POSTERITY will have the right to demand that Christian Science be stated and demonstrated in its godliness and grandeur,—that however little be taught or learned, that little shall be right." These words of our Leader in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 61) show with what intuition and foresight she recognized the imperative necessity, in the highest interests of mankind, that the truth she had discovered and given to the world should be promulgated in its purity. If there was adulteration, she urged, the effect would be that "the Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will increase" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 62).
Here we have a statement of Mrs. Eddy's unfaltering conviction that the revelation made to her was divine and therefore embodied absolute truth, that it was for the emancipation and regeneration of humanity, and that it was possible for men to know it definitely and exactly, so that in all its purity and power it would fulfil its high and holy purpose. Huxley once declared that "whatever evil voices may rage, Science, secure among the powers that are eternal, will do her work and be blessed." Though the great agnostic had no thought of Christian Science when he thus wrote, we may take the liberty of applying his utterance to that scientific knowledge of God and His creation which, brought to mankind by Christ Jesus, has been rediscovered and applied in these later years to the joyful redemption of tens of thousands of suffering men and women.
But Mrs. Eddy, remembering the fate that had befallen much of the pure teaching of Jesus, how it had been distorted and misinterpreted and befogged, knew that beneficent results would only continue to flow from this spiritual Science if it were proclaimed as she had expounded it—by the faithfulness and loyalty of Christian Scientists themselves. There is a call, therefore, for what? Demonstration? Yes; but upon what must this be based? Upon a true, precise, and spiritual conception of the fundamentals of our faith. These are explained with what some critics call wearisome reiteration in our text-book. The material for the acquisition of this pure knowledge is there. The truth is stated with a clearness that is a tribute to the author's singular gift of expression. Hence the inquirer who comes to the study of this Science with a willing mind, and some measure of desire for spiritual things, may be assured that he will find his mental capacity expanding and seeming difficulties disappearing. Grasping the fact that it is no more possible to postulate the finiteness of Truth than it is the finiteness of God. for God is Truth, he will with an awakened desire and a measure of spiritual expectancy enroll himself for the attainment of graduate honors in this universal school of knowledge, enter upon a well-trodden path, and rejoice that every step toward the enlightenment of spiritual understanding brings with it absolutely convincing evidence that he has found the way of Life.
Christian Science knows but one way and one source of knowledge. It is not to be found by browsing in sporadic fields of literature, where there is a feeble imitation of that pure revelation so lucidly explained in our text-book. The temptation in this direction comes with considerable force and is sometimes yielded to with a result that must always attend the futile attempt to mingle truth and error. Old students will bear witness to the" fact that they have most progressed in spiritual understanding, and have experienced the greatest demonstration of power, the nearer thought has been attuned to the divine harmonies, when in fact there has been the clearest conception of spiritual reality. God, good, is not hidden to any seeking heart. It is only mortal, material thought that obscures and obstructs. The restlessness that is inherent in the lives of many Christians is the result of failure spiritually to discern spiritual things.
Christ Jesus taught but one way to the Father—a way that is open to mankind. Along this there are no material accessories to assist the wayfarer. These are needless. It is the pure in heart, in thought, in life, in vision, that see God. A mortal's concept of God has always been and always will be expressed in his walk, his conversation, his religion, his entire earthly existence. This is seen in every Christian community. The idols that are worshiped, whatever they may be, and mostly they are self in one form or another, are more or less a mental delineation of the creator as He is conceived to be.
If you visit any eastern city, like Benares for instance, where the writer was recently, you find this condition of things in a more pronounced and degraded form. The picture is depressing and appalling. It is a visible manifestation of the "red dragon," that awful delusion, the lie of the carnal mind. The ten thousand blocks of wood and stone, with their hideous and obscene shapes and carvings, are but the grossness of mortal mind in objective form. Yet, amid the awful seeming degradation of the higher purer self, you see and hear and feel that the spiritual reality which is of God is not altogether hidden, and that even here men and women recognize that the beneficent Being who is above all and in all is pure and holy and perfect, and that if His children ever hope to be like Him they must know the truth in all its native simplicity and pureness. The traveler will not go through such scenes in a country like India, with its three hundred and fifteen million human beings, without being oppressed by a feeling of how little Christianity has so far accomplished in its regenerating and uplifting mission, and what a vast field awaits the advent of that more complete exposition and demonstration of truth to be found in Christian Science.
But there is need to hasten slowly. The call of the "new era" (Science and Health, p. 43) is insistent. It is a world-wide vision; but it will become practicable only as every Christian Scientist is loyal and faithful. The work of Science must begin in each mental home. The disciple soon learns what is constantly emphasized in all our literature—that he is privileged to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the lessons of truth which are so freely available; that Science is spiritual, not material, and that his altitude in spiritual growth and demonstration will be in proportion to his fidelity to the basic spiritual truths set forth.
A scientific knowledge of the infinite source of all things is not only the starting-point for a selfless Christian life, but it is the key which unlocks the mystery of the universe. How many of us appreciate its priceless value? While looking with profound respect and admiration upon the labors of natural scientists, especially in their search for the ultimate and final cause, one wonders sometimes at the evident reluctance of many of them to accept an interpretation of the universe which is based upon revelation and ascertained knowledge combined. "In the beginning God" was rightly interpreted by Mrs. Eddy in her statement that "all causation is Mind, acting through spiritual law" (Science and Health, p. 417). Can there be any possibility that philosophers will arrive any nearer the truth than that? The Christian Scientist, knowing the truth, realizes that his life and work are simplified when he avoids the theoretical perplexities which are not based upon this revealed definition of causation.
Let it be admitted at once that to grasp this fact mentally may require time and much thought. But what is that worth which in its acquisition does not call for patient and persistent seeking with a pure purpose? Let this concept of causation be scientifically apprehended, and it will be found to be the solvent of life's difficulties. For one thing, we then avoid a belief in that fallacy which has for centuries undermined, and still disturbs, the peace of mankind—that good and evil are identical. Christian Science lays the axe at the root of this error, respecting which theologians are beginning to be awakened. "It is the crowning blasphemy," wrote one of them recently, "to implicate God with sin. Heaven and hell express the double-faced unity; good and evil never come nearer than that, whatever gossamer bridge speculation may spin between."
But while conceding that there is possibly no justification for asserting that evil was created by God, His responsibility for it is still maintained. He permits it, we are told, in order that men shall be tempted and tried, and that out cf the fiery furnace thus divinely provided, they will come forth purified and ennobled with a desire for righteousness and holiness which previously they had not manifested! Unless the fallacy that underlies this teaching is detected, there will be much floundering in a morass of erroneous opinion which is not the Science of Christianity. Under it there can be no surcease from suffering. Nothing can be more rational and Scriptural than the declaration in this respect to be found in Science and Health. Is it not true today, as true as it was in ancient times, that the "people are destroyed for lack of knowledge"—knowledge based upon and inspired by a demonstrably true concept of God and His universe? There never was a time when men sighed more for the truth. One can almost hear them say, in the words of Paul to the Corinthians, "For we have no power against the truth, but only for the furtherance of the truth" (The Modern Speech New Testament).
Material knowledge increases. We are sometimes overawed by it. The miracle of yesterday is the commonplace of today. The impossible is being achieved. We speculate as to the future and wonder what further discoveries are to be made, quite prepared to accept whatever comes without any attempt to assume that dogmatic attitude of skepticism and criticism which formerly was the prevailing fashion. Yet with it all, is it not perfectly true, as Mrs. Eddy has taught, that such knowledge is not real power. It is only the "knowledge of the Science of being" which "develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man" (Science and Health, p. 128). This is spiritual and eternal. It is not subject to error nor to the fluctuations and erratic procedure of mortal sense. It removes doubts and plants the feet on the rock of ages. Every Christian Scientist knows what this knowledge has done for humanity already. Yet we are only on the threshold, we only catch glimpses of its omnipotence and omnipresence. We feel its power and rejoice in its operations, and our sense of gratitude manifests itself in the harmony of ceaseless prayer, that resting in Life and Truth, that receptiveness to Love's beneficence which, outflowing in a measure of selflessness, seeks not one's own but another's good.
The godliness of Christian Science is grounded in its Scriptural interpretation of the divine nature. Herein lies the necessity that emphasis be laid upon a clear understanding and a full acceptance of its foundational propositions. The fundamentals of Christianity are simple, though still presented in a complex form. The crudities of human speculation and the innate desire of mankind to materialize what is spiritual, if that were possible, is responsible for this. Speculative theories embodied in concrete formulas have been substituted for the simple truth. It was this disposition of mankind that our Leader had in view when she urged the maintenance of the purity of Christian Science, demonstrable knowledge in harmony with the truth of being. She ever kept before her our great Exemplar, Christ Jesus, and showed that it was "the godliness which animated him" (Science and Health, p. 26) that gave him the power he so wonderfully manifested.
Like our Lord, Mrs. Eddy bore witness to the fact that it is the Father that doeth the works, the operation of Mind reflected through human agency. To bear this witness is likewise the privilege of all who are seeking to attain the divine standard of life. When we are partakers of the "sincere milk of the word," or "the pure milk for the soul," or "the spiritual milk without price," as the text is variously interpreted, we shall, while ever on the watch, never be led into adulterating the truth. But can we always avoid that? says one. Can we always detect error, and how? Yes, by seeking to know and knowing the truth. There is no other way. Sin, sickness, disease, and death are not, cannot in the very nature of things be, the result of pure holy lives; they are phenomena which clearly indicate belief in error, and the necessity for at once reversing the false testimony of the physical senses.
It was in this way that our Lord did his healing works. The wayfaring man cannot err here any more than the student of any science who is careful not to depart from basic law and rule. We know the truth by what it does for mankind; its uplifting, regenerating, purifying effects are among the certainties of existence. It is the "godliness" which is "great gain," based not only upon a spiritual conception of God as the creator of only that which is "very good," but upon an all-absorbing faith in Him. Faith, some one has said, is that which a man lives inwardly, and which orders his way outwardly; it is the instinct of the spiritual world, the only world there is in reality. But such faith, seeing the truth that saves in its virgin purity and freshness, cannot be generated by force. It is of God; it is the possession of every man who lives in an attitude of spiritual receptivity and the spirit of childlike humility.
Those quiet moments of calm meditation which come to all are the times when we are able to see how chaste and beautiful is the gospel of Jesus when stripped of all the superfluous concepts with which men have sought to garnish it. It is then, too, that many of us have seen "what torments of pain we have endured from evils that never arrived," and how Max Miiller was right when he that, "however far the human may be from the divine, nothing on earth is nearer to God than man, nothing on earth more godlike than man." Thus it is that the Christian Scientist purifies his conception of God by knowing the reality of nothing but good. It is in this spirit that he testifies to the faith that holds him in the grip of right endeavor. Thus guided and impelled, he seeks to be the embodiment of that pure thought of God which he has learned by study and by demonstration, by sitting at the feet of Christ, Truth, where alone he finds rest.
In this mental realm, where thought is winnowed of all error, the godliness and the grandeur of Science appear in all their stateliness, and bring with them new life to unawakened souls. He who thus lives will carry with him the fulness of divine Love and the heritage of the divine presence, at the bedside of the sick, in the home, the office, the workshop, the crowded thoroughfare, the quiet rural scene, on the restless ocean. He well knows the joy and strength of the "daily life divine," of communion with the Father; and reflecting divinity in the measure of his understanding, he will open the kingdom of heaven to many suffering and sorrowing ones. He will keep pure that which is the truth of God. While active always in Christly work, he will often, too, be in the attitude of Whittier's saint, —
With smile of trust and folded hands,
The passive soul in waiting stands
To feel as flames the sun and dew
The one true Life its own renew.
Such a life is that blending of the "outward and visible sign and the inward and spiritual grace" which stamps the sincere follower of Christ Jesus.
