Arthur Perrow, C.S., of
Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Noonday lecture delivered in the Orpheum Theater, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 22, 1950, auspices First Church of Christ, Scientist, Tulsa. The lecturer was introduced by Mr. L. Griffin Eckle, who said:
Good morning, friends. First Church of Christ, Scientist, of this city, extends to you a most cordial welcome to this lecture, entitled "Christian Science: The Way of Present Salvation."
In the book of St. John (14:16) we are told that Jesus said, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy (p. 55), states, "This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science." In her "Message for 1901" (p. 10) she further states, "Theoretically and practically man's salvation comes through 'the riches of His grace' in Christ Jesus." Through Mrs. Eddy, God has revealed a way of salvation. Our lecturer, Arthur Perrow, of Chicago, Ill., who is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, will tell us of the availability of salvation through spiritual understanding.
It is now my happy privilege to introduce to you Mr. Perrow.
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
Everyone would like to be assured that there is a way of realizing salvation, at least ultimately. Perhaps to some salvation seems possible only after death — if at all. Would not each one of us like to know that the Biblical term "salvation" means much more than that which has been generally thought or believed on the subject?
Through Christian Science, the more than three hundred references to salvation and its equivalent found in the Bible have been vitalized with all obscurity removed. That which is regarded as a possible ultimate is found to be possible of present attainment. Hear the words of Isaiah (1:18): "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
The Scriptural invitation points the divine way of presently overcoming and avoiding discordant conditions, of realizing man's conscious dominion, peace, without further delay. And that is the only salvation that is real, much to be desired, and now available and provable through Christian Science. The assumption that salvation means being saved from a place of future torment, either for ourselves or our loved ones, is not a very encouraging prospect.
The belief that there exist two places in what is often referred to as "the great unknown," one for good persons which is headed by God and the other for bad persons which is headed by a supposed, self-created devil, is an emanation of orthodox theology. The human race cannot remain in subjection to the belief in an imaginary partnership. This notion of a division of power between God and devil has been accepted by many without analysis or questioning because of lack of spiritual enlightenment and understanding of the real meaning of salvation.
Such false beliefs or misconceptions are far from the Scriptural promises. Through the spiritual understanding of the Bible these promises remove the threat of death and everlasting punishment and proclaim salvation to be for all here and now.
In the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, we find many references to salvation. One of these defines salvation as: "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed" (Science and Health, p. 593).
Being saved, that is, actually experiencing freedom from sin, sickness, and other mortal sense limitations, is the result of knowing the truth which Jesus said would make us free, free from all the temporary aggressive suggestions of evil. Carnal or mortal impulses are ungodlike and unreal and last only so long as we give them supposed entity. And when those errors of thought are put off through spiritual understanding, the one and only Mind is revealed as our natural and harmonious consciousness.
To be saved — to be conscious of salvation, peace — means to rise, to think, to dwell in thought above false material sense testimony. This is the Horeb height where God, infinite Mind, is revealed to the receptive heart, with glorious signs following — signs, proofs of stability and peace, with which man in God's everlasting likeness is forever endowed.
False concepts regarding God and His perfect and only man must be replaced by spiritual truth. Demonstrable results follow through the understanding and application of Christian Science as clearly set forth in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by that great spiritually-minded woman, Mary Baker Eddy.
Mrs. Eddy has written that "heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind" (Science and Health, p. 291), and St. Paul writes, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). When we recognize and practice man's natural and God-given dominion over the physical senses, then we shall prove that salvation is never elsewhere than at hand.
Man that is born of the Spirit, not of the flesh, as the Bible emphasizes (and that is the only man there is in the sight of God), is forever spiritual. He lives in Spirit, above mortal limitations. His being is supported by the all-inclusive and ever-operative law of God, good. This is the real and only man, referred to in St. John's epistle in the words, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (I John 3:9).
The Bible says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim. 3:16,17). This and many other references to man's perfection here and now, because God made him so, are found in the Bible. And this perfection will never change.
A pupil in a Christian Science Sunday School upon reaching home was met by her mother at the door. The mother's greeting to the child included the remark: "Dear, Mother is not feeling well today. Something has gone wrong with Mother."
The child, who had learned something of the Bible statement, "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (Eccl. 7:29), said to her parent, "Mother, don't you know that God made you up right; He didn't make you up wrong." That simply expressed truth arrested the attention of the mother, who very soon thereafter found herself healed — free from the false belief of physical disease.
The infinite presence of divine Love is always the saving and redeeming presence. Its realization is conscious salvation. The presence of God, good, that fills all space, leaving no room for anything else, displaces the false sense of darkness with light; the sense of fear with confidence; the lie of error with truth; the sense of failure with success. This divine presence expels the sense of disease, revealing the presence of health, and raises human consciousness from mere belief to demonstrable understanding; that is, from temporary material sense and confusion to spiritual sense and peace. And all this is real and provable because God is the only Mind, the All-power, without competition, without opposition, in spite of false human impulses to the contrary.
St. Paul said in clear, direct, and unmistakable language addressed to every earnest seeker, "Behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2). And my dear friends, now is the only time there is. We cannot build a bridge from yesterday to tomorrow, nor from today to some future time.
As I look at my watch I see, for example, that there is presently a new minute putting in its appearance, with apparent purpose. That particular minute has never existed before in the history of the universe.
If that minute could talk to one who is entertaining fears of aggressive or recurring disease, fear of the future, fear of any discord that seems to be accentuated by what is called time, the minute might say: "Don't be afraid of me. I haven't a thing within me that is worth anything. I am not carrying over any beliefs of heredity or any notions of the past; and of course, I can't do anything in the future, because I am no part of it. Therefore, don't give me credit for having any dominion or any power, for I am useless, without substance, without intelligence, without entity. I am merely a human illusion. I am subject to your dictates alone. Make of me what you will, for I am just a temporary belief. I want to, I must, be your servant, never your master."
In this connection Jesus admonished that we "take . . . no thought for the morrow" (Matt. 6:34), and Mrs. Eddy has lovingly shown us the way to fill each moment with the consciousness of Truth and Love, so that sin, disease, and death cannot enter.
Right now we are in the midst of the eternal and only presence that operates as the law of immortality and harmony. To know this law of God, to be governed by its unchanging beneficence, means to have that consciousness which is secure from all devils, or evils, emanations of a supposititious carnal mind, referred to in the Bible as "enmity against God." There is no mind in evil, no intelligence, for God is the only Mind.
If one could explore the infinite, never would there be found the slightest suggestion or indication of beliefs of error or discord of any name or nature. In the words of Habakkuk (1:13), "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." The Bible directs us to be concerned with that which is eternal, and that means to reflect intelligence, forever harmonious, and not to be identified with the mortal, transient illusions. The vicissitudes resulting from the indulgence of mere human impulses need to be guarded against so that they do not register in our thoughts as realities.
The purpose of the Bible is to point us to the grandeur of the one and only Mind, Spirit, the grandeur of the only creator and His unchangeable goodness and power. Our Father-Mother God is forever fulfilling the Biblical promise, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you" (Isa. 66:13).
The precious promises of the Bible are vitalized in the light of Christian Science, and they show us how to express everlasting Life, the only Life there really is or can be. The Bible counsels each of us to accept his established identification with the eternal and be at peace. It says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isa. 26:3). There is no such positive and reassuring statement to be found in any secular writing. And after all, the Bible should be our guide in such an important and fundamental truth as that relating to the availability of individual peace.
We cannot improve on perfect peace. And here in the verse just quoted we are assured of this much-desired attainment as being possible here and now — not in a special locality, but in the only place where peace can be realized, in consciousness.
Christian Science shows us the way to demonstrate, with attendant joy and freedom, the words of Christ Jesus, "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). That statement is a great basic truth, declared for our guidance. Could there be a more direct and positive assurance to man that the kingdom of heaven is available, at hand?
Cognizant of the human tendencies toward confusion, fear, sickness, and other discords, Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). The great Wayshower meant that declaration to be a call to mental action right now. Surely, seeking first (never second) the kingdom of heaven did not mean that we entertain a desire to die and then automatically reach some mysterious locality. He meant, rather, that the kingdom of heaven, harmony, is available to everyone through spiritual understanding.
Mary Baker Eddy searched the Scriptures prayerfully and devotedly. She experienced the fruition of the words of Christ Jesus, "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matt. 7:7). She beheld through inspiration, spiritual discernment, the golden vein of pure, demonstrable Christ Science appearing throughout the Old and New Testaments. Then after many proofs of healing (including her own of a physical condition pronounced incurable by a physician), she gave to the world in writing the rules whereby to demonstrate this glorious, provable Truth, relying upon the Scriptural dictum, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matt. 7:20).
The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, has healed, and will continue to heal, multitudes who come to the refreshing waters of Truth with an honest heart.
Mrs. Eddy says, "The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh universe" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 27). She says also: "I had learned that thought must be spiritualized, in order to apprehend Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish, and pure, in order to have the least understanding of God in divine Science" (ibid., p. 28).
I shall never forget the illumination that came to me after I had collapsed in my office and was taken home by a physician who pronounced my case as being too late for healing by medical means. I turned to Christian Science and procured a copy of the textbook. I read the first chapter, entitled "Prayer," and immediately realized from its opening sentence that this was the truth for which I had been seeking and praying. I was healed instantly.
I had been teaching the Bible in a men's Bible class of an evangelical church, but often wondered at my totally limited interpretations. But now, at last, all ambiguities of the Bible disappeared, and I thanked God I had found the pearl of great price — the understanding of God and man's relationship to Him, with the kingdom of heaven no longer in the possible distant future, but at hand, as close to everyone as is his thinking.
And so the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, presented to the world for the first time in the history of religion, is proving to be the great light which had remained dimmed throughout the centuries. Now it glows anew to cure all the ills of mortal sense testimony, including sin, sickness, fear, lack, and other self-imposed limitations.
The relationship between God and man is an eternal, unchangeable one. When St. Paul said that man, the real, spiritual, and only man, lives, moves, and has his being in God, the declaration was unconditional, made without reservations. This statement is absolute. It means a permanent God-ordained relationship. The only thing that would attempt to obscure this great fact is temporary mortal sense testimony. But such testimony is rejected through spiritual understanding, and all the negative impulses involved disappear into the bottomless pit of nothingness.
There is nothing in the whole universe that can interfere with the God-established relationship of Father and Son, for God is the only power, the only creator, the only intelligence. The Bible says, "With [Him] is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). And in the one hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm, in each of the twenty-six verses, it is declared that God's mercy endureth forever.
The "newness" of God is also the "newness" of man as God's image and likeness. It will ever remain so. This glorious relationship will never change, nor can it be over emphasized. Nothing can separate the only real man from God, and Christian Science is proving this glorious fact of true and everlasting being. Not even the thinnest partition exists between the infinite Mind and man, God's idea, held forever in the bosom of the Father. The Bible says, "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:38,39).
Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The right thinker abides under the shadow of the Almighty. His thoughts can only reflect peace, good will towards men, health, and holiness" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210). Genuine peace can never change to an opposite quality of thought when its only and permanent source, divine Mind, is known and maintained as the basis of true thinking. There is no power in the world to make anyone think what he does not wish to think.
The Bible declares that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). Light knows nothing of darkness, truth knows nothing of error, the principle of mathematics with its demonstrable laws of perfect results knows nothing of nonintelligent errors which are contrary to mathematical rules.
A student of Christian Science who had already received many proofs of supply called a practitioner and said that he was afraid he could not meet a financial obligation. The practitioner asked the inquirer when he needed the money, and the answer was at a date four days later. Then he explained that through spiritual understanding our "needs," not our "wants," are supplied. And so it was apparent that he did not need the money at that time; when humanly considered, if he did receive it then, it would complicate the records, so to speak. The fear that lack would prevail was overcome with the help of the practitioner, and with faith and joyous expectancy the supply appeared when needed. Mrs. Eddy points out, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494).
As a young man I listened frequently to sermons and other discourses relating to some future punishment. It seemed to me that if an architect built a structure capable of falling and that later the structure was condemned and did fall, the fault was not in the structure, but rather the blame rested with the architect or builder.
And so, why punish the object, the unit which had no choice in the kind of material or structure it involuntarily represented? I decided that surely, and justly, I would not be expected to stand the consequences of those uncontrolled actions the source of which had been supplied in the beginning by the builder.
Then after mentalizing the subject of good or bad existence and its origin, I asked myself this question, "If I were the only person in the world and I thought good only, where would evil be?" Then I could see that evil was not an inevitable part of existence, but that it was always made to individual order, as it were, and that it brought with it, while it lasted, its own punishment.
Mrs. Eddy defines hell (Science and Health, p. 588) as: "Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-destruction; self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which 'worketh abomination or maketh a lie.'" Heaven she defines (Science and Health, p. 587) as: "Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul."
In order to avoid the results of sin, one must stop sinning and seek to be governed by the law of God, forever operating in man's behalf, with harmony and salvation its inevitable and God-ordained result. In the words of Ezekiel (33:11), "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" The Psalmist said, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (Ps. 139:8), meaning that God, good, is ever present to deliver from claims of evil.
Every son of God, dwelling forever in the bosom, in the midst, of his Father-Mother creator, has the everlasting power of the infinity of good. That power is established for man's use. God's precious gift to everyone is power, love, and a sound mind, says the Bible, which is never separated from God's likeness, man, regardless of any mortal evidence to the contrary.
The recognition of this great truth and the use of the precious gifts of the Father — power, love, and a sound mind — mean freedom from all that would present itself to human consciousness as evil belief. For example, weakness is instantly overcome by this God-given power; hatred, including its array of evil and discordant results, is overcome by this God-given love — not human emotionalism, but Love divine that never changes; and all other aggressive suggestions of evil are overcome by this God-given sound mind; free from fears, failures, sin, sickness, and other human discords. This uplifted consciousness, vitalized by the proofs and joy of omnipresent good, brings the realization of man's perfect state of being above the din of temporary false sense testimony. This is salvation, peace, here and now.
Mrs. Eddy writes, "It is the purpose of divine Love to resurrect the understanding, and the kingdom of God, the reign of harmony already within us" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 154).
Heaven is eternal harmony; hell is temporary delusion. Heaven is the consciousness of divine ideas, God-established peace; hell is carnal, mortal beliefs — confusion and discord. The peace of God is that understanding, that consciousness of Truth, which the Bible refers to when it says, "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Rom. 16:20); that is, as soon as the light of true being dawns in human consciousness and evil, devil, disappears. Then man finds himself upright and free.
Let God, the infinite presence of good, into your consciousness. Let Truth abide there. If one could hear the eternal Mind talk, would not divine Love say, "Be whole; be perfect; I am your being, because I am all of harmony, all of reality; I am thine and thou art Mine, forever"?
Our textbook defines Jesus as "the highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality" (Science and Health, p. 589). The Christ is defined in Christian Science as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583).
When a certain lawyer expressed his understanding of some basic truths regarding God and man's relationship to Him, Jesus said to the inquirer that his answer indicated he was not far from the kingdom of heaven. This did not mean that the man was about to die in order to reach heaven, but on the contrary, he was close to the realization of true thinking and harmonious living. That is the only kingdom of heaven there is — the kingdom of harmony, a state of consciousness, here, now, and forever, as close to us as our thinking.
One of the purposes of the teachings of Christ Jesus, according to the Bible, was to "destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14,15). In other words, Jesus recognized death as an evil that will finally be destroyed through the understanding that Life, not its counterfeit opposite, is the only reality. The fear of sickness, the fear of death, fear of the future, have kept the salvation of some merely a thing to be hoped for — not a possible realization.
Fear emanates from impulsive beliefs that would usurp God's stable ideas of harmony. Fear is a coward and shrinks into nothingness by a single ray of the light of Truth. Fear is impulsive, always temporary, baseless, and counterfeit. The God of peace — and divine Mind is forever so characterized — sustains His own infinite and harmonious self-expression. And in reality there is none else, nor ever will be.
The Bible says further, "Perfect love casteth out fear" (I John 4:18). That means that a change must take place in human consciousness. The way is not to lay aside, but actually cast out fear for all time, through the recognition and demonstration of the presence and power of divine Love alone.
To overcome fear means to put on the armor of God, good; this armor is a state of mind, of right thought. And when we are admonished to put on, to accept, the real and only consciousness of good, there is no footnote or other direction indicating that we should ever take it off. That armor of God, that consciousness of the infinity and power of good only, acts like a dividing line between good and evil, between truth and error; that is, between human impulsive beliefs and permanent spiritual understanding. This does not mean that there are two powers; there is but one Truth, one infinite All-power, regardless of mortal sense suggestions.
We need always to abide in the holy consciousness which is the dividing line that separates harmony from discord, the wheat from the chaff, the real from the unreal, the true and permanent from the false and temporary.
The divine and only Life is eternal, harmonious. Life has no competition. Life always was and always will be without a start or a finish, without a beginning or an ending. Life does not come and go; it never changes in presence, strength, permanency, and harmony. It is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever," because the real and only Life there is or can be in infinity is God, unchangeable Spirit.
When Jesus restored Lazarus to life, after he had been buried four days, Jesus did not call him from some place. Lazarus was restored to the same status as before the lie called death had appeared in belief.
Every preachment of Jesus, the great Wayshower, had to do with life — true living. He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). On one occasion he said in this connection that God "is not a God of the dead, but of the living" (Luke 20:38). Life is the everlasting reality of being, forever sustained by God, who is man's Life, always.
A person asked a Christian Science practitioner if he could be healed of some conditions which had become alarming to him, but with the understanding that he wished to retain his indulgence in a certain habit of years standing. That is, the inquirer was willing to accept the application of the law of God, harmony, a part of the way, but not completely. He wanted to continue his self-assumed, [. . .]
The practitioner answered that if the student carried out all the Scriptural admonitions except one, that through disobedience to this one other errors of belief might claim entrance to one's thought. The inquirer saw the necessity of walking, that is, thinking, the whole way in truth, and his healing proved to be a complete regeneration — "transformation" by the renewing of his mind, as Paul pointed out. To permit a single avenue for the manifestation of any false belief immediately establishes the possibility of an array of such discordant impulses.
It is not possible to temporize with any error without its probable accompaniment of many incidental and always discordant subtleties. So our armor, our dividing line of spiritual understanding, must be complete and remain intact and thus bring to fruition the genuine and sincere desire for the acceptance and expression of the truth of being, forever harmonious.
The Scriptural emphasis regarding prayer is that our motives must be pure, our desires just, our objectives unselfish. The Bible indicates that we need not have to wait for a certain time or occasion in order to pray. St. Paul's statement, "Pray without ceasing" (I Thess. 5:17), means the ever-available opportunity to realize the truth of being wherever we are.
"Progress is the law of God," says Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 233). True, harmonious living is awakened consciousness, the realization of spiritual ideas that heal, that harmonize our home atmosphere, our business, and other activities.
It is never too late to heed the Biblical admonition, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). And the devil, evil of any kind, can never find its way back because it never was a part of the real man — spiritual and perfect.
Communion with the divine is always fruitful. To seek and apply the law of Mind demands the exactness we would expect in making an electric contact, for example, if we would receive light from that source. Regardless of how well-intentioned our contact with the source of electrical energy may be, the fact remains that if we do not use the proper conductor, make the proper contacts, we shall not receive light or other desired results. Prayer is positive, and Jesus said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24).
The Psalmist advocated conscious communion when he said, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10); and again he admonished that we meditate on the law of God day and night, and then prosperity is assured. This realization, this consciousness, is never barren. It is most fruitful.
Discouragement is a form of mental inertia that would have us forget our God-given dominion and freedom. There is no intelligence in discouragement, in disease, or in other discords. On the contrary, through spiritual understanding, we may, in the words of Mary Baker Eddy, "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously" (Science and Health, p. 392).
Inspiration is natural to the receptive, alert consciousness. Inspiration is always possible. It is from the Holy Ghost, the Christ, the ever-active Spirit of Truth. There is something we must do with every inspiring thought: we must carry it into execution. Inspiration, which is always the "angel of his presence," must lead to demonstration. One of the many beautiful references to inspiration is found in Isaiah (30:21): "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."
One of the editors of a daily newspaper in one of our large cities recently wrote in his publication: "In the last few years, we have learned a great deal about the influence of the mind on the body. I think we still don't appreciate how deep this influence is. Scientists are finding out now that many cases of arthritis are caused by anxiety and repression. More barriers between the body and the mind are being broken down each day."
A New York group was told recently by a prominent doctor that so-called incurable cancer yields to the power of mind. This helpful statement shows progress in medical diagnosis, but, of course, in Christian Science practice, the human mind is not utilized. The healing is done through the divine Mind alone.
Reforming the sinner and healing the sick are fundamentals in the teachings and practice of Christ Jesus. Those works are being repeated today in Christian Science, as proved in innumerable cases testified to weekly at Wednesday meetings held in Christian Science churches throughout the world, as well as in written testimonies appearing in the weekly Sentinel and monthly Journal of The Christian Science Publishing Society.
In demonstrating our freedom, our salvation, from material tendencies and their array of discords, the Bible and the Christian Science textbook counsel us to ascend mentally, that is to look up, to dwell above the temporary false beliefs of the carnal or mortal so-called mind. Isaiah put it, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (60:1). This is a call to spiritualize one's thought.
The Psalmist said, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help" (Ps. 121:1). The acceptance of that invitation means obedience to the highest standard of consciousness. And again the Bible states, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps. 91:1). Such a one is saved then and there. He experiences the salvation of knowing God, the one infinite Mind. The result is better thinking, better health, better business — real, harmonious living. Those are glorious invitations to rise above the temporary din of materiality and to experience here and now the unlimited beauty of true and lasting salvation which awaits everyone.
Referring to the necessity of this uplifted consciousness as a prerequisite to peace, Mrs. Eddy says: "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" (Science and Health, p. 393).
Dwelling, abiding, above human vicissitudes, we shall taste and see man's natural and God-established salvation. We shall abide in the consciousness of good. Thus we shall not seek to enter some place or escape from another, but shall rejoice in the precious realization of pure and undisturbable peace — salvation.
Mary Baker Eddy defines angels as: "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect" (Science and Health, p. 581). Through spiritual understanding we may entertain angels with full awareness and joyous results. The abode of angels is spiritual consciousness. Their purpose is the exalted ministry that leads to a clearer realization of man's God-ordained salvation.
Discords seem real when compared to material things and experiences. But how insignificant is any error in relation to the vastness of the universe and its laws of precision when, we contemplate that, according to astronomy, light traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second from a distant planet takes millions of years to reach the earth. To relate any error — sin, sickness, or other material belief — to the immensity of the universe, helps us to reduce its claim to an insignificant fraction of things.
Salvation includes freedom from business difficulties. Solutions may be found to meet any situation that arises. The Christian Scientist, in all his activities, may draw on limitless reserves, built up through spiritual understanding of God. These mental reserves are always available. They are vastly more substantial than the indispensable reserves expressed on the business balance sheet.
If confusion seems to appear, the reserves of confidence and peace are available; if hatred and its discords seem to have sway, Love divine is at hand; if aggressive suggestions of any kind would assert themselves, then and there are spiritual reserves available to offset — to destroy — the disturbing negatives. Spiritual confidence and peace are reserves more positive and effectual than the material reserves employed in successful business practice.
The student of Christian Science can prove the efficacy of prayer, as illustrated in the Bible, under any circumstance. In the business world, what a privilege it is to give heed to the words of Jesus, "I must be about my Father's business" (Luke 2:49). The Father's business is the activity of right ideas. There can be no failure, no depression, no recession in Mind.
What a privilege it is to seek divine Mind's guidance in our daily activities, always with signs following — proofs of healing, evidences of progress, and hearts filled with gratitude and joy for the truth and its ready salvation from all discords. Such salvation is now available through spiritual understanding and is revealed to all the world in Christian Science.
Mary Baker Eddy says: "For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain" (Science and Health, p. 568).
[Delivered Dec. 22, 1950, in the Orpheum Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma, under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Tulsa, and published in The West Tulsa News of Tulsa, Dec. 28, 1950. The ellipses in brackets above indicate a point at which lecture content was inadvertently omitted by the typesetter.]