Grace Jane Noee, C.S., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Dominion over the tensions and frustrations of modern living can be gained by learning more of God's purpose for man, Grace Jane Noee, C.S., of Chicago, said last night in a Christian Science lecture in The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
No matter what the problem, harmony can be established by applying the divine law of God, the law of all-powerful Truth and unbounded Love, Mrs. Noee stated.
"It is a wonderful thing," she said, "to learn that through our Father's impartial divine love we can be taken up out of the pit, no matter how deep it seems to be, no matter how dark, no matter how long we have been there or how we got there, that there is always a way out, a happy solution to every problem."
A member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, Mrs. Noee spoke under the auspices of The Mother Church on the subject "Christian Science: The Way to Fulfill God's Purpose."
The lecturer was introduced by Arnold H. Exo, C.S.B., First Reader of The Mother Church.
Mrs. Noee spoke substantially as follows:
Christian Science lectures were provided for by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and they have just one purpose — to bless, to reveal some phase of God's divine law of love, to fulfill in some degree God's loving purpose for man. Therefore, it is right and possible that we all should receive what we may need in the way of refreshment, inspiration, and healing. Christian Science recognizes and acknowledges God as the only cause, the only creator — as omnipotent Truth or Love, as omnipresent Spirit or Soul, as omniscient Mind or Principle, as omniactive and eternal Life — the All-in-all in whom is nothing unlovely, nothing afflictive.
This is the Christian Science concept of God, from which His good purpose is deduced.
We have about one hour in which to consider from the standpoint of Christian Science this holy purpose and to consider some of the ways in which God's law of love is made practical in human experience.
The Christ, Truth, is always waiting at the door of our consciousness. If the Christ, Truth, is recognized, loved, and invited in by us, it will enter and abide with us, and we shall indeed be blessed. We can be freed, in some degree, of the burden of personal sense and its unhappy harvest; we can gain a clearer vision of our stature as sons and daughters of God.
This blessing need not be limited because of advancing years; it need not be limited because we are beginners in the study of Science; nor can it be limited because of past mistakes or present unhappy involvements. God has made no provision for mistakes or unhappiness. He has made provision for everything good and necessary for our complete happiness and well-being. Mortal man thinks himself into all sorts of mistakes, but through God's law he is delivered from them. In her book "Unity of Good" (p. 64), Mrs. Eddy makes the comforting statement that "mortals . . . can never turn back what Deity knoweth, nor escape from identification with what dwelleth in the eternal Mind."
This Mind is God, and God is Love, our Father-Mother, and we are His beloved children. He knows all there can really be known about us, and He is well pleased in us as His image and likeness. Strictly speaking, His loving purpose for us is already fulfilled. It was fulfilled in the beginning, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). His purpose has been obscured temporarily for mortals by the mist of materiality, but through Christian Science the mist is being lifted. God's law and purpose are revealed by Christian Science, and all mankind may learn and thereby demonstrate man's spiritual sonship.
Each step of this demonstration is governed by divine law, and in human experience it is a process of repentance and healing, of reformation and redemption. This is externalized in our daily experience as progressively improved beliefs about health, about substance, about home, and about our relations with others. Sick bodies, sick homes, sick business, are seen as the "two and two are five" of human experience. But "two and two are four." The principle of mathematics has made no provision for "two and two are five," and God, divine Principle, has made no provision for sin, for a sick body or a sick home. He has made no provision for ruptured friendships. He doesn't know anything about them. They are contrary to His purpose. These mistakes are nullified and dispelled through the understanding of divine Love.
It is God's purpose that we understand Him — that we shall supply His demand for expression. In the Bible (Gen. 1:7, 8) we read that "God made the firmament" and that He "called the firmament Heaven." Christian Science interprets this firmament as the understanding of God and man and of all that exists in God's universe. This firmament, then, or consciousness, or understanding of God and of His intention, design, or purpose, is indeed the most important thing in all the world to everyone. Everything else is incidental and should be so considered.
It is through this firmament or understanding that we perceive God's purpose, that we recognize his law and learn to invoke and apply it in daily experience. It is through this firmament or understanding that we gain a vision of God as Soul — immortal, omniactive
Love. As we use, practice, or exercise our understanding of God, our vision of Soul becomes clearer, and spiritual sense, instead of material sense, begins to characterize our desires, our decisions, and our concepts — not only of ourselves, but of others. Thus we find this time-world becoming a very much happier and richer experience.
As we continue to work out God's purpose, we become aware of the spiritual fact that in reality we are the manifestation of God, and that His spiritual qualities constitute our being; that as the child of God, there is nothing about any one of us that needs to be healed or that needs to be altered or improved, for whatever is true of God's expression is true of each one of us as His idea or reflection.
Christian Science has its roots in the Bible — the King James Version of the Bible. It does not depart in a single instance from its inspired Word. Every established and authorized activity connected with Christian Science conforms to the universal spiritual law of God as stated in the Bible. Christian Science affirms and demonstrates the spiritual fact that we are now the sons and daughters of God, beloved of Him; that in accord with Bible prophecy everyone will sometime recognize and show forth this spiritual sonship. This will be accomplished, not by lifting the human to the divine, but by putting off the human and putting on the divine, by exchanging belief for spiritual fact or truth. The effect of this wholly mental process is the healing of all manner of sickness and all manner of sin; but this does not go on as or through matter. There is nothing material or physical about it, for it goes on in and as consciousness.
Christian Science teaching and practice are based upon the recognition and worship of one God, infinite Spirit, who is the only cause, the only creator. Christian Science recognizes and acknowledges the Son of God, one Christ. And Christian Science acknowledges Jesus, our great Master and Way-shower, as revealing God to men through the Christ — the spiritual idea of sonship. Christ is the Way; Jesus was the Way-shower. Jesus is the name for the man born of a virgin through whom the Christ was manifested.
Four inspired Gospels in the Bible give concise and correct history of Jesus; these are the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All that needs to be known of Jesus' history is in these books. From them we learn that Jesus was surrounded by ignorance and hatred, by sin and self-righteousness, by all manner of sickness. He knew what it was to be misunderstood and maligned; he knew what it was to be cruelly persecuted. Everything that could be done to make him forget God's purpose was done. Everything that could be done to make him neglect his mission was done. But we all know that Jesus fulfilled his mission in the most orderly and complete way, for Jesus not only knew the Christ, his sonship with God, but he maintained this spiritual identity throughout his entire ministry. It was the Christ which did the healing work and raised him and others from the belief in death. It is this same Christ, Truth, which does all the healing work in Christian Science. There is one Christ. It is the truth of God and man in His likeness, and we all express this Christ as we reflect Love, God's spiritual nature.
Mary Baker Eddy is recognized not only as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and its forever Leader, but also as a great prophet and revelator. She discovered that the truths in the Bible have always existed and that they constitute a divinely scientific rule or law. The incidents which led up to her discovery and the steps taken to test and demonstrate this Science are told in the several authorized biographies of Mrs. Eddy. They are on sale in all Christian Science Reading Rooms and make interesting and inspiring reading.
Mrs. Eddy was a well-educated and experienced writer, and she was well acquainted with the Bible. When through divine inspiration she discovered the absolute Science of the Bible truths, she realized that one cannot stop with belief in God's presence and power, but that His presence and power must be understood and demonstrated in every phase of one's experience. These great Bible truths of God point the fact that matter or mortal mind and all it claims must be unreal, that only the divinely spiritual is real and has presence. Mrs. Eddy did not question this divine idea, but went to work to understand and demonstrate it.
Mrs. Eddy shaped her life in accord with divine law, and with the Bible as her only guide she turned to the one infinite source, God, for wisdom and strength. She drank of the cup of our Lord; she knew what it was to be lonely and to be misunderstood, but she also knew that each experience held a blessing and could be made to serve God's purpose and further her progress.
We learn from one biographer (Julia M. Johnston) that she overcame resistance and obstacles without exhaustion, that she progressed without deterrent penalty, and that her victories always embraced her adversaries.
There was restitution, of course, and there were victories all along the way, because Mrs. Eddy used the spiritual ideas her search revealed. She used the spiritual forces, the divine energies, with such devotion that her discovery was completed for all time and all people.
This final and complete revelation of the Christ, Truth, is set forth in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The orderly study of this book together with the King James Version of the Bible is important and necessary to the welfare and progress of everyone, and all students of Christian Science use both of them in their daily study and practice.
Mrs. Eddy established the Church of Christ, Scientist; and for young people up to the age of twenty, she established the Christian Science Sunday School. A judge in a mid-western state has this motto in his courtroom: "Children brought up in Sunday School are not brought up in court." The Christian Science Sunday School is a well of refreshment and true education, for there the pupils are taught scientific truths that they can prove for themselves.
Prayer and Christian Science treatment are synonymous. It is through prayer, as taught in Christian Science, that the Christ, Truth, unfolds to us as the mist of material beliefs is dispelled, and thus our Father's loving purpose for us is fulfilled. Through understanding prayer the love of our Father is unveiled to us, and we glimpse and express something of the grandeur and immortality of our true spiritual being. Prayer underlies all revelation.
One is touched with a deep sense of reverence by the beauty and simplicity and spiritual power of prayer as taught by Christian Science. Through prayer one can realize and bring into expression his at-one-ment with God. Prayer is given a very important place in the daily experience of the Christian Scientist. It fits perfectly into everything we do. It never delays nor interferes with anything that is right for us to do, but it prospers our endeavors. It makes time a servant instead of a master. Understanding prayer strengthens us with what Mrs. Eddy terms "the stimulus of courage and conscious power" (Science and Health, p. 423), our motives are unselfed, and our endeavors are brought to harmonious and fruitful conclusions.
The biggest and best and most successful business in the world is the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit — into reality. This business is the activity of right ideas. There are no strikes, no walkouts, no unemployment problems to contend with in this business, no czars, no dictators, no agents, no victims. It goes on unfolding without stoppages or interruptions.
There is unlimited opportunity for everyone in this business, and everyone is always in his right place. This business provides not only social security, but complete security that covers everything we do or need for all eternity. All this security is substantial and it is tangible. This is good business, for it is God's business. It is the business everyone will get into eventually.
There isn't anything the matter with this business, nothing wrong with it, nothing that needs to be changed or improved. Some of us may need to change our concept of business, but that is all that is ever changed or improved. What you know about this business will improve your concept and will protect and prosper what is called your business, your position, your assignment, your environment.
In Science and Health (p. 264) we read, "As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible." So let us learn more of God and man, let us accept and use all we understand of the multitudinous ideas our Father has made available. We all have access to this infinite divine source.
Business is not, however, an accumulation of ideas. No one can accumulate ideas; no one needs to do that, for spiritual ideas are always and everywhere present and available. No one accumulates sevens. No one needs to. No one can ever run out of sevens. And no one need run out of ideas.
Business is the harmonious association and activity of right ideas — a state of consciousness. This business is your business, or activity, and it is not subject to chance or change. It does not fluctuate because of the weather or the fashion. It is not affected by the inaccuracy or frivolity of material sense. There are no personal demands, no contingencies or hazards to be contended with in your business. There is no element there of grossness, ignorance, or competition. What if suggestions of insufficiency, or incompetency, or fear about the future come? You need not be surprised nor afraid. No one escapes these things. Suggestions come to everyone. It is what you do with them that matters.
Since we are looking to God, the one infinite source of all wisdom or substance, there can be no basis for discouragement, uncertainty, or failure. Know the truth about your real business. Practice this truth. Exercise it, and it will dispel the shadows of improvidence and pride; dishonesty, stagnation, and injustice will be ruled out of what is called your business.
Christ, Truth, comes to us in just these ways — operating as divine law. It is the law that will vindicate, recognize, and reward in the exact measure that it is loved, obeyed, and utilized.
God's work as cause, as the only creator, is completed, and it is perfect. We should see this fulfillment now if it were not for personal sense — the evil belief in a supposititious presence and power unlike God. Personal sense is the only thing that can ever seem to separate us from God or from each other, but if good or God is the only presence and power — and He is — then evil has neither presence nor power, and this is the truth about error. Mistaken beliefs do not enter nor exist in true consciousness, and Christ, Truth, dispels the superstition or ignorance of any belief in ghosts.
As men learn to love and to live the law of God, they will be always safe, for divine Love is the one invincible power that renders evil powerless. The story in the Bible of the King of Assyria is one of the many illustrations of how trust in God protects and delivers men from evil (II Chron. 32; II Kings 16,18,19; Isa. 36,37). This man Sennacherib was feared by all of the known world because of his great military strength, his ambition for conquest, and for his cruelties. History shows that he was an able soldier and an energetic administrator. One by one, he absorbed the smaller neighboring countries with the promise that he would lead them to a "land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey" (II Kings 18:32). With this sort of propaganda, with threats and his large army, he conquered the countries and led many into slavery. In this way, he built himself a vast empire and what he considered absolute power and security. But he made two mistakes: he worshiped idols, and he blasphemed and mocked the God of Israel. When he attempted to frighten and subjugate Judah, he found Hezekiah, the king, and his people unafraid because they worshiped and trusted the one God. At first Hezekiah believed that some satisfactory settlement could be made with the Assyrian. He reasoned that other kings had judged it prudent to make peace with the conqueror; so he humbled himself before the aggressive invader and sought to appease him with gifts and the surrender of several cities of Judah.
But the Assyrian was not appeased nor satisfied. He demanded the complete surrender of all Jerusalem. This would have made the conquest of Egypt certain, and Hezekiah was relying upon Egypt for help in case of invasion. At this point nothing but the wall of Jerusalem stood between Hezekiah and the Assyrian, and then Hezekiah realized how useless was his dependence upon Egypt, "the arm of flesh." He and his people turned wholeheartedly to God. History records that then the Assyrian was ignominiously defeated.
Isaiah records God as saying to the Assyrian (37:28,29): "But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. . . . Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest."
So let us not barb the evil intent with belief in it, fear of it, or resentment, but let it pursue its natural course of self-destruction. Let us work to show forth the love and law of God, the omnipresence and omnipotence of Love. Aggressors, appeasement, or trying to understand mortal mind — all of this is a waste of time. Mortal mind cannot understand nor be understood. Believing that a person is or can be the agent of hatred or ignorance will not heal anything; but understanding God will wipe out the hatred, dispel the ignorance, and free mankind. In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 277), "But if our nation's rights or honor were seized, every citizen would be a soldier and woman would be armed with power girt for the hour."
At the present stage of the world's understanding it is practical and highly important that there be intelligent diplomatic arrangements and proper armaments, that wise human footsteps be taken in the direction of justice and peace.
But let us not be made to forget that God is the only power, and that He loves us with an everlasting love. So we need never fear, for through the exercise or reflection of His love we can master whatever circumstance may confront us. And anything an individual or a nation does that is not inspired and directed of God is vain and will fail. Any evil purpose or claim to power will be nullified by the invincible power of God.
Recently twelve thousand psychologists, chemists, astronomers, mathematicians, and other physical scientists held a meeting in New York, and the Wall Street Journal reported them as "fretting because they are causing explosive changes in the world, and doing nothing to aid man to cope with them." But the Psalmist sang, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1). This constitutes a divine law to the Christian Scientist. God's purpose is salvation, and it will be fulfilled. We can safely rest our demonstration on this sure basis.
There isn't anything "Pollyanish" about Christian Science. In wars, in floods and fires, the Christian Scientist is found giving his full quota of support to his fellowmen and the world; but we look to God for our present and future security, and we want to earn and deserve our Father's love and protection by working out our individual salvation as St. Paul admonishes. We are not unmindful of the advance in physical science; we are not unmindful of the revolutionary impact of this advance on human experience. Nor are we unmindful of Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 263): "Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mortal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite." We do not ignore the unprecedented circumstances with which the world is confronted. But if we accept the premise of God's allness and are working out our salvation on this basis, we must adapt each circumstance to our advantage spiritually and to our spiritual progress. Not a single experience need be afflictive, for each one holds a blessing that is evidenced as false belief is given up.
Most physical scientists agree that matter in essence is energy. Who ever held energy in his hand? Who ever saw energy in flesh, or in electric force or power? We see the effect of energy, but energy is and always has been wholly mental. When viewed from the standpoint of Christian Science, energy is seen to be a divinely mental or spiritual quality of Life, God, and it characterizes our manifestation or reflection of God. As we understand and exercise this truth, so-called material energy loses its claim to destructive power and becomes harmless and useful.
We recognize and accept the spiritual fact that any belief in a power apart from or unlike God is a lie about the omnipresence of God, and Mrs. Eddy says in "Unity of Good" (p. 36), "The use of a lie is that it unwittingly confirms Truth, when handled by Christian Science, which reverses false testimony and gains a knowledge of God from opposite facts, or phenomena."
Christian Science has prepared us all for what is going on in the world today. Jesus prophesied, and Christian Science explains, what Mrs. Eddy terms "the incredible good and evil elements now coming to the surface" (Science and Health, p. 83). Christian Science has revealed an all-inclusive refuge for everyone in our Father's house of "many mansions, many welcomes, many pardons for the penitent" (Miscellany, p. 133).
This house is the consciousness of God. In this house we are safe from fear or harm under the universal and loving government of God. Mrs. Eddy says, "What cannot love and righteousness achieve for the race? All that can be accomplished, and more than history has yet recorded. All good that ever was written, taught, or wrought comes from God and human faith in the right. Through divine Love the right government is assimilated, the way pointed out, the process shortened, and the joy of acquiescence consummated" (Miscellany, p. 292).
In this government, or universe of God, there is no conflict of ideologies, no differing standards, no reason for revolt, immaturity of reflection.
In this complete and perfect government of God, there is no cause for fear and no one has the capacity to fear. We are always consciously at one with God, identified by Him, identified with Him, necessary to Him, and classified by Him. And He hath done all things well!
Through Christian Science we are gaining a changed recognition of our relation to God. We are learning that we are no longer obliged to sin, to be sick, or to die in order to reach heaven. We are learning that we are required and empowered to overcome errors, and we are learning how to do it. Most of us came to Christian Science for physical healing without much faith in God or in Christian Science. In spite of our fears, our doubts, our ignorance of God, we were healed — healed of the discordant conditions of mind and body, healed of dispositional qualities of thought through which we were suffering. We were probably grateful, but we may not have immediately been aware that something went on for us that was much more important than the physical healing.
Turning to Christian Science is the first step toward our redemption. If we continue this study, our thought naturally becomes more Godlike, and the resurrection goes on. We become less vulnerable to mental contagion and infection. Instead of frustration, we find fulfillment of our right desires. We gain a glimpse of the harmony and spiritual power of the divine law, and the human experience becomes a happier, richer, and more lovely adventure.
In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 218), in speaking of Jesus' healing works, Mrs. Eddy says, "He restored the diseased body to its normal action, functions, and organization"; and then she states, "Neither the Old nor the New Testament furnishes reasons or examples for the destruction of the human body, but for its restoration to life and health as the scientific proof of 'God with us.'"
It is a wonderful thing to learn that it is always right and possible for us to be healed through Christian Science treatment alone; that God does not use suffering of any kind for any purpose; that He does not punish us for our sins or mistakes, but that we punish ourselves. And it is a wonderful thing to learn that through Christian Science we can correct our mistakes, that we can be freed from bondage to sin, from unnatural habits and appetites, and that there is nothing that can of itself hold us in bondage.
When we are willing to overcome and correct the thought which produced the mistake and its self-imposed penalty, God heals us, frees us from the effect of our mistakes, from anxiety and pain and loneliness — not because He knows matter or evil, for because of His allness, His omnipresence, there is no place for evil to occupy. Because of the supremacy and allness of good, God cannot know evil. It is through divine law, the Christ, Truth, that divine Love reaches us and heals us.
It is good to be reminded that no one can ever really know that "two and two are five." One may believe it for a time, but no one can ever really know it. Similarly, no one can ever really know error of any kind, and no one needs to believe any of it or fear it. No one need support or honor any of error's claims; no one need submit to any of them. We do need to resist and deny and correct them, and we can do this intelligently and with signs following, if the denial is based on the understanding that God is the only cause.
It is a wonderful thing to learn that through our Father's impartial divine love we can be taken up out of the pit, no matter how deep it seems to be, no matter how dark, no matter how long we have been there or how we got there, that there is always a way out, a happy solution to every problem.
There is, of course, a price for this happiness and security, and the less we have of worldliness and pride, the easier we shall find it to pay the price. The price is sincerity in our appeal to our Father and in the use of His love — the honest desire to know and do and be good. If this be present, we are on our way to complete salvation; there will be nothing to limit or delay or prevent our progress toward the kingdom.
Mrs. Eddy tells us in Miscellany (p. 303), "We need much humility, wisdom, and love to perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting heaven within us."
I talked with a dear friend not long ago, and in the course of the conversation she spoke despairingly of her habit of criticism. She was suffering from a distressing physical claim which she felt was the result of that habit, and she was comforted when I told her that she was not nearly so critical as I once was. When she asked me about this, I told her that when I realized that criticism is cruel self-righteousness, I began to curb its indulgence. As the pains and frustration that accompany that habit lessened, I was happier and healthier, and I began to understand what Mrs. Eddy means when she speaks of self-imposed suffering.
Life is a very much happier and richer experience when thought is not occupied with criticism and resentment. Modern medicine, or what is called psychosomatic medicine, says that people suffering from arthritis may be indulging great repressed hostility to society; that resentment and self-assertiveness are present in cases of high blood pressure, ulcers, and skin disease.
Another disease, formerly thought to be incurable, is now classified by most medical men as a "state of rebellion in the body; a civil war." They say "that some cells refuse to conform to the rules of orderly growth; that they resist the discipline imposed; the resemblance to government and society is shown and it is thought that some tyranny on the part of the control agencies in the body has caused this rebellion." So let us not entertain such qualities of thought as criticism, resentment, and rebellion.
We err and we suffer from that kind of entertainment, for it bears an unhappy harvest. And let us not bear a grudge. God is the only cause, and there is no cause for a grudge or for any of these things. The Psalmist wrote (68:6), "God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land." Samuel, the prophet, said, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (I Sam. 15:23).
And let us not mistake self-assertiveness for what we mean to be our stand on Principle. Before we assert ourselves, let us first assert or claim what is true of the situation and of those involved; for unless we do this, no good will be accomplished, and greater injustice and misunderstanding may result. The whole structure of one's body, of one's church, or one's nation is weakened when there are ruptures, misunderstandings, and animosities.
Mrs. Eddy says that "it is of less importance that we receive from mankind justice, than that we deserve it" (Miscellany, p. 160).
God is our Life, and Life is Love. As we keep our thought loving, morbid suggestions and their effects will be dissipated. Then we need not be surprised if abnormal retentions and growths are dissolved and pass away. It is the nature of divine Love to act in our behalf in just these ways. Keep thought loving, and it will bring into action the divine energies, spiritual wisdom and you will function as the child of God.
In Science and Health (p. 485) we read, "If thought yields its dominion to other powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents, called disease and sin." It requires discipline to maintain this dominion, but every effort to put on the Mind of Christ has a rich and happy harvest of health and substance; and you will find that instead of your serving the body, it will serve you, and it will do this with fewer complaints. For instance, if there seems to be a sickly or morbid state of consciousness and this is reflected in the body as disease, we can be healed through the exercise of what we know of God, of His law and purpose. The exercise of Truth's idea of health — the counterfact of disease — will dispel the beliefs and establish a healthy state of assimilation, digestion, and elimination in the human system. It is in these ways that the Christ, Truth, comes to the flesh and destroys error.
We are learning through Christian Science that it is in consciousness, not in matter, that health is maintained or impaired; that it is in consciousness that business succeeds or fails; that it is in one's consciousness — not in others' — that human relations are harmonious or discordant.
Suggestion cannot invade the Christ-consciousness. It cannot induce therein a state or a condition of frustration, annoyance, or surrender to pain or sorrow. It cannot cause anyone to believe that he is dissatisfied, unsatisfied, incomplete, or unwanted. God's idea, His reflection, is completely happy, completely satisfied, and important to God — so important, so necessary, that Mind itself would collapse and be nonexistent if for one moment it were unexpressed.
Salvation goes on in that transitional stage of consciousness where the human is yielding to the divine, and it is accompanied by healings. These healings pave the way to higher proofs of God's purpose. We need to be grateful for every healing, for every overcoming, and we need to remember that all the power and the glory belong to God. We also need to remember that these improved beliefs only hint the greater blessings that wait for us a little farther ahead on the road as we consistently study and apply Christian Science.
Jesus once appointed seventy of his followers and sent them out to heal and teach. When they returned and told him of the success of their mission, he said to them, in substance: "Yes, I know you have done well; you have done good healing work; this is as it should be, for you were well equipped to do this. So you need not be surprised nor content; 'rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, that your names are written in heaven.'" In other words, "Do not be satisfied with improved beliefs of health and substance and beauty and companionship, but go on to the demonstration of complete harmony, spiritual wholeness, through spiritual power and wisdom, because this is God's purpose." "Your names are written in heaven." Rise up and claim your true identity as idea, the image and likeness of God.
God is Life — eternal, omni-active, all-harmonious — and we are related or identified forever as His reflection. Our gratitude for this spiritual fact will strengthen and support our effort to be this reflection in our everyday life — to reflect the living Principle, Love, in our homes, in all our contacts and relations with others. It can be done. We do not need to live after the flesh. By spiritualizing thought we shall minimize the unnecessary and unhappy experiences, and as we walk this earth we shall speak with new tongues, with the assurance and authority of spiritual power.
By spiritualizing thought we shall walk serenely and securely in the light of understanding, and as we walk in this light, flesh and time and space, atoms, electric force — all so-called physical science — become servants instead of masters. We shall see that "all things work," and that they "work together," and that they "work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).
St. Paul wrote "Rejoice in the Lord alway." Mrs. Eddy continues (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 330), "And why not, since man's possibilities are infinite, bliss is eternal, and the consciousness thereof is here and now?"
[Published in The Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 28, 1956, under the headline "Divine Law Establishes 'Way to Fulfill God’s Purpose'". The section entitled "Activity of Right Ideas Holds No Hazards" is substantially the same as text found in the lecture "Christian Science: Its Premise and Its Practice," also delivered in The Mother Church and also available on this site.]