Independent Christian Science articles

“For She Loved Much”

From the August 1930 issue of the Christian Science Journal by

WHO can read the story of her who has been called Mary Magdalene, as recorded by Luke, without being helped by her unselfish devotion, loyalty, and faithfulness to Christ Jesus, who cast out of her seven devils, or errors. So complete was her healing from sin that in her regeneration she presents an outstanding example of true Christian discipleship. Humbled and penitent she entered the house of Simon to sit at the feet of Jesus, anoint his feet with precious ointment, and wash them with her tears.

Courageous she must have been to enter the house of the haughty and unloving Pharisee, there to seek from Jesus purification of sin. But neither false pride nor fear of criticism kept her from the presence of the pure and compassionate Christ Jesus. The host’s critical attitude deterred her not; instead, there was elicited from the Master that divinely inspired declaration to Simon, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.” Here it is plainly stated that she loved much before her sins were forgiven: her sins were forgiven because of the fact that she loved much.

This is the lesson of Christian Science; for through its teaching, the Christ, Truth, continually is calling on us to love much; and only as we do this can our sins be forgiven and obliterated. When we love God and see the real man as the idea of Love, we cannot envy, be impatient or unkind. Hence, through much loving we are healed of the sins of destructive criticism, envy, impatience, and unloving thoughts of others. In accordance with this same law, when we discern the fact that our own spiritual selfhood is the image of Love, the sins of self-condemnation, self-will, self-love, fear, discouragement, or any other belief coordinate with a false material sense of self cease to be cherished. Mrs. Eddy tells us in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 426), “Sin brought death, and death will disappear with the disappearance of sin.” How grateful we should be for the revelation which makes it clear to us that the perfect Love for the understanding of which we daily pray, not only blots out sin and fear, but also erases the belief in sickness and death.

As is indicated in the Scriptural allusions to her at the time of the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene loved much before, but far more after, her sins were forgiven. During this dark hour we find this loving follower standing by the cross and “sitting over against the sepulchre,” unwavering in her devotion. And early on that momentous Sabbath day, which by all Christendom is celebrated as Easter, we again see her bent on a mission of love. She had anointed the Master’s feet with precious ointment, had ministered to him of her substance, had been faithful to the end, and yet her desire to serve remained unsatisfied. She eagerly sought still further to express her love, her reverence, and her gratitude to God, who had been revealed to her through Christ Jesus. She herself had not yet risen, as had the Master, to see that the body, as matter, has nothing to do with the real man, deathless and eternal; and so she came prepared with sweet spices to anoint it, as she had done in the home of Simon.

Those who have suffered loss through their material concept of man can fathom her grief as she looked into the sepulcher and saw not the body of her Lord. And those redeemed from grief through the understanding that man in reality lives in Spirit, can comprehend her release from sorrow when the angel healed her broken heart with the comforting message, “He is not here, but is risen,” and her unspeakable joy as she turned from the evidence of the senses to behold the risen Christ.

Rich recompense, indeed, for unselfed love — that she should be the first to say she had seen the Lord. Great the reward for purity — that she should behold the deathless reality of Life, supreme over death! And yet, divine Love is blessing us today just as surely as it blessed Mary Magdalene, and is healing our grief just as certainly as it healed hers, when we but turn faithfully away from material beliefs, lift our thought Godward, and with the first dawning of spiritual light thank Him for the great truth of immortal being. When the divine discovery is made that “neither death, nor life, . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God,” or from one another, grief melts into praise. The purer our love, the clearer this fact becomes, and the greater our joy in its unfoldment.

Christ Jesus beheld in the true selfhood of Mary Magdalene the stainless image of Love, even when to mortal sense her sins were many. His spiritual vision, together with her loving receptivity, wrought for her a healing so complete and beautiful that our Leader comments freely upon it in the opening paragraphs of the chapter entitled “Christian Science Practice” in Science and Health. Under the marginal heading “Speedy healing” (p. 365) Mrs. Eddy says, “If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Magdalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to practise scientifically and deal with his patients compassionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual intent.” If we aspire to bring instantaneous healing to ourselves or others, let us look within and see whether we are loving enough to win our own pardon from sin. If we are, we may look expectantly for right results, for divine Love lifts consciousness to behold the son of God, untouched by error. Love bestows the trust, courage, patience, and persistence to declare the truth about spiritual man until harmony is demonstrated.

Herein are revealed the grandeur and the simplicity of Christian Science. It withholds its riches only from the unloving; it is obscure and intricate alone to the worldly thought, the Pharisee, proud in his own conceit. But to him who has the heart of a child and the love which characterized the Magdalen, it is an open secret which all who love may discern. It is true that we need to study much to acquire the letter of Christian Science; but more still do we need to strive and pray for love, to demonstrate our understanding of divine Love, which alone brings to light health, harmony, and immortality—all that is complete, beautiful, and satisfying—the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does not require of us any difficult and impossible thing—only to love, a thing which every child, man, and woman can do; and yet so mighty that if everyone in the world were engaged in reflecting divine Love, the whole miasma of hate, fear, sin, sickness, and death would be eradicated.

When our eyes are opened to see how great is the harvest and how few are the laborers, we have placed upon us a responsibility to which we must ever be faithful. This responsibility Christ Jesus fulfilled. The disciples also assumed it; and throughout a long life of labor and love Mrs. Eddy stressed it as has no other in this age. How great was our Leader’s love for all the world! Through her clear exposition of Jesus’ teaching, multitudes have been enabled to understand the great truth of infinite Love, losing thereby the false sense of hate, fear, sorrow, sickness, and sin, and becoming living testimonials to the fact that they too have learned to love much.

Health

From the September 30, 1922 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

Were the average person asked to define health, he might find it difficult to comply, so indefinite seems to be the understanding of what health really means. More or less generally, it is supposed to concern the human body, and consequently to be dependent on physical conditions, and under the control of material laws. To be sure, mankind has also talked sometimes of health of mind and soul; but, even then, the thought has been attached to materiality, since human belief has said that brain thinks and that soul is in body. Mortals have also believed that health could get into matter without their knowledge, and get out of matter without their desire or consent. Try the best they might, study and search as earnestly as they knew how, obey as punctiliously as possible all the latest material methods for securing and retaining health,—still, rarely could one be found who seemed to possess much of the coveted treasure. Certainly, there is nothing more sought after than health; and nothing has seemed more illusive in its nature; for witness a whole world seeking, and how few finding!

That men have been looking to matter, instead of to God, for health is one reason for their having failed in such large measure to find it. Christian people have prayed long and loudly to God to give them health, since they have felt that without it they were practically helpless and hopeless. But in spite of praying thus, they have still looked for it in matter, and have believed it was dependent on matter. The Bible has always been proclaiming to men that health is of God; that it can only be realized in proportion as God’s laws are obeyed. It is true that Christian men and women have believed this in some degree; but the difficulty has been that while they have prayed to God to show them how to obey Him, in order that they might thereby win health, they have at the same time believed that His laws in regard to health were material, and they have expected Him to give them healthy matter in answer to their prayer. Consequently, they have continued to look to matter to discover both the laws they were to obey and the health they hoped to receive. In other words, they have prayed to God, and then have looked away from God to find that which is only of God. Is it any wonder that while working from such a standpoint they have failed in their quest?

It was into the darkness of such a disappointed world that the light of Christian Science came, showing not only the true nature of health, but the way to secure it. When Mrs. Eddy states in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 120), “Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health,” she immediately places health where it belongs, and opens the way for all to understand and demonstrate it. Immediately, thought is turned away from matter to God, divine Mind. Finding that health belongs to divine Mind, the infinite God, it is readily seen that it must always be found therein, existing as a divinely mental attribute. Every child of God, therefore, must reflect it, and can never be separated from it; hence, the glorious truth must be deduced that all mankind can and must demonstrate it.

All men acknowledge that the nature of health is good; and when there is added to this the fact that it is also divinely mental, the conclusion inevitably follows that thinking good must be health itself. Then, in proportion as men think good thoughts they will express health. How simple! How it lifts thought away from matter to the realm of divine Mind, where all is harmony and holiness! Holiness surely means wholeness; and wholeness must include all that is meant by health. To be healthy, then, one must be holy; and if holy, one would without doubt be healthy.

In “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 41) Mrs. Eddy says, “Health, alias harmony, is the normal manifestation of man in Science.” Now, in the endeavor of the Christian Scientist to demonstrate his unity with the divine Mind, by thinking only the thoughts of “health, alias harmony,” he is tempted, again and again, to look to matter for evidence. It is only, however, as he holds his thought steadily to the truth of being that he will find the false evidence of disease yielding to the facts of health. To look away from divine Mind to matter is always to hinder his demonstration.

Centuries ago the psalmist said: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense] ? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” What inexpressible joy it is to be able, through the understanding of Christian Science, to discern the meaning of such Scriptural passages as this; and, more wonderful still, to be able to demonstrate the truth of them! Surely, no Christian Scientist need ever fear that he can lack health, when Science shows him so plainly that God is always bestowing it upon man in the holy thoughts, — the thoughts of good, — He gives him. Our beloved Leader has expressed this truth so beautifully in “The People’s Idea of God” (p. 12), where she says: “As if Deity would not if He could, or could not if He would, give health to man; when our Father bestows heaven not more willingly than health; for without health there could be no heaven.”

“Look unto me”

From the January 12, 1929 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” This text indicates the certainty of universal salvation through undivided faith in God, omnipotent good.

It is at once apparent that the demand, “Look unto me,” does not refer to physical seeing, but solely to one’s spiritual outlook. Elucidating the First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” Mrs. Eddy writes in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 467). “This me is Spirit.” Therefore it is to Spirit that the sufferer must look for his health, the sinner for his redemption, the sorrower for his consolation.

In contrast to this “me” of Spirit, our Leader thus defines the word “you” (ibid., p. 599): “As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.” The student of Christian Science learns that he cannot look from this “me” of Spirit to the “you” of corporeality and seek to reconcile opposites; nor can he expect Spirit to heal insensate matter. Spirit does not rain down material health and material blessings, so called, upon mortals; but the power of Spirit lifts mortals to perceive and to prove that health and joy are wholly spiritual in their origin and nature. It may be said that the alert student of Christian Science is constantly “saved” from some form of discord: from becoming sick, irritable, fatigued, discouraged, resentful; from being unwise, uncharitable, selfish, or lazy. This is because he is yielding to Spirit’s insistent and incessant demands that one shall put off the false concept of man as rapidly as is practicable, and adopt and adhere to the true model, spiritual man.

Through the application of Christian Science every frightened, deluded wayfarer on earth may respond to this call of divine Love, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” Why should this looking towards divine Love heal and save? Because the reflection of divine Love blots out mortal fears and their physical consequences. Is not a little child saved from its infantile terrors when it observes that in its mother’s countenance there is no terror, no apprehension, no anger, but only peace, reassurance, patience, gentleness, and love? Speaking of children, Jesus said, “I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”

Are we looking steadfastly at the countenance, the consciousness, of our heavenly Father-Mother God? What is to be found there? Invariable beneficence; immortal substance; spiritual joy; the everlasting perfection of Spirit. Small wonder, then, that the Psalmist refers to God as “the health of my countenance.” In the countenance or consciousness of God there is no sadness and no suffering.

It may happen that one who is learning to look away from matter to Spirit seems to have gone but halfway in this process. He may trust Spirit thus far, but not all the way. For instance, he may have a lingering fear of what he still regards as physical symptoms, from the medical standpoint; or, he may still harbor the remnants of a superstitious faith in certain so-called material remedies, in material supports, or in certain climates, as supposed auxiliaries to his spiritual healing. If so, he is not fully heeding the “Look unto me,” for his faith is divided between Spirit and matter. Indeed, one might almost designate his mental condition as one of mental squinting, or looking in opposite directions, while attempting to advance Spiritward.

Christian Science never requires one to attempt that which is beyond present comprehension. Certain material tendencies may, however, be corrected without delay. Undue self-indulgence, for instance, with regard to food, or physical recreation and relaxation, would tend to clasp more tightly the fetters of materiality; whereas, the well-ordered and wise resolve to depend increasingly upon divine Mind for recuperation, regeneration, and recreation results in better health, greater endurance, deeper satisfaction, and a purer peace. Thus the contemplation of this wonderful “me” of Spirit, God, brings about the gradual fading out of the belief in the “you” of corporeality. This exchange of the ephemeral beliefs of the flesh for the substantiality of Spirit will continue to unfold until, as the Apostle Paul writes, “we all come … unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

One who would rejoice in God’s gifts will discern and enjoy them in the measure of his surrender of material counterfeits. If he comes to Christian Science with one hand still grasping the material, he will receive but a measure of the blessing in store for the single-hearted. If, on the contrary, he strives to be teachable in all ways, eager to intrust his health, his happiness, and his heaven to the “high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” then he will find

“That, while we travail yet on earth,
Our hearts may be in heaven.”

Faith Vs. Doubt

From the August 1, 1908 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

MOST people are familiar with the story of Peter’s attempt to walk on the water, but the Master’s gentle rebuke for his failure to continue doing so, is of special interest to Christian Scientists. Jesus said to Peter, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” There are perhaps very few if any of us, who, even if bidden by the Master himself, as Peter was, to come to him on the water, would attempt to do so without considerable feeling of doubt. There are also very few who would attempt to put into practice, with any hope of success, the words of Jesus, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” These words were uttered to the disciples when they asked for an explanation of their failure to heal a lunatic, and we, like they, seek to know why we ever fail to carry out an earnest desire to heal a disease, or it may be to change a discordant circumstance.

As Christians we believe the words of Jesus to be absolutely true; as Christian Scientists we know that the immutable, perfect law of God can bring about the desired result as a natural outcome of that law and not as a miracle, but as mortals we find that the result does not always appear. Why is this so when we ask only for what we believe to be good, when we do all we can to increase our faith, but still we do not achieve the result? Why did Peter fail? Where was his faith weak? Peter did not doubt Jesus’ word or power. He had just seen Jesus himself walking on the sea, and had received the command “Come” direct from the Master himself; therefore there was every reason, humanly speaking, why he should not entertain the doubt which was evidently responsible for his failure.

Peter’s first thought, doubtless, when he essayed to carry out the command, was one of implicit faith in Jesus, and consequently he “walked on the water,” but when he took in the evidence of the senses, “when he saw wind boisterous, he was afraid.” Why was he afraid? Here again he should still have had faith, for he had himself proved that he could walk on the water, and his faith should have been strengthened, not diminished. It is very likely that he was afraid because the thought which he unwittingly allowed to dominate his consciousness was not based on the Principle of being, but was derived from the evidence of his physical senses; and this evidence ousted the thought of faith in God, and put on one side the divine law under which Jesus was safe a few yards away from Peter. In reality Peter was under the same law, but had no faith in it. His faith immediately reverted to the so-called law of nature, and his sinking was the outward expression of his belief that material law was the true law; every thought in Peter’s consciousness being that this action was performed under the guidance of asserted laws, the belief in which had been ingrained into him since he first began to think at all.

In Science and Health (p. 545) Mrs. Eddy says, notion of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, and do not accord infinity to Deity.” Had Peter, from the time he first began to think, started with the premise that “all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation” (Science and Health, p. 468), his experience during the years which preceded this incident would have so altered his conclusions as to what result would follow a certain action or set of actions, that walking on the water would have seemed as natural to him as it did to Jesus. His faith would then have been in the divine law instead of in the so-called law of matter mistakenly believed to be a law of God.

Peter’s physical senses witnessed to the fact that Jesus could walk on the water, and also that he himself could do so, but he concluded that this was due to Jesus’ miraculous power, not that it was in accordance with the laws of omnipotent Principle. Hence the failure; it was not doubt of Jesus’ word which caused him to sink, but belief in a law other than the true law of Life and its spiritual processes. So it is to-day with mortals who try to move the mountains and even the mole-hills of daily life; they meet them with a belief in God’s word and God’s but with a yet stronger belief in the action of material law. To gain a faith which will not fail to perform works, we must start by learning anew the true laws which govern the universe and man, and apply them day by day to every detail of life, until this application gives us a new set of results from which we shall form our conclusions of the facts of Life eternal as it is here and now; and these conclusions will be the ones which will present themselves to our consciousness immediately a thought is called up, in place of the conclusions deduced from the premise of belief in life in matter, and they will guide our actions accordingly.

The demonstrations which we are called upon to make are much more frequently to be made by faith based on knowledge gained by living our understanding of eternal Life, than by one great act of faith in the omnipotence and love of God. Every application of divine law to our actions, whether small or great, will add to our faith, and by degrees we shall be able to demonstrate that “nothing is impossible” unto us, and we shall reap the full benefit of the promise, “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

To Whom Should We Look?

From the June 1916 issue of the Christian Science Journal by

THE great need of humanity is salvation from error, whether manifested in sin, disease, ignorance, fear, grief, poverty, or other discords. Whether one knows it or not, he needs to be saved from a wrong concept of existence, mistaken views of individuality and substance. Those rich in material things need to be saved from the false trust of leaning on material wealth, and from looking to personality instead of relying on the one true God, who is Spirit. Those who are poor in material things need to be saved from their false beliefs about substance and supply, from the belief they are likely to acquire that poverty is real or any part of God’s plan for His children, and from the futile conviction that money and material things will bring them happiness. On page 261 of Science and our Leader bids us look away from the mortal concept “into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality.”

Those who are diseased in body need salvation not only from their ills, but probably from the belief that a mere change in physical conditions would produce health and happiness. Those who are troubled in mind need to be saved from their wrong thinking and worries, and also from the belief that a change of conditions in accordance with any outlined program of the human will would bring enduring happiness. The persons who are suffering most are often the ones who are nearest to a correct solution of their problems, even as Jesus declared when he said that the publicans and sinners would go into the kingdom of heaven before the self-righteous religionists who had lulled themselves into a false sense of ease by a willing submission to conventional mesmeric belief.

All human beings need salvation from the belief that harmony can be obtained in any degree from mortal mind. All need to know that there is no permanent salvation without obedience to God’s command as found in Isaiah, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,” and that there is no Saviour but the spiritual idea of God as manifested by Christ Jesus. Spirit, God, and man in His image and likeness, must be understood and demonstrated according to the plain teachings of the Master.

Jesus taught his students to look to God, and God only, for salvation; and he demonstrated this in every footstep of his earthly career. He often rebuked his disciples and others for looking to his personality for help, and taught them to look above person or any earthly institutions. The Master also said that when men’s hearts fail because of fear, they should look up, and lift up their heads, their highest aspirations, to God. Jesus made it plain that in the midst of tribulations those who look to God for solace find that their “redemption draweth nigh,” the tribulations themselves constituting a sign that “the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”

Having learned these lessons, Peter afterward administered a rebuke to the wonder-struck citizens of Jerusalem when, after healing the lame man at the gate of the temple, the populace looked on Peter and John as having themselves wrought a miracle. Peter said: “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?” Then he told his auditors that the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob had raised up His ideal in human consciousness, and through the faith taught by Christ Jesus, this “Prince of life,” the lame man had been healed. The apostles had learned to look away from personality to Principle. Their abandonment of self-righteousness, self-will, and self-love enabled them to be the instruments of God’s healing power.

It is a mistake for any Christian Scientist to rely on human opinion, or on what his friends and relatives advise, to shape his course of salvation. In personal or family affairs, in business, in church work, because of the habitual tendencies of the human mind, some may be prone to lean on the opinions of coworkers, rather than to look to divine Principle alone, thus securing revelations of the divine purpose whereby to do their work. In looking to God in Christian Science we have the Bible, the writings of our Leader, including the Church Manual, and many other impersonal helps, as well as the never-ending right of communion with God through prayer. Everything necessary to spiritual progress is provided and the way is always open. We only need to look to God, and His idea as expressed in Christian Science, to be divinely guided in every necessary human action.

We come into Christian Science by a willingness to give up our human will, and by daily praying, as the Church Manual teaches (Art. VIII, Sect. 4), for the expression of the divine will through our willing activity: “‘Thy kingdom come;’ let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin;, and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!” Should we not demonstrate this by looking to God in all our ways for guidance? Why run from friend to friend to ask them what they think or what we should do? Why not determine, as we surely can, what God thinks and demands, and then follow on to do what infinite wisdom directs? Why should we appeal to friends for their approval and judgment when the first and final arbitrament is always the judgment of God, divine Principle? The Master asked for no homage and feared no condemnation. He always looked to God and did as the Father commanded, leaving every issue in His care. What friend or foe thought never influenced him. Jesus knew that God is Love, the only cause, the only judge; and in obedience he went his patient way through this dreamland of material sense, realizing at length its utter nothingness in spite of human law, opinion, and opposition. Well indeed may all the followers of the Master share the aspirations of Kipling:—

Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for Judge, and not our friends;
That we with Thee may look uncowed
By fear or favor of the crowd.

All of us at times are troubled by fear, sickness, and doubt, but we know that Christian Science denies the existence of these errors from the standpoint of the perfection of God and His idea. The scientific denials of a Christian Scientist should bring immediate escape from these errors; but if they cling, one does not look. away from God when asking help of a practitioner of Christian Science, since he knows that the help will come from God and none other. We can do. much for ourselves when in trouble by taking our problems directly to God, declaring the nothingness of sin and disease, and acknowledging His perfection, power, and allness. John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Why not then continuously look to God, and when necessary confess our sins without one plea of self-righteousness? Honest confession, the willingness to have secret causes of discord uncovered and destroyed, together with the realization that man in divine Science is always free from evil, will do much to destroy the effects of wrong thinking.

In Science and Health (p. 264) Mrs. Eddy answers the question raised in our initial inquiry in these words: “Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being.”

The Way

From the November 12, 1927 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

In common parlance, human experience is one’s journey through life. The phrase is predicated, however, on a false concept of life, that life has a beginning and an ending, and that man, once born, immediately begins his journey toward life’s end, death. Christian Science, teaching that Life is God, makes it clear that Life could have no beginning or ending, because God never changes. Hence man, made in the image and likeness of his creator, is the expression of eternal Life, and can therefore no more have a beginning and an ending, be born or die, than can God. So it is evident that a journey, in a limited sense, through Life is impossible.

How, then, can the human experience of birth and death be accounted for? It is explained in Christian Science as the projection of a supposititious dream of life and intelligence in matter, the only evidence of which is testified to by the five physical senses, whose witness has ever been unreliable. It is not until the study of God and man as given to the world by Mary Baker Eddy through her writings, awakens us from this dream-sense of things that we begin to learn what living really is.

The awakening to spiritual facts is also spoken of as a journey—one, however, away from the false material sense of existence toward a full realization of what constitutes eternal being. This journey is an individual experience, a daily, hourly, constant effort to advance in the desired direction, to leave behind all the beliefs of sin and disease engendered by a false sense of life in matter, and to press steadily toward the goal of conscious unity with God. Each one of us, then, faring forth toward this goal, may be termed a traveler, a pilgrim, and being such is concerned with the way his steps shall take.

There was a time in the early days of Bible history when the only means of communication between towns and villages were narrow paths winding over the rugged slopes or dipping into the lowlands. Great rocks made these paths almost impassable in places, and at best they were only wide enough for men and animals to travel in single file. Later, the idea of building highways developed. These new thoroughfares were literally high ways—far different from the former narrow bypaths. They were level, broad, straight, and more direct than the paths, for the hills had been cut through and depressions raised. All this tremendous labor had been undertaken not only that the king might have easy access to his domain, but that his advance might be accorded proper honor.

So it is with peculiar significance that we find Isaiah thundering to a wayward people: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” Is not this just what must be done to-day in the experience of every individual who may still be wandering aimlessly, and perhaps without hope, through the byways of physical sense, or jogging carelessly along the paths of material pleasure? Hear the similar admonition from Mrs. Eddy’s pen in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 61): “Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway of our God may be prepared in Science.” This leveling of human thought makes it possible for us to progress more readily into the realm of God, divine Mind; and when the boulders of self—self-righteousness, self-will, self-pity—are cleared away, our mental avenues are in a measure prepared for the triumphal advance from sense to Soul.

What joy is ours when we first learn through Christian Science that no one need continue to wander forever through the mazes of mortal mind! It is possible for each one of us right now, in the very place and circumstance where we may find ourselves, to make a start in the right direction. The way has been marked out for us by the words and works of Christ Jesus. Indeed, we have his own statement to that effect: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Although in the past mankind seems to have had difficulty in tracing this way as it is recorded in the Bible, confusion should no longer endure; for the route has again been definitely laid down for this age and for all ages to come, through the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures which Christian Science gives.

Then with the goal before us and with the route mapped out we have only to follow, and our advance will be in proportion to the effort expended. If our steps seem slow at first, they may nevertheless be sure; and there can positively be no prolonged, unhappy halting as long as we make certain that it is the understanding of divine Love which motivates our endeavor. With an unselfed desire for progress, we shall press forward steadily, finding strength for each day’s need in the sustaining power of infinite Truth. This regular advance will be unbroken by hasty, erratic attempts to rush ahead in a vain striving to occupy a place whereunto we have not attained in an orderly way. False ambition blinds one to the beauty which accompanies each step; while, on the other hand, gratitude takes note of every blossoming blessing.

So we may know that whenever the journey seems laborious we have been plodding along with unseeing eyes. Look up, and see what glorious vistas stretch before! If the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, could say (Science and Health, p. 426) that she “finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it,” surely we shall do well to follow her example.

Should our too eager expectation resolve itself into impatience, however, and we stray off on what appears to be a more profitable byway or a shorter, pleasanter path, let us beware! There is but one source from which all good can emanate, and that source knows “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Following the tortuous trails of human belief is always a hazardous proceeding; and walking thus unprotected and alone, as one must upon such a path, the pilgrim is an easy prey for lurking errors. Or, perchance escaping therefrom, he may discover that the very lane which began so invitingly meanders off into a dreary waste of disappointment. In any case, the steps must be retraced until the highway is again attained and the traveler is once more upon safe footing. Love, ever ready with fresh inspiration and opportunities, beckons on. So let no one lose time in remorseful lamentation over such a detour. The lessons of humility and loyalty learned thereby should bridge over all similar temptations, so that in the future one may avoid them.

As long as we hold to the right course, we are safe. The angel guardians that patrol the highway are never off duty, and the lawless hordes of doubt, fear, or lack can make no inroad upon their province. Every individual’s advance along this way renders the path smoother and wider, making it just that much easier for all who follow. The same intelligence guides each pilgrim; so that we may look ahead toward those whose advance has perhaps carried them beyond our gaze, without anxiety or sorrow, knowing that their experience is also progressive; and with the same assurance send out a cheery hail to those whose footsteps seem to lag behind.

However, let us not imagine that it is practicable to make satisfactory advance if our gaze turns continually to the valleys behind. Having been lifted out of the depressing lowlands of misfortune or ill health, we cannot afford to allow our steps to retrograde by a frequent rehearsal of those experiences. Standing simply as milestones along the way, these incidents should be reviewed only to recount the clearer glimpses of good gained in their overcoming, milestones from which further progress may be joyfully reckoned.

If at any time our sense of direction becomes dim or our view of the goal obscure, the familiar warning holds good: “Stop. Look. Listen.” Stop wondering and worrying; wait on God. Look away from the immediate problem and see the allness, the vast perfection, of spiritual creation. Listen for the voice of Truth, and “thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.”

The Restraining Guide

From the May 1906 issue of the Christian Science Journal by

And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.—Isaiah, 30:21.

The Master has left the assurance that the spiritual way is strait and narrow, and every disciple who starts to walk in it soon finds this assurance confirmed. It is simple direct; so plain that “the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” It is only when we stop to consider some of the innumerable ways that diverge from the King’s highway, or when we may be beguiled into, heeding the suggestion of some guide who plans according to worldly ways and means, that there can or does come any complication or uncertainty. Then, when a confusion of thought or an errant impulse may succeed in diverting the pilgrim for a moment, there will surely be given some warning token that will be to him the guiding word, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

If the disciple is abiding close in the conscious presence of the guide, the consciousness of the spiritual idea that directs the way from sense to Soul, the guiding and restraining word will come as a spiritual impulse and intuition as a spiritual sense that at once restrains and directs, and thought will be corrected and rightly directed before it has been manifested in some mistaken word or deed. Thus to follow our guide will be to find the unerring direction of Science it will mean that every misleading thought or erring impulse will be discerned and destroyed before it has turned the Truth-seeker’s feet from the way; but if the wrong word is spoken, or the wrong deed is done, there will come the unerring rebuke. The warning voice will be heard and the disciple’s safety is in promptly heeding it.

It is noteworthy that this assurance of the restraining word is that it shall be heard “behind thee;” and it immediately follows a statement in the preceding verse that “thine eyes shall see thy teachers.” All through the Bible, in its promises and in its history, there is given the assurance of a guide to go before. This was given to the journeying Israelites as a pillar of cloud and fire, and an assurance that God’s angel should go before them to bring them into the place divinely chosen. The Discoverer of Christian Science has written,—”So shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God” (Science and Health, p. 566). The spiritual guide is always before. How, then, is it that the word shall be heard “behind thee”? It is not because our eyes shall not see our “teachers;” it is not because our spiritual guide shall be withdrawn, but that in turning to the right hand or to the left, in turning out of the way, the disciple has turned away from his “teachers,” has turned his back on his guide. Then, as restraint or rebuke, will come the “word” which will rectify the mistake.

If the disciple’s walk is close and clear enough in the presence of Truth, if thought is holding and abiding steadily and steadfastly in the consciousness of the spiritual idea, the gentle restraint will be given in the premonitory sense that tells him he is diverging from the way of harmony. If the disciple is blinded and diverted by a wayward impulse or obtuse belief, then the “word” will come as a strong rebuke, chastening and consuming the erring, sinning sense.

The Bible holds many a record of good men who in an unguarded hour went astray, and through gentle leading or through great tribulation found their way back into the way of peace. The night of futile effort on the Sea of Galilee, when the disciples toiled all its hours and caught nothing, marks one brief turning aside from a divine commission to a human resource to fill what seemed to be irksome idleness and waiting. The story of Jonah, whether fact or parable, is true in its moral, and marks the folly and disaster of attempting to evade a divine commission or shun a divine responsibility. David stands as a pre-eminent example of a great and good man who went astray in an evil hour, and who through great tribulation atoned for his error and gained again the pathway of peace. These are typical examples of the rebuke that chides and chastens the erring sense, the divine Word that will be heard as it is saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

This divine Word is the spiritual idea that reveals and enunciates the divine law of being, the law that is written on the mind and graven on the heart of the spiritually illumined man. Every deviation from the way, however slight, means a conflict in human consciousness with the unchanging law of harmony; and the chiding or chastening that comes when a false step is taken comes as a necessary and legitimate result for violating the eternal order and fitness of things. There is an inevitable relation of cause and effect between the wrong thought or deed and the disturbance or suffering that follows. This is the law which requires that sin shall punish and destroy itself; and so in each erring experience the law brings its effective rebuke and restraint. It is a monitor, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

In the examples we have noted from sacred history the working of this law can be easily traced. The disciples, under the lead of the impetuous Peter, went fishing, apparently because they wanted to be doing something and had not learned to wait upon God,—to wait for the divine impulse and bidding that must come before success could crown any effort. It was evidently a wayward, human, impatient impulse that overtook Peter when he broke out, “I go a fishing,” and the other disciples when they followed. It was an effort that held no worthy purpose, no noble impulse, an effort that was a distinct turning away from the lofty ideal that had been given them, an endeavor that must go unrequited. Only when the Masters voice gives divine sanction and direction to their effort, and they accept this in a prompt obedience, is there a reward for their toil. Then follows the lesson on the shore, when it is made clear to “Peter what it is to mean if he proves that he loves his Master more than his fishing. So when Jonah flees, shrinking from the task laid upon him, it is to find that the obedience which is prompted by fear only leads into greater fear, and that in an unquestioning following of the divine direction is safety and peace.

So, too, David reaped the results of his sin with Bathsheba—results that followed him all through his further career. Nathan’s declaration that “the sword shall never depart from thine house” was a foreseeing and foretelling of the legitimate sequence of guilt. A crime had been carried out by others at David’s bidding, and its evil example and effects had gone out into relations that were beyond his recall. And it was without doubt in this train of influence that lay the impossibility of David’s ever bringing his reign up to a point where his dominion should be established in moral and spiritual supremacy and war should cease. David had come to the kingdom because he had a glimpse of the fact that God is the only power. From the time that he first comes into view as the stripling who overthrows Goliath without arms or armor, his whole career is that of one whose trust is in God and not in material resources. When he came to the kingdom, according to his understanding he utilized the resources at his hand, in overthrowing the enemies of Israel and in establishing his kingdom. We must remember that he was dealing with a people who were little more than beginning to emerge from the crudest beliefs of life, substance, intelligence, and power in matter, the belief of the necessity of physical force and war, the belief that formulates codes of vengeance and cruelty. With such mental conditions as these David had to deal,—conditions out of which he himself had only partly emerged. So it is not surprising that such a man as Joab should have come to the front as David’s lieutenant, the leader of his forces. Joab’s code taught him courage, belief in the divine authority of David’s kingship, and loyalty to that authority. These qualities, representing largely human belief rather than divine understanding, were nevertheless qualities which for a time were useful in overthrowing the grosser beliefs of unrighteousness abroad and disloyalty at home. But Joab had no vision of the ideal of David, an ideal that looked to the establishment of a kingdom whose power should be God, whose law should be righteousness and love.

So, if Israel were to be lifted up to a higher plane of consciousness, its leaders must be men whose ideals rose above warlike motives and methods, and it is not difficult to see what moral and spiritual ascendancy was needed by the ruler who was called to solve such a problem. It was evident that David had forfeited this spiritual supremacy. In his one sin David had lost the respect and confidence of every warlike follower, he had rudely violated the code of honor that should have bound him to every soldier of Israel. When Nathan declared to David that because of his sin the sword should never depart from his house, it must have been because upon the plane of human sense David had started a course of influences that would entail this by a relation of cause and effect, and these are some of the relations that seem to lie plainly on the surface in the record.

When David confessed his sin, he saw the folly and falsity of that which had led him astray, and as an element of his own consciousness the error was eliminated, forgiven; but the results of the wrong against another and the crime against moral order could not be thus lightly atoned. The sin in his own consciousness could be destroyed in one supreme moment of moral and spiritual awakening and renewal, but the removing of its results was a burden of travail for the years. It enforces what our Leader has enjoined in her article on Fidelity: “Carelessly or remorselessly thou mayest have sent along the ocean of events a wave that will sometime flood thy memory, surge dolefully at the door of conscience and pour forth the unavailing tear. . . . One backward step, one relinquishment of right in an evil hour, one faithless tarrying, has torn the laurel from many a brow, and repose from many a heart” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 339).

These instances are concrete examples of how the law of Truth works in its rebuke of the erring sense which turns the pilgrim from the spiritual way. In Christian Science we understand that every suffering which follows and must follow a misdeed is in fulfilment of the law that a man shall reap what he sows. It is not a special penalty pronounced by Deity, but a legitimate sequence of the error. A mistake must be seen to be a mistake, before it can be corrected; and it must be seen that the mistake will and does entail suffering and loss before mortals are willing to take the trouble to correct it. The primitive mistake is the belief in matter, the belief that here is life, substance, intelligence, good, apart from God. Mortals must come to see this mistake and then correct it; and this means correcting and eliminating a multitude of mistaken beliefs, judgments, and motives which have sprung from this one fundamental error. The way that leads out of these false beliefs, up to the understanding and demonstration of the allness of God, is the way in which we are given the promise of spiritual guidance.

Were the pilgrim wayfarer always spiritually awake, were the disciple always in possession of a clear spiritual sense, and if this sense were always faithfully followed, there would be no wandering from the way; every onward step would be in the line of divine harmony, freedom, dominion. Mankind in general have had to awaken to their mistakes by suffering for their mistakes. Even after the awakening which reveals the unreality of matter and its conditions, after the illumination that comes in discerning and acknowledging the allness of God, the disciple has a long upward way before he shall pass the hill-crest. There will be many a stage on the journey where he will have to learn that old beliefs which he had thought were entirely right and good hold an element of error. Again and again he will be warned and awakened to the nature of the subtle forms of sense-belief by the suffering which they entail. The way is necessarily an unerring walk in the line of spiritual understanding, or else an experience that drives us back to that way by the suffering, the chastisement, which waits upon every mistake, every sin.

The only safety is in steadfast watchfulness and prayer, an alert heeding of the monitions of our spiritual guide. The farther we journey on the way, the greater will be the interests involved, and the graver will be the consequences that will wait upon our acts; but every day’s progress likewise brings us into a clearer spiritual consciousness, where the awakened sense can with finer discrimination and greater certainty discern the way of Truth, and hear and heed the voice which says: “This is the way, walk ye in it.”

Step By Step

From the February 17, 1912 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

In Psalms we read, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” The importance of the word “steps” in this sentence is corroborated by the fact that all through the Bible each achievement of the prophets and of the disciples is shown to have been accomplished by steps. In the vision of Jacob, the angels of God were seen ascending and descending a ladder composed of steps, indicating that even the angels, “God’s thoughts” (Science and Health, p. 581) do not precipitate themselves upon us, nor do we reach them by spontaneous soaring, but by being obedient in taking the steps which eventually bring us to spiritual heights.

In analyzing her own attitude, the writer has been amazed at the stumbling-blocks which would effectually conceal steps of progress. We ourselves place or allow to be placed these stumbling-blocks, and then we either stumble over them and go on an impeded way because we do not see clearly, or we sit down behind them for an indefinite time where we cannot see. Perhaps the step is just the righting of a wrong thought which we have cherished. If so, the daily prayer found in Psalms, “Create within me a clean heart,” will help to dispose of this obstacle. Or perhaps we have withheld something of our time, our love, or our substance, which should have been given, either through fear of lack or a selfish desire to retain and thus increase our own supply. Both of these erroneous beliefs are rebuked in the story of the widow’s experience in supplying food to Elijah, who assured her that the “barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail,” and the verity of his words was proven.

The writer has been a member of a small but growing Christian Science church for the past few years, and for a long time failed to see the advantage and importance of attending regularly every church service, unless prevented by some other duty. When she finally did see that this constituted a step in progress, and began to act accordingly, she was enabled to render a small service to the cause by being given a duty to perform regularly at each service, that of playing the hymns. About a year ago she was called upon to take charge of a Sunday school class, but again failing to recognize it as a step, she declined, offering as an excuse the lack of time to prepare. She paused behind this obstacle for some time, unconsciously allowing it to influence her progress in other directions, until recently, when she was again invited to teach in Sunday school, she was very glad of the opportunity to respond assentingly, having been awakened to the blessing of service. In so doing she has learned that there is plenty of time to prepare for the lessons and do other work besides, and so, in the words of our hymn,

Step by step since time began,
We see the steady gain of man.

It lies with each one of us to move forward, overcoming as we go all obstacles of discouragement, doubt, fear, or whatever would impede, and running “with patience the race that is set before us.” It is only from the vantage-point of a step taken that we can see to take the next step, and each advancing step is surely “ordered by the Lord.”

“Thou shalt not covet”

From the September 29, 1923 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

Whether we were privileged to attend the Christian Science Sunday School or not, we nevertheless have the “first lessons” to learn: and one of these is, “Thou shalt not covet.” As Christian Scientists, we perhaps think we are now immune from covetousness, because we see the folly of setting our hearts on material objects, certainly on those of our neighbor. We have come to see in a degree that true substance is spiritual, and that material objects, such as money, clothes, and so on, cannot bring enduring happiness.

But what of our neighbor’s spiritual attainments? Do we covet them? When we see some one’s enlarged capacity, his freer step, his more joyful outlook, do we not think, Why cannot I attain these? Here the error is a little more subtle and, unconsciously perhaps, we long for the good which our neighbor has attained. The possible struggle through which he went, the evil which he forsook in acquiring his spiritual good, we lose sight of, and vainly wish that his good might come to us. How impossible such a desire! The reward he has received, he has earned. We may be sure he did not get it by chance or by special favor, for “God is no respecter of persons.” Even though our neighbor were willing to transfer his reward to us, he could not do so. Good is not transferable from one person to another. The good which an individual can gain comes to him from God. He gets it, moreover, not as a special gift from the “Father of lights,” but as the effect of righteous living. Good has always existed; it lies at hand—is ever present; but it comes into one’s experience only as one allows evil belief to be dispensed with

The very fact that one has gone forward in the gaining of Spiritual qualities is proof positive that he has relinquished something of false selfhood. Perhaps it was pride, self-pity, self-love; in any case, it was a measure of worldliness that he surrendered. It probably meant a struggle; but, once attained, the good which he has gained is his, his reward from on high, his demonstrated heritage, a possession waiting for all men alike, but bestowed only on those who are willing to pay the price,—the forsaking of materiality. “Christ cannot come to mortal and material sense, which sees not God. This false sense of substance must yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve,” as we read in the chapter on The Saviour’s Mission (p. 60) in Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Unity of Good.”

When the elder brother complained that his father was bestowing more good on the prodigal son who had returned home than on him, the father made the gracious reply, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” Then when we see another taking a progressive step, there is no reason for us to envy or covet, or even to be discouraged. If we would make that friend’s experience ours, we must take our own steps to God. And we should rejoice that one more barrier has been broken down, making it just that much easier for mankind as a whole to rise out of itself. Men seem to be engulfed in materiality; yet their only escape is to forsake it, and to strive for and hold fast to spiritual good. Money cannot buy it. Will-power cannot force it. The deliverance is open to all men; and joy comes with the overcoming. Who, then, can hinder you?

Not only is it well for us to examine our own thought to ascertain whether we are cherishing any covetousness of the good our neighbor is gaining; it is equally important for us to guard well the good we ourselves have gained, knowing it to have come from God alone, and therefore possible of permanent possession. When one has labored long and struggled hard and has attained, then is the time to stand on guard “that no man take thy crown.” Mrs. Eddy warns us in “Miscellaneous Writings,” when she says on page 280, “The doors of animal magnetism open wide for the entrance of error, sometimes just at the moment when you are ready to enter on the fruition of your labors, and with laudable ambition are about to chant hymns of victory for triumphs.” And in the next line she explains, “The doors that this animal element flings open are those of rivalry, jealousy, envy, revenge.” The clearer vision, the purified activity, the enlarged capacity, must be maintained. And there is no need for fear. All men are capable of fulfilling the requirements given in the Bible of doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with their God.

What is my neighbor gaining of spiritual good? “What is that to thee?” Rather should we ask, What am I gaining of spiritual good by my own effort? Am I daily surrendering evil beliefs, clinging fast to Truth, and allowing God to give the increase of good? Advancing Christian Scientists, are we holding our ground? Are we barricading our doors against this thief, the false belief of covetousness? Are we humble? Are we learning to love God, and our neighbor as ourselves?

Wealth As Scientifically Understood

From the July 6, 1907 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.—Proverbs, 13:7.

Wealth is abundance, plenty, possession, riches, treasure, substance. Marshall in his “Principles of Economics” says that a man’s wealth is to be taken to consist of two classes of goods, … those material goods to which he has, by law or custom, private rights of property and which are therefore transferable and exchangeable, and those immaterial goods which belong to him and serve directly as the means of enabling him to acquire material goods. A still better sense of wealth is given in the word richness, expressing not the possession of riches, but “being rich.” Richness is the overflowing plenty of inherent quality, excellence, fruitfulness; we thus can speak of the wealth of the soil, the wealth of affection.

The word wealth is a derivative of weal, signifying a sound, healthy, prosperous state,—happiness, prosperity, well-being. Commonweal and commonwealth signify strictly the common good, and the primary sense of weal is strength, soundness. The true nature of wealth is best expressed in the word affluence. Affluence means a profuse or abundant supply, a flowing toward, concourse. The dictionary defines affluence as “abundance of material goods, accompanied with generous expenditure.” The realization of affluence therefore demands that abundance be made liberal use of, in giving out, imparting. We could not speak of a miser as living in affluence, though we might speak of his hoarded wealth as useless riches. Affluence implies a “flowing readily”—which suggests Life; a “flowing toward,”—which tells of Love; the having or furnishing of abundance,—abounding in substance, which to be ever abounding must be infinite, eternal Truth. We find then that wealth signifies a state of having more than common abundance, and while wealth does not allow of limitation, on the contrary riches are always measurable,—having a limit, coming to an end somewhere and at some time.

Science and Health (p. 140) bids us rejoice “in the affluence of our God.” True wealth in Christian Science is the power of demonstrating the infinite ability of divine Love to meet every need, for others as well as for ourselves. The true sense of wealth binds us closely to God, since in order to have an abundant supply which will never fail us, we have to turn to the infinite. Infinite good is the ever-flowing source from which all good must come, and we can only realize wealth in the going out of good through us to others; our measure of wealth lies in our ability to give. A material sense of riches, on the other hand, would tend to separate us from God and from our fellow-men,—through cares, worldliness, pride, fear, and limitation,—producing spiritual barrenness. The psalmist says, “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: … that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.”

True wealth can never be gained by oppression, by trampling upon the rights of others or by taking advantage of our brother. Jeremiah says, “He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.” Pride of possession would blind us in our relation to God and cut us off from the source of wealth. The wise man said, “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.” The mere accumulation of riches does not constitute wealth, which bears not in itself the elements of contentment. Happiness can only dwell in the understanding of wealth as the manifestation of the abundance of divine Love, and in the consciousness of reflecting Love, thereby calling forth the response of Love.

Mrs. Eddy said in “Choose ye,” her dedicatory Message to The Mother Church, that Christian Science reveals God as giving all, and man as having all that God gives. (Sentinel, June 16, 1906.) Our wealth, therefore, is to know that we have, because God has, and because we reflect the infinite. This we realize only in the measure to which we awake from the limitations of material sense. Paul says, “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.” The attainment of this consciousness demands of us the consecration of every thought and requires that we bring “all the tithes into the storehouse.” Selfishness, envy, as well as idleness, will debar us from realizing affluence, the true wealth. The unlimited, inexhaustible ability of divine Mind is reflected in human achievement for good, but the latter is only gained by the sacrifice of self. In proportion as we learn to sink self and to see that God is all reality, we shall prove the prophet’s word, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Then shall we make true the beautiful thought of Dryden, “Each day new wealth without their care provides,” and know that “the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”

Love is the liberator.