Lucia C. Coulson, C.S., of London, England
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Miss Lucia C. Coulson, C.S., of London, England, lectured Tuesday evening on "The Transformation of Experience Through Christian Science," under the auspices of Third Church of Christ, Scientist, at the edifice, Thirty-fourth street and Washington boulevard. The speaker is a member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Julia V. Brodbeck introduced Miss Coulson whose lecture follows in full:
The desire for progress is natural to the human race. Every normal human being desires to progress and to achieve; and in some directions human progress of late years has been startling. In that fine charter of human liberties, the Declaration of Independence, however, it is stated that every man is entitled to the pursuit of happiness; and much still remains to be done before every man from the least to the greatest can feel that he is on the road to happiness.
I, myself, as a young girl, had a great longing for that elusive thing called happiness. I tried in many directions in vain to find it. Often it had seemed within my grasp only to elude me again, and it is because I found at last how to achieve it that I am speaking to you today. Though I wanted it first and foremost for myself, I wanted it for others, too. I wanted to find something that would give me a key to the problems of humanity, — something that would lift the burdens, the unsought, unjust burdens of the human races, — if such a thing existed. I did not feel very hopeful that such a philosopher's stone could be found. I had grown sore at heart and pretty hopeless, when at last I did find it, and I didn't recognize it when it was presented to me. It was presented under the name of Christian Science which I had always heard ridiculed, and of which I knew very little. However, I was open-minded enough to be willing to consider it and to read its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and then one day, soon after I had begun reading, a great light broke upon me, and it came in this way. I could not understand what the Christian Science textbook meant by speaking of man as perfect and spiritual, in the image of God.
At that time I had no God, but I believed there was possibly some overruling power, and I prayed as earnestly as I knew how to this power, if such there were, to show me the truth, to show me if this Science were true, and if it were, I vowed to follow it. Then I went out for a walk, pondering still what I had read. I went on to a little bridge over a tidal river, and as I stood there, quite suddenly the answer to my prayer came. I understood what Christian Science meant by man in the image of God; I saw that God had created all perfect, that we had, as it were, got away, but that we could get back. A vista of progress and happiness opened out to me, as I stood there, beyond anything I had ever before conceived of, and even the landscape seemed changed and very beautiful.
From that time on I have followed Christian Science. It has brought to me the key to my own problems and those of others. It has shown me how the whole race can attain happiness, the true progress which means equal happiness for all, not by leveling down, but by leveling up. It has shown me that the remedy is mental and spiritual and therefore within the reach of all. For that reason I want to share what I have understood, and in some measure proved, with you.
Long ago a wise man wrote: As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." At a later date another wise man stated, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." If these words are true, and there are few today who would not whole-heartedly subscribe to them, then it matters more than anything else on earth that we should learn how to think effectively, positively, truly. When this latter quotation was written, there were comparatively few who believed that mind is the master of matter, or that mind is the deciding factor in human events and fortunes. The wholly material philosophy of the ancients, whose gods were supposed material beings or images of wood and stone, and whose concept of power was based entirely on matter, had yielded to the belief of man and the universe as a mixture of matter and mind, but as yet, matter predominated both in power and importance. Christ Jesus had brought to the world a gospel of such transcendent spirituality that it was but slowly assimilated. Tradition indicates that Jesus was born at midnight. It was also midwinter. In the bleak midwinter,
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth was hard as iron,
Water like a stone,
Snow had fallen,
Snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.
Christina Rossetti.
It was the darkest hour of human thought, the coldest hour. Pagan Rome had entered upon its worst stage of corruption, sensualism, and tyranny. The Jewish religion itself was sunk in formalism and ritual. It was the darkest hour before the dawn — the dawn of the idea of Life eternal. The acceptance of this fact of immortality came as the result of Jesus' teaching and his resurrection. Its acceptance may have been only half intelligent, in the realm of belief, but it was acceptance. During the Dark Ages, however, this teaching seemed all but lost. Then came the translation of the Bible, that great achievement which brought spiritual truth within the reach of all sections of humanity. "The entrance of thy words giveth light," said the Psalmist, and that light, entering human consciousness, grew and grew until it burst into the full glory of that tremendous declaration of Mind's supremacy given us by Mary Baker Eddy: "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." (Science and Health, p. 468.)
Slowly, very slowly, human consciousness had traveled from the basis of matter as all, through the belief in the copartnership of mind and matter, to the revolutionary position of the allness of Mind. From the moment of the translation of the Bible, the search for light and the upward striving of individuals and of groups became intensified. Men such as Luther and the Oxford martyrs sacrificed their all for it. Ridley and Latimer, bound to the stake, said one to the other, "We will light such a candle today in England as shall never be put out." The Pilgrim Fathers founded a great nation on the determination to find freedom to worship God. Later the Quakers and then the Wesleyans arose, both bodies imbued with a desire for more light, for a higher and more spiritual mode of religion. Meanwhile natural science was making great strides and discovering facts capable of proof, in so far as they were scientific. Many of these discoveries seemed to antagonize religion, and this was a source of trouble to many thinking people. When the early sixties were reached there was a great mental stir taking place. On all sides there was a feeling of unrest and inquiry into what Mrs. Eddy has called, "The spiritual cause of those lower things which give impulse to inquiry" (Science and Health, p. 268). Many felt that there must come a religious revival, that someone would arise to satisfy the doubts and questions of those who could not reconcile science and religion. These confidently looked for a prophet or teacher to appear who would bring a further enlightenment. In the year 1866 the enlightener arrived — and it was a woman.
Those who in the great epochs of human history have brought light and reform and redemption to humanity have always been prepared of God for their work. Moses was eighty years undergoing preparation. It started in Pharaoh's court, where he was educated in the understanding and methods of those who held his people in bondage. Then when his human indignation and his compassion for the lot of his brethren forced him to flee, he was long years in the desert. He was alone, bereft of human ambition and opportunity, and in the long night watches he held communion with God. Jesus, the manner of whose birth set him apart from other men, needed less time to acquaint himself with Spirit; but even he was thirty years preparing for his three years' ministry. We gain a glimpse of that preparation when we see him at twelve years of age in the temple, disregarding all ties of the flesh, questioning and enlightening the doctors of the law and meeting his mother's gentle rebuke with the simple statement, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" In like manner, coming to modern times, we find that Mary Baker Eddy was prepared of God for the work she had to do. What was the manner of her preparation? It took the form of loneliness, of tears, of human bereavement and disappointment, of anguish of heart, and of desertion by her kin. Then, when all human hope had gone, she was ready to perceive and receive the revelation of the nothingness of matter and the immanence and actuality of Spirit.
There were other factors which contributed to her preparation, however, and they were qualities of character. First and foremost the love of humanity, the longing to relieve human suffering, that quality which aroused Moses from his life of Egyptian leisure and splendor. Also, a deeply religious nature, which, as she says, impelled her with a hunger for things divine, and with this a moral courage so remarkable that it had forced her as a child to refuse membership in her parents' church rather than subscribe to what she could not conscientiously accept.
The story is as follows: Mary Baker's parents were honored members of the Congregational church, and when she reached the age of twelve she was to be admitted to that body. It was necessary for her, however, to profess belief in the doctrine of predestination and of endless punishment. This troubled her so much that it threw her into a fever. In her own words: "I was unwilling to be saved, if my brothers and sisters were to be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God. . . . My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God's love, which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 13). So the little girl prayed, and as she did so, peace and joy came to her, the fever left her, and with it all fear of and belief in predestination. She went to the meeting for membership and calmly declared that she could never unite with the church if she must accept that doctrine. The minister persuaded and argued, asking for the date of her conversion, but the only reply he could get was the tearful, earnest response from the Psalms, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." The manner of this answer so impressed all present that many wept, and the pastor himself was melted and received her into communion along with her protest. Regarding this incident, it may be said that all who "heard" her "were astonished at her understanding and answers."
As that little child stood facing her world, and with tears cried out that she must dare all to keep her troth with God, so years afterwards, the woman stood alone facing a scornful world, clinging with unfalterable faith and fortitude to the truth she knew God had revealed to her, and which she believed would heal a suffering race. What a forlorn hope! Who would champion such a cause! Whom could she get to stand with her against the established theories of centuries, denying the existence of matter and asserting the power of divine Mind to heal disease of every nature? Just a few unpretentious followers, drawn by her sublime faith and its signs following. At that time, had some onlooker been asked what would be the future of Christian Science, the answer surely would have been that it could have no future, that it had no chance to survive the opposition of a world. It would take too long to fill in the whole story, and so let us glance at what fifty years has accomplished. It shows us a movement numbering tens of thousands, over two thousand churches established in all parts of the world; a publishing house with its periodicals, a daily international newspaper, bearing the title, The Christian Science Monitor, a Board of Lectureship — all of these being activities of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and all of these having as their object the healing of the sick and suffering through spiritual means alone. Added to this, and the outcome of this, there are practitioners or healers in all the principal cities of the world, and above all, a textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, which has largely revolutionized human thought, which has healed countless sick people, which has reconciled science and religion, and which has its place in all public libraries and in the hearts of mankind. Now, my friends, only that which had Truth, God, with it could have succeeded against such odds. Christian Science makes such tremendous claims, that unless it could sustain them by proofs and so merit the name of Science, it could not have endured. Therefore, it is worth our consideration, worth an hour's examination of its practical value to you and to me.
Let us begin, then with its basic contention that there is only one Mind and that Mind is infinite, the divine Mind, whom we call God. In fair logic, if God is Mind, and infinite, how can there be more than one Mind? If we accept this only by way of argument, it becomes evident that the only true thoughts there are, are God's thoughts. God's thoughts, of course, must partake of God's nature. And what is that nature? Most religions have agreed to define God as the infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Further, God is defined in the Scriptures as Love, Life, and Truth. He is Spirit, the Creator. His thoughts then must be wise and loving, powerful, life-giving, spiritual. Now, if there is only one Mind, we should claim and accept no other (See Science and Health, p. 469); and our function, so to speak, is to know the thoughts of God, for they are the only real thoughts there are. At once someone may exclaim, How absurd! I sometimes think thoughts of hate and fear, of greed and dishonesty. Yes, but are they thoughts? If there is only one Mind, and that God or good, it does not know such thoughts, and they are the offspring of that carnal mentality which is not really Mind, but is called by Mrs. Eddy mortal mind, the opposite of true Mind, or immortal Mind. Such thinking is not worthy to be dignified with the name of thought. God's thoughts are power and substance; they are life and intelligence and activity, reaching their destination and accomplishing their purpose. Such thoughts are like great beams of light, radiating from the divine Mind. They heal the sick, and destroy all error. Evil suggestions and purposes, fearful and selfish thinking on the other hand, issuing from a so-called mind which is finite and limited, have no destination, and no accomplishment. They have no love and therefore no life, no true intelligence and therefore no power. They "are such stuff as dreams are made on" — insubstantial. They are in the end self-destructive, and we need not fear them, for one God-inspired thought can put a host of them to flight. Here we see that the key to all happy, harmonious, successful living is through learning to distinguish between God's thoughts, His ideas, and the suggestions of the so-called carnal mind.
There are many people today who are ready to agree that all is mind and the result of mind; but by that they mean the human mind, and therefore they have only exchanged for the tyranny of belief in matter the tyranny of mortal mind. The human mind loves to tyrannize, to dominate, and to possess. It will often seek to achieve its purpose by any means fair or foul. The only solution, therefore, is to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, the ruler, redeemer, and transformer of the so-called human mind. How does this transformation take place? And how can we distinguish between the mortal thoughts or suppositions that bring discord and the divine thoughts from God that heal? On page 269 of Science and Health we read, "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." Here is presented to us a wonderful process of education, and this is the way to that progress and happiness which we started out to discover.
Let me give you an illustration of what we understand by this: I know a Christian Science practitioner who was called to help a woman in the last stages of a so-called incurable disease. She found her emaciated, her skin colorless, and she was in a great deal of suffering. But the worst part of the whole picture was the woman's disposition. She seemed to dislike everything and everyone. She grumbled incessantly about her husband, her home, and her children, and she had not a good word to say for any of her neighbors. She also told the practitioner that she was far too ill to get help or healing from Christian Science or from anything else. The practitioner saw instantly that what needed healing was her character, that the disease was a thing of thought, manifested on her body, and that her thinking must be changed. So she said to her, "Well, we won't think about physical healing: but at least let me help you to be happier and more peaceful, mentally." So she began to talk to her of God as Love, and of man in God's image, loving and spiritual. The woman argued that she could not believe that, because the people she knew were so different. The practitioner replied that these were false concepts of the spiritual idea of man, created by God, and that man in God's likeness is the real selfhood of everyone. Then she lifted her own thought in silent prayer to see this woman in the true light, as a pure child of God, an idea of Love itself.
Day after day she went and talked with her along these lines, reading to her from the Christian Science textbook. She soon noticed that when she came, there was no longer any complaint of others, nor any allusions made to her own suffering. Her children told my friend that "mother was changing." At this point the practitioner was called away, and though she continued to give the woman absent treatment, she did not hear from her nor see her for several weeks. At the end of that time, she returned and paid her a visit. The change was almost incredible. The woman's face had lost its yellow hue, the emaciation had disappeared, she was up and about, doing her own work; but best of all, her face had the happy peaceful expression which comes from the entertainment of loving, wholesome, grateful thoughts. She was healed.
Now, in this case, that which called itself disease was resolved into thoughts of hatred and discontent. Her concept of her neighbor and herself had to be exchanged for the idea of man in God's image, perfect and spiritual, and when this was done, she was healed, for there had been an exchange of the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.
There is nothing difficult in this process, though it may call for perseverance and consecration. A little child can achieve it. When I was traveling in a country in Europe which had been through a period of acute lack and privation, I came across the following incident: A little child of five or six years old had been brought up in a Christian Science Sunday School. One day the teacher asked the children to tell her of any demonstrations they had of the power of Christian Science to heal. Very simply this little girl gave her experience. She said that on her return from day-school she was generally so hungry that she would run to her mother, crying, "Mother, give me some bread!" The poor mother, having none to give (for the undernourished children at that time could only get about one meal a day), would reply, "Run away, I am too busy." "Then," said the little one "because I was too hungry to play, I would go away alone and think over and over again, God is my Life, and then I wouldn't be hungry any more."
In that way this little child replaced the object of sense with the idea of Soul.
Lastly, let me tell you of an experience of my own. I was a young student of Christian Science at the time, and I needed to be healed of a physical trouble which, while it did not incapacitate me at all, was very tiresome. I did not get much help from treatment and was told that my own work might be needed. I worked as I was told, but I did not get the healing. Then, one day, as I was trying to understand better the unity of God and man which Christian Science teaches, I suddenly caught a clear glimpse of my real self as a reflection of God. I saw that there was no good self and no bad self, but just reflection. This filled me with so much joy that I forgot my body. When I remembered it again, so to speak, the dull ache had gone and I was free — healed. Now, in thinking this over, afterwards, I saw that what I had to lay down was in my false concept of self. All this [time] unconsciously I had been hugging, as it were, my human selfhood. Sometimes this self had been very troublesome and I did not like it or want it. Sometimes, on the other hand, it had seemed pleasant and desirable to me. In either case, however, it had seemed very real and important, and the one thing needful was to let go of it, and find man's spiritual selfhood — to exchange the object of sense for the idea of Soul.
In all these cases it was Christian Science treatment that healed, and it may be asked here how does such treatment differ from what is termed prayer? The answer is that such treatment is prayer; not so much the prayer of petition, as that of realization. The object of all true prayer is surely to realize the power and presence of God. Paul said, "Pray without ceasing": such an injunction could not possibly refer to a form of words, but could only mean a constant dwelling in the conscious presence of God. It is the thoughts of God, the ideas of Soul, that bring us into his presence consciously. A striking instance of the result of prayer, of exchanging the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul is given us in the old Bible story of the servant of Elisha. The King of Syria had sent his army to surround and capture the prophet. When early in the morning the servant of the man of God arose, he saw that they were surrounded by the enemy's horses and chariots. "Alas, my master," he cried, "How shall we do?" Then Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, that he may see." And when the young man's eyes were opened, he saw, what? Not the horses and chariots of the enemy, but just where these had seemed to be, horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. "They that be with us are more than they that be with them."
Through this method of exchange, we discover the way to begin to overcome that foe of human progress, old age. This can only be done as we look less at the things that are seen — the temporal — and more at the things that are unseen — the eternal. The ideas of Soul can never grow old. Even humanly speaking, we see that age is not a matter of years. We have all doubtless known boys that seem old and old men that are still boys. What is it that determines the question? It is the nature and quality of our thinking. Hopeless, apathetic, depressed, or vicious thinking makes for age, while such qualities of thought as enthusiasm, hope, love of humanity, spontaneity, will keep us always young. But how can we retain these qualities amidst the turmoil, disappointment, and distress of mortal existence? Here, as ever, Christian Science comes with its key to the problem, and shows us that while we dwell in thought with the objects of sense, this may not be possible, but that when we lift our consciousness into the spiritual realm, fixing our thoughts on the glorious, fadeless, undying, present realities of that universe, filled with ideas which are from everlasting, our whole being becomes rejuvenated, and we are refreshed and inspired by knowing that this is the real, the present truth of being. Such spiritual thinking has its practical result, its manifestation, in our outward experience and appearance. It is acknowledged on every hand today that longevity is on the increase. It is quite usual to see accounts of the vigor of centenarians in the newspapers, which brings to thought an account given recently in a Canadian paper of a vigorous young man of one hundred and eight! When asked the secret of how he had lived so long, he replied, "God wants me to live and the devil is afraid of me."
Yes, God wants us to live, and who can hinder the will of God?
Christian Science then preaches no strange doctrine, for in Corinthians we read, "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." That is the whole problem, to regard less the testimony of the senses, and to accept the evidence of Spirit, the unseen, and yet the substantial, the provable, the enduring. Then if you are pursuing happiness and it evades you, constantly claim the happiness which is the present and perpetual possession of true being, your being. "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 57). I claimed that happiness once, when things seemed very dark to me. I continually affirmed day after day that I rejoiced in the spiritual fact, which is present perfection. In response to my persistent, faithful affirmations, the clouds lifted.
If you seem to be struggling with a problem of supply, look steadily and continually at the unseen plenty and bounty of the spiritual universe, the infinite riches of the parent Mind, which consist of countless, limitless ideas. Whatever exists as idea belongs equally to everyone. The very usefulness of ideas lies in communicating themselves, in multiplying themselves, so to speak. To use a purely human illustration, how could you possibly restrict the usefulness, the activity, or the multiplication of the right idea that two plus two is four? Or the idea of the calendar — a purely mental concept — which gives us the division and arrangement of time, of years into months, of months into days and days into hours. You cannot restrict these ideas nor their practical usefulness. They are the property of everyone who can think. Whatever exists as idea is to be found in the mental or spiritual realm where infinity reigns; in other words, there is no limit to that which exists as idea. Because you are able to think, you have access to that realm. Because there is only one Mind, the infinite ideas which people that realm are yours; they belong to you as the reflection of God. Only you yourself can restrict your capacity to receive and apprehend and then make practical these ideas.
And what if you should seem to be surrounded by hatred and jealousy? Declare vehemently, persistently, for the unseen fact of omnipresent Love. True, God is Mind; but He is also Love. He is Father and also Mother. What does that word Mother mean to us in its highest significance? It means someone infinitely tender and comforting, someone in whom we can confide, someone who picks us up if we fall by the wayside, and binds up our wounds, and encourages us to go on again; someone who wants and plans the very best for all her children, because their happiness is hers. This human picture, my friends, gives us an indication, a very faint indication, of the great Mother-love of God. There is no end to the patience of this, no limit to its kindness,
"For the love of God is broader
Than is seen by human mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind."
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 194)
As we cherish this idea of God as Mother, as we let it abide in our thought, it inevitably softens and enriches our natures; for we grow to be like that which we continually look upon and dwell with. There is no greater need on earth today, no greater need amongst Christians everywhere, than that of a more loving, tolerant, compassionate treatment of our brother-man.
There is an incident in the New Testament which is not so often quoted or so well known as it might be, which illustrates this point. It occurs in the ninth chapter of Luke. Jesus, we are told, had set his face to go up, to fulfill the divine purpose. He was on his way to Jerusalem, and he had even sent messengers ahead; he had prepared the way for the reception of the Messiah. These messengers, in obedience to his command, entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they rejected him — they rejected the Christ! Could there be a greater hardness of heart. Filled with righteous indignation and with the zeal of religious intolerance, James and John, yes, even the loving John, wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume them to show them what they deserved for rejecting Christ. Glowing with fervor they turned to Jesus for commendation. Then he who said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," turned, and rebuked, not those who had slighted him, but themselves. How divine was the utterance! "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
My friends, if there are any today who are tempted to glow with satisfaction at the thought of the penalties which wrongdoers will suffer, or any who indulge in threats and prophecies of calamity for those who are their opponents, they know not what manner of spirit they are of. It is the spirit of the liar who was a murderer from the beginning; it is not the spirit of the saving Christ. How strange it is and how sad, that religious persecution has always been the fiercest; that because we value the name of Christ so highly we forget to show the nature of the Christ, which is always and only and to the worst offender, salvation. Is ice melted by ice? Is fire put out by fire? Hatred can only be destroyed by Love, universal Love, that looks for no return, but in its might and breadth and height is oblivious of the wrong that has been done. And let us not forget the sequel. "They went to another village." Quietly, patiently, uncomplainingly they sought another place to shelter them; and is it too much to hope that before that place was reached, the Master's love had melted the hearts they left behind and like Peter they wept over their mistake?
For let us never be afraid that love as great as that of Jesus will work havoc in human affairs and leave the sinner glorying in his sin, unpunished and unrepentant. If we could love enough to rise above condemnation, such love would bring to the sinner that supreme result, the consciousness of his wrong-doing, which all our condemnation may not effect. When Jesus at the moment of earth's greatest treachery addressed the traitor as "friend," the consciousness of guilt became so great that Judas hanged himself. When at the hour of his denial, Jesus turned and looked at Peter, that loving look instantly aroused him to bitter repentance. "Jesus demonstrated Christ" (Science and Health, p. 332). It was a perfect demonstration. Each of us today must learn to demonstrate Christ. Jesus was compassionate to the sinners and invalids who were his patients, and he was also compassionate to his chosen associates, his fellow-workers, when they, hard pressed by the enemy, fell or failed. May we follow his example, his representation of the Christ.
Probably most of us know the account in Dante's "Purgatorio," of the horrible waste of mud over which the poet was led, in which were engulfed the wretched sinners who had died and were undergoing purgatory. Dante tells us that he saw the head of a former unworthy associate just struggling up again above the mud, and he forthwith put his foot upon him and pressed him down. Everyone in these days feels revolted by this picture. Then let us make sure that we never by thought or word, or by retaining the memory of past errors, press down an erroneous brother, who is perhaps struggling to rise again to better and worthier living.
Our little stock improve;
Increase our faith, confirm our hope,
And perfect us in love."
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 53)
In Science and Health (p. 291) heaven is defined as a "divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal." Just so long, then, as we harbor thoughts of condemnation about anyone, just so long as we retain a false concept of any individual, just so long do we keep ourselves out of heaven! Every object of sense must eventually be exchanged for an idea of Soul.
What is it that will cleanse our consciousness of its false concepts? John the Baptist said of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" The Lamb of God! That consciousness that is void of all offence, for it is the epitome of innocence; it is innocent of all but good. It is the Lamb consciousness that will purge our world of all its sins and stains and sorrows. For the Lamb symbolizes the spiritual idea of man, and in it each one must recognize his true selfhood. All through the Book of Revelation we read that it is the Lamb which shares the throne of God. "The throne of God and of the Lamb." The Lamb must reign on earth as it does in heaven. Where? In each individual consciousness, until the harmlessness, the gentleness, and trustfulness, and the spontaneous happiness of that state of thought shall have so transformed the conditions of this earth that finally every ravening war-like belief or lion shall be tamed, lie down with the lamb, and every treacherous destructive belief or wolf shall be transformed and all these, purged of their animality, shall "dwell with the lamb" forever.
[Delivered Sept. 30, 1930, at Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Thirty-fourth Street and Washington Boulevard, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, Oct. 3, 1930.]