Miscellaneous Writings Part 62

as holding in mind the consciousness of disease prevents the recovery of the sick.

Christian Science is taught through its divine Prin- ciple, which is invisible to corporeal sense. A material human likeness is the antipode of man in the image and [30]

likeness of G.o.d. Hence, a finite person is not the model for a metaphysician. I earnestly advise all Christian Scientists to remove from their observation or study

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the personal sense of any one, and not to dwell in thought [1]

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 con- [5]

clusions. 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 con- [10]

templation of his character. He advances most in divine Science who meditates most on infinite spiritual sub- stance 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 [15]

Christ, or Son of G.o.d, the true idea of man's divine Principle.

I warn students against falling into the error of anti- Christ. The consciousness of corporeality, and what- ever is connected therewith, must be outgrown. Corporeal [20]

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 an- tagonizes the divine. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 229, third and fourth para- [25]

graphs, elucidates this topic.(5)

My Christmas poem and its ill.u.s.trations are not a text- book. 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 [30]

have yet learned. We should prohibit ourselves the

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childish pleasure of studying Truth through the senses, [1]

for this is neither the intent of my works nor possible in Science.

Even the teachings of Jesus would be misused by sub- st.i.tuting personality for the Christ, or the impersonal [5]

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 per- sonality-is the lesson of to-day.

A Card

My answer to manifold letters relative to the return of members that have gone out of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, is this: While my affec- tions plead for all and every one, and my desire is that all shall be redeemed, I am not unmindful that the Scrip- [15]

tures enjoin, "Let all things be done decently and in order."

To continue one's connection with this church, or to regain it, one must comply with the church rules. All who desire its fellows.h.i.+p, and to become members of it, [20]

must send in their pet.i.tions to this effect to the Clerk of the church; and upon a meeting being called, the First Members will determine the action of the church on this subject.

Overflowing Thoughts

In this receding year of religious jubilee, 1894, I as [26]

an individual would cordially invite all persons who have left our fold, together with those who never have

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been in it,-all who love G.o.d and keep His command- [1]

ments,-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. [5]

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 [10]

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 impracti- cal, unfruitful, Soul-less.

My deepest desires and daily labors go to prove that [15]

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 [20]

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 con- tain absolute Truth, and my necessity was to tell it; therefore I did this even as a surgeon who wounds [25]

to heal. I was a scribe under orders; and who can refrain from transcribing what G.o.d 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 [30]

from my lips, when rehearsing facts concerning others who were reporting false charges, I have been sorry that

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I spoke at all, and wished I were wise enough to guard [1]

against that temptation. Oh, may the love that is talked, be _felt_! and so _lived_, that when weighed in the scale of G.o.d we be not found wanting. Love is consistent, uni- form, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, unutterably kind; even [5]

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.

A Great Man And His Saying

Hon. Charles Carrol Bonney, President of the World's [11]

Congress Auxiliary, in his remarks before that body, said, "No more striking manifestation of the interposi- tion of divine Providence in human affairs has come in recent years, than that shown in the raising up of the [15]

body of people known as Christian Scientists, who are called to declare the real harmony between religion and Science, and to restore the waning faith of many in the verities of the sacred Scriptures."

In honest utterance of veritable history, and his own [20]

spiritual discernment, this man must have risen above worldly schemes, human theorems or hypotheses, to conclusions which reason too supine or misemployed cannot fasten upon. He spake inspired; he touched a tone of Truth that will continue to reverberate and renew [25]

its emphasis throughout the entire centuries, into the vast forever.

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