The Hon. Clarence A. Buskirk, C.S., of Princeton,
Indiana
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
An interesting lecture was delivered under the auspices of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, of this city, at the Metropolitan theater yesterday afternoon, Clarence A. Buskirk, formerly attorney general of Indiana, being the speaker and Christian Science his topic. Mr. Buskirk was introduced by Abbot Edes Smith of this city, in the following words:
In an ancient fable we read: "An old man had many sons, who were always falling out with one another. He had often vainly exhorted them to live together in harmony. One day he called them round him and, producing a bundle of sticks, bade them try each in turn to break it across. Each put forth his strength, but the bundle resisted all their efforts. Then, cutting the cord which bound the sticks together, he told his sons to break them separately. This was done with the greatest ease. 'See, my sons,' exclaimed he, 'the power of unity. Bound together by brotherly love, you may defy almost every mortal ill; divided, you will fall a prey to your enemies,'"
When mankind learns well the lesson of unity, and when all not only say, "Lord, Lord," but honestly and lovingly do unto others as they would have others do unto them, the millennium will be near at hand. What, then, is the essential nature of this vital unity, and how practically can it be attained?
The Apostle Paul has said: "Other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Absolute truth known and lived is the only possible basis of that true unity which will ultimately unite all men in one band of brothers, one in deed as in word.
There is hardly a sect of philosophy or of religion which has not tried to solve this problem by insisting that all must join that particular sect, and too often the accepted method has involved the abuse and persecution of other sects. Yet the Apostle Paul declares "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Without unity of heart, unity of form is worse than useless — it is a hollow mockery. Where there is no unity of heart, the uniting of the churches of all the different denominations would only cause "Confusion worse confounded" and would aptly exemplify the aphorism of Mrs. Eddy, "To work together is not always to co-operate, but sometimes to coelbow."
Evidently, therefore, a mere unity of form and of organization is not the true criterion by which to test unity in fact; and I regret to add that this is sometimes true even among churches of the same denomination.
Must we admit, then, that unity is a chimera, a myth, and that the millennium is utopian, never to be reached on this earth? Is there no way in which all men, all denominations may co-operate under the golden rule for the attainment of true unity?
The apostle John tells us of "The true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and he affirms with authority "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." Like Paul, all mortals see this Light "Through a glass, darkly," but everyone, however debased, who follows and is true to this light as he sees it, is doing his very best to reach the common goal of mankind, where all shall "Know even as also they are known," and where all shall be of one Mind, having the "Same Mind which was also in Christ Jesus," unified by the Truth which makes man free.
Only as men approach the light of Truth do they draw nearer to one another. This light of Truth as he sees it is a man's highest interpretation of the voice of God speaking to that man — it is his conscience. Even if one's conscience be darkened, the man who refuses to follow it is false to his highest sense of right and is therefore a bad man while the man who is true to his conscience, mistaken though it be, is a good man. Next to obedience to his own conscience, therefore, one's highest duty is to strive to enlighten his conscience by learning of Him "Whom to know aright is life eternal" and in truth God reveals Himself to every man who honestly seeks to obey his conscience. The psalmist has said, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. . . . Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand."
Jesus said: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." In God's word we read: "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." True unity, therefore, is to unite with our whole heart in seeking to know God and in striving to live the truth so learned. Thus, and thus only, in the spirit of the golden rule, can we truly be in unity with all men — a unity based on individual liberty of conscience. The apostle James has well said: "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." A broader truth than he realized was spoken by the famous American who proclaimed "Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable."
No person can be another's conscience, yet one mortal may voice that truth which will enlighten another's conscience, and teach more of God's goodness and power.
Since the time of Jesus and his apostles, no one has re-proclaimed Christ's blessed gospel of unity and of liberty, of God's goodness and power, more consistently and more earnestly than Mrs. Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science. In "Science and Health" she has said: "Whatsoever inspires with wisdom, Truth or Love, be it song, sermon or science, blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty." Again, in this same book, she has said: "Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, 'Slavery is abolished.' The power of God bringeth deliverance to the captive. God made man free. Paul said, 'I was free born.' All men should be free. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' Love and Truth make free. Whatever enslaveth man is opposed to the divine government."
It is of the highest importance that all who, under whatever name or sign, stand together for universal Christian love and unity, based on the broadest Christian tolerance and charity, should not misunderstand one another, and, in order to correct widely spread misapprehensions and misrepresentations, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., has organized a Christian Science Board of Lectureship. We have with us this afternoon a prominent member of this board, a former and distinguished attorney general of the state of Indiana, who will address us under the auspices of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, of this city. I esteem it a privilege and it gives me great pleasure to present to you the Hon. Clarence A. Buskirk."
Mr. Buskirk spoke as follows:
Christian Science is too large a theme to be encompassed in a single lecture. If I shall succeed in removing some erroneous impressions concerning it, and in awakening a sufficient interest to lead to a further investigation of the subject, the chief purpose of this lecture will be accomplished. A more complete understanding of its teachings can only be obtained by a careful study of its literature, such as you expect to devote to arithmetic, grammar, and their kindred branches of learning. I shall not attempt to teach you any talismanic sentences such as the "Open Sesame" with which Aladdin conjured open the door of the cave to gain access to the stores of jewels within. There is no way "to get rich quick" in spiritual knowledge. An honest desire to learn and purity of motive are the main requisites.
Christian Science teaches the Gospel of glad tidings, of divine Love. It recognizes, however, that merely teaching the gospel is not sufficient. It emphasizes that it is necessary to prove the gospel to mankind, now as in the time of Jesus, by its practical and evidential works, such as overcoming sin, sickness and suffering. Hence, it teaches its followers the need to do something as well as to believe something, and its working doctrine is to do good among our fellowmen. It teaches that good works are quite as important as good words; indeed, that unless they are manifested in works, words are liable to become mere dry-as-dust formulas,
"As idle as the painted ship,
Upon the painted ocean."
It teaches that to learn anything aright, we must test, apply and prove as we learn. For example, you might study the rules in arithmetic for years, but you never could be quite sure you had learned them aright, without testing, applying and proving them to be true in solving problems under them. Sometimes our Christian brethren say to us that they knew about the spiritual healing of the sick, from their reading of the Bible, before the advent of Christian Science. No one has the right to declare that he understands the Christ method of healing the sick, until he has tested, applied and proven it to be true, by his own actual works. The understanding of the process and its practical application go together. The better we understand it, the better we can apply it, and the more we apply it, the more we understand it.
Christian Science teaches and proves by its works (for it could not perform the least of them if its teachings were not true), that we are all citizens of a spiritual universe. Each of us, all of us have an immortal spiritual destiny. The grave has never been the final goal of humanity, and the tombstone has never been more than a milestone on man's journey. We are too prone to burrow in dirt and darkness, like the mole, and to forget the nobility and grandeur of our destiny as spiritual beings. In our self-seeking efforts for power, place and money, all of which are really so transitory, we are too prone to lose sight of the true perspective and proportion of things. We hold the dollars so close to our eyes as to shut out, not only the celestial man, but even what is fairest and sweetest about us throughout the dusty highways of our lives.
Christian Science recognizes in the scriptural declaration that "God is love" — the great dynamic truth of the universe. It seeks to make this dynamic truth the basis of its entire system of doctrine and practice.
Hence, it seeks to establish our thoughts and lives on the high tablelands of purity and peace, faith and faithfulness. And, therefore, Christian Science can have no doctrine which recognizes or admits directly or remotely that such phenomena as sin, sickness and suffering are the creations of God, and so sanctioned and perpetuated by infinite Love. It refuses to sanction the teaching that while God is always willing and abundantly able to save the sinner, yet, for some inscrutable reason, His all-embracing Providence is either not able or is not willing to save the sick. It refuses to sanction the dogma that God discriminates between the classes of mankind needing his loving kindness, so that the virtuous sick man would be further away from God, for all practical purposes than the robust sinner. It denies that God is partial or unjust in His benefactions. It denies that God's protecting care is limited or finite. It denies that God's arm is shortened so that it cannot reach and help man in all his distresses. It affirms that the virtuous sick man, as well as the robust sinner, has the right to appeal for help without limiting his faith in God.
Christian Science discerns by the light of our highest reason, as well as by the authority of Scripture that it is sublimely true that "God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Not only good, but very good. Hence it has no teaching that admits or even suggests that God is the author of evil. It has no teaching which admits or suggests divine hate, cruelty or injustice. It is wholly incapable of drawing any portrait suggesting any of the attributes of a Satan and writing beneath it the name of God. Indeed, it is incapable of drawing any portrait at all except with the celestial colors of love, joy and promise.
You ask, then, who made the phenomena of evil, if God did not make them? They are man-made, not God-made for they belong to human consciousness, and it is unthinkable that they can belong to the divine consciousness, which is Love, Harmony, Wisdom, Good. Let me illustrate. Suppose you have been erroneously taught that twice two is five; such a falsehood would belong to human consciousness, not to the divine consciousness. Suppose that you fully believe this false rule, act upon it for years, cipher erroneously by reason of it, lose money and suffer from your false teaching that twice two is five. Can you say that God made such a falsehood? God is Truth, and so is utterly incapable of creating a falsehood.
God is Harmony, not discord, and so is utterly incapable of creating aught discordant. God is Love, and so is utterly incapable of creating aught that is hateful, unjust or cruel. God is All Wisdom and All-Power, and, therefore, does not need to mix evil and good together. God is Good, and, therefore, does not employ evil as an instrument or factor in His divine economy.
All the phenomena of evil are connected with and incident to that form of human consciousness which relates to what we call the physical or material universe. Not only the earthquake and flood, but the appetites and passions from which our race suffers, all have their origin in our concepts of the material universe. A false theology has too long taught us to accept things for what they seem to be, instead of for what they really are. We have been taught, and have come to believe, that the little arc which we see, and not the entire circle of which it forms so small a part, is the truth of being. But Christian Science teaches that all reality, all which truly exists in reality, not in seeming or as phenomena, is very good because nothing exists as reality which is not of God, of divine and infinite Good. Christian Science teaches by the light of our highest reason as well as by the authority of Scripture that man is a spiritual being, and, therefore, has dominion over the things of the earth; that whenever he seems subject to material things and their incidents of sin, sickness, and suffering, it is because, through his false education and ignorance, he submits himself to their dominion instead of asserting his God-given dominion over them. It is a false theology, contrary both to our highest reason and to the Scripture, that the appearances of evil, the phenomena of sin, sickness and suffering, are the creations of God. We must either reject God altogether, or we must recognize that it is really as unreasonable to say that infinite Good creates evil as it is to say that infinite Truth creates the falsehood that twice two is five. That we believe that sin, sickness, and suffering are realities of man's true being does not make them so. Appearances belong to one category in sound reasoning, and truths belong to another and distinct category.
A profound truth is encompassed in the Scriptural statement: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The conceptions which a person has of God exercise a most powerful influence over that person's character, conduct, habits of thinking and physical being. Indeed, it is impossible to measure or limit the activities and scope of these influences and their far-reaching effects. Christian Science has been a chief factor in the last twenty-five years in arousing the sleeping attention of mankind to the pressing importance of a constant recognition of these influences and effects. If we believe that God is the author of sin, we look upon sin as an unavoidable and, indeed, indispensable part of the economy of the universe. Does not such a view of sin tend to make us more tolerant of its presence in ourselves and others, and to discourage the energies of our resistance against it? If we believe God to be the author of sickness, and that sickness is one of the dispensations divine Providence, (to use a phrase that was once much in fashion), what is the use of our taking any steps to get well? If we really believe that God intends and decrees us to be sick, can we expect that drugs, or prayers of faith, or anything else, will defeat the deific purpose? We can only become more hopeful in our efforts to overcome sin and sickness as we lose our belief in such a God. Thus our false belief that God is the author of sin or sickness teaches us doubt respecting God's existence and turns our discouraged thoughts towards the despair of atheism.
Correct classifications and precise definitions are essential to every form of systemized knowledge — indeed, there can be no science without them. Christian Science classifies and, defines infinite Mind, or God, and his infinite manifestation, as the reality, and all else, including material phenomena, sin, sickness, and so forth, as non-reality. This classification has been the source of much misconception, misrepresentation, and ignorant ridicule.
Christian Science does not deny that all these appearances seem real to our sense-consciousness. It does not treat them as merely imaginary, as has been incorrectly stated by some of its critics. But it seeks to define and classify them with scientific accuracy. And it finds from actual experience that this classification is absolutely indispensable to the performance of its practical works. It finds that Jesus taught and proved the non-reality of the appearances, which he overcame. It finds that Paul had the same classification in mind when he wrote of the things which are seen as being temporal and the things which are not seen as eternal. It finds that this classification is the only one which can possibly harmonize with the Scriptural statement that God saw that everything which he had made was very good. It is only what is not good, and therefore, not of God, which Christian Science seeks to overcome. It would be impossible to overcome anything which comes of God, in other words, anything which is good, or reality. It is only what is false, not good, not real, which needs to be overcome or which can be overcome.
All that is not good is not of God, and can, therefore, have no real existence.
This brings us to a brief consideration of the latest teachings of the physical sciences in respect to the non-reality of matter, according to its true definition and classification.
It is true that until a few decades ago the physical scientists were largely materialistic in their views, regarding matter as either the sole reality, or as a dual reality with God. This was at the half-way station in their investigations. Now the greatest among them are, nearly all of them, taking the same view of matter, or the material universe, that it is phenomenal, and not the reality, which was taken by the discoverer of Christian Science more than thirty years ago. It is within the last few months, for example, that Mr. Balfour, the prime minister of England, who is a noted natural scientist as well as a statesman, as president of a meeting of natural scientists in England, made the remark, in his opening address, that the natural sciences were now explaining matter by explaining it away. Of course, this epigrammatic statement is not to be understood as declaring that matter does not appear real to our five physical senses. It means that these appearances are not to be accepted as proving the reality of matter in the materialistic meaning given to the term reality. It means that the natural sciences are showing by their investigations that materialism is an utterly false theory. Materialism accepts matter for what it appears to be to our sense-consciousness; but the natural sciences are now proving that these appearances are wholly unreliable and that materialism is really a crass deception.
Foremost among modern physical scientists are the names of Huxley, Tyndall, Herbert Spencer. Prof. Huxley wrote: "I repudiate as philosophical error the doctrine of materialism." Prof. Herbert Spencer wrote: "I have had to rebut the charge of materialism times too numerous to remember." Professor Grant Allen, writing of the late Professor Tyndall, says: "The charge of materialism could only be brought against such a man by those abject materialists who have never had a glimpse of the profounder fact that the universe, as known to us, consists wholly of mind, and that matter is a doubtful and uncertain inference of the human intelligence." Professor Huxley also wrote: "What is this thing called matter, after all, except the unknown, suppositional cause of states of our own consciousness?" That is to say, we know what we think, according to our sense-perceptions, what an object is, but we do not know what is the reality behind the appearance. We may, for example, say that a metal is opaque. But we only know that to the human sense it is opaque. Beings with different eyes, say with X-ray or N-ray eyes, might accept it as transparent. The fact that the entire human race has the same kind of eyes, or sense perception and sense consciousness concerning physical objects, only proves that things have substantially the same appearances to all human beings. But this is also proven by the false appearance to the senses of all human beings that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; that a straight oar seems to be bent underneath the water; that two parallel iron rails seem to approach each other in the distant railroad track, and by many like instances.
Is it not about time that the batteries of ignorant ridicule which have been directed against Christian Science because of its scientific definition and classification of matter should be turned against the natural scientists also? In the light of the present attitude of the natural sciences teaching the nonreality of matter, is it not strange that any theologians are still to be found to advocate the reality of matter, and thus be guilty of the abject materialism described by Professor Allen? And if you declare against the reality of matter, you thereby must declare against the appearances which are the incidents of matter, including sin, sickness and suffering. The unprogressive medieval theology which was invented by the ecclesiasticism of the dark ages may be opposed to the teachings of the natural sciences and to the teachings of Christian Science on these points. But there can be no conflict between what is true in religion and what is true in the natural sciences. Much of the widespread materialism of this age is traceable to the unfortunate position of the churches, clinging to their traditional dogmas and asserting that the natural sciences are the foes of religion. True religion and true science are friends and co-workers in the eternal domain of truth.
Facts, not appearances, but facts, are the mighty weapons of truth, the mighty things of the universe; while mere theories are among the feeblest. Whenever a theory, creed, or dogma is permitted to usurp the scepter and crown and govern facts, falsehood is liable to triumph until the usurped authority of the theory is overthrown. "Though ye believe not me, believe the works," said Jesus. And so says Christian Science. Christian Science is to-day, my friends, healing "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease," to make use of the New Testament phrase, throughout the civilized world. The witnesses to its cures are in every city, and are beginning to be found in almost every county in the United States. They come up to the average standard for intelligence, respectability and veracity. They are of all business pursuits and of all ranks in life. They know that they have "found the pearl of great price," that they have attained "the peace that passeth understanding." They have arisen from beds of pain and apparently hopeless invalidism and they are crying out in their gratitude, "I know that my Redeemer liveth!" They have seen the grim enemy, death, shadowing the thresholds of their homes, cottages and proud mansions alike, and threatening to enter soon and bear away some loved one of their family circles; they have heard their faithful family physicians despairingly admit that their efforts were all in vain; and then they have had recourse, often as the last resort after everything else had failed them, to Christian Science, and lo! their fading loved ones have been restored to their arms, with the roses of health once more blooming in their cheeks and the light of restored happiness beaming again from their eyes.
Christian Science teaches that man's highest reason affirms the Biblical teaching that "God is Spirit," and that man, who is in God's image and likeness, must, therefore, be a spiritual being. Christian Science teaches that it must follow that intimate divine relations exist between God and man; that these divine relations cannot exist uselessly, but must be both useful and usable; that, therefore, man can make use of these divine relations for his higher harmony and happiness, according to the measure of his understanding of these relations and their uses. Christian Science bases its working doctrine upon the understanding already attained, and proves and exemplifies it by its practical and evidential works in overcoming the phenomenon of evil. Let me use a brief illustration. Take the fading plant in the dark cellar. What does it need? It needs that some one with the right understanding should restore it to its right relations. In other words, it needs to be taken out of the darkness and into the light. It is the same with man. All about us is a spiritual universe, though unperceived by our physical senses. Occasional glimmerings of spiritual light reach us. The fact that we can discern any spiritual light at all, instead of total spiritual darkness, serves to prove both that we have spiritual perception or faculties, and, are, therefore, spiritual beings, and that there is an abundance of spiritual light awaiting us. Already, this spiritual light which has always reached mankind in some degree, begins to stream upon us more radiantly through half-opened doors. Why should any one turn his back upon this light in order to adhere to the companionship of the shadowy dogmas and traditions of the past which are fleeing from the light?
Christian Science repudiates the notion that evil can be used as the instrument to bring about good. It refuses to employ that which can produce disease to produce health. It says to everything, whether poisonous drug or false belief, which can harm man, "Get thee behind me, Satan!' It refuses the perilous services of evil altogether. It does not believe that sweet waters and bitter can flow at the same time from the same fountain. It teaches its followers to cling steadfastly to that which is altogether good, and to eschew all that is evil. The means employed by Christian Science have not been hidden away for thousands of years in the depths of Peruvian forests, or distilled as deadly intoxicants through alembics devised by men's cunning appetites but they are God's free gifts to all His children alike. All of God's gifts to His children are alike for rich and poor, weak and powerful, prince and pauper. And they are perfect gifts to God's children, for they are the gifts of infinite Love. They are not like the calomel, which leaves behind it a belief of decaying bones; or like the chloral or cocaine that help people to insane asylums — they are not concocted barks which are believed to affect so powerfully the nerve centers that deafness and occasional heart-failures are said to be the immediate consequences in many instances. No; infinite Intelligence does not need to mix evil and good together in such a stupid and blundering way as this, and you may rest assured that infinite Love neither would nor could be thus guilty!
Christian Science has a history which is unique and extraordinary. Its text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, was first published in 1875, and it has now passed its three hundred and twentieth edition of one thousand copies each.
The Mother Church, in Boston, Mass., now has over thirty thousand members. Altogether, the denomination has over eight hundred and fifty churches and societies in which religious services are held each week. These organizations are now to be found throughout the civilized earth. Its growth is constant as well as rapid. This growth comes from grateful advocacy of the hundreds of thousands of its beneficiaries, and the number of those receiving its benefits is constantly increasing. It has not received, and it does not need any outside or adventitious aid to accelerate its growth. No powerful prince or potentate, no conquering army, no vast moneyed syndicate has espoused or assisted it. Its wonderful energies have all been steadily and steadfastly developed from within itself.
There must be a great meaning behind such a growth as this, in such an age as this, especially when we consider that Christian Science has its following from all ranks and pursuits of life, that it does not appeal to the fears or the excitable emotions of mankind, that its teachings antagonize many of our preconceived notions, and that several established institutions have been conspicuously active and aggressive in their opposition to it from the beginning. And it is a fact worthy of careful thought that those who refuse to test its growth are the ones who are found opposing Christian Science, while those who are its adherents have all tested it in their own persons and homes. Is not the experimental knowledge of its adherents far superior to the mere academic theories of its opponents?
The discoverer and founder of Christian Science, Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, was born near the city of Concord, N. H., in which city she now resides. All her life, she has been a devout Christian, a constant student of the Bible, and a loving worker for the welfare of humanity. From early childhood, she evinced high intellectual gifts, a rare spirituality in thought, life, and conduct, and an eminent literary ability. Her life throughout has been that of a good and noble woman.
In 1866 she met with a serious accident and her physicians pronounced her case hopeless. In her extremity she resorted to prayer, and her recovery followed. For three years of assiduous study in trying to discover and make practical the scientific explanation of her recovery, the Bible was her only textbook. She finally made the the discovery, and named it Christian Science, or the Science of Christianity. At once she began to test, apply and prove the Christian rule of healing which she had discovered. She restored to health a large number of persons who had suffered from "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." Then began her great and loving life-work of making known her discovery to a sick and suffering world. She began teaching her discovery to others, and also to put it into writing. In 1875 she published to the world her "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She founded The Christian Science Journal, of which she was the first editor and proprietor. She founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, of which she is president. She has written numerous published books and papers on the subject of Christian Science. These evince a remarkable literary genius and are characterized throughout by irrefragable logic, high spiritual and humanitarian thinking, and an integrity of utterance which never shrinks nor swerves from its direct path in order to propitiate or compromise.
Like every great spiritual and moral reformer whom the world has ever known, she has been the target for envenomed assaults. But her irreproachable life and the loftiness and purity of her purposes have made all these assaults vain and ineffectual. She stands preeminent as the foremost woman and public benefactor of the age for she has given to the world what all its gold and silver could not give. Her discovery of the science and the practical working doctrine of the Christ-healing, and her success as a reasoner and writer in putting it before the world, as a practical and trustworthy science, will be gratefully recognized by the future generations of our race. She has made one of the great religious epochs in history. And today she is loved and revered by multitudes of men and women throughout the earth, whose lives and homes have been the beneficiaries of her teachings.
Her discovery of the practical Science of Christian healing, after its obscuration for centuries, may be aptly compared with the discovery of this western continent by Columbus. This continent had remained hidden from the knowledge of the civilized world by the mysterious Atlantic with its wide wilderness of storms and waters. History now has found that it had once been discovered by the adventurous North-men, centuries before Columbus. But the discovery had been forgotten, and the very existence of this western world had passed from the minds of men except as a vague and discredited tradition. The genius and courage of Columbus discovered this continent anew, and he receives therefor the undying gratitude of his race.
So the healing ministry of Christianity became lost to the world during weary and waiting centuries. Finally the hour struck, and the genius and courage of a woman discovered it. Far more precious than all the treasures which the Spaniards coveted, even far more precious than the fabled Fountain of Youth if it had been found by the adventurous Ponce de Leon, is the Discovery given to the world by Mary Baker Eddy, for in addition to "healing the sick," Christian Science uplifts, fortifies, and purifies the thoughts and lives of its followers.
Too frequently ingratitude has rewarded the benefactors of our race. Prison chains and a disgraced name awaited Columbus on his return to Spain. His old age saw the undeserved chains stricken from his limbs, but he did not live to see his name restored to its purity. Posterity had to perform that act of justice. Mary Baker Eddy, although she has been called upon to drink the cup of ingratitude for a time, now stands as a loved and revered figure, crowned with years and honors, and surrounded and defended by the pure incense of gratitude arising from the hearts of hundreds of thousands throughout the earth. A pure and immaculate life, a gifted and good woman, with long years of unfaltering devotion to the high cause with which her name will be associated through coming history, she now stands in the sunlight of an assured triumph. Misunderstood, misrepresented, reviled, she was sustained during long years by the consciousness that she was working for God and humanity. Calumny's ammunition has now been expended; and there is not a dent in the armor in which she has waged for over thirty years, and is still waging, "the good fight." Mary Baker Eddy is one of those rare figures appearing now and then during the ages, to whom humanity lifts its dazed vision for a time and then takes another step forward and upward.
Some of its opponents have declared that Christian Science is not Christian. This is a very serious accusation for Christian Science, if it be true. And it is also a very serious accusation for those who make it, if it be untrue; for we are commanded, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." I now ask permission to examine into this accusation; merely premising that Christian Science is not unchristian because it may differ from some of the man-made dogmas which have become the barnacles of Christianity during its long voyage of nineteen centuries: that false dogmas may be venerated solely because of their age, but that it is our duty to refuse to permit our present and future to remain in slavery to the falsehoods of the past.
About nineteen centuries ago, an obscure Galilean brought to our race, then darkened by the heavy fogs of materialism and, therefore, despairing and depraved, the provable and practical gospel of Love. He taught that God is supreme and that God is infinite loving kindness in all his relations to men. He brought to the thoughts of men, then wandering like icebergs amid chilling and desolate seas of doubt and superstition the life-restoring light and warmth of his message, "Have faith in God."
Then he proceeded at once to prove to the world that his gospel and message were true and good by his practical works among the sick and suffering multitudes, reforming sinners, comforting the broken-hearted, cleansing the leprous, healing the sick. Performing his works without material means or methods, asserting the power of Mind to be supreme over all material conditions, he demonstrated that his teachings were true. Thereby he sought to persuade mankind that his ministry was trustworthy, and good, and that God does eternally reign as an available and imminent providence of divine loving kindness. In order that his gospel might spread and be preserved to all future generations, he gave to his followers of all times and countries his commandment to "preach the gospel," and to "heal the sick." He said to his followers: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." He promised his followers of all the generations of men: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." He promised: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life!" He declared: "The kingdom of God is within you." And speaking of the Christ, or Christ Truth, he promised: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
To forestall and remove all doubt in respect to the ability of his followers to perform works like those he performed he carefully explained that the works were of the Father, not himself, for that of himself he could do nothing. He further explained that he came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it.
The word "miracle" is translated from the Greek Scriptural word which signifies wonder or marvel. Its later later theological meaning by which it has been brought to signify something done in violation of law because of some higher power resident in the personality of Jesus, is not only opposed to sound reasoning based on God as omnipotence and omniscience, but is also opposed to the express declarations of Jesus himself. This later theological meaning injected into the word miracle is an invention of the medieval superstition and church-craft of the dark ages, in order to promote the power of man-made ecclesiasticism. Profane history amply shows that for over three centuries after Calvary, the followers of Jesus successfully healed the sick, using no drugs or other material agencies, but following the spiritual method therefor, which was exemplified and taught by the Galilean Way-shower.
But the theological subtleties and dogmas of many succeeding centuries have largely obscured the teaching and example of Jesus. Good men and women who wish to be faithful Christians have been taught and have come to believe that somehow one part of the command to "preach the gospel" and "heal the sick" is not to be obeyed. They have overlooked the inevitable result that to keep only a part of the commandments of Jesus is to betray his gospel and pervert his message. They have lost sight of the fact that when Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments," he meant all of them and not some convenient part of them selected by that wisdom of men which often is foolishness before God. They have failed, because of the erroneous teachings of their sectaries, to note the immense importance of the command to "heal the sick," for the purpose of preserving the Christ gospel by demonstrating its trustworthiness and truthfulness, in a practical way, to mankind in every age.
Why reject the method for so demonstrating it which was adopted and employed by Jesus Christ? He declared: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He demonstrated, as none other has, the supremacy of Mind over matter. He taught the way, he proved the way, he pointed out to us the way, he commanded all who believed on him to follow in that way. Men in their arrogance are constantly seeking to find some other way. And they are just as constantly falling into the ditch of failure. You cannot deny that Jesus healed the sick by relying solely on spiritual methods. You cannot deny that he promised that all who believed on him, that is to say, all who accepted his teachings, should be able to do likewise. You cannot deny that Jesus healed "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." You cannot truthfully deny that "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" are being overcome right now through the ministry of Christian Science. You cannot deny the possibility, you cannot deny the probability of the practical realization of the promise made by Jesus without disputing the truth of his promise. You cannot doubt that His promise was practical when he said: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," unless infidelity, conscious or unconscious, is lurking in your thoughts. You cannot seek to discourage the realization of his promise without betraying that you have no real faith in the truth of his promise. No matter what professions of faith your lips may utter, no matter how thoroughly you may have brought yourselves to believe that those professions are honest, nevertheless, you are putting obstacles in the very way which Jesus selected and taught for spreading and preserving his gospel, whenever you revile any who are seeking to pursue and follow in that way.
The world has been too long sinking downward into the dark gulf of materialistic despair under the burden of unproved sermons. Let us revivify the words of the Apostle: "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. * * * Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." The increasing materialism of the world proves that the way approved by Jesus for preserving the gospel is the only successful way, and that to bisect Christianity and take away its works is to cause its faith to become dead, being alone. Men will not longer believe half the gospel and half refuse it. Jesus spent far more time in proving his ministry by practical works than he did in preaching it. An eloquent deed as a follower of Christ is worth far more than a thousand eloquent words. One instance of healing sickness according to the method taught, exemplified and commanded by Jesus, is of far more power for the persuasion of mankind than a thousand exhortations. Cure a cancer without drugs or surgery, especially after drugs and surgery have confessed inability to cure it, and you are then doing something to convince the most skeptical of the Christ gospel. On the other hand, obey only half of the commandment to "preach the gospel" and to "heal the sick," or worse still, try to revile those who do, or who even faithfully try to do, as Jesus commanded, and the wide river of materialism will continue to broaden and flow on, quite unchecked by any ripples of oratory or by any fervidness of exhortation. The happiest music heard in heaven is over a Christ-like deed done on earth. Words, without deeds, are dead, just like faith. The growing enlightenment of the world is demanding and has the right to demand, that professed Christians confirm their words by their works, their doctrines by demonstrations. Whenever a real "Doc Sifers," in the description by our loved Hoosier poet, Riley,
With perfect faith in God an' man
A-shinin' in his eyes,
shall succeed by the Christ-method in "making the lame man to leap as an hart," to use Isaiah's phrase; shall be able to heal "all manner of sickness," as drug medication confesses it cannot do; shall rejoice over some chronic invalid "walking, and leaping, and praising God," at the gate of some twentieth century "temple called Beautiful," let human voices revile as they please, another voice will say unto him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"
Christian Science is not the invention of a new religion. It is humbly and earnestly seeking to be a restoration of the Christ religion freed from the accumulated dust and debris of the centuries, with a discovery of its higher spiritual meanings and logic. Jesus did not invent any new truth. He taught and made practical unto men, before their very eyes, the uses of the eternal relations existing between infinite intelligence and man in His spiritual image and likeness. These divine relations exist today, and will always exist, precisely as they existed nineteen centuries ago, and always have existed. Like God, they are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus made to all mankind the promise: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Every true rule in mathematics has always existed and always will exist but it can do us no good except we study it, learn it, and seek to apply it. And so with the eternal verities in the divine relations between man and infinite Mind. We must seek, ask and knock aright, or we will still continue to grope in darkness and despair. It is only by honestly seeking, asking and knocking that we can hope to find the truth, and then we have the glad assurance from the lips of our Wayshower: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." But to know the truth, so that the rusty manacles shall be stricken from our fettered consciousness, means more than mere blind faith and belief. A mere blind trust in a mathematical law cannot help us. We must seek to understand it, and we can only apply it as we understand it. Blind credulity is little better than superstition. Neither faith nor prayer can alter the ways of deity. Their office is to put us in a better attitude and condition spiritually to receive the benefits of the divine relations between God and man when they are understood. Like Calvary, prayer and faith are to reconcile man to God, not God to man.
When any form of theology regards sin and sickness as entities, or realities of being, it enters upon a series of blunders and makes the very important mistake of dealing with the physical man as if it were the real man. Making this mistake, it is no wonder that it cannot deal with "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease," according to the Christ method. The man made in the image and likeness of God is neither sick nor sinning. This is the real man as Christ regarded him, as a true reading of the classifications in the New Testament warrants us in saying. This is the real man as Christian Science classifies him.
The false criticism has been made that Christian Science encourages continuance in sin by teaching that it is not a reality of being, but is temporal and destructible. If it were a reality, how could any one teach that we should try to destroy it? If God made sin, is it right to destroy what God has made? Christian Science teaches what sin is, that its supposed pleasures are sure to eventuate as punishments; that it is a false sense and can be destroyed, and that it is both wisdom and duty on our part to seek assiduously to overcome it. That this is practical teaching is shown in bettered thoughts and lives.
If Christian Science had not arrived at a correct scientific classification of sin and sickness, and had not thus evolved a working doctrine, it could have accomplished nothing in its practical ministry of dealing through spiritual methods with the ills of humanity. On the other hand, by rightly classifying sin and sickness and arriving at a scientific working doctrine in respect to dealing with them through spiritual methods, its practical works in this great and high ministry have demonstrated two important facts. One fact thus proven is the truth of its teachings and the usefulness and grandeur of its mission. Another fact thus proven is the substantial historical verity and accuracy of the Biblical narratives of the works of healing the sick through purely spiritual methods which were performed by Jesus and his followers. The verification of the Biblical narratives of healing which is thus furnished through their substantial duplication in Christian Science work is useful to two classes of doubters. One class of these doubters is usually known as agnostics, and is found outside the churches. Another class of these doubters is to be found giving themselves no distinctive name, but preferring to remain anonymous. The reason is not difficult to find why both these classes have come to be numerous. The agnostics have often been men and women justly described as really religious-minded and inclined to search honestly for spiritual truth, whatever mistakes they may have arrived at. But dogmatic religion repelled them on account of its numerous man-made creeds and doctrines which they could not accept as true. The unnamed class of doubters — some of them consciously, some of them unconsciously — have had their earlier faith and zeal gradually cooled, and sometimes quite frozen, through creeds and doctrines inducing a process of spiritual refrigeration. Throughout the world there are too many frozen Christians. There can be no effect without adequate cause.
In every thought-advance of which the world has ever had the benefit, the majorities have always been found to lag behind. The wise philosopher, Emerson, once remarked that "The truth and the hope of any time is to be found in the minorities." The world seems to swarm with Rip Van Winkle critics, who stand ever ready to oppose everything which to their ignorance seems novel or strange. A few decades ago, this class of wiseacres, when Robert Fulton proposed to navigate the Hudson river with a boat propelled by steam, solemnly wagged their heads (which were all the more easily wagged because of their emptiness), and declared that he must be crazy. Nevertheless, the steamboats came; and after them the steamships, those true sea-conquerers greater than the vikings of old. The world is too full of centripetal criticism, and the centripetal critics regard the prophet, the inventor, the discoverer, with suspicious aversion, usually insinuating against their sanity. The great inventors, the great discoverers, the great thinkers have all been the targets for the egotistic scorn, sarcasm, and ridicule of ignorance and dogmatism. Christian Science and its discoverer have been no exception. A few years ago, it was asserted that its works of healing were myths. The position has had be abandoned. The proofs have so rapidly and overwhelmingly accumulated, showing beyond all intelligent controversy, its great efficiency as a curative agency, that its opponents were soon driven to shift their ground. They next affirmed that it might be good for nervous and mental ailments, but that was its limit. But the proofs kept abundantly accumulating, all over the civilized world that through its ministry all kinds of diseases were successfully overcome.
I hold in my hand a printed transcript of the evidence of the witnesses in the trial held at Los Angeles, Cal., not many months ago in which the curative value of Christian Science was made the issue before the court and jury. I have several copies of this trial with me, and shall be glad to hand them to those among you who may wish them after my remarks are concluded. The witnesses in this case were numerous, including several of the most prominent business men of Los Angeles, a former judge of the supreme court of California, and a drug physician who had practiced medicine for many years. These witnesses upon their oaths stated the facts showing the healing works performed in their own persons and homes through Christian Science, after drug medication had utterly failed and including cases of sciatic rheumatism, pulmonary consumption, nasal catarrh, and various ailments accounted incurable by drugs. From the evidence in this case, you will find that the jury could not well have done otherwise than to have given a verdict in favor of Christian Science. How can you deny that this is the highest order of proof when it is by the evidence of witnesses and the verdicts of juries and the judgments of courts that our property rights, our reputations, our very lives are weighed in the balance? In the face of such evidence, dogmatic arrogance ought to stand dumb and abashed, and scoffing and ridicule hide themselves away in confusion and shame.
And this kind of evidence can be procured all over the country. The witnesses to the Christian Science cures taking Europe, the Canadas and this country into account, are hundreds of thousands in numbers, covering every form of human malady. They are of all classes and conditions in life, and fully come up to the general standard for intelligence, respectability and veracity. As far as space will permit, The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel, in English, and Der Christian Science Herold, in German, are constantly publishing this evidence, in the form of written testimonials, voluntarily sent from all parts of the world by the beneficiaries of Christian Science, signing their names, their post-office addresses, and stating the full particulars of the cases to which they bear witness. With all the active opposition of several businesses to Christian Science, these testimonials stand unimpeached. They constitute a growing mass of evidence, all converging to one irresistible conclusion.
The veridical authority of this vast array of evidence is of the highest character in the making of history. Christian Science has been peculiarly fortunate in his respect. The printing press, shorthand, the postal systems girdling the earth, and like inventions, have made this unprecedented accumulation of the most convincing kind of historical evidence possible. No one can say how much more rapid might have been the spread of primitive Christianity, and how much more satisfactory the historical proof of its works if like inventions had existed nineteen centuries ago. Those who attack the veracity of the Gospel narratives of the healing of the sick ought to take all this into consideration. And they ought also to consider that well authenticated instances of the healing according to the Christ-method now serve to corroborate the Gospel narratives just as the Gospel narratives corroborate the Christian Science healing of today.
The opponents of Christian Science are already driven from their position of a few years ago that Christian Science does not heal all forms of human disease. First, they were driven from their position that the Christian Science cures were mythical. Then they were driven from their position that its cures were confined to nervous and mental maladies. And now what is the last position which they take? They now admit that the cures are genuine, and that they cover all kinds of ailments, but they urge that Christian Science is really some form of hypnotism and hypnotic suggestion.
If this position were true, it would be a confession of the surpassing value of Christian Science as a remedial agency. But Christian Scientists soon learn to prize Christian Science for its religious truths and spiritual influences upon their thoughts and lives far more even than for its physical benefits. They soon discern the grandeur of its mission in the uplifting and purification of both individual and national life and character; that it constantly makes for righteousness and right living; that it surely elevates human life to a higher plateau, not only of health, but also of happiness. Therefore, they soon perceive the truth of the words of their Leader, on page 150 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "The mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin, to attest the reality of its higher mission, or Christ-power to take away the sins of the world."
But the position of the opponents of Christian Science that its physical cures are wrought by some form of hypnotism or suggestion is not true. Hypnotism, suggestion, and all their kindred systems, depend upon the power of one human mind over another, and thus over the body of another. The power of one's thoughts over his physical conditions are of common observation, and are admitted. But Christian Science depends upon God as "The Great Physician," and that it is in God that we live and move, and have our being. It does not seek to change the ways of God, or God's intentions or plans, by faith or prayer, as has been foolishly asserted. It seeks by faith, prayer and understanding to conform man's spiritual attitude and condition so as to bring him within the harmonious influences of the laws of eternal good.
It is noteworthy that the country is full of various systems of healing physical sickness by hypnotic and suggestive methods, since the advent of Christian Science. The bad dollar is not counterfeited. The prestige of Christian Science is great and growing. Its spiritualizing influences are profound and widespread. They already have penetrated the wide wilderness of modern thought and life, like the genial warmth of the far-reaching currents of the mighty Gulf stream has recovered vast regions which otherwise would be embraced in eternal winter.
The practical effects of the teachings of Christian Science, supported and rendered conspicuous on all sides by its practical and evidential works, are of such a high character as to deserve the most grateful recognition on the part of all true lovers of their fellowmen. For example, as the direct corollary of its teachings that all disease is of primary mental causation, it has constantly iterated to its followers and to the world that such cankering passions as greed, hate, lasciviousness, malice, and their like, and such destructive emotions as fear, care, worry and their like, are the fell enemies of human life and health, as well as of happiness. As another direct corollary of its doctrines, it has insistently taught its followers and the world the mischievous effects of talking sickness, and that the contagion of sick thoughts is to be avoided as a deadly peril by physicians as well as their patients. The current literature of the day proves how widespread have become the beneficent effects of these persistent Christian Science teachings. It is with rejoicing and gratitude that Christian Scientists discern these signs of the times.
They discern that the leaven of truth is doing its work — a work often unsuspected by the world at large.
Let me give an instance. I read from the page of medical advice in this agricultural monthly which I hold in my hand, dated August, 1904.
"I advise you," says the writer, "not to dwell upon the subject and not to suspect you are threatened with appendicitis or cancer, but as far as possible free your mind from those suspicions. The mind has much to do with our health. Seek diversion so that your mind may be carried away from troubles."
Sensible advice, such as a Christian Scientist gives, with the exception that he would teach that the best way to remove a false fear or belief from the thoughts, is to teach the truth, instead of merely seeking diversion. Truth is the surest and safest antidote for falsehood.
Let me read further from this same medical adviser: "Knowledge of medicines and the practice of physicians have changed more as the years have gone by, than any other branch of science: thus medical books published ten years ago are of but little value today." I refrain from comment on these significant admissions. That they are true admissions is corroborated by the memories of the older persons in this audience, who can recall the lancet and the denial of water to fever patients, and so forth. I read to you further: "Nature is a great restorer." "Medicine cannot do the one-hundredth part as much for us as nature can."
Now what is this Nature, this great restorer? Is it a star, or an aggregation of material objects? What is he trying to personify as a substitute for God? Let him personify and use names as he may, he is naming God at last. Are there any "laws of nature" which are apart from the laws of God? Has nature any power which is not the power of God? The medical profession has the Latin phrase, "Vis medicatrix naturae," which means the remedial power of nature. Let it be changed to read, Vis medicatrix Dei, the remedial power of God, and then it will cease to be materialistic in its concept, will no longer be unscientifically loose and inaccurate, will no longer take away the credit from where it belongs — the love and power of God. Said Whittier:
"I dare not fix by mete and bound
The love and power of God."
But the medical Latin phrase seeks to deny them altogether, and ascribe it all to an unknown, mysterious, undefined, supposed power which it calls "nature," avoiding the name of God.
When the medical writer, in the passage I have read to you admits that the power which he calls nature, but which all Christians ought to recognize as the power of God, performs the ninety-nine hundredths part in the healing of sickness, and drugs only the one hundredth part, how is he able to prove even this one-hundredth part? He cannot. No physician is able to describe scientifically the supposed remedial power of a single drug. It is suppositious, at the most.
If God performs through his benign laws the ninety-nine hundredths part of the cure, had we not better study those laws rather than the drugs? God is Spirit, and, therefore, his laws are spiritual in their origin and character. Material laws is an evident misnomer to all who are not materialists. Matter cannot legislate and make laws. Let us study these spiritual laws and seek to understand them, and to test, apply and prove them. This is what Christian Science is doing successfully.
Let me read a further paragraph from this same writer: "Ways to injure health: Giving way to fits of anger; contriving to keep up a continual worry about something or nothing."
Most excellent. Sound Christian Science doctrine. It follows, then, that the right mentality is the way to preserve and restore health, does it not? And how can the drug physician suppose himself to be competent to measure, define or limit this remedial power of a right mentality? It is not a matter of physics at all; it belongs to the realm of metaphysics.
Let me read just one more passage from this same page: "New York Journal of Health Hints — Try popcorn for nausea; try cranberries for malaria; try tomato sauce in your cod liver oil."
That's it; try, try, try; and meanwhile, suffer, suffer, suffer; but do not try to know the truth that shall make you free, do not try the Great Physician who "forgiveth all our iniquities, who healeth all our diseases, who is the Fountain of all Life, who is the Giver of all Good!"
The most optimistic Christian Scientists cannot expect the great lethargic masses of men and women at once to abandon their loved medicine bottles. It seems so much easier to crook the elbow and lift a spoon to the mouth than it is to think. Until, therefore, the masses are ready to know the truth that shall make them free, Christian Scientists gladly recognize and admit that a large majority of the medical profession is made up of our best citizens, scholarly men who are sincerely anxious to do their best to alleviate the sufferings of mankind. While we may, and do, regard their system as based on a materialistic initiative which knows nothing of God or of man as a spiritual being, and while, therefore, we cannot wonder at the meager and unsatisfactory results of a system thus radically erroneous, we still gladly recognize that the average drug physician is superior to the system under which, and often in defiance of which, he is doing his best for suffering humanity. Honest differences of opinion ought not to arouse hostility. Surely, there is so much sin, sickness and suffering all about us, that all who are sincerely doing the best they know how to alleviate and overcome them, ought to regard and treat each other with kindness. And kind words may carry persuasion, while harsh words seldom. Let those take or administer drugs who believe in them. And let those who prefer to follow the Christ command, "Have faith in God!" also do so, without proscriptive legislation or dogmatic opposition.
Very recently, before a Methodist conference at Indianapolis, Dr. T. A. Goodwin, a venerable Methodist clergyman, in a paper before the conference declared his reliance upon the truth and efficacy of Christian Science, reciting the cures of himself and wife through its ministry, and stated a great truth in a terse and powerful sentence, saying: "What Christ stood for in the first century, Christ stands for in the twentieth century." And he might have added, for all the centuries to come. The dawn of thirty years ago has already broadened into a world-encircling light. Humanity is being delivered from the enchantments of false dogmas and enslaving traditions. The horizon of the twentieth century is budding with radiant possibilities. Hasten the happy time when the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man shall be universally recognized; when men shall learn that the supposed pleasures of sin and selfish greed and ambition are always ashes and wormwood; when high and pure ideals of manhood and womanhood shall lead our race forward and upward always.
And now, my friends, let me conclude with a correlative of the Christian Science teachings which has afforded me, and may afford you, consolation and strength: Whatever successes, or whatever dangers, disappointments, or disasters may seem to visit our mortal lives; however our earthly fortunes may seem to prosper or to darken and decay: still, we should find humility, peace and content in the abiding assurance that the arms of divine Love are around us and beneath us always, that behind all appearances is the eternal unity of good, and over them all a wise Providence of divine and absolute loving kindness.
[Delivered Nov. 27, 1904, at the Metropolitan Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the auspices of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis, and published in The Minneapolis Journal, Nov. 28, 1904. The newspaper account of the lecture employed spelling reforms such as tho for though, thru for through, and thoro for thorough; these have been changed here to conform to standard usage. Some quotes from the Bible have been corrected; others, although left here within quotes, are paraphrases of the original. Some paragraph breaks have been added. The title of this lecture was taken from the newspaper headline. A later version of this lecture, in abbreviated form, is available on this site with the title Christian Science: The Gospel of Divine Love.]