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Show THE CITIZEN 7 ;iillil,llllll,ll,,,ll,ll,llIIIIIIIIIII,llIIll,il,,lIll,llllllllllllllllllll!llllllllll,llllllllll!llllllllllllllllllllllllll!lllllllllU CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, THE DIVINE IMMANENCE iiBi,BiiaiaiiiiiiaIB,iBaniaiiiiiiBMiiiBiiaiiiiianaiiiiiiiBiiiMiitBiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiaiiBiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiii-aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiB- ,!iiiiini- and representative jrGElistened to Peter V. audi-enc- e Ross, liver a lecture on Christian Mice, T'ie Divine Immanence, at the last Tuesday Lake Auditorium was introduced by 3 Tli speaker l,t, Ross Mr. spoke as q. d e.B., Sii-'dake- , dvs: a.id I were to glance out over you arena in which is taking place of mortals to reach the strugf'-lHof understanding, we might well s Bder whether, among the.innumer-problemconfronting individuals, n could be found one single j to all mankind and engages attention of every individual, if we were to take more than a of the situation, e casual survey j enter, if such were permitted, the i consciousness of men, we should or speculate, we II longer wonder II mid see and know that bearing in on the mind of every human being, another and with some time or U gter or less insistence, comes the gstion, What is the true nature of jty? Who or what is God? 5 IIIIIIIlllllIIMIIiBilliBllinl!!IBIIBIIIBIIIIIBIilllllllllBIIIIIlllllllBIIBIIIIIIIIIlllllllBil5 AN authorized lecture on Christian Science by Peter V. Ross, C. S. B., Member of the Board of Lecture-- I I 1 ship, of the Mother Church, The First Church of Christ Scientist, in Boston, Mass., delivered at the Salt Lake I vast m e I 1 man absorbed with the cares of The may give little heed to this the man at ease or in (uiry; ensure, to whom the evil days have I yet come, may ignore it entirely; ledi is world the pride of intellect or in exultation of worldly success may en affect to despise it; but come the lestion will, and every individual in eman in e s better moments will seriously med-itupon it, and some time, sooner or e bitter experience will wring from m Job's pathetic cry, Oh ! that I iew where I might find him It may be said, perhaps, that this :er, does not occupy the thought of lestion or the atheist, since he reds altogether the idea of a Supreme 0 infidel It will be found, however, that ieman who proclaims that he does means nothing :t believe in a God are than that he does not believe in has commonly ;e kind of God that It is hardly fen taught or portrayed. ring. that any thinking person contend that the earth and the illness thereof is a matter of chance accident, and that there is no law or mceivable ould r back of and directing the aiverse. It can safely be affirmed tat whatever difficulties may beset te search for a Supreme Being, the elief that He exists and the desire to now Him are universal among naan-inand this confidence in the exist-ac- e of God and this longing to underhitelligence d; Him indicate and the transcendent mportance to man of a correct of Deity, and remind us of Jesus hatement, This is life eternal, that bey might know thee the only true con-le- pt Sod." NATURE OF DEITY. all down the centuries the Bible taught and men have supposed Xow as tot have believed in a Deity who they not all-knowi- only be- everywhere present, but who is good, who, as St. John has BandLove, and who, moreover, is in time of trouble, and yet, spite of this, disease and all the all-powerf- nd & have seemed to hold al Host undisputed sway. Evidently there tout, all, be a lack of appTecia-toof tl: e true nature of God and our "elation to Him, else the complete of good would be apparent, tod evil vould not seem to occupy the tonunam1. in g place which it boasts in toman loots of aft-i- r n su-Prema- cy Tbe avoirs. has been that, notwith-mdinour professions and beliefs, s have regarded God as a sort of abaction. far removed from our actual to and unavailable in times of dis- tr-mbl- e g MORTAL OR CARNAL MIND. Auditorium, Tuesday Evening, November 14. m s prob-commo- sense of his true selfhood as an idea in divine Mind, embodying the qualities of that Mind, among which are health, harmony, and holiness. piillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliailllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllBiiBlIIIIBIIIIIIIIIIIHIHIHIIIIIIIHnl tress. We have not fully accepted the assurance that His hand is not shortWhatever ened, that it cannot save. we may have said as to the nearness and goodness and availability of God, we have actually considered Him as separated from us and reluctant to supply our needs. We have pleaded with Him to come, instead of seeing that ne is always with us; we have entreated Him to give, instead of knowing that already He has bestowed everything good and needful; we have besought Him to heal us and save our lives from destruction, when we should have realized that, as Paul says, He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things- What is needed, if men are to escape from the thraldom of evil and attain that fullness of liberty to which they are entitled, is a clearer discernment of the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of God a fuller sense of the divine immanence. On a subject of such supreme importance, holding as it does the issues of life itself, inquiry should not and cannot rest short of exact knowledge. Blind faith or vacillating belief is entirely inadequate. Ye shall know the truth, said Christ Jesus, and the truth shall make you free. This was the conviction which came to Mary Baker Eddy, when, something like half a century ago, the truth of being burst upon her thought at a time when a supposedly incurable malady was fast bearing her life away, and suddenly, while reading her Bible, she found herself restored to health and strength. Speaking of her experience on that occasion and of the cures effected in the early Christian era, she says on pages 109 and 110 of Science and Health: I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration. In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook. Having discovered the Science or spiritual healing through her search of tne Scriptures and her consecration to the teachings of Christ Jesus, it was most natural for Mrs. Eddy to name Christian Science. her discovery, And since the time she discovered this Science, demonstrated it, and gave it to the world, mankind has had access to that exact and parctical knowledge of the nature of Deity which enables it to appropriate the perfect gifts of health and happiness to which all peoa right ple instinctively feel they have as the sons and daughters of a God who is good. Being founded upon the Bible, Christian Science necessarily accepts the Bible definition of God as omnipotent, is, omnipresent, and omniscient; that all all presence, as having all power, does more Science But knowledge. of than merely recognize the accuracy to ns this idea of Deity, it awakens the real import and significance of that it idea, and teaches us how to makeour operative in human affairs and in tribulations. As showing this, let us take, to begin with, the concept of God as omniscient, and see to what conclu sions, in the light of Christian Science, we are led. DIVINE MIND. For Deity to be omniscient is for Deity to have all wisdom, all knowledge, all intelligence. Now what is the one short, everyday word which expresses all these? You at once answer Mind, and Mind is one of the names which Christian Science gives to God- - It is one of the names by which Christian Scientists frequently address Him. In short, Mind is God. If Mind is God, or God is Mind, and there is only one God, it follows that there really is only one Mind, one consciousness; and God, being good and infinite, that Mind and that consciousness must be good and infinite. Manifestly, then, this Mind cannot know or experience disease or any other of the many supposed forms of evil. Therefore, they are not in fact known or experienced, since there is ho other mind and no other consciousness to entertain their false pretensions. -- Here is where Chirstian Science takes its high and at the same time practical position, and affirms that the ills of the flesh, and all else that makes for human limitation and suffering, have no actual existence. True they may appear real to human sense, looking through a glass darkly, but for the time being let us cling fast, if we may, to the absolute truth and Judge not according to the appearance, but So judgjudge righteous judgment. are we ing, irresistibly driven tp the conclusion that divine Mind takes cognizance only of the good, the harmonious, the perfect, and does not cognize the imperfect, the discordant, the distressful. Hence you and I, the real you and I, do not cognize or experience them, because we cannot know anything unknown to infinite Mind. What, then, do we know and of what are we conscious? Man exists as a state of consciousness, and as there is but one Mind or consciousness, man radiates or reflects that Mind or consciousness. Herein is the secret of mans dominion. Infinite intelligence is at hand, and not only is it available to man, but it is actually expressed by him. The mental forces and faculties of divine Mind are operative through the real man. Hence he is conscious of good, of health, of harmony, of peace, of power, of liberty; and the presence of these thoughts in consciousness necessarily excludes their opposites, namely, suffering, sorrow, sensuality, strife, and such like. The real man thinks what God thinks, knows what God knows, experiences what God experiences; and he thinks, knows, and experiences nothing else. Now we begin to discern the unlimited range of the real mans mentality, for he is endowed with nothing less than all intelligence. Therefore he is not lacking in the mental capacity necessary to perform any task that may be allotted to him; he is not wanting in ability to see that human ills have no real hold, upon him; he is able to realize that there is no actual affinity between himself and sinful desires and propensities; he rises to a In speaking of the divine Mind, Paul refers to it as that mind which was also in Christ Jesus, and he counsels us to have that Mind, to the end that we may enjoy the same perfection, liberty, and supremacy over the powers of darkness which Jesus enjoyed. But Paul also speaks of another mentality, which he styles the carnal mind and which he declares is enmity against God. Mrs. Eddy refers to that mentality as mortal mind. The phrases carnal mind and mortal mind have not been coined to designate a real mentality, but rather to designate a false or supposititious mind, for in our present imperfect sense of things it is sometimes convenient to give names to the illusory and counterfeit in order that we may more certainly detect their invalidity and guard against deception. This false mind, this mortal or carnal mentality, sends forth the appetites of the flesh, and with them disease and death. Its suggestions and insinuations are constantly clamoring for admission into consciousness. As a result we are continually experience-in- g the tempetation to do wrong, to feel the pains of human ills, and to suffer the thousand and one forms of restriction and discomfort common to humanity. This silent, persistent influence is personified in the Bible as the devil, and James admonishes us to resist the devil and he will flee. But our resistance has seldom been more than partially successful, with the result that sin and suffering have too often apparently gained the ascend-- ency. DEFENSE AGAINST DISEASE AND EVIL. Our failure to make a good defense has been due to our inability to resist intelligently. We have supposed that sorrow and suffering are the common lot of man, we have believed that dis- ease and evil are inevitable and invincible, and we have feared them. In this mental condition we have been doomed to defeat from the outset. Here it is that Mrs. Eddy has rendered an inestimable service to humanity by differentiating between the divine Mind and the mortal mind, making it plain that healthful and wholesome thoughts come from the divine Mind and have the quality of reality and while sick and unwholesome thoughts come from mortal mind and have only such seeming power or Influence as we are misled into concedper-manenc- ing. Evil approaches us and asks to be admitted into our thoughts and lives, but it cannot enter unless we consent. It is in itself inert, When we close the door of thought against it, as we have the ability to do, evil vanishes and ceases to be. It is only by opening the door and inviting evil to come in that we are brought under its sway. By our own act of acceptance or rejection we elevate evil to temporary power or return it to the realm of nothingness from whence it came. A writer, describing his visit to an institution for the care of people of deranged minds, says that he found there one man, a guard, in charge of seventy or eighty of the inmates. Addressing himself to the guard the visitor inquired, Are you not afraid to be alone with all those peoAfraid? No, Im not afraid, ple?" But dont you know, was the reply. non-in-tellige- well-know- n nt. |