J. Hamilton Lewis, C.S. of Concord, New Hampshire
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
A number of years ago, when our boys were quite young, we moved to another state. The children were not happy at leaving the only home they remembered, and often asked when we were going home. It became apparent that we must establish a right concept of home in consciousness for both the boys, my wife and myself.
We knew we could work this problem out in Christian Science, for we had attended the Christian Science Sunday School, and were active members of a Christian Science church. We had learned to turn to God to solve every problem. In this instance we saw that we needed a better understanding of what home really is. In order to gain this better understanding, we must know more about God, and man, whom the Scriptures say is made in God's image and likeness.
In the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, — she is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, — through her spiritual discernment of the inspired word of the Bible, has given us a wonderful definition of God. It is: "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence" (p. 587).
In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we are told that not only did God create everything, but He made it all good. And further it states that He created man in His own image, and that He blessed His creation.
As we pondered the statements from the Bible and Science and Health, we saw that since God is infinite Love, all that man, God's perfect, spiritual idea, can experience is love. Love is certainly the cornerstone for the establishment of a right concept of home.
We realized that the understanding of God as Spirit points to the fact that creation is spiritual. Then man dwells forever in Spirit — his true home.
Since God is all-knowing Mind, He knows that His beloved children are now and always dwelling in harmony. We saw that discordant or unhappy conditions "out there" were but the reflection of our own false thinking within. This Bible verse came to thought: "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). And we recalled the words of Christ Jesus: "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).
Mrs. Eddy tells us in her book "Pulpit and Press" (p. 2): "The real house in which 'we live, and move, and have our being' is Spirit, God, the eternal harmony of infinite Soul."
When we realized, affirmed, and accepted the truth of God, good, and man, His beloved child, as taught in Christian Science, we knew we could only dwell in an harmonious home. We found that the harmony of our home cannot be invaded by any false belief that would try to create inharmonious or fearful conditions.
It was evident to us then, that when we seek a right sense of home, we are actually seeking an understanding of the primal cause of our own existence. In Christian Science we learn that the primal cause of our existence is God, the only Cause. When we clearly understand this, we see that creation includes man and the universe. So it became clear to us that home is a universal idea in divine Mind and that we were, then, never separated from our true home, already established in Mind, God.
Mrs. Eddy defines man as: "The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind" (Science and Health, p. 591). Since man is the "full representation of Mind" he includes the true concept of home, or heaven, which Christ Jesus says is within us.
As we turned wholeheartedly to God, we began to see that in truth we are at home wherever we are. We recognized that home is not a material structure or in a particular place. Home is the awareness of God's presence and love, care and guidance, now and always.
Then we found that we were all content and happy right where we were, for we had found what home truly is and that we were always at home in God's loving presence. The boys never again asked when we were going home, for they were secure in their understanding that God's love was ever surrounding them, and this was their true home.
People the world over are understanding more and more clearly Mrs. Eddy's concept of home. She says: "With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science" (Science and Health, p. 469:31-5).
The right sense of home, being universal in its nature, necessarily extends beyond what is sometimes spoken of as the family circle even to larger groups and to national and international relationships. This realization will ultimately do away with the selfish and limited concept of things which is unable to see beyond the boundary of what it terms "my family" and "my country." Home cannot prosper and succeed without taking into consideration the welfare of others.
Shortly after Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science, she began to realize the true sense of home to a remarkable degree. She saw that in true relationship, which expresses universal divine Love, it would be impossible for one individual to prosper at the expense of another or to deprive another of anything good. This knowledge helped her to see that because of the impartial and infinite nature of divine Principle, all may avail themselves at all times of everything required to meet a legitimate need.
Although Mrs. Eddy was born in the little town of Bow, just a few miles from Concord, New Hampshire, and lived for many years in small towns, her concept of home was universal, and stemmed from her understanding of God, man, and the universe.
This is evidenced by one of her statements that has great significance in the space age, with the firing of many missiles that orbit the earth and will be encircling the sun, and the moon and other satellites. Her statement, from Science and Health, is: "The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, — he will look out from them upon the universe; . . ." (Science and Health, p. 125:28-29).
Mary Baker Eddy enlarged her borders when she discovered the divine Comforter in 1866 which she named Christian Science. This was after she had experienced a very remarkable healing while reading and pondering the healing of the palsied man by Jesus as recounted in Matthew.
Mrs. Eddy placed great emphasis on the Bible. Indeed, she says it was her only textbook. She retired from society for some years to study the Bible, after her healing, and through her study she proved that the divine Principle which Christ Jesus taught, and upon which he based his healing work, could again be demonstrated in a scientific manner. She was divinely inspired to make her understanding of this Science available for the healing of mankind. It is a practical science and can be used by anyone who honestly and humbly accepts its teachings.
In 1875 Mrs. Eddy published Science and Health, after nine years of proving each statement contained in this textbook of Christian Science.
"A woman and a book made New Hampshire known and loved in some forty nations on five continents throughout the world," stated a New Hampshire newspaper in the summer of 1952. And it continued: ". . . from Alaska to Africa, and across Asia, Europe and the Americas, — wherever there are Christian Scientists, — New Hampshire is known as the birth-place of Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science."
Mrs. Eddy discovered that God's laws are absolutely just and that He provides abundantly for all His children. She realized that man is, here and now, a desired member of the only family there ever was and is in possession of all that is necessary to his happiness and welfare. She saw that as we cast out false concepts and learn to have that Mind which was in Christ Jesus, we come into possession of the kingdom of heaven, our forever home.
This understanding of the brotherhood of man must unfold within our consciousness and find its manifestation within our own homes right where we are now. Peace on earth must be established first within our individual consciousness and demonstrated by you and me in our own homes here and now. The true concept of home is a universal idea in divine Mind. It must be understood and demonstrated.
Let me tell you of a healing that came under my observation some years ago that shows how error cannot endure in any home when it is understood what home really is.
A business man was in danger of losing his business, his home and his wife because he was suffering from alcoholism. He felt the problems were too great to be solved, and he was filled with discouragement and despair. He went to see a Christian Science practitioner. The practitioner pointed out that God is the primal cause, the one Creator. He explained that the man of God's creating surely has dominion over everything and over every situation, even as God, his Creator has.
Christian Science reveals that man is the full manifestation of divine Being. Man is spiritual, "the temple of the living God" (II Cor. 6:16), because God, Spirit, made everything that was made. Mind creates and governs its own reflection, for God, Mind, is cause and man is effect. God is Principle and man His idea. The practitioner pointed out that the word "idea" comes from the Greek word meaning "to see." Therefore, the idea of God is actually that which infinite Mind perceives of itself. Christian Science shows that man exists forever at the standpoint of infinite perfection in which Mind is expressing itself. Man dwells eternally as Mind's joyous expression.
The business man was asked to memorize the following statement in Science and Health: "There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle" (p. 588).
The practitioner told the man that it is no more difficult for a mathematician to multiply 4 by 40,000 than it is to multiply 4 by 4, because the same principle of mathematics always brings the correct answer. Christian Science shows that there is no human problem so complicated that it cannot be solved correctly — no problem too simple. When the problem is taken humbly to God with complete assurance that God is Principle, the right solution unfolds.
The practitioner asked him to open Science and Health to the first page and read what Mrs. Eddy says. He read: "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love" (p. 1). And further she says: "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds" (ibid., 4:3-5).
The practitioner went on to say that in Christian Science prayer is the recognition of man's oneness or unity with God, the understanding that man dwells forever within the enfolding protection of infinite Love. Prayer is complete forgetfulness of self, an absolute turning to divine Mind for guidance, which rules out any sense of human will.
The practitioner told him that Christian Scientists place complete reliance on the Lord's Prayer. Mrs. Eddy indicates in her spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer (Science and Health, p. 16) that there never is a moment when God's reign is not divinely established as the one and only reign. He explained that as we accept God's government guiding and protecting us, we find that His kingdom is come. Christian Scientists understand that there are not multitudes of finite minds governed by God, Mind, but only one Mind, God, governing the universe of His own creating.
As the patient and the practitioner turned to God in prayer, thought was lifted above the beliefs of sinning mortal man, to the recognition of man as the pure, perfect likeness of his Maker.
In the following weeks the man earnestly prayed as Christ Jesus taught, "Thy will be done," which Mrs. Eddy interprets spiritually as: "Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme" (Science and Health, p. 17). He sought to surrender any sense of human will. Then he saw God as the source of all power, governing and guiding His idea, man. This communion with God, which is true prayer, healed the man of alcoholism and the tobacco habit, and as a result, his home and a happy family relationship were restored. This healing took place several years ago and has been permanent. As the man progressed in his study of Christian Science, he was lifted out of his former environment, and a much better business opportunity came to him.
His entire outlook on life was changed, and today he is serving in a much larger field. He and his wife are earnest students, working happily in their branch church. Their home has been firmly established on the sure foundation of mutual understanding, harmony, peace, security. They learned that true home has to be found in serving others in a useful and happy way. They discovered that, as Mrs. Eddy says in the chapter on "Marriage" in Science and Health: "Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections" (p. 58:21-23).
Christ Jesus, all through his ministry, was laying the foundation for home, or heaven, for mankind. The people misconstrued his mission. Even his own disciples placed his mission on a personal basis, just as men today try to place salvation on a personal basis, the personality of the man Jesus. Mrs. Eddy tells us: "There was never a religion or philosophy lost to the centuries except by sinking its divine Principle in personality" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 117:22-24).
Christian Science teaches a difference between the terms Christ and Jesus. Jesus was the name of the human personality, who earned the title of the Christ because of his spiritual understanding of true being, which he taught and demonstrated. In the original Greek his proper name was Jesus the Christ, or Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus was constantly turning thought away from his personality to the Principle of man's being — to the establishment of the consciousness of Love, man's forever home, in which he now dwells. He realized that in the spiritual universe the real man is ever at home. He was never conscious of anything but divine Love, of anything but the constant presence and nearness of his all-loving Father-Mother God, and the harmony of his relationship with infinite Mind.
The Master knew that there is but one God, who is man's only Mind, and that this Mind is God, and not man, Principle and not person. Thus while he put off personality, he maintained his spirituality and true identity as the son of God. He gained the spiritual sense of peace and security. This is how he established the true concept of heaven, harmony, the sure foundation for home, harmony.
Jesus knew that his home was already established in heaven, the harmony of his real being, and he taught this to his disciples. Jesus did not regard existence from a mortal standpoint. Accepting no other Mind than God, his thoughts were necessarily God's thoughts. That is the reason the unillumined thought of his time failed to understand the significance of his sayings and his mission.
Jesus knew that the universe including man is both infinite and perfect. He realized that the infinity of perfection excludes the possibility of the existence of anything but perfection. The real man is never conscious of, nor can he experience, anything but good. This is true salvation.
Do you recall the occasion, after the crucifixion, when Jesus appeared to his disciples, standing on the shores of the Galilean sea as related in John, the twenty-first chapter? The night before, Peter, disheartened and discouraged, decided to go back to his old way of making a living. So Peter had said: "I go a fishing." The rest of the disciples had agreed with him. But though they labored all night, they caught nothing.
At dawn they heard a voice saying: "Children, have ye any meat?" It is possible Jesus was asking his disciples if they had gained anything by returning to their old way of thinking. When they replied in the negative, Jesus said: "Cast the net on the right side."
Wasn't Jesus telling them to look away from matter to divine Mind for their supply? The disciples were obedient, and as they cast the net on the right side of the ship they found an abundance where there had been lack. It is possible he was telling them not to let matter, with all its material pleasures, lure them from the way of life that is eternal. Could it be that Jesus was urging them to see that peace, joy, happiness, harmony, and security are always being demonstrated in the newness of divine Love? He was telling them that their real home was already established by divine Principle, God, yes, in the kingdom of heaven. He had told them: "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2).
Mrs. Eddy tells us that Truth, Life, and Love, synonymous terms for God, are substance. She states: "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay" (Science and Health, p. 468:17-18).
The true concept of home embraces a right unfoldment of supply, and that means that divine Love is always supplying its beloved child with all he needs. And not just enough, but in abundance, as the disciples had just learned with the net full of fishes.
When the disciples had come to shore and gathered around Jesus, he said to Peter: "Lovest thou me more than these?"
Wasn't he striving to get Peter to rise above his sense of personal loss, above the sense of personal devotion and human love? Wasn't he rousing Peter to the need for spiritualizing his thought and gaining a higher sense of unselfed love?
To gain the essence of this story, we must understand that the Greek word for love used by Peter was different from the one the Master used. The Greek language of the Master's time used "phileo" to denote a type of personal or human love, and it was this word that Peter used. Personal or human love does not build a permanent basis for home, but Peter apparently, at the time, could rise no higher in thought than this sense of personal love.
Now Jesus used the word "agapao" which is a love based on a higher moral and spiritual sense. To Christian Scientists that means Principle. As we have already seen, Mrs. Eddy uses Principle as a synonym for God.
A literal translation of this passage, then, would be something like this: "Peter, do you love the Christ Principle, and will you actively carry on this teaching which is the sure foundation of eternal life?" Peter's reply was that he loved Jesus personally very much. This dialogue was twice repeated. Each time the Master enjoined Peter to feed, or teach, his flock.
In Science and Health we read: "The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus" (p. 25:31), and this was shown when Jesus, perceiving that Peter at this moment could not attain this altitude of impersonal love based on the perception of the Christ, Truth, used the word "phileo" which, as you recall, indicates personal love. He asked Peter for the third time if he loved him and again exhorted him to "feed my sheep."
The Master had prayed that Peter would have clarity of vision. He must have been sure it would come as Peter continued to follow the Master's commands, that Peter would finally heal the sick and sinning through his understanding of divine Love, God. He would then be carrying out the Master's command to "feed my sheep."
It began to dawn in Peter's thought that fishing was not his true source of supply. He began to see that his salvation was not in material things, not in personal love of the Master, but in carrying on the teachings of Christ Jesus.
Jesus' faith in his prayer for Peter was borne out, for later we find Peter at the Beautiful gate of the temple, healing the crippled man — not in the name of a person, but in the name of Jesus Christ, through Christ, Truth. Peter was now healing through the understanding of divine Love.
Today we have Christian Science, based on the teachings of Christ Jesus, made practical and instantly available. Mrs. Eddy introduces Science and Health with the statement: "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (Pref. vii:7). And she further says in her interpretation of the 23rd Psalm (p. 578): "I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [love] for ever."
A woman reestablished her home through turning completely to Christian Science for guidance and healing. She told a Christian Science practitioner that she was suffering from a very painful nerve condition and that physicians could do no more for her.
The practitioner discerned a deep-seated fear which filled the woman's thought with dread and anguish.
The woman said that some twenty years earlier, before she knew about Christian Science, she had been taken to a hospital, and her thirteen-year-old daughter had been placed in the home of friends. When the mother left the hospital she was told that her daughter had disappeared. She and her husband used all available resources to locate the girl and the search went on for years. She said her home had been robbed of peace, love and joy and all that was left was sorrow and unhappiness. This unhappy situation seemed to result in the painful nervous condition.
The practitioner asked her to read some of the statements in the textbook where Mrs. Eddy discusses disease. She read: "It is fear made manifest on the body" (Science and Health, p. 493:21). And on the same page she found: "Christian Science takes away this physical sense of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or mental inharmony."
The practitioner told her that Christian Science affirms the presence and power of God, divine Love, and that Love cares for all of its ideas, harmoniously and happily, not some of the time, but all of the time. It was pointed out to her that since God is ever present, it is impossible for one of God's ideas to be separated from Him, and so an idea of God is ever at home, loved and cared for.
She was asked to mentally place the child in heaven, harmony, her real home, every time the child came to thought, rather than accept the anguished thoughts about the situation which she had been entertaining for so long.
It was explained that the way to gain a better understanding of man was to learn more of God, the one creator, infinite Mind, divine Love, whose image man is. As she studied and prayed for a clearer understanding of herself as God's perfect child, complete and whole, embracing within her own consciousness a right sense of home, she began to see her daughter enfolded in God's love, safe and secure.
As she turned wholeheartedly to God for guidance, she saw that God is not only the Father of all, but is also the compassionate Mother of all, and that this Father-Mother God is all-power and all-presence. She came to see that the Love which is All is tender, kind, impartial, expressing in man harmony, health, joy, security, and peace.
She learned that as the child of God, an individual's spiritual status cannot be measured or controlled by material man. Because God is the only Mind, a child in true selfhood is the manifestation of this Mind, expressing wisdom and intelligence. No material laws, beliefs, or false deductions can hamper the beloved child of God.
This statement from Science and Health proved helpful: "When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible" (p. 180:25).
The woman began to reverse the thoughts of despair and remorse which had been occupying her thought for many years, and she replaced them with a joyous expectancy of good.
In order to tell the rest of this story, I shall now need to go back twenty years to the time when the little girl was placed in a foster home to be cared for. It seems that the child was kept out of school and made to work very hard. Being told that her mother was no longer living, she decided to run away. She went to a big city, where a kindly woman befriended her. She earned what she could by helping out in a boarding house. The girl grew up, secured some education and was later happily married.
At the very time the mother turned to Christian Science for help, the girl told her husband that she had a great desire to know more about her parents. So she and her husband went to the town from which the girl had disappeared so many years before, and inquired about her father. She was told that he had passed on a few years before. She said that there was no need of staying there longer, for she had been told twenty years before that her mother had passed on in a hospital. She was then informed that her mother was well and happily married again and living in a nearby town. With much joy mother and daughter were soon reunited.
The mother told the practitioner that she knew the lifting of the belief of self-condemnation from her own thought and the realization that her daughter was then and always would be safe and secure in the kingdom of God, heaven, her true home, freed her from her agony.
Complete confidence in Love's ever-presence and provision for its ideas had been held to consistently and constantly, and this destroyed the belief of separation.
The daughter, now thirty-three years of age and in business with her husband, turned toward correcting the situation which had separated mother and daughter for twenty years. Peace, security, happiness, reestablished their home in the kingdom of heaven, harmony.
Many colleges have a recognized Christian Science organization as provided for in the Manual of The Mother Church. Regular testimonial meetings, similar to the Wednesday evening meetings conducted in The Mother Church and all its branches, are conducted by the students themselves. Hundreds of students are gaining a better concept of home through the activities of these organizations.
They are learning that they build a sure foundation for home as they overcome all beliefs that tend to undermine stability, that corrode ideals, and that break up the harmony, peace and security that are the qualities of home.
I recall a member of a college organization speaking to a Christian Science practitioner after a church service in a nearby town. He said that he would be needing some help in Christian Science six months hence. The practitioner said that if help was needed, it surely was now, not six months from now. The young man then went on to say that his money for education would be exhausted in six months. Then he wanted to turn to Christian Science to work out the problem of continuing his education. He had no one to turn to and he felt alone and homeless.
The practitioner pointed out that to be homeless one would have to be separated from God, and that this is impossible. To be homeless one would have to be outside the infinite presence of the all-knowing Mind. The ever-presence of God makes homelessness an impossibility.
He explained further that all inharmonious suggestions about home, involving lack of any kind, must fade out when confronted with the truth that home is not a material structure outside of the permanent consciousness of Truth, but is the consciousness of Love itself. He was told that each one of us can know that the truth about his individual experience is the truth about the experience of all other individuals. In this way he reflects the all-inclusive nature of Love, which blesses all. He told the young man to expect good even from unexpected sources.
You see, in Christian Science we learn to turn to God as our source of supply. You remember, early in the lecture, we discussed the fact that God is all substance. Mrs. Eddy says: "Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance" (Science and Health, p. 468:21). Substance, being spiritual, not material, is ever available.
So the practitioner was able to tell the young man that as he turned wholeheartedly to God, knowing that his supply was being manifested right then in abundance, he would find good coming from unexpected sources. He did not need to plan how his needs would be met, or tell God how it should be done.
A week later, when the practitioner visited the young student, he was met with much joy. The student said that on returning from class one day he saw an empty trash barrel outside the house where he lived and picked it up to take it into the cellar. As he looked in the barrel he saw a ten dollar bill stuck on the bottom. He advertised it on the bulletin board but no one claimed it. He said the practitioner's statement to expect good from unexpected sources had stayed with him all during the week. This money met a very pressing need.
Then he said that one of his instructors had told his class to get an expensive textbook. He had no money to buy the book, but he held steadfastly to the thought that his needs were being cared for by a loving Father-Mother God. As the young man left the classroom he was stopped and asked if he would pose for a picture which would be used commercially. He accepted the offer and was handed exactly the sum needed to purchase his textbook. As he became conscious of what true substance is, supply was manifested in his experience.
Then he showed the practitioner a copy of a letter the college president had just given him. The writer had asked the president for a list of all necessary expenses that would be incurred by this student for the next year. The letter came from a distance, and the person had not been informed of the student's need. But the desire to see this young man continue his college and graduate education became so clear to the writer that a check to cover the young man's college expenses went to the university. You can see how this student's needs were met, and met abundantly, when he overcame the belief of lack and saw his Father-Mother God supplying his every need.
While the human need for supply was met, the young man said he still had a problem that bothered him a great deal, and that was the problem of forthcoming examinations. The practitioner said: "That is a problem to clear up right now, for though it seems to be college examinations at the moment, you will find examinations coming up in many ways in the future. Business, industry, civil service and the armed forces are all depending on examinations for the basis of employment and promotion."
The practitioner told the young man to recognize the oneness, allness, wholeness of Mind, consistently and persistently, and to see that the primal quality of Mind is intelligence. Indeed, Mrs. Eddy says plainly: "God is intelligence" (Science and Health, p. 2:23). And further she says: "Intelligence never produces non-intelligence" (ibid., p. 276:31). That is certainly logical, isn't it?
Christian Science shows that a student needs to realize God's guidance in the preparation of assignments. He must discipline himself to daily work, conscientiously done, in preparation for the examinations. At examination time he needs to realize that he is not limited by human outlining, for man reflects unlimited intelligence, and is obedient to God's direction. This is a time of listening for God's purpose and plan to unfold and for the realization of the unfoldment of His intelligent and perfect ideas.
Christian Science also explains that everything that comes into one's experience is mental. The suggestions of fear, lack, strain, confusion, pressure, which are mortal beliefs, are not any part of Mind, God, and they have no place in man. He can experience only the peace, intelligence, wisdom, understanding and poise that belong to man as God's beloved child.
The practitioner told him that as he gained this attitude of thinking he must be sure to impersonalize the achievement. With true humility he must give Mind the glory and honor, realizing that each idea of Mind naturally expresses intelligence, even as the flower naturally turns toward the light.
The young man learned through these experiences that fears of all kinds are readily healed through Christian Science. Overcoming lack and fear of examinations resulted in a sense of peace and harmony. Because of the lessons he had learned in working out his own problems, he was able to help others in the college organization. Soon after successfully finishing his education and establishing himself in business, he married. He and his wife have established their home on a sure foundation of mutual understanding and love, for they had both learned through their study of Christian Science that home is the consciousness of true being.
Christian Science shows us how to establish the sure basis for home. Each one of us has this Science to help him to see the unfoldment of Mind, God, and so establishing a right sense of home, harmonious, joyous, and secure.
Establishing a right concept of home in thought brings the manifestation of home into our experience. The ideal home, even to human comprehension, is one where love, peace and joy prevail; where supply is abundant and surroundings are harmonious. This, we have learned, can be accomplished through the understanding of home as the consciousness of true being. Then it is manifested in our present experience.
In the Bible we read (Exodus 23:20): "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." The right concept of home must start with the individual, and as we all gain this right concept, mankind will find a haven of peace and security, and this concept will result in a universal unfoldment of home, harmony for all.
As a line in one of the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal states: "Pilgrim on earth, home and heaven are within thee" (Hymn 278). And Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 254): "Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God."
[Probably delivered in the late 1950s or early 1960s.]