Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-23
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE EXPLAINED.

llilS Is q IldI SICK DecdUSt Ile luliihS ht isZ The cause of sickness antedates his present thinking. There are two phases of thinking, called conscious and uncon- .seieus. The conscious thoughts are easi- ly controlled, because they are upon the surface. The unconscious thoughts serve you like warrior in ambush, viz: While they are in hiding from you you are at their mercy. These hidden thoughts are often al variance with the thoughts consciously expressed. For example, you may praise God for his goodness with your conscious thoughts, and a sly undercurrent of feeling may accuse Him of sending afIlictions upon you. Now, you do not mean to do this, and very likely you do not have the least idea that you may be classed with those mentioned in Scripture, viz: This people honoreth Me with their lips, while their heart is far from me-" This is handling your words badly. By the word all things are created" You ere ate bad conditions for yourself when in the same breath you speak truth and an untruth. "As he thinleth, so is he" Jesus says, By your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned" For example again, you may say kind, complimentary words to your business acquaintance for the sake of getting him into your power or under your influence, and not at all because you really estimate him highly. If you
  conscious you readily excuse your ln- consistency. not to say dishonesty, by saying that it Is only matter of bus mess. But here, my friend, do you con slider that you are destroyns your own faith in mankind, which is the greatest misfortune that can happen to you? How? Why, as you deal with others, so do you expect them to deal with you, and as you are underhanded in your dealings, you have reason to look for the same from others When you get so that you cannot trust anybody, simply because you judge others by yourself, then what are you but mass of distrust or the em- bodiment of your idea? AS he thinketh so is he" Do you know what happens to a man who is the embodiment or distrust? By his words he shall be con- demned' His dstrust will disintegrate his business, his friendships, his family relations his body, for ''so is he" There is no escape from this law of mind ex- cept through the grace, mercy and truth of Jesus Christ. How can he achieve this? By right knowledge. How can he acquire right knowledge? By per petually drinking from the infinite foun- tain within his own consciousness. Mans consciousness is boundless, and some where" in it's iliimitable depths, or it's measureless heights God reigns su- preme-the principle of unfailing life A man becomes i'll from untrue thoughts. Untrue thinking may be called sin. Sin means falsity, or perYersion of truth Very good people become i'll. What have they done? Their highest ideal may be of a God who deliberately afflicts His children. We live, move and have our being in our highest ideal. If it is such an ideal as the one just described. then according to the ideal so is the idealist What then causes sickness, if God does not send it? Nothing else than our mis- taken ideas, in which we live move and have our being. Jesus said: "Go in peace and sin no more, lest worse thing come unto thee" Again he said: Thy sins be forgiven thee; arise, take up thy bed and go into thy house." Sins are wrong ideas, and their consequence, which is sickness. What makes the little child sick? Does it think evil? No, but the sins of the parents shall he visited upon the children, etc. What sins? Those parents who are under the dominion of the idea that God sends aiflietion think 1t part of their allegi- ance to their idea to expect affiiction-to look for tito be prepared for it. They love the child so dearly that there is al- ways a haunting fear that the trouble that they are on the lookout for will strike them through this cherished ob- ject Of their affections. Fear in the undercurrent of your mind will under mine every cherished object of your life sooner or later and meantime you have no peace. The "dweler on the thresh- old" never allows it to enter. What shall you do? Believe ir1 ane Omfiipresent Good so profoundly that mo evil shall come nigh thy dwelling" Look your idea of God carefully over and see if you approve of it; I tell you, of truth, that idea" has dominion over you and your sphere of action. It seems hard that the little child should be involved in its oar tc mic a ideas Inpcn't little mind is like a white page upon which the parents thought is easily inn pressed. It has as yet no protection from these heavy, anxious, foreboding thoughts. and so the very love which would have died for the child puts it's sweet little body out of sight. Fear, the "dweler on the threshold" blights the bud All this need not be if your love is full of confidence in that Infinite Love of which your love for your child is only a hint in comparison. Believe in God as your 'unfailing good" Expect the good; pre- pare for it; know" that it is your birth right.
 voice of Truth, ''and if sons. then heirs" If you do not claim your birth right how do you expect to have itf You are not a culprit to cringe and fear be- fore your God. "Ye are the sons of God"
 When one undermines his health by long habits of wrong thinking, now can he be healed? Is there any medicine that you ever heard of that will cure the mind of foolish habits? The search for such a remedy has been going on for ages and still the search continues. Dr. Pratt, one of the faculty of the Chicago Homeopathic college, said before large body of students last August: You may look to physical cause for disease. and you will never find it; all disease of the body originates in mind" What shall cure the mind? It shall turn it's thoughts Godward. It shall learn to see devinely instead of humanly. It shall think on God instead of Satan. It shall believe in good instead of evil. It shall think purely; it shall speak sacredly; it shall act wisely. It shall think no evil" It shall be pure enough "to see God" or to discern the ''kingdom within" This will restore the failing body. the failing friendships. the failing morals, the fail ing business, and utterly destroy the "dweller on the threshold" This is re- generation, redemption from sin or mis- taken ideas-the new birth. the true life.
 s. E. G.
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