Part 70 (1/2)

a little child, shall in no wise enter therein.” Not through astronomy did he point out the way to heaven and the reign of harmony.

We need the spirit of St. Paul, when he stood on Mars'

hill at Athens, bringing Christianity for the first time [30]

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into Europe. The Spirit bestows spiritual gifts, G.o.d's [1]

presence and providence. St. Paul stood where Socrates had stood four hundred years before, defending himself against the charge of atheism; in the place where De- mosthenes had pleaded for freedom in immortal strains [5]

of eloquence.

We need the spirit of the pious Polycarp, who, when the proconsul said to him, ”I will set the beasts upon you, unless you yield your religion,” replied: ”Let them come; I cannot change from good to bad.” Then they [10]

bound him to the stake, set fire to the f.a.gots, and his pure and strong faith rose higher through the baptism of flame.

Methinks the infidel was blind who said, ”Christianity is fit only for women and weak men;” but even infidels [15]

may disagree. Bonaparte declared, ”Ever since the reign of Christianity began the loftiest intellects have had a practical faith in G.o.d.” Daniel Webster said, ”My heart has always a.s.sured and rea.s.sured me that Chris- tianity must be a divine reality.” [20]

To turn the popular indignation against an advanced form of religion, the pagan slanderers affirmed that Christians took their infants to a place of wors.h.i.+p in order to offer them in sacrifice,-a baptism not of water but of blood, thus distorting or misapprehending [25]

the purpose of Christian sacraments. Christians met in midnight feasts in the early days, and talked of the crucified Saviour; thence arose the rumor that it was a part of Christian wors.h.i.+p to kill and eat a human being. [30]

Really, Christianity turned men away from the thought of fleshly sacrifice, and directed them to spiritual attain-

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ments. Life, not death, was and is the very centre of [1]

its faith. Christian Science carries this thought even higher, and insists on the demonstration of moral and spiritual healing as eminent proof that G.o.d is understood and ill.u.s.trated. [5]

Origin Of Evil

The origin of evil is the problem of ages. It confronts each generation anew. It confronts Christian Science.

The question is often asked, If G.o.d created only the good, whence comes the evil? [10]

To this question Christian Science replies: Evil never did exist as an ent.i.ty. It is but a belief that there is an opposite intelligence to G.o.d. This belief is a species of idolatry, and is not more true or real than that an image graven on wood or stone is G.o.d. [15]

The mortal admission of the reality of evil perpetuates faith in evil; and the Scriptures declare that ”to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.” This leading, self-evident proposition of Christian Science, that, good being real, its opposite is necessarily [20]

unreal, needs to be grasped in all its divine requirements.

Truth Versus Error

”A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” It is a rule in Christian Science never to re- peat error unless it becomes requisite to bring out Truth. [25]

Then lift the curtain, let in the light, and countermand

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this first command of Solomon, ”Answer not a fool accord- [1]

ing to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him,”

A distant rumbling and quivering of the earth foretell the internal action of pent-up gas. To avoid danger from this source people have to escape from their houses to the [5]

open s.p.a.ce. A conical cloud, hanging like a horoscope in the air, foreshadows a cyclone. To escape from this calamity people prepare shelter in caves of the earth.