Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 51

Cyclones kill and destroy, desolating the green earth.

This pitiless power smites with disease the good Samari- tan ministering to his neighbor's need. Even the chamber where the good man surrenders to death is not exempt [30]

from this law. Smoothing the pillow of pain may infect you with smallpox, according to this lawless law which

[Page 258.]

dooms man to die for loving his neighbor as himself,- [1]

when Christ has said that love is the fulfilling of the law.

Our great Ensample, Jesus of Nazareth, met and abol- ished this unrelenting false claim of matter with the [5]

righteous scorn and power of Spirit. When, through Mind, he restored sight to the blind, he figuratively and literally spat upon matter; and, anointing the wounded spirit with the great truth that G.o.d is All, he demon- strated the healing power and supremacy of the law of [10]

Life and Love.

In the spiritual Genesis of creation, all law was vested in the Lawgiver, who was a law to Himself. In divine Science, G.o.d is One and All; and, governing Himself, He governs the universe. This is the law of creation: [15]

"My defense is of G.o.d, which saveth the upright in heart." And that infinite Mind governs all things. On this infinite Principle of freedom, G.o.d named Him- self, I AM. Error, or Adam, might give names to itself, and call Mind by the name of matter, but error could [20]

neither name nor demonstrate Spirit. The name, I AM, indicated no personality that could be paralleled with it; but it did declare a mighty individuality, even the everlasting Father, as infinite consciousness, ever-presence, omnipotence; as all law, Life, Truth, and [25]

Love.

G.o.d's interpretation of Himself furnishes man with the only suitable or true idea of Him; and the divine definition of Deity differs essentially from the human.

It interprets the law of Spirit, not of matter. It explains [30]

the eternal dynamics of being, and shows that nature and man are as harmonious to-day as in the beginning,

[Page 259.]

when "all things were made by Him; and without Him [1]

was not any thing made."

Whatever appears to be law, but partakes not of the nature of G.o.d, is not law, but is what Jesus declared it, "a liar, and the father of it." G.o.d is the law of Life, [5]

not of death; of health, not of sickness; of good, not of evil. It is this infinitude and oneness of good that silences the supposition that evil is a claimant or a claim.

The consciousness of good has no consciousness or knowl- edge of evil; and evil is not a quality to be known or [10]

eliminated by good: while iniquity, too evil to conceive of good as being unlike itself, declares that G.o.d knows iniquity!

When the Lawgiver was the only law of creation, free- dom reigned, and was the heritage of man; but this [15]

freedom was the moral power of good, not of evil: it was divine Science, in which G.o.d is supreme, and the only law of being. In this eternal harmony of Science, man is not fallen: he is governed in the same rhythm that the Scripture describes, when "the morning stars [20]

sang together, and all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy."

Truth-Healing

The spiritual elevator of the human race, physically, morally, and Christianly, is the truism that Truth dem- onstrates good, and is natural; while error, or evil, [25]

is really non-existent, and must have produced its own illusion,-for it belongs not to nature nor to G.o.d. Truth is the power of G.o.d which heals the sick and the sinner, and is applicable to all the needs of man. It is the uni-

[Page 260.]

versal, intelligent Christ-idea ill.u.s.trated by the life of [1]

Jesus, through whose "stripes we are healed." By con- flicts, defeats, and triumphs, Christian Science has been reduced to the understanding of mortals, and found able to heal them. [5]

Pagan mysticism, Grecian philosophy, or Jewish reli- gion, never entered into the line of Jesus' thought or action. His faith partook not of drugs, matter, nor of the travesties of mortal mind. The divine Mind was his only instrumentality and potency, in religion or medi- [10]

cine. The Principle of his cure was G.o.d, in the laws of Spirit, not of matter; and these laws annulled all other laws.

Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and [15]

death are its subjective states; also, that pure Mind is the truth of being that subjugates and destroys any sup- positional or elementary opposite to Him who is All.

Truth is supreme and omnipotent. Then, whatever else seemeth to be intelligence or power is false, delud- [20]

ing reason and denying revelation, and seeking to dethrone Deity. The truth of Mind-healing uplifts mankind, by acknowledging pure Mind as absolute and entire, and that evil is naught, although it seems to be.

Pure Mind gives out an atmosphere that heals and [25]

saves. Words are not always the auxiliaries of Truth.

The spirit, and not the letter, performs the vital func- tions of Truth and Love. Mind, imbued with this Science of healing, is a law unto itself, needing neither license nor prohibition; but lawless mind, with unseen motives, [30]

and silent mental methods whereby it may injure the race, is the highest attenuation of evil.

[Page 261.]

Again: evil, as _mind_, is doomed, already sentenced, [1]

punished; for suffering is commensurate with evil, and lasts as long as the evil. As _mind_, evil finds no escape from itself; and the sin and suffering it occasions can only be removed by reformation. [5]

According to divine law, sin and suffering are not cancelled by repentance or pardon. Christian Science not only elucidates but demonstrates this verity of be- ing; namely, that mortals suffer from the wrong they commit, whether intentionally or ignorantly; that every [10]

effect and amplification of wrong will revert to the wrong- doer, until he pays his full debt to divine law, and the measure he has meted is measured to him again, full, pressed down, and running over. Surely "the way of the transgressor is hard." [15]

In this law of justice, the atonement of Christ loses no efficacy. Justice is the handmaid of mercy, and show- eth mercy by punis.h.i.+ng sin. Jesus said, "I came not to destroy the law,"-the divine requirements typified in the law of Moses,-"but to fulfil it" in righteousness, [20]

by Truth's destroying error. No greater type of divine Love can be presented than effecting so glorious a purpose.

This spirit of sacrifice always has saved, and still saves mankind; but by mankind I mean mortals, or a kind of men after man's own making. Man as G.o.d's idea [25]

is already saved with an everlasting salvation. It is impossible to be a Christian Scientist without apprehend- ing the moral law so clearly that, for conscience' sake, one will either abandon his claim to even a knowledge of this Science, or else make the claim valid. All Science [30]

is divine. Then, to be Science, it must produce physical and moral harmony.

[Page 262.]

Dear readers, our _Journal_ is designed to bring health [1]

and happiness to all households wherein it is permitted to enter, and to confer increased power to be good and to do good. If you wish to brighten so pure a purpose, you will aid our prospect of fulfilling it by your kind [5]

patronage of _The Christian Science Journal_, now enter- ing upon its fifth volume, clad in Truth-healing's new and costly spring dress.

Heart To Heart

When the heart speaks, however simple the words, [10]

its language is always acceptable to those who have hearts.

I just want to say, I thank you, my dear students, who are at work conscientiously and a.s.siduously, for the good you are doing. I am grateful to you for giving to the [15]

sick relief from pain; for giving joy to the suffering and hope to the disconsolate; for lifting the fallen and strength- ening the weak, and encouraging the heart grown faint with hope deferred. We are made glad by the divine Love which looseth the chains of sickness and sin, open- [20]

ing the prison doors to such as are bound; and we should be more grateful than words can express, even through this white-winged messenger, our _Journal_.

With all the homage beneath the skies, yet were our burdens heavy but for the Christ-love that makes them [25]

light and renders the yoke easy. Having his word, you have little need of words of approval and encouragement from me. Perhaps it is even selfish in me sometimes to relieve my heart of its secrets, because I take so much