["The Christ"—The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, U.S.A., Jan. 3, 1920]

Every reader of the Bible remembers the famous occasion, at Cæsarea Philippi, when Christ Jesus put to the disciples the question, staggering in its implication, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" and every one remembers equally well the indeterminate nature of the reply, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." The answer, in any case, made it perfectly clear that the "common people" had failed utterly to grasp the teaching of the Christ, and were accounting for the mighty works of the carpenter of Nazareth on a purely superstitious or necromantic basis, in accordance with much of the popular thought of the day. Then it was that Jesus turned suddenly to the disciples themselves, with the same question, "But whom say ye that I am?" a demand which brought from Peter the instantaneous answer, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

The Christ, then, it is quite certain, is the Son of God, is the infinite idea of divine Mind, and thus is the reality of everything which seems to exist in a material form, from a blade of grass to a star. It is generic man, for as Mrs. Eddy has written, on page 475 of Science and Health, "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker." Thus it is that the woman in Revelation, equally with Christ Jesus, symbolizes the divine idea, as Mrs. Eddy, in turn, explains, on page 561 of Science and Health, "The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea."

It argued no slight spiritual insight to gain this vision of the Christ in the first century, before the resurrection had finally demonstrated the nothingness of matter, and the eternity of Life; and there is little to be wondered at, therefore, that Christ Jesus should have answered Peter with the words, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." It was not, in other words, human intellect, much less the sensuous intelligence of flesh and blood, Christ Jesus quite obviously was insisting, that had torn the veil off the face of matter and exposed its nothingness; it was, on the contrary, the fact that Peter had so far divorced these things from his consciousness as to have gained, to the extent Jesus realized that he had, the vision of the Christ.

For the Christ, it must be obvious, is the truth about and the reality of everything, though the beginner in Christian Science, always limiting himself, unconsciously, to verbal definitions, does not readily comprehend this. As he goes on, however, from demonstration to demonstration, as he must if he is to make Christianity a living Science, and not an intellectual or a dogmatic theory, the marvelous simplicity of the unity of good begins to dawn upon him, and he sees how every lesser idea is contained, of necessity, in the infinite idea, so that the Christ is the reality not only of generic man but of individual man, just as there is the generic idea tree, including all trees, and fish, including all fishes. Thus the reality of Abraham Lincoln is the Christ, though the human Lincoln was not the Christ, and thus the reality of Science and Health is the Christ, Truth, though the print, paper, and binding of Science and Health are not the Christ, though indicating, to those with eyes to see, the presence of the Christ. And thus the realities of Abraham Lincoln and Science and Health are amongst those ideas which go to make up the infinite idea, generic man, or the Christ.

The individual man or woman, then, is an immortal idea of divine Mind, not really dwelling in matter at all, though to the human senses seeming to do this, but having his life "hid with Christ in God." This individual, consequently, is a child of God, and until he claims his divine sonship and repudiates his life in the flesh, he can never realize his own, man's, spiritual perfection, much less that of a tree or a fish, a book or a paper, each of which is, in its degree, a lesser idea contained in the infinite idea, or the Christ, Truth. This, of course, is what the writer of Hebrews is insisting upon in that often quoted passage, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." There is no substance but the substance of Mind, God; therefore the faith of the individual in the fact that substance is spiritual is, in turn, the evidence of his belief that spiritual substance, invisible to the human senses, is the only reality. This fact, in the proportion in which it is grasped and understood, is the human being's assurance of his own, man's, spiritual perfection, and, in proportion as he demonstrates it, the proof also. And thus, in the Revised Version, is the text translated, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen."

Thus, ultimately, in Christian metaphysics, everything is reduced to a demonstration. The world is tired of much preaching, it demands more and more practice. The attempted deification of Jesus of Nazareth has not healed mankind of sorrow or sickness or sin. The understanding of the Christ is doing this, for men and women are beginning to discover that that which healed in the first century is healing now, the Mind that was in Christ Jesus.

[Breaking the Mesmerism of High Prices]

The practicality of the recent action of a large automobile manufacturing company in reducing the price of its car, notwithstanding the fact that nearly one hundred and fifty thousand unfilled orders were still on its books, recalls to the student of Christian Science Mrs. Eddy's words on page 15 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she says: "'We must pray without ceasing.' Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice." This putting our desires into practice is the test of sincerity and is the most effective blow that could be delivered to break the mesmerism of the senses, whether such mesmeric belief is labeled profiteering, high cost of living, shortage of coal, or what not.

Illustrative of putting into practice the general desire to see normal prices and business conditions restored is the action of a poulterer who, despite the protests of neighboring farmers, reduced the price of the eggs he sold to a figure which his conscience agreed represented a fair margin of profit. Still another instance is that of a woman who, resisting the temptation to profiteer in rentals, advertised furnished rooms to let at a figure so low that the average seeker for such accommodations immediately classified them as undesirable. "You can't get anything decent at that price nowadays," was the comment. The investigator, however, received a surprise, from which a lesson was probably learned as to mastering the housing problem.

"The war is over," said the official of the automobile manufacturing company referred to, "and it's time war prices were over. There is no sense or wisdom in trying to maintain an artificial standard of value. For the best interests of all, it is time that a real, practical effort was made to bring the business of the country back to normal." Last spring the popular "practical effort" along this line was a general refusal to buy goods at the prevailing exorbitant prices. The "Wear Old Clothes" and the overalls brigades, though extreme and generally classified as fads, were effective in that they instituted a curtailing of expenses on the part of the public which finally resulted in a substantial reduction in prices of clothing. The fall season finds in full swing a "Carry your own luncheon" campaign, the results of which, as it spreads, are easily conceived. The latest effort, however,—to force prices down by refusing to profiteer,—is so far in advance of those that have gone before that the tendency is to call it impractical. This is the rubber stamp with which it is ever the attempt to dispose of such forward steps,—a stamp which fades, however, into oblivion in remarkably short time in these swift-moving "latter days." For the leaven of Truth is working irresistibly, bringing out in human affairs square dealing, honesty, and the righteous adjustment of supply to demand.

["Religion and Science"—The Athenaeum, London, Eng., Sept. 10, 1920]

Canon Barnes, who is not only a dignitary of the church, but also a Fellow of the Royal Society, has declared that the Christian dogma of the fall of man must be abandoned, because science will have none of it. Instead of an immediate outburst of theological controversy, with the bishops and the men of science raging furiously together like the heathen, there has been a perceptible silence. The only defender of he dogma who has conspicuously attempted to break the calm is the General of the Salvation Army. He produces much the same impression as Mr. Bottomley when he comes forward as the champion of the British Constitution.

Had Canon Barnes spoken fifty, or even thirty years ago, the fires would have been blazing with a vengeance. Memories of the heroic combat between Huxley and Wilberforce, more recent recollections of the tumult caused by "Robert Elsmere," rise up to set us wondering at the change that has overtaken the intellectual world in the last half-century. Has it produced a race of spiritual Gallios, who care for none of these things? Or, having ceased to care about these, do they care, with an equal intensity of passion, about other things? Or is the obvious conclusion from the silence mistaken? Is it that those who care, and those who have ceased to care, have long since gone their separate ways? Have they realized that no tumult in the market place, no public victory of argument, will convince the other side?

It needs more assurance than courage to accept a single solution. That the difference is there, we feel immediately; but to conclude that Christianity is a dying faith outruns the evidence alike of fact and feeling. It is said that the war has dealt a heavy blow to Christianity, but we think that the Christianity which has gone down is that which is called official Christianity. ...

In other words, the signs may be interpreted as showing that the appearance of indifference to religious issues conceals a conviction among religious minds that men must rend their hearts and not their garments. The war has brought with it a recognition that the essential humanities of the Sermon on the Mount are the most precious possession of Christianity, and the most in danger of perishing. When these are in jeopardy there is no time to waste one's strength in theological battles in which victory or defeat can never enforce conviction. If this account be true, then there is room for belief that the two protagonists of fifty years ago, Science and Religion, have realized that instead of fighting each other, they have each enough to do to live up to their own ideal. If bishops made a sorry show in the war, men of science look hardly better, for both alike forgot that it is their privilege to be the guardians of a truth that is universal.

[Prohibition Lessens Use of Drugs]

The following comment in Unity, a religious periodical, is interesting from the standpoint of Christian Science:

"It is gratifying to read in a recent number of The Journal of the American Medical Association that, contrary to all expectation, the establishment of prohibition has resulted in a decrease instead of an increase of drug addicts. That prohibition would reduce crime and sickness, ameliorate poverty, stabilize domestic life, was taken for granted and is now being demonstrated by all statistical reports. But it was nearly everywhere feared that society would have to pay for these gains by a very real aggravation of the drug problem. If men are denied access to alcohol, it was argued, then they will inevitably seek the stimulus of something else, and drugs of course are the most effective and available resource. This expectation, however so sound in logic, is now seen to be fallacious, according to the testimony of the editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The fact seems to be that the drug habit, so far from being a substitute for alcoholism, is a consequence of alcoholism; for the real effect of alcohol is to lower, not quicken, vitality, and thus in the end to make further stimulus essential. Thus disappears one more bugaboo of the 'wets.' Nothing is now left to them but the ridiculous issue of 'personal liberty.' How long will it take our misguided friends to learn that the overwhelming majority of Americans have highly resolved that one aspect at least of 'personal liberty' is the right to be free from the burden and horror of drink?"

The statistics showing decrease in the use of drugs since the advent of prohibition evidently came as somewhat of a surprise to both the writer in Unity and to the physicians, for they willingly admit that the expectation of its increase, "so sound in logic," has been refuted by the facts. This expectation was indeed sound in logic when one considers the premise on which it was based, that good and evil are equally existent, and that man is finite and material. The very supposition of limitation involves the necessity for external stimulus, and the admission that evil is as real as good results not only in the conclusion that it is pleasurable but also leaves the supposer completely unprotected from its reappearance in constantly aggravated forms. What more natural, then, than that men, believing in the need for and pleasure in material stimuli, should turn, when liquor was prohibited, to the use of drugs? In explanation of the fact that they have not, Unity says that apparently the drug habit is not an alternative for, but a consequence of alcoholism.

The Christian Scientist, however, reasoning from the basis of Principle knows that alcoholism and the use of drugs are alike consequences of one indivisible false claim. He knows, as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 420 of Science and Health, that "Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erroneous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health or happiness." Since it is true that this only "natural stimulus" is ever available and all that man, complete in God's image, needs, desires, or enjoys, the untruth that there can be stimuli other than this and a mortal man who craves them must disappear exactly as fast as the truth becomes apparent. When a lie is really destroyed by truth, it is destroyed, not merely relegated to reappear in another form. Since it is the entire false claim which is being destroyed and not merely an incidental manifestation of it, it is perfectly natural and "sound logic" that the lessening of the drug habit should follow the advent of prohibition.

[Translated from the German]

There is perhaps no problem which has occupied the thought of mankind more within the past years and brought so much error to the surface of mortal mind as the world war we have passed through. And even if it seems to outward appearances ended, its effects will not at all be annihilated through the signing of the peace treaty, for error which has ruled mortal mind so long cannot be extinguished by a stroke of the pen, but there is faithful, clear, and conscientious work needed to efface its traces, those terrible signs which showed themselves during its duration—and even to-day are seemingly obscuring the clear understanding, eliminating the boundaries between right and wrong, between good and evil, and causing great chaos of all moral concepts.

Thanks be to God, who, through Christian Science, has given us the strongest and safest means of recognizing error,—uncovering and exposing it. Thanks be to the Discoverer of Christian Science for showing us on every page of her works, again and again, how to escape the effects of error through the understanding of its unreality and through holding thought to reality, Truth, Love, and harmony. Let us rejoice that we, as adherents and students of Christian Science, are called upon to recognize error in its most insidious, most hidden, and widest spread manifestations, and uncovering it, to help work for its destruction. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." These fine words which used to appear in each copy of Der Herold der Christian Science show that only spiritual weapons can break down the strongholds of the enemy. But who are our enemies, and what are the strongholds that they have built up, which we are to break down with the weapons of Spirit? The first question Mrs. Eddy answers in her article, "Love Your Enemies" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 10), where she says, "We have no enemies." Men are not our enemies. Man is the idea of the one God. We live in the indestructible brotherhood of Principle, for "in him we live, and move, and have our being." And, just as a man cannot be our enemy, so nations cannot be our enemies, for the true nation is likewise idea expressing Principle. But who, then, are our enemies? Error, the lie. "He is a liar, and the father of it," says Jesus. That is the enemy we have to overcome, for it has caused this terrible world war. Before we can overcome error we must expose it. Let us follow it in all its nooks and corners, uncover it in its wretched nudity, hidden in false, borrowed robes. It appears as patriotism, faithfulness, sense of duty, before us, and speaks in big words, so that we do not become aware how it would soil those robes of pure and beautiful God-thoughts with its lie.

And what hides itself in this hell? It is egotism, miserable, horrible, self-seeking. "You must follow me," it calls; "I give you power, I make you to be lords. Do not believe that good is power; that is an ancient belief. I only am mighty, and I give power to you if you follow me. What does it matter if you take the piece of bread from your brother with which he wished to satisfy his hunger? You only have to see that you satisfied. What does it matter if he dies of hunger, if only you live? Then you will inherit his power and position, and you will be doubly mighty. Let him take care of himself, you only look out for yourself." So speaketh egotism, century after century, and its arguments have defiled men. They would obscure the clear understanding of God's omnipotence, omnipresence, and all-sustaining love, and fill thought with concepts of material power. They would awaken lust for power, possession, and cause striving after those idols. They would put up barriers between individuals and barriers between nations, they have taught men and nations that their needs and interests are contrary, and that only through the use of material might and weapons can they attain their rights, and that the strongest in possessions and physical strength has the most power and will be the victor.

So error has fooled mankind, and wrapped itself in borrowed robes. It has said, Your country, your home, your wife, and your children are in danger; you must protect and defend them with weapons in your hands. It has wrapped itself in the robe of faithfulness and has said: Your country needs you, you must stand faithfully for it, you must sacrifice all you have, your possessions, your health, and your life; in that way you can fulfill God's command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." You must stand selflessly for your country and fight for your people. The men on the other side are not your brethren, they are not people like you, they are your enemies, who must be destroyed. And men believed this error, and thought they were doing right by following those erroneous statements; they sacrificed all they had to a lie.

And then the worst. As by the building of the tower of Babel error confused the language of men so that they could not understand one another, so now it speaks to one nation in its language, which the people on the other side cannot understand, and each nation believes that its cause only is the right and true one and that it is doing God's work by sacrificing everything to annihilate the opponent. Each people has believed that it had God, good, on its side, and has seen all unrighteousness, all crime, all blame only on the side of the opponent. They have forgotten that God created man in His image and likeness.

Let us not speak here of the other poisonous fruits of error, of men who only seek to profiteer, who escaped all duty, and consciously enrich themselves at the expense of others. This only shows the appearances of error, which would even deceive one into accepting as true that which is only a counterfeit.

There is something very sad in the recognition that the many who believed the lying messages of the war sacrificed their lives, their peace, the dearest they possessed on earth to an error, a lie, an unreality. On the other hand it is liberating and uplifting to realize that the cause of the terrible wrong is not real, not founded in divine Truth, that it was born in nothingness, and through divine law must return to its nothingness. God is the only cause and the only effect. In Love there is no room for the roots of war, and they cannot, therefore, be contained in the reflection of this Principle, man made in God's image and likeness. Let us rejoice and be grateful that we have gained this recognition, for now we know that we can separate this error and its destructive effect from man, however much it seems to cling to him.

Our textbook teaches us a wonderful way. "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love" (Science and Health, p. 201). And what a warm, liberating current comes to us through these words! They become our liberators and way-showers when we begin to destroy error. Only good overcomes evil. Only love, much love, can reestablish the confidence of man toward man. It is only by realizing that the only man and the only nation is God's image and likeness, that we can show in all our thinking and acting this Godlikeness. Only then can we be righteous, only then can we help to destroy the errors that have oppressed mankind and have found their culmination in the world war. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," must be our motto. The liberation of mankind can only follow the liberation of the individual, and therefore every individual, and every adherent of Christian Science especially, must take up this work. Let us examine our thought, our feelings, our motives, and actions every day, every moment, to see that no grain of error is contained in any one, which might grow and cause wrong. When we realize how deep and far-reaching the error in this war has sent out its roots, we find no magnifying glass too sharp for self-observation, and when we honestly seek and honestly work, then error will lose its seeming power over us forever. We will become freer, we will stand above it, and then our living and acting will reflect so much Truth, so much Love, that other people will see this power and bow before it. Nothing can resist the power of good for long. It is our ally, it removes all obstacles from our way. Then let us be confident. We do the work of God when we work for the destruction of error and God worketh in us "both to will and to do."

[Address on The Methods and Results of National Health Insurance in Great Britain by Frederick L. Hoffman, LL.D.]

English sanitary progress has by every authority on the subject been considered superior to the corresponding progress attained in any other section of the civilized world. English sanitary authorities and English requirements for the degree of doctor of public health are a standard readily accepted by any country throughout the world. The lowering of the English death rate during the last thirty years challenges favorable comparison, and this has been achieved without social insurance or compulsory health insurance of any kind, but rather in response to a realized understanding of the problems fairly within reach of successful solution.

Sir James Mackenzie draws attention to the inherent limitations of instrumental methods of examination, for, he observes, "In medicine there are phenomena which the scientific instruments of to-day, however delicate, can neither register nor measure, and there are methods necessary for the investigation of disease which no laboratory experience can supply." ... Referring to the practice of medical examinations he concludes that the methods employed are largely "but a species of guesswork," and that the knowledge absolutely required to determine the degree of impairment "is a kind of knowledge which nowhere exists."

[A letter in Pendleton (Ore.) Tribune]

References have been made in the columns of the Tribune to a case where a lower court in New Jersey pronounced a father guilty of manslaughter for relying on Christian Science treatment when his daughter is said to have contracted a fatal case of diphtheria. The case, however, has been appealed to higher court.

Practically everywhere parents are privileged to employ the means of healing which their consciences, their reason, and their experience direct them to choose for themselves or their children. These parents in New Jersey, like countless others everywhere, had tried medical treatment and found it wanting; they tried Christian Science treatment and found it satisfying. Naturally wanting to do what was best for their child, they turned to Christian Science in this instance.

Treatment in Christian Science is treatment through prayer, and is identical with the Christianity taught and practiced by Christ Jesus. The higher tribunals of our land have never sustained the findings of a lower court when, as in this instance, it declared reliance on prayer for the preservation of human life to be a criminal act, and the one so placing his reliance to be a criminal. If the Constitution of the United States is to stand, and if the Scriptures are valid and their requirements just, no court of last resort ever will declare a man to be a criminal for relying on prayer to preserve either body or soul.

When this same question, in slightly different form, was presented to the court of highest appeal in the state of New York, in what is known as the Cole case, a few years ago, the decision was unanimous, reversing the findings of the lower court, which were very similar to these. The New York court of appeals clearly recognized the healing work of Christian Science as healing through prayer and as being in accord with the tenets of the church. It further declared that even the legislature does not have power "to make it a crime to treat disease by prayer."

It is only just to say that thousands of children, many even in New Jersey, succumb to diphtheria from time to time under medical treatment, and we do not hear of prosecutions in these cases. Were there the remotest evidence to show that medical treatment assured anything approaching certainty of recovery from diphtheria, or any other disease, then there might be a shadow of excuse for the effort to make such treatment compulsory. But medical practice offers no such assurance.

Christian Scientists have no ill will toward the medical profession. In fact, they have the most profound respect and good will for all those physicians who are honestly striving to alleviate the sufferings of humanity, but they do oppose the attempt to force medicine and what goes with it upon them and their children.

[C. W. Hale in Greencastle (Ind.) Banner]

The ambiguous assertion that "Christian Science succeeds because it denies facts," made by a revivalist at the Nazarene Meeting recently, admits the well-known success of Christian Science, but immediately attempts to reverse the statement by alleging the impossibility that success proceeds from a falsity.

The truth is that Christian Science does not deny facts, but asserts and proves the real and absolute actuality of God's presence and power right here and now. To make this logical and demonstrable in human consciousness, it declares and proves evil and all material beliefs to be erroneous concepts of mortal mind, that "carnal mind" which is "enmity against God." In the light of the understanding of God and His power in the presence of infinite, divine Mind, these evil beliefs disappear as darkness gives place to light.

By this it is not meant that mankind is relieved "from the thought of hell and judgment" as the speaker stated, for the individual who persits in the practice of sin and the belief in the power of evil need not expect to escape the consequences of his false beliefs.

Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 37: "They who sin must suffer. 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,'" and in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," on page 160: "I am asked, 'Is there a hell?' Yes, there is a hell for all who persist in breaking the Golden Rule or in disobeying the commandments of God. Physical science has sometimes argued that the internal fires of our earth will eventually consume this planet. Christian Science shows that hidden unpunished sin is this internal fire,—even the fire of a guilty conscience, waking to a true sense of itself, and burning in torture until the sinner is consumed,—his sins destroyed. This may take millions of cycles, but of the time no man knoweth. The advanced psychist knows that this hell is mental, not material, and that the Christian has no part in it. Only the makers of hell burn in their fire."