Seward daily gateway., 1924-08-08
ALECTURE
 ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE The Activity of Good


 The Activity of Coed
 By
 PAUL STARK SHELBY, c. 5. B. Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First
 Church of Christ Scientist,
 in Boston, Mass.
 The Discoverer and Founder oi Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy has written on page 42S of Science and Health with Key to the Scrip lures, the textbook of Christian Science. this important statement We must realize the ability of men tai might to offset human miscon captions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not matte rial" Christian Science shows men how to utilize mental might, or the power of God to destroy sin, heal disease, and understanding eternal life. Its message is therefore heal ing and a loving message. It comes to tell of the goodness and love Of God and to show you how you ana may immediately benefit therefrom.
 am going to begin the lecture by telling you of a healing which re- cently came to my attention, neal ing which is a fair example Of what is taking place wherever Chrlstlan Science is studied and faithfully ap- piled. A lady living in Indiana be- gan to have difficulty with her Iungs in 1917. Her condition became steadily worse until in the fall of 1918 she was compelled to give uL her home duties and enter santa rum. where she was placed ln the tubercular ward She continued to have medical attention until late ID 1919. all the physicians who dlag- .uosed her difficulty agreeing that she had tuberculosis in its advanced stage. They declared she had nc more than a year to live. In tha spring of 1921 she went to Utah hop ing that the climate would benefit her. She was confined to her pea and could make no exertion without it's bringing on severe hemorrhages. While in this condition a neighbor left with her a copy of Science ana Health, explaining briefly the funda- mental teachings of Christian Sci .ence. For few days the book re- mained unopened. She had little faith that anything could cure her. The lady asked her husband ii he believed the book would help her. He said he knew nothing about II, but that Christ Jesus had healed without drugs many years ago. She began to read and ponder this lit tie book. Her strength returned with what seemed astonishing quick ness and within less than week she was able to leave her bed anu resume her household duties. Within a month every symptom ot the uls- ease had disappeared, never to re appeaar. This lady very recently submitted to a severe medical exam ination and no trace of the disease was to be found,
 In bringing this healing to your attention | would emphasize the point that a disease regarded as most serious malady was completely heal ed through the change ot thought brought about in the patients con sciousness by the reading Of Science and Health This fact naturally leads the inquirer to ask, What was the nature of the change? What does this textbook of Christian Science teach that so powerfully affects the thought
 
 time we are to be together I shall endeavor to answer, in some mea, sure, these questions.
 GOD IS MIND
 Christian Science teaches that God is Mind. The very cornerstone of Christian Science is that man is not separate from God. He is united to God. He is linked to Deity. But how can this be. Have you ever stopped to consider where your good thoughts come from, your right de sire, and high ideals? You do not originate them yourself. You accept them as the correct expression of being, but their origin is greater than yourself. Christian Science shows us that this source of all good thoughts is the one Mind, named God. Since God is Mind He is as near as Mind is, and Mind is always present here and everywhere. Man is linked to God because his true Individuality is the expression of God. Man lives to express God. Could he have a grander destiny! As this founda- tional fact that God and man are inseparably united in being, thought and action becomes more fully un- derstood it brings to us that sense of life in which health is natural, and harmony and happiness the only order of being.
 It is, of course, apparent that what we term the devil or evil opposes the supremacy of good, denies that man has unity with God, and disputes the statement that there is but one true Mind or God with the assertion that there is another mind which fills the consciousness of men with fear, hate, selfishness, sin, and disease. If evils claim to place and power is legitimate all thought of progress and deliverance must be abandoned and we must accept the works of evil, sin, disease, hatred and war as effacing the works of God and find ourselves without effective means to overthrow them. But is evils claim valid? Christian Science answers with positive NO.
 THE NATURE OF EVIL
 When talking with group of his countrymen in Jerusalem one morn ing some two thousand years ago, Christ Jesus drew very definite line between the devil and God. He told them bluntly, "Ye are of your father the devil.' He was desiring to awaken them to their wrong state of mind which was filled with thouohts of pride. self-righteOusness