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ANGELS When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of the dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts. Oh, may you feel this touch, -- it is not the clasping of hands, nor a loved person present; it is more than this: it is a spiritual idea that lights your path! The Psalmist saith: "He shall give His angels charge over thee." God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need to every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the "Peace, be still" to all human fears, to suffering of every sort. DEIFICATION OF PERSONALITY

Notwithstanding the rapid sale already of two editions of "Christ and Christmas," and many orders on hand, I have thought best to stop its publication.

In this revolutionary religious period, the increasing inquiry of mankind as to Christianity and its unity -- and above all, God's love opening the eyes of the blind -- is fast fitting all minds for the proper reception of Christian Science healing.

But I must stand on this absolute basis of Christian Science; namely, Cast not pearls before the unprepared thought. Idolatry is an easily-besetting sin of all peoples. The apostle saith, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

The illustrations were not intended for a golden calf, at which the sick may look and be healed. Christian Scientists should beaware of unseen snares, and adhere to the divine Principle and rules for demonstration. They must guard against the deification of finite personality. Every human thought must turn instinctively to the divine Mind as its sole centre and intelligence. Until this be done, man will never be found harmonious and immortal.

Whosoever looks to me personally for his health or holiness, mistakes. He that by reason of human love or hatred or any other cause clings to my material personality, greatly errs, stops his own progress, and loses the path to health, happiness, and heaven. The Scriptures and Christian Science reveal "the way," and personal revelators will take their proper place in history, but will not be deified.

Advanced scientific students are ready for "Christ and Christmas;" but those are a minority of its readers, and even they know it's practicality only by healing the sick on its divine Principle. In the words of the prophet, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord."

Friends, strangers, and Christian Scientists, I thank you, each and all, for your liberal patronage and scholarly, artistic, and scientific notices of my book. This little messenger has done its work, fulfilled its mission, retired with honor (and mayhap taught me more than it has others), only to reappear in due season. The knowledge that I have gleaned from its fruitage is, that intensely contemplating personality impedes spiritual growth; even as holding in mind the consciousness of disease prevents the recovery of the sick.

Christian Science is taught through its divine Principle, which is invisible to corporeal sense. A material human likeness is the antipode of man in the image and likeness of God. Hence, a finite person is not the model for a metaphysician. I earnestly advise all Christian Scientists to remove from their observation or study the personal sense of any one, and not to dwell in thought upon their own or others' corporeality, either as good or evil.

According to Christian Science, material personality is an error in premise, and must result in erroneous conclusions. All will agree with me that material portraiture often fails to express even mortal man, and this declares its unfitness for fable or fact to build upon.

The face of Jesus has uniformly been so unnaturally delineated that it has turned many from the true contemplation of his character. He advances most in divine Science who meditates most on infinite spiritual substance and intelligence. Experience proves this true. Pondering on the finite personality of Jesus, the son of man, is not the channel through which we reach the Christ, or Son of God, the true idea of man's divine Principle.

I warn students against falling into the error of antiChrist. The consciousness of corporeality, and whatever is connected therewith, must be outgrown. Corporeal falsities include all obstacles to health, holiness, and heaven. Man's individual life is infinitely above a bodily form of existence, and the human concept antagonizes the divine. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 229, third and fourth paragraphs, elucidates this topic.

Reader's note, in the current edition of Science and Health, it is page 334.

My Christmas poem and its illustrations are not a textbook. Scientists sometimes take things too intensely. Let them soberly adhere to the Bible and Science and Health, which contain all and much more than they have yet to learned. We should prohibit ourselves the childish pleasure of studying Truth through the senses, for this is neither the intent of my works nor possible in Science.

Even the teachings of Jesus would be misused by substituting personality for the Christ, or the impersonal form of Truth, amplified in this age by the discovery of Christian Science. To impersonalize scientifically the material sense of existence -- rather than cling to personality -- is the lesson of to-day. OVERFLOWING THOUGHTS

In this receding year of religious jubilee, 1894, I as an individual would cordially invite all persons who have left our fold, together with those who never have been in it, -- all who love God and keep His commandments, -- to come and unite with The Mother Church in Boston. The true Christian Scientists will be welcomed, greeted as brethren endeavoring to walk with us hand in hand, as we journey to the celestial city.

Also, I would extend a tender invitation to Christian Scientists' students, those who are ready for the table of our Lord: so, should we follow Christ's teachings; so, bury the dead past; so, loving one another, go forth to the full vintage-time, exemplifying what we profess. But some of the older members are not quite ready to take this advanced step in the full spirit of that charity which thinketh no evil; and if it be not taken thus, it is impractical, unfruitful, Soul-less.

My deepest desires and daily labors go to prove that I love my enemies and would help all to gain the abiding consciousness of health, happiness, and heaven.

I hate no one; and love others more than they can love me. As I now understand Christian Science, I would as soon harm myself as another; since by breaking Christ's command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," I should lose my hope of heaven.

The works I have written on Christian Science contain absolute Truth, and my necessity was to tell it; therefore I did this even as a surgeon who wounds to heal. I was a scribe under orders; and who can refrain from transcribing what God indites, and ought not that one to take the cup, drink all of it, and give thanks?

Being often reported as saying what never escaped from my lips, when rehearsing facts concerning others who were reporting false charges, I have been sorry that I spoke at all, and wished I were wise enough to guard against that temptation. Oh, may the love that is talked, be felt! and so lived, that when weighed in the scale of God we be not found wanting. Love is consistent, uniform, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, unutterably kind; even that which lays all upon the altar, and, speechless and alone, bears all burdens, suffers all inflictions, endures all piercing for the sake of others, and for the kingdom of heaven's sake. WORDS OF COMMENDATION

Editor of The Christian Science Journal: -- Permit me to say that your editorial in the August number is par excellence.

It is a digest of good manners, morals, methods, and means. It points to the scientific spiritual molecule, pearl, and pinnacle, that everybody needs. May the Christlikeness it reflects rest on the dear readers, and throw the light of penetration on the page; even as the dawn, kindling its glories in the east, lightens earth's landscape.

I thank the contributors to The Christian Science Journal for their jewels of thought, so adapted to the hour, and without ill-humor or hyperbolic tumor. I was impressed by the articles entitled "The New Pastor," by Rev. Lanson P. Norcross, "The Lamp," by Walter Church, "The Temptation," a poem by J.J. Rome, etc.

The field waves its white ensign, the reapers are strong, the rich sheaves are ripe, the storehouses ready: pray ye therefore the God of harvest to send forth more laborers of the excellent sort, and garner the supplies for a world. CHURCH AND SCHOOL

Humbly, and, as I believe, divinely directed, I hereby ordain the Bible, and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," to be hereafter the only pastor of The Church of Christ, Scientist, throughout our land and in other lands.

From this date the Sunday services of our denomination shall be conducted by Readers in lieu of pastors. Each church, or society formed for Sunday worship, shall elect two Readers: a male, and a female. One of these individuals shall open the meeting by reading the hymns, and chapter (or a portion of the chapter) in the Bible, lead in silent prayer, and repeat in concert with the congregation the Lord's Prayer. Also, this First Reader shall give out any notices from the pulpit, shall read the Scriptures indicated in the Sunday School Lesson of the Christian Science Quarterly, and shall pronounce the benediction.

The First Reader shall read from my book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," alternately in response to the congregation, the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer; also, shall read all the selections from Science and Health referred to in the Sunday Lessons.

The Reader of the Scriptures shall name, at each reading, the book, chapter, and verses. The Reader of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" shall commence by announcing the full title of this book, with the name of its author, and add to this announcement, "the Christian Science textbook." It is unnecessary to repeat the title or page. This form shall also be observed at the Communion service; the selections from both the Bible and the Christian Science textbook shall be taken from the Quarterly, as heretofore, and this Lesson shall be such as is adapted to that service. On the first Sunday of each month, except Communion Sunday, a sermon shall be preached to the children, from selections taken from the Scriptures and Science and Health, especially adapted to the occasion, and read after the manner of the Sunday service. The children's service shall be held on the Sunday following Communion Day.

No copies from my books are allowed to be written, and read from manuscripts, either in private or in public assemblies, except by their author.

Christian Scientists, all over the world, who are letterly fit and specially spiritually fitted for teachers, can teach annually three classes only. They shall teach from the Christian Science textbook. Each class shall consist of not over thirty-three students, carefully selected, and only of such as have promising proclivities toward Christian Science. The teacher shall hold himself morally obligated to look after the welfare of his students, not only through class term, but after it; and to watch well that they prove sound in sentiment, health, and practical Christian Science.

Teaching Christian Science shall be no question of money, but of morals and of uplifting the race. Teachers shall form associations for this purpose; and for the first few years, convene as often as once in three months. Teachers shall not silently mentally address the thought, to handle it, nor allow their students to do thus, except the individual needing it asks for mental treatment. They shall steadily and patiently strive to educate their students in conformity to the unerring wisdom and law of God, and shall enjoin upon them habitually to study His revealed Word, the Scriptures, and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

They shall teach their students how to defend themselves against mental malpractice, but never to return evil for evil; never to attack the malpractitioner, but to know the truth that makes free, -- and so to be a law not unto others, but themselves.

CLASS, PULPIT, STUDENTS' STUDENTS

When will you take a class in Christian Science or speak to your church in Boston? is often asked.

I shall speak to my dear church at Boston very seldom. The Mother Church must be self-sustained by God. The date of a class in Christian Science should depend on the fitness of things, the tide which flows heavenward, the hour best for the student. Until minds become less worldly-minded, and depart farther from the primitives of the race, and have profited up to their present capacity from the written word, they are not ready for the word spoken at this date.

My juniors can tell others what they know, and turn them slowly toward the haven. Imperative, accumulative, sweet demands rest on my retirement from life's bustle. What, then, of continual recapitulation of tired aphorisms and disappointed ethics; of patching breaches widened the next hour; of pounding wisdom and love into sounding brass; of warming marble and quenching volcanoes! Before entering the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, had my students achieved the point whence they could have derived most benefit from their pupilage, to-day there would be on earth paragons of Christianity, patterns of humility, wisdom, and might for the world.

To the students whom I have not seen that ask, "May I call you mother?" my heart replies, Yes, if you are doing God's work. When born of Truth and Love, we are all of one kindred.

The hour has struck for Christian Scientists to do their own work; to appreciate the signs of the times; to demonstrate self-knowledge and self-government; and to demonstrate, as this period demands, over all sin, disease, and death. The dear ones whom I would have great pleasure in instructing, know that the door to my teaching was shut when my College closed.

Again, it is not absolutely requisite for some people to be taught in a class, for they can learn by spiritual growth and by the study of what is written. Scarcely a moiety, compared with the whole of the Scriptures and the Christian Science textbook, is yet assimilated spiritually by the most faithful seekers; yet, this assimilation is indispensable to the progress of every Christian Scientist. These considerations prompt my answers to the above questions. Human desire is inadequate to adjust the balance on subjects of such earnest import. These words of our Master explain this hour: "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."

My sympathies are deeply enlisted for the students of students; having already seen in many instances their talents, culture, and singleness of purpose to uplift the race. Such students should not pay the penalty for other people's faults; and divine Love will open the way for them. My soul abhors injustice, and loves mercy. St. John writes: "Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him."

MY STUDENTS AND THY STUDENTS

Mine and thine are obsolete terms in absolute Christian Science, wherein and whereby the universal brotherhood of man is stated and demands to be demonstrated. I have a large affection, not alone for my students, but for thy students, -- for students of the second generation. I cannot but love some of those devoted students better than some of mine who are less lovable or Christly. This natural affection for goodness must go on ad libitum unto the third and fourth and final generation of those who love God and keep His commandments. Hence the following is an amendment of the paragraph on page 47 (l) of "Retrospection and Introspection": --

Any student, having received instructions in a Primary class from me, or from a loyal student of Christian Science, and afterwards studied thoroughly "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," can enter upon the gospel work of teaching Christian Science, and so fulfil the command of Christ. Before entering this sacred field of labor, the student must have studied faithfully the latest editions of my works, and be a good Bible scholar and a devout, consecrated Christian.

These are the indispensable demands on all those who become teachers.

UNSEEN SIN

Two points of danger beset mankind; namely, making sin seem either too large or too little: if too large, we are in the darkness of all the ages, wherein the true sense of the unity of good and the unreality of evil is lost.

If good is God, even as God is good, then good and evil can neither be coeval nor coequal, for God is All-in-all. This closes the argument of aught besides Him, aught else than good.

If the sense of sin is too little, mortals are in danger of not seeing their own belief in sin, but of seeing too keenly their neighbors'. Then, they are beset with egotism and hypocrisy. Here Christian Scientists must be most watchful. Their habit of mental and audible protest against the reality of sin, tends to make sin less or more to them than to other people. They must either be overcoming sin in themselves, or they must not lose sight of sin; else they are self-deceived sinners of the worst sort.

A WORD TO THE WISE

Will all the dear Christian Scientists accept my tender greetings for the forthcoming holidays, and grant me this request, -- let the present season pass without one gift to me.

Our church edifice must be built in 1894. Take thither thy saintly offerings, and lay them in the outstretched hand of God. The object to be won affords ample opportunity for the grandest achievement to which Christian Scientists can direct attention, and feel themselves alone among the stars.

No doubt must intervene between the promise and event; faith and resolve are friends to Truth; seize them, trust the divine Providence, push upward our prayer in stone, -- and God will give the benediction.

CHRISTMAS

This interesting day, crowned with the history of Truth's idea, -- its earthly advent and nativity, -- is especially dear to the heart of Christian Scientists; to whom Christ's appearing in a fuller sense is so precious, and fraught with divine benedictions for mankind.

The star that looked lovingly down on the manger of our Lord, lends its resplendent light to this hour: the light of Truth, to cheer, guide, and bless man as he reaches forth for the infant idea of divine perfection dawning upon human imperfection, -- that calms man's fears, bears his burdens, beckons him onto Truth and Love and the sweet immunity these bring from sin, sickness, and death.

This polar star, fixed in the heavens of divine Science, shall be the sign of his appearing who "healeth all our diseases;" it hath traversed night, wading through darkness and gloom, on to glory. It doth meet the antagonism of error; addressing to dull ears and undisciplined beliefs words of Truth and Life.

The star of Bethlehem is the star of Boston, high in the zenith of Truth's domain, that looketh down on the long night of human beliefs, to pierce the darkness and melt into dawn.

The star of Bethlehem is the light of all ages; is the light of Love, to-day christening religion undefiled, divine Science; giving to it a new name, and the white stone in token of purity and permanence.

The wise men follow this guiding star; the watchful shepherd chants his welcome over the cradle of a great truth, and saith, "Unto us a child is born," whose birth is less of a miracle than eighteen centuries ago; and "his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

My heart is filled with joy, that each receding year sees the steady gain of Truth's idea in Christian Science; that each recurring year witnesses the balance adjusted more on the side of God, the supremacy of Spirit; as shown by the triumphs of Truth over error, of health over sickness, of Life over death, and of Soul over sense.

"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

Press on, press on! ye sons of light,

Untiring in your holy fight,

Still treading each temptation down,

And battling for a brighter crown.

CARD

In reply to all invitations from Chicago to share the hospitality of their beautiful homes at any time during the great wonder of the world, the World's Fair, I say, Do not expect me. I have no desire to see or to hear what is to be offered upon this approaching occasion.

I have a world of wisdom and Love to contemplate, that concerns me, and you, infinitely beyond all earthly expositions or exhibitions. In return for your kindness, I earnestly invite you to its contemplation with me, and to preparation to behold it.

MESSAGE TO THE MOTHER CHURCH

Beloved Brethren: -- People coming from a distance expecting to hear me speak in The Mother Church, are frequently disappointed. To avoid this, I may hereafter notify the Directors when I shall be present to address this congregation, and the Clerk of the church can inform correspondents. Your dual and impersonal pastor, the Bible, and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is with you; and the Life these give, the Truth they illustrate, the Love they demonstrate, is the great Shepherd that feedeth my flock, and leadeth them "beside the still waters." By any personal presence, or word of mine, your thought must not be diverted or diverged, your senses satisfied, or self be justified.

Therefore, beloved, my often-coming is unnecessary; for, though I be present or absent, it is God that feedeth the hungry heart, that giveth grace for grace, that healeth the sick and cleanseth the sinner. For this consummation He hath given you Christian Science, and my past poor labors and love. He hath shown you the amplitude of His mercy, the justice of His judgment, the omnipotence of His love; and this, to compensate your zealous affection for seeking good, and for laboring in its widening grooves from the infinitesimal to the infinite.

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POND AND PURPOSE

BELOVED STUDENTS: -- In thanking you for your gift of the pretty pond contributed to Pleasant View, in Concord, New Hampshire, I make no distinction between my students and your students; for here, thine becomes mine through gratitude and affection.

From my tower window, as I look on this smile of Christian Science, this gift from my students and their students, it will always mirror their love, loyalty, and good works. Solomon saith, "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man."

The waters that run among the valleys, and that you have coaxed in their course to call on me, have served the imagination for centuries. Theology religiously bathes in water, medicine applies it physically, hydrology handles it with so-called science, and metaphysics appropriates it topically as type and shadow. Metaphysically, baptisms serves to rebuke the senses and illustrate Christian Science.

First: The baptism of repentance is indeed a stricken state of human consciousness, wherein mortals gain severe views of themselves; a state of mind which rends the veil that hides mental deformity. Tears flood the eyes, agony struggles, pride rebels, and a mortal seems a monster, a dark, impenetrable cloud of error; and falling on the bended knee of prayer, humble before God, he cries, "Save, or I perish." Thus Truth, searching the heart, neutralizes and destroys error.

This mental period is sometimes chronic, but oftener acute. It is attended throughout with doubt, hope, sorrow, joy, defeat, and triumph. When the good fight is fought, error yields up its weapons and kisses the feet of Love, while white-winged peace sings to the heart a song of angels.

Second: The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the spirit of Truth cleansing from all sin; giving mortals new motives, new purposes, new affections, all pointing upward. This mental condition settles into strength, freedom, deep-toned faith in God; and a marked loss of faith in evil, in human wisdom, human policy, ways, and means. It develops individual capacity, increases the intellectual activities, and so quickens moral sensibility that the great demands of spiritual sense are recognized, and they rebuke the material senses, holding sway over human consciousness.

By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiae of human affairs. It brings with it wonderful foresight, wisdom, and power; it unselfs the mortal purpose, gives steadiness to resolve, and success to endeavour. Through the accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition, and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry, evil thinking, evil speaking, and acting; and mortal mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of itself.

This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind, the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists of materiality, and melting away the shadows called sin, disease, and death.

In mortal experience, the fire of repentance first separates the dross from the gold, and reformation brings the light which dispels darkness. Thus the operation of the spirit of Truth and Love on the human thought, in the words of St. John, "shall take of mine and show it unto you."

Third: The baptism of Spirit, or final immersion of human consciousness in the infinite ocean of Love, is the last scene in corporeal sense. This omnipotent act drops the curtain on material man and mortality. After this, man's identity or consciousness reflects only Spirit, good, whose visible being is invisible to the physical senses: eye hath not seen it, inasmuch as it is the disembodied individual Spirit-substance and consciousness termed in Christian metaphysics the ideal man -- forever permeated with eternal life, holiness, heaven. This order of Science is the chain of ages, which maintain their obvious correspondence, and unites all periods in the divine design. Mortal man's repentance and absolute abandonment of sin finally dissolves all supposed material life or physical sensation, and the corporeal or mortal man disappears forever. The encumbering mortal molecules, called man, vanish as a dream; but man born of the great Forever, lives on, God-crowned and blest.

Mortals who on the shores of time learn Christian Science, and live what they learn, take rapid transit to heaven,-- the hinge on which have turned all revolutions, natural, civil, or religious, the former being servant to the latter,-- from flux to permanence, from foul to pure, from torpid to serene, from extremes to intermediate. Above the waves of Jordan, dashing against the receding shore, is heard the Father and Mother's welcome, saying forever to the baptized of Spirit: "This is my beloved Son." What but divine Science can interpret man's eternal existence, God's allness, and the scientific indestructibility of the universe?

The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion; idleness is the foe of progress. And scientific growth manifests no weakness, no emasculation, no illusive vision, no dreamy absentness, no insubordination to the laws that be, no loss nor lack of what constitutes true manhood.

Growth is governed by intelligence; by the active, all-wise, law-creating, law-disciplining, law-abiding Principle, God. The real Christian Scientist is constantly accentuating harmony in word and deed, mentally and orally, perpetually repeating this diapason of heaven: "Good is my God, and my God is good. Love is my God, and my God is Love."

Beloved students, you have entered the path. Press patiently on; God is good, and good is the reward of all who diligently seek God. Your growth will be rapid, if you love good supremely, and understand and obey the Way-shower, who, going before you, has scaled the steep ascent of Christian Science, stands upon the mount of holiness, the dwelling-place of our God, and bathes in the baptismal font of eternal Love.

As you journey, and betimes sigh for rest "beside the still waters," ponder this lesson of love. Learn its purpose; and in hope and faith, where heart meets heart reciprocally blest, drink with me the living waters of the spirit of my life-purpose, -- to impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian Science.

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CHAPTER VI -- SERMONS

A CHRISTMAS SERMON

DELIVERED IN CHICKERING HALL, BOSTON, MASS., ON THE SUNDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 1888

SUBJECT: The Corporeal and Incorporeal Saviour

TEXT: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. -- ISAIAH ix. 6.

TO the senses, Jesus was the son of man: in Science, man is the son of God. The material senses could not cognize the Christ, or Son of God: it was Jesus' approximation to this state of being that made him the Christ-Jesus, the Godlike, the anointed.

The prophet whose words we have chosen for our text, prophesied the appearing of this dual nature, as both human and divinely endowed, the personal and the impersonal Jesus.

The only record of our Master as a public benefactor, or personal Saviour, opens when he was thirty years of age; owing in part, perhaps, to the Jewish law that none should teach or preach in public under that age. Also, it is natural to conclude that at this juncture he was specially endowed with the Holy Spirit; for he was given a new name, Messiah, or Jesus Christ, -- the God anointed; even as, at times of special enlightenment, Jacob was called Israel; and Saul, Paul.

The third event of this eventful period, -- a period of such wonderful spiritual import to mankind! -- was the advent of a higher Christianity.

From this dazzling, God-crowned summit, the Nazarene stepped suddenly before the people and their schools of philosophy; Gnostic, Epicurean, and Stoic. He must stem these rising angry elements, and walk serenely over their fretted, foaming billows.

Here the cross became the emblem of Jesus' history; while the central point of his Messianic mission was peace, good will, love, teaching, and healing.

Clad with divine might, he was ready to stem the tide of Judaism, and prove his power, derived from Spirit, to be supreme; lay himself as a lamb upon the altar of materialism, and therefrom rise to his nativity in Spirit.

The corporeal Jesus bore our infirmities, and through his stripes we are healed. He was the Way-shower, and suffered in the flesh, showing mortals how to escape from the sins of the flesh.

There was no incorporeal Jesus of Nazareth. The spiritual man, or Christ, was after the similitude of the Father, without corporeality or finite mind.

Materiality, worldliness, human pride, or self-will, by demoralizing his motives and Christ-likeness, would have dethroned his power as the Christ.

To carry out his holy purpose, he must be oblivious of human self.

Of the lineage of David, like him he went forth, simple as the shepherd boy, to disarm the Goliath. Panoplied in the strength of an exalted hope, faith, and understanding, he sought to conquer the three-in-one of error: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Three years he went about doing good. He had for thirty years been preparing to heal and teach divinely; but his three-years mission was a marvel of glory: its chaplet, a grave to mortal sense dishonored -- from which sprang a sublime and everlasting victory!

He who dated time, the Christian era, and spanned eternity, was the meekest man on earth. He healed and taught by the wayside, in humble homes: to arrant hypocrite and to dull disciples he explained the Word of God, which has since ripened into interpretation through Science.

His words were articulated in the language of a declining race, and committed to the providence of God. In no one thing seemed he less human and more divine than in his unfaltering faith in the immortality of Truth. Referring to this, he said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away!" and they have not: they still live; and are the basis of divine liberty, the medium of Mind, the hope of the race.

Only three years a personal Saviour! yet the foundations he laid are as eternal as Truth, the chief cornerstone.

After his brief brave struggle, and the crucifixion of the corporeal man, the incorporeal Saviour-- the Christ or spiritual idea which leadeth into all Truth -- must needs come in Christian Science, demonstrating the spiritual healing of body and mind.

This idea or divine essence was, and is, forever about the Father's business; heralding the Principle of health, holiness, and immortality.

Its divine Principle interprets the incorporeal idea, or Son of God; hence the incorporeal and corporeal are distinguished thus: the former is the spiritual idea that represents divine good, and the latter is the human presentation of goodness in man. The Science of Christianity, that has appeared in the ripeness of time, reveals the incorporeal Christ; and this will continue to be seen more clearly until it be acknowledged, understood, -- and the Saviour, which is Truth, be comprehended.

To the vision of the Wisemen, this spiritual idea of the Principle of man or the universe, appeared as a star. At first, the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonderful manifestation of Truth and Love.

In our text Isaiah foretold, "His name shall called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

As the Wisemen grew in the understanding of Christ, the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it will continue, as it shall become understood, until man be found in the actual likeness of his Maker. Their highest human concept of the man Jesus, that portrayed him as the only Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth, will become so magnified to human sense, by means of the lens of Science, as to reveal man collectively, as individually, to be the son of God.

The limited view of God's ideas arose from the testimony of the senses. Science affords the evidence that God is the Father of man, of all that is real and eternal. This spiritual idea that the personal Jesus demonstrated, casting out evils and healing, more than eighteen centuries ago, disappeared by degrees; both because of the ascension of Jesus, in which it was seen that he had grown beyond the human sense of him, and because of the corruption of the Church.

The last appearing of Truth will be a wholly spiritual idea of God and of man, without the fetters of the flesh, or corporeality. This infinite idea of infinity will be, is as eternal as its divine Principle. The daystar of this appearing is the light of Christian Science -- the Science which rends the veil of the flesh from top to bottom. The light of this revelation leaves nothing that is material; neither darkness, doubt, disease, nor death. The material corporeality disappears; and individual spirituality, perfect and eternal, appears -- never to disappear.

The truth uttered and lived by Jesus, who passed on and left to mortals the rich legacy of what he said and did, makes his followers the heirs to his example; but they can neither appreciate nor appropriate his treasures of Truth and Love, until lifted to these by their own growth and experiences. His goodness and grace purchased the means of mortals' redemption from sin; but, they never paid the price of sin. This cost, none but the sinner can pay; and accordingly as this account is settled with divine Love, is the sinner ready to avail himself of the rich blessings flowing from the teaching, example, and suffering of our Master.

The secret stores of wisdom must be discovered, their treasures reproduced and given to the world, before man can truthfully conclude that he has been found in the order, mode, and virgin origin of man, according to divine Science, which alone demonstrates the divine Principle and spiritual idea of being.

The monument whose finger points upward, commemorates the earthly life of a martyr; but this is not all of the philanthropist, hero, and Christian. The Truth he has taught and spoken lives, and moves in our midst a divine afflatus. Thus it is that the ideal Christ -- or impersonal infancy, manhood, and womanhood of Truth and Love -- is still with us.

And what of this child? -- "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder."

This child, or spiritual idea, has evolved a more ready ear for the overture of angels and the scientific understanding of Truth and Love. When Christ, the incorporeal idea of God, was nameless, and a Mary knew not how to declare its spiritual origin, the idea of man was not understood. The Judaean religion even required the Virgin-mother to go to the temple and be purified, for having given birth to the corporeal child Jesus, whose origin was more spiritual than the senses could interpret. Like the leaven that a certain woman hid in three measures of meal, the Science of God and the spiritual idea, named in this century Christian Science, is leavening the lump of human thought, until the whole shall be leavened and all materialism disappear. This action of the divine energy, even if not acknowledged, has come to be seen as diffusing richest blessings. This spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiae of the life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified.

The material questions at this age on the reappearing of the infantile thought of God's man, are after the manner of a mother in the flesh, though their answers pertain to the spiritual idea, as in Christian Science: --

Is he deformed?

He is wholly symmetrical; the one altogether lovely.

Is the babe a son, or daughter?

Both son and daughter: even the compound idea of all that resembles God.

How much does he weigh?

His substance outweighs the material world.

How old is he?

Of his days there is no beginning and no ending.

What is his name?

Christ Science.

Who are his parents, brothers, and sisters?

His Father and Mother are divine Life, Truth, and Love; and they who do the will of his Father are his brethren.

Is he heir to an estate?

"The government shall be upon his shoulder!" He has dominion over the whole earth; and in admiration of his origin, he exclaims, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes!"

Is he wonderful?

His works thus prove him. He giveth power, peace, and holiness; he exalteth the lowly; he giveth liberty to the captive, health to the sick, salvation from sin to the sinner -- and overcometh the world!

Go, and tell what things ye shall see and hear: how the blind, spiritually and physically, receive sight; how the lame, those halting between two opinions or hobbling on crutches, walk; how the physical and moral lepers are cleansed; how the deaf -- those who, having ears, hear not, and are afflicted with "tympanum on the brain" -- hear; how the dead, those buried in dogmas and physical ailments, are raised; that to the poor -- the lowly in Christ, not the man-made rabbi -- the gospel is preached. Note this: only such as are pure in spirit, emptied of vainglory and vain knowledge, receive Truth.

Here ends the colloquy; and a voice from heaven seems to say, "Come and see."

The nineteenth- century prophets repeat, "Unto us a son is given."

The shepherds shout, "We behold the appearing of the star!"-- and the pure in heart clap their hands. EDITOR'S EXTRACTS FROM SERMON

TEXT: Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. -- MATT. xxii. 29.

The Christian Science Journal reported as follows: --

The announcement that the Rev. Mary B.G Eddy would speak before the Scientist denomination on the afternoon of October 26, drew a large audience. Hawthorne Hall was densely packed, and many had to go away unable to obtain seats. The distinguished speaker began by saying: --

Within Bible pages she had found all the divine Science she preaches; noticing, all along the way of her researches therein, that whenever her thoughts have wandered into the bypaths of ancient philosophies or pagan literatures, her spiritual insight had been darkened thereby, till she was God-driven back to the inspired pages. Early training, through the misinterpretation of the Word, had been the underlying cause of the long years of invalidism she endured before Truth dawned upon her understanding, through right interpretation. With the understanding of Scripture-meanings, had come physical rejuvenation. The uplifting of spirit was the upbuilding of the body.

She affirmed that the Scriptures cannot properly be interpreted in a literal way. The truths they teach must be spiritually discerned, before their message can be borne fully to our minds and hearts. That there is a dual meaning to every Biblical passage, the most eminent divines of the world have concluded; and to get the highest, or metaphysical, it is necessary rightly to read what the inspired writers left for our spiritual instruction. The literal rendering of the Scriptures makes them nothing valuable, but often is the foundation of unbelief and hopelessness. The metaphysical rendering is health and peace and hope for all. The literal or material reading is the reading of the carnal mind, which is enmity towards God, Spirit.

Taking several Bible passages, Mrs. Eddy showed how beautiful and inspiring are the thoughts when rightly understood. "Let the dead bury the dead; follow thou me," was one of the passages explained metaphysically. In their fullest meaning, those words are salvation from the belief of death, the last enemy to be overthrown; for by following Christ truly, resurrection and life immortal are brought to us. If we follow him, to us there can be no dead. Those who know not this, may still believe in death and weep over the graves of their beloved; but with him is Life eternal, which never changes to death. The eating of bread and drinking of wine at the Lord's supper, merely symbolize the spiritual refreshment of God's children having rightly read His Word, whose entrance into their understanding is healthful life. This is the reality behind the symbol.

So, also, she spoke of the hades, or hell of Scripture, saying, that we make our own heavens and our own hells, by right and wise, or wrong and foolish, conceptions of God and our fellow-men. Jesus interpreted all spiritually: "I have bread to eat that ye know not of," he said. The bread he ate, which was refreshment of divine strength, we also may all partake up.

The material record of the Bible, she said, is no more important to our well-being than the history of Europe and America; but the spiritual application bears upon our eternal life. The method of Jesus was purely metaphysical; and no other method is Christian Science. In the passage recording Jesus' proceedings with the blind man (Mark viii.) he is said to have spat upon the dust. Spitting was the Hebrew method of expressing the utmost contempt. So Jesus is recorded as having expressed contempt for the belief of material eyes as having any power to see. Having eyes, ye see not; and ears, ye hear not, he had just told them. The putting on of hands mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power. "Hand," in Bible usage, often means spiritual power.

"His hand is not shortened that it cannot save," can never be wrested from its true meaning to signify human hands. Jesus' first effort to realize Truth was not wholly successful; but he rose to the occasion with the second attempt, and the blind saw clearly. To suppose that Jesus did actually anoint the blind man's eyes with his spittle, is as absurd as to think, according to the report of some, that Christian Scientists sit in back-to-back seances with their patients, for the divine power to filter from vertebrae to vertebrae. When one comes to the age with spiritual translations of God's messages, expressed in literal or physical terms, our right action is not to condemn and deny, but to "try the spirits" and see what manner they are of. This does not mean communing with spirits supposed to have departed from the earth, but the seeking out of the basis upon which are accomplished the works by which the new teacher would prove his right to be heard. By these signs are the true disciples of the Master known: the sick are healed; to the poor the gospel is preached. EXTRACT FROM A SERMON DELIVERED IN BOSTON, JANUARY 18, 1885

TEXT: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. --MATT. xiii. 33.

Few people at present know aught of the Science of mental healing; and so many are obtruding upon the public attention their ignorance or false knowledge in the name of Science, that it behooves all clad in the shining mail to keep bright their invincible armor; to keep their demonstrations modest, and their claims and lives steadfast in Truth.

Dispensing the Word charitably, but separating the tares from the wheat, let us declare the positive and the negative of metaphysical Science; what it is, and what it is not. Intrepid, self-oblivious Protestants in a higher sense than ever before, let us meet and defeat the claims of sense and sin, regardless of the bans or clans pouring in their fire upon us; and white-winged charity, brooding over all, shall cover with her feathers the veriest sinner.

Divine and unerring Mind measures man, until the three measures be accomplished, and he arrives at fulness of stature; for "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."

Science is divine: it is neither of human origin nor of human direction. That which is termed "natural science," the evidences whereof are taken in by the five personal senses, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite law of God; which law is written on the heart, received through the affections, spiritually understood, and demonstrated in our lives.

This law of God is the Science of mental healing, spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed.

Mental Science, and the five personal senses, are at war; and peace can only be declared on the side of immutable right, -- the health, holiness, and immortality of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and fundamental rule of Science must be understood and adhered to; namely, the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture that God is good; hence, good is omnipotent and omnipresent.

Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, or man's theorems, misstate mental Science, its Principle and practice. The most enlightened sense herein sees nothing but a law of matter.

Who has ever learned of the schools that there is but one Mind, and that this is God, who healeth all our sickness sins?

Who has ever learned from the schools, pagan philosophy, or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of Mind and not of matter, and that this law has no relation to, or recognition of, matter?

Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God, omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an opposite so-called science, which says that man is both matter and mind, that Mind is in matter? Can the infinite be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that it is man?

If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power and all-presence, man is not met by another power and presence, that -- obstructing his intelligence -- pains, fetters, befools him. The perfection of man is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator? Surely not from God, for He made man in His own likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called matter? Have attraction and cohesion formed it? But are these forces laws of matter, or laws of Mind?

For matter to be matter, it must have been self-created. Mind has no more power to evolve or to create matter than has good to produce evil. Matter is a misstatement of Mind; it is a lie, claiming to talk and disclaim against Truth; idolatry, having other gods; evil, having presence and power over omnipotence!

Let us have a clearing up of abstractions. Let us come into the presence of Him who removeth all iniquities, and healeth all our diseases. Let us attach our sense of Science to what touches the religious sentiment within man. Let us open our affections to the Principle that moves all in harmony, -- from the falling of a sparrow to the rolling of a world. Above Arcturus and his sons, broader than the solar system and higher than the atmosphere of our planet, is the Science of mental healing.

What is the kingdom of heaven? The abode of Spirit, the realm of the real. No matter is there, no night is there-- nothing that maketh or worketh a lie. Is this kingdom afar off? No: it is ever-present here. The first to declare against this kingdom is matter. Shall that be called heresy which pleads for Spirit -- the All of God, and His omnipresence?

The kingdom of heaven is the reign of divine Science: it is a mental state. Jesus said it is within you, and taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come;" but he did not teach us to pray for death whereby to gain heaven. We do not look into darkness for light. Death can never usher in the dawn of Science that reveals the spiritual facts of man's Life here and now.

The leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, is Divine Science; the Comforter; the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the "still, small voice" that breathes His presence and power, casting out error and healing the sick. And woman, the spiritual idea, takes of the things of God and showeth them unto the creature, until the whole sense of being is leavened with Spirit. The three measures of meal may well be likened to the false sense of life, substance, and intelligence, which says, I am sustained by bread, matter, instead of Mind. The spiritual leaven of divine Science changes this false sense, giving better views of Life; saying, Man's Life is God; and when this shall appear, it shall be "the substance of things hoped for."

The measure of Life shall increase by every spiritual touch, even as the leaven expands the loaf. Man shall keep the feast of Life, not with the old leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, neither with "the leaven of malice and wickedness; but the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Thus it can be seen that the Science of mental healing must be understood. There are false Christs that would "deceive, if it were possible, the very elect," by instituting matter and its methods in place of God, Mind. Their supposition is, that there are other minds than His; that one mind controls another; that one belief takes the place of another. But this ism of to-day has nothing to do with the Science of mental healing which acquaints us with God and reveals the one perfect Mind and His laws.

The attempt to mix matter and Mind, to work by means of both animal magnetism and divine power, is literally saying, Have we not in thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful works?

But remember God in all thy ways, and thou shalt find the truth that breaks the dream of sense, letting the harmony of Science that declares Him, come in with healing, and peace, and perfect love.