A LECTURE on Christian Science bears close resemblance to a sermon, and if I were to select a text of Scripture as a basis for an address of this character, I could not well select a more interesting or a more important one than that of Jesus' commission to his disciples, that their preaching should be with respect to the kingdom of God—the immediate presence of the power of good, and to be accompanied by the healing of the sick, the cleansing of the leper, the raising of the dead, the casting out of devils. The tenth chapter of Matthew's gospel is entirely devoted to the Master's instructions and admonitions in this respect, and the closing chapter of the same gospel adds to this specific commission the more general and universal one, namely, that his followers should teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded them to do, thus plainly making it a Christian's duty to heal the sick and remove evils as well as preach the gospel.
The command of the Master is in substance an epitome of true Christian faith, doctrine, and practice. Moreover it is obvious that such a faith and practice can only rest secure on a firm foundation, to wit: the undeniable existence of one omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God—a God who constitutes and embraces all true being and whose presence and supremacy consciously inspire, protect, and govern as an immutable and unalterable law, every part and portion of the vast universe of ideas which He has created or revealed.
Christian Science meets the requirement of preaching the absoluteness and the allness of God, good, by works or demonstration,rather than by words or arguments. It does not announce a new,strange, or irrational concept of God, but unfolds and declares a correct comprehension and a true and just understanding of His being, qualities, and law. To broaden the average individual's concept of God, there has been introduced into the teaching of Christian Science synonyms of God other than those ordinarily used, the terms Mind, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love; intelligence and substance are also employed as synonyms to aid further the student in his comprehension of God, as well as to indicate His nature, attributes, and qualities. These terms when rightly understood and applied in conjunction with the broadest and most profound concept which it is possible for us to grasp of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, serve to turn thought away from a circumscribed, limited, or humanized sense of Deity and direct it toward that impersonal, infinite, supreme, and absolute intelligence, consciousness, presence, and power designated as God.
