John Ellis Sedman, C.S., 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 is a vast subject. It has many aspects, every one important. Let us confine our attention, at this time, to one of its aspects, namely, the healing power of Christian Science. When healing the sick, Christian Science asks a fair field and no favors. That is all it has ever asked and that is all it ever will ask. Christian Science does not stand for monopolies, it does not stand for favoritism nor for special privileges. Christian Science makes known the true nature of the infinite God, who is not and cannot be a respecter of persons. God is universal and impartial in His goodness and in His kindness. He bestows blessings without measure upon all His sons and daughters. He does not and He cannot withhold any good thing from anyone. Jesus likened God's boundless and ceaseless beneficence to the rain which falls for all and the sun which shines for all.
Christian Scientists are firm believers in medical freedom, just as they are firm believers in religious liberty. Christian Scientists desire for themselves the privilege of seeking the good wherever it may be found; and they gladly concede to all others the same sacred privilege. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, once wrote, "I would no more quarrel with a man because of his religion than I would because of his art" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 270). Mrs. Eddy always respected each individual's God-given right of self-government. She never claimed any right to urge even revealed truth upon the attention of anyone. She presented the truth she discovered for the consideration of those who cared to give it their consideration. She counseled her followers to carry on their ministrations for mankind in the same spirit of Christian charity, humility, and good will which characterized the great Master and his true followers in the days of primitive Christianity. St. John graphically described that spirit when he represented the Christ as saying, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
Mrs. Eddy knew the value of Christian healing. She knew that only that method of healing which Jesus taught and practiced can lift from the shoulders of humanity the burden of human discord and usher in the reign of eternal peace, health, and happiness. Hence her statement on page 344 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "There are various methods of treating disease, which are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but there is only one which should be presented to the whole world, and that is the Christian Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us as his rich legacy."
Who was the greatest healer who ever trod this earth? Beyond question, — Jesus of Nazareth. What in all history is comparable to that marvelous healing record of the great Way-shower? Jesus healed every kind of sickness and disease. He healed with uniform success. The Bible clearly indicates that he healed dozens, scores, perhaps hundreds and thousands in a single day. No one ever appealed to him in vain and there is not in all that glorious record a single failure recorded. He healed with consummate ease. He healed instantaneously. The Scriptures record only one instance where it required more than a single effort on his part to effect a complete cure. Mark tells of a blind man who sought Jesus' help. Jesus exerted his spiritual power, and then asked the man if he could see. The man replied that he could see men, but that they looked like trees walking. Then Jesus exerted this spiritual power the second time, and the man saw clearly.
Understanding perfectly how to heal the sick, Jesus knew exactly how to reform the sinning. Jesus overcame death. He raised the daughter of Jairus as easily as he healed the man with the withered hand. When he encountered a funeral procession at Nain, the situation presented no difficulties for him. He ordered the procession to stop and proceed no farther on its sorrowful way. Then he spoke to the young man, who was being borne in that procession, and restored him to his widowed mother. The fact that his friend Lazarus had been dead four days, when he reached Bethany, in no way disturbed Jesus. He first thanked God for the great proof of man's immortality which was about to appear to human consciousness. Then he called out to his friend, "Lazarus, come forth"! and Lazarus promptly came forth from the tomb. Jesus stilled the tempest. He walked on the waves. He fed the multitude in the desert. He did it all through his knowledge of God's infinite goodness and God's infinite power. His entire ministry occupied the brief period of only three years, yet so fruitful was his life in redemptive works that his student John, at the close of his account of Jesus' life, declared, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."
There is not a statement that Jesus ever uttered which indicates that the healing power which he utilized was in any way confined to a certain period, or limited to a certain group. Everything he did and everything he said, pointed the opposite way. He taught his disciples how to heal, and they did heal. He told them to raise the dead, and they did raise the dead. He told them to preach the true gospel, and they proved that they could and did preach the true gospel by the signs which accompanied their preaching. He instructed seventy disciples and sent them forth to heal; and it is a striking fact that not a single man among them came back to report a failure. Jesus told his disciples that wherever his teaching was presented correctly and understood, healing would inevitably follow. Every Christian Scientist recognizes that there rests upon him the solemn duty and the blessed privilege of doing something to help free the race from bondage to sickness and death, as well as from bondage to sin and every other form of discord.
Here let us consider a question of vital importance to every one of us and every member of the human race. Does Christian Science ever fail? The correct answer to this question is an unqualified and emphatic No. Christian Science heals. It always has healed and it always will heal. Briefly defined, Christian Science is the term which Mrs. Eddy used to designate God's law. God's law is infallible. It can and it will heal and redeem the entire race. Occasionally someone says, "I know a person who had Christian Science treatment and he was not healed; did not Christian Science fail in that case?" It did not.
When someone tries to solve a problem in mathematics and fails in this first or in his last endeavors, does any thinking person say that mathematical law has failed? Imagine yourself picking up a newspaper and reading in large headlines something like this: Mathematical law proved a failure. Consternation reigns in financial circles. Engineers throng the streets, their faces depicting despair. Why this appalling situation? A schoolboy in a remote district attempted to solve a problem in algebra, and he did not succeed. Every enlightened person knows that mathematical law is adequate for the solution of every mathematical problem. It is infallible in its own realm. It has never failed the race and it never will. Our concept of mathematical law is a human concept, but the stability and the reliability expressed in mathematical law point to the changeless perfection and stability of the eternal, perfect, and infinite God, who is the one and only Principle. Every day, and every hour in the day, some students of mathematics fail in their attempts to solve mathematical problems, but no one is harmed and no one's faith in mathematical law is shaken. By their honest efforts these students learn and grow, and their persistent activities bring ultimate success.
In a similar way, students of Christian Science often attempt to solve problems, and fail in their early attempts, but no honest effort in a right direction is ever wasted. Every honest effort to heal and save mankind through the utilization of God's beneficent law bears fruit after its kind. Every honest and active student of Christian Science is helping himself and others through his conscientious endeavors to obey Christ's commands. God's law is ever present, and adequate for the solution of every human problem. The healing work being done by Christian Scientists today is a grand and glorious work. It is blessing the race in a wonderful way, and in ever increasing measure.
Christian Science heals through the power of God, who is Love, reflected in love. God encircles and enfolds man and the universe in His all-embracing love which never varies and never changes. God is forever conscious of all His creatures. He never forgets one of them for a moment. He loves and blesses each one constantly, eternally. A knowledge of this fact endues its possessor with the power and with the spirit of divine healing.
One day, a young man was conversing with a Christian Science practitioner. He remarked that he had never been able to say to himself, I know there is a God. He could only say, I believe there is a God. Thereupon the Christian Science practitioner expressed surprise; because he had seen this young man healed through the work of a friend. He said, Why, you have had a remarkable healing through Christian Science. What do you think it was that healed you? The young man replied that he thought it was the love expressed. He said: I am not afraid to come to you and tell you my faults; because I know you will not condemn me. I can feel that same love when you give me a silent treatment. I have felt it in other Scientists, and I think it is the love that heals. That young man was quite right. Spiritual love does heal, but the spiritual love which heals, always emanates from God, who is Love. This young man had only failed to trace that love which had healed him to its true source, the infinite God, but as he grew in his understanding of Christian Science he gained a clear realization of that fact. Mrs. Eddy has explained in her published writings and in her private instructions that her realization of God's infinite tenderness towards all His creatures filled her consciousness with a compassionate love for everyone and everything, and this realization of the omnipotence and omnipresence of divine Love enabled her to effect instantaneous cures even where the human conditions were most extreme. The poet Coleridge set forth a great truth when he wrote:
"He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
Christian Science heals because it binds up the broken-hearted. The great sorrow of heart which afflicts humanity must be healed. It will be healed when the people know God. If God were responsible for the heartaches of humanity, the plight of the human race would indeed be pitiable. But God never causes one iota of suffering. God is infinite Truth and infinite Love. Truth and Love have no kinship with sorrow or suffering. When divine Truth and Love are understood, suffering and sorrow flee away. The human race has added much to its burden by erroneously believing that God has caused its heartaches; and fortunately Christian Science is dispelling this illusion. On page 386 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth." A comprehension of this one important fact has lifted the load from many a sorrowing heart, and that I have seen proved on more than one occasion.
One day, when a small boy, I sat in my mother's room where she lay seriously ill, prostrated with grief. A very dear neighbor, a noble, generous, unselfish woman, who had experienced the sting of a deep human sorrow, came in and sat by my mother's bedside. With great tenderness she said to my mother: I know these experiences are hard, but we must bow to the will of God. My mother replied: I do not take that view. I do not understand it, but I am convinced that God had nothing to do with it. If I thought He had, I could never love Him again. But I know that I could not do a thing so cruel to anyone, and I cannot accuse God of doing what I know I could not do. The spirit of justice, humility, and generosity, which were marked traits in my mother's character, caused her to play fair with God; and this right attitude saved her much sorrow of heart. But her innate sense of justice (which I learned among my earliest experiences to honor and trust), though a great help, was not enough. A few years passed, and she was pronounced incurable by the best physicians obtainable in an area which embraced a number of states. Then Christian Science came to her rescue, and she was completely healed, chiefly through reading Science and Health. The true theology set forth in that remarkable book explained to her the nature of human discords, and made clear exactly how and why it is that no one's trouble can ever be traced to God. With that first clear glimpse of the divine facts of being, it seemed, as she often said, as though the burden of the years rolled away; and just naturally and spontaneously she became happy, well, and free.
Christian Science heals because it makes plain God's perfection. Every true Christian Science treatment is an acknowledgment of God's perfection. Such an acknowledgment always has power to uplift, to redeem, and to heal. On page 7 of her book "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy cites some remarkable instances of healing in her own practice and explains how and why the healing took place. There she writes: "An acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can."
We must all learn how to take care of our human bodies, and Christian Science teaches us how. Christian Science teaches people never to worship, never to despise, and never to fear their bodies. A noted educator once said, in substance: No intelligent man likes to be confounded with his physique; we all intuitively feel that man is something much grander than that. How true that statement is! Yet our human bodies are useful, and they should not be belittled or condemned. Neither should they be feared. A football player once remarked to me: Football has done this for me, it has taught me that my body is an implement to be used, not an ornament to be worshiped. There is a grain of genuine wisdom in his remark. The body, properly dealt with, is a very useful implement. So long as we are engaged in human affairs, it will be to our advantage to have sound human bodies, bodies that are supple and strong. Christian Science shows that it is absurd to fear the human body. It never does anything to us. It cannot. It is never self-acting. The important question always is, What do we do to, and with, our bodies?
On page 260 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "A sick body is evolved from sick thoughts." Obviously the converse of that statement is equally true, a supple and harmonious body is evolved from harmonious thoughts. As we think, so must our bodies be. When a man is in a very happy state of mind, that fact is often disclosed to his friends by the expression of his face. A beautiful thought, entertained in human consciousness, may light up the features of an individual with a smile that is truly beautiful. Everyone agrees that where there is no sin in thought, no sin can appear in conduct or in action. It is equally true that where there is no disease of mind, there can be no disease of body. When there is no grief in the human consciousness, no tears of sorrow can flow from human eyes. Whenever sick thoughts are banished from consciousness, cast out by the truth, the symptoms of disease, whatever they may be, disappear from the body.
It is impossible for Christian Science ever to injure either the human mind or the human body. Christian Science treatment always improves the mind of the individual and it always improves his body. Jesus, the Master Scientist and Master Christian, never injured any man's mind or body. He always benefited and blessed both. He restored to the so-called insane their ability to reason. When Peter drew his sword and cut off a man's ear, Jesus told Peter to put up his sword, and then he restored the man's ear. He said to the man with the withered hand, "Stretch forth thy hand," and the man did stretch forth his hand and it was restored whole like the other. Jesus declared, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Through the spiritualization of human consciousness we are blessed. Our trust should center in God, divine Spirit. We may very properly and wisely forget our human bodies so far as possible, leaving them to the care of divine Mind. On page 62 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "We must not attribute more and more intelligence to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal interfere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of erring, human concepts."
Fear is the great curse of humanity. It is the chief factor in all human discord and distress. It is always a factor in every case of sickness, and such an important factor that it is literally true that where there is no fear there can be no disease. Consequently it is true that whenever the fear has been completely removed from human consciousness the symptoms of disease, whatever they may be, vanish away. An instantaneous healing takes place whenever divine Love reaches the thought of a patient; for divine Love instantaneously casts out fear. We are harmonious just to the degree that we listen to the voice of God and refuse to be afraid. On page 410 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Christian scientific practice begins with Christ's keynote of harmony, 'Be not afraid!'"
One of the most pronounced fears of the race is the fear of various kinds of poison. Fortunately this fear, like all fears, has no true basis. God produces and sustains everything that exists, and God never made a poison. Jesus taught that a demonstrable knowledge of his teaching will render one immune to poisons of every name and nature. He said of his true followers, "If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." Jesus knew that God never made a harmful creature or thing; and what God does not make has no actual existence. The human mind conceives of poisons of various kinds, it maps out their supposed course of action, and then through prevailing human opinion, operating as if it were a law, brings about the results attributed to the so-called deadly thing. The disbelief of a single individual in the supposed action of a poison is not enough to avail against the overwhelming preponderance of human belief. But a demonstrable knowledge of God and God's law is a sure defense against the supposed activity of evil in every form.
We need to remember that all true thoughts are God's thoughts. God's thoughts come to us with the power which they derive from Him. They come always to bless. Since in God there is no harmful element, evil thoughts cannot proceed from God. Can they then express or possess power? Certainly not. All evil thoughts are unreal and powerless. They are nothing but false beliefs and no one can give them power. If we realize this fact we shall not fear evil thoughts or beliefs. Evil does not exist, because God is omnipresent and perfect. Fortunately for the race it is not wrestling with a reality called evil, it is being guided by God's power and law out of its ignorant belief in evil. The good man wields the power of God by virtue of his goodness which emanates from God. The evildoer has no power to wield. He appears to have power to harm, only because the race attributes power to evil.
It is the racial belief in evil which gives to the so-called evildoer his apparent power. Christian Science is undermining the very foundations of evil by teaching people not to attribute reality or power to evil. With every accession of spiritual understanding the supposed power of evil is lessened. Individually and collectively the race can and will prove the omnipotence of good and the nothingness of evil. Those of us who are Christian Scientists are helping ourselves and others when we obey the wise counsel given to us by our Leader, in these words: "Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210).
Christian Science heals because it uplifts the standard of man. Constantly the effort of error is to keep the standard of man's being from being lifted up to its proper elevation. To belittle anything that God creates is to belittle God. Nothing except God Himself is grander than man in God's image and likeness. God's least idea is perfect and man is God's highest idea. Just how glorious man's real being is we have at most but faintly conceived. Jesus saw the perfect man of God's creating, and his sinless human life proved the grandeur of what he beheld. St. John saw this real man when he had his wonderful revelation on the Isle of Patmos. Surely it lies not in our power to think too highly of man in God's image. Is it not a glorious and comforting fact to contemplate, that the real being of every one of us is grander than anything that we can now behold or conceive? It is so grand that it satisfies God. On page 26 of "No and Yes" Mrs. Eddy writes: "All real being represents God, and is in Him. In this Science of being, man can no more relapse or collapse from perfection, than his divine Principle, or Father, can fall out of Himself into something below infinitude. Man's real ego, or selfhood, is goodness."
Christian Science draws a clear line of distinction between mortals and immortals. Immortals are God's perfect children, existing in the realm of eternal reality now and forever. Mortals are the human concepts of man, and they may vary from the noblest, grandest human concept of man, such as Jesus presented; all the way down the scale of being to the most erroneous human concept of man. The imperfect human concept can be and must be improved. This improvement takes place through spiritual enlightenment. Each individual can and must work out his own salvation. He must detect the errors in his own thinking and cast them out. He must persist until all ignorance concerning God and man has been conquered and spiritual understanding reigns. On page 21 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives to all earnest seekers for Truth this comforting message: "If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, till at last he finishes his course with joy."
It is wise for us to keep constantly in mind the fact that while human beings must advance towards perfection, man in God's image exists at the standpoint of perfection now. Immortal man has no beginning and no ending. He coexists with God. He dwells forever in the realm of eternal harmony. God is the author of only one creation, and that creation is spiritual, infinite, and perfect. Humanity needs to awaken from a sense dream to behold the eternal realities of being. But spiritual man needs no awakening. He is awake. He is forever conscious of the glories of God's infinite and eternal creation. He understands his own completeness and perfection, and he is aware of the eternal perfection of everything that God creates. Evil never enters the consciousness nor comes into the presence of man in God's image and likeness. It cannot. Darkness never comes into the presence of the sun, nor can it come into the presence of a single sunbeam.
The Bible makes plain the fact that God is too wise and too pure to cognize or behold evil, which is always superstitious, fallacious, unreal. God's creatures all exist in God, the divine Mind; and they can and do behold only that which God produces, loves, and sustains. What a comfort it is to know that your true spiritual being, your real ego, your true selfhood, exists in God, the divine Mind. What a comfort it is to know that in the realm of eternal reality, where you forever live, move, and have your being, no evil can ever come nor even appear to come; for in the realm of eternal reality God forever reigns and He is infinite Life, Truth, and Love. Evil can never touch your real being, nor come into the presence of your true being, any more than darkness can touch a sunbeam. Only the good and the beautiful can enter your real consciousness. In reality we can cognize only the eternal things of God. On page 17 of "No and Yes" Mrs. Eddy writes: "'In Him we live, and move, and have our being;' consequently it is impossible for the true man — who is a spiritual and individual being, created in the eternal Science of being — to be conscious of aught but good."
Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866. Let us consider certain conditions which existed at that time. Longevity was at its lowest ebb. Diseases were multiplying. People looked to matter for health, and the false belief that there can exist a host of incurable diseases was being accepted without challenge. Most people supposed salvation to be for a select few, while the vast majority were to be consigned to eternal torment in a fire and brimstone hell. Then came Mrs. Eddy's healing and her gradual discovery of the eternal Science of being. Immediately upon her discovery, the thought of the race began to be leavened with eternal Truth. Truth is omnipotent, and its power can never be confined. The moment it dawns upon one human consciousness it begins not only to transform that consciousness but to make its influence felt in the thinking of others. But error always resists Truth. Mrs. Eddy met with a resistance which we can only dimly conceive. She stood alone, facing a hostile world which needed the truth, but believed it did not want it. Her followers know something of the cruelty which she encountered, and something of the change of heart which later came to many who misunderstood and rejected her teaching in those early days.
I have seen a strong man shed tears of deep regret because of the hostility he once felt and expressed towards our Leader and which he was coming to recognize as completely unkind and unfair. This man was in his early twenties when Mrs. Eddy was preaching and healing in Lynn, Mass. He saw Mrs. Eddy often. He had every opportunity to acquaint himself with what she really taught. Yet so bitter and unreasoning was his opposition to her and her work that he never went to hear her speak, he never read a line of anything she published; while he read with eagerness everything put forth by those who criticized and condemned her. Many years went by, and the Christian Science movement grew and became a mighty movement. One by one the members of his family became interested in Christian Science and were healed and blessed. He could not overlook the benefits they were deriving through their growing knowledge of what Mrs. Eddy teaches. He took up the study of Christian Science himself. He tasted the blessings of Christian Science. He caught a glimpse of Mrs. Eddy's true character, and he felt a deep remorse over his earlier attitude and conduct. Such a change will come, sooner or later, to everyone who has misunderstood and misrepresented her; for Truth cannot be permanently hidden from the gaze of any man or woman, and whenever the truth is seen, God's messengers are understood and loved.
Sometimes earnest, conscientious people say they find it difficult to understand Mrs. Eddy. There is no real reason for that feeling. Little children understood and loved her, and she understood and loved them. The virtues which stand out in the lives of great men and women are simple virtues; they have been sometimes described as the homely virtues because they are rugged and common to mankind. They stand out in great characters in preeminent degree. What are some of these virtues? Honesty, kindness, generosity, humility, courage, and so on.
Generosity was always a pronounced characteristic in the character of Mary Baker Eddy. Only a noble and generous nature could have discovered Christian Science, and only a noble, generous, and courageous nature could have founded Christian Science. Unselfishness characterized her work always. It requires unselfishness of the highest and grandest order to love the race and to work for the race when the race is offering nothing but indifference and hostility in return. And that is exactly what Mrs. Eddy did in those years when she was founding Christian Science. She healed the sick without money and without price. She faced taunts and threats. In a town where she went to lecture, she healed a dying woman; and that occurrence so stirred the people that her signs announcing another lecture were torn down and she was refused a hall wherein to deliver her lecture. She was preaching and practicing the theology of Christ Jesus, and she was meeting the same bitter resistance which he met when he preached and healed. You will recall that when Jesus raised Lazarus that event so stirred the chief priests and Pharisees that they held a council and thereafter sought an opportunity to put Jesus to death. But God upholds, protects, guides, and inspires His workers.
God sustained Mary Baker Eddy; and, upheld by Him, she won the victory. She proved that eternal Truth heals today just as it did in Jesus' time. She proved that there is no such thing as an incurable disease. She healed consumption and cancer instantaneously. She proved that decrepitude and old age are not of God, and they can be and ultimately will be overcome. She raised the dying, she comforted the sorrowing. As a result of her work the thinking of the race has undergone a wonderful transformation. She founded a mighty movement; and it stands, growing stronger, wiser, more unified with every passing hour. There is a ring of power, certainty, and finality in Mrs. Eddy's published writings which is found nowhere else, except in the inspired Word of the Bible. This is due to the fact that the Science she sets forth came to her by revelation and she absolutely established its truth through her own demonstration.
On page 110 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes: "No human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book, Science and Health; and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow it. This book may be distorted by shallow criticism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the Science and truth therein will forever remain to be discerned and demonstrated."
Christian Science shows that there is a real foreordination. It is the foreordination of universal salvation. God has foreordained that all men shall be saved. Man, in God's image and likeness, is already saved. He is already in heaven, rejoicing in infinite good. God's creation is infinite and perfect, and consequently there can exist no such thing as real evil. Humanity supposes the existence of evil, and that false supposition hides from the view of humanity the real creation of God which is present, perfect, and complete. There in that real realm of God's, there is no pain and no belief in pain; there is no parting, no heartache, no misunderstandings, no disease, no strife, no unhappiness, no lack. There everyone is happy, harmonious, holy, and free. There all the people are God's sons and daughters. God is with them and He is their God. St. John beheld this true realm in his wonderful vision on the Isle of Patmos. We are all foreordained to see what John saw in due season, and at last to rejoice in that eternal reality forever. Is that not a bright, a satisfying, and a wonderful prospect?
There is in reality no evil realm. The realm of evil is the realm of unreality. It is the realm of false suppositions. Only false suppositions hide from our gaze now the eternal and infinite good which God forever produces and sustains. It is God's beneficent purpose that everyone shall give up his trust in evil and enter into the enjoyment of eternal good through trusting in the good. On page 154 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "It is the purpose of divine Love to resurrect the understanding, and the kingdom of God, the reign of harmony already within us."
We can all do something to speed the arrival of that happy day when all men shall understand God, and suppositional evil shall forever vanish away. We can accomplish this result by watching, working, and praying, by stopping our resistance to God's beneficent law and by yielding complete obedience to it. Human will opposes the divine will. The only real will is the good will of God. Those of us who are students of Christian Science, daily, and often many times a day, pray that prayer found in our Church Manual (p. 41): "'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!" Daily, and often many times a day, we use the Lord's Prayer; and we use its spiritual interpretation found on pages 16 and 17 of our textbook. We use silent petitional prayers in order that we may hear God's voice and be guided in the way that we should go. We deny reality to evil, and we affirm the perfection of God and His creation. This work is bearing fruit, and Christian healing is operating with a mighty power and is blessing mankind far beyond the ability of any man to measure. In ever increasing numbers and with ever increasing understanding we are traveling along the right road.
On page 94 of her book "Retrospection and Introspection" our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes these words: "I am persuaded that only by the modesty and distinguishing affection illustrated in Jesus' career, can Christian Scientists aid the establishment of Christ's kingdom on the earth. In the first century of the Christian era Jesus' teachings bore much fruit, and the Father was glorified therein. In this period and the forthcoming centuries, watered by dews of divine Science, this 'tree of life' will blossom into greater freedom, and its leaves will be 'for the healing of the nations.'"
[1932.]