Retrospection and Introspection Part 5

Let us follow the example of Jesus, the master Metaphysician, and gain sufficient knowledge of error to destroy it with Truth. Evil is not mastered by evil; it can only be overcome with good. This brings out the nothingness of evil and the eternal somethingness, vindicates the divine Principle, and improves the race of Adam.

FOUNDATION-STONES

The following ideas of Deity, antagonized by finite theories, doctrines, and hypotheses, I found to be demonstrable rules in Christian Science, and that we must abide by them.

Whatever diverges from the one divine Mind, or G.o.d,--or divides Mind into minds, Spirit into spirits, Soul into souls, and Being into beings,--is a misstatement of the unerring divine Principle of Science, which interrupts the meaning of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of Spirit, and is of human instead of divine origin.

War is waged between the evidences of Spirit and the evidences of the five physical senses; and this contest must go on until peace be declared by the final triumph of Spirit in immutable harmony. Divine Science disclaims sin, sickness, and death, on the basis of the omnipotence and omnipresence of G.o.d, or divine good.

All consciousness is Mind, and Mind is G.o.d. Hence there is but one Mind; and that one is the infinite good, supplying all Mind by the reflection, not the subdivision, of G.o.d. Whatever else claims to be mind, or consciousness, is untrue. The sun sends forth light, but not suns; so G.o.d reflects Himself, or Mind, but does not subdivide Mind, or good, into minds, good and evil. Divine Science demands mighty wrestlings with mortal beliefs, as we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable sea of possibilities.

Neither ancient nor modern philosophy furnishes a scientific basis for the Science of Mind-healing. Plato believed he had a soul, which must be doctored in order to heal his body. This would be like correcting the principle of music for the purpose of destroying discord. Principle is right; it is practice that is wrong. Soul is right; it is the flesh that is evil. Soul is the synonym of Spirit, G.o.d; hence there is but one Soul, and that one is infinite. If that pagan philosopher had known that physical sense, not Soul, causes all bodily ailments, his philosophy would have yielded to Science.

Man s.h.i.+nes by borrowed light. He reflects G.o.d as his Mind, and this reflection is substance,--the substance of good. Matter is substance in error, Spirit is substance in Truth.

Evil, or error, is not Mind; but infinite Mind is sufficient to supply all manifestations of intelligence. The notion of more than one Mind, or Life, is as unsatisfying as it is unscientific. All must be of G.o.d, and not our own, separated from Him.

Human systems of philosophy and religion are departures from Christian Science. Mistaking divine Principle for corporeal personality, ingrafting upon one First Cause such opposite effects as good and evil, health and sickness, life and death; making mortality the status and rule of divinity,--such methods can never reach the perfection and demonstration of metaphysical, or Christian Science.

Stating the divine Principle, omnipotence (_omnis potens_), and then departing from this statement and taking the rule of finite matter, with which to work out the problem of infinity or Spirit,--all this is like trying to compensate for the absence of omnipotence by a physical, false, and finite subst.i.tute.

With our Master, life was not merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying sense of power that subdued matter and brought to light immortality, insomuch that the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Life, as defined by Jesus, had no beginning; it was not the result of organization, or infused into matter; it was Spirit.

THE GREAT REVELATION

Christian Science reveals the grand verity, that to believe man has a finite and erring mind, and consequently a mortal mind and soul and life, is error. Scientific terms have no contradictory significations.

In Science, Life is not temporal, but eternal, without beginning or ending.

The word _Life_ never means that which is the source of death, and of good and evil. Such an inference is unscientific. It is like saying that addition means subtraction in one instance and addition in another, and then applying this rule to a demonstration of the science of numbers; even as mortals apply finite terms to G.o.d, in demonstration of infinity. _Life_ is a term used to indicate Deity; and every other name for the Supreme Being, if properly employed, has the signification of Life. Whatever errs is mortal, and is the antipodes of Life, or G.o.d, and of health and holiness, both in idea and demonstration.

Christian Science reveals Mind, the only living and true G.o.d, and all that is made by Him, Mind, as harmonious, immortal, and spiritual: the five material senses define Mind and matter as distinct, but mutually dependent, each on the other, for intelligence and existence. Science defines man as immortal, as coexistent and coeternal with G.o.d, as made in His own image and likeness; material sense defines life as something apart from G.o.d, beginning and ending, and man as very far from the divine likeness. Science reveals Life as a complete sphere, as eternal, self-existent Mind; material sense defines life as a broken sphere, as organized matter, and mind as something separate from G.o.d. Science reveals Spirit as All, averring that there is nothing beside G.o.d; material sense says that matter, His antipode, is something besides G.o.d. Material sense adds that the divine Spirit created matter, and that matter and evil are as real as Spirit and good.

Christian Science reveals G.o.d and His idea as the All and Only. It declares that evil is the absence of good; whereas, good is G.o.d ever-present, and therefore evil is unreal and good is all that is real. Christian Science saith to the wave and storm, "Be still," and there is a great calm.

Material sense asks, in its ignorance of Science, "When will the raging of the material elements cease?" Science saith to all manner of disease, "Know that G.o.d is all-power and all-presence, and there is nothing beside Him;"

and the sick are healed. Material sense saith, "Oh, when will my sufferings cease? Where is G.o.d? Sickness is something besides Him, which He cannot, or does not, heal."

Christian Science is the only sure basis of harmony. Material sense contradicts Science, for matter and its so-called organizations take no cognizance of the spiritual facts of the universe, or of the real man and G.o.d. Christian Science declares that there is but one Truth, Life, Love, but one Spirit, Mind, Soul. Any attempt to divide these arises from the fallibility of sense, from mortal man's ignorance, from enmity to G.o.d and divine Science.

Christian Science declares that sickness is a belief, a latent fear, made manifest on the body in different forms of fear or disease. This fear is formed unconsciously in the silent thought, as when you awaken from sleep and feel ill, experiencing the effect of a fear whose existence you do not realize; but if you fall asleep, actually conscious of the truth of Christian Science,--namely, that man's harmony is no more to be invaded than the rhythm of the universe,--you cannot awake in fear or suffering of any sort.

Science saith to fear, "You are the cause of all sickness; but you are a self-const.i.tuted falsity,--you are darkness, nothingness. You are without 'hope, and without G.o.d in the world.' You do not exist, and have no right to exist, for 'perfect Love casteth out fear.'"

G.o.d is everywhere. "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard;" and this voice is Truth that destroys error and Love that casts out fear.

Christian Science reveals the fact that, if suffering exists, it is in the mortal mind only, for matter has no sensation and cannot suffer.

If you rule out every sense of disease and suffering from mortal mind, it cannot be found in the body.

Posterity will have the right to demand that Christian Science be stated and demonstrated in its G.o.dliness and grandeur,--that however little be taught or learned, that little shall be right. Let there be milk for babes, but let not the milk be adulterated. Unless this method be pursued, the Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will increase.

Test Christian Science by its effect on society, and you will find that the views here set forth--as to the illusion of sin, sickness, and death--bring forth better fruits of health, righteousness, and Life, than _a belief in their reality has ever done_. A demonstration of the _unreality_ of evil destroys evil.

SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM

Why do Christian Scientists say G.o.d and His idea are the only realities, and then insist on the need of healing sickness and sin? Because Christian Science heals sin as it heals sickness, by establis.h.i.+ng the recognition that G.o.d _is All_, and there is none beside Him,--that all is good, and there is in reality no evil, neither sickness nor sin. We attack the sinner's belief in the pleasure of sin, _alias_ the reality of sin, which makes him a sinner, in order to destroy this belief and save him from sin; and we attack the belief of the sick in the reality of sickness, in order to heal them. When we deny the authority of sin, we begin to sap it; for this denunciation must precede its destruction.

G.o.d is good, hence goodness is something, for it represents G.o.d, the Life of man. Its opposite, nothing, named _evil_, is nothing but a conspiracy against man's Life and goodness. Do you not feel bound to expose this conspiracy, and so to save man from it? Whosoever covers iniquity becomes accessory to it. Sin, as a claim, is more dangerous than sickness, more subtle, more difficult to heal.

St. Augustine once said, "The devil is but the ape of G.o.d." Sin is worse than sickness; but recollect that it encourages sin to say, "There is no sin," and leave the subject there.

Sin ultimates in sinner, and in this sense they are one. You cannot separate sin from the sinner, nor the sinner from his sin. The sin is the sinner, and _vice versa_, for such is the unity of evil; and together both sinner and sin will be destroyed by the supremacy of good. This, however, does not annihilate man, for to efface sin, _alias_ the sinner, brings to light, makes apparent, the real man, even G.o.d's "image and likeness." Need it be said that any opposite theory is heterodox to divine Science, which teaches that good is equally _one_ and _all_, even as the opposite claim of evil is one.

In Christian Science the fact is made obvious that the sinner and the sin are alike simply nothingness; and this view is supported by the Scripture, where the Psalmist saith: "He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." G.o.d's ways and works and thoughts have never changed, either in Principle or practice.

Since there is in belief an illusion termed sin, which must be met and mastered, we cla.s.sify sin, sickness, and death as illusions. They are supposit.i.tious claims of error; and error being a false claim, they are no claims at all. It is scientific to abide in conscious harmony, in health-giving, deathless Truth and Love. To do this, mortals must first open their eyes to all the illusive forms, methods, and subtlety of error, in order that the illusion, error, may be destroyed; if this is not done, mortals will become the victims of error.

If evangelical churches refuse fellows.h.i.+p with the Church of Christ, Scientist, or with Christian Science, they must rest their opinions of Truth and Love on the evidences of the physical senses, rather than on the teaching and practice of Jesus, or the works of the Spirit.

Ritualism and dogma lead to self-righteousness and bigotry, which freeze out the spiritual element. Pharisaism killeth; Spirit giveth Life. The odors of persecution, tobacco, and alcohol are not the sweet-smelling savor of Truth and Love. Feasting the senses, gratification of appet.i.te and pa.s.sion, have no warrant in the gospel or the Decalogue. Mortals must take up the cross if they would follow Christ, and wors.h.i.+p the Father "in spirit and in truth."

The Jewish religion was not spiritual; hence Jesus denounced it. If the religion of to-day is const.i.tuted of such elements as of old ruled Christ out of the synagogues, it will continue to avoid whatever follows the example of our Lord and prefers Christ to creed. Christian Science is the pure evangelic truth. It accords with the trend and tenor of Christ's teaching and example, while it demonstrates the power of Christ as taught in the four Gospels. Truth, casting out evils and healing the sick; Love, fulfilling the law and keeping man unspotted from the world,--these practical manifestations of Christianity const.i.tute the only evangelism, and they need no creed.

As well expect to determine, without a telescope, the magnitude and distance of the stars, as to expect to obtain health, harmony, and holiness through an unspiritual and unhealing religion. Christianity reveals G.o.d as ever-present Truth and Love, to be utilized in healing the sick, in casting out error, in raising the dead.

Christian Science gives vitality to religion, which is no longer buried in materiality. It raises men from a material sense into the spiritual understanding and scientific demonstration of G.o.d.

THE HUMAN CONCEPT

Sin existed as a false claim before the human concept of sin was formed; hence one's concept of error is not the whole of error. The human thought does not const.i.tute sin, but _vice versa_, sin const.i.tutes the human or physical concept.

Sin is both concrete and abstract. Sin was, and _is_, the lying supposition that life, substance, and intelligence are both material and spiritual, and yet are separate from G.o.d. The first iniquitous manifestation of sin was a finity. The finite was self-arrayed against the infinite, the mortal against immortality, and a sinner was the antipode of G.o.d.