Christian Science: The Science of Love

 

Hendrik J. de Lange, C.S.B., of New York City

Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts

 

The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:

 

[We are going to deal with the most dynamic and, at the same time, the most misunderstood word in the universe, namely, love. Life finds its highest expression in the experience of love. The wish to love and to be loved is the primal incentive inducing mankind to prolong its often dark and dismal existence. On the other hand, we observe the supposititious opposite of love, called fear, ultimating in hatred, as the most disturbing and destructive influence actuating mortals. Fear and hatred seem to abound in the present-day world picture, while there does not seem to be enough love for all.]

God is Love

All of us want more love; more love to love with, more love to be loved with. How are we going to experience this? How will it be possible to have lives of loneliness, fear, and frustration changed into the glowing and soaring experience of spiritually loving and of being truly loved? How to experience love without the fear of losing it? How to live the perfect love that "casteth out fear"? (See I John 4:18.)

Love! "What a word!" writes Mary Baker Eddy in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 249). "I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love." This statement points to the fundamental nature of the divine cause. It simultaneously reveals the loving genius of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science to show forth man's infinite possibilities to love and be loved. It liberates love from material limitation, contradiction, perversion, and poverty of personal, material sense. It defines Love in its original meaning, grandeur, infinity, indivisibility, immutability, divinity.

Here Christian Science has given us the key to unlock the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Love; to enter it, and to be so at one with it that all experience contrary to the nature of Love fades out. Indeed, God is Love, and Love is God!

Love the Pattern for Mrs. Eddy's Life

Mrs. Eddy's life unfolds the theme of this lecture, the subject of which is "The Science of Love." Her experience shows what Love understood as God and God understood as Love can do for the one willing to acknowledge and prove the supremacy of Love. In one of her poems (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 388) she expresses this tersely, "For Love alone is Life."

A simple but cultured Christian New England woman whose early experiences were often difficult was resurrected from her unsatisfactory state of health and affairs by the understanding, as she puts it in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 24), of the "Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence." She received vision, wisdom, strength, and the greatest of all the abundant love required for the leadership of the Christian Science movement, which was the outcome of her discovery made in 1866. Unstintingly this leadership was given during more than forty years of self-sacrificing love.

The Mother Church

When Mrs. Eddy left us, in 1910, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, with its branches in many parts of the civilized world, had been well established. She had provided the Christian Science movement with the Manual of The Mother Church. The Manual makes provisions for the activities of the Christian Science movement: its church services, Reading Rooms, periodicals, lectures, Committees on Publication, and so forth.

The forty years that have passed since Mrs. Eddy left the earthly scene have substantiated her right as the divinely qualified Leader of this great movement. She had discerned and practiced the true leadership that gives precedence to Love in thought and deed. Thus the Christ is brought into one's experience and becomes the pattern of daily living.

Accordingly Mrs. Eddy counseled all Christian Scientists (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 34), "Follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ."

Spiritual Causation

In "Retrospection and Introspection" Mrs. Eddy relates that in February, 1866, she discovered (p. 24) "the Science of divine metaphysical healing," afterwards named Christian Science. She continues on the same page, "During twenty years prior to my discovery I had been trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause; and in the latter part of 1866 I gained the scientific certainty that all causation was Mind, and every effect a mental phenomenon." Furthermore she recounts (see lines 12 to 16 on the page already mentioned) how her "immediate recovery from the effects of an injury caused by an accident, an injury that neither medicine nor surgery could reach,'' led her to the discovery how to be well herself, and how to make others so.

Love is Divine Principle

In entirely confiding herself to God's care, after the physician had believed her case to be fatal, she must have received an inkling of the fact, stated in the Christian Science textbook, that "God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." (See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 275 and 302.) The understanding of the primal cause as Love made it possible for her tender mother-sense of love to become conscious of the all-goodness of God.

Thus she was enabled to grasp the unreality of every form of evil, in the sense that it is totally foreign to God. Love being God, and God being the one great source of all reality, the mortal states termed sin, disease, and death are seen to be wholly unreal, because unlike Love. They are the fantasy of human ignorance, having no part in divine intelligence, Life, Truth, Love. Jubilantly could it be proclaimed that God was not only the mighty fatherhood, but also the all-loving motherhood, of man and the universe. From the standpoint of Love, evil loses all pretense to presence, prestige, power.

In the subsequent three years of Bible study, Mrs. Eddy discerned the scientific nature of Christianity. She recognized that (Science and Health, p. 313) "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe." In the seclusion of her New England home, her yearning for growth in grace, combined with a truly spiritual intuition, enabled her to see that Jesus' capacity to heal was the direct result of a spiritual and scientific approach to existence.

Love's Impartiality

Before we go further in the explanation of this scientific approach, it may be well to remove a misconception concerning the nature of Jesus of Nazareth that has played havoc with the healing activity of Christianity, so conspicuous in the first three hundred years of its history. Mrs. Eddy's great love made her see that God, being divine Principle, could not have endowed Jesus with an extraordinary power or capacity of which you and I cannot avail ourselves. In the first chapter of the textbook, entitled "Prayer," it is stated (p. 13). "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals."

All the good the Master could do and did, must be equally possible for you and me. Principle expresses itself in strict accordance with its own nature, which is love and nothing but love. Jesus availed himself of the power of divine Love, which is the Christ, to an hitherto unsurpassed degree. The Science of Christianity, the Science of Love, reveals that you and I can avail ourselves to the fullest extent of the same Christ-power. This makes the life and the words and the works of the Nazarene of such outstanding interest for the Christian Scientist.

Love Extends Equal Opportunity to All

The devil, or carnal mind, tries to curtail the utilization of the Christ-power. It suggests that we are in a different position from that of the Master and his immediate followers; that God must have given them something special; and that is why they could heal through spiritual means alone, while the modern Christian has to resort to matter for medicine.

Christian Science replies that there never was a personal God bestowing something special upon a personal Jesus or anyone else. We reverence Christ Jesus for so clearly and consistently fulfilling his mission by compelling a mortal, personal sense of self to yield to the divine. To use Mrs. Eddy's words: "To carry out his holy purpose, he must be oblivious of human self" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 162). In this way he could avail himself of the impersonal Christ, constituting his inalienable, immortal selfhood.

Christian Science the Loving Comforter

However, we also recognize that this same Christ, foretold by the prophets and named by the Master himself the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, has appeared in and as Christian Science. The Science of Christianity is guiding us (John 16:13) "into all truth." Humbly Jesus said of it (verse 14), "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." To have increasingly this experience is a source of enduring joy for the Christian Scientist. Here is one of the many reasons for abiding gratitude to Mrs. Eddy.

One can readily see how the Bible, and particularly the four Gospels, gain in practical value when we discern the impersonal, ever-available nature of the Christ. The power to overcome every form of evil, so masterly demonstrated by the Nazarene, becomes ours in Christian Science. Moreover, Christian Science teaches us how to prevent problems from arising, or anything else that is not entirely good and therefore not bestowed by divine Love.

Existence Approached Scientifically

Let us now return to a brief discussion of the scientific approach to existence, already referred to. It made the Master's life a shining light of healing and redeeming love. The scientific approach to a subject is well known to every one of us. One starts out with a correct premise and from this premise draws logical conclusions. It is followed up by classifying as real everything conforming to its nature, while rejecting as false whatever diverges from the original cause.

This was Jesus' method in connection with the greatest of all subjects, existence itself. He knew enough not to identify himself in the old way, the unscientific way of the human mind. Paul refers to the new way, the scientific way, when speaking of the "new man" (Col. 3:10), being "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." The misconception concerning man, or the "old man," is the belief that man is the offspring of material, mortal parentage.

The scientific approach to existence ushers in the understanding of the true or spiritual nature of man. God being the only and exclusive source of reality, all that is real concerning man is to be found in the knowledge or understanding of God. Jesus referred to this as "the Son of God" (John 10:36). In this Christ-understanding, one receives the power of divine Love to reject misconceptions about oneself and the universe. One thus experiences the healing and redeeming enlightenment of the Love that is God.

Everything Unlike Love Unreal

By living the loving, radiant reality of existence, where Life, Truth, and Love are found omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, Christ Jesus saw and proved the utter unreality of sin, sickness, and death. He recognized that his real or Christ nature never had been touched by any belief of materiality. He did not permit himself to go down mentally into a human, personal concept of self.

His followers — those of the present day just as much as those of his time — receive the assurance (John 6:51), "I am the living bread which came down from heaven." Illumined by his great love that made him perceive that all had equal opportunity in gaining the kingdom of Love, he furthermore said (same verse), "If any man eat of this bread [identifies himself with this understanding], he shall live for ever."

Resurrection and Ascension

By refusing to accept the suggestion that his real ego or "I" as referred to in the words (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one," was ever buried in a mortal, personal sense of self, Christ Jesus made it possible for those who were receptive to his teaching to witness his resurrection from the cross of material, personal sense.

Forty days later the disciples clearly recognized what Mrs. Eddy in our age so lucidly sets forth in her book "No and Yes" that (p. 36) "Jesus' true and conscious being never left heaven for earth." In this recognition the ascension is understood. Through their experience they were freed from a personal, finite sense of the Christ as being exclusively identified with Jesus. Thus they received the inspiration, couched in the message embodied in the last chapter of Mark's Gospel, to go into the world and to do the healing and redeeming work themselves. (See verses 15-20.)

Working as God Works

In beholding existence as based upon divine Principle, the darkness, division, destructibility, incongruity of a mortal, personal approach disappear. Ponder the impressive assurance in Science and Health (p. 263): "When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven."

Christ Jesus worked only as God works. This means that you and I as followers of the Master are to work only as God works. Jesus did not make the mistake of identifying himself with the belief in a personal mind and a material body. In the all-encompassing scope of his compassionate love he knew himself one with everything that had its origin in divine reality. This brought forth his great declaration about the indivisibility of spiritual existence (Matt 25:40): "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

After citing, as the first and greatest, the commandment (Mark 12:30), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength," the same Christlike understanding prompted him to give as the second greatest of all the commandments (Mark 12:31), "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Why? Because divine Love being all-inclusive, it does not leave out anyone. This is the reason we feel so safe and secure, why we feel so happy and at home in love that has its source and substance in the Love that is God and the God that is Love. Here the divisions and discriminations of personal sense have dwindled away. All has become one, the kingdom or consciousness of Love. Here one rejoices in another's good as in one's own, because divine good is not personal, not divided; it is one.

Spiritual Individuality versus Personal Sense

Perhaps at this point the question arises, "Do I not lose my individuality in this way?" You may lose your personal sense of self, that sense which makes you believe that you are one among millions of other persons, competing in a merciless world, with not enough good to go around. However, when you recognize, as Christian Science teaches, that God is your individuality and your Life (see Unity of Good, p. 48:8-9), then you will more and more perceive that you are gaining your true, your only, your spiritual individuality. Accordingly, the textbook declares (p. 70), "The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal."

Mrs. Eddy assures us (Science and Health, p. 317), "The individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and enables him to conquer sin, disease, and death." Then, the more you know that you are one with God, as God's image and likeness, the more you will experience your true, spiritual individuality, in the kingdom of Love, wherein there is no strife, no lack, no competition. And there is plenty of room for your neighbor, provided he no longer thinks from the standpoint of a personal neighbor, but from that of the Christ, even as Jesus did.

Love Refutes Material Standards

The Nazarene was loving enough not to judge himself according to material standards. Did he not say (John 15:13), "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"? As the only Life, the Life divine, can never be laid down, this declaration must mean that one's willingness to lay down a material, personal sense of life was the greatest love one could show one's friends. In no longer loving others merely as friends, but as one's own Christ-self, the essence of Love is both expressed and felt. Accordingly Mrs. Eddy states (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 318), "Mine and thine are obsolete terms in absolute Christian Science."

While all that was good, lovely, tender, noble, beautiful was beheld by Jesus as inherent in the Christ, everything in the way of sin, disease, and death was classified as objective, or outside spiritual reality, therefore unreal. Hence his emphatic statement (John 14:30), "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." It is Love which is totally ignorant of error that makes it possible to destroy error. Science and Health refers to this (p. 411): "If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific way, and the healing is instantaneous."

How Insanity Was Healed

On the same page of the textbook attention is drawn to Christ Jesus' healing of the man suffering from dementia. (See Mark 5:1-15.) This account illustrates well the Master's healing method, which is also the method of Christian Science, called prayer or treatment.

Insanity, as well as many other difficulties, may be due to false identification. The first assumption may be that there is something apart from the divinely real, something imperfect and destructible. Then the suggestion of fear may be accepted which is inevitably inherent in a false sense of self and of existence at large. Finally, the fear might objectify itself as something threatening the harmony of one's existence.

In the case under consideration, this wrong identification had a very deplorable effect. Lacking the discernment to distinguish between his real "I" and the spurious carnal mind, the poor deluded one was literally "out of his Mind." He became a victim of self-affliction, even to "cutting himself with stones."

The record shows that Christ Jesus realized clearly the nature of the real man, God's man, or the son of God, as being entirely free from error. He addressed the devil of material, personal sense: "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." In other words, the Master refuted the suggestion that evil could have any identity as man. When evil is stripped of its disguise of parading as a person possessed by an evil spirit, the error has nothing with which to identify itself. Under the irresistible authority of the Christ, it is compelled to disappear. On page 411 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy sums it up in this way: "Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil, and the insane man was changed and straightway became whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesus caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed."

Right Approach to Textbook

A book should be read from the standpoint from which the author has written it. To remind oneself of this is of importance when studying the Christian Science textbook and Mrs. Eddy's other writings.

The lecturer was once told of two men who suffered from the same complaint. They both started to read Science and Health. The first one, while reading the book but thinking all the time of his physical trouble, constantly pondered the question, "How can this passage heal me?" The other man discerned quickly that the main purpose of the book was to bring about a change of attitude, in accordance with the author's statement on page 162, "The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind." He began to see the universal aspects of Christian Science, and how by refusing to identify himself with the mortal and material he could be instrumental in helping the whole world. He lost sight of a mortal, material, personal sense of self and enjoyed his real, boundless, perfect, spiritual being.

You will not be surprised to hear that the latter man was far more quickly healed than the former. Spiritualization of thought had meant more to him than merely physical restoration. In her masterly epitome of Christian Science, entitled "Rudimental Divine Science," Mrs. Eddy puts it in this way (p. 2): "Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness."

Those who have not been entirely satisfied with Christian Science because it has not as yet brought all the healing and fruitage they so ardently have desired, should take note of this. They must approach this great subject scientifically. Christ Jesus wisely attached a condition to be first fulfilled by his followers if they wished to experience the liberating power of Truth. He said (John 8:31, 32), "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Truth can only be known from the standpoint of Truth itself!

Continuing in God's Word

We continue in the Word of God by giving up a personal, material sense of self. It takes place by knowing that only the good that is God, the Love that is God, the Life that is God, constitutes the good, the Love, and the Life of man. The textbook defines man in part as (p. 475) "the compound idea of God, including all right ideas;" "that which has not a single quality underived from Deity."

Christian Science demands identification with the Divine from the one desiring to be a real Christian Scientist. No mental reservation or hesitation is justified when claiming one's spiritual identity. Why? Because it is not a personal, human mind which is claiming deific being. Rather is it a proper acknowledgment of the fact that whatever rightly claims identity with the Divine is primarily the divine idea, already one with its Principle, Love.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in the Preface of Science and Health (p. x) that the human mind is not a factor in the Principle of Christian Science. This so-called human misconception of man as mortal and material is "the old man," which Paul declares (Col. 3:9) must be put off. One must not attempt to improve it. However, the effect of our willingness to put it off, by gaining the spiritual understanding of man, results in what humanly appears to be an all-round improvement. Those who are lovingly prepared to do this find themselves greatly released from the tyranny of a personal, human sense of mind.

The denial that one is, in any way, a victim of the human mind makes it easier to overcome sin. Sin is based upon the suggestion that mind can be human. The understanding that God is divine Mind, and that this Mind is the Mind of man, is fundamental for the obliteration of sin and its indulgence. In fact, it may be said that a personal, human concept of mind is the basic sin. Equally, a material concept of body constitutes the basic belief to disease. By continuing in the Word of God, true atonement, at-one-ment with everything good, the good one already is, is experienced, and healing in every direction ensues.

Love Imparts Spiritual Quietude

For Christian Scientists to share the fear, anxiety, and despair of a material, erroneous sense of existence is not only foolish, but futile. It tends to postpone the final breaking up of fearful and destructive forces.

Mrs. Eddy refers to this in Science and Health on pages 96 and 97. With great foresight she points out that a mental fermentation will go on until belief yields to spiritual understanding. Remember, belief has to yield to spiritual understanding! And then she continues: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection." The understanding that God as divine Love is omnipotent makes it possible to do this work cheerfully. And to abide in that spiritual stillness that does not fight error as a reality, but confidently allows Love to dissolve it — in doing so we live Christian Science.

The Christ in Action

If evil were accepted as an actuality, the realization of God's allness would not amount to much. We discern in Christian Science that in dealing with evil we are not dealing with realities but with a misconception. We can and must refrain from entertaining a misconception about our neighbor. Christian Science enjoins us to do this persistently and impartially.

We can rejoice in the fact that we know the truth concerning persons, nations, races. In their true nature they are divine ideas, forever included in the kingdom of Love. Thus we do not interfere with their individual freedom. In this kingdom they have their true spiritual individuality. In the oneness of divine reality all is concord and harmony. The understanding of this fact operates as the law of Love annulling misconceptions and is evidenced as (Luke 2:14) "on earth peace, good will toward men." In this manner we fulfill the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Salvation

In the fulfillment of the second commandment, which is like the first commandment, salvation, as understood in Christian Science, is taking place. Do not imagine salvation is transference into another sphere or locality where suddenly everything becomes heavenly through a mysterious phenomenon called death. One cannot die into salvation! Salvation, according to the Glossary of the textbook, is (p. 593). "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed." Death is defined, in part, as (p. 584), "An illusion, the lie of life in matter." An illusion, a lie, cannot hasten or promote ultimate harmony or Life eternal. Living and loving the radiant reality of true being, and thereby understanding and demonstrating that Life, Truth, and Love are supreme over all, this is the only way whereby salvation is experienced and sin and death are destroyed.

The suggestion, on the part of the carnal mind, that death will bring if not harmony, at least oblivion, is erroneous. There is no unconsciousness anywhere in the universe. No, all there is to death is the belief of life in matter and the error of identifying oneself with this lie. Of those buried in materiality, the Master said (Matt 8:22), "Let the dead bury their dead."

Western Civilization Endangered

Christianity is the essence of Christian Science and the hope of humanity. It extends to all, without any exception, the grace, beauty, loveliness of the Christ, the power of Love omnipotent, which is the only Redeemer.

Let us not forget that the freedom of democratic civilization, its respect for the individual and his convictions, its amenities, its art, beauty, and achievements in the many fields of human sciences and crafts, have sprung from the soil of Christianity; that is, from the recognition that the material concept of existence is not the ultimate reality; but, on the contrary, that God is the source of all true values. The belief that matter is the origin of all life attempts to hold the race in the iron shackles of restriction, strife, and despotism, with its concomitants of merciless regimentation and endless war.

Wrong Approach Basic Trouble

We arrive at the conclusion that what is wrong with us and our world, the pains and frustrations we experience in ourselves and see around us, is not in outside things and circumstances, but comes from approaching existence from a wrong standpoint. Mrs. Eddy states this in the textbook over and over again in unmistakable language. For instance, on page 301, "Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down."

It is we, not our world, who have to change! We have to alter our point of view. We have to re-focus our thinking. We have to re-educate ourselves. We have to know as Mind knows. We have to discern that our true and essential values are never in material objectivations outside of ourselves. These values are in the spiritual ideas which constitute the real nature of man as the full manifestation of Love.

Reality Spiritually Subjective

We have to know that our rights, safety, security, happiness, and well-being are not in outward circumstances, dependent upon a fickle fate, an irresponsible Jehovah, or shifting personal relationships. On the contrary, now we know that they rest impregnably in the kingdom of Love within us. Here we find the inner poise, harmony, loveliness, beauty, satisfaction, and fullness that we really already include. The evangelization of the human self is the task incumbent upon each of us and cannot be delegated to another. "This task," the textbook declares (p. 254), "God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual."

The way of the Science of Love is not to try to use Christian Science in order to obtain the material things and to achieve the personal relationships deemed necessary for harmonious human living. We must live this Science within the kingdom of Love itself. As stated before, the fact that we can recognize that God is Love means that our real self includes every essential element for everlasting well-being. The Master must have thought of this when he said (Matt. 10:30), "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." The strenuous human way of trying to get something is thus replaced by the joyous, calm, and Christlike acknowledgment that we include the right idea of that which we so ardently have been trying to get, be it peace in our world or happy relationships. It is in our Christliness of being that we find our peace, security, satisfaction. We have said this before, but it cannot be too often repeated.

The Church of Christ, Scientist

In the illumination of Christian Science, church is (Science and Health, p. 583) "the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle." Joining the church and bringing forth the fruitage as so nobly described by Mrs. Eddy on the same page (see lines 14-19) has a deeper meaning than becoming merely members of a human organization aiming to promote good. How could the church rouse "the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick," by outward acts alone? Identifying ourselves with the Church of Christ, Scientist is an act of inward grace. We must be newborn of Love. In this way we are embodying the vision of the church "that cometh down from heaven, whose altar is a loving heart, whose communion is fellowship with saints and angels" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 149).

The Kingdom of Love

Now, at the conclusion of this lecture, we are all the more familiar with the kingdom of Love. We can more clearly discern that our true and only self never left it. The male and female of God's creating never left the Father-Mother consciousness.

In the darkness-dissolving, liberating light of Love we understand more lucidly and feel more innately what the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science has expressed on page 266 of Science and Health: "Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God and the universe." Indeed, as stated on the same page, "Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science."

 

[Delivered May 11, 1951, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 10 Tanglewylde Avenue, Bronxville, New York, and published in The Bronxville Reporter, May 24, 1951. The text above is believed to be a somewhat condensed version of the full lecture. Six paragraphs of the lecture were published on April 10, 1951, in The Daily Argus of Mount Vernon, New York. The first paragraph here, set off in brackets, comes from The Daily Argus and the five paragraphs immediately following it here were the rest of the text found in that report.]

 

 

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