The Winslow mail., 1925-01-23

A scientific Christian is a Christian
not for what thereby accrues to him,
though he receives without measure
the spiritual and temporal rewards of
service. Happiness and satisfaction
are not the objects of his search, but
they are the inevitable resultants
thereof. Primarily ne is Christian
Scientist for what he can give. Self
denial is evangelism. The Christian
religion is built upon the foundation
of self-sacrifice. Concerning this
point of selflessness Mrs. Eddy wrote,
in the Christian Science textbook,
"Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures" (p. 261), eve should for
get our bodies in remembering good
and the human race" To be saved
from ones self is all the salvation a
mortal needs. It is a mans true ma
ture to be an evangelist, even as Jesus
was It is a mans natural function
to practice Christian Science-to util-
ize for himself and others the power
OF Truth over error. It is a mans
natural office to preach and to prac-
tice the gospel of Love.
THE REAL AND THE UNREAL
Let us consider briefly the twofold
aspect of true evangelism. The Bible
teaches that God is 'the same yes
terday, and to day, and for ever. "
Whatever Deity is, He always has
been and always will be. Jesus spoke
of Him as Father, as "ny Father" 3"
and as "your Father" If God is
Father now, He must always have
been Father, your Father and mine.
Hence not only has God always had
children, but He has always had you
and me for His offspring. Man, there
fore, antedates Adam, and Adam, rep
resenting material man, the human
kind, cannot have been the first man.
Moreover, since Adam supposedly had
a beginning and an ending, he could
not have expressed God, who, the
Bible says, is without beginning or
ending. Adam therefore could not
have been man at all. True evangel-
ism reveals the fatherhood and moth
erhood of God (Father- Mother, be-
cause within Himself alone the sole
and complete creator), and the SON.
ship of man, one with the Father
Mother.
Again, the Bible teaches the omni-
presence of God, and Deity can be
everywhere only as divine Principle,
or cause-manifested in effect. AS
there can be no effect without cause,
so there can be no cause without eff
feet. God and man, Father and son,
cause and effect, are mutually indis-
pensable.
Now Christian Science, in conson-
&1o 10 he co1f
evident that the creator of the uni
verse, including man, is intelligence,
or Mind Jesus said: "God is Spir-
Spirit and Life are synonymous
words. It is conclusive then that be-
cause God is infinite, He must be the
infinite, the only Spirit, the only Life,
the only Mind.
Christian Science further teaches,
in agreement with the Bible, that God,
Spirit, and the things of Spirit, are
present here and now; that they are
not abstract or removed, but concrete
and at hand. The Christian Scient-
ist is amused at the attempt of phys
icists to weigh or to photograph the
soul. Remember, Spirit and divine
Mind are the same. So spiritual things
are divinely mental things, and di-
vinely mental things are ideas. Ideas
are real and genuine things, but they
are not spatial, nor dimensional, nor
ponderable. The real man, then, is
the idea of Mind, God Hence he is
divinely mental, or spiritual, now, and
not material, finite, fallen being. He
is spiritual now, and must be SO con-
sidered. Here is a strange thing!
Religionists have dealth harshly with
Christian Science for accepting as the
present fact the spirituality of man,
when that very spiritual status is the
Christians hope of salvation.
Let US see just what there is to this
world of matter, including material
man. Have you ever attended trial
in court and heard a hypothetical
question put to witness? The elab-
oration of the hypothesis often tends
to confuse the witness into accepting
the conclusion, regardless of the
purely suppositional basis of the ques-
tion. So the elaborate detail of the
hypothesis of life in matter confuses
thought into accepting the entire
round of materiality, with all it's alb
normalities, as real, whereas the truth
- Cl1dC 11IctCLS1, Will c14A us NOAAAPAN<>SS1
mental and physical, is based on the
following false hypothesis: Suppose
there is more than all: suppose in
finite Spirit, God, has an opposite, mat
ter; suppose infinite good has an op-
posite, evil. Then the hypothesis goes
further and says: If the one good, or
Living Mind, God, has an opposite,
there must be the one evil, or devil,
mortal mind. And so the lie arrays
itself against the truth, because the
"carnal mind is enmity against God,"
and eventually comes to be accepted as
true. Thus, it comes to have in hu-
man belief a sort of counterfeit exist
ence--a vast elaboration of lies claim
ing to be truth. Of this counterfeit
existence the Spanish poet, Calderon,
wrote:-
What is life? 'Tis but madness.
| What is life? A mere illusion,
Fleeting pleasure, fond delusion,
Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness,
| nt Cl1hG