{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16624/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16624","id":"gutenberg_16624","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16624","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian Science","Christianity"],"text":"E-text prepared by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project\nGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)\n\n\n\nNO AND YES\n\nby\n\nMARY BAKER EDDY\n\nAuthor of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures\n\nPublished by The\nTrustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy\nBoston, U.S.A.\n\nAuthorized Literature of\nThe First Church of Christ, Scientist\nin Boston, Massachusetts\n\n1919\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIt was the purpose of each edition of this pamphlet to benefit no favored\nclass, but, according to the apostle's admonition, to \"reprove, rebuke,\nexhort,\" and with the power and self-sacrificing spirit of Love to correct\ninvoluntary as well as voluntary error.\n\nBy a modification of the language, the import of this edition is, we trust,\ntransparent to the hearts of all conscientious laborers in the realm of\nMind-healing. To those who are athirst for the life-giving waters of a true\ndivinity, it saith tenderly, \"Come and drink;\" and if you are babes in\nChrist, leave the meat and take the unadulterated milk of the Word, until\nyou grow to apprehend the pure spirituality of Truth.\n\nMARY BAKER EDDY\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nDISEASE UNREAL\n\nSCIENCE OF MIND-HEALING\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE OF THE SAME LINEAGE AS SPIRITUALISM OR THEOSOPHY?\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FROM BENEATH, AND NOT FROM ABOVE?\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PANTHEISTIC?\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BLASPHEMOUS?\n\nIS THERE A PERSONAL DEITY?\n\nIS THERE A PERSONAL DEVIL?\n\nIS MAN A PERSON?\n\nHAS MAN A SOUL?\n\nIS SIN FORGIVEN?\n\nIS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS SIN?\n\nIS THERE NO SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT?\n\nIS THERE NO INTERCESSORY PRAYER?\n\nSHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?\n\n\n\n\nNO AND YES\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nTo kindle in all minds a common sentiment of regard for the spiritual idea\nemanating from the infinite, is a most needful work; but this must be done\ngradually, for Truth is as \"the still, small voice,\" which comes to our\nrecognition only as our natures are changed by its silent influence.\n\nSmall streams are noisy and rush precipitately; and babbling brooks fill\nthe rivers till they rise in floods, demolishing bridges and overwhelming\ncities. So men, when thrilled by a new idea, are sometimes impatient; and,\nwhen public sentiment is aroused, are liable to be borne on by the current\nof feeling. They should then turn temporarily from the tumult, for the\nsilent cultivation of the true idea and the quiet practice of its virtues.\nWhen the noise and stir of contending sentiments cease, and the flames die\naway on the mount of revelation, we can read more clearly the tablets of\nTruth.\n\nThe theology and medicine of Jesus were one,--in the divine oneness of the\ntrinity, Life, Truth, and Love, which healed the sick and cleansed the\nsinful. This trinity in unity, correcting the individual thought, is the\nonly Mind-healing I vindicate; and on its standard have emblazoned that\ncrystallized expression, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.\n\nA spurious and hydra-headed mind-healing is naturally glared at by the\npulpit, ostracized by the medical faculty, and scorned by people of common\nsense. To aver that disease is normal, a God-bestowed and stubborn reality,\nbut that you can heal it, leaves you to work against that which is natural\nand a law of being. It is scientific to rob disease of all reality; and to\naccomplish this, you cannot begin by admitting its reality. Our Master\ntaught his students to deny self, sense, and take up the cross. Mental\nhealers who admit that disease is real should be made to test the\nfeasibility of what they say by healing one case audibly, through such an\nadmission,--if this is possible. I have healed more disease by the spoken\nthan the unspoken word.\n\nThe honest student of Christian Science is modest in his claims and\nconscientious in duty, waiting and working to mature what he has been\ntaught. Institutes furnished with such teachers are becoming beacon-lights\nalong the shores of erudition; and many who are not teachers have large\npractices and some marked success in healing the most defiant forms of\ndisease.\n\nDishonesty destroys one's ability to heal mentally. Conceit cannot avert\nthe effects of deceit. Taking advantage of the present ignorance in\nrelation to Christian Science Mind-healing, many are flooding our land with\nconflicting theories and practice. We should not spread abroad patchwork\nideas that in some vital points lack Science. How sad it is that envy will\nbend its bow and shoot its arrow at the idea which claims only its\ninheritance, is naturally modest, generous, and sincere! while the\ntrespassing error murders either friend or foe who stands in its way. Truly\nit is better to fall into the hands of God, than of man.\n\nWhen I revised \"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,\" in 1878,\nsome irresponsible people insisted that my manual of the practice of\nChristian Science Mind-healing should not be made public; but I obeyed a\ndiviner rule. People dependent on the rules of this practice for their\nhealing, not having lost the Spirit which sustains the genuine practice,\nwill put that book in the hands of their patients, whom it will heal, and\nrecommend it to their students, whom it would enlighten. Every teacher must\npore over it in secret, to keep himself well informed. The Nemesis of the\nhistory of Mind-healing notes this hour.\n\nDishonesty necessarily stultifies the spiritual sense which Mind-healers\nspecially need; and which they must possess, in order to be safe members of\nthe community. How good and pleasant a thing it is to seek not so much\nthine own as another's good, to sow by the wayside for the way-weary, and\ntrust Love's recompense of love.\n\nPlagiarism from my writings is so common it is becoming odious to honest\npeople; and such compilations, instead of possessing the essentials of\nChristian Science, are tempting and misleading.\n\nReading Science and Health has restored the sick to health; but the task\nof learning thoroughly the Science of Mind-healing and demonstrating it\nunderstandingly had better be undertaken in health than sickness.\n\n\n\n\nDISEASE UNREAL\n\nDisease is more than _imagination_; it is a human error, a constituent part\nof what comprise the whole of mortal existence,--namely, material sensation\nand mental delusion. But an erring sense of existence, or the error of\nbelief, named disease, never made sickness a stubborn reality. On the\nground that harmony is the truth of being, the Science of Mind-healing\ndestroys the feasibility of disease; hence error of thought becomes fable\ninstead of fact. Science demonstrates the reality of Truth and the\nunreality of the error. A self-evident proposition, in the Science of\nMind-healing, is that disease is unreal; and the efficacy of my system,\nbeyond other systems of medicine, vouches for the validity of that\nstatement. Sin and disease are not scientific, because they embody not the\nidea of divine Principle, and are not the phenomena of the immutable laws\nof God; and they do not arise from the divine consciousness and true\nconstituency of being.\n\nThe unreality of sin, disease, and death, rests on the exclusive truth that\nbeing, to be eternal, must be harmonious. All disease must be--and can only\nbe--healed on this basis. All true Christian Scientists are vindicating,\nfearlessly and honestly, the Principle of this grand verity of\nMind-healing.\n\nIn erring mortal thought the reality of Truth has an antipode,--the reality\nof error; and disease is one of the severe realities of this error. God has\nno opposite in Science. To Truth there is no error. As Truth alone is real,\nthen it follows that to declare error real would be to make it Truth.\nDisease arises from a false and material sense, from the belief that matter\nhas sensation. Therefore this material sense, which is untrue, is of\nnecessity unreal. Moreover, this unreal sense substitutes for Truth an\nunreal belief,--namely, that life and health are independent of God, and\ndependent on material conditions. Material sense also avers that Spirit, or\nTruth, cannot restore health and perpetuate life, but that material\nconditions can and do destroy both human health and life.\n\nIf disease is as real as health, and is itself a state of being, and yet is\narrayed against being, then Mind, or God, does not meddle with it. Disease\nbecomes indeed a stubborn reality, and man is mortal. A \"kingdom divided\nagainst itself is brought to desolation;\" therefore the mind that attacks a\nnormal and real condition of man, is profanely tampering with the realities\nof God and His laws. Metaphysical healing is a lost jewel in this\nmisconception of reality. Any contradictory fusion of Truth with error, in\nboth theory and practice, prevents one from healing scientifically, and\nmakes the last state of one's patients worse than the first. If disease is\nreal it is not illusive, and it certainly would contradict the Science of\nMind-healing to attempt to destroy the realities of Mind in order to heal\nthe sick.\n\nOn the theory that God's formations are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal,\nand that God is the only creator, Christian Science refutes the validity of\nthe testimony of the senses, which take cognizance of their own\nphenomena,--sickness, disease, and death. This refutation is indispensable\nto the destruction of false evidence, and the consequent cure of the\nsick,--as all understand who practise the true Science of Mind-healing. If,\nas the error indicates, the evidence of disease is not false, then disease\ncannot be healed by denying its validity; and this is why the mistaken\nhealer is not successful, trying to heal on a material basis.\n\nThe evidence that the earth is motionless and the sun revolves around our\nplanet, is as sensible and real as the evidence for disease; but Science\ndetermines the evidence in both cases to be unreal. To material sense it is\nplain also that the error of the revolution of the sun around the earth is\nmore apparent than the adverse but true Science of the stellar universe.\nCopernicus has shown that what appears real, to material sense and feeling,\nis absolutely unreal. Astronomy, optics, acoustics, and hydraulics are all\nat war with the testimony of the physical senses. This fact intimates that\nthe laws of Science are mental, not material; and Christian Science\ndemonstrates this.\n\n\n\n\nSCIENCE OF MIND-HEALING\n\n\nThe rule of divinity is golden; to be wise and true rejoices every heart.\nBut evil influences waver the scales of justice and mercy. No personal\nconsiderations should allow any root of bitterness to spring up between\nChristian Scientists, nor cause any misapprehension as to the motives of\nothers. We must love our enemies, and continue to do so unto the end. By\nthe love of God we can cancel error in our own hearts, and blot it out of\nothers.\n\nSooner or later the eyes of sinful mortals must be opened to see every\nerror they possess, and the way out of it; and they will \"flee as a bird to\nyour mountain,\" away from the enemy of sinning sense, stubborn will, and\nevery imperfection in the land of Sodom, and find rescue and refuge in\nTruth and Love.\n\nEvery loving sacrifice for the good of others is known to God, and the\nwrath of man cannot hide it from Him. God has appointed for Christian\nScientists high tasks, and will not release them from the strict\nperformance of each one of them. The students must now fight their own\nbattles. I recommend that Scientists draw no lines whatever between one\nperson and another, but think, speak, teach, and write the truth of\nChristian Science without reference to right or wrong personality in this\nfield of labor. Leave the distinctions of individual character and the\ndiscriminations and guidance thereof to the Father, whose wisdom is\nunerring and whose love is universal.\n\nWe should endeavor to be long-suffering, faithful, and charitable with all.\nTo this small effort let us add one more privilege--namely, silence\nwhenever it can substitute censure. Avoid voicing error; but utter the\ntruth of God and the beauty of holiness, the joy of Love and \"the peace of\nGod, that passeth all understanding,\" recommending to all men fellowship in\nthe bonds of Christ. Advise students to rebuke each other always in love,\nas I have rebuked them. Having discharged this duty, counsel each other to\nwork out his own salvation, without fear or doubt, knowing that God will\nmake the wrath of man to praise Him, and that the remainder thereof He will\nrestrain. We can rejoice that every germ of goodness will at last struggle\ninto freedom and greatness, and every sin will so punish itself that it\nwill bow down to the commandments of Christ,--Truth and Love.\n\nI enjoin it upon my students to hold no controversy or enmity over\ndoctrines and traditions, or over the misconceptions of Christian Science,\nbut to work, watch, and pray for the amelioration of sin, sickness, and\ndeath. If one be found who is too blind for instruction, no longer cast\nyour pearls before this state of mortal mind, lest it turn and rend you;\nbut quietly, with benediction and hope, let the unwise pass by, while you\nwalk on in equanimity, and with increased power, patience, and\nunderstanding, gained from your forbearance. This counsel is not new, as\nmy Christian students can testify; and if it had been heeded in times past\nit would have prevented, to a great extent, the factions which have sprung\nup among Scientists to the hindrance of the Cause of Truth. It is true that\nthe mistakes, prejudices, and errors of one class of thinkers must not be\nintroduced or established among another class who are clearer and more\nconscientious in their convictions; but this one thing can be done, and\nshould be: let your opponents alone, and use no influence to prevent their\nlegitimate action from their own standpoint of experience, knowing, as you\nshould, that God will well regenerate and separate wisely and finally;\nwhereas you may err in effort, and lose your fruition.\n\nHoping to pacify repeated complaints and murmurings against too great\nleniency, on my part, towards some of my students who fall into error, I\nhave opposed occasionally and strongly--especially in the first edition of\nthis little work--existing wrongs of the nature referred to. But I now\npoint steadfastly to the power of grace to overcome evil with good. God\nwill \"furnish a table in the wilderness\" and show the power of Love.\n\nScience is not the shibboleth of a sect or the cabalistic insignia of\nphilosophy; it excludes all error and includes all Truth. More mistakes are\nmade in its name than this period comprehends. Divinely defined, Science is\nthe atmosphere of God; humanly construed, and according to Webster, it is\n\"knowledge, duly arranged and referred to general truths and principles on\nwhich it is founded, and from which it is derived.\" I employ this\nawe-filled word in both a divine and human sense; but I insist that\nChristian Science is demonstrably as true, relative to the unseen verities\nof being, as any proof that can be given of the completeness of Science.\n\nThe two largest words in the vocabulary of thought are \"Christian\" and\n\"Science.\" The former is the highest style of man; the latter reveals and\ninterprets God and man; it aggregates, amplifies, unfolds, and expresses\nthe ALL-God. The life of Christ is the predicate and postulate of\nall that I teach, and there is but one standard statement, one rule, and\none Principle for all scientific truth.\n\nMy hygienic system rests on Mind, the eternal Truth. What is termed matter,\nor relates to its so-called attributes, is a self-destroying error. When a\nso-called material sense is lost, and Truth restores that lost sense,--on\nthe basis that all consciousness is Mind and eternal,--the former position,\nthat sense is organic and material, is proven erroneous.\n\nThe feasibility and immobility of Christian Science unveil the true\nidea,--namely, that earth's discords have not the reality of Mind in the\nScience of being; and this idea--dematerializing and spiritualizing\nmortals--turns like the needle to the pole all hope and faith to God, based\nas it is on His omnipotence and omnipresence.\n\nEternal harmony, perpetuity, and perfection, constitute the phenomena of\nbeing, governed by the immutable and eternal laws of God; whereas matter\nand human will, intellect, desire, and fear, are not the creators,\ncontrollers, nor destroyers of life or its harmonies. Man has an immortal\nSoul, a divine Principle, and an eternal being. Man has perpetual\nindividuality; and God's laws, and their intelligent and harmonious action,\nconstitute his individuality in the Science of Soul.\n\nIn its literary expression, my system of Christian metaphysics is hampered\nby material terms, which must be used to indicate thoughts that are to be\nunderstood metaphysically. As a Science, this system is held back by the\ncommon ignorance of what it is and what it does, and (worse still) by those\nwho come falsely in its name. To be appreciated, Science must be understood\nand conscientiously introduced. If the Bible and Science and Health had the\nplace in schools of learning that physiology occupies, they would\nrevolutionize and reform the world, through the power of Christ. It is true\nthat it requires more study to understand and demonstrate what these works\nteach, than to learn theology, physiology, or physics; because they teach\ndivine Science, with fixed Principle, given rule, and unmistakable proof.\n\nAncient and modern human philosophy are inadequate to grasp the Principle\nof Christian Science, or to demonstrate it. Revelation shows this\nPrinciple, and will rescue reason from the thrall of error. Revelation must\nsubdue the sophistry of intellect, and spiritualize consciousness with the\ndictum and the demonstration of Truth and Love. Christian Science\nMind-healing can only be gained by working from a purely Christian\nstandpoint. Then it heals the sick and exalts the race. The essence of this\nScience is right thinking and right acting--leading us to see spirituality\nand to be spiritual, to understand and to demonstrate God.\n\nThe Massachusetts Metaphysical College and Church of Christ, Scientist, in\nBoston, were the outgrowth of the author's religious experience. After a\nlifetime of orthodoxy on the platform of doctrines, rites, and ceremonies,\nit became a sacred duty for her to impart to others this new-old knowledge\nof God.\n\nThe same affection, desire, and motives which have stimulated true\nChristianity in all ages, and given impulse to goodness, in or out of the\nChurch, have nerved her purpose to build on the new-born conception of the\nChrist, as Jesus declared himself,--namely, \"the way, the truth, and the\nlife.\" Living a true life, casting out evil, healing the sick, and\npreaching the gospel of Truth,--these are the ends of Christianity. This\ndivine way impels a spiritualization of thought and method, beyond doctrine\nand ritual; and in nothing else has she departed from the old landmarks.\n\nThe unveiled spiritual signification of the Word so enlarges our sense of\nGod that it makes both sense and Soul, man and Life, immaterial, though\nstill individual. It removes all limits from divine power. God must be\nfound all instead of a part of being, and man the reflection of His power\nand goodness. This Science rebukes sin with its own nothingness, and thus\ndestroys sin quickly and utterly. It makes disease unreal, and this heals\nit.\n\nThe demonstration of moral and physical growth, and a scientific deduction\nfrom the Principle of all harmony, declare both the Principle and idea to\nbe divine. If this be true, then death must be swallowed up in Life, and\nthe prophecy of Jesus fulfilled, \"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me\nshall never die.\" Though centuries passed after those words were originally\nuttered, before this reappearing of Truth, and though the hiatus be longer\nstill before that saying is demonstrated in Life that knows no death, the\ndeclaration is nevertheless true, and remains a clear and profound\ndeduction from Christian Science.\n\n\n\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE OF THE SAME LINEAGE AS SPIRITUALISM OR\nTHEOSOPHY?\n\n\nScience is not susceptible of being held as a mere theory. It is hoary with\ntime. It takes hold of eternity, voices the infinite, and governs the\nuniverse. No greater opposites can be conceived of, physically, morally,\nand spiritually, than Christian Science, spiritualism, and theosophy.\n\nScience and Health has effected a revolution in the minds of thinkers on\nthe subject of mediumship, and given impulse to reason and revelation,\ngoodness and virtue. A theory may be sound in spots, and sparkle like a\ndiamond, while other parts of it have no lustre. Christian Science is\nsound in every part. It is neither warped nor misconceived, when properly\ndemonstrated. If a spiritualist medium understood the Science of\nMind-healing, he would know that between those who have and those who have\nnot passed the transition called death, there can be no interchange of\nconsciousness, and that all sensible phenomena are merely subjective states\nof mortal mind.\n\nTheosophy is a corruption of Judaism. This corruption had a renewal in the\nNeoplatonic philosophy; but it sprang from the Oriental philosophy of\nBrahmanism, and blends with its magic and enchantments. Theosophy is no\nmore allied to Christian Science than the odor of the upas-tree is to the\nsweet breath of springtide, or the brilliant coruscations of the northern\nsky are to solar heat and light.\n\n\n\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FROM BENEATH, AND NOT FROM ABOVE?\n\n\nHear the words of our Master: \"Go ye into all the world\"! \"Heal the sick,\ncast out devils\"! Christian Scientists, perhaps more than any other\nreligious sect, are obeying these commands; and the injunctions are not\nconfined to Jesus' students in that age, but they extend to this age,--to\nas many as shall believe on him. The demand and example of Jesus were not\nfrom beneath. Are frozen dogmas, persistent persecution, and the doctrine\nof eternal damnation, from above? Are the dews of divine Truth, falling on\nthe sick and sinner, to heal them, from beneath? \"By their fruits ye shall\nknow them.\"\n\nReading my books, without prejudice, would convince all that their purpose\nis right. The comprehension of my teachings would enable any one to prove\nthese books to be filled with blessings for the whole human family.\nFatiguing Bible translations and voluminous commentaries are employed to\nexplain and prop old creeds, and they have the civil and religious arms in\ntheir defense; then why should not these be equally extended to support the\nChristianity that heals the sick? The notions of personality to be found in\ncreeds are far more mystic than Mind-healing. It is no easy matter to\nbelieve there are three persons in one person, and that one person is cast\nout of another person. These conceptions of Deity and devil presuppose an\nimpotent God and an incredible Satan.\n\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PANTHEISTIC?\n\nChristian Science refutes pantheism, finds Spirit neither in matter nor in\nthe modes of mortal mind. It shows that matter and mortal mind have neither\norigin nor existence in the eternal Mind. Thinking otherwise is what\nestranges mortals from divine Life and Love. God is All-in-all. He is\nSpirit; and in nothing is He unlike Himself. Nothing that \"worketh or\nmaketh a lie\" is to be found in the divine consciousness. For God to know,\nis to be; that is, what He knows must truly and eternally exist. If He\nknows matter, and matter can exist in Mind, then mortality and discord must\nbe eternal. He is Mind; and whatever He knows is made manifest, and must be\nTruth.\n\nIf God knows evil even as a false claim, this knowledge would manifest evil\nin Him and proceeding from Him. Christian Science shows that matter, evil,\nsin, sickness, and death are but negations of Spirit, Truth, and Life,\nwhich are positives that cannot be gainsaid. The subjective states of evil,\ncalled mortal mind or matter, are negatives destitute of time and space;\nfor there is none beside God or Spirit and the idea of Spirit.\n\nThis infinite logic is the infinite light,--uncomprehended, yet forever\ngiving forth more light, because it has no darkness to emit. Mortals do not\nunderstand the All; hence their inference of some other existence beside\nGod and His true likeness,--of something unlike Him. He who is All,\nunderstands all. He can have no knowledge or inference but His own\nconsciousness, and can take in no more than all.\n\nThe mists of matter--sin, sickness, and death--disappear in proportion as\nmortals approach Spirit, which is the reality of being. It is not enough to\nsay that matter is the substratum of evil, and that its highest attenuation\nis mortal mind; for there is, strictly speaking, _no_ mortal mind. Mind is\nimmortal. Death is the consequent of an antecedent false assumption of the\nrealness of something unreal, material, and mortal. If God knows the\nantecedent, He must produce its consequences. From this logic there is no\nescape. Matter, or evil, is the absence of Spirit or good. Their\nnothingness is thus proven; for God is good, ever-present, and All.\n\n\"In Him we live, and move, and have our being;\" consequently it is\nimpossible for the true man--who is a spiritual and individual being,\ncreated in the eternal Science of being--to be conscious of aught but good.\nGod's image and likeness can never be less than a good man; and for man to\nbe more than God's likeness is impossible. Man is the climax of creation;\nand God is not without an ever-present witness, testifying of Himself.\nMatter, or any mode of mortal mind, is neither part nor parcel of divine\nconsciousness and God's verity.\n\nIn Science there is no fallen state of being; for therein is no inverted\nimage of God, no escape from the focal radiation of the infinite. Hence the\nunreality of error, and the truth of the Scripture, that there is \"none\nbeside Him.\" If mortals could grasp these two words _all_ and _nothing_,\nthis mystery of a God who has no knowledge of sin would disappear, and the\neternal, infinite harmony would be fathomed. If God could know a false\nclaim, false knowledge would be a part of His consciousness. Then evil\nwould be as real as good, sickness as real as health, death as real as\nLife; and sickness, sin, and death would be as eternal as God.\n\n\n\n\nIS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BLASPHEMOUS?\n\n\nBlasphemy has never diminished sin and sickness, nor acknowledged God in\nall His ways. Blasphemy rebukes not the godless lie that denies Him as\nAll-in-all, nor does it ascribe to Him all presence, power, and glory.\nChristian Science does this. If Science lacked the proof of its origin in\nGod, it would be self-destructive, for it rests alone on the demonstration\nof God's supremacy and omnipotence. Right thinking and right acting,\nphysical and moral harmony, come with Science, and the secret of its\npresence lies in the universal need of better health and morals.\n\nHuman theories, when weighed in the balance, are found unequal to the\ndemonstration of divine Life and Love; and their highest endeavors are, to\ndivine Science, what a child's love of pictures is to art. A child, in his\nignorance, may imagine the face of Dante to be the rapt face of Jesus. Thus\nfalsely may the human conceive of the Divine. If the schoolmaster is not\nChrist, the school gets things wrong, and knows it not; but the teacher is\nmorally responsible.\n\nGood health and a more spiritual religion are the common wants; and these\nwants have wrought this moral result,--that the so-called mortal mind asks\nfor what Mind alone can supply. This demand militates against the so-called\ndemands of matter, and regulates the present high premium on Mind-healing.\nIf the uniform moral and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of\nChristian Science were lacking, the premium would go down. That it\ncontinues to rise, and the demand to increase, shows its real value to the\nrace. Even doctors will agree that infidelity, ignorance, and quackery have\nnever met the growing wants of humanity. Christian Science is no \"Boston\ncraze;\" it is the sober second thought of advancing humanity.\n\n\n\n\nIS THERE A PERSONAL DEITY?\n\n\nGod is infinite. He is neither a limited mind nor a limited body. God is\nLove; and Love is Principle, not person. What the person of the infinite\nis, we know not; but we are gratefully and lovingly conscious of the\nfatherliness of this Supreme Being. God is individual, and man is His\nindividualized idea. While material man and the physical senses receive no\nspiritual idea, and feel no sensation of divine Love, spiritual man and his\nspiritual senses are drinking in the nature and essence of the individual\ninfinite. A sinful sense is incompetent to understand the realities of\nbeing,--that Life is God, and that man is in His image and likeness. A\nsinner can take no cognizance of the noumenon or the phenomena of Spirit;\nbut leaving sin, sense rises to the fulness of the stature of man in\nChrist.\n\nPerson is formed after the manner of mortal man, so far as he can conceive\nof personality. Limitless personality is inconceivable. His person and\nperfection are neither self-created, nor discerned through imperfection;\nand of God as a person, human reason, imagination, and revelation give us\nno knowledge. Error would fashion Deity in a manlike mould, while Truth is\nmoulding a Godlike man.\n\nWhen the term divine Principle is used to signify Deity it may seem distant\nor cold, until better apprehended. This Principle is Mind, substance, Life,\nTruth, Love. When understood, Principle is found to be the only term that\nfully conveys the ideas of God,--one Mind, a perfect man, and divine\nScience. As the divine Principle is comprehended, God's omnipotence and\nomnipresence will dawn on mortals, and the notion of an everywhere-present\nbody--or of an infinite Mind starting from a finite body, and returning to\nit--will disappear.\n\nEver-present Love must seem ever absent to ever-present selfishness or\nmaterial sense. Hence this asking amiss and receiving not, and the common\nidolatry of man-worship. In divine Science, God is recognized as the only\npower, presence, and glory.\n\nAdam's mistiness and Satan's reasoning, ever since the flood,--when\nspecimens of every kind emerged from the ark,--have run through the veins\nof all human philosophy. Human reason is a blind guide, a continued series\nof mortal hypotheses, antagonistic to Revelation and Science. It is\ncontinually straying into forbidden by-paths of sensualism, contrary to\nthe life and teachings of Jesus and Paul, and the vision of the Apocalypse.\nHuman philosophy has ninety-nine parts of error to the one-hundredth part\nof Truth,--an unsafe decoction for the race. The Science that Jesus\ndemonstrated, whose views of Truth Confucius and Plato but dimly discerned,\nScience and Health interprets. It was not a search after wisdom; it was\nwisdom, and it grasped in spiritual law the universe,--all time, space,\nimmortality, thought, extension. This Science demonstrated the Principle of\nall phenomena, identity, individuality, law; and showed man as reflecting\nGod and the divine capacity. Human philosophy would dethrone perfection,\nand substitute matter and evil for divine means and ends.\n\nHuman philosophy has an undeveloped God, who unfolds Himself through\nmaterial modes, wherein the human and divine mingle in the same realm and\nconsciousness. This is rank infidelity; because by it we lose God's ways\nand perpetuate the supposed power and reality of evil _ad infinitum_.\nChristian Science rends this veil in the pantheon of many gods, and\nreproduces the teachings of Jesus, whose philosophy is incontestable, bears\nthe strain of time, and brings in the glories of eternity; \"for other\nfoundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.\"\n\nDivine philosophy is demonstrably the true idea of the Christ, wherein\nPrinciple heals and saves. A philosophy which cannot heal the sick has\nlittle resemblance to Science, and is, to say the least, like a cloud\nwithout rain, \"driven about by every wind of doctrine.\" Such philosophy\nhas certainly not touched the hem of the Christ garment.\n\nLeibnitz, Descartes, Fichte, Hegel, Spinoza, Bishop Berkeley, were once\nclothed with a \"brief authority;\" but Berkeley ended his metaphysical\ntheory with a treatise on the healing properties of tar-water, and Hegel\nwas an inveterate snuff-taker. The circumlocution and cold categories of\nKant fail to improve the conditions of mortals, morally, spiritually, or\nphysically. Such miscalled metaphysical systems are reeds shaken by the\nwind. Compared with the inspired wisdom and infinite meaning of the Word of\nTruth, they are as moonbeams to the sun, or as Stygian night to the\nkindling dawn.\n\n\n\n\nIS THERE A PERSONAL DEVIL?\n\n\nNo man hath seen the person of good or of evil. Each is greater than the\ncorporeality we behold.\n\n\"He cast out _devils_.\" This record shows that the term devil is generic,\nbeing used in the plural number. From this it follows that there is more\nthan one devil. That Jesus cast several persons out of another person, is\nnot stated, and is impossible. Hence the passage must refer to the _evils_\nwhich were cast out.\n\nJesus defined devil as a mortal who is full of evil. \"Have I not chosen you\ntwelve, and one of you _is a devil_?\" His definition of evil indicated his\nability to cast it out. An incorrect concept of the nature of evil hinders\nthe destruction of evil. To conceive of God as resembling--in personality,\nor form--the personality that Jesus condemned as devilish, is fraught with\nspiritual danger. Evil can neither grasp the prerogative of God nor make\nevil omnipotent and omnipresent.\n\nJesus said to Peter, \"Get thee behind me, Satan;\" but he to whom our Lord\ngave the keys of the kingdom could not have been wholly evil, and therefore\nwas not a _devil_, after the accepted definition. Out of the Magdalen,\nJesus cast seven devils; but not one person was named among them. According\nto Crabtre, these devils were the diseases Jesus cast out.\n\nThe most eminent divines, in Europe and America, concede that the\nScriptures have both a literal and a moral meaning. Which of the two is the\nmore important to gain,--the literal or the moral sense of the word\n_devil_,--in order to cast out this devil? Evil is a quality, not an\nindividual.\n\nAs mortals, we need to discern the claims of evil, and to fight these\nclaims, not as realities, but as illusions; but Deity can have no such\nwarfare against Himself. Knowledge of a man's physical personality is not\nsufficient to inform us as to the amount of good or evil he possesses.\nHence we cannot understand God or man, through the person of either. God is\nAll-in-all; but He is definite and individual, the omnipresent and\nomniscient Mind; and man's individuality is God's own image and\nlikeness,--even the immeasurable idea of divine Mind. In the Science of\ngood, evil loses all place, person, and power.\n\nAccording to Spinoza's philosophy God is amplification. He is in all\nthings, and therefore He is in evil in human thought. He is extension, of\nwhatever character. Also, according to Spinoza, man is an animal vegetable,\ndeveloped through the lower orders of matter and mortal mind. All these\nvagaries are at variance with my system of metaphysics, which rests on God\nas One and All, and denies the actual existence of both matter and evil.\nAccording to false philosophy and scholastic theology, God is three persons\nin one person. By the same token, evil is not only as real as good, but\nmuch more real, since evil subordinates good in personality.\n\nThe claims of evil become both less and more in Christian Science, than in\nhuman philosophies or creeds: _more_, because the evil that is hidden by\ndogma and human reason is uncovered by Science; and _less_, because evil,\nbeing thus uncovered, is found out, and exposure is nine points of\ndestruction. Then appears the grand verity of Christian Science: namely,\nthat evil has no claims and was never a claimant; for behold evil (or\ndevil) is, as Jesus said, \"a murderer from the beginning, and the truth\nabode not in him.\"\n\nThere was never a moment in which evil was real. This great fact concerning\nall error brings with it another and more glorious truth, that good is\nsupreme. As there is none beside Him, and He is all good, there can be no\nevil. Simply uttering this great thought is not enough! We must live it,\nuntil God becomes the All and Only of our being. Having won through great\ntribulation this cardinal point of divine Science, St. Paul said, \"But now\nwe are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that\nwe should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the\nletter.\"\n\n\n\n\nIS MAN A PERSON?\n\n\nMan is more than physical personality, or what we cognize through the\nmaterial senses. Mind is more than matter, even as the infinite idea of\nTruth is beyond a finite belief. Man outlives finite mortal definitions of\nhimself, according to a law of \"the survival of the fittest.\" Man is the\neternal idea of his divine Principle, or Father. He is neither matter nor a\nmode of mortal mind, for he is spiritual and eternal, an immortal mode of\nthe divine Mind. Man is the image and likeness of God, coexistent and\ncoeternal with Him.\n\nMan is not absorbed in Deity; for he is forever individual; but what this\neverlasting individuality is, remains to be learned. Mortals have not seen\nit. That which is born of the flesh is not man's eternal identity.\nSpiritual and immortal man alone is God's likeness, and that which is\nmortal is not man in a spiritually scientific sense. A material, sinful\nmortal is but the counterfeit of immortal man.\n\nThe mind-quacks believe that mortal man is identical with immortal man,\nand that the immortal is inside the mortal; that good and evil blend; that\nmatter and Spirit are one; and that Soul, or Spirit, is subdivided into\nspirits, or souls,--_alias_ gods. This infantile talk about Mind-healing is\nno more identical with Christian Science than the babe is identical with\nthe adult, or the human belief resembles the divine idea. Hence it is\nimpossible for those holding such material and mortal views to demonstrate\nmy metaphysics. Theirs is the sensuous thought, which brings forth its own\nsensuous conception. Mine is the spiritual idea which transfigures thought.\n\nAll real being represents God, and is in Him. In this Science of being, man\ncan no more relapse or collapse from perfection, than his divine Principle,\nor Father, can fall out of Himself into something below infinitude. Man's\nreal ego, or selfhood, is goodness. If man's individuality were evil, he\nwould be annihilated, for evil is self-destroying.\n\nMan's individual being must reflect the supreme individual Being, to be His\nimage and likeness; and this individuality never originated in molecule,\ncorpuscle, materiality, or mortality. God holds man in the eternal bonds of\nScience,--in the immutable harmony of divine law. Man is a celestial; and\nin the spiritual universe he is forever individual and forever harmonious.\n\"If God so clothe the grass of the field, ... shall He not much more clothe\nyou, O ye of little faith?\"\n\nSin must be obsolete,--dust returning to dust, nothingness to nothingness.\nSin is not Mind; it is but the supposition that there is more than one\nMind. It issues a false claim; and the claim, being worthless, is in\nreality no claim whatever. Matter is not Mind, to claim aught; but Mind is\nGod, and evil finds no place in good. When we get near enough to God to see\nthis, the springtide of Truth in Christian Science will burst upon us in\nthe similitude of the Apocalyptic pictures. No night will be there, and\nthere will be no more sea. There will be no need of the sun, for Spirit\nwill be the light of the city, and matter will be proved a myth. Until\ncenturies pass, and this vision of Truth is fully interpreted by divine\nScience, this prophecy will be scoffed at; but it is just as veritable now\nas it can be then. Science, divine Science, presents the grand and eternal\nverities of God and man as the divine Mind and that Mind's idea.\n\nMortal man is the antipode of immortal man, and the two should not be\nconfounded. Bishop Foster said, in a lecture in Boston, \"No man living hath\nyet seen man.\" This material sinful personality, which we misname man, is\nwhat St. Paul terms \"the old man and his deeds,\" to be \"put off.\"\n\nWho can say what the absolute personality of God or man is? Who living hath\nseen God or a perfect man? In presence of such thoughts take off thy shoes\nand tread lightly, for this is holy ground. Surely the probation of mortals\nmust go on after the change called death, that they may learn the\ndefinition of immortal being; or else their present mistakes would\nextinguish human existence. How long this false sense remains after the\ntransition called death, no mortal knoweth; but this is sure, that the\nmists of error, sooner or later, will melt in the fervent heat of\nsuffering, mortality will burst the barriers of sense, and man be found\nperfect and eternal. Of his intermediate conditions--the purifying\nprocesses and terrible revolutions necessary to effect this end--I am\nignorant.\n\nInasmuch as these momentous facts in the Science of being must be learned\nsome time, now is the most acceptable time for beginning the lesson. If\nScience is pointing the way, and is found to bring with it health,\nholiness, and immortality, then to-day is none too soon for entering this\npath. The proof that Christian Science is the way of salvation given by\nChrist, I consider well established. The present, as well as the future,\nreveals the fact that Truth is never understood too soon.\n\nHas Truth, as demonstrated by Jesus, reappeared? Study Christian Science\nand practise it, and you will know that Truth has reappeared. What is\ndemonstrably true cannot be gainsaid; but getting the letter and omitting\nthe spirit of this Science is neither the comprehension of its Principle\nnor the practice of its Life.\n\n\n\n\nHAS MAN A SOUL?\n\n\nThe Scriptures inform us that \"the soul that sinneth, it shall die.\" Here\n_soul_ means sense and organic life; and this passage refers to the Jewish\nlaw, that a mortal should be put to death for his own sin, but not for\nanother's. Not Soul, but mortal sense, sins and dies. Immortal man has\nimmortal Soul and a deathless sense of being. Mortal man has but a false\nsense of Soul and body. He believes that Spirit, or Soul, exists in matter.\nThis is pantheism, and is not the Science of Soul. The mind-quacks have so\nslight a knowledge of Soul that they believe material and sinning sense to\nbe soul; and then they doctor this soul as if it were not even a material\nsense.\n\nIn Dr. Gordon's sermon on The Ministry of Healing, he said, \"The forgiven\nsoul in a sick body is not half a man.\" Is this pantheistic statement sound\ntheology,--that Soul is in matter, and the immortal part of man a sinner?\nIs not this a disparagement of the person of man and a denial of God's\npower? Better far that we impute such doctrines to mortal opinion than to\nthe divine Word.\n\nTo my sense, such a statement is a shocking reflection on the divine power.\nA mortal pardoned by God is not sick, he is made whole. He in whom sin,\ndisease, and death are destroyed, is more than a fraction of himself. Such\nsermons, though clad in soft raiment, are spiritless waifs, literary\ndriftwood on the ocean of thought; while Truth walks triumphantly over the\nwaves of sin, sickness, and death.\n\nThe law of Life and Truth is the law of Christ, destroying all sense of\nsin and death. It does more than forgive the false sense named sin, for it\npursues and punishes it, and will not let sin go until it is\ndestroyed,--until nothing is left to be forgiven, to suffer, or to be\npunished. Forgiven thus, sickness and sin have no relapse. God's law\nreaches and destroys evil by virtue of the allness of God.\n\nHe need not know the evil He destroys, any more than the legislator need\nknow the criminal who is punished by the law enacted. God's law is in three\nwords, \"I am All;\" and this perfect law is ever present to rebuke any claim\nof another law. God pities our woes with the love of a Father for His\nchild,--not by becoming human, and knowing sin, or naught, but by removing\nour knowledge of what is not. He could not destroy our woes totally if He\npossessed any knowledge of them. His sympathy is divine, not human. It is\nTruth's knowledge of its own infinitude which forbids the genuine existence\nof even a claim to error. This knowledge is light wherein there is no\ndarkness,--not light holding darkness within itself. The consciousness of\nlight is like the eternal law of God, revealing Him and nothing else.\n\nSympathy with sin, sorrow, and sickness would dethrone God as Truth, for\nTruth has no sympathy for error. In Science, the cure of the sick\ndemonstrates this grand verity of Christian Science, that you cannot\neradicate disease if you admit that God sends it or sees it. Material and\nmortal mind-healing (so-called) has for ages been a pretender, but has not\nhealed mortals; and they are yet sick and sinful.\n\nDisease and sin appear to-day in subtler forms than they did yesterday.\nThey progress and will multiply into worse forms, until it is understood\nthat disease and sin are unreal, _unknown_ to Truth, and never actual\npersons or real facts.\n\nOur phraseology varies. To me _divine pardon_ is that divine presence which\nis the sure destruction of sin; and I insist on the destruction of sin as\nthe only full proof of its pardon. \"For this purpose the Son of God was\nmanifested, that he might _destroy_ the works of the devil\" (1 John iii.\n8).\n\nJesus cast out evils, mediating between what is and is not, until a perfect\nconsciousness is attained. He healed disease as he healed sin; but he\ntreated them both, not as in or of matter, but as mortal beliefs to be\nexterminated. Physical and mental healing were one and the same with this\nmaster Metaphysician. If the evils called sin, sickness, and death had been\nforgiven in the generally accepted sense, they would have returned, to be\nagain forgiven; but Jesus said to disease: \"Come out of him, and enter no\nmore into him.\" He said also: \"If a man keep my saying, he shall never see\ndeath;\" and \"Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in\nheaven.\" The misinterpretation of such passages has retarded the progress\nof Christianity and the spiritualization of the race.\n\nA magistrate's pardon may encourage a criminal to repeat the offense;\nbecause _forgiveness_, in the popular sense of the word, can neither\nextinguish a crime nor the motives leading to it. The belief in sin--its\npleasure, pain, or power--must suffer, until it is self-destroyed.\n\"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\"\n\n\n\n\nIS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS SIN?\n\n\nFrequently when I touch this subject my meaning is ignorantly or\nmaliciously misconstrued. Christian Science Mind-healing lifts with a\nsteady arm, and cleaves sin with a broad battle-axe. It gives the lie to\nsin, in the spirit of Truth; but other theories make sin true. Jesus\ndeclared that the devil was \"a liar, and the father of it.\" A lie is\nnegation,--_alias_ nothing, or the opposite of something. Good is great and\nreal. Hence its opposite, named _evil_, must be small and unreal. When this\nsense is attained, we shall no longer be the servants of sin, and shall\ncease to love it.\n\nThe domination of good destroys the sense of evil. To illustrate: It seems\na great evil to belie and belittle Christian Science, and persecute a Cause\nwhich is healing its thousands and rapidly diminishing the percentage of\nsin. But reduce this evil to its lowest terms, _nothing_, and slander\nloses its power to harm; for even the wrath of man shall praise Him. The\nreduction of evil, in Science, gives the dominance to God, and must lead us\nto bless those who curse, that thus we may overcome evil with good.\n\nIf the Bible and my work Science and Health had their rightful place in\nschools of learning, they would revolutionize the world by advancing the\nkingdom of Christ. It requires sacrifice, struggle, prayer, and\nwatchfulness to understand and demonstrate what these volumes teach,\nbecause they involve divine Science, with fixed Principle, a given rule,\nand unmistakable proof.\n\n\n\n\nIS THERE NO SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT?\n\n\nSelf-sacrifice is the highway to heaven. The sacrifice of our blessed Lord\nis undeniable, and it was a million times greater than the brief agony of\nthe cross; for that would have been insufficient to insure the glory his\nsacrifice brought and the good it wrought. The spilling of human blood was\ninadequate to represent the blood of Christ, the outpouring love that\nsustains man's at-one-ment with God; though shedding human blood brought to\nlight the efficacy of divine Life and Love and its power over death. Jesus'\nsacrifice stands preeminently amidst physical suffering and human woe. The\nglory of human life is in overcoming sickness, sin, and death. Jesus\nsuffered for all mortals to bring in this glory; and his purpose was to\nshow them that the way out of the flesh, out of the delusion of all human\nerror, must be through the baptism of suffering, leading up to health,\nharmony, and heaven.\n\nWe shall leave the ceremonial law when we gain the truer sense of following\nChrist in spirit, and we shall no longer venture to materialize the\nspiritual and infinite meaning and efficacy of Truth and Love, and the\nsacrifice that Jesus made for us, by commemorating his death with a\nmaterial rite. Jesus said: \"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true\nworshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.\" They drink\nthe cup of Christ and are baptized in the purification of persecution who\ndiscern his true merit,--the unseen glory of suffering for others. Physical\ntorture affords but a slight illustration of the pangs which come to one\nupon whom the world of sense falls with its leaden weight in the endeavor\nto crush out of a career its divine destiny.\n\nThe blood of Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel. The real\natonement--so infinitely beyond the heathen conception that God requires\nhuman blood to propitiate His justice and bring His mercy--needs to be\nunderstood. The real blood or Life of Spirit is not yet discerned. Love\nbruised and bleeding, yet mounting to the throne of glory in purity and\npeace, over the steps of uplifted humanity,--this is the deep significance\nof the blood of Christ. Nameless woe, everlasting victories, are the blood,\nthe vital currents of Christ Jesus' life, purchasing the freedom of mortals\nfrom sin and death.\n\nThis blood of Jesus is everything to human hope and faith. Without it, how\npoor the precedents of Christianity! What manner of Science were Christian\nScience without the power to demonstrate the Principle of such Life; and\nwhat hope have mortals but through deep humility and adoration to reach the\nunderstanding of this Principle! When human struggles cease, and mortals\nyield lovingly to the purpose of divine Love, there will be no more\nsickness, sorrow, sin, and death. He who pointed the way of Life conquered\nalso the drear subtlety of death.\n\nIt was not to appease the wrath of God, but to show the allness of Love and\nthe nothingness of hate, sin, and death, that Jesus suffered. He lived that\nwe also might live. He suffered, to show mortals the awful price paid by\nsin, and how to avoid paying it. He atoned for the terrible unreality of a\nsupposed existence apart from God. He suffered because of the shocking\nhuman idolatry that presupposes Life, substance, Soul, and intelligence in\nmatter,--which is the antipode of God, and yet governs mankind. The\nglorious truth of being--namely, that God is the only Mind, Life,\nsubstance, Soul--needs no reconciliation with God, for it is one with Him\nnow and forever.\n\nJesus came announcing Truth, and saying not only \"the kingdom of God is at\nhand,\" but \"the kingdom of God is within you.\" Hence there is no sin, for\nGod's kingdom is everywhere and supreme, and it follows that the human\nkingdom is nowhere, and must be _unreal_. Jesus taught and demonstrated\nthe infinite as one, and not as two. He did not teach that there are two\ndeities,--one infinite and the other finite; for that would be impossible.\nHe knew God as infinite, and therefore as the All-in-all; and we shall know\nthis truth when we awake in the divine likeness. Jesus' true and conscious\nbeing never left heaven for earth. It abode forever above, even while\nmortals believed it was here. He once spoke of himself (John iii. 13) as\n\"the Son of man which is in heaven,\"--remarkable words, as wholly opposed\nto the popular view of Jesus' nature.\n\nThe real Christ was unconscious of matter, of sin, disease, and death, and\nwas conscious only of God, of good, of eternal Life, and harmony. Hence the\nhuman Jesus had a resort to his higher self and relation to the Father, and\nthere could find rest from unreal trials in the conscious reality and\nroyalty of his being,--holding the mortal as unreal, and the divine as\nreal. It was this retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which\nrecuperated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death. Had he been as\nconscious of these evils as he was of God, wherein there is no\nconsciousness of human error, Jesus could not have resisted them; nor could\nhe have conquered the malice of his foes, rolled away the stone from the\nsepulchre, and risen from human sense to a higher concept than that in\nwhich he appeared at his birth.\n\nMankind's concept of Jesus was a babe born in a manger, even while the\ndivine and ideal Christ was the Son of God, spiritual and eternal. In\nhuman conception God's offspring had to grow, develop; but in Science his\ndivine nature and manhood were forever complete, and dwelt forever in the\nFather. Jesus said, \"Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power\nof God.\" Mortal thought gives the eternal God and infinite consciousness\nthe license of a short-lived sinner, to begin and end, to know both evil\nand good; when evil is temporal and God is eternal,--and when, as a sphere\nof Mind, He cannot know beginning or end.\n\nThe spiritual interpretation of the vicarious atonement of Jesus, in\nChristian Science, unfolds the full-orbed glory of that event; but to\nregard this wonder of glory, this most marvellous demonstration, as a\npersonal and material bloodgiving--or as a proof that sin is known to the\ndivine Mind, and that what is unlike God demands His continual presence,\nknowledge, and power, to meet and master it--would make the atonement to be\nless than the _at-one-ment_, whereby the work of Jesus would lose its\nefficacy and lack the \"signs following.\"\n\nFrom Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures teach an infinite God, and none\nbeside Him; and on this basis Messiah and prophet saved the sinner and\nraised the dead,--uplifting the human understanding, buried in a false\nsense of being. Jesus rendered null and void whatever is unlike God; but he\ncould not have done this if error and sin existed in the Mind of God. What\nGod knows, He also predestinates; and it must be fulfilled. Jesus proved\nto perfection, so far as this could be done in that age, what Christian\nScience is to-day proving in a small degree,--the falsity of the evidence\nof the material senses that sin, sickness, and death are sensible claims,\nand that God substantiates their evidence by knowing their claim. He\nestablished the only true idealism on the basis that God is All, and He is\ngood, and good is Spirit; hence there is no intelligent sin, evil _mind_ or\nmatter: and this is the only true philosophy and realism. This divine\nmystery of godliness was the rock of Truth, on which he built his Church of\nthe new-born, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.\n\nThis Truth is the rock which the builders rejected; but \"the same is become\nthe head of the corner.\" This is the chief corner-stone, the basis and\nsupport of creation, the interpreter of one God, the infinity and unity of\ngood.\n\nIn proportion as mortals approximate the understanding of Christian\nScience, they take hold of harmony, and material incumbrance disappears.\nHaving one God, one Mind, one consciousness,--which includes only His own\nnature,--and loving your neighbor as yourself, constitute Christian\nScience, which must demonstrate the nothingness of any other state or stage\nof being.\n\n\n\n\nIS THERE NO INTERCESSORY PRAYER?\n\n\nAll prayer that is desire is intercessory; but kindling desire loses a part\nof its purest spirituality if the lips try to express it. It is a truism\nthat we can think more lucidly and profoundly than we can write or speak.\nThe silent intercession and unvoiced imploring is an honest and potent\nprayer to heal and save. The audible prayer may be offered to be heard of\nmen, though ostensibly to catch God's ear,--after the fashion of Baal's\nprophets,--by speaking loud enough to be heard; but when the heart prays,\nand not the lips, no dishonesty or vanity influences the petition.\n\nProphet and apostle have glorified God in secret prayer, and He has\nrewarded them openly. Prayer can neither change God, nor bring His designs\ninto mortal modes; but it can and does change our modes and our false sense\nof Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer humiliates,\npurifies, and quickens activity, in the direction that is unerring.\n\nTrue prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to\ninclude all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love\nwherewith He loves us. Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good.\nIt makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power.\nIt shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are;\nand most of all, it shows us what God is. Advancing in this light, we\nreflect it; and this light reveals the pure Mind-pictures, in silent\nprayer, even as photography grasps the solar light to portray the face of\npleasant thought.\n\nWhat but silent prayer can meet the demand, \"Pray without ceasing\"? The\napostle James said: \"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to\nconsume it on your lusts.\" Because of vanity and self-righteousness,\nmortals seek, and expect to receive, a material sense of approval; and they\nexpect also what is impossible,--a material and mortal sense of spiritual\nand immortal Truth.\n\nIt is sometimes wise to hide from dull and base ears the pure pearls of\nawakened consciousness, lest your pearls be trampled upon. Words may belie\ndesire, and pour forth a hypocrite's prayer; but thoughts are our honest\nconviction. I have no objection to audible prayer of the right kind; but\nthe inaudible is more effectual.\n\nI instruct my students to pursue their mental ministrations very sacredly,\nand never to touch the human thought save to issues of Truth; never to\ntrespass mentally on individual rights; never to take away the rights, but\nonly the wrongs of mankind. Otherwise they forfeit their ability to heal in\nScience. Only when sickness, sin, and fear obstruct the harmony of Mind and\nbody, is it right for one mind to meddle with another mind, and control\naright the thought struggling for freedom.\n\nIt is Truth and Love that cast out fear and heal the sick, and mankind are\nbetter because of this. If a change in the religious views of the patient\ncomes with the change to health, our Father has done this; for the human\nmind and body are made better only by divine influence.\n\n\n\n\nSHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?\n\n\nHistory repeats itself. The Pharisees of old warned the people to beware of\nJesus, and contemptuously called him \"this fellow.\" Jesus said, \"For which\nof these works do ye stone me?\" as much as to ask, Is it the work most\nderided and envied that is most acceptable to God? Not that he would cease\nto do the will of his Father on account of persecution, but he would repeat\nhis work to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his Father.\n\nThere are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look for perfection\nin churches or associations. The life of Christ is the perfect example; and\nto compare mortal lives with this model is to subject them to severe\nscrutiny. Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to force\nthe doors of Science and enter in; but this white sanctuary will never\nadmit such as come to steal and to rob. Through long ages people have\nslumbered over Christ's commands, \"Go ye into all the world, and preach the\ngospel;\" \"Heal the sick, cast out devils;\" and now the Church seems almost\nchagrined that by new discoveries of Truth sin is losing prestige and\npower.\n\nThe Rev. Dr. A.J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist clergyman, said in a sermon:\n\"The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and it is doing it to-day; and as\nthe faith of the Church increases, and Christians more and more learn\ntheir duty to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will such\nmanifestations of God's power increase among us.\" Such sentiments are\nwholesome avowals of Christian Science. God is not unable or unwilling to\nheal, and mortals are not compelled to have other gods before Him, and\nemploy material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit supplies all\nhuman needs. Jesus said to the sick, \"Thy sins are forgiven thee; rise up\nand walk!\" God's pardon is the destruction of all \"the ills that flesh is\nheir to.\"\n\nAll power belongs to God; and it is not in all the vain power of dogma and\nphilosophy to dispossess the divine Mind of healing power, or to cast out\nerror with error, even in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal\nthe sick. While Science is engulfing error in bottomless oblivion, the\nmaterial senses would enthrone error as omnipotent and omnipresent, with\npower to determine the fact and fate to being. It is said that the devil is\nthe ape of God. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring itself both true\nand good. The path of Christian Science is beset with false claimants,\naping its virtues, but cleaving to their own vices. Denial of the\nauthorship of \"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures\" would make a\nlie the author of Truth, and so make Truth itself a lie.\n\nA distinguished clergyman came to be healed. He said: \"I am suffering from\nnervous prostration, and have to eat beefsteak and drink strong coffee to\nsupport me through a sermon.\" Here a skeptic might well ask if the\natonement had lost its efficacy for him, and if Christ's power to heal was\nnot equal to the power of daily meat and drink. The power of Truth is not\ncontingent on matter. Our Master said, \"Come unto me, all ye that labor and\nare heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\" Truth rebukes error; and\nwhether stall-fed or famishing, theology needs Truth to stimulate and\nsustain a good sermon.\n\nA lady said: \"Only He who knows all things can estimate the good your books\nare doing.\"\n\nA distinguished Doctor of Divinity said: \"Your book leavens my sermons.\"\n\nThe following extract from a letter is a specimen of those received daily:\n\"Your book Science and Health is healing the sick, binding up the\nbroken-hearted, preaching deliverance to the captive, convicting the\ninfidel, alarming the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian.\"\n\nChristian Science Mind-healing is dishonored by those who take it up from\nmercenary motives, for wealth and fame, or think to build a baseless fabric\nof their own on another's foundation. They cannot put the \"new wine into\nold bottles;\" they can never engraft Truth into error. Such students come\nto my College to learn a system which they go away to disgrace. Stealing or\ngarbling my statements of Mind-science will never prevent or reconstruct\nthe wrecks of \"_isms_\" and help humanity.\n\nScience often suffers blame through the sheer ignorance of people, while\nenvy and hatred bark and bite at its heels. A man's inability to heal, on\nthe Principle of Christian Science, substantiates his ignorance of its\nPrinciple and practice, and incapacitates him for correct comment. This\nfailure should make him modest.\n\nChristian Science involves a new language, and a higher demonstration of\nmedicine and religion. It is the \"new tongue\" of Truth, having its best\ninterpretation in the power of Christianity to heal. My system of\nMind-healing swerves not from the highest ethics and from the spiritual\ngoal. To climb up by some other way than Truth is to fall. Error has no\nhobby, however boldly ridden or brilliantly caparisoned, that can leap into\nthe sanctum of Christian Science.\n\nIn Queen Elizabeth's time Protestantism could sentence men to the dungeon\nor stake for their religion, and so abrogate the rights of conscience and\nchoke the channels of God. Ecclesiastical tyranny muzzled the mouth lisping\nGod's praise; and instead of healing, it palsied the weak hand outstretched\nto God. Progress, legitimate to the human race, pours the healing balm of\nTruth and Love into every wound. It reassures us that no Reign of Terror or\nrule of error will again unite Church and State, or re-enact, through the\ncivil arm of government, the horrors of religious persecution.\n\nThe Rev. S.E. Herrick, a Congregational clergyman of Boston, says:\n\"Heretics of yesterday are martyrs to-day.\" In every age and clime, \"On\nearth peace, good will toward men\" must be the watchword of Christianity.\n\nJesus said: \"I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou\nhast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them\nunto babes.\"\n\nSt. Paul said that without charity we are \"as sounding brass, or a tinkling\ncymbal;\" and he added: \"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; ... doth not\nbehave itself unseemly, ... thinketh no evil, ... but rejoiceth in the\ntruth.\"\n\nTo hinder the unfolding truth, to ostracize whatever uplifts mankind, is of\ncourse out of the question. Such an attempt indicates weakness, fear, or\nmalice; and such efforts arise from a spiritual lack, felt, though\nunacknowledged.\n\nLet it not be heard in Boston that woman, \"last at the cross and first at\nthe sepulchre,\" has no rights which man is bound to respect. In natural law\nand in religion the right of woman to fill the highest measure of\nenlightened understanding and the highest places in government, is\ninalienable, and these rights are ably vindicated by the noblest of both\nsexes. This is woman's hour, with all its sweet amenities and its moral and\nreligious reforms.\n\nDrifting into intellectual wrestlings, we should agree to disagree; and\nthis harmony would anchor the Church in more spiritual latitudes, and so\nfulfil her destiny.\n\nLet the Word have free course and be glorified. The people clamor to leave\ncradle and swaddling-clothes. The spiritual status is urging its highest\ndemands on mortals, and material history is drawing to a close. Truth\ncannot be stereotyped; it unfoldeth forever. \"One on God's side is a\nmajority;\" and \"Lo, I am with you alway,\" is the pledge of the Master.\n\nThe question now at issue is: Shall we have a practical, spiritual\nChristianity, with its healing power, or shall we have material medicine\nand superficial religion? The advancing hope of the race, craving health\nand holiness, halts for a reply; and the reappearing Christ, whose\nlife-giving understanding Christian Science imparts, must answer the\nconstant inquiry: \"Art thou he that should come?\" Woman should not be\nordered to the rear, or laid on the rack, for joining the overture of\nangels. Theologians descant pleasantly upon free moral agency; but they\nshould begin by admitting individual rights.\n\nThe author's ancestors were among the first settlers of New Hampshire. They\nreared there the Puritan standard of undefiled religion. As dutiful\ndescendants of Puritans, let us lift their standard higher, rejoicing, as\nPaul did, that we are _free born_.\n\nMan has a noble destiny; and the full-orbed significance of this destiny\nhas dawned on the sick-bound and sin-enslaved. For the unfolding of this\nupward tendency to health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to\nlabor and wait.","title":"No and Yes","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":11483}