Christian Science: The Solution of Being
Frank C. Ayres, C.S., of
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Introduction
Delivered in Sand Springs Sunday
afternoon,
Good Afternoon Friends:
On behalf of the Christian Science
Society of this city I extend a most hearty welcome and an expression of
gratitude for the acceptance of our invitation to hear this lecture – Entitled:
"Christian Science: The Solution of Being" by Frank C. Ayres of
Indianapolis, Indiana, who is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Christian Science is truly a
religion of love. It teaches God's love for man and man's relationship to God.
Christian Scientists worship One Supreme Infinite God. We acknowledge His Son,
One Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and we love our neighbors as
ourselves.
By following the teachings of this
Science one is able to overcome all types of fear, sickness and sin in his
daily life. We are here this afternoon to learn more about this healing
Principle. All will be blessed and many will be healed.
It is with much pleasure that I
present our lecturer – Mr. Ayres.
The Lecture
The lecturer spoke substantially
as follows:
My friend, do you want your
problems solved? I say with conviction that Christian Science can solve them.
Why? Because it furnishes an answer as to how Christ Jesus met his problems. In
her work "Unity of Good," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder
of Christian Science, writes, in part (p. 9): "The talent and genius of
the centuries have wrongly reckoned. They have not based upon revelation their
arguments and conclusions as to the source and resources of being . . . but
have built instead upon the sand of human reason. They have not accepted the
simple teaching and life of Jesus as the only true solution of the perplexing
problem of human existence."
Christ Jesus, the Master
Scientist
Christ Jesus was the master
Scientist. He reckoned by revelation and not by human reason. When we recall
that Jesus' work surpassed those of all other men, it seems strange that
"the talent and genius of the centuries [so] wrongly reckoned." It
seems strange that they did not conduct a search from the premise that Jesus
demonstrated the natural life that mankind must live as it works out its
problem of salvation.
Let us start from that premise –
from the premise that none of his acts were supernatural; from the premise that
in no single instance was he an exhibitionist of an exclusively endowed divine
power. It is unreasonable to believe that a good God would be so partial. If Jesus
came as mankind's Wayshower, let us assume that he was always a Wayshower.
Considering Jesus' life from this premise, we see at once that the works of
Jesus denied the testimony of the material senses and clearly indicated that
substance and life are something entirely different from that which mankind
considers them to be. How otherwise can the blind see, the withered hand be
whole, the dead rise? How can man walk on the water and still the storm unless
material law is something different from mankind's former conclusions about
it?
Looking then to Jesus' words, we
find that he discredited matter, for he said (John 6:63), "It is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." We find that he
never spoke of himself as an exhibitionist, as having any power not available
to all. On the contrary, he discounted human ability and pointed to the source
of his divine power in the words from John (
Jesus imparted an understanding to
his disciples which enabled them to perform similar works. He was disappointed
when they failed to heal the epileptic boy and rebuked their lack of faith. If
he had bestowed a specially endowed power upon the disciples, they would have
displayed an ability equal to his. But he was always compassionate with them
and did not demand works beyond their understanding. He did, however, expect
them to increase in understanding and in the power of their works. Finally, he
commanded (Matt. 10:8): "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the
dead," and they did so. And the followers of the disciples and the early
Christians for three centuries practiced Christian healing.
Peter was impetuous when he asked
Jesus if he could come to him on the water, yet Jesus said (Matt.
Jesus words clearly supported the
premise that he was the Wayshower in all that he did and that his every act was
natural to man. "The talent and genius of the centuries have wrongly
reckoned" and have failed to find in "the simple teaching and life of
Jesus . . . the only true solution of the perplexing problem of human existence,"
because they have been unwilling to accept the unmistakable indications in his
words and works that the testimony of the material senses is untrue.
Jesus knew that his listeners were
not ready for a complete understanding of the Christ, Truth, which he
demonstrated, for he said: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will
guide you into all truth" (John 16:12,13), and, "The Comforter, . . .
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John
14:26).
Mrs. Eddy, the Spiritual
Searcher
This Comforter came through the
life of a courageous, spiritual searcher, Mary Baker Eddy. From early
childhood she had a hunger and thirst for spiritual things and was
spiritually-minded even as a little girl. She was familiar with her Bible
because of daily family study, and cherished the promise (Mark
Her ever-increasing dependence on
God to meet difficult human experiences made her quite willing to turn from
matter to Spirit, and for twenty years she tried to trace all physical effects
to a mental cause. But matter still seemed a reality, and not until she was at
death's door as the result of an injury which her physicians pronounced fatal
did her answer come.
Her minister also despaired of her
recovery. But she, as was her custom in time of crisis, asked to be alone with
her Bible, which she opened at Matthew 9, where she read the account of Jesus'
healing of the palsied man. Suddenly there burst upon her waiting thought a
flash of revelation – that spiritual healing is by divine law. This glimpse of
divine Truth brought about her immediate healing. Not till then did the thought
of this spiritual searcher see that the material senses testified falsely.
Because of his more spiritual
origin, Jesus' thought was never darkened by material sense testimony, so that
the Christ, Truth, unfolded naturally in his consciousness. In speaking of him
in her book "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 26), Mrs. Eddy said
that he was ". . . a natural and divine Scientist," and that he
". . . needed no discovery of the Science of being in order to rebuke the
evidence." She continued, "To one 'born of the flesh,' however,
divine Science must be a discovery."
Mrs. Eddy had to struggle through
and above the dark clouds of false, material sense to catch the light of
revelation. With her head above the clouds of material sense, the Christ,
Truth, unfolded naturally in her consciousness. She said (ibid., p. 27):
"The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh
universe – old to God, but new to His 'little one.' "
Now what are some of the truths
which unfolded to her? In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures," which records the full revelation, she gives seven
prominent names for God, which show different aspects of Him. They are: Mind,
Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. The revelation shows that God is
infinite Mind, and since He is infinite, He is the only Mind. Being the only
Mind, He is the only cause and creator, and His creation is expressed in divine
ideas. The creator being Spirit, His creation must be spiritual. So she saw
that the man presented by the material senses is only a false conception of
man, a counterfeit of the real.
The revelation shows that since
God is Principle, He is divine law and is the only law governing man and the
universe. And since man is idea, the reflection or expression of God, he
reflects divine law and is superior to the false, material sense of law. Mrs.
Eddy saw for the first time that Jesus' so-called miracles, which before had
seemed to her miraculous, were not super-natural at all, but were according to divine
law and were natural to man. The revelation, as it unfolded to her, shows that
since God is Truth and Love, He must be infinite and ever-present good; and
that since disease and death are not good, they are not of God and are not
within His allness. Therefore, in absolute Truth they are unreal. You can see
how the spiritual meaning of the Bible began to unfold to Mrs. Eddy from
Genesis to Revelation. She now understood why the Hebrew boys were not consumed
in the fiery furnace, how Lazarus had never really died, and that Jesus' life
could not be destroyed.
Followers, Not Worshipers
Be assured, any of you who are
strangers to Christian Science, that genuine Christian Scientists do not
worship the personality of Mrs. Eddy. The good public school teacher wins the
affection of the pupils because he opens their understanding. He commands
respect for the teaching, but does not seek to be worshiped. Mrs. Eddy commands
respect for her teachings, but she is as insistent as Christ Jesus in turning
her followers away from person to God. Her chief interest is that you and I may
glow with a spiritual understanding which can command spiritual works
patterning those of the master Christian. The term, "Mrs. Eddy's followers,"
is really misleading, for Mrs. Eddy said (Message to The Mother Church for
1902, p. 4), "Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ."
She claims no slightest addition to Jesus' teaching and practice, but she does
claim that God revealed to her a practical understanding of them through a
sacred search of the Bible, and that in her textbook she has put this
understanding into everyday, usable form. Mrs. Eddy's followers are just the
followers of the Christ, Truth, which Jesus so completely exemplified and which
Mrs. Eddy has fully revealed.
Ever-presence of Good
Christian Science teaches the
ever-presence, the ever-nearness of God. He is also a gentle presence, a loving
presence. David felt this gentle nearness of God and talked about it
beautifully in the twenty-third Psalm, where he said: "The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want. . . . And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for
ever."
God is not a magnified man away
off in the clouds somewhere. He is Spirit, entirely immaterial, filling all
space, with no outsideness. We are ever within His presence. "For in him
we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts
Nothing in human experience is
more nearly right than a true mother's love for her child. Christian Science
shows that the Bible brings out the mother love of God, for we read in Isaiah
(66:13), "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."
So Christian Science adds Mother as a name for God, speaking of Him frequently
as Father-Mother. Since God is ever this gentle presence of Father-Mother
Love, why don't we rest as little children in His care?
God is, as the Bible says,
omnipotence, a power not off in the sky, but right at hand where we are. His
omnipotence precludes any other power. We are always safe because we are always
within that omnipotence. Every hour He occupies and governs any place where we
may be or go.
Some of you may feel very close to
God, others may feel far away from Him, but it is good to know that each of us
reveals at least a spark of divine understanding. This divine spark can be
fanned into a blaze, as can the spark which starts the fire of logs in the open
fireplace.
Why do we like to watch the open
fire? Isn't it because we are ever enchanted with the little spark which,
flicker by flicker, lick by lick, gathers finally into an ever-changing blaze
of warmth and splendor that intrigues all within its charmed circle? Christian
Science reveals that what we have considered as a mere spark is actually a
blaze of spiritual understanding, sufficient to destroy the entire false sense
of existence which we have mistakenly accepted.
Christ is the Truth that has
always been here, the Truth that runs like a golden thread through the Bible,
the Truth that Jesus knew clearly and demonstrated completely. Everyone has
within his true being the capacity to hear and understand Truth. This Truth is
Christ, is mortal man's Saviour, the dispeller of all his mortal darkness.
Whenever you really understand Truth, whenever you make it your own, then it
dwells within you and will do Christly works. The words of Truth can be repeated
time and time again, but until the truth becomes conviction and is accompanied
with much love, the words are not clothed with divine power.
All through the Bible we find
those who listened for God's voice and gained glimpses of the Christ. Jesus was
the perfect listener. He began as a child, and ever after walked and talked
with God.
Salvation a Step-by-Step
Process
In the Christian Science textbook,
its author, Mary Baker Eddy, writes (p. 314), "Our Master gained the
solution of being, demonstrating the existence of but one Mind without a
second or equal." It is helpful to note that Jesus gained "the
solution of being." His was a step-by-step process from lesser to greater
demonstrations. He grew in spiritual power as he faced and overcame increasingly
difficult problems.
For example, in his overcoming of
the evidences of death he proved advancing spiritual understanding. First he
restored the receptive child, the little daughter of Jairus. Next he returned
the young son alive to the widowed mother of Nain. Third he restored his friend
Lazarus after he had lain in the grave four days and after overcoming his own
human emotion, for we are told that "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Again,
advancing in spiritual understanding, he overcame many supposedly insurmountable
material laws in the glorious restoration of his own body, which, after its
attempted destruction, had been sealed in the rock-bound tomb. And lastly, he
made his greatest and final demonstration when he ascended out of sight of his
disciples.
It will take immense growth in
spiritual understanding, my friends – yes, an equal amount of Christ
understanding – before you and I can perform all the works done by Christ
Jesus, but we can rejoice that it is possible for us to gain that stature as we
master our day-by-day problems, for all his acts are natural to man, and we too
can gain the full solution of being.
The Nature of Evil
As we have said, Christian Science
teaches that the Christ reveals the manifestation of God, and that it makes
clear that there is only one perfect God and one perfect man and universe. The
only problem we have to deal with is the lie about this perfect God and His
perfect creation. Evil says: "You were born into a cruel world where you
must constantly fight only to die. You were born into a world of hate, of
confusion and desperation."
Does it not seem unbelievable that
an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God, a God who is Love itself, would
make a world of that kind? It certainly does not correspond with the statement
in the first chapter of Genesis, "And God saw everything that he had
made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). This lie is evil,
mesmeric suggestion. It is just the whisper of the serpent. The only demand
upon mankind, to gain the solution of being, is to disbelieve the whisper.
Evil is always outside of man, claiming to be man; claiming that
discouragement is our discouragement, sinful thinking is our thinking, heart
trouble our heart trouble, anger our anger, intelligence – good or bad – ours.
When we know that discouragement
and self-condemnation, for example, are not the way we really think, but are
just lying aggressive suggestions, we cease to fear them or to indulge them.
We recognize them as evil mental house guests, realize that they can be gotten
rid of, and we begin an effort to put them out. When we finally have them
outside – see that they are outside – we should put up a sign,
"Your kind not welcome."
As mortals, we have consented to a
host of evil beliefs, many of which we may not even be aware of. Our education
in this respect has been thorough. A tiny tot in a Christian Science Sunday
School expressed it pretty well. During the customary audible repetition of
the Lord's Prayer, when they reached the phrase, "Deliver us from evil,"
she always said, "Delerious from evil." Maybe the child had something
there!
Christian Science uncovers the
entire claim of evil and recognizes that it is not to be ignored, but
resolutely disbelieved. As the textbook says (p. 346), "Disbelief in error
destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth." Christ Jesus
proved from start to finish that it is purely mesmeric – just a big bluff,
which he disbelieved. He showed up as false its every deceptive claim and
unfolded God's perfect creation, God's perfect man. He gained the solution of
being. He said (Luke
Mind as Source of
Intelligence
As a young lad I enjoyed reading
the life of Christ Jesus and was thrilled with his words and works. I thought,
"That's the kind of life to live." But it was a letdown to realize
that such a life was not thought to be possible. Later, while attending a
university, the Christian Science textbook was presented to me. From the start
I liked its teaching, because it indicated that living as Jesus did was a
present possibility. But I was unable to reconcile its teaching with my course
in philosophy, and for the life of me I could not complete a required
philosophy thesis. Worry and overwork resulted in a severe case of nervous
exhaustion which material remedies and methods failed to heal. My own earnest
prayers and those of my mother were of no avail.
Finally, in desperation, I turned
to a Christian Science practitioner and was completely healed in one treatment.
Every symptom of a severe struggle of several months' standing instantly
vanished. At once I began an earnest study of Christian Science, because I
wanted to know why this practitioner's single prayer had been so effective when
the continued prayers of my mother and myself had been so futile. The study
soon disclosed that this practitioner had prayed with understanding and expectancy,
whereas we had prayed with only a blind and doubting faith.
The practitioner talked to me only
a short while before she prayed silently. But I recall that she spoke of God
being Mind and the only Mind. One of the greatest blessings that unfolded
immediately was the understanding that God is Mind and the source of all
intelligence. I had been struggling along, having a hard time depending upon
what I called my own intelligence, thinking that the only way it could be
increased was by human effort. Now I was joyously relieved to learn that I was
hooked up with an unlimited powerhouse of intelligence, the divine Mind, and I
ceased human pushing.
The realization that I reflected
divine intelligence began at once to take away fear. I realized that
intelligence is ever available, cannot be lost, and that it is unlimited. As a
result, I learned my study assignments more readily, began to reason and think
more clearly, to remember with more ease, and I was no longer afraid of
examinations. I did better in all my activities, often exceeding expectation.
I later learned that my
instantaneous healing resulted because the practitioner stoutly refused the
evidence of the material senses, which argued that man was dependent upon a
material brain for his intelligence, that this brain could be overtaxed and
result, according to material law, in a case of mental exhaustion. But with
conviction born of previous proofs, she reversed material sense testimony with
the spiritual facts of being, discerning, through spiritual sense, the
presence of God's perfect, spiritual man, unlimited in intelligence and
capacity because at one with divine intelligence. She saw a man untouched by
world mesmerism or self-mesmerism; a man as incapable of being sick as God
Himself. During those few minutes of silent prayer she clung steadfastly to the
spiritual facts about man, confident that the Christ, Truth, dispels false
belief.
Disease Proved Unreal
Christian Science does not ignore
what the material senses claim as human experience. It agrees that all phases
of matter and the entire belief of evil are very much in evidence to human
sense. But it also shows clearly that this entire claim of evil can be
disbelieved by gaining an understanding of God and the truth of His creation,
so clearly explained in Christian Science.
Some people have a struggle over
the use of the words "real" and "unreal" as used in Christian
Science. Now, immediately before I was healed, I was in mental anguish. To my
material senses the suffering was very real. Then, through the practitioner's
prayer, the anguish vanished. Similarly, I saw a member of my family quickly
healed of a severe case of quinsy. To the material senses the sickness was very
real. Large swelling on the neck, intense soreness, inability to swallow were
quite apparent. A practitioner in a distant city was called on the telephone,
and in less than thirty minutes following the call I watched those physical
symptoms disappear. The sore did not break nor drain. It simply disappeared.
The loved one was perfectly normal and immediately ate a hearty meal with no
evidence of any discomfort.
Christian Science shows that
anything that is subject to change is not real, because it does not present a
divine fact or truth. Truth is that which is unchangeable, existing eternally
according to divine law.
Prayer in Christian
Science
Christian Science shows that there
is only the one divine Mind and that what we have thought of as our separate,
material mind is only a false sense of mind. It calls this false sense of mind,
mortal mind. It shows that all sin, disease, and death are the product of this
false, mortal mind; that our problem is always mental and never physical, and
that it can never be healed or solved correctly except by the divine Mind;
that our sickness or trouble is always a wrong way of thinking, and that this
thinking can be corrected by turning to the divine Mind, where divine ideas
displace mistaken beliefs.
Prayer in Christian Science
results in a change of consciousness. Prayer is going into the mental closet
and shutting the door tight against mesmeric suggestion and listening for the
Christ, Truth. The difference between the prayer of the student of Christian
Science and his prayer before he became a student is that he now prays with the
understanding of the divine facts as recorded in his textbooks, the Bible and
Science and Health. He prays now, knowing that he is an individual, perfect,
spiritual reflection of God. He prays now, realizing to some degree the
unreality of matter, the unreality of disease and of all discord, because he
understands the reality of God's spiritual creation.
Treatment in Christian Science
Consider Jesus' healing of the
leper (Mark 1:40-42): "And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and
kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me
clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him,
and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean, And as soon as he had spoken, immediately
the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed."
What is the most significant part
of that picture? Isn't it, "And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his
hand, and touched him"? Visualize the leper's countenance as he watched
Jesus. "Oh, he's not afraid of me. He touched me." Jesus' great love
led him to do the kindest possible human thing – just to touch him!
There is a perfect example of a
Christian Science treatment: deep compassion for the patient's fear, an
absolute certainty of the unreality of the error, and a complete expectancy
that spiritual understanding will dispel the mesmeric belief. The Christian
Science practitioner, moved with compassion, discerns the kindest human thing
to do and say, and reaches the thought of his patient to bring about his
healing.
The leper's healing illustrates
that there is something for the patient to do. He must put himself within
reach of the treatment. As the prodigal son was willing to forsake material
husks and turn toward home before the father came out to meet him, so the leper
must have suffered enough to cause him to turn and walk toward the home of his
heavenly Father, or he would not have been within reach of the healing touch of
the Christ.
Often there is much self-will,
pride, or sinful reservations, some crust of self that keeps us outside the
reach of the Father. The patient may not be awake to his family's deep-rooted
conviction that he is this way or that and always will be. He may not be awake
to the belief that he is unconsciously justifying undestroyed errors that
darken his thought. His trouble may be latent fear or pictures of disease.
Yearning quietly and sincerely,
minutes on end, for the truth to unfold in human consciousness and dispel all
undestroyed error is a great help, and God is so good that the errors may not
even need to be uncovered – they can just dissolve in the presence of the
Christ, Truth.
Remember, discouragement is not
the way you think. It is just outside, evil suggestion. Mesmeric, erroneous
belief, no matter what its seeming character, can never be true. The victory
is always at hand. To turn your trust to anything less than Truth and attempt
to gain healing by adulterating spiritual means with material remedies is to
prolong the problem. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings"
(p.260): "[Jesus'] faith partook not of drugs, matter, nor of the
travesties of mortal mind. The divine Mind was his only instrumentality and
potency, in religion or medicine."
Your life may seem like a
difficult picture puzzle, but if you keep listening for the divine Mind to
guide you, the pieces will begin to fit. Perhaps you will see a little healing
here, there a little more, until all the pieces finally fit together. The
Christ, Truth, will unfold to you as you stand resolutely within its reach, as
you stand with your thought facing and reaching out to God. A true Christian
soldier never lowers his flag or ceases fighting.
A "Love-Book"
One time we had a sweet little
three-year-old Shirley Anne living in our home. Her mother was interested in
Christian Science, and the child had begun to attend a Christian Science Sunday
School. Mother and child had not yet fully learned how to rely on Christian
Science for healing. Little Shirley Anne had perhaps more than her share of
self-will.
One evening when I came home, she
had a heavy cold with cough and fever. I tried to help her by reading to her
from the Christian Science textbook and, as sweetly as I knew how, tried to
explain that she was God's child and that she didn't need to cough. She
replied, "But I'm doin' it, ain't I?" and vigorously pushed the
textbook out of my hand.
Another member of the family,
discerning the need, suggested that I remain in another room while she talked
to Shirley Anne. First they talked about Love, then she tried to read to
Shirley Anne out of her textbook. Again the child pushed the book out of her
hands. This member picked up the book and laid it beside them on the bed, but
continued to talk about Love. Finally she touched the book and asked Shirley
Anne if she had ever seen the word "Love." At once there was an
interest. Shirley Anne voluntarily reached out for one side of the textbook,
and they held it together to look at the word "Love." The cough began
to abate at once as Shirley became interested in her own search for the word
"Love." Soon she jumped down. Holding the book in one hand and
raising three fingers of the other, she came running to me, completely healed,
and with eyes sparkling called out, "Look, dis must be a Love-book. I find
dese many Loves."
Shirley Anne did not understand
the phase of mortal mind that was keeping her outside the reach of the
treatment, but the compassion of her helper directed her to do and say the
kindest human thing to bring the child's thought where it would listen to the
truth and accept healing.
Love – that is the thing that
makes a Christian Science treatment effective. No book, it is believed, was
ever written that mentions love, the genuine spiritual love, as many times and
in as many different ways as does the Christian Science textbook. Throughout,
the textbook is an expression of Father-Mother, Love, the Love which is God. In
demanding the giving up of sinful beliefs, it is as stern with its readers as a
father. In patiently bearing with them as they take their faltering footsteps
out of mesmeric beliefs into demonstrable understanding, it is as gentle as a
mother. It has no patience with love talked and not lived. It says (Science and
Health, p. 365), "If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine
Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will
vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine."
In time of need this
"Love-book" comforts the adult as well as the child, and its truths
have healed thousands. Get it and read it, my friends. It can be your
"Love-book," for it can heal you, and with it as your key to the
Scriptures you can gain an understanding of man's true being.
Christ the Only Saviour
Today's world struggle is not with
people, but with the one mesmeric evil, with the boast that evil can overpower
good, and that darkness can envelop and smother light. Only through Christ can
this boast be understood as nothing, and only the activity of Christ can
puncture it and render it powerless.
The understanding of Christ
enabled Jesus to pray for his tormentors (Luke
Only by the activity of the
Christ, Truth, will true brotherhood be established, will the nations of the
world be guided to a solution of today's problems, and will peace be
permanently established. An encouraging sign is the provision of the United
Nations Assembly for a retreat where each member can pray to God. In Psalms
(86:9) we read, "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship
before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name."
The presence of Christ, Truth, is
needed to know how to feed hungry nations and at the same time help them to
build up their own resources. Turning to God for Christ-understanding is needed
to solve capital and labor relations, to know how to assist the needy and the
aged without weakening initiative and self-reliance.
I hope, my friends, that you see
that the Christ, Truth, alone is your Wayshower. Without the Christ, Jesus'
human life would have been unimportant. It was the understanding of the Christ
that enabled Jesus to perform his works, that enabled Mary Baker Eddy to
perform similar works. And this same understanding produces the healing works
of Christian Science today and distinguishes its healing from all other healing
methods. Universal salvation will come only as the Christ unfolds to all
mankind.
Christian Science has revealed the
Science of Jesus' simple teaching and life. It is divinely natural for you to
practice this Science and do works similar to his. You can have no sickness or
sin that cannot be healed; you can have no problem that cannot be solved. I
trust that you will remember some of the simple truths from this lecture, and
that you will begin now to put them into practice. Remember, there is only the
one perfect creation. Your real being is perfect and harmonious, and you can
disbelieve any mesmeric evil suggestion to the contrary.
Let us close with this loving
command and promise from page 495 of the Christian Science textbook:
"When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God
and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let
neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the
recognition of life harmonious – as Life eternally is – can destroy any painful
sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead
of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being and this understanding
will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence
discord with harmony."
The