Harry C. Browne, C.S., of Boston, Massachusetts
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
You have accepted the loving invitation of this church to a spiritual supper consisting of the ideas of God.
All may be nourished at this table of God's furnishing. The spiritual ideas, or Mind images, this lecture presents are based upon the inspired teachings of the Holy Bible and its scientific meanings, gained through the revelation of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy, its Discoverer and Founder. Every person is capable of experiencing far more of the power of God through the scientific understanding of man's God-given dominion over all evil than his present limited sense of God permits. The heaviness of material thinking of the world weighs mortals down. Human passions and hatreds crucify the Christ, the good in mankind.
Looking up and away from worldliness we shall be lifted, gradually, Spiritward and begin to enjoy as the sons and daughters of God the wedding feast spoken of in Revelation, which symbolizes the unity of God and man, "Love wedded to its own spiritual idea" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 575).
The words of one of our hymns picture this holy supper:
Here, O my Lord, I'd see Thee face to face;
Here would I touch and handle things unseen;
Here grasp with firmer hand th' eternal grace,
And all my weariness upon Thee lean.
Here would I feed upon the bread of God;
Here drink anew the royal wine of heaven;
Here would I lay aside each earthly load,
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No.108)
What beautiful thoughts these words convey. According to Webster's dictionary a word is "a vocal sound, or combination of such sounds, used as a symbol to signify an idea or thought." Then words help us to express beautiful and inspiring thoughts. Words impress themselves on our consciousness, and are much more easily retained than thoughts, which, of themselves, are continually slipping away from us; yet, by recalling a word, one may readily bring back the thought it symbolizes or stands for. Often the Holy Bible is affectionately spoken of as the "Word of God" and rightly so, for in the most beautiful symbolic language ever written it reveals the God-inspired thoughts of the prophets and of Christ Jesus and his apostles.
The Apostle John, recording the words and works of Christ Jesus, states this spiritual fact: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him [the Word] was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1, 3). From these statements we may begin to grasp the great truism that God's universe is undeniably spiritual or, shall we say, wholly spiritually mental. And Christian Science with its "key" to the Scriptures unlocks this spiritual fact with this enlightening statement: "The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God" (Science and Health, pp. 502, 503); and elsewhere Mrs. Eddy defines man in part as "the compound idea of God, including all right ideas" (ibid., p. 475). and not made up of brain, flesh, bones, nerves, blood, and other material elements.
The question might well be asked at this moment, "If God's creation, including individual man, is spiritual, what about the material universe and man which are so evident to human consciousness?" Well, friends, it is just at this point that Christian Science begins its fundamental mission by resolving the things of material sense, that is, the things we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, into the spiritual ideas or thoughts which they symbolize. The writer of the book of Hebrews points out for our further enlightenment that "things which are seen [perceived] were not made of things which do appear" (Hebr. 11:3). And so the things about us only symbolize the spiritual ideas of God's creation.
"Spiritual teaching," Mrs. Eddy informs us (Science and Health, p. 575), "must always be by symbols;" and a symbol is something which stands for something else. When the account of God's creation given in the first chapter of Genesis is read, we find names which mortal mind interprets materially given to the different ideas of creation, such as light, water, earth, sun, moon, stars, whales, animals, birds, grass, trees, fruit, herbs, and finally man. God's creation must be and is spiritual. But mortals have identified these names with their own mortal conceptions. Science teaches that we must translate these material symbols into spiritual ideas in order to gain the pure, spiritual meaning of creation.
Let me give you a few of Jesus' symbolic phrases spoken to his disciples, which further illustrate my meaning. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). In other words, without the Christ-idea or spiritual understanding of God, the disciples were so much dead wood. Referring to spiritual nourishment, Jesus said, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me" (John 4:34).
He likened his ministry to a shepherd tending his flock. Jesus' material lifework is symbolized by a cross, and his ultimate spiritual victory by a crown.
Next, let me give you a few examples of Mrs. Eddy's use of symbolism, which teach the spiritual meaning for which the word stands. "Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, and not a vitalizing property of matter"(Science and Health, p. 510). "Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love" (ibid., p. 512). "The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, 'The meek shall inherit the earth'" (ibid, p. 516). "There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind" (ibid., p. 102). "Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas" (ibid., p. 511).
Because of Mrs. Eddy's divine insight, she has appropriately titled the closing chapters of her textbook, "Key to the Scriptures." This "Key" includes the spiritual interpretation of two books of the Bible: Genesis and the Apocalypse, commonly called Revelation. Also in this "Key" is a chapter entitled "Glossary." "It contains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning" (Science and Health, p. 579). Through this "Key to the Scriptures" we may clearly note the dividing line between the so-called material universe and the spiritual universe of God's creating. Then we shall not make the mistake of trying to spiritualize matter, for that would be pantheism. Matter and Spirit are farther apart than the poles. Matter does not really exist. All scientific reasoning rests on this basis: the allness of Spirit and its perfect spiritual expression. There can never be perfect matter. Matter is dust, nothingness. Therefore, there is no Godlike matter — no good matter; matter is in belief only a symbol which stands for something really substantial.
Then, admitting for the sake of argument that the so-called material world about us is but our limited misconception of God's spiritual creation, how shall we study to bring about its transformation or spiritual idealistic meaning?
Well, we can start by taking two verses from the Bible and then follow with their scientific meaning given in Science and Health. I shall read first the twenty-ninth and thirtieth verses of the first chapter of Genesis.
"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat."
Next, let us hear Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of these statements: "God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the lower." (Science and Health, p. 518).
Then the material objects which comprise the animal kingdom — men, beasts, and birds — may symbolize the greater ideas of God, and the objects of the vegetable kingdom — the plants, herbs, and trees — may symbolize the lesser ideas.
God's creation is wholly spiritual, embracing the important qualities, wisdom, justice, power, purity, holiness, health, and so on: and the lesser qualities of hope, faith, meekness, compassion, honesty, affection, temperance, and humanity.
It is evident to most of us that while we seem to lack the most important qualities of God we do understand something of His lesser qualities, and when these lesser qualities are recognized as the qualities of grace and truth which comprise the teachings of Christ Jesus we shall understand his command to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourself.
These explanations reveal the holy purpose of Christ Jesus' teachings to link or unite our thoughts with the greater ideas of God. Remember Jesus' words, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . . For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:31-33). And what is God's "righteousness" but the ideas of His rightness: His Science, His intelligence, His power, His exactness, His dependability, His activity. Dwelling in thought on the spiritual ideas of God we shall experience here and now heaven on earth. And contrariwise, dwelling wholly upon the objects of material sense we shall experience here and now hell on earth. Jesus said we "cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). We cannot worship Spirit and matter, but Spirit alone, if we are to know the imperishable ideas of God which relate to health, holiness, and eternal life.
The forever contemplation of matter is the underlying cause of envy, fear, hatred, lust, selfishness, and greed. These thoughts are symbolized in disease, war, poisonous vegetation, droughts, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and fires. But with the individual and universal acceptance of the teachings of Christ Jesus, explained in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, all these so-called upheavals and calamities of nature, including wars, will end, and "peace on earth" will be the universal consciousness of being. Man's supply of good ideas, meeting human needs, will not be interfered with or destroyed. For "Christ, Truth," our Leader states, "gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually" (Science and Health, p. 442).
Christian Science explains that because God is all-embracing Love no good thing can be withheld from those who love Him — those who love good. Health and success, peace and salvation await every earnest student of Christian Science, not in recognition of any personal intellectual ability, but because the lesser and greater ideas are gifts of God and free to all. Centuries of false teaching, theological and academic, have hidden these spiritual ideas. Christian Science is again revealing them. As little children let us now "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8).
To "taste" of God is to try His words, to prove for ourselves their goodness by the use of the thoughts for which the words stand.
A visitor at my office one day remarked, "I haven't any patience."
"Oh, yes, you have! God has given you plenty of patience, but you are not using it."
Have you ever noticed that when you are out of patience you want everyone else to be patient? We are always looking to someone else to express the good ideas we as God's reflection already possess but are not as mortals awake enough or willing to use. Whenever you feel in your work that if you had just a bit more encouragement things would go along much better, then is the time for you to encourage others. Draw on God's abundant supply of courage for your own encouragement. Do you seem to lack joy? Then reflect more of it to others. Perhaps a hard-working but emotional wife or husband will say, "What I need is a little more co-operation." Then co-operate; exercise tolerance and forgiveness. Appreciation like co-operation is a God-given spiritual quality. If you feel that you are not appreciated, it is evident that you are not using appreciation. What you demand of or look for to come from others, you, yourself, should give, and you will soon discover that you always have had it.
Do you need a boost? Then boost another's lagging faith and hope. Are you worried? Then assure someone of God's loving care. Express comforting thoughts and you, too, will experience bodily strength. Every spiritual idea of God has been given you to use and needs only to be frankly acknowledged and expressed to be realized, for Jesus said, "Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8).
To the spiritual demand to love our neighbor as ourselves was [added?] the pre-eminent charge to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind" (Luke 10:27). It is the love of and worship of matter, the bowing down to mortal beliefs, that prevents the natural flow of spiritual ideas embodying health and holiness from reaching human consciousness.
If you let the ideas of God's goodness flow freely from yourself to others, there will be no stoppages or obstructions in the body. Gallstones, indigestion, consumption, arthritis, constipation are the results of wrong thinking; so too are all other diseases.
Observing physicians, warning more and more of the harmful effect of wrong thoughts upon the body, are simply voicing a statement made by Mrs. Eddy over seventy years ago. She said: "A sick body is evolved from sick thoughts. Sickness, disease, and death proceed from fear. Sensualism evolves bad physical and moral conditions" (Science and Health, p. 260).
A physician once said to an audience, "We hate with every organ of our body." Is it any wonder that resentment, envy, unjust criticism, fear, sensuality, jealousy, revenge upset a man's stomach, disturb his liver, overtax his heart, consume his tissues, exhaust his nerves, paralyze his limbs, and contract his muscles? All this suffering and misery and incapacity appears to exist because mankind, believing in the reality of matter, is either fearing it or loving it. If hatred, evil passions, selfishness, lust, fear, and greed make the body sick and useless, then forgiveness, faith, generosity, chastity, confidence, patience, and meekness will, through God's law explained in Christian Science, restore it to health and usefulness. This gospel of Christianity healed the sick in Jesus' time, and by scientifically understanding Jesus' teachings, which reveal man's oneness with the Father, the lost art of healing is being restored. Christian Science explains that the real man is above sin and frailty. He is immune to disease and death. He is never a failure. He is the highest idea of God, exercising dominion and protecting power over every lesser idea.
The divine power seems hidden to the human mind, and mortals feel helpless in the presence of sickness and disease. And why? "Because," as Mrs. Eddy states, "our systems of religion are governed more or less by our systems of medicine" (Science and Health, p. 146). We have been educated to rely upon matter, medicine, instead of God's healing, spiritual ideas, for relief from the diseased effects of material thinking.
Said Jesus, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Worshiping matter is paganism, just as much today as in ancient history. Those days had their sun-worshipers, moon-worshipers, and body-worshipers; but are we moderns any less paganistic in bowing down consciously and unconsciously to drugs, vitamins, dieting, hygiene, and body massaging? Is it any wonder that with such little faith in God healing is sometimes long delayed?
Mortals resent this change to spiritual thinking, because they do not catch the significance of Jesus' words that a man "must be born again" (John 3:7) to grasp the things of Spirit. So they hang on to their material, pleasurable beliefs until suffering drives them to seek something outside of themselves for healing. We should welcome this transition, because through giving up the counterfeit or material sense of things, we gain the genuine or spiritual sense, and that is what heals us.
Isaiah knew by experience the inexhaustible supply of God's ideas. He called out in the highways and byways, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa. 55:1).
Christian Science, too, invites all who hunger and thirst for the truth of God to come and find their spiritual food and drink. Through The Mother Church and local branch churches, lending libraries, and literature distribution committees, Christian Science is literally available "without money and without price."
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and Mrs. Eddy's many shorter writings, together with The Christian Science Journal, Quarterly Bible Lessons, Heralds, Sentinel, and The Christian Science Monitor, are invaluable helps in gaining the spiritual ideas of God. While Science and Health is the only book written by Mrs. Eddy used as a textbook of Christian Science, her other writings are amplifications and elaborations of her spiritual revelation. The periodicals, also, supplement Mrs. Eddy's works with splendid editorials, poems, and articles about Christian Science by competent writers, as well as authentic testimonies from many who have been healed.
Some periodicals and pamphlets are published in foreign languages with the alternate pages in English. Everything published by The Christian Science Publishing Society may be purchased or read at the various Reading Rooms which all churches provide. The King James Version of the Holy Bible, which Christian Scientists use, may also be purchased or borrowed in our Reading Rooms. So, dear friends, we are without excuse if we find ourselves starving for spiritual nourishment.
Mary Baker Eddy's explanation of Christian Science often arouses opposition with those whose theories deal wholly or partially with matter. Justifying her discovery, Mrs. Eddy has written: "If any system honors God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all thinking persons. And Christian Science does honor God as no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works through the divine name and nature" (Science and Health, p. 483). Today, professors, surgeons, engineers, bishops, ministers, lawyers, members of congress and parliament, judges, authors, and editors join in paying homage to this divinely gifted woman.
In humility did Mrs. Eddy take these honors. She recognized herself to be but a humble instrument in God's hands. Let me quote her own words: "When I wrote 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' I little understood all that indited; but when I practised its precepts, healing the sick and reforming the sinner, then I learned the truth of what I had written" (Miscellany, p. 271). Her revelation unquestionably came from God. In her own words she has become "the revelator to this age of the immortal truths testified to by Jesus and the prophets" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. vii). [Note to the reader: Mr. Browne was mistaken; the words that he quotes from the Foreword to Miscellany are not Mrs. Eddy's "own words," but those of one of her followers.]
Touched compassionately by the human picture of a world suffering in ignorance of the hidden spiritual ideas of God, our inspired Leader sought to strike from helpless human minds and nerve-racked physical bodies the chains of false beliefs which had so long enslaved them. Thus she writes in the textbook, "I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind" (p. 226).
Hundreds of thousands today recognize Christian Science as the means through which their lives have been regenerated and their bodies healed. No greater redeeming, saving force since the days of Jesus of Nazareth has swept the world, proving by "signs following" that its Science is Christian and its Christianity scientific.
It is not just coincidence that, since the revelation of Christian Science in 1866 to Mrs. Eddy, the world has witnessed so many wonderful changes in the methods of industry, communication, agriculture, chemistry, and transportation. Mrs. Eddy's discovery that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" (Science and Health, p. 468), eliminating the possibility or ability of matter, leaves the field of invention open to quickened human consciousness which sees through and overcomes the limits imposed by ignorance, superstition, and fear, because it has glimpsed something of the wonderful possibilities of the real universe of divine Mind and idea.
The world must slow up in its mad rush after material things and ask itself, Have all these things brought men nearer to the realization of God as their true source?
As things are resolved into thoughts, we shall see prayer in its true perspective and recognize God or Mind as the source of all right ideas. Jesus said definitely: "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). "Believing," Christian Science explains, is "firmness and constancy; not a faltering nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth" (Science and Health, p. 582). Pray, then, for the spiritual ideas for which the material symbols stand. Then, believe that you have them. Pray to be clothed with meekness. Pray to be anointed with the oil of compassion. Pray to be nourished with the bread of understanding, and know that prayer is already answered, and the things needed humanly will appear. How distressing to hear someone say: "Why doesn't God answer my prayer? Is it because I am not good enough? Or maybe I don't know how to pray." Well, there is nothing that God can do for you that He has not already done. And He must be approached from this standpoint. Man's needs are not for material things, but for spiritual ideas. God is forever sending forth His ideas — beauty, intelligence, strength, holiness, et cetera; humility and faith will prepare consciousness to receive them, for remember the lesser idea links us "to the greater" (Science and Health, p. 518). If your thoughts are filled with undue regrets over the past, you cannot hear God's answer to your prayers. If you are fearful about the future, you cannot hear it, either. These angel messages, or God's thoughts, are so still in their ministration that human consciousness has to be quieted of its fears, its prejudices, its anxieties, its self-will, in order that one may be aware of their healing message.
As fearful, willful thoughts become quieted, we become aware of the divine goodness. Don't allow this holy moment to pass without gaining the blessing it has for you. Hold on to it as God holds on to you. Let its healing influence flood every part and fiber of your being. You are being ministered to by the angels of God.
Mrs. Eddy reassures us with these words: "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for to-morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 307).
Knowing more of the unseen presence of God, we shall see how every sinful act would dull our human sensitiveness to His ideas, bringing sorrow and suffering. But as we are victorious over the passions and false appetites, "we shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask" (Science and Health, p. 30).
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mein,
That, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace!"
Alexander Pope
If we are not awakened to the deceitful, clever methods by which the seeds of evil propaganda are sown and cultivated in human thought, we may gradually lose our natural loathing of sin and find ourselves plunged in the depths of despair.
One sometimes wonders why people who should know better are so deceived by the cunningly devised advertising propaganda of the manufacturers and distributors of liquor and tobacco that their natural repugnance and loathing of these habit-forming drugs has vanished.
In an article entitled "Ways Higher than Our Ways" beginning on page 17 of "Unity of Good," Mrs. Eddy in a few words brings to light this evil method of propaganda. "A lie," she states, "has only one chance of successful deception, — to be accounted true. Evil seeks to fasten all error upon God, and so makes the lie seem part of eternal Truth. Emerson says, 'Hitch your wagon to a star.' I say, Be allied to the deific power . . . ; but evil ties its wagonload of offal [filth] to the divine chariots, — or seeks so to do, — that its vileness may be christened purity, and its darkness get consolation from borrowed scintillations."
Can't you see how cleverly the propagandist works? By word and picture he connects something harmless and beautiful, something which his readers or listeners admire or like, with the whiskey, gin, wine, beer, cigarette, cigar, or pipe tobacco and aims his propaganda to include the women and youngsters. The scheme is to associate pictorially the alcoholic beverage or tobacco with the beautiful things of life: sunny brooks and fragrant roses; the companionship of friends and the joys of the home; the exuberance of sports; the faithfulness of dumb animals; the dignity of the statesman; the valor of the soldier; the charm of girlhood and womanhood; yes, even the innocence of children is pictured, that the vileness of the drug, the liquor, and tobacco, "may be christened purity" (ibid.). How evil loses its repulsiveness when associated with something beautiful and harmless! By calling attention to the sweet and good we momentarily forget its curse.
Mrs. Eddy was well aware of the insidious effects of sedatives and stimulants and tells us in the textbook, that "the use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in harmony with Christian Science" (Science and Health. p. 454).
Propaganda of any kind which enslaves the minds of men and women takes away their right of free moral agency, because it dulls their sensibilities so that they cannot hear the voice of God telling them, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isa. 30:21). The individual must be free mentally to work out his God-given salvation from sin, disease, and death. The Bible states, "We have the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16). Then that mind with its spiritual ideas must not be tampered with. No less a person than President Thomas Jefferson, the framer of the Declaration of Independence, took upon himself this pledge: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of Tyranny over the mind of man" (Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D. C.). "God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 106).
And only as human government rests upon the Ten Commandments of Moses and the teachings of Christ Jesus will government be just and lasting. The average person recalling the three branches of government of the United States, the judiciary, the legislative, the executive, little dreams that these are the outcome of another God-inspired prophecy uttered by Isaiah thousands of years ago. He wrote, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us" (Isa. 33:22). These three branches, the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive, all are necessary, for they complement each other and are checks one upon the other, for the salvation of the world. Only God can arrogate to Himself the blending of the three, and man can find lasting solution to world problems only by looking to God, who is outside the human problem. Let's not be afraid; "God is working His purpose out" (Hymnal, No. 82). Could anyone foresee a few years ago the marvelous things that have come and are coming to pass? When the outlook seemed so dark, especially in the early days of Britain's lone struggle against the foes of representative government, men and women prayed as never before to Almighty God for guidance and help. And it came; sometimes vastly different than planned, but it came. And the present struggle with the existing world-wide differences of cultural, racial, religious, national opinions needs our patient, confident, Godlike thinking to hold in check the doubting, hating, impulsive, and willful elements in human society — elements instigated through ignorance of God and the evil designs of wicked mortals. God alone governs the universe and man in perfect harmony. This is the beacon light toward which the nations of the world must turn for guidance; for government rests upon Principle, God, not on persons.
Christ, Truth, must reign in the world conferences yet to come to bring lasting peace. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed," Jesus said, "ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. 17:20). So, if we have the least grain of faith in Christ, the spiritual idea of God, we can say to the unreal mountains of prejudice, jealousy, bigotry, intolerance, and indifference, "Remove hence," and they will remove; for the power of God, to which our right thinking is linked, is able to bring His government to pass in our human affairs as in the divine.
Take heart, dear friends, for the unseen angel-ideas of God's presence and power are round about us. Let us joyfully thank Him for His unfailing guidance in the past, and though there may seem to be many difficulties ahead, though the world seems in great pain and in urgent need of much that has been destroyed by the wantonness of war, let us remember that we are living in earth's preparatory school, where our mentalities are gradually being molded through Christian Science to the blessed truths of God's spiritual, harmonious universe of ideas. Let us go forward with renewed confidence and purpose to look beyond the material symbols and to know the spiritual presence of the unseen things of God. Don't be afraid. God has given us the kingdom. It is ours to claim and enjoy.
And as we rise, the symbols disappear;
The feast, though not the love, is past and gone;
The bread and wine remove, but Thou art here,
Nearer than ever, still my shield and sun.
Feast after feast thus comes and passes by;
Yet passing, points to the glad feast above,
Giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy,
The Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 108)
[Delivered Feb. 2, 1954, under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Detroit, Michigan, and published in The Grosse Point News, Feb. 11, 1954.]