The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1922-03-03
LARGE INTERESTED AUDIENCE HEARS
VIM. W. PORTER'S LECTURE ON "CtIRIS-
TAN SCIENCE, IT'S REASONABLE APPEAL

system of religion or healing which
is adequately and satisfactorily to
meet the needs of mankind must he
erected upon a foundation broad and
deep, a foundation which is at the
same time as simple and as univer-
sally available to all mankind as di-
vine Love itself is available. Such
system must express the element
of intelligence or divine mind. Mat
ter cannot be the foundation for an
adequate system of religion or heal
ing, because matter is not intelli-
gent This is a simple statement of
ultimate fact the logic of which may
not be legitimately avoided. Chris
tian Science has been criticized fire.
quently because Of it's statements
regarding the unreality of matter,
the unreality of sin, sickness, death;
and yet, the established systems of
religion and medicine have been en-
gagged throughout their respective
thu stories, and that too without crit
icism, in the attempt to escape the
ills associated with evil, and to ov-
ercome the limitations associated
with matter! Were these systems
to be successful in their attempts to
save mankind from evil and sick
ness, is it not clear that such sys-
TENS would come finally to the re-
cognition with which Christian Sci
'ence begins, namely, that evil, sick
ness, death, mortal mind are unreal?
God, the divine Mind, who includes
all intelligence and reality, is "of
purer eyes than to behold evil"-tO
believe evil to be real. Seeing this
to be true, mankind ought not to re-
sist the influence Of that education
al process which in Christian Sci
ence is unfolding to thought the ma
ture Of reality. The ordinary sys-
tens teach and perpetuate the belief
that evil, sickness, death are real;
more, that these belong to the ma
tural order of things, and that they
are more or less legitimate and to
libe expected. Then these systems
begin Immediately to attempt to
overthrow and to destroy these
things which are held to be real, le-
ultimate and to be expected. II
these Affections are real, why try
to escape them either through re-
ligion or medicine? Indeed, in
such a circumstance will not the
very attempt to escape from these
ills be an act contrary to the divine
will and contrary to The divine or
der? On the other hand, if THESE
evils are not real and so not created
by God, then let the statements
made by Christian Science in regard
to the unreality of matter, sin, death
and destruction, be approached and
measured honestly and fairly, and
above all with the desire to be con-
sistent, not only with respect to the
conclusions at which we may arrive
but what is far more important
with respect to the premises from
which we make our beginnings
Christian Science declares primar-
lily, secondarily and always that
God, the divine Mind, is the only
creator; that real creation must re-
fleet the character of the divine
Mind or God; and that true creation
consists, therefore, OF spiritual or
true ideas. Evil is not a spiritual
or true idea; therefore evil is not
creation of the divine Mind OF
God The Christian Scientist pro-
ceeds to prove the truth of this po-
sition. This is done by healing the
sick and by restoring thought to
lines of right activity through the
understanding that there are
two supreme powers, a supreme goot
and a supreme evil warning forever
one against the other, but that there
is one only supreme power, the eter
nal God or good who is the one ant
only Mind. Because God, who is the
eternal Principle of man and the
universe, creates all that is created
and because this Principle or Mint
cannot create anything unlike itself
it follows that evil and matter arr
not creations of God, hence the.
have no legitimate existence and M
Legitimate power:
The only seeming power of eyi
and matter is that which morta
consciousness gives to them. Evi
and matter seem to have the etfec
of power because mortal conscious
ness believes and accepts them to b.
real.
Because of the lack of proper edu
cation in true Christianity mankind
actuated my mortal thought, has ac
cepted as real its own misconc ep
lions of God, their own misinterpre
tations of man, and its own mis-
statements of Spirit or substance
and out of these abysmal depth
} there has arisen a mist from TIL
, earth"-a cloud of false knOwledg
that stands between mankind ant
} God influencing thought adversel.
to the highest good.
Restorative Definitions.
1t is the mission and province o