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Show CHRISTIAN SCIENCE LECTURE Entitled, Christian Science: Scientific Restoration by Thomas E. Hurley, C.S.B. of Louisville, Kentucky Membei nf the Bnard ol l.nrlnrrihip of Th. Molhei Churcb. Th Firit i:hrrh or Cbrlit, Scientist, in Boituo, Mauachuielti A Christian Science lecture was delivered deliv-ered in First Church of Christ. Scientist.' Salt Lake City. Friday evening. April 27. by Thomas E. Hurley. C.S.B., of Louisville, Louis-ville, Ky. The lecture was introduced by Mrs. Sarah Anderson, Second Reader, who said: First Church of Christ. Scientist. Salt Lalte City, welcomes you to hear a lecture on Christian Science. In the Bible. Acts: 9, we read that Soul of Tarsus, who had long persecuted the Christians, was on his way to Damascus when he became blind. He was led into Damascus, and there a man named Ananias, Ana-nias, perceiving sight to be spiritual, infinite, infi-nite, perfect, and eternal, restored his vision. vis-ion. 1 hen Saul, taking the new name of Paul, went forth healing and living the Christ. Truth. Everytime a false belief is replaced with a right idea it is vision restored. So tonight, we, like Paul, will have the opportunity, through restored vision, through what we hear, to be better enabled to live the Christ. Truth. It Is my privilege to introduce to you our lecturer. Thomas E. Hurley, of Louisville, Ky a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church. The First Church of Christ. Scientist, in Boston. Mass. . The title of his lecture is: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: SCIENTIFIC RESTORATION RESTORA-TION ... Mr. Hurley. be eliminated from human con-sciow.iesj. con-sciow.iesj. The process of removing the fate and restoring the true takes place on the canvrs of individual human conscious le . and the process proc-ess is entirely .n 'ml. that is. SDint-ualiy SDint-ualiy mental. As the art critic's . knowledge of genuine art e.mblcd him to d-tect the spurious nature of the superimposed super-imposed picture, aid tj discover and bring to light the ori-lnal masterpiece, master-piece, so It was Mvs Edtiv's sniritual-mindedness, sniritual-mindedness, her understanding of God, that enabled i er to delect the spurious nature of the s;-calletl material ma-terial creation and to discover and .eveal to manr.ind the present reality re-ality nf God's -eni'ine spiritual creation, crea-tion, including man in His likeness. This final revelation of Truth, which Mrs. Eddy denominated Christian ! Science, provides vou and me and all mankind with the trulv scientific method of restoration bv which all problems claiming presence in human hu-man experience m'.v be sulved, and by which one rrny scientifically work out his ow i solvation here and now The Final Revelation and the' ! v;'.-t r It was Mrs. Eddy's spiritual-niind-edness that made her the reveiator of Truth in this age and enabled her to fulfill the prophecy of the Scriptures. Scrip-tures. She manifested this spirituality spiritual-ity of thought to an extraordinary degree even as a child, taking a deep interest in the discussions of religious re-ligious topics which frequently occurred oc-curred in her heme. Even at an early age. she felt that Jerus' followers should be able to heal the sick as he had commanded them to do. She felt this even more keenly in young womanhood r-hen she became an in- t,oUH RVip crmrrht hpln unthnnt llf- sun rises. We"reject this evidence in many other ways. In order to believe in immortality, one must reject re-ject -he material sense evidence that man is a mortal being having a material ma-terial body, for this same evidence declares that man dies and returns to dust, or nothingness. No Christian is willing to accept this denial of man's immortality, and so, as soon as such a one appears to die, the Christian rejects the material sense evidence that man is material, re-ut:-wg to oust, and insists that man is spiritual and immortal. But why v ait trll man is declared dead before recognizing his true being as spiritual spirit-ual tnd immortal? If he is spiritual and immortal in one instance, he must be so in the other. What possible pos-sible basis is there for thinking that the material sense evidence regarding regard-ing man is true when he is alive, but faise when ne is dead? Even in our human courts, the minute a witness perjures himself on a single point his whole testimony may be rejected. Therefore, would it not be wise to reject the wliole of material sense evidence as false when we inherently know that the denial of man's immortality im-mortality is a lie? To return to our illustration of the masterpiece: if the art critic had been satisfied with the superimposed picture, had he not detected Its spurious nature, he might merely have cleaned it or touched It up without ever bringing to light the original masterpiece. And if one accepts ac-cepts the material sense evidence as to man as true, he may try to doctor doc-tor it or improve it, but he will never bring out the real or perfect man by so doing. Furthermore, it is obvious that the art critic could not keep the mediocre picture and still have the masterpiece. He had to be willing to give up the former in order to gain A case that came to my attention some time ago may be used to illustrate illus-trate what I have just said. A Christian Chris-tian Scientist, while traveling with some friends, was suddenly seized with acute appendicitis. He called on a member of the group, who was a Christian Science practitioner, to help him, as the pain was so severe that he seemed unable either to think for himself or to read the Bible and Science and Health. Now the practitioner did not start from the standpoint of a fearful, sick, suffering man in great need of healing. heal-ing. On the contrary, he insisted that right where this mental picture was presented, right then and there perfect God and perfect man in His likeness was the omnipresent and only fact of being. Right where the material senses were presenting the mental picture of man as material, fearful, diseased, and in great pain, right there the ever-present fact was that man as God's idea was wholly spiritual, fearless, healthy, painless, manifesting only the qualities of harmonious being. It was clearly realized that God, Spirit, never made matter. Consequently Conse-quently there was no material body in which disease could originate, exist, ex-ist, or develop; in which it could produce pain, fever, poison, or death; or In which it could have any activity, activ-ity, effect, or manifestation. The true and only body was seen to be altogether spiritual the embodiment embodi-ment of spiritual ideas, perfect, painless, pain-less, healthy, pure, harmoniously active. ac-tive. Since a spiritual idea could not .jossibly be Infected, irritated, inflamed, ruptured, painful, or destructive de-structive to other ideas, it was obvious ob-vious that any claim of acute appendicitis as having origin, existence, ex-istence, activity, effect, or manifestation manifes-tation in body was a lie. It was terfeit. When one really knows or realizes the spiritual fact, his thought is at one with God, divine Mind, and his knowing is his individual indi-vidual reflection of God's knowing. This divine knowing is the law ol God In operation and has the omnipotence om-nipotence of God with it. Consequently Conse-quently it must be effective. When a case is correctly analyzed and the false beliefs are replaced through the realization of the true, spiritual facts, the treatment is the law of God as applied to that case and must be effectual. Irrespective of the material sense evidence, both the practitioner and patient should understand un-derstand this and insist on it. Error, or animal magnetism, the suppositional opposite of Christian Science, claims to jppose and deny it, and would deny the effectiveness of Christian Science treatment. Consequently Con-sequently the student must be alert that he in no wise consents to any such denial. Sometimes when no immediate change or improvement in the material evidence follows the treatment, there is a strong temptation tempta-tion to consent to the suggestion that the treatment has not been effectual. The mument one admits that the treatment is not effective, he is in a fair-way to be robbed of its efficaciousness by his very denial of it. Furthermore, if one admits that the treatment that has been given a case has been ineffective, his failure to stand for the effectiveness effec-tiveness of treatment might well lim:' the efficacy of further treatment. treat-ment. The patient's consenting to error's denial of the effectiveness of treatment treat-ment is due, of course, to his looking look-ing to material sense or mortal mind, which, according to Jesus, is "a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44) to find out if the treatment 17:28). Christian Science reveals God as infinite, divine Mind, Spirit; hence man, God's idea, really lives, moves, and has his being in infinite, omnipresent, spiritual consciousness. conscious-ness. This really is the only place man can be, the only place he ever has been, or ever will be. The man of God's creating is an individual spiritual consciousness. This individual indi-vidual consciousness is not separate and apart from infinite divine Mind, but is its individualized manifestation. manifesta-tion. In "Unity of Good" by Mrs. Eddy we read (p. 24), "All consciousness con-sciousness is Mindj and Mind is God, an infinite, and not a finite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual consciousness, conscious-ness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind. There is no really finite mind, no finite consciousness." So we see the only place man really is, ever ha; been, or ever will be is in his God-given v identity and individuality in-dividuality as spiritual consciousness. He is established, fixed, and held here by spiritual law throughout eternity. Furthermore, man, understanding under-standing this, knows what and where his right place is, so is never ignorant, igno-rant, undecided, or coin sed about it. In his individuality as spiritual consciousness, man is the image and likeness of God, spiritual not material, ma-terial, perfect not imperfect, harmonious harmo-nious not discordant, complete not limited, useful and not useless. He Is at one witl infinite good, hence ht is entir ly separate from jvil. "He is the compound idea of God, including includ-ing all right ideas" (Science and Health, p. 475). All right ideas, having hav-ing their source in God, divine Mind, must be useful. Now for something to be useful, it is obvious there must be the opportunity to use it. For something to be continuously useful, the opportunity to use it must be The lectv-r spol:e substantially as follows: Are you In need u restoration- -of . rts.MMl on of health, of happiness, of supply, of uselua.ess. ol joy. or peniapi of your sell -respect? If you are. my friends, you are in good company, com-pany, for eveiyone is in need of restoration res-toration in some lespert even if he is not aware of it But all are aware of the pressing reed of restoring peace to a troubled world of restoring restor-ing right order to an economy that seems to Be sadiy ary. o; restoring a sense of honor anil co-operation between nations and a higher sense of morals and eth:cs on the part of Individuals. Yes. and man, thinking people are beginning to recognize the fundamental need of restoring to humanity a true sense of spiritual values, or spiritual understanding. Restoration the Fulfillment of God's Law The latter is one o! the most hopeful hope-ful signs on the mental horizon of todav, for, as Christian Science reveals, re-veals, spiritual understanding the understanding of God and His law is the Key to scientific restoration of health and harmony In her textbook, text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, " Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and the Leader of its movement, writes on page 390: "It is our ignorance of God, the divine di-vine Principle, which produces apparent ap-parent discord, and the right understanding under-standing of Him restores harmony." But. someone may ask. how can a ' cess irom all types of human healing heal-ing agencies and became convinced that they were effective only in pro-'; pro-'; portion to the individual or general j iaith in them and had no intrinsic healing power of their own. This i caused her to seek more and more ; diligfntlv for the true idea of God ! which Jesus taught and demonstrated, demon-strated, and which she was con- ! vin-'ed wou'd heal her. i Then, in 18S6, at the age of forty-! forty-! five, given up by a physician to die, ; she put away the material remedies ; the doctor had given her and turned ' completely to God for her help. As she studied the Bible, she caught a glimpse of the truth of being and found herself suddenly well. As she later wrote in Science and Health (p. 14) : "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intel- I ligence are purel;' spiritual, neither I in nor of matter, and the body will I then utter no complaints. If suffer- i-iq fro"i n h""-f in sic!:ne?s you will find yourself suddenly well." Mrs. Eddy knew that she had touched the hem of Christ's garment, gar-ment, but, as she put it, "I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions con-clusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" (Ibid., p. 109). This was not the work of a moment, however. She diligently searched the scriptures, seeking their spiritual meaning. This was gradually grad-ually revealed to her, and nine years later she published her textbook, Science and Health, in which is set forth the complete statement of this final revelation of Truth. trie latter, oo we must De wining to give up the false, material sense of man in order to gain the spiritual understanding of man as God's im-aje im-aje and demonstrate this understanding under-standing in tur daily lives. I wonder if someone is questioning, If the material sense evidence is false, how can we know what is true about man, how can we know what he really is? Mrs. Eddy tells us she arrived at absolute conclusions "through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" (Science and Health, p. 109). We can follow the same method, for we have both the revelation of the Master and this final revelation, which he prophesied would come as the healing Comforter. As we reason from the standpoint of divine revelation, that is, from the standpoint of perfect God and perfect per-fect man, we too shall arrive at absolute ab-solute conclusions and see these spiritual spir-itual facts proved in our experience through the restoration of health, purity, harmony, and abundance where there seemed to, be sickness, sin, discord, and lack. Right Reasoning Based on Principle The basis of all correct reasoning Is the truth about God, for the Bible tells us that "all things were made by him" (John 1:3) and that He made man in His image and likeness. like-ness. The Bible tells us furthermore that God is Spirit, Truth, Life, and Love. Mrs. Eddy has given us three other terms namely, Principle, Mind, and Soul all of which axe clearly implied in the Scriptures. It reasonably follows that the image of unceasingly present. The real man, including all right ideas, all of which are useful, must exist not only at the standpoint of unlimited usefulness, but also of unlimited opportunity to be useful. This spiritual fact, realized, real-ized, eliminates the false belief that man is a poor, limited mortal, lacking lack-ing in usefulness or opportunity, and restores the spiritual sense of right adjustment, usefulness, and opportunity oppor-tunity to be useful. The question of adequate supply, or of a right adjustment of supply and demand, is often a pressing one, and here again .Christian Science provides the demonstrable truth which restores a right sense of adjustment ad-justment and abundance. A fundamental error that results in lack and limitation is the belief that supply and demand are material; mate-rial; hence that they are subject to material conditions and laws. Christian Chris-tian Science reveals that (Science and Health, p. 468) "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" its infinite ideas. Divine Mind, God, supplies these infinite ideas and needs every one of them for the perfect expression of His infinite infi-nite selfhood. God is everywhere, and everywhere perfectly manifested or expressed, thus requiring the ever-present ever-present activity of His infinite ideas. If there were some place where even a few of God's ideas were not actively ac-tively expressing Him, there would be a place where God was not perfectly per-fectly expressed where He was not perfect; which is impossible. So we see that there is an ever-present need for God's infinite ideas, and these infinite ideas are always present pres-ent to meet the need. Supply and demand, therefore, exist eternally at the standpoint of perfect adjustment, adjust-ment, of perfect balance, maintained by spiritual law. This truth, understood under-stood and realized, eliminates from individual human consciousness the false concept of supply and demand as material and out of balance, and restores the spiritual sense of right adjustment. And the manifestation In human experience is that supply is adequate to meet the present need. Most people, certainly most Christian Chris-tian Scientists, recognize lack of employment em-ployment or lack of supply as problems prob-lems demanding prompt solution, certainly not as something to be accepted ac-cepted or condoned. But many of these same people unresistingly consent con-sent to other arguments of lack, such as indifference or lack of interest, lack of joy, or lack of enthusiasm. Such phases of lack, entertained or unresisted, might well be th. erroneous erro-neous thought that was being ob- witnout principle or law to support it, and without min-' or man to believe be-lieve it, since God is Mind and man reflects God's knowing. It was also realized ""hat since God Is the one universal Mind, never creating or knowing disease, there could be no general mortal belief or law causing disease or giving it name, nature, development, symptoms, symp-toms, effect, or aftereffect. Nor could any collective mortal thought prescribe the remedy for disease or declare it incurable. The case seemed to be extremely acute, requiring considerable treatment treat-ment along these lines for a period of three days. By the fourth day the patient was able to get up, dress himself, and drive over two hundred miles to his home. This healing was brought about through spiritual means alone through knowing the truth about God and man as revealed by Christian Chris-tian Science. Is it not apparent that If what was known had not been the truth, the truth that Jesus said would make man free, there would have been no healing? The Christ and Its Great Demonstrator This truth of being coming to the human consciousness to heal and save is the Christ, which Mrs. Eddy defines as (Science and Health, p. 583) "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." The Christ is the true idea of God, and since God is all inclusive, the Christ must likewise be the true idea of all that He includes of all that comprises the divine creation. In brief, the Christ is the consciousness of spiritual spir-itual reality, or spiritual consciousness. conscious-ness. Every true or spiritual idea is a Christ-idea, and the unfolding of these ideas in individual human consciousness con-sciousness is the coming of the Christ, before which the false beliefs be-liefs of matter, evil, sin, disease, and death vanish as necessarily as darkness dark-ness disappears before the light. Jesus was the great demonstrator of the Christ, showing by his example ex-ample how each one may work out his complete salvation here and now through attaining and demonstrating demonstrat-ing this true consciousness, or consciousness con-sciousness of Truth. He knew that the Christ was his true, spiritual selfhood. He identified himself so completely with it that ne was able instantaneously to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, and even life to those who had been pronounced dead. Jesus refuted the material sense evidence evi-dence at every point through his un- is emcacious. uut wnen one realizes that Christian Science treatment is the Christ, Truth, for that case and so has the omnipotence of God with it, he stands radically for the treatment's treat-ment's perfect effectiveness and insists in-sists that no argument of error or material sense evidence can deny its efficacy or delay or prevent its manifestation. I have always been grateful that my first healing in Christian Science Sci-ence clearly illustrated this point. When in my early teens, I became completely deaf in one ear and practically so in the other. I was not interested in Christian Science at the time; in fact, I thought I was opposed to it. But some neighbors neigh-bors who were earnest Christian Scientists, hearing of my difficulty and learning that my case had been pronounced hopeless by a specialist, lovingly presented Christian Science to me as the certain way out of my trouble. As it alone offered a ray of hope, I turned to it wholeheartedly, began to study Science and Health, and sought treatment from a Christian Chris-tian Science practitioner. One of the main things I remember remem-ber about this experience was the Intensive In-tensive way I studied the textbook, usually putting in two or three hours a day, though I seemed to understand un-derstand little of what I read. I also had daily treatment from the practitioner. But there was not the slightest improvement or change in the material evidence from the day the treatment was begun until the moment when the hearing was perfectly per-fectly restored. I am grateful to say that the healing was accomplished quickly. Obviously, the treatment was effective every treatment was effective, not just the last one. No Classification of Diseases The student of Christian Science needs to be alert that he is not tempted to classify certain diseases as difficult to heal. It makes no difference how dark a room is if the light that is turned on is sufficiently bright. Nor does it make any difference differ-ence how long the room has been dark. Darkness is merely the absence ab-sence of light and vanishes before it. And disease is merely the suppositional supposi-tional absence of harmony and goes out before the realization of the omnipresence of harmony. Error would like one to believe that some diseases, such as deafness, are difficult to overcome, and for this very reason this false argument should be vigorously rejected. Certainly Cer-tainly God never made a law that it is difficult to heal any disease, and In reality there is no mortal mind nr rnllprt-ivp mnrtnl fhont?ht that ran right understanding of God restore my health, usefulness, joy, or abundance? abun-dance? And how can it possibly bring peace to the world and the proner adjustment of our economy? In his great Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus prophetically declared (Mntt. 5:17). "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: 1 am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Then, throughout his brie! ministry, he showed how the ' operation of the Christ in human consciousness fulfills the law of God by restoring health In place of sickness, sick-ness, purity and holiness in place of sin. life in place of death, abundance in place of lack, harmony and peace In place of discord and turbulence. Yes. ti e fulfillment of God's law in human experience Is always the restoration res-toration of harmony Since this spiritual spir-itual restoration is the effect of God's iaw and is brought about by the ut ligation of it. tru restoration nnr. be ani is scieitific, never a question of chance, circumstance, or a.) 'u-called material condition. On page 468 of this textbook, Mrs. Eddy gives in one paragraph, which she has designated "the scientific statement of bein'!," the epitome of this revelation. The first sentence of this powerful statement, "There Is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," was and is a challenge to all human thinking based on the belief in the reality of matter to science, theology, and medicine and it stirred, and continues con-tinues to stir, the human mind to its depths. Of course, no one has ever discovered dis-covered what matter is or where it comes from, but the audacity of declaring it nonexistent was too much for the materialistic thought of that time. Her revelation of the nothingness of matter and allness of Spirit subjected Mrs. Eddy to all sorts of unjustified attacks. But she stood her ground without flinching and proved the unreality of matter in the same .way that Jesus had demonstrated it by healing the sick n.s wpit ns rhe ;nnincr--thns nrnv- Spirit must be spiritual, not material; mate-rial; the image of Truth must necessarily neces-sarily be as real, perfect, and unchangeable un-changeable as Truth itself, never imperfect or changeable. The likeness like-ness of immortal Life must be eternal, eter-nal, healthy, harmonious, without beginning or end, never mortal, sick, discordant, and dying. The perfect expression of Love necessarily possesses pos-sesses and expresses all the qualities of Love, such as fearlessness, kindness, kind-ness, untelfed love. It could not include in-clude fear, envy, jealousy, hatred, or self-love. The image of divine Principle Prin-ciple must be under the perfect government gov-ernment of Principle, in perfect adjustment ad-justment with Principle and with ail of its ideas, never misgoverned, maladjusted, mal-adjusted, displaced, or lacking a place. The perfect likeness of divine Mind necessarily knows as Mind knows. Me is conscious only of the ideas of divine Mind, never of the false beliefs of error or mortal mind. And the perfect expression of Soul must be as sinless and immortal as C: .1 : P r . The title of his lecture Is: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: SCIENTIFIC RESTORATION RESTORA-TION ... Mr. Hurley. Tl.e lectr--r spoke substantially as ioliows: Are you In need .l re.urauon- -oi , res.:.ral'on of health, ot Happiness, oi supply, of usel j:i.ess. oi joy. or pernups ol your sell-respect? If you are. my triends. you are in good company, com-pany, for eveiyone is In need of restoration res-toration in some lespect even if ne is not aware oi it But all are aware of the pressing reed of restoring peace to a troubled world of restoring restor-ing right order to an economy that seems to be sadiy ary. o; restoring a sense of honor and co-operation between nations a 'id a higher sense of morals and ethxs on the part of individuals. Yes. and man. thinking people are beginning to recognize the fundamental need of restoring to humanity a true sense oi spiritual values, or spiritual understanding. Restoration the Fulfillment of God's Law The latter is one ol the most hopeful hope-ful signs on the mental horizon of todav, for, as Christian Science reveals, re-veals, spiritual understanding the understanding of God and His law is the Key to scientific restoration of health and harmony In her textbook, text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, ' Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Pounder of Christian Science and the Leader of its movement, writes on page 390: "It is our ignorance of God. the divine di-vine Princiole, which produces apparent ap-parent discord, and the right understanding under-standing of Him restores harmony." But. someone may ask, how can a right understanding of God restore mv health, usefulness, joy, or ahun- should be uoiu tj i.-ui u.u o.l ijl had commandej liirm to do. She felt this even more keenly in young womanhood r-hen she became an invalid in-valid She sought help without success suc-cess irom all tynes of human healing heal-ing agencies and became convinced 1 that they were effective only in pro-. pro-. portion to the individual or general i taith in them and had no Intrinsic healing power of their own. This caused her to seek more and more diligfntlv for the true idea of God : which Jesus tai'eht and demonstrated, demon-strated, and which she was con- ! vin?ed wou'd heal her. ; Then, in 1856, at the age of forty -! five, given up by a physician to die, : she put away the material remedies ; the doctor had given her and turned ' completely to God for her help. As she studied the Bible, she caught a glimpse of the truth of being and ' found herself suddenly well. As she later wrote in Science and Health (p. 14) : "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intel-I intel-I ligence are purel" spiritual, neither I in nor of matter, and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffer- Hi? fro'i a b""-t in sickness you will find yourself suddenly well." Mrs. Eddy knew that she had touched the hem of Christ's garment, gar-ment, but, as she put it, "I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions con-clusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" (ibid., p. 109). This was not the work of a moment, however. She diligently searched the scriptures. seeking their spiritual meaning. This was gradually grad-ually revealed to her, and nine years later she published her textbook, Science and Health, in which is set forth the complete statement of this final revelation of Truth. On page 468 of this textbook, Mrs. Eddy gives in one paragraph, which she has designated "the scientific statement of beinT," the epitome of .oiralqlinn TVl first. SPntenC.P mat the art critic could not keep the mediocre picture and still have the masterpiece. He had to be willing to give up the former in order to gain the latter. So we must be willing to give up the false, material sense of man in order to gain the spiritual understanding of man as God's image im-age and tiemonstrate this understanding under-standing in tur daily lives. I wonder if someone is questioning, If the material sense evidence is false, how can we know what is true about man, how can we know what he really is? Mrs. Eddy tells us she arrived at absolute conclusions "through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" (Science and Health, p. 109). We can follow the same method, for we have both the revelation of the Master and this final revelation, which he prophesied would come as the healing Comforter. As we reason from the standpoint of divine revelation, that is, from the standpoint of perfect God and perfect per-fect man, we too shall arrive at absolute ab-solute conclusions and see these spiritual spir-itual facts proved in our experience through the restoration of health, purity, harmony, and abundance where there seemed to be sickness, sin, discord, and lack. Right Reasoning Based on Principle The basis of all correct reasoning is the truth about God, for the Bible tells us that "all things were made by him" (John 1:3) and that He made man in His image and likeness. like-ness. The Bible tells us furthermore that God is Spirit, Truth, Life, and Love. Mrs. Eddy has given us three other terms namely, Principle, Mind, and Soul all of which are clearly implied in the Scriptures. It reasonably follows that the image of Spirit must be spiritual, not material; mate-rial; the image of Truth must necessarily neces-sarily be as real, perfect, and unchangeable un-changeable as Truth itself, never vious that any claim of acute appendicitis as having origin, existence, ex-istence, activity, effect, or manifestation manifes-tation in body was a lie. It was without Principle or law to support it, and without min ' or man to believe be-lieve it, since God is Mind and man reflects God's knowing. It was also realized 'hat since God is the one universal Mind, never creating or knowing disease, there could be no general mortal belief or law causing disease or giving it name, nature, development, symptoms, symp-toms, effect, or aftereffect. Nor could any collective mortal thought prescribe the remedy for disease or declare it incurable. The case seemed to be extremely acute, requiring considerable treatment treat-ment along these lines for a period of three days. By the fourth day the patient was able to get up, dress himself, and drive over two hundred miles to his home. This healing was brought about through spiritual means alone through knowing the truth about God and man as revealed by Christian Chris-tian Science. Is it not apparent that if what was known had not been the truth, the truth that Jesus said would make man free, there would have been no healing? The Christ and Its Great Demonstrator This truth of being coming to the human consciousness to ileal and ! save is the Christ, which Mrs. Eddy defines as (Science and Health, p. 583) "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." The Christ is the true idea of God, and since God is all inclusive, the Christ must likewise be the true Idea of all that He Includes of all that comprises the divine creation. In brief, the Christ is the consciousness of spiritual spir-itual reality, or spiritual consciousness. conscious-ness. Every true or spiritual idea is mg to material sense or mortal mind, which, according to Jesus, is "a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44) to find out if the treatment is efficacious. But when one realizes that Christian Science treatment is the Christ, Truth, for that case and so has the omnipotence of God with it, he stands radically for the treatment's treat-ment's perfect effectiveness and insists in-sists that no argument of error or material sense evidence can deny its efficacy or delay or prevent its manifestation. I have always been grateful that my first healing in Christian Science Sci-ence clearly illustrated this point. When in my early teens, I became completely deaf in one ear and practically so in the other. I was not interested in Christian Science at the time: in fact, I thought I was opposed to it. But some neighbors neigh-bors who were earnest Christian Scientists, hearing of my difficulty and learning that my case had been pronounced hopeless by a specialist, lovingly presented Christian Science to me as the certain way out of my trouble. As it alone offered a ray of hope, I turned to it wholeheartedly, began to study Science and Health, and sought treatment from a Christian Chris-tian Science practitioner. One of the main things I remember remem-ber about this experience was the intensive in-tensive way I studied the textbook, usually putting in two or three hours a cl&y, though I seemed, to understand un-derstand little of what I read. I also had dally treatment from the practitioner. But there was not the slightest improvement or change in the material evidence from the day the treatment was begun until the moment when the hearing was perfectly per-fectly restored. I am grateful to say that the healing was accomplished quickly. Obviously, the treatment was effective every treatment was effective, not Just the last one. No Classification of Diseases The student of Christian Science needs to be alert that he is not tempted to classify certain diseases as difficult to heal. It makes no difference how dark a room is if the light that is turned on is sufficiently bright. Nor does it make any difference differ-ence how long the room has been dark. Darkness is merely the absence ab-sence of light and vanishes before it. And disease is merely the suppositional supposi-tional absence of harmony and goes out before the realization of the omnipresence of harmony. Error would like one to believe that some diseases, such as deafness, are difficult to overcome, and for this very reason this false argument should be vigorously rejected. Certainly Cer-tainly God never made a law that it is difficult to heal any disease, and in reality there is no mortal mind or collective mortal thought that can make such a law. The healing of deafness is brought about in Christian Chris-tian Science by proving the spiritual fact that the real and only hearing is a faculty of Soul, divine Mind, not of matter. Consequently it must be eternally perfect and perfectly expressed by God's image, individual man. Mrs. Eddy has defined "ears" as (Science and Health, p. 585) "Not to be useful, It Is obvious there must be the opportunity to use it. For something to be continuously useful, the opportunity to use it must be unceasingly present. The real man, including all right ideas, all of which are useful, must exist not only at the standpoint of unlimited usefulness, but also of unlimited opportunity to be useful. This spiritual fact, realized, real-ized, eliminates the-false belief that man is a poor, limited mortal, lacking lack-ing in usefulness or opportunity, and restores the spiritual sense of right adjustment, usefulness, and opportunity oppor-tunity to be useful. The question of adequate supply, or of a right adjustment of supply and demand, is often a pressing one, and here again .Christian Science provides the demonstrable truth which restores a right sense of adjustment ad-justment and abundance. A fundamental error that results In lack and limitation is the belief that supply and demand are material; mate-rial; hence that they are subject to material conditions and laws. Christian Chris-tian Science reveals that (Science and Health, p. 468) "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" its infinite ideas. Divine Mind, God, supplies these infinite ideas and needs every one of them for the perfect -xpression of His infinite infi-nite selfhood. God is everywhere, and everywhere perfectly manifested or expressed, thus reQuirine the ever-present ever-present activity ox His lnnnlte Ideas. If there were some place where even a few of God's ideas were not actively ac-tively expressing Him, there would be a place where God was not perfectly per-fectly expressed where He was not perfect which is impossible. So we see chat there is an ever-present need for God's infinite ideas, and these infinite ideas are always present pres-ent to meet the need. Supply and demand, therefore, exist eternally at the standpoint of perfect adjustment, adjust-ment, of perfect balance, maintained by spiritual law. This truth, understood under-stood and realized, eliminates from individual human consciousness the false concept of supply and demand as material and out of balance, and restores the spiritual sense of right adjustment. And the manifestation in human experience is that supply is adequate to meet the present need. Most people, certainly most Christian Chris-tian Scientists, recognize lack of employment em-ployment or lack of supply as problems prob-lems demanding prompt solution, certainly not as something to be accepted ac-cepted or condoned. But many of these same people unresistingly consent con-sent to other arguments of lack, such as indifference or lack of interest, lack of joy, or lack of enthusiasm. Such phases of lack, entertained or unresisted, might well be th. erroneous erro-neous thought that was being objectified ob-jectified In individual human experience expe-rience as unemployment or lack of supply. Jesus has given us a clear statement state-ment of the spiritual law of supply (Matt. 6:33) : "Seek ye first the kingdom king-dom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." In order to seek first the kingdom of God, one must be primarily pri-marily interested In spiritual things, particularly in those things which dance? And how can it possibly Dring peace to the world and the proer adjustment of our economy? In his great Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus prophetically declared (Matt. 5:17). "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: 1 am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Then, throughout his brief ministry, he showed how the operation of the Christ in human consciousness fulfills the law of God bv restoring health in place of sickness, sick-ness, purity and holiness in place of sin, life in place of death, abundance in place of lack, harmony and peace in place of discord and turbulence. Yes, tl.e fulfillment of God's law in human experience Is always the restoration res-toration of harmony. Since this spiritual spir-itual restoration is the effect of God's law and is brought about by the ut "liza lion of it, true restoration mir. be and is scientific, never a question of chance, circumstance, or a.i so-called material condition. Is it not heartening to realise that scientific restorat'on is as available and near at harj as is God's law? And Christian Science provides us with the understanding of this divine di-vine law and shows us how to use it. Its nethod of restoration is the same as that employed by Christ Jesus. It mav be illustrated by a story that I recall reading many years ago of a great m"terpiece. of this powerful statement, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," was and is a challenge to all human thinking based on the belief in the reality of matter to science, theology, and ' medicine and it stirred, and continues con-tinues to stir, the human mind to its depths. Of course, no one has ever discovered dis-covered what matter is or where it comes from, but the audacity of declaring it nonexistent was too much for the materialistic thought of that time. Her revelation of the nothingness of matter and allness of Spirit subjected Mrs. Eddy to all sorts of unjustified attacks. But she stood her ground without flinching and proved the unreality of matter in the same .way that Jesus had demonstrated it by healing the sick as well as the sinning thus proving prov-ing herself to be a true follower of the Master. And those who have accepted ac-cepted her as their Leader, and follow fol-low her as she followed Christ, are today demonstrating the unreality of matter by healing the sick and the sinner, and successfully meeting the many problems that claim to be present in .luman experience. : Perhaps someone is thinking, Why is the recognition of the unreality, imperfect or :hangeable. The likeness like-ness of immortal Life must be eternal, eter-nal, healthy, harmonious, without beginning or end, never mortal, sick, discordant, and dying. The perfect expression of Love necessarily possesses pos-sesses and expresses all the qualities of Love, such as fearlessness, kindness, kind-ness, unbelted love. It could not include in-clude fear, envy, jealousy, hatred, or self-love. The image of divine Principle Prin-ciple must be under the perfect government gov-ernment of Principle, in perfect adjustment ad-justment with Principle and with ail of its ideas, never misgoverned, maladjusted, mal-adjusted, displaced, or lacking a place. The perfect likeness of divine Mind necessarily knows as Mind knows. He is conscious only of the ideas of divine Mind, never of the false beliefs of error or mortal mind. And the perfect expression of Soul must be as sinless and immortal as Soul itself. As we grasp the truth about God and man in His likeness, we experience experi-ence the restoration of our spiritual sense the unfoldment of spiritual understanding. The spiritual fact displaces the false belief in individual individ-ual human consciousness, and the result is healing the restoration of health, harmony, happiness, and abundance. Rpdnmt inn Thrnnph Praver a Christ-idea, and the unfolding of these ideas in individual human consciousness con-sciousness is the coming of the Christ, before which the false beliefs be-liefs of matter, evil, sin, disease, and death vanish as necessarily as darkness dark-ness disappears before the light. Jesus was the great demonstrator of the Christ, showing by his example ex-ample how each one may work out his complete salvation here and now through attaining and demonstrating demonstrat-ing this true consciousness, or consciousness con-sciousness of Truth. He knew that the Christ was his true, spiritual selfhood. He identified himself so completely with it that ne was able instantaneously to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, and even life to those who had been pronounced dead. Jesus refuted the material sense evidence evi-dence at every point through his understanding un-derstanding of the Christ, and the result was the restoration of life, harmony, health, completeness, and supply. Also he taught his followers follow-ers that they should follow in his footsteps and do the same works by demonstrating the Christ as he had done, for he said (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because be-cause I go unto my Father." An Illustration -l Scientific Restoration An expert art critic examining an old but very mediocre painting detected de-tected that It was not the picture that had originally been painted on the canvas, but that it had been painted over the original. Since the painting was ;o old. he was eager to discover what the original painting might be So he took the canvas to a fine artist and craftsman who undertook un-dertook to restore the original painting paint-ing bv removing the poor picture that was concealing it. After much painstaking effort, the paint that had been superimposed on the original orig-inal was completely removed, revealing re-vealing the work of a famous artiste a ereat masterpiece. Scientific restoration as taught by Christian Scienoe is along much the same line. For Christian Science reveals re-veals that where material sense presents pre-sents to human consciousness a material, imperfect, discordant concept con-cept of creation, righi there in reality is God's perfect, spiritual creation, harmonious, beautiful, complete in every respect just as the masterpiece master-piece was present all the time men were beholding the mediocre picture. Now nothing Had to be done to Improve Im-prove the original masterpiece there was no need to change it in any resnect. Likewise nothing has to be ione to change or improve the real creation, or man. But in order to see the masterpiece, the picture that was hiding it had to be removed. re-moved. So to behold God's masterpiece, master-piece, man In His image and likeness, like-ness, the false mental picture of an Imperfect, discordant mortal, which claims to hide the perfect man, must me notningness, ui manei &u important? im-portant? What has this to do with gaining a correct understanding of I God? It is important because the Bible teaches that God is Spirit, and ' clearly implies that He is infinite 1 All. Since matter is the opposite of , Spirit, it is impossible to believe in the reality of matter and at the same time to understand that Spirit is All -infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, I omniootent. Where Spirit is, there can be no matter. The presence of one precludes the presence of the other. Hence the understanding that God is Spirit, infinite, real, and ever present, must necessarily in-' in-' elude the recognition that matter, , the opposite of Spirit, is unreal, nothing, without presence or power. Every follower of Christ Jesus accepts ac-cepts his statement that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24) The Christian also accepts the Master's teaching that God is "our Father which art in heaven." Then, in spite of the universall" reco-rni"ed act that like produces like, most Christians fall into the error of believing that a "srfect God. Father, or creator who is Spirit, creates an imperfect man who is material -the very opposite and unlikeness of his creator. Material Sense Evidence Is False Of course, this concept of man is the evidence of tire material senses, but if this evidence is contrary to both revelation and reason, should we be so gullible as to accept it? As a matter of fact, we reject material sense evidence at the start of every day, for none of us believes that the Spiritual restoration Is brought about through prayer. We might say that prayer in Christian Science is the restoring of the spiritual fact In the place of the false belief. Or to go back to our illustration, it Is removing re-moving the false mental picture and, thereby, recognizing and acknowledging acknowl-edging the presence of the masterpiece, master-piece, the true spiritual creation, or man, in all his perfection and beauty. The art critic could not and did not have to beseech the artist to change his masterpiece, for there was no need to change it. Nor does the student of Christian Science beseech God to change His creation, for it must be as perfect as the creator. On the contrary, the student immediately immedi-ately recognizes that perfect God and perfect man is the omnipresent fact of being, and then he proceeds to wipe out the false mental picture that is claiming to hide or conceal this spiritual fact. He recognizes that whatever is contrary to spiritual spirit-ual reality must be false, a false belief be-lief about the perfect man of God's creation. So he denies the false belief, be-lief, or lie, which is always some aspect of the belief in the reality of matter. and affirms the truth, or spiritual fact, for that case. He continues con-tinues along this line until thought is corrected and the spiritual idea clearly realized. And the moment the spiritual fact is actually realized, real-ized, the false mental picture is wiped out of individual human consciousness con-sciousness and one becomes conscious con-scious in like measure of the truth of being, which is altogether harmonious. Through her spiritual discernment, discern-ment, Mrs. Eddy has made it possible possi-ble for every sincere seeker for Truth to see the way Jesus marked out and to follow in It. For Mrs. Eddy discerned the true idea of God which the Master presented and has set it forth so clearly in her textbook, Science and Health, that anyone can understand it. And in the degree that one understands this Christ, Truth, he demonstrates it by 'oing in some measure the works that Jesus said his true followers fol-lowers would do. In short, as one understands the Christ, as one exemplifies ex-emplifies it in his own life, he demonstrates dem-onstrates scientific restoration. Healing Heal-ing ceases to be a matter of chance and becomes the certain effect of demonstrated law. Treatment Is Effective Prayer or treatment in Christian Science is really the utilization and demonstration of spiritual law, which nullifies the so-called law of matter and Its effects of sin, disease, dis-ease, and death. The truth that two times three equals six is the mathematical mathe-matical law that corrects the false belief that two times three equals seven, thereby removing the wrong answer and restoring the right one. So the truth about man as God's spiritual image and likeness is the divine di-vine law that corrects the false belief that man is material, together with its wrong answer of sin, disease, and death, thus restoring the right answer the manifestation of purity, health, and life. We utilize spiritual law by maintaining the spiritual fact and denying its material coun- organs oi the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding." How obvious it is, therefore, that one's hearing cannot be limited by any belief of imperfect or diseased matter, when it is seen that man really hears t.rrough spiritual understanding. under-standing. In reality, man reflects spiritual understanding without limit. Its rnlabored and harmonious unfoldment constitutes his normal nor-mal hearing, which never has been and cannot be impaired. This spiritual spirit-ual fact, realized, dispels the false belief that man has a personal hearing, hear-ing, derived from and dependent on matter, which is or can be impaired. When this false belief is blotted out of individual human consciousness its manifestation disappears from individual human experience, and the result is normal hearing. Restoring a Right Sense of Adjustment and Supply Perhaps one of the problems most generally requiring attention today is that of restoring a right sense of adjustment a right sense of place, usefulness, and supply. Many good people have a sense of being displaced, dis-placed, out of place, or lacking place, with the attending beliefs of lack of usefulness, of right employment, supply, sup-ply, home, companionship, happiness, happi-ness, and harmony. So let us consider con-sider how this deceptive sense of maladjustment and lack may be removed re-moved and the spiritual sense of right adjustment, usefulness, and abundance restored. The Scriptures, referring to God, tell us that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts are essential to his spiritual growth and progress. One who is indifferent to such things cannot possibly put spiritual things first and thus demonstrate dem-onstrate this law, because one always al-ways puts first that in which he is primarily interested. So how important im-portant it is that we watch our interests in-terests and guard against indifference indiffer-ence towards the things of Spirit. Since divine Mind, God, is the source of all action, all right activity must be joyous. There can be no greater joy than in expressing the continuous unfoldment of divine Mind, Life, Truth, and Love. When one is knowing as divine Mind knows, he cannot help being joyous. joy-ous. Hence, if one is lacking joy, it means that his thinking is in accord with mortal mind and not with the divine Mind. He is contemplating mortal mind's false beliefs instead of rejoicing in divine Mind's perfect ideas. To restore his joy, he needs only to change his thinking from a material to a spiritual basis. Scientifio restoration Is in Itself a joyous process, for It is the utilization utiliza-tion of one's understanding of God and man. When one contemplates what the image of divine Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love must be, and when he realizes that this perfect man of God's creating cre-ating is his real selfhood, how can he help but "rejoice, and be exceeding exceed-ing glad"? The' Christ, Truth, which has come to him through Christian Science has removed the false mental picture that has claimed to hide God's masterpiece, and lo! he finds that in reality he is this masterpiece. |