The Winslow mail., 1925-01-23

ANGELS AND EVANGELS
consideration of evangelism may
oroperlv begin with angels. It was
anoels who announced to the wise
men the coming of Jesus, the Saviour.
ponular belief conceives angels to be
celestial beings humanity defined,
Gods messengers, bearing communi-
cations from God to man. Just why
God, who is everywhere, should need
medium of transmission OF His
thought does not appear in reason, al
though it does appear always IN hu-
man belief. Certainly, If, as JOB de-
clared. God is Gin one mind" His
activity is mental and expresses itself
in ideas. The essence of anything is
the idea of it, or what it is IN Mind.
It is therefore proper to conclude that
angels are not merely Gods mes
sengers but are the actual messages
themselves. Angels are Gods com
m,7n'cations to man. Human bellets
NV upon them finite. though
ethereal, forms, may clothe them with
clouds Of glory, and give to them all
the imagery of the poets fancy, but
no grandeur, no beauty, no heavenl ly
atmosphere, can exceed the simple
truth that God, Mind, communicates
with man spiritually, consciously, and
that the communication is vital, in
Simultaneous, and direct. "And sud-
denly there was with the angel a null
titude of the heavenly host" null
titude of right ideas. "The kingdom
of God is within you,' said Jesus.
Within what? Within brain, stomach,
lungs, blood, bones? Surely not. Evi-
IDENTIFY within consciousness, within
understanding The heavenly host
has never failed to be and to abide
with the spirituallyminded. True
evangelism changes the querulous cry,
"Lord, | believe; help thou mine un-
belief" into the glad Hosanna, lord,
l believe, because / understand"
An ignorant Christian is a para
dox. The scientific Christian is the
enlightened Christian. Redemption
means not subscription to scholastic
dogma or theological creed, not emo
tlonal acceptance of a man-made sal
vation, falsely labeled divine. Re-
demption is rather the acquiring of q
gift of God, a gift purchased with a
price-the price of daily endeavor to
know the liberating and Transforming
Truth, the Christ. So Christian Sci
ence appeals not to the emotions. It
touches indeed the hearts of men, but
it's primary appeal is to understand
ing. I state boldly that Christian Sci
ence is the only religion that has not
faltered in the face of logic and rea-
son. Christian Science is bulwarked
in the truism that no wrong conclu-
sion can logically follow correct prem
ises. From reason to revelation is a
step in sequence, and that step is fol-
lowed by spiritual understanding
the angelic presence. Spiritual under
standing ushers man into the atmos-
phere of God.
True evangelism, then, addresses it
self to the individual consciousness.
1t has none of the elements of mass
psychology 1t is not mesmeric; it is
spiritually scientific. It does not mys-
tify; it clarifies. 1t does not storm;
it convinces. It is said that Charlie
magne evangelical the Teutonic tribes.
At the point of the sword he drove
thirty thousand savages into the Rhine
and baptized them. Does any one
imagine that procedure made Chris
tian nation? A militant preaching
can never alone do the work Of true
evangelism. Christian Science, mighty
evangel sent from God, combines the
militancy of Michael, who flights the
holy wars" (Science and Health, p.
567), with the kindness of Gabriel,
who through love leads men gently out
of the mesmerism of sin and disease
into holiness and health.