Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 16

growth and more spiritual understanding, which dawns by degrees on mortals. The spiritual Christ was infal- lible; Jesus, as material manhood, was not Christ. The "man of sorrows" knew that the man of joys, his spiritual self, or Christ, was the Son of G.o.d; and that the mor- [15]

tal mind, not the immortal Mind, suffered. The human manifestation of the Son of G.o.d was called the Son of man, or Mary's son.

_Please explain Paul's meaning in the text, __"__For to me_ _to live is Christ, and to die is gain.__"_ [20]

The Science of Life, overshadowing Paul's sense of life in matter, so far extinguished the latter as forever to quench his love for it. The discipline of the flesh is designed to turn one, like a weary traveller, to the home of Love. To lose error thus, is to live in Christ, Truth. [25]

A true sense of the falsity of material joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, takes them away, and teaches Life's lessons aright. The transition from our lower sense of Life to a new and higher sense thereof, even though it be through the door named death, yields a clearer and [30]

nearer sense of Life to those who have utilized the present,

[Page 85.]

and are ripe for the harvest-home. To the battle- [1]

worn and weary Christian hero, Life eternal brings blessings.

_Is a Christian Scientist ever sick, and has he who is_ _sick been regenerated?_ [5]

The Christian Scientist learns spiritually all that he knows of Life, and demonstrates what he understands.

G.o.d is recognized as the divine Principle of his being, and of every thought and act leading to good. His pur- pose must be right, though his power is temporarily lim- [10]

ited. Perfection, the goal of existence, is not won in a moment; and regeneration leading thereto is gradual, for it culminates in the fulfilment of this divine rule in Science: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." [15]

The last degree of regeneration rises into the rest of perpetual, spiritual, individual existence. The first feeble fluttering of mortals Christward are infantile and more or less imperfect. The new-born Christian Scientist must mature, and work out his own salvation. [20]

Spirit and flesh antagonize. Temptation, that mist of mortal mind which seems to be matter and the environ- ment of mortals, suggests pleasure and pain in matter; and, so long as this temptation lasts, the warfare is not ended and the mortal is not regenerated. The pleas- [25]

ures-more than the pains-of sense, r.e.t.a.r.d regenera- tion; for pain compels human consciousness to escape from sense into the immortality and harmony of Soul.

Disease in error, more than ease in it, tends to destroy error: the sick often are thereby led to Christ, Truth, [30]

and to learn their way out of both sickness and sin.

[Page 86.]

The material and physical are imperfect. The in- [1]

dividual and spiritual are perfect; these have no fleshly nature. This final degree of regeneration is saving, and the Christian will, must, attain it; but it doth not yet appear. Until this be attained, the Christian Scientist [5]

must continue to strive with sickness, sin, and death- though in lessening degrees-and manifest growth at every experience.

_Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are noth-_ _ing and exist only in imagination?_ [10]

_Nothing_ and _something_ are words which need correct definition. They either mean formations of indefinite and vague human opinions, or scientific cla.s.sifications of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is some- [15]

thing to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief, of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and [20]

earth, the harmony of body and Mind.

Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the gran- deur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is [25]

the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmos- phere of mortal mind const.i.tutes our mortal envi- ronment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, const.i.tutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings [30]

to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall

[Page 87.]

soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue tem- [1]

poral sky.

To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature G.o.d's creation, which is unjust to human sense and [5]

to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spirit- ual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and [10]

knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail con- ception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind."

_Please inform us through your Journal; if you sent_ [15]

_Mrs. -- to --. She said that you sent her there to look_ _after the students; and also, that no one there was working_ _in Science,-which is certainly a mistake._

I never commission any one to teach students of mine.

After cla.s.s teaching, he does best in the investigation of [20]

Christian Science who is most reliant on himself and G.o.d. My students are taught the divine Principle and rules of the Science of Mind-healing. What they need thereafter is to study thoroughly the Scriptures and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." To [25]

watch and pray, to be honest, earnest, loving, and truth- ful, is indispensable to the demonstration of the truth they have been taught.

If they are haunted by obsequious helpers, who, un- called for, imagine they can help anybody and steady [30]

G.o.d's altar-this interference prolongs the struggle

[Page 88.]

and tends to blight the fruits of my students. A faith- [1]

ful student may even sometimes feel the need of physical help, and occasionally receive it from others; but the less this is required, the better it is for that student. [5]

_Please give us, through your Journal, the name of_ _the author of that genuine critique in the September_ _number, __"__What Quibus Thinks.__"_

I am pleased to inform this inquirer, that the author of the article in question is a Boston gentleman whose [10]

thought is appreciated by many liberals. Patience, ob- servation, intellectual culture, reading, writing, exten- sive travel, and twenty years in the pulpit, have equipped him as a critic who knows whereof he speaks. His allu- sion to Christian Science in the following paragraph, [15]

glows in the shadow of darkling criticism like a mid- night sun. Its manly honesty follows like a benediction after prayer, and closes the task of talking to deaf ears and dull debaters.

"We have always insisted that this Science is natural, [20]

spiritually natural; that Jesus was the highest type of real nature; that Christian healing is supernatural, or extra-natural, only to those who do not enter into its sublimity or understand its modes-as imported ice was miraculous to the equatorial African, who had never [25]

seen water freeze."

_Is it right for a Scientist to treat with a doctor?_

This depends upon what kind of a doctor it is. Mind- healing, and healing with drugs, are opposite modes of medicine. As a rule, drop one of these doctors when you [30]

[Page 89.]

employ the other. The Scripture saith, "No man can [1]

serve two masters;" and, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation."

_If Scientists are called upon to care for a member of_ _the family, or a friend in sickness, who is employing a_ [5]

_regular physician, would it be right to treat this patient_ _at all; and ought the patient to follow the doctor's_ _directions?_

When patients are under material medical treatment, it is advisable in most cases that Scientists do not treat [10]

them, or interfere with _materia medica_. If the patient is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings, although the medical attendant and friends have no faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian, to do him all the good you can; but your good will gen- [15]

erally "be evil spoken of." The hazard of casting "pearls before swine" caused our Master to refuse help to some who sought his aid; and he left this precaution for others.

_If mortal man is unreal, how can he be saved, and why_ [20]

_does he need to be saved? I ask for information, not for_ _controversy, for I am a seeker after Truth._

You will find the proper answer to this question in my published works. Man is immortal. Mortal man is a false concept that is not spared or prolonged by being [25]

saved from itself, from whatever is false. This salva- tion means: saved from error, or error overcome. Im- mortal man, in G.o.d's likeness, is safe in divine Science.

Mortal man is saved on this divine Principle, if he will only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and recog- [30]