Elisabeth Carroll Scott, C.S.B., of Memphis, Tennessee
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
The first mention of man in the Bible states that he is made in the image and likeness of God. The next statement concerning man tells us that God has given him dominion over all the earth. Now dominion, as all of you know, means supreme power, and one who reflects supreme power is necessarily free from fear. Today humanity is apparently very far from asserting and proving this dominion.
There is no doubt of men's attempted mastery of the physical world. Mankind seeks its mastery there — in the sea, in the air, on earth, under the sea. Yet these triumphs over the physical world have not brought surcease from fear. On the contrary, mankind today seems beset by fear. Men fear war, they fear aggression and depression. They fear one another. They even carry fear to such an extent that they fear themselves, their own weaknesses and their lack of capacity for success.
Christian Science comes to tell you that you need not be afraid. The Bible tells you that dominion is yours by immutable right, for it is God-given and coexists with God. Christian Science comes to show you that you can exercise this dominion and thereby control the everyday affairs of your life in the degree that you reflect divine law. It enables you to prove that you are not a helpless victim of chance or circumstance. On the contrary, it teaches you that you have the capacity, through Christian Science, to help others and to allow God's law to govern your own life and to make that life useful, joyful, and complete.
It is not necessary to say that the power bestowed by God is Godlike. In order to exercise this power one must understand and love God, the source from which divine power emanates.
In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its author, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes (p. 275), "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind, — that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." From this standpoint it is apparent, since God is infinite Spirit, that nothing unlike Spirit can exist in a universe created by Him.
We learn through Christian Science that God is not a faraway entity or a potentate whose favor is conferred only as we implore it as a slave implores his master. On the contrary, Christian Science teaches us that God is the only Mind, flawless and eternal. It teaches that this Mind is so invariable in its perfection that the word divine Principle is used as a synonym for the Mind which is God. It declares that this divine Principle is everywhere present, universally available, always compassionate, tender, and kind. It teaches that God is not only loving; it teaches that He is Love itself and that His love encircles His children, sustains and protects them, and endows them with His power.
In order to demonstrate Christian Science, it is essential to understand the true status of man. It teaches that from the spiritual standpoint he has always been the perfect son of the perfect Father, never less than that. The Psalmist said, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Ps. 8:4) The man of whom God is mindful is created by Him to express Him; for "Man," our textbook says, "is the expression of God's being" (p. 470).
Matter with its dying beliefs does not constitute the real man. The man created by God is one with God. He is held in indissoluble unity with his Creator. Science and Health says (p. 70), "Man is never God, but spiritual man, made in God's likeness, reflects God." This man is ageless and timeless. He is not deluded by the cult of youth nor made fearful by the threat of age, for he reflects the God who is timeless Life. Man in divine Science is not conscious of anything of which God is not conscious, for he reflects the Mind that is God. He is never restless, dissatisfied, confused, or misled, for he abides in the peace of God, his divine Principle. He does not need to progress toward perfection. In his true being, as the reflection of his Principle, he is perfect here and now. It is only the human concept of himself which needs to be evangelized, which needs to demonstrate this selfhood.
Christian Science teaches that the spiritual man's individuality is eternal. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 336 of Science and Health, "The spiritual man's consciousness and individuality are reflections of God," and on page 70 of the same book, "The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal." You need never fear that you will lose your individuality. On the contrary, through Christian Science you are going to experience the joy of expressing it.
There would seem to be a trend in the world today to deprive all men of individuality and to deny them the right to think and act for themselves. Certain Eastern philosophies teach that the extinction of man's individuality is the highest hope that can be offered to a human being. One of the chief doctrines of the totalitarian state is that the citizen must subordinate his conscience, life, and intelligence to the dictates of the state, and has no right as an individual to control himself.
Christian Science takes a diametrically opposite view: it honors true spiritual individuality, because God possesses individuality and identity; therefore, man, as His expression, reflects spiritual individuality. This is made manifest as individual, immortal men and women in Science.
The gift of infinite dominion has been granted to man as God's reflection, though humanity is, as yet, almost completely unaware of it. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, speaking of man, says: "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him" (Heb. 2:8). Jesus was the greatest exponent of God's power who ever lived. He illustrated the divine Mind. He awakened those around him to the majesty of that Mind and proved to them, by his healing work, the tenderness and compassion inherent in the Mind which is God.
Because he was conscious only of that which affirmed his unity with God, Jesus could say, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He maintained and proved this unity by his Godlike words and acts. He caused the illusion of disease to vanish from afflictive beliefs. Leprosy, blindness, lameness were healed by the power of his spiritual understanding. He proved that spiritual healing is an essential element of spiritual power, and he pointed to his healing ministry as evidence that he was sent of God. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 171), "Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the power of immortal Mind by healing sickness and sin and destroying the foundations of death."
Throughout his earthly experience Jesus maintained and proved his unity with God. He based his capacity to do the works of God upon this unity. His conscious awareness of the presence of God enabled him to remain unmoved in the presence of hate. Whether he was with his disciples who loved him or with the Pharisees who appeared to hate him, Jesus was always convinced of God's all-presence. He said, "He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone" (John 8:29). It was this awareness of God's loving presence which enabled Jesus to prove the triumph of love over hate.
Jesus lived in the radiance of Mind's eternal selfhood. He promised men freedom and set them free. He told them the conditions upon which freedom could be obtained. He said. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). He illustrated the truth of which he spoke by his life and by his triumphant victory over death, known as his resurrection.
Mrs. Eddy writes of him in Science and Health: "Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth" (p. 332); "The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God" (p. 333).
Christ Jesus expressed, demonstrated, and revealed the Christ. However, he recognized that the world was not yet ready for all he had to give, and he promised that the Comforter or final revelation of Truth would be sent by the Father and would lead humanity into all Truth. This revelation has come in our time; it is called Christian Science. It has been revealed through a woman, Mary Baker Eddy, and through her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," wherein is found the Science of the Christ.
Science and Health is not a book of dogmatic theories. It explains God's nature and makes clear His purpose and plan for His creation. It brings Truth within reach of every stage of human consciousness, from the child to the sage. It is practical and redemptive on every level of human thought.
Its author, Mrs. Eddy, as a devoted follower of the Master, Christ Jesus, perceived as no one had before, the import of his lifework. She loved her fellowmen as Jesus had loved them. Her spiritual perception, her nearness to God, enabled her to receive the revelation promised by Christ Jesus, and her measureless love for her fellowmen gave her the courage and self-sacrifice necessary to give this revelation to the world.
She says of herself at this period (Science and Health, pp. 226, 227): "I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind.
"The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of their own beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharoahs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged."
Mrs. Eddy's love for God was wholehearted, her love for her fellowmen was Christlike; therefore she did not flinch from standing alone and maintaining the Science of Christianity in the face of persecution by the materially minded and the spiritually obtuse.
She constantly turned the thought of her followers away from herself as a person to God, the divine Principle which she revealed. Yet, one cannot separate the message from the messenger, the revelation from the one through whom it was revealed. Today the movement which she founded encircles the world, and hundreds of thousands of those who have been healed and regenerated by the Science she discovered joyfully attest the divine origin of her revelation. Those who love her best are those who practice the Science she discovered and who try to bring out its Christlike quality in their own lives.
Mrs. Eddy based her discovery upon the King James Version of the Bible. Everything which she gives up in Christian Science is based upon its inspired word. Students of Christian Science love and cherish the Bible. They study it daily. They ponder it and strive to understand and to be obedient to its inspired commands.
Through prayer we learn to claim and prove our unity with God. When the disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1), they voiced a longing deep in the human heart, a longing common to all men; though many of them are as yet unaware of it. Christian Science satisfies this longing. It teaches those who come to it how to attain dominion through prayer. It teaches them how to pray and how to pray effectively.
Indeed, the prayer of spiritual understanding is the sole equipment of the Christian Scientist. Mind is his only medicine in healing the sick and sinning; just as prayer was the only medicine employed by Jesus, Mrs. Eddy writes in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 25), "Jesus' only medicine was omnipotent and omniscient Mind."
Generally speaking, mankind has been unable to pray aright, for it has been under the delusion that God is the author of all its woes. Christian Science demonstrates that God is wholly good, the divine Principle which is Love itself, and thus makes it clear that God is never the source of trouble and that whatever appears as evil must of necessity be unreal.
From this standpoint the student of Christian Science maintains the allness of good and denies the reality of evil. As this is done with understanding faith in God, evil beliefs of sickness or sin lose their hold and disappear; for in the atmosphere of spiritual understanding where God is known to be supreme, evil cannot continue to sustain a claim to presence or to power. Science and Health says (p. 102), "Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and preeminently promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore in the community." Humanity has been slow in learning the lesson "that evil is not power." It has feared evil and been in bondage to it for too long. Christian Science comes to release it from the fear of evil and thus deliver it from its effects. It comes, as Paul says, to deliver men from the power of darkness and to translate them into the kingdom of God's dear son. It agrees with Paul's statement, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law (of mortal belief), but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).
Here someone may ask: "How does Christian Science achieve dominion over evil? How is the healing work done?" In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 242), "Christian Science is absolute; it is neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it; it is at this point and must be practised therefrom."
The Christian Science practitioner learns early that his thinking must be based on absolute Truth. He affirms the truth of God and man, and he applies this truth to himself and to his patients. He knows that the real man is forever at one with the Mind which is God. He learns to deny the false mortal sense of man which has so long thwarted and frustrated human beings. This denial is as absolute as Truth itself, for it refuses to recognize anything contrary to Truth; therefore, it is found to be potent in dissipating error. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science writes in Science and Health (p. 339), "You conquer error by denying its verity." Of course, any effective denial is predicated upon a knowledge of truth, and in Christian Science a valid denial of evil is predicated upon the truth of God as All-in-all, which discloses His all-presence and all-power.
It is not difficult for anyone to avail himself of Christian Science, to learn to use its simple truths. Its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," will show you how to avail yourself of the divine power. It will acquaint you with divine law and will free you from the false so-called laws of limitation, fear, and lack. Learn to use the simple and profound truths set forth in the Christian Science textbook. Learn, through that book, how to abide in the divine presence.
God's power is available to you — use it, as a beloved son uses the riches of his father's house. Use it for yourself and for your fellowmen. It is potent in overcoming every phase of evil. It can be utilized in overcoming so-called incurable disease. I know of many instances in which such disease has been healed. I would like to share one such instance with you.
A woman whom I know was told that she had an incurable disease. She was a young woman, and the diagnosis seemed especially hard to accept; so she was taken from one specialist to another. I believe there were twelve or thirteen in all. Each one gave the same verdict. She was told to reconcile herself to a life of semi-invalidism in order to prolong a life span which it was intimated would not be a long one at best.
Through what appeared to be an accident the Christian Science textbook was placed in the hands of this woman. She read it constantly and eagerly, for she found therein a God whom she could worship, a God who is unchanging Love and who could not possibly create anything evil or afflictive. The woman had no thought of healing. Her consciousness was filled with the joy of finding her God and of finding that in her real being she was forever identified with Him as His reflection. For some months she read and pondered Science and Health; then the healing came, almost unnoticed and unsought. It has been permanent and complete. And what has ever since seemed to her of even greater importance than the physical healing was the fact that this book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," changed her life completely, and it did so at once. The healing itself seemed to her then, and seems now, relatively unimportant. It was the revelation of the Christ which mattered supremely.
The woman was healed, as thousands have been healed, solely through study of the Christian Science textbook. Thousands of others have been healed through the prayer of Truth, known as Christian Science treatment, whereby false beliefs of sickness or sin are dissipated by spiritual understanding of God and by the realization that the God-created man is perfect here and now.
The Christian Science practitioner when called upon for help makes the truth he maintains so practical and available that it reaches and heals the one who is, as yet, unaware of his present perfection. Christian Science teaches that the errors which appear to confront us are merely figments of the Adam-dream, the deep sleep which fell upon Adam. It bids us awaken from this sleep. Paul says, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. 5:14). Christian Science proves that in the light of Christ, Truth, error disappears, as darkness vanishes at the presence of light.
As you abide in the consciousness of God and try to express His love, you will find that you have the courage to recognize and face what is wrong in your life in order to correct it. Through Christian Science you will be able to change whatever may need changing in your work or surroundings. For example: if your work appears to be monotonous (and we are all somewhat in sympathy about the young woman who said that the trouble about life was that it was daily), deny it. God's love for His children is so great that He has provided interesting and fruitful work for each one of them which that one alone can do. You, too, can find the best human expression of this work, right here and now: and you can do the work when found and do it well.
If you seem to lack a home or if your surroundings appear to be drab and unattractive, you may perhaps be unaware that your surroundings may in a way be expressive of your thought. If you will allow Christian Science to show you the qualities which constitute home, knowing that they typify divine qualities of Mind such as stability, ease, inclusiveness, hospitality, and beauty, and will endeavor to express them, your surroundings will improve, and you will sooner or later see the promise of the prophet fulfilled, "My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places" (Isa. 32:18).
Christian Science, though profound, is very simple. "It is," as its Discoverer tells us (Science and Health, p. 13), "the open fount which cries, 'Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.'" The power to demonstrate it belongs to everyone. However, you will find that it requires strict adherence to the divine facts of being in order to exercise the dominion bestowed upon man by his Father-Mother God. To use God's power, men must be Godlike, and you will find that more than a mere statement of truth is required in order to demonstrate truth; you must abide in it, live it, and love it, then you can prove it, for Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and my words in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).
Abiding in Truth, accepting it as the only reality, is true prayer, as the Christian Scientist can prove for himself. Certainly it can be proved that one's ability to heal depends upon the extent to which he abides in the divine presence and expresses divine Love.
As one dwells in the consciousness of Love, he will find that he need not submit to the buffetings of evil. As an example of this: a small child whose parents were students of Christian Science burned his hand so severely that it was apparently seared white. His grandmother rushed up to him and asked to examine the hand. The child put his hand behind him and said, "It is all right, God abiding." He apparently felt no pain, and in a short time the material evidence of the burn disappeared. This child had had no false education as to the reality of pain and accident and could therefore prove his exemption from their claims.
Many of us have had a good deal of false education, and since false education might seem to be the source of most of our troubles, we need re-education, spiritual education, to enable us to claim and demonstrate our birthright of dominion. Christian Science comes to bring us this spiritual education; it comes to teach us how to pray and to prove to us that prayer is potent to heal through the irresistible impulsion and enforcement of divine law.
Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 268), "Belief in a material basis, from which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from matter to Mind as the cause of every effect." Today many physical scientists of distinction have yielded to this idea to the extent that they no longer conceive of matter as substantive. However, it was not so, when Mrs. Eddy had the sublime courage to publish in Science and Health her epoch-making statement known as "the scientific statement of being," which I quote in part: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (p. 468). At the time this statement was first made, the intellectual world was in complete disagreement with it. Not one physical scientist was found to support Mrs. Eddy's statement. Now men have dealt with the molecule and have split the atom, and many, if not all, natural scientists are in partial agreement, at least, with her as to the unreality of matter.
In his book "The Human Situation" William Macneill Dixon, after quoting several authorities, sums up the consensus as follows (p. 170): "In the age-long encounter between mind and matter, thought and thing, it is not matter which has in our time gained upon its adversary. The standard of mind it is that has gone forward, and is planted upon the captured heights." He continues, "Our successors may look back, I believe they will look back, upon us as belonging to an age in which was fought the greatest and most momentous among the decisive battles of the world."
Christian Science teaches us that matter is inert, mindless, that it is never substantive nor causative hence that it is never the substance of body and never the cause of disease. Christian Science makes it clear that humanity has afflicted itself unnecessarily through its belief in matter. It points to material belief, not matter, as the cause of disease and proves continually that correct thinking, spiritual thinking, is its cure.
It shows those who accept it that they do not in reality live in a material universe but that the material universe is but a belief or delusion of the carnal mind, from which one needs only to awaken in order to perceive the glory of the spiritual universe.
Christian Science teaches that under the deific law supply invariably meets demand. One who believes that his supply is material, that it depends upon stocks and bonds, a job or a business, is never without anxiety in regard to it, for he is well aware that his stocks can become worthless, his job can disappear, and his business fail. He is always afraid, even amid prosperity, that lack lurks just around the corner. Christian Science can release him from this fear by showing him that material belief is the cause of poverty, while spiritual thinking is its cure.
Poverty is a state of deficiency or lack, hence it could not have its source in God, who is infinite good; and since it is not sent by God, His children need not submit to it. Man, the expression of God, cannot experience what God does not know. Since it would be inconceivable for God to know lack, is it not equally inconceivable for man who reflects Him to know it? The Christian Science textbook says of man (p. 475), "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness." Such being his rich heritage, how could God's man be poor?
These statements apply, of course, to spiritual man, God's image and likeness. They bring out the absolute truth concerning this man of God's creation. This truth can be successfully applied here and now in our human experience; for as we become consciously aware of our indestructible unity with God, we see that we reflect the affluence of our divine Principle. Then we begin to see that the limitation, from which so many appear to suffer, is merely a delusion of the carnal mind. Just as the children of Israel were guided through the wilderness into the promised land, there is also a way out of limitation for us. Christian Science teaches us to refuse to accept limitation of any kind. Limitation of opportunity, of strength, of intelligence, or of environment, is an illusion. We recognize it as such only when we perceive that we receive our intelligence, strength, and capacity from God alone and that He is limitless in His bestowals.
In the measure that we ourselves express Him, we can receive and possess what He gives. A friend of mine, a practitioner of Christian Science, recently said to me: "So many people come for help about their inadequate incomes. I wonder why they are concerned about their incomes, when they should be concerned about their outgo, for the outgo determines the income." The Bible says, "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (II Cor. 9:6); and the Bible also says, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). How can one maintain a false concept of his brother, see him as fettered by false appetites, in bondage to self-interest, a victim of the carnal mind, then expect to attain for himself the freedom belonging to the sons of God? How can we express the affluence born of spiritual understanding, if we ourselves are devoid of it?
As our love goes out to our brother in ever-increasing measure, as we are generous in our appraisal of him, willing to help him, anxious to deny whatever seems to be unworthy or inadequate in him, quick to praise him when praise is merited, glad to be silent when it appears to be unmerited, we shall find that our outgo of good has increased, and we shall also find that our income of good has increased in the same measure.
The cause of all apparent lack arises from a sense of separation from good. Christian Science comes to show us that our supply comes from God alone and is a proof of our inseparability from God. It assures us that we can establish our claim to this supply as we learn to identity ourselves with the man created by God to express the riches of His love. Our supply can never be alienated from us as long as we understand its source. Since it is spiritual, we know that it is eternal and can never vanish, diminish, or be lost. We know that it is present with us right where we are; that it is sufficient for us, and that our eyes are always open to behold it.
Every citizen of a democratic nation is, or should be, interested in the government of his own country, for the quality of the government is determined by the collective will of its citizens. In the past decade it has been increasingly evident that world welfare should concern everyone in the world. The airplane is bringing us ever closer together physically, and the radio has made it possible for ideas voiced in Tokyo to be heard almost simultaneously in New York.
We find that we are bound together as never before, and we are aware that the welfare of the world concerns each one of us. Does it not then become our duty to realize and to declare that the world is governed, neither by greed nor by fear, but by God? Under the divine government, man is free. Perhaps the most Christ-like thing that we can do for our brother is to know that he is free; to know that the omnipotent Mind which governs him brings him under the rule and law of spiritual freedom.
We may well ask ourselves, "What can we do to demonstrate the government of God on earth?" In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 287), "Love lived in a court or cot is God exemplified, governing governments, industries, human rights, liberty, life." Great then is our responsibility for the well-being of the world. It is the purpose of every sincere follower of Christ Jesus to exemplify the love of God. The motive of every earnest student of Christian Science is so to live love that the activity of divine Love may be tangible and evident in human affairs, safeguarding human rights, and bringing freedom to those who, as yet, know it not.
In order to have righteous government in a nation or in the world at large, we recognize that we must first learn to govern ourselves; we realize that we must first have individual self-government based upon man's unity with God. Since man's unity with God is indestructible, man is free. The Bible says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17).
Human beings prove their right to this spiritual freedom by releasing themselves progressively from those human traits and characteristics which hold them in bondage to mortality. It is not right nor is it natural even for human beings to be hateful, fearful, barbaric. All men have the capacity to express God. One who replaces discord with harmony, disease with ease, is actually demonstrating the government of God on earth.
The oneness of God and man has never been broken. In the assurance of this divine fact we can rest and rejoice, for the truth of the unity of God and man is everywhere present to deny any illusion that man, collectively or individually, is governed by evil. The great need of humanity today is an understanding of man's own God-bestowed power. There is universal agreement that humanity needs to be saved. However, so long as it seeks to find its salvation through material means, it will seek in vain, for salvation is found solely in the realm of Spirit and is humanly evident only as the power of Spirit is utilized. The divine power is actually available here and now. It is here to be used. It is as present as is God, from whom it emanates.
Jesus said, "Behold, I give unto you power . . . over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). We sometimes wonder why so many of us, his followers, seem so reluctant to take these words of Jesus literally and why we defer the exercise of the dominion bestowed upon us to some dimly discerned and far-off future. Yet we believe that we accept the Biblical statement, "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2).
Christian Science teaches that all men are to be saved. It teaches us that we can help one another in proving the allness of God and the dominion over evil which constitutes salvation. Mrs. Eddy has given to her followers a brief prayer which she asks us to use daily for ourselves and for all mankind. It may be found on page 41 of the Church Manual. "'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!" The government of God is actually the only government on earth or in heaven, for the Bible says, "I am the Lord; and there is none else. . . . I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isa. 45:18,23).
According to Science and Health (p. 225), "The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking." Mrs. Eddy further says on the same page, "Love is the liberator." Each one of us has the capacity to think correctly, nobly, divinely. We have the capacity to express the divine Love which liberates and heals.
Let us have courage for this healing work and faith in God who enables us to perform it. If we are faithful in our work, we may see, at none too distant a date, the prophecy fulfilled: "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ" (Rev. 12:10).
For the present it is enough for us to go on and say with Paul, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:38,39).
[Published in The Milwaukee County News of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nov. 10, 1955.]