Part 20 (2/2)

Christian Science is my only ideal; and the individual [20]

and his ideal can never be severed. If either is misunder- stood or maligned, it eclipses the other with the shadow cast by this error.

Truth destroys error. Nothing appears to the physi- cal senses but their own subjective state of thought. The [25]

senses join issue with error, and pity what has no right either to be pitied or to exist, and what does not exist in Science. Destroy the thought of sin, sickness, death, and you destroy their existence. ”Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” [30]

Because G.o.d is Mind, and this Mind is good, all is good and all is Mind. G.o.d is the sum total of the

[Page 106.]

universe. Then what and where are sin, sickness, and [1]

death?

Christian Science and Christian Scientists will, _must_, have a history; and if I could write the history in poor parody on Tennyson's grand verse, it would read [5]

thus:-

Traitors to right of them, M. D.'s to left of them, Priestcraft in front of them, Volleyed and thundered! [10]

Into the jaws of hate, Out through the door of Love, On to the blest above, Marched the one hundred.

Extract From My First Address In The Mother Church, May 26, 1895

_Friends and Brethren_:-Your Sunday Lesson, com- posed of Scripture and its correlative in ”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” has fed you. In addi- [20]

tion, I can only bring crumbs fallen from this table of Truth, and gather up the fragments.

It has long been a question of earnest import, How shall mankind wors.h.i.+p the most adorable, but most unadored,-and where shall begin that praise that shall never end? Beneath, above, beyond, methinks I hear [25]

the soft, sweet sigh of angels answering, ”So live, that your lives attest your sincerity and resound His praise.”

Music is the harmony of being; but the music of Soul affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling and awaken the heart's harpstrings. Moved by mind, [30]

your many-throated organ, in imitative tones of many

[Page 107.]

instruments, praises Him; but even the sweetness and [1]

beauty in and of this temple that praise Him, are earth's accents, and must not be mistaken for the oracles of G.o.d.

Art must not prevail over Science. Christianity is not superfluous. Its redemptive power is seen in sore trials, [5]

self-denials, and crucifixions of the flesh. But these come to the rescue of mortals, to admonish them, and plant the feet steadfastly in Christ. As we rise above the seem- ing mists of sense, we behold more clearly that all the heart's homage belongs to G.o.d. [10]

More love is the great need of mankind. A pure af- fection, concentric, forgetting self, forgiving wrongs and forestalling them, should swell the lyre of human love.

Three cardinal points must be gained before poor humanity is regenerated and Christian Science is dem- [15]

onstrated: (1) A proper sense of sin; (2) repentance; (3) the understanding of good. Evil is a negation: it never started with time, and it cannot keep pace with eternity. Mortals' false senses pa.s.s through three states and stages of human consciousness before yielding error. [20]

The deluded sense must first be shown its falsity through a knowledge of evil as evil, so-called. Without a sense of one's oft-repeated violations of divine law, the in- dividual may become morally blind, and this deplorable mental state is moral idiocy. The lack of seeing one's [25]

deformed mentality, and of _repentance_ therefor, deep, never to be repented of, is r.e.t.a.r.ding, and in certain mor- bid instances stopping, the growth of Christian Scientists.

Without a knowledge of his sins, and repentance so severe that it destroys them, no person is or can be a Christian [30]

Scientist.

Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin.

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