Evelyn F. Heywood, C.S.B., of London, England
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Evelyn F. Heywood, C.S.B., of London, England, lectured on "Christian Science: The Knowledge of Continuous Well-Being" Tuesday evening in the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist. Mrs. Fred Seybold introduced the speaker.
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
Picture to yourself one who had spent long years in search of a great treasure. Then picture to yourself the moment when that treasure was found; in the place of darkness and failure, light and triumph.
Such was the experience which came to Mary Baker Eddy. Years of invalidism, of loneliness, and of sorrow had not extinguished her faith in an ultimate solution to the problem of human existence. She had continued to pray; she had continued to seek a way whereby the power of God would be made available to humanity in its need of healing, of comfort, of regeneration. And then, in what appeared the darkest hour of her extreme need, the clouds parted, the light broke through. She found not only that she was healed of a severe physical condition, but that she was in the presence of divine reality. Her long search was over. The eternal Principle of being was revealed, in its relationship to man and to the universe. Thus has she described it (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 32): "It was the gospel of healing, on its divinely appointed human mission, bearing on its white wings, to my apprehension, 'the beauty of holiness,' — even the possibilities of spiritual insight, knowledge, and being."
All through the ages, the zest for adventure, for discovery, for conquest, has inspired men to endurance, to peril, to sacrifice. They have gone in search of the North Pole, of the South Pole; they have scaled precipitous mountains; they have sailed uncharted seas; they have pioneered through jungles and over deserts; they have adventured in warfare, in statesmanship, in physics, in art, in commerce, in finance. But the greatest of all adventures, the search for the knowledge of God and man's relationship to Him, how often they have passed this by, as of no avail or of little moment! When men are willing to bring the same ardor and devotion to their search for spiritual truth as they have brought to their human adventures, the same persistency and courage, the same zeal and vision, then to each one there will be revealed "the possibilities of spiritual insight, knowledge, and being."
As Truth unfolded in the thought of Mary Baker Eddy as she studied the Bible, she perceived that the Christ-power which Jesus exercised is no less available in our day than it was when he healed sickness and cast out sin. With this discovery there came to her also the recognition of man's eternal inheritance of dominion. She saw that the allness of good must mean the nothingness of evil. Through practice she proved this all-power in her own life and in the lives of others. She then set forth with the supreme conviction of spiritual vision and demonstration to present her priceless new-found treasure to the world.
The task of the pioneer in material research is not an easy one. It calls for courage, initiative, patience, resolution. For him who pioneers in Spirit, how immeasurably greater is the demand. Materialism, bigotry, prejudice, conservatism must be met and conquered. Undaunted and confident, Mrs. Eddy set forth, and was to continue in her purpose, to bring to human consciousness the divine facts of God's allness and ever-presence — the knowledge of man's continuous well-being. As she never doubted nor wavered in her conviction that God had revealed Himself to her in all the magnitude and majesty of Truth, so she was never to doubt that it was her God-directed mission to bring this knowledge to the world. "We live," she writes, "in an age of Love's divine adventure to be All-in-all" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany p. 158).
In this great adventure, Mrs. Eddy invited others to share. He who is willing so to do, will learn that every experience, every opportunity, yes every seeming trial and danger physical or mental, is but an occasion to prove to himself, and so to the world, the powerlessness of that which boasts itself above good. Thus can he find the All-in-all of Love and make this treasure his own.
Mrs. Eddy foresaw that thought would be found reasoning more and more from a metaphysical basis, first of all as the result of discoveries in the realm of natural science, and then as the logical conclusion from these discoveries was perceived by the human intellect. Today the classroom and the laboratory are to be found generally admitting, in theory at least, that the earth is ruled not mechanically but mentally; that matter is in fact the phenomenon of mental forces.
The admission of primary mental causes has not however delivered humanity from the fear and distress of mortal phenomena. The recognition of a world governed by the divine Mind alone can do this. Men have not perceived that they have the divine right to well-being, to thoughts of health, of order, in the place of those dictated by evil, by fear, by ignorance of the All-in-all of Love. The human mind, because uninstructed in Truth, has not ceased to accept as inevitable the discords and danger of mortal existence. Only he who has learned to turn to where the complete and final remedy for every ill, individual and national, is to be found, namely, in the presence, in the knowledge of the divine Mind, can be assured of the Christ-promise, "Nothing shall by any means hurt you."
In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 127), the basis of the teachings Mary Baker Eddy has given to the world is summed up in one brief statement: "If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity." Can we think of any adventure fraught with such meaning, with such opportunity, inspired with such measureless value to mankind as is here indicated, the discovery of the immediate availability and practicability of God's all-power in assuring, in establishing, continuous well-being?
In the light and love of the revelation of God's allness, the nothingness of that which claims power and existence apart from Him is made clear. A lie has only the power which ignorance or false belief accords to it; with the advent of spiritual knowledge, the lie of material sense disappears as does darkness with the coming of light.
In the light of Truth the powerlessness of a lie to deceive or harm is discerned. With it comes the knowledge of the eternal nature of man, expressing conscious at-one-ment with God. Truth as taught by Jesus, Truth as revealed in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, separates the real from the unreal. It establishes knowledge in the place of superstition, fact in the place of conjecture, clarity in the place of confusion, confidence in the place of fear.
In both the Old and New Testaments there is provided ample evidence of how, as the result of the divine adventure to prove that God is All-in-all, sin, disease, and even death give way to health, to righteousness, and to life. In the second book of Kings the story of the Shunammite woman stands out in its dramatic beauty and power, in its vivid and intimate portrayal, in its triumph of trust in God. The immovable consistency and steadfastness of the Shunammite woman, faced with the severest of all tests of her faith and courage, and the complete justification of her reliance upon God, must continue to bring strength and inspiration to multitudes.
This familiar story recounts how a woman of Shunem welcomed Elisha to her home, for she recognized him to be "an holy man of God;" and how moreover she built a room for him apart from its busy traffic, for this was a wealthy and important household, where there must have been much coming and going. Here, while his human needs would be met, he was also to find tranquility and seclusion. It is recorded that there came a day when, after a sudden, brief illness, the woman's only child died. The man of God was not within call — he had gone up to Mount Carmel to pray. He was not therefore immediately available, but the room set apart for him was. She took the lifeless body of her little son up into the room and laid it upon the bed. Then she went out, closing the door behind her. She spoke to no one of what had happened. Her first action after her child had died was to carry him to the only place where there would be seclusion from the fears, the curiosity, the speculation, the accepted finality of mortal belief.
The mother then set forth to climb
Mount Carmel, that she might find the man of God. She told no one of her
mission. Her only reply when asked about her child was, "It shall be
well." And so with the directness impelled by singleness of purpose, she
went where she would find him whom she had learned to know as God's
representative. The story relates that she was willing to accept no substitute;
she would give no information to Gehazi, the servant of Elisha who came to meet
her. Her words to him were, "It is well." Her message was for Elisha
alone. She must speak face to face with the man of God. When she reached
Elisha, she refused to be parted from him; he must return with her to where she
had left her child. This was what she had come for; this alone would satisfy
her.
So it was that Elisha accompanied her to the house. So it was that he went up into the room which she had built and set aside for him, where she had laid the body of her son upon the bed. He entered in and closed the door. The story relates that life came back into the child. Yet there still remained something to be done, for, in the words of the Bible, the man of God "returned, and walked in the house to and fro." After this he went once more into the room, where there appeared an even stronger evidence of life. The steadfastness of the Shunammite woman had been vindicated; Elisha's prayers had been answered. The assurance, "It is well," was fulfilled. Elisha called to her to come in. "Take up thy son," he said. We can picture the humility, the gratitude of that mother as she came into the room, took up her little son, restored to life, and went out with him in her arms.
A young mother whose child was very ill, tossing and moaning, in high fever, had been requested by the Christian Science practitioner to whom she had turned for help, to read the story of the Shunammite woman, while applying every spiritual message, every example of faith, of wisdom, of courage, she found there to her own immediate need. She sat in the sickroom with the Bible in her hand and, as she read, the beauty and power of the story, with its lesson of absolute trust, held her thought. She felt something within her responding to the steadfast resolve of that Shunammite mother who had refused to accept the material evidence, who had maintained the divine fact, "It is well." She felt arising within her the strength to turn away from the fear of mortal environment, of material laws and theories, conjectures and prophecies, to the thought of consecration and quietude. She meditated on the atmosphere of holy, peaceful aspiration which must have filled that simple room, built apart from material coming and going, and consecrated to prayer. She saw that in this secret place, where the individual preserves his oneness with God, there must ever be the assurance of, "It is well."
In that inner sanctuary of Truth, each one finds the inspiration and strength to set forth upon the divine adventure of proving that God is All-in-all. The mountain of aspiration may have to be climbed, that the summit of exalted faith be reached. Doubt, confusion feebleness of purpose must not be allowed to obscure the way. The young Scientist saw that that other woman had not hesitated nor slackened until she had achieved her purpose. The call to her was to do no less. This was to be the proof of her individual journey — of her conscious at-one-ment with the divine source of all good. She must see that every idea of God moves and breathes in the atmosphere of Love, expressing not restlessness but peace, not fever but calm; it was here that she and her child were living.
As she continued to read, she thought deeply of the action of Elisha after he had restored the child's life, for in the Bible it said that then he "returned, and walked in the house to and fro." She saw that not only in her own thought, but in her environment, in her home, among those who were concerned with the child's well-being, whether closely or remotely, whether in human anxiety, opposition or incredulity, there must be recognition of the authority of spiritual law, the assurance of the eternal action, the all-power and presence of Truth. And then she pictured to herself the entrance into that room of the Shunammite woman, where but a short time before she had laid upon the bed the lifeless form of her child. What unspeakable joy and gratitude, what humility and enlightened faith, there must have been in the mother's heart when she saw her son restored to life, and lifting him up, carried him again into the normal, happy activities of the day.
As the young Scientist dwelt upon the story of that great spiritual adventure, which centuries earlier had proved God to be All-in-all, she became aware that the tossing and moaning beside her had ceased. She put out her hand and touched the quietly sleeping child. The fever had left him. When he awoke the following day, he was well.
My friends, how much we can learn from such experiences as these. Let us ask ourselves, Do we hold that which we value, in ownership or in the promise of unfolding good, where we believe discord and misfortune can assail it, or do we continually see it in that secret place where faith and prayer surround it? In the affirmation that all is well, whatever the contrary evidence, from within or without, whether present or in some hypothetical future, do we rise in thought to find that consciousness of continuous well-being, where the idea of Love and Principle is forever enthroned? In reliance on God, shall we not bring to every situation, whatever it may be, that which inspires, protects, delivers? So doing, we shall not be tempted to turn to any other aid, to seek any other refuge, to believe in any other power. And as a result of the fidelity, the earnestness of these prayers, the burden which had threatened to overwhelm us is laid down; in the light of spiritual knowing it is seen to be without reality. In gratitude, in confidence, we are empowered to go forward with an ever-unfolding sense of the continuous well-being of man.
The earnest seeker who has glimpsed the truth of Christian Science is not satisfied with mere belief. He desires to lay hold of spiritual understanding, whereby he may put into practice what he perceives. Through the discovery by Mary Baker Eddy of the spiritual laws of being, Truth in its completeness has been revealed. The Christian Scientist knows that man, the idea of infinite Mind, expresses the intelligence which is ever present and available. In every problem, therefore, whether it concerns himself, others, or the affairs of the world, he learns to wait upon God for wisdom and for strength.
Today, because of the discovery of divine Science, men can prove that there is no condition or circumstance where divine Love and wisdom are not present to preserve them, to bring order out of chaos and peace out of conflict. "The possibilities of spiritual insight, knowledge, and being," which came to Mrs. Eddy, are present in the affairs of men, with the authority to enable them to understand the source, the means, the exercise of that power which belongs to man because he is the representative of God.
He who finds himself in the presence of God finds himself also in the presence of man; he finds his true selfhood; he finds the divine idea, the spiritual embodiment of Soul, he finds that which is forever identified with divine Being, with the All-in-all. This is the man who was revealed by Christ Jesus. Thus it was he could say to Philip, whose request it was that he would show them the Father (John 14:9); "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me. Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father."
In "Unity of Good" (p. 46) Mrs. Eddy writes, "The scientific man and his Maker are here; and you would be none other than this man, if you would subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual sense and source of being." To be "none other than this man" men must learn where they eternally dwell and there abide. Then the temptation to believe that they dwell in a world liable to disease, to warfare, to destruction, will be forever overcome. In "No and Yes" (p. 36) Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus' true and conscious being never left heaven for earth. It abode forever above, even while mortals believed it was here." This then was where Jesus dwelt. Did he not speak of himself as "the Son of man which is in heaven"? (John 3:13.)
He who abides in the consciousness of spiritual selfhood knows that to him belong the authority, the dignity, the liberty, of spiritual sonship. He understands the practical meaning of Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). He knows that all thought and action are governed by omnipotent Spirit. He is learning to prove that disease, misfortune, war, hatred, bitterness, sickness, cannot take possession of those who have perceived that their true and conscious being is in God.
In "Pulpit and Press" (p. 4), Mrs. Eddy writes: "Who lives in good, lives also in God, — lives in all Life, through all space. His is an individual kingdom, his diadem a crown of crowns." It was his divine certainty of this individual kingdom which enabled Jesus to overcome every form of evil, prove powerless every effort of the carnal mind. The individual kingdom within each one of us is what Christian Science reveals. Sometimes, because they do not find what they seek, men will blame another, or others; they look outside themselves for the reason of their failure to find, and abide with what they need, to bring them satisfaction and completeness. They may attribute their failure to persons or circumstances, to ill fortune, to sickness, to temperament or heredity. Only in the knowledge of man's eternal well-being, preserved and sustained of God, the powerlessness, the absurdity of that which would claim for itself another power, another selfhood, another kingdom, is made clear.
Would we know what prayer is, as it is taught in Christian Science? Then we shall find it set forth throughout the writings of Mrs. Eddy. Prayer, we learn, is the affirmation of the truth of being; it is the knowing of spiritual facts; it is reliance upon the ever-presence of divine Love. Prayer is the understanding and the exercise of divine power on behalf of humanity; it is the preservation of thought in line with Principle, expressed in purity and integrity, in compassion and gentleness. Prayer which expresses the divine nature no less in giving than in receiving, finds its motive and impulse in the heart of infinite Love. The exercise of prayer preserves the beauty and fragrance of spiritual inspiration; it reveals and demonstrates man's individual kingdom, illumined by the intelligence which divine Mind imparts; upheld by divine Principle, encompassed by divine Love. This individual kingdom is radiant with the beauty, the harmony of Soul, where peace reigns supreme; it expresses the strength and authority of Spirit, the eternal vigor and animus of Life. This individual kingdom, because it lives in God, reveals His eternal nature, and thus reveals man, made in His likeness.
Even as prayer shows us these divine truths, so it shows us those things which have no place in God and which therefore have no place in man. It shows us that hatred, revenge, sensuality, pride, sickness, the hypnotic influences of human will, do not belong in man's individual kingdom. It shows us (and this is all-important to remember) that each one — that is, you and I — reflecting divine authority, has the power to refuse the entrance of evil into his thought. This is our responsibility, our task. However much we may be strengthened, encouraged, instructed, enlightened by another, the decision of what we accept, what we reject, must always rest with ourselves, whose individual kingdom it is.
The question men sometimes ask themselves is: Have I the ability to discern the nature of these intruders which have no place in "true and conscious being"? Have I the courage, the resolution, to bar their entrance, or to evict them if they have already entered in? What is the answer of the Christian Scientist to such questions as these? In "Pulpit and Press" by Mrs. Eddy, we find these words (p. 3): "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. . . . Our surety is in our confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man's eternal mansion." Here, then, is our surety. It is in our confidence that we do indeed know that we possess — even sovereign power; that we know where we dwell — in Truth and Love. Within our individual kingdom we cannot be dispossessed of our divine heritage. In the consciousness of Love's all-presence, there is no trespassing by mortal belief.
To demonstrate the knowledge of what through God's power we can do, this is the great adventure, whereby we prove the All-in-all of Love. The understanding of what we possess, of what we are, of Him whom we obey, this is imperative. Belief alone will not give us sovereign power; only knowledge of God and of the man whom He has thus endowed does this. Continually, every day, every hour, human testimony is demanding of us that we believe in the actuality of mortal phenomena. Often these demands appear vested with tradition, custom, authority, law, necessity. On the basis of belief, they may appear irrefutable, inexorable. But he who knows the divine fact of whatever the human senses affirm will neither accept nor submit to them. He will remember and abide in the knowledge that Jesus accepted no evidence which produced or predicated disease, disability, sorrow, lack, and death. Those who came to him afflicted with blindness and paralysis, with insanity and leprosy, were immediately healed. He delivered men not only from sickness but from sin. Numbers of those restored and regenerated glimpsed the grandeur, the majesty of his mission and left all to follow him. Today in like measure, men and women who have perceived the light of Christian Science as it was revealed to its Discoverer, Mary Baker Eddy, have been healed and regenerated by the power of Truth. They have turned from material sense, that they may take part in Love's divine adventure; that they may prove the All-in-all of divine Love in their own lives and in the lives of others.
It is sometimes believed that so definite a dividing line between reality and unreality, between good and evil, as is drawn by Christian Science, must tend to detachment from or indifference to the problems which beset mankind. But this is not so. No one was ever more alert to human needs than was Jesus, no one ever more patient and loving in healing and in teaching. Mrs. Eddy, in establishing the Cause of Christian Science, called for the same practical approach, the same loving compassion as the Master's, that the evils from which the world has suffered as the result of its separation from God might be intelligently and adequately dealt with and overcome. Of his disciples, Jesus said (John 17:15), "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "At this period," Mrs. Eddy has written on page 82 of "Retrospection and Introspection," "my students should locate in large cities, in order to do the greatest good to the greatest number, and therein abide" How incalculable for good is the example of him who knows that all power is given him of God; how greatly can he help to uplift the thought of government, of business, of human relationship, in every walk of life.
"Who or what is it that believes?" (Science and Health, p. 487.) This is one of the searching questions which we find in the Christian Science textbook. And the answer is given as follows in the author's words: "Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing." A student of Christian Science found himself afflicted with a discordant physical condition which was particularly trying, as it was on his face, and therefore aroused much anxious comment and speculation amongst his associates. The head of the firm for which he worked was greatly concerned, and asked continually whether he would not take steps to have medical treatment. Then, one day, his employer came into the office accompanied by a doctor, who began to describe the grave and perhaps fatal penalty of neglecting the condition.
As the Christian Scientist sat listening to the alarming predictions which were being set forth, he heard himself saying with calm conviction, "I do not believe you." And all at once it was as though he felt the rock of Truth beneath his feet. He did not believe what was being said, because Christian Science had taught him otherwise. It had taught him that knowing precludes the need of believing. And what did he know? He knew that the idea of God could not be made subject to the errors of mortal belief; could not be made to fear or obey them. It was as though he had suddenly awakened from a dream. In that moment he saw that any prediction of evil must be from the basis of mortal belief; must be based upon mere supposition which through false education has been accepted and has found expression as material existence. This was the theory which Christian Science had taught him to repudiate. He realized also that in spite of his faith in God, his allegiance to Truth, he had, during these past weeks, tacitly identified himself with mortal evidence and material sensation. Not until he had heard himself declaring, "I do not believe you," did he awaken to take his stand with Truth, with Spirit, where men do not believe; they know. Shortly afterwards, he suddenly became aware that the physical condition was completely healed. When he went to his office the next morning, he did so with no evidence of the disease of a few hours earlier. Sovereign power "to think and act rightly" had entered into possession; and that which had sought to "trespass on Love" had been destroyed.
How many people today are imprisoned because of some false sentence of disease, of sin, of sorrow, of fear, of incapacity; how many find themselves in bondage to loneliness, lack, discouragement? Instead of apprehending man's individual kingdom, the joy and freedom of well-being, these are temporarily obscured by sickness and misery.
In the Acts of the Apostles, there is described the experience of Peter, cast into prison by the enemies of Truth. His escape appeared, from the human point of view, to be well-nigh hopeless, for he was held between two soldiers, bound with two chains; and the keeper before the door kept the prison. But prayer was being made without ceasing for him. All at once a light shined in the prison, and Peter was aroused. He was told to rise up quickly. And as he did so the chains fell off from his hands. He was free. No chains, no jailers, no keeper before the door interfered with his exit. He passed through the first and the second ward until he came to the iron gate which led into the city. How often would there seem to be some iron gate which bars our entry into our individual kingdom. How impregnable it would often appear to be. Perhaps someone among us has come out of the prison of sickness, of sorrow or misfortune, and the chains have fallen off him, and yet there is still an iron gate of human will, of chronic fear, of loneliness, of frustration, which bars the entrance into his kingdom of sovereign power. Let no one ever believe that there is any such iron gate which Truth cannot open for him; let no one accept the verdict, incurable, impregnable, insoluble, for such a sentence has no place in the realm where Love is All-in-all. The iron gate opened for Peter. And we read that it opened "of his own accord." To the power of prayer which brought Peter out of prison there is no resistance, only accord. This is the yea of spiritual affirmation, of divine oneness.
Let us consider some of those attributes of Mind which, in their spiritual accord with the divine will and purpose, still the strife, the distrust and enmity of mortal belief; which open wide the gate of light and beauty, into the health and freedom that belong to man.
Most assuredly wisdom is a fore-most requirement, the wisdom which waits upon God for each forward step, the wisdom which is expressed in word and deed, in every relationship, in our attitude towards those with whom we come into contact, in our attitude towards the world in which we live. The need is for wisdom based not upon human reasoning, advantage, expediency, but upon that wisdom which is an attribute of the divine Mind, eternally expressing man as idea.
Men require allegiance to all that is pure and noble, allegiance to divine Principle, which permits no personal loyalty to compete or conflict therewith. Those who have grasped the meaning of this greatest of all adventures — the proving of the All-in-all of Love — know that without such allegiance they cannot attain their goal. He who is allegiant to Truth does not turn back, grow weary, nor discouraged in the work which he is called upon to do.
Men require courage, the courage born of faith in the triumph of right, which remains immovable in the face of temporary defeats and humiliations; the courage which, whether the struggle be open or secret, swift or delayed, waits calmly and trustingly on God. "I have seen the wicked in great power," wrote the Psalmist, "and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found" (Ps. 37:35,36). In the courage which is based on the understanding of the All-in-all of divine Love, no boasted display of that which is without root in our kingdom can disturb or dishearten us.
Men require joy. There is no more certain way to break the mesmerism of mortal discord than by being joyful. Joy, intelligently expressed, is gratitude, based on the recognition of the source and nature of good. Robert Louis Stevenson has been quoted as saying that it is worth a five-pound note to meet a joyful person. And if it is worth that to meet someone who is joyful, how immeasurable is the value of knowing that joy is our divine heritage. What blindness, what folly of mortal belief can bar joy from us, since the gift is already ours? Sometimes it is self-pity, discontent, discouragement, resentment, envy, pride, which would dispossess us of joy. The knowing of spiritual power is their certain remedy. These trespassers can be banished, and in accord with divine Love we enter into our heritage of well-being.
Foremost, as the source, the inspiration of their lives, men require the quality not only felt but expressed of love. In this age of Love's divine adventure to be All-in-all, there can be no undertaking, no experience, where love is absent. What was it that Jesus made the test of discipleship? "By this," he said, "shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Since there is nothing outside the belief in a suppositional opposite to the divine all-power which can rob us of this evidence of discipleship, how clear and how positive should be our stand. Equipped with the sovereign power of wisdom, of allegiance, of courage, of joy, and of love, we shall know how to meet and overcome every mortal suggestion which would deny the continuous well-being of man.
Looking at the condition of the world today, there are those who ask themselves in fear, in skepticism, in despair, whether the power of evil is not gaining ascendancy over the power of good. The Psalmist found himself believing that this must be so, until he went into the sanctuary of God. Then he saw the end of evil. In the light of spiritual vision, he saw the eternal triumph of good.
The power which saved the child of the Shunammite woman, which healed the sick and sinning in Jesus' day, which is healing and redeeming humanity today; the prayer which brought Peter out of prison and "of his own accord" opened the iron gate, is sovereign power, forever able to bring men and women out of every kind of evil, that they may take their part in Love's great adventure to be All-in-all. Today divine Science is here, revealing the knowledge of that which constitutes and maintains the continuous well-being of man.
Security — this is what the world all through the ages has longed to attain. This, in fact, is what awaits it as men learn to separate themselves from mere belief and learn to identify themselves with spiritual knowing. How profound, how boundlessly assuring is the following statement from the pen of the Discoverer of Christian Science, who adventured all to bring the Christ-spirit and the Word, in meaning and in demonstration, to the world. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 183) we read; "As many as do receive a knowledge of God through Science, will have power to reflect His power, in proof of man's 'dominion over all the earth.'" May we go forth reflecting His power, in the knowledge of continuous well-being. May this be our banner, our guerdon, our watchword and our crown.
[Delivered May 11, 1948, in Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, Indianapolis, Indiana, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, May 18, 1948.]