William Wallace Porter, C.S.B., of New York, New York
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
A lecture on Christian Science was given under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Winnetka, Illinois, in the Masonic Temple, 708 Elm Street, Friday evening, December 11, by William Wallace Porter, C.S.B., of New York, New York, member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
The subject of the lecture was
"Christian Science: The Habitation of Good." Mr. Porter spoke
substantially as follows:
We read in the book of Revelation: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." There is an old hymn the words of which run something like this: "I look away across the sea where mansions are prepared for me." I recall when as a boy I sang these words with the members of the congregation in my father's church. They were sung with a great deal of gusto, and with no little exercise of the imagination and emotions. But all the time there was the sea intervening between these mansions and us. In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John we read these encouraging words of Jesus: "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you."
The object of this lecture is to try to bring these mansions a little closer to our commonplace, everyday human experiences, so close, indeed, that there will be no more "sea" between the mansions and us.
A little over a half 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 toward heaven and God. Nothing was important to her but God. The outlook changed and gave brighter promise. Through the materiality of earth the woman saw a beckoning path, and into this path she resolutely turned her footsteps. Like the patriarch of old the woman looked for a city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. 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 not located in a far-off paradise beyond the grave, but that they are states and stages of true consciousness waiting to be occupied; she found her own confidence and courage ever mounting to meet opportunity; there came to her unbounded and unusual ability and success, and a higher sense of 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 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.
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.
We read in the book of Isaiah: "For thus saith the Lord . . . As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted. . . ." 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.
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 his universe."
Healing thought needs encouragement in its efforts to find relationship with the divine, or the true. Christian Science establishes and maintains this relationship.
The effect of Christian Science is seen in the building up of health, peace, safety, and prosperity wherever this Science is known and practiced. We read in the Christian Science textbook: "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts" (Science and Health, p. 261). In the 91st Psalm we read: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."
Christian Science shows that there are different kinds of plagues. There is the plague or epidemic of disease; of crime, violence, war; the epidemic of business depression or poor business, and so on. Just at the present time there seems to be abroad in the world the mesmeric suggestion of poor business. At a time like this it is well to remember that there is a positive, a definite protecting power in Christian Science which is always available to safeguard and to heal.
When a Christian Scientist is confronted by a situation calling itself business depression, what does he do? In the first place, he does not go about trying to learn what is thought about this by persons who are filled with fear, anxiety, and the expectancy of evil. He has learned that if he goes in this direction he will become more deeply mired in discouragement and hopelessness. On such an occasion as this and, in fact, at all times he is trying to hold his thought in direct and constant relation to the divine Mind, or God; that is to say, to the source of all true being to the source of all wisdom, of supply, of all good. As a result of thus holding his thought directly related to the divine Mind, or God, the ideas of the divine Mind enter into the consciousness of the individual and move him irresistibly and inevitably in the direction of his highest good.
The ideas imparted through Christian, or true Science, are always effective in this way with respect to the good of the individual. Referring to the true nature of Science, Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook: "The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, inclusive of man. From this it follows that business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. . . . It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity (Science and Health, p. 128).
If one would begin straightway to relate his thought to the divine Mind, or God, as he will be taught to do in Christian Science, he will very soon learn that he is actually coming into the assurance, confidence, certainty, and the very realization of good, which will enable him to say to others what the Psalmist so confidently said: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."
In the Glossary of Science and Health angels are defined as "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." We learn in Christian Science that one of the principal synonyms for God is Mind infinite, divine Mind and that this divine Mind is manifested in divine or true ideas. We also learn that these angels, God's thoughts, or the pure and perfect ideas of divine Mind, move upon the human mind, impelling mankind in the direction of their highest good.
How shall I bring myself under this beneficent, safeguarding influence? I know of but one way but I do know of one way and that is the way of Christian Science as set forth in the Bible and in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." If one follows this path he will learn very soon that in the way of Christian Science the religious and scientific desires and aspirations of the ages are finding full compensation and complete satisfaction.
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 if 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 moves 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 days 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.
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, accordingly 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 for his chronometer. "Why," said the jeweler, "I get the accurate time each day from the sunset gun at the barracks."
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 go fishing. He tells him to pull in the line, to take the fish home, cook it, and eat it. 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 just 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 seems very real, true, and present.
As a further supposition, 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 an 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 as real, just as it sees and accepts the hypnotic fish as real and true, and says: This is what I see. Now, where did it come from? The nature of error or illusion involves nothingness, and does not permit of explanation. You cannot explain the fish which the hypnotized person believes he caught because there is nothing there to explain. Mrs. Eddy had referred to mortal existence as a dream; she then asks a searching question, which is presented here for careful consideration: "Who will say, even though he does not understand Christian Science, that this dream rather than the dreamer may not be mortal man?" (Science and Health, p. 491).
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 be hypnotized? Here, again, these questions are prompted by mortal consciousness which does not see man, but which sees its false, distorted concepts 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.
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?
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 one 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.
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.
I know a man who today is a successful business man living in the western part of the United States. Not so many years ago this man was in business in an eastern city. He discovered he was suffering from consumption, and tried numerous material remedies without gaining any relief. His good wife finally recommended that he try Christian Science treatment. He was at that time an orthodox Jew, and resented this recommendation of his wife with great bitterness, telling her she must never speak to him again on the subject. After a further period the man decided he would seek health in a western state. He applied for admission to a well-known sanitarium, was examined, and told that one of his lungs was entirely gone and the other almost so. For this reason he was refused admission to the sanitarium.
Discouraged, but not hopelessly so, the man journeyed to another western state, registered at a hotel and took a room. One of the windows of his room looked out toward the side of a high mountain. Telling of the circumstance, he said that his situation seemed like that of a man who was trying to climb up a high mountain, only to fall back time after time. He said it seemed to him that if he could only reach the top of the mountain everything would be all right. He realized that he could not remain where he was, however, and so, sending his luggage to the railway he started to walk down one of the streets to the station. On his way he passed a cottage in the yard of which he casually noticed a sign, "Room to Let." He continued on his way for several blocks, then he retraced his steps, stopped at the cottage and rang the doorbell. The door was opened by a woman who asked him what he desired. He hardly knew why he was there, but stammeringly he said, "I saw a sign in your yard." The woman inquired, "Oh, you are looking for a room?" He answered "Yes, but I am a very sick man and I do not know that you will want to have me about." The woman assured him that he would be welcome, and then added, "But you do not have to be sick; Christian Science will cure you."
This time there was no hatred, no bitter resentment, in his consciousness as he heard the words, "Christian Science." On the contrary he said eagerly, "Oh, do you really think so?" The woman answered, "I know that it will, and this book will tell you all about it," handing him a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
He took the book and went immediately to his room. There, opening the book he began to read these words of Jesus, which Mrs. Eddy has placed at the head of the chapter entitled Prayer: "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." He stopped suddenly and asked himself, "What is this about a mountain? Why, I have been trying to climb up a mountain so long, and now this book says that the mountain will be removed; and the woman has told me," and oh, my friends, how often has it been the woman to point out the bow of promise, "the woman has told me that Christian Science will heal me." He continued with his reading day after day, and in a comparatively short time, as a result of drinking in the ideas of truth contained in this book, the man knew he was absolutely healed.
Indicating the completeness of his healing, the man applied for a life insurance policy in one of the largest companies in the United States. He was called for examination, examined, and reported to be absolutely sound. The examining physician then proceeded to ask him some of the routine questions contained in the application blank regarding his ancestry and his past state of health. The question was asked: "Have you ever had any organic disease?" The man knew he must answer truthfully, nay he was more than anxious that all should know of his healing and of how it had been brought about, so he informed the examining physician exactly what had been reported to him by the physicians at the sanitarium: That one of his lungs had been completely gone and the other almost so.
The physician looked at him keenly and said, "But you are all right now, you have no trace of this sickness." The man replied, "Yes, I am all right." The physician queried, "But how did you get out of it what did you do?" The man answered, "I was healed by Christian Science." Entering all of this in the application blank, the examining physician added his own summary in these words: "Healed one hundred per cent by Christian Science."
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. It is surprising how these unfoldments are taking place today in the consciousness of men throughout the world. The late Charles P. Steinmetz, who is looked upon as one of the leading physicists, and who stood in the foremost ranks of his chosen profession in the electrical world, left a remarkable summary in this connection, as revealed in an interview with Roger W. Babson, the well-known statistician. Mr. Babson asked Mr. Steinmetz in what department of life the greatest advance would come to the world during the next 50 years. Mr. Steinmetz thought for a moment, then replied that he believed the greatest advance would come to the world along spiritual lines. Explaining his reasons for this conclusion, he said that men and women would learn that mere material knowledge and mere material possessions do not furnish the incentives to great and powerful lives that then the scientific laboratories of the world will turn to the study of God and of man and of spiritual things.
A short time ago a well-worn copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" was opened before me. On one of the flyleaves was an endorsement that the book had accompanied its owner throughout his exploratory work in the arctic regions, while another flyleaf similarly recorded the fact that the book had accompanied its owner throughout his long and exploratory work in the Antarctic Circle. The owner of this book had many reasons to be grateful for the healing, uplifting, and protecting power with which Christian Science had blessed him, unfolding the inexhaustible riches of the divine Mind, or God.
The understanding of Christian Science is continually inspiring and impelling thought into broader realms of accomplishment.
A glowing present illustration of this may be seen in the recently announced plan brought forth by The Christian Science Board of Directors of The Mother Church, providing for the construction forthwith of a new home for The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, at a cost of between three and four million dollars. One would find it difficult to believe, were it not an accomplished fact, that where but half a century ago a few intermittent, hand-written manuscripts, dealing with Christian Science, were bravely put into circulation by Mary Baker Eddy, today there is an output of twenty-five tons of Christian Science literature being sent out daily into all parts of the world by The Christian Science Publishing Society, in Boston.
In the joyous experience of demonstrating Christian Science man's view is ever widening. New fields, more winning objectives, are continually beckoning.
Is it not said in the great day of man's creation: "Behold I have given you . . . every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed"? The fruit of a tree, "yielding seed"! Eternal instinct and ability to multiply and grow. Was it not the beloved Robert Louis Stevenson who intimated that it is more pleasant to journey than to arrive?
Two thousand years ago there was one who walked among the hills of Galilee teaching the same inexhaustible impartations of what he called the Father, as witness the words of Jesus in the fourteenth chapter 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." Jesus knew that his place was beyond the horizon of matter beyond the horizon of creed and dogma and that his work lay in preparing the oncoming ranks of human thought to receive and to enjoy the delectable states of consciousness which are being forever revealed by the Word, "In my Father's house are many mansions," many beautiful, many wonderful states of consciousness in which to live mansions of health, mansions of peace, mansions of prosperity, and, "if it were not so, I would have told you." In other words, if these treasures of existence, health, happiness, peace, protection, prosperity are to be found elsewhere than in my Father's house in my Father's consciousness if these are to be found in matter, in material medicines, or in material possessions, I would have told you.
Oh, my friends, what an endless debt of gratitude do we owe to this loving Jesus "if it were not so, I would have told you" and how well he fulfilled his mission to prepare the oncoming ranks of human thought to receive and to enjoy the inexhaustible impartations of Life and Love to men may be seen as it is recognized that here in our own day and age. Christian Science has appeared, is moving in the consciousness of men, opening the doors of the mansions. "Truth," writes Mrs. Eddy, "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" (Science and Health, p. 99). If one would enter and enjoy the mansion consciousness and after all, is not this what each one is trying to attain, the mansion consciousness? then it is not necessary for one to struggle deeply or to travel far; he needs only to turn away from his impoverished beliefs of mortal heredity to find the true inheritance of man, reflecting and repeating the capacity, the perfection of the inexhaustible resources of the creative Cause, or God.
Do you say that this is asking too much, that it is going too far, that it is looking too high? then remember the word which Jesus has used to convey to us his particular meaning he has used the word, "mansions." Not the mean, dilapidated huts of sickness and death, nor the tumbledown shacks of evil passions and false appetites, nor the dark foreboding hovels of ignorance, superstition, fear, discouragement, failure. None of these; but mansions of health, mansions of peace, mansions of prosperity a new heaven and a new earth indeed, a world of mansions waiting to be occupied.