John Ellis Sedman, C.S.B.,
of Los Angeles, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Christian Science brings a message of encouragement to all mankind. Indeed nothing could be more encouraging than the message which Christian Science brings; for it makes known to the people of today that eternal, indestructible life to which Christ Jesus referred when he said: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." We all are interested in life and in living. We long for life that is rich and full and free. We cannot be satisfied with mere existence. Indeed we cannot be satisfied with anything less than the life which is infinite, spiritual, eternal, indestructible, harmonious, happy, unfettered, perfect. Can we enter into the enjoyment of such life? Most assuredly we can, and Christian Science points out the way.
On page 468 of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, we find what students of Christian Science commonly refer to as the scientific statement of being. This statement, as well as every other statement in this remarkable book, was written by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. In this scientific statement of being, Mrs. Eddy mentions four realities, which everyone desires and which everyone needs. They are life, truth, intelligence and substance. Mrs. Eddy first points out that we can never lay hold upon these glorious realities so long as we seek them in matter. Then she assures us that we can find them in divine infinite Mind. Her statement reads as follows: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."
Thus we see, at the very outset of our discussion, that Christian Science teaches people to rely, not upon matter, but upon divine infinite Spirit or Mind. In taking this position, Christian Science agrees with the inspired teaching of the Bible. The Bible never counsels trust in matter or materialism. It urges its readers to center their trust in God, and to keep it there at all times and under all circumstances. The central figure of the Bible is Christ Jesus, the great Exemplar and Wayshower of mankind. Jesus defined God as Spirit; and he assured us that we can worship God truly only as we worship Him spiritually. He said: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
What is Life? God is Life, and God is the Supreme Being. We all intuitively feel that we owe our existence, and that everything that actually exists owes its existence, to the fact that something possesses the quality or attribute of self-existence. All down through the ages people have recognized, at least to some degree, this fact. Even savages have perceived it; and consequently, in instance after instance, they have offered up praise and thanksgiving for their blessings to some power or powers in which they believed. Christian thinkers know that God, and God alone, possesses the quality or attribute of self-existence. God alone exists at the standpoint of causation. He is the one infinite cause and creator, who produces and forever maintains and governs everything that has actual existence. Abraham described God as the ever-living God; and Moses was divinely led to know God as the great I AM.
Now it is clear that the infinite God must be present everywhere; and divine logic and revelation assure us that the presence of God everywhere renders impossible the actual existence or presence anywhere of anything that is opposed to the nature, essence and character of God. Naturally and logically then, Christian Science teaches that the presence everywhere of the one infinite God, the Supreme Being, the great I AM, who is eternal, indestructible Life, makes it impossible for death, the supposed opposite of Life, to have real or actual existence anywhere.
Here again Christian Science agrees with the Bible, and is in exact accord with the pure theology which Jesus taught and exemplified. Jesus never attributed power or reality to evil. He taught that evil is unreal and powerless, and he demonstrated the truth of what he taught. He designated death as one phase or aspect of evil. He taught that death is opposed to the nature, character, will, and law of God. In instances, recorded in the Bible, where Jesus came in contact with death, how did he deal with it? The Scriptural record clearly indicates that he destroyed it. And by destroying death, Jesus conclusively proved that death is unreal and unGodlike; for that which God produces, sustains, and sanctions can never be destroyed.
Let us consider briefly the wonderful incidents set forth in the eleventh chapter of John. There we read that an intimate friend of Jesus, named Lazarus of Bethany, fell sick. The sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, sent for Jesus; but Jesus could not go at once, and his friend Lazarus passed through that stage of human experience called death. When Jesus perceived that Lazarus had died, he communicated that fact to his disciples. But he did not say, I perceive that something sad has happened: God has seen fit to take from us our friend, Lazarus, and we must bow to the will of God. Instead Jesus designated death as a falsity, and calmly prepared to prove it so. Accordingly he said to his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake, him out of sleep."
Four days after the death of Lazarus, Jesus reached Bethany. He found Mary and Martha in deep grief, and obviously feeling that he had arrived too late. They knew that Jesus could heal sickness with consummate ease, but they did not realize how easily he could raise the so-called dead. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Jesus replied, "Thy brother shall rise again." Martha said, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus answered, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
When Jesus reached the grave of Lazarus and found it was a cave with a stone laid upon it, he ordered the stone removed. Again Martha's faith wavered and she protested, but Jesus said to her, "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" Thereupon they rolled away the stone. With calm assurance, Jesus thanked God for the great proof of the indestructibility of life which was about to be presented to those present. Then he called out to his friend Lazarus, saying, "Lazarus, come forth;" and immediately Lazarus responded, and came forth. Thus Jesus proved the glory of God to be the glory of eternal, indestructible Life which is forever expressed in eternal, indestructible life.
At Nain, Jesus encountered a funeral procession in which was being borne a young man who was the only son of his widowed mother. Did Jesus stand awed and helpless, with bowed head, while that funeral procession filed by? Most assuredly he did not. This remarkable man, who knew God's will and who obeyed God's law at every turn in the way, acted with characteristic tenderness and with characteristic vigor. With deep compassion he said to the woman, "Weep not." He touched the bier, and those who carried the young man stood still. Then he said, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." Whereupon the young man sat up and began himself to speak; and Jesus delivered him alive and well to his mother.
Jesus went to the home of Jairus to minister to his little daughter. When he arrived, he found people already assembled there, to mourn the death of that little girl of twelve. Jesus did not, and could not approve their attitude of mind, nor their conduct. He said to them, "Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth." They greeted his statement with scorn and derision. Thereupon Jesus put forth these mourners, in order to make way for a better mental atmosphere in that home. Then he went in and spoke to the little girl, and took her by the hand and immediately she arose. With characteristic consideration for all human needs, Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat; for the tender, loving Master perceived that this little girl was hungry.
Thus we see how Jesus, who understood and obeyed the will of God, ministered to the people, and healed their sorrow, not by approving death, but by destroying it. Paul said, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death;" and he described Jesus as "our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
Paul proved that death is a dream, and life a glorious reality, when he raised Eutychus who fell from an upper story window. Peter proved the same thing when he raised Dorcas. Now the nature, the will, the law, and the love of God never change. What was true and practical in the days of Jesus, Peter, and Paul, is true and practical today. I once saw a man lying with all the signs of approaching death apparent, in his appearance and in his demeanor. Then I saw him quickly throw off that condition, and I saw him promptly manifest a splendid vigor, strength, and freedom which remained with him. This change took place within the space of half an hour, when a Christian Science practitioner made plain to this man just the facts we have been considering.
A famous American writer once said in substance: I am puzzled to tell where reality leaves off, and dreams begin in my waking experiences. Mrs. Eddy pondered this important question long and deeply. She found the answer to it, when she discovered Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy saw that the nature of God determines the nature of reality. Like produces like; like cause like effect. That simple proposition underlies, and bases all true logic. Constantly in her published writings, Mrs. Eddy makes plain the fact that only that which is good and beautiful can be real; because the infinite and perfect God produces the real, and God can and does produce only that which is good and beautiful.
Sometimes people call everything that comes into human experience a dream. This practice may lead to a serious error which should be avoided. Much that comes into human experience hints the eternal real, and it should never be described as a dream. True honesty is not a dream. Courage, lovingkindness, nobility, generosity, mercy, true health and holiness are not dreams. They are glorious realities, and in our everyday human experiences we catch frequent glimpses of these realities. Noble acts and kind deeds are exceedingly numerous and common in this world of ours; and constantly they remind us of the eternal goodness and kindness of God.
Consider, for a moment, the true significance of a good deed. If we trace a good deed to the one who performed it, to what do we come? We come to a creature, a man, a woman, a child, or one of the lesser creatures; for always good deeds are performed by creatures. But if we go farther and trace the qualities manifested in a good deed to their source, we come to the one infinite God. Just as all sunbeams point to the sun, so all good deeds point to God. They make known His nature, and they reveal the activity of His perfect and changeless law which guides and governs and blesses His creatures. Hence the Master's statement, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
If we trace an evil deed to its source, to what do we come? First to a mortal or a material creature, to an animal or a human being. But what causes an animal or a human being to perform an evil deed? Always a false belief or a delusion, and false beliefs never emanate from God. They are unknown to Him. They are never found in His creation, and they are destitute of reality and power. Christian Science makes plain the fact that evil is never a person, nor a place, nor a thing. It is never the product of real law. It never enters into true living. Evil remains always in the realm of unreality. It is a delusion which Truth can and will destroy.
Just by recognizing the unreality of an evil belief, we diminish its supposed power. If an individual is in bondage to a false belief in some aspect of evil, then if we can show him the unreality of that false belief, we liberate him from bondage, and he is healed. Saul of Tarsus persecuted the followers of Jesus because he believed many things concerning God which were untrue. When Ananias, divinely led, went to Saul as he prayed for help, and lovingly healed him, a great spiritual light dawned upon the consciousness of Saul, and he became an ardent and effective servant of Christ, striving steadfastly and ceaselessly to love and to bless all mankind. I once saw a man liberated from an appetite for alcoholic drinks, and from the unhappy physical and mental effects which were the result of years of excessive drinking, when a Christian Scientist explained to him the true nature of God and man. We find the correct explanation of such quick deliverances from bondage to evil in Mrs. Eddy's sermon, Christian Healing. There on page 11, she writes: "A dream calleth itself a dreamer, but when the dream has passed, man is seen wholly apart from the dream."
Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science, which may be defined as the Science of Life, in Massachusetts, in the year 1866. The first clear, glorious glimpse she caught of this eternal Science, brought about her immediate recovery from a critical condition which material means had failed to alleviate. Thereafter she spent nine years in testing and proving the truth and the value of her discovery before he gave it to the world, which she did in 1875 when she published the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. In those years of experimentation and proof, Mrs. Eddy healed the sick, reformed the sinning, comforted the sorrowing, and raised the dying, through her utilization of divine power. In those years, she demonstrated the fact that there is no such thing as incurable disease. She cured cancer, consumption, paralysis, blindness, deafness, insanity, deformities of various kinds, and she usually effected her cures in a single treatment. What she accomplished and what she teaches has so leavened human thought that today the foremost physicians of the United States are recognizing and proclaiming the fact that there is not, and never could be, any such thing us an incurable disease. I have heard one of the ablest teachers of medicine this country has ever known, make this statement: No scientific thinker would use the term an incurable disease. In the same address, he said: The Christian Scientists claim they can cure all sorts of diseases by spiritual means alone. And to that statement he added these words, Of course they can.
In such utterances we see a sign of these times and we see approaching that happy day when Jesus will be universally recognized as our Exemplar and Wayshower, not only in religion and ethics, but in medicine, in economics, in statesmanship, and in every field of human endeavor.
False material theories depict life as a span, with birth at one end and death at the other. This false concept of life always has limited and hampered the race, and it will continue to do so as long as it is believed. Life is not a span. It does not begin and it does not end. Real life is eternal and indestructible. It is in and of God, and everything that God produces is eternal. Eternality and indestructibility are qualities of God, and they are qualities of everything that God produces. God is the eternal and indestructible Supreme Being. He produces everything that has actual existence, and He produces only eternal and indestructible beings and things. Beginning and ending are false human concepts which never appear in the realm of reality. Everything that God produces and cognizes coexists with Him. He is the ever-living creator, and all His creatures are ever-living creatures.
The false concept of life as a span tends to interfere with the freedom and happiness of little children. Material theories teach that a little child is at the beginning of life, and that he has not had time to attain much vigor. Such theories produce many of the fears which adults entertain concerning children. All such fears vanish when the indestructibility of life is seen and understood. This fact was illustrated in the following incident. A Christian Science practitioner was asked over the telephone one night, to work for a little boy who was described as critically sick. Immediately, through that spiritual discernment which characterizes Christian Science practice, the Christian Scientist perceived the conditions surrounding this little boy. He saw that the adults of the household were hovering about this little fellow with love in their hearts, and with a deep desire to help, but with hampering fears due to a false concept of life. He saw that they were entertaining thoughts of this sort: Poor little fellow, he is so tiny and frail! Is it not a pity that this problem came to him? How much better the situation would be if it were one of us: for we are adults, and we are rugged and strong.
The practitioner found himself vigorously repudiating such a concept of life. He rejoiced in the fact that God is the omnipotent and omnipresent Supreme Being, who possesses all wisdom and power, the one infinite Life who produces all life. He found comfort in the fact that the infinite God cannot and does not produce anything that is weak and frail. Everything that God produces manifests His might and power. Every creature of God is strong, free, and indestructible. Every man, in his real being, is the perfect child of God. Each individual man, spiritual and eternal, always has existed and always will exist. The individual child of God does not have to gain strength through the passing of years; because, from everlasting to everlasting, he manifests and expresses the changeless freedom and power of the one infinite God. The man of God's creating is not advancing toward the height or the noonday of being; he exists always at the standpoint of completeness, majesty, glory and power. The practitioner vigorously declared these comforting truths, and he dwelt with deep satisfaction on those inspired and inspiring lines found on page 246 of Science and Health, where Mrs. Eddy writes: "The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun." This work was done in the night, and before the next day dawned, the little boy was free and well.
A few months later the same practitioner was asked to bring comfort and healing to a household where a little child of three months was suffering. He related the incident which we have been considering. When he had finished, the young mother of the baby turned to her father and said, "There, do you see what we have been doing?" Just at that moment the baby stopped crying, and his sense of distress vanished. We can never overestimate the service which Mrs. Eddy has rendered the race by making plain the fact that evil is unreal, suppositional, and mesmeric. Sickness is always a mesmeric false sense which vanishes when the truth of being draws upon human consciousness.
The human concept of life as a span, operates to rob and befool young people by making them believe that they are in the heyday of life and need not give serious heed to spiritual things. How often some unwise older persons say to a youth: These are the best years of your life. What a limited concept of life lies behind such a remark. It is opposed to everything that Christ and Christian Science teach. Youth is naturally receptive to truth, and young people should be encouraged to improve their time in acquainting themselves with God. Only in that way can they learn what Life is, and enter into enjoyment of true and satisfactory living. Jesus taught that our present enjoyment of life is measured by our present understanding of God. He said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Today thousands of young people are proving true these words of the great Master. Through their daily and diligent study and practice of Christian Science, they are acquainting themselves with God. Consequently each day life grows richer and freer. They know that this process can and will go on through the years until at last they attain the full joy of eternal and indestructible living, because they have gained a complete and perfect understanding of God.
Material theories concerning life often hide from men and women, who have reached that stage of experience which is called old age, the joy and freedom to which they are entitled. Down through the centuries, the Bible has been telling the race that old age is a falsity which will vanish when God is fully understood. The inspired Word of the Bible promises longevity to those who love and trust God, and the ultimate vanishing of decrepitude and infirmity. In the one hundred and third Psalm, we read, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfied thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Many in the world today are awakening to the fact that old age is not a reality, and is not the product of divine law. Not long ago, the view actually prevailed that God had limited human experience to a period of approximately three-score years and ten. Many people questioned the ages attributed to certain Bible characters. They tried to explain away the age ascribed to Methuselah and others. Such a change has come over human thought in recent years, that today, natural scientists are predicting ages far in excess of any recorded in the Bible. Certain biologists now teach that old age and death are not necessities, but abnormalities, which are destined to disappear. They correctly attribute death and decrepitude to false education. They predict that human beings will attain the age of one hundred and fifty years, then two hundred, five hundred, and even fifteen hundred and twenty-five hundred years, until at last old age and death vanish from human experience. We may not agree entirely with the premises of these natural scientists, but their predictions are interesting and helpful, and a striking sign of these times.
What has brought about this marked change in human thought? Beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt, the transforming power of revealed Truth. When Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866, longevity was at its lowest ebb. Longevity began noticeably to increase in the United States about the year 1875, the very year when Science and Health was published. It has been steadily increasing ever since. In the face of prevailing views to the contrary, Mrs. Eddy made plain, in her published writings, the fact that old age and decrepitude are not necessary, and are not in accord with the eternal and beneficent law of God. She taught and proved that old age and decrepitude belong to the list of errors which the race can and must overcome, through utilizing divine power. She writes in Science and Health, page 248, "Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb."
When we contemplate the future of a little child, we expect that he will gain in freedom and strength as the years pass. We look at a young man, and we have similar expectations. We expect in him an increase of usefulness, freedom and vigor through growth and experience. Here our expectations are helpful to the child and the young man. Inevitably there must come a time when we will have the same happy expectations for everyone, including men and women of advanced years. But why postpone that happy day? Why not cherish these helpful expectations now? God is the only lawmaker, and His law is the law of perpetual freedom, spontaneous activity, and eternal, indestructible life. Each day we can accept and utilize more fully than ever before this perfect law of God. So doing we may confidently expect to grow in freedom, strength and vigor, us we grow in grace.
When Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science there was prevalent a certain false doctrine which is still widely believed. I refer to that doctrine or belief which is sometimes described as the doctrine of God's self-sufficiency. According to this dogma, God is sufficient unto Himself and needs not His creation. This doctrine is false, illogical, and absurd. It would be difficult to conceive a theory calculated to do more harm. It discourages and disheartens people to tell them, or to imply, that they have no real reason for existing. I have seen many an individual cast aside gloom and discouragement, when Christian Science made plain the fact that every child of God is essential and dear to God. In more instances than I could take time to relate, I have seen some individual, disheartened over unemployment, go out and find a good position after he had grasped the fact that just as every child of God has his place in eternity so every human being has his place to fill in time.
God is the one infinite cause and creator. It is impossible to have cause without effect, or creator without creation. God could not exist for a moment as the infinite cause and creator without producing His infinite creations. Consequently divine logic and divine revelation make plain the fact that there is an infinite and perfect creation as surely as there is an infinite and perfect creator. This creation is essential to the creator just as surely as the creator is essential to His creation. The creator and His creation coexist, and are inseparably connected. God produces His creation because He needs it, and needs everything that is in it. It is literally true that God could not exist without His creation any more than His creation could exist without Him. The Father must have His divine, eternal, perfect children as surely as the children must have their perfect, loving, glorious Father.
When Mrs. Eddy published Science and Health, with characteristic boldness, she utterly repudiated this fallacious doctrine of God's self-sufficiency. In all sorts of helpful and convincing ways she points out that God and man are inseparably connected and eternally essential to each other. One illustration will suffice for our present purpose. On page 303 of Science and Health, she writes, "God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be without a witness or proof of His own nature. Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor separated from its divine Principle."
In this instance, as in all others, Christian Science agrees with the inspired Word of the Bible. Often human doctrines attempt to exalt God, by belittling His creation: but the inspired Word of the Bible never makes this blunder. It exalts God, and it exalts His creation. The worker is known by his work. A perfect worker cannot produce anything less than perfect work. The very first chapter of the Bible declares God's work to be complete and perfect, a creation altogether good and beautiful. Jesus proclaimed in unmistakable terms the perfection and indestructibility of everything that God produces. He assured us that God keeps His creation intact, and forever sustains and preserves it. Jesus knew that God is forever conscious of His creatures, and forever blesses and preserves them. Hence his comforting words: "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."
When St. John had his wonderful revelation on the island of Patmos, he rose above the mists of material sense and beheld the eternal realities. In this experience, a false sense of creation vanished, and John beheld things as they are. But he does not tell us that in this realm of reality, he found only God. He assures us that he saw a new heaven and a new earth wherein all is good and beautiful; and he assures us that the eternal indestructible creatures of God abide there. In the realm of eternal reality where God reigns, God's sons and daughters dwell, and they are forever at peace. A knowledge of this fact (which may be gained through the study and practice of Christian Science) dispels human fears and wipes away human tears. St. John proclaimed this fact when he wrote: "I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
God is infinite divine consciousness at the standpoint of causation; and He produces eternal indestructible consciousness at the standpoint of effect. He is the one infinite divine Mind and He is Life. He is the all-knowing, all-loving, ever active Supreme Being and He produces all lesser things.
How many and what kind of creatures, does God produce? God produces only perfect creatures, and they are His divine ideas. Because He is divine Mind and eternal Life, God produces only ever-conscious and ever-living creatures. His creatures are countless in number and boundless in variety: for the divine infinite Mind must express itself in every form of beauty and goodness that is conceivable to unlimited intelligence or divine Mind. God's sons and daughters are His highest creatures.
Suppose someone should suddenly say to you: Who are you and what are you? How would you answer such a question? No one on earth today could do full justice to that question so grand is the being of every child of God. But here are a few things I can truly say to each one of you, and concerning each one of you. In what I am now saying, I am referring to the real you, to your real spiritual selfhood, and not to a mortal human concept of anyone. As the blessed child of God, you exist, not as a mortal, but as an immortal. You are without beginning and without ending. You coexist with God. You are perfect, because God is perfect. You are spiritual, because God is Spirit. You are divinely mental, because God is divine Mind. You possess eternal indestructible identity and individuality; because God produces and sustains your identity and individuality. As the child of God you are a conscious, living, eternal being, the product of God, the Supreme Being.
Please remember that in all I am now saying, I am referring to your true, spiritual selfhood, and not to any finite, human concept of yourself. All your thoughts are perfect, spiritual thoughts; for they come to you from God and return to Him. You express eternal indestructible health and holiness; for health and holiness are qualities of God forever expressed in His eternal creatures. You forever manifest wisdom, strength, and joy; because you are an individual manifestation or expression of the one infinite perfect God. No one could be more fortunate than you are, no one could be more loved, for God loves you eternally, and He blesses you with all blessings. The very essence of your being is life, eternal, indestructible, changeless, ever-conscious, spiritual life; because God is the one infinite ever-conscious Life, and God's sons and daughters express His nature, essence, and character.
In Christian Science, many terms are used to define and describe God. Each one of these terms is important, and each one can be understood aright only when it is seen to describe the nature, essence, and character of God as the ever-conscious, ever-active Supreme Being. Truth is used as a synonym for God both in the Bible and Science and Health. But here Truth does not mean to the Christian and the Christian Scientist what it means to an infidel, when he says his God is Truth, while he specifically and explicitly denies the existence of the Supreme Being. Truth is a synonym for God, because all divine Truth is in and of God, the ever-conscious, ever-living Supreme Being.
Love and Principle are glorious synonyms for God. God is divine Principle; because He is the changeless God who produces all law and is Himself law-abiding. God is the Mind that never changes. He is indeed Love; for He loves His creatures with a love that is infinite and changeless. All real love is in and of God, and hatred is unknown to Him. Hatred is a delusion which never enters into real living. Because God is Life and Love, living and loving, in final analysts, are the same thing. We live as we love, and we love as we live.
Jesus proved that God is Love by his unselfish ministry and life. He proved in his crucifixion and resurrection, the indestructibility of real life. He proved that Love is omnipotent, and that hate has no intelligence and no power. His unselfish demonstration of divine power convinced the disciples that in order to follow him they must abandon all selfishness, and love and serve mankind, regardless of how mankind treated them.
Throughout her ministry Mrs. Eddy labored, as a true follower of Christ Jesus, for the good of all mankind. She loved God and she loved Jesus. Always he was her Master and Wayshower. Never is she more eloquent than when she speaks of the great prophet of Galilee, whom she honored, loved and admired like an elder brother. She loved the race with a love so deep and unselfish that she proved she could forgive anything and everything and continue to work ceaselessly to lift the burdens from the shoulders of humanity.
Today her followers are carrying on the work which she left for them to do. They know they can succeed only by following in the footsteps of the great Master. They know the way Jesus revealed is the only way whereby the problems of the world can be solved. They know that Mary Baker Eddy discovered and founded the Science which explains Jesus' words and works, and they know this Science, understood and obeyed, can and will redeem all mankind.
Christian Scientists long to see all men blessed with all blessings. They rejoice in everything that benefits the race. They know that the power and love of God does forever enfold, preserve, and bless His children. They are grateful that they have the privilege of doing their part in furthering the fulfillment of that glorious prophecy which Mrs. Eddy makes on page 189 of her book, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, where she writes: "You worship no distant deity, nor talk of unknown love. The silent prayers of our churches, resounding through the dim corridors of time, go forth in waves of sound, a diapason of heart-beats, vibrating from one pulpit to another and from one heart to another, till truth and love, commingling in one righteous prayer, shall encircle and cement the human race."
[1934-1935.]