Margaret Murney Glenn, C.S.B.
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Perfect government is the ideal of every righteous nation. This ideal is being approached through a clearer understanding of the fact that God's law is the law of universal love. The result of this understanding is that nations express through their laws much more consideration for people of all conditions and for both sexes.
The world's governments are for the most part run for and by the many instead of for and by the few, as was formerly the case. The necessity and rightness of self-government for individuals and nations has become the generally accepted standard.
Probably everyone in this audience believes he more or less governs himself, that he controls his own thinking, but everyone who believes this would also admit that there have been times in his experience when fear, or sickness, or lack, or unhappiness has seemed to govern him. Did you want to be afraid, sick, limited, or unhappy? And if you did not want to be that way can you honestly say that it was your desire, your thinking governing you? If your thinking was not governing you were you then self-governed?
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 106): "God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love." It is sometimes said by those who do not understand Christian Science and its revelation of man's glorious self-government, that Christian Science practitioners do the thinking for their patients.
This is absolutely contrary to fact. The only reason a patient goes to a practitioner is because of lack of true self-government, for he is suffering from the delusion that he is governed by things he does not want to have govern him, such as false appetites, fear, disease, or lack. What the patient wants is a realization of true self-government, of God's government of man, and he desires to be released from the government of thoughts and conditions which are claiming to overthrow God's, good's, government of his consciousness, thus making him sick, sinful, or sorrowful.
The practitioner simply understands the truth that man is governed by Life, Truth, and Love, that he is the son of God, and that, as Jesus said, ''the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." This truth changes nothing real, but it shows the patient that he is governed by good instead of evil, by love instead of lack, by harmony instead of disease. In other words, it shows the patient that he is really self-governed when he is governed by God. The healing of the patient is evidence that evil and discordant thoughts or beliefs are not natural to man, and that when he seems to be governed by them he is not self-governed.
In her book ''Miscellaneous Writings'' (p. 258) Mrs. Eddy writes as follows: "In the spiritual Genesis of creation, all law was vested in the Lawgiver, who was a law to Himself. In divine Science, God is One and All; and, governing Himself, He governs the universe." If God governs Himself and His ideas, as He must do, man, who is the image and likeness of God, images forth, reflects, or expresses this divine self-government. In order to perceive man's proper self-government as the manifestation of God's government of Himself, we have to understand a little of Mrs. Eddy's meaning when she speaks of man as the reflection of God.
When we want to know anything accurate about ourselves with regard to our appearance, size, coloring, or expression, we use a mirror, a good mirror. To know anything about man as God's exact likeness we need to have a perfect mirror which shows man's spiritual nature, his infinite stature, his unlimited intelligence, his immortality. In the case of a person before a mirror, we do not see another person in the mirror, nor do we call that which we see a person, but a reflection. When we want to know the truth about mathematics, about the earth, the stars, the elements, the constituency of things, we look into the laws governing them and thus we understand their nature, activity, usefulness, and place, for these laws show us these things as they are. In other words, these laws reflect the true nature of these things much better than a material mirror or picture would do. To illustrate: anyone looking at the stars would simply think of them as bright and shining lights of small dimensions. But if he were to study astronomy, or the laws which reveal the actual position, substance, movement, and size of the stars, these laws would be a better mirror, would convey a better likeness than that which the material eyes see. So the laws of God serve to convey God's nature, His presence, His substance, His relationship to His creation, His omnipotence, omniaction, and omniscience. In fact, His law, or divine Science, serves as a mirror to reflect, or reveal Him. This reflection is no more another God than the reflection of a person is another person. This reflection of God is man.
In the mirror which is God's law, or His Science, we see divine Love manifested as loving, pure, tender qualities; we see divine Mind reflected in intelligence and ideas; we see divine Principle expressed as law, justice, changelessness; we see Spirit as the only substance, infinity, and omnipresence; we see Soul mirrored as spiritual senses which are perfect, enduring, immutable; we see Life revealed as eternality, immortality, as ever-living, and this reflection of our God, these loving, living, changeless, substantial, hearing, seeing, knowing, and intelligent ideas constitute man. James tells us that when we look in a material mirror we forget what sort of a man we are.
In other words, we forget that man is spiritual, the reflection of God, for a material mirror does not reveal man's spiritual, real nature. "But," James continues, "whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty (into God's law, or Science, the true and perfect mirror) . . . this man shall be blessed in his deed." Until we look into this mirror of divine law or Truth, we have no idea as to what man is. When we do look into the Science of man's being, our whole concept of ourselves is changed, and we are blessed in our deeds, as James says, and healing follows. This is really the way healings in Christian Science are accomplished.
If someone seems to be burdened with some so-called hereditary sickness or sin, this is simply a result of looking into the wrong mirror; in other words, looking into the so-called laws of the mortal, or carnal mind. The perfect mirror, or "the perfect law of liberty," shows us that we are the children of our Father, God, and His loving Word is saying to us, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." All that He, God, Life, Truth, and Love has is ours, and this is our true heritage. Spiritual life certainly has neither sin nor sickness, for these seeming conditions would destroy Life, and it would be a kingdom divided against itself. Life is healthy, harmonious, sinless, pure, and man is ever one with Life. All that Life has belongs to man and is his heritage.
Truth has no errors to impart or reflect. It has no record of past weaknesses, defects, or faults in its character, for Truth is the intelligence of God knowing only good. This intelligence is ever ours, and we are ever with it. We cannot dwell with false records of man, for a false record is no record. If someone were to write a false account of an exploration we would consider it unworthy to be called a record, and we would eliminate it from our consciousness as history, or event. There are many false records of explorations into our past which should be treated with like dismissal.
Do not pore over or give credence to the false record of explorations into your own or anyone else's past. Sin must be forsaken, not dwelt upon as a pleasure or as pain, for either of these extremes holds to sin as though it were a reality, therefore a creation of God, good, which is, of course, impossible. The Bible states, "God requireth that which is past." Then man's past record belongs to Him. It does not belong to sin, disease, death, failure, regrets. Look long into the mirror of the perfect law of liberty and you will see man as the eternal reflection of God, good.
If you look into a convex mirror and see yourself all distorted and out of shape, you do not think that you will have to do something to yourself in order to return to your normal appearance. No, you only have to look into a mirror that reflects things as they are. Looking into the false distorted records of an unhappy, sinful, sick, dishonest past is like looking into the convex mirror which is not a reflection, but a deflection of our being.
If you have been looking for many years, even since birth, into the convex mirror of material beliefs, and it deflects you as a deformed, sinful, sick mortal, it need take no time for you to turn from this deflection to the true reflection of God, of perfect Love, of harmonious, healthy, spiritual Life. You will then see your true and only being as the harmonious, healthy, upright, pure reflection of God. God's record is the only record of man, and this record is good and true. Divine Love is saying to us all, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Then the false records which proclaim to us that we have spent our past with hatred, neglect, unhappiness, lack, fear, unpleasant family history, or dread disease, are untrue and therefore unreal.
The true mirror, Christian Science, is showing you that you have ever been with your Father, Love, and that you have always had His encouragement, Love's understanding and tender support, for all that Love has is thine. When you see yourself in the mirror of God's law as His reflection, the false image in the distorted mirror of the so-called laws of health, heredity, environment, sin and disease will disappear from your consciousness and therefore from your body.
Look ''into the perfect law of liberty," for it will show you man, free to obey God, free to express perfection, free to be loving, free to manifest health, free to have abundant supply, free to be infinitely intelligent. If this is true and this is law, then man is not free to sin, suffer, be stupid, unhappy, ungrateful, hateful, morbid, limited, or depraved. These things are bondage, not freedom, and the only law is the law of liberty, which is Christian Science.
Restrictive laws are still needed today because we, as individuals, are not practicing true self-government. We are not proving sufficiently the truth that God governs man, to be able to do away with restrictive legislation. Take so simple a matter as the traffic laws. The only reason they are essential is that mortals let haste, fear, and selfishness govern them instead of being self-governed by God, divine Love. When we prove that God is governing man we are not in other people's way, we are not in the wrong place, nor is our way obstructed by others. Under God's perfect government each creation or idea of Mind is in its right place. Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook (p. 70), "The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal." Under God's government there can be no accidents, for all things are maintained distinct and eternal.
This statement is based on law which you can prove governs you, for law is universal, ever operative, ever present, and available. But of course it needs to be made use of, just as the laws of mathematics have to be applied in order to be proved.
The only reason we need the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is because some mortals are still unacquainted with the fact revealed by Christian Science that man is self-governed when he is governed by God, good, and these mortals are being helped by this restrictive law to regain their self-government, the government of good, of purity, love, honesty, and integrity, instead of being permitted to continue the victims of intoxication, lust, license, indulgence, weakness, and selfishness. This Eighteenth Amendment is a nation's highest concept of temperance and it has the omnipotence of God, good, to sustain and protect it.
In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 259) Mrs. Eddy says, "Whatever appears to be law, but partakes not of the nature of God, is not law, but is what Jesus declared it, 'a liar, and the father of it.' God is the law of Life, not of death; of health, not of sickness; of good, not of evil.'' Mortals have tried to ascribe to God's law the physical phenomena which they perceive around them, and the result has been to make God responsible for earthquake, storms, accidents, disease, and death.
These things have nothing to do with God's will or law, for they do not partake of the nature of God. Jesus came to fulfill God's law, and when he applied the divine law to storms, sin, disease, and death, these were destroyed. Had they been the result of God's law, even Jesus could not have destroyed them. God's laws express Love's nature and there is no other nature, for divine Love is the only Creator. In the Bible record of Elijah's experience after he fled from the wrath of Jezebel, is written, "The Lord was not in the wind: . . . the Lord was not in the earthquake: . . . the Lord was not in the fire"; but He was expressed by the "still small voice."
What voices intelligence, love, truth, good, harmony to us in the stillest, quietest way possible? It is thought, of course. It is through thoughts or ideas that God conveys His nature, His love, His strength, His intelligence to us. God's thoughts are law, and are therefore scientific. So the still, small voice Elijah heard was really scientific, correct thoughts or thinking. The only way we are going to gain an understanding today of God and His saving laws of health, of good, and of life is through the same "still small voice" of scientific thinking which Elijah heard after he had rejected the temptation to believe that God was manifested through the materiality expressed in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire.
There is no one who has not at some time or other heard this still, small voice of God's law, of right thought. Have you ever been dishonest, unloving, or unjust and had the thought come to you that this was wrong, and that you really wanted to be loving, honest, just? If you have, this was a thought of God, good, the still, small voice of Truth, saying to your consciousness, "I AM.'' In other words, good exists as part of your thinking and you want it. If you listen to this thought of good, God, you will find it is law to you and you will manifest this good thought in a good deed. Have you ever been tempted to believe that life was not worth living and then had some thought of love or hope relieve your bitterness and despair?
This thought was the ''still small voice'' of divine Life speaking to your consciousness, saying: "I AM. Harmonious, loving conditions exist and are your life." If you listen to this still, small voice and cherish it you will find it a law of Life to you which will destroy the desire to die by giving you a sense of Life that is good, God. Have you ever been unhappy about yourself or others and then had your whole mood change because some thought of joy has entered your consciousness? This was the "still small voice" of Love saying to you; "I AM. I, Love, exist as the Principle of your being, as the cause and source of your natural thinking.''
If you accept these thoughts as yours, you will find them a law of annihilation to the unhappy mood which has claimed to govern you. Life, Truth, and Love are always saying to man's consciousness, "I AM," and through Christian Science we are enabled to recognize that God is the only Being, the only I AM. This truth shows that suggestions of fear, hatred, unhappiness, and disease have no being and therefore cannot say to our consciousness, "I AM." The great I AM, the only Life, Truth, and Love, governs man through law, and that law is manifested as scientific, spiritual thought.
Christian Scientists are not wonder workers in the sense that they do inexplicable things. Every healing accomplished by a Christian Science treatment can be explained because it is the result of God's law understood. To an observer who does not understand this law and who sees nothing material being done for the patient, the healing may seem unaccountable, but no more unaccountable than some of the things which are accomplished with the use of electricity must seem to those who know nothing about electricity.
Many years ago I was in the Philippine Islands and we had in our home Filipino boys as servants. When these boys first came into the house and were shown how to turn on the electric lights their surprise and wonder were unbounded, and they would sometimes run across the room after they had pressed the button to try to reach the lamp in time to see what took place to produce the light. They never were able to discover what it was and finally they would accept the facts without explanation. To them a wonder had happened. To us a so-called physical law had been made use of.
When a Christian Science practitioner states that man is well and healthy, although the physical senses may be testifying to an opposite condition, some who are ignorant of the law which the practitioner is using believe that the Scientist is trying to make man well by saying and thinking constantly that he is well, and that thus mesmerism is being used. Really the practitioner is recognizing, understanding, and making use of God's law which has already created man as God's image and likeness, perfect, harmonious, happy, free, pure and loving.
Just as with the electric light, we do not actually make the light, but we make use of the so-called physical law which has certain effects, so the practitioner does not make man well and harmonious, for God has already done that; but he perceives this fact as immutable law that cannot be controverted or gainsaid, and with this law he destroys the ignorance, fear, darkness which seem to be engulfing the patient.
The only way one can make use of even human laws is by thinking. It is not the thinking which makes the laws true, but it is only through thinking that we can utilize law, and thereby recognize it as part of our experience. So it is not the thinking which makes health real and true, but it is through thinking that we recognize and utilize God's law of health as part of the real man's experience.
Accidents, disease, deformities, war, and crime are not law, and the only way these things can be eradicated from our experience is through law. The great trouble has been that instead of turning away from the human mind which has produced these effects, mortals have turned to its so-called knowledge, invention, and laws to be saved from the effects which these very things have produced.
Take, for instance, the most useful element which this human mind has learned to utilize, namely, electricity. Is it not also the most destructive and dangerous thing as well? This but illustrates the contradictory nature of the beliefs of mortal mind, and shows us that escape from bondage cannot be expected from the so-called mind or source which is producing this bondage.
Jesus, who was the greatest of all healers and teachers, did not give names to diseases, nor did he recommend the study of disease, but he did tell us that all law would be fulfilled, and he fulfilled God's law in his own life and experience by proving sin, disease and death to be violations of law, therefore illegitimate, powerless, without government, victim, or governed.
Who is the better mathematician, one who studies all the mistakes which have ever been made in mathematics, all the violations of mathematical laws, or he who studies the fundamental truths of mathematics which correct all mistakes? Who is the better physician, he who studies diseases which are the violations of the law of health, or he who studies the divine Principle of all health which corrects and destroys any and all diseases?
In the first chapter of Genesis, which states the truth about the creation of God, there is no mention made of suffering, nor is the name of any disease given. A disease which God did not create and which, therefore, is not a creation, because God is the one and only Creator, has no name, for ''He calleth them all by name." In other words, each creation is known to the Mind creating it as an individual name or nature manifesting God. Disease, then, has no more law, no more power because the human mind has attached a name to it, for it is in reality nameless, unknown to God.
There is a name, however, which offers us salvation from disease and all the other discords to which mortals are subject. This name is that nature which reveals to us the character, activity, and presence of God. This name or nature is the Christ, Truth. Christian Science makes a distinction between the Christ and Jesus, but it never separates Jesus from the Christ. In the textbook of Christian Science (p. 482) Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from Christ, the Messiah, — the divine idea of God outside the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his control over matter."
An illustration may help us to see this point. An artist may paint a most beautiful landscape, in a way that will convey to us its beauty, harmony, quiet, and joy. The painting is indissolubly connected with the particular place it represents, but the picture is never the scene itself, and although through the artist's recorded vision of the beauties of his subject we may see things there that we have never seen before, — things which enlarge our sense of its beauty, — nevertheless we have to look upon the scene itself in order to form our own concept of it.
The life and career of the man Jesus was the most glorious, noble, loving, intelligent and powerful human depiction ever known of Christ, the ideal man of God's creating, who has dominion over the whole earth and who is Godlike in every detail of his being. Jesus' human presentation of man's true selfhood, or the Christ, was no more the Christ, or spiritual man, than the painting is its subject.
Just as the artist's presentation of a scene enlarges our concept of its beauty, so Jesus' marvelous love, life, and works broaden our vision of the true man's ability, love, power, and character as the reflection of omnipotent God, good. Jesus, the human being who depicted in his life and work the nature of the Christ, or ideal man, is beloved of all Christian Scientists. He gave us an illustration of the nature of man made in God's image and likeness and he proved this man to be the only man, his real, true selfhood, and our real, true selfhood, for we, too, are sons of God.
Most of the difficulties encountered by mortals are due to ignorance — ignorance of the truth, of God's law. Suppose you seem to be sick. This sickness is the result of either fear or sin. In either case it is the result of ignorance, for fear is the ignorance of the ever-presence of God, good, divine Love, and sin is the ignorance of man's holy nature as God's image and likeness, in other words, it is moral ignorance. Does it seem strange that fear is ignorance?
Consider for a moment the effects produced by fear. In our school days it was due to fear that we did not express all we knew at examination time. The effect appeared to be ignorance of the subject. In public work how often, due to fear, one sings, or plays, or speaks with less ability than he really possesses. The effect appears as ignorance of the thing one is attempting to do. Ignorance and fear can never be overcome by psychology or will-power, for these assume that ignorance and fear are real and powerful, and simply attempt to suppress them. Love and intelligence destroy them.
The only way to destroy ignorance is through enlightenment, through a knowledge of facts — an understanding of spiritual facts. In many of the cases which Jesus healed he said to the healed one, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." He did not say your wonderful constitution, or the fact that you eat a certain kind of food, or that you take a lot of exercise, and keep in good condition have made you whole, but your faith, a purely mental quality.
Jesus did not even say that his own faith, purity, and love had healed the patient, but that the patient's faith in God had made the sufferer whole. Why? Because it had enlightened the patient as to his true spiritual nature, and this enlightenment had dispelled ignorance and fear, and their results, sickness. When he healed Mary Magdalene he told her that she was forgiven for she loved much, and he added, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." Thus Jesus treated both sin and disease as mental. Even when his disciples were claiming that a certain man's blindness was due to the supposed physical law of heredity Jesus refused to admit it, and he healed the case to the glory of God, by knowing and proving the power of Mind over its creation, man. This faith which makes us whole, pure, harmonious, is described by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews where he says, '"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God," and, "Faith is . . . the evidence of things not seen."
It is through faith that we understand even the so-called natural sciences. When we work out a mathematical problem we have faith that the fundamental truths and rule of mathematics will solve the problem if properly applied. When we learn to run an automobile we have faith that if certain things are done the car will run. Through this faith we ultimately gain an understanding. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health p. 23) "Faith, advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and establishes the claims of God.''
James tells us that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick." One of the definitions of the verb "to pray," given by Webster is "to effect, accomplish, by praying." This is true of prayer as revealed by Christian Science. It accomplishes, — it has evidence, — the evidence of things not seen. It has evidence of man as the healthy, harmonious, loving reflection of God. ''Faith is the evidence of things not seen.'' Just as in court much false testimony has at times to be eliminated before the evidence can be obtained which is necessary to the administration of justice, so in the trials of our faith in God as ever-present and omnipotent good, we have to destroy the false testimony of the material senses which declares that man is a material, sick, weak, and sinful creation before we can prove to be true the evidence of the spiritual senses revealed by Science.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen by the material senses and in order to see spiritual thoughts we have to be able to look right through the testimony of the material senses. A little Christian Scientist who had cut his finger very badly said to his father, who was binding it up to keep it clean, "Daddy, don't see what you are looking at." This is what we do in our prayers in Christian Science, we do not see what we are looking at, but we see right through it with the light of understanding.
Does this seem strange to some of you? It should not do so, when for so many years natural scientists have been able with the X-ray to turn enough material light on to matter to make it disappear, thus permitting us to see right through it. Christian Science, on the other hand, with its revelation of God's allness, enlightens to such an extent that it destroys the darkness of material, ignorant, hateful, diseased thinking, which is all there is to matter.
Through faith we reach the understanding of which Paul speaks, namely, that the universe is made by the word, or law of God. Through an understanding of the law of God we perceive the nature of the universe as a wholly spiritual creation or revelation. This law of God has always existed, but in order to make it useful and effective for us someone had to discover it, understand it, and make it understandable to us. The one to do this was Mary Baker Eddy, an intelligent, loving, spiritually-minded New England woman.
Like all those who have benefited humanity by discoveries, Mrs. Eddy spent many years in research work and experimentation in the line of healing. She studied and practiced homeopathy and looked into magnetic cures, so called. In writing of her medical experiments, in her autobiography, "Retrospection and Introspection," she says: "I wandered through the dim mazes of materia medica, till I was weary of 'scientific guessing,' as it has been well called. I sought knowledge from different schools, — allopathy, homśopathy, hydropathy, electricity, and from various humbugs, — but without receiving satisfaction."
Then she adds, "Neither ancient nor modern philosophy could clear the clouds, or give me one distinct statement of the spiritual Science of Mind-healing. Human reason was not equal to it" (Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 33, 34).
Accompanying her medical experiments was her research along spiritual and mental lines. Although she had been an invalid for years she was not seeking relief for herself alone, but she was desirous of finding a way whereby humanity could be released from its bondage to sin, sorrow, and suffering. She made her discovery of this Science of Mind-healing through her own healing from an accident which the doctors had pronounced fatal. Through this healing which was accomplished by spiritual means alone, she was led to turn away absolutely from material means and rely wholly on God. She was now on unexplored ground. She could no longer follow the dictates of human opinions, for she was going contrary to them. She had no one to tell her what to do next, nor to support her in the steps which she deemed the right ones for giving to humanity this truth which she had discovered and tested on herself.
She did, however, have one who had exemplified, who had proved the laws she was discerning and what a comfort this must have been to her. This Exemplar was Jesus. She realized that she had discovered the laws of which he made use. She studied her Bible and found that her discovery coincided with its revelations and prophecies, and with the commands of Jesus. She had discovered the law of divine Love, and in order to understand and practice this law she had to give up all that the human mind called dear and satisfying.
This she did, and the way she did it was glorious. There was no magnifying of all that she suffered in the way of opposition, envy, hatred, and disloyalty, but she lifted up this cross and loved more, — wore the crown of love and rejoicing.
The Science she discovered, taught, and lived shows us how to do the same thing. As a result of her own experience she has said to us in her book, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 139), "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for so doth the divine Love redeem your body from disease; your being from sensuality; your soul from sense; your life from death." This wonderful discovery, Christian Science, enables us to rejoice in the fact that our names are written in heaven, in other words, that man's nature is ever in harmony.
Mrs. Eddy proved that tenderness always accompanies the might of Spirit. Her deeds as a healer, a teacher, as the Founder of a great church, as the establisher of its periodicals, as the author of the most helpful books, with the exception of the Bible, that humanity possesses today, were indeed mighty, but her spirit was tender, gentle, loving. Because she discovered law, she presented it in a textbook so that all may understand it, prove it, and be blessed by it. This textbook is called "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and may be obtained at libraries or at the Christian Science Reading Rooms.
Many years ago a small boy went out to see his former nurse who had been called to serve in Mrs. Eddy's home. While there Mrs. Eddy had him come and see her. In his hand this child held an empty box which he placed in Mrs. Eddy's lap. While she talked with him she had the box filled with cherries and returned it to him before he left. In after years, this child, now grown to young manhood, has often thought of this experience, and he has said, "Wasn't that like Mrs. Eddy, to fill my empty box with fruit?"
What Mrs. Eddy did for that young boy she has done for all seekers of Truth. Most of us have brought our empty lives to the Science which she discovered and founded, and its sweet revealings have filled our consciousness with health, supply, strength, love, and joy.
Mrs. Eddy gave further proof that the Science which she had discovered was the law of Love when she founded her Church and gave to it a form of government which, in its wisdom and scope, could only have been revealed by divine Love, the Father-Mother of man and the universe. Mrs. Eddy saw that her Church could not be dependent on a person for its life and activity and that the only way to keep this Science unadulterated was to take it out of the hands of mortals and put it into the hands of God.
While the By-laws in the Manual of this Church permit of absolute freedom to the individual who manifests true self-government, or God's control, they offer no opportunity to the self-seeker, the ambitious person desiring to establish a personal following, nor to the charlatan claiming to practice this Science. The result is that such as these leave the wisdom, love and protection offered by The Mother Church and try to overthrow the law of Love which this Church embodies.
There are no persons at the head of this Church, but there is of necessity a group of persons to administer the laws of The Mother Church Manual. There are no personal pastors. Mrs. Eddy has chosen as the pastors of this Church the Bible and the textbook of Christian Science. These pastors fulfill the prophecy in Jeremiah 3:15, which reads, "I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."
Solomon in his wisdom said, "My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: . . . for the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light." The Mother Church expresses the law of our Father-Mother God, which is indeed a light to us. Even as a human mother is given to the child, so our Mother Church has been given to us by God. We have not elected or proclaimed her such by popular vote. The laws of The Mother Church are for our good, our progress, our unfolding understanding of God. This Church stands welcoming all seekers of Truth who want to share in her blessings and her activities. The Mother Church demands obedience and loyalty to the law of Love, whose mouthpiece she is. Her members all call her blessed, for they are grateful for her activities, such as the practice of God's healing power, the publishing of His Science through the textbook (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy) and the Christian Science periodicals, the provision through the Bible Lessons of daily manna for those hungering and thirsting for righteousness. To you all, this Mother Church is saying through this lecture, "Love is the fulfilling of the law.
[Probably delivered around 1928-1931.]