Christian Science:

The Law of Divine Intelligence to Man

 

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

 

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and author of its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," has defined intelligence in the following words (p. 469): "Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, — Life, Truth, and Love, — named God."

If we accept the fact that God, who, the Bible declares, "saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31), is the law of divine intelligence to His creation, then everything in His universe, including man, must be governed intelligently. Non-intelligence cannot exist where intelligence is in possession. The finite has no place in infinity.

The Inspiration Which Reveals God

In Job we read (32:8), "There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." This spirit in man is that which reveals the presence and nature of God. The actual meaning of inspiration is breathing in; spiritually interpreted, it means an awakened spiritual sense. Without spiritual inspiration the true life of man is not expressed. This comes only with the exercise of divine intelligence. What wonder that the wise man declared, "With all thy getting get understanding" (Prov. 4:7). The purpose of this lecture is to set forth what spiritual inspiration or divine intelligence does for him who lets it take possession of his thought and so rule his life.

In Christian Science we learn that man is the idea, expression, or manifestation of Mind, God; that it is ignorance or false knowledge which accepts the theory of a man alternately intelligent and non-intelligent, harmonious and discordant, good and evil. Christ Jesus bore witness to spiritual dominion over evil in every aspect of his human experience. The basic explanation for the love and wisdom he manifested is to be understood as the result of his unerring and invariable conformity with the divine will. This might be summed up in a statement such as this by the Master: "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" (John 5:19).

The Spiritual Cause

As we perceive that the will of divine Love is omnipresent good, the assurance of this divine presence to deliver no less from sickness than from sin is ours. When the spiritual cause of all that is created and maintained is seen to be of God, and man to be one with it, then whatever does not emanate from this one cause must be acknowledged as without origin or intelligence. Any other seeming cause or effect is recognized as the unreal illusion of material sense. Its suppositional power, based on false premise and conclusion, is to be dealt with as all false knowledge must be dealt with by those who value and adhere to what is true. It must be replaced with what is actual and therefore real.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 313): "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause." Profound scholars and men of physical science have worked and sacrificed, dedicating their lives to delving "beneath the material surface of things," not in search of the spiritual, but of a material cause. Perceiving material effects, they have sought, along every channel of material learning and experiment, for causes which would explain the universe, which would alleviate ignorance and suffering. Nevertheless, while they have made great discoveries, while they have accumulated and dissected knowledge, and in the human realm accomplished much, how frequently they have willingly admitted that the fundamental cause of all remains unrevealed. They still stumble and feel their way amidst much darkness. But the scientific man, Christ Jesus, found the spiritual cause of all reality; he uncovered the fallacy of so-called causes; separating the true from the false, he revealed Truth. Christ Jesus looked to God, Mind, divine intelligence, and accepted no other direction.

A Mistaken Sense of Intelligence

The human mind has continued to regard understanding as connected with the brain; and, further, it has largely focused its ambition and industry on the imbibing and application of human knowledge. It has not turned to the divine Mind for direction and guidance in human affairs.

In the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook (p. 588) we find the following interpretation of intelligence: "Substance; self-existent and eternal Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited." All that is rightly termed intelligent, therefore, is conscious of good. In the spiritually scientific sense, consciousness of good is intelligence, even as unconsciousness of good is non-intelligence. All limitation is seen in the same sense to be non-intelligent, since Mind is limitless and is the Mind of man. With this interpretation of non-intelligence or unconsciousness, is there not an added meaning to the words of Paul, "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not"? (Gal. 6:9.) Fainting is losing consciousness. As we maintain the consciousness of good, there will be no fainting, no faintheartedness, but continuously the expression of that divine intelligence which, in its awareness of omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, bears witness to the infinitude of Mind.

Not until we realize that there is only one Mind is ability lifted out of the realm of the mortal into the spiritual. The basic teaching of Christian Science is that Mind is God, all-power, all-presence, all-knowing, governing His idea, man, and the universe, and that he who accepts and makes practical this teaching does so in obedience to the words and acts of Christ Jesus.

The Human Evidence or Divine Intelligence

Mrs. Eddy tells us that "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe" (Science and Health, p. 313). This implies that he was the most divinely intelligent. He was also the most practical. He proved in human ways what he taught. There was nothing of the mystic, the doctrinarian, the recluse, about him. His purpose was twofold, and he gave the three years of his public life to its accomplishment. First, he aimed to teach men what is Truth; and, secondly, to show them how to prove it. His words were always accompanied by his works. Spiritual sense is spiritual knowing and is the result of understanding. "I will come and heal him," said Jesus. "Be whole." "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity." "Be not afraid." Why could he say this? And how could he prove it? He could say it because he knew that God is the only cause and creator. Spiritual sense had shown him that there is none other, and that its effect must be spiritual. And how could he prove it? Because he who knew divine law, who obeyed it as wholly, as selflessly and consistently, as did Jesus, understood how to bring the power of the Christ to every situation that presented itself.

Divine Science Now Revealed

Divine Science, which Mrs. Eddy has given to this age, is the Science of Life; it is the exemplification of the allness of Mind, revealing the law of divine intelligence to humanity.

How close, how intimate, Mrs. Eddy recognized her relationship with God to be, is evidenced in all she wrote and accomplished. After searching for God through years of suffering and invalidism, she found herself, as the result of a severe accident, on what was believed to be her deathbed. Spiritual light from the New Testament — from one of Jesus' miracles — brought her sudden healing. She arose and joined her household. Mrs. Eddy knew that this was what the human mind would term a miracle. To her, in her own words, it was the falling apple. She was to bring to the world, as the result of her discovery, the understanding that the law of God is ever present and operative in human consciousness. Her immediate relief from physical suffering and her restoration to health had been the result of perceiving that this was the purpose of the healing power of Jesus. Because of this experience, she started to study the Bible with added impetus and illumination. Here in her unfolding sense of the Christ, Truth, she learned of the eternal, practical availability of the words, the works, the example of Jesus. In the recognition of man's heritage of spiritual dominion, of the power to be wielded by all who understand and obey the Christ-teaching, there was revealed to Mrs. Eddy, in this age, the Science of Christianity. The magnitude of her discovery of the spiritual laws of being and the greatness of her work in establishing the Christian Science movement throughout the world, with its many activities, bringing healing, redemption, enlightenment to mankind, are sufficient evidence of her enduring energy, wisdom, and love. She sought nothing for herself; she waited patiently, trustingly on God, praying always that every step she took be in line with the divine will and purpose.

He who has proved, as many thousands have done and are doing, what Christian Science can do for him, in transforming his life, in teaching him how to know God aright, in healing, in regeneration, in deliverance from fear, is ready at all times to testify gratefully to what Mrs. Eddy has done for mankind. He rests assured that the majesty, the profound significance of her accomplishment on behalf of the human race, will become ever increasingly apparent in its influence upon the history of mankind.

Man's Heritage of Peace

Looking out upon the world today we cannot but be aware that universal peace born of righteousness, such as spiritual seers foresaw, such as Jesus promised to his followers, is not yet made generally manifest in human thought. There is strife, individual and collective, among men and nations; there are fear and distrust in the minds of many as to what lies ahead; as to what thoughts of violence, tyranny, and hatred may evoke; as to what mortal invention and discovery may precipitate, in the hands of the reckless or irresponsible. Nevertheless, all down the ages comes the divine assurance of Isaiah, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (26:3). Jesus foresaw the evils which would befall mankind, "men's hearts failing them for fear" (Luke 21:26). But he saw also, and offered to his followers, the eternal remedy — that peace which, once understood and taken possession of, nothing can disturb.

In her 1902 Message to The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 19), "The heaving surf of life's troubled sea foams itself away, and underneath is a deep-settled calm." Awakening to the world's great needs, with understanding, with compassion, with unselfed love, may we continually maintain within ourselves this "deep-settled calm." As we do so, the troubled sea of mortal thinking will be seen as the unconsciousness of true intelligence; it will cease to disturb or to deceive. Above its turmoil we shall hear the voice of Truth declaring: "My peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).

However fierce and menacing, however near or far the conflict and distress of mortal thinking may appear to be, he who maintains the fact of man's at-one-ment, or oneness with God, does not lose sight of spiritual being. Thus amidst the threatenings and predictions of evil, he neither wavers nor retreats; he knows that everything which truly exists — all reality, permanence, and power — emanates from, is sustained and directed by God.

The Meaning of Prayer

Man, governed by God, by the light and might of divine intelligence, is conscious of the true meaning of prayer. He knows what prayer is, as it is taught in Christian Science. We find it set forth throughout the writings of Mrs. Eddy. Prayer, we learn, is the affirmation of the truth of being; it is the knowledge 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 reflects the divine nature, no less in giving than in receiving, finds its motives and impulse in the heart of infinite Love. The exercise of prayer preserves the purity and fragrance of spiritual inspiration; it reveals and demonstrates man's individuality, illumined by the intelligence which divine Mind imparts, upheld by divine Principle, encompassed by divine Love. This individuality 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; because it lives in God, it reveals His eternal nature and thus reveals man, made in His likeness.

The Exercise of Divine Intelligence

To exercise divine intelligence in knowing what we are, is imperative. Belief will not give it to us. The intellectual, the learned, the brilliant, the talented, who do not plunge beneath the material surface of things, are not truly enlightened. Only the knowing of God and man aright brings the authority of spiritual conviction. 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 intelligence, 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 or submit to them.

"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, who asked continually whether he would not take steps to have medical treatment.

Then one day his employer entered his office. With him was a medical man. Looking at him searchingly, the latter at once began to describe the grave and perhaps fatal results of neglecting the condition from which he was suffering.

As the Christian Scientist listened to the alarming predictions which were being voiced, he heard himself saying, "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. The interview came to an end with his quiet assurance that the situation would be dealt with, not ignored, and he was once more alone.

Awakened by his own positive statement, "I do not believe you," he began to review his thought processes. He had believed himself subject to disease; he had believed that he could be deprived of the intelligence, the health, the authority which are the evidence of man in God's likeness. Was he going to continue to accept as true that which brings suffering and penalty, or was he going to take his intelligent stand with what alone witnesses to Truth? Was he, in fact, going to exchange the state of thought which BELIEVES for that which KNOWS? If so, what as a Christian Scientist did he know? He knew that the idea of God could not be made subject to the errors of disease and destruction; could not be made to fear or obey them; could not be the victim of nonintelligence. This he knew to be true of himself as man, the representative of Mind.

It was as though he had suddenly awakened from a dream. Now he saw clearly that any prediction or acceptance of evil must be from the standpoint of mortal thinking; must be based upon the belief of man as material, fallen from his high estate, at the mercy of an uncertain sense of good and evil. This was the theory that Christian Science had taught him to repudiate. He was aware now that during these days he had not faced up to, but in a sense of doubt and fear had tacitly identified himself with mortal evidence and material sensation. Not until he heard himself declaring, "I do not believe you," did he suddenly awaken to take his stand with Truth, with Spirit, where men do not believe, they know.

The remedy for all such predicaments is to be found in these words by Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 393): "Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man."

Shortly afterwards he became aware that the physical condition was healed. He went to his office the next morning with no evidence of that which had been so apparent to himself and others a few hours earlier. He had brought into action the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient law of divine intelligence ever available to human consciousness. He had replaced belief with spiritual knowing. The light and might of intelligence and life had been restored.

Through understanding and application of the law, of divine intelligence, men are enabled to prove their God-given power to replace the beliefs of mortal so-called law and material evidence with the truth which heals and redeems. This is the mission of the Christ, exemplified by Jesus; this also is the mission of Christian Science, doing the works that he did in revealing the true nature of God and man.

Truth Sets Free

How many people are mentally imprisoned, held in bondage to disease, to sorrow, to fear! Yet the law of divine intelligence ever present, in the omniscience and omnipotence of divine Love, is here today as in Jesus' time to set men free. It brings deliverance because it shows us that our fetters are self-forged, our fears are self-constituted, our limitations are self-imposed. They are but the erroneous decrees and conclusions which mortal mind has instituted in the place of Truth.

In the Acts of the Apostles, there is related the experience of Peter, who had been cast into prison by the enemies of Truth. His escape, from the human point of view, appeared 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 Peter. All at once a light shined in the prison, and he was aroused. He was told to rise up quickly. As he did so, the chains fell off from his hands. He was free. No chains, no jailors, 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 complete freedom. How impregnable it would often appear to be. Perhaps someone among us has come out of the prison of sickness, of sorrow, of 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 ownership of sovereign power. Let no one ever believe that there is any such iron gate which Truth, when applied, cannot open for him; let no one accept the verdict, incurable, impregnable, insoluble, for such a sentence has no place in the realm where divine intelligence reigns. 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.

The Law of Spirit

What Christ Jesus did has appeared miraculous to the human mind, fettered and blinded by its beliefs in material sensation and evidence. But with the advent of Christian Science, men are learning to understand the spiritual, eternal law which lay back of the work performed by him, enabling him to heal sickness and destroy sin.

Everywhere, and for each one, however fiercely the evidence of disease, of sorrow, and of sin may assert itself, the presence of health, of happiness, of righteousness is here today as it was in Jesus' time. Thus is that, in the understanding of God's true government, men and women have found and are finding, that the iron gate opens, "opens of his own accord," and they are free.

After her own healing and the revelation of Christ-power which had come to her, Mrs. Eddy sought the rules which she perceived must underlie her remarkable experience. She writes in Science and Health (p. 109): "I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration." These absolute conclusions are set forth in her writings. They are exact, scientific, based upon that which is eternal and unerring, inseparable from Mind, and today made practical, therefore continuously available to every earnest seeker for Truth.

God, the Mind of Man

A Christian Science practitioner was called to a house where the sufferer appeared to be in a state generally termed as out of her mind. It was a case of a disordered brain, which would be medically diagnosed as insanity. Amidst so much that appeared distressing, fearful, and confusing in the patient and in the frightened attitude of those around her, the practitioner opened the Christian Science textbook, and these words stood out as though they were the only ones on the page (p. 372): "Remember, brain is not mind." This was what she had to remember: that brain, the belief of matter-substance, is not the seat of intelligence, which is in God. She knew that the Mind of man, dependent upon no mortal laws, compressed within no mortal limits, expresses the order, the continuity, the divinity, which dwell in God. And then she remembered another passage in the textbook (p. 151): "The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do with Life, God. Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind." Quickly and uninterruptedly the seeming distress and agitation grew less. In a little while, that only which needed to be remembered, the consciousness of the presence of divine Love, took possession of the situation, and health of mind and body was restored.

To remember that man is the idea of Mind, whatever the material evidence, whatever the mortal testimony or argument; to know that God's law is the law of omnipresent good, this is to reflect true intelligence; this is to refuse to submit to or be intimidated by the stupidity of mortal reasoning or testimony; this is to find and abide with the light and might which are man's. He who refuses to search below the material surface of things and find the spiritual cause will continue to accept so-called causes and their effects. Only as we learn that cause is vested in divine Mind and nowhere else, do we build on foundations which cannot be removed. The great natural scientist, Lord Kelvin, was to make this observation after many years of profound study: "There is nothing in material science that reaches the origin of anything at all."

The Ever-presence of Intelligence

The understanding of the infinite and continuous availability of the law of divine intelligence to man, dawns for the most part slowly in human consciousness, so accustomed is it to look to mortal intelligence for enlightenment, for reasoning, for judgment. Yet the child who is early taught that the divine Mind is available in every undertaking, replacing ignorance and uncertainty with clarity and decision, turns to it as naturally as the flower turns to the sun.

Expectation of disappointment, of failure, of opposition, how often these delay or paralyze the forward urge of mankind. Yet progress is the inherent right of each one; it is the prerogative of him who knows himself to be the son of God. While human knowledge and human ability may achieve results which for a time win the admiration and applause of the world; while they may bring personal satisfaction and the glow of success, yet, they do not endure. Only progress born of spiritual apprehension does this.

Depending on, exalting that which is based on the material sense of things, regarding it as the acme of achievement, must eventually end in what the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes perceived (Eccl. 8:17): "Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it."

In every experience, at every turn, with regard to every decision, small or great, men need to know that they are governed by divine intelligence. They need it for their own affairs and immediate relationships; they need it no less urgently in their attitude towards and their useful participation in the affairs of the world, where divine knowing must bring enduring peace to men and nations. Only the finding of the spiritual cause will accomplish this. "No man," wrote Cicero, "was ever great without divine inspiration." If we accept these words to be true, we realize why Christ Jesus was not only the most scientific but the greatest man that ever trod the globe. And further, we see why it was that Job discerned it to be the inspiration of the Almighty which gives understanding.

The Christ-Mission

How few have been ready to accept that which has been revealed in the message of full salvation which Jesus taught and lived; how few have been able even faintly to perceive the vast import to the whole world, throughout all time, of this coming of the Christ in the flesh. Is it apathy, indifference; is it ignorance of the priceless value of the divine ideal; is it resistance; is it fear of the demand to relinquish the indulgences, the habits, the practices of materiality, which begets such blindness of spiritual perception? Is it the argument of personal sense, which all through the ages has made men unwittingly choose bondage and darkness rather than freedom and light? Many of these states of thought must have been involved in the reluctance to recognize or acknowledge the mission of Christ Jesus, for human will and mortal desire have ever been loath to yield in their struggle for supremacy, however great the promise of spiritual reward. Nevertheless, then as always, he who was prepared to turn from his material way of thinking and lay hold of the divine ideal found what alone could bring true satisfaction, security, and peace.

Mrs. Eddy has stated that the primal and eternal quality of Mind is intelligence. Today it has been revealed that the power and the presence of the Christ are here to be intelligently acknowledged and demonstrated. In the Science of Christianity we see that man is not fallen; he is not vulnerable to sickness and sin, to loss, to failure, to destruction. He is not in a dangerous world with the prospect of a hypothetical heaven. He who reasons rightly does so from the standpoint of Spirit, which belongs neither to time nor to space; where the unconscious and the limited are unknown; "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (John 3:34). He who perceives this will not permit himself to outline or to qualify in human terms the quality of that giving.

He who knows that the laws of health are spiritual laws, and that they are maintaining the universe and man in perfect order, is not in any doubt as to where cause or origin belong. He knows why Mind is all-knowing. He knows why Soul is divine consciousness, expressing God in His oneness and allness. He knows also that the "all things" and the "whatsoever" which Jesus declared had been given him of the Father belong eternally to man. This knowledge is what Jesus called upon his followers to exemplify in individual spiritual living.

In the Psalms we read that David, amidst much persecution and distress which threatened to overwhelm him, sought the divine Presence. He had believed his enemies were altogether too strong for him, "until," in his own words, "I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end" (Ps. 73:17). Truly, David chose the only certain way, whereby he could intelligently and finally discern the unreality, the causelessness, of the error, and so be victorious over it.

As men set forth to deal with the problems and responsibilities which beset human existence, the ability to deal calmly and confidently with them will be present when they remember that the sanctuary of God is the presence of God, and that it is omnipresence. Arguments of incapacity, frustration, opposition, of sickness, sorrow, and fear may assail. The temptation may arise to grow weary, discouraged, fainthearted. Essential is it to preserve our sanctuary. Non-intelligence, thoughts which are unconscious of the all-power, presence, and knowledge of good, will perhaps tell us that this is not possible; will suggest that we listen to what the human mind has to offer, in comfort, in advice, in relief. Be assured that the angels which ministered to the Master in the wilderness, because he refused any way but the way of Spirit, will not fail to minister to him who follows his example and waits on God.

"Jesus' true and conscious being never left heaven for earth," Mrs. Eddy reminds us (No and Yes p. 36). This is the consciousness of the Christ which can never become unconscious of good; which can never be robbed of the Mind which divinely and continuously equips and sustains its own idea.

He who perceives and maintains in consecrated thought or prayer his oneness with divine Principle will find that it is directing and preserving his affairs at all times, in all ways. "Behold," John wrote in the book of Revelation, "the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." This new heaven and earth which appeared to John, this tabernacle of God with men, revealed to him that "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain" (Rev. 21:3,4). "When you read this," writes Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, pp. 573, 574), "remember Jesus' words, 'The kingdom of God is within you,'" and she adds, "This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility."

The writer of Ecclesiastes had beheld all the works of God, and then, in the light of their infinite meaning, he had seen the passing nature of all that is done under the sun. He had seen that though men labor in seeking for it, yet it is not to be found. He had beheld reality, the works of God, and therefore there had come to him, as there was to come to John centuries later, the realization that that which is of God, and therefore divinely created, replaces all that is materially conceived and brought forth. And this because, in the words of the Revelator, "The former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:4).

The law of divine intelligence forever preserving and maintaining the truth of being, bringing order and harmony, health and freedom to those whose thoughts are governed and controlled by it, is here. Its availability depends wholly upon our recognition of and obedience to it. Would we prove its present possibility? Then let us relinquish the former things and accept the new. The law of divine intelligence will be our law as we hold to its omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. Rising to see what it is that is ours from God, and then taking possession of it, these words, written by her who gave Christian Science to the world, will be made evident in our lives, for we shall find that we are God-endowed to prove them true:

"Hold perpetually this thought, — that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being" (Science and Health, p. 496).

 

[Delivered March 8, 1953, under the auspices of Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Detroit Michigan, and published in The Grosse Pointe News, March 26, 1953. The sections above entitled "The Exercise of Divine Intelligence" and "Truth Sets Free" are adapted from the speaker's previous lecture "Christian Science: The Knowledge of Continuous Well-Being," available on this site.]

 

 

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