You Have a Purpose

Josephine H. Carver, C.S.B., of Boston, Massachusetts

Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts

The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:

During the early part of this century there was a newspaper woman in Boston who became increasingly aware that violent and continuing attacks were being made in the papers upon a woman prominent in the community.

As a reporter she wanted to investigate and see for herself. What sort of woman was it who was bringing forth such abuse? To her astonishment, instead of the self-seeking charlatan many papers pictured to the public, she found someone utterly different. She found a woman with great nobility of purpose.

The reporter was Sibyl Wilbur, then on The Boston Herald. Miss Wilbur found a woman not only dedicated to helping humanity but successfully showing those who were searching, and who could accept her discovery, how to be well, how to look at life without fear — above all, how to live a meaningful existence. She was actually explaining and demonstrating the spiritual power set forth in the Bible. She was doing healing work comparable to that done by Jesus and his disciples, and she was teaching others how the sick are healed. As many of you know, this woman was Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

Now Mrs. Eddy didn't at first intend to found a church. And she was most certainly not seeking fame. It wasn't her aim to be thought great. But after she had glimpsed the spiritual facts of being and had experienced their power, she wanted everyone to share the same understanding of pure Christianity and to have its benefits. And she recognized that a sense of the real meaning of Life is necessary to such understanding.

There probably isn't anyone here who at one time or another hasn't considered his reason for being. Many people have asked the question, "Why am I here?" "What is the meaning of my life?" There are even those who question, "Do I have any purpose at all?"

In one of his widely read books, Paul Tillich of the University of Chicago refers to this empty sense of being. He indicates that such a state accounts for a certain danger of our time — the unsatisfied outlook which he describes as "the anxiety of meaninglessnes."

One of the surprises of this age of increased leisure and abundance is to find so many people with a sense of futility. This we encounter at a time when there are material comforts far beyond what our forefathers dreamed and when automation is increasingly taking toil out of human life. It is estimated that every man, woman, and child in the United States has on an average thirty-two machines working for each one of them every day. But although we have many machines, as yet we know very little about how to get along with our own inner selves or with one another. So it becomes more and more vital that we look into what life is all about, or what our purpose is in living and how it can be fulfilled.

Of course, we also have those other purposes, such as, How can I be well? Or, How can I make a success of my work? How can I be happy? Or, How can I find right companionship? Although these legitimate goals may be somewhat limited and personal, they have a right to be fulfilled. But they find their fulfillment more readily when the larger meaning of our lives is clarified.

Some people keep themselves busy in order to avoid thinking out their reason for being. Others have leisure thrust upon them and then start looking for a purpose. Not everyone is sure he has found something to live for. Yet no one of us wants to get into the place of just marking time.

Surely we're not given life for an insignificant reason, much like an ant who uses most of his energies for little more than to get around obstacles in his path. Surely we're alive and here because something much greater than ourselves is expressing its nature as our life and fulfilling its own purpose in all we really are or do.

But in order to see this we need to find out the nature of that something greater than ourselves. This is what Christ Jesus did and what Mrs. Eddy did also. This it what enabled them to heal the sick and change the characters and lives of men and women around them. This is what gave purpose and meaning to Jesus' life. This is what led Mrs. Eddy to find and fulfill her purpose to show humanity the freedom from affliction and the richness of opportunity that is possible for everyone. According to Christian Science that something greater than ourselves is primal cause. We term it God. We conceive of it as intelligent, eternal, infinite consciousness, or divine Mind. We think of it as both knowable and provable. It is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.

Our first concern then in discussing the purpose of life and fulfillment is a consideration of the nature of God as primal cause and how we can gain an understanding of this and put it into action.

God Is Primal Cause

The understanding that primal cause, or God, is infinite good is natural to everyone. We possess it intuitively. It's important to value this intuitive understanding no matter how small it may seem at the moment.

Christian Science nourishes this understanding and in so doing gives direction to living. Our reason for being is to understand and express the nature of cause as infinite good. Within this great spiritual purpose all right human purposes find their place and fulfillment.

There are many who question a common concept of God as a great personage or a magnified human being knowing both good and evil. But even these will often admit that there is a cause for the universe.

This cause has a great deal to do with the purpose of our lives. If the one cause or divine consciousness is eternal, it must be entirely good; if any evil were included there would be a destructive element in it and then cause would not be eternal. Christian Science starts from the recognition that God is the great First Cause of all things and that this eternal cause is altogether good in purpose.

This understanding directly affects us. For what we know of divine cause largely molds our experience. Many people have found this to be so. Every week and every month anyone can read in the Christian Science periodicals verified accounts of healings, written by those who have found it to be true that God's purpose is good for all. And because He is supreme in power and has no rival nor competitor, He permits only good for His creation. This is a statement that can be subjected to proof.

We have spoken of God as divine cause. This is how Jesus knew Him. The master Christian's healing works were possible because he knew cause or Life to be Spirit, intelligent Spirit. When I accepted this truth I was instantly healed of ptomaine poisoning. One moment I was suffering and the next I was well and as strong as I had ever been. You see, I caught something of the fact that infinite Spirit wouldn't make its likeness out of matter, but out of its own substance. Because man in his real being is spiritual, man is always well. As I saw this, I was at once completely free.

The cause that is not only good in purpose but is also indestructible Spirit is the all-knowing consciousness or one divine Mind. This doesn't mean cause with a mind, but cause that is Mind itself, the all-wise and the all-seeing. This cause of creation is also the source of beauty in form and color, the source of perfection and inspiration, and so we call it Soul. As primal cause, it is the one Life, without beginning or ending. It fulfills its purpose but not through its opposite, inert and mindless matter.

It is the actuality of all things, or Truth, self-existent, and self-expressed. Being not partially but entirely good, the cause of existence is ever-giving, ever-guiding divine Love that is inexhaustible, all-pervading.

To these Biblical terms for God Christian Science adds the synonym Principle in defining cause. Why? In part because of the great need for exactness in knowing the nature of God. The divine cause is understood as completely dependable, invariable, and purposeful. The primal cause isn't random in performance or capricious in activity, but orderly and intelligent. And so we know it as the living Principle of the universe, supplying all real life, life that is substantial and enduring but that is not in matter. Then where is it? Safe in infinite Mind or divine consciousness.

The Real Nature of Man and His Purpose

If the primal cause is Spirit, Mind, Principle, then the effect, or man, originates not in matter but in Spirit, in divine Mind not in mindlessness, in Principle not in physical personality. And you and I in our real being are that man or effect.

We call the effect of cause "man," but by this is not meant the biological entity that appears to human sight. If the divine cause or Spirit is good, then man, its effect, couldn't be physical, for physicality is subject to disorder and disintegration. But man is constituted by Spirit and so is spiritual, therefore indestructible.

There's nothing more satisfying than to understand the cause that is divine Mind itself; there's nothing more satisfying than to do this — to be man in the fullest sense. This means man as the complete representation of the perfect cause, man who is naturally intelligent, able, wise, endowed with every divine quality, including health and strength. Such a state is not a far-fetched dream, but just as progressively possible now as when it was exemplified by the power and freedom Jesus exhibited.

This possibility is not for another man sometime in the future: it's a divinely natural state possible for you now. Of what value is it for you to know this? The value is that it shows you what you really are, where you came from, and where you're going. And it enables you to demonstrate in your present experience that good is your source and your destination.

Evil Has No Cause

When we learn that the origin of our true being is Spirit, Mind, Principle, we cannot be subjected to discord and disease. In the degree that we discern these to be illusions, we can gain superiority over them.

The well-known position of Christian Science that evil is unreal is not lightly taken. It follows logically from the proposition that the one divine cause or Life is real, infinite, all-powerful. However, the human mind is so used to thinking in terms of good mixed with evil that it doesn't easily change to the basis of one wholly good cause and the impossibility of that cause producing evil. But since the real cause or God is infinite and the only creator, there's no room for a second cause.

Now of course an intelligent inquirer might well hesitate to accept this much, were it not that beneficial results follow from the premise that evil is unreal. Jesus said: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils" (Matt 10:8). And Christian Scientists have made noteworthy progress in doing just that. They consider that healing or adjustment of all sorts of wrong conditions is a part of Christianity because of this command of Jesus. Christian Science is therefore a religion of action or works.

The proposition that God is real and good, as well as infinite, and that therefore His opposite, evil, is unreal, needs to be understood. Evil cannot be seen as unreal when observed from its own basis. But from the standpoint of the infinity of good, evil's mythical nature is provable. The intent of such a proposition is to show men how to best fulfill right human purposes, how to prevent injustices, how to stop being imposed upon, how to overcome evil rather than be overcome by it.

How Mrs. Eddy Found Her Purpose

Mrs. Eddy understood the divine cause to be infinite ever-active good. Her willingness to follow through and see the implication of this fact led her to realize that evil is not inevitable and is no part of God's creation. This gave divine direction and superb fulfillment to her life. It is what can give meaning and fulfillment to our lives.

From childhood the conviction had continued to grow with Mrs. Eddy that God's love is given to all, not just to some. It was plain to her that, as the Bible says, "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). To take this stand meant pioneering into religious concepts that were even less acceptable then than they are now. But she was dauntless in her search for a more practical Christianity. Her willingness to explore new spiritual ground is reminiscent of Abraham who is described in the epistle to the Hebrews as going out, "not knowing whither he went" (Hebr. 11:8).

Mrs. Eddy proved for herself that the power exercised by the early Christians is just as much present today as it ever was. The first instance that brought her growing understanding of God into effective focus was in 1866. At the point of death she so deeply and vividly discerned the reality of Life that she was instantly healed. From that time on she was dedicated to understanding the power that had restored her health.

She healed cancer, blindness, insanity, and other disorders where hope had been given up. The healings came about because she understood the supremacy of the divine cause of existence; she knew with certainty infinite good couldn't include any evil.

Armed with the sacred healing ability she was finding, Mrs. Eddy proved in increasing measure the infinite goodness of God or Spirit as no one had done since the time of Jesus. Her insistence upon the character of God as completely good and so unable to include evil in His purpose for His own, is at the very core of the Science she discovered. And she clearly saw that man is inseparable from God, one with divine Mind.

In writing of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy asks: "If there is no reality in evil, why did the Messiah come to the world, and from what evils was it his purpose to save humankind?" (Unity of Good, p. 59). Her answer reads in part: "Jesus came to rescue men from these very illusions to which he seemed to conform: from the illusion which calls sin real, and man a sinner, needing a Saviour; the illusion which calls sickness real, and man an invalid, needing a physician; the illusion that death is as real as Life. From such thoughts — mortal inventions, one and all — Christ Jesus came to save men, through ever-present and eternal good." We can see it was then the Messiah's purpose to save humankind from the illusion that there is a cause producing evil, a cause other than eternal good. There is no cause but God, everlasting good.

The Understanding of Christ

The true idea of God is the Christ. It was this true idea that enabled Jesus to demonstrate God's presence. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says of Jesus "His purpose in healing was not alone to restore health, but to demonstrate his divine Principle" (p. 51). The power that he showed forth was the Christ, and there is but one Christ. Yet it isn't presumptuous to say that this power wasn't exclusively his. It didn't belong to a single human being. Jesus himself said: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12).

The penetrating Truth is the Christ that Jesus demonstrated. He was inseparable from this Christ, the true idea of all things. Jesus' mighty works of restoration to normal human conditions, of needed food or tax money, indicated that a power beyond anything human was at hand. The understanding of this power enabled him to fulfill right human purposes whether it was to supply food where it was needed or to restore lost faculties of sight and hearing.

One morning in a class in a Christian Science Sunday School, several references were made to Jesus and the Christ. A boy new to the class and to Christian Science finally asked another pupil what he meant by making a difference between Jesus and the Christ. He replied. "Oh, that's easy. Jesus was the human man; Christ does all the work." Now of course this boy's reply doesn't give a complete explanation of the Christ. But it does point out the activity of the Christ-power that Jesus wielded. Referring to the eternal, ever-present Christ-power, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Jesus discerned the Christ, or Truth, shining through every human situation, and it is this Christ that does the healing work.

Here's an incident that illustrates what I mean by the eternal presence and power of the Christ. A friend of mine had tuberculosis for some years. She had kindly and skillful medical help of the best sort in the large city where she lived. She also went to a warmer climate in an effort to regain her health. Finally, after ten years of invalidism, she found Christian Science and began to study its teachings. In response to what she learned, a great transformation of her life began to take place. By the power of the Christ, the Truth, she was promptly restored to health and vigor. This woman felt she had to find out what it was that had done so much for her. This became her life purpose — to understand God.

Jesus' healings have never been duplicated by the human mind nor explained by the human mind. It's the same today. The healings that come about through an understanding of divine Mind cannot be accounted for humanly. They can be accounted for through the study of Christian Science in which it is plain that the cause that is divine Love provides nothing unlike Love for its creation. And it is through the study of these teachings and through prayer and practice that we come to understand the good that is divine as the one and only cause. As we take these steps we begin more and more to experience God's power.

The Study of Truth

In order to find meaning for our lives we seek to know and understand the cause of existence. This takes study and thought. It is generally agreed that study and thought are necessary for the mastery of chemistry or mathematics or one of the arts. This is even more so when it comes to spiritual ideas.

A subject that is worthy of serious consideration should have an exact statement of its propositions and conclusions. It should have a textbook. Christian Science does. Its textbook is "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy.

The study of this book brings to light the golden thread of spiritual meaning in the Bible. It dissolves the contradictions between literal and spiritual meanings that often puzzle sincere students of the Bible. In the light of these books anyone can develop and extend his own innate ability to understand his cause, to fulfill his purpose, to find the meaning of his life. The study of Science and Health has been quietly helping and healing people ever since it was first published in 1875. From the time of its discovery Christian Science has healed. This is the main reason why many have been drawn to its teachings. It's as Jesus said: "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matt. 7:16). The last chapter of "Science and Health" consists entirely of 100 pages of recorded healings that took place through simply studying this book.

The very first healing in the chapter is of a serious form of rheumatic trouble that was beginning to ossify the joints. When I was a child I knew this woman. It was years after that healing and she was leading an active useful life, unrestricted in every way.

Another person writes in this same chapter of the help Christian Science has been to her and then says: "I saw that I must get the right understanding of God!" (Science and Health, p. 669.) She goes on to say that these words from Psalms came to her: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). Then she writes: " . . . deep into my hungering thought sank the infinite meaning of that 'I.' All self-conceit, egotism, selfishness, everything that constitutes the mortal 'I,' sank abashed out of sight." She concludes: "From that hour I have had an intelligent consciousness of the ever-presence of an infinite God who is only good."

Yes, our purpose is immense and our destiny includes all that can be called permanently good. Our purpose involves knowing ourselves as we really are. It is to be the full understanding and expression of the great First Cause, the source of all real good. If Life is understood to be God or universal good, and our purpose an understanding of this Life, we will begin to see its purpose fulfilled in our own increasingly satisfying experience.

Prayer That Heals

In Christian Science study and prayer often go hand in hand. What is prayer? It isn't begging and pleading in the hope that a changeable and far-off supreme being will do something. No. Prayer is that activity of thought that acknowledges and appreciates the perfect cause or divine Mind and its work. Its work or man has been made right, constituted right, and isn't susceptible to harm or destruction.

Prayer is not stereotyped. True prayer is never stale, but new every day. Prayer can be thought of in terms of getting at the truth. It means seeing through to the truth of a situation.

How do you do this? By knowing what is true in the sight of God, the all-loving Father. What does God see? Can He, being infinite, see anything He does not create? Can eternality conceive of mortality? Can spirituality see physicality? Can Love ever behold hate? The divine cause of existence always sees its expression, man, in a state of perfection. Its power and ability to sustain its creation are endless and always present. The one cause has made all that is real and made it right. It has no opposite.

What is the object of prayer? To understand God, rather than to get something. Prayer affirms the truth, or what God knows, loves the truth, values the truth. This is the active understanding that fulfills right human purposes.

But prayer is not only knowing what God knows. Prayer also demands watchful thinking or discrimination. Whatever is unlike the nature of God needs to be refuted as unnecessary because unreal; it is unknown to Him. If you are as discriminating about your thoughts as you would be in choosing a new coat — if you will allow yourself to entertain in thought only what is in accord with infinite Mind and its good purpose — if you will do this for just one day or even one hour, you will find it makes a difference in your experience. Right purposes and aims are forwarded by this discriminating prayer or spiritually scientific knowing.

Practice Leads to Dominion

There is this difference between a novice at engineering or astronomy or some other branch of human learning and a novice in the Science or exact understanding of Christianity — in this Science anyone does better by beginning at once to practice it. Even a child often does this. The power of divine Love knows no favorites. It is never withdrawn from anyone. As we acknowledge this power, live as though it is in operation, as it is, we find it fulfilling its nature in our experience.

In one of Jesus' parables are these words: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34). Anyone can accept this kingdom, the reign of divine consciousness.

We inherit this kingdom of dominion as spiritual understanding is put into action or into practice. By this is meant that we can insist upon the true nature of God and His altogether good effect and do so, if necessary, in the face of contrary physical evidence. This is how you and I can find out about ourselves, or get at the truth about ourselves; and this opens the way to fulfillment, to better health, to more successful work, to happiness and right companionship.

In her book "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says, "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven" (p. 185). On the same page. she adds: "The spiritualization of our sense of man opens the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright, pure, and free."

This triumphant understanding unveils the man you really are, not someday, but now. It means that we can really do something about the troubles and imperfections of our human existence. We're apt to clutch these imperfections to ourselves as personal failures, but there's a way of separating ourselves from them. This includes a willingness to disconnect oneself from all that is mortal and fallible. This way involves persistent prayer and living that is in accord with it.

Dropping the mortal for the immortal sense of existence opens those floodgates of heaven. This is practicing Christian Science. As we let go of mortal measurements of ourselves and others, we experience more of what is divinely true of man, what he really is — not one who is looking for a purpose or meaning for life, but one who is himself the fulfillment of divine purpose. Walk through the gates and be what you are!

Practice Overcomes Fear

The practice of Christian Science isn't a form of escapism. It doesn't advocate ignoring any wrong or evil, little or worldwide. To those who are searching for the right goal or incentive it simply presents the proposition that evil is overcome by considering it not as an overwhelming or inevitable something, but as nothing or nonexistent in the sight of God. Though this proposition is contrary to the viewpoint that sees life as animated matter, examination compels one to see that the results are genuine.

It's not necessary to fear disease or dis-ease. It can be routed and obliterated by the thorough understanding that the cause or intelligence of the universe is good in its purpose and intent and that it makes the only real conditions for man. Should we then be frightened of disease or any threat? Certainly not. Everything real is favorable to us. As we acquaint ourselves with the divine cause of existence, we see how to reject what is unlike this cause. This can be done as it is understood that the real power of the universe is entirely good. Then a better sense of life appears now and here. The omnipotent Mind that is cause cares for His creation.

The fact is that a good cause could only make its creation like itself, right in every respect. If creation is right and the effect of a good cause, it couldn't be made out of matter. What we see as matter is impermanent, always appearing to create and then to destroy.

As we keep close to the purpose of understanding God, as we acknowledge the divine Mind that is unchanging Love, we know that our real life cannot be harmed. We find we can face up to frightening circumstances or conditions with the certainty, not of will power or physical courage, but of Spirit. Then this physical environment looks less formidable.

In an appeal for funds recently sent out by an organization interested in the study and alleviation of children's diseases, there was this statement: "There is still so much more to learn about these dread diseases." In contrast, Christian Science says that permanent help is gained through the correct and thorough understanding of real cause or divine Life. To study diseased matter might be likened to studying mistakes in mathematics in order to learn mathematics. As we see it, the understanding of what is true about divine cause, substance, and law, is the most powerful remedy. Thoughtful study of the things of Spirit, true prayer, and living in accord with it, change our viewpoint and experience.

When fear of the unknown and of the future gives place to understanding and confidence in God's good purpose and power, the "anxiety of meaninglessness" or emptiness, as well as the many other anxieties, no longer hamper and haunt one. Everyone can find progressively that negation or evil doesn't belong to real life, that strife and disease are not natural. Then instead of being afraid of evil and trying to find out where it comes from, we occupy ourselves in proving the supremacy and ever-presence of the eternally good cause.

The Healing Effect

Some time ago a friend of mine who is a Christian Scientist began to wonder whether or not he was fulfilling his purpose. He was working on an important account with his employer, the owner of the firm. Their relationship had deteriorated seriously. Both were dealing with the same client and the employee's ideas were the more acceptable. The jealousy on the part of the owner was so noticeable in the office that other employees were saying that my friend would either have to leave the firm or "break" under the kind of treatment he was getting.

About that time he became seriously ill and called a Christian Science practitioner to help him. Of course, he also studied and prayed to the best of his ability. It was seen that divine Mind never fails to fulfill its purpose. Also, that man is the outcome of divine Mind. This means man is idea rather than an outgrowth of matter. It was realized that the dissension in his business relationship was not an actual cause, even though that's how it appeared. Since there is just one real cause, what was claiming to be a cause of disease couldn't actually exist. The cause that is God is all the real cause there is. And this cause is altogether good and it doesn't send anything harmful. It was seen too that real substance is Spirit and couldn't be contaminated in any way.

Lastly, it became plain that disease is not law but absence of law, lawlessness. That's why it's not imperative, inevitable. The one real law is the ever-present law of divine Love. Cause, substance, and law are all favorable to man and never fatal.

As a result of this illness there had been much swelling and distortion. All this soon vanished completely; my friend became normal in appearance and condition and he quickly went back to work. He found his employer's attitude altered in a way that could only be described as a complete about-face.

Now, where did the disease go? Nowhere. It simply couldn't be found when cause, substance, and law were seen as eternally good. You see, my friend had a firm confidence in the good that is divine. This trust was based, not on blind faith, but on the understanding that the purpose of divine Life and Love is invariably good. His consistency in putting into practice what he knew was strengthened by his study and prayer, or what we call knowing the truth.

The Discovery of True Purpose

Christian Scientists know that the good in their experience is simply evidence of the divine cause that provides abundantly for all. As Paul writes: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Cor. 2:9). And among many deeply provocative ideas presented in the first chapter of Science and Health is this one in the form of a question: "Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept?" (Science and Health, p. 2.)

Our purpose is found in God's purpose for us. In the light of Christian Science, everyone has the capacity to discover God's purpose, to find what Jesus called the kingdom of God within. As the Discoverer of Christian Science 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).

Does life really have a purpose for us far beyond and greater than ourselves? Yes, it has. But if we think of life as personal, physical, and restricted, based on destructible matter, we may well wonder, Is there something bigger? If, however, we see Life as God or endless good and dedicate ourselves to gaining an understanding of His good purpose, we shall find that this purpose includes the fulfillment or coming into our experience of all forms of good. We shall steadily find this purpose fulfilled in us and even as us. It will become the meaning of our lives. In fact, we are the essential, the indispensable fulfillment of Life's eternal purpose to bestow all good. On whom? On you and me. On everyone.

[Delivered Jan. 16, 1967, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Carmel, California, and published in The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal of Carmel, California, Jan. 19, 1967.]

HOME PAGE INDEX OF LECTURES