Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-08

vine origin; and if not Of Gods crea- tion or made in His similitude, sin is intrinsically unreal. untrue and non- essential. Moreover, if that be the case. ls then the sinner can be reformed and the sin forgiven; that is, sin can be made unreal, reduced to It's native nothingness. There is hope for the sinner if sin is unreal; otherwise there E is no hope, and he is doomed to per- petual bondage to a supposedly real entity.
 Sickness.
 .Is any sick among you,s and is his sickness inevitable? It is of divine | established necessity? If you wish to | know definitely whether sickness is | real, true, and essential. apply the test once more and ask the question, Is | sickness like God. godlike? One can hardly venture to answer in the af- frmative, for that would imply that sickness can lodge in the divine mind 1 and become a part of the thinking, op- eratton, or expression of that mind Sickness cannot issue from that mind unless 1t is there already; and if it is I there, then God can think it. The admission that sickness is real would create a vicious circle from which there is no escape except through the simple, scientific reasoning that sick ness, being unlike God, is unreal, un- true, and nonessentiaL
 Thus it is possible to measure with scientific accuracy the exact nature of every experience that comes to human ity. such as accidents, losses, enmi- ties, false pretenses, evil predictions, prophecies and threats. Are these ex- periences essential? Are they true? Are they real in the absolute sense? If they are real, they must partake of the nature of God. Now an accident cannot issue from the divine mind, han1JCn that mind "a Iax " order, harmony, invariableness regu- larity. It is impossible to associate infraction of law with the divine mind; therefore any such infraction must be classified as a belief apart from God. An accident cannot claim to be like God, godlike, but must be relegated to the realm of the unreal, untrue, and nonesSential, and it's supposed conSe- quences must follow it into unreality.
 Then if material medicine predicts the progress of disease as inevitable and the doom of man as sealed, must this prediction be counted as true or untrue, real or unreal? Surely the divine mind prediicts no evil of it's own creation. God, who made all that was made, and saw that it was very good, does not doom His own man to decay dissolution, and death. It follows thar such predictions, generally designated as laws of disease, have no divine or igin and can be set aside without do- 1Il5 VlOlGnC6 QlVln6 OeCIG6S. 1n6 spiritual understanding of this at once frees humanity from the dread of law and necessity supposed to be incor- porated in disease. It lifts the bug bear of incuralbility from the fright ened sense of the sick and shining, and establishes them upon the sure l foundation of their divine rights to health. happiness, holiness, and through reformation and repentance to heaven itself. By this test of the real and the unreal, humanity can sort out of it's | experiences the inevitable good from the seeming evil. the spiritual necessi- ties from the material appearances. | This process means growth, progress along the narrow way. It makes plain | the path from sense to soul and is the | modus operandi of Christian Science | healing and reforming. In Science and Health (p. 469) Mrs. Eddy writes, | ''The exterminator of error is the great I truth that God, good, is the only mind, l and that the suppoSititious opposite of infinite mind-called devil or eyil-is not mind, is not truth, but error, with out intelligence or reality"
 The importance of recognizing God as the only mind is clearly seen when l the sad effects of believing in a sup posititious opposite of the divine mind are learned by experience. Paul l designates this supposititious mind as l the carnal or heshy mind Mrs. Eddy 1 has described it more specifically as mortal mind, or the mind of mortals. This belief in a mind apart from God 1 is capable of all evil. It would set up, if it could, a power opposed to God to nullify His decrees and dethrone His majesty. This belief attempts to de- fraud man of his rights and to rob him of everything that he holds dear Mortal mind, if not corrected by spir- itua1 understanding, will take from man his health, happiness, freedom, I joy; his wealth, his friends, his good name; in short, all that humanity justly prizes.
 I Mortal Mind. Christian Science uncovers the pro- cess by which this robber rst entices
 his victim into byway of error and
 then picks his pockets. The process is the exact reverse of the method
 used by Christian Science in saving
 humanity from it's woes. Mortal minds
 method consists in inducing humanity
 to accept the untrue as true, the un- } real as real, the non essential as es-
 sential, and then in tempting the de
 luded victims to strive after these fal-
 sltleS. In this way the carnal minG
 sends it's votaries on many a wild
 goose chase, which can only end 1T ] disappointment and disguest. It dan.
 gles before the yes of humanity the
 false concept of 9 genuine desire ol , need. It approaches some unsuspect.
 ing mortal with the promise of sub.
 
 asks, Do you desire substance? ana
 the mortal naturally and very proper.
 ly replies, Yes.
 : Then the carnal or fleshly, or morta
 or material mind, would suggest tha:
 substance was matter, and that to gai1
 substance, man must strive to accum ulate matter. If the intended victim . accepts this mental suggestion, morta mind then leads him on forlorn Ques |, after substance matter. Whether thu , victim does or does not accumulatt
 matter as the result of this induce
 ment, he will never be able to Snt
 true substance in matter, for true sub
 stance is spiritual and mental, anC 2 fadeth not away, because it is no 2 subject to material laws or origin O. 2 decay, but is eternal and indestructi ? ble. Paul has truly written of ''th substance of things hoped for, the ev , idence of things not seen."
 To some sick mortal this robber be lief of a mind apart from God woult
 offer health as a material possession
 It would induce the sick to believ
 that health is dependent solely upo1 material conditions. and that healtl
 can only be restored or maintained b, material remedies. Then it woult
 drive the sick from one remedy to an
 other, from one place to another iron
 one material process to another, t.