Bicknell Young, C.S.B., of Chicago, Illinois
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
It is an encouraging fact that however greatly our views may differ upon this or that subject, there is always in our natures and common to them all, one chord which responds to Christian Science, and that is the universal desire to prolong existence or, better still, to attain satisfaction and be sure of its continuity. Even the creatures beneath our feet want to live, and strive to do so, so that this instinct has come to be expressed in the axiom, "Self-preservation is the first law of nature."
It will perhaps be admitted that this may mean more than appears on the surface. So far as it can be a analyzed this instinct exists without any volition on the part of the creature manifesting it, but at any rate it exists, and in the discussion of the profoundest thoughts of philosophy and religion it serves as a common meeting ground. It is this desire which responds to religious truth. It may be likened to the soil wherein the seed, being sown, finds nourishment and springs forth as ideas which reveal at once the scientific nature of Christianity and the sacred character of Science.
Such ideas are not transcendental in the common acceptation of that word. They are, however, not material, and for this reason systems of education founded largely or wholly upon material evidence find themselves at variance with Christian Science and naturally oppose it. This is not to be wondered at because even the basic idea of Christian Science education is revolutionary in that it shows that spiritual truth is demonstrable and offers unmistakable and overwhelming proof of that fact, whereas the generally accepted theories of science either deny that there is any such thing as spiritual truth, or if admitting that there may be, reject the proposition that such truth is so concrete as to be capable of proof.
One who takes the pains to think deeply must conclude that the failure to recognize the demonstrable nature of spiritual truth has been due not to any lack of that characteristic in Truth itself, but to the limited religious and scientific theories which have erroneously insisted that the proof of scientific knowledge must be confined to the finite realm of the material senses, at the same time illogically admitting, as they must do, that true science is infinite.
In accordance with such theories, prevailing systems of education accept and teach that both good and evil are natural. Accepting the evidence of the material senses as true, such systems are necessarily involved in insurmountable difficulties. The moment they endeavor to explain a first great cause they are contradictory. Attributing both the good and evil in human experience to the same source, they pollute their conception of that source and the whole resulting thought is not only darkened but diseased. Christian Science shows unmistakably that an infinite cause which all scientists and religionists, irrespective of form or creed, acknowledge, must necessarily be perfect, for any imperfection in infinity would imply infinite imperfection which is an impossible proposition to either religion or science. The fact is that a first great cause is infinite Intelligence, for nothing less than Intelligence could be the one infinite cause. It should not be hard for any thinker to understand that infinite Intelligence is necessarily infinite Wisdom, and one must inevitably conclude that infinite Wisdom is wise enough to do everything in the right way at once without any experiments whatsoever. This thought of God, which is the only correct one that is possible, does away with the old idea of primary mistakes, which have to be subsequently corrected, and entirely dissipates the notion that God incorrectly arranged a whole lot of things in the universe which man must afterwards correct.
This also disposes of a good many other things; it shows that all things exist, and that the infinite Cause has provided for their perfection and maintains that perfection forever. It is not possible to even think of God as less than perfect, and if one follows out that thought, it is not possible to conceive of a creation as less than perfect; consequently the theory of fallen man is an incorrect theory. It has its origin not in the first chapter of Genesis, but in the later chapters in which human thought, trying to account for its material evidence, turns away from God and says, "God created man of the dust of the earth," whereby Infinity is credited with having created that which Infinity could not know — the finite. Now Christian Science comes to relieve human beings of these beliefs which have darkened human thought; it gives the true understanding; it starts with the perfection of being as the right standard for thought and investigation, and it proves by unmistakable results that when people maintain the right standard in their thought and lives, they gain spiritually in an immeasurable degree, they gain morally, as thousands of people testify, in an immeasurable degree; they gain immeasurably in the true basis of health, and they gain through religious conviction all this, which they have never been able to attain through any other teaching that they have ever known. Why? Because instead of relying upon belief, they understand an absolute Principle by which they can test thought and action.
The Bible says that there is such a thing as a Day of Judgment, and Christian Science says that there is such a thing as a Day of Judgment, but that it is altogether different from what it has been supposed to be — that it is not a certain time in which all people will be brought before some great king in a distant place to be judged for what they have or have not done, but that the Day of Judgment comes as "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, tells us, "hourly and continually," and that it is right within one's own domain of thought. Right where one is thinking is his Day of Judgment, and he can take every thought to that throne of judgment which he has erected in his own understanding through the study of Christian Science and ask himself, "Is this thought correct? Is it according to Principle? Is it like the perfect divine Cause? If it were to have power and action and operate universally, would it bless all mankind?" There is his Day of Judgment; it is not a remote time, nor is it to be postponed to an uncertain place; it is now. When one begins to see these things he sees also that he must gain this standard, and, in order to do this he must understand God; he must know what God is, otherwise he will have no Day of Judgment, no power to judge, no Principle with which to discern and separate between good and evil. Christian Science shows us that we can gain this right way of thinking; that it is so natural and easy that every person spontaneously feels that it is just exactly the right thing to do, he only wants to know about it, and thus every person who has been a Christian says, "This makes me a better Christian," and every person who has not been a Christian says. "Now I see why I must be a Christian; I cannot delay since there is nothing else to be."
We can begin to understand something of the meaning of the word "infinite" when we remember that the first great Cause, the one God, must be immeasurable and all-inclusive. This also gives us an ideal of the eternality of the one God, the divine, infinite Intelligence, which in Christian Science is still better explained through the use of the words "Divine Mind." If we would be immortal we must strive to awake as the image of that one God who is eternal. Eternal life, then, is to be attained not by going to some other place, nor by suffering some great disaster, but by understanding and proving those facts which reveal and illustrate eternality.
The Cause of the universe is necessarily the life and power of it. If we would live we must awake more and more in the image of the God who is Life. Still very often retaining the superstitions which the word "God" called up, because of wrong education, we are apt to think it an impossible requirement when we are admonished to be like God. The picture of some extraordinarily wonderful person, in the same sense that human beings are persons, is still likely to be aroused in the imagination, and we are apt to exclaim, "How can I be so great and wonderful as that?" But here Christian Science comes to the rescue and shows that the naturalness of Truth is its availability. If we had not been misled by wrong teaching we could easily have discerned some truth which would have made the word "God" more clear to us.
In "Science and Health" we read, "God is natural good." If we accept that statement we shall not find it so hard to make some effort to be like God, for it only means that we are striving to be like good, striving to be the image of good, the very expression of good, and if in this connection one should have any doubt about his ability to discern good, he can ask himself whether his thought, if it ripened into action, would be good for everybody, for under the analysis of Christian Science it is clearly shown that no experience is good for anybody unless it is also good for everybody, because good is infinite and universal. Christian Science gives us these facts and corrects many of our old philosophical and ethical views, for neither philosophy nor ethics has been founded upon the idea of primary, infinite perfection.
All systems of education accept the evidence of the senses as to a man's being and destiny, and in so doing tend to perpetuate the destructive conditions of human experience. Ordinarily accepted religious views also coincide with such teaching, for they inculcate the idea that when evil has finally overcome a human being and destroyed him, then he will be immortal. None of these systems hold out the hope that there will ever be any present evidence of the destruction of evil and the triumph of the human being, but on the contrary all agree in accepting the evidence of the senses which indicate the destruction of man and the triumph of evil.
Now whatever may be thought of Christian Science from the standpoint of old education, it has the unquestionable advantage of being logical and consistent. It shows unmistakably that a human being, however much of a sinner he may be, needs to be redeemed rather than be destroyed, and that it is the proper business of both science and religion to heal him of his diseases and to redeem him from his sins so unmistakably that both the healing and the redemption shall appear.
One who is ill needs to be healed now.
One who is a sinner needs equally to be redeemed now. What is to heal the one and redeem the other, if it be not a knowledge that from the standpoint of God there is nothing wrong with the universe nor with man, for from that standpoint there is only perfection. Such an assurance arouses hope in the sick man. It turns him away from the constant thought of his diseases to the facts of his real being. In the same way it awakens the sinner not only to the hope of salvation, but to the immediate attainment of it, at least in some measure. It encourages and greatly helps either a man or a sinner to find out that disease and sin have no origin in a divine Cause, and are not sustained by natural power or law.
The world has tried for centuries to theorize itself into happiness. How many have succeeded? Look down and up the centuries. See how many have attained; practically none. Has all the success that ambitious men have known given them happiness? Has all the wealth that untiring industry and other means have enabled people to accumulate given those people happiness? Have they found happiness in any place or in any way that was actually permanent? Have they seen anything like the Kingdom of Heaven? They have not, because it is not to be attained in these ways, and still the Kingdom of Heaven is just as natural as breath. Everything that is true is natural: the only God there is is natural good, always at hand, willing to save, more than willing, always ready; the only thing that needs to happen to a human being is to get ready himself, to understand, to be free, open, receptive, to let thought explain and define the nature of Deity, and by means of thought to find that he himself is being redeemed. The first step is to get rid of the superstitious beliefs that disease and sin are either necessary or natural. They are neither. A correct concept of God entails the rejection of all the theories which tend to perpetuate evil by ascribing it to Deity.
Sometimes it has been considered a dreadful thing that we should define the nature of God and show that some one can really think upon these great questions: What is God? What is Law? Where is Heaven? How can it be attained? We have been called presumptuous for this and not unfrequently unchristian. Now if it be unchristian to understand God; if it be unchristian to know something of His law, and to rest in the assurance of its power and dominion, then we are unchristian, but not otherwise. We stand today a few people, comparatively speaking, maintaining in human thought and experience certain divine ideas which are older than the human race, for they are eternal, and yet they are ever new, interesting and practical.
These facts are what we have to consider. Christian Science gives us the facts, and never gives us anything else and it shows us that the facts are all that any human being needs in order to be delivered from any kind of trouble, it makes no difference what it is; and it shows us furthermore that true Christianity consists in apprehending and making practical the divine facts which characterized both the thoughts and actions of Christ Jesus. It has generally been supposed there was something mysterious about our Redeemer, or that at any rate we were to be redeemed by some mysterious personality. Is this true? Jesus declared that that which was to redeem mankind always had existed and was available to mankind in any age if they would but understand it.
There has never been anything true that was not available to mankind or would not have been if they had been enough awake to perceive that it was true. Truth has always existed.
What then is the Christ that is to save us, if we are all to be saved through Christ? It is the Christ that was with Jesus, the Christ which enabled him to save others, and enabled the disciples to save others, from what? From something that God had afflicted them with? Materiality, limitation, fears, diseases, sin, death? No, it was to save them from that which God never gave them at all. That which God had given them they did not need to be saved from — that which human ignorance allotted to the human race is what we all need to be saved from, and Christ comes and ever will come in thought through power, through ideas that reveal God, to save us from those things until those things shall be no more, and step by step awakening more in the image of good, we shall find eventually that we are not human but naturally divine; and that awakening is salvation. Now it is to be done right where we are; it is no use to put it off. We cannot afford to postpone anything at all, because there is no time for that. Heaven is not a locality, remote or otherwise. It is something that we ought to enjoy at this instant; and it is true that it is appearing more and more through the demonstrations of Christian Science. Jesus said to his disciples, when he sent them forth, that if those to whom they went would not accept the word they were to be told "Notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."
Notwithstanding, whatever happens to any human being, the demonstration of Christian Science little by little is bringing the Kingdom of God nigh, because the Kingdom of God is but the kingdom of Mind, the kingdom of intelligent power, the kingdom of omnipotent Love, and that kingdom comes nigh unto those who begin even in some slight degree to take an interest in Christian Science, even though it be but an interest sufficient to read something, or hear something, or to consider whether it be true — still the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto them, and it will never forsake them, because the Kingdom of God, when it once comes nigh never knows how to go away.
Now, Christian Science has come to bring that Kingdom to us all, and to unite us on the basis of pure Christianity: to give not a theoretical knowledge of a personal Saviour, but one Christ, the one Christ which Jesus manifested, which constituted his Mind and power and all the incentive of his action and all the rule of his life, the same Christ which is infinite Truth revealed in the ideas which even now you and I are considering, the ideas which in themselves are not human but divine. When St. John said "God is Love," he only said something that is true, that always was true; the idea itself could not have originated in St. John: he discovered it, or rather saw it so clearly that he set it forth in a simple expression which has never been equaled.
"God is Love:" that is only one idea of what God is, but that idea is one with God; it had its origin in God, in infinity; it exists by the power and presence of God, and to the extent that you and I entertain it and know it, it is God with us and explains to us the divine Christ. When Truth comes to us more and more through the ideas which reveal it, those ideas have power, natural power; they originated in that which is Power: they are sustained by that which is Power. Is it such a strange thing then that Isaiah in prophesying the coming of Jesus saw that when that clear discernment of God should appear among men it would manifest itself as God, it would be "God with us," — Immanuel? If the same ideas which constituted his mind are constituting yours or mine — and they do to some extent — for they are now being born, are they not God with us? Are we to deny God because forsooth in all these ages we have been told things about Him that we only superstitiously believed or pretended to believe? Can we not see the infinite Mind is being revealed to men now in Christian Science?
Nobody has been asked to believe in Christian Science, and nobody ever will be asked to believe in it, for Christian Science does not advocate a proselytizing process, but explains divine Principle. I should no more think of urging a person to believe in Christian Science than I should think of asking him to believe in the multiplication table. Neither one nor the other is in the realm of belief. We are not giving Christian Science lectures for the purpose of asking people to believe in it; we are giving Christian Science lectures because we want to help mankind, and we want to help mankind because we want to help ourselves, and have realized that the best way to help ourselves is to help others. No human being can be selfish and ever put off mortality. For one to attain immortality, which is the natural heritage that God has provided for all, we shall have to be unselfish. Jesus did not voice a mere religious admonition but a scientific necessity when he gave the rule, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." He also said, "Deny thyself and follow me."
Christians generally, but not very joyfully, recognize the necessity of self-denial. Christian Science explains it and makes it not only possible but glad. It is generally supposed to mean loss, whereas it means achievement. It means recognition and manifestation of the dominion which God gives to man. In self-denial one is not thinking of himself. If he were there would be no self-denial. He is finding the truth of being, and in that, peace and power and perfect poise. Jesus expressed the acme of self-denial in the words, "I and my Father are one."
Self-abnegation enables one to do good and it is therefore a joyful occupation. It establishes liberty, which is the freedom to do good, since there is nothing but slavery in doing evil. God alone is infinite. Evil is not only finite but destructive. "The glorious liberty of the children of God" is to be found in this individual power to do good. This kind of power, which is the only real kind, is not limited in its results. It overcomes disease as well as sins, and yet God, who is this power, has seemed so distant and unnatural to us that when one is first told that Christian Science heals disease through the power of God, he is apt to doubt it, and perhaps even discredit the healing until it is proved to him, and then when the proof of the healing is offered, he is apt to believe that it is brought about in some other way.
It takes a great deal of instruction to convince the average human being that the word "God" does not mean something remote and inaccessible. Now we can think certain ideas which reveal God. We have seen that here. These ideas reveal power because God and power are one. They are God with us, and therefore power with us. We can think of our bodies, and as a matter of fact we think of them a great deal too much. Nevertheless, so long as that is our tendency, it ought not to be difficult for us to recognize that the true thought of what God is may affect our bodies, since some kind of thought is doing something to our bodies all the time. We walk because of mind; and talk and think, and wink our eyes, because of mind, and do everything else we are doing because of mind, and we do absolutely nothing because of matter, for matter cannot think nor talk nor walk by itself when thought is absent.
Because the human body seems to have sensation it is supposed that there is some kind of an intelligence inside of it giving it sensation. Consequently material systems, investigating only material phenomena and drawing conclusions only from such observations, have located mind in the body, and religious systems have followed in the same line and located soul and spirit in the body; yet no kind of investigation has ever revealed any intelligence or spirit or soul in any human body. Really the words Soul, intelligence, Spirit, cannot be pluralized. They refer to infinity. They serve to express to us the fuller meaning of the word "God," and when we grasp their service in this respect we see that an infinite Intelligence is enough intelligence for everybody, and that an infinite Soul or Spirit is enough for everybody, and that it could not possibly be in anybody, and that the best a human being can do is to acquire the knowledge which, as his intelligence, begins to reflect the divine intelligence, and at the same time reflects the real Soul or Spirit which is God.
To recognize the nature and action of thought is educational. To arouse or awaken a human being to the necessity for correct thinking and the power to attain it as a habit, is the object of all true religious and philosophical endeavor. For this reason it is universally recognized that in order to produce good moral results it is necessary that moral teaching should be carried on, and in accordance with this necessity people are taught to guard themselves against evil thoughts, whether audible or silent. Is there not the same necessity to guard against the thoughts of disease? What must then be the conclusion as to the present effort made through the press and elsewhere to instill the belief of disease into children, and others, by means of processes that are called educational?
If it were not obvious that such efforts are basically wrong, the results of the last 10 years prove them to be so. The advocates of such systems themselves admit that the diseases, which such so-called education was aimed to mitigate or destroy, have increased enormously in that decade, and any one who has observed carefully the influence of thought in human history should have no difficulty in perceiving that such results would necessarily follow such a wrong system; for, if one is to learn about disease and the constantly shifting theories which characterize medical science in order to guard himself against disease, if one is to be forced to build upon his own thought images of disease and germs and microbes and bacilli through the use of charts and experiments in the laboratory and other means in order to be healthy, why would it not be as necessary to familiarize the young, and others, with all the vices and sins that characterize depravity, in order that they may thereby gain in virtue and morality?
If it be true, as experience has proved beyond any doubt, that moral education and high ideals tend to improve character, why is it not equally true that the inculcation of true ideas as to the origin, cause and law of Being tends to improve health, and that contrary teaching tends to produce disease?
Notwithstanding the somewhat common notion that Christian Scientists oppose sanitation and hygiene, the fact is that they are enthusiastic believers in, and advocates of both. Scrupulous cleanliness in everything is a rule among those who practise Christian Science. They require not only personal cleanliness but clean air, clean food, clean streets, clean water, clean clothing, clean houses, and that everything be clean with which they may be associated or surrounded. And when all this is done, Christian Scientists are still unsatisfied, for Christian Science shows that little has been accomplished in the nature of true hygiene, and very little that is worthy of the name of sanitation, until the human mind itself is cleaned out and kept clean.
Jesus stated this fact more strongly than any one else could, and Christian Science practise has proved conclusively that to the extent that the human mind is emptied of fear, malice, envy, hatred, revenge, evil thinking, evil speaking, and all the beliefs of vice and sin and disease, just to that extent is a true sanitary system being established. And furthermore, Christian Science has proved in innumerable instances that when such a system of hygiene, purely mental, is established, all of the world's hygienic requirements are more than fulfilled, and — just in that proportion also is the law of health unmistakeably and permanently established, both individually and collectively.
Until Christian Science is understood in some measure at least, all the functions of the human body are carried on, not by a conscious knowledge of divine Principle, which knowledge characterized the mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," but by that conglomeration of human beliefs called the human mind. Thousands of us may entertain the same thought, but if that thought were to originate in one's brain it would be confined there, and only one person could have such a thought, and the other person would be obliged to have a different one. We can see from this that even human experience shows the utter impossibility of confining the mind or intelligence within the brain or body. Yet so general is the belief that mind has its source in brain cells that when the brain of the human being is injured the mind is apt to be affected unless something greater than human belief or material systems intervenes.
The human body never gets ill because of any inherent capacity to do so. To put it exactly as it is, the human body does not know enough to suffer. Deprived of mind it never suffers. In Science and Health and her other works, Mrs. Eddy has most clearly set forth the fact that it is the human or mortal sense of things that suffers. The mortal mind, so-called, is the sufferer, and she has enabled thousands of people through her books to prove that immortal Mind heals. The objection made to this is often to the effect that you cannot have thought without a thinker, and the contention is based on the supposition that a person is a thinker by means of a mind which contains. Christian Science shows that Mind is infinite and cannot be contained. The divine Mind is the primary and only thinker. When we learn to think with that Mind which Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health declares to be the only Mind of man, then what we call our mind will be so purified and regenerated as to manifest the omnipotence of good in healing the sick as well as in saving the sinner.
The fact that God did not and could not take part in any evil thing is a necessity in Christian Science. Whether we are theoretically able to account for evil or not is of no consequence. Almost every system of philosophy and religion has striven to do that, and yet evil has gone on increasing. Christian Science offers no theoretical explanation of evil. It declares the obvious fact that anything which is not a conceivable part of God's creation is not a conceivable reality, even though it seems to be real. The explanation that Christian Science gives is an explanation of good which from the standpoint of absolute Principle can be proved. It offers no further explanation of evil than its elimination, and declares that no further explanation is necessary, since the disappearance of evil in any instance shows that there is nothing to explain. Good, however, goes on becoming more and more real. It explains itself, for it is the divine Mind.
The action of Truth in human consciousness has not been explained by old systems. Christian Science alone offers an explanation, and when this explanation is not found satisfactory it is because the mental nature of pure Science has not been discerned.
Really all science is purely mental. We do not go to schools or colleges to acquire more than thoughts or ideas. In view of the experience of all educational institutions which deal wholly with ideas, it ought not to seem strange that Christian Science should lay claim to being purely scientific, since it deals wholly with the purest ideas that can ever be entertained by a human being. Their efficacy in healing disease is only doubted because of a lack of better education on the part of humanity.
If a human being uninstructed by Christian Science should hear of a wonderful machine to which he could resort at any time and have it work in his behalf to remove his evil tendencies and any of his diseases, he would be lost in admiration at this extraordinary invention and he would exclaim, "What a wonderful scientific discovery!" It goes without saying that no such machine has been discovered or will be, for the simple reason that diseases and sins are too deep seated to be reached by any mechanical means. There was something, however, discovered in the year 1866 by a lone New England woman whose thought was clear enough to perceive facts far more scientific than any which had been revealed through the evidence of the senses, and who was strong enough of purpose to set forth these thoughts in such a way that they could be discerned and practised, which was of far greater importance to the human race than any other discovery that has ever been made. Christian Science as given to the world by Mary Baker Eddy is not less scientific because it is not mechanical or material, and it has the advantage of healing the diseases considered incurable, a thing which no material or mechanical thing could do.
One who really apprehends anything of Truth knows that it is mental and that being without beginning or end or any kind of measurement, it must be progressive in our experience. The application of it cannot even be formulated, and so far from being mechanical is it that the perception of today is but the stepping-stone to the greater understanding of tomorrow. The thought which constitutes the healing process of Christian Science is not less scientific because of its progressive nature, on the contrary it is more scientific on that account since it is more spontaneous and original. The divine Mind, as we apprehend it more and more, means to us necessarily the very acme of originality. There is no limit to the possibilities of the enlightenment which the study and practice of Christian Science brings. For this reason no formulas are possible in the mental processes of Christian Science healing.
All essentially religious experiences belong to Christian Science. Though we have no material rites, we have a baptism which is thus spoken of in Science and Health, page 241: "The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration," and although we have no material rite of communion, yet communion is an essential and continuous experience of a Christian Scientist, for in its true meaning it is the recognition of the unity of God and man, and at the same time, some present and constantly increasing proof of that unity. Christian Science healing rests upon no other basis than this. It does not consist of the transmission of thoughts. No Christian Science practitioner would think of enlisting his human will. Christian Science teaches that there is one Mind, and that the theory that thoughts can be sent from one person to another is consequently false. The phenomena of the divine Mind are divine thoughts.
The most that the Christian Science practitioner does for a patient is to recognize the omnipresence and omnipotence of the divine Mind, and the availability of that Mind in the thoughts which constitute a Christian Science prayer or treatment. While Christian Science healing is mental healing, it would not be worth while if it were what is ordinarily associated with that term. It is the true mentality which Jesus taught and practiced. It is the Christ healing. To suppose that Christian Science is anything else is absurd to any one who has had proofs of this Science, for he knows that nothing but Omnipotence would be equal to the task of healing the thousands of cases which have been healed in Christian Science.
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science brought to light that which was promised when Jesus said, "He will send you the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, to abide with you forever." It is this knowledge of the impersonal Saviour or Christ Truth which constitutes both the Science and the Christianity of Christian Science. If Mrs. Eddy had stopped at the discovery of Christian Science, hundreds of thousands of people could not say, as they now do say, that they are grateful for Christian Science. The wonderful thing that she did for mankind was to discern the method of Christian Science, by means of which any person can begin the transforming process which St. Paul speaks of, and by means of which one demonstrates in some degree the true relationship of God and man, by recognizing its present reality and availing himself of its law.
We are apt to think of revelation as something imposed upon man by God, but a more consistent understanding of the word shows that its meaning is best apprehended when one understands its naturalness. That Mary Baker Eddy was inspired when she discovered and set forth the truth of Christian Science cannot be doubted, and yet that inspiration, that revelation, required first receptivity.
It was this readiness, this ceaseless responsiveness to the divine Mind which characterized her whole career and made her the leader of the most far-reaching religious and scientific movement that the world has known. It was this same responsiveness which has made of Christianity a science resulting in such untold benefits to mankind that thousands of people spontaneously reverence and love the name of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy.
This state of receptivity has been wonderfully exemplified in all of those instances where spiritual mindedness characterized man. In Christ Jesus, it was his very nature. In the endeavor to explain the birth of the Christ idea, St. John in Revelation says: "Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity." If Truth, which is thus ever knocking, be given admittance, it begins the awakening process by removing superstition. It frees us from the belief that material theories and things could do more for us than God could do. It shows why it is that divine Power is made available as demonstrable Science, healing sickness in the process of redemption. It takes off the limitations of human belief and the tendency to outline the infinite blessings of the infinite Mind. It shows us that we cannot see either God or His creation in such a limited way as the material senses require, and that Solomon, in praying for wisdom rather than for special things, did the very thing which afterwards was shown forth in all prosperity and success. Jesus gave the final rule when he said: "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."
[1915. No exact title for this lecture is known.]