Address Before The Alumni Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, 1895
My Beloved Students:—Weeks have passed into [15]
months, and months into years, since last we met; but
time and space, when encompassed by divine presence,
do not separate us. Our hearts have kept time together,
and our hands have wrought steadfastly at the same
object-lesson, while leagues have lain between us. [20]
We may well unite in thanksgiving for the continued
progress and unprecedented prosperity of our Cause. It
is already obvious that the world's acceptance and the
momentum of Christian Science, increase rapidly as
years glide on. [25]
As Christian Scientists, you have dared the perilous de-
fense of Truth, and have succeeded. You have learned
how fleeting is that which men call great; and how per-
manent that which God calls good.
You have proven that the greatest piety is scarcely [1]
sufficient to demonstrate what you have adopted and
taught; that your work, well done, would dignify angels.
Faithfully, as meekly, you have toiled all night; and
at break of day caught much. At times, your net has [5]
been so full that it broke: human pride, creeping into
its meshes, extended it beyond safe expansion; then,
losing hold of divine Love, you lost your fishes, and pos-
sibly blamed others more than yourself. But those whom
God makes “fishers of men” will not pull for the shore; [10]
like Peter, they launch into the depths, cast their nets
on the right side, compensate loss, and gain a higher sense
of the true idea. Nothing is lost that God gives: had He
filled the net, it would not have broken.
Leaving the seed of Truth to its own vitality, it propa- [15]
gates: the tares cannot hinder it. Our Master said,
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away;” and Jesus' faith in Truth must not ex-
ceed that of Christian Scientists who prove its power to
be immortal. [20]
The Christianity that is merely of sects, the pulpit, and
fashionable society, is brief; but the Word of God abideth.
Plato was a pagan; but no greater difference existed be-
tween his doctrines and those of Jesus, than to-day exists
between the Catholic and Protestant sects. I love the [25]
orthodox church; and, in time, that church will love
Christian Science. Let me specially call the attention of
this Association to the following false beliefs inclining
mortal mind more deviously:—
The belief in anti-Christ: that somebody in the flesh [30]
is the son of God, or is another Christ, or is a spiritually
adopted child, or is an incarnated babe, is the evil one—
in other words, the one evil—disporting itself with the [1]
subtleties of sin!
Even honest thinkers, not knowing whence they come,
may deem these delusions verities, before they know it,
or really look the illusions in the face. The ages are bur- [5]
dened with material modes. Hypnotism, microbes, X-rays,
and ex-common sense, occupy time and thought; and
error, given new opportunities, will improve them. The
most just man can neither defend the innocent nor detect
the guilty, unless he knows how to be just; and this knowl- [10]
edge demands our time and attention.
The mental stages of crime, which seem to belong to
the latter days, are strictly classified in metaphysics as
some of the many features and forms of what is properly
denominated, in extreme cases, moral idiocy. I visited [15]
in his cell the assassin of President Garfield, and found
him in the mental state called moral idiocy. He had no
sense of his crime; but regarded his act as one of simple
justice, and himself as the victim. My few words touched
him; he sank back in his chair, limp and pale; his flip- [20]
pancy had fled. The jailer thanked me, and said, “Other
visitors have brought to him bouquets, but you have
brought what will do him good.”
This mental disease at first shows itself in extreme
sensitiveness; then, in a loss of self-knowledge and of [25]
self-condemnation,—a shocking inability to see one's
own faults, but an exaggerating sense of other people's.
Unless this mental condition be overcome, it ends in a
total loss of moral, intellectual, and spiritual discernment,
and is characterized in this Scripture: “The fool hath [30]
said in his heart, There is no God.” This state of mind
is the exemplification of total depravity, and the result
of sensuous mind in matter. Mind that is God is not in [1]
matter; and God's presence gives spiritual light, wherein
is no darkness.
If, as is indisputably true, “God is Spirit,” and Spirit
is our Father and Mother, and that which it includes is [5]
all that is real and eternal, when evil seems to predomi-
nate and divine light to be obscured, free moral agency
is lost; and the Revelator's vision, that “no man might
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name,” is imminent. [10]
Whoever is mentally manipulating human mind, and
is not gaining a higher sense of Truth by it, is losing in
the scale of moral and spiritual being, and may be car-
ried to the depths of perdition by his own consent. He
who refuses to be influenced by any but the divine Mind, [15]
commits his way to God, and rises superior to sugges-
tions from an evil source. Christian Science shows that
there is a way of escape from the latter-day ultimatum
of evil, through scientific truth; so that all are without
excuse. [20]
Already I clearly recognize that mental malpractice,
if persisted in, will end in insanity, dementia, or moral
idiocy. Thank God! this evil can be resisted by true
Christianity. Divine Love is our hope, strength, and
shield. We have nothing to fear when Love is at the [25]
helm of thought, but everything to enjoy on earth and
in heaven.
The systematized centres of Christian Science are life-
giving fountains of truth. Our churches, The Christian
Science Journal, and the
Christian Science Quarterly, [30]
are prolific sources of spiritual power whose intellectual,
moral, and spiritual animus is felt throughout the land.
Our Publishing Society, and our Sunday Lessons, are [1]
of inestimable value to all seekers after Truth. The Com-
mittee on Sunday School Lessons cannot give too much
time and attention to their task, and should spare no
research in the preparation of the Quarterly as an
educa- [5]
tional branch.
The teachers of Christian Science need to watch inces-
santly the trend of their own thoughts; watch that these
be not secretly robbed, and themselves misguided, and
so made to misteach others. Teachers must conform [10]
strictly to the rules of divine Science announced in the
Bible and their textbook, “Science and Health with Key
to the Scriptures.” They must themselves practise, and
teach others to practise, the Hebrew Decalogue, the Ser-
mon on the Mount, and the understanding and enuncia- [15]
tion of these according to Christ.
They must always have on armor, and resist the foe
within and without. They cannot arm too thoroughly
against original sin, appearing in its myriad forms: pass-
sion, appetites, hatred, revenge, and all the et cetera of
[20]
evil. Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously,
or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fer-
vently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus
doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover
their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the [25]
lives of mortals. Rest assured that God in His wisdom
will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found
faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us
the powerlessness of evil,—even its utter nothingness.
The teacher in Christian Science who does not spe- [30]
cially instruct his pupils how to guard against evil and
its silent modes, and to be able, through Christ, the liv-
ing Truth, to protect themselves therefrom, is commit- [1]
ting an offense against God and humanity. With Science
and Health for their textbook, I am astounded at the
apathy of some students on the subject of sin and mental
malpractice, and their culpable ignorance of the work- [5]
ing of these—and even the teacher's own deficiency in
this department. I can account for this state of mind in
the teacher only as the result of sin; otherwise, his own
guilt as a mental malpractitioner, and fear of being found
out. [10]
The helpless ignorance of the community on this sub-
ject is pitiable, and plain to be seen. May God enable
my students to take up the cross as I have done, and meet
the pressing need of a proper preparation of heart to prac-
tise, teach, and live Christian Science! Your means of [15]
protection and defense from sin are, constant watchful-
ness and prayer that you enter not into temptation and
are delivered from every claim of evil, till you intelligently
know and demonstrate, in Science, that evil has neither
prestige, power, nor existence, since God, good, is All- [20]
in-all.
The increasing necessity for relying on God to de-
fend us against the subtler forms of evil, turns us more
unreservedly to Him for help, and thus becomes a means
of grace. If one lives rightly, every effort to hurt one [25]
will only help that one; for God will give the ability to
overcome whatever tends to impede progress. Know
this: that you cannot overcome the baneful effects of
sin on yourself, if you in any way indulge in sin; for,
sooner or later, you will fall the victim of your own as [30]
well as of others' sins. Using mental power in the right
direction only, doing to others as you would have them
do to you, will overcome evil with good, and destroy [1]
your own sensitiveness to the power of evil.
The God of all grace be with you, and save you from
“spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., [5]
June 3, 1895
Address Before The Christian Scientist Association Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, In 1893
Subject: Obedience [10]
My Beloved Students:—This question, ever nearest
to my heart, is to-day uppermost: Are we filling the
measures of life's music aright, emphasizing its grand
strains, swelling the harmony of being with tones whence
come glad echoes? As crescendo
and diminuendo accent [15]
music, so the varied strains of human chords express
life's loss or gain,—loss of the pleasures and pains and
pride of life: gain of its sweet concord, the courage of
honest convictions, and final obedience to spiritual law.
The ultimate of scientific research and attainment in [20]
divine Science is not an argument: it is not merely say-
ing, but doing, the Word—demonstrating Truth—even
as the fruits of watchfulness, prayer, struggles, tears, and
triumph.
Obeying the divine Principle which you profess to un- [25]
derstand and love, demonstrates Truth. Never absent
from your post, never off guard, never ill-humored, never
unready to work for God,—is obedience; being “faith-
ful over a few things.” If in one instance obedience be
lacking, you lose the scientific rule and its reward: namely, [30]
to be made “ruler over many things.” A progressive [1]
life is the reality of Life that unfolds its immortal Prin-
ciple.
The student of Christian Science must first separate the
tares from the wheat; discern between the thought, [5]
motive, and act superinduced by the wrong motive or
the true—the God-given intent and volition—arrest
the former, and obey the latter. This will place him on
the safe side of practice. We always know where to look
for the real Scientist, and always find him there. I agree [10]
with Rev. Dr. Talmage, that “there are wit, humor, and
enduring vivacity among God's people.”
Obedience is the offspring of Love; and Love is the
Principle of unity, the basis of all right thinking and
acting; it fulfils the law. We see eye to eye and know as we [15]
are known, reciprocate kindness and work wisely, in
proportion as we love.
It is difficult for me to carry out a divine commission
while participating in the movements, or modus operandi,
of other folks. To point out every step to a student and [20]
then watch that each step be taken, consumes time,—
and experiments ofttimes are costly. According to my
calendar, God's time and mortals' differ. The neo-
phyte is inclined to be too fast or too slow: he works
somewhat in the dark; and, sometimes out of season, [25]
he would replenish his lamp at the midnight hour and
borrow oil of the more provident watcher. God is the
fountain of light, and He illumines one's way when one
is obedient. The disobedient make their moves before
God makes His, or make them too late to follow Him. [30]
Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow
under every circumstance.
Human will must be subjugated. We cannot obey [1]
both God, good, and evil,—in other words, the ma-
terial senses, false suggestions, self-will, selfish motives,
and human policy. We shall have no faith in evil
when faith finds a resting-place and scientific under- [5]
standing guides man. Honesty in every condition,
under every circumstance, is the indispensable rule of
obedience. To obey the principle of mathematics ninety-
nine times in one hundred and then allow one numeral
to make incorrect your entire problem, is neither Science [10]
nor obedience.
However keenly the human affections yearn to for-
give a mistake, and pass a friend over it smoothly, one's
sympathy can neither atone for error, advance individual
growth, nor change this immutable decree of Love: “Keep [15]
My commandments.” The guerdon of meritorious
faith or trustworthiness rests on being willing to work
alone with God and for Him,—willing to suffer patiently
for error until all error is destroyed and His rod and His
staff comfort you. [20]
Self-ignorance, self-will, self-righteousness, lust, covet-
ousness, envy, revenge, are foes to grace, peace, and
progress; they must be met manfully and overcome,
or they will uproot all happiness. Be of good cheer;
the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty [25]
of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with
you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with
everlasting victory. Every attempt of evil to harm good
is futile, and ends in the fiery punishment of the
evil-doer. [30]
Jesus said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth
defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth a man.” If malicious suggestions whisper [1]
evil through the mind's tympanum, this were no apology
for acting evilly. We are responsible for our thoughts and
acts; and instead of aiding other people's devices by
obeying them,—and then whining over misfortune,— [5]
rise and overthrow both. If a criminal coax the unwary
man to commit a crime, our laws punish the dupe as ac-
cessory to the fact. Each individual is responsible for
himself.
Evil is impotent to turn the righteous man from his [10]
uprightness. The nature of the individual, more stub-
born than the circumstance, will always be found argu-
ing for itself,—its habits, tastes, and indulgences. This
material nature strives to tip the beam against the spir-
itual nature; for the flesh strives against Spirit,—against [15]
whatever or whoever opposes evil,—and weighs mightily
in the scale against man's high destiny. This conclusion
is not an argument either for pessimism or for optimism,
but is a plea for free moral agency,—full exemption
from all necessity to obey a power that should be and is [20]
found powerless in Christian Science.
Insubordination to the law of Love even in the least,
or strict obedience thereto, tests and discriminates be-
tween the real and the unreal Scientist. Justice, a
prominent statute in the divine law, demands of all [25]
trespassers upon the sparse individual rights which one
justly reserves to one's self,—Would you consent that
others should tear up your landmarks, manipulate your
students, nullify or reverse your rules, countermand
your orders, steal your possessions, and escape the [30]
penalty therefor? No! “Therefore all things what-
soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even
so to them.” The professors of Christian Science must [1]
take off their shoes at our altars; they must unclasp
the material sense of things at the very threshold of
Christian Science: they must obey implicitly each and
every injunction of the divine Principle of life's long [5]
problem, or repeat their work in tears. In the words
of St. Paul, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield your-
selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye
obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness?” [10]
Beloved students, loyal laborers are ye that have wrought
valiantly, and achieved great guerdons in the vineyard
of our Lord; but a mighty victory is yet to be won, a
great freedom for the race; and Christian success is
under arms,—with armor on, not laid down. Let us [15]
rejoice, however, that the clarion call of peace will at
length be heard above the din of battle, and come more
sweetly to our ear than sound of vintage bells to villagers
on the Rhine.
I recommend that this Association hereafter meet tri- [20]
ennially; many of its members reside a long distance from
Massachusetts, and they are members of The Mother
Church who would love to be with you on Sunday, and
once in three years is perhaps as often as they can afford
to be away from their own fields of labor. [25]
Communion Address, January, 1896
Friends and Brethren:—The Biblical record of the
great Nazarene, whose character we to-day commemorate,
is scanty; but what is given, puts to flight every doubt as
to the immortality of his words and works. Though [30]
written in a decaying language, his words can never pass [1]
away: they are inscribed upon the hearts of men: they
are engraved upon eternity's tablets.
Undoubtedly our Master partook of the Jews' feast
of the Passover, and drank from their festal wine-cup. [5]
This, however, is not the cup to which I call your at-
tention,—even the cup of martyrdom: wherein Spirit
and matter, good and evil, seem to grapple, and the
human struggles against the divine, up to a point of
discovery; namely, the impotence of evil, and the om- [10]
nipotence of good, as divinely attested. Anciently, the
blood of martyrs was believed to be the seed of the Church.
Stalled theocracy would make this fatal doctrine just
and sovereign, even a divine decree, a law of Love! That
the innocent shall suffer for the guilty, is inhuman. The [15]
prophet declared, “Thou shalt put away the guilt of
innocent blood from Israel.” This is plain: that what-
ever belittles, befogs, or belies the nature and essence of
Deity, is not divine. Who, then, shall father or favor
this sentence passed upon innocence? thereby giving the [20]
signet of God to the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of His
beloved Son, the righteous Nazarene,—christened by
John the Baptist, “the Lamb of God.”
Oh! shameless insult to divine royalty, that drew
from the great Master this answer to the questions of the [25]
rabbinical rabble: “If I tell you, ye will not believe; and
if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go.”
Infinitely greater than human pity, is divine Love,—
that cannot be unmerciful. Human tribunals, if just,
borrow their sense of justice from the divine Principle [30]
thereof, which punishes the guilty, not the innocent. The
Teacher of both law and gospel construed the substitution
of a good man to suffer for evil-doers—a crime! When [1]
foretelling his own crucifixion, he said, “Woe unto the
world because of offenses! for it must needs be that
offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh!” [5]
Would Jesus thus have spoken of what was indis-
pensable for the salvation of a world of sinners, or of the
individual instrument in this holy (?) alliance for accom-
plishing such a monstrous work? or have said of him
whom God foreordained and predestined to fulfil a divine [10]
decree, “It were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the
depth of the sea”?
The divine order is the acme of mercy: it is neither
questionable nor assailable: it is not evil producing good, [15]
nor good ultimating in evil. Such an inference were
impious. Holy Writ denounces him that declares, “Let
us do evil, that good may come! whose damnation is
just.”
Good is not educed from its opposite: and Love divine [20]
spurned, lessens not the hater's hatred nor the criminal's
crime; nor reconciles justice to injustice; nor substitutes
the suffering of the Godlike for the suffering due to sin.
Neither spiritual bankruptcy nor a religious chancery can
win high heaven, or the “Well done, good and faithful [25]
servant,... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Divine Love knows no hate; for hate, or the hater, is
nothing: God never made it, and He made all that was
made. The hater's pleasures are unreal; his sufferings,
self-imposed; his existence is a parody, and he ends— [30]
with suicide.
The murder of the just Nazarite was incited by the
same spirit that in our time massacres our missionaries, [1]
butchers the helpless Armenians, slaughters innocents.
Evil was, and is, the illusion of breaking the First Com-
mandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me:”
it is either idolizing something and somebody, or hating [5]
them: it is the spirit of idolatry, envy, jealousy, covet-
ousness, superstition, lust, hypocrisy, witchcraft.
That man can break the forever-law of infinite Love,
was, and is, the serpent's biggest lie! and ultimates in
a religion of pagan priests bloated with crime; a religion [10]
that demands human victims to be sacrificed to human
passions and human gods, or tortured to appease the
anger of a so-called god or a miscalled man or woman!
The Assyrian Merodach, or the god of sin, was the “lucky
god;” and the Babylonian Yawa, or Jehovah, was the [15]
Jewish tribal deity. The Christian's God is neither, and
is too pure to behold iniquity.
Divine Science has rolled away the stone from the sepul-
chre of our Lord; and there has risen to the awakened
thought the majestic atonement of divine Love. The [20]
at-one-ment with Christ has appeared—not through
vicarious suffering, whereby the just obtain a pardon for
the unjust,—but through the eternal law of justice;
wherein sinners suffer for their own sins, repent, forsake
sin, love God, and keep His commandments, thence to [25]
receive the reward of righteousness: salvation from sin,
not through the death of a man, but through a divine
Life,
which is our Redeemer.
Holy Writ declares that God is Love, is Spirit; hence
it follows that those who worship Him, must worship [30]
Him spiritually,—far apart from physical sensation
such as attends eating and drinking corporeally. It is
plain that aught unspiritual, intervening between God [1]
and man, would tend to disturb the divine order, and
countermand the Scripture that those who worship the
Father must worship Him in spirit. It is also plain,
that we should not seek and cannot find God in mat- [5]
ter, or through material methods; neither do we love
and obey Him by means of matter, or the flesh,—which
warreth against Spirit, and will not be reconciled
thereto.
We turn, with sickened sense, from a pagan Jew's [10]
or Moslem's misconception of Deity, for peace; and find
rest in the spiritual ideal, or Christ. For “who is so
great a God as our God!” unchangeable, all-wise, all-
just, all-merciful; the ever-loving, ever-living Life, Truth,
Love: comforting such as mourn, opening the prison [15]
doors to the captive, marking the unwinged bird, pitying
with more than a father's pity; healing the sick, cleansing
the leper, raising the dead, saving sinners. As we think
thereon, man's true sense is filled with peace, and power;
and we say, It is well that Christian Science has taken [20]
expressive silence wherein to muse His praise, to kiss the
feet of Jesus, adore the white Christ, and stretch out our
arms to God.
The last act of the tragedy on Calvary rent the veil
of matter, and unveiled Love's great legacy to mortals: [25]
Love forgiving its enemies. This grand act crowned
and still crowns Christianity: it manumits mortals; it
translates love; it gives to suffering, inspiration; to
patience, experience; to experience, hope; to hope, faith;
to faith, understanding; and to understanding, Love tri- [30]
umphant!
In proportion to a man's spiritual progress, he will
indeed drink of our Master's cup, and be baptized with [1]
his baptism! be purified as by fire,—the fires of suffering;
then hath he part in Love's atonement, for “whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth.” Then shall he also reign
with him: he shall rise to know that there is no sin, [5]
that there is no suffering; since all that is real is
right.
This knowledge enables him to overcome the world, the
flesh, and all evil, to have dominion over his own sinful
sense and self. Then shall he drink anew Christ's cup,
in the kingdom of God—the reign of righteousness— [10]
within him; he shall sit down at the Father's right hand:
sit down; not stand waiting and weary; but rest on the
bosom of God; rest, in the understanding of divine Love
that passeth all understanding; rest, in that which “to
know aright is Life eternal,” and whom, not having seen, [15]
we love.
Then shall he press on to Life's long lesson, the eternal
lore of Love; and learn forever the infinite meanings of
these short sentences: “God is Love;” and, All that is
real is divine, for God is All-in-all. [20]