Science is based on the action of the divine Mind over the human mind and body; whereas, “mind-cure” rests on the notion that the human mind can cure its own disease, or that which it causes, and the sickness of matter—which is infidel in the one case, and anomalous in the other. It was said of old by Truth-traducers, that Jesus healed through Beelzebub; but the claim that one erring mind cures another one was at first gotten up to hinder his benign influence and to hide his divine power.
Our Master understood that Life, Truth, Love are the triune Principle of all pure theology; also, that this divine trinity is one infinite remedy for the opposite triad, sickness, sin, and death.
If there is no sin, why did Jesus came to save sinners?
If there is no reality in sickness, why does a Christian Scientist go to the bedside and address himself to the healing of disease, on the basis of its unreality? Jesus came to seek and to save such as believe in the reality of the unreal; to save them from this false belief; that they might lay hold of eternal Life, the great reality that concerns man, and understand the final fact—that God is omnipotent and omnipresent; yea, “that the Lord He is God; there is none else beside Him,” as the Scriptures declare.
If Christ was God, why did Jesus cry out, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
Even as the struggling heart, reaching toward a higher goal, appeals to its hope and faith, Why failest thou me? Jesus as the son of man was human: Christ as the Son of God was divine. This divinity was reaching humanity through the crucifixion of the human—that momentous demonstration of God, in which Spirit proved its supremacy over matter. Jesus assumed for mortals the weakness of flesh, that Spirit might be found “All-in-all.” Hence, the human cry which voiced that struggle; thence, the way he made for mortals' escape. Our Master bore the cross to show his power over death; then relinquished his earth-task of teaching and demonstrating the nothingness of sickness, sin, and death, and rose to his native estate, man's indestructible eternal life in God.
What can prospective students of the College take for preliminary studies? Do you regard the study of literature and languages as objectionable?
Persons contemplating a course at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, can prepare for it through no books except the Bible, and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” Man-made theories are narrow, else extravagant, and are always materialistic. The ethics which guide thought spiritually must benefit every one; for the only philosophy and religion that afford instruction are those which deal with facts and resist speculative opinions and fables.
Works on science are profitable; for science is not human. It is spiritual, and not material. Literature and languages, to a limited extent, are aids to a student of the Bible and of Christian Science.
Is it possible to know why we are put into this condition of mortality?
It is quite as possible to know wherefore man is thus conditioned, as to be certain that he is in a state of mortality. The only evidence of the existence of a mortal man, or of a material state and universe, is gathered from the five personal senses. This delusive evidence, Science has dethroned by repeated proofs of its falsity.
We have no more proof of human discord—sin, sickness, disease, or death—than we have that the earth's surface is flat, and her motions imaginary. If man's ipse dixit as to the stellar system is correct, this is because Science is true, and the evidence of the senses is false. Then why not submit to the affirmations of Science concerning the greater subject of human weal and woe? Every question between Truth and error, Science must and will decide. Left to the decision of Science, your query concerns a negative which the positive Truth destroys; for God's universe and man are immortal. We must not consider the false side of existence in order to gain the true solution of Life and its great realities.
Have you changed your instructions as to the right way of treating disease?
I have not; and this important fact must be, and already is, apprehended by those who understand my instructions on this question. Christian Science demands both law and gospel, in order to demonstrate healing, and I have taught them both in its demonstration, and with signs following. They are a unit in restoring the equipoise of mind and body, and balancing man's account with his Maker. The sequence proves that strict adherence to one is inadequate to compensate for the absence of the other, since both constitute the divine law of healing.
The Jewish religion demands that “whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” But this law is not infallible in wisdom; and obedience thereto may be found faulty, since false testimony or mistaken evidence may cause the innocent to suffer for the guilty. Hence the gospel that fulfils the law in righteousness, the genius whereof is displayed in the surprising wisdom of these words of the New Testament: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” No possible injustice lurks in this mandate, and no human misjudgment can pervert it; for the offender alone suffers, and always according to divine decree. This sacred, solid precept is verified in all directions in Mind-healing, and is supported in the Scripture by parallel proof.
The law and gospel of Truth and Love teach, through divine Science, that sin is identical with suffering, and that suffering is the lighter affliction. To reach the summit of Science, whence to discern God's perfect ways and means, the material sense must be controlled by the higher spiritual sense, and Truth be enthroned, while “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.”
Cynical critics misjudge my meaning as to the scientific treatment of the sick. Disease that is superinduced by sin is not healed like the more physical ailment. The beginner in sin-healing must know this, or he never can reach the Science of Mind-healing, and so “overcome evil with good.” Error in premise is met with error in practice; yea, it is “the blind leading the blind.” Ignorance of the cause of disease can neither remove that cause nor its effect.
I endeavor to accommodate my instructions to the present capability of the learner, and to support the liberated thought until its altitude reaches beyond the mere alphabet of Mind-healing. Above physical wants, lie the higher claims of the law and gospel of healing. First is the law, which saith:—
“Thou shalt not commit adultery;” in other words, thou shalt not adulterate Life, Truth, or Love—mentally, morally, or physically. “Thou shalt not steal;” that is, thou shalt not rob man of money, which is but trash, compared with his rights of mind and character. “Thou shalt not kill;” that is, thou shalt not strike at the eternal sense of Life with a malicious aim, but shalt know that by doing thus thine own sense of Life shall be forfeited. “Thou shalt not bear false witness;” that is, thou shalt not utter a lie, either mentally or audibly, nor cause it to be thought. Obedience to these commandments is indispensable to health, happiness, and length of days.
The gospel of healing demonstrates the law of Love. Justice uncovers sin of every sort; and mercy demands that if you see the danger menacing others, you shall, Deo volente, inform them thereof. Only thus is the right practice of Mind-healing achieved, and the wrong practice discerned, disarmed, and destroyed.
Do you believe in translation?
If your question refers to language, whereby one expresses the sense of words in one language by equivalent words in another, I do. If you refer to the removal of a person to heaven, without his subjection to death, I modify my affirmative answer. I believe in this removal being possible after all the footsteps requisite have been taken up to the very throne, up to the spiritual sense and fact of divine substance, intelligence. Life, and Love. This translation is not the work of moments; it requires both time and eternity. It means more than mere disappearance
