Imperial Valley press., 1917-01-29

successfully devoted to the saving of
their fellows from the thralldom of
sickness, sin, and sorrow. Mrs. Ed
dy was indeed inspired, but hers was
the inspiration that is the natural her
itage of man and is available to every
one in proportion to ones apprehen-
sion of spiritual truth. Nothing su-
pernatural is claimed for Christian
Science or for the author of its text
book.
For one whose life was devoted to
the welfare of mankind, Mrs. Eddy
was compelled to bear vastly more
than her portion of Misrepresentation
and ingratitude. But she demonstrat-
ed the quality of her religion by meet
ing it all with surprising good will.
Throughout the stormy years she an
swered malice with love, slander with
smile, and persecution with bless
ing, and when she passed away left
behind none who could truthfully say
that in thought or deed she had done
him a wrong.
NO DEEP MYSTERY ABOUT 1T
If there be any here who for the
first time are possessed of desire
to share in the healing and regener-
ating influences of Christian Science,
may l, for your benefit, offer a few
words of advice, which / am sure if
needed will bring you the more quick
ly to the desired goal. In the first
place, avoid permitting yourself to be
overly concerned regarding what
might seem to be the technicalities of
the subject. Christian Science is SIM
plicity itself. There is no deep mys-
terry about it, except in the mistaken
opinions of some who do not UNDER
stand it. Consider, for instance, the
teaching as to the unreality of mat
ter. Be assured that to the Christian
Scientist the mountains are as high,
the skies as blue, and the oceans as
broad as to any one else. Christian
Scientists clothe, feed and house them
selves after the manner of their nom
Scientist neighbors. And all this is
not inconsistent with that which you
will in due time find to be the actual
teaching Of this Science as regards
the relative unreality of matter.
My purpose is not to imply by any
means that Christian Science does not
require very radical departure from
! the old concept of material things. 1t
does indeed involve wholly changed
attitude, but this change comes nat
urally and tremendously, and with no
sense of loss, but rather with reali-
zation of substantial gain. A familiar
illustration may be helpful. A patron
of bank offers in good faith to de-
posit coin which the expert banker
detects to be counterfeit. The bogus
thing never was money, but it had all
the power of real money over the un-
supecting patron. He had given an
equivalent of its supposed money value
in exchange for it, and would have
been quite capable of doing so again
but for the knowledge that had come
to him through the clearer under
standing of the expert. By a purely
mental process, the uncovering of
lie, the innocent patron has been re-
leased from subsection to a false
in the coin has undergone no change;
it is the same as before, only the
truth is out about it now, and it can
no longer deceive.
Those who believe man to be ma
terial, life to be mortal, matter to be
power, and true health to be depen-
| dent primarily on physical organisms,
are somewhat like the individual who
mistakenly relies on counterfeit mon
| ey to maintain his credit at the bank.
| If the latter were to say to the ex-
pert, "Why do you try to tell me this
isn't real, when I clearly see coin.
and you can't deny that you see it
too?" might not the expert reply:
eyes, you see coin, and I see it too.
but you do not actually see money
any more than I do. We both see
the same thing, only see it for what
it is while you see it for what it is
not" And so, where the gross ma
terialist thinks he sees that which is
actual, the Christian Scientist, being
better informed as to actualities, dis
Germs counterfeit Of the spiritual
reality. The correcting process is not
going to involve change in anytime
except mental concepts and their ef-
fects.
REMOVING THE DISGUISE FROM
EVIL.
| You may be wise also to put aside
any question as to whether Mrs. Eddy
has undertaken to invent new kind
of evil, called animal magnetism. She
has done nothing of the sort. Her
sole endeavor with regard to evil has
| been thoroughly to unmask evil. and
| she has accomplished this in a man
ner that dawns most practically and
helpfully on the consciousness of the
student of Christian Science. The in
dividual who still believes evil to be
one or more persons or one or more
things, very much needs to know
what Mrs. Eddy teaches regarding
the essentially mental as well as OBJ
vously animal qualities of evil. The
term animal magnetism as general
definition for all evil is helpful in
emphasizing the important point that
evil is primarily mental, must be
thought before it is acted. and is a
product of erroneous material sense
and not of God. Mrs. Eddy gives her
students much valuable instruction
with regard to protecting themselves
from erroneous and injurious mental