was later voiced in the words of Jesus: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" — by every idea that proceedeth from divine Life or Mind shall man live.
Christian Science shows that Spirit and spiritual ideas are not vague, intangible, or erratic, but that these are positive, certain, and real. Indeed, unless spiritual values and power may be apprehended and enjoyed in the everyday walks of life, then spiritual things have no significance with respect to daily existence. Christian Science declares that Spirit and its manifestations constitute reality. This declaration is without value, however, unless it can be proved in the daily experience of men and women. Christian Science does this. It proves the value and reality of Spirit and of spiritual ideas, until the individual comes gradually and surely into the expectancy and enjoyment of health, prosperity, and the understanding of good. The Christian Scientist is learning the meaning of this: That man lives "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He is learning that man is strengthened, fed, nourished, and preserved by the spiritual idea of Life, Truth, and Love, unfolding the nature and substance of immortal man.
We read in the Scriptures: "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." As Principle, God, the Father, is Life and imparts life, so the spiritual idea or image of Life, God, likewise reflects and imparts life. Here is seen the mode of healing in Christian Science wherein the true idea of God as preserver dispels sin, sickness, and death, and causes health, happiness, and prosperity to appear.
The older medical theories which deal with matter as the cause of disease are being rapidly abandoned by the better class of medical practitioners, and the recognition is obtaining that disease and its cause are mental. Thus we have astute schools of medicine gravely announcing in the year 1929 that disease and its cause are mental, — as though this were a recent discovery, — whereas it is a fact which Christian Science has set forth consistently for more than fifty years.
Christian Science denies and repudiates the psychology of the human mind as a healing factor. The mortal mind which produces disease cannot be the healer of disease. In Christian Science all healing power is understood to belong to God and it accompanies always the divine or spiritual idea of God. It is the Christian Scientist's confidence and trust, born of experience and understanding, which enable him, from the heights where God is revealed in His eternal likeness, man, to look with compassion on the sick and the sinning who suffer from a sense of existence apart from God — as illusion, without identity, reality, or power.
We learn in Christian Science that as human thought is held in right relation to the divine Mind or God, the effect is that the spiritual idea of God imbues thought with divine impartations, or true consciousness. This true consciousness expresses the idea of Life or God as divine idea — not person — in fruitfulness, in multiplying, in replenishing, in subduing, and in having dominion.
Jesus of Nazareth presented to thought, ideas which were radical and revolutionary to the day in which he lived. The human voice which enunciated those ideals is no longer heard, but the spiritual idea which was manifested by Jesus could not be silenced or subdued, because it moved and ever moves in the consciousness of men, demonstrating the capacity and instinct to grow and to multiply in obedience to the command of God — the imparting nature of Life and Love.
The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth contain nothing of human opinion based on material knowledge. From his earliest day a personal sense of things meant nothing to him. He devoted no time to material theories. His interest first, last, and always was in the spiritual Cause, or God, and in creation which expressed clearly the divine nature. His emphasis, based on logical premise and conclusion, points to sureness of thought — a sureness which can rest only on clear perception of true being. His sureness and directness of speech were marveled at by those who saw and heard him. His words testify to the clear, scientific nature of his thought, between which and the Father stood no barrier. In the mind of Christ Jesus there was nothing of a transient personality between the origin of his being and the idea which he expressed. The origin of his being was inseparable from the idea which he expressed: "I and my Father are one."
Of Christ Jesus, Mrs. Eddy has written in Science and Health (p. 313): "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause." As one studies the teachings of Jesus in the light which Christian Science throws upon them, their clear, scientific nature and basis compel one to stand in reverence and awe before their dignity, exactness, and tenderness.
Whether or not one is pleased in this recognition, the fact remains that the dogmatic and theological costumings which have encumbered the history of Christ Jesus have been stripped away during the past sixty years largely through the demonstration of Christian Science; and the exact, demonstrable, scientific nature of his teachings stands today, revealed and is recognized by laymen and leaders in religion and science alike.
Many persons are asking the question, Why is it that Christian Science appeals so strongly to men and women throughout the world, and holds their thoughts so firmly? It is not necessary to seek far for the answer. The teachings of Christian Science are not built on nor do they exalt human personality, theological dogma, or the idolatry of matter. They rest not upon person but upon Principle, and because of this they will continue to heal mankind and endure. This is so plainly the truth that it cannot be controverted.
There is a clear correspondence between the teachings of Christian Science and those of Jesus of Nazareth. This identical nature is found in the healing and regenerative effects; in the direct relationship of the teachings to fundamental being; in the identical recognition of origin and ultimate; and in the fidelity with which spiritual creation — man and the universe — is held to be the counterpart or manifestation of creative Spirit, Mind, or God. It is not surprising that Mary Baker Eddy, a true follower of Christ Jesus, should have designated Jesus of Nazareth as, "the most scientific man that ever trod the globe," thus revealing the nature, the true divinity, of him whose nobility, grandeur, and humanity mark the threshold of the Christian era.
One may wish to inquire here concerning existence as it appears, and the concept of man that is present to human consciousness. Whatever it is, or is not, all will agree that it is far from satisfying; indeed, that it is altogether inadequate.
Christian Science shows that mortal man is the likeness of mortal mind. He is born, thinks, speaks, sleeps, eats, walks, is a success or failure, is sick, is well, and finally becomes dead, according as mortal mind declares. And this goes on over and over and over again; mortal man traveling in the routine of a circle, obeying the suggestions of mortal mind, and looking upon it all as truly authentic and dependable.
Military barracks generally observe the custom of firing a gun to announce the time of sunset. At a certain barracks a visitor inquired of the officer in charge how he secured the correct time by which to fire the gun. "Oh," said the officer, "I check my time with the watchmaker in the city." The visitor had occasion to call at the watchmaker's shop, when he asked the watchmaker how he obtained the correct time from his chronometer. "Why," said the jeweler, "I get the accurate time each day from the sunset gun at the barracks." And there may be seen a fairly good illustration of mortal man and mortal existence.
Thus controlled, human beings are
not free moral agents or thinking creatures; they are governed by the mesmeric
suggestions of mortal mind, somewhat after the manner in which a person is
controlled under hypnotic suggestion. The hypnotic operator may tell his
subject to take a fishing pole and to go fishing. He tells him to pull in the
line, to take the fish off the line, and to put the fish in the basket. The man acted upon moves in
accordance with the suggestions given to him. He believes that he has just
caught a fish; and that he has placed the fish in the basket. Of course an
onlooker recognizes the whole proceedings as hypnotic rigmarole. The onlooker
would not think of asking the fisherman if the fish is real! To the man looking
on, the whole thing is illusion. There is no fish there! But to the hypnotic
state of consciousness the fish seem very real, true, and present.
The operator might go a step further and command the fisherman to take the fish home with him, to dress it and cook it, and to eat it and be nourished thereby. These directions the fisherman will proceed mentally to carry out. But there will be no reality in any of it, and the fisherman will find trouble and sorrow along the way because trouble and sorrow proceed from the belief that the unreal is the real.
As a further supposition, — and it is not necessary for the purpose of the illustration to figure out a plan to bring it about, — suppose that all the people of the world were brought under this same hypnotic belief of fishing — throwing the line, pulling out the fish, putting it in the basket, taking it home, cooking, eating, and being nourished thereby. In this circumstance the whole affair would not be looked upon as illusion at all, but as a definite actuality, and perfectly natural, because the same state of consciousness would control the belief of all. The entire world would be living under an illusion of hypnotic belief! And any person who questioned the genuineness of the fish would be thought to be queer! All of which illustrates something of mortal mind organized into mortal man or mortal existence, an existence which has no more relation to the real man and real existence than has the fish which the hypnotized person believed he caught to the onlooker.
Now, what is this error-man? Where does this error-man come from? These questions originate in mortal consciousness, a state of consciousness which accepts the error-man, or hypnotic fish, as real, and consequently which sees a mortal or erroneous sense of man as real and true, and says: This is what I see. Now, where did it come from? The nature of error or illusion does not permit of explanation. You cannot explain the fish which the hypnotized person believes he caught because there is nothing there to explain.
As Christian Science has lifted up thought concerning the nature of God, so this Science is reforming thought with respect to the nature of man. But how does it come that man has the capacity to err? Whence do mortals get the capacity to hypnotize and to be hypnotized? Here, again, these questions are prompted by mortal consciousness which does not see man, but sees a false sense which it calls man.
Mortals may have the capacity to deceive and to be deceived, to sin, to be sick, and to die. But man is the image and likeness of Spirit, Mind, God, and since God, Spirit, Mind, is not material, man is not material, but is always the image, idea, of Mind, or God. Hence man, the image of Life, Mind, God, has not the capacity to sin, to be sick, or to die. And this only is man!
The effect of Christian Science is to take away illusions of mortal sense, the misleading beliefs about God and man and the universe. In dispelling these false beliefs, however, Christian Science does not destroy anything that is needful and helpful and desirable to human beings. In dispelling the false sense of fish, in our illustration, one would not set out deliberately to destroy the fisherman. Jesus declared, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." This is exactly what Christian Science is bringing to humanity — more and more of Life and Mind, more and more of God, and consequently more and more of man.
One may say: This is beautiful, and it all follows the logic of Mind, but it is rather indefinite; we must have something that is more tangible to look upon as man. Perhaps if we go a little further with our thought in the examination of the so-called physical structure, it may be helpful as lifting up in thought the nature of the real man. So simple a thing as a grain of wheat will serve to illustrate a point in our thinking. Entering some well-equipped research laboratory we say to the physicist in charge: "Sir, we have here some grains of wheat. We desire that you shall produce some kernels of wheat exactly like these we have here, in components, structure, color, shape." In due time we receive from the laboratory the wheat product of the physicist.
The wheat grains taken from the field and those received from the laboratory we plant in the earth and await results. In due time the kernels of wheat taken from the field begin to spring upward. They grow — mature. Lo, each grain of wheat gathered from the field has multiplied many times! The laboratory grains reveal no evidence of fruitfulness. The seeds were barren. Everything that the physicist could find in the field seeds has been reproduced in the laboratory seeds. But the latter do not grow. Something in the genesis of the field seed structure has not been supplied by the laboratory.
We read in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, concerning the Word and God, that "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." The genesis of Life and Love, of Spirit, Mind, God, is lacking in the material product of the laboratory. It does not possess the instinct to grow.
While Christian Science, emphasizes clearly that Life, God, is not in matter, hence is not in the grain of material wheat, it also shows with equal clearness that neither corporeality nor material evolution can produce that which defines and classifies and which multiplies, replenishes, subdues, and has dominion. This classification and fruitfulness, seen everywhere, is constant evidence of the primal and all-inclusive spiritual origin and control of man and the universe. When man is seen and understood in the light of his Maker, thought will no longer turn to the laboratory, to the flesh, or to matter, for the manifestation of Life, but this manifestation will appear as the unfoldment of the Word, the idea of the imparting Principle, Love, — revealing the true genesis of being in everlasting fruitfulness, and dominion over so-called material beliefs. God is the intelligent, imparting Life or nature who endows all ideas — man — with distinct characteristics and expressive powers. How can man be sick? How can the business of man fail?
Christian Science shows that Principle, Truth, or God alone have in them qualities or properties which are imperative and demand expression. The harmony of music, of numbers, of existence, is inevitable because of the impelling and imparting nature of Truth, or God.
One may ask. Has not discord, error, evil, a principle which likewise demands expression? Reason refuses to accept the theory of supreme good and supreme evil. In the nature of things it must be seen that because Truth dispels error, error cannot dispel Truth.
Never be dismayed by reason of the spiritual demands made upon you; knowing that the only demand which inevitably confronts human beings is the demand of Truth and Love and Life; and that this demand finds expression in health and peace, in strength and courage, in ability and achievement. A spiritual demand is not a hardship to be deplored. It is not an accident of chance. It is the intelligently directed impulsion of Life, Mind, or God, which compels progress and growth in understanding.
Mrs. Eddy writes on page 250 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "I make strong demands on love." Because man is the image and likeness of God, man, as image, makes the strongest conceivable demands upon Life, Love, and God; and man, unfolding as idea in individual human thought, continues to make unremitting demand upon Life, Love, and God for the capacity to multiply, replenish, to subdue, and to have dominion. Thus understood, such demands cease to be the bugbears of fear, and are seen as opportunities to prove the capacity of man, who reflects the instant and inexhaustible resource of infinite Life and Mind.
Disappointment, fear, discouragement, false appetites, evil tendencies, are not the offspring of the divine Mind, they do not belong to man, hence they are not inevitable companions in individual experience; they are the thieves and robbers of mortal consciousness which deprive men of their rightful sense of things. They are suggestive states of consciousness which infest the highway of human experience, and they become the companions of careless and unwary travelers. Christian Science impels and compels one to inspect the mental companions with whom he is traveling. Do his mental companions bring to him inspiration, ability, joy, courage, strength, health? Then he binds them to him with bands of love and friendship. They are his friends. But if these mental traveling companions impose on him a load of fear, of discouragement, a sense of uncertainty and vacillation, of inability, failure, sickness, then the Christian Scientist, taking possession of his consciousness, expels these enemy companions, which would limit and destroy his noblest aspirations, desires, and attainment.
Christian Science shows clearly that false appetites, sinful desires, evil tendencies, and vacillating weaknesses are not of God, and do not belong to man, and that they are not the inevitable companions of mankind upon the highway of human existence. Christian Science reveals man as a free agent, a thinking creature, expressing the intelligence of the divine Mind, and choosing always right and noble companionships.
The healing work wrought by Christian Science is the effect of prayer. By this is not meant that a petition is offered asking God to do something for man. The Christian Scientist knows that the nature of man as God's creation includes completeness and that man possesses all good. Mrs. Eddy defines prayer as desire. On page 1 of Science and Health she has written, "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."
Consciousness which reflects the true understanding of God with authority and conviction is the result of prayer or pure desire; and this state of consciousness is essential to the healing of the sick and the sinning in Christian Science. In the true genesis of existence it is seen that prayer is not a mere petition asking God to make a mortal perfect, but that it is in reality a state of consciousness, the result of pure desire and of the conviction or understanding that man is perfect, immortal, harmonious, now and always. This conclusion is scientific and Christian, and it rests upon the nature of divine causation, and upon the perfect and unimpeachable impartations of Life and Love, the living God.
To desire and to maintain the spiritual consciousness which heals the sick and the sinning is constant, living prayer.
Christian Scientists do not maintain a "holier than thou" attitude with respect to other systems of religion and healing. They do, however, endeavor to attain and maintain unadulterated the standard of divine metaphysics or Christian healing. This procedure is Christian and scientific, and it has already advanced the welfare of humanity beyond measure.
For more than half a century Christian Science has been healing the sick and the sinning in demonstration of the power of God to dispel the ills and the shortcomings of humanity. Today the fact of Christian Science healing is recognized and accepted by individuals and by sects in many lands.
After six years of exhaustive investigation the fundamental truth of Christian healing has been indorsed by a Joint Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in a report which urges "the deepening of the spiritual life of the church that comes through the growing recognition of the healing power of God." The report of the Commission says that "Christian healing has passed beyond the stage of experiment, and its value cannot be questioned. Spiritual healing is no longer the hope of the few, but the belief and practice of a large and rapidly increasing number of persons."
Looking forward to this day the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science many years ago wrote these prophetic lines, which appear in her writing, "Pulpit and Press" (p. 22): "If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land, and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name."
Christian Science has always occupied a place far in advance of the oncoming ranks of human thought; and its work has been to prepare thought for the unfoldments of inexhaustible Mind, Life and Love.
A great work confronts Christian Scientists today in demonstrating the further unfoldment of this Science to mankind. Orthodox religion and medicine are already taking down the bars of their fences and entering the fields where Christian Science has brought forth harvests of health and good to the children of men.
The Christian Scientist cannot stand still because of the imparting nature of the spiritual idea of God which demands expression. The real student of Christian Science realizes that because of the infinite nature of this Science it is only comprehended in infinite unfoldment. On page 367 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy again writes, "I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher attainments in this line of light." Jesus declared, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
As further indicating his recognition of the forever unfoldment of Life and Mind to man these words of Jesus are recorded in the Gospel of John: "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." He recognized that his place was beyond the horizon of matter, creed, and ritualism, and that his work lay in the direction of preparing human thought to see and to accept the more glorious and delectable states of consciousness which are forever being revealed by the spiritual idea of God. "In my Father's house are many mansions," — many beautiful, many wonderful ideas, in which to live, states of consciousness revealing spiritual values and power, — mansions of health, mansions of happiness, mansions of peace and prosperity; and, "if it were not, so, I would have told you." In other words, if the treasures of life — health, happiness, peace, and prosperity — are to be found in matter or in a material sense of things, I would have told you!
What an endless debt of gratitude
do we owe to the loving Jesus! How well he fulfilled his mission to prepare
consciousness for the further unfoldments of infinite
Mind and divine Love as witnessed in our own day; the doors of the mansions
have been opened by Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy has written in
Science and Health (p. 99): "Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom,
and with this key Christian Science has opened the door of the human
understanding. None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door."
Christian Science shows that these mansions are not the air castles of mortal
belief, that they are not mere figures of speech, but states of true
consciousness. If one would enter and enjoy these higher states of
consciousness he has but to turn away from his impoverished beliefs of mortal
heredity called self, and he will begin straightway to find the true
inheritance of Mind or God, which, is revealed in man. Remember the word which
the Master uses to express his meaning — "mansions"! Not the mean,
dilapidated huts of mortal sense; not the hovel-belief of sickness, not the hovel-belief of false appetites,
nor the decadent beliefs of lack, discouragement, and failure — but mansions!
Mansions of health; mansions of happiness; mansions of confidence, peace, and
prosperity — a city of mansions!
[Delivered in Tremont Theater in Boston, Massachusetts,
under the auspices of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist,
in Boston, and published in The Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 15, 1929. The
last paragraph, which was overly long, was broken up for this transcript.]