Arizona republican., 1920-02-08


 No, they are not" It would be so clear to us that a spiritual idea can no more be affected by material conditions than a sum in arithmetic is affected by the breaking of the slate on which it is written, that we should not hesitate for one instant.
 We should not say If it is Gods will it may be so, and I will bear it with resignation" but we would say simply Tt is not so, and because I see that substance. is spiritual and that there can be but one power, good, l deny that evil has either existence or Prin- ciple in the universe of Spirit"
 Now this position would be entirely logical and scientific. and moreover ii carries the full endorsement of him who stood before men as the carpen- ter's son, and said Call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven" His scien- tific perception that man is Gods per feet child enabled him to repudiate human theories relating to man and his origin. With his understanding that intelligence and life are spiritual, never material, he healed sin and dis ease, and raised the dead.
 Source of Human FaIsities
 Now touching these human theories about man and his origin, all of which are permeated with a great deal of
 
 their insistence on materiafsm as the basis of life, and evil as an unacceptable law, Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health CD. 4S9). "The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or error." This is very profund statement, and like all really profound statements it things enormously. It is a hopeless thing to think of evil as some kind of diabolical intelligence with which we can never expect to cope but if it's source is traceable to the ccrporeal senses, we know we can cope With them of we care to take the trou hle. 1T keep under my body said Paul, and bring it into subjection," and what an example of freedom and self government we have in him.
 Christian Science explains that it is because men believe themselves de- pendent on material conditions that evil seems so real to them, and. conversely, the proof in Christian Science that they are not dependent on material conditions releases them from the fear of evil, and reveals true self govern ment. This was proved to be the case over and over again by the soldiers in the trenches, who, confronted with hor- rlble conditions of damp, danger and discomfort, seemed to rise to a higher freedom of cheerfulness than anybody had supposed to be possible.
  came as a very natural explanation of this phenomenon, and it seemed easy to realise that true optimism means the rejection of the evidence of the senses, because when they did reject this evidence a sense of immunity from evil was found to result. I was much impressed by a characteristic state by his understanding of Christian Sci hn had through very heavy machine gun fire concen- trated on him at close range and he said, This experience proved to me that man is spiritual"
 We cannot have his proof, we must find our own, but when we do so the denial of the corporeal senses we shall understand much more what is meant by the allness of Mind and the unrea1ity of matter, a propo- sition which may be argued intellect ually, but which, to be understood, must also be demonstrated.
 Need For Spirituality
 We may study the writings of Plato, Plotinus. Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Berkeley and others, and we may gain a sense that matter is not the self existent thing it appears to be, and we shall find that modern. scientific upholds this position. But we shall not in this way have ad-. vanced far along the road which leads to Jesus statement, ''The flesh prof iteth nothing or Mrs. Eddy's defini- tion of matter to be mortal mind, il- fusion, the opposite of Truth. It IS easy to see that the so- called properties of matter are quail ties of thought, but it is quite another thing to gain the spiritual perception that matter-thoughts are illusion or All sin and disease are fra. To fn matter. and Christian Science teaches that disease is not law of God, neither is it a law of matter, but that it is mortal mind that causes disease, and mortal mind that needs to be cor rected. It was Jesus understanding of this fact that gave his mission on earth such startling significance. With his clear spiritual vision he taught men the simplicity of the truth and healed all kinds of diseases. treating them as the results of false belief. Finally he faced the darkest phase that human experience can offer-a cruel death with every mans hand against him and triumphed completely over it in the experience known as the resurrec- tion, thereby annulling death-mat- ter's strongest claim. This was his proof of mans scien- tific unity with God-his atone -ment with divine Mind.
 Jesus NO AScetic
 What then does bringing the body into subjection' really mean? Does 1t mean Urea ting it with asceticism and contempt. and like St. Francis re- ferring to it as my brother, the ass?" Such a position may, doubt, be achieved by an effort of will. but is it the scientific way along which Jesus of Nazareth was the first to tread? There is nothing to show that Jesus was ascetic. On the contrary, he seems to have been a very normal person in all matters to do with eating, drinking. clothing and resting. though no one will deny that he was the most unselfish man that ever lived
 What to the ascetic appeared to be to sin, to Jesus were sym bols of the divine providence-the tenn porary food and clothing which are needed by mortals in the transition stage from the purely material sense of supply to that condition of spiritual which can say in the Masters words, Il have meat to eat that ye know not of" He knew that the real health, the real food. and the real clothing of the real man came from Mind alone, and that the under standing of this fact brings now an .I... II