The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-16
THE FARMER: NOVEMBER 16, 1915

powerful, and eVer-pfeSent as Sood itself. Naturally they ask, How are we otherwise to account for the pres ence of the sickness, pain, and other forms of evil which enter so largely into human experience? ?''
 Now if I were to say to you that these evil things do not actually eX- ist-that they only seem to-there would be some in this audience Of m teIIigent people who would emphatic ally protest as many of us have done 1 at time another, ''That is all nonsense. You needn't tell me that when my headaches I only think 1t does. I know better for I feel it, and | what I feel 1 know, and no argument | of Christian Science will convince me i differently.''
 Right here enters one of the most ] common misconceptions about the 1 teachings of Christian Science con | corning the unreality of disease and 1 the like. Christian Science fully | agrees with the sufferer that pain l seems to be about the most real and actual thing in all of human 'eXper1- | ence, but it makes 8 most decided dis 1 tinction between what seems to be and what is. Christian Science takes 1 the high ground that if God is omni- | present, if He is everywhere, then there is no place for pain to be, and therefore it is~not an eternal reality. Men believe that sickness is as real as health, because they see it and feel it; they believe that evil is as real as good because they see it's effects and feel it's hold upon them. Now here Christian Science does another re- markab1e thing.
 It says to the beginner you are to look above and beyond what you see and feel if you would know what things are real and what things only seem to be. In other words you are asked to- deny much of what the senses tell you about the body.
 At first thought this may appear to be difficult thing to do and an un- reasonable thing to ask, for the senses of seeing, feeling and the like are use ful servants that at present you would find it difficult to do without. But you do not hesitate to deny much Of wha they tell you about many other things. For example you may spend an hour or two at the performance of some skilled magician witnessing an exhibition of sleight-of-hand that is very deceiving and come away know ing that the things you saw were not at all what they seemed to be and what your senses told you they. were If you did not know better you would have been deceived by each feat that you witnessed. Other familiar in stances of sense deception might be cited, but this perhaps will suffice
 Now then is it to be thought a strange thing if Christian Science calls upon you to challenge the test1- mony of these same senses when they tell you evil things about your body? If they are capable of misleading you in one instance, mayfthey not be do- ing it in another?
 They may generally serve you well, but they also serve you i'll when you believe all they tell you about the vital things of life. Did you ever con slider that all you know of pain and sickness and want and misery and suffering and the like, you have learned through what these senses hae told you? And that they have never told you a single thing about God, or Spirit, or Mind or Truth ? Why then should you hesitate to chal- lenge' their testimony when they are arguing continually against the omni- potence and omnipresence of God, against the very existence of eternal Truth -,..-
 Granting then that the beginner may see the reasonablesness of this position, we may hear him ask, How will my rejecting the evidence of the senses about the body aid me in get ting well? Suppose I do not know that I am being deceived, how is that ge- ing to help me?'
 A necessary step towards getting free from the influence of any kind of a deception is to know the truth about it. A lie that is believed is as tangi- b1e as the truth itself, but when you know it is a lie you are free from it's control.
 Jesus proved in his ministry on earth, and Christian Science is today substantiating that proof, that just in proportion that man gains and ap- plies a right understanding of Gods h ixyiT 1xToio hn reality of all things evil, in that pro- portion does he break the hold of sickness and sin.
 Or in the language of our text book (p 178), i've disarm sim of its imagi- nary power in proportion fo our spir- itpal understanding of the Status of immortal being
 Should this fundamental truth of Christian Science impress the begin ner as strange, if not incredib bIe, let me say to him, that it is being at tested today in the lives of multi tudes of people who pattern their thoughts and deeds after the teach ings of Christian Science.
 The enemies of Truth, even those in high places, would dogmaticaIly deny that this presence of God-good -is today among men, destroying all belief in the power of evil, healing the sick and reforming the sinner, but no man is qualified tp deny this who has not tested it persistently, sincerely reverently; and those who have so tested it know that it is ImmanueI or God with us"
 If any of the foregoing Christianity scientific concepts of God find a vel come in the secret places of your | thought, dwell upon them, that you may abide under the shelter of a higher holier life. Each one of them is more precious than pearls or rubies. If you will invite them all into your consciousness, you will have for your own that which you will soon prize above wealth or position or power or any of the things the world can give