The spiritual elevator of the human race, physically, morally, and Christianly, is the truism that Truth dem- onstrates good, and is natural; while error, or evil, [25] is really non-existent, and must have produced its own illusion,—for it belongs not to nature nor to God. Truth is the power of God which heals the sick and the sinner, and is applicable to all the needs of man. It is the uni- versal, intelligent Christ-idea illustrated by the life of [1] Jesus, through whose “stripes we are healed.” By con- flicts, defeats, and triumphs, Christian Science has been reduced to the understanding of mortals, and found able to heal them. [5] Pagan mysticism, Grecian philosophy, or Jewish reli- gion, never entered into the line of Jesus' thought or action. His faith partook not of drugs, matter, nor of the travesties of mortal mind. The divine Mind was his only instrumentality and potency, in religion or medi- [10] cine. The Principle of his cure was God, in the laws of Spirit, not of matter; and these laws annulled all other laws. Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and [15] death are its subjective states; also, that pure Mind is the truth of being that subjugates and destroys any sup- positional or elementary opposite to Him who is All. Truth is supreme and omnipotent. Then, whatever else seemeth to be intelligence or power is false, delud- [20] ing reason and denying revelation, and seeking to dethrone Deity. The truth of Mind-healing uplifts mankind, by acknowledging pure Mind as absolute and entire, and that evil is naught, although it seems to be. Pure Mind gives out an atmosphere that heals and [25] saves. Words are not always the auxiliaries of Truth. The spirit, and not the letter, performs the vital func- tions of Truth and Love. Mind, imbued with this Science of healing, is a law unto itself, needing neither license nor prohibition; but lawless mind, with unseen motives, [30] and silent mental methods whereby it may injure the race, is the highest attenuation of evil. Again: evil, as mind, is doomed, already sentenced, [1] punished; for suffering is commensurate with evil, and lasts as long as the evil. As mind, evil finds no escape from itself; and the sin and suffering it occasions can only be removed by reformation. [5] According to divine law, sin and suffering are not cancelled by repentance or pardon. Christian Science not only elucidates but demonstrates this verity of be- ing; namely, that mortals suffer from the wrong they commit, whether intentionally or ignorantly; that every [10] effect and amplification of wrong will revert to the wrong- doer, until he pays his full debt to divine law, and the measure he has meted is measured to him again, full, pressed down, and running over. Surely “the way of the transgressor is hard.” [15] In this law of justice, the atonement of Christ loses no efficacy. Justice is the handmaid of mercy, and show- eth mercy by punishing sin. Jesus said, “I came not to destroy the law,”—the divine requirements typified in the law of Moses,—“but to fulfil it” in righteousness, [20] by Truth's destroying error. No greater type of divine Love can be presented than effecting so glorious a purpose. This spirit of sacrifice always has saved, and still saves mankind; but by mankind I mean mortals, or a kind of men after man's own making. Man as God's idea [25] is already saved with an everlasting salvation. It is impossible to be a Christian Scientist without apprehend- ing the moral law so clearly that, for conscience' sake, one will either abandon his claim to even a knowledge of this Science, or else make the claim valid. All Science [30] is divine. Then, to be Scie
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