Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 35

EXTEMPORE REMARKS

The great theme so deeply and solemnly expounded by the preacher, has been exemplified in all ages, but chiefly in the great crises of nations or of the human race.

It is then that supreme devotion to Principle has espe- cially been called for and manifested. It is then that we [10]

learn a little more of the nothingness of evil, and more of the divine energies of good, and strive valiantly for the liberty of the sons of G.o.d.

The day we celebrate reminds us of the heroes and heroines who counted not their own lives dear to them, [15]

when they sought the New England sh.o.r.es, not as the flying nor as conquerors, but, steadfast in faith and love, to build upon the rock of Christ, the true idea of G.o.d- the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.

When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth [20]

Rock, frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted away in the fire of love which came down from heaven.

The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom, in the rights of conscience.

But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? [25]

Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith we are armored?

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Never was there a more solemn and imperious call [1]

than G.o.d makes to us all, right here, for fervent de- votion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil [5]

are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and opera- tive in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and [10]

they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard- bearers.

What will you do about it? Will you be equally in earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will [15]

you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establis.h.i.+ng the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practi- cally, and answer aright! [20]

Easter Services

The editor of _The Christian Science Journal_ said that at three o'clock, the hour for the church service proper, the pastor, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, accompanied by Rev. D. A. Easton, who was announced to preach [25]

the sermon, came on the platform. The pastor introduced Mr. Easton as follows:-

_Friends_:-The homesick traveller in foreign lands greets with joy a familiar face. I am constantly home- sick for heaven. In my long journeyings I have met [30]

[Page 178.]

one who comes from the place of my own sojourning [1]

for many years,-the Congregational Church. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and of Andover The- ological School. He has left his old church, as I did, from a yearning of the heart; because he was not sat- [5]

isfied with a manlike G.o.d, but wanted to become a G.o.d- like man. He found that the new wine could not be put into old bottles without bursting them, and he came to us.

Mr. Easton then delivered an interesting discourse [10]

from the text, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of G.o.d" (Col. iii. 1), which he prefaced by saying:-

"I think it was about a year ago that I strayed into [15]

this hall, a stranger, and wondered what sort of people you were, and of what you were wors.h.i.+ppers. If any one had said to me that to-day I should stand before you to preach a sermon on Christian Science, I should have replied, "Much learning"-or something else- [20]

"hath made thee mad." If I had not found Christian Science a new gospel, I should not be standing before you: if I had not found it truth, I could not have stood up again _to_ preach, here or elsewhere."

At the conclusion of the sermon, the pastor again came [25]

forward, and added the following:-

My friends, I wished to be excused from speaking to-day, but will yield to circ.u.mstances. In the flesh, we are as a part.i.tion wall between the old and the new; between the old religion in which we have been educated, [30]

and the new, living, impersonal Christ-thought that has been given to the world to-day.

[Page 179.]

The old churches are saying, "He is not here;" and, [1]

"Who shall roll away the stone?"

The stone has been rolled away by human suffer- ing. The first rightful desire in the hour of loss, when believing we have lost sight of Truth, is to know where [5]

He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these questions:-

Is our consciousness in matter or in G.o.d? Have we any other consciousness than that of good? If we have, He is saying to us to-day, "Adam, where art thou?" We [10]

are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and death. This is the old consciousness.

In the new religion the teaching is, "He is not here; Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become more to us,-more true, more spiritual." [15]

Can we say this to-day? Have we left the conscious- ness of sickness and sin for that of health and holiness?

What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning? [20]

It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old con- sciousness of Soul in sense.

These flowers are floral apostles. G.o.d does all this through His followers; and He made every flower in [25]

Mind before it sprang from the earth: yet we look into matter and the earth to give us these smiles of G.o.d!

We must lay aside material consciousness, and then we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, "Rabboni!"

-Master! [30]

In 1866, when G.o.d revealed to me this risen Christ, this Life that knows no death, that saith, "Because he

[Page 180.]

lives, I live," I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the [1]

flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease my warfare.

When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were [5]

frightened at beholding me restored to health.

A dear old lady asked me, "How is it that you are restored to us? Has Christ come again on earth?"

"Christ never left," I replied; "Christ is Truth, and Truth is always here,-the impersonal Saviour." [10]

Then another person, more material, met me, and I said, in the words of my Master, "Touch me not." I shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went out to G.o.d, and I found the open door from this sepulchre of matter. [15]

I _love_ the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and not of death.