Bicknell Young, C.S.B., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The following lecture entitled "Christian Science: Man's Immortality Revealed," was given under the auspices of Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Chicago, in the Piccadilly Theatre, 1443 East Hyde Park Boulevard, Thursday noon, September 23, 1937, by Bicknell Young, C.S.B., of Chicago, as a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. The lecture is reprinted from a previous issue of the Leader.
The propositions of Christian Science, although not as yet universally accepted, are more or less familiar to the reading public. It is also well known that this Science is primarily a healing system, and that the church organization, including all the activities of the movement, sprang originally from the healing work which the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, performed.
The deep philosophic and scientific meaning of Mrs. Eddy's discovery can be gained only through progressive experience. A mere perusal of her writings is not sufficient to disclose their full import. They must be conscientiously and thoroughly studied. Her book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science, is widely read even by people who are not as yet known as Christian Scientists.
The doctrine which this book sets forth is unique. It enables one who takes the pains to understand it, to overcome sin and heal sickness by one and the same means, wholly spiritual. It broadens the concept of being, vitalizes religion, and glorifies science by establishing logically and incontrovertibly that the word "God" signifies incomparably more of purely religious as well as practical scientific value than has generally been associated with it, and this Science shows that God, the actual and only cause of all true phenomena, is understandable, and that His power is demonstrable by and in behalf of mankind.
In order that this may become apparent in everyday life, a different concept of Deity from that generally accepted had to be discerned and set forth and made apprehensible. To this end Christian Science enlists intelligence. It makes no appeal at all to mere belief or imagination. It shows beyond all controversy that the knowable God is the only God, and that to know Him is the highest use of intelligence, and that learning how to know God aright we learn by the same means how to know man aright.
Christian Science is thus seen to be what it actually is, the Science of Life. Now each one of us is instinctively and permanently interested in life or existence. Not only is this interest instinctive, but in view of the fact that existence is fundamental to everything that one may be or do, or desire to be or do, the Science of Life is unquestionably the most important subject that can engage our attention. According to the beliefs, education, and experience of mankind, seldom influenced as they are by actual truth, existence is wholly material. Even religions, as ordinarily conceived of, accept matter as the reality of existence and teach that to gain spiritual existence a change of place brought about through death is necessary. Whereas Christian Science accepts Spirit as the only possible actuality of existence and teaches that the way of gaining it is not through a change of place brought about by death or disaster, but by a change of consciousness brought about solely by spiritual education.
The numberless uncertainties accepted as legitimately constituting human life, offer no deliverance from sickness, sin, and death. Yet these uncertainties largely comprise and always influence prevailing systems of education. They find their way into all theories of philosophy and all forms of art, and even invade the realm of science.
In higher mathematics, which humanly represents science in its highest form, we find the theory of probability, or what is sometimes called "the uncertainty principle" engrossing the attention of mathematicians because it is claimed to be of comparatively greater accuracy than the previous theory of certainty, and thus higher mathematics seems to confirm the general belief of mankind that the most uncertain thing is "certainty."
Such theories do not appeal to reason, neither do they satisfy the longings of the human heart. Looking to them or to matter for an explanation of our existence, or for satisfaction intellectually or morally, is a vain thing. Interesting as all intellectuality is, the fact is that so long as systems of education are based upon material observations solely, they hold out no hope of deliverance for mankind individually or collectively.
In the midst of this conjectural or chaotic jumble of thoughts and things let us remind ourselves that there is ever something which admits of no controversy. It is our existence. All religions and scientific theories are subservient to the fact that we exist. We may have had endless questions concerning it, and many of us have had. We may have sought the answer to them vainly in philosophy or in religion, as ordinarily taught, many of us have done so, but seek as we may in any such ways it will always be found by honest investigation that the one and only system which provides a satisfactory response to the ceaseless interrogatories of the human mind is Christian Science, because by means of correct instruction it explains the Principle of our existence, showing what we actually are in contradistinction to what we materially appear to be.
Experience has proved that no human being can understand his own existence, much less the laws of it, if he regards it as material. Seeing himself materially and trying to find out what he actually is, he is more mystified the more he tries. So much is this the case that it is quite generally said by distinguished natural scientists who devote themselves to the explanation of matter that the more they investigate it the more elusive it becomes.
This is exactly in accordance with the teachings of Christian Science. Over sixty years ago Mary Baker Eddy, through spiritual inspiration and spiritual research, saw clearly that matter did not hold within itself either principle or law by which to explain itself or anything else. She saw and announced that God, the primal Principle of all being, is supersensible, to be understood only through an awakened recognition of His divine and infinite self-sufficiency and power.
St. Paul writes, "Your life is hid with Christ in God." That passage is generally associated with religious emotional ecstasy. Nobody supposed that it had any other value, and least of all that it was a scientific statement. Nevertheless, it is a scientific statement, and Mrs. Eddy makes that clear in Science and Health by showing the meaning to be that your life is hid "with Truth in divine Love" (p. 325). She announces throughout her books that the word "God" signifies the Mind that is Love, that divine, self-existent entity best expressed by the words "divine Principle."
You and I do not exist of ourselves. We had no voluntary part in our present sense of existence. From any point of view that may be assumed in the name of science or religion, we are obliged to admit that there is but one Self-existence. God, divine Principle, the source and substance of everything real, is self-existent.
The relationship of divine Principle, God, to ourselves and to everything of which we may be cognizant, is necessarily that of perfection. Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And that is what Christian Science shows us to be, notwithstanding what appears to be the overwhelming testimony of material sense to the contrary.
Admittedly such doctrine is not in accord with personal sense. Because of this fact Christian Science has been the object of much criticism and some attempted witticism. Such a position, however, especially on the part of the intellectual world, is anomalous. It indicates that thinkers often fear to think. There is a frontier to their thinking and they dread to extend or cross it. That frontier is matter, and its creatures are the personal senses. Yet if religion depended upon these for information it would not teach even a belief in God, and science itself would be deprived of facts that are unquestionably true.
Christian Science is not, however, transcendental or merely idealistic. While it enthrones Spirit, Mind, as the source and substance of all real phenomena, it does not thereby predicate substance as either shadowy or imaginary. On the contrary, it reveals substance as both primal and permanent, for substance defined as Spirit unquestionably signifies eternal duration, the very nature of self-existent Principle, God, and consequently the nature of His creation.
This Science is therefore necessarily contrary to the general belief of mankind to the effect that matter is substance, and consequently Christian Science repudiates matter and all materialistic theories, yet actual experience in the demonstration of this Science shows clearly that so doing human beings do not thereby find themselves less substantial. On the contrary, the Science of permanent existence being at work makes everyday existence more real and more harmonious than it could otherwise be.
To use a very obvious illustration: we are not less tangible to ourselves or others, nor have we lost anything of our real existence, when our attention is so engrossed with something interesting or inspiring that for the time being we forget our material existence. This shows that matter and material theories form no criterion by which to be intelligent, for thought goes on without the consciousness of matter.
The facts of Christianity are necessarily divine. They are the facts of our real existence revealing the Principle of our being. They have the advantage of permanency, which is easily acknowledged, and they also have the advantage of power, which is not so easily acknowledged until it is understood.
So-called material facts are constantly changing and are never wholly durable. Speaking in a strictly scientific manner, facts are never material. Invariably they are spiritual, and necessarily they are discoverable wholly in the realm of thought. Intelligence is not a visible realm. The effects of spiritually cultivated intelligence are, however, visible, so that even people who do not understand Christian Science often observe and testify that Christian Science heals disease, and today practically the whole civilized world acknowledges the healing power of Mrs. Eddy's discovery.
Bearing in mind that the word "God" signifies the one self-existent, divine Principle, Mind, Spirit, Love, constituting the source and very substance or being of man and the universe, we can recognize that the divine nature belongs not only to God, Mind, but to man and to everything else that God, Mind, conceives of.
Man, representing Mind, is then correctly defined as the idea of Mind. This gives us an entirely different concept of ourselves from that of mere material personality, and our interest in our real existence and in the endeavor to demonstrate it, is thus stimulated step by step.
The Christian Science textbook says (p. 507), "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source." With the understanding that God is the self-existent Principle of all being, and that man, meaning ourselves, primarily and eternally represents God, it is readily seen that this idea of God and man is not human but divine, and it is just as readily provable that a more satisfactory and permanent sense of existence ensues when one maintains this idea.
Permanency is an instinctive desire. Every human being has it. It is expressed in the old philosophical saying, "Self-preservation is the first law of nature." This is not wrong when properly understood. It coincides with the facts of real being. "Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science cannot help being immortal," we read in Science and Health (p. 81).
Temporary existence with its inevitable beginning and ending does not satisfy us and does not represent real Life, Mind, God, Spirit. But God, our divine, infinite, self-existence, or Life, can have no beginning or ending and must from the very nature of infinity be expressing Himself forever. Therefore as we consider the proposition of Christian Science that man in his true being represents or reflects God, we are obliged to admit the immortality of man and of all things, because the divine Principle of man and of everything exists with no "beginning of days, nor end of life," and can of necessity be represented only according to that divine and infinite nature.
Let it be repeated, Christian Science is the healing system of pure Christianity. The understanding of the fact of man's immortality is primal and indispensable in demonstrating this Science. Putting the fact in an understandable way, we are justified in saying that health must be primarily divine rather than material or merely human. We can not conceive of the ever-living otherwise than as never dying, which means that no destructive element could form any part of the conception of man or creation by the divine Mind. Health, or spiritual wholeness, is thus seen to characterize man as well as God. Health is the nature of man, because man as revealed in this Science represents, expresses, or reflects God. Health is not material, neither is immortality a theory. Scientifically speaking, immortality and health are the facts of our existence.
Such facts are not ordinarily associated with the word "science," but they should be. They are more worthy of the true meaning of science than anything that could be thought of, or, to put it still more correctly, they are incomparable in scientific, practical value. If it were possible for a human being at the present moment not only to consider the fact of his own immortality, but actually to realize that divine fact, he would be an absolutely healthy person, and the whole operation by which his health was established and became humanly evident would take place in the invisible realm of thought. Jesus declared that the kingdom of God is there. It is there alone that Science has its being. No science, however material it may seem to be, exists or operates otherwise than in and by means of intelligence.
The realm of human consciousness is the realm of what is called right and wrong, righteousness and sin, good and evil. Mrs. Eddy saw that and stated with relentless clarity over sixty years ago in her book Science and Health that it is mortal mind that sins and suffers, not the human body.
Tardily in our times distinguished natural scientists in their ceaseless investigation of matter have made discoveries that corroborate Mrs. Eddy's doctrine. The fact is that in the light of pure Science it is wholly erroneous to believe that one should doctor the human body in order to heal disease. The human body does not know itself, does not know anything about itself. If one were to ask at any time of his body, "How do you feel?" he would receive no answer, for the body is not capable either of feeling or answering, and it does not know that it is supposed to feel.
The fact that the human being can think of his body or is conscious of it, shows that he is not in the body, and being conscious of it, it is beyond controversy to say that he can control it by divine power if he learns the Science of divine power. It is therefore clearly to be seen that there is something for us to do, and Christian Science shows us what to do and how to do it.
The testimony of personal sense cannot resemble the infinite in the slightest degree. Only by invoking one's conscious thinking ability in a divine way can that ability be exercised according to its original nature, which is the divine Mind. Divine power is available to human beings only in this way, and the rule of this culture is a simple one and is found and may be constantly operative, in the measure that one maintains the true idea of what the word "God" actually means.
Unquestionably that wonderful word signifies eternality. Self-existence could not signify less. The word "God" would have no meaning and would be valueless without that signification.
In the light of real existence thus disclosed, we have the opportunity of becoming practical Christians by being practical Scientists. In fact, we cannot become one without being the other. When Mary Baker Eddy gave the title Christian Science to her discovery, she announced the oneness of Christianity and science, and at the same time very largely explained her discovery to all who are willing to accept the explanation. In order to be practical it must equip human beings with the understanding and ability to deal with those human conditions which are universally admitted to be afflictive and destructive.
Christian Science is like all sciences in one respect, and that is that it has a purpose. Being Science it requires demonstration and reveals that which is to be demonstrated. Neither health nor wealth, nor anything else, can be demonstrated if it does not already exist. When health is revealed as primal, spiritual, eternal, and inevitable, we are enabled to deal with disease effectually. We are to do this by divine power. Now divine power is primal and supremely natural, and the Science of it is necessarily the one supreme and only really natural Science.
Here we arrive at the parting of the ways, and a Christian Scientist must learn to take the upward path and follow it unswervingly. It is the path of Truth, and entering it one has necessarily forsaken the illusive and misleading paths of error.
In order to deal with disease intelligently it must be classified scientifically, and that is done in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science. The way in which it is done has not been readily accepted by the religious and scientific world. It is, however, unquestionably the way that Christ Jesus advocated and practiced. To understand it one must always bear in mind the meaning of the word "God" in its highest signification. So doing he will not be readily offended to find evil in all its forms classified as error. It need hardly be repeated that this is contrary to human experience when viewed materially. Nevertheless, it is the scientific way and is proved to be such by anyone who adopts it and is absolutely honest in following it.
Words are valuable only because of their meaning, and their meaning must be sought. "Error" is a word signifying that which seems to be and is not. Virtually the word "error" itself is all there is to its signification. It does not mean something named "error." It always means no thing, no cause, no effect, no law, no anything that could be associated with reality. Consequently when one designates disease as error it means that disease is unreal.
The same is true of sin, and vice, and sorrow, and want, and worry, and woe, and death. All of these so-called human experiences are illegitimate. They have no scientific reason for seeming to be, and in the light of pure reason, which coincides with revelation, all such experiences are scientifically unreal. In the practice of Christian Science, and to the extent that the practice is carried on according to absolute Truth, they are proved to be unreal and they disappear as a consequence of demonstrating the real and eternal.
If the unreality of evil seems to be an absurd proposition, the fault must be in the observer. In Science where faults appear they are always in the observer that is to say, the mental attitude is faulty. If we were to announce the unreality of evil from the standpoint of human experience and human observation the proposition would be as absurd as casual observers generally believe it to be, but the Christianly scientific point of view is never material nor mortal.
Personal sense, or any observation taken from that standpoint, or any conclusion drawn from such observations, never constitutes a standard for judgment in Christian Science. We announce the unreality of evil from the standpoint of divine Principle, the infinity of good.
Disease, like every other evil thing, inheres in or is evolved from human belief, or what is called mortal mind, and by that is meant the material opinions of mankind. If we are to rid ourselves of disease, does it not stand to reason that we must oppose those opinions rather than accept them?
Intelligence is defined in Science and Health (p. 469) in the words, "It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, Life, Truth, and Love, named God." This shows what intelligence really is, and points the way to its proper culture. If all the inventions and conveniences of everyday life brought to light through the cultivation of human intelligence had appeared as the result of divine intelligence recognized and demonstrated, perfection would be the immutable law to every one of them, and with such a demonstration it would be found that the so-called laws of matter give place to divine law, and that while an aeroplane could come down, it could never fall down, and while various vehicles could move upon the earth to the great convenience of mankind, they could not collide nor operate in any way contrary to perfection, the reciprocal law of divine being.
Scientifically speaking, divine intelligence is not withheld from man; it is natural to him, and any human being can ascertain for himself to what extent he is gaining the demonstrable naturalness of divine intelligence.
This involves the necessity of frequent self-examination, for the reason that intelligence is generally associated with matter, or the human brain, and until that notion is corrected, our thinking, which manifests our intelligence, does not resemble the divine Mind. In order that it may do so our constant endeavor must be to "hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true," according to the admonition in the Christian Science textbook (p. 261).
The simplicity of this way is one of the remarkable characteristics of Christian Science. The educational method by which divine power is disclosed, recognized, and expressed, in thought and conduct, and in improved health and morals is entirely free from any element of mysticism or real difficulty.
The facts which reveal God as Mind, Principle, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, just as the Bible says that He is, are thinkable. In beginning one can think about these facts. If one is willing to do this these facts are so incontrovertibly true that in due time, or perhaps rapidly, they transform the nature of the thinker. They give him a new point of view from which to observe all things, and they give him powers of observation and conclusion and demonstration not granted by any other system.
Thinking about truth is the first step in this education. In fact, thinking about something is always an essential step. Thinking something is quite another thing. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth." He did not say "Ye shall know about the truth," and he clearly stated the divine requirements essential to the truth's being known. They are found in the passage, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you."
Unquestionably he must have said many things not recorded in the four gospels, but there is enough in those gospels to transform the human race. A mere academic acceptance of his words and works is not sufficient. Respect and reverence are not sufficient. In Science and Health (p. 350) Mrs. Eddy writes: "His words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which must be understood. Unless the works are comprehended which his words explained, the words are blind."
In all education the first step must be taken, but if the education be worth while there is no last step. Unfoldment, or divine progress, is the nature of real being. This fact applies universally.
Jesus warned his disciples against a relative sense of good in the words, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." He implied that the weighing of righteousness against unrighteousness is erroneous and sinful. When thought attains the standpoint of absolute truth, we no longer ascribe power to evil or believe or say that disease and sin are going on, or that sorrow, or lack, or death are real. Christian Science shows that all evil and all evils are illusions of the human or material senses. When we habitually gain this ascendancy of thought and understanding, righteousness is appearing, and not until then.
We speak of people as being good, and wonder why good people should suffer as they frequently do. Jesus said, "None is good, save one, that is, God," implying that divine Principle alone is good and that thought which conforms to Principle alone partakes of the nature of Principle. If a person believes that evil is real he is not good, however commendable his character may be from the ordinary human standpoint. In the measure that a human character is being transformed by divine Science and evil is seen as nothing, and proved to be nothing instead of something, divine Principle, or good, is reflected and health attained.
There is no relative righteousness. In Science, you cannot weigh evil against good, disease against health, death against life. In the process of learning how to demonstrate Christian Science the denial of evil is essential, but it is made for the sole purpose of arriving at the realization of the allness of good and the consequent nonexistence of evil.
In stating these things Christian Scientists are not boasting. There is nothing personal about Science, and this is true even though this Science is interwoven with the health and life of persons. A finite personality does not resemble the infinite in any way. Immortality is the fact of all true being. It is therefore the fact of our individual being, and at the present moment the way to be like God, Mind, Life, and to represent Him in power and law and dominion, is to think according to Mind, according to the one infinite Mind, God, good.
Everybody has the ability to recognize and maintain the facts of his own immortality. Thoughts that have no evil in them are undying. This method is putting off mortality and putting on immortality, according to the Biblical admonition. In the measure that one perceives this and stands for it he is not believing that he must go somewhere, but is staying where he belongs in the divine Life of real being. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 123) Mrs. Eddy speaks of salvation "not through the death of a man, but through a divine Life, which is our Redeemer."
In numerous instances people who were ill of so-called incurable diseases have been restored to life and health, and others under the weight of sin and vice have found their dominion over these evils and have gained the respectability and poise and peace of normal manhood and womanhood.
That a scientific proposition is not wholly proved is never against the proposition. Professor Einstein advanced the theory of relativity. All of the great mathematicians of to-day are interested in it. Many of them advocate it and hope that it may be the means of solving some of the problems of the material universe. Not one of them pretends that the theory of relativity is wholly proved, but not one of them scoffs at it, nor will you find among them any that speak in opprobrious terms of Professor Einstein because he advanced that theory.
I am not making comparisons. Christian Science is not to be compared with any other system. It stands alone. The propositions of this Science are wholly spiritual. Spiritual culture is essential to the recognition and demonstration of them, but that they are not all humanly proved in their fullness is not against them from any standpoint of reason or observation. They are as true as Truth itself, and they demand of us that we claim our real existence in order that we may demonstrate it. They both require and provide for happiness. They enlist that resilience and activity of intelligence that can only be expressed by the word "joy."
In the light of these facts joy is ever aglow. The Bible says. "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." As a matter of actual experience you cannot draw an ounce of water out of the wells of salvation or satisfaction without joy. You may have tried it with sorrow; many have. You may have tried it with human will; most people do. You may have tried it with a relative sense of good and evil weighing one against the other. You may have tried it with the mixed belief in mind and matter. All of these ways are found futile, but the moment that intelligence approximates its divine origin, the infinite Mind, God, it looks out upon things instead of out from things. It fearlessly assumes the view of Deity and has the happiness and consequent power of the God who is Love.
Admitting, then, that we exist, as we all must do, let us proceed to demonstrate a satisfactory existence. Recognizing that we can demonstrate only that which is already true and real, we can understand that Mrs. Eddy did not claim to create anything. She discovered Christian Science and unmistakably set forth the fact that all truth is in and of Spirit, not matter, and that it must be sought in the realm of Spirit. This is in accordance with the admonition of Jesus, "God is Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (Rev. Ver.). This admonition can be obeyed in no other way than that of divine Science, because in no other way can the unreality of the mere personal sense of ourselves and of one another be discerned and maintained.
In the measure that we set aside the errors that seem to pertain to our characters and our present sense of existence, and adopt instead of them the divine ideas that reveal divine consciousness, God, Mind, we attain our original being, which the Christian Science textbook says is Spirit, or a foretaste of it, as the case may be (p. 97).
The Bible says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Christian Science established this fact logically and scientifically. God, being infinite, must be one, and this implies and requires the recognition of infinite oneness. Everything is one. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 550), "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men." For this reason every individual learning to demonstrate the actuality of his being must find this divine oneness and love it and live it.
Nothing has given it greater obscurity than a misinterpretation of the word "humility." To assume that God is good and man originally bad, and to hold to such a theory, is mere self-abasement. It dishonors God quite as much as man, and is unworthy to be entertained or in any way subscribed to. While it is certain that matter cannot resemble spirit, and therefore equally certain that a material sense of existence, or what is called corporeality, cannot resemble God, nevertheless it is given to a human being to attain something and daily more of the Science of real being, and the road to it is genuine humility.
You may have seen a picture in which three positions of the same figure represent prayer. The first one is prostrate, with forehead touching the earth. The second is kneeling, representing an advanced thought of adoration. The third is erect with arms extended, as if to welcome the true idea of God.
"Man, know thyself," has often been enjoined upon us by poets and philosophers, but it would be difficult to find anything written by either of these groups that would indicate that the authors knew themselves. They regarded themselves as material, and when they spoke of Spirit it was not in terms of Truth or actual Science, but always in those of mysticism or belief. They were on the verge of something so tremendous that they dared not go forward. They were barred, or barred themselves, from the benefit of their own admonition by their own great sense of limitation. Not having Christian Science they could only look at truth instead of looking out from Truth.
If we reverence God we must respect man, and this demands and achieves not only respect for the other man but self-respect. Such self-respect is essential in the demonstration of permanent health as well as happiness. The Bible says that God placed man upon the earth, not in it. This implies that everything is subservient to the divine idea, man.
Superstition is rife, and nowhere more evident than in some systems that advocate the use of reason. Paul told the Athenians who devoted their whole time to philosophic reasoning that they were in all things too superstitious. This is stated differently in some modern versions of the New Testament, but the point of the remark was that they had an altar to the unknown God. He might well have added that it was also an altar to the unknown man, for man cannot be known except as God is known. Therefore to know yourself signifies to understand the word "God," and know and maintain its meaning, for in that meaning one's true self is hidden or revealed, as the case may be.
Jesus repudiated matter. He said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." But he also said, "I and my Father are one," and in so saying expressed divine humility. Throughout his career he was self-respecting. Christians who are to demonstrate his understanding, the divine Christ, cannot do so in an attitude of unworthiness. "The Lord our God is one Lord" means that everything is one with that divine Principle.
It was this understanding that was the Christ operating as the healing-power of divine Love in the time of Christ Jesus. It is the same Christ that heals disease today. The compassion, the tenderness, the deep interest of this divine Christ in all that constitutes human welfare, is needful and apparent in Christian Science practice.
The healing possibilities of this Science are measureless. As thought gains and attains more and more the attitude and altitude of the divine Mind, it necessarily reflects the omnipotence of that Mind in the relationships of individuals and nations. By the same token, understanding, thus attained and ever progressing, deals with individual instances of sin and disease with the confidence of divine power.
Seeking and daily attaining in greater measure this healing power for men and nations, which every one of us may do, irrespective of his occupation, we find that immortality is no longer a theory but the actual fact of our existence, and that we are entering upon that which has been properly and beautifully named "the simple grandeur of life."
[Delivered Sept. 23, 1937, at the Piccadilly Theatre, 1443 East Hyde Park Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, under the auspices of Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Chicago, and published in The Leader of Chicago, a weekly newspaper, publication date unknown.]