Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 71

Fallibility Of Human Concepts

Evil counterfeits good: it says, "I am Truth," though [20]

it is a lie; it says, "I am Love,"-but Love is spirit- ual, and sensuous love is material, wherefore it is hate instead of Love; for the five senses give to mortals pain, sickness, sin, and death,-pleasure that is false, life that leads unto death, joy that becomes sorrow. Love that is [25]

not the procurator of happiness, declares itself the anti- pode of Love; and Love divine punishes the joys of this false sense of love, chastens its affection, purifies it, and turns it into the opposite channels.

Material life is the antipode of spiritual life; it mocks [30]

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the bliss of spiritual being; it is bereft of permanence and [1]

peace.

When human sense is quickened to behold aright the error,-the error of regarding Life, Truth, Love as material and not spiritual, or as both material and spirit- [5]

ual,-it is able for the first time to discern the Science of good. But it must first see the error of its present erroneous course, to be able to behold the facts of Truth outside of the error; and, _vice versa_, when it discovers the truth, this uncovers the error and quickens the true [10]

consciousness of G.o.d, good. May the human shadows of thought lengthen as they approach the light, until they are lost in light and no night is there!

In Science, sickness is healed upon the same Principle and by the same rule that sin is healed. To know the [15]

supposed bodily belief of the patient and what has claimed to produce it, enables the pract.i.tioner to act more under- standingly in destroying this belief. Thus it is in heal- ing the moral sickness; the malicious mental operation must be understood in order to enable one to destroy [20]

it and its effects. There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful.

Through the divine energies alone one must either get out of himself and into G.o.d so far that his consciousness is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through argu- [25]

ment and the human consciousness of both evil and good, overcome evil.

The only difference between the healing of sin and the healing of sickness is, that sin must be _un_covered before it can be destroyed, and the moral sense be aroused to [30]

reject the sense of error; while sickness must be cov- ered with the veil of harmony, and the consciousness be

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allowed to rejoice in the sense that it has nothing to mourn [1]

over, but something to forget.

Human concepts run in extremes; they are like the action of sickness, which is either an excess of action or not action enough; they are fallible; they are neither [5]

standards nor models.

If one asks me, Is my concept of you right? I reply, The human concept is always imperfect; relinquish your human concept of me, or of any one, and find the divine, and you have gained the right one-and never until then. People [10]

give me too much attention of the misguided, fallible sort, and this misrepresents one through malice or ignorance.

My brother was a manufacturer; and one day a work- man in his mills, a practical joker, set a man who applied for work, in the overseer's absence, to pour a bucket of [15]

water every ten minutes on the regulator. When my brother returned and saw it, he said to the jester, "You must pay that man." Some people try to tend folks, as if they should steer the regulator of mankind. G.o.d makes _us_ pay for tending the action that He adjusts. [20]

The regulator is governed by the principle that makes the machinery work rightly; and because it _is_ thus gov- erned, the folly of tending it is no mere jest. The divine Principle carries on His harmony.

Now turn from the metaphor of the mill to the Mother's [25]

four thousand children, most of whom, at about three years of scientific age, set up housekeeping alone. Certain students, being too much interested in themselves to think of helping others, go their way. They do not love Mother, but pretend to; they constantly go to her for help, interrupt [30]

the home-harmony, criticise and disobey her; then "return to their vomit,"-world wors.h.i.+p, pleasure seeking, and

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sense indulgence,-meantime declaring they "never dis- [1]

obey Mother"! It exceeds my conception of human nature. Sin in its very nature is marvellous! Who but a moral idiot, sanguine of success in sin, can steal, and lie and lie, and lead the innocent to doom? History needs it, [5]

and it has the grandeur of the loyal, self-forgetful, faith- ful Christian Scientists to overbalance this foul stuff.

When the Mother's love can no longer promote peace in the family, wisdom is not "justified of her children."

When depraved reason is preferred to revelation, error [10]

to Truth, and evil to good, and sense seams sounder than Soul, the children are tending the regulator; they are indeed losing the knowledge of the divine Principle and rules of Christian Science, whose fruits prove the nature of their source. A little more grace, a motive made pure, [15]

a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the move- ment of body and soul in accord with G.o.d.

Instead of relying on the Principle of all that really [20]

exists,-to govern His own creation,-self-conceit, igno- rance, and pride would regulate G.o.d's action. Expe- rience shows that humility is the first step in Christian Science, wherein all is controlled, not by man or laws material, but by wisdom, Truth, and Love. [25]

Go gaze on the eagle, his eye on the sun, Fast gathering strength for a flight well begun, As rising he rests in a liberty higher Than genius inflated with worldly desire.

No tear dims his eye, nor his pinions lose power [30]

To gaze on the lark in her emerald bower- Whenever he soareth to fas.h.i.+on his nest, No vision more bright than the dream in his breast.

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The Way

The present stage of progress in Christian Science pre- [2]

sents two opposite aspects,-a full-orbed promise, and a gaunt want. The need, however, is not of the letter, but the spirit. [5]

Less teaching and good healing is to-day the acme of "well done;" a healing that is not guesswork,-chronic recovery ebbing and flowing,-but instantaneous cure.

This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived.

To consummate this _desideratum_, mortal mind must pa.s.s [10]

through three stages of growth.

First, self-knowledge. The physician must know him- self and understand the mental state of his patient. Error found out is two-thirds destroyed, and the last third pierces itself, for the remainder only stimulates and gives [15]

scope to higher demonstration. To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea. Mental dark- ness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power, and its victim is responsible for its supposit.i.tious presence. [20]

"Cast the beam out of thine own eye." Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike "the anointed," and cast it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient's mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest like the dove from the deluge. [25]

"Physician, heal thyself." Let no clouds of sin gather and fall in mist and showers from thine own mental atmosphere. Hold thy gaze to the light, and the iris of faith, more beautiful than the rainbow seen from my window at the close of a balmy autumnal day, will span [30]

thy heavens of thought.

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A radiant sunset, beautiful as blessings when they take [1]

their flight, dilates and kindles into rest. Thus will a life corrected illumine its own atmosphere with spiritual glow and understanding.

The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible [5]

detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate need no temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom.