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. TE a was not anything "ing. ' WINNETKA WEEKLY TALK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1918 (Continued from Page Three) law, he separated himself from mat- ter and disappeared. Does any one imagine that in the ascension Jesus was taken up as a mortal, material man? What then became of the physical body when he ascended to the Father? Is it not plain that the real Jesus was from the first spirit- ual and that the material body was at all times what ultimately proved it to be a false concept of finite sense, which disappeared in the light of spiritual understanding? Hear the testimony of St. John: "For all that is in the world***is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." If "all that is in the world," mortal man and the physical universe, is not of the Father," what claim can materiality have to reality? If the world is the author of the things that are in the world ,and "the world passeth away," as St. John declares, it is conclusive that God is not the author of the material universe nor physical man. Because they lack a divine Cause, the material universe and mortal man can have no reality, for "without him made that was made." St. John's declaration that the things that are in the world are of the world indicate that materiali- ty only substitutes itself, in belief, for the real creation, the spiritual universe and spiritual man, and mere- ly counterfeits genuine being. Evil From the foregoing it is evident that Christian Science does not hold God responsible for the creation of that which Paul defined as "enmity against God." God is not responsible, directly nor indirectly for evil, for sin, disease, nor death outside of in- finite Good. Whence then comes this enmity against God? People who are in trouble are not greatly concerned in the philosophic explanation of the origin of evil. Their interest cen- ters in getting rid of evil, and the triumph of Christian Science is that it does just that. It is satisfactory to learn that God d oes not counten- ance evil nor include it among His very good works, and therefore that evil is unreal. However, evil is accounted for logi- cally in accordance with the law of supposed opposites. One of the synonyms of Deity, you will recall, is Truth. God being infinite Truth, there is evidently nothing beyond Truth's infinitely good and true manifestation. To bring evil into the equation it becomes necessary to suppose the opposite of infinite good, but remember that this sup- position, this opposite of truth, must be a lie, and hence unreal. Now a lie's deception 'is possible only so long as it appears to be true? It - must masquerade as truth, or coun- terfeit truth, in order to gain cre- dence. Christian Science has un- covered the "mystery of iniquity." The mystery of evil is just like any other mystery-- ignorance of truth. The whole problem of evil is one of ignorance, or absence of understand- All the trouble in the world is due to misunderstanding, to false estimates of God, man and the uni- verse. In Christian Science men are learning neither to ignore evil nor to be ignorant of its pretense, but are addressing themselves to the task of recognizing evil as a lie, eliminat- ing the lie from consciousness and replacing it with good. Evil is thus losing its claim upon thought, as the spiritual understanding of God and man is attained. "But," you say, "Christian Science has not done away with evil. It's still here, in spite of the uncovering of its nothingness." My friends, Christian Scientists already have made wonderful progress. We have learned much about the unreality of evil and to that degree have disposed of its claims. It is true that, although Christian Science shows man, to be the image of God, perfect and spirit- ual now, man still seems to the phy- sical senses to be mortal and imper- fect. Some forms of evil, when un- masked, may continue as appearance, just as the sun continues to appear to rise in the east, even after one discovers that it really stands still and the earth revolves on its axis, but the illusion no longer de- ceives. In like manner, mortality unmasked, is showrn of its seeming power and reality. Evil may seem to have its day, but because it is perishable, its destruc- tion is inevitable. Because it is a lie about something true, it must go out, Truth must be its destroyer. Re- member that truth never destroys anything true;its destructive action is exerted always upon that which is unreal. For every lie, there is a true statement which will destroy it. Every time a Christian Scientist ap- plies the Truth to a lie, he destroys that much of error, ignorance, and advances by that much the day of perfect spiritual understanding when "they shall all know me." (Good) "from 'the least of them unto the greatest of them." Salvation And Christ Jesus In cleaning out the rubbish of un- true theories and building again the old waste plales, Christian Science is a true constructive force. It re- peats the restorative ministry of Christ Jesus, whose mission, an apostle said, was to "destroy the works of the devil," evil, and who "went about doing good." He who was named Saviour gave a new meaning to salvation. He who came to "save His people from their sins" applied the restorativd power of the Christ, Truth, to every sort of evil; thus he healed disease and sin by the same process. As in Jesus' time, po- pular teology today views salvation chiefly as a preparation for the here- after. Bue Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundant- ly." Christian Science has restored to humanity the saving grace of Christian healing, proving that Chris- tianity is a religion not do die by, but to live by. Where, in the scheme of salvation, does Christian Science place Christ Jesus? In the words of Peter, "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Jesus was the name of the one individual in the world's history who has attained the perfect state of spiritual apprehension. By his understanding of God, Jesus proved that man is perfect, spiritual, inde- structible. He overcame every law of matter, sin, disease and death, thus proving their nothingness. He took every human footstep in "the passage from sense to Soul" (Science and Health, page 566), and left the path so plain that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." What he proved was for all man- kind, for he himself said, "I am the way." By this it will be understood that Jesus was not God, but was, as he himself affirmed, the son of God. In Science and Health (page 482), we read: "Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man," Jesus' unselfishness, purity and spirituality so endowed him with godliness that he was worthy to bear the title Mes- siah, or Christ. Again (Science and Health, (page 583), Mrs. Eddy has defined Christ as, "The divine mani- festation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." With Jesus the Christ was so pre- ponderant that when the human cried out, "Let this cup pass," Jesus was able to say, "not my will but thine be done." Let the mortal dis- appear and the Christ appear as the representative of divinity. It was this Christ that caused Jesus to say, "If I" (the fleshly concept) "go not away, the Comforter will not come nuto you"--the restorative Truth will not become operative in your consciousness; in other words, you will continue to cling to my human personality and will fail to grasp the divine Principle which governs it. Christian Science teaches personal salvation through all Christ Jesus lived to do; that each individual is to work out his own salvation from all error by the example Jesus furn- ished in his demonstration of the Christ. Christian Science accepts the essentials of Christianity as found in the Scriptural record of the life and teaching of Christ Jesus, but restores an emphasizes the spiritual import and observance of the doct- rine he taught and ordinances he es- tablished. Above "all, Christian Science teaches that the essentials of Christianity involve individual practice more than profession. / Prayer The modus operandi by which Christian Science fulfills its restor- ative ministry is prayer. By prayer sickness is healed, sin is de- stroyved and harmony restored. By prayer ignorance is replaced with un- derstanding. By prayer we draw near to God and enter into the heritage of his son. Prayer is that process by which false beliefs are destroyed and right concepts re- stored. To know the Truth is true prayer. Therefore the Christian Scientist when he prays, does not ask God for any material thing. He seeks to apprehend what is already existent and bestowed. He asks on- ly for guidance, for wisdom, for true knowledge. So Soloman prayed for an understanding heart. So Hagar athirst in the desert, fearing for the life of her child. prayed the prayer which opened her blind eyes and re- vealed the well of water at hand. Such prayer has never failed, for it is the prayer of spiritual sense, that "conscious, constant, capacity to un- derstand God," and the spiritual real man. Christ Jesus, in teaching how to pray, said "Whatsoever things ye de- sire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." True prayer then is comprised in asking and receiving. It is both desire and realization-- desire to know the will of God, desire to ex- press that will in daily life, desire to overcome all that is contrary to good; realization of the unreality of error and the presence of God and his manifestation. Prayer in Chris- tian Science includes the answer, and if this were not so, the loving Fa-| ther would stand convicted of ca- priciousness and favoritism. The riches of His kingdom are available to all who claim their divine herit- age. A little girl I know furnished an adequate illustration of the restorat- ive prayer of Christian Science when she freed herself from the bondage of sickness thus: "If God did not make it, how could I be it?" Very little process entered into her ar- gument against the false sense that seemed to bind her, but she rejected the erroneous concept and realized the allness of good. She sought re- fuge directly in the Truth of being and knew that she and God are in- separable. She did not wonder what she had done to bring on the sick- ness, and did not offer the false de- fense that she was still mortal, she did not think of herself as in the flesh, she wasted no time in self- justification, self-pity nor self-con- demnation. Her thought turned naturally to God, divine Love, her only source of relief, naturally as the flower turns to the sun, and she was free! Do you wonder that Jesus de- clares the kingdom of God open only to the childlike thought? The highest object of prayer and its ultimate answer is the attainment of the man's in- separableness from his Maker--God. Ceaseless prayer is the demand of Scripture, and this is possible only as constant right desire and effort to be in His image and likeness, to be present with God. Of this sup- reme concept of answered prayer, Mrs. Eddy has written: "Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer; And IT am blest! This is thy high behest: -- Thou here, and everywhere." (Misc. Writings, page 383.) In the presence of Good, there is no unsatisfied desire. Christian Science consciousness of vs. Suggestive Therapeutics hii It is now, perhaps, universally con- ceded that Christian Science restores the sick. There are those, however, who repeat the ancient mistake of attributing the miracles of Christian healing to the action of the human mind, through what these critics term mental suggestion. In Jesus' day the unbelievers said: "This fel- low doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils" but Jesus disclaimed the human mind to be a factor in his work and insisted that his was the "finger of God" method. Christ Jesus fully prov- ed that the divine Mind alone was the he aling power in his pactice. He said "I can of mine own self do nothing." "The Father that dwelleth in me, doeth the works." The Beelze- bub method is illustrated today in the prevalent material methods of treating the sick and in the so-called mental sciences. One and all such systems rely upon the supposed ac- tion of the human mind. Although in materia medica the medium of matter is employed, nevertheless or- dinary medical practice is little else than the practice of mental sugges- tion. Indeed the trend of modern medical thought is toward a frank admission of the suggestive charac- ter of material medicine. Belief in the method, as well as belief in the physician plainly is required for suc- cessful medical practice. I have given experimentally, a hypodermatic in- jection of pure water to a patient wild with pain, and have watched him go quietly to sleep. The operation would have been no less an instance of suggestive therapeutics had I in- jected the actual drug endowed through general belief with pain re- lieving power. Medicine is consti- tuted in mental consent--it is what- ever mortal mind believes it to be. Anciently human belief bestowed up- on material objects supernatural' nower. A relic of such "medicine" is found in the modern practice of wearing amulets. Many people be- lieve that a buckeye carried in the pocket has power to prevent rheu- matism. It is not unusual to see a child with a niece of red flannel about its neck. That, many will tell you. is good for sore throat. Indeed there seems no limit to human credulity. It is perhaps within the facts to state that there is nothing "in heav- en above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth" but has been used as medicine. That which in the kitchen is a: food, be- comes a medicine in the shop of the apothecary. True, mortal mind has usually abandoned its remedies about as fast as it has adopted them, but throughout the history of material medicine it has sought to find power in matter instead of in the divine Mind. It is a far journey, in point of time, from liquor of earth worms, once highly reputed in materia me- dica, to modern serum of horses' blood, but the same mental consent has been required to furnish each generation with its ever changing pharmacopeia. Mental suggestion and Christian Science are antitheses. The one is the supposed action of the human mind, which being enmity against God works only evil continually. The other is the power of God, divine Mind, and is wholly good. Christian Science has come to reassure man- kind that all mental suggestions are mesmeric, wholly false, and can have no more reality and no more power than is bestowed upon them in be- lief. Christian Science teaches how to free one's self, and others, from the belief of any influence other 'than the power of the one Mind--God; how to separate mental suggestions from the laws of divine Principle; how to eradicate false mental pict- ures from consciousness and to pre- vent them forming there; how to overcome fear; how to be unrespans- ive to sin. "But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." Herein is the Christian method of healing found supreme--it not only heals the sick but reforms the sin- ner. Those healed of sickness in Christian Science invariably will testify to spiritual regeneration. If Christian Science did no more than eliminate the sinfulness of dissipa- tion, in all its forms, it is proved the greatest restorative force the world has ever known. In Christian Science physical and social hygiene, sanita- t;nn, prophylaxis and therapeutics be- 1 at their logical beginning in \iind, so that Christian Scientists are learning to thinkcleanly, normal- ly, correctly, and thus to live clean, wholesome and normal lives. A sound mind produces and maintaines a sound body as surely as effect fol- lows cause. A Practical Idealism 1f Christian Science were to pro- ject merely a metaphysical system of theorizing about God and man, it would be the most impractical reli- gion ever offered to a sin-burdened and disease-tortured race. But the idealism of Christian Science has a practical application to human in- terests. Because God is the infinite Principle, He is the source of all law. If, therefore, human affairs are to be ordered out of chaos, man must be governed by the law of God. Tis law is spiritual and its operation in human consciousness is to spiritual- ize thought. To the degree of his spirituality, therefore, is a man re- deemed from the discords of matter. When a man learns something of the truth about God and about himself, when he begins to understand that as the offspring of God man is the expression of Spirit and possesses only the divine, spiritual attributes, he begins to see the unreality of the false belief that he is subject to the so-called laws of matter. He begins to see that discord is no proper part of his experience, and that by realiz- ing the facts of spiritual being he can overcome all in his experience that is unlike God. Thus he begins to take up the work of eliminating from thought the un- spiritual qualities and of replacing them with the spiritual. He learns to reject as spurious thoughts that involve sin, disease, inharmony and limitation, because all such thoughts are not spiritual, and to realize his divine heritage, dominion over all. As this restoration of spiritual con- cepts goes on in the individual, the man is changed. He learns that man is well because God is whole and man is his expression. He, therefore, no longer accepts the domination of fear, false laws of health, hygiene, sanitation, but holds himself super- ior to these so-called laws of matter on the ground that God made man subject only to the laws of Spirit. Since the human mind and body are one, the body improves as the thought is improved, and health be- comes normal and established. In like manner such an individual finds his thought about sin undergo- ing a radical change. He finds that sin is of the carnal mind alone, and that as he comes into possession of the Mind of Christ, the fear of sin, the love of sin, and the ignorance of sin are destroyed. Thus sin and its effects disappear and: righteousness is restored. The Christian Scientist finds also his concepts of business improve. He begins to see that all real business is the activity of right thinking and belongs to the divine Mind. God is therefore the only employer, or pro- prietor, and business is wholly good. Thus the fears, doubts, discords, lim- itations and 'failures present or pos- sible in the old way of thinking are displaced by right concepts and busi- ness is restored. Thus Christian Science touches with its restorative ministry every human activity, raising conscious- ness to a higher basis of the Christ ideal, turning thought into new and brighter paths, paths of health, paths of holiness, paths of loving service. Triumph Of Good Over Evil The story of religion is the history of the world. To the student and thinker today is momentous with history in the making, with prophesy fulfilled. The restoration in human consciousness of the spiritual ideal has stirred to their depths the forces of evil which are ever at war with good. War is evil's self-construc- tion, and because it is so, infinitely better is this just war than "a false convenient peace!" (Miscellany page 211) At this crisis in the triumphant march of Principle against the hosts of evil, where do Christian Scien- tists stand? At home and at the | front shoulder to shoulder with their fellow citizens and their allies. in support of a righteous cause. The ideals of Christian Science are the ideals of Anglo-America. Expressed lin the words of Mrs. Eddy, they are: 1"Never to take away the rights, but only the wrongs of mankind." (No and Yes, page 40). These are the ideals which enabled Mrs. Eddy to see, beyond the shell-torn battle fields, the coming of the Prince of Peace. With true vision she saw the children of Principle, reunited, sup- reme over all, and the freedom of the world realized. In 1898 she wrote, in a poem, "The United States to Great Britain," these prophetic words : "For Anglo-Israel, lo! Is marching under orders; His hand averts the blow. Brave Britain, blest America! Unite your battle-plan; Victorious, all who live it, The love for God and man." Conclusion How shall we epitomize .the re storative ministry of Christian Science? As Mrs. Eddy wrote of Christ Jesus, so may it be said of Christian Science, its "sublime sum- mary points to the religion of Love." (Science and "Health, page 138.) Little more than fifty years ago there was but one Christian Scien~ tist in all the world, Mary Baker Eddy. Today, through her loving ministry, the restorative Truth plen- tifully is reaching humanity. Be- cause of her love for God and man, she organized the Church of Christ, Scientist, "designated to commemor- ate the word and works of our Mas~ ter, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." (Church Manual, page 17.) Because of her love for God and man she established the Christian Science Reading Rooms. where the storm- tossed and distressed find refuge and comfort. Because of her love for God and man she founded the Christian Science periodicals which, daily, weekly and monthly send out the message of Truth's restorative mission. Through all its activities the Christian Science, church is de~ monstrating the practical character of its idealism, for it is commited un- selfishly to the redemption of human ity through the regenerating power of Christ, Truth, operating in human consciousness. Christian Scientists desire nothing so much as that the power of God unto salvation, so richly enjoyed by them, because to them understood, shall be made available to their fel- lowmen. That is why all over the earth men and women are devoting their lives to Christian Science. to the restorative ministry of healing the sick and saving the sinner. "Oh, he whom Jesus loved has truly spoken, That holier worship, deigns to bless, Restores the lost, and heals the spirit broken, And feeds the widow and the father- less. Then, brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother! Fore where love dwells, the peace of God is there: : To worship rightly is to love each other; Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. Follow, with rev'rent steps the great which God example Of him whose holy work was doing good; » So shall the wide earth seem our Father's temple, Each loving life a psalm of gratitude, (Christian Science Hymnal, page 172.) ' ¥ { we \ a i | Lg \ A } ss in a = 3