Bicknell Young, C.S.B.
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The healing of disease through spiritual power, although manifestly a good thing for the human race, has not generally been accepted without resistance. Mankind has been educated along material lines. Even what is called spiritual education or religion has generally been so associated with materialism and so tainted with material views as to throw the preponderance of belief and confidence on the material side. Thus educated human beings distrust spiritual power, doubt it can be made available, and either are prone to ascribe to some material or semi-material influence those "signs following" which Jesus advocated and illustrated, or to disbelieve them altogether.
Christian Science teaches how one can learn to place complete reliance upon spiritual truth, and because it does this it is revolutionary. It shows clearly that commonly accepted views tend to perpetuate fear, and that even the pride which often prompts the rejection of Christian Science is but a product of fear. It shows that the attempt to reconcile spiritual truth with material theories and experiences is illogical upon its face. Such attempts are always associated with fear, because they inculcate limitation. No one would be afraid if he knew he could prove the nature of infinity. If he be envious, it is merely because his false education and the result of it in his experience and observations make him think that he is losing or lacking something because somebody else has greater possessions than he himself. When one learns how to rely upon spiritual power, he no longer distrusts it. Educated through Christian Science, one begins to let go his fear, which had found support only in those material or semi-material systems incorrectly called science or religion.
If the human race had been taught differently, it goes without saying that its mental attitude, and consequently its history, would have been wholly different. When human beings resist that which would deliver them from their troubles, it is not because of knowledge but because of ignorance, even though that ignorance be called knowledge. Indeed, the history of the race shows that what is considered to be the learning of one age is ignorance to the next age, and in that way we see that mere human learning has no definite principle or basis. In the time of Jesus the people who persecuted and finally crucified him were swayed, not by understanding, but by fear, induced by ignorance. We all agree upon that now, because the perspective of history makes the whole situation clear. We do not blame those people, if we are wise, but we see that their tendencies, their passions, their prejudices, were the result of a long train of environment and so-called education, and that really we must place the blame or the condemnation not on them, but on the evil which, because of their lack of opportunity to know any better, actuated them. Showing thus the impersonality of evil, Christian Science teaches us to remain unmoved in the face of opposition, which sometimes takes the form of senseless condemnation.
In the Christian Science textbook, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, briefly summarizes the whole objection to reliance upon spiritual power in the wonderful sentence, "The determination to hold Spirit in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 28). She even says that it was this condition of mixed thought and the fear resulting there from which brought about the crucifixion. Human beliefs and opinions swayed people then as now, and were as firmly entrenched then, in the measure of their development, as now, and were outwardly even more violent, because of the different conditions in that age of human history.
Mrs. Eddy points out the fact that Jesus came to show all men the way of salvation, including those who rejected him. He recognized the nature of his mission to be universal. He knew that his understanding of God must inevitably save his enemies quite as surely as his friends; and, further, recognizing that in the elimination of evil, Truth makes no distinction as to persons or their seeming faults or virtues, he refused to yield to resentment, even under unparalleled temptation, and was able to see and declare the impersonal nature of evil in the words, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
The power which actuated him and constituted the incentive of his endeavors he knew to be infinite, and he could not possibly associate it with a mere personal following. Indeed, his mission was not personal, neither did he exalt personality, either his own or that of other people, but, on the contrary, he constantly indicated the nature of divinity and the inevitable necessity for human beings to awake in the likeness of that divinity and find themselves, not material, but spiritual. He perceived the truth so clearly and illustrated it so unfailingly that no succeeding age in the history of the development of the human intellect has ever produced a philosophy to compare with his teachings and example. He exalted spiritual truth to that pinnacle whence it shines through the ages as a beacon-light, guiding human reason and awakening ideals which constitute enduring realism. He declared that we should know the truth, and the truth should make us free. This truth was the power which he exercised. It was his real being. It gave him dominion over evil, enabled him to heal diseases of every nature, to save sinners, and to raise the dead. It gave him dominion over his own existence and over his own body. It enabled him to raise his body from the dead and to accomplish for himself final deliverance from all material conditions in that event which is beautifully called the ascension.
This truth was not confined to his time nor limited to his own experience. It is perennial and infinite. It is the Christ which he described when he said, "Before Abraham was, I am." It is the Christ which he indicated in the words, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It was not a personal opinion nor a personal body, but it was his divine understanding, his oneness with God, which he repeatedly declared to be the Christ, though in so doing he aroused the enmity of material thought and belief.
One of the most important points in the whole doctrine of Christian Science is this eternal, impersonal, ever-available Christ. A clear understanding of this point increases one's veneration and love for Christ Jesus and naturally increases one's faith in the present power of the same Christ to heal and to save. Jesus indicated that this Christ would appear more clearly to mankind and be better understood. He knew that human thought would have to awaken more and more until a complete apprehension of the divine nature, the Christ, should deliver mankind from every evil. Jesus promised the Comforter, even "the Spirit of truth," to abide with us forever.
The word Spirit is used here in no mysterious manner. In the Bible it often means God, but it also means, in other places, understanding, and this is manifestly the meaning in the passage referred to. It is precisely the understanding of Truth which Jesus promised, and which he said should abide with us forever. This understanding, which proves itself to be such by unmistakable demonstration over disease and sin, is Christian Science. It is the Comforter, and it is leading into an apprehension of all spiritual truth. As of old, however, material theories held by us, through education and belief, struggle more or less against this new birth of understanding. Such an experience is not to be wondered at in view of our history and education. Christian Scientists do not wonder at it or resent it. They have learned in Christian Science not only the impersonal nature of that which saves, but also the impersonality of that from which we are to be saved, and they have also learned that the mission of Christian Science is to save even those who through misunderstanding may think themselves opposed to it.
Christian Science is essentially Christian. It is calm, peaceful, serene, and divinely secure. It resorts to no emotionalism to excite an interest in itself. On the contrary, it appeals through pure reason and logic to the very best in one's nature. It repeats the saying of ancient times: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." It does not ask you to believe, and I am not here to ask you to believe, in Christian Science, nor in anything, but simply to present to you those divine facts which are easily cognizable, and which are basic in an apprehension of the healing and saving power of Christian Science. These facts have always existed. They were indeed prior to Abraham or to any other person. They are one with God, and are necessarily eternal and infinite. Certain human conditions point to these facts, and the desires of the human heart especially indicate their existence. All normally-minded people wish to continue their existence. The desire for immortality is universal. It extends into what are called the lower forms of the animal kingdom, so that even the creatures under our feet try to prolong their existence. So universally is this fact recognized that it has come to be expressed as an axiom, "Self-preservation is the first law of nature."
It may be that here and there are people who, erroneously accepting the present existence as an indication of real life, object to the statement that the longing for immortality is universal. Nevertheless, the statement is true, for if one could understand how to make existence wholly desirable, then there would be no question as to the wish to prolong it. Christian Science is an assuring answer to this longing of the human heart. It brings to light the very nature of true existence. It shows that the legitimate desires of mankind are sometimes in the nature of a prayer, as Mrs. Eddy so beautifully indicates in Science and Health, and that these desires, when purified, are not unanswered. However unsatisfactory human existence may appear to be, yet it indicates a true and eternal fact, and that fact is real, harmonious existence.
There must be a cause for an infinite manifestation. We recognize that the universe is infinite, though we cannot pretend to comprehend that infinity. Yet even our conception of it, finite and necessarily inadequate though it be, shows that there must be a creator, an infinite cause, and the word God has been given by the religious world to indicate this cause and creator.
Generally speaking, mankind has recognized the reasonableness, indeed the absolute truth, of St. John's statement, "No man hath seen God at any time," which corresponds to other statements in the Bible, all indicating the right thought of God. Jesus still more clearly showed the true nature of understanding or worship when he said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (Revised Version).
Human beings could never believe in God if they were to accept material conditions as real and final. There is no evidence of an eternal God in material conditions. An eternal God implies an endless being, or Life. The cause of the universe, the creator of it, must be that eternal Life. That eternal divine cause could not be expressed in any way contrary to its own nature; therefore, to some extent, human beings have been obliged to look away from material existence in order to entertain even a belief in God. Now Christian Science, calling attention to our own existence, logically leads us on to an acceptance of a divine cause, and shows us that the nature of this cause, being eternal, must be good.
The statement "God is good" is generally accepted but not generally understood. It means far more than is generally associated with it. It not only indicates the nature of God, but indicates God Himself. It comes to us more clearly, perhaps, when used conversely, and consequently Christian Scientists often so use it. The expression "Infinite good is God," gives a clearer meaning to the word God.
The whole object of religious education should be to arouse in human thought a right concept of divinity, and thereby enable human beings to apprehend the way of deliverance from evil. This way is the divine Christ, the correct knowledge of God. Now, recognizing that the nature of divinity must be eternal, and therefore wholly good, we see that God could not in any way entertain any evil. Evil, sin, and disease are the destructive elements of human experience. They do not belong to the divine nature; they never originated there. Any supposition that they did so originate is erroneous, for it would imply the necessity of an element of self-destruction in God Himself.
It is for this reason that Christian Science boldly announces this doctrine which is often unacceptable to ordinary religious thought. It does not find it necessary to ascribe sin and disease to God, either directly or by proxy, in order to account for them. Indeed it declares that primarily one does not need to account for evil. The first necessity is to get rid of evil, and that necessity being fulfilled, the one satisfactory explanation of evil has been given. Indeed there is no other way of truly accounting for or explaining evil. Even if a physician succeeds in helping a patient out of his sufferings, any explanation which he might give of those sufferings is wholly valueless, the valuable part of his achievement being found in the elimination of the sufferings; furthermore, nothing so satisfactorily explains suffering as the destruction of it. It is so with everything. If a man hunger or thirst, you may explain to him forever the clamor of the nerves, without satisfying either his hunger or thirst; but feed him and give him something to drink, and at once there is a satisfactory explanation.
A sinner is often buffeted with the admonition to cease sinning, and in the old way he was not infrequently told that unless he ceased sinning he would go to hell. Now he cannot go to hell, because if he is under the influence of vice and sin he is already in hell. All kinds of theological threats will not get him out, but the least measure of true Christ-knowledge will begin to do so, and herein is the vast difference between Christian Science teaching and ordinary theological views. Christian Science has no threats; it is not condemnatory. It takes the attitude expressed by Paul, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;" and its whole process is not condemnatory but redemptive.
Now we need to see that there are no facts against us. The facts are all for us, — everything which God ever said about you and me; everything which God ever did to us or for us, is in the nature of blessing. From God there is nothing but blessing for the whole race. God knows nothing else, and as God is Love, God has nothing to bless us with except love. God could not curse, and He would not know how to bless us with some kind of punishment. We should remember that there could be no eternal existence to God if He could curse you or me or anything or anybody or take part in anything of that kind. God is Love, and that means health, for it means infinite being. In Him is found no trouble. Christian Science takes a radical attitude and urges all to assume the same. If one assume this attitude and maintain it in the face of the appearance of sin and disease, he begins to acquire a certain spiritual power over such experiences, a power which he never would have supposed possible had he not learned of Christian Science.
Furthermore, redemption will not come about through the supposititious change of place. It is not necessary to go anywhere in order to be a better man or woman. So far as we are concerned, here is all the place there is, since it is all the place that we know, and we can see that if right here one could attain and maintain a perfect standard of thought and action, he could right here fulfill the rule which Jesus gave, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
All healing work and all redemption rest upon the fact that evil experiences are no part of the divine provision for man. The nature of the first great cause and creator is creative; God is always a creator and never a destroyer. No provision for destruction has ever been any part of His universe. So-called human life and material life and what we call the material world, all of which depend for the evidence of their existence upon the five senses and the conclusions drawn from observation through those senses, are involved in sin, disease, and death, and practically all of this is associated with that process which we call human life. When untouched by Christ, Truth, it has beginning and growth and decay and all sorts of vicissitudes and accidents and diseases, and it culminates in what is called death; but true Christianity declares Life to be eternal, for Life is God. The awakening to this Life is a necessity in the practice and demonstration of Christian Science. The first steps are to be taken through an understanding of what Life is. At first they may only result in an improved condition of what we call human life; but, at any rate, they indicate the Life divine and the possibility of its achievement, provided these improved conditions be gained through the correct understanding of Life. Ultimately, all people who are in earnest in regard to true religion and true science will perceive this practical teaching and will begin to demonstrate it in their lives.
It is unreasonable to complain because Christian Science takes a radical attitude. It must do so, for the race cannot be saved by the prevailing tendency to compromise with evil. There is nothing in evil that we need be afraid of, and even if one were afraid, still less ought he to compromise with it. If one had an enemy whom he feared, he would not gain anything by compromising with such an enemy, but he would see that the best thing that he could do would be to try to circumvent him.
Christian Science shows that the only enemy we have is an erroneous sense of things. There is no truth in what is called an enemy. Throughout the Bible, and especially in the Psalms and in Isaiah and in the New Testament, we find this clearly indicated. Now Christian Science proposes to state these facts in such a way that humanity shall not only understand them, but that it shall find no possible way of escape from understanding them. This is a part of the wonderful value of Christian Science education. It not only convinces one of the truth, but brings the truth to light so clearly that it can never again be hidden or lost.
Unquestionably, in the light of pure reasoning, disease and sin are not natural experiences. They do not belong to a creation which is eternal, and which, because it is God's creation, is naturally blessed and completely satisfactory. The apprehension of this fact results in improved health. The process by which this improvement is brought about is always purely Christian. It is not the exercise of the human will, nor the endeavor upon the part of one mortal to influence mentally another mortal. Such practices are fraught with great danger, for a mortal may desire evil and may even think it good, because of lack of moral balance or judgment, and thus strive to accomplish evil results by means of mental treatment. All such so-called mental treatment or suggestion, or effort of brain or will, is wholly objectionable. Christian Science reveals the true nature of God as Mind, and declares that because there is one infinite God there is one infinite Mind. Mental influence, therefore, in its true nature, must always be holy and blessed, and in proportion as the one Mind is recognized will it be seen that there can be no other true mental influence than that of the one Mind, God. God is the only cause, and the only effect must be like the only cause. We can affirm the truth, but we cannot imagine or mentally picture the effect, for to do so would be to assume the prerogative of God.
The nature of Christian Science practice is true and clear. We may discern it more fully when we remember that we understand God through thoughts which reveal God. St. John's declaration, "God is love," is the greatest that we can find in the whole Bible. People have recognized it to be beautiful, but until Christian Science brought its meaning to light, few perceived that it was practical; yet it must be so, for it is an idea, an infinite idea, an eternal idea. Although St. John perceived it and must have been spiritually-minded so to perceive it, yet we cannot ascribe it to St. John. It did not originate in St. John; it originated in God, and it has the power and presence of God. In proportion as this is understood, it illustrates humanly that power and presence. Observe the characteristics of this divine and infinite idea. It never began, it cannot be interrupted, it cannot sin, or suffer, or fear, or die. It is one with God. Observe also that an idea of this kind is easily entertained by us. In Revelation we read, "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."
Here, again, we see the true nature of our divine inheritance. Suppose we could entertain exclusively those ideas which reveal God. Suppose what we call our minds were given over wholly to the understanding of the divine nature. Suppose that the divine thoughts which reveal God and which must originate in God were to constitute the whole of consciousness. In that moment would not immortality be found? and is not this what St. Paul indicated when he said we must put off mortality and put on immortality? Is there any other way by which we can put on immortality?
One may perhaps doubt the power of such ideas. He may wonder what effect they could have upon his body. This is because he is under the supposition that his body is something which cannot be touched by spiritual truth. What he calls his education has tended to perpetuate the ignorant theory that material remedies alone can influence or heal what is called a material body; but even material science has begun to destroy this illusion. It shows that matter is not real substance. Material science today virtually declares that matter has no natural, eternal existence. Material theories are constantly changing, and becoming in a way less material. At one time the atom was supposed to be the ultimate theory regarding matter. It was believed that all so-called material substances consisted of infinitesimal pieces of primal matter termed atoms, which were indestructible.
Today, although atoms are supposed to be so small that they cannot in any way be seen or weighed, felt or smelled, or in any other manner cognized by the material senses, yet the advancement of physics has revealed the necessity for some theory more ethereal than the atomic theory, and consequently there has sprung up a further and what is called a much more reasonable explanation of matter. It is found in the theory of the electrical ion. This, according to scientists, is not in itself a thing; it is a condition of force or energy. It is described by some as a vortex in the ether. Now the ether is a still more remote theory regarding matter. It has come to have much greater importance than it previously had, but according to all the rules by which matter is to be cognized or known, the ether does not exist as so-called material substance, for it has never been weighed or in any way cognized; it exists merely as a theory. Now a theory is wholly mental; therefore the latest explanation of the ultimate nature of matter may be summarized in the statement that the electrical ion, which is supposed to constitute the basis of matter, is a vortex in a theory; which, being wholly mental, resolves what we call matter into a mental condition.
Many years ago Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, arrived at this same conclusion from a purely spiritual standpoint. She saw the nature of God. She saw that, as Jesus declared Him, God is Spirit; that the eternal must be Spirit, and could not be less than Spirit, otherwise eternality would be impossible. She saw that Spirit being the creator, the creation must be spiritual. She made this more clear by declaring that God is Mind; infinite Mind is therefore God, and the creation is a mental creation. She saw that the creation must be like the creator, therefore eternal, and that the condition which we call matter, being associated with evil of every nature, — sin, disease, and death, — was a false mental condition, a mental imitation of the real creation, and she consequently called the material world and material body, mortal mind. Science and Health teaches that the material body is the substratum of this false mentality.
Now if people believe that matter has natural indestructible entity, then it does seem impossible for them to understand how it can be influenced through Christ or spiritual Truth; but when it is recognized that what we call material bodies and material things are but conditions of false mentality, and that this fact is indicated even by the advancement of material science, then human beings must begin to see that such conditions can be influenced and corrected mentally.
What is called disease in human beings is but the result of unquestioned acceptance of material views. The disease and these views are humanly mental. The views of mortals regarding what is called matter, and the association of material conditions with the thought of health or disease, produce what are called the laws of health or disease. The understanding of God through Christ, Truth, begins to dissipate these fears and to annul these laws. It begins as the thought of a human being, it awakens the understanding which is the Christ-understanding, and it rejects the fear of disease and the so-called laws of disease by establishing the divine law. The fact that God never created any disease and that consequently there is not any provision for it, and that it has, therefore, no scientific nature and no natural existence or truth, is revealed clearly through Christian Science. Although one may apprehend this, he cannot, however, immediately prove it fully. The means by which he shall accomplish full salvation is brought to light, but human beliefs seem to yield somewhat slowly to the divine understanding. The flesh still wars against the Spirit, or the understanding; nevertheless, the warfare can result only in one way, and that is victory for Spirit.
To know the truth is the way. Knowledge must have a beginning, yet to God, who is eternal, there is no beginning. A passage of St. John's gospel shows the true way for mortals: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." At first the wonder and glory of the true idea of being is so exalting as to make one almost forget its practical value, but to awaken to the practical nature of the divine idea is the new birth, — a birth which has no decay and no death, but only eternal maturity.
Truth has always existed. It was fully demonstrated in the life of Christ Jesus, but the demonstrable understanding of his gospel which he demanded and predicted in the words, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," was a discovery. That discovery was made by Mrs. Eddy in the year 1866. It enabled her and her immediate students to heal disease which had previously been accounted incurable. In the succeeding forty odd years of Christian Science practice, similar results have been accomplished in tens of thousands of instances and in various parts of the world.
Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science for the simple reason that she was able to do it. To be the discoverer of a science that no teaching (outside of the spiritual meaning of the Bible) has ever hinted at, demanded the highest altitude of discernment and apprehension. That it was not discovered by some one else or along the lines of ordinary theological instruction should not seem strange to us in view of human history, for few great events have happened exactly according to anticipation, and few discoveries have been made by those of whom they were expected. Even when Jesus of Nazareth appeared, he did not come according to the expectation of his race, and was consequently not generally accepted by them.
That men and women who have accomplished great things should generally be more or less misunderstood, and not infrequently slandered and maligned, is not so strange when we view the career of Jesus, who did nothing but good upon earth, and yet, as prophetically described by Isaiah, was "despised and rejected of men."
In the teaching of the practical application of his gospel to humanity, Mrs. Eddy has fulfilled the highest mission, that of a true Christian. Indeed, pure Christianity was the ideal she entertained from the very beginning to the end of her career. She was an unselfish, consecrated, noble, and wonderfully gifted and spiritually-minded Christian woman. She not only discovered Christian Science, but gave to the world her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," whereby mankind may learn the spiritual import of the Holy Scriptures and gain the knowledge and power of Christian healing.
It is for this reason that today Christian Science stands stronger than ever, though the great Leader of the movement is no longer personally at the head of it. Indeed, she knew, and prophetically said, that it would need no personal leadership, for the divine Principle perceived and demonstrated in the hearts of Christian Scientists throughout the world constitutes the true leader which can never change or pass away, and which is revealed to men and made practical through the teaching of Christian Science.
Our first steps must be by means of the process or modus operandi of Christian Science, and we have to continue in that way — we know not how long. Eventually thought will be so spontaneous that healing will be immediate. We can, in the mean time, affirm the true nature of God, declare that He never created any disease, that consequently disease has no creator and no cause, and does not exist nor continue by virtue of law. We can affirm that the same Christ which has always saved from sin and disease, saves from sin and disease now; and that this Christ is as available to us today as it was to Jesus and his disciples centuries ago. We are not sacrilegious in this, but purely religious. We learn to rely upon God. We learn to recognize the divine power and to be guided and constantly controlled by the divine Mind or infinite presence which we call God. In this way we apprehend step by step the true nature of God, illustrate more clearly the Christ, and awaken more surely in the divine image. The promises of the Bible indicate this awakening. They have generally been supposed to refer to a future time and another place, but when the Bible is understood in the light which the Christian Science textbook throws upon it, one perceives that all of its promises might be fulfilled now.
One of the most metaphysical writers in the New Testament declares, "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Everything that is possible to God is a present possibility to His image and likeness. If thought is awakening as that image and likeness, if man is perceived to be the son of God, the image of Mind, the likeness of divine Love, — if no other thoughts or ideas than those which reveal God are permitted to sway consciousness or action, — then any good promise contained in the Bible may be instantly fulfilled.
Isaiah says, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." In the Bible the word Lord is not always used to indicate God: it frequently means our highest conception of Deity, and as a further promise of the fruition of a change of consciousness from sin to holiness, from ignorance to understanding, Isaiah declares that "then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing."
To postpone the fulfillment of these promises is contrary to science and fatal to religion. If we postpone them now through fear and belief, there is nothing to show that the experience called death would tend to make the fulfillment of them any nearer or more substantive to us. All views which tend to procrastinate deliverance from evil are erroneous. Anything which is true is true now, and it will not be any truer through any disastrous experience.
We see that the divine Christ is pure enlightenment. This is not confined to a place, nor is it limited to any period. This enlightenment is the fulfillment of every good promise in which the Bible abounds. If one were to give Christian Science a new definition, he might say that it is a ceaseless, importunate process of awakening. It declares to each one of us, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." It is this awakening and this arising from conditions of fear, false belief, and ignorance, conditions which are necessarily unlike Life, unlike God, which constitute the mission of Christianity.
I do not ask you to believe, but to think on these things. If you find here something which appeals to you; if you see the true logic of what has been said, and the reasonableness and desirability of the doctrine which has been in some degree set forth, you do not even then need to believe it, but you need only to try it. Any person can find out for himself whether Christian Science is true, and this is all that we ask him to do.
The Bible shows clearly that the way of freedom which Jesus promised us and illustrated in himself is a mental way. In the Psalms we read: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Here we see indicated that which Mrs. Eddy refers to in the words "unity of Principle and spiritual power" (Science and Health, p. 470). The words "my Lord" clearly mean the Christ, which is Truth, and is necessarily the truth about God and the universe. This Truth was the mentality of Jesus, or what Paul describes as the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." It is this pure mentality or spiritual discernment that expresses the power and dominion of good. It is this that virtually sits at the right hand of God. It is this divine understanding or Christ (with you or me) which reduces evil to nothingness, according to the promise, "until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
Without any doubt the work is done within one's own consciousness. There it is that the "Lord [the right idea of being] shall reign forever." There it is that all enmity, and incidentally all enemies, are forever vanquished. There it is that enlightenment takes place. There is the place of redemption. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" and in Revelation we read, "The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there."
This state of pure receptivity is aroused by Christ, Truth, through some idea revealed and made practical in Christian Science. When it begins we should be awake to its far-reaching redemptive and healing possibilities. The right idea of everything is the truth about everything. It is that which Isaiah describes as "Wonderful, Counseller, . . . The Prince of Peace." It is that, and the resulting dominion over evil, to which the psalmist refers in the words, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory."
[Published in pamphlet form by The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1913. A couple of overly long paragraphs have been broken up for this transcript.]