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THE LAKE SHORE NEWS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1918 A LECTURE ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE By WILLIAM D. KILPATRICK, C. S. Member of the Board of Lectureihip of The Mather Church. The Fir*t Church of .Chritt, Scientut. in Boiton, Mix. Mr. William D, Kilpatrick, C. S., a member of the board of lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., delivered, on Friday evening, January 18, a free public lecture on .Christian Science, under the auspices of First Church of Christ. Scientist, Wilmette, in the church edifice. Hush Stuart Campbell, first reader, intro- duced the lecturer. Mr. Campbell, said: Friends:— With the banner of Christianity unfurled in Palestine where naught but the call of the Koran was heard for centuries;—with a panorama of events making history in obscure and half forgotten places,—Joppa, Jeru- salem, Bethlehem, Nazareth,—how natural for thoughts of progressive thinkers to turn with awakened in- terest to the cradle of Christian faith, and more serionsly consider the glori- fied ministry of him who founded a religion of love and good works, and ■who, at the close of an exalted career ^pronounced this benediction: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." You will recall an incident in the bgeinning of that ministry, when Jesus, returning to his boyhood home in Zazareth, was invited to read in the synagogue. You remember he turned in the book of Esaias where it was written, "He sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach "de- liverance to the captives and recov- ering of sight to the blind, #to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," and he closed the book and said, "This day is this Scripture ful- filled in your ears." You recall what happened ;—the unbelievers thrust him from the synagogue. My friends, we should be grateful that this age is more tolerant, for when Christian Science proclaims again to suffering humanity.—"This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears," hope springs up in many a heart. Joyfully is the truth received by the sick and sinning when "with signs following" God is revealed as an ever operative, healing and savin.? Principle, available to all who are willing to seek with an open mind. Mrs. Eddy says in the text-book of Christian Science (p. 565), "Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples—imperatively, absolutely, finally—with divine Sci- ence." This reign of harmony re- vealed and demonstrated by Christian Science is already governing the mo- tives and acts of thousands upon thousands of followers in every land. That you may learn more of this practical religion, is the message pre- sented tonight and we cordially wel- come you to hear the messenger who is a loyal member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. Friends, it is a pleasure and priv- ilege to introduce Mr. William D. Kilpatrick, C. S. of Detroit, Michigan, who will now address you. I have chosen for the subject of my discourse "Christian Science; The Law of God." Present day interest in Christian Science is finding expression in a de- mand for a wider dissemination of its message of hope and good cheer—in a hungering and thirsting for a fuller understanding of this pure gospel of the Christ. It is being universally asked: What is Christian Science? What does it teach? What are its accomplishments? On what authority does this religious movement within the short span of a generation com- mand the respectful consideration of a world? It is the purpose of the Christian Science literature, of Christian Sci- ence church services and of Christian Science lectures to answer these questions, and. if. perchance, we shall have been able this evening to throw some little gleam of light on that book of all books, the Holy Bible; if. perchance, we shall have been able to awaken the smouldering spark of hope and encouragement in the breast of some sin-burdened, sick. hopeless or suffering man or woman we shall consider the hour well and profitably spent. The world's interest today in Chris- tian Science lies in the world's necessity for Christian Science. Long- suffering humanity is in sore need of a live, vital, dynamic, constructive, , spiritual, religious awakening,—an awakening predicated, not on hectic outbursts of fanciful, fanatical fervor and temperamental, mesmeric enthus- universally and eternally applicable.; points to the Bible, to the words and It must be at the command and for! works of Jesus and to its own accom- the benefit of all of God's children j plishments in substantiation of. the throughout all of God's creation.; truth thereof. Christian Science is Thus we find that the law employed j proving itself to be the truth by prov- by Jesus in his mighty works is thejing the Bible true. iasm, but an awakening resulting from sober, prayerful, thoughtful and sanctified convictions. The world is demanding something besides mere formalism, something besides the hol- low mockery of creed and ritual, something besides a religion that of- fers mere speculative, future possi- bilities in place of a truly Christ-like religion that can point to its present works as evidence of its divine au- thority. Humanity has arrived at the point where it demands a religion which it believes to be wholly true, untainted by human opinions and conjecture, without one element of error, founded on the Bible and restoring the teach- ings and works of the Master. That is what the world demands today, and that, my friends, is why it is turning to Christian Science. The proof of its divine origin rather than its pro- fession has set the face of the world towards this religion. Definition of Christian Science. Probably the briefest and one of the most comprehensive definitions of Christian Science is to be found in the book "Rudimental Divine Sci- ence" by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, where she describes it "as the law of God, the law of good, in- terpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony." It will be noted that "uni- versal harmony" in this definition is the ultimate, and its accomplishment the result of the interpretation and application of f'the law of God." The religion that is to bring about "universal harmony" must necessari- ly be based on a clearly defined, un- changing, ever-present, demonstrable law or Principle. Its teachings must be capable of proof and if they are capable of proof then it necessarily follows that they are wholly true and without one least element of the false or untrue. Humanity has had its full quota of religions based partly on truth and partly on error, and is to- day groaning under a surfeit of re- ligious creeds, each differing from the ot h e r. Law. Law is unchanging and inexorable. Law knows no opposing power or principle. The laws of mathematics cannot be hindered, thwarted, usurped or set aside. No matter how er- roneous our opinion of the laws of mathematics may be, its laws remain ever the same, unchanged through- out all time. If not one person on the face of the earth ever knew one single, simple law of mathematics. that would in no wise alter its laws or the fact that its laws exist and al- ways have existed unchanged in their perfection. And so we find that the law of God always has existed, un- altered, eternal and perfect, but that. except in a few instances, this law has been hidden from mankind throughout the ages. To emphasize the fact that his works were in exemplification of the Truth he taught—were evidences of an understanding based on a demon- strable law of God, Jesus did not re- sort to argument—to finely chosen speech delivered to his followers with ostentatious formalism, but rather, in answer to the question put to him by the emissaries sent from John the Baptist.—"Art thou he that should come? Or look we for another?" Jestis replied simply, "Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, to the poor the gospel is preached." The recital of his works was, to his sense, sufficient proof that his teachings were divinely ordained and in strict explanation of God's law. The works of Jesus proved that they were predicated on a premise wholly right and that no element of error was present. He must have been working from a perfect under- standing of God's immutable law. Universality of God's» Law. The object of all Christian en- deavor should be to prove the Mas- ter's teachings to be true by doing the works that he did. The healing works of Jesus were not given us merely to show what he could do. Christian Science proves that these works were given to the world by Jesus in demonstration of a divine, ever-present, demonstrable law, that humanity, through his example same law that enabled the Israelites to pass on dry land through the Red Sea, that restored her son whole to the Shunnamite mother, that deliv- ered the three Hebrew young men from the fiery furnace, that enabled Daniel to dwell unharmed in the den of lions, and the same law whereby the apostles and the early Christians for some centuries after the time of Jesus obeyed the Master's commands by doing his works. And this is the same law through which Christian Science is today bringing to human- ity the world over relief from its sufferings and misery. Jet us, Demonstrator of God's Law. That the teachings and practice of Jesus were predicated on'a hypothesis wholly spiritual to the complete ex- clusion of matter and its so-called laws, Jesus' own words and works leave no doubt. The entire purpose and import of his career were to edu- cate mankind away from the belief in a material universe as real and into the understanding of man and the universe created by God, spiritually —a universe governed by the law of God, Spirit, and not subject to chance, change and the mutations of time. There is no known physical law or so-called law of matter that Jesus did not completely annul and over- throw through his intelligent appli- cation of God's law. At the wedding feast Jesus turned the water into wine, proving once and for all that material qualities and phenomena are mental and have no authority of their own in the presence of an intelligent understanding and application of God's law. In the healing of the son of the nobleman at Capernaum when a long distance from the sick man, and in the instantaneous transporta- tion of the ship across the sea of Galilee, Jesus demonstrated that time, place and space are mental qualities and that they may all be eliminated through the correct appli- cation of the law of God. Jesus stilled the tempest, quieting the winds and the waves, proving that even the ele- ments of the material world are sub- servient and subject to God's law. He walked on the waters of the Sea of Galilee, proving of no effect the law of gravitation in the presence of an intelligent understanding and appli- cation of divine law. Jesus fed a great multitude of people with seven loaves and a few small fish, thus prov- ing that man's supply is purely men- tal, that it is abundant, ever-present and available, not dependent upon matter or material conditions and discrediting forever the belief in the necessity for poverty, lack and limita- tion of every name and nature. Jesus proved by healing the multitudes of sick that disease is not of God and hence has no authority to fetter man; that matter does not make a man sick and that matter and its so-called laws have no part in the healing and the health of mankind. He proved by raising Lazarus from the dead and by his own victory over the tomb that there is no divine decree, authority or law back of the condition called death, and at the instant of his ascen- sion he proved the utter nothingness of matter and the supreme allness of Spirit. Yet Jesus said "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come to destroy but to fulfill." Taking, then, his works in support of his words, is it not obvious that his efforts were for the purpose of establishing an under- standing in the consciousness of hu- manity of a law of Spirit, or God, which would supersede all so-called physical law, thereby proving mat- ter and its laws to be unreal and not of God, hence powerless? It cannot be readily imagined that Jesus was sent to annual or destroy God's law. This would have been an impossibility, for God's law, we are repeatedly told in the Bible, is om- nipotent. Furthermore, of what ben- efit would it have been to humanity, to Jesus or to God, for Jesus to set aside God's law for the mere space of a moment, even though he were capable of so doing, in order to per- form his miracles? Could there be any other explanation of Jesus' mis- sion than that it was for the express purpose of relieving mankind of the burden of self-imposed, so-called laws of matter, in submitting to which they have subjected themselves, throughout the centuries to condi- tions of sin. sickness and death? Christian Science and Matter. Christian Science shows us that matter is the veil of misunderstand- ing through which mankind have been laboriously peering throughout the centuries, and that underneath this covering of mortal unreality lies all the sin, sickness, misery and unhappi- ness to which humanity has been ever subject. What then, shall we do with mat- ter? By what process of reasoning shall we begin its elimination? Jesus said "It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing," and Jesus never uttered an idle word. We are further admonished many times and in many ways in the Bible to have that mind in us "which was also in Christ Jesus." The book of Proverbs tells us that as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he," and on one oc- casion Jesus said, in reply to the question as to the whereabouts of heaven, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there; for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." These Bible passages show clearly that the whole problem of salvation from materiality is a mental one. Christian Science teaches that mat- ter is nothing but mortal mind or hu- man thought objectified—that behind every material expression there lies a perfect, spiritual idea of God gov- erned by God's law and subject alone to God. The whole operation, then, of salvation from matter and its so- called laws of sin, disease and death, involves establishing in consciousness the God-idea, or spiritual reality, in place of this counterfeit concept. "For to be carnally (mortally) minded is death" says Paul, "but to be spirit* ually minded is life and peace." And he goes on to say, "Because the car- nal (or mortal) 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" he con- cludes, "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you." That is, if so be that the spiritual fact of being dwell in consciousness to the com- plete exclusion of all else." . Footsteps. This journey out of a sense of ma- teriality, is, to be sure, not an easy one to travel. To attain the spiritual ultimate at a bound is an impossi- bility. Christian Science is a stern, though loving, taskmaster and its de- mands are as distinct and as clearly defined as are the rules and laws of mathematics. N There must be a be- ginning along most elemental lines. Each step in progress must be in proof of an advanced understanding of God and His law. Before the high- er demonstrations of spiritual law can come there must be the putting into practice of what we understand in a small way. Before we walk we must creep. Before we raise the dead we must heal the sick. One step fol- lows another. If then, the material universe is merely a concept of the mortal mind, an externalization, to human con- sciousness, of mortal thought, and the true or spiritual creation is the embodiment of ideas of the divine Mind, of which mortal thoughts are the counterfeit, must not our task of putting off the false and putting on the true, consist in plucking out and removing, one by one, those errone- ous concept* that go to make up a so-called material universe, and in place thereof plant the true spiritual ideas? And is it not clear that in undertaking this work we must begin with the more simple problems? That was the way Jesus started,'and when he had cast out the last element of mortal belief he found himself at the Mount of Ascension, where all ma- teriality fades into its native noth- ingness and the true, the spiritual and eternal, were his forever. To re- place hate and malice with love, to replace dishonesty with honesty, im- purity with purity, jealousy and re- venge with forgiveness, greed and selfishness with charity, impatience with patience, self-righteousness, self- love and self-pity with self-forgetful- ness and self-abnegation may not seem of vast importance, but to fol- low the footsteps of the Master and to demonstrate the law of God by healing the sick and casting out the myriad of mortal inharmonies, these changes in our thought process are an absolute necessity. The Physical Senses. But, it nay be objected, how can Christian Science has received its inspiration from a pure, spiritual in-j one help believing in the reality of terpretation of the Scriptures from | matter when matter majr be seen with Genesis to Revelation. Bible teach- i the eye. when it may be touched and might know and understand this law j ings constitute the warp and woof of | handled, when we taste and smell it, and be able to intelligently apply this! Christian Science and in its some- when we hear its myriad of sounds knowledge. This law of God must,'what startling assertion that the and noises? Let us here refer to a from the very nature of God and his ■ spiritual is the real and eternal and very pertinent and explicit statement relation to man and the universe, be matter the unreal and temporal, it made by St. Paul bearing on this very point. In his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul says, "If ve live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." "Mortify"—what does that mean? It means.^ "to silence," "to deaden." "Through the spirit"—what does that mean? That means, through the understanding that all things are spiritual and that nothing is material. Now, what are the "deeds of the body" that Paul here admonishes us to "silence" or "deaden" through an understanding of all things as spiritual? Why, see- ing, feeling tasting, smelling, hearing, —the testimony of the five physical senses. These are the deeds of the body. These, in fact, constitute ail the known faculties of the fleshly or mortal man, and all that we know of the material universe or ever will know is cognized through these senses. And we are told plainly enough by St. Paul that we are to "mortify" or "silence" their testimony. We have been living all these years reading and hearing read this passage of Scripture just quoted, the while we have been nursing the delusion that the five physical senses furnish us the only evidence of existence and conse- quently must be God-endowed. Yet this passage of Scripture is plain and is in strict accord with all of the teachings of the Master. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." That is, that not until, through the per- ception and understanding of God, man arid the universe as spiritual, we recognize the five physical senses as creations of erring, mortal thought, shall we begin to experience that life vouchsafed us by St. Paul in this pas- sage of Scripture. Mortal Mind. Now what is our authority for be- lieving, or through what medium do we believe, that the material senses of seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling and hearing are real and God-given qualities? What is it that makes these faculties seem real and essential to us? What is it that bears to us evidence of their reality? Why. nothing but this mortal or carnal mind which is back of all material phenomena and which St. Paul tells us must be put off. It is the human or mortal mind, instead of matter, that sees, feels, tastes, smells and hears. Take away the mind of a mortal and what testimony can the five physical senses utter? Complete- ly silence his mentality and all the argument in the world cannot make a man believe that he sees, feels, tastes, smells or hears. Nothing of a material nature impresses him. He is not even cognizant of the mortal body in which he is supposed to re- side. So it should be perfectly ap- parent that the evidence of the senses cannot correctly inform us of the true qualities of man governed by an immutable law, for the five physi- cal senses may be silenced while law and its manifestations can never be. Physical Inharmonies. Following this understanding, that the physical senses, which furnish the only evidence of the physical man. are nothing but manifestations of the mortal mind, operating with- out the realm of fixed law, it neces- sarily follows that the underlying cause of all phenomena evidenced by these senses must be the product of that same mind. Any of the so-called inharmonies of man manifested by a disturbed physicality must neces- sarily be the result of the same mind or cause underlying physicality. Con- sequently, the remedy for all so-called physical inharmonies lies in the cor- rection of the false sense of law or cause, the result of the mind re- sponsible for these inharmonies. This, obviously, cannot be accom- plished through mortal mind, the mind that creates these inharmonies, for mortal mind operates by virtue of no fixed law of God to give it per- manency or authority in any new- condition which its whims might create. Certainly then, we have but one source of correction and that is the divine Mind, or God, which is per- fect, which knows no inharmony, neither variableness nor shadow of turning, but which is "the same yes- terday, today and forever." This corrective process lies in dis- placing these false concepts of crea- tion, of man and the universe, and the multitude of conflicting mortal laws supposed to govern their rela- tions to each other, with the correct understanding of God and his crea- tion and the laws governing it. In his work of demonstrating the pov.erlessness of the so-called laws of matter the Christian Scientist has only to deal with so-called mortal mind and the divine Mind. Matter and its accompaniments do not con- stitute a least part of his consider- ations as he recognizes matter as merely a phrase of mortal thought. The Christian Scientist recognizes the divine Mind, or God, as true and mor- tal mind as the lie about the Truth. There must be truth underlying every