Charles V. Winn, C.S.B., of Pasadena, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
"Christian Science: A Message of Redemption and Salvation" was the subject of the lecture given by Charles V. Winn, C.S.B., of Pasadena, Cal., under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Tuesday evening in Cadle tabernacle. Doyle C. Rowland introduced Mr. Winn, who is a member of The Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. Substantially the lecture was as follows:
The prophet, Isaiah, proclaimed to a waiting world a message of hope and assurance in the following words: "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord." Humanity since the dawn of time, has been looking for redemption and salvation. With unceasing efforts it has endeavored to find something that would deliver and save it from its woes and sufferings.
A dictionary definition of the word "redeem" is "To recover; to regain; to ransom and liberate." False theology has taught us that man started right, that he was made in God's image, and was given dominion over all the earth, but that he immediately fell from his high estate and has been trying ever since to recover and regain that which he lost. It has evolved a theory that man has fallen and that death is inevitable. It has declared that we must go through a vale of tears here, but that in a mysterious, indefinite future we shall attain our heavenly heritage. Is it any wonder that hope has given way to despair, faith to unbelief, and confidence to doubt?
To those groping in the darkness of confusion, mystery, and failure Christian Science comes declaring a present-day salvation from every form of evil, limitation, suffering, and failure. It declares that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that good is ever present, always available; that Truth is omnipotent now; that Life is eternal now; that Spirit is supreme now; that divine Love is illimitable, all-knowing, and all-surrounding now.
How simple and clear has Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, made this whole subject in her definition of salvation in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 593) as "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed." Therefore, the attainment of redemption and salvation is not a matter of belief or of doctrinal acceptance, but of scientific understanding, an absolute knowing, a clear and provable perception of the true nature of God — Life, Truth, and Love. The definition further indicates that this understanding must be demonstrated, proved, and will be manifested in the destruction of the seeming opposites of Life, Truth, and Love, namely, sin, disease, and death. A comprehension of these facts exalts hope, increases faith, and enlarges expectancy. It shows us that every righteous and true desire is capable of present fulfillment and that every form of good can be utilized and enjoyed here and now; that sin, sickness, and death can be destroyed now; that our freedom and healing can be demonstrated now; that all the good which ever has been or ever will be is here now, only awaiting our appropriation and adoption now; that "now is the day of salvation."
What is it that we need to be saved from? From what do we need redemption or liberation? Surely we do not need to be saved from anything that is true. We never need to be rescued from divine facts. All that we ever need to be delivered from is ignorance, false belief, untrue concepts, wrong conclusions. God is infinite good, has created only good, knows only good, and upholds only good. God's creation is essentially right, pure, and complete. There is nothing in His creation which could ever bring about anything wrong or discordant. The Apostle James tells us, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." God's creation is His expression, or manifestation, and can express only His immaculate perfection, His eternal unchangeableness, His unbounded goodness. We need to be saved from perverted, erroneous concepts, and unfounded beliefs in what is not true. The Psalmist sang, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." We need to see as God sees, to strive to know only the facts of creation. We should never acknowledge as real or true anything that denies the allness of good or the goodness of divine reality.
We learn in Christian Science that a right idea or the truth about a thing will always save us from a belief in its seeming opposite. God is the only Mind; hence Mind and good are essentially one; they are synonymous. Since Mind is infinite good, the only true thoughts are thoughts which are good; that is those thoughts which proceed from the divine Mind. Our thinking is the most important thing which we do; it is the most vital thing in which we are engaged. The harmony of our existence depends entirely on whether good thoughts or wrong thoughts occupy our mental homes. Then salvation is obtained by a thinking process, a knowing or realizing process. St. Paul writes, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind," and as we put on the Mind of Christ the facts of the diving Mind replace the falsities of the carnal mind, and then we recover and regain what has always been rightfully and lawfully ours.
Some years ago a gentleman opened a savings account in one of our home banks for his young son. During the course of time the family moved to a distant city and the bank account was forgotten. Many years later when the lad had become a man, he returned to the city of his boyhood. He went into the bank to transact some business and when his name became known an investigation was made. The result was that quite a large sum of money was found to belong to him, and after the proper legal steps were taken it was turned over to him. The money being available, all that was necessary was for the right owner to prove his ownership. God has bestowed all good on His children, and by asserting our divine rights we can bring the good into our experiences.
Let us suppose that a large and valuable estate was left us. A mere declaration or announcement that it was ours would not suffice to bring it into our possession. We should have to prove our rightful ownership, invoke the law covering such transactions, give evidence that it was ours, and if necessary stand firm against all false claimants. We have a rich inheritance because we have a rich Father. Our sonship is assured and inalienable, for God and His likeness can never be separated; Principle and its idea can never be sundered; divine Love and man, the object of His love, can never be torn apart.
What are the great facts about Life, Truth, and Love which destroy sin, disease, and death, and which establish our redemption and salvation on a firm and everlasting foundation? Christian Science teaches that Life is eternal, indestructible, spiritual, and good; that it is harmonious, lovely, free, and abounding. God is the one infinite Life, and all His creation expresses and manifests this one, unchanging Life. All creation is living, moving and having its being in this one inexhaustible, eternal, unending Life.
"With thee is the fountain of life," the Bible tells us. As the offspring of Life, man is expressing divine Life, spiritual Life; he is free, unfettered, and unlimited by a mortal, restricted sense of life. His life is not material, subject to material conditions, material laws, or material limitations. Even from the human viewpoint, what do we mean when we speak about our life? Is it not what we know, what we think, what we feel and experience? Our human life is our human consciousness of life. If our human life consists of what we think and know of so-called mortal existence, then our true life must be what we know about God. Since knowledge of God is untouched by mortal conditions or circumstances, then our real life is unscathed by material surroundings or human beliefs. Since material life is only the expression of material thinking, true life is the expression of divine ideas, or spiritual thinking. True life reflects God, Life, and is not reflected by any human belief. In the ratio that one understands this truth of being and entertains spiritual ideas he lives a beautiful life, a joyous life, a successful life. He no longer thinks of life in terms of physicality or physical processes, but in terms of holy desires, pure thoughts and divine knowing, externalized in good and noble deeds. He measures life in terms of service and helpfulness, not in terms of material gain and worldly success. He has an expansive life, an achieving life, a truly progressive life.
Conversely, disease is not a part of life, but is wholly foreign to life. Discord, being destructive in its nature, is not an element of life; while harmony is conducive to life. Since God is Life, and ever present, Life is never absent, never unexpressed, never imperfect, and is forever free from inharmony and incompleteness. All of God's creation is manifesting the fullness of life, the abundance of life, and the divine adequacy of life. There is nothing lacking in God's kingdom for the full expression of complete, successful, and satisfying life.
Thus we see that evil has no life. It cannot give nor take away life. "He is thy life, and the length of thy days." Life and good are synonymous. There is no life in evil and no evil in life. If life were evil it would eventually be self-destroyed, but since good is eternal and indestructible it is always expressing life. Evil has no element of life but only seems to have life through ignorance and false belief. The elements of life are God-created and God-sustained, and evil can never take them away nor repress them. Man has a good life, since he reflects infinite good, God, and is enfolded in Life eternal.
Now these eternal facts are capable of proof, or demonstration. In the ratio that we understand them we lay hold of that which is good and repudiate that which is wrong. Let us suppose that every time any thought of envy, jealousy, fear, disease, or lack knocked at the door of our mental home, we instantly closed the door and clearly saw that it was a lifeless, worthless, valueless, and powerless thought; that it could not bring us any form of life; that it had not one element of life; that it could not add to nor take from our true, real sense of life: do you think that we would ever take it in? Indeed, no! On the other hand, every time we welcome in a good thought, a kind thought, a pure thought, a spiritual thought, we are manifesting more of life; we are expressing more of life-giving qualities. We enter into eternal life not by dying, but by true living; not by submitting to error, but by gaining more of the elements of eternal life in our thinking and living.
When we shall have attained a life of perfect holiness, then we shall have a wholly satisfying, wholly complete and harmonious life. No matter where we are and no matter what the surrounding conditions may be, nothing can prevent us from true thinking and noble living. Even in the midst of what seemed to be the most distressing conditions, Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Why? Because he was thinking and living in complete obedience to God; he was exemplifying true life which reflects God, infinite divine Life. We learn in Christian Science that "Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from Christ, the Messiah, — the divine idea of God outside the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his control over matter" (Science and Health, p. 482). Jesus thought in accordance with the true facts of being, and thus he could destroy the results of material thinking.
Can we not now see why Jesus always had complete dominion over disease? Disease is a manifestation of materiality, material thinking. It is no part of spirituality or true life, and as we dwell in spiritual consciousness or true life we are immune to disease. St. Paul gives joy as one of the fruits of Spirit, and in Proverbs we read, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine"; and so as we "walk in the Spirit," as we dwell in true consciousness, disease vanishes from our experience.
A man who was suffering as a result of some difficulty from pain in his wrists looked in the dictionary one day and found that this particular difficulty was sometimes associated with sourness and bitterness. He then began to bring more sweetness and kindliness into his life; he strove earnestly to put off the false sense of life and to put on more of the true sense of life, as exemplified in truer thinking and holier living. As a result, the pain ceased and he was free. This is only one of many similar instances in which a finer and better sense of life as the reflection of divine Life, God, has brought peace and healing.
The understanding of God as Truth is most helpful in working out one's salvation. When the supremacy of Truth is understood, error or evil is seen to be nothing. We read in Deuteronomy, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." We think of a rock as something that is firm, unyielding, basic, and immovable. We learn in Christian Science that God is infinite Truth; that He knows only truth; that nothing untruthful can proceed or emanate from Him. Anything untruthful is not created by Him, is unsupported by Him, and is unknown to Him. Even before we knew of Christian Science some of us had begun to faintly perceive that God could not be the author of evil; but we still believed that He knew about it. We even took, as we thought, a little comfort in the belief that God knew about our woes and troubles.
God is infinite Truth, and all that is real, true, and good is known and fully known to Him. Since man is God's image and likeness, as the Scripture declares, man is the reflection of Truth divine; man thinks in accordance with Truth. What is known to God is reflected by man, and if God knew anything about evil or had any knowledge of it, then such knowledge would be manifested in man. Such a condition is unthinkable, and has no foundation in fact. Divine Truth knows only good; hence the real man can know only that which is good, true, and harmonious. Since evil and wrong are unknown to God they are unknown to man; they are no part of true thinking or real knowledge. God is the only Being, or consciousness, and man is His perfect reflection, reflecting only that of which God is conscious, the good and true.
The application of these spiritual truths brings blessings untold. It causes us to dwell only on the good, the constructive, the holy things of God. Any time spent in thinking about evil is time ill-spent. Only a moment spent in thinking about God is productive of results, while time spent in thinking about negative, worthless evil is worse than wasted. Trying to account for evil is a time-waster. All that is true originates in Truth and is the reflection of Truth. Divine Truth is its basis, origin, and source. You can easily discern what is real by cognizing its truthful nature and goodlike character. Anything untruthful or ungoodlike is only a supposition, not a truth. Then you never can account for that which has no basis in Truth but is only suppositional, and it is useless to try. We do not want to dwell on the negative, false side of existence, but on the positive and real.
Mrs. Eddy admonishes us thus (Science and Health, p. 261), "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." We cannot find light in darkness and we can not gain an understanding of the true by studying or contemplating the false. Evil has no origin in God, and as there is no other origin, it never had any origin.
There is a legend in which we are told that Darkness once tried to convince Light of his seeming reality and so he said, "Come with me and I will show you many places where it is dark." Light followed Darkness, but wherever Darkness took Light, there was no darkness to be found. By keeping thought in accordance with Truth, the 1ight of Truth is always present in consciousness and there is no darkness or evil to account for.
In an institution where I once lectured there was a young man who appeared to be in quite a serious condition. He soon became a student of Christian Science, and the undesirable condition was quickly healed. Some time later he was taken with a fever and was ordered to report to the infirmary. On the way he was knowing the truth, and he said to himself, "If Christian Science is true, if God is everywhere, then this thing is not going on at all." When he arrived at the infirmary his fever was gone. His healing was accomplished not by wondering how it seemed to begin, but by knowing that it was not true.
One of the errors of the human mind which seems to rob it of its peace and joy is the dread of the future. Christian Science saves us and delivers us from evil foreboding and dire prophecy of evil. Truth is unchangeable and everlasting. What is true now always will be true. God knows all that is good, and what He knows will surely come to pass. With God all knowledge is foreknowledge, and there is no evil that can prevent the unfoldment of His gracious desires and loving plans. Under God's plan the future holds nothing for you but that which is good; He has provided for you nothing but that which will bless. Expect good, plan on good, and look forward to good.
When I was a child it was considered almost dangerous to be very happy, as it was thought that something untoward was almost sure to happen. When something untoward did happen we were greeted with the assertion, "I thought that it was too good to last." Christian Science teaches and demonstrates that good alone does last; that good is permanent and abiding. Only evil is temporary and vanishing; good remains and continues. We read in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health (p. 426), "When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress." When we are relying on God to help us we can expect an immediate manifestation of good without hindrance or delay. The future holds for us nothing but that which is good and anything that is good can never fail to be manifested.
Did not Jesus warn us against taking needless, anxious thought for the future? Does that mean that we are to be careless or improvident? Not at all, but just the reverse. Living one day at a time, doing that which is right and needful each day, from this righteous conduct and true living only good can come. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," said Jesus. By each day destroying the evil beliefs which present themselves we become better equipped to go on to greater victories. He who climbs part way up the mountain today, more quickly reaches the top tomorrow. He who has gained a greater vision of Truth today will gain a still greater vision tomorrow. Those of us who have had experience in mountain climbing know that sometimes it is necessary to go down into a valley before we can go up, but when we have crossed the valley and reached the other side we find ourselves higher than when we started. The one who continues to climb eventually reaches the summit. As each objective is reached a more expansive view is unfolded to the vision. And so we can face the future with confidence and assurance, for a greater vision of Truth will reveal more and more of God's goodness and love.
By understanding God as Truth we destroy one of the most baneful beliefs of false education, namely, that man is under a penalty of any kind. God, Truth, has provided for His creation, including man, all that is good and truthful. He has blessed man but has never cursed man. In the true account of creation, as given in the very beginning of the Bible, God blessed man. In the second, or false account, Adam was accursed. This occurred only after Adam had fallen asleep and had been misled. The man who was accursed was not the man of God's creating, but was the dust man, the dream man, the make-believe man, who was only an erroneous or mistaken concept of man. He was not Truth's man, but error's man.
By waking from the Adam-dream, and seeing ourselves as children of God, we may see the man that Truth has blessed and glorified; then the curse is destroyed, the penalty annulled, and we go free. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," St. Paul tells us; for God never condemns His own creation.
The belief of penalty claims to operate perhaps most frequently through the spurious doctrine of heredity. Such a doctrine is false and baseless. It has not the slightest foundation in Truth, and an understanding of Truth will exterminate it. Man is the offspring of God and has no origin nor existence apart from God; he has not a single quality which did not come from God; he has nothing underived from God. Since man is the offspring of Truth, he is truthful; that is, he is full of truth and truthful ideas. He perfectly represents and embodies true ideas; he shows forth the qualities of his Father. God has nothing but good to impart to man, and man has nothing that God has not bestowed on him. God loves His offspring, and would not want them to have anything that would mar their expression of Him. God maintains man as His own image, and never plans for the downfall of His children. God never gives us anything but good, as He has only good to give; He has only blessings to impart and bestow.
We do not, however, merely deny a material inheritance and then leave it there, but we take the positive side, the real side. We know that man has a true inheritance, a spiritual inheritance; we know that our Father-Mother God has "given us richly all things to enjoy"; that He has provided for us a heavenly estate; that our real inheritance is inalienable and forever assured to us, as His beloved children. Since God is Mind, we have received from Mind perfect faculties, ability, comprehension, acuteness, and spiritual capacity. We have received from Spirit only that which is spiritual, perfect, right, and good. We have received from Soul only that which is soulful, beautiful, and holy. From Love we have received only that which is lovely, harmonious, healthy, and gracious. We are children of the King and have a royal heritage. Our title to this heritage is secure; our enjoyment is unlimited, our gratitude for it unending.
The understanding of God as infinite Love is the crowning achievement in gaining deliverance, freedom, and salvation from evil. The recognition of Love's supremacy never fails to heal, never fails to redeem, unfailingly guides, unerringly comforts, assuredly protects, wipes away all tears, redeems the past, gives faith for the future, and opens wide the gates of heaven.
Our revered Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in her book, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 132), gives us this beautiful truth: "Divine Love is our only physician, and never loses a case. It binds up the broken-hearted; heals the poor body, whose whole head is sick and whose whole heart is faint; comforts such as mourn, wipes away the unavailing, tired tear, brings back the wanderer to the Father's house in which are many mansions, many welcomes, many pardons for the penitent."
The power of divine Love is unfailing, its law universal, its presence always available, its wisdom all-knowing, its supply infinite, its substance boundless. To grasp even in a degree the nature of Love divine, is to enter the Holy of Holies, to lay hold on power divine, to feel the presence of Immanuel. It is to know that His grace is sufficient to banish fear, to destroy sin, to overcome discouragement, to heal sorrow, and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. Through the understanding of divine Love as taught in Christian Science, cases of practically every known disease have been healed, grief has been assuaged, poverty has given way to abundance, the sinner has been purified, and the sordid and degraded have been lifted to holier and happier living. The fruits of such understanding prove it to be the way of redemption for all mankind.
How are we to acquire the rich blessings which come through an understanding of divine Love? In the same way that all good has come to the world, and that is through obedience to law. Every righteous achievement, every successful endeavor, every worthy attainment in the history of mankind, has resulted from obeying some law. How does the musician attain harmony? By obeying the laws of music. Why does the mathematician get the right answer to his problem? Because he obeys the laws of mathematics. Mrs. Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 159), "Truth, life, and love are the only legitimate and eternal demands upon man; they are spiritual laws enforcing obedience and punishing disobedience." God is the only Law-giver in the universe; hence He is infinite, divine Principle, the creator of the universe and man. All law proceeds from Him, and brings to pass His gracious will and design. God is Love, and Love is the one infinite Principle of all being. If we obey the principle of music, we always have harmony, and if we obey God, divine Love, the one and only Principle, we have harmony in our lives and experiences. This obedience takes salvation, redemption, healing out of the realm of the mysterious and conjectural and brings them into the realm of the scientific, the positive, the provable, the realm of exact truth.
Before we knew of Christian Science we sometimes thought of the attainment of salvation as a matter of overcoming sin and preparing for the future. "Now is the day of salvation." Christian Science shows us how we can apply divine Principle with its unerring laws to every problem and every situation. Since God, divine Principle, is universal in His activity, His power and availability are universal and unlimited. His power is everywhere present and ever accessible to man. The universality of divine Principle is adequately proved through the healing of all manner of disease. We find that true healing can come only as a result of obedience to Principle and the utilization of divine, spiritual power.
All permanent healing is the result of thinking according to Principle, that is, obedience to God's law. All inharmony comes from disobedience to Principle, that is, broken law. Inharmony never comes from the fundamental rules of music, but from the failure to properly to apply them. Does this mean that all suffering is the direct result of conscious wrongdoing? Not at all. It does mean that at some time a belief, perhaps acquired unconsciously, in a power apart from infinite Love has been accepted as law, and a false law of human belief has seemed to govern. But by invoking the divine law of harmony and good, the spurious law can be repealed in thought, and then peace is secure. The understanding of God's supremacy enables one to discern the law under which he is governed — God's law — and by this discernment, the so-called law of disease is rendered powerless. The only law of discord there seems to be is a product of human belief and false education; therefore it is wholly unprincipled and incapable of being enforced, because there is no power sustaining it. Anything that does not proceed from divine Principle, Love, is lawless, and baseless, spurious, and false.
I have seen many instances in which the so-called law of mortal belief was made null and void. I have seen God's power, as understood in Christian Science, make the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the assumed incurable to rejoice in abounding health, and the aged to renew their youth. The law of divine Love, operating here today, renders obsolete and void the various so-called laws of false belief. These spurious, illegitimate beliefs have no power, but only seem to have power when they are accepted. They seem to be a part of general mortal thinking, an element of what the Bible calls the carnal mind. As we repudiate their preposterous claims and see ourselves under God's government, these false beliefs vanish, and we can have perfect dominion over our bodies, our affairs, our conditions and circumstances.
One's thinking is not in the body, but the body is embraced in one's thought. Then as thinking is in accordance with Principle, as only good, pure, holy, noble, and true thoughts are entertained, the body will inevitably register health, holiness, wholeness, and harmony.
Some of us will remember the magic lantern shows of our childhood days. Colored slides were placed in the lantern and projected on a large sheet some distance away. Occasionally the slide was put in the wrong way and the picture appeared upside down. The slide then was put in the right way and the picture would appear correctly on the screen. To correct the error, nothing was done to the screen; the entire adjustment was made in the lantern. Likewise, when discord appears in the body, one does not need to do anything to the body, but one does need to adjust one's thinking, and by so doing, harmony is bound to result. Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 208 of Science and Health, "You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness."
Two men were once associated in business. One had a very afflictive trouble which was quite apparent, consequently making an impression on his associate. This associate became a student of Christian Science, and some years later the trouble referred to manifested itself in his experience. One day when he was praying very earnestly to overcome the trouble, the false, mental picture presented itself. Then by turning to the truth, it was clearly seen that man is impressionable only to good; that the only memory there is, is that immortal memory of good which our textbook tells us about (Science and Health, p. 407). My friends, this disease was instantly destroyed and never returned.
False beliefs are illusions of unreal mortal mind, and never belong to any person. No one ever creates any form of evil. No one ever created the false beliefs of dishonesty, lust, hate, fear, sin, or selfishness. These delusions seem to exist only in the realm of false belief and as we are thoroughly garrisoned in the citadel of pure thinking, spiritual knowing, as consciousness is thoroughly imbued with that Mind which was in Christ, is firmly established on the rock of divine Principle, Love, we are saved from every form of evil. When a person finds himself unwelcome at a certain place he generally avoids that place. Let us be mentally hospitable to all that is fine, noble, and true, but mentally inhospitable to every false, delusive claim of error. In many hotels we find a sign that reads, "Entirely refurnished throughout." This sign is for the purpose of increasing patronage. Let us constantly refurnish our mental homes with all that is spiritual, pure, and good, discarding all that is false, unworthy, and erroneous.
No doubt you have often heard this adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." While through the irresistible power of Christian Science any difficulty can be overcome, yet of greater value is the preventive power of this Science. Through an understanding of Christian Science one is enabled not only to overcome any form of evil that has come into his experience, but he can prevent evil from entering his mental domain. A seed that never takes root, never produces a weed; a false claim of evil that is not accepted, never grows. It has been well said that error never knocks twice at the door of that mental home whose inmate is thinking about God. If we leave the door of our house open, an intruder may come in, but if we lock the door, the problem is comparatively simple, for the unwelcome visitor cannot get in. If we let him in we have the unpleasant task of getting him out. We should always be at home to love, but never at home to hate; always at home to spirituality, but never at home to materiality; always at home to kindness, but never at home to condemnation; always at home to God, but never at home to evil. Thankfulness is of great help in preventing the intrusions of error. A heart singing praises to God is generally too busy to listen to the blatant voice of error; it is too busy counting its blessings to have any time for listening to error's tales of lack.
In working out our own salvation, our thought becomes unselfed, our thinking more universal, our aims broader, our aspirations higher. We not only strive to bring good into our own lives, but are equally desirous of bringing good to all. The Bible tells us, "we are members one of another," and when we are striving steadfastly to abide in Life, Truth, and Love, we are helping to bring salvation to the whole world. If we allow dandelions to grow in our lawns and let them go to seed, we may soon notice that our neighbors have more dandelions. If we keep our lawns clear of dandelions, our neighbors are spared time and effort necessary to eradicate any which might grow on account of our neglect. By keeping our mental gardens full of the blooms of love, purity, and honesty, our neighbors, as well as ourselves, may enjoy our lovely gardens. We soon learn in Christian Science that what is true about one is true about everyone, and what is not true about everyone is not true about anyone. God has no favored sons and daughters, and what is true about one child of God is true about every child of God. "God is no respecter of persons."
We should never admit as true about anyone a thing we do not wish to be true for ourselves. We must strive to see the Father's image, and only the Father's image, not only in ourselves but in everyone else. God is everywhere and His reflection is everywhere, and as we strive to see what God is seeing we behold the manifestation of spiritual beauty and loveliness. If we look through the wrong end of a telescope the object is minimized instead of magnified. By looking through the telescope of love, evil is minimized and good is magnified, but we must look through the right end, the universal truth about God and His perfect man. In the New Testament we read that Jesus healed the multitudes, he healed them, every one. It must be clear to us all that his thought was imbued with the truth about God and His Christ, so that he saw clearly and distinctly divine Love and Love's perfect reflection. Surely, no greater blessing could come to one than the joy of knowing that his every thought which reflects Love, God, is not only working out his own salvation, but is also helping in the salvation and redemption of all mankind.
While pressing on in the line of light we love to think gratefully of Mary Baker Eddy, that gentle New England woman, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, who brought the healing, redeeming message to all who seek to know God aright. Her faith was unlimited, her wisdom was God-bestowed, her efforts untiring, her love as broad and far-reaching as humanity's need. With selfless devotion, holy aims, and noble desires she gave her message to the world and knew that God would bless it. That it has fulfilled its glorious mission, its abundant fruitage gives unfailing evidence. To carry out this mission Mrs. Eddy wrote the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." In the final chapter of this book are a hundred pages telling of the healing of many forms of disease through its reading and study. It has been my privilege to know three of the beneficiaries whose testimonies are found in Science and Health: one was healed of tuberculosis, one of cancer, and one of rheumatism. Surely, any book that can accomplish such beneficent results should be in every home in our land, a fitting companion for the Holy Bible, whose treasures it unlocks. No other book, except the Bible, has made the way of salvation so plain and brought so much peace and healing to untold thousands. In traveling this upward way our path will be one of joy and peace, as we remember Mrs. Eddy's gracious words (Message for 1901, p. 35), "Love is the way alway."
[Delivered Jan. 30, 1934, at Cadle Tabernacle in Indianapolis, Indiana, under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Indianpolis, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, Feb. 2, 1934. Breaks were added to a few overly long paragraphs for this transcript.]