self, or Christ, was the Son of God; and that the mor- [15]
tal mind, not the immortal Mind, suffered. The human
manifestation of the Son of God was called the Son of
man, or Mary's son.
Please explain Paul's meaning in the text, “For to me
to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” [20]
The Science of Life, overshadowing Paul's sense of
life in matter, so far extinguished the latter as forever
to quench his love for it. The discipline of the flesh is
designed to turn one, like a weary traveller, to the home
of Love. To lose error thus, is to live in Christ, Truth. [25]
A true sense of the falsity of material joys and sorrows,
pleasures and pains, takes them away, and teaches Life's
lessons aright. The transition from our lower sense of
Life to a new and higher sense thereof, even though it be
through the door named death, yields a clearer and [30]
nearer sense of Life to those who have utilized the present,
[pg 085]
and are ripe for the harvest-home. To the battle- [1]
worn and weary Christian hero, Life eternal brings
blessings.
Is a Christian Scientist ever sick, and has he who is
sick been regenerated? [5]
The Christian Scientist learns spiritually all that he
knows of Life, and demonstrates what he understands.
God is recognized as the divine Principle of his being,
and of every thought and act leading to good. His pur-
pose must be right, though his power is temporarily lim- [10]
ited. Perfection, the goal of existence, is not won in a
moment; and regeneration leading thereto is gradual,
for it culminates in the fulfilment of this divine rule in
Science: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect.” [15]
The last degree of regeneration rises into the rest of
perpetual, spiritual, individual existence. The first
feeble fluttering of mortals Christward are infantile
and more or less imperfect. The new-born Christian
Scientist must mature, and work out his own salvation. [20]
Spirit and flesh antagonize. Temptation, that mist of
mortal mind which seems to be matter and the environ-
ment of mortals, suggests pleasure and pain in matter;
and, so long as this temptation lasts, the warfare is not
ended and the mortal is not regenerated. The pleas- [25]
ures—more than the pains—of sense, retard regenera-
tion; for pain compels human consciousness to escape
from sense into the immortality and harmony of Soul.
Disease in error, more than ease in it, tends to destroy
error: the sick often are thereby led to Christ, Truth, [30]
and to learn their way out of both sickness and sin.
[pg 086]
The material and physical are imperfect. The in- [1]
dividual and spiritual are perfect; these have no fleshly
nature. This final degree of regeneration is saving, and
the Christian will, must, attain it; but it doth not yet
appear. Until this be attained, the Christian Scientist [5]
must continue to strive with sickness, sin, and death—
though in lessening degrees—and manifest growth at
every experience.
Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are noth-
ing and exist only in imagination? [10]
Nothing and something are words which need correct
definition. They either mean formations of indefinite
and vague human opinions, or scientific classifications
of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of
the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is some- [15]
thing to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful
to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the
eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief,
of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the
glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and [20]
earth, the harmony of body and Mind.
Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and
utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than
imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the gran-
deur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is [25]
the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmos-
phere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal envi-
ronment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell,
constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must
grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings [30]
to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall
[pg 087]
soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue tem- [1]
poral sky.
To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity
and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature
God's creation, which is unjust to human sense and [5]
to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spirit-
ual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous
universe: “I love your promise; and shall know, some
time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light,
and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and [10]
knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail con-
ception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer
representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the
immortal Mind.”
Please inform us through your Journal; if you sent [15]
Mrs. ——to——. She said that you sent her there to look
after the students; and also, that no one there was working
in Science—which is certainly a mistake.