Chapter XI
341:1The strictures on this volume would condemn to oblivion the truth, which is raising up thousands 3from helplessness to strength and elevating them from a theoretical to a practical Christianity. These criticisms are generally based on detached sentences or clauses sep‐6arated from their context. Even the Scriptures, which grow in beauty and consistency from one grand root, ap‐pear contradictory when subjected to such usage. Jesus 9said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” [Truth].
In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless. Proof 12is essential to a due estimate of this subject. Sneers at Supported by factsthe application of the word Science to Chris‐tianity cannot prevent that from being scien‐15tific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated ac‐cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to proof. The facts are so absolute and numerous in support of 18Christian Science, that misrepresentation and denuncia‐342342:1tion cannot overthrow it. Paul alludes to “doubtful dis‐putations.” The hour has struck when proof and demon‐3stration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to the support of Christianity, “making wise the simple.”
In the result of some unqualified condemnations of 6scientific Mind-healing, one may see with sorrow the sad Commands of Jesuseffects on the sick of denying Truth. He that decries this Science does it presumptuously, 9in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct command of Jesus, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” to which command was added the promise 12that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick. He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve, heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably 15received.
If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes 18Christianity scientifican accident. Shall it be denied that a system which works according to the Scriptures has Scriptural authority?
21 Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless Argument of good worksinvalid. It speaks to the dumb the words of 24Truth, and they answer with rejoicing. It causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christli‐27ness of good works, when our Master says, “By their fruits ye shall know them”?
If Christian Scientists were teaching or practising 30pharmacy or obstetrics according to the common theo‐ries, no denunciations would follow them, even if their treatment resulted in the death of a patient. The people 343 343:1are taught in such cases to say, Amen. Shall I then be smitten for healing and for teaching Truth as the Prin‐3ciple of healing, and for proving my word by my deed? James said: “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.”
6 Is not finite mind ignorant of God’s method? This makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the Personal experiencefacts, although, without this cross-bearing, 9one might not be able to say with the apostle, “None of these things move me.” The sick, the halt, and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings, 12and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody from the quickened sense of the people.
Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings 15are fully understood. By parable and argument he ex‐Proof from miraclesplains the impossibility of good producing evil; and he also scientifically demonstrates this great 18fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that sin, sickness, and death are beliefs — illusive errors — which he could and did destroy.
21 It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected be‐cause meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so 24much less.
Anciently those apostles who were Jesus’ students, as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed 27Example of the disciplesthe sick and reformed the sinner by their religion. Hence the mistake which allows words, rather than works, to follow such examples! 30Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a heretic.
344344:1 It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His 3Strong position idea, — that is, His image. It should be added that this is claimed to represent the normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine 6Science, and that this claim is made because the Scrip‐tures say that God has created man in His own image and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that 9God’s likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and death?
Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and 12that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable Efficacy may be attestedScience would perhaps mercifully withhold their misrepresentations, which harm the sick; 15and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy according to the rules which disclose its merits or de‐merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept, 18“Judge not.”
There are various methods of treating disease, which are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but 21The one divine methodthere is only one which should be presented to the whole world, and that is the Christian Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us 24as his rich legacy.
Why should one refuse to investigate this method of treating disease? Why support the popular systems 27of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because 30allopathy and homœopathy are more fashionable and less spiritual?
In the Bible the word Spirit is so commonly applied 345 345:1to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as syn‐onymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used 3Omnipotence set forthand understood in Christian Science. As it is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His 6 unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick? When the omnipotence of God is preached and His ab‐soluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the 9sick.
It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science, that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows 12Contradictions not founditself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no small matter to know one’s self; but in this volume of mine there are no contradictory 15statements, — at least none which are apparent to those who understand its propositions well enough to pass judgment upon them. One who understands Christian 18Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Chris‐tian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible evidence that one does understand this Science.
21 Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity be‐tween God’s idea and poor humanity, ought to be able to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science) 24between God’s man, made in His image, and the sinning race of Adam.
The apostle says: “For if a man think himself to be 27something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” This thought of human, material nothingness, which Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the 30main cause of the carnal mind’s antagonism.
It is not the purpose of Christian Science to “educate the idea of God, or treat it for disease,” as is alleged 346 346:1by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds man with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God’s 3God’s idea the ideal manimage, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting God’s likeness.
6 It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches Nothingness of errorhow this nothingness is to be saved and healed. 9The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in 12order to prove the somethingness — yea, the allness — of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer 15from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no vacuums. How then can this demonstration be “fraught 18with falsities painful to behold”?
We treat error through the understanding of Truth, because Truth is error’s antidote. If a dream ceases, it 21Truth antidotes erroris self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality in his belief of pain, — because matter has no sensation, 24hence pain in matter is a false belief, — how can he suffer longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious? 27Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the forceps are unchanged.
Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for 30Serving two mastersspiritual understanding. We cannot serve both God and mammon at the same time; but is not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: 347 347:1“The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” Who is ready to admit this?
3 It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real‐6ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it 9must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo‐gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth‐ing left to be doctored.
12 Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the Essential element of Christianitysigns of Christ’s coming. Christ, as the spir‐15itual or true idea of God, comes now as of old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal‐ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which 18is restoring an essential element of Christianity, — namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light 21shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends not.
If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, — 24sin, sickness, and death, — it is Christ, Truth, who de‐stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.
The dream that matter and error are something 27must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness. 30The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo‐nious unreal. These critics will then see that error is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for 348 348:1naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor nor to fear.
3 Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve 6any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear to be — what it really is — an illusion?
Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how 9one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It All disease a delusionis a pity that the medical faculty and clergy have not learned this, for Jesus established 12this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast out and the dumb spake.
Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much 15power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life Elimination of sickness and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil, because I desire to have no faith in evil or in 18any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and 21death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering dis‐ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, 24especially when by so doing our own condition can be im‐proved and that of other persons as well?
I have never supposed the world would immediately 27witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin, Full fruitage yet to comedisease, and death would not be believed for an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, 30as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and temperance have received an impulse, health has been restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres‐349349:1ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is more generally understood?
3 As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal‐Law and gospeling and teaching, “Through breaking the law, 6dishonorest thou God?” We have the gospel, however, and our Master annulled material law by heal‐ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master’s 9example. We should subordinate material law to spirit‐ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are, that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the 12author of sickness.
The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like 15Language inadequateall other languages, English is inadequate to the expression of spiritual conceptions and propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms 18in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris‐tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of 21this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy concerning the Christian apostles, “They shall speak with new tongues.”
24 Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on a material plane, material terms must be generally em‐ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the 27higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu‐cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent this is equally true of all learning, even that which is 30wholly material.
In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 350 350:1substance to be matter. They think of matter as some‐thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which 3Substance spiritualpertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view.
6 To understand all our Master’s sayings as recorded in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important, Both words and workshis followers must grow into that stature of 9manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His 12words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which must be understood. Unless the works are com‐prehended which his words explained, the words are 15blind.
The Master often refused to explain his words, because it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual 18Truth. He said: “This people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their 21eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
24 “The Word was made flesh.” Divine Truth must be known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind, The divine life-linkbefore the Science of being can be demon‐27strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar‐nate Jesus, — that life-link forming the connection through which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and 30Truth destroys error.
In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained, and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The 351 351:1religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose 3Truth a present helpfaith in God’s power to heal, we distrust the divine Principle which demonstrates Christian Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can 6we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves on a material basis.
The author became a member of the orthodox Con‐9gregational Church in early years. Later she learned that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers of her devout parents and the church; but when the 12spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a present help. It was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which 15healed the sick.
We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity, which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and 18Fatal premisesreal to us as Truth, and while we make a per‐sonal devil and an anthropomorphic God our starting-points, — especially if we consider Satan as a 21being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him. Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian 24healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord, by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious Truth.
27 The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them Fruitless worshipmatter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. 30They thought to worship Spirit from a ma‐terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no 352 352:1proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently understand God to be able to demonstrate His power 3to heal, — to make harmony the reality and discord the unreality.
Our Master declared that his material body was not 6spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be‐Spirit the tangiblelief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not 9materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man’s ex‐istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi‐ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.
12 Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear: Ghosts not realities“I know that ghosts are real. They exist, 15and are to be feared; but you must not be afraid of them”?
Children, like adults, ought to fear a reality which 18can harm them and which they do not understand, for at any moment they may become its helpless victims; but instead of increasing children’s fears by declaring 21ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water‐ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts 24are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and man-made.
In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, 27because there are no such things. If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be re‐stored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth‐30ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to tell the truth about ghosts.
353353:1 The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal. Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un‐3The real and the unrealreal in divine Science. The physical senses and Science have ever been antagonistic, and they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical 6senses yields entirely to Christian Science.
How can a Christian, having the stronger evidence of Truth which contradicts the evidence of error, think of 9the latter as real or true, either in the form of sickness or of sin? All must admit that Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that omnipotent Truth certainly 12does destroy error.
The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly beliefs. It still holds them more or less. Time has not 15Superstition obsoleteyet reached eternity, immortality, complete reality. All the real is eternal. Perfection underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly 18real. All things will continue to disappear, until per‐fection appears and reality is reached. We must give up the spectral at all points. We must not continue to admit 21the somethingness of superstition, but we must yield up all belief in it and be wise. When we learn that error is not real, we shall be ready for progress, “forgetting 24those things which are behind.”
The grave does not banish the ghost of materiality. So long as there are supposed limits to Mind, and those 27limits are human, so long will ghosts seem to continue. Mind is limitless. It never was material. The true idea of being is spiritual and immortal, and from this it follows 30that whatever is laid off is the ghost, some unreal belief. Mortal beliefs can neither demonstrate Christianity nor apprehend the reality of Life.
354354:1 Are the protests of Christian Science against the notion that there can be material life, substance, or mind “utter 3Christian warfarefalsities and absurdities,” as some aver? Why then do Christians try to obey the Scriptures and war against “the world, the flesh, and the devil”? 6Why do they invoke the divine aid to enable them to leave all for Christ, Truth? Why do they use this phraseology, and yet deny Christian Science, when it teaches precisely 9this thought? The words of divine Science find their immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick and spiritualizes humanity.
12 On the other hand, the Christian opponents of Chris‐tian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their Healing omittedMaster’s religion can heal the sick. Surely 15it is not enough to cleave to barren and desul‐tory dogmas, derived from the traditions of the elders who thereunto have set their seals.
18 Consistency is seen in example more than in precept. Inconsistency is shown by words without deeds, which Scientific consistencyare like clouds without rain. If our words 21fail to express our deeds, God will redeem that weakness, and out of the mouth of babes He will perfect praise. The night of materiality is far spent, and with 24the dawn Truth will waken men spiritually to hear and to speak the new tongue.
Sin should become unreal to every one. It is in itself 27inconsistent, a divided kingdom. Its supposed realism has no divine authority, and I rejoice in the apprehension of this grand verity.
30Spiritual meaning The opponents of divine Science must be charitable, if they would be Christian. If the letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they should 355 355:1gain the spiritual meaning of Christian Science, and then the ambiguity will vanish.
3 The charge of inconsistency in Christianly scientific methods of dealing with sin and disease is met by some‐Practical argumentsthing practical, — namely, the proof of the 6utility of these methods; and proofs are better than mere verbal arguments or prayers which evince no spiritual power to heal.
9 As for sin and disease, Christian Science says, in the language of the Master, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” Let discord of every name and nature 12be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense of Life and being take possession of human consciousness.
What is the relative value of the two conflicting the‐15ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other, popular religion, declines to admit that Christ’s religion 18has exercised any systematic healing power since the first century.
The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci‐21ence in this work are “absolutely false, and the most Conditions of criticismegregious fallacies ever offered for accept‐ance,” is an opinion wholly due to a misap‐24prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demon‐strate this Science. Without this understanding, no one 27is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demon‐stration and spiritual understanding are God’s immortal keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced 30by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are reformed.
Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup‐356356:1port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so antagonistic that the material thought must become spir‐3Weakness of material theoriesitualized before the spiritual fact is attained. So-called material existence affords no evidence of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin, 6sickness, and death do not prove man’s entity or immor‐tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony. Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit.
9 Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and con‐trolled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spir‐Irreconcilable differencesituality. Understanding the nothingness of 12material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit as the two opposites, — as error and Truth, not contrib‐uting in any way to each other’s happiness and existence. 15Jesus knew, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”
There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner‐18ship between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit. Copartnership impossibleGod is as incapable of producing sin, sick‐ness, and death as He is of experiencing these 21errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man subject to this triad of errors, — man who is made in the divine likeness?
24 Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit? Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love com‐mit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin, 27and then punishing him for it? Would any one call it wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its derivative?
30 Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does. Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must have been more than one creator, more than one God. 357 357:1In common justice, we must admit that God will not Two infinite creators absurdpunish man for doing what He created man 3capable of doing, and knew from the outset that man would do. God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil.” We sustain Truth, not by accept‐6ing, but by rejecting a lie.
Jesus said of personified evil, that it was “a liar, and the father of it.” Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity 9to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad, 12the foundations of error would be sapped and error’s de‐struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we 15attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny that God made man evil and made evil good?
History teaches that the popular and false notions 18about the Divine Being and character have originated Anthropomorphismin the human mind. As there is in reality but one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God 21must have originated in a false supposition, not in im‐mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the 24vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.
If what opposes God is real, there must be two powers, and God is not supreme and infinite. Can 27One supremacyDeity be almighty, if another mighty and self-creative cause exists and sways man‐kind? Has the Father “Life in Himself,” as the Scrip‐30tures say, and, if so, can Life, or God, dwell in evil and create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so defeat omnipotence?
358358:1 Is the woodman’s axe, which destroys a tree’s so-called life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de‐3Matter impotentprive a man of Life, — that is, of God, who is man’s Life? If God is at the mercy of matter, then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are “confu‐6sion worse confounded.” If two statements directly con‐tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false. Is Science thus contradictory?
9 Christian Science, understood, coincides with the Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively Scientific and Biblical factsevery point it presents. Otherwise it would 12not be Science, and could not present its proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra‐dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff 15at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets, by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the 18Scriptures.
Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is 21it not because there are few who have gained a true knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those works?
24 Sometimes it is said: “Rest assured that whatever effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes Personal confidencethrough rousing within the sick a belief 27that in the removal of disease these healers have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost.” Is it likely that church-members have more faith in 30some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps never seen and against whom they have been warned, than they have in their own accredited and orthodox 359 359:1pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught to love and to trust?
3 Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien‐tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow. 6Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien‐tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris‐9tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the patients, did not.
Even though you aver that the material senses are 12indispensable to man’s existence or entity, you must change the human concept of life, and must at length know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi‐15dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses, which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.
18 True Christianity is to be honored wherever found, but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word Author’s parentageimplies? From Puritan parents, the discov‐21erer of Christian Science early received her religious education. In childhood, she often listened with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her 24saintly mother, “God is able to raise you up from sick‐ness;” and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture she so often quotes: “And these signs shall follow them 27that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
A Christian Scientist and an opponent are like two 30Two different artistsartists. One says: “I have spiritual ideals, indestructible and glorious. When others see them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, — and 360 360:1know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn from Truth, — they will find that nothing is lost, and all 3is won, by a right estimate of what is real.”
The other artist replies: “You wrong my experience. I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental 6and material. It is true that materiality renders these ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex‐change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal 9pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental. They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old 12doctrines or human opinions.”
Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought shall be real to you, — the material or the spiritual? 15Choose ye to-dayBoth you cannot have. You are bringing out your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you 18try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the 21real and the unreal.
Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans‐lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: — 24Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits, 27And His angels He chargeth with frailty.
Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet, the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and 30demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus’ words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or 361 361:1Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex‐3plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement, and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea, is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere. 6The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew unites with the Christian’s doctrine that God is come and 9is present now and forever. The Christian who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist. Thus he virtually unites with the Jew’s belief in one God, and 12recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his 15sayings: “I and my Father are one,” — that is, one in quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God 18and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip‐ture reads: “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”
21 I have revised Science and Health only to give a clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir‐itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of 24divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in‐finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven, is the 27higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only 30when it is understood, — hence the many readings given the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.