Independent Christian Science articles

Time Not Toxic

From the Tues., Nov. 23, 1948, Page 4, of the Kentucky New Era newspaper by (This was found in the Herbert Eustace Foundation boxes)

Here is something which should be added to our treasure – house of maxims and framed and hung in every home. Like most maxims and adages it is probably not completely correct. But it is good enough for me, because I have tried it and found it true.

Do try it yourself and it may do you a world of good. Have your husband try it when he starts complaining. Have your wife try it — you know when. Never mind the children, they don’t need it yet. This is it: “TIME IS NOT TOXIC.”

I didn’t originate it. I don’t know who did. But it was the main topic of a recent conference of physicians and surgeons in Cincinnati.

According to those doctors, one of the principal complaints of their patients is: “Doctor, I am getting old.” Then they blame almost everything that happens to them on approaching old age. They think there is nothing they can do about it. They think arthritis, heart trouble, cancer, in fact, almost everything is due to time. Nonsense, say the doctors. Time has nothing to do with it. Let me quote from one of the addresses made at the conference by a prominent specialist:

“Every human tissue is endowed by potential immortality when adequately provided with food factors, oxygen and suitable warmth, and when removal of wastes is carefully effected. Time has no effect on human tissues maintained under such conditions, or indeed, on human tissues under any conditions.

“Vigor does not necessarily vary inversely with the age of the adult. It varies directly with the factors of heredity, healthful living, mental condition, and medical and surgical treatment.”

The doctors agreed that belief in the effects of time tends to reduce ambition; therefore, expectations and endeavors are curtailed. “ All those who develop a time neurosis subscribed to the prevalent superstition that time is in some way a poison exerting a mysterious, cumulative action.”

The report goes on to say that where there is such a time neurosis, confidence, and hope are diminished, continual worry decreases efficiency, and increases nervousness and irritability. “ Imaginary symptoms are noted with increasing frequency. The mind or the heart seems to be failing. Morbid attention is given to every little symptom”.

And, by golly, those doctors are right. I just had an awful pain in my neck. A sharp pain. Rheumatism? Neuritis? Old age? I investigated. Do you know what it was? A pin the laundry had stuck in.

I hope you will benefit from this column. But just one bit of parting advice. Don’t go gallivanting around now that the doctors say old age is imaginary. And don’t make a hog of yourself. Hogs don’t live long.

“Adam, Where Art Thou?”

From The Christian Science Journal, August 1903 by

The question confronting the thinking world to-day is, What and where is consciousness? Advanced thought no longer asks, What is matter? Matter is rapidly finding its correct solution, as simply a false sense of that which in reality is mental, and so the question ceases now to be in relation to matter as such, but assumes a more intelligent position and asks: What is mind or consciousness?

It is not alone from the Christian Science standpoint that this statement is made, though were it made only from that standpoint it would still be none the less true, but doubtless less acceptable to the general public than when coming from what is termed the material scientist’s viewpoint.

From time to time in the past few years most excellent articles have been published in The Christian Science Journal, bearing specifically on the subject of matter’s unreality, as promulgated by leading scientific men. It is not necessary for me here to recapitulate what has already been written so ably and often on this subject, suffice it to say that a number of the advanced scientific lights, some years ago even, departed from the old time-worn atomic theory to the greatly advanced position, as formulated by Professor Oswald of Leipsic, “That matter is a thing of thought, which we have constructed for ourselves rather imperfectly to represent what is permanent in the change of phenomena.”

This statement of Professor Oswald virtually summarizes the present acceptance of what matter is in the scientific world. While perhaps true that this definition is not fully agreeable to all scientific men, yet it is true that it is the advance guard of material scientific thought, and is leading that thought into higher realms.

Look and study where you will along any and every line of development, and the candid observer is forced to admit, that each advance drops a little more matter in the lees and a little more mind takes its place. At the present moment no more widely known illustration of this truth can be cited than wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony. Note the amount of matter here abandoned,— almost all wire,—and note, too, that many things which in the past have been considered impenetrable substances, have been found to offer no resistance to the transmission of messages by this new method. Is not this a step away from matter and towards the “Allness of Mind”? This is but one of numberless instances that might be mentioned, showing how steadily and rapidly mortal thought is traveling away from matter, to matter’s essence, mortal mind. (Science and Health, p. 97.) To a great extent at present, this journey is being traveled unconsciously, hence material theories are propounded explaining the various phenomena, but, to the watchful student reading between the lines, such theories are mere shadows, and the substance of all things, Mind, becomes a nearer friend, and with joy the onward march of truth is hailed, as foretelling the final destruction of all materiality.

Thus the question of the twentieth century which faces mortal man is, What and where is consciousness?

This question, seemingly so new, is in reality as old as mortal history. Scriptural record bears witness to the fact that the first interrogation of Truth to mortal man was, “Adam, . . . where art thou?” This demand was made not to matter, but to Adam, or consciousness, and this demand has continued to be made from that time to the present, and to-day we find it being thundered in tones of loving entreaty by that evangel of Truth, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker G. Eddy, as not since Jesus’ time. The voice of this messenger is being heard and felt wherever the human heart is found hungering and thirsting for righteousness. In valley and on mountain, in the crowded city and the sparsely settled waste, in the humble cottage of the poor and in the home of the wealthy, this bright star is lighting the dark places of earth, and is always heralded as of old, with the warning demand, “Adam, where art thou? Consciousness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind? or art thou in the living faith that there can be no other mind but God, and keeping His commandment?” (Science and Health, p. 307).

Glancing back over the Scriptures the answer to this same question, “Consciousness, where art thou?” “Adam, where art thou?” is vividly portrayed in living colors, and in detail in the Biblical characters. It is the one and only question that determined the peace, prosperity, and happiness of the children of Israel; on its answer, right or wrong, was written their history.

When Abram first heard this demand he was with the god of his fathers, materiality, and it awoke him from the dream sufficiently, at least, to see that consciousness must forsake materiality and go to a land that God, Mind, would show. He obeyed and prospered.

Moses listening to the demand, “Consciousness, where art thou?” found it in Pharaoh (materiality), and began at once to work for freedom, and was led forth through the Red Sea and Wilderness, into a land of plenty.

Joshua, facing this same question before the walls of Jericho, spurned materiality, and knew consciousness could not be in matter, and thus destroyed the falsity and it crumbled before him.

Gideon, trusting not in materiality, but in the knowledge that “Consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God” (Science and Health, p. 276), overcame the armies of the Midianites and Amalekites with an handful.

Continuing through the Old Testament we find this question, “Consciousness, where art thou?” ever rising higher and higher in human thought, down through the prophets to the advent of him who, for all time, gave the final proof that consciousness was and is forever one with the Father, Spirit. “I and my Father are one;” “The prince of this world [materiality] cometh, and hath nothing in me [consciousness];” Whosoever worshipeth the Father, “must worship him in spirit and in truth;” and he closed the proof with the eternal verity, “It is finished,” material consciousness, the first Adam, is a myth, a dream, “All consciousness is Mind; and Mind is God,—an infinite, and not a finite consciousness” (Unity of Good, p. 30). Thus the last Adam was a quickening spirit, a consciousness of Mind and nothing else.

When Christian Science is first presented to human thought it seems to come in a cloud. Mortal man has been so educated to look at all things from the standpoint of materiality that he cannot in a moment lay hold of the idea that the universe, instead of being a material universe, is in reality a mental universe, or a universe of consciousness. Like a man accustomed to wearing red glasses, to whom everything appears red, and who must discard the glasses in order to see things in their natural color, so mortal man on being introduced to Christian Science must lay aside as rapidly as possible his material view of all things, and accept consciousness as the basis of every thought and action, then he begins to see clearly.

In the process of laying off the old and putting on the new, a watchful work must be performed, and this work is wholly in consciousness. As Christian Scientists we no longer deal with matter as matter, but we strive to get at the root of evil, and uncover the mental cause or consciousness that is expressing itself. We no longer look for cause in effect, neither do we attempt to find any material cause, even as in correcting twice two are five in a mathematical problem, we would not attempt to find the product of twice two, by looking at and studying the five; rather would we turn to the law which governs numbers, and learn there the truth about twice two, and put it down, having unbounded confidence in the result. So Christian Scientists, laying aside all thought of material cause, turn their undivided attention to consciousness, and the neverceasing question is “Adam, where art thou? Consciousness, where art thou?”

Where is consciousness? Ask this question of the ordinary individual, and he will reply at once and without hesitancy, “I am conscious of all sorts of things, — I am conscious of life and death, of good and evil, of love and hatred, of beauty and deformity, of youth and old age, of spirituality and materiality,” and so on. Now examine these statements and note the absurd contradictions that they contain, and yet they virtually represent what would be called the sensible reply of the every-day person to the above question, and this shows where consciousness is.

Now suppose the question were asked, “Is it possible to be conscious of twice two as four, and at the same time be conscious that twice two is five?” the answer from one and all would be an emphatic “No; ” and why, because the consciousness that knows the truth could not know the opposite of the truth, for it is an impossibility for consciousness to be conscious of two opposite things. The Apostle Paul asked, “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” In other words, what concord hath a truth with its opposite? We can profitably ask this question of mortal consciousness every hour of the day, and the rightful answering of it will surely demonstrate where consciousness is.

Either consciousness is conscious of truth or is conscious of error right down the line; but never is it or can it be conscious of opposites. Such a possibility is absurd, and such a standpoint is not for a moment tenable.

Thus we are again brought back to the original question, What and where is consciousness?

The Christian Science text-book states on page 336, “Man’s consciousness and individuality are reflections of God. They are the emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love,” and in the Acts of the Apostles we are told that “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”

Here then is the direct answer to this question. Consciousness is the emanation of Life, Truth, and Love. Consciousness then lives, and moves, and has its being in Life, Truth, and Love. Consciousness therefore is living, truthful, and loving; then it is not dying, lying, and hating, and because there is no concord between opposites, consciousness knows only life, truth, and love, and this is what consciousness is, and this is where consciousness is, this is all the consciousness there is, and this is man’s consciousness.

“Adam, where art thou?” is answered no longer in materiality; in flesh and blood; in sin, sickness, poverty, and death; in hatred, envy, lust, and jealousy; in terror and fear, but in the eternal knowledge that the first Adam was a mesmeric dream, nothingness, and the last Adam is a living consciousness of good.

As this understanding of consciousness dawns on human thought, the past, as being of yesterday is swept away, and the present, now, becomes the only reality. The six thousand odd years of Biblical narrative are for human learning and guidance to-day, a thousand years has become as a day; consciousness holds all things as now. The sins and errors of false consciousness and their inevitable punishment and destruction are now. Persons, places, and things, however seemingly remote, become a present consciousness. Time ceases. The Scriptures are this moment a living lesson, no longer dead, but palpitating with everpresent Life and Truth, “A friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” a consciousness of now, “Mark ye well her bulwarks.”

Just this one lesson alone of the Scriptures, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” understood and demonstrated as taught in Science and Health, is bringing to mortals a sense of peace, rest, and harmony that the world cannot take away, neither can it understand. Now, is almost an unknown factor in the daily life of the world; yesterday, and especially to-morrow, occupy thought so constantly that the blessings, privileges, and joys of now are unseen, and to-morrow is the avalanche. How seldom does mortal man pause to consider that to-morrow, starting from to-day, and being one day beyond it (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 339), makes to-day the all-important moment. To-day, now, is ours; tomorrow never comes; for to-morrow is always to-day when at hand, a present consciousness.

The worker in Christian Science sees this evil of tomorrow clearly. He sees and knows that to-morrow is one of evil’s most subtle and insidious suggestions; it robs its victims of peace, rest, and health; it causes much of the intemperance of to-day, and finally it leads to inevitable death.

The following experience clearly illustrates this error of a future or to-morrow consciousness, and shows the great necessity, as well as blessing, of knowing that now is the only true consciousness.

A man well on in years, honest and industrious, had an opportunity offered him, whereby through several months of hard work he could earn enough money to make the final payment on his mortgaged home, which object he had been striving to attain for many years. This man had enjoyed excellent health all his life, and felt he could accept the work without any fear of consequences. He worked long hours and vigorously, and all went well, until a “little fox” began its destructive gnawing in the form of a fear of to-morrow; a fear, that when the work was finished a reaction would come. The Bible teaches, it is “The little foxes, that spoil the vines.” Not only was a “little fox” at work with the man himself, but unfortunately it was working with his wife also to such an extent that, in spite of being bright and happy to-day, full of health and gladness at the prospect of the early lifting of the mortgage, she was so filled with the fear of to-morrow, that she went to work making provision for the hour of sickness that she felt was sure to follow such arduous labor. No sooner was the work completed, the mortgage paid, and the just reward of labor well done, rest, at hand, than the effect of a to-morrow consciousness broke in, and his bed became the prison of a pain-racked body, the poor sufferer’s tormentor, and all because of the fearful belief that consciousness is something apart from now.

After a weary search for help through the by-ways of materia medica, and an absolute failure to gain anything except despair, he turned to Christian Science, to Christian knowledge, to the Christ of now, of to-day, not of tomorrow or yesterday, but a present reality, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” to find that this loving Christ taught a consciousness of now, “The same yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” a consciousness of health and harmony that never can and never does change to a sense of sickness and discord. He found that no law of God had been broken in the effort to pay his debts through honest labor; rather had God’s law, to “owe no man anything,” been obeyed, and in obeying that law blessing always results, hence the consciousness of health that began his labor could never end in or change to sickness, for consciousness is now, a forever now. This simple truth changed the man at once, and to-day both he and his wife are becoming earnest followers of the scientific fact that consciousness is right now, and right now “Is cognizant only of the things of God” (Science and Health, p. 276), and the resultant health is a practical witness of this verity.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. In the beginning, God, good, was the only consciousness, that beginning is to-day, this moment, therefore consciousness is now conscious only of the things of good, and this is man’s consciousness; therefore evil, under whatsoever guise, whether good or bad, cannot come as man’s consciousness and proclaim itself as such, for God, good, is his only consciousness.

“The work to be performed is ours,” to know that consciousness is good, and good only, and that it dwells forever in Spirit, never in matter; in Life, never in death; in Truth, never in falsity; in Love, never in hatred; in abundance, never in scarcity; in omnipotence, strength, never in weakness; in omniscience, knowledge, never in ignorance; and in omnipresence, now, never in yesterday or to-morrow. This is the kingdom of heaven within, this is man’s birthright, this is being kings and priests unto God, this is the heritage of the sons of God, this is “Not my will, but thine, be done.” This consciousness is the consciousness “We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray .. . to be in us” (Science and Health, p. 497), and it is this consciousness that destroys all sense of sickness, sin, poverty, hatred, anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, death; in fact, all the works of darkness, and that enables mortal man to put on the “armor of light,” for this consciousness is the “Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” that is now and forevermore “One with the Father,” “Hidden with Christ in God,” never absent from God, for it is “God with us.”

“Adam, where art thou?” must be the scrutinizing question of every hour. While realizing what consciousness truly is, we must discern and see clearly what the mortal or Adam consciousness claims to be and annihilate it. We must remember Jesus’ denunciation of it as a whited sepulchre full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness, a pharisee and a hypocrite, a liar from the beginning and the father of every lie, that knows not the truth because there is no truth in it. We must face the question (to quote from Retrospection and Introspection, p. 86), “Art thou still unacquainted with thyself? Then be introduced to this self. ‘Know thyself!’ as said the classic Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of this mortal self! Behold its vileness, and remember this poverty-stricken ‘stranger, that is within thy gates.’ Cleanse every stain from this wanderer’s soiled garments, wipe the dust from his feet and the tears from his eyes, that you may behold the real man, the fellowsaint of a holy household.” Then will follow to one and all the benediction from on high “I have fought a good fight, .. . I have kept the faith,” and with Paul, consciousness will declare “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What Is Your Stand?

From Christian Science, Its Clear, Correct Teaching by , page 751 to 753

Let us examine this and see what position we are really taking. With the affairs of the world as they seem to be, there is the greatest need to see where we stand, for surely never did affairs seem to be more utterly chaotic, never more at the point to which Jesus referred when he said, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” (Luke 21: 26)

However, as you well know, what seems to be and what really is, to the metaphysician, are leagues and leagues apart. In fact, there is truly no relationship whatever between the two, and that is why Science and Health declares, “Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth.” (S. & H. 14: 25) Then to paraphrase that statement, we can rightly declare, Entirely separate from the belief and dream of the affairs of the world with its apparent discord and distress, is the divine reality, the divine world, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth.

Do you think it accomplishes one thing in the right direction for the Christian Scientist to look out on the world and to say it is, and accept it as being, in terrible distress and chaos? Have you, as a Christian Scientist, the absolute power and authority to straighten out what appear as the conditions of the world, or are you completely helpless and compelled to bow down and accept them?

You know, as the Christian Scientist, that whatever you accept as Mind must inevitably appear to you as such. What are you accepting as Mind that could cause you to consent to a discordant and disheartening state of affairs in the world? There was never a more opportune moment for us to meet and frankly face this question and to see whether or not we do honestly believe that Mind is All-in-all. “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 19) This being true, are we going to bow down and accept seeming conditions just as every so-called mortal does and say, Well, I suppose it will have to take its course?

Epidemic

From Christian Science, Its Clear, Correct Teaching by , pages 310-311

Epidemic is a disease in itself.

It illustrates how wholly mental disease is.

The epidemic of influenza during the closing days of the World War spread to places where no possible contagion by physical contact could be traced.

Epidemic is fear-contagion.

Is not fear-contagion purely mental suggestion in its impersonal sense?

A claim of epidemic is handled in exactly the same way in which you would release the victim of a hypnotist.

In the latter case, you would not deal with a wrong thing. Your attention would be devoted to destroying the belief that there is malicious mind to control or govern.

Knowing that God is the one Mind, that He is all the Mind there is, you cannot be duped into attempting to deal with another mind.

This realization would break the claim of hypnotism and free the victim.

An epidemic is dealt with in exactly the same way.

Fear, contagious belief, is both the hypnotist and the hypnotism.

It is not contact, nor any form of matter, that has to be destroyed for the claim is purely mental suggestion–in other words, hypnotism.

Do not be deceived into arguing down any of the various symptoms, as in an ordinary case of sickness; contagion has none, in that sense. Epidemic is pure hypnotic contagion; it is fear, not physical contact.

Symptoms have no more to do with contagion than have the motions of the hypnotized victim’s arms and legs, in swimming on dry boards under the influence of the hypnotist, anything to do with the real claim.

The man is not in water, and therefore is not really swimming. Nor do you think he is; so you do not consider either swimming or water.

You handle hypnotism.

You do the same with epidemic and destroy it through the realization of God as the one and only Mind.

There Is No Law of Death

by

Are you determined to live or are you consenting to death? Have you anything to say about it? Mrs. Eddy told Calvin Frye that his duty was to live and she proved it. Is not God forever saying, “make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth … wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” ? (Ezekiel 18:31-32)

Have you anything to say about whether you will get old or not? You know physicians of today are frankly saying that old age is a disease and has nothing to do with years and that it is just like any other disease. So age, increasing years, can no longer be held as harmful. Human belief finally had to make this admission because it had already, for some time past, established as a fact of this human mind that the body, due to replacing of its cells, is never over seven years old. Years mean experience and experience is always valuable and life-giving, never destructive.

Does hypnotism say that you feel that you are getting old? Remember then that the very mind that says you are getting old is the same mind that says your body is never more than seven years old. “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” (James 3: 10-11)

The acceptance of old age is just the same, whether you say that somebody “over there” is getting old or some one “here” right at home. If you see trees, animals or anything as getting old, are you not accepting old age? Nothing can grow old. If you accept the suggestion that things are growing older and older in the sense of becoming infirm, then death must finally arrive. As the Christian Scientist you know that there is no law of death. Why then bow down to the suggestion of such a law? The only law of death there is, is the law of Life which is the law of death to everything unlike itself.

How Does Malicious Mind Operate?

From Christian Science, Its “Clear, Correct Teaching” by , page 539

To have a complete sense of freedom, it is essential for the Christian Scientist to understand that malicious mind has no possible way of bringing evil directly to pass. Malicious mind cannot operate directly to bring about either sin, sickness, death, limitation or any condition. It is self-evident malicious mind, the one erroneous malpractitioner, cannot argue with such lies because it knows they are lies and that you are neither sinful, sick, dead nor limited; or the malpractitioner would not be trying to bring these conditions about. There could then be no conviction in the mind of the malicious arguer that what it is arguing is true; and without conviction there could be no result.

So, it becomes essential for the accomplishment of this purpose, for the malpractitioner first, to find an innocent channel through whom it can operate, and then, to make that channel believe that the lies it is stating about another are true. If it can do this, it has obtained an honest conviction and started a malicious attack, for honest conviction carries with it mind-power and the possibility of accomplishment.

How does evil do this? By both silent and audible argument it convinces the one it is endeavoring to use as its channel, that its intended victim is sick, dying, poverty-stricken, intemperate, hateful, discouraged or any of the things it is intent upon producing. If it succeeds, it has started an honest conviction of the reality of these lies about its victim and there ensues active malicious mental malpractice, which, if accepted, finally destroys the victim.

Mrs. Eddy brings this out in her article, Mental Practice, in Miscellaneous Writings, where she says that if “people believe that a man is sick and knows it, and speak of him as being sick, put it into the minds of others that he is sick, publish it in the newspapers that he is failing, and persist in this action of mind over mind, it follows that he will believe that he is sick, — and Jesus said it would be according to the woman’s belief; but if with the certainty of Science he knows that an error of belief has not the power of Truth, and cannot, does not, produce the slightest effect, it has no power over him.”

Does not this show how evil works by the action of mind over mind? But in order to get results, there must always be conviction on the part of the thinker, for conviction is the mind quality that operates in the realm of mentality. Arguments do not operate unless accompanied by conviction. As Science and Health declares, “Be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concerning the truth which you think or speak, and you will be the victor.”

In this way you see how you can become your own mental malpractitioner by applying to yourself the arguments of evil hypnotically suggested to you. You can operate as this innocent victim just as effectively as can another, if you accept the lies of the malpractitioner. If you do not refute these lies, but accept them as reality, you will malpractice on yourself until you eventually become powerless to break the mesmerism confronting you.

Are you going to tolerate such irrationality? Of course not. Then reject each lie with the truth you know about yourself, the Self of you, until you no longer listen either complacently, or fearfully, to anything that does not emanate from God, the one cause.

Denounce evil in all its ways and especially as hypnotic suggestion. You cannot afford to be gentle in your denunciation of malicious animal magnetism. It is a deadly mental poison, and if not guarded against, neutralized and destroyed by translation back to God, will accomplish its purpose of destroying you.

Evil to the Christian Scientist, is not an intelligent devil, going around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but is simply the suppositional opposite of his own understanding of divine Mind. Thus as Paul put it, and as the Christian Scientist understands it, he can never be tempted beyond what he is able, for he has only to apply what he knows of God to find his way of escape, that he “may be able to bear it,” and rise triumphant from the experience.

It is only lack of understanding that makes a Christian Scientist afraid of malicious mental malpractice. It should be evident to the merest novice in Christian Science that there could be no suppositional opposite to what he does not know. Thus it is his knowing alone that he is called upon to defend. Evil does not operate as something “over there” outside of one’s own mentality; it always operates as the negative of what one knows. It is this negation that the Christian Scientist must guard against and not an imaginary foe seeking to destroy him. Understanding evil is but the negation of the truth he knows makes him the master of every situation. Therefore, constant watchfulness is necessary to be true to what one knows.

The Christian Scientist instinctively knows it is easier to heal a lie of malicious mind operating as a law of hypnotic suggestion, than to heal a lie of the same malicious mind operating as a natural law. This is on the same basis that an acute claim seems easier to meet than a chronic claim. This is, also, the reason why malicious argument invariably takes the form of a natural appearance suggesting the working of a law of nature, or matter, or heredity, or something of that sort, thus making the deception complete. This tends to confuse the earnest Scientist by again presenting that which he had felt had been destroyed, as a belief of a law of relapse. Thus the deviltry of evil appears as a normal or natural claim of matter.

The Christian Scientist must understand that he should be willing to meet under the rule of malicious mental malpractice every lie of belief that he formerly had to meet under the rule of materiality in its simpler forms of matter. Jesus said, “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” The blade contains all that the full corn in the ear contains, but it is less developed. This can be applied to the solving of the various phenomena of malicious mind appearing as simple materiality. The blade has little of evil visible. Nevertheless, the whole of evil is there, and eventually emerges when malicious mental malpractice, the full corn in the ear, is revealed in all its depravity, stripped of every appearance of good. As Mrs. Eddy asked in Retrospection and Introspection, “Art thou still unacquainted with thyself? Then be introduced to this self. ‘Know thyself!’ as said the classic Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of this mortal self! Behold its vileness and remember this poverty-stricken ‘stranger that is within thy gates.’”

Then be willing to meet every phase of evil as malicious suggestion, just as in the beginning of your career as a Christian Scientist you were eager to meet every claim of matter. If you remain wide awake and rejoice in crossing swords with this final phase of evil as pure malicious suggestion, you will enjoy your journey from sense to Soul. You will never murmur or be discouraged, but will be filled with new hope and assurance that what you know of divine Mind and its operations is sufficient to meet and destroy every lie of evil.

Jesus said, there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. He meant this in a way we have yet to learn. The Christian Scientist realizes and declares in his treatment, “I know all that I need to know about this case and I know it immediately.” Why? Because God, being the one intelligence, knows all things and therefore, there is nothing hidden from infinite intelligence, nor from that which shows God forth. It would be useless for God to know something, unless His man knew it also. Otherwise God would have no way of expressing His knowing. Hence the practitioner of God declares, “I do know all I need to know about this case,” and he acts accordingly. It is the same in the case of malicious sin as in sickness. The practitioner must know about that, all that he needs to know, and he must and does know it instantly.

It is the part of wisdom to keep every channel open for information. You have a right to know all that is going on about you. You do not delve into error, but you keep your avenues of intelligence open, so all that you should know you do know at exactly the right time. In other words, as Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellaneous Writings, “Let us open our affections to the Principle that moves all in harmony, — from the falling of a sparrow to the rolling of a world.”

Nothing is either too insignificant or too important for you to know, if it is right for you to know it. And you cannot know it if it is not right. You must realize this, for evil’s suggestion is quite as likely to fill you with a lot of unnecessary trash as to stop you from knowing that which you should know. Be on your guard!

One thing especially every Christian Scientist should know and must know from what has been established, and that is how easily he can become an innocent tool of malicious mental malpractice by passing around idle chatter about persons, places or things. Believing what is said to be true does not free one from being the tool of malicious mental malpractice and, therefore, from being about the devil’s business. There is only one way to be sure of not being the tool of evil, and that is by basing all that is said on God as the one cause, always starting from God and beholding all effect as the emanation of God.

Prayer Our Scientific Discovery Of God

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What is prayer? To pray means to think, to commune, to discover, and therefore, to find out something. “It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what God is.” (No and Yes, p. 39)

Long ago you gave up the idea that prayer had anything to do with getting down on your knees. With the very first enlightenment of Christian Science, you drew away from that belief. There is no prayer but thinking, and thinking means right knowing. “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,” – not someone else’s door – “pray to thy Father which is in secret.” (Matthew 6: 6)

What is the only thing that is in secret? Mind is all that is in secret, because it includes within itself nothing but itself. Not an element contrary to Mind is there. Then entering thy closet and shutting the door means communing with the one Mind and shutting out all else. There is no other possible way of gaining the kingdom of heaven than through the process of understanding.

T’aint So, Honey

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A poor, suffering fellow, living in a large Eastern city, was much like the Biblical character who had suffered many things of many physicians, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. Finally becoming wholly discouraged, one day he asked a friend to recommend a Christian Scientist who could help him get out of the awful mess he was in. The friend took out a card and wrote down the name and address of a woman he thought would be helpful.

As a desperate last hope, he took himself to the address given and rang the bell. A black maid came to the door. He went inside and said he was looking for a lady by the name of so-and-so. The one he was speaking to quietly said, “That is my name.” He was somewhat taken aback, but she offered him a chair, so he sat down. Then he began his tale of woe, and it was quite a long one. When he made his first pause, his listener quietly said, “T’aint so, honey, t’aint so.” On he went, and each time he paused, she would say, “T’aint so, honey, t’aint so,” but on he would go. Of course, when he finished his recital, “T’aint so” had won the day, and the man was entirely healed.

Now, what had this dear woman done? Like Mrs. Eddy, when looking into the face of a storm cloud, she beheld the face of God and the storm cloud vanished. So this dear woman, looking into the face of divine Love, couldn’t find a single thing there of the sorry story being rehearsed to her, and so she simply said, “T’aint so, t’aint so” — and the truth she spoke became a reality.

Is not this just what Mrs. Eddy means when she says, “When thought is lost in the eminence of Mind the healing takes place”? In the “eminence of Mind,” is there the slightest element of evil? Perfection is all that abides in the “eminence,” and this dear woman proved it.

Must we not, one and all, go and do likewise? Are not you the living witness that there is no such thing as evil in the slightest, anywhere in all creation? You are the living witness that perfection is, and is All that is.

Remember this, and be ready in season and out of season to meet every form of evil with an emphatic “T’aint so!” This declaration of Truth, spoken with a full and grateful heart, will banish all gloom and bring to light the abundance of good God has for His beloved child.

“For Satan Finds Some Mischief Still for Idle Hands to do”

From “Christian Science, It’s ‘Clear, Correct Teaching,’ and Complete Writings” by

“For Satan Finds Some Mischief Still for Idle Hands to do.” — Watts

No statement could be truer than that the devil, malicious mental malpractice, always finds work for idle hands — idle minds — to do.

The Christian Scientist must think seriously about this question. If he is not constantly active on the side of Truth he can rest assured that malicious mental malpractice is right at his door.

That is the danger of an attitude of thought like, “Let God do it.” It is a waiting attitude; an endeavor to make one’s thought a blank, and Jesus warned of the danger of this, for he said, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out; And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

Why is it worse? Because the poor victim thought he had thoroughly cleaned his house, and lo and behold, Satan is again dwelling therein. Such disappointment cannot come to you if thoroughly cleaning your “house,” means replacing every erroneous sense with the true sense, so completely filling it that Satan — evil suggestion, — can find no sanctuary there. Mrs. Eddy declares in Miscellany, “There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort.” Christian Scientists must never be careless about replacing the wrong sense that is cast out, with the right sense, so that evil will find no door unbarred, and no vacant room to occupy. They must not take the attitude of crying, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Peace can be won and maintained only when we have fought the Holy War and have put up such a fight that evil is cast out forever — seen in its true sense. Who does not yearn for peace? But today it is the coward, under evil’s direction who calls for peace. The battle for Truth has not yet been won. Only malicious mental malpractice would say it has, in order to encourage you to stop the warfare. Never forget that the sword cannot be put up until it has first been drawn.

Christian Scientists are soldiers of the cross, and they must fight until victory is theirs. Evil is ever urging us to cease fighting and “let God do it.” God cannot do more than He has already done. He has done all. It is the work of the Christian Scientist to prove that, — to show that forth.

If evil can persuade you, the Christian Scientist, to relax, it will have accomplished its purpose. It will then, — after all your years of work and faithfulness, when you think that you are at the point of enjoying the reward of your labors with your “house” nicely cleaned, — enter in and rob you of the fruits of your effort. It does this because you have listened to the voice of the charmer, admonishing you not to be so vigorous in your denunciation of malicious animal magnetism, because God is Love, and Love does everything and cares for everyone. True enough, but has not God always been Love, and has He not always taken the same tender care of all His creation? How can He be “about to do” something that He has not already done? Then it is our work to begin vigorously to prove that God is Love, and that He is proving His care by making His children active and alert. We have work to do ourselves; we cannot expect God to do our work. He cannot hear that kind of prayer. He hears only the prayer of being active about His business. As Mrs. Eddy says, in Miscellaneous Writings, “Be active, and, however slow, thy success is sure; toil is triumph.”

If you succeed in making your mind a blank, thinking that by thus doing you can place yourself in a listening attitude to hear God’s voice, you have let the bars down and opened your house for the devil’s entrance. That idle, listless mood is exactly the opportunity evil desires, and Satan will quickly find something to fill idle minds.

Keep active and no matter how slow your progress may seem to be, success in the end is assured. Guard against a negative watch that would lull you to sleep, that would make you believe a listless peace is a lasting peace. Today the only peace is the sword of Truth. …

Excerpts From “The Law Of Reversal”

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There is only one law of reversal, God’s law, the law that by virtue of its own infinite goodness, is the spontaneous destruction or reversal of everything unlike good. Mesmerism operates to make the Christian Scientist, when he uses the term “law of reversal” immediately associate it with evil. If he does this he is incapable of understanding this law.

However, no claim of law is nearer to the heart of evil, or is more necessary, in belief, for its maintenance than the perverted sense of the law of reversal, which is evil’s very being. The human mind, through being the negation or suppositional opposite of the divine Mind, is the reverse of all that the divine Mind is. Therefore, the law of reversal operates as the supposed law of the action of the human mind. As progress is the law of God, so reversal is the action of evil.

By the fraudulent use of the law of reversal, evil automatically endeavors to reverse the thought put forward by the Christian Scientist in denying evil. It changes this into an affirmation for evil. By so doing it seeks to nullify the truthful statements which deny presence or power to evil, and, if not guarded against, it may seem to succeed in accomplishing its purpose.

But if the Scientist heeds Jesus’ statement, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another,” the whole process changes. Confronted with love and the statement that right where the evil seems to be there is the very presence of Love and the infinite power of Truth, malpractice must follow its own self-made law that the reverse of your statement is true; and, reversed, love becomes hatred and destruction and the law of torment to the evil itself. Thus the victory is won.

Then is not the remedy for every vicious argument of evil, love? The greater the love the more destructive it becomes to the claims of evil, verifying Mrs. Eddy’s statement in Mental Practice in Miscellaneous Writings: “Thus a mental malpractitioner may lose his power to harm by a false mental argument.”

Since the reverse of a lie is the truth, you can utilize this law of reversal so that every argument of evil to harm you will become a blessing because you know that the law of reversal operates to that very end. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper” Isaiah said. Why? Because the law of reversal is God’s law whereby God is the spontaneous law of reversal to everything unlike Himself, to all evil.

Love is the liberator.