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KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. - REVELATION.
CHAPTER XV - GENESIS
And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. - EXODUS.
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. - JOHN.
Spiritual interpretation
SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop- erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa- ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of the Word, in its earliest articulations, often seems so smothered by the immediate context as to require explication; whereas the New Testament narra- tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il- lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence, but richly recompensing human want and woe with spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi- cation of wonder and glory which angels could only whisper and which God illustrated by light and har- mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the weary ones sigh when needing something more native to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual evil.
Spiritual overture
A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so brief that it would almost seem, from the preponderance of unreality in the entire nar- rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality, the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator and His creation.
Deflection of being
Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to suggest the proper reflection of God and the spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought take on higher symbols and significations, when scien- tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat- ing time with the glory of eternity.
In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris- tian Science.
EXEGESIS
Genesis i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Ideas and identities
The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, - that is, the eternal ver- ity and unity of God and man, including the universe. The creative Principle - Life, Truth, and Love - is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-
Genesis i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Spiritual harmony
The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har- mony, - heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth, matter is unknown. No supposition of error enters there. Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinite space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms.
Genesis i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Mind's idea faultless
Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God: first, in light; second, in reflection; third, in spiritual and immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But this Mind creates no element nor symbol of discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought, mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.
Genesis i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony
Genesis i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn- ing were the first day.
Light preceding the sun
All questions as to the divine creation being both spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for though solar beams are not yet included in the record of creation, still there is light. This light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This also shows that there is no place where God's light is not seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a creation?
Evenings and mornings
The successive appearing of God's ideas is represented as taking place on so many evenings and mornings, words which indicate, in the absence of solar time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views which are not implied by material darkness and dawn. Here we have the explanation of another passage of Scripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.
Spirit versus darkness
Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it light? Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, darkness, and darkness obscures light. Ma- rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions
Genesis i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Spiritual firmament
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament. The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden- tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter nor the so-called material senses.
Genesis i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Understanding imparted
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con- sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith: "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science.
Original reflected
This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light. God's ideas reflect the im- mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to
Genesis i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Exalted thought
Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under- standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress.
Genesis i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Unfolding of thoughts
Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear.
Genesis i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Spirit names and blesses
Here the human concept and divine idea seem con- fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien- tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find- ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet
Genesis i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Divine propagation
The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi- tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul- tiplication of the compound idea man. The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat- ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind which includes all. A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.
Ever-appearing creation
Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men- tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all expresses Science and art throughout His creation, and the immortality of man and the universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con- tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate- rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall
Genesis i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Mind's pure thought
God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen- der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is the pure thought emanating from divine Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex- pressed in the text. Gender means simply kind or sort, and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc- tion names the female gender last in the ascending order of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds the infinitude of Love.
Genesis i. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Rising to the light
The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an important one to the human thought, letting in the light
Genesis i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.
Rarefaction of thought
Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies, but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth. This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of thought as it ascends higher. God forms and peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand- ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi- cate the immensity of space.
Divine nature appearing
So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances are no more contingent now on time or material struc- ture than they were when "the morning stars sang together." Mind made the "plant of the field before it was in the earth." The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the uni- verse never to disappear.
Spiritual ideas apprehended
Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his fellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the
Genesis i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma- ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re- flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense.
Genesis i. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.
Geology a failure
The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out- side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the universe. Love alone can impart the limit- less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never explained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them. There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has been already divided into evening and morning; and the allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for- mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids, analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into material things.
Spiritual subdivision
Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci- ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin- ing by its own light and governing the universe, including
Genesis i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Darkness scattered
In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in- finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is there.
Genesis i. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi- nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.
Genesis i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Soaring aspirations
To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri- form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor- tals metaphorically present the gradation of mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament
Genesis i. 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Seraphic symbols
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an- gels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character- istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.
Genesis i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit- ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Multiplication of pure ideas
Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera- tions of mortal mind, - that is, ignorant of itself, - this so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex-
Genesis i. 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Spiritual spheres
Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light. In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions, and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.
Genesis i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Continuity of thoughts
Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist- ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God, who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.
Genesis i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
God's thoughts are spiritual realities
God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind - being non- existent and consequently not within the range of im-
Qualities of thought
Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa- nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ- uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: -
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
Creatures of God useful
Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures moving in the harmony of Science, are harm- less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.
The serpent harmless
Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser- pent of God's creating is neither subtle nor poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which forms them, - the power which changeth the serpent into a staff.
Genesis i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Elohistic plurality
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love. "Let them have dominion." Man is the family name for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good- ness and power.
Reflected likeness
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like- ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note
Love imparts beauty
God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish- ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin- ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.
Genesis i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Ideal man and woman
To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated that God made man in His own image, to reflect the divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen- ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-
Divine personality
The world believes in many persons; but if God is per- sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one God. His personality can only be reflected, not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and they all have one Principle and parentage. The only proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal. What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal is God's own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit to infinitude or to its reflections.
Genesis i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Birthright of man
Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, - to manifest His power. Man is not made
Genesis i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Assistance in brotherhood
God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all leaving the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality infinite Life, Truth, and Love.
Genesis i. 31. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Perfection of creation
The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex- presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas. Deity was satisfied with His work. How could He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self- containment and immortal wisdom?
Genesis ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Infinity measureless
Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu- man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God's creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- ness of Christ"?
Genesis ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
Resting in holy work
God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, according to the apprehension of divine Science. The
Love and man coexistent
Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough! Human language can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle, Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and eternal. The numerals of infinity, called seven days, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine infinite calculus.
Genesis ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah] had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Growth is from Mind
Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all through Mind, not through matter, - that the plant grows, not because of seed or soil, but because growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor- tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat- ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind, never causing man to till the ground, but making him
Spiritual narrative
Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being that is without beginning or end. All that is made is the work of God, and all is good. We leave this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond" and the pen of an angel.
The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is, but the continued account is mortal and material.
Genesis ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
The story of error
The Science and truth of the divine creation have been presented in the verses already considered, and now the opposite error, a material view of creation, is to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene- sis contains a statement of this material view of God and the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence
The two records
The Science of the first record proves the falsity of the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are antagonistic. The first record assigns all might and government to God, and endows man out of God's perfection and power. The second record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, - as hav- ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science explains as impossible.
This second record unmistakably gives the history of error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli- gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, dust returning to dust.
Erroneous representation
In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit. Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat- ter in order to create man. God's glowing denunciations of man when not found in His image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide with revelation in declaring this material creation false.
Hypothetical reversal
This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in constructing the universe, is based on some hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre- ceding declares God's work to be finished. Does Life, Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un- erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can-
Mist, or false claim
Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that God knows error and that error can improve His creation. Although presenting the exact opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea- tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from mystification, and not from the firmament, or under- standing, which God erects between the true and false. In error everything comes from beneath, not from above. All is material myth, instead of the reflection of Spirit.
Distinct documents
It may be worth while here to remark that, according to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis- tinct documents in the early part of the book of Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is always called Jehovah, - or Lord God, as our common version translates it.
Jehovah or Elohim
Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three verses of the second, - in what we understand to be the spiritually scientific account of creation, - it is Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace- able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the Hebrew people, who is referred to.
Gods of the heathen
The idolatry which followed this material mythology is seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites, in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro- dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.
Jehovah a tribal deity
It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly went after "strange gods." They called the Supreme Being by the national name of Jehovah. In that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God seems almost lost. God becomes "a man of war," a tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine Principle to be lived and loved.
Genesis ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Creation reversed
Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With l8 a single command, Mind had made man, both male and female. How then could a material organization become the basis of man? How could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind, and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un- real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and God?
It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground. Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter? Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature
Definitions of man
The following are some of the equivalents of the term man in different languages. In the Saxon, mankind, a woman, any one; in the Welsh, that which rises up, - the primary sense being image, form; in the Hebrew, image, similitude; in the Icelandic, mind. The following translation is from the Icelandic:
And God said, Let us make man after our mind and our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after God's mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and female.
No baneful creation
In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the logos, or word] was not anything made that was made." Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make, - hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, "and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.
Genesis ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God [Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,
Contradicting first creation
The previous and more scientific record of creation declares that God made "every plant of the field be- fore it was in the earth." This opposite declaration, this statement that life issues from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap- ter, - namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear- ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses. The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death, follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent matter.
Record of error
The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced good all that He created, and the Scriptures declare that He created all. The "tree of life" stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which guards it is the type of divine Science. The "tree of knowledge" stands for the erroneous doctrine that the knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God, Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra- diction of the first creation? This second biblical account is a picture of error throughout.
Genesis ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.
Garden of Eden
The name Eden, according to Cruden, means pleasure, delight. In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-
Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com- manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
No temptation from God
Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would make man mortal. It is plain also that mate- rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti- tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God, good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un- real because it is a lie, - false in every statement.
Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God [Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Creation's counterfeit
Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask- ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man
Genesis ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah] caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Hypnotic surgery
Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a surgical operation on him and thereby create woman. This is the first record of magnet- ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light, - materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu- lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar- ing what great things error has done. Beholding the creations of his own dream and calling them real and God-given, Adam - alias error - gives them names. Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them mankind, - that is, a kind of man.
Mental midwifery
But according to this narrative, surgery was first per- formed mentally and without instruments; and this may be a useful hint to the medical faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden
Genesis iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Mythical serpent
Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the animal kingdom which represents the species described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be- cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.
Error or Adam
Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind. He begins his reign over man some-
Divine providence
In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine Principle of being. The earth, at God's command, brings forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus once said, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," - presuming not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God, the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe man as He doth the lilies.
Genesis iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Error's assumption
This myth represents error as always asserting its su- periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and saying, through the material senses: "I can open your eyes. I can do what God has not done for you. Bow down to me and have another god. Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de- sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be mine." Thus Spirit and flesh war.
Scriptural allegory
The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. First, this narrative supposes that something springs from nothing, that matter pre- cedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter,
Higher hope
It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe- sying thus: The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, ex- changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu- man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being.
Biological inventions
If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non- intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body by the creator, why is not this divine order still maintained by God in perpetuating the species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and animals have a propagating property of their own? Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that matter exists without God? Has man sought out other creative inventions, and so changed the method of his Maker?
Which institutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate- rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian record of man as created by Mind in the image and like- ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did
Progeny cursed
All human knowledge and material sense must be gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge safe, when eating its first fruits brought death? "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid- eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed; and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con- demns material man and remands him to dust.
Genesis iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Shame the effect of sin
Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame. Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed from the divine voice calling out to the cor- poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased: "Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but one God, hence one Mind?"
Fear comes of error
Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate- rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of matter, In the allegory the body had been naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the five senses. The first impression material man had of
Genesis iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
The beguiling first lie
Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the creator of evil. The allegory shows that the snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam, alias mortal error, charges God and woman with his own dereliction, saying, "The woman, whom Thou gavest me, is responsible." According to this belief, the rib taken from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named woman, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?
Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in- telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.
False womanhood
Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence, "Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence
Genesis iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said unto the serpent, . . . I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Spirit and flesh
This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin- mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material intelligence called energy and opposed to Spirit.
Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you."
Bruising sin's head
There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit- ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has ever been since the Christian era began. The serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of the woman, - will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding
Genesis iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Judgment on error
Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma- terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol- atry. A belief in other gods, other creators, and other creations must go down before Chris- tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in sickness and death. When will man pass through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is indeed " the way."
Genesis iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
New earth and no more sea
In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together
The fall of error
The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu- sion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we " live, and move, and have our be- ing," should be lost, and if man should be governed by corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The blind leading the blind, both would fall.
True attainment
Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are "of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica- tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns. Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep- tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor- row, what do mortals attain? They give up their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.
Genesis iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
Justice and recompense
A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin- ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil has no local habitation nor name. Crea- tion is there represented as spiritual, entire, and good. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for nothingness.
Inspired interpretation
No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict the falsity of error and the effects of error. Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate with the Science of creation recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is represented as changeable. The literal meaning would imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to reform, lest man should improve it and become better; but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always,
Spiritual gateway
Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood. Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding. Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate of understanding to note the proper guests. Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, the unreal and the real.
Contrasted testimony
The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the universe. The "tree of life" is significant of eternal reality or being. The "tree of knowl- edge" typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena, evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.
Genesis iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord [Jehovah].
Erroneous conception
This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor- tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal man and sin have a beginning, they must consequently have an end, while the sinless, real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author
Only one standard
What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life, or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, matter, error, and death? God could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses nothing which he has not derived from God. How then has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit resigned to matter the government of the universe?
A type of falsehood
The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol, the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts of the field. It is false to say that Truth and error commingle in creation. In parable and argument, this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: "Do men gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What com- munion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?"
Scientific offspring
The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate the one Mind which makes and governs man and the universe. The Science of creation, so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his
Cleansing upheaval
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re- ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno- rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.
Allegiance to Spirit
Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and death, "God never made you, and you are a false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur- pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum- ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe a lie.
Genesis iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
Spiritual and material
Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the type of Truth and Love. Material in origin and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel
Genesis iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his offering, He had not respect. Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain's fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the ground could be.
Genesis iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli- gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood of man at the very outset.
Genesis iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
Brotherhood repudiated
Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it usurps divine power. It is supposed to say in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods." Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards his brother.
Genesis iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth.
Murder brings its curse
The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in- curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when- ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin, invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine mercy.
Genesis iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Retribution and remorse
"They that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's own way, and let human justice pattern the divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice con- signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's commandments.
Genesis iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.
Climax of suffering
The sinful misconception of Life as something less
Dwelling in dreamland
In divine Science, the material man is shut out from the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come into His presence, and must dwell in dream- land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma- terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu- sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare of extermination. The great verities of existence are never excluded by falsity.
Man springs from Mind
All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate- rial senses. If man is material and originates in an egg, who shall say that he is not primarily dust? May not Darwin be right in think- ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals and vegetables are found, according to divine Science, to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter. Did man, whom God created with a word, originate in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief that matter supports life would make Life, or God, mortal.
Material inception
The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the
First evil suggestion
In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God. The first statement about evil, - the first suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re- corded, include nothing of the kind.
Material personality
The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as gods," but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man, in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and likeness of the one God.
Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-
"Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according to the record, material man was fast degenerating and never had been divinely conceived.
Mental tillage
The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, - that mortals should so improve material belief by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out- side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of God and man, impudently demands a blessing.
Erroneous standpoint
The translators of this record of scientific creation entertained a false sense of being. They believed in the existence of matter, its propagation and power. From that standpoint of error, they could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit. Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death: "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness] shalt thou return."
Mortality mythical
"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth] shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a
No truth from a material basis
Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to declare Mind, while matter is governed by un- erring intelligence? "There went up a mist from the earth." This represents error as starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It supposes God and man to be manifested only through the corporeal senses, although the material senses can take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.
Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep divinity of the Bible.
Dawning of spiritual facts
Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine in the darkness, though the darkness, com- prehending them not, may deny their reality. The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris- tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom- plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle which all may understand.
Proof given in healing
If mathematics should present a thousand different examples of one rule, the proving of one example would
Embryonic evolution
The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos- phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, - that Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma- terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must become material, and afterwards must either return to Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.
True theory of the universe
The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to have them understood spiritually, for only by this under- standing can truth be gained. The true the- ory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal.
Scriptural perception
It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.
The clouds dissolving
How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.
Prediction of a naturalist
Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist says: "It is very possible that many general statements now current, about birth and generation, will be changed with the progress of information." Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained the diviner side in Christian Science, - so far apart from his material sense of animal growth and organization, he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.
Methods of reproduction
Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought to light important facts in regard to so-called embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani- mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self-
The three processes
Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc- tion and to multiply their species sometimes through eggs, sometimes through buds, and sometimes through self-division. According to recent lore, successive generations do not begin with the birth of new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu- alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of the most complicated corporeal structures, including those which we call human. Here these material researches culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de- void of metaphysics.
Deference to material law
In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis- covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards the lion of materialism in its den. At that point, however, even this great observer mis- takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that
Deep-reaching interrogations
If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind. God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men. God cannot become finite, and be limited within material bounds. Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be- gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it will hereafter.
Stages of existence
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The continual contemplation of existence as material and cor- poreal - as beginning and ending, and with birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages - hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting- point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry- onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for Deity.
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro- ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous and absurd as the supposition that Spirit - the pure and holy, the immutable and immortal - can originate the impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses
The real producer
Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity, called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro- duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.
The ascent of species
One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he adds that mankind has ascended through all the lower grades of existence. Evolution de- scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma- terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that all Science is of God, not of man.
Transmitted peculiarities
Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, themselves composed of the simplest material elements, - by which all peculiarities of an- cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from generation to generation?" The question of the natu- ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans- mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other. Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.
Causation not in matter
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
Emergence of mortals
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward and upward. But thought, loosened from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild with freedom and so be self-contradictory.
Persistence of species
From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow, sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The blending tints of leaf and flower show the order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.
Better basis than embryology
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material
One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no right to assume that individuals have grown or been formed under circumstances which made material con- ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction, or important to their origin and first introduction." Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic, and why are his deductions generally material?
All nativity in thought
Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam. Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted by general mortal thought to account for human origin, that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear- ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con- sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti- tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our primeval father.
Being is immortal
You may say that mortals are formed before they think or know aught of their origin, and you may also ask how belief can affect a result which precedes the development of that belief. It can
Our conscious development
Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone- ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con- scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.
Mendacity of error
Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is simply a falsity and illusion.
Ailments of animals
It is the general belief that the lower animals are less sickly than those possessing higher organiza- tions, especially those of the human form. This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-
Ignorance the sign of error
An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do not comprehend what you say about error." This is the nature of error. The mark of igno- rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood. Error would have itself received as mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of Mind.
The origin of divinity
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self- existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci- fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-
Genera classified
Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor- tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to possess life and mind. These false beliefs will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for- mer things will have passed away.
The Christian's privilege
Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be gained by dying. Christian Science may ab- sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known most fully to him who understands best the divine Life. Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions. They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the dream.
Ontology versus physiology
Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why? Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual life before it cares to solve the problem of being, hence the author's experience; but when that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand- point.
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and
The curse removed
Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege- tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci- ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap- orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.
Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he began materially right, but immediately fell into mental sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of Mind and its formations as being in accordance with the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind, spake and it was done.
CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. - REVELATION.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. - PSALMS.
ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of Revelation: - And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.
The new Evangel
This angel or message which comes from God, clothed with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow. When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise. When you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, and it has for you a light above the sun, for God "is the light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de- scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error.
Truth's volume
This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain the revelation of divine Science, the "right foot" or dominant power of which was upon the sea, - upon elementary, latent error, the source of all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice" of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth." It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their latent forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is the power of Truth demonstrated, - made manifest in the destruction of error. Then will a voice from harmony cry: "Go and take the little book. . . . Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortals, obey the heavenly evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter. When you approach nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when you eat the divine body of this Principle, - thus partak- ing of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and Love, - do not be surprised nor discontented because you must share the hemlock cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the Israelites of old at the Paschal meal thus prefigured this perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith and hope.
To-day's lesson
The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revela-
Revelation xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
True estimate of God's messenger
Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter- prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any- one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons.
Persecution harmful
Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from view the apostle's character, which made him equal to his great mission. Persecution of all who have spoken something new and better of God has not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from them the true idea which has been presented. To mis- understand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea - igno-
Espousals supernal
Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an "angel standing in the sun." The Revelator beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision. Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love. To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" repre- sented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.
Divinity and humanity
John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration, - reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self- hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.
Spiritual sunlight
The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spirit- ual Life, which is "the light of men." In the first chapter of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent from God . . . to bear witness of that Light."
Spiritual idea revealed
John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im-
Spiritual idea crowned
The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, - separated by belief from man's divine origin and the true idea, - will through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the har- mony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night of materialism wanes.
Revelation xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail- ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Travail and joy
Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra- vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re- membering no more her sorrow for joy that the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the travail portentous.
Revelation xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
The dragon as a type
Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense., harmony is the real and discord the unreal. We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness? The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, - the belief that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat- ter has power of its own, and that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken.
The sting of the serpent
The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of God. The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality.
Revelation xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Animal tendency
The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good. Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers to "spiritual wickedness in high places." It is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel
As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's own nature and methods. This malicious animal in- stinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night without a star.
Malicious barbarity
The author is convinced that the accusations against Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated by the criminal instinct here described. The Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate, met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal bar- barity of his foes could emanate from no source except the highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "opened not his mouth." Until the majesty of Truth should be demon- strated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.
Doom of the dragon
From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and death, envy, hatred, and revenge, - all evil, - are typi- fied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi- fies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the
Revelation xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.
The conflict with purity
Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod decreed the death of every male child in order that the man Jesus, the masculine representative of the spiritual idea might never hold sway and de- prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end," for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples - imperatively, absolutely, finally - with di- vine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman, will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love, melting and purifying even the gold of human character. After the stars sang together and all was primeval har- mony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea; but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and to be caught up unto God, - to be found in its divine Principle.
Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilder- ness, where she hath a place prepared of God.
Spiritual guidance
As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear, - as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised joy, - so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading to divine heights. If we remember the beautiful description which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess in the story of Ivanhoe, -
Out of the land of bondage came,
Her fathers' God before her moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame, -
we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same hymn, -
In shade and storm the frequent night,
Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light!
Revelation xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Angelic offices
The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine messages, different offices. Michael's charac- teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and
Revelation xii. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv- eth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Dragon cast down to earth
That false claim - that ancient belief, that old serpent whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli- gence in matter either to benefit or to injure men - is pure delusion, the red dragon; and it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words "cast unto the earth" show the dragon to be nothingness, dust to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker, he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes- sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the false prophets are lust and hypocrisy. These wolves in sheep's clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the Lamb of Love.
Warfare with error
Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf.
Revelation xii. 10 - 12. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Paean of jubilee
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag- nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly
The robe of Science
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally ful- filled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, - in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love. Alas for those who break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are dwellers still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surg- ing sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the drowning wave.
Expiation by suffering
What must the end be? They must eventually expi- ate their sin through suffering. The sin, which one has made his bosom companion, comes back to him at last with accelerated force, for the devil knoweth his time is short. Here the Scriptures declare that evil is temporal, not eternal. The dragon is at last stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods of torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon sin's obduracy.
Revelation xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Apathy to occultism
The march of mind and of honest investigation will bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of some sort, the growing occultism of this period. The present apathy as to the tendency of certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be shocked into another extreme mortal mood, - into human indignation; for one extreme follows another.
Revelation xii. 15, 16. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Receptive hearts
Millions of unprejudiced minds - simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert - are wait- ing and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, and never fear the consequences. What if the old dragon should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea? He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night. In this age the earth will help the woman; the spiritual idea will be understood. Those ready for the blessing you impart will give thanks. The waters will be paci- fied, and Christ will command the wave.
Hidden ways of iniquity
When God heals the sick or the sinning, they should know the great benefit which Mind has wrought. They should also know the great delusion of mor- tal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful. Many are willing to open the eyes of the people to the power of good resident in divine Mind, but they are
Christly warning
Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary to ensure the avoidance of the evil? Because people like you better when you tell them their virtues than when you tell them their vices. It re- quires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the danger and yet have given no warning.
The armor of divinity
At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.
Pure religion enthroned
Through trope and metaphor, the Revelator, immortal scribe of Spirit and of a true idealism, furnishes the mirror in which mortals may see their own image. In significant figures he depicts the thoughts which he beholds in mortal mind. Thus he rebukes the conceit of sin, and foreshadows its doom. With his spiritual strength, he has opened wide the gates of glory, and illumined the night of paganism with the sublime grandeur of divine Science, outshining sin, sorcery, lust, and hypocrisy. He takes away mitre and sceptre. He enthrones pure and undefiled religion, and lifts on
Native nothingness of sin
Thus we see, in both the first and last books of the Bible, - in Genesis and in the Apocalypse, - that sin is to be Christianly and scientifically reduced to its native nothingness. "Love one an- other" (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil- dren of God; but whatever is of material sense, or mor- tal, belongs not to His children, for materiality is the inverted image of spirituality.
Fulfilment of the Law
Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing short of this divine Principle, understood and demon- strated, can ever furnish the vision of the Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness, and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be seen and acknowledged that matter must disappear.
In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: -
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Man's present possibilities
The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? Not through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene. Were this new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, mate-
Nearness of Deity
Accompanying this scientific consciousness was an- other revelation, even the declaration from heaven, su- preme harmony, that God, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever with men, and they are His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a mis- erable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why? Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scrip- tural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence, - that we can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of
The Revelator also takes in another view, adapted to console the weary pilgrim, journeying " uphill all the way."
He writes, in Revelation xxi. 9: -
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
Vials of wrath and consolation
This ministry of Truth, this message from divine Love, carried John away in spirit. It exalted him till he be- came conscious of the spiritual facts of being and the "New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven," - the spiritual outpour- ing of bliss and glory, which he describes as the city which "lieth foursquare." The beauty of this text is, that the sum total of human misery, represented by the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full compensation in the law of Love. Note this, - that the very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, the four equal sides of which were heaven-bestowed and heaven-bestowing.
Spiritual wedlock
Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack- cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft- winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers:
The city foursquare
This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from God, out of heaven," represents the light and glory of divine Science. The builder and maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the book of Hebrews; and it is "a city which hath founda- tions." The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teach- ing must always be by symbols. Did not Jesus illustrate the truths he taught by the mustard-seed and the prodi- gal? Taken in its allegorical sense, the description of the city as foursquare has a profound meaning. The four sides of our city are the Word, Christ, Christianity, and divine Science; "and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there." This city is wholly spiritual, as its four sides indicate.
The royally divine gates
As the Psalmist saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." It is indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and square. Northward, its gates open to the North Star, the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward, to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who fol- lowed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies, - the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization
Revelation's pure zenith
This heavenly city, lighted by the Sun of Righteous- ness, - this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness, - reached St. John's vision while yet he taber- nacled with mortals.
In Revelation xxi. 22, further describing this holy city, the beloved Disciple writes: -
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
The shrine celestial
There was no temple, - that is, no material structure in which to worship God, for He must be worshipped in spirit and in love. The word temple also means body. The Revelator was familiar with Jesus' use of this word, as when Jesus spoke of his material body as the temple to be temporarily rebuilt (John ii. 21). What further indication need we of the real man's incorporeality than this, that John saw heaven and earth with "no temple [body] therein"? This kingdom of God "is within you," - is within reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God.
Divine sense of Deity
The term Lord, as used in our version of the Old Testament, is often synonymous with Jehovah, and ex- presses the Jewish concept, not yet elevated to deific apprehension through spiritual trans- figuration. Yet the word gradually approaches a higher meaning. This human sense of Deity yields to the divine
The city of our God
This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second, the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third, Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Prin- ciple of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets this great example and the great Exemplar. This city of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter. All who are saved must walk in this light. Mighty potentates and dynasties will lay down their honors within the heavenly city. Its gates open towards light and glory both within and without, for all is good, and nothing can enter that city, which "defileth. . . . or maketh a lie."
The writer's present feeble sense of Christian Science closes with St. John's Revelation as recorded by the great apostle, for his vision is the acme of this Science as the Bible reveals it.
In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly,
PSALM XXIII
[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
[LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] lead- eth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE's] rod and [LOVE'S] staff they comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.
CHAPTER XVII - GLOSSARY
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. - REVELATION.
In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of the spiritual for the material definition of a Scrip- tural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired writer. On this account this chapter is added. It con- tains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning.
ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to the creator the early fruits of experience.
ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the eternal Principle of being. This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding.
ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin," sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, - of God and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter,
The name Adam represents the false supposition that Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non- intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal mind; that the one God and creator entered what He cre- ated, and then disappeared in the atheism of matter.
ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies, disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and Truth. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from the beginning, . . . he is a liar and the father of it."
ALMIGHTY. All-power; infinity; omnipotence.
ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.
ARK. Safety; the idea, or reflection, of Truth, proved to be as immortal as its Principle; the understanding of Spirit, destroying belief in matter.
God and man coexistent and eternal; Science show- ing that the spiritual realities of all things are created by Him and exist forever. The ark indicates temptation overcome and followed by exaltation.
ASHER (Jacob's son). Hope and faith; spiritual com- pensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.
BABEL. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge.
The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evi- dence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall of its structure.
BAPTISM. Purification by Spirit; submergence in Spirit.
We are "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (II Corinthians v. 8.)
BELIEVING. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth. Mortal thoughts, illusion.
BENJAMIN (Jacob's son). A physical belief as to life, substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame; illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the pos- sessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act.
Renewal of affections; self-offering; an improved state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Prin- ciple; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles, and supports.
BRIDE. Purity and innocence, conceiving man in the idea of God; a sense of Soul, which has spiritual bliss and enjoys but cannot suffer.
BRIDEGROOM. Spiritual understanding; the pure con- sciousness that God, the divine Principle, creates man as His own spiritual idea, and that God is the only crea- tive power.
BURIAL. Corporeality and physical sense put out of sight and hearing; annihilation. Submergence in Spirit; immortality brought to light.
CANAAN (the son of Ham). A sensuous belief; the testimony of what is termed material sense; the error which would make man mortal and would make mortal mind a slave to the body.
CHILDREN. The spiritual thoughts and representa- tives of Life, Truth, and Love.
Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in em- bryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, sub- stance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being.
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The representatives of Soul, not corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting out error and healing the sick; Christ's offspring.
CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.
CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; what- ever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the ap- prehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Prin- ciple; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.
DAN (Jacob's son). Animal magnetism; so-called mor- tal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.
DAY. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love.
"And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis i. 5.) The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and "there shall be no night there."
DEATH. An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the un- real and untrue; the opposite of Life.
Matter has no life, hence it has no real existence. Mind is immortal. The flesh, warring against Spirit; that which frets itself free from one belief only to be fettered by another, until every belief of life where Life is not yields to eternal Life. Any material evidence of death is false, for it contradicts the spiritual facts of being.
DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness, and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of the flesh, which saith: " I am life and intelligence in matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind, - a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image."
DOVE. A symbol of divine Science; purity and peace; hope and faith.
DUST. Nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or intelligence.
EARS. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding.
Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)
EARTH. A sphere; a type of eternity and immortality, which are likewise without beginning or end.
To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense, it is a compound idea.
ELIAS. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to mate- rial sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality.
"Elias truly shall first come and restore all things." (Matthew xvii. 11.)
ERROR. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 472.
EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the place of physics; the reign of righteousness. The atmos- phere of human belief before it accepts sin, sickness, or death; a state of mortal thought, the only error of which is limitation; finity; the opposite of infinity.
EVE. A beginning; mortality; that which does not last forever; a finite belief concerning life, substance, and intelligence in matter; error; the belief that the hu- man race originated materially instead of spiritually, - that man started first from dust, second from a rib, and third from an egg.
EVENING. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest.
EYES. Spiritual discernment, - not material but mental.
Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, "Having eyes, see ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)
FAN. Separator of fable from fact; that which gives action to thought.
FATHER. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine Principle, commonly called God.
FEAR. Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error; desire; caution.
FIRE. Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; afflic- tion purifying and elevating man.
FIRMAMENT. Spiritual understanding; the scientific line of demarcation between Truth and error, between Spirit and so-called matter.
FLESH. An error of physical belief; a supposition that life, substance, and intelligence are in matter; an illusion; a belief that matter has sensation.
GAD (Jacob's son). Science; spiritual being under- stood; haste towards harmony.
GETHSEMANE. Patient woe; the human yielding to the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining love.
GHOST. An illusion; a belief that mind is outlined and limited; a supposition that spirit is finite.
GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly, and socially.
GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
GODS. Mythology; a belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material; a supposition of sentient physicality; the belief that infinite Mind is in finite forms; the various theories that hold mind to be a material sense, existing in brain, nerve, matter; supposi- titious minds, or souls, going in and out of matter, erring and mortal; the serpents of error, which say, "Ye shall be as gods."
God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot be- come finite and imperfect.
GOOD. God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; om- nipresence; omni-action.
HAM (Noah's son). Corporeal belief; sensuality; slavery; tyranny.
HEART. Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows.
HEAVEN. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul.
HELL. Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-de- struction, self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which "worketh abomination or maketh a lie."
HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and acknowledged.
HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love.
I, or EGO. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incor- poreal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.
There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman un- changed forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle. All the objects of God's creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material.
I AM. God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine Principle; the only Ego.
IN. A term obsolete in Science if used with reference to Spirit, or Deity.
INTELLIGENCE. Substance; self-existent and eternal Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 469.
ISSACHAR (Jacob's son). A corporeal belief; the offspring of error; envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will; lust.
JACOB. A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, re- pentance, sensualism. Inspiration; the revelation of Science, in which the so-called material senses yield to the spiritual sense of Life and Love.
JAPHET (Noah's son). A type of spiritual peace, flow- ing from the understanding that God is the divine Prin- ciple of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child of His care.
JERUSALEM. Mortal belief and knowledge obtained from the five corporeal senses; the pride of power and the power of pride; sensuality; envy; oppression; tyr- anny. Home, heaven.
JESUS. The highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality.
JOSEPH. A corporeal mortal; a higher sense of Truth rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immor- tality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing its enemies.
JUDAH. A corporeal material belief progressing and disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing.
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The rein of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.
KNOWLEDGE. Evidence obtained from the five cor- poreal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not divine and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the oppo- site of spiritual Truth and understanding.
LAMB OF GOD. The spiritual idea of Love; self-im- molation; innocence and purity; sacrifice.
LEVI (Jacob's son). A corporeal and sensual belief; mortal man; denial of the fulness of God's creation; ecclesiastical despotism.
LIFE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.
LORD. In the Hebrew, this term is sometimes em- ployed as a title, which has the inferior sense of master, or ruler. In the Greek, the word kurios almost always has this lower sense, unless specially coupled with the name God. Its higher signification is Supreme Ruler.
LORD GOD. Jehovah.
This double term is not used in the first chapter of Genesis, the record of spiritual creation. It is intro- duced in the second and following chapters, when the spiritual sense of God and of infinity is disappearing from the recorder's thought, - when the true scientific statements of the Scriptures become clouded through a
MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spirit- ual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind.
MATTER. Mythology; mortality; another name for mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death, and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the oppo- site of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees, feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief.
MIND. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined.
MIRACLE. That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science.
MORNING. Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and progress.
MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something, for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other errors; a suppositional material sense, alias the belief
MOSES. A corporeal mortal; moral courage; a type of moral law and the demonstration thereof; the proof that, without the gospel, - the union of justice and affec- tion, - there is something spiritually lacking, since justice demands penalties under the law.
MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, Truth, and Love.
NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven, or reign of harmony.
NIGHT. Darkness; doubt; fear.
NOAH. A corporeal mortal; knowledge of the noth- ingness of material things and of the immortality of all that is spiritual.
OIL. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heav- enly inspiration.
PHARISEE. Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-right- eousness; vanity; hypocrisy.
PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and their immortality.
PRINCIPLE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 465.
PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of mate- rial sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth.
PURSE. Laying up treasures in matter; error.
RED DRAGON. Error; fear; inflammation; sensuality; subtlety; animal magnetism; envy; revenge.
RESURRECTION. Spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding.
REUBEN (Jacob's son). Corporeality; sensuality; de- lusion; mortality; error.
RIVER. Channel of thought. When smooth and unobstructed, it typifies the course of Truth; but muddy, foaming, and dashing, it is a type of error.
ROCK. Spiritual foundation; Truth. Coldness and stubbornness.
SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed.
SEAL. The signet of error revealed by Truth
SERPENT (ophis, in Greek; nacash, in Hebrew). Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error; the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo- site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin, sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that there was another power, named evil, which was as real and eternal as God, good.
SHEEP. Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow their leader.
SHEM (Noah's son). A corporeal mortal; kindly affec-
SON. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ. The son of man, the offspring of the flesh. " Son of a year."
SOULS. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 466.
SPIRIT. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, ever- lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.
SPIRITS. Mortal beliefs; corporeality; evil minds; supposed intelligences, or gods; the opposites of God; errors; hallucinations. (See page 466.)
SUBSTANCE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.
SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, - of Truth, Life, and Love.
SWORD. The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge; anger.
TARES. Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease; death.
TEMPLE. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and in- telligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congre- gate for worship.
THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine Science. The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us for the office of spiritual teaching.
TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are summed tip all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal disappears and spiritual perfection appears.
TITHE. Contribution; tenth part; homage; gratitude. A sacrifice to the gods.
UNCLEANLINESS. Impure thoughts; error; sin; dirt.
UNGODLINESS. Opposition to the divine Principle and its spiritual idea.
UNKNOWN. That which spiritual sense alone compre- hends, and which is unknown to the material senses.
Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings God much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as the All-in-all, forever near.
Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated "to the unknown God." Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." (Acts xvii. 23.)
URIM. Light.
The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast- plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination, but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High.
VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness.
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm xxiii.4.)
Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought, the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris- tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud and blossom as the rose.
VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy. The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token
The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere- monies. The motives and affections of a man were of little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the hypocrisy, which offered long petitions for blessings upon material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought, which was ready to spring into action and crucify God's anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re- vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super- ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superstition their coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science, - immortality and Love.
WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon- taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.
WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani- mal power. The might and wisdom of God. "For this is the will of God." (I Thessalonians iv. 3.)
Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong- doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities.
WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo- tence and the movements of God's spiritual government, encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal passions.
The Greek word for wind (pneuma) is used also for spirit, as in the passage in John's Gospel, the third chap- ter, where we read: "The wind [pneuma] bloweth where it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit [pneuma]." Here the original word is the same in both cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly to employ words of material significance in order to unfold spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed death, we read: "He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost;" but this word ghost is pneuma. It might be trans- lated wind or air, and the phrase is equivalent to our common statement, "He breathed his last." What Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.
WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica- tion; temptation; passion.
YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality; space for repentance.
"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years." (II Peter iii. 8.)
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity. This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci- ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un- known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which
YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.
ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.
ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in- spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful- ness; desolation.
CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - JESUS.
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. - PAUL.
Let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. - SOLOMON'S SONG.
THOUSANDS of letters could be presented in testimony of the healing efficacy of Christian Science and particularly concerning the vast number of people who have been reformed and healed through the perusal or study of this book.
For the assurance and encouragement of the reader, a few of these letters are here republished from THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL and CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SENTINEL. The originals are in the possession of the Editor, who can authenticate the testimonials which follow.
RHEUMATISM HEALED
I was a great sufferer from a serious form of rheumatic trouble, my hands being affected to such an extent that it was impossible for me even to dress without assistance. The trouble finally reached the knees, and I became very lame and had to be assisted in and out of bed. I went to the different health resorts for the benefit I hoped to derive from the baths and waters that were prescribed by
At that time a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy was loaned me. I read it more from curiosity than with the thought of any physical benefit. As the truth was unfolded to me, I realized that the mental condition was what needed correcting, and that the Spirit of truth which inspired this book was my physician. My healing is complete, and the liberation in thought is manifest in a life of active usefulness rather than the bondage of helpless invalidism and suffering. I owe to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, gratitude which words cannot express. Her revelation of the practical rather than the merely theoretical application of Jesus' words, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," proved to be my redeemer. I did not even have to apply to a practitioner, but am most grateful for the helpful words of loving friends. - E. B. B., Pasadena, Cal.
ASTIGMATISM AND HERNIA HEALED
It is nearly five years since I bought my first copy of Science and Health, the reading of which cured me of chronic constipation, nervous headache, astigmatism, and hernia, in less than four months.
Where would I be now, had not this blessed truth been brought to me by much persuasion of a very dear friend?
I certainly should have been deep in the slough of despond, if not in the grave. Am I truly thankful for all the good that has come to me and mine? I try to let my works testify of that; but to those whom I do not meet in person, I can truly say, Yes; I am indeed more thankful than words can express for the glorious healing that has come to me, both physical, mental, and moral, and I also convey herein, my song of gratitude to the dear Leader who has through her fidelity to Truth enabled me to touch at least the hem of Christ's garment. - B. S. J., Sioux City, Iowa.
SUBSTANCE OF LUNGS RESTORED
It was about fifteen years ago that Christian Science first came to my notice. At that time I had been a chronic invalid for a good many years. I had acute bowel trouble, bronchitis, and a number of other troubles. One physician had told me that my lungs were like wet paper, ready to tear at any time, and I was filled with fear, as my mother, two brothers, and a sister had been victims of consumption. I tried many physicians and every material remedy that promised help, but no help came until I found a copy of Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health. The book was placed in my hands by one who did not then appreciate it, and I was told that it would be hard for me to understand it. I commenced reading it with this thought, but I caught beautiful glimpses of Truth, which took away my fear and healed me of all those diseases, and they have never returned.
I would also like to tell how I was healed of a sprained
FIBROID TUMOR HEALED IN A FEW DAYS
My gratitude for Christian Science is boundless. I was afflicted with a fibroid tumor which weighed not less than fifty pounds, attended by a continuous hemorrhage for eleven years. The tumor was a growth of eighteen years.
I lived in Fort Worth, Tex., and I had never heard of Christian Science before leaving there for Chicago in the year 1887. I had tried to live near to God, and I feel sure He guided me in all my steps to this healing and saving truth. After being there several weeks
Changing my boarding-place, I met a lady who owned a copy of Science and Health, and in speaking to her of having seen the book, she informed me she had one, and she got it and told me I could read it. The revelation was marvelous and brought a great spiritual awakening. This awakened sense never left me, and one day when walking alone it came to me very suddenly that I was healed, and I walked the faster declaring every step that I was healed. When I reached my boarding-place, I found my hostess and told her I was healed. She looked the picture of amazement. The tumor began to disappear at once, the hemorrhage ceased, and perfect strength was manifest.
There was no joy ever greater than mine for this Christ-cure, for I was very weary and heavy laden. I thought very little of either sleeping or eating, and my heart was filled with gratitude, since I knew I had touched the hem of his garment.
I must add that the reading of Science and Health, and that alone, healed me, and it was the second copy I ever saw. - S. L., Fort Worth, Tex.
INSANITY AND EPILEPSY HEALED
While an inmate of the State asylum for the insane at Middletown, Conn., an epileptic, and at times confined to my bed with bilious attacks, pronounced incurable by the doctors (at least six in number), the book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mrs. Eddy was
I trust that this testimony to the healing power of Truth, realized by reading Science and Health (for I had no treatment), may reach the eye of some to whom the battle seems long, and inspire them with fresh courage and a realization of the worth of the victory. I am filled with inexpressible gratitude and love to God, and to Mrs. Eddy. - Mrs. B. B. C., Stamford, Conn.
A CASE OF MENTAL SURGERY
I have felt for some time I should give my experience in mental surgery. In May, 1902, going home for lunch, on a bicycle, and while riding down a hill at a rapid gait, I was thrown from the wheel, and falling on my left side with my arm under my head, the bone was broken about half-way between the shoulder and elbow. While the pain was intense, I lay still in the dust,
I said nothing to my family of the accident, but attended to some duties and was about half an hour late in returning to the office, this being my only loss of time from work. My friends claimed that the arm had not been broken, as it would have been impossible for me to continue my work without having it set, and carrying it in a sling until the bone knit together. Their insistence almost persuaded me that I might have been mistaken, until one of my friends invited me to visit a physician's office where they were experimenting with an X-ray machine. The physician was asked to examine my left arm to see if it differed from the ordinary. On looking through it, he said, "Yes, it has been broken, but whoever set it made a perfect job of it, and you will never have any further trouble from that break." My friend then asked the doctor to show how he could tell where the break had been. The doctor pointed out the place as being slightly thicker at that part, like a piece of steel that had been welded. This was the first of several cases of mental surgery that have come under my notice, and it made a deep impression on me.
For the benefit of others who may have something similar to meet, I will say that I have overcome almost constant attacks of sick headaches, extending back to my earliest recollection. - L. C. S., Salt Lake City, Utah.
CATARACT QUICKLY CURED
I wish to add my testimony to those of others, and hope that it may be the means of bringing some poor sufferer to health, to happiness, and to God. I was healed through simply reading this wonderful book, Science and Health. I had been troubled periodically for many years with sore eyes, and had been to many doctors, who called the disease iritis and cataract. They told me that my eyes would always give me trouble, and that I would eventually lose my sight if I remained in an office, and advised me to go under an operation. Later on I had to wear glasses at my work, also out of doors as I could not bear the winds, and my eyes were gradually becoming worse. I could not read for longer than a few minutes at a time, otherwise they would smart severely. I had to rest my eyes each evening to enable me to use them the next day; in fact gas-light was getting unbearable because of the pain, and I made home miserable. A dear brother told me about Christian Science, and said that if I would read Science and Health it would help me. He procured for me the loan of the book. The first night I read it, it so interested me I quite forgot all about my eyes until my wife remarked that it was eleven o'clock. I found that I had been reading this book for nearly four hours, and I remarked immediately after, "I believe my eyes are cured," which was really
VALVULAR HEART DISEASE HEALED
Fourteen years ago my heart awoke to gratitude to God and the dear Leader at the same time. After a patient and persistent effort of three months' duration, to procure a copy of Science and Health (during which time I had visited every bookstore, and many of the second-hand bookstores in the city of St. Paul), and had failed to find it, I at last remembered that the stranger who told me I might be healed, had mentioned a name, and McVicker's Theatre Building in Chicago as being in some way connected with the work. I sent there for information regarding a book called Health and Science, and the return mail brought me the book, Science and Health, and in it I at once found sure promise of deliverance from valvular heart disease, with all the accompaniments, such as extreme nervousness, weakness, dyspepsia, and insomnia. I had suffered from these all my life, finding no permanent relief, even, in material remedies, and no hope of cure at any time. Only those who have been healed in such bondage and have been liberated by the same means, can know the eager joy of the first perusal of that wonderful book.
Half a day's reading convinced me that I had found the way to holiness and health. I read on, thinking only of the spiritual enlightenment, content to wait until I should be led to some person who would heal me; but old things had passed away, and all things had become new. I was completely healed before I had met a Scientist, or one who knew anything about Christian Science, and before I had read a line of any other Christian Science literature except one leaf of a tract; so it is absolutely certain that the healing was entirely impersonal, as was also the teaching, which enabled me to begin at once demonstrating the power of Truth to destroy all forms of error. - E. J. W., North Yakima, Wash.
THE TRUE PHYSICIAN FOUND
It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I send the particulars of my healing through Christian Science. While visiting friends in the southwestern part of Ontario, about three years ago, my attention was called to Christian Science and the wonderful healing it was doing. I had lived in New York for twenty-five years, but had never heard of Christian Science before, to my recollection.
Up to that time, for seventeen years, I had suffered with indigestion and gastritis in the worst form, often being overcome from a seeming pressure against the heart. I had asthma for four years, also had worn glasses for four years. It seemed to me that I had swallowed every known medicine to relieve my indigestion, but they only gave me temporary benefit. I purchased a copy of Science and Health, and simply from the reading of that
While I fully appreciate the release from my physical troubles, this pales into insignificance in comparison with the spiritual uplifting Christian Science has brought me. I had not been inside a church for more than ten years, to attend regular services, until I entered a Christian Science church. What I saw and realized there, seemed so genuine that I loved Christian Science from the very start. I have never taken a treatment, - every inch of the way has been through study and practical demonstration, and I know that all can do the same thing if they will try.
Since I have been in Science I have overcome a case of ulcerated tooth in one night through the reading of Science and Health; also a severe attack of grip in thirty-six hours by obeying the Scripture saying, "Physician, heal thyself." - B. H. N., New York, N. Y.
CANCER AND CONSUMPTION HEALED
I was a great sufferer for many years from internal cancer and consumption. I was treated by the best of
I will mention a demonstration of painless childbirth which I have had since coming to Idaho. Perhaps it may help some sister who is looking through the Journal for a demonstration of this kind, as I was before my baby came. Good help being scarce here, I did my housework up to the time I was confined, and was in perfect health. I awoke my husband one morning at five o'clock, and at half past five baby was born, no one being present but my husband and myself. It was quite a surprise to the rest of the family to see me sitting by the fire with a new baby on my lap. My son got the breakfast, of which I ate heartily; at noon I joined the family in the dining-room. I was out on the porch the second day, around the yard the third day, and have been perfectly well ever since, which has been now over three years. To one who had previously passed through agony untold, with a physician in attendance, this seemed wonderful. I hope this will interest some one who is seeking the truth, and I wish to express my sincere love for our beloved
A REMARKABLE CASE
Nine years ago my only child was hovering between life and death. Some of the best physicians in Boston had pronounced his case incurable, saying that if he lived he would always be an invalid and a cripple. One of the diseases was gastric catarrh. He was allowed to eat but very few things, and even after taking every precaution, he suffered to the extent that he would lie in spasms for half a day. He also had rickets; physicians saying that there was not a natural bone in his body.
It was while he was in what seemed to be his greatest agony, and when I was in the darkest despair, that I first heard of Christian Science. The bearer of the joyful tidings could only tell me to come and hear of the wonderful things that Christian Science was doing. I accepted the invitation, for I was willing to try anything to save my child, and the following Friday evening I attended my first meeting, which was in The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist. Long before the service began every seat was filled, which was amazing to me, being an ordinary weekly meeting, and that night I realized from the testimonies given that Christian Science was the religion for which I had been searching for years. The next day I went to find a practitioner, but was unable to get the one who had been recommended, he being too busy. On my way home I thought of some of the testimonies which I had heard the night before, - of people being
I read it silently and audibly, day and night, in my home, and although I could not seem to understand it, yet the healing commenced to take place at once. The little mouth which had been twisted by spasms grew natural and the child was soon able to be up, playing and romping about the house as any child should. About this time we decided to move to the far West.
I was young in Science at the time, and my husband greatly feared that the journey would cause a relapse for the child, but instead, he continued to improve. I constantly read the Bible, Science and Health, and Miscellaneous Writings, the two weeks we traveled, and we were the only ones in our car who, throughout the journey, did not get train sick. The child's limbs grew perfectly straight, he ate anything he wanted, and for years he has been a natural, healthy child in every way. He has passed through some of the worst forms of contagion untouched and unharmed.
I had been reading Science and Health several months, before I gave any thought to myself and my numerous complaints. I had never been very strong, and some of my ailments were supposed to be hereditary and chronic, hence I dragged through many tedious years with a belief in medical laws and hereditary laws resting upon me.
INTENSE SUFFERING OVERCOME
For about five years I was afflicted with sciatic rheumatism, in such a severe form that my body was drawn out of shape. When able to be around, I walked with the assistance of a cane. The attacks were periodical, recurring every few months; any exposure to rain or dampness would bring one. At one time I was in bed eleven weeks, suffering intensely all the time except when relieved by hypodermic injections. When I had these attacks, my regular physician was always in attendance. My daughter consulted another physician, who said there
After suffering three years I heard of Christian Science, but did not avail myself of it for two years, when I decided to give up all other means and rely wholly upon it. It was not convenient to call a practitioner, so I took Science and Health and applied its teachings as best I could. In three days the trouble completely left me and there has never been the slightest return. My health has been good ever since, and I am at present in perfect physical health. I have been benefited in every way by Christian Science, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and would not be without my understanding of it for anything. - Mrs. E. A. K., Billings, Mont.
HEALED OF RHEUMATISM AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE
I am very thankful to God for what He has done for me. I was suddenly left alone, with many troubles and trials, and I took up the study of the Bible. I was trying to understand it, prior to joining some church, as it seemed to me this would be expected. I had attended all sorts of churches from my childhood up, but never could find any that met my need. As time passed on, my condition became very alarming. Sciatic rheumatism, that had troubled me for some years, became so severe I could scarcely do anything.
About this time I made some inquiries of my sister in reference to Christian Science, as she had already turned to that faith, and I soon found that it was just what I had been looking for. I saw at once that it declared the truth and nothing but the truth. I commenced reading Science and Health, also the New Testament. I wanted to find out what Jesus said, as I did not expect then to live long. I did not go to the meetings, nor did I read Science and Health to be cured, - not thinking of that, - but to be saved from an everlasting hell hereafter. My sister urged me to have a practitioner, but I kept on reading, and praying to God in silence, and what happened? Where had the diseases gone? I persisted in reading Science and Health, together with the Bible, with the knowledge that God as revealed by Christ Jesus can do everything, that He made everything that was made, that He can and does heal the afflicted. He has healed me, thanks to His most holy name. - G. J. H., Charleston, Ill.
GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS
In the year 1901, Christian Science found me a hopeless invalid. I had suffered for seven years previous with a very painful back, the result of an operation. I could
I am no longer a sufferer, but rejoice exceedingly in Christian Science. God's promise has been fulfilled to me, " But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." - E. O., Georgetown, Wash.
FREED FROM NEURASTHENIC AND OTHER TROUBLES
Christian Science found in me a minister's son who had failed to profit by continuous teaching in the old thought. Some years ago I was pronounced by a professor of materia medica, whose works are in general use, a neurasthenic. I had been in this condition more or less for eight years, and up to two years ago, when Christian Science was first brought to my attention (thanks to Almighty God) through a kind friend, I was almost constantly taking medicine and had in all eleven physicians who undoubtedly did their best, but without avail, not-
I started to read Science and Health, and before I had half finished the book once I was eating everything that any one does. I read the book eleven times straight ahead and many times skipping about. The book has done the work and I am a well man. - C. E. M., Philadelphia, Pa.
MANY ILLS OVERCOME
I have received much help, spiritually and physically, through Christian Science. I had what the doctors diagnosed as muscular rheumatism, dropsy, and constipation of thirty years' standing. A dear friend whom I had known as an invalid had been healed by Christian Science and advised me to read Science and Health. I did so, having a desire to know the truth. One of my troubles was that I could not sleep. I began reading the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, and troubles of every kind disappeared before I had read Science and Health through. The thought came, What about the old remedies? but truth prevailed, and I took all the
A HELPFUL HEALING
I became interested in Christian Science about eleven years ago, and was healed of neuralgia of the stomach, from which I had suffered from a child. As I grew older, the spells became more frequent and more severe; the only relief physicians could give me was by hypodermic injections of morphine. Finally, after each spell, I would be prostrated for a day or two with the after-effect of the morphine. I was entirely healed of this trouble through the study of Science and Health. I think I never realized what fear meant until I began to try and put into practice my understanding of Christian Science for my children. I have proved, however, many times, that fear can neither help nor hinder in our demonstration of truth. The first time I realized this was in the overcoming of a severe case of croup for my little boy. I was awakened one night by the sound that seems to bring terror to every mother's heart, and found the little fellow sitting up in bed, gasping for breath. I got up, took him in my arms, and went into the next room. My first thought was, "O if only there was another Christian Scientist in town!" But there was not, and the work must be done and done quickly. I tried
RELIEF FROM MANY ILLS
Paul said, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." In my own case deafness has been overcome by an enlarged understanding of God's word, as explained by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. Many times I have been enabled to turn to God, to know it was His will to help in trouble, and obtained the needed benefit. Catarrh has disappeared; tonsilitis, which very frequently laid me aside from duties in the schoolroom and home, is no longer manifest. When temptation comes (for Christian Science is both preventive and curative), I turn to that wonderful book, Science and Health, and my precious Bible, grown dearer since read in the new light
Thus in my experience in Christian Science, I have seen the transformation begun, and Truth is able to perfect that which is begun in me so gloriously. - Mrs. C.A. McL., Brooklyn, Nova Scotia.
HEALTH AND PEACE ATTAINED
For fifteen years I was a great sufferer physically and mentally. Eminent physicians treated me for hereditary consumption, torpid liver, and many other diseases. I sought relief at famous springs, the ozone of Florida, and the pure air of Colorado, but in vain. My life was one ceaseless torture.
During all this time, however, I was an earnest seeker after Truth. I examined every religious teaching with a calm and unprejudiced attention. From an orthodox Protestant I became a skeptic, and a follower of Voltaire, Tom Paine, and Ingersoll; yet all the while I retained faith in a supreme intelligent Being who made all. Sick, weary, doubting, and despairing, I accidentally went into a Christian Science church in New York City, on a Wednesday evening, not knowing what kind of a place it was. Seeing a large number of people going into the building, I followed, supposing that a marriage ceremony had attracted the crowd. Being informed it was their regular Wednesday evening service, I inquired as to the denomination. I concluded that it was another new fad, but after investigation I procured a copy of Science and Health, promising I would read it carefully. I began
I remained in that attitude a few moments, when I felt like the mariner who had been tossed for days upon a boisterous sea, the clouds bending low, the billows rolling high, all nature wrapped in darkness; in his despair he kneels and commits his soul to God, when he suddenly beholds the North Star breaking through the clouds, enabling him to guide his ship to the shores of safety. Many things were made plain to me. I saw that there is one Fatherhood of God and one brotherhood of man; that though "once I was blind, now I see;" that there was no more pain, nor aches, no fear, nor indigestion. I slept that night like a babe and awoke next morning refreshed. There are now no traces whatever of my former complaint and I feel like a new being. - L. P., New York, N. Y.
HEALTH AND PEACE GAINED
About nine years ago I was drawn to Christian Science by a relative whose many afflictions had given place to health and harmony, and whose loving gratitude was reflected in every word and deed. The thought came to me, God indeed healeth all our diseases.
My first reading of Science and Health was without understanding. I was full of darkness and gloom, and it was laid aside for a time. The good seed had been sown, however, and erelong the reading was resumed,
CONSUMPTION QUICKLY CURED
I became interested in Christian Science nearly five years ago through the healing of my wife of what the doctors called consumption in its last stages. I had tried everything that I could get in the way of materia medica, and every doctor would tell me nearly the same story about the case. At last they recommended for her only a higher, drier climate, and when she would be at her worst to give her something to quiet her.
I tried different climates, but she was no better, indeed worse. At last she struggled along until the first of March, 1899. She had taken to her bed again. For two days and nights she suffered, and I called a physician. He came and diagnosed the case, and said that he could do nothing for her but give her some morphine tablets to make her rest. I gave her two of them according to direction, and just before the time to give her the third, she called me to her bedside, and said, " Don't give me any more of that stuff, for it does me more harm than good," so I turned and placed them in the fire, though I did not then know anything about Christian Science. We had heard of it, but
A PROFITABLE STUDY
It may help others to know that some one was really healed of severe illness through Christian Science. It is over nine years since we first became interested in the Science, and it would be hard to find a healthier person than I am now. I can go all day, from morning till night, upheld by the thought that "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." I can truly say that I scarcely know what physical weariness is any more. Before I came into Science the physicians said that one lung was gone, and that the other was affected with tuberculosis; so, from their standpoint, there was little left for me to hope for. We had tried every remedy that they had suggested. I had
At that time, a lady, a stranger to us, suggested that we try Christian Science. There was no prejudice against it, as we did not even know what it was. We knew of no Scientists in the Western town where we were living, and when we were told that we could send to Kansas City for absent treatment, we thought it was absurd. We were then told that many people had been healed through the reading of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, and to us this seemed a little worse than the absent treatment, but as we had tried everything we had heard of up to that time, my mother sent for the book.
It came in the middle of October and we began to read it together. It seemed to me from the first that it was something I had always believed, but did not know how to express - it seemed such a natural thing. My improvement was very gradual, but I felt I was recovering. After the Christmas holidays I started in at school and went the whole term without missing a day, - something I had never done before. I finished my school course without missing a day - in fact, I have not spent a day in bed since that time. I feel absolutely certain that I have two sound, healthy lungs now. The hollows
People sometimes say, "Oh, well, maybe you never had consumption." Well, I had all the symptoms, and they are every one gone through the reading of Science and Health. - E. L. B., Chicago, Ill.
HEALED OF INFIDELITY AND MANY PHYSICAL ILLS
I feel compelled to write my testimony and hope that I may be accepted as one more witness to the Truth as contained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
In the year 1883 I first heard of Christian Science. I was sitting in a saloon in Leadville, Col., reading a daily paper of that place. My eyes lighted upon an article which spoke of some peculiar people in Boston who claimed to have discovered how to heal as Jesus healed. I do not remember much of the article, but those words stayed with me.
I had drifted out to Colorado from New York City (my home), where I had been under the treatment of many leading physicians. The last one, who was too honest to take my money knowing that he could not cure me, advised me to keep away from doctors and quit taking medicine, as nothing but death could cure me. My trouble was pronounced by some to be Bright's disease, by others gravel on the kidneys with very acute inflammation of the bladder and prostate gland.
In the spring of 1888 my wife and myself were spending the evening at the house of a gentleman whose wife had been healed in the East by Christian Science. The
I kept up my study of Science and Health and the disease disappeared. I can honestly say that Science and Health was my only healer, and it has been my only teacher. - R. A. C., Los Angeles, Cal.
DISEASED EYES CURED
Christian Science came to me when I was a wreck, my body being completely covered with sores. My eyes were very bad, so that I sat in a darkened room for weeks together, most of the time in bed under opiates. The home doctor and a specialist said the disease of the eyes could not be cured, though they might help me for a while. I had one operation, and the doctor said if I took cold I would become totally blind. My suffering was beyond telling.
THE TEXTBOOK HEALED ME
For twelve years previous to the fall of 1897 I had been under the care of a physician much of the time. Different opinions were given by them, as to the nature of the trouble, some diagnosing it as an abnormal growth, etc. I was healed through reading" Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It was a clear case of transformation of the body by the renewal of the mind. I am perfectly well at the present time. - J. M. H., Omaha, Neb.
OBSTINATE STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED
There is no doubt that by far the greater number come to Christian Science by the way of physical healing, but
Here is where Christian Science found me. I was thrown in contact with a dear friend of whom I had seen very little for a year or more, a thoroughly educated woman and a thinker. She told me she had taken some treatments in Christian Science for a physical trouble, and had become very much interested in the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. She asked me if I would like to look at the book, and I said I would be glad to do so. The first chapter, "Prayer," appealed to me from the first, and when I came to Mrs. Eddy's spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer (Science and Health, p. 17), my interest was fully aroused. I knew that in a dim way I was learning what it means to "pray
I stood very much in need of physical healing at this time, having suffered for several years from an obstinate form of stomach trouble. So far as I know, I gave no thought to the benefits I might derive physically from the study, but I did believe this Science held the truth of things, and I was so absorbed in getting an understanding of the Principle that I thought very little of myself. After about three or four months' study I realized that the stomach trouble was gone, and with it went other physical troubles, which have never returned. This healing was brought about by the earnest, conscientious seeking for the truth, as contained in the Bible and interpreted by our Leader in our textbook, Science and Health. I have since learned more of the Science of healing and have been able in a small way to help others in need. I have also learned that in living and loving is healing realized, and in reflecting divine Love I have the "signs following."
When we think of the pure, loving, unselfish life Mrs. Eddy must have lived in order to become conscious of this truth and give it to us, words are a poor medium through which to express the gratitude which her followers feel for her. It is best expressed by obediently following her, even as she is following Christ. - H. T., Omaha, Neb.
DYSPEPSIA QUICKLY HEALED
It has occurred to me that I have had ample time to meditate on the many blessings which I have received
I can truthfully say that I was permanently, and I might say instantly, healed of those two ailments by reading Science and Health as before stated, and in fact I do not think I had read more than thirty pages of this book when I ignored entirely the most rigid kind of diet. I ate and drank everything I wished without a single harmful effect from that time to this date, and there has not been a drop of medicine in our home for more than six years, in a family of five.
I have also seen the power of Truth manifested in our home by having our youngest child relieved of the most excruciating pain, and changed to his most playful mood, immediately upon notifying one of the faithful practitioners of this city. For all this I am endeavoring to be thankful to God and to our faithful Leader, Mrs. Eddy, whose pure and undefiled life enabled her to discover this precious truth for the benefit of all mankind. - M. C. McK., Denver, Col.
AFTER TWENTY YEARS' SUFFERING
From early girlhood I was considered an invalid, having been injured by a hard fall while playing. The pain was intense for some time and for several hours I was unable
When Christian Science found me I was under the doctor's sentence that if I lived the week through I would become entirely helpless, not able to move hand or foot. My husband was a travelling man, and being urgently called home, he met an old friend on the train who asked why we did not try Christian Science. The reply, We know nothing of it, was followed by a brief explanation of its healing power and the benefit his family had received. This inspired my husband with new hope, and on his arrival at home he called on a practitioner, who recommended our getting Science and Health, which we did, but ignorance and the prejudice of old education produced such fear that I hid the book under the covers of the bed whenever the children came into the room, fearing that it was not of God and would injure them. God's dear love was, however, more potent than these foolish fears, and the first day I read from its sacred pages I was convinced its teachings were the same truths as Jesus Christ had taught centuries ago. When I had read a few pages, I reached out and threw my medicine from the open window at the head of my bed. I then turned back to the book and began reading again, when, lo, the Christ-idea dawned upon me, and I was healed instantaneously.
I first noticed the spot in my back cooling, and soon I got out of bed. I continued to read eagerly; I felt as if I wanted to devour the healing truth, and drank it in as a thirsty plant does the gentle rain. When dinner was prepared, I walked out and ate a hearty meal with the family, to the amazement of all. We shall never forget what a joyful meal this was. How we did thank God for Christian Science!
As year after year has gone by, till twenty years have passed and the healing has remained perfect, I have grown to thank God with deeper sincerity that one brave woman was found pure enough to bring forth this Christ-healing again, to remain forever among men and to save suffering humanity from all disease and sin. - Mrs. P. L. H., Fairmont, Minn.
FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE AND JOY
I have often had a desire to make public what Christian Science has done for me, but I never could tell of all my blessings, they are so many. From childhood I was always sick, never knew one hour of rest, and was under the doctor's care most of the time. I was living in the East at that time, and was advised to try change of climate, which I did. I came West with my family in the spring of the year, but instead of growing better I grew steadily worse, until at last I was obliged to keep my bed for nearly three years, - a great sufferer. My ailments were, it seemed, all that flesh is heir to, and were called incurable by the doctors; viz., Bright's disease, and many others, - in the last stages. My case was known among physicians, many of whom were prominent
It was then I realized that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." The "little book" was handed me at this hour of great need. I read it, not thinking it would heal me, but, like a drowning man, I grasped at it. I read it, read it again, and soon found myself growing stronger; then I kept on reading and was perfectly healed of all the supposedly incurable diseases. - L. B., Austin, Minn.
TRUTH MAKES FREE
As the son of a physician, a graduate in pharmacy, and an ex-druggist, I had a perfect contempt for what I thought Christian Science to be. About six and a half years ago, however, having exhausted all material means at my command, - materia medica, electricity, gymnastics, cycling, and so on, - and being in a hopeless state, the study of Christian Science was taken up. I had been a sufferer from catarrh and sore throat for over thirty years, and in the last five were added several others, including dyspepsia, and bronchitis, and a loss in flesh of sixty pounds. I was completely healed, and regained health, strength, and flesh through the spiritual understanding of Christian Science, the result of about six weeks' study. This good and perfect gift came to me through the careful and prayerful study of Christian Science, as revealed to the world to-day through Science
While most grateful for the physical healing, my gratitude for the mental and spiritual regeneration is beyond expression. When I learned that Jesus' mission of healing sickness as well as sin did not end with his short stay upon earth, but is practical in all ages, my joy was unbounded. Having spent thousands in the old way, it seemed wonderful to be healed at such small cost as the price of the "little book" and a few weeks' study. Every thought of prejudice immediately vanished before the proofs that Christian Science is indeed the elucidation and practical application of Jesus' teachings, which are demonstrable truth, "The same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." - C. N. C., Memphis, Tenn.
DEAF EARS UNSTOPPED
As a mother of a family my heart goes out in love and gratitude to that good woman we are privileged to call our Leader, for all she has done through her book for me and mine.
Ten years ago I was healed of hereditary deafness and catarrh of the head, simply through reading the book, Science and Health. For years previous I had consulted and taken treatment from some of the best specialists for the ear and throat, both in England and America, but grew worse all the time. I was then urged by a lady who had been healed through Christian Science to buy this book and study it. I did so very reluctantly, but
That for which I am, however, most grateful, is the daily help it is to me in my household of young children. I am sure if mothers only knew what Christian Science truly means they would give all they possess to know it. We have seen croup, measles, fever, and various other children's complaints, so-called, disappear like dew before the morning sun, through the application of Christian Science, - the understanding of God as ever-present and omnipotent. It has been proven to me without a doubt that God is a very present help in trouble, and what a blessed help this wonderful truth is in the training of our children, and how quickly the child grasps it.
Some time ago my little girl, then three years old, dislocated her shoulder. I was alone in the house at the time. The pain was so intense that she became faint. I treated her the best I knew how, but kept holding the thought that just as soon as some one came I would run for help. She seemed to grow worse and cried very much. I undressed her and tried to twist the arm into place, but it caused such suffering that I began to get afraid. Then like a flash came the thought, What would you do if you were out of the reach of a practitioner? Now is your time to prove God's power and presence. With these thoughts came such a sense of calm and trustfulness that I lost all fear. I then asked the child if I should read to her; she said "Yes, mamma, read the truth-book." I began reading aloud to her from Science and Health. In about half an hour I noticed
SAVED FROM INSANITY AND SUICIDE
A few years ago, while under a sense of darkness and despair caused by ill health and an unhappy home, Science and Health was loaned me with a request that I should read it.
At that time my daughter was given up by materia medica to die of lingering consumption, supposed to have been inherited. My own condition seemed even more alarming, as insanity was being manifested, and rather than go to an insane asylum, it seemed to me the only thing to do was to commit suicide. Heart trouble, kidney complaint, and continual headaches caused from female trouble were some of the many ailments I had to contend with. My doctor tried to persuade me to undergo an operation as a means of relief, but I had submitted to a severe operation ten years previous, and found only additional suffering as a result, so I would not consent.
When I began with Science and Health, I read the chapter on "Prayer" first, and at that time did not suppose it possible for me to remember anything I read, but felt a sweet sense of God's protection and power, and a hope that I should at last find Him to be what I so much needed, - a present help in time of trouble. Before that chapter on "Prayer" was finished, my daughter was downstairs eating three meals a day, and daily growing stronger. Before I had finished reading the textbook she was well, but never having heard that the reading of Science and Health healed any one, it was several months before I gave God the glory.
One by one my many ailments left me, all but the headaches; they were less frequent, until at the end of three years the fear of them was entirely overcome.
Neither myself nor my daughter have ever received treatments, but the study of the Bible and Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook by Mrs. Eddy, has healed us and keeps us well.
While Christian Science was very new to me, I attended an experience meeting in First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago. A gentleman told of an unhappy woman who was about to separate from her husband. This gentleman had asked her if she did not love her husband. She replied, "No; when I married him I did, but not now." He told her God made man in His image and likeness, and that He is perfect. He said to her, "Go home and see only God's perfect man; you don't need to love a sinful mortal such as you have been looking upon." The lady followed his advice, as he told her there is no separation in divine Mind. In a short time peace and harmony were in her home, and
This testimony was like a message from heaven to me. I had received many benefits from the study of Science and Health, but it had never dawned upon my darkened consciousness till then how wonderful our God is. I knew what had taken place in that home could take place in my unhappy home where there was neither rest nor peace.
I hopefully took up my cross, and step by step my burden grew lighter, as I journeyed along, realizing the presence of the Christ, Truth, that indeed makes us free. Not all at once did any outward change appear, but at the end of three years all was peace, all the members of the family attending church together and realizing that there is but one Mind. - E. J. B., Superior, Wis.
STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED
I was healed of stomach trouble of many years' standing by reading Science and Health. My condition had reached the stage in which I had periodical attacks, that came on with greater frequency. I was a travelling salesman, and it was a common occurrence for me to have to call a physician to my hotel to administer morphine for an acute form of this disease. This became a regular thing at certain places, and these attacks always left me worse than before. As a result of the last one I lost a great deal in weight. I had tried many physicians and most of the usual remedies during these years of suffering, without any good result. Finally, as a last resort, I
My health has been of the best since I was healed, now six years ago. In the family we have depended entirely on Christian Science for our healing, and have ever found it efficacious. We consider the physical healing, however, only incidental to the understanding of God and His goodness. This, together with our increased love for the Bible, is proving most valuable to us. We are humbly trying to live the lives that will prove our gratitude to God, and to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy. - Charles E. Peck, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
FREED FROM MANY YEARS OF SUFFERING
In the spring of 1880 I was taken down with a severe attack of stomach trouble, was bedfast for three months, and not able to drive out for nearly six months. During this time I had three good doctors treating me. I gained a little in strength, but had very little relief from the stomach trouble. I was recommended to try mineral springs and did so, but with the same disappointment. I went to a sanitarium, but yet the stomach trouble prevailed. I had some friends who recommended patent medicines, but no healing came.
I worried along in this way for several years. Finally I read medicine nearly two years with a good doctor friend, especially for my own benefit, and during this time I had a severe attack of bladder trouble, and for fifteen years I suffered so severely at times that I thought life was not really worth living. In connection with these troubles I suffered every winter with rheumatism and the grip. I also had a growth coming on both eyes called cataract, which caused my eyes to be inflamed nearly all the time, and this growth had made such progress that it was causing my vision to be very dim when reading. Corns were not forgotten, as I was reminded of them very frequently, and for all these troubles I had tried every remedy I heard of that I was able to get, specialists included, without relief.
Thanks to a friend who took me in this hopeless, discouraged condition and led me to the light that never knows darkness, I got a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy and was healed in a short time by reading this work. - D. W. L., Anderson, Ind.
RELIEF FROM INTENSE SUFFERING
I became interested in Christian Science in 1901. For four or five years I had suffered with severe attacks which nothing but an opiate seemed to relieve. After one which I think was the worst I ever had, I consulted our family physician, who diagnosed my case as a dangerous kidney disease and said that no medicine could help me but that I must undergo a surgical operation. I continued to grow worse and went to see the physician again, and he advised me to consult a doctor who was connected with the city hospital of Augusta. This doctor made an examination and diagnosed the difficulty as something different but quite as serious. Meanwhile a friend offered me a copy of Science and Health. I said I did not care to read the book, but she was so urgent that I finally promised to do so. I received the book on Saturday,
GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS
It is with sincere gratitude for the many blessings Christian Science has brought me, that I give this testimony. I first heard of Christian Science about fifteen years ago. A friend of mine was taking treatment for physical troubles, and was reading the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The title of the book appealed to me very strongly. I said to my friend, "If that is a Key to the Scriptures, I must have it."
I had long been a member of a Bible class in an orthodox Sabbath school, but I never felt satisfied with that which was taught; there was something lacking, I did not understand then what it was. I purchased a copy of Science and Health and began to study it. I wish I could express in words what that book brought me. It illumined the Bible with a glorious light and I began to understand some of the Master's sayings, and tried to apply them.
I had had a longing to live a better Christian life for many years, and often wondered why I failed so utterly to understand the Bible. Now I knew; it was lack of spiritual apprehension.
I did not know at first that people were healed of disease and sin by simply reading Science and Health, but found after a while that such was the case. At that time I had many physical troubles, and one after another of these ills simply disappeared and I found that I had no disease, - I was perfectly free. The spiritual uplifting was glorious, too, and as I go on in the study of this blessed Science, I find I am gaining surely an understanding that helps me to overcome both sin and disease in myself and in others. My faith in good is increased and I know I am losing my belief in evil as a power equal to good. The pathway is not wearisome, because each victory over self gives stronger faith and a more earnest desire to press on. - E. J. R., Toledo, Ohio.
GRATEFUL FOR MORAL AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
About four years ago, after I had tried different ways and means to be relieved from bodily suffering, a faithful
After I had read Mrs. Eddy's work, Science and Health, a few days, I found that my ailments had disappeared, and a rest had come to me which I had never before known. I had smoked almost incessantly, although I had often determined to use my will power and never smoke again, but had always failed. This desire as well as the desire for drink simply disappeared, and I wish to say here, that I received all these benefits before I had gained much understanding of what I was reading. Like a prisoner, who had been in chains for years, I was suddenly set free. I did not then know how the chain had been removed, but I had to acknowledge that it came through the reading of this book. I then felt an ardent desire to read more, and to know what this power was that had freed me in a few days of that which I had been trying for years to shake off and had failed. It then became clear to me that this was the truth which Jesus Christ taught and preached to free humanity almost two thousand years ago. It did not, however, occur to me to apply it in my business affairs; on the contrary, I first thought that if I continued in my study I would have to retire from business.
This did not happen, however, for I gradually found that the little understanding of this wonderful teaching which I had acquired became a great help to me in my business. I became more friendly, more honest,
HEREDITARY DISEASE OF THE LUNGS CURED
For a long time I have been impelled to contribute a testimony of the healing power of Truth. As I read other testimonies and rejoice in them, some one may rejoice in mine. I was healed by reading Science and Health. By applying it, I found it to be the truth that Jesus taught, - the truth that sets free.
From childhood I had never known a well day. I was healed of lung trouble of long standing. Consumption was hereditary in our family, my mother and three brothers having passed on with it. The law of materia medica said that in a short time I must follow them. I also had severe stomach trouble of over eight years' standing, during which time I always retired without supper, as the fear of suffering from my food was so great that I denied myself food when hungry. For over twenty years I had ovarian trouble, which was almost unbearable at times. It dated from
But thanks be to God whose Truth reached me through the study of our textbook. Words fail to express what Christian Science has done for me in various ways, for my children, my home, my all. The physical healing is but a small part; the spiritual unfolding and uplifting is the "pearl of great price," the half that has never been told. - Mrs. J. P. M., Kansas City, Mo.
TEXTBOOK APPRECIATED
It has been my privilege to have interviews with representatives of more than sixty per cent of the nations of this earth, under their own vine and fig-tree. I had never heard a principle understandingly advanced that would enable mankind to obey the apostolic command, "prove all things," until Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was placed in my hands. I believe that the honest study of this book in connection with the Bible will enable one to "prove all things."
I make this unqualified statement because of what my eyes have seen and my ears heard from my fellow-men of unquestioned integrity, and the positive proofs I have gained by the study of these books. Many supposed material laws that had been rooted and
I wish to express loving gratitude to our Leader for the new edition of Science and Health. In studying this new edition one cannot help seeing the wisdom, love, and careful and prayerful thought expressed in the revision. Often the changing of a single word in a sentence makes the scientific thought not only more lucid to him who is familiar with the book, but also to those just coming into the blessed light. All honor to that God-loving, God-fearing woman, Mary Baker G. Eddy, whose only work is the work of love in the helping of mankind to help themselves; who has placed before her fellow-men understandingly, what man's divine rights are, and what God really is. - H. W. B., Hartford, Conn.
RUPTURE AND OTHER SERIOUS ILLS HEALED
When I took up the study of Christian Science nearly three years ago, I was suffering from a very bad rupture of thirty-two years' standing. Sometimes the pain was so severe that it seemed as if I could not endure it. These spells would last four or five hours,
I would never part with the book if I could not get another. I am seventy-seven years old, and am enjoying very good health. - Mrs. M. E. P., St. Johnsbury, Vt.
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER HEALED
When Christian Science came to me, I had been taking medicine every day for twenty years, on account of constipation. I had been treated by doctors and specialists; had taken magnetic treatments and osteopathy; had tried change of climate; had an operation in a hospital, and when I came out was worse than before. I was so discouraged, after I had tried everything I ever heard of, and was no better but rather grew worse, that it seemed as though I must give up trying to get well, when a friend suggested that I try Christian Science. I had heard that Christian Scientists healed by prayer, and I thought this must be the way Jesus had healed. I felt that this was all there was left for me to try. I sent for the book, Science and Health, and commenced to read it out of curiosity, not thinking or knowing that I could be helped by the reading, but thinking I must still take medicine and that I must also have treatment by a Scientist. I,
LIVER COMPLAINT HEALED
As my thoughts go back to the time when I believed I had nothing to live for, and when each morning's awaking from sleep brought a sense of disappointment to find myself still among the living (for I had hoped each night that I closed my eyes in sleep that it would be the last time), my heart overflows with love and gratitude to God for our dear Leader who discovered this blessed truth and to the dear ones who have helped me so lovingly and patiently over many rough places.
Twelve years ago, I consulted a physician because I had noticed some odd-looking spots on one of my arms. He said they were liver spots, but that it was not worth while prescribing for those few, that I should wait until I was covered with them. About three months later, with the exception of my face and hands, I was covered with them. Then I became alarmed and called on another physician who prescribed for me, but be finally said he could do no more for me. Other physicians were consulted with no better results. Six years ago, friends advised me to see their family physician, and when I called on him he said he was positive he could cure me, so I asked him to prescribe for me. At the
Two years ago, having failed in business, I applied to one of my patrons for a furnished room where I could meet the few I still had left. This lady, who is a Christian Scientist, loaned me Science and Health, and because she asked me so often how I was getting on with the book, I began reading it. I also attended the Wednesday evening meetings which I found very interesting. After hearing the testimonies at the meetings, I decided to speak to some practitioner about these spots, but not until I had at least a hundred dollars on hand, because I thought I would require that amount for treatments, as I had been accustomed to paying high prices. I had not inquired about prices, and in fact did not speak to any one about my intentions, because I felt sensitive on this subject. When I had read about half of Science and Health, I missed the spots, and upon searching could find no trace of them. They had entirely disappeared without treatment. In a few weeks the reading of that book had accomplished what materia medica had failed to accomplish in ten years. It is impossible to express the feeling of relief and happiness which came over me then. - C. K., Astoria, N. Y.
A CONVINCING INVESTIGATION
While I have testified to those around me and in many localities, of my healing in Christian Science, I feel that
I began teaching in early life and continued for more than twenty years, and during that time not a day passed without pain, or fear of pain, and only for my innate love of life it would have become an intolerable burden. For five years oatmeal was my chief food and I became almost as attached to it as Kaspar Hauser to his crust. I was early taught to have faith in God, and many times was relieved of pain only to have it appear again in an aggravated form.
At last my heart cried out for the living God, and the answer came by one of His messengers, who told me of Christian Science. I replied that I believed God could heal, but that I had no faith in the healing of Christian Science, but would like to investigate its theology, as it might aid in giving me some clue to the meaning of life. For three years I had searched the works of the most scientific writers to find the origin of life; many times I would think I had traced it to the beginning, but it would elude my grasp every time. One day in talking with my friend, she said she would like to loan me the textbook, Science and Health, which I very willingly accepted. Not long afterward I felt a severe
I ate my supper that evening forgetful of the preparations I had made for suffering, and when the next day began I was more zealous of good work than ever before. Since closing Science and Health at my first reading I have never been able to find the paragraph which I had read so many times over, the words seemed to have slipped away from me, but my joy knew no bounds at having found the pearl of great price. By the continued reading of the book I was entirely healed, and for fourteen years I have not seen a day of physical suffering. - Miss L. M., Rome, N. Y.
DEAFNESS AND DROPSY HEALED
I had been deaf from childhood. I suffered intensely after eating, and dropsy was another of my complaints. This, with consumption, caused one doctor to say, " It puzzles me; I have never seen such a case before as yours."
I met a friend who had been cured in Christian
GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS
In 1894 I began the study of Christian Science. At that time I was greatly in need of its healing truth. For a number of years previous I had been a semi-invalid with no hope of ever being well and strong again. Several years before this time I had undergone an operation which resulted in peritonitis. For three years previous to my study of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I was scarcely ever free from headache caused by the weakened and diseased condition of the internal organs. At the time I began the study of Christian Science I was taking five kinds of medicine.
I began to read Science and Health, and did not take treatment, for I thought, "If this is truth, I shall be healed; if it is not, I shall be able to detect it, and will have nothing to do with it." I became a devoted student and gradually my bodily diseases left me, - I was free, and since that time, nearly ten years ago, neither my two children nor myself have taken any medicine; and our understanding of truth has been able to meet and overcome any suggestion of illness.
I was a devoted member of an orthodox church,
Only those who know the attitude of mind that I was in can understand the joy that came to me as I began to learn of God in Christian Science, and of my relation to Him.
Many proofs of the healing power of Truth and of His protecting care throng my thoughts. Seven years ago, when we were in a far distant country, where Christian Science was then unknown, my little daughter came in one morning from her school, saying, "Mother, I have measles; twenty of the girls are sick in bed and I am afraid they will put me there also." Her face, hands, and chest were covered with a deep red rash, throat sore, and eyes inflamed. We began immediately to do our work in Science and at night, when I left her at the door of the college, her face was clear, her eyes bright, and all fear destroyed. That was the end of the disease. - F. M. P., Boston, Mass.
A JOYFUL EXPERIENCE
In love and gratitude to God, and to Mrs. Eddy, the interpreter of Jesus' beautiful teachings, I wish to tell of some of the benefits which I have received from Christian Science. It is a little over a year since Science found me in a deplorable condition, physically as well as mentally. I had ailments of many years' standing, - chronic stomach trouble, severe eye trouble, made almost unbearable from the constant fear of losing any sight (a fate which had befallen my mother), also apainful rupture of twenty-five years' standing. These ailments, combined with unhappy conditions in my home, made me very despondent. I had entirely lost my belief in an all-merciful God, and I did not know where to turn for help. At that time Christian Science was brought to my notice, and I shall never forget the sublime moment when I perceived that an all-loving Father is always with me. Forgotten was all sorrow and worry, and after four weeks' reading in Science and Health all my ailments had disappeared. I am today a healthy, contented woman.
All this has come to pass in one short year, and my earnest desire is to be more and more worthy to be called a child of God. This is in loving gratitude for an understanding of this glorious truth. - Mrs. R. J., Chicago, Ill.
AN EVER-PRESENT HELP
It is a year since I began to read Science and Health, and I will now try to outline what a knowledge of its teachings has done for me.
My condition was then very trying; my eyes, which had caused me much trouble since childhood, were very painful. For these I had been treated by some of the best specialists in my native land, and after coming to the United States I had been doctored much and had worn glasses for four years. I also had catarrh, for which I had taken much medicine without being relieved. In addition to this I was an excessive smoker, using tobacco in some form almost constantly. I had contracted a smoker's heart, and used liquors freely.
The one who brought to me that which I now prize so highly, was a book agent. I told him that I should be forced to leave my trade on account of my eyes. He then told me of having been healed of a cancer, through Christian Science treatment. He showed me a copy of Science and Health, which had the signs of much use, and after being assured that if I did my part I would be healed of all my diseases, I sent for a copy of the book.
My recovery was very rapid, for after reading the book only three weeks I was completely healed of the tobacco habit. I will say, in regard to this healing, that it did not require even as much as a resolution on my part. I was smoking a cigar, while reading Science and Health, when all the desire to continue smoking left me, and I have never had a desire to use tobacco in any form since then. My eyes were the next to manifest the influence of the new knowledge gained, and had soon so far recovered that I could go about my work with ease, and I have had no more use for glasses. To-day my heart is normal, the catarrh
Christian Science has proved to be an ever-present help, not only in overcoming physical ailments, but in business and daily life. It has also overcome a great sense of fear. The Bible, which I regarded with suspicion, has become my guide, and Christianity has become a sweet reality, because the Christian Science textbook has indeed been a "Key to the Scriptures" and has breathed through the Gospel pages a sweet sense of harmony. - A. F., Sioux City, Iowa.
SEVERE EYE TROUBLE OVERCOME
After hearing Christian Science lightly spoken of, from a Christian pulpit, I decided to go to one of the services and hear for myself. From infancy I had been devoted to my church, and as soon as I was old enough I was ever active in the work. Feeling it to be my duty to attend every service held in my own church, I took advantage of the Wednesday evening meetings. My first visit was not my last, I am thankful to say, for I saw immediately that these people not only preached Christianity, but practised and lived it. At that time I was wearing glasses and had worn them for sixteen years. At times I suffered the most intense pain, and for this phase of the trouble, one specialist after another had been consulted. All gave me very much the same advice; each one urged extreme carefulness and gave me glasses that seemed to relieve for a time. None of them held out any hope that my sight would ever be restored, saying that the
The thought of blindness was very distressing to me, but I tried to bear it with Christian resignation, since I thought that God had seen fit to afflict me; but since I have learned that He is a loving Father, who gives only good, I regret that I ever charged Him with my affliction. I had no treatment, but I read Science and Health, and my eyes were healed and glasses laid aside. I can never find words to express my thanks to our dear Leader, through whose teachings my sight has been regained. I can truthfully say that "whereas I was blind, now I see" - through an understanding of Truth I have found my sight perfect as God gave it. - Miss B. S., Wilmington, N. C.
A TESTIMONY FROM IRELAND
It is with a heart full of love and gratitude to God, and to our dear Leader, that I send this testimony to the Field. I had never been a strong girl; had always been subject to colds and chills, and suffered all my life from a delicate throat. Seven years ago I had a very severe attack of rheumatic fever and subsequently two less severe ones. These left all sorts of evils behind them, - debility, chronic constipation, and several others, so that with these ills my life was often a burden to me and I used to think I never should receive relief or health. I had also lost all love for God and faith in Him. I could not accept a God who, as I then believed, visited sickness and sorrow upon His children as a means for drawing them to Him.
THE TEXTBOOK MAKES OPERATION UNNECESSARY
In the early part of the year 1895 my physician said I must undergo a surgical operation in order ever to be well.
KIDNEY DISEASE AND EYE TROUBLE HEALED
Early in 1904 I was teaching in a private boarding-school. I was a very unhappy, discontented woman; I had kidney disease, besides sore eyes, and my general health was very bad. The doctor said that the climate did not suit me, and that I certainly should have a change. The best thing, he said, was to go back to France (my own country); but I did not like to leave the school, so I struggled on until July, when we went travelling for a month, but I came home worse than ever. I had a lot of worry, one disappointment after another, and I often thought that life was not worth living. In September, 1904, we heard for the first time of Christian Science
My one aim now is to live Christian Science, not in words only, but in deeds; loving God more and my neighbor as myself, and following meekly and obediently all our Leader's teachings. Words cannot express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for Christian Science. - S. A. K., Vancouver, B. C.
DISEASE OF BOWELS HEALED
When I first heard of Christian Science I had been afflicted for nine years with a very painful disease of the bowels, which four physicians failed even to diagnose, all giving different causes for the dreadful sufferings I endured. The last physician advised me to take no more medicine for these attacks, as drugs would not reach the cause, or do any good. About this time I heard of Christian Science, and had the opportunity of reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, a few minutes every day for about a week, and I
HEALED BY READING THE TEXTBOOK
After doctoring about a year, I was obliged to give up school and was under medical care for two years; but grew worse instead of better. I was then taken to specialists, who pronounced my case incurable, saying I was in the last stages of kidney disease and could live only a short time. Shortly afterward my uncle gave me a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and asked me to study it. After studying a short time I was able to walk a distance of several miles, which I had not been able to do for three years. I also laid aside glasses which I had worn seven years, having been told I would become blind if my eyes did not receive proper care. It is over a year since I received God's blessing, and I am now enjoying perfect health and happiness. I have never had my glasses on since I first began reading Science and Health, and I have not used any medicine. - L. R., Spring Valley, Minn.
A TESTIMONY FROM SCOTLAND
I came to Christian Science purely for physical healing. I was very ill and unhappy; very cynical and disbelieving in regard to what I heard of God and religion.
I was healed of very bad rheumatism simply by reading Science and Health. I had tried many medicines, also massage, with no result, and the doctors told me that I would always suffer from this disease, as it was inherited, and also because I had rheumatic fever when a child. I suffered day and night, and nothing relieved me until Science proved to me the falseness of this belief by removing it. I gave up all the medicines I was taking and have never touched any since, and that is more than two years ago. Before this I had often tried to do without a medicine that I had taken every day for ten years, but was always ill and had to return to it, until I found out that one Mind is the only medicine, and then I was freed from the suffering.
I had also suffered constantly from bilious attacks, colds, and a weak chest, and had been warned not to be out in wet weather, etc., but now, I am glad to say, I am quite free from all those material laws and go out in all sorts of weather. - R. D. F., Edinburgh, Scotland.
CURING BETTER THAN ENDURING
For eight years I was a great sufferer from weak lungs and after being treated by ten different physicians, in the States of Illinois, Missouri, and Colorado, I was told there was no hope of my recovery from what they pronounced tuberculosis, which was hereditary, my father having been afflicted with it. I was greatly emaciated and hardly able to be about. My general condition was aggravated by what the doctors said was paralysis of the bowels. Three physicians so diagnosed it at different times, and assured my husband that I could never get more than temporary relief. This indeed I found difficult to obtain, in spite of my almost frantic efforts. At times I was nearly insane from suffering, and after eight years of doctoring I found myself steadily growing worse. For four years I did not have a normal action of the bowels, and it was only by extreme effort and by resort to powerful drugs or mechanical means, with resultant suffering, that any action whatever could be brought about.
I had heard nothing of the curative power of Christian Science, and only to oblige a friend I went one night, about three years ago, to one of their mid-week testimonial meetings, in Boulder, Colorado. I was much impressed by what I heard there, and determined at once to investigate this strange religion, in the hope that it might have something good for me. I bought the textbook, Science and Health, and from the first I found myself growing stronger and better, both physically and mentally, as I acquired a better understanding and endeavored to put into practice what I learned. In one week
SEVERE ECZEMA DESTROYED
It is only two years since I came from darkness into the light of Christian Science, and to me the spiritual uplifting has been wonderful, to say nothing of the physical healing. Words cannot express my gratitude for benefits I have received in that time. For five years I suffered with that dreaded disease, eczema, all over my body. Five doctors said there was no help for me. The suffering seemed as terrible as the hell fire that I had been taught to believe in. When Christian Science came to me two years ago through a dear friend, she gave me a copy of Science and Health and asked me to read it. I told her that I would, for I was like a drowning man grasping at a straw. I had been a Bible student for twenty-eight years, but when I commenced reading Science and Health with the Bible I was healed in less than a week. I never had a treatment. A case of measles was also destroyed in twenty-four hours after it appeared. - Mrs. M. B. G., Vermilion, Ohio.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH A PRICELESS BOON
I am a willing witness to the healing power of Christian Science, having had a lifetime's battle with disease and medical experiments. Various doctors finally admitted that they had exhausted their resources, and could only offer me palliatives, saying that a cure was impossible. I had paralysis of the bowels, frequent sick headaches with unutterable agony, and my mortal career was nearly brought to an end by a malignant type of yellow fever. Many were the attending evils of this physical inharmony, but God confounds the wisdom of men, for while studying Science and Health two years ago, the veil of ignorance was lifted and perfect health was shown to me to be my real condition, and to such there is no relapse. The constant use of glasses, which were apparently a necessity to me for years, was proven needless, and they were laid aside. Mrs. Eddy has made Scripture reading a never-failing well of comfort to me. By her interpretation "the way of the Lord" is made straight to me and mine. It aids us in our daily overcoming of the tyranny of the flesh and its rebellion against the blessed leading of Christ, Truth. The daily study of the Bible and our textbook is bringing more and more into our consciousness the power of God unto salvation. - J. C., Manatee, Fla.
A CRITIC CONVINCED
With gratitude to God I acknowledge my lifelong debt to Christian Science. In 1895 I attended my first
BORN AGAIN
It was in April, 1904, that I first heard the "still, small voice" of the Christ and received healing through Christian Science; and the blessings have been so many since, that it would take too much space to name them. Reared from childhood in an intellectual atmosphere, my paternal grandfather having been an orthodox minister of the old school for forty years, and my father a deep student, ever seeking for the truth of all things, I began early to ponder and to study into the meaning of life, and came to the conclusion before I was twenty that though God probably
Glad to get away from my own poor thoughts, I opened the "little book" and began to read. I had read only a short time when such a wonderful transformation took place! I was renewed; born again. Mere words cannot tell the story of the mighty up-lifting that carried me to the very gates of heaven. When I began to read the book, life was a burden, but before I had finished reading it the first time, I was doing all my housework and doing it easily; and since that glorious day I have been a well woman. My health is splendid, and I am striving to let my light so shine that others may be led to the truth. There have been some mighty struggles with error, and I have learned that we cannot reach heaven with one long stride or easily drift inside the gate, but that the "asking" and the "seeking" and the "knocking" must be earnest and persistent.
For a long time I was always looking back to see if
From that hour I have had an intelligent consciousness of the ever-presence of an infinite God who is only good. - C. B. G., Hudson, Mass.
A RESTLESS SENSE OF EXISTENCE DESTROYED
Through reading Science and Health and the illumination which followed, I was healed of ulceration of the stomach and kindred troubles, a restless sense of existence, agnosticism, etc. The torture I endured with the stomach trouble I will not attempt to describe. The attending physician declared that I could live but a short
Like many others I had been seemingly lost in the sea of error, without a compass, yet earnestly and honestly seeking a haven. I had investigated all kinds of religions and philosophies that came under my notice, with the exception of Christian Science, which was not then deemed worthy of inquiry, and yet it held the very truth I was searching for - the light which "shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." Three years of stubborn resistance to Truth, with increasing suffering, followed - then the light came, and with it a new experience. Now, after nine years of Christian Science experience, under severe tests, it can be truthfully said that it has not failed me in any hour of need. - J. F. J., Cincinnati, Ohio.
MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY HEALED
I did not accept Christian Science on account of any healing of my own, but after seeing my mother, who was fast drifting toward helplessness with rheumatism, restored to perfect health with only a few treatments in Christian Science, I thought surely this must be the truth as Jesus taught and practised it, and if so it was what I had been longing for.
This was about ten years ago and was the first I had ever heard of Christian Science. We soon got a copy of Science and Health and I began in the right way to
It was not long after I began reading before I discovered that my eyes were good and strong, I could read as much as I wished, and at any time, which was something I could not do before, as my eyes had always been weak. The doctors said they never would be very strong, and that if I did not wear glasses, I might lose my sight altogether. I never gave up to wearing glasses, and now, thanks to Christian Science, I do not need them, my work for the past two years as a railway mail clerk being a good test. At the same time my eyes were healed, I also noticed that I was entirely healed of another ailment which had been with me all my life, and which was believed to be inherited. Since that time my growth has seemed to me slow, yet when I look back and view myself as I was before Christian Science found me, and compare it with my life as it now is, I can only close my eyes to the picture and rejoice that I have been "born again" and that I have daily been putting off "the old man with his deeds," and putting on "the new man."
Some of the many things that have been overcome through the study of Science and Health, and through realizing and practising the truth it teaches, are profanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper, which made both myself and those around me at times very miserable, and such thoughts as malice, revenge, etc. - O. L. R., Fort Worth, Tex.
HEALTH AND UNDERSTANDING GAINED
Most of my boyhood days were spent in the hands of physicians. From birth I was considered a very weakly child, but my mother was brave, and being much devoted to me did everything within her knowledge and power for my comfort. Sickness and medicine were continually before me, and by the time I reached my teens I thought I knew a material remedy for every ill. I continued in my delusion, because I was never told the real cause of my trouble. Besides being under a leading specialist for two years, I was also an outdoor patient at a noted hospital, but I was not healed. It is wonderful how the "little ones" are cared for in the face of all these seeming difficulties. I always used the prayers that I had been taught, and as I grew older I began to ask for wisdom. Little by little I gained a desire for freedom, and my prayers finally led me to thetruth. The first week that I heard of Christian Science, I visited the home of dear Christian Science friends, and was at once refreshed by their purity of thought and example. I bought a copy of Science and Health, and, after studying it a little while with the Bible, I saw that if the Bible was true, Science and Health must also be true. I began to demonstrate over my physical and mental condition, and as soon as the fear and pain began to leave me I felt encouraged to go on. I was healed, and stopped complaining. I kept on studying our textbook, and when I got an understanding in a small degree of the Science of Mind, my first thought was to help others. I was guided where I could progress
AN EVER-PRESENT HELP FOUND
On the 23rd of March, 1900, I received from one of my daughters a copy of Science and Health on my seventy-first birthday. Although a constant reader of all kinds of papers and books, I had never heard anything of Christian Science, except a short notice that spring in a San Francisco newspaper, from an orthodox clergyman, referring to the Christian Science people in not very complimentary style.
In Mrs. Eddy's book I came across a great deal of thought that was not readily understood at the first reading, but by continued and careful study, and a good deal of help from my knowledge of chemistry and natural philosophy, I soon shook off the belief of sensation in matter, - the so-called elementary substance. One afternoon I put the belt on my circular saw to cut blocks of firewood and also to split a small stick of frame timber. In doing this the stick closed and pinched the saw. I picked up a small wooden wedge and tried to drive it into the saw kerf, but a bit of ice let the stick on to the back of the saw and instantly it flew, with heavy force, into my face, and bouncing off my left cheek fell about twenty feet off on the snow. The blood spattered on the snow next the saw table, and on feeling with my hand there were two wounds, one on the lock of the jaw and another forward, as big as a dollar, on the cheek bone. "Now," I thought to myself, "there is a case of surgery for you," and without further ceremony, I began to treat the case to the best of my knowledge, with the result that the bleeding stopped almost instantly, and so did a thumping pain, which had commenced. I paid no more attention to the matter, but finished my work, and then went to supper. When I washed my face, I felt a big lump on the jawbone where the block of wood struck, but after my usual reading I went to bed and slept all night until near daylight, when a pain on the right side awoke me. On feeling with my hand there was another big lump on the right side, but I treated it and went to sleep again. I never lost an hour from the hurt, although I found out that my jaw was broken. There is no scar, only a little red spot on
In summing up the benefits I have received from the reading of Science and Health, I can but refer to a condition of sickness dating back to the war (1862), when chronic and malignant diarrhea came near making an end of my material existence. My hearing, also, was seriously impaired from the effect of cannon firing at Shiloh, but it has come back to me, and where I formerly dared not eat an orange, or grapes, I can now eat anything without being hurt. My peace of mind is giving me a rest which I never experienced before during my life, and I have ceased to look away off for the divine presence that was always near, though I did not know it. - L. B., Baldy, N. M.
MANY PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TROUBLES OVERCOME
Less than a year ago, when nothing but trouble seemed to encompass me, I was led to Christian Science. My mother's copy of Science and Health was always lying on the table, but I scarcely ever read it. One day, however, the mental conflict was so great I commenced reading in the hope of obtaining peace. Every day since then my companions have been the Bible and Science and Health. At that time I had a very serious eruption on my face, which had been there two years. We had consulted several physicians, and used every remedy suggested to eradicate it, but they proved useless. I had given up all hopes of its ever being healed, as the physician we last consulted pronounced it tuberculosis of the skin and incurable. A few weeks after I commenced
In April my baby was born with only the practitioner and a woman friend present. I suffered little pain, and the third day I went down-stairs. I am able to nurse him, - a privilege of which I was deprived with my first child. He is a picture of health, having never been sick a day since he was born. - K. E. W. L., Mt. Dora, Fla.
A NEW LIFE GAINED
Leaving home when a young man, I carried with me a protection against the temptation of a great city, - a mother's prayers and a small Bible. For a time I read the Bible and prayed, but without understanding. This did not suffice, and evil seemed to gain the victory. I soon omitted to read my Bible; forgot to go to God in prayer for guidance and help, and looked to the world for that which it never has and never can give, - health, peace, and joy.
Thus, years later, when Christian Science came into my home, it found me prayerless, churchless, godless; a home discordant, and with no thought or knowledge of spiritual things. Up to this time, my wife had for years been seeking health through the physicians, but without success, and as a last resort had been sent to Christian Science. The help received was so wonderful that I commenced the study of Science and Health. The first effect which I realized from the reading of our textbook, was a great love for the Bible and a desire to read it, something which I had not done
A VOICE FROM ENGLAND
For a number of years I was a weary woman, not ill enough in health to, be called an invalid, but suffering more than could be told with fatigue and weakness. Feeling that this was God's will, I did not ask to be healed, although I was constantly doctoring. I suffered with dyspepsia, congestion of the liver, and many other things, including weak eyesight. With all the medicine, and with different changes for rest, I never regained health, and thought I never should, so I prayed for grace to bear my cross patiently for others' sake. One day, while
For this alone I can never be thankful enough. True indeed are the words, "They shall run, and not be weary." This was more than a year ago, and I can say that not once have I felt inclined to lie on the couch, nor have I had a headache, although I am doing more work than ever before. Fear has also been overcome in many ways. - A. L., Chelmsford, England.
DEPRAVED APPETITES OVERCOME
When Christian Science first came to me, or rather, when I first came to Christian Science, I did not have a very bad opinion of myself. I thought I was a pretty good fellow. I had no religious views. I seemed to be getting along as well as, if not better than, some who
As I progressed in the understanding as gained from the study of both Science and Health and the Bible, and commenced to know myself, I found that a great change had been wrought in me. For fifteen years I had used tobacco, both chewing and smoking; for ten years I had been a victim of the drink habit, sometimes to excess; I was also addicted to profanity. Christian Science removed these appetites. A stomach trouble and other lesser ills, such as headache, a bad temper, an inordinate love of money, etc., disappeared under the same benign influence. Those things that seemed to be pleasure do not give me pleasure now. They were not real pleasure. I have lost nothing, I have sacrificed nothing; but I have gained everything, and not yet the whole, for I can see plenty yet to be done.
The condition of mind before investigating and after is as different as black and white. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Not matter, but Mind, satisfieth." - G. B. P., Henry, S. D.
CATARRH OF THE STOMACH HEALED
I should like to express my gratitude for the many benefits I have received through Christian Science, and to mention the great joy brought to me in the thought that man is not the helpless victim of sin, disease, and death. Through its teachings I have been able to overcome many errors.
When Christian Science found me, one year ago last April, in Chicago, I was suffering from catarrh
In this condition I left the East for my home in Chicago, hoping that a change of climate might benefit me. After spending six weeks there and finding no relief, I concluded to return East. The Sunday morning before leaving I picked up a Sunday paper, and glancing through the religious items my eyes fell on the notices of Christian Science church services. Curiosity led me to a service and I shall never forget that morning or the surprise and joy it gave me to find that beautiful church, and to know that so great a number actually believed that God does heal the sick to-day. This brought a first ray of hope. The evening service found me there again. Among the notices read was that of a reading room, giving the location and time of opening. Monday morning found me there promptly, and the first book I picked up was Science and Health which opened a new world to me.
I had dieted so long and suffered so much that I had a morbid fear of food. When I had reached and read of "neither food nor the stomach, without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer" (Science and Health, p. 221), I left the reading room for something to eat. I found a bakery near by, and bought a bag of cakes
From that time until now I have eaten anything that I wished, and the craving for cigarettes, which I had for many years, has entirely vanished. The understanding of Truth, which entirely relieved the diseased stomach, healed also the morbid appetite for smoking. After coming back East, I bought a copy of Science and Health, which I have read daily, and find it a continual help in all the affairs of life.
In my home and at work I find this Science a comfort and source of strength. I have had many difficulties in the way, but it has helped me out of them all. - W. E. B., New Britain, Conn.
SPINAL DISEASE HEALED
When I first heard of Christian Science, seven years ago, I supposed that it was some old fad under a new name. In the little Texas town where we then lived there were two or three Christian Scientists who met at the home of one of their number to read the Lesson-Sermon. Meeting one of them one day, I asked if unbelievers could come to their meetings. She said that they could if they wanted to. I went, expecting them to do something that I could laugh at when telling my friends about it. How surprised I was to find out that they didn't do anything but read the Bible and another book which they called Science and Health. I still thought it all foolishness, but resolved to go to their meetings until I found out all they believed. I continued to go until I began to understand a little of what they knew,
There are no other Scientists near where we now live, but I have the Quarterly and study the lessons by myself. I have five small children, and Christian Science is invaluable to me in controlling them, and in overcoming their common ills. They often help themselves and each other to destroy their little hurts and fears. - Mrs. M. H., Oleta, Okla.
MANY TROUBLES OVERCOME
In the second chapter of First Peter, ninth verse, I read "that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." The periodicals so wisely established by our Leader give us one means of showing forth the praises of Truth.
From the darkness of physical pain and weariness into the light of wholeness and joyousness in work and living, - from the darkness of a clouded sight into the light of clearer vision, - from the darkness of doubt and discord into the marvellous light of the reality of good, - this is what a reading of the Christian Science textbook has done for me.
At the time the book was lent to me, I was teaching
Through reading the textbook I learned that God has given us strength to do all we have to do, and that it is the things we do not have to do (the envying, strife, emulating, vainglorying, and so on) that leave in their wake fatigue and discord.
Gratitude to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and to her faithful students, with whom I afterwards became associated, can be expressed only by daily efforts to put into practice what has been taught. - T. H. A., Madison, Wis.
PREJUDICE OVERCOME
I became interested in Christian Science somewhat over three years ago when in much need of help. I had never been strong, and as I grew
One physician said I might have to undergo an operation before I could get well, but, thanks to this Truth, I have found that the only operation needed was the regeneration of this so-called human mind by learning to know God. In many cases I have been able to help myself and others.
Words cannot express my thanks to Mrs. Eddy, and to all who are bringing these great truths to the help of the whole world. - E. E. M., Huntington, W. Va.
A CONVINCING TESTIMONY
I became interested in Christian Science some five years ago, the practical nature of its statements appealing to me, and I must say, at the outset, that with my little experience I have found it all and more than I ever dreamt of realizing on this plane of existence. I am satisfied that I have found Truth. God is indeed to me an ever-present help.
My little girl, some ten months old, was afflicted with constipation. It was so severe I dreaded to go out anywhere with her, as I knew not when she would be taken with a convulsion. I had tried all the usual remedies in such cases, but it seemed to grow more obstinate. There was a Christian Scientist living in
"Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love. The Apostle John says: 'There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear' " (Science and Health, p. 410). I looked up, the crying
I have since seen the power of Truth overcome error of many forms, including croup, whooping-cough, tonsilitis, etc. I am thankful for all these proofs, but far more grateful am I for the spiritual teaching to love, to forgive, to curb my tongue, and cease my criticism. - M. A. H., Brockton, Mass.
HEALED PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY
I had been taking medicine continually for many years. Finally I was taken suddenly ill and could not leave my room for about two months, then I went away for three months, thinking that I should come back and be able to continue my work. I improved very much, but the fear of quick consumption was with my doctor and my family and friends, and I was warned about the coming winter. Only too soon the fear manifested itself. I had worked just three weeks when all the pains and aches returned, and I had to go to bed as soon as I got home, so there was no pleasure in living. My employer advised me to see my physician, and said perhaps I should not work that winter. I then and there turned to Christian Science. I could not afford to give up work and live away from home, neither did I want to depend on doctors and medicine any longer. I took the book and read it on my way to work, and at noon I lay down on a couch instead of going out for luncheon and fell asleep. When I awoke I was a different person, all pains and aches had gone, and I was free. I was so
This healing was in October, l901, with no other help than Science and Health, and soon I was relieved of other chronic ailments. In February I was able to put away eyeglasses, which I had worn ten years and a half for astigmatism. Oculists told me I would always have to wear them. A month later my father asked me to help him, as he was suffering so much from constipation, dyspepsia, and neuralgia. He had been subsisting on bran, nearly starving himself until be was most miserable, and his limbs seemed so cold that they were kept wrapped in blankets. I felt very humble as he asked me, and told him I would have a practitioner help him, as I had never treated any one; but he would not consent to have any one but myself, and I finally told him I would try, but that he must not hold Science responsible if he were not benefited, for my lack of understanding, and not Science, would be at fault. At my request he read Science and Health, ate whatever he wanted, and used no medicine in any form. After two treatments I received word from him that he was healed of that bondage of thirty years' standing. In view of all these signs which followed my acceptance of Christian Science, I knew it must be true. - R. L. A., Chicago, Ill.
A VOICE FROM THE SOUTH
I was delicate from childhood, and my parents did not think it was possible for me to live more than a few years. I lived, however, although there was not much improvement in my health. Travel and change of climate brought only temporary relief, and the physicians gave me no hope that I would ever be well.
As a last resort I began the study of Science and Health, and before I had finished reading the book I realized that its author was divinely commissioned to bring this spiritual message to a waiting world. Through this reading my health was restored, and I was healed of one disease that has been called incurable by all physicians.
For this, together with the greater and higher blessing of having the spiritual fact of being unfolded to me, I am most grateful.
What shall be rendered for such benefits received and made possible by the consecrated life of our revered Leader? Only by following the teachings of our textbook, and by loving obedience to her gentle and timely admonitions can we show our true sense of gratitude. - F. H. D., De Funiak Springs, Fla.
HEALED AFTER MUCH SUFFERING
A testimony given in the Journal led me to investigate Christian Science, and I hope in return to be the means of leading some one else to see the beauty of this saving truth, and to learn to know God aright and man's relationship to Him. I know from experience
I had been taking patent medicines for several years, and had been to one of the best sanitariums in this country, but was not healed, although I received some benefit, for which I shall always feel grateful, for I know the physicians did all they could for me. I sometimes thought I had exhausted all remedies, but did not give up, for I felt there must be something to heal me if I could find it.
When in this state of mind Christian Science came to my notice, and after reading several Journals, I purchased a copy of Science and Health. I read for several days at odd times. I commenced to improve, and in about a week I was healed of most of my ills, among which were dyspepsia and nervous debility.
Although I had heard about Christian Science before, I had never heard that the reading of the Christian Science textbook had ever effected the healing of anybody. I commenced reading to find out what Christian Science was, but was surprised to find myself improving, and was soon assured that it was the theology of Science and Health that healed me, just as it was the theology of Jesus that healed the sick.
It has also proved to me that there can be no Christian Science Church that does not heal the sick and sinful, for healing follows as the natural result of the teaching of Christian Science. The Bible has become a new revelation to me, and I can read it much more understandingly by the light received through the reading of Science and Health. - A. F. M., Fairmont, Minn.
THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATIONS
When I attempt to make plain what Christian Science has done for me, words fail me. For twenty years I was a constant sufferer, my spine having been injured when I was very young. As a little child I suffered so much that I would look up to the stars and beg God, who I thought might be up there somewhere, to take me away from the earth, - I was so tired. A great wall of pain seemed to separate me from the pleasures enjoyed by others, and I could not explain how I felt, because no one could understand. Years passed, and I saw my earthly happiness swept away; my heart was broken and I did not know what to do. I cried for help, day after day and night after night, although I was not sure what God was, nor where He was. I only knew that I suffered, and was in need of help, and that there was no earthly help for either mind or body. I loved purity, truth, and right always, and this made evil seem a most terrible reality. I was unable to cope with it, and so found myself in despair. This was my condition when I commenced reading Science and Health. I was ready for its message, and in about ten days there came a wonderful insight into the truth which heals the sick and binds up the broken-hearted. All pain left me, I had a glimpse of the new heavens and the new earth, and was beginning to be fed by Love divine.
I had suffered for years with insomnia. That night I rested like a child, and awoke the next morning well and happy. A flood of light daily illumined the pages of the "little book," and the revelation it holds for all
The Bible, which I knew very little about, became my constant study, my joy, and my guide. The copy which I bought at the time of my healing is marked from Genesis to Revelation. It was so constantly in my hands for three years that the cover became worn and the leaves loose, so it has been laid away for a new one. Two and three o'clock in the morning often found me poring over its pages, which grew more and more sacred to me every day, and the help I received therefrom was wonderful, for which I can find no words to express iny gratitude. - I. L., Los Angeles, Cal.
A HELPFUL TESTIMONY
Words cannot express my gratitude to God for Christian Science. When I first read Science and Health, I had tried every remedy I had ever heard of. I felt no change in mind or body that I was conscious of until I read page 16 of the chapter on " Prayer," in Science and Health. The first words of the "spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer," telling of our Father-Mother God, gave me a glimpse of heavenly light. I stopped and reasoned, and remembered the teachings of Jesus. The truth of man's spiritual being dawned on my consciousness. I realized I was not subject to mortal laws, as I had been taught all my life. I could not explain how I knew this, but I knew it. Through Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy had given me what
I did not need treatment from any one, - Science and Health was so clear and beautiful. I could not understand the Bible before, but I found it illumined now that I had a little understanding of Christian Science. For ten years I have not had to lie down in the daytime from any sickness. I am now, and have been all these years, the picture of perfect health. When I first read Science and Health I weighed one hundred and four pounds; I now weigh over one hundred and sixty. This physical health is not to be compared to my happiness, - my harmony that nothing can take away, - because it is the gift of God. Nothing has shown me the perversity of the human mind more than in its conclusions in regard to my healing. Even when I felt and knew that I was healed, people constantly said, because I was thin and delicate looking, " You are not well, any one could look at you and know it." Now that I am fleshy, they say, "You don't look
When I think what my life was before I had Christian Science, of the six years of colds, suffering, and coughing, not to mention the unhappiness, I want to "work, watch, and pray " for the Mind of Christ, that I may work rightly in God's vineyard, and to know that in truth, what belongs to one belongs to all, - that one God, one Life, Truth, and Love is all. - A. C. L., Kansas City, Kans.
DESIRE FOR LIQUOR AND TOBACCO DISAPPEARED
I first heard of Christian Science four years ago. At that time drinking and smoking were my comforters. I had no other companionship. I had lived almost constantly from childhood in an evil atmosphere. Though I was far from being satisfied with my condition, I failed to see how to better it until I read Science and Health. I used occasionally to listen to a sermon, but sermons did not give me any more comfort than I derived from my pipe, hence I concluded that church-going could not satisfy me and I preferred drinking and smoking. When I began to read Science and Health, I saw it offered something substantial. After a few months' study all desire for drinking and smoking disappeared. I did not give them up; I made no sacrifices, I simply found something better. I might mention that I had smoked ever since I can remember. I used to smoke years before I left school, and, like most Englishmen, loved my pipe, and would almost prefer to miss a meal rather than to go without my smoke. I used to think it gave me comfort.
During my four years' study of Christian Science I
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to the friend who invited me to attend the service held in the Auditorium years ago. I also wish to acknowledge the benefit I have had from the Journal and the Sentinel. They have helped me wonderfully. If the value of Science and Health and these publications were measured as business men value things, by the results or benefits they bring, they certainly would be priceless to me. It would be impossible to measure their value, as I have got something from Science and Health that all the money in the world could not buy. - H. P. H., Chicago, Ill.
AN EXPRESSION OF LOVING GRATITUDE
In the spring of 1893, while studying for the ministry, Science and Health was placed in my hands, and the truth contained therein at once became to me the pearl of great price. I literally devoured the book, reading it about eighteen hours a day. Its originality was startling, upsetting my preconceived opinions of God, man, and creation. Two sentences especially appealed to me: "The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin" (p. 262), and, "For right
All my life had been spent in semi-invalidism, and I seemed destined to a life of suffering. In three weeks after beginning Science and Health, to my joyful surprise I found myself a well man, sound physically, and uplifted spiritually. Life was being lived from a new basis, the old things of personal sense were passing away and all things becoming new. I learned that the infinite good is the one Friend upon whom we can call at all times, an all-powerful, ever-present help in every time of trouble; that His children are really governed in peace and harmony by spiritual law, and as the right understanding of it is gained, the other things soon follow, bringing a peace the human concept can never know.
For the last twelve years my whole time has been devoted to Christian Science practice, and I have seen nearly every so-called incurable disease healed by its beneficent influence. God bless our dear Leader! She has set before us an open door, which no man can shut, and it is but a question of time when the world will know her better and love her more. - E. E. N., Washington, D. C.
HEALED OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE
August 18, 1902, I was taken down with what three doctors pronounced Bright's disease, and they stated
FIBROID TUMOR DESTROYED
When quite young I was impressed that the Bible was not properly interpreted by the preachers, for I could not conceive of a God of wrath who was unjust enough to allow His little ones to suffer pain, misery, and death. I had hope, however, that some day the truth would be revealed to an awakening world, but little did I dream that even then there was one of God's noble women who reflected sufficient purity and holiness to entertain the "angel of his presence," and commune with the true God.
I was believed to be predisposed to scrofula, so that I was not a strong or attractive child, and my girlhood and womanhood were scarcely ever free from dread of the laws of matter and lack of strength. The climax was reached when a physician informed me, after weeks of treatment, that I had a fibroid tumor, which required an operation. The conditions were most trying and I
LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS
I have received so much benefit from the testimonies in the Sentinel and Journal that I send mine, hoping it may cheer some struggling heart. I was reared by kind and loving Christian parents and was a member of an orthodox church for over twenty years, but I was never satisfied. I was filled with fear and bound down by the false gods of this world, - sin, disease, and poverty; consequently every way I turned, and in everything I attempted to do, I was met with disappointment and failure; but God was leading me into a different life.
The Bible is a new book to me. I now see what Jesus meant when he said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
My heart goes out in gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for the work she has done and is still doing for the world, and to God I am most grateful that He has guided me into the truth, that I may have life, and have it more abundantly. - Mrs. M. M., Chicago, Ill.
A GRATEFUL TESTIMONY
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
This has been proven to me in every way. When Christian Science came to me, I was a wreck, physically, mentally, and financially; but since the reading of Science and Health turned my thought toward the light, I have found that, as far as I am willing to receive the word and live it, all comforts are supplied me. I am especially
HEALED OF CONSUMPTION AND ASTHMA
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the great benefits which have come to me through Christian Science. It is nearly ten years since I began the investigation of the subject by borrowing a copy of Science and Health. I had become a hopeless sufferer from asthma, - the disease being so aggravated at times as to make breathing almost impossible. I was also a victim of that dread disease, consumption. It was hereditary, nearly all my family on both sides having passed away with it. I took up Christian Science very much as a drowning man catches at a straw. However, I was much interested as soon as I began to understand it, and having read the book nearly all my waking hours for a few weeks, I became so much better and so convinced of its truth, that myself and wife destroyed all the medicines in the home, and have never since used any remedy except Christian Science. I continued to study and to put into practice the teaching as best I knew, and was restored to health in a few months.
Prior to my investigation of Christian Science I had been from boyhood an outspoken infidel, had read that class of literature extensively, and had no desire for anything of a religious nature, - the orthodox teaching
| Science and Health with KEY to THE SCRIPTURES | |