Chapter 15

material sense, cast out by the spiritual truth of being; namely, that speech belongs to Mind instead of matter, [25] and the wrong power, or the lost sense, must yield to the right sense, and exist in Mind.

In the Hebrew, “devil” is denominated Abaddon; in the Greek, Apollyon, serpent, liar, the god of this world, etc. The apostle Paul refers to this personality of evil [30] as “the god of this world;” and then defines this god

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as “dishonesty, craftiness, handling the word of God [1] deceitfully.” The Hebrew embodies the term “devil” in another term, serpent,—which the senses are supposed to take in,—and then defines this serpent as “more subtle than all the beasts of the field.” Subsequently, [5] the ancients changed the meaning of the term, to their sense, and then the serpent became a symbol of wisdom.

The Scripture in John, sixth chapter and seventieth verse, refers to a wicked man as the devil: “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Accord- [10] ing to the Scripture, if devil is an individuality, there is more than one devil. In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty- eighth verse, it reads: “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name.” Here is an assertion indicating the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the [15] first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth, casts out. By no possible interpretation can this passage mean several individuals cast out of another individual no bigger than themselves. The term, being here em- [20] ployed in its plural number, destroys all consistent sup- position of the existence of one personal devil. Again, our text refers to the devil as dumb; but the original devil was a great talker, and was supposed to have out- talked even Truth, and carried the question with Eve. [25] Also, the original texts define him as an “accuser,” a “calumniator,” which would be impossible if he were speechless. These two opposite characters ascribed to him could only be possible as evil beliefs, as different phases of sin or disease made manifest. [30]

Let us obey St. Paul’s injunction to reject fables, and accept the Scriptures in their broader, more spiritual

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and practical sense. When we speak of a good man, we [1] do not mean that man is God because the Hebrew term for Deity was “good,” and _vice versa_; so, when referring to a liar, we mean not that he is a personal devil, because the original text defines devil as a “liar.” [5]

It is of infinite importance to man’s spiritual progress, and to his demonstration of Truth in casting out error, —sickness, sin, disease, and death, in all their forms,— that the terms and nature of Deity and devil be understood.

_He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and_ _greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father._— JOHN xiv. 12.

Such are the words of him who spake divinely, well knowing the omnipotence of Truth. The Hebrew bard saith, “His name shall endure forever: His name shall [15] be continued as long as the sun.” Luminous with the light of divine Science, his words reveal the great Principle of a full salvation. Neither can we question the practi- cability of the divine Word, who have learned its adapta- bility to human needs, and man’s ability to prove the [20] truth of prophecy.

The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing belongs to every period; as the above Scripture plainly declares, and as primitive Christianity confirms. Also, the last chapter of Mark is emphatic on this subject; [25] making healing a condition of salvation, that extends to all ages and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can be more conclusive than this: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; ... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” This declaration of [30] our Master settles the question; else we are entertaining

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the startling inquiries, Are the Scriptures inspired? Are [1] they true? Did Jesus mean what he said?

If this be the cavil, we reply in the affirmative that the Scripture is true; that Jesus did mean all, and even more than he said or deemed it safe to say at that time. His [5] words are unmistakable, for they form propositions of self-evident demonstrable truth. Doctrines that deny the substance and practicality of all Christ’s teachings cannot be evangelical; and evangelical religion can be established on no other claim than the authenticity of [10] the Gospels, which support unequivocally the proof that Christian Science, as defined and practised by Jesus, heals the sick, casts out error, and will destroy death.

Referring to The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, of which I am pastor, a certain clergyman charitably [15] expressed it, “the so-called Christian Scientists.”

I am thankful even for his allusion to truth; it being a modification of silence on this subject, and also of what had been said when critics attacked me for supplying the word Science to Christianity,—a word which the people [20] are now adopting.

The next step for ecclesiasticism to take, is to admit that all Christians are properly called Scientists who follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth; and that no one is following his full command without [25] this enlarged sense of the spirit and power of Christianity. “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do,” is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and power of Christianity to heal; for this is Christlike, and includes the understanding of man’s capabilities and [30] spiritual power. The condition insisted upon is, first, “belief;” the Hebrew of which implies understanding.

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How many to-day believe that the power of God equals [1] even the power of a drug to heal the sick! Divine Science reveals the Principle of this power, and the rule whereby sin, sickness, disease, and death are destroyed; and God is this Principle. Let us, then, seek this Science; that we [5] may know Him better, and love Him more.

Though a man were begirt with the Urim and Thum- mim of priestly office, yet should deny the validity or permanence of Christ’s command to heal in all ages, this denial would dishonor that office and misinterpret [10] evangelical religion. Divine Science is not an interpo- lation of the Scriptures, but is redolent with love, health, and holiness, for the whole human race. It only needs the prism of this Science to divide the rays of Truth, and bring out the entire hues of Deity, which scholastic theol- [15] ogy has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.

The context of the foregoing Scriptural text explains Jesus’ words, “because I go unto my Father.” “Because” [20] in following him, you understand God and _how_ to turn from matter to Spirit for healing; _how_ to leave self, the sense material, for the sense spiritual; _how_ to accept God’s power and guidance, and become imbued with divine Love that casts out all fear. Then are you bap- [25] tized in the Truth that destroys all error, and you receive the sense of Life that knows no death, and you _know_ that God is the only Life.

To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that is God, good, we must comply with the first condition [30] set forth in the text, namely, believe; in other words, understand God sufficiently to exclude all faith in any

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other remedy than Christ, the Truth that antidotes all [1] error. Thence will follow the absorption of all action, motive, and mind, into the rules and divine Principle of metaphysical healing.

Whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science but [5] possesses not its spirit, is unable to demonstrate this Science; or whosoever hath the spirit without the letter, is held back by reason of the lack of understanding. Both the spirit and the letter are requisite; and having these, every one can prove, in some degree, the validity of those [10] words of the great Master, “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”

It has been said that the New Testament does not au- thorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period.

We ask what is the authority for such a conclusion, [15] the premises whereof are not to be found in the Scriptures. The Master’s divine logic, as seen in our text, contradicts this inference,—these are his words: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” That per- fect syllogism of Jesus has but one correct premise and [20] conclusion, and it cannot fall to the ground beneath the stroke of unskilled swordsmen. He who never unsheathed his blade to try the edge of truth in Christian Science, is unequal to the conflict, and unfit to judge in the case; the shepherd’s sling would slay this Goliath. I once be- [25] lieved that the practice and teachings of Jesus relative to healing the sick, were spiritual abstractions, impractical and impossible to us; but deed, not creed, and practice more than theory, have given me a higher sense of Christianity. [30]

The “I” will go to the Father when meekness, purity, and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter,

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lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in [1] matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God. Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner [5] of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in the beginning, “Believe in me, and I will make you as gods;” that is, I will give you a separate mind from God (good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become [10] material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind, good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the words of our Master: “He is a liar, and the father of it;” also, the character of the votaries to “other gods” which [15] sprung from it.

The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man’s unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good. It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness, [20] and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall ap- pear, “we shall be like Him;” we shall do the works of Christ, and, in the words of David, “the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner,” because the “I” does go unto the Father, the ego does [25] arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted,— not through death, but Life, God understood.

_Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved._—ACTS xvi. 31.

The Scriptures require more than a simple admission [30] and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they

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require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons [1] into our lives that these truths become the motive-power of every act.

ur chosen text is one more frequently used than many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin [5] and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import of this text is not yet recognized. It means a _full_ salva- tion,—man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for, unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers [10] pursue.

In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God, or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more [15] help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical event or person. But it does mean so to understand the beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to “let [20] this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. ii. 5.)

Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelli- gence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both [25] good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and there- fore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Command- ment of God.

Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God, recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and, [30] placing his trust in this grand Truth, and working from no other Principle, he can neither be sick nor forever a

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sinner. When wholly governed by the one perfect Mind, [1] man has no sinful thoughts and will have no desire to sin.

To arrive at this point of unity of Spirit, God, one must commence by turning away from material gods; denying [5] material so-called laws and material sensation,—or mind in matter, in its varied forms of pleasure and pain. This must be done with the understanding that matter has no sense; thus it is that consciousness silences the mortal claim to life, substance, or mind in matter, with the words [10] of Jesus: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.” (John viii. 44.)

When tempted to sin, we should know that evil pro- ceedeth not from God, good, but is a false belief of the personal senses; and if we deny the claims of these senses [15] and recognize man as governed by God, Spirit, not by material laws, the temptation will disappear.

On this Principle, disease also is treated and healed. We know that man’s body, as matter, has no power to govern itself; and a belief of disease is as much the prod- [20] uct of mortal thought as sin is. All suffering is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of _both_ good and evil; of adherence to the “doubleminded” senses, to some belief, fear, theory, or bad deed, based on physical material law, so-called as opposed to good,—all of which is corrected [25] alone by Science, divine Principle, and its spiritual laws. Suffering is the supposition of another intelligence than God; a belief in self-existent evil, opposed to good; and in whatever seems to punish man for doing good,— by saying he has overworked, suffered from inclement [30] weather, or violated a law of matter in doing good, there- fore he must suffer for it.

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God does not reward benevolence and love with pen- [1] alties; and because of this, we have the right to deny the supposed power of matter to do it, and to allege that only mortal, erring mind can claim to do thus, and dignify the result with the name of law: thence comes man’s ability [5] to annul his own erring mental law, and to hold himself amenable only to moral and spiritual law,—God’s gov- ernment. By so doing, male and female come into their rightful heritage, “into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” [10]

_Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,_ _in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake._—2 COR. xii. 10.

The miracles recorded in the Scriptures illustrate the life of Jesus as nothing else can; but they cost him the [15] hatred of the rabbis. The rulers sought the life of Jesus; they would extinguish whatever denied and defied their superstition. We learn somewhat of the qualities of the divine Mind through the human Jesus. The power of his transcendent goodness is manifest in the control it [20] gave him over the qualities opposed to Spirit which mor- tals name matter.

The Principle of these marvellous works is divine; but the actor was human. This divine Principle is discerned in Christian Science, as we advance in the spiritual under- [25] standing that all substance, Life, and intelligence are God. The so-called miracles contained in Holy Writ are neither supernatural nor preternatural; for God is good, and goodness is more natural than evil. The marvellous healing-power of goodness is the outflowing life of Chris- [30] tianity, and it characterized and dated the Christian era.

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It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the [1] mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instan- taneous. Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man, and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as the better representatives of God than sin, disease, and [5] death. The master Metaphysician understood omnipo- tence to be All-power: because Spirit was to him All- in-all, matter was palpably an error of premise and conclusion, while God was the only substance, Life, and intelligence of man. [10]

The apostle Paul insists on the rare rule in Christian Science that we have chosen for a text; a rule that is sus- ceptible of proof, and is applicable to every stage and state of human existence. The divine Science of this rule is quite as remote from the general comprehension of man- [15] kind as are the so-called miracles of our Master, and for the sole reason that it is their basis. The foundational facts of Christian Science are gathered from the supremacy of spiritual law and its antagonism to every supposed ma- terial law. Christians to-day should be able to say, with [20] the sweet sincerity of the apostle, “I take pleasure in infirmities,”—I enjoy the touch of weakness, pain, and all suffering of the flesh, _because_ it compels me to seek the remedy for it, and to find happiness, apart from the per- sonal senses. The holy calm of Paul’s well-tried hope [25] met no obstacle or circumstances paramount to the tri- umph of a reasonable faith in the omnipotence of good, involved in its divine Principle, God: the so-called pains and pleasures of matter were alike unreal to Jesus; for he regarded matter as only a vagary of mortal belief, and sub- [30] dued it with this understanding.

The abstract statement that all is Mind, supports the

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entire wisdom of the text; and this statement receives [1] the mortal scoff only because it meets the immortal de- mands of Truth. The Science of Paul’s declaration re- solves the element misnamed matter into its original sin, or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the [5] qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought death; and death is an element of matter, or material falsity, never of Spirit.

When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its power- [10] lessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit, and immortal. [15]

Understanding this, Paul took pleasure in infirmities, for it enabled him to triumph over them,—he declared that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death;” he took pleasure in “reproaches” and “persecutions,” because [20] they were so many proofs that he had wrought the prob- lem of being beyond the common apprehension of sinners; he took pleasure in “necessities,” for they tested and de- veloped latent power.

We protect our dwellings more securely after a robbery, [25] and our jewels have been stolen; so, after losing those jewels of character,—temperance, virtue, and truth,— the young man is awakened to bar his door against further robberies.

Go to the bedside of pain, and there you can demon- [30] strate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities; because it illustrates through the flesh the divine power

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of Spirit, and reaches the basis of all supposed miracles; [1] whereby the sweet harmonies of Christian Science are found to correct the discords of sense, and to lift man’s being into the sunlight of Soul.

“The chamber where the good man meets his fate [5] Is privileged beyond the walks of common life, Quite on the verge of heaven.”