Major Chauncey Whitney Sampsell,
C.S.B., of Syracuse, New York
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Down through the ages the prophets of God glimpsed the spiritual perfection of true creation, and earnestly sought to inspire mankind with some of the immediate possibilities. Abraham, Moses, and Elijah utilized the power of spiritual demonstration in solving the problems of their times and in proving the authorization of God for their preaching.
David, the warrior prophet to the people of his time, sang, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates: and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. . . . The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory" (Ps. 24). Through inspiration David sensed that, as people lift up their thinking to the realization of spiritual values, they are able to act as clear transparencies of Truth, everlasting doors open to Love, and to help one another in overcoming the trials of human existence.
As the world's hunger for more spiritual thinking increased, Christ Jesus appeared, bringing salvation to mankind in his spiritual teaching. He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). He demonstrated the more abundant life through the operation of spiritual power in restoring the sick and the sinning to health and righteousness, and bringing spiritual gladness into the lives of the poor by lifting their thought above the belief of poverty.
According to the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, Jesus the Christ (which is the correct translation of the Greek) was "endowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, without measure" (p. 30). And as his demonstration of the universality of the divine Spirit and of the Christ nature advanced, his consciousness of himself as a human person decreased until, as Science and Health also states (p. 46), "he rose above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the material senses saw him no more."
This process of Jesus' awakening to the fullness of the Christ, Truth, is the way of salvation for us all. Jesus said, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself" (John 8:28). Here the Master is clearly saying that we shall know him truly only as we ourselves lift up the Son of man in our thought, that is, as we recognize and utilize the divine Spirit as he did. This is the only salvation. It is spiritualization of thought that saves us from bondage to sin and sickness, and from the despair of failure.
Christ Jesus never said, nor implied, that he was God. He did say that he was the Son of God, the Christ. He taught and demonstrated his oneness with God, and indicated that it was possible for us also to understand and demonstrate this oneness, for he said, "At that day" (undoubtedly meaning the day when we awake to realize and use the practical spirituality within ourselves) "ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20).
Christ Jesus was the Way, and he commanded his followers to do the works he did. Of what avail is it for us to attempt to follow in his footsteps unless we, too, as children of the one infinite Father-Mother God, claim the inherent qualities necessary to do these works?
Christ Jesus established spiritual healing as the indelible mark of a true Christian, a believer in his teachings. His inspiring last words to all ages were, as recorded in Mark's Gospel (16:17,18), "And these signs shall follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
The ever-available practicality of the statements of Christ Jesus contained in the sacred Scriptures may no longer be questioned with reason. Christian Science, firmly entrenched in the lives of thousands of earnest and grateful people, is also proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus' way of saving mankind from sin, disease, and death through spiritual healing is today effective and available to all who seek it. In the inspired Gospel of John (14:16) we read these words of Christ Jesus, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." This Comforter is the Science of Christian healing as presented in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health.
The discovery of Christian Science came about in a most logical way. In the year 1866 Mrs. Eddy herself experienced the effects of spiritual healing after an accident which caused an injury beyond the reach of material medicine or surgery. Confined to her bed in a seemingly hopeless condition, she reached out in thought to God to whom no human condition or situation is hopeless or beyond repair. As a natural sequence in a life devoted to the earnest contemplation of the Scriptures, she asked for the Bible. Opening it to the ninth chapter of Matthew, she read the Apostle's account of Jesus' instantaneous healing of the palsied man. Mrs. Eddy's spiritual nature, with its childlike receptivity to Truth, responded at once. She arose, dressed unaided, and presented herself to the astonished friends who had gathered at her home, expecting her soon to pass from this existence.
During this experience Mrs. Eddy caught a glimpse of the allness of God and the nothingness of disease and death. The mingling of love and endless gratitude made a way for divine inspiration to indicate to her prepared and waiting thought the fact that Jesus' healings were not special dispensations to a favored few in a past age, but rather the effect of the operation of an impartial and eternal Principle, the Principle and power of spiritual healing.
For three years after this experience, this God-anointed woman steadfastly applied herself to the study of the Bible, until she discovered the Science of spiritual-healing. Of this search she writes in Science and Health (p. 109), "I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration." Mrs. Eddy realized, once she had discovered the absolute Science of Christian healing, that it was the final and complete revelation of spiritual Truth. This revelation of Mind-healing is set forth in Christian Science.
While the intelligence and power of Mind, God, have always been present, the possibility of utilizing this power with scientific certainty was not evident to mankind until the advent of Christian Science. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 147), "Although this volume contains the complete Science of Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the whole meaning of the Science by a simple perusal of this book." The daily study of this God-inspired volume will reveal, in the experience of any honest and earnest student, the understanding and power of spiritual healing.
I knew a young student of Christian Science who, after receiving and enjoying the benefits of demonstration by others, found himself eager to perform a healing. One evening he had occasion to visit neighbors who were not Christian Scientists, but knew that he was one. Arriving at their apartment he found the wife suffering with what she described as a lacerated jaw due to a tooth extraction. The dentist had been unable to help her. The woman and her husband appealed to the young man to tell them what a Christian Scientist would do in such distress. This released a flood of inspiration to which both husband and wife eagerly listened. The young man had had little experience in the work of Christian Science but he remembered many of the healing promises in the Bible and statements of divine Truth in the Christian Science textbook, which he had made his own through daily study of the Lesson-Sermons. He was particularly aware of God's immediate availability, and too absorbed in declaring the truth to feel a personal responsibility, or to wonder if the truth which he was declaring would be effective. One thing he knew most emphatically, and that was that the statements he was making were God's own messages of Truth right from his beloved textbooks, the Bible and Science and Health. Finally, feeling he had done all he knew how to do, he returned to his apartment upstairs, but had scarcely reached the top step when a joyful voice called up, "The pain has vanished." It was discovered later that the healing was complete, and the jaw soon gave no evidence of having been injured.
One reason why this young man felt the immediate availability of God was because he understood God to be incorporeal, that is, without material form. Science and Health states (p. 116), "Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that God is not corporeal, but incorporeal, — that is, bodiless."
In order to heal the sick and the sinner and to prevent the inroads of material temptations, we need a concept of God that is not corporeal, but scientifically spiritual. We cannot heal if we conceive of God as material, or think of His power as limited in any way. When one understands God as infinite Spirit, or Love, and loves Him supremely, he has no difficulty in recognizing God's unlimited power, His eternal presence, or His readiness to do anything to help us. "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it" (John 14:14) are the words of Christ Jesus, and his only qualification is that our request be in accord with the nature of Christ. Does this not show us clearly that when in pain or trouble the thing for us to do is to seek to know God better and not merely struggle to get rid of our trouble? Often, in great distress, man's only prayer is one of humble petition. Sometimes an unspoken heart's desire quickly reaches the great heart of Christ, Truth. But when one spiritually understands and loves God he is never without God — without the consciousness of His presence. It is fear that would claim to separate us from God, and yet fear, has no real power nor presence. It simply indicates a state of human consciousness that does not reflect enough love.
In the Glossary of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy has given us a concise and comprehensible definition of God. Contained in this definition are these seven synonyms by which God is known in Christian Science, and I quote, "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love" (p. 587) Some of these are Scriptural names for God. Christian Science accepts the teaching of Christ Jesus that God is Spirit, and God is Life. The understanding of Spirit destroys all sense of God as material or limited. When Jesus was baptized, the Gospel of Mark relates, the Master "saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him" (1:10). Here Jesus' thought is uplifted, and he recognizes his true status as the reflection of God, Spirit. The reflection of Spirit in the consciousness of man is spiritual illumination, light. Many times we have need of more light as we proceed about our heavenly Father's business, and this necessary spiritual illumination appears as we understand Spirit, God.
God is Life, and Life can know only its eternal selfhood, in which there is no death. The Master demonstrated the immediate and effectual presence of God as Life, in his resurrection from the grave. Science and Health says (p. 76), "When being is understood, Life will be recognized as neither material nor finite, but as infinite, — as God, universal good; and the belief that life, or mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in evil, will be destroyed."
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says (p. 492), "God is Mind, and is infinite; hence all it Mind." This basic teaching of Christian Science, as it is understood, dissolves forever the belief that mind and matter combine or blend in the illusion of sin or sickness. Proportionably as one who would heal reflects Life, or Mind, the spiritual intelligence necessary to solve problems far beyond his ordinary ability becomes available to him. His sense of good is purified and established, and his ability to cooperate harmoniously and effectively with his fellow men is assured in every worthy task of human experience. We can also be equally assured that an honest and persistent endeavor to understand and reflect God as all-loving Mind will lift us out of and above any unworthy task or discordant situation in which we may find ourselves.
Truth, another Scriptural name for God, is expressed in honesty, fidelity, loyalty, and truthfulness. To the extent of our willingness to be pure transparencies for Truth we are blessed with the power to demonstrate our understanding of God. Every single honest thought and deed, every sincere and virtuous adherence to Truth reveals to our consciousness, in some measure, the presence and power of God as Truth.
Christian Science defines God also as Soul. Soul, being God, cannot be contained in or limited to any bodily thing or condition, because Soul contains all reality in itself. Soul imparts discernment, perception, understanding, judgment; therefore, these qualities are immortal. The synonyms for God are interchangeable, although, to our present understanding of Deity, each has its special value in helping us to comprehend the divine nature.
One of the most needed and yet perhaps least correctly exemplified Scriptural names for God is Love. The great Apostle Paul shows in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians that it is possible to manifest all of the outward signs of love, to the extent of understanding mysteries and all human knowledge, even of giving our bodies to be burned, without really expressing Love. This constitutes the letter without the spirit which Paul says "killeth." This use of the letter without the spirit, would, if possible, defeat our purpose in Christian Science where, to use our Leader's words (Science and Health, p. 460), "Our system of Mind-healing rests on the apprehension of the nature and essence of all being, — on the divine Mind and Love's essential qualities."
God revealed Himself also to Mary Baker Eddy as the divine Principle of man and the universe. The term Principle, although not one of the Scriptural words for God, is nevertheless an outstandingly useful and satisfying name for Him. Of this term Mrs. Eddy writes in her book, "No and Yes" (p. 20), "When understood, Principle is found to be the only term that fully conveys the ideas of God, — one Mind, a perfect man, and divine Science."
Consciousness of Principle, or the lack of such consciousness, is involved in every thought and act in our lives. Justice, faithfulness, integrity, truth, and love are all impartations of God, embraced in our reflection of Him as Principle. In the reflection of Principle there is a law of God that may be brought to bear upon any situation in which we find ourselves. A law of compassionate tenderness is available to lift the sinner out of his darkness and break the tenacious ties of self-deceiving pleasure in sin. For those struggling with sickness and the fear of death there is a law of justice that destroys these phantoms of false belief and frees the struggling heart by restoring it to its rightful health and wholeness. For every daily routine there is a law of harmony in this beloved Christian Science with which any sincere seeker may dispel the illusions of fatigue, confusion, worry, and the weight of endless tomorrows.
A Christian Scientist frequently uses the term mental picture to mean a false suggestion of sickness or sin which, unless first destroyed by Truth, might later be portrayed upon the body. In the case of disease, as soon as one's fear has been destroyed through recognition of spiritual Truth, the false mental picture disappears and the body resumes its normal expression of health. The so-called diseased condition of the body does not resist healing, nor does it delay in responding to our prayer or treatment. It is only the unwilling human consciousness that resists acceptance of the spiritual facts of scientific being, a few of which we have heard tonight in this lecture. Any one of these divinely scientific facts, comprehended and acknowledged with conviction, would heal a case of sickness or sin regardless of the material conditions involved. In speaking of her healing experiences, our Leader says in "Unity of Good" (p. 7), "Certain self-proved propositions pour into my waiting thought in connection with these experiences; and here is one such conviction: that an acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can." This unhampered recognition of the perfection of God and man is the result of one's living in constant rapport with the divine.
Our ability to comprehend or realize spiritually scientific facts is increased by progressive purification of our thinking, accomplished through prayer and obedience to the law of God. Our aim must be the complete eradication from consciousness of all taint of criticism, envy, unkindness, and pettiness, and the exercise of humility, gratitude, courage, and love. Christian healing does not necessarily require so-called intellectual proficiency, but it does require the expression of spiritual qualities such as purity, love, intuition, discernment, and intelligence.
It is essential to keep in mind that each healing in Christian Science is a spiritual experience; an awakening to our at-one-ment with God. It is not the effect of one human mind upon another. The human mind or will has no place in spiritual healing. The only Mind involved is God, good.
If God is good and God is infinite, and these are two irrefutable facts, there can be no place in Mind for sin. Generally speaking, sin is self-hypnotism, an acceptance of the suggestion that health and happiness are dependent upon matter when actually and entirely they are expressions of Life, reflections of God, good.
Sin is no more a part of the real man than is sickness. We must clearly understand this spiritual fact so that in destroying sin we do not condemn the sinner. We must love the real selfhood of the one who seems to be sinning if we would aid in dissolving his belief in sin. The Psalmist said, "The way of the ungodly shall perish" (Ps. 1).
It is imperative in Christian Science to understand the utter unreality of death, for the fact that God is Life and All-in-all is grasped and demonstrated only as the illusion called death ceases to darken our thought. On one occasion Jesus called death sleep. When he learned that his friend Lazarus had died, he said, "I go, that I may awake him out of sleep" (John 11:11).
A Christian Scientist utilizes divine logic to establish in his thinking man's oneness with God as divine Mind's perfect reflection. He realizes, regardless of what the material senses say, that God's creation is complete and perfect now. He understands that Soul, Spirit is the supreme source of all true being and hence the only cause. He knows that man, the real man, including the true spiritual selfhood of the patient and himself, is eternally perfect and forever preserved by God.
Hence he can deny with positive conviction the reality of anything God did not create, such as hatred, sin, disease, and death. He utterly repudiates the possibility that evil or hypnotic suggestion can undermine or overshadow any part of this perfect creation. He knows that the man of God's creating is not material. Christian Science has taught him that the material concept of man is a misconception which has hidden the true relationship of God and man for centuries. To be conscious that true prayer is the very word of God puts the seal of permanence upon each healing effect that is produced.
A Christian Scientist never renders a physical diagnosis of disease. He is not qualified to do so. He knows that you cannot look to the body, or matter, to discover what is in the human mind. To do this would be to try to accomplish with the material eye that which can only be done with spiritual discernment.
Science and Health states (p. 370), "A physical diagnosis of disease — since mortal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease." This statement concerns anyone tempted to submit to a physical diagnosis by a doctor, by an acquaintance, or by the patient himself. Christian Science recognizes that what appears in the body as disease is but the effect of false belief in the so-called human mind. Through spiritual discernment the Christian Scientist diagnoses the false belief to be an error of mortal mind, possibly fear, self-righteousness, envy, selfishness, or sin. The error thus brought to light is destroyed by its spiritual opposite, even as divine intelligence always blots out ignorance. Resist the temptation to believe that disease is a substance or condition of reality, and you have taken an important step towards its healing. Complete reliance on Truth brings healing.
In radical reliance on God there is a sense of great security that uplifts thought and destroys fear as well as the testimony of distressing medical diagnosis. I should like to tell you one of many instances in Christian Science where only through radical reliance on the power of God could healing have taken place.
A friend called at a practitioner's office to request help for a young woman then in the hospital where she had been for a number of weeks, gravely afflicted with so-called creeping paralysis. The doctors reported that she had only a few days to live. After seeking God's guidance, the practitioner told the friend that if the patient herself desired spiritual help and would rely unreservedly on Christian Science, he would take the case. The practitioner then went to the hospital to see the patient and to make certain that she would place complete reliance on God. Although the patient could not speak, she was able to show that she desired to do this and that she was willing to be removed from the hospital immediately. The superintendent told the practitioner that if there was any help available it would have to come at once. The patient was moved to a home, and in less than five hours took substantial nourishment. The patient's faith and obedience to the spirit and rules of Christian Science were implicit. She could not move her body for several months, but she lived happily during that time, maintaining her confidence in God with childlike trust. Her expressions of faith and gratitude inspired both nurse and practitioner. She was completely healed and is in perfect health today, an active and accomplished member of her community.
At every step there was but one question considered, What is the most scientific way to proceed? This young woman went on a ten-day mountain-climbing trip a few months after her healing.
There is no substitute for complete trust in God and in His word. Our Leader cautions us that we cannot combine material medicine with Christian Science; that we cannot worship both God and mammon. She says in Science and Health (p. 182), "We cannot obey both physiology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, and one or the other must be supreme in the affections." It is not because we have an improper regard for the well-intentioned efforts of the better class of doctors that we avoid material methods and remedies. It is because, to quote from Science and Health (p. 182), "It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we attempt it, we shall presently 'hold to the one, and despise the other.'"
Cures produced in Christian Science are permanent and sound. Once cured, the disease cannot return, as it has already, in effect, been reduced to its native nothingness when, as a false belief of the human mind, it was dissolved through the spiritualization of thought. The body will manifest a normal state of health as soon as the belief has been replaced with a spiritual idea. If the manifestation of health on the body seems slow, remember that sickness first appears as mental suggestion and that it will disappear as soon as its nothingness is mentally recognized and the spiritual facts of true being are acknowledged with conviction.
A fundamental truth in Christian Science is that matter is not substance. Obviously, if God is All-in-all, that is, the supreme, all-governing power, the entire substance of all being, then man and the universe must be spiritual. Let us thoughtfully ask ourselves this question: Did God create flesh? If so, then God created something that "profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). This is an absurdity. Perfection cannot induce imperfection. The Apostle John tells us that the Master said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."
The discoveries of distinguished natural scientists are increasingly approximating the Christian Science viewpoint. In his book, "The Nature of the Physical World," Sir Arthur Eddington writes in the chapter on "Reality" (p. 274), "In the scientific world the conception of substance is wholly lacking; . . . It offers nothing to satisfy our demand for the concrete." This statement, the result of many painstaking years of thorough research, only reaches the conclusion that matter "offers nothing to satisfy our demands for the concrete." Yet people cling to a sense of matter as substance. They do so, of course, only because they feel it is concrete, although this is now contrary to physical science so-called, as well as to Christian Science.
Proportionably as one becomes acquainted with God, Spirit, matter ceases to appear real, and our intellectual wrestlings in regard to its nature and origin disappear in spiritual understanding. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 264), "Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit." The importance of understanding the unreality of matter must not be underestimated in spiritual healing, as all sin and sickness claim to derive from matter. Actually, matter is only an illusion called mortal mind, which yields to spiritual understanding.
A materially minded person thinks of sickness in terms of matter; and through such thinking, sickness multiplies and becomes popular. The Christian Scientist recognizes sickness as false belief, and thus seen, it begins to disappear. What we call "getting better" is actually the illusion of mortal mind diminishing. Mortal mind is simply a name for that which seems to have concrete existence, as mesmeric suggestion, but which actually has no existence even in belief. In proportion as this fact is realized, the mortal or material yields to divine reality.
Scientific and metaphysical reasoning should be utilized on all occasions. In undertaking any human activity, although of a commonplace and routine nature, such as sending a telegram, going on a trip, doing necessary shopping, et cetera, it is wise to be conscious that all real activity is under the law of God. It is well to know that divine intelligence governs all and that no belief of carelessness or error can interfere with the orderly manifestation of Truth. Harmony prevails, even to human sense, as we are conscious of the presence and power of divine Mind. We are always thinking something, and we are blessed with true success in the measure that our thoughts express Truth.
It is the spontaneous understanding of the truth of being in a prayer or treatment that makes it effective. Spiritual power is not in the written or spoken word alone. That is why the use of formulas is prohibited in the teaching and practice of Christian Science. While we can indicate to another many helpful thoughts in Christian Science, actually effective prayer must be the expression of our individual reflection of God.
The purpose of Christian Science healing is not primarily to change matter, sell houses, find lost articles, or to preserve human existence, though, humanly speaking, it accomplishes all these things. The Master said, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6: 32,33). When the individual seeking healing places spiritual values first, he receives results far beyond his original expectations, results pertaining both to the human need and to his spiritual growth. Only through the demonstration of divine healing, brought about by holding to a purely spiritual concept of God and man, can we prove the complete spiritual nature of man. We must be able to say, as Jesus did, "Believe me for the very works' sake" (John 14:11).
Today we are confronted with a great need, a need that is as old as mankind itself, a need increasingly apparent as centuries pass: the need for spiritual understanding in individuals and nations, in the home, in business, and in government. Throughout all time men of great stature have prayed for this consciousness of God to become evident in men. They knew that as a man truly understands, so he lives. Spiritual understanding is the secret of harmonious and healthful living.
Among nations the expression of spiritual understanding has commonly seemed very limited, The human good in people becomes averaged with the bad when decisions are reached collectively. This points to the fact that individual improvement through spiritual demonstration is necessary before a collective standard, high enough to preserve harmony and understanding among nations, can be permanently attained. This also shows that agreement among nations begins right at home with us individually in the attainment of personal integrity, fairness, and unselfishness. But such attainment, it is to be noted, can never be adequate so long as the endeavor is to develop it upon a merely human basis. If we desire right and truly satisfactory answers to our problems, domestically or with other nations, we must learn to receive and express true spiritual understanding — understanding which fears no loss from following the leading of divine Principle.
Spiritual understanding can dissolve every obstruction in thought before it hardens into selfish policy or pride — into envy, jealousy, self-interest or petty nationalism. We must invoke divine power and love, not just in words but with deep sincerity, or we shall find ourselves supported only by the form and not the spirit of divinity; and right and well-being will be sacrificed for the sake of merely outward agreement. The humility of a burdened Solomon must subdue material thinking so that spiritual understanding may be utilized by the ruler, the economist, the politician, and every individual.
The war we fear as nations is but the externalization of another war about which we are much too unconcerned, the warfare for dominion over our individual thinking. As strife within the individual is overcome through the Science of spiritual healing, each one will be at peace with himself, and through such individual redemption war and strife will eventually disappear from the face of the earth forever.
Acknowledging and affirming that we are the reflection of God, and becoming conscious of this as a present truth, awakens in us the power of spiritual-mindedness whereby we recognize that we can do nothing of ourselves and can act truly and effectually only as the Mind which is God directs. The divine power which revealed the Truth of being to Mary Baker Eddy is through her teachings revealing this truth to us, that we, too, may individually do the works of Christ Jesus, as he promised. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" (John 14:12). The Master meant exactly what he said, and his promises are being fulfilled step by step today in Christian Science.
[Delivered on Dec. 16, 1947, at Mizpah Auditorium, Syracuse New York, under the auspices of First and Second Churches of Christ, Scientist, Syracuse, New York, and published in the Gazette & Farmers' Journal of Baldwinsville, New York, Dec. 25, 1947. The information regarding the sponsoring churches was found in an advertisement for the lecture in the Gazette & Farmers' Journal, Dec. 11, 1947]