UC-NRLF GIFT OF - ^iilii The Law Published by The Christian Science Publishing Society WORKS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE Written by MARY BAKER EDDY SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES. In one volume, 700 pp. The original, standard, and only text- book on Christian Science Mind-healing. Cloth . . . $3 18 Full Leather (same paper as cloth binding) . . . 4 00 Morocco (Oxford India Bible paper) 5 00 Levant (heavy Oxford India Bible paper) . . . , 6 00 Large Type Edition. Leather (Oxford India Bible paper) . 7 50 German Translation. Cloth 3 50 Pocket edition 5 50 MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS. 471 pp. Cloth . . . 2 25 Morocco (Oxford India Bible paper) 4 00 Levant (Oxford India Bible paper) 5 00 THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST. AND MISCELLANY. 364 pp. Cloth 2 25 Morocco (Oxford India Bible paper) 4 00 CONCORDANCE TO SCIENCE AND HEALTH. Bound in leather, 607 pp., 10 x 7, and Addendum 5 00 CHURCH MANUAL. Containing By-laws of The Mother Church 1 00 Pocket edition 2 00 CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS. An illustrated poem . . . 3 00 UNITY OF GOOD AND OTHER WRITINGS. Morocco (heavy Oxford India Bible paper) 3 50 CHRISTIAN HEALING AND OTHER WRITINGS. Morocco (heavy Oxford India Bible paper) 3 50 RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION. A biographical sketch of the author. Library edition, cloth. 95 pp. . . 1 06 UNITY OF GOOD. Library edition, cloth. 64 pp. . . . 65 Pocket edition, leather covers 1 00 PULPIT AND PRESS. Library edition, cloth. 90 pp. . . 1 06 RUDIMENTAL DIVINE SCIENCE. Pebbled cloth covers. 17 pp. 32 Library edition 55 Printed in New York point system of type for the blind . . 50 NO AND YES. Pebbled cloth covers. 46 pp 32 Library edition, cloth 60 MESSAGES TO THE MOTHER CHURCH. Library edition, cloth 1 56 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE vs. PANTHEISM. Pebbled cloth covers 26 MESSAGE TO THE MOTHER CHURCH. 1900. Paper covers 26 MESSAGE TO THE MOTHER CHURCH, 1901. Paper covers 50 MESSAGE TO THE MOTHER CHURCH, 1902. Paper covers 50 CHRISTIAN HEALING AND THE PEOPLE'S IDEA OF GOD. In one volume. Library edition, cloth. 36 pp. . 60 CHRISTIAN HEALING. Paper covers. 20 pp 21 THE PEOPLE'S IDEA OF GOD. Paper covers. 14 pp. . 21 POEMS. 70 pp., all of Mrs. Eddy's hymns, also her earlier poems. Specially bound 1 50 FEED MY SHEEP. Solo 50 The above prices are for single copies, prepaid. For quantity prices and description see price list furnished upon request. Direct orders for above works, and make remittances payable to ALLISON V. STEWART Falmouth and St. Paul Sts. Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 2 FULFILLING THE LAW BAPTISM BLESSED ARE THE MEEK THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT THE QUESTION OF ENEMIES "LOVE ENVIETH NOT" THE CHURCH MANUAL w THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY FALMOUTH AND ST. PAUL STREETS BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS U. S. A. a s j-^r Copyright, 1911, by The Christian Science Publishing Society. ♦'^ \* •■P'^ FULFILLING THE LAW [From The Christian Science Journal.'] BAPTISM THE subject of religious ordinances is fre- quently referred to by those who are in- terested in Christian Science, adversely or other- wise, and the neophyte is often called upon to give a reason for his changed views concerning Baptism and the Communion. With respect to the former, we find it first mentioned in the Bible as the distinguishing feature of John the Baptist's ministry. There is a tradition that his father, Zacharias, an officiating priest, was slain at the altar (Luke xi. 51), because of his re- fusal to give up his child in obedience to Herod's cruel edict which condemned to death all the infants in Judaea in order to kill the child Jesus. John was, however, hidden by his mother, it is said, in the desert, where he lived the life of an ascetic up to the time of his public ministry, which was cut short by his violent death for daring to rebuke Herod's immorality. John had every reason to know the utter pow- 3G3192 4 FULFILIJNG THE LAW erlessness of rite and ceremonial to save from sin and suffering, and so had thousands of his countrymen who offered their sacrifices and listened to the reading of the law and the prophets, but who could find no remedy for their sicknesses, and lived in constant dread of what might befall them or their children from the bloodthirsty tyrants who ruled the nation. Some of these needy ones came readily to listen to John as he preached in the wilderness, calling to them, "prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight/' We thus find the son of a Jewish priest lead- ing the people away from the observances of the church of his father, and of theirs, while preach- ing the doctrine of repentance from sin, and with no rite save the symbolic water baptism which, he told his converts, must give place to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. To this prophet came Jesus, ''To be baptized of him,'' but John saw that a material rite was not for such as he. He, however, yielded to what seemed the demand of the hour, obedience to which brings a blessing to all those who follow their highest sense of truth. At the close of the simple ceremony ''the heavens were opened" and Jesus was divinely impelled, was driven by the Spirit into the wilder- ness, where, like Moses and Elijah, he learned in his forty days' fast and vigil that man lives in and by God, Spirit, alone. Thus baptized of BAPTISM 5 the Holy Ghost, he went forth to heal the sick and the sinful, to raise the dead, and to prove that this baptism gives man dominion over all the forces of nature, as well as over all evil. It would seem from the Gospels that Jesus' disciples, several of whom had been followers of John the Baptist, continued to employ water baptism in their ministry, and this was doubtless a necessary link between the new and the old. It certainly had much less of materiality in it than had the elaborate rites and sacrifices of the old order, concerning which Isaiah tells us that God declared, ''To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? . . . Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; . . . it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." What God required was this: "Cease to do evil; learn to do well," and through all the ages this is the unceasing demand of divine Principle. In so far as any religious observance tends toward this end, it should at least have our respect, even though we may have found ''a more excellent way." We are told that Jesus never baptized with water, and from the first chapter of Acts we learn that when he gave his final instructions to his disciples he said, ''John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." This seemed to imply that he recognized no other baptism as of 6 FULFILLING THE LAW value. Later, we find Paul saying, ''Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel/' While to many Christian people symbols seem necessary to the observance of Baptism and the Eucharist, there comes a time when outward rite not only fails to meet the deepest human need, but when it tends to obscure the spiritual sense. Paul said, '*If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. . . . for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor un- circumcision ; but faith which worketh by love.'' Now neither faith nor love can be adequately discerned, or expressed materially, and yet they are indispensable alike to true worship and to true living. If God as Spirit can take no cogni- zance of material forms of worship, why should they continue when the truth for which they stand is apprehended, especially since Jesus made so clear the Divine purpose when he said, ''The true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him"? The tendency of mortals is to rely upon material means for their salvation from sin and sickness, but Truth calls forever, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." With the dawning of this light within, there is of necessity a corresponding giv- ing up of outward forms, for the demand of Truth is not that we may, but that we "must" BAPTISM 7 worship Him who is Spirit, ''in spirit and in truth." The best argument that Christian Scientists can offer in support of their concept of the Christian ordinances is their heahng from both sin and sickness through this new sense of Baptism and Communion, through which they daily prove the cleansing power of divine Truth, and the appli- cabiHty of these words of the Master to their every need, — "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so h^ that KATETH ME, even he shall live by me." It is well for us to recall Paul's warning against cling- ing to outward forms, which he characterizes as "the rudiments of the world," rather than to Christ, of whom he says, "Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." [From The Christian Science Monitor.] BLESSED ARE THE MEEK SOME one has said that two virtues not to be successfully counterfeited by hypocrisy are humility and love when these exist together, since their appearing in one character is of so exquisite effect. The wonder of Christian cul- ture is indeed that love is found to be an essential element in all virtues. The blessedness of the meek is in their love of that which is better than worldly self -exaltation. Humility, in the beauty of holiness, is not an inert yielding of all initiative and individuality to a power against which it is vain to strive. This is the wholly human concept of meekness, and in it is involved a total miscon- ception of the real nature of God. Man does not submit to divine decree because God is stronger than he and therefore struggle is useless. Man as indeed man, that is the image of divine Love, sees his true obedience, submission, humility, in the confiding love of the child who would not if he could choose what the father does not choose for him. Or perhaps one may say that the humble following of heavenly law — the condition of holy being, of all being that is real — is like the artist's 8 BLESSED ARE THE MEEK 9 eager love for the laws of beauty, and his long, unsparing struggle to reflect these in his work. Humility is that condition of thought where mankind has begun to see the impossibility of any other rightness than the eternal realities of infinite Mind. It is truly the reasonable service of God. That man who still desires to have his own way, to be something in or of himself, has not learned all the lessons of meekness. There is even a stage in the growth of the individual towards the true humility in which he seems to be proud of his very meekness. This state is never- theless a hopeful one, for it is something to con- fess as an ideal the utter selflessness implied in the meekness which Jesus taught and lived. He who has accepted for himself this pure lowliness of heart as the standard of Christian perfection on earth is nearer its attainment than he who still clamors for the material rights of the individual and does not behold real "rights'' to obtain solely in the individuars right relation to God. The objection that many people express to humility as a paramount Christian virtue is that humble folk allow other people to override them : that they give up their right of independent thought or action under the aggressions of the proud and selfish. This is by no means the case, although the understanding of Christian truth proves that resistance to pride with pride or to selfishness by self seeking is forever vain. But 10 FULFILLING THE LAW he who understands that his victory is in God knows how to meet and defeat oppression of whatever sort. No self assertion which is not truly the assertion of the divine selfhood can ever do any human being any good. Experience proves that events which crush out the false self- assertion work for good. No one who has learned some of these lessons ever regrets any temporary domination of injustice or tyranny on the part of other human beings when he sees that this vaunting self in his oppressors is forcing him to give up self will and turn to the divine will for relief and succor. We have said that love is an essential quality of all true virtue, and in considering this question of meekness or humility we find that where love is not there is no true humility. The presence of any sense of resentment, for example, toward persons or conditions that demand this quality of meekness on earth shows that we are giving power to something that is opposed to God. And this power which we ourselves give to the oppressor is all the power that person or thing can have over us. Where humanity truly has conquered self within us love enters and love means that spiritual being and might have become to us the only realities. So long as we make something of the human circumstances that seem to hold us in bondage we are not free. When in the pure understanding of God's allness and love BLESSED ARE THE MEEK li we have yielded up our own will to Him and have given over our troublesome problems to Principle for solution, we are singularly light and free from personal responsibility, nor do we longer endow the things or persons outside our- selves with responsibility toward us, or power over us. It seems a tremendous lesson to learn that there is but one power, one intelligence, one Mind. To mortals accustomed so long to run themselves and as many other people as possible, this humble letting alone which is demanded as the logical sequence of holding divine Mind to be the one cause and government, seems superficially con- sidered almost an error rather than a virtue. Meditating this theme long and in the quiet of thought one is able to see what such a conviction must do to relieve not only all pride and rivalry and antagonism of warring wills, but to lift off the shoulders all the weight and burden of anxiety. And anxiety is perhaps the great cause of self-assertingness among us, in that we are driven by fear of personal failure to enforce our- selves against the interests or wishes of other people. In understanding what the humility of yielding to God truly involves we are beginning to understand the fulness of Jesus' words : ''Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 12 FULFILLING THE LAW It is only by resting in divine might, by trusting divine wisdom, that the troubled human heart can find the yoke of material bondage of every sort removed, and the joyful service and obedience of love take its place. The yoke of meek obedience which this understanding brings to us is daily knowing ourselves able to reflect the activities of divine Mind. So we see that humility, meekness, submission to the divine decree, is not inaction or sloth, even as it is not anxious straining after results, as if we were in any way, shape, or manner of ourselves causative factors in existence. True meekness comes from knowing the truth of man's relation to God and the inviolable harmony of being, God-sustained. Such essential humility is expressed in Mrs. Eddy's words : "All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal." (Science and Health, p. 472.) [From The Christian Science Monitor.] THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT IT is typical of all Jesus' teachings that when he was asked which is the great commandment of all he chose not the negative form of the decalogue but the affirmative reading from Deu- teronomy, *'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God/' The seventh commandment is one at which poor humanity halts and stumbles. But does not the sad failure to comply with the high standard of purity set by Jesus come chiefly from ignorance of what it is to love God and the neighbor? It is certain that purity of heart, chastity of every thought, alone truly keeps this command. Jesus taught that the very evil desires of the heart, unexpressed, break the law. But one is cleansed of these evils in learning the reality of love. There is an interesting secondary meaning of the word adulterate cited by the Century dic- tionary, which says that the Latin also means to counterfeit. There is nothing more plainly a counterfeit of the real than that evil passion which human beings sometimes name love. It is of the flesh, true love is of Spirit, God; it is quickly changed to hate, true love is unchange- able ; it brings suffering and destruction, true love 13 14 FULFILLING THE LAW is endlessly beneficent. To conquer this false belief, however, one has only honestly to recog- nize that it is a counterfeit, not the thing one really wishes. This takes away its seeming allurement. When human beings are asked to give up any false sense of affection they seem to fear that they are asked to give up love. Yet those who resolutely take the stand expressed by Jesus where he bade one pluck out the offending eye find that they only then begin to know what love really is. Both the false fleshly sense and pure love we cannot have, but it is easily proved in human experience that to choose the pure is to clear the eyes that they may discern the reality of love, the reflection of Love. In being led away from God by any one of the myriad beliefs of happiness or good that are not good the seventh command is broken. The starting-point of impurity of any kind is in admitting the possibility of some good that is not of God. This is to adulterate our sense of all things, of life and of truth as well as of love, with beliefs of evil. This is to counterfeit reality with what only serves to hide the real, the satisfying, thing which God decrees and governs. God has blessedness and delight for all beyond any dream of present sense, but we shall never reach His realities through the counterfeit. Human will alone is not, however, enough to conquer any temptation. There must be the active THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT 15 understanding of how to come into oneness with the opposite reaHty which the seeming evil would counterfeit. Between the final realization of God as Life, Love, Truth, the one creator, the one attraction, and the earthward tending evils that mortals see, stands what Mrs. Eddy describes as the second degree of mortal mind, where evil be- liefs are disappearing. (See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 115.) Here we find the word ''affection.'' By a growing understand- ing of divine Love the struggling human heart is lifted above the levels of carnal desires into pure affections. To cry out upon all affection is often to expose persons defenseless to evil passions if they have not yet risen to the knowledge of Love as God. To confound the pure elements of love as it exists in families today with the evil fleshly passion is quite as disastrous as to think that evil passions are God decreed and right. There will be little danger of the incoming of evil to affec- tions when the love of God is truly made the basis of all an individual's concept of good. Mrs. Eddy says of Jesus, ''Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love" (Science and Health, p. 54). To center one's strength and happiness in person, rather than in nearness to God, on the other hand, is to make an idol- of personality, is to set it, in belief, in the place of God. Human beings sometimes need to have their eyes opened i6 FULFILLING THE LAW to the mortal selfishness of their sense of love, to let go their clutching hold on limited concepts and even to see themselves bereft of human comrade- ships. But this is only a temporary condition. The scientific realization that there is never any separation from Love, ever present divine good, will in time begin to demonstrate in the human experience the presence of love and companion- ship. There is a sharp dividing line between pure love and the false, and any one willing to discern between them may easily do so. If an affection brings fear, selfishness, jealousy, discomfort, resentment of seeming neglect, it cannot be God- given. True love loves ; it does not demand ; and God's gifts bring their own peace. An affection which separates one from others or would separate its object from others — a self-seeking affection — is not blessed of God. Much so-called love is mere self-will, the desire to dominate others. People sometimes also imagine that by possessing the person of another they may so possess his goodness. This is a very insidious form of breaking the seventh commandment. One must turn to God as the source of one's good and the giver of one's victory over error. To admit the need of any human intervention between the heart and God is to surrender the great treasure of spiritual consciousness. This is opened to any man just to the degree that he THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT 17 learns the inviolable direct relation of every child of God to the Father. It is in this sweet silence of inward prayer and communion that God is revealed and spiritual joy dawns. The priceless heritage is obscured and seems lost if one allows another individual to stand between him and his union with divine Love. These things may seem a mystery to material sense, but they are become living reality to those who understand and obey the words of John — read at every Christian Science Sunday service — ''Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." [From The Christian Science Monitor.] THE QUESTION OF ENEMIES NO man or woman who is successful in righteous and useful living wholly escapes enmity. The evil in human nature all too easily shapes itself into envy and resentment toward whatever is good enough to destroy evil or successful in defeating evil; and every earnest mortal who would rid his heart of the undesirable must watch his attitude toward those who seem to be his enemies and must be sure, in turn, that no enmity against others lodges with him. All ethical teaching holds that charity toward all is the ideal for human behavior, but not all theories, religious or otherwise, show mortals how to secure and preserve such charity in the midst of ingrat- itude and persecution. To maintain a serene and kindly feeling toward those who are too often swayed by evil forces and to be patient with those who are all too ready to introduce conflict into the simplest problems, requires a knowledge and practice of Christlikeness. Too many have marred their right efforts and robbed themselves df well- earned success by responding to enmity with resentment; a trap into which the enmity itself would tempt any mortal that it may embitter and i8 THE QUESTION OF ENEMIES 19 undo him. Human weapons, even the popular one of 'Righteous indignation/' are not equal to this battle. To know the truth, which impersonalizes error and reveals every evil to be a condition and not a person, puts you where the kindness in your heart is unshaken even while you see the evil at its worst. Not only this, but such understanding uncovers for you the evil elements as you never could see them while you believed evil to be people or people to be evil. When you learn that dealing with evil means just dealing with evil thinking, and that your own thinking must be one with good in order to preserve you from evil, you no longer dare to meet injury with resentment, or misrepre- sentation with bitterness; for you see that a response in your own heart is all that the evil wants in order to make you one with it for a time, and you know that your safety lies in maintaining unbroken good will toward persons even while you discern the evil that is trying to use them. Jesus did not ask deliverance from any person; he prayed broadly — ''Deliver us from evil'' — know- ing that he must not fear it, that all men are God's children and that all must some time manifest His fatherhood in being rid of evil. And Christian Science makes so clear the impersonality of evil that you and yours and all mankind may cease to fear it either in yourselves or in others. This knowledge that evil is impersonal takes 20 FULFILLING THE LAW care of the whole question of your enemies. It is envy, or malice, or greed, not '*Mr. So-and~So," which has hurt you. He is even more hurt by the evil than you, if it has used him to harm you. If your prayer can be "Deliver us from evil," and the *'us'' lovingly includes him, your heart is clean and you pass unharmed through the fire of the experience. If you have been so ill-used that you must forgive to be at peace, if you have been forced to cultivate kindliness where your first impulses have been unfriendly, then he who seemed an enemy has brought to you a blessing, for you have gained through knowing him a firmer hold upon the uses of good. Concerning these matters Mrs. Eddy has written in her article "Love Your Enemies," published in her book, "Miscellaneous Writings," "Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in the process" (p. 8). And upon page 227 of the same book she pens a beautiful picture of "a life in which the fresh flowers of feeling blossom, and, like the camomile, the more trampled upon, the sweeter the odor they send forth to benefit mankind; a life wherein calm, self -respected thoughts abide in tabernacles of their own, dwell- ing upon a holy hill, speaking the truth in the heart; a life wherein the mind can rest in green THE QUESTION OF ENEMIES 21 pastures, beside the still waters, on isles of sweet refreshment/' A life such as this truly knows the superb forgiveness of wrong which proves the futility of enmity. Jesus' command, ''Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you," can be obeyed as Mrs. Eddy's teaching lifts life above personalities and helps you to look upon unkind- ness as an opportunity to prove the value and the availability of love. Trouble is not trouble to you, nor is enmity an enemy, when Christian Science is understood and lived. All trying ex- perience then becomes a problem which the law of Love can solve, and the question of your enemies is resolved into the lesson of learning how and why you have no enemies. "When a man's ways please the Lord," wrote the wise man, ''he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." [From The Christian Science Monitor. 1 "LOVE ENVIETH NOT" CHRISTIANITY with its lessons of love is nominally the guiding star of most civilized nations, and one of its warnings is this: *'Take heed, and beware of covetousness : for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth/' Love and truth are the things really worth gaining. Envy is a by-product of covetousness. Covet- ousness as directed at the possessions, material or mental, of some specific person or class or at material things in general may at first seem free from envy; but in time envy of some one who has attained something we have striven for in vain or which we should like to have is likely to follow the covetous thought. La Rochefoucauld finds freedom from envy the mark of truest human greatness. The line may seem hard to draw between a right striving for progress, whether in the ma- terial realm or in the "interior self and a selfish sense of desire or ambition. Indeed, it is only a scientific sense of all things which can rightly adjust the balance. He ceases to covet who knows that all good comes to him from God. "LOVE ENVIETH NOT" 23 He knows that his mental concepts of God and man are what everywhere determine his prog- ress. No one has the right concept of the love of God who sees one man as having been given more than another of any truly good thing. Just to the degree that the love of God is realized we know that He is no respecter of persons. It then becomes impossible for us to look with envious longing at another human being. In short, common sense shows us that to envy an- other is about the most nonsensical occupation mortal mind indulges; and perhaps this is why it so often seems so near to madness. It is sel- dom that even personal injury rouses in one as great hatred for an offender as mere envy of some one's successes seems to do. In '^Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy, speaking of the gulf between Jesus and his betrayer, says "This spiritual distance in- flamed Judas' envy" (p. 47). Love for spiritual good would, however, have set him among the faithful disciples. Envy is the antithesis of love. Envy is one of the most insidious of mortal mind's qualities. It disguises itself under all sorts of self-justifying excuses. The unwillingness to hear praise of another is prompted by envy, and so is the pick- ing of flaws in admirable people. The rejoicing in hearing iniquity spoken of another is in pro- portion to our envy and his success or his good- 24 FULFILLING THE LAW ness; and even the sympathy we feel for an- other's misfortunes is often proportionate to our satisfaction in the removal of some superiority in him which we formerly envied. Many an honest bit of self -analysis has detected envy as the root of some evil weed of hate which one had struggled in vain to kill. Very few people hate a person in whom they envy nothing. Love, however, and love alone gives us the point of view indicated by Mrs. Eddy's words, "Blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good" (Science and Health, p. 518). Covetous- ness and envy look at the good things of another and long to possess them, and, even though quite unconsciously, are really ready to take at his expense. Love looks at others to see what their need is and to supply it, and to find in this its own achievement and full reward. Instead of the uneasiness which envy feels at another's good fortune, love has tenderness for his sufferings and rejoicing when these are relieved. Perhaps the crown of human happiness is the joy we feel in the happiness of some one dearly beloved. But if all men are our brothers, then all are beloved of us, and in their happiness is our own. This it is to love the neighbor as the self. The sure cure for envy is gratitude. Grat- itude is really the child of love. We love God for the good He gives us. Love for Him is "LOVE ENVIETH NOT" 25 born when we first know what good really is, really taste the excellence of spiritual joy. We love that which is seen to be altogether lovely. After this recognition of Spirit comes gratitude for the new-found happiness, and the meekness of a child possesses the heart that was perhaps hard and worldly before. No thankfulness for any material good was ever so all pervading, sweet as the fragrance of flowers is sweet — as the gratitude that streams through the conscious- ness of one who has learned to recognize spir- itual good, the actual presence of divine Love here and now. When this has been realized envy of others for their possessions or achieve- ments disappears; one sees and knows the om- nipresence of God, who is Love and good. This is being satisfied; and in true satisfaction envy has no entering place. After the revelation of what it is to which we are really all heirs alike and the attendant gratitude for spiritual understanding, we learn to walk the daily round as in God's sight. We are no longer looking at the possessions of others. We are considering our own and giving hourly thanks for blessings perhaps hitherto wholly ig- nored. And even before the higher light of divine understanding has shone for us we may be- gin recounting mentally the things in our present experience that we have to be grateful for. It is in the right appreciation of these things — 26 FULFILLING THE LAW gratitude for bits of beauty and brightness, for the abiHty to do some small deed of love for some one, in the privilege of serving never so humbly some large work of comfort or good to the world — that we learn to spiritualize our thoughts of all things. The spiritualizing of our concepts is what lifts us, till gradually better and better things are declared in our present experience. [From The Christian Science Sentinel.] THE CHURCH MANUAL CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS have for their instruction the Scriptures, the writings of Mrs. Eddy, which open to them the Scriptures, and the Church Manual, the rules of which help them to apply what they have been taught. The Bible, understood through Christian Science, is aiding its students individually to live in Chris- tian discipleship ; the Manual of The Church of Christ, Scientist, in providing that Christian Scientists shall work together, is helping them collectively to live in Christian fellowship. The teaching of the Scriptures and the Christian Science text -book bring about the individual cor- rection of thought, while the rules of the Church Manual make possible right action through groups of individuals and through the whole body of Scientists. So, the Bible, Science and Health, and the Manual are equally important in their places. The Manual bears definite relation to the other two books in that it shows us how to take the steps that will bring their teaching into our lives in all necessary relations with our 27 28 FULFILLING THE LAW fellow-men. It safeguards and regenerates Christian fellowship by promoting the best pos- sible form of church organization. For these reasons, therefore, it can no more be dispensed with than can the Scriptures or the Christian Science text-book. Of the Bible Mrs. Eddy has written: ''Chris- tian Scientists are fishers of men. The Bible is our sea-beaten Rock. It guides the fishermen. It stands the storm. It engages the attention and enriches the being of all men'' (Sentinel, March 31, 1906). Christian Scientists them- selves know what place the Christian Science text-book holds in their regeneration; how it makes plain the words of prophet, apostle, and of the Master himself; how it brings Christian healing into human experience today. And con- cerning the Manual Mrs. Eddy has said: "Of this I am sure, that each rule and by-law in the Manual will increase the spirituality of him who obeys it, invigorate his capacity to heal the sick, to comfort such as mourn, and to awaken the sinner" (Sentinel, Sept. 12, 1903). In keeping with the law and order set forth in the Manual, we have the Sunday Lesson-Sermons, the mid- week testimony meetings, the provision of monthly, weekly, and daily reading-matter, the board of lecturers, the Christian Science reading- rooms, the publication committee work, the rota- tion of church officers, etc., while, in keeping THE CHURCH MANUAL 29 with its instructions, students are being taught and patients are being healed in all the world. Great reforms, indeed, are going on through the united action for good which operates through the Christian Science movement, and the outward and visible activities bear witness to the inward and spiritual understanding, which is itself being quickened by the law and order and discipline of right organization. It is best for the Christian Scientist at pres- ent that he is not allowed to live to himself. His place in organization teaches him many things that he cannot learn otherwise, for it lifts him from the selfish consideration of his per- sonal problems to the unselfish support of an im- personal cause. Within the ample boundaries of the Christian Science organization he finds multiplied opportunities for surrendering his own will, his own opinion, and his own comfort to the good of the whole, — opportunities unafiforded even by the home or by any outside life in the world; and he is cheered by good example and by happy fellowship to higher faith in good as the ends of organization are worked out together. If, then, the Church Manual, with the organiza- tion for which it provides, has so large a place in the establishment and growth of Christian Science, it is essential that Christian Scientists be keenly alive to its provisions and its demands. Continual fideHty, for instance, to the instruction 30 FULFILLING THE LAW found in Article VIIL, Section 1, that ^'neither animosity nor mere personal attachment'' shall govern motives and actions; to the warning in the same paragraph against "prophesying, judg- ing, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously;" to the demand for a, charitable attitude toward all religious, medical, and legal points of view; to the adoption, so insistently urged, of the spirit of the golden rule, — this fidelity, we know, will help in the making- over of human nature, until in some fair day by-laws to provide for such consistent Christian behavior shall be no longer necessary. And it is unquestionably true that he who really does heed the requirement set forth in the Manual con- cerning Jesus' teaching that each shall go to his brother alone and tell him of his fault before publishing it to others, accepts a discipline which makes him in deed as well as in profession a genuine Christian Scientist. Because the question of church organization is so vital a matter, it becomes naturally an im- portant point to protect. A Christian Scientist who cannot at the moment be made suddenly disloyal to the Bible, to the Christian Science text-book or to its writer, can perhaps, through innumerable arguments, be persuaded into a luke- warm attitude toward church organization. In- difference, restlessness, criticism that is mere fault-finding and is not constructively helpful. THE CHURCH MANUAL 31 are the symptoms of coming under such per- suasion. To prevent this each member needs to keep his thoughts warm and loving toward all church activities; to be cheerfully in his place at meetings whenever possible; to be helpfully interested in every detail of cooperative work, though this does not mean necessarily that he shall take part, personally, in every church under- taking; for the quietest and least conspicuous church-member is sometimes best serving the church. It does mean, however, that we must guard zealously our love for organization, even in its present incomplete form, that we may not hinder its growth into greater beauty and utility. Indifference to organization indicates that we believe we value the Scriptures and the Christian Science text-book, but refuse the discipline their teaching asks of us through the rules and by-laws of the Manual. Finding and keeping a place within organization means sometimes the sur- render of ease and self-will, but it means, too, shelter and safety and the right to peace. So long, then, as the Leader of the Christian Science movement sees there is need for organization to establish Christian Science, no student may fancy that he has rightly ''outgrown" organization. The Christian Scientist is a standard-bearer within The Church of Christ, Scientist, and he who remains loyally and lovingly at his post best serves God, all humanity, and himself. 32 FULFILLING THE LAW It may be said, truly, that the inspiration for the Church Manual is found in the life of Mrs. Eddy. Everything asked of Christian Scientists in maintaining the cause beyond and above all personal interests, Mrs. Eddy herself has done before them. Had she consulted only her own comfort she might have been tempted to apply what she knows of God just to the working out of her own salvation. Instead, she has labored forty years and more to give of her store to the world; she has been impelled to found the church with all its educational branches, and to protect its growing activities; she has foregone ease, and has bound herself to this task, that we, too, may find the Christ-healing for our sin and pain. Consistent and blessed is the Christian Scientist who can bind himself with her until many more shall find their healing and until The Church of Christ, Scientist, shall stand in good will to all men, radiant and triumphant in the earth. Periodicals Published by The Christian Science Publishing Society Falmouth and St. Paul Sts., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. The Christian Science Journal Founded April, 1883, by Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and author of the Christian Science Text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This monthly magazine is the official organ of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. Subscription price: Domestic territory (including Mexico and Cuba), one year, $2.00; six months, $1.00; single copy, 20 cents. For Canada add 25 cents and for all other countries 65 cents annually for postage; single copy, for Canada, 20 cents; other countries, 25 cents. Christian Science Sentinel A weekly newspaper for the home, published every Saturday, con- taining news items of general interest, and contributed and selected articles, testimonies of healing, and timely editorials in connection with the Christian Science movement. Subscription price: Domestic, one year, $2.00; six months, $1.00; single copy, 5 cents. For Canada add 45 cents and for all other countries 95 cents annually for postage; single copy, for Canada, 6 cents; other countries, 7 cents. Der Herold der Christian Science A monthly magazine printed in German. It contains original and translated articles bearing upon Christian Science, testimonies of healing, also the Lesson-Sermons which are read at the Sunday ser- vices in all Christian Science churches. Subscription price: Domestic and Canada, one year, $1.00; six months, 50 cents; single copy, 10 cents. For all other countries add 25 cents annually for postage; single copy, 12 cents. The Christian Science Monitor A daily newspaper published every afternoon, except Sunday, of world-wide scope, containing current news, and particularly designed for those desiring a high-class publication in the home. Subscription price: Domestic and Canada, one year, $5.00; six months, $2.50. For all other countries add $3.00 annually for postage. For Greater Boston postal district, $6.00 a year by carrier. The Christian Science Quarterly Published January, April, July, and October. Contains the Lesson-Sermons which are read at the Sunday services throughout the year in all the Christian Science churches. Subscription price: In the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba, one year, 50 cents; single copy, 15 cents. For all other countries add 10 cents annually for postage; single copy, 18 cents. 1 illjiiiiiii! iiiiifilii iliiiiiii iiiiiiii iilipijllli'lS iiii iiilii iiiiiilii ill ir:!!i!iii ilffl Makers m Syracuse. N. ^ PAT m. 21. 1908 b V 6 ^~ r UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY