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ORIGIN OF EVIL

The origin of evil is the problem of ages. It confronts each generation anew. It confronts Christian Science. The question is often asked, If God created only the good, whence comes the evil?

To this question Christian Science replies: Evil never did exist as an entity. It is but a belief that there is an opposite intelligence to God. This belief is a species of idolatry, and is not more true or real than that an image graven on wood or stone is God.

The mortal admission of the reality of evil perpetuates faith in evil; and the Scriptures declare that 'to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are." This leading, self-evident proposition of Christian Science, that, good being real, its opposite is necessarily unreal, needs to be grasped in all its divine requirements.

TRUTH VERSUS ERROR

" 'A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." It is a rule in Christian Science never to repeat error unless it becomes a requisite to bring out Truth. Then lift the curtain, let in the light, and countermand this first command of Solomon, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him."

A distant rumbling and quivering of the earth foretell the internal action of pent-up gas. To avoid danger from this source people have to escape from their houses to the open space. A conical cloud, hanging like a horoscope in the air, foreshadows a cyclone. To escape from this calamity people prepare shelter in caves of the earth.

They who discern the face of the skies cannot always discern the mental signs of these times, and peer through the opaque error. Where my vision begins and is clear, theirs grows indistinct and ends.

There are diversities of operation by the same spirit. Two individuals, with all the goodness of generous natures, advise me. One says, Go this way; the other says, Take the opposite direction! Between the two I stand still; or, accepting the premonition of one of them, I follow his counsel, take a few steps, then halt. A true sense not unfamiliar has been awakened. I see the way now. The guardians of His presence go before me. I enter the path. It may be smooth, or it may be rugged; but it is always straight and narrow; and if it be uphill all the way, the ascent is easy and the summit can be gained.

God is responsible for the mission of those whom He has anointed. Those who know no will but His take His hand, and from the night He leads to light. None can say unto Him, What doest Thou?

The Christian Science Journal was the oldest and only authenticated organ of Christian Science up to 1898. Loyal Scientists are targets for envy, rivalry, slander; and whoever hits this mark is well paid by the umpire. But the Scientists aim highest. They press forward towards the mark of a high calling. They recognize the claims of the law and the gospel. They know that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. They infringe neither the books nor the business of others; and with hearts overflowing with love for God, they help on the brotherhood of men. It is not mine but Thine they seek.

When God bids one uncover iniquity, in order to exterminate it, one should lay it bare; and divine Love will bless this endeavour and those whom it reaches. "Nothing is hid that shall not be revealed."

It is only a question of time when God shall reveal His rod, and show the plan of battle. Error, left to itself, accumulates. Hence, Solomon's transverse command: "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit."

To quench the growing flames of falsehood, once in about seven years I have to repeat this, --that I use no drugs whatever, not even coffea (coffee), thea (tea), capsicum (red pepper); though every day, and especially at dinner, I indulge in homeopathic doses of Natrum muriaticum (common salt).

When I found myself under this new regime of medicine, the medicine of Mind, I wanted to satisfy my curiosity as to the effect of drugs on one who had lost all faith in them. Hence I tried several doses of medicine, and so proved to myself that drugs have no beneficial effect on an individual in a proper state of mind.

I have by no means encouraged students of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College to enter medical schools, and afterwards denied this and objected to their entering those schools. A student who consulted me on this subject, received my consent and even the offer of pecuniary assistance to take lessons outside of my College, provided he received these lessons of a certain regular-school physician, whose instructions included about twelve lessons, three weeks' time, and the surgical part of midwifery. I have students with the degree of M.D., who are skilful obstetricians. Such a course with such a teacher would not necessitate essential materialization of a student's thought, nor detract from the metaphysical mode of obstetrics taught in my College.

This student had taken the above-named course in obstetrics when he consulted me on the feasibility of entering a medical school; and to this I objected on the ground that it was inconsistent with Christian Science, which he claimed to be practising; but I was willing, and said so, that, notwithstanding my objection, he should do as he deemed best, for I claim no jurisdiction over any students. He entered the medical school, and several other students with him. My counsel to all of them was in substance the same as the foregoing, and some of these students have openly acknowledged this.

In answer to a question on the following subject, I will state that I preached four years, and built up the church, before I would accept the slightest remuneration. When the church had sufficient members and means to pay a salary, and refused to give me up or to receive my gratuitous services, I accepted, for a time, fifteen dollars each Sunday when I preached. I never received more than this; and the contributions, when I preached, doubled that amount. I have accepted no pay from my church for about three years, and believe that I have put into the church-fund about two thousand dollars of my own contributions. I hold receipts for jumi,489.50 paid in, and the balance was never receipted for.

I temporarily organized a secret society known as the P.M., the workings whereof were not "terrible and too shocking to relate." By and with the advice of the very student who brings up the question of this society, it was formed. The P.M. (Private Meeting) Society met only twice. The first subject given out for consideration was this: "There is no Animal Magnetism." There was no advice given, no mental work, and there were no transactions at those meetings which I would hesitate to have known. On the contrary, our deliberations were, as usual, Christian, and like my public instruction. The second P.M. convened in about one week from the first. The subject given out at that meeting was, in substance, "God is All; there is none beside Him." This proved to be our last meeting. I dissolved the society, and we have not met since. If harm could come from the consideration of these two topics, it was because of the misconception of those subjects in the mind that handled them. An individual state of mind sometimes occasions effects on patients which are not in harmony with Science and the soundness of the argument used. Hence it prevents the normal action, and the benefit that would otherwise accrue.

I issue no arguments, and cause none to be used in mental practice, which consign people to suffering. On the contrary, I cannot serve two masters; therefore I teach the use of such arguments only as promote health and spiritual growth. My life, consecrated to humanity through nameless suffering and sacrifice, furnishes its own proof of my practice.

I have sometimes called on students to test their ability and meet the mental malpractice, so as to lift the burdens imposed by students.

The fact is, that for want of time, and for the purpose of blessing even my enemies, I neglect myself. I never have practised by arguments which, perverted, are the weapons of the silent mental malpractice. I have no skill in occultism; and I could not if I would, and would not if I could, harm any one through the mental method of Mind-healing, or in any manner.

The late much-ado-about-nothing arose solely from mental malicious practice, and the audible falsehood designed to stir up strife between brethren, for the purpose of placing Christian Science in the hands of aspirants for place and power. These repeated attempts of mad ambition may retard our Cause, but they never can place it in the wrong hands and hold it there, nor benefit mankind by such endeavors. Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy

FALLIBILITY OF HUMAN CONCEPTS

Evil counterfeits good: it says, "I am Truth," though it is a lie; it says, "I am love," -- but Love is spiritual, and sensuous love is material, wherefore it is hate instead of Love; for the five senses give to mortals pain, sickness, sin, and death, -- pleasure that is false, life that leads unto death, joy that becomes sorrow. Love that is not the procurator of happiness, declares itself the antipode of Love; and Love divine punishes the joys of this false sense of love, chastens its affection, purifies it, and turns it into the opposite channels.

Material life is the antipode of spiritual life; it mocks the bliss of spiritual being; it is bereft of permanence and peace.

When human sense is quickened to behold aright the error, -- the error of regarding Life, Truth, Love as material and not spiritual, or as both material and spiritual, -- it is able for the first time to discern the Science of good. But it must first see the error of its present erroneous course, to be able to behold the facts of Truth outside of the error; and, vice versa, when it discovers the truth, this uncovers the error and quickens the true consciousness of God, good. May the human shadows of thought lengthen as they approach the light, until they are lost in light and no night is there!

In Science, sickness is healed upon the same Principle and by the same rule that sin is healed. To know the supposed bodily belief of the patient and what has claimed to produce it, enables the practitioner to act more understandingly in destroying this belief. Thus it is in healing the moral sickness; the malicious mental operation must be understood in order to enable one to destroy it and its effects. There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful. Through the divine energies alone, one must either get out of himself and into God so far that his consciousness is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through argument and the human consciousness of both evil and good, overcome evil.

The only difference between the healing of sin and the healing of sickness is, that sin must be uncovered before it can be destroyed, and the moral sense be aroused to reject the sense of error; while sickness must be covered with the veil of harmony, and the consciousness be allowed to rejoice in the sense that it has nothing to mourn over, but something to forget.

Human concepts run in extremes; they are like the action of sickness, which is either an excess of action or not action enough; they are fallible; they are neither standards nor models.

If one asks me, Is my concept of you right? I reply, The human concept is always imperfect; relinquish your human concept of me, or of anyone, and find the divine, and you have gained the right one -- and never until then. People give me too much attention of the misguided, fallible sort, and this misrepresents one through malice or ignorance.

My brother was a manufacturer; and one day a workman in his mills, a practical joker, set a man who applied for work, in the overseer's absence, to pour a bucket of water every ten minutes on the regulator. When my brother returned and saw it, he said to the jester, "You must pay that man." Some people try to tend folks, as if they should steer the regulator of mankind. God makes us pay for tending the action that He adjusts.

The regulator is governed by the principle that makes the machinery work rightly; and because it is thus governed, the folly of tending it is no mere jest. The divine Principle carries on His harmony.

Now turn from the metaphor of the mill to the Mother's four thousand children, most of whom, at about three years of scientific age, setup housekeeping alone. Certain students, being too much interested in themselves to think of helping others, go their way. They do not love Mother, but pretend to; they constantly go to her for help, interrupt the home-harmony, criticise and disobey her; then "return to their vomit," -- world worship, pleasure seeking, and sense indulgence, -- meantime declaring they "never disobey Mother"! It exceeds my conception of human nature. Sin in its very nature is marvellous! Who but a moral idiot, sanguine of success in sin, can steal, and lie and lie, and lead the innocent to doom? History needs it, and it has the grandeur of the loyal, self-forgetful, faithful Christian Scientists to overbalance this foul stuff.

When the Mother's love can no longer promote peace in the family, wisdom is not "justified of her children." When depraved reason is preferred to revelation, error to Truth, and evil to good, and sense seems sounder than Soul, the children are tending the regulator; they are indeed losing the knowledge of the divine Principle and rules of Christian Science, whose fruits prove the nature of their source. A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God.

Instead of relying on the Principle of all that really exists, -- to govern His own creation, -- self-conceit, ignorance, and pride would regulate God's action. Experience shows that humility is the first step in Christian Science, wherein all is controlled, not by man or laws material, but by wisdom, Truth, and Love.

Go gaze on the eagle, his eye on the sun,

Fast gathering strength for a flight well begun,

As rising he rests in a liberty higher

Than genius inflated with worldly desire.

No tear dims his eye, nor his pinions lose power

To gaze on the lark in her emerald bower --

Whenever he soareth to fashion his nest,

No vision more bright than the dream in his breast. Miscellaneous writings by Mary Baker Eddy

THE WAY

The present stage of progress in Christian Science presents two opposite aspects, -- a full-orbed promise, and a gaunt want. The need, however, is not of the letter, but the spirit.

Less teaching and good healing is to-day the acme of "well done;" a healing that is not guesswork, -- chronic recovery ebbing and flowing, -- but instantaneous cure. This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived. To consummate this desideratum, mortal mind must pass through three stages of growth.

First, self-knowledge. The physician must know himself and understand the mental state of his patient. Error found out is two-thirds destroyed, and the last third pierces itself, for the remainder only stimulates and gives scope to higher demonstration. To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea. Mental darkness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power, and its victim is responsible for it's suppositious presence. "Cast the beam out of thine own eye." Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike "the anointed," and cast it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient's mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest like the dove from the deluge.

"Physician, heal thyself." Let no clouds of sin gather and fall in mist and showers from thine own mental atmosphere. Hold thy gaze to the light, and the iris of faith, more beautiful than the rainbow seen from my window at the close of the balmy autumnal day, will span thy heavens of thought.

A radiant sunset, beautiful as blessings when they take their flight, dilates and kindles into rest. Thus will a life corrected illumine its own atmosphere with spiritual glow and understanding.

The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate need no temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom.

My students, with cultured intellects, chastened affections, and costly hopes, give promise of grand careers. But they must remember that the seedtime is passed, the harvest hour has come; and songs should ascend from the mount of revelation, sweeter than the sound of vintage bells.

The seed of Christian Science, which when sown was "the least of all seeds," has sprung up, borne fruit, and the birds of the air, the uplifted desires of the human heart, have lodged in its branches. Now let my faithful students carry the fruit of this tree into the rock-ribbed nests of the raven's callow brood.

The second stage of mental development is humility. This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of Christian Science. One can never go up, until one has gone down in his own esteem. Humility is lens and prism to the understanding of Mind-healing; it must be had to understand our textbook; it is indispensable to personal growth, and points out the chart of its divine Principle and rule of practice.

Cherish humility, "watch," and "pray without ceasing," or you will miss the way of Truth and Love. Humility is no busybody: it has no moments for trafficking in other people's business, no place for envy, no time for idle words, vain amusements, and all the et cetera of the ways and means of personal sense.

Let Christian Scientists minister to the sick; the schoolroom is the dernier ressort. Let them seek the lost sheep who, having strayed from the true fold, have lost their great Shepherd and yearn to find living pastures and rest beside still waters. These long for the Christlikeness that is above the present status of religion and beyond the walks of common life, quite on the verge of heaven. Without the cross and healing, Christianity has no central emblem, no history.

The seeds of Truth fall by the wayside, on artless listeners. They fall on stony ground and shallow soil. The fowls of the air pick them up. Much of what has been sown has withered away, but what remaineth has fallen into the good and honest hearts and is bearing fruit.

The third stage of mental growth is manifested in love, the greatest of all stages and states of being; love that is irrespective of self, rank, or following. For some time, it has been clear to my thought that those students of Christian Science whose Christian characters and lives recommend them, should receive full fellowship from us, no matter who has taught them. If they have been taught wrongly, they are not morally responsible for this, and need special help. They are as lambs that have sought the true fold in the great Shepherd, and strayed innocently; hence we should be ready and glad to help them and point the way.

Divine Love is the substance of Christian Science, the basis of its demonstration, yea, its foundation and superstructure. Love impels good works. Love is greatly needed, and must be had to mark the way in divine Science.

The student who heels by teaching and teaches by healing, will graduate under divine honors, which are the only appropriate seals for Christian Science. State honors perish, and their gain is lost to the Christian Scientist. They include for him at present naught but tardy justice, hounded footsteps, false laurels. God alone is his help, his shield and great reward. He that seeketh aught besides God, loseth in Life, Truth, and Love. All men shall be satisfied when they "awake in His likeness," and they never should be until then. Human pride is human weakness. Self-knowledge, humility, and love are divine strength. Christ's vestures are put on only when mortals are "washed in the blood of the Lamb;" we must walk in the way which Jesus marked out, if we would reach the heaven-crowned summit of Christian Science.

Be it understood that I do not require Christian Scientists to stop teaching, to dissolve their organizations, or to desist from organizing churches and associations.

The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, the first and only College for teaching Christian Science Mind healing, after accomplishing the greatest work of the ages, and at the pinnacle of prosperity, is closed. Let Scientists who have grown to self-sacrifice do their present work, awaiting, with staff in hand, God's commands.

When students have fulfilled all the good ends of organization, and are convinced that by leaving the material forms thereof a higher spiritual unity is won, then is the time to follow the example of the Alma Mater. Material organization is requisite in the beginning; but when it has done its work, the purely Christly method of teaching and preaching must be adopted. On the same principle, you continue the mental argument in the practice of Christian healing until you can cure without it instantaneously, and through Spirit alone.

St. Paul says: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. "Growth is restricted by forcing humanity out of the proper channels for development, or by holding it in fetters.

For Jesus to walk the water was scientific, insomuch as he was able to do this; but it is neither wisdom nor Science for poor humanity to step upon the Atlantic until we can walk on the water.

Peter's impetuosity was rebuked. He had to learn from experience; so have we. The methods of our Master were in advance of the period in which he personally appeared; but his example was right, and is available at the right time. The way is absolute divine Science: walk ye in it; but remember that Science is demonstrated by degrees, and our demonstration rises only as we rise in the scale of being. Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY

Men give counsel; but they give not the wisdom to profit by it. To ask wisdom of God, is the beginning of wisdom.

Meekness, moderating human desire, inspires wisdom and procures divine power. Human lives are yet uncarved, -- in the rough marble, encumbered with crude, rude fragments, and awaiting the hammering, chiseling, and transfiguration from His hand.

Great only as good, because fashioned divinely, were those unpretentious yet colossal characters, Paul and Jesus. Theirs were modes of mind cast in the moulds of Christian Science: Paul's, by the supremely natural transforming power of Truth; and the character of Jesus, by his original scientific sonship with God. Philosophy never has produced, nor can it reproduce, these stars of the first magnitude-- fixed stars in the heavens of Soul. When shall earth be crowned with the true knowledge of Christ?

When Christian Science has melted away the cloud of false witnesses; and the dews of divine grace, falling upon the blighted flowers of fleeting joys, shall lift every thought-leaflet Spiritward; and "Israel after the flesh," who partaketh of its own altars, shall be no more, -- then, "the Israel according to Spirit" shall fill earth with the divine energies, understanding, and ever-flowing tides of spiritual sensation and consciousness.

When mortal mind is silenced by the "still, small voice" of Truth that regenerates philosophy and logic; and Jesus, as the true idea of Him, is heard as of yore saying to sensitive ears and dark disciples, "I came from the Father," "Before Abraham was, I am," coexistent and co-eternal with God, -- and this idea is understood,-- then will the earth be filled with the true knowledge of Christ. No advancing modes of human mind made Jesus; rather was it their subjugation, and the pure heart that sees God.

When the belief in material origin, mortal mind, sensual conception, dissolves through self-imposed suffering, and its substances are found substanceless, -- then its miscalled life ends in death, and death itself is swallowed up in Life,-- spiritual Life,-- whose myriad forms are neither material nor mortal.

When every form and mode of evil disappear to human thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual concepts testifying to one creator, -- then, earth is full of His glory, and Christian Science has overshadowed all human philosophy, and being is understood in startling contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato, Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer sit at the feet of Jesus.

To this great end, Paul admonished, "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. " So shall mortals soar to final freedom, and rest from the subtlety of speculative wisdom and human woe.

God is the only Mind, and His manifestation is the spiritual universe, including man and all eternal individuality. God, the only substance and divine Principle of creation, is by no means a creative partner in the firm of error, named matter, or mortal mind. He elucidates His own idea, wherein Principle and idea, God and man, are not one, but are inseparable as cause and effect. If one, who could say which that "one" was?

His ways are not as our ways. The divine modes and manifestations are not those of the material senses; for instance, intelligent matter, or mortal mind, material birth, growth, and decay: they are the forever-existing realities of divine Science; wherein God and man are perfect. and man's reason is at rest in God's wisdom, -- who comprehends and reflects all real mode, form, individuality, identity.

Scholastic dogma has made men blind. Christ's logos give sight to these blind, ears to these deaf, feet to these lame,-- physically, morally, spiritually. Theologians make the mortal mistake of believing that God, having made all, made evil; but the Scriptures declare that all that He made was good. Then, was evil part and parcel of His creation?

Philosophy hypothetically regards creation as its own creator, puts cause into effect, and out of nothing would create something, whose noumenon is mortal mind, with its phenomenon matter,-- an evil mind already doomed, whose modes are material manifestations of evil, and that continually, until self-extinguished by suffering!

Here revelation must come to the rescue of mortals, to remove this mental millstone that is dragging them downward, and refute erring reason with the spiritual cosmos and Science of Soul. We all must find shelter from the storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit. Truth is won through Science or suffering: O vain mortals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward, except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform the sinner. And pleasure is no crime except when it strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens the activities of virtue. The more nearly an erring so-called mind approaches purity, the more conscious it becomes of its own unreality, and of the great reality of divine Mind and true happiness.

The "ego" that claims selfhood in error, and passes from molecule and monkey up to man, is no ego, but is simply the supposition that the absence of good is mind and makes men,-- when its greatest flatterer, identification, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with nothingness, dust with dust!

The mythology of evil and mortality is but the material mode of a suppositional mind; while the immortal modes of Mind are spiritual, and pass through none of the changes of matter, or evil. Truth said, and said from the beginning, "Let us [Spirit] make man perfect;" and there is no other Maker: a perfect man would not desire to make himself imperfect, and God is not chargeable with imperfection. His modes declare the beauty of holiness, and His manifold wisdom shines through the visible world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even through the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His coming.

We must avoid the shoals of a sensual religion or philosophy that misguides reason and affection, and hold fast to the Principle of Christian Science as the Word that is God, Spirit, and Truth. This Word corrects the philosopher, confutes the astronomer, exposes the subtle sophist, and drives diviners mad. The Bible is the learned man's masterpiece, the ignorant man's dictionary, the wise man's directory.

I foresee and foresay that every advancing epoch of Truth will be characterized by a more spiritual apprehension of the Scriptures, that will show their marked consonance with the textbook of Christian Science Mind-healing, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Interpreting the Word in the "new tongue," where by the sick are healed, naturally evokes new paraphrase from the world of letters. "Wait patiently on the Lord, and He will renew your strength." In return for individual sacrifice, what a recompense to have healed, through Truth, the sick and sinful, made the public your friend, and posterity your familiar!

Christian Science refutes everything that is not a postulate of the divine Principle, God. It is the soul of divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God's right hand grasping the universe,-- all time, space, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; -- constituting and governing all identity, individuality, law, and power. It stands on this Scriptural platform: that He made all that was made, and it is good, reflects the divine Mind, is governed by it; and that nothing apart from this Mind, one God, is self-created or evolves the universe.

Human hypotheses predicate matter of Spirit and evil of good; hence these opposites must either cooperate or quarrel throughout time and eternity, -- or until this impossible partnership is dissolved. If Spirit is the lawgiver to matter, and good has the same power or modes as evil, it has the same consciousness, and there is no absolute good. This error, carried to its ultimate, would either extinguish God and His modes, or give reality and power to evil ad infinitum.

Christian Science rends this veil of the temple of gods, and reproduces the divine philosophy of Jesus and Paul. This philosophy alone will bear the strain of time and bring out the glories of eternity; for "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid," which is Christ, Truth.

Human theories weighed in the balances of God are found wanting; and their highest endeavors are to Science what a child's love of pictures is to art. The school whose schoolmaster is not Christ, gets things wrong, and is ignorant thereof.

If Christian Science lacked the proof of its goodness and utility, it would destroy itself; for it rests alone on demonstration. Its genius is right thinking and right acting, physical and moral harmony; and the secret of its success lies in supplying the universal need of better health and better men.

Good health and the more spiritual religion form the common want, and this want has worked out a moral result; namely, that mortal mind is calling for what immortal Mind alone can supply. If the uniform moral and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of divine Science were lacking, the demand would diminish; but it continues, and increases, which shows the real value of Christian Science to the race. Even doctors agree that infidelity, bigotry, or sham has never met the growing wants of humanity.

As a literature, Christian metaphysics is hampered by a lack of proper terms in which to express what it means. As a Science, it is held back by the common ignorance of what it is and what it does,-- and more than all else, by the impostors that come in its name. To be appreciated, it must be conscientiously understood and introduced.

If the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" had in our schools the time or attention that human hypotheses consume, they would advance the world. True, it requires more study to understand and demonstrate what they teach than to learn the doctrine of theology, philosophy, or physics, because they contain and offer Science, with fixed Principle, given rule, and unmistakable proof.

The Scriptures give the keynote of Christian Science from Genesis to Revelation, and this is the prolonged tone: "For the Lord He is God, and there is none beside Him." And because He is All-in-all, He is in nothing unlike Himself; and nothing that worketh or maketh a lie is in Him, or can be divine consciousness.

At this date, poor, jaded humanity needs to get her eyes open to a new style of imposition in the field of medicine and of religion, and to "beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees," the doctrines of men, even as Jesus admonished. From first to last, evil insists on the unity of good and evil as the purpose of God; and on drugs, electricity, and animal magnetism as modes of medicine. To a greater or less extent, all mortal conclusions start from this false premise, and they necessarily culminate in sickness, sin, disease, and death. Erroneous doctrines never have abated and never will abate dishonesty, self-will, envy, and lust. To destroy sin and its sequence, is the office of Christ, Truth, -- according to His mode of Christian Science; and this is being done daily.

The false theories whose names are legion, gilded with sophistry and what Jesus had not, namely, mere book learning, -- letter without law, gospel, or demonstration,-- have no place in Christian Science. This Science requires a man to be honest, just, pure; to love his neighbor as himself, and to love God supremely.

Matter and evil are subjective states of error or mortal mind. But Mind is immortal; and the fact of there being no mortal mind, exposes the lie of suppositional evil, showing that error is not Mind, substance, or Life. Thus, whatever is wrongfully-minded will disappear in the proportion that Science is understood, and the reality of being-- goodness and harmony-- is demonstrated.

Error says that knowing all things implies the necessity of knowing evil, that it dishonors God to claim that He is ignorant of anything; but God says of this fruit of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. " If God is infinite good, He knows nothing but good; if He did know aught else, He would not be infinite. Infinite Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To good, evil is never present; for evil is a different state of consciousness. It was not against evil, but against knowing evil, that God forewarned. He dwelleth in light; and in the light He sees light, and cannot see darkness. The opposite conclusion, that darkness dwelleth in light, has neither precedent nor foundation in nature, in logic, or in the character of Christ.

The senses would say that whatever saves from sin, must know sin. Truth replies that God is too pure to behold iniquity; and by virtue of His ignorance of that which is not, He knoweth that which is, and abideth in Himself, the only Life, Truth, and Love, -- and is reflected by a universe in His own image and likeness.

Even so, Father, let the light that shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, dispel this illusion of the senses, open the eyes of the blind, and cause the deaf to hear.

"Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own. " LOWELL

TAKE HEED!

We regret to be obliged to say that all are not metaphysicians, or Christian Scientists, who call themselves so. Charlatanism, fraud, and malice are getting into the ranks of the good and pure, sending forth a poison more deadly than the upas-tree in the eastern archipelago. This evil obtains in the present false teaching and false practice of the Science of treating disease through Mind. The silent address of a mental malpractitioner can only be portrayed in these words of the apostle, "whisperers," and "the poison of asps is under their tongue."

Some of the mere puppets of the hour are playing only for money, and at a fearful stake. Others, from malice and envy, are working out the destinies of the damned. But while the best, perverted, on the mortal plane may become the worst, let us not forget that the Lord reigns, and that this earth shall sometime rejoice in His supreme rule,-- that the tired watchmen on the walls of Zion, and the true Christian Scientist at the foot of the mount of revelation, shall look up with shouts and thanksgiving, -- that God's law, as in divine Science, shall be finally understood; and the gospel of glad tidings bring "on earth peace, good will toward men." "TAKE HEED !"

We regret to be obliged to say that all are not metaphysicians, or Christian Scientists, who call themselves so. Charlatanism, fraud, and malice are getting into the ranks of the good and pure, sending forth a poison more deadly than the upas-tree in the eastern archipelago. This evil obtains in the present false teaching and false practice of the Science of treating disease through Mind. The silent address of a mental malpractitioner can only be portrayed in these words of the apostle, "whisperers," and "the poison of asps is under their tongue."

Some of the mere puppets of the hour are playing only for money, and at a fearful stake. Others, from malice and envy, are working out the destinies of the damned. But while the best, perverted, on the mortal plane may become the worst, let us not forget that the Lord reigns, and that this earth shall some time rejoice in His supreme rule, -- that the tired watchmen on the walls of Zion, and the true Christian Scientist at the foot of the mount of revelation, shall look up with shouts and thanksgiving, -- that God's law, as in divine Science, shall be finally understood; and the gospel of glad tidings bring "on earth peace, good will toward men."

THE CRY OF CHRISTMAS-TIDE

Metaphysics, not physics, enables us to stand erect on sublime heights, surveying the immeasurable universe of Mind, peering into the cause which governs all effects, while we are strong in the unity of God and man. There is "method" in the "madness" of this system, -- since madness it seems to many onlookers. This method sits serene at the portals of the temple of thought, while the leaders of materialistic schools indulge in mad antics. Metaphysical healing seeks a wisdom that is higher than a rhubarb tincture or an ipecacuanha pill. This method is devout enough to trust Christ more than it does drugs.

Meekly we kneel at our Master's feet, for even a crumb that falleth from his table. We are hungry for Love, for the white-winged charity that heals and saves; we are tired of theoretic husks, -- as tired as was the prodigal son of the carobs which he shared with the swine, to whom he fed that wholesome but unattractive food. Like him, we would find our Father's house again -- the perfect and eternal Principle of man. We thirst for inspiring wine from the vine which our Father tends. We crave the privilege of saying to the sick, when their feebleness calls for help, "Rise and walk." We rejoice to say, in the spirit of our Master, "Stretch forth thy hand, and be whole!"

When the Pharisees saw Jesus do such deeds of mercy, they went away and took counsel how they might remove him. The antagonistic spirit of evil is still abroad; but the greater spirit of Christ is also abroad, -- risen from the grave-clothes of tradition and the cave of ignorance. Let the sentinels of Zion's watch-towers shout once again, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given."

In different ages the divine idea assumes different forms, according to humanity's needs. In this age it assumes, more intelligently than ever before, the forms of Christian healing. This is the babe we are to cherish. This is the babe that twines its loving arms about the neck of omnipotence, and calls forth infinite care from His loving heart.

BLIND LEADERS

What figure is less favorable than a wolf in sheep's clothing? The braying donkey whose ears stick out is less troublesome. What manner of man is it that has discovered an improvement on Christian Science, a "metaphysical healing" by which error destroys error, and would gather all sorts into a "national convention" by the sophistry that such as the true fold for Christian healers, since the good shepherd cares for all?

Yes; the good Shepherd does care for all, and His first care is to separate the sheep from the goats; and this is among the first lessons on healing taught by our great Master.

If, as the gentleman aforesaid states, large flocks of metaphysicians are wondering about without a leader, what has opened his eyes to see the need of taking them out of the care of the great Shepherd, and behold the remedy, to help them by his own leadership? Is it that he can guide Christian Scientists better than they, through the guidance of our common Father, can guide themselves? or is it that they are incapable of helping themselves thus?

I as their teacher can say, They know far more of Christian Science than he who deprecates their condition appears to, and my heart pleads for them to possess more and more of Truth and Love; but mixing all grades of persons is not productive of the better sort, although he who has self-interest in this mixing is apt to propose it.

Whoever desires to say, "good right, and good wrong," has no truth to defend. It is a wise saying that "men are known by their enemies." To sympathize in any degree with error, is not to rectify it; but error are always strives to unite, in a definition of purpose, with Truth, to give it buoyancy. What is under the mask, but error in borrowed plumes? "CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS"

An Illustrated Poem

This poem and its illustrations are as hopelessly original as is "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." When the latter was first issued, critics declared that it was incorrect, contradictory, unscientific, unchristian; but those human opinions had not one feather's weight in the scales of God. The fact remains, that the textbook of Christian Science is transforming the universe.

"Christ and Christmas" voices Christian Science through song and object-lesson. In two weeks from the date of its publication in December, 1893, letters extolling it were pouring in from artists and poets. A mother wrote, "Looking at the pictures in your wonderful book has healed my child."

Knowing that this book would produce a stir, I sought the judgment of sound critics familiar with the works of masters in France and Italy. From them came such replies as the following: "The illustrations of your poem are truly a work of art, and the artist seems quite familiar with delineations from the old masters." I am delighted to find "Christ and Christmas" in accord with the ancient and most distinguished artists.

The Christian Science Journal gives no uncertain declaration concerning the spirit and mission of "Christ in Christmas."

I aimed to reproduce, with reverent touch, the modest glory of divine Science. Not by aid of foreign device or environment could I copy art, --never having seen the painter's masterpieces; but the art of Christian Science, with true hue and character of the living God, is akin to its Science: and Science and Health gives scopes and shades to the shadows of divinity, thus imparting to humanity the true sense of meekness and might.

One incident serves to illustrate the simple nature of art.

I insisted upon placing the serpent behind the woman in the picture "Seeking and Finding." My artist at the easel objected, as he often did, to my sense of Soul's expression through the brush; but, as usual, he finally yielded. A few days afterward, the following from Rotherham's translation of the New Testament was handed to me, --I had never before seen it: "And the serpent cast out of his mouth, behind the woman, water as a river, that he might cause her to be river-borne." Neither material finesse, standpoint, nor perspective guides the infinite Mind and spiritual vision that should, does, guide His children.

One great master clearly delineates Christ's appearing in the flesh, and his healing power, as clad not in soft raiment or gorgeous apparel; and when forced out of its proper channel, as living feebly, in kings' courts. This master's thought presents a sketch of Christianity's state, in the early part of the Christian era, as homelessness in a wilderness. But in due time Christianity entered into synagogues, and, as St. Mark writes, it has rich possession here, with houses and lands. In Genesis we read that God gave man dominion over all things; and this assurance is followed by Jesus' declaration, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," and by his promise that the Christlike shall finally sit down at the right hand of the Father.

Christian Science is more than a prophet or a prophecy: it presents not words alone, but works, --the daily demonstration of Truth and Love. Its healing and saving power was so great a proof of Immanuel and the realism of Christianity, that it caused even the publicans to justify God. Although clad in panoply of power, the Pharisees scorned the spirit of Christ in most of its various manifestations. To them it was cant and caricature, --always the opposite of what it was. Keen and alert was their indignation at whatever rebuked hypocrisy and demanded Christianity in life and religion. In view of this, Jesus said, "Wisdom is justified of all her children."

Above the fogs of sense and storms of passion, Christian Science and its art will rise triumphant; ignorance, envy, and hatred-- earth's harmless thunder-- pluck not their heaven-born wings. Angels, with overtures, hold charge over both, and announce their Principle and idea.

It is most fitting that Christian Scientists memorize the nativity of Jesus. To him who brought a great light to all ages, and named his burdens light, homage is indeed due, --but is bankrupt. I never looked on my ideal of the face of the Nazarite Prophet; but the one illustrating my poem approximates it.

Extremists in every age either doggedly deny or frantically affirm what is what: one renders not unto Caesar "the things that are Caesar's;" the other sees "Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt."

Pictures are portions of one's ideals, but this ideal is not one's personality. Looking behind the veil, he that perceives a semblance between the thinker and his thought on canvas, blames him not.

Because my ideal of an angel is a woman without feathers on her wings, --is it less artistic or less natural? Pictures which present disordered phases of material conceptions and personality blind with animality, are not my concepts of angels. What is the material ego, but the counterfeit of the spiritual?

The truest art of Christian Science is to be a Christian Scientist; and it demands more than a Raphael to delineate this art.

The following is an extract from a letter reverting to the illustrations of "Christ and Christmas": --

"In my last letter, I did not utter all I felt about the wonderful new book you have given us. Years ago, while in Italy, I studied the old masters and their great works of art thoroughly, and so got quite an idea of what constitutes true art. Then I spent two years in Paris, devoting every moment to the study of music and art.

"The first thing that impressed me in your illustrations was the conscientious application to detail, which is the foundation of true art. From that, I went on to study each illustration thoroughly, and to my amazement and delight I find an almost identical resemblance, in many things, to the old masters! In other words, the art is perfect.

"The hands and feet of the figures-- how many times have I seen these-hands and feet in the Angelico's 'Jesus,' or Botticelli's 'Madonna'!

"It gave me such a thrill of joy as no words can express, to see produced to-day that art-- the only art-- that we have identified with the old masters, and mourned as belonging to them exclusively, --a thing of the past, impossible of reproduction.

"All that I can say to you, as one who gives no mean attention to such matters, is that the art is perfect. It is the true art of the oldest, most revered, most authentic Italian school, revived. I use the words most authentic in the following sense: the face, figure, and drapery of Jesus, very closely resemble in detail the face, figure, and drapery of that Jesus portrayed by the oldest of the old masters, and said to have been authentic; the face having been taken by Fra Angelico from Caesar's Cameo, the figure and garments from a description, in The Galaxy, of a small sketch handed down from the living reality. Their productions are expressionless copies of an engraving cut in a stone. Yours is a palpitating, living Saviour engraven on the heart. You have given us back our Jesus, and in a much better form."

SUNRISE AT PLEASANT VIEW

Who shall describe the brave splendor of a November sky that this morning burst through the lattice for me, on my bed? According to terrestrial calculations, above the horizon, in the east, there rose one rod of rainbow hues, crowned with an acre of eldritch ebony. Little by little this topmost pall, drooping over a deeply dazzling sunlight, softened, grew gray, then gay, and glided into a glory of mottled marvels. Fleecy, faint, fairy blue and golden flecks came out on a background of cerulean hue; while the lower lines of light kindled into gold, orange, pink, crimson, violet; and diamond, topaz, opal, garnet, turquoise, and sapphire spangled the gloom in celestial space as with the brightness of His glory. Then thought I, What are we, that He who fashions forever such forms and hues of heaven, should move our brush or pen to paint frail fairness or to weave a web of words that glow with gladdening gleams of God, so unapproachable, and yet so near and full of radiant relief in clouds and darkness!