Cyrus S. Rogers, C.S., of San Francisco, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Cyrus S. Rogers, C.S., of San Francisco, Calif., lectured on "Christian Science: The Open Door to Answered Prayer," Monday noon at B. F. Keith's theatre under the auspices of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Indianapolis. Mr. Rogers is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. He was introduced by Charles W. Hale. The lecture follows in full:
In all ages and amongst all races
there has been a deep and abiding intuition of the existence of a higher sense
of intelligence and being than that presented through the physical senses, and
mortals have made endless supplication to this concept of a power above and
beyond themselves. Yet how disappointing has been mankind's experience with prayer!
What countless appeals have gone up to the silent and the invisible with
apparently no reply. So fruitless has prayer seemed to many that they have
altogether ceased to pray and have fallen back on the unaided human mind as
their best hope for any kind of a solution to life's many problems. Just
recently there was reported in the news the opinion of one of the world's best
known and most experienced public men. He said the only resort we had was to
ourselves, in facing the trials of life, public and private; that we could
expect no help from the absolute, because the absolute, he said, was on a
different plane of being and could not come down to our level. How many have
this conviction! Many others who continue to pray as a religious formality or
duty are almost entirely without expectation that their prayers will be
answered. Oftentimes so perfunctory are these prayers that an immediate and
practical answer would astonish no one more than the supplicant. Why has this
seemed to be the general experience of mankind? Christian Science, in revealing
to us the spiritual and scientific concept of all things, including prayer
itself, has given us the answer.
In that most enlightening chapter on Prayer, the first chapter in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, may be found this statement: "There is some misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and blessedness, or we should certainly receive that for which we ask." (10:23-26). To destroy this misapprehension and thus to bring us into the realm of answered prayer is the mission of Christian Science. I am sure that every Christian Scientist, testifying out of his own experience, would gratefully say that there is no such thing as unanswered prayer in Christian Science. Think of the significance of this to us and the world! But this prayer must be intelligent, must be lawful and scientific — based on spiritual understanding, and free from the many misapprehensions which have prevailed. Let us consider a few of these misapprehensions which obstruct our entrance into the realm of true prayer and in belief deprive us of the limitless blessings flowing therefrom.
The first great misapprehension which Christian Science removes is concerning God, the creator and preserver of all. In order to pray aright, nothing can be more necessary or vital than a true idea of the nature and character of the Supreme Being, the one great Reality, who transcends mortal sight and hearing, and to whom prayers are addressed. Christian Science takes away all sense of God as in any way resembling mortal man, as in any way corporeal, limited, outlined, or changeable. It presents the idea of God as pure and perfect Mind, or Spirit, unmixed with and untouched by the elements of the transitory world of mortal sense, and dependent upon nothing but Himself. This divine Mind is the living Principle of all things, unchanging and unchangeable, because unerring, and operating always in accordance with its own perfect law. This universal and infinite Mind which is God fills all space and is eternally present with everyone, everywhere, as perfect being. He is unlimited in power, and the greatest human need measured against that power is as nothing. Christian Science has rent the veil of mortal appearances and revealed Mind as the very substance of the universe, the basis and fabric of all life, all consciousness, all identity, in contradistinction to the general belief that a blind, non-intelligent, and unconscious stuff called matter is the substance out of which all things are formed.
In Science matter becomes darkness, emptiness, and shadow, the mere negation of Mind, or Spirit, and is not at all the substance and reality it pretends and seems to be to its own fleeting senses. Through the revelations of Christian Science the world is rapidly learning to take the picture of things presented through the material senses less seriously, is gaining a new vantage point from which to view the universe, a spiritual perspective wherein all mortal things fade into dreams and illusions and forever pass outside the limitless circle of reality. "Matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions," says Science and Health (269:12). And today natural scientists are telling us that what is termed matter is not substance, and that it is illogical to formulate conclusions about the universe from the crude standpoint of the physical senses.
Whatever is not eternal is not
real in the present moment, as is now discerned and being proved in absolute
Science. And this great truth corrects a multitude of misapprehensions which
have blinded the prayers of sincere and devout worshippers in all past ages.
God, Mind, is all, the all-pervading divine Principle which creates, sustains,
and governs all things. Moreover, Mind is Love; wholly beneficent, wholly good;
conceives, sees, knows nothing but good, — harmony, beauty, perfection.
God as Spirit, or Mind, has brought everything into being, creation therefore consists of ideals of God instead of mortal objects formed of the dust of the ground. This concept of a universe of divine ideas instead of material things may seem at first too intangible and insubstantial to satisfy a consciousness steeped in materiality, but this difficulty soon disappears in Christian Science. Divine Mind being all true substance, the ideas of this Mind are tangible realities to real consciousness, and as this scientific spiritual consciousness is unfolded, the universe of Mind and Mind's ideas becomes the great and enduring reality, and the dream world of matter fades into shadow and insubstantiality. We are thus led into the correction of one of the greatest and most persistent of all misconceptions, namely, that the creation is unlike the creator; that effect is separated from and of a different nature from its cause; that the creator is all right, but the creation is all wrong; that God is perfect, but that man and the universe are sorely in need of being corrected and made over; that God is ever living, but that man sickens and dies. Such inconsistencies and impossibilities could seem true only in the realm of illusion. They are beliefs based upon false information. They find no place whatever in scientific thinking. They have no place in the teaching and practice of the original Christian Scientist, Jesus Christ. He said: "Whosoever honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father."
Is it not clear that if we conceive of creation in any detail as imperfect we thereby reflect upon and destroy to our consciousness the perfection of the creator, God? "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," Jesus further said. One will search in vain to find an instance in Jesus' teaching or practice where he was betrayed by any subtlety of evil or false evidence into accepting for a moment anything as true or real which was contrary to the wholly good and perfect nature of God. This was the secret of his power, as we are fast learning in Christian Science. When he was confronted with the thought and evidence of man as sinful, sick, and dying, he rebuked the thought and destroyed the evidence that God and the real creation might more clearly appear. How different this from the methods of uninspired teachers, who accept all evidence presented through the mortal senses as solid fact based on law and sensation. Into what depths of darkness have the theologians and philosophers of the ages been driven in an endeavor to reconcile the imperfect and hopeless picture of things presented to mortal view with a God who is Love and infinite wisdom! Uninspired thought accepts all material testimony at face value and seeks to find a legitimate cause for such appearances. Inspired thought and those who follow inspired leadership reject all evidence that belies God and His perfect creation as illusory, deceptive, mirage-like, — baseless in Principle and unreal to true consciousness. Thus, and thus only may fidelity to God and His perfect work be maintained and spiritual power realized.
One need not be disturbed because human experience and mortal evidences seem to contradict all that Christ Jesus and Christian Science reveal concerning the perfection of the creator and creation. This contradiction can be explained and is not so serious a matter as it at first seems.
We are learning that humanly we see everything through states of mind, that all outward evidence is simply an externalization of these mental conditions, general and specific. If thought is filled with fear, ignorance, and false belief, the outward appearance will be as illusory and discordant as the state of mind. Every outward expression or manifestation has its origin in a mental condition. This is a vital metaphysical truth, which shows the complete self-deception of the human mind, and the blindness and futility of material methods of trying to improve conditions. Can anyone intelligently or seriously entertain the belief that there is anything wrong with the universe when properly conceived of and understood?
Would not any professed Christian, when he thinks, be compelled to assent to the proposition that because God is infinite and perfect, His creation must therefore be right and perfect, and just as incapable of falling or becoming imperfect as God Himself? This is as elementary and self-evident in scientific thought as anything can possibly be. Why then do things seem to be discordant, imperfect, destructive, and destructible? They seem so because of the state of belief or consciousness through which they are viewed. This is the situation which each one needs thoroughly to ponder. God, man, and the universe being conceived of in Science as forever existing at the point of perfection, one begins to see what his responsibility is, and what the nature of true prayer must be. A prayer of petition to God to change conditions or to make them different from what He has made them or permitted them to be would be meaningless in God's sight and an assumption that He was failing in His function as the perfect creator and governor of all. Have not almost all prayers had involved in them this subtle preconception that God needs to be reminded of the shortcomings of His creation and His responsibility thereto?
One theological authority has said: "Prayer and the answer to prayer are simply the preferring of a request upon the one side, and compliance with the request upon the other. Man applies, God complies." A Bible Encyclopedia states it this way; "The essence of belief in prayer is that the divine mind is accessible to supplication and that the divine will is capable of being moved." These quotations probably quite fairly represent the traditional concept of prayer, as something designed to change God and cause Him to do things over and improve on His work. As we learn to follow scientific thought in spiritual things, we see how wide of the mark such prayer is and how there could be no real reply to such an appeal. It is a total misapprehension of the situation. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." (James 4:3). The entire design and purpose of true prayer is to change us, to change our thoughts and our concepts, not to change God or the eternal facts and laws of being.
"Who would stand before a blackboard," says Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, (3:4-11) "and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation."
Petition may have its part in prayer, for if sincere, it shows humility of thought and recognition of a higher power and intelligence than is expressed through matter; but it should always be a petition for what is intelligible in God's sight. God being pure Mind, or Spirit, we should ask for what Mind has to give, namely, right ideas and the qualities of the divine nature. Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellaneous Writings (307:1-2) "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn they give you daily supplies." In other words, a divine idea, perceived and accepted in consciousness, begins to produce an outward manifestation in practical human experience in accordance with the nature of God, and His infinite love and care for His creation. The crude language of the senses may give physical names to these effects by calling them physical health or physical supply, but the fact remains that they are the open manifestations of God's boundless provision for His creation. When Solomon prayed for a wise and an understanding heart there was an unmistakable answer, and the external rewards inevitably followed.
One who maintains scientifically in his consciousness the divine idea of health, harmony, and abundance, shutting out all images or beliefs contrary thereto, must necessarily experience nothing which God does not experience. This is the most simple, practical, and inspiring truth ever revealed to mankind. We may appeal to God for love, for gratitude, for right desires, and be helped thereby; but the purely scientific and perfect way is to know and declare that He has given these and all true attributes to us, that they are inherent in our nature as His children; to feel and realize this ceaselessly, and to reject and repudiate all sense evidence that contradicts it.
"The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration," says Science and Health (259:11-14). In the light of this revelation that God is eternally right, that His creation, man and the universe, are right, that everything is forever sustained in its original perfection and governed by God's perfect law, are we not forced to see what the nature and requirements of true prayer must forever be? Must not enlightened prayer necessarily be characterized by a perception and recognition of the immortal facts of being as they exist from the standpoint of perfect and infinite Mind, which includes a rejection in consciousness of every belief and evidence contrary to these facts? It must be the affirmation of absolute Truth, and the denial of all error, a positive arousing and awakening of consciousness to the reality of being. It must be a lifting of thought to God in praise and gratitude for His infinite goodness and love, for the harmony and perfection of all things. It is fasting from physical evidences, disbelieving physical testimony, and refraining from reaching deductions or conclusions based thereon. It is joyously recognizing and acknowledging God or good as ALL, and everything contrary to Him as a counterfeit presentation, as apparition, mythology, unreality. It is the systematic substitution of the spiritual and scientific concept of all things for the mortal and material. It is a realization of man's immortal unity with all good and his immunity from all evil.
The prayers of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (12:13-16). . . "were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, — of man's likeness to God and of man's unity with Truth and Love." In contemplating this perfect definition of prayer we begin to understand the marvelous results which always accompanied Jesus' prayers. We find no instance in Jesus' life and teachings of where the divine idea was ever ruled out of his thought, of where he ever held the image of evil as real, or admitted the genuineness and power of anything not truly representing and reflecting God. Here may be discerned the secret of his demonstrated dominion, and the common lack of it on the part of his professed followers. When asked by his disciples concerning a man who was blind from his birth (John 9:2-3): "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinner, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Marvelous answer! Had such a reply to such a question ever been heard before? And yet is any other answer possible in the light of absolute Science? Is it not apparent that to Jesus both the appearance of evil and imperfection and whatever claimed to cause such evidence were without foundation, outside the infinite realm of God's idea, of divine reality? Otherwise, another cause and effect than God would be established in belief, which was impossible to one with Jesus' knowledge of the infinite Father of all. To Jesus this evidently was not a mere theoretical or studied sense, but actual consciousness, the normal, natural state of creation, the only one that was real or possible.
Uninspired thought accepts as truth the whole nightmare of a material world with its sin, disease, and hopelessness, and then tries to find a real cause or basis for such contradictions of God. True prayer denies that such evidences are what they seem or that they can possibly exist other than as the externalized expressions of false belief, and repudiates the claim that there is any cause other than the one infinite cause from which all true effects must proceed. So from whatever angle we look at the situation the marvelous revelations of Christian Science are forever correcting thought and calling us back from our wanderings in the darkness to the acknowledgement of, and to loyalty and obedience to, the perfect concept. In no other way can we follow Jesus' example and begin to prove the great Principle and spiritual law progressively revealed throughout the Scriptures and which based all of Jesus' words and works.
In human experience it is rather amazing to observe thought in the light of this new understanding, to see how completely human thinking has been dominated by deception and falsity, how completely Truth has been reversed therein. To free this thinking from such bondage and enslavement by bringing all thought into accord with and obedience to Christ, or Truth, is the work of true prayer, which becomes a positive, ceaseless activity in the thought of a Christian Scientist, ever ripening, maturing, and transforming into present consciousness eternal being. The world is seeing the constant and unmistakable fruitage of such prayer today. Such fruitage must become more and more evident in the experience of the individual and of the whole race as skill is developed through practice. For every effort we make on this true basis, we are forever rewarded.
One time a young man came to me to
inquire about help in Christian Science. He knew nothing of the subject but
came in response to the request of a friend. He desired to secure a certain
position which required a medical examination, and had always been rejected
because the diagnosis was that he had defective hearing and defective organism
for hearing, a condition which had prevailed since infancy. We talked a few
minutes about some of the basic truths of Christian Science and he desired to
try it, as nothing else promised any relief. He got a copy of Science and
Health, and we applied the teachings of that book to his condition for just a
few days. I saw him only two or three times. The last time he came I said to
him, "I have a very simple but important question I'd like to ask you, and
if you can give me a correct and unqualified answer you are healed. This is the
question: If God is good, and He made all things, and He has made them good
like himself, and He is the only creator there is, where did sin, disease,
death, and all this discord and trouble come from? Take your time and give me
your best answer." And this young man almost without hesitation, and
without qualification, said, "Why,
they are not real." And he said it with conviction. He perceived it to be
true; and his clear recognition and acknowledgment of this great eternal fact
broke that spell and destroyed that evidence. He went directly to the medical
examiners, passed the examination, went into the service, and performed his
duties without the slightest difficulty.
Let no one gain the impression that because Christian Science is thus so simple that it is not powerful. The power made available to us through scientific thinking or true prayer is infinite, and that is certainly sufficient for anyone's need. Jesus' teachings were simple. You may remember that he once said: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24) Isn't that simple? To the human mind it is entirely too simple and profound for its grasp, or for any practical use. Yet, in Christian Science we see that in that statement is contained the very heart of all Christian teaching and the spirit of true prayer. Because, to admit or acknowledge that we are now in possession of all good as God's children, includes disbelieving in the reality of things contrary to good, and when one can bring himself to that point of realization and understanding, heaven has come to him. There is no mystery in the process. Everything which appears to the outward view being an externalization of states of mind and nothing else, as even natural scientists are now beginning to admit, in proportion as ignorance, sin and fear are destroyed in thought on the basis of Christian Science, the outward evidence improves. This process begun must go on progressively until a higher and higher state is attained, and finally perfection is realized.
What a glorious prospect stretches out before us in this light, and what a perpetual inspiration it is to spiritual activity and industry, to prayerfulness! Christian Science places the key to dominion in every one's hands. Having informed us of the fact that we see what we believe and having given us the spiritual understanding whereby blind belief may be constantly corrected and displaced by the perfect idea, all that remains for the winning of the heavenly kingdom is patient and persistent spiritual industry in a straight line with this revelation.
Which should govern thought, matter or God? Common human belief says we have no right to show disrespect to mortal evidences by thinking contrary thereto. Christian Science says we have no right to show disrespect to God and His creation by thinking contrary thereto. Human belief says we must change and improve the outward evidence, that thought and consciousness may be changed and improved. Christian Science says we must scientifically change and improve thought and consciousness that the outward evidence may be changed and improved. The two methods are opposites throughout. If human belief is true, we are in the bondage of all the ages. If Christian Science is true, we see heaven opening.
The Bible, rightly understood, is a purely metaphysical book designed to change mental conditions, and spiritualize our concepts. Its teachings go straight to thought and to nothing else. "The demands of God appeal to thought only" says Science and Health, (182:5). There is the vital point, the great secret, the significance of which everyone needs to brood over and endeavor to comprehend. It seems as if the last thing we ever think of doing is to repent, to be converted, to change our view and sense of things. We have been trying to change everything in the universe but our thoughts. How habitual is the practice of attributing physical causes and the consequent seeking of physical remedies! Christian Science attributes every effect to a mental cause, and thus turns one naturally in every experience to mental observations and correction, — to prayer. It removes the belief that we are surrounded by cruel, blind, and inscrutable forces operating outside the realm of Mind and Love, and brings everything within the control of spiritual understanding.
Jesus admonished us in substance to seek first a right state of mind and promised that everything else would be added unto us. In the light of Christian Science how unmistakably the Principle of being and the direct road to salvation are discerned in such a statement; but how generally as yet is it reversed in human thinking. The general cry is, add everything unto me first and then I'll be in a right state of mind. In other words, make the outward picture right and I'll think right. Put matter in the right condition, and my thought will be in the right condition. In the light of what we have been saying, nothing could be blinder than that attitude. It is a complete misconception of the whole situation. No divine light shines therein. It blinds us to our individual responsibility of right thinking. It reverses cause and effect, makes effect govern cause, and definitely indicates why we have not realized the dominion which God gave man in the beginning and which is inherent in and normal to his nature.
Every criticism and misconception of the method of Christian Science is an equal misapprehension of the method of Christ Jesus, for they are one and the same thing. Invariably these objections have involved in them the human mind's reversal of cause and effect, and its ignorance of the metaphysical fact that everything is mental at its source, and that if thought is scientifically and persistently corrected, the visible evidence will begin to change, and improve to accord therewith. "Change the belief, and the sensation changes. Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears," says Science and Health, (491:5-6). This simple metaphysical truth seems difficult for the human mind to accept, so steeped is it in its always disappointing method of reversing it, of hitting at the outward manifestations of evil without touching it at its root. Jesus said he had come to lay the ax at the root of the tree, and that is precisely where Christian Science lays it and keeps it.
A Christian Scientist has learned from experience that as thought is corrected and transformed by the perception and understanding of absolute Truth, a change is produced in consciousness and evidence. That change must, will come. Sometimes it comes quickly, instantaneously, at other times slowly and laboriously, but come it always will if this work, this scientific prayer, is persisted in. More and more power and skill come with practice and experience. One who has discerned this true way, and has put his life on this sound, scientific basis, is on the road to real dominion. His consciousness is fed as by invisible streams. His bondages and limitations begin to dissolve and his true selfhood as God's child becomes increasingly manifest. The Christian Science movement is made up of those who have come out of great tribulation, out of all kinds of apparently helpless conditions. They should be qualified to say what has wrought the change. Nothing is more vain than the speculations and opinions of those who have not been awakened to the metaphysical truths and who have had no experience in Christian healing.
A recent critic has this to say: "Christian Science is a religion for the rich, the eupeptic, the vivacious. It is a religion which brings heart to the hearty, good cheer to the cheerful; but what can it say to the dying pauper in the slums which he will not regard as an affront to the lessons of a lifetime? It will tell him his pain is an error, his illness is an error, his poverty is an error, his impending death is an error. To the downcast and the outcast such philosophy is a cruel mockery. They know instinctively that it is false." In other words the critic declares Christian Science doesn't do anything for those who really need help. And that statement is made in the face of the fact that an ever growing army of persons all over the world testify with hearts overflowing with gratitude that Christian Science has healed them and lifted them out of conditions of every name and nature, pronounced hopeless and incurable by all material systems. Christian Science reaches down to the lowest depths of human need and immediately begins to lift the individual out of his difficulty. No one is hopeless or beyond its reach. Let those who have had the experience testify. This critic has evidently gained his impressions by observing Christian Scientists. He should have seen most of us before we became Christian Scientists!
Here is the attitude of material thought and material methods: If I can't heal them, they can't be healed. If anyone says he has been healed in Christian Science it proves he didn't have anything wrong with him in the first place. If most of those who now constitute the great body of Christian Scientists were diagnosed as incurable, it proves that the diagnoses were wrong. This is the nature of material methods. They are blind to the power of divine Mind. They can see or admit nothing beyond their own limited concept and methods. Christ Jesus' method and the omnipotence of God and His spiritual ways and means of freeing and redeeming man are all unperceived and unacknowledged. They do not see that in the sight of the infinite God of Love there can be no such thing as an incurable condition for man, and that Christian Science has made practical and available to everyone God's limitless power to wipe away every stain and imperfection, to prove erroneous every evidence of man as hopeless and incurable, and progressively and scientifically to establish the immortal truth of his likeness to and his unity with the all-good nature of God. This can be done at one place and one place only, and that is at the point of thought or consciousness. If we remain under the illusion of sense testimony and material systems, real prayer is impossible and we are in a starless night where there is no real hope for anyone.
But when this divine inspiration and understanding come into consciousness and we begin to think from the standpoint of God, ignoring mortal appearances, the sky clears and the picture brightens. Christ is the Savior and Christ is Truth. We are saved from false belief and false testimony by knowing the absolute truth on every point. Whatever we think scientifically about we have dominion over and are comforted and strengthened by. This scientific thinking, this knowing the truth is true prayer, the one and only healing and saving influence. It will thus be seen how the method in Christian Science differs from all others. "By their fruits ye shall know them." I know a lady who was instantaneously healed of so called tuberculosis of the lungs by reading one paragraph in Science and Health and perceiving and accepting the truth contained therein. Is that doing nothing for the burdened, the distressed, and the hopeless? This is the paragraph which healed her: "Resist evil — error of every sort — and it will flee from you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fullness of God's idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of any kind involves weakness and suffering, — a loss of control over the body." (406:19).
When she read that for the first time did this woman consider it an "affront to the lessons of a lifetime," did she "know instinctively that it was false?" On the contrary, she recognized in it the voice of God speaking to consciousness, and instead of closing thought to it and continuing to agree with and contend for the very thing which was holding her in bondage, she rejoiced to hear the scientific spiritual facts, accepted those facts in the face of all human belief and outward evidences, and in that hour her healing came. She has never had a trace of the difficulty since.
It is the repetition of such experiences in the lives of an ever growing army everywhere which gives vitality and power to the great Christian Science movement. It is the presence and power of God made available and operative in human experience. It is the Comforter, the spirit of Truth which Jesus promised would come and lead us all into truth, the truth which indeed brings freedom, as he said. Who would or could obstruct its divine influence or stay its power? We are no longer facing the darkness. The light shines out ahead of us and the way is now unmistakable. It is simply a matter of thinking, practicing, demonstrating the great revelation progressively to accomplish all good.
And what shall we say of the one through whom this revelation has come to us in this age? Sometimes Christian Scientists are criticized for making, as is said, too much of Mrs. Eddy. Is anyone likely to be too grateful for, or to have too clear an understanding of the life and mission of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science? How could one truly understand the revelation unless he had a due appreciation and understanding of the consciousness through which it was revealed? Christian Science has always existed, but how did it come to us?
Mrs. Eddy has been persecuted as perhaps no one has since Jesus' time. Why this persecution? She never harmed anyone, and numberless people testify that her works have healed them of conditions pronounced incurable by all human systems, and what is much more, has given them spiritual inspiration and an understanding of God and man and all things which is absolutely priceless. Then why the persecution? It is because Christian Science brings into disrepute the human mind and material methods. The response and reaction of this mind to divine revelation has ever been persecution. Each one should understand this, see the animus back of it, and not be blinded or obstructed by it. The plan is to hit at Truth's mouthpiece, to produce a false concept of the revelator in order to discredit the revelation. Mrs. Eddy understood this as no one else could, explained it, and taught students how to defend themselves against it. She did this not for herself but for us, that we might not be robbed of our birthright. She, in her great unselfish love for all, not only told us the full truth about the Science which had been revealed to her, leaving no secret untold, but also in the same spirit she told the truth about herself and her own life and experience in discovering and founding Christian Science. Happy is the one who gets the answers to his questions from what she herself has said! Experience will then prove whether he has been told the truth or not.
The invitation goes out to everyone: Read her books, read the Bible in the glowing light of these books, apply their teachings to your problems, feel their influence in your life, and know in the only way it can be known whether Christian Science and its Leader are genuine or not.
[Delivered March 9, 1931, at B. F. Keith's Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana, under the auspices of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Indianapolis, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, date unknown. The date of the lecture was given in a brief summary published in The Indianapolis Star of Indianapolis, March 10, 1931. The second sentence of John 5:23, cited above, is not as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible; the quote is, however, identical to the rendering given by William Hales, an early 19th-century clergyman. It is not clear if Hales is the originator of the translation or if he is quoting another source.]