Christian Science: The Way of True Living
Leonard T. Carney, C.S.B., of
Member of the Board of Lectureship
of The
Leonard T. Carney, C.S.B., of
The Way of True Living" Thursday evening in the Murat
Theatre under the auspices of Third Church of Christ, Scientist. Mr. Carney is
a member of the Board of Lectureship in
The lecturer spoke substantially
as follows:
The purpose of a Christian Science
lecture is to awaken spiritual sense, satisfy the reason, and present evidence
of healing in mind and body. It should explain briefly what Christian Science
is, how it operates, and what it does. It should be said, however, that a
lecture should not be regarded as a complete exposition of so vast a subject
as Christian Science. Within one hour it is possible to deal only with some of
its essential teachings, refer to a few of its phases, and leave the listener
to pursue the subject further if he so desires. For a full and complete
elucidation we refer him to the textbook of Christian Science, "Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by its Discoverer and Founder Mary
Baker Eddy, which, together with the Bible and other authorized literature, may
be found in Christian Science Reading Rooms in cities and towns, large and
small, throughout the world.
A Religion of Works
Christian Science is a religion of
works. He who experiences its beneficent effects and is restored to a life of
health, happiness, and usefulness, when pain, penury, and woe had been his
prospects, may be tempted by his enthusiasm and zeal to proclaim the good news
indiscriminately. But Christian Science must be lived, not merely talked, if we
would retain what we have and ensure further progress. For even more important
than physical healing are spiritual regeneration, improved habits of thought
and action, increasing love for God and man. These require practice rather than
preaching. The novice learns that a well-balanced team pulls the best load, and
to hitch up "zeal" with "wisdom" will carry one many a long
mile. One ounce of right thinking and doing outweighs a pound of loose talk.
The name Christian Science is
peculiarly appropriate. "Science" means exact knowledge, and
"Christian" means that which is compassionate, helpful, and
spiritual.
The Bible and the
Textbook
There is one common meeting ground
for many forms of Christian faith, and that is the King James translation of
the Bible. Of it the great educator William Lyon Phelps has said, "I thoroughly
believe in a university education for both men and women; but I believe that a
knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college
course without the Bible." It is to the Bible that great men of history
and of learning have acknowledged that they owe their all; to it many martyrs
have given their lives. The Bible is the law book of Christian Scientists,
constantly cited, continuously revered. It is their foundation chart of life,
marking the hidden shoals of danger, making plain the safe channel. To them it
points the way of true living.
The Bible's exalted place is
attested by these words from the Christian Science textbook, "As adherents
of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to
eternal Life" (Science and Health, p. 497). Then what is the peculiar
value of the Christian Science textbook has reinstated this primitive
Christianity with its element of healing which was known and practiced by Jesus
and the apostles, and later lost to posterity. Even two hundred years after
Christ Jesus, Irenaeus wrote of frequent wonderful healings of lameness,
deafness, blindness, paralysis, and many other bodily maladies. He cited one
church where the members through prayer raised one who had died, and to use his
own words, "the spirit of the dead man returned, and he has been restored
in answer to the prayers." It was through the textbook of Christian
Science that the "key" to the Scriptures was forged in the grueling
fires of experience by the hand of a gentle woman who loved all mankind. With
this key the doors of the ancient treasure house of healing have again been opened
to the sick, the sinning, the poor, the lonely, the discouraged. And once
again the seeming miracles of old become the natural happenings of today.
The Founder of Christian
Science
It is perhaps unnecessary to
inform this audience that Christian Science came to this age through the pure
thought of a woman, Mary Baker Eddy. As in every mountain range there is one
peak that catches the first faint rays of the rising sun, so her exalted
spiritual thought from childhood caught and retained the indelible quality of
spiritual light. As Elijah presented the idea of the fatherhood of God, so likewise,
from Abraham's wife to Mary at the sepulcher, have women exemplified the tender,
compassionate motherhood of God. It is not strange, then, that the Discoverer
and Founder of Christian Science was a woman, who by her healing work and
church organization of today completed and complemented for future ages the
work of Christ Jesus and the apostles. Through a life of prayerful preparation
and fulfillment of her hopes, she was able to view her work accomplished, her
mission completed, a consummation experienced by few leaders in history. May I
give you the words of one who knew her well during the last two years she was
with us. Said he: "The more I see of our Leader in the various side lights
of her wonderful mentality, the more plainly do I understand why she was the
chosen bearer of this message to the children of men. Never was there another
like her. An outstanding evidence of it all is that those who have been
longest with her and closest to her are the ones who pronounce with the least
hesitation the conviction that she was God-sent and God-directed."
The Way of True Living
There is one business in which we
are all engaged and about which we seem to know the least; and that is the
business of living. Once there was a man who made himself great works, who
built for himself houses with vineyards and gardens and orchards. His many
cattle were upon his hills, and streams ran down the valleys and watered the abundant
trees. And he had servants and vast possessions, and he restrained himself
from no pleasure. Of this man it was written in Ecclesiastes several thousand
years ago, "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and
on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and
vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun" (Eccl.
The age long quest for a better
way of life is fulfilled through the teachings of Christian Science, which may
be likened to a university, with its practical courses in the way of true
living. Its textbooks are few but completely sufficient, the Bible and
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The daily
Lesson-Sermon from these two textbooks is the student's morning meal, leaving
the remaining hours of the day for the practical application of those early
lessons and additional reading and study as desired. Such is the curriculum,
and he matriculates with promised honors who not only studies but continuously
puts into practice what he learns; but study without practice is a locomotive
without steam.
The Material Universe
Ancient philosophers believed that
there was only one element or substance of which the universe was composed.
Some said it was air, others said water, and still others that it was fire. But
the search for one original cause is answered not through material but through
spiritual phenomena. The cause of all that exists is Spirit, God, the creator
and origin of all. This, however, does not mean that God creates matter. A true
creator creates nothing inferior to himself. Much less could God make a
destructible, material universe. What we see materially are the formations of
the human, mortal mind, visible because mankind believes them. We usually
believe what we see: it is no more strange that we see what we believe. Hence
mankind sees, hears, and feels its own thoughts. This is what we call the
material world about us. In fact it is not about us, but in us, in our own
human belief. This materially mental universe - because it is mental - is
subject to divine Mind's control, acting upon human belief. That material
scientists are beginning to recognize this all-controlling power of God is
evidenced by the following from the well-known physicist, Dr. Arthur Compton,
Nobel Prize winner. He said, "Atom, electron, electricity, everything that
a scientist touches, shows him that behind it is a great force, a causation, a
giver of laws, a God."
God and His Universe
Christian Science teaches that if
we would find God we must look away from material things. God is to be
recognized in our hearts, in our tender, loving thoughts, in our upward-rising
consciousness. If we look for Him in physicality, in nature, or in material
things, we look for Him in vain. Because God is everywhere, He is omnipresent;
because He has all power He is omnipotent; because He knows all that really
is, He is omniscient; because there is nothing beside Him or outside of Him,
God is all. When in Christian Science we can surmount the limited, material
thoughts of earth and earthly
living, and view infinite
Spirit without limit of time, space, weight, or measure, then we begin to see
and recognize God. In order that spiritual realization may carry us aloft as a
bird soars above earth, we, likewise, must possess the wings of spiritual
inspiration for guidance and power.
As a miner searches for gold and
finds the pure vein of it separate from rock and earthly debris, so do we as
Christian Scientists find the universe of Spirit and its ideas separate from
matter, awaiting our recognition and demonstration. Let us behold the spiritual
universe in its purity and perfection. In it is light and glory unquenchable.
God sends forth inextinguishable, spiritual light. In this light we behold the
spiritual facts of man and the universe, perfect and permanent, untouched by
matter, sin, disease, or death. God and God's ideas are pure and unadulterated
good. They have always been so, and thus they will remain throughout eternity.
As you behold this glorious fact, and put the spiritual into practice, much of
evil will drop away without specific effort.
Divine Mind and Spiritual
Consciousness
The way of true living began with
the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Into his world beset with idolatry, tyranny, and
mental darkness, despite the lives of holy men who had preceded him, came this
gracious, tender, understanding man of Galilee, but imbued with a strength and
power not his own. With this God-power, which was the very Christ, he stilled
the turbulent, angry sea, brought sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk,
comforted the downcast, reformed the sinner, and raised the dead. Speaking of
the Christ, he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Jesus'
way of true living was the Christ-way of spiritual healing and regeneration.
Because Mind is God, and is One,
there is, in reality, no mortal mind, no mesmerism, no mental poison, mental
manipulation, nor mental malpractice. There is therefore no insanity of world
thought that can inflame warfare, divide and confuse individuals and nations,
perpetrate cruelty and destruction, arouse the greed, hatred, and passions of
men. Because man, in reality, is the reflection of this one and only Mind, the
mind of man is not subject to derangement, disintegration, or decay. Real Mind
is never darkened, confused, nor inactive. Its activity is infinite, and is
wholly and completely good. This infinite, divine Mind is God, in whom you
live, and move, and have your being. Since God is your God, then the one Mind
is your Mind by reflection.
Divine Mind is that of true
knowing, the awareness of all things, the Mind of pure, spiritual ideas. It
evolves its own ideas, and they are as perfect as the Mind that forms them. Human
thoughts are not so. They are subject to human frailty. But God's thoughts are
substantial, infallible, and eternal.
Do we long for counsel and
guidance, for wisdom and understanding? Let us seek it through holy, uplifted
thought, and divine Mind will give it. Do we seek healing of body and mind?
God's spiritual ideas will heal us; His pure thoughts will comfort us. These
spiritual ideas act upon the so-called human mind, transform that mind,
causing it to let go of the diseased and erroneous beliefs which hold the body
in bondage; and thus released, the individual is healed physically and
mentally.
How may one bridge the gulf
between the human experience and divine Mind and gain that understanding and
spiritual power so vitally needed for improvement of daily living? It is
through the awakened human consciousness, rising from material sense to
apprehend man's true spiritual consciousness, which comes from God. Man is, in
reality, individual consciousness, for he reflects the Mind that is God. To ascend
in thought from the false sense of fear, disease, sin, and death, is to become
conscious of those ideas which are real and tangible to spiritual sense. It is
through an awakened, spiritualized consciousness that better bodies are
constructed, sinful sense regenerated, financial needs supplied, families
united, and homes made happy. It is through a rising state of consciousness
that restoration and recovery are had all along the line. This desirable
attainment comes through reading and studying the Bible, together with
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," pondering the truths
there revealed, and living the life of ceaseless prayer for spirituality and
growth in grace.
"Consciousness, where art
thou?" (Science and Health, pp. 307,308) Is it immersed in the small and
petty things of daily living, in criticism, envy, jealousy, pride, resentment,
selfishness? Is it sunken in the mire of impure desires, or in the beliefs of
disease and fear? Is it floundering in the mental darkness of materiality, with
no ray of hope or inspiration? Then turn away from it, and rise into the
purer, loftier state of consciousness where God abides. For God expresses all
true consciousness, in which abound health, happiness, holiness, and where man
is found as His reflection, possessed of the abundance of good, embraced in
the infinitude of divine Love.
Christian Science Prayer or Treatment
When Jesus prayed at the tomb of
Lazarus and raised him to a life of usefulness, healed the lunatic boy through
prayer, and restored the paralytic to health and soundness, a physical change
followed the utilizing of such prayer. Prayer is more than a mere asking that
something be done. It comprises deep and understanding realization of Truth
and Truth's ideas, and of man's unity with God. As has been indicated,
Christian Science prayer acts upon the human mind, changes its beliefs, and
this in turn controls and heals the body. Such prayer is called treatment in
Christian Science.
That it operates today as it did
in Jesus' time is beyond question, and is illustrated by the following. A
student of Christian Science was called to the bedside of a woman past eighty
years of age, who was stricken with total paralysis. When the student arrived
at
Have you ever watched from a high
vantage point the morning mists in the valley below, circling and eddying over
the surface of the lake, almost hiding its familiar contour? It seems impenetrable,
so very real, enshrouding that which is lovely and beautiful to behold. And as
the sun warms the air above the surface of the water, the mist begins to lift
gradually; and then suddenly the jeweled surface appears, brilliant and
rippling in the morning light.
Such is the action of Truth in a
Christian Science treatment, dissipating the mists of fear, disease, and pain
in mind and body. Treatment consists of declarations of immortal Truth, either
silent or audible, the realization of which tends to lift thought to apprehend
the perfection of God, man, and the universe of spiritual ideas. One declares
and endeavors to realize these truths with positive conviction, holding to
them with steadfast attention. Thus he is able to deny and overcome the claims
of fear, medical laws, symptoms, suffering and other phases of erroneous belief
which, like the mist over the lake, obscure man's perfection in Science. As he
persists in this inspirational and scientific method, the body will respond to
healing, whether it takes a moment, a day, or longer.
Because of the tendency of human
thought to wander, it is well in treatment to give steadfast adherence to the
spiritual meaning of the words of Truth just as they come into consciousness,
and to hold thought persistently to them, so that the spiritual idea behind the
words may become quickly evident and effective. One should learn to bring
thought back again and again, if it wanders, as does a watchful mother with
her errant child, until thought learns to abide in its rightful, spiritual
domain. If there is lack of progress in healing, it may come from failure to
adhere to the scientific way of treatment as taught in Christian Science, and
to persist patiently until healing comes.
Happiness an Essential
Happiness is an essential of
healthful living. Many diseases are nothing more than unhappiness externalized
on the body. That grief, heaviness, sorrow, has produced disease and even death
by depressing bodily action is becoming known to discerning men of medicine. I
should like to relate an instance of spiritual healing illustrative of this
point. Many years ago a young woman experienced a great disappointment in
love. In resentment she married another, and raised a family of superior
children. But due to the disappointment prior to marriage, the years of her
married life were filled with grief and bitterness. This frustrated sense
brought into the home much inharmony through the years, children without a
mother's loyal love, a home they later left without regret. As the early experience
faded from her thought - though not its effects - there ensued for the mother
years of bodily suffering, physical breakdown, with long periods of invalidism,
during which she was confined to her bed due to various afflictions. Forty
years passed since the early disillusionment, years of bondage to mental and
physical suffering; and then she was healed through one Christian Science
treatment. In an instant that burden of woe dropped from her completely. The
discerning practitioner in that one visit uncovered the forgotten disappointment
in the patient's early life, pointing out the effects of grief and a divided
and unloyal thought about her family. As this Christ, Truth, knocked at the
door of her consciousness she gladly opened it from within; the mantle of
heaviness fell from her shoulders, and, as she said, it was as though a heavy weight had been
lifted from her body, and a sense of physical and mental freedom ensued unlike
anything she had ever known before. She was completely healed then and there.
And the children returned to that transformed home with joy.
Christian Science disentangles and
solves these involved problems when properly applied. It discloses that man is
not an unstable and helpless entity to be reached and touched by evil, but
that in reality he is idea, the expression or showing forth of God Himself. He
is not a receiver of the woes of earth, but a reflector of the joys of heaven.
His only real business is the giving forth of truth, health, and happiness. The
righteous man lives not unto himself but unto God, who is his real Father and
Mother. His purpose in being is to glorify God, to express the irradiance of
Life. He embodies divine power to resist aggressive evil by expressing
spiritual good. One may so live as to receive directly this divine power.
A student of Christian Science was
passing along the boulevard of a city on a dark, misty day. As he walked along
with head down, his thoughts were as heavy as the day was dark and foreboding.
He was discouraged and disheartened, for his money was gone, and no job in
sight. As he was passing a shoe polishing shop, he happened to look up, and
over the doorway he saw a gleaming electric sign, with this lettering: "Shining
Within." It aroused him with its sudden challenge. Yes, he thought, that
was what he needed, "shining within," a change of heart. His
expression lifted, his step quickened, his confidence in good returned, and
gratitude flowed in. The next day he found a lucrative position awaiting him.
To keep the light of spiritual understanding shining within is to have good
manifested without.
Criticism
To the traveler on transcontinental
trains there is at intervals a familiar sight. As the train slows down and one
looks from his window he may see a long line of men leaning on their picks and
shovels waiting for the train to pass before again taking up their interrupted
employment. Their labor is to work the gravel in and around the ties in order
to strengthen the roadbed. This is the "pick and shovel brigade," so
essential to safe travel. But the railway workers do not constitute the only
pick and shovel brigade. Such a group may be found even among ourselves and our
acquaintances; but its activities differ radically from those of the track
workers. While the railway men are working for a firm roadbed, the others are
using the pick and shovel of unjust criticism, gossip, ridicule, tale-bearing,
slander - not to strengthen, but to undermine, their neighbor's reputation.
This is not the way of true living.
Destructive criticism is an age long
error. Paul, in his usually picturesque manner speaks of it thus: "If ye
bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of
another" (Gal.
The unkind critic usually judges
only from his own viewpoint. But, as Josh Billings, the humorist, once said,
"There are always two sides to every question: the wrong side and our
side." There is in reality but one side, the spiritual side, the side of
loving-kindness, divine justice and truth. We cannot always know the pressure
and the problems confronting another, causing him to act unreasonably. To
criticize unjustly is in a sense to misjudge God, because man, in reality,
is the likeness of God. To transgress this spiritual law reacts upon oneself
like a boomerang, for it changes the disposition, tends to affect the health,
and opens one to similar treatment at the hands of others.
Make your mental home a place of
fitting hospitality so that when one is admitted to your thought, he will know
that he is safe and welcome. Let us uphold the hands of those who need it as
Aaron upheld the hands of Moses during the battle, aiding, encouraging him
until evening, that is until the peace of victory over evil came to him. May we
so reflect divine Love that we uphold the hands, the spiritual power, of each
other. As we do it unto others, so it will be done likewise unto us.
The Moral Demand
Christian Science demands, and its
true followers are careful to express, the highest standard of morality,
purity, and integrity, as set forth by Jesus in his teachings. The extensive
body of practitioners, Readers, teachers, officers, and members of the church
stand as its representatives before the world. Where much is professed much is
expected. Hypocrisy is the consort of a dishonest heart. Because the slightest
deviation from rectitude reflects upon the movement as a whole, its true adherents
faithfully uphold family unity, marriage sanctity, and an impeccable standard
of personal purity and conduct, without which society itself is undermined.
Its faithful followers do not use intoxicating liquor and tobacco.
The attainment of a life of
exalted spiritual ideals is one of gradual rather than rapid growth. As a
mountain range is pushed slowly upward by earth's contractions, emerging
through the ages from the plain below, the future granite peak is imbedded in
the earthy mass of soil and shale. But rising slowly and steadily skyward as
the earth subsides, the mountain peak finally sheds its encumbering garments
and envelops its bold outline in the purity of eternal snow. So stands forth
the individual, rendered strong and upright, sincere and honest, by the purifying
power of Christian Science - shedding his impeding garments, emerging from
material attractions, resisting wrong, and reaching the heights of
spirituality, so that all may see the beauty of holiness, the waymark for
earth's pilgrims.
The Belief in Old Age and
Death
The way of true living is often
hampered by the fear and dread of old age. Years do not make one old. We should
not count years, but deeds. Emerson said, "We do not count a man's years
until we have nothing else to count." It is our thought about passing
time, rather than time itself, that makes for aging. Divine Mind knows no time,
hence it knows no age nor aging. The only real event is the unfolding of
spiritual ideas. Good is endless, and he who is conscious of good and not
expectant of evil is freer from the sense of passing years.
Rigidity of thought induces
rigidity of body, while kindly, resilient, scientific thinking aids in
loosening mental and physical bondage. Benjamin Franklin knew the advantage of
this, for he advised one not to maintain unyielding rigid opinions which would
rather break than bend. We need elasticity of thought, willingness to yield for
the greater good. Cultivate buoyancy in your work and living, the spirit of
service to God and man, the understanding of divine Love which Christian
Science presents, and you will be at the noontide of being, full of good works
and ripe with experience.
There is another factor of living
about which little is said - perhaps more is thought - and that is the fear
and expectation that living has an ending. In fact, living appears to some to
be a doleful and unhappy interlude between birth and death. Possibly more of an
attempt is made to forestall death and its effect upon families than is made to
render living a real and happy experience. Jesus came, as the Bible says, to
"deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage" (Heb.
The Christian Science textbook
does not define death as an event to occur at some remote time. Rather, it
defines it as "the flesh, warring against Spirit" (Science and
Health, p. 584). It is the erroneous experiences of daily material living,
rather than the fear of dying, that are to be forestalled. It is the belief in
the pleasure and pain of the five senses, in fear, sin, sickness, selfishness,
self-will, criticism, hatred, revenge, some of which appear in childhood and
blossom into baneful fruitage in later life. When Paul said, "The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor.
Conclusion
To seek wisdom rather than
material riches, to find health and happiness through spiritual means, to give
support in place of destructive criticism, to present a sense of Life for aging
and death, to attain the spiritual rather than the material - this is the way
of true living, and may be found through the study of Christian Science. You
are in the presence of Life now, because God is your Life. All the Life there
is, all the activity, intelligence, power, wisdom, being, is available now. It
is spiritually visible to you at this very moment. This is the real Life of man,
in fact your very Life. Have it more abundantly, that is, realize more of what
you really have. The highest human, personal sense of life, glorious and free,
does not even approximate the glories here and now of spiritual Life. It is
yours independent of time or event. It will remain yours throughout eternity.
"Rejoice and be glad in it."
The