I WONDERED sometimes, when I first knew of Science and Health, at what seemed to me to be a strange choice of title, but as I have grown into some understanding of the contents of this marvelous book, I have realized that in this title lies the kernel of the truth of Being, and that it is a concise statement of all that is in the book, and I have come to see that health, and an understanding of true Christian Science are interdependent, and that health, —physical, mental, and spiritual,— is as inevitable a result of Scientific thought as that "if equals be added to equals the result will be equals." Jesus taught that the knowledge of the truth would make us free, and we understand that any one who grasps the truth in Christian Science, knows this freedom and experiences it in exact proportion to his realization of Truth.
Whatever branch of study of material conditions we undertake, we are confronted with an accumulation of facts, a maze of details, either already formulated or still to be formulated, and the very thought grows weary and discouraged before the labor involved. In acquiring Christian Science, the very reverse is true. We must constantly unlearn whatever obscures the one simple statement, "God is all and there is none beside him," or as it is given in Science and Health, p. 492, "God is Mind, and God is All; hence all is Mind." Our task thus grows easy and our hope becomes joy.
As we learn in the study of music that in order to become a master of music it is not enough to love music and to talk about it, and to associate with musicians, but we must put ourselves in accord with the laws of harmony and think musically; so to be perfect, harmonious men and women, we must put ourselves in line with the Principle of true Being.—God,—and to be true Christian Scientists we must think scientifically, for it is not enough to love Science, talk about it and associate ourselves exclusively with Christian Scientists.
I am sure that as Christian Scientists we soon learn that joy is as truly a "fruit of the Spirit" as honesty, or love, or peace. Jesus frequently reminded us that he came to bring us his joy. Even a prayer in Christian Science is not complete without a ring of hallelujah in it. This joy is experienced not by contemplating the evil to be overcome nor how much we have to do in order to destroy evil, but rather by the contemplation of that which enables us to be victorious over it.
I have never forgotten a wise word spoken by a fellow Scientist many years ago when I seemed overborne with a weight of responsibility in the endeavor to demonstrate God's power to heal what seemed a critical condition. I went to my friend for a word of help, and in ending his talk he said, "Remember, you do not have to fight, you do not have to struggle, you only have to know!" This thought was like oil on the troubled waters, and the peace which came to me then, and which often comes to me now when I remember those words, was the "Peace, be still!" of Truth. This knowing is the resistance which St. James had in mind when he wrote, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." It was not meant that we should struggle with evil or fight with it, but rather that we should meet it with the everlasting resistance of the knowledge of the supremacy of Good.
When we bring a lighted lamp into a dark room, we never question as to which has the greater power of resistance, the light or the dark; neither do we have any sense of struggle with the dark. We should be as sure that the ever-presence of divine Love is in itself the destruction of hate, and all its manifestations.
When I read in the newspaper recently that a learned Jewish Rabbi had stated publicly that Jesus was a mesmerist, I was glad to remember how many times I had thought with joy that the doctrines of Jesus had uncovered the hideous nature of mesmerism or hypnotism, and that the right apprehension of those doctrines shows us how to protect ourselves from it and to avoid its unconscious use. The practice of Christian Science is not mesmerism, but it is a refusal to be mesmerized or to influence the thoughts of others, either consciously or unconsciously. The work of Christian Science healing is always purely instruction, never control.
The reason for silent treatment is solely that thoughts come thronging into the mind of a Christian Scientist for which words are no adequate expression to the listener. Otherwise treatments could be always spoken conversation, as indeed they very frequently are. This is the new tongue referred to in Mark's gospel. This is why people are healed without special effort by reading Science and Health or by talking with some Scientist. This is what is called in Science and Health, page 445, "the unlabored motion of the divine energy" and it acts as spontaneously as when light eliminates darkness. The listener is always at liberty either to accept or reject the statements made to him, whether audibly or silently, until his own reason is convinced. The divine Mind, which is God, is the only Mind to whose control we should ever submit.
In the Old Testament (Psalm III) we read that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and this is true, as man's consciousness first learns to fear the consequences of disobeying God— consequences threatened in the future and consequences to be experienced here and now. Later we learn in the New Testament, in I John, that "Perfect love casteth out fear," and it is this higher thought of God which Christian Science presents to the world to-day. It has taught us to love and adore God because He is altogether lovely and adorable. The ideals of Christian Science are so lofty and pure that it reforms the sinner; its teachings are so loving and tender that it comforts the sorrowful; its precepts are so uplifting and so holy that it heals the sick, and its logic is so clear and so invincible that it satisfies the scholar, and to-day, truly, a man is not a well-educated man, even on the basis of material physics, who does not understand the nature of matter as explained in Christian Science. What wonder is there, then, that we should love and reverence a condition of consciousness so high and so pure, so tender and so logical, that it could perceive and formulate this Science.
To-day the message which Christian Science delivers to mankind, whatever the standpoint, is "Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace."
We act as if we were alone in the world fighting a solitary battle against an invisible foe; as a matter of fact there is no unseen foe, and our only battle is with ourselves.
