Independent Christian Science articles

Passing Through the Midst of Them

From the Christian Science Sentinel, May 23, 1914,

When, after the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus returned to Nazareth, and, upon going into the synagogue to read, claimed that the words of the prophet Esaias were that day fulfilled in him, it aroused the wrath of those who heard, that he should claim with so great confidence such mighty things for himself. Was not this the carpenter’s son? Had he not grown up among the other boys of Nazareth? Was he not one of them, and quite as humble in origin, education, and environment? Without “honor in his own country,” and despite the evident resentment of his auditors, Jesus continued to affirm that he was, in truth, the one sent to “heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Marveling at his gracious words, even though incensed by them, the record tells us that they, with human emotions of jealousy, envy, suspicion, and malice seething in their thoughts because he claimed superiority to them, his own townspeople, “thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” But we further read that he passed through the midst of them and went his way.

The very simplicity of the latter statement brings with it a sense of power and confidence that gave to the writer, when she read it in connection with one of the Lesson-Sermons, an illuminated perception of the quiet grandeur and dignity of the Nazarene as, saying nothing, fearing nothing, he quietly, steadily, safely went his way, knowing who it was that went before him. Undisturbed by the attempt to destroy him, or the treachery of those who, humanly speaking, should have been his most devoted supporters and friends, he went about his Father’s business, serene in the consciousness that His will would in any case be done, and that there was no other will. Alone with God was this true child of His, absolutely at-one with the power that produced him; hence, he feared neither scorn nor misunderstanding. How often the human cry goes out: “If people only understood me! How can I endure to be so misjudged and misunderstood!” Yet Emerson writes in language clear as crystal: “Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton . . . To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Jesus came to Capernaum, and wholly unshaken by what would have been a severe ordeal to most men, spoke to the people there with such power that “they were astonished at his doctrine.” Beginning his healing ministry even in the synagogue, in fulfilment of the prophecies which had been made concerning “he that should come,” he went his way without question, and it was the way of gentleness, peace, love, and rightness. Continuing to heal those that were “sick with divers diseases,” what a sense of assurance and courage comes to us as we read the simple unembellished words, “He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.” It mattered not to him what the form might be in which evil vaunted itself, or in what manner of man expressed,—it was just a lie, because not of God, without whom nothing was made that was made. The narrative states too that the “devils” as they departed from many, cried out, saying, “Thou art Christ, the Son of God.” They knew (to continue the personification of evil) that he was the Christ, the truth, before whose power they must needs go down. Knowing, therefore, that their time was short, the evils, one by one, left those that they had seemed to hold in such fearful bondage and, sometimes throwing down the one tormented, and sometimes crying “with a loud voice,” they none the less disappeared and “hurt him not.”

Ever passing through trials, persecutions, desertions, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” yet rejoicing because of the faith that was in him, the glorious, steadfast Master of us all went his way,—”the best man that ever trod this planet” (Science and Health, p. 364),—though that way led him to the cross on Calvary. Even there he trusted the one power by which he had been guided through every troublous situation, to win his victory. Surely a knowledge of the glory to be revealed sustained him in this supreme test of his career, to be revealed not only to him but to all those that believe on him and listen to his earnest bidding,—”I am the way,” “Follow thou me.” No complaints, no regrets, no looking back with a sense of self-pity that he had endured so much, but just “Thy will be done;” and later, free from all thought of the ingratitude, treachery, and jealousy that had brought him where he was, he prayed with sublime self-forgetfulness for those who most needed that for which he prayed, a realization of the infinite, universal fatherhood of God,—”Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Was there ever such forgiveness, ever such complete setting aside of the human self?

All those who believe on the Master are commanded to follow and obey. Then indeed are absolute consecration and watchfulness demanded, as Mrs. Eddy so well knew, if we are even so much as to touch “the hem of his garment.” Yet listen to the wondrous promises: “Greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” “I have overcome the world.” “Lo, I am with you alway.” Awed by the sublimity of such self-effacement and unchanging love; realizing, even humanly, the recompense and reward so indisputably belonging to such complete renunciation, one likes to look beyond the scene on Calvary to the resurrection morning, when the stone was rolled away and the risen Christ was revealed to those who sought. Also to the glory of the ascension when, every remembrance of materiality left behind, Jesus disappeared from the wistful gaze of those who still saw with imperfect vision; and what a solace it is to read that he said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”! All men, he said, and he never spoke vainly; so that universal salvation, accomplished by the setting aside in each individual consciousness of all false material beliefs, is to be achieved.

It is something even to have started toward our Father’s house, to know that He comes to meet us when we are a great way off; and that the forgiving love of God is always at hand when we really seek it. Truly we none of us know what we do when, blinded by human opinions, we entertain, if only for a second, a thought of suspicion or condemnation toward a brother man. “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,” Jesus once said to his disciples, and it is to awaken mankind to a realization of what they actually are, here and now, as “sons of God” that Christian Science stands. Acting as a leaven, it is steadily working to turn humanity back from the long search for happiness and health in material things, to the deep things of the Spirit. Here alone salvation lies from all the evil doubts and fears that spring from a belief in a power apart from God.

There is, then, a sure rule for him who would follow the Master (forgetting those things that are behind, and turning away from the perishable things of matter to the imperishable things of Spirit), and it is this: Pass through the midst of them and go thy way. Though jealousy, malice, hatred, envy, suspicion, and their kind, raise their heads to hiss and sting and overthrow, still go thy way unscathed. They have no power except as you fear them. In the book of Isaiah these words are found to strengthen us: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

“My presence shall go with thee.” Clearly conscious of that omnipotent presence, one can be cognizant of nothing else; and it goes without saying that what one is not conscious of does not and cannot exist for him. Through the very midst of error, recognizing only spiritual being, for others as well as for himself, one can see false consciousness at the coming of the true, even though it cries out at recognizing its master, vanish utterly, as all lies must when they are no longer believed in.

God First

From the Christian Science Sentinel, July 19, 1919, by

It has been truly said that “the battle of our life is won and heaven begun when we can say ‘Thy will be done,’ ” and when indeed we can assert with an honest sense of self-surrender, “Father, Thy will be done; I am weary of my own,” we can perhaps have some realization of what Jesus knew in all its completeness when he said, “I and my Father are one.” Mrs. Eddy writes in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 55), “Whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ’s cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing;” and repeatedly throughout her writings this same thought is vigorously expressed. She well knew that halfhearted service is of little avail, but that to be worthy one must leave all for Christ, and this means the surrender of all belief that there is life or reality in matter. Is not this the fast that we have chosen? And as we see the sick restored to health, the sinful regenerated and set free, do we not earnestly thank God for such blessed opportunities?

“Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul,” and it is through the subjugation of material plans and desires that we finally acquire a broader state of mind, which counts as gain only that which gives a clearer perception of the infinite God. Through earnest seeking and the confident claiming of all good as our eternal heritage, we gradually cease to gravitate earthward and begin to breathe the purer atmosphere of spiritual understanding. Oh, the pity of it, that it should seem so difficult at times and so extremely slow of accomplishment! How we hug to ourselves some cherished plan that seems to our limited vision so wholly good that we are sure it must needs be fulfilled, and how sadly we grieve when our human planning comes to naught. Through many generations we have been carefully trained to look in the wrong direction for health and happiness and are proving deplorably true this quaint bit of philosophy: “The further you go on a wrong road, the further you must walk back.” Uselessly we strive so long as we act through a mistaken sense of good; for often we advance Spiritward through the defeat of the very things we are clamoring for. When we learn to let God rule, asking to do only that which He will have us do, relinquishing the delusive baubles to which our human fingers so tenaciously cling, we find a mental harmony which can be gained in no other way, because that has been the law of Life from the beginning, and through Christian Science it is again being taught and established upon the earth.

Sincerely longing to lay aside all material beliefs for the Christ, Truth, often thinking, doubtless, that everything there is to give has already been given, one comes at length to the point where he realizes that he has traveled but a limited distance, after all, along the road of self-abnegation. This is a hopeful state for progress, since they only are wise who know that they know nothing materially. Like children outgrowing their toys, those of spiritually larger growth are constantly putting aside more of the “old man” as his seeming importance lessens, until they attain the understanding that there is but one thing needful, and that is to love God comprehendingly, “warring no more,” to quote Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 140), “over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence of our God.”

We read in the Bible, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” What is it to search for God with all the heart? It is a mighty question, intelligent obedience to which would establish a serene consciousness of ever present good, bringing peace and freedom in place of turmoil and bondage. Mortals look for freedom where there is apt to be the heaviest servitude, for joy where there is but its shallow counterfeit. “To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey.” Surely few deliberately seek evil as evil; they simply seek that which seems to them good, and this wrong concept is responsible for most of the troublous conditions in human experience.

Mankind have been sedulously taught to think materially, to become absorbed in material interests, pinning their anticipation of happiness to worldly riches and the accumulation of things procured therewith. They long to give and receive an abundance of human affection, to obtain success and fame, measuring success in terms of dollars and cents and fame in terms of intellectuality, place, and power. The way of materiality is the way of ultimate disappointment and disillusionment, for lasting joy is not there. True riches are spiritual; love worthy of the name must reflect divine Love, and success and fame can rest only upon a foundation of Christlikeness; and when they do, the glory belongs to God instead of man, because then the very works are His. Going faithfully about our Father’s business, all that we do should be for the “healing of the nations” in His name. Well might Jeremiah question, “Where are thy gods that thou hast made thee?” for bewilderingly in time of trouble we seek for them or possible substitutes of similar nature, and the quest is never ended.

Numerous behests are found in the Bible relative to the destruction of graven images and their kind, and the recompense given for such annihilation is that God will “turn back your captivity before your eyes.” Surely men must get to the point where they gladly see them go, not with rebellion and regretful effort to hold them back, but with rejoicing that the work of elimination and surrender goes on. There is nothing equivocal about the statement, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Mankind have listened altogether too long to the voice of the lying serpent that tells them they shall be as gods, and it is their perverted attempt to measure up to his seductive suggestion, trying to run the world independently of God, that has brought about, humanly speaking, a reign of discord and distress. Habitually to seek good with all the heart is to place God first unreservedly, discarding the cumbersome things that weigh and burden, knowing that back of every manifest good stands Almighty God, the author of it.

Pondering the words “God First,” we begin to analyze our own thoughts, wondering if we are even approximately true to its appeal, and are quite likely to find that while our reception room is in fairly good order, there are other portions of our mental structure decidedly in need of renovating. Erroneous beliefs must be denied and cast out; criticism, envy, malice, hypocrisy, revenge, and countless numbers of their tribe must be repudiated. Wrong thinking being the chief cause of one’s misery, right thinking, which is of course spiritual thinking, must be steadfastly enthroned. All that pertains to human living, visible or invisible, is preceded by human thought, and this is but the poor counterfeit of the actual life of man in which every manifestation is the expression of the divine idea, which is the eternal word of God.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” was the favorite text of our brave Leader, and it is synonymous with “God First.” We cannot parley with it or hang about the edges of it, or follow it occasionally, or find ourselves and those about us of greater interest. From earliest childhood we have taken the words of the First Commandment “trippingly on the tongue,” with little if any conception of their meaning and power, and generally it is only when we are wearied of the human selfhood with its unfulfilled and unsatisfying schemes, that we actually begin to obey the long established decree. Men have accepted certain opinions and theories because they were the thoughts and opinions of their fathers, and so have drifted along in time-worn grooves almost like automatons. Swathed about with conventions and stagnating beliefs, there was desperate need of a scientific religion which should awaken men to recognize that they must do their own thinking and that there was something vital and life-giving to think about. This need was met in Christian Science, which is actual knowledge of the Christ, Truth, as existent here and now. To think, instead of blindly accepting the thinking of others, is to be aroused to undreamed of possibilities and to take our place as “lively stones” in God’s universe.

On page 19 of Science and Health we find this rendition of the First Commandment of the Decalogue: “Thou shalt have no belief of Life as mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life,—even God, good.” Finding a true, vital sense of God, and of ourselves as indisputably one with Him, we acquire at the same time a correct perception of service. To know and hence to love God is to serve God, and to serve God is to serve man; and when through loving ministry to others we forget to listen to the clamorings of mortal selfhood, we find the real and eternal which possesses all good from the very beginning—and this is the coming of the Christ to the individual consciousness. Contentedly one learns how truly loss is gain, finding countless opportunities to love and comfort and encourage those in need, through the calm and confident assurance that ever present good is the only reality. Genuine service in Christ’s name inevitably weakens the thought of self. Whatever we make a god of materially has to go, whether it be houses or lands or some other phase of material belief, until through fervent endeavor and sincerity of purpose we finally acknowledge the absolute entirety and all-inclusiveness of God. We are fortified through the realization that since all is God and His idea there can be no opposing influence to counteract or reverse the constant activity of good, or thwart the infinite will of God. Understanding himself to be wholly dependent upon God, man loses the cumulative burden of personal responsibility and obtains a new understanding of enduring strength and efficiency which he freely uses to inspire confidence and courage in others. Thus love becomes the fulfilling of the law, meeting the needs of humanity and lightening and dispelling the shadows of sorrow and suffering.

One who follows loyally the “pattern” set before him will undeniably possess sufficient consecration and diligent persistence to perpetuate the message of good cheer which the Founder of Christian Science labored so untiringly to reestablish in the hearts of men. The keynote of it all is brotherly love, free from selfish domination and self-seeking; and we cannot, therefore, afford to forget the advice of Paul to the Philippians, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Man is ever the true and exact reflection of God, and to judge this righteous judgment regardless of appearances is to love one another as the Father has loved us. Laying down a human concept of life for the divine, we shall see that “all things work together for good to them that love God,” and also that “what we deemed reproof was love most true.”

Since Spirit alone is good, everything desirable must needs be spiritual; therefore men must seek wholly in the mental realm, the source of all activity, for the experiences which will bring enduring joy and freedom. This kingdom of God, this secure abiding place, is ever within us, as Jesus affirmed, and no passing shadows and human beliefs can deprive us of the promised Comforter and its ministrations. A permanent consciousness of good can never contain a knowledge of evil, and when through revelation and unfoldment one comes to love the God-consciousness above all things else, material beliefs and temptations, however alluring to the human sense, will cease to attract. Man cannot live materially and be at peace, because he is spiritual, and liberty must of necessity be attained through the permanent establishment of spiritual thinking and living.

All glorious is each individual as God’s perfect ideal, and just because of this eternal fact the children of men suffer through trying to substantiate a duality which does not exist. This attempt being eventually abandoned as impossible of achievement, one begins to affirm persistently, daily and hourly, his true and only heritage, a Godlike selfhood, whose peace mortality can neither give nor take away. Then, the warfare ended, he can exclaim with great gladness, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Come Forth!

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When Jesus called to Lazarus to “come forth,” Jesus rejected any sense of the reality of what is called death. He was only conscious of Life, and so he could call to Lazarus to come out from the belief in death, from the debris of fear and darkness, into the light of eternal Truth — and Lazarus was obedient to Truth’s call. Mrs. Eddy writes, “Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that Lazarus had never died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again.” (S&H)

Jesus also called the blind to come forth and see, and the lame to walk, ignoring the claim that they could not do these perfectly natural things. He always saw man as perfect, knowing that man’s dominion and right activity are never interfered with. Frequently the Master called them to come forth from hunger, loss, sickness, fear, sin; and as they obeyed the call, old beliefs dropped away, and the perfect man of God was revealed.

All mankind must hear and obey the call to come forth from the material suggestion that man is mortal — to come forth out of all belief in a selfhood apart from God — and rise to the clear vision of man as God’s image, spiritual, perfect, and immortal now.

In Hebrews we read, “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” To diligently seek God is to long for good only. We may not come to God with pride of mortal selfhood, coldness of intellect, or with any conceit in personal achievement. We come because we believe in Christ Jesus and his teachings as to the allness and goodness of God, and because we realize something, at least, of what love means.

As we silence the material sense of things, we are better able to recognize the presence of the Christ, which then takes quiet possession of our being, peace is born, and the true sense of man appears. We discard and forget the mortal sense of personality, which has been only a shadow of the man of God’s creating. All good is ours, not by striving and struggling to attain it, but by quietly and confidently knowing that we actually are sons and daughters of God.

The call to come forth still sounds in the ears of those who are listening for the word of Truth. Let us today listen for the voice of the Master, obey his loving admonitions, accept the truth he gave, and reconsecrate ourselves to God and His service, hearing now as did those beforetime, the divine call, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,” and be ready to step into the sunlight of Truth.

Slow Healing

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One who is seeking freedom, and finds it delayed, is often tempted to question, why am I so long in being healed? I read and study faithfully, do everything required of me, “pray without ceasing,” yet conditions do not change. Others are quickly healed, without any apparent understanding or knowledge of Science, and seemingly without any effort on their part. This may be true; but the fact remains that each one must walk in his own pathway and learn the lessons to be gained therein.

My own healing in Christian Science was slow. The logic and theory of Christian Science was fairly clear to me within a month or two, but to trust it and make it practical took years. Looking back, I can see some reasons for delayed healing. In the first place, I believed absolutely in the reality and power of the error which I suffered. Then, too, I wanted to be healed above all else, and this is sometimes disastrous. I read the textbook with the thought in mind of being healed. I would read a powerful statement and think, “Maybe this will heal me.”

I would earnestly warn others against such practice. I thought practitioners were wasting their time when they talked so much about God, because I was not seeking a religion. I wished only to be free from suffering. Another hindrance was that I became desperately sorry for myself. Self-pity is like a poison. It seems some are quickly healed, but I was not one of these. I am deeply grateful for it all and for every step of the way, however rough it seemed.

It is absolutely necessary for some people to be driven to solitude, really to find and know themselves as children of Spirit; to become acquainted with a real self which they have never consciously met before.

This takes time, study, thought and consecration; a gradual laying aside of old beliefs and habits, a discarding of many faults, some that were once thought to be virtues; an overturning of false education, and a new kind of self-analysis from an entirely new basis.

At times one will say, “I don’t care how wearisome the way is, if I’m healed. But it seems as if I’m making no progress, despite the effort put forth.” This is never so for when freedom does come, one will be found farther along the road than he had ever dreamed he could be.

For the comfort of such wayfarers Mrs. Eddy writes, “If your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a sluggard in the race. When the smoke of battle clears away, you will discern the good you have done, and receive according to your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.” (Science and Health, p. 22)

I know in my own experience it was not until one day I set the textbook down and said, “Well, whether I am ever healed or not, I am certainly finding God as I never knew Him before.” Then better conditions began to be manifested. I turned to Christian Science with the thought of finding God. Then the suffering lessened and finally vanished. I thought less about the body and naturally it troubled me less.

Not unnaturally I always feel the deepest compassion toward those who seem slow in receiving their freedom, because I know the difficulties of hope deferred, but I must add that I also know much, very much of its triumphs.

Then let us persist; let us keep our confidence and faith in God, till the coming of that glad time when we can say, as did Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.”

More earnest seeking, striving, overcoming, day by day is still the one thing needful as we “press toward the mark;” but the pilgrim is not alone, for he has at last learned that our heavenly Father is with him every step of the way.

Sincere Desire

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O Father-Mother God, it’s You I seek,
Help me hear Your voice before I speak.
And, may the way be slow or fast,
Help me face each day, and leave the past.

I only ask that I may walk with You,
To feel Your presence lead me through,
Only to serve and comfort, help and heal,
That all I know may share the love I feel.

Help me to be patient and humbly wait,
Knowing that peace and joy can never come too late.
Make me Your own in thought, word and deed,
Holding me strong to meet my brother’s need.

Teach me to put the thought of self aside,
And in Your sheltering love to safe abide,
Make me to know and do the Master’s way,
And gratefully give thanks at close of day.

The Way of Freedom

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Many turn to Christian Science for healing after other methods have failed. Some expect to be healed immediately; others accept its ministrations because there is nothing else for them to do; while there are those who, while quite willing to try it, have little or no faith in its teachings.

Every practitioner is confronted with the question, “Why?” uttered by those who, studying diligently and obediently, seem strangely slow in attaining their freedom. Is it not sometimes because they are looking for some external thing to happen, not realizing that it is through the renewing of their own consciousness that the kingdom of all good will be revealed? Everyone must learn to govern the stream of thoughts which seems to run riot continually in his mentality, and through the power of discrimination, to hold fast to the good and reject the bad.

The way of freedom is the way of self-surrender, discarding anything and everything that would darken a genuine perception of the Christ.

A belief in intellectuality is one of the most difficult things to set aside, because it presents itself in the guise of good. However, it is spiritually deadening. Also, the attempt at money-getting, if money be looked upon as power, darkens thought and tends to make it cold and cruel; for love is not there. Frequently people are held back by a belief in human goodness, and will recount their faithful hours of study and prayer, asking, “What more can I do?”

A mistake repeatedly made by students of Christian Science, notably those who turn to it for healing, is that when reading the textbook, they constantly hold the thought of their desire to be healed. It is right to seek release from suffering, and equally right to receive it; but since release is to be found only in the consciousness of good, one must strive to attain a knowledge of God, good, without undue regard to so-called physical conditions and complainings. As one searches earnestly to learn more of God, becoming sufficiently absorbed in God-seeking to forget the body, healing is quietly and naturally established; for as one gains a confident and true sense of God, there is also revealed one’s true selfhood, ever existent in the divine Mind, which needs no healing.

Every physical difficulty indicates something to be overcome in thought; and through honest, persistent effort, ultimate victory is assured. In each and every case there must be a putting off of the old and a putting on of the new, a coming out of the darkness of materiality into the eternal light of spiritual Truth. Mrs. Eddy says, “Emerge gently from matter into Spirit.” (S&H) The all too common tendency to hurry and force things is to be deplored. According to Mrs. Eddy, emergence is a normal process, which begins with our first heartfelt longing to know God and to find our true selves in Him. Nothing can actually hinder progress when our endeavors are based on right motives and desires. The sun is not destroyed or even handicapped by the heavy clouds that sometimes obscure it; for with the passing of the clouds, it is found to be shining forth in all its enduring splendor.

The urgent call to come up higher never ceases; and when we hear and obey its summons, never doubting that the One who calls will unfailingly provide needful strength and wisdom to guide us on our way, we joyously look toward the goal, “forgetting those things which are behind,” turning to the ever waiting, ever loving Father, who stands ready to care for us at all times.

Love is the liberator.