Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 73

When every form and mode of evil disappear to hu- man thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual con- [10]

cepts testifying to one creator,-then, earth is full of His glory, and Christian Science has overshadowed all human philosophy, and being is understood in startling contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato, Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer [15]

sit at the feet of Jesus.

To this great end, Paul admonished, "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our [20]

faith." So shall mortals soar to final freedom, and rest from the subtlety of speculative wisdom and human woe.

G.o.d is the only Mind, and His manifestation is the spiritual universe, including man and all eternal indi- [25]

viduality. G.o.d, the only substance and divine Principle of creation, is by no means a creative partner in the firm of error, named matter, or mortal mind. He elucidates His own idea, wherein Principle and idea, G.o.d and man, are not one, but are inseparable as cause and effect. If [30]

one, who could say which that "one" was?

His ways are not as our ways. The divine modes

[Page 362.]

and manifestations are not those of the material senses; [1]

for instance, intelligent matter, or mortal mind, material birth, growth, and decay: they are the forever-existing realities of divine Science; wherein G.o.d and man are perfect, and man's reason is at rest in G.o.d's wisdom,- [5]

who comprehends and reflects all real mode, form, indi- viduality, ident.i.ty.

Scholastic dogma has made men blind. Christ's _logos_ gives sight to these blind, ears to these deaf, feet to these lame,-physically, morally, spiritually. Theologians [10]

make the mortal mistake of believing that G.o.d, having made _all_, made evil; but the Scriptures declare that all that He made was good. Then, was evil part and parcel of His creation?

Philosophy hypothetically regards creation as its own [15]

creator, puts cause into effect, and out of nothing would create something, whose noumenon is mortal mind, with its phenomenon matter,-an evil mind already doomed, whose modes are material manifestations of evil, and that continually, until self-extinguished by [20]

suffering!

Here revelation must come to the rescue of mortals, to remove this mental millstone that is dragging them downward, and refute erring reason with the spiritual cosmos and Science of Soul. We all must find shelter [25]

from the storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit.

Truth is won through Science or suffering: O vain mor- tals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward, except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform the sinner. And pleasure is no crime except when it [30]

strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens the activities of virtue. The more nearly an erring so-

[Page 363.]

called mind approaches purity, the more conscious it [1]

becomes of its own unreality, and of the great reality of divine Mind and true happiness.

The "ego" that claims selfhood in error, and pa.s.ses from molecule and monkey up to man, is no ego, but is [5]

simply the supposition that the absence of good is mind and makes men,-when its greatest flatterer, identifica- tion, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with nothingness, dust with dust!

The mythology of evil and mortality is but the ma- [10]

terial mode of a suppositional mind; while the immortal modes of Mind are spiritual, and pa.s.s through none of the changes of matter, or evil. Truth said, and said from the beginning, "Let us [Spirit] make man perfect;" and there is no other Maker: a perfect man would not desire [15]

to make himself imperfect, and G.o.d is not chargeable with imperfection. His modes declare the beauty of holi- ness, and His manifold wisdom s.h.i.+nes through the visible world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even through the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His [20]

coming.

We must avoid the shoals of a sensual religion or philosophy that misguides reason and affection, and hold fast to the Principle of Christian Science as the Word that _is_ G.o.d, Spirit, and Truth. This Word cor- [25]

rects the philosopher, confutes the astronomer, exposes the subtle sophist, and drives diviners mad. The Bible is the learned man's masterpiece, the ignorant man's dictionary, the wise man's directory.

I foresee and foresay that every advancing epoch of so [30]

Truth will be characterized by a more spiritual appre- hension of the Scriptures, that will show their marked

[Page 364.]

consonance with the textbook of Christian Science Mind- [1]

healing, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

Interpreting the Word in the "new tongue," whereby the sick are healed, naturally evokes new paraphrase from the world of letters. "Wait patiently on the Lord, [5]

and He will renew your strength." In return for indi- vidual sacrifice, what a recompense to have healed, through Truth, the sick and sinful, made the public your friend, and posterity your familiar!

Christian Science refutes everything that is not a [10]

postulate of the divine Principle, G.o.d. It is the soul of divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It is not a search after wisdom, it _is_ wisdom: it is G.o.d's right hand grasping the universe,-all time, s.p.a.ce, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; con- [15]

st.i.tuting and governing all ident.i.ty, individuality, law, and power. It stands on this Scriptural platform: that He made all that was made, and it is good, reflects the divine Mind, is governed by it; and that nothing apart from this Mind, one G.o.d, is self-created or evolves [20]

the universe.

Human hypotheses predicate matter of Spirit and evil of good; hence these opposites must either cooperate or quarrel throughout time and eternity,-or until this impossible partners.h.i.+p is dissolved. If Spirit is the [25]

lawgiver to matter, and good has the same power or modes as evil, it has the same consciousness, and there is no absolute good. This error, carried to its ultimate, would either extinguish G.o.d and His modes, or give reality and power to evil _ad infinitum_. [30]

Christian Science rends this veil of the temple of G.o.ds, and reproduces the divine philosophy of Jesus and Paul.

[Page 365.]

This philosophy alone will bear the strain of time and [1]

bring out the glories of eternity; for "other founda- tion can no man lay than that is laid," which is Christ, Truth.

Human theories weighed in the balances of G.o.d are [5]

found wanting; and their highest endeavors are to Science what a child's love of pictures is to art. The school whose schoolmaster is not Christ, gets things wrong, and is ignorant thereof.

If Christian Science lacked the proof of its goodness [10]

and utility, it would destroy itself; for it rests alone on demonstration. Its genius is right thinking and right acting, physical and moral harmony; and the secret of its success lies in supplying the universal need of better health and better men. [15]

Good health and a more spiritual religion form the common want, and this want has worked out a moral result; namely, that mortal mind is calling for what im- mortal Mind alone can supply. If the uniform moral and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of divine Science [20]

were lacking, the demand would diminish; but it con- tinues, and increases, which shows the real value of Christian Science to the race. Even doctors agree that infidelity, bigotry, or sham has never met the growing wants of humanity. [25]

As a literature, Christian metaphysics is hampered by lack of proper terms in which to express what it means.

As a Science, it is held back by the common ignorance of what it is and of what it does,-and more than all else, by the impostors that come in its name. To be [30]

appreciated, it must be conscientiously understood and introduced.

[Page 366.]

If the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the [1]

Scriptures" had in our schools the time or attention that human hypotheses consume, they would advance the world. True, it requires more study to understand and demonstrate what they teach than to learn the doctrine [5]

of theology, philosophy, or physics, because they con- tain and offer Science, with fixed Principle, given rule, and unmistakable proof.

The Scriptures give the keynote of Christian Science from Genesis to Revelation, and this is the prolonged [10]

tone: "For the Lord He is G.o.d, and there is _none beside Him_." And because He is All-in-all, He is in nothing unlike Himself; and nothing that worketh or maketh a lie is in Him, or can be divine con- sciousness. [15]

At this date, poor jaded humanity needs to get her eyes open to a new style of imposition in the field of medicine and of religion, and to "beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees," the doctrines of men, even as Jesus admonished. From first to last, evil insists on [20]

the unity of good and evil as the purpose of G.o.d; and on drugs, electricity, and animal magnetism as modes of medicine. To a greater or less extent, all mortal conclusions start from this false premise, and they necessarily culminate in sickness, sin, disease, and death. [25]

Erroneous doctrines never have abated and never will abate dishonesty, self-will, envy, and l.u.s.t. To destroy sin and its sequence, is the office of Christ, Truth,-ac- cording to His mode of Christian Science; and this is being done daily. [30]

The false theories whose names are legion, gilded with sophistry and what Jesus had not, namely, mere book-