Earl E. Simms, C.S., of Austin, Texas
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Earl E. Simms, C.S., of Austin, Texas, a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, delivered a lecture entitled "Christian Science: Following Christ," this noon under the auspices of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, in the Colonial Theater.
The lecturer was introduced by Thomas E. Hurley, C.S.B., First Reader in The Mother Church, who said:
"On behalf of The Mother Church, it gives me much pleasure to welcome this large audience this noon to hear a lecture entitled, 'Christian Science: Following Christ.'
"All Christian religions exhort their adherents to follow Christ, but Christian Science reveals how Christ may be followed in the way that the Master commanded and exemplified, that is, by healing the sick as well as the sinning. The lecture you are to hear, which will be printed in full in today's issue of The Christian Science Monitor, will help you to see how you may follow Christ in this very practical way.
"Our speaker is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. I am happy to present Earl E. Simms of Austin, Texas."
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
In Jerusalem one bright summer morning, a native guide approached me, removed his fez, bowed from the waist, and said, "Would you like to follow in the steps of the Master?" He referred to following the human steps of Jesus as he had gone about Jerusalem. My thoughts, however, immediately centered on following him as the Christ, our Saviour, that is, on accepting his glorious teaching and example of spiritual living and healing. I seemed to hear him say. "Follow me: heal the sick; cast out demons; cleanse the lepers; and raise the dead." The humility, obedience, and love for Christ Jesus which filled my consciousness at this point will long be remembered. With tear-filled eyes, I replied, "How I would! Oh, how I would!"
John the Baptist, the harbinger of Jesus the Christ, referred to the Saviour both as the Lamb of God and the Son of God. While Jesus said of John, "Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet," he added, "but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he" (Luke 7:28). Thus Jesus indicated that whereas a person may be uncompromisingly moral and exceedingly religious, he still may not be able to demonstrate the spiritual-mindedness which heals sickness and overcomes death. This is accomplished only through a fuller understanding of Christ, Truth. In other words, important as complete morality is, this is not sufficient. In order to heal the sick, overcome lack, poverty, hatred, and fear, one must become increasingly conscious of God and His Christ. How imperative then is the Christ-command, "Follow me"!
Defining Christ in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes (p. 332): "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual, — yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusion of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death."
Jesus was the human man. His name is the Greek form of Joshua, which properly translated means "saviour." He was divinely endowed, divinely appointed, and divinely anointed to speak God's Word to the poor (the receptive thought), thereby casting out demons, healing the sick, and raising the dead. Christ is the divine title which Jesus demonstrated and earned through his spiritual and heavenly works, which are eternal examples and signs of Immanuel or "God with us." The great patriarchs of the Bible furnished, in some instances, beautiful examples of the Christ, Truth, in action, long before that glorious day when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
In every step of human experience, from his immaculate conception by the Virgin-mother through his ascension above every phase of materiality and limitation, Jesus exemplified the Christ, man's true sonship with God.
These magnificent examples were for our enlightenment, inspiration, and guidance. He promised, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12).
Webster defines a Christian as "one who believes . . . in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by him." It may be safely said that practically everyone here believes in Christ Jesus and the truths he taught, but can it be said as safely that all understand and follow him? In Christian Science, Christian means primarily and secondarily one who understands Christ, one who accepts his teachings as divine authority and strives to obey them implicitly without reservation or substitution. Thus the Christian Scientist seeks to prove his true discipleship by healing the sick and diseased, reforming the sinner, and preaching the gospel — the good news of God's kingdom here on earth — as the Master commanded.
Indeed, every pure, spiritual desire one entertains, every kind, loving, holy thought one thinks, every true, spiritual prayer one offers, every act of mercy and forgiveness one performs to further God's kingdom on earth, evidences the Christ, one's true selfhood, manifesting itself. So we see the eternal, ever-present power of Christ, Truth, operating here and now through you and me, taking away the sins of the world and healing the sick.
The term "Science" as applied to Christianity means the exact, precise, and demonstrable knowledge of the spiritual system of teaching and healing practiced by Jesus. Mrs. Eddy discovered this scientific system and named her discovery Christian Science.
My friends, Christian Science reveals that the way of salvation is to follow the Christ. Christ Jesus was not only our Saviour but also our Exemplar. He said, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). Truly the sheep follow the shepherd! The Christly way is open to all. Jesus showed salvation to be individual. It comes about through progressive, moral, and spiritual steps of repentance and regeneration and not merely through the righteous prayers and vicarious efforts of others. Jesus demonstrated this when he raised Lazarus from the dead and healed the man at the pool of Bethesda of disease which had held him in bondage thirty-eight years, because in each case there is clear evidence that he left them to work out their respective salvations thereafter.
The Master's experience in the garden of Gethsemane followed by his crucifixion is the greatest example of humble obedience, unselfed love, and self-sacrifice the world will ever know. Jesus was willing to undergo these experiences as our Wayshower and for our everlasting example.
Mrs. Eddy, whose life was one of tireless spiritual effort, unselfish Christian service, and self-sacrifice in following Christ, one who, above all others, has revealed his precious teachings to this age, writes (Science and Health, p. 25): "The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The efficacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely greater than can be expressed by our sense of human blood. The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon 'the accursed tree,' than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father's business. His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine Life."
Therefore it should be plain that salvation from sin and suffering does not come from worship of the human Jesus, neither is it dependent upon a mysterious belief that the human blood of Jesus shed on the cross serves as our atonement, that is, deliverance from sin and its dastardly effects. The only way to atone for sin is to turn from it to good. Salvation is not something which occurs suddenly at some given time here or hereafter. It is the daily demonstration in ever-ascending degree of the all-presence and omnipotence of Life, Truth, and Love, and the consequent destruction of sin, disease, and death. Paul declared, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2). Truly, unselfed love, self-abnegation, and self-immolation are the way of salvation. The day of salvation is here and now, and Christian Science through its blessed teachings shows us how to work out our own salvation. It does not come from blind faith or through dependence upon mere doctrinal beliefs. It is what you and I do every day, here and now, as followers of Christ.
Christian Science is not just another religion. Neither is it the outcome or offshoot of an
already established denominational church. It is the result of spiritual inspiration and divine revelation which came to Mrs. Eddy and teaches the precise system and method employed by the Master in the practice of the Science of Christianity nineteen centuries ago. The Christian Science church is not founded on a mortal personality, but on the divine Principle, God, Life, Truth, and Love, infinite Spirit, which, as Jesus demonstrated, heals the sick and reforms the sinner.
One needs only to study the life and works of Mary Baker Eddy to be convinced that everything she wrote and every step she took in discovering and founding Christian Science was the result of divine inspiration and spiritual revelation, hence its orderly and progressive unfoldment. From childhood on, those holy qualities of purity, spiritual insight, spontaneity, and readiness which led her to become the revelator of Truth to this age, are apparent. The founding of the Christian Science church was not a preconceived idea of Mrs. Eddy's, but its establishment was inevitable. Those healed through the Christly ministrations of this new-old truth required and demanded it. Prayerfully and humbly seeking divine guidance, the revival of the early Christian church, established by the disciples of Jesus, free from doctrinal beliefs, human pride, and fustian, was revealed to Mrs. Eddy. Just as this early Christian church was in Jerusalem but not of it, so the Christian Science church in Boston is The Mother Church of the whole world and knows no geographical or racial limitations. It is the church built upon the rock, Christ, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. (See Matt. 16:18.)
Since Christian Science is approximating the works performed by Jesus and his early followers in healing the sick and comforting the sorrowful, does it not fulfill his promise, "And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever"? (John 14:16) The Christian Scientist acknowledges that Mrs. Eddy and her precious discovery fulfill St. John's prophecy recorded in Revelation, chapter twelve; and further that the "little book" which the beloved disciple saw in the hand of the mighty angel which came down from heaven (Rev. 10:1,2) symbolizes divine Science, revealed in our own age to Mrs. Eddy and set forth by her in its purity and completeness in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Truly, the world owes Mary Baker Eddy an ever-mounting debt of gratitude.
Her pure, loving, self-effacing nature is disclosed in this admonition to her followers, "Finally, brethren, wait patiently on God; returning blessing for cursing; be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good; be steadfast, abide and abound in faith, understanding, and good works: study the Bible and the textbook of our denomination; obey strictly the laws that be, and follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ" (Message for 1901, p. 34). When one properly appraises the life and character of the divinely inspired author of Science and Health, he finds the truths this priceless volume contains more readily demonstrated.
When the glorious Biblical records of deliverance, healing, and saving from the effects of pestilence and famine have been recounted, have you not heard it said many times, "Oh, those are just rare instances of divine intervention; those days are passed and gone"? Then, too, when Jesus' teachings and demonstrations have been cited as precedents for present-day practice, have you not heard the objection: "But that was Jesus and his disciples! Those were miracles for a selected people and for a limited period of time; but we shouldn't expect such things now"? Why shouldn't we expect them now? For three hundred years after the ascension of Jesus, followers of Christ who had never seen the Master or even one of his original disciples were able through his teachings to heal all manner of sickness and disease and to raise the dead. Is the world approaching dark ages when spiritual healing and Christlike demonstrations are to be ruled out in favor of material science, physiology, and scholastic theology? Christ Jesus subordinated not one iota of God's healing power to the material systems of his day, and there is no authority for the current false belief that Christian healing through prayer has been either supplanted or complemented by material medicine, drugs, or surgery.
My friends, the holy, spiritual revelation of God's presence and power to the patriarchs of the Old Testament and the glorious teaching and example of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, are just as practicable today as they were centuries ago. If such is not true, then we may as well close the Holy Bible and surrender our God-given birthright of freedom and dominion to lives of limitation, lack, and hopelessness. We may as well give ourselves over to compulsory medicine and regimentation which are attempting to make inroads upon our constitutional prerogative to select for ourselves the system of preventive and curative medicine which we desire.
Speaking of the Bible as her "sole teacher" and only textbook in her discovery of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy declares: "I have demonstrated through Mind the effects of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only authority. I have had no other guide in 'the straight and narrow way' of Truth" (Science and Health, p. 126).
That finite, personal opinions might be eliminated and that the preaching be kept entirely spiritual and purely metaphysical in Christian Science churches, Mrs. Eddy was divinely led to ordain the Bible and the Christian Science textbook as the only preachers in her church. The Bible used in Christian Science churches is the King James Version. These books, together with the Christian Science Quarterly, provide the Christian Science Lesson-Sermon and they may be studied, borrowed, or purchased in any Christian Science Reading Room. So, my friends, the portal to great spiritual discoveries, revelation, and physical healing is open to you. If you will take up the daily, systematic study of these volumes at once you may thereby begin to enjoy greater confidence in good, genuine happiness, and fuller freedom.
In the first chapter of Genesis is recorded that God expressed Himself in light. This light revealed man and the universe made in His, God's, likeness. He said, "Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). The beloved disciple, John, understood this clearly, for he says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). He then goes on to entreat all to walk in light, wherein man's true selfhood is revealed as the son of God.
The first verse in the Bible, namely, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," is actually the full, complete, and all-inclusive statement of the spiritual fact of creation. Christian Science teaches that when the spiritual universe, that is heaven and earth, is referred to, man is included. Just so, when spiritual man is referred to, the inclusion of the universe is implied.
Then let it be understood that according to divine revelation, which came to Mrs. Eddy in Christian Science, the basic truth of all real being is set forth in the first chapter of Genesis, where it is recorded (Gen. 1:26,31): "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. . . . And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."
Christian Science teaches and demonstrates that God is divine Mind, infinite Spirit, eternal perfection, the one and only cause and creator. Hence it teaches and demonstrates that man, God's image and likeness, is of necessity spiritual, perfect, and eternal; that God has never changed from omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient good; and therefore neither has man, God's spiritual offspring, lost perfection, fallen from grace, or moved beyond God's perpetual love, government, direction, and protection. Then is it not clear that spiritual man, your true selfhood and mine, can never sin and that man's life is not subject to chance, deformity, or false claims of heredity, disease, decrepitude, and death?
God's creation is finished and complete, as the Scripture declares. More of creation is ever appearing because of the inexhaustible and eternal nature of its source. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 520): "Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough! Human language can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what exists. The absolute ideal, man, is not more seen or comprehended by mortals, than is his infinite Principle, Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and eternal. The numerals of infinity, called seven days, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine infinite calculus." Thus God and man are revealed as cause and effect, creator and creation, Spirit and Spirit's offspring, Mind and idea, Father and son. My friends, your true selfhood reflects God and is therefore perfect, spiritual, harmonious, complete, active, happy, joyous, and eternally free, with dominion over all things. This is your God-given birthright. Never forsake it!
One evening, following a Christian Science testimony meeting at which a speaker told of the healing in Christian Science of the smoking habit, social drinking, and the use of profanity, a young man who had done considerable service in our armed forces overseas said, "That testimony impels me to ask: 'Why should one desire to be healed of such things? If we live in a material universe and are ourselves mortals, why are we as Christian Scientists always bucking the material ways and trends? Why not go along with the rest of the world and accept things as they are?'"
Now, that is not an unreasonable question. First of all, let it be understood that the Christian Scientist is not bucking anything good in human experience, but is nurturing it, because he realizes that the presence and power of good in his human experience evidences the Christ, which Mrs. Eddy defines in Science and Health as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (p. 583). The Scientist persistently rejects the worldly, the unclean, and the unholy. He abides by the all-inclusive, unchanging, ever-present fact that God is infinite, divine, supreme Spirit and is eternally All; and that He alone is the creator of the universe, including man in His image and likeness. The understanding of God as infinite Spirit completely eliminates the false theory that God's creation, the universe including man, could possibly be material, finite, or limited.
To the materially-minded, all seems to be material. That which is imperceptible to the physical senses he considers abstract, unreal, intangible, and consequently impracticable. His universe, including his concept of man himself, is temporal, limited, and subject to chance and dissolution. One who is spiritually minded, however, appreciates the preacher's declaration, when he said of evil days and worldly pleasures, "Vanity of vanities. . . all is vanity" (Eccl. 12:8). The glamour, gaudiness, and attraction of material pleasures are empty and short-lived; they grant no lasting happiness or contentment. Following the crowd, going downstream with the masses seeking happiness, joy, and success in material living is not the way of salvation and complete victory, but plainly leads to a dead end of confusion and frustration.
The Master's experience recorded in Matthew's Gospel shows definitely that all materiality and worldliness must be forsaken for spirituality in order to attain the happiness and success which are real and lasting. The devil, the tempter, took him up into a high mountain and showed him "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them," and promised, "All these things will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me" (Matt. 4:8,9).
Jesus could not be deceived by evil's false promises, which attempted to mesmerize him into accepting the world as a reality, and thereby cause him to forsake his understanding of God as Spirit and man and the universe as spiritual, perfect, and eternal in God, the divine Mind. My friends, obviously Jesus was in the world, but not of it, as he said. He resisted and defeated the temptation of the evil one to turn him from his mission of demonstrating man's true spiritual nature, the Christ, which is ever your true selfhood and mine.
Turning on the aggressive mental suggester and his lying suggestion, namely, that a matter world and so-called mortal man are realities of being, Jesus spoke with authority, power, and determination, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10). It is recorded that the devil left him and that angels came and ministered unto him. Truly did Jesus turn the mount of temptation into the mount of triumph. He is indeed our Wayshower. So, "Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being," Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 41).
So, when the tempter comes to us, urging us into the stream of worldliness, mass mesmerism, and arguing that the kingdom of heaven on earth is an idealistic dream, beautiful in theory but impracticable, also that we are fighting a losing battle against great odds, let us emulate our Master and ascend the mount of triumph. From this glorious mountaintop of spiritual inspiration we, too, can see beyond a finite, temporal, material concept of the universe into the realm of Spirit, where all is made and governed by God, infinite Mind. We are able to do this only as we reject, repudiate, and reverse every false argument that there is life, truth, intelligence, substance, power, or law in matter. It is thus that we realize, in some degree, the presence, here and now, of spiritual perfection, and are able to demonstrate our God-given birthright of freedom and dominion, namely, perfect health, joy, success, and satisfaction. Does not this make plain Paul's glorious promise: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death"? (Rom. 8:1,2)
To the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well Jesus declared, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship" (John 4:22). Do we all really know what we worship? This is an all-important question. Has not the crying need of all mankind ever been one of knowing or understanding God? On every side the need in human affairs for the ever-operative law of God, omnipotent Truth and Love, is apparent.
It is astounding how many believe in God and yet have little or no understanding of Him. Among your friends and mine, there are few who do not profess to believe in God. One who believed in God without understanding Him said: "God is a flickering flame hidden away in consciousness, which the individual holds sacred, and of which he seldom speaks, but always knows is there." Yet another whose belief goes beyond this may say, "God is all-powerful and present," and still not know Him as the one Mind, infinite Life, divine Love, an ever-present help, therefore always available as the great Physician, the healer of every phase of sin and disease.
Christian Science, through its demonstrable teachings concerning the Supreme Being, breaks the mesmeric arguments of atheism, polytheism, and agnosticism, and reveals God as the Adorable One, whose unchangeable law is manifested in individual experience, as well as in the affairs of the world. The Christian Science textbook defines God as "the great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence" (p. 587).
Thus it is that this Science reveals God not as a magnified mortal sitting in some remote place called heaven and dealing out good or bad according to the fervency of human prayer, but as ever-present, all-powerful, all-intelligent, and all-acting good. Thus we see the power of God operating here and now in human affairs through His ever-present Christ, which destroys the errors of the flesh by revealing spiritual harmony, peace, health, and prosperity to be the true and eternal status of man as the expression of God.
Truly, Christian Science makes God practical and understandable. God is divine Mind, and man is the reflection of this one and only Mind. This spiritual fact understood, refutes the false theory that there are as many minds as there are persons. This false belief in many minds is the source of all trouble, distrust, treachery, and war among individuals and nations. My friends, in making your contacts and dealings with your family, your neighbors, your customers, or your clients, you can know that there is but the one Mind, God, who governs, not minds many. When thinking of local, national, or international matters, remember that you reflect the one Mind, God, which possesses all intelligence, wisdom, and power, and is infinitely good; and let your reasoning be from this basis.
Recently a mother realized how the truth that God is Mind guides and governs children. Her son, a boy of six years, did not respond to her directions. Their home was otherwise orderly and harmonious. The Christian Scientist to whom she was talking asked her: "Are your directions to your child given on a mortal mind or an immortal Mind basis? In other words, are you believing that you are a superior and mature mortal with a mind of your own, who is speaking to another mortal, with a mind of his own, and that this one is unresponsive and recalcitrant? Or are you realizing, through the spiritual teachings of Christ's Christianity, that there is one Mind alone, God, and that in reality you and your child reflect this perfect Mind and express its heavenly qualities?" This mother returned to her home, and through her understanding that man is the reflection of Mind her child began to express alertness, obedience, and responsiveness.
A businessman had a helpful experience recently. On account of his previous training he was called to manage a growing business. He was to buy half interest and become a full partner. Nearly six months later, however, the partnership agreements had not been executed. Many trips were made to the attorney's office. Each time the original owner seemed to inject some new angle into the proposition which worked to the disadvantage of the new partner. The new man was on the verge of giving up the entire deal. Fortunately his wife was a Christian Scientist. She asked for help in Christian Science and persuaded her husband to talk with the practitioner. In talking with the practitioner the man spoke in no indefinite terms of the shortcomings and unjustness of his partner. Instead of understanding that there is but one Mind, God, and working from this basis of the unity of Mind, do you see what he was doing? This man believed that there were minds many pulling in opposite directions. His and his partner's erroneous and fearful concept of man as mortal was holding both of them in bondage. Actually, both were so busy living up to their false concept of man as materially-minded that they had neither time nor incentive to reach an equitable agreement.
The practitioner carefully explained the oneness and allness of divine Mind, thereby showing that there cannot be minds many — his partner's, the lawyer's, and his own. He emphasized that in this perfect Mind, there can be no injustice, dishonesty, or delay, but on the contrary love, honesty, justice, and goodness, all attributes of the divine Mind, which are reflected by spiritual man.
At this point this man promised to abandon his erroneous thoughts and to hold onto the right, spiritual ideas concerning his partner and his business. The next morning his partner asked him to meet him at the attorney's office. In a short session all matters were ironed out harmoniously and the agreements were signed. Thus we see how a recognition that divine Mind alone governs overcame six months of strife and distrust.
My friends, do you desire to eliminate discord and inharmony in your family and in your business? Then refuse to accept the false argument that there is an unfair, hateful, dominating, or jealous mortal anywhere. Then with all the spiritual power, courage, and understanding you can muster, affirm the allness of God as perfect Mind, ever guiding, guarding, and governing His image and likeness; and error and discord will then disappear as darkness before light.
Standing on this plane of existence, Jesus declared, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). If knowing God is life eternal, then God must be and is Life. When we acknowledge God as our Life, we are affirming that as His reflection man's life is perfect, spiritual, harmonious, joyous, and indestructible.
Life that is God is new, fresh, and ageless. It is not subject to time, decrepitude, incapacitation, senility, or decay. The alert Christian Scientist repudiates and reverses the hypnotic arguments of fatigue, hopelessness, discouragement, and age, and replaces these in consciousness with the facts of being, the beauty, goodness, and eternality of his life as an heir of God.
Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 246): "Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness."
Most eloquently did the Psalmist declare, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together" (Psalm 34:3). How must we magnify God? Through platitudes and human flatteries? Hardly! We magnify Him through spiritual, scientific prayer, which affirms His spiritual nature, omnipotence, presence, and supremacy, and also declares the spiritual, perfect, and eternal status of His creation, man. The orderly unfoldment in consciousness of what God is and of what He does for man is scientific prayer, which heals, saves, and regenerates.
Our prayers to be effective must be those which reconcile us to God. On its very first page, the Christian Science textbook has this marvelous statement (p. 1), "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love."
[Delivered May 20, 1949, in the Colonial Theater in Boston, Massachusetts, under the auspices of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and published in The Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 1949.]