"Know thyself"

TO those who have been studying Christian Science and endeavoring to live what it teaches, comes a desire to share with others the blessings they have received. Because of this wholesome and right desire Mrs. Eddy provided ample opportunities for its expression, one way being in the Wednesday evening meetings when testimonies of healing are given in Christian Science churches all around the globe. Mrs. Eddy also established The Christian Science Journal and Sentinel, including in them certain pages to be given wholly to the testimonies sent in from grateful students from all parts of the world, so that others could receive in this way the assurance of the healing truth. These testimonies do not bring up mental pictures of dreaded troubles, but they do express the fact that when the writer was suffering he found relief and healing through the application of Christian Science.

When the apostles left Jesus, to do he bade them, "to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick," they traveled from city to city, country to country, healing and teaching, and returned to give thanks, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." They did not have the medium of the press to assist them at that time, their work being to preach by word of mouth, and then to prove their words by demonstration in healing the sick. Today the Christian Science churches established in so many cities and towns throughout the world are spreading the same teaching, through the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and the testimonies heard in the Wednesday evening meetings bear witness to this healing truth, healings of all manner of diseases. The Christian Science publications were also designed to carry this same message and bear the same testimony of the proof of the ever availability of divine Love. Teaching and healing must always be side by side, because if the word of God is expressed anywhere in thought healing must necessarily follow.

Christian Scientists to-day are also called upon to go forth into the highways and byways and "preach the kingdom of God." One way of doing this is to bear testimony to the good they have received through this study. In considering this question, one may be tempted by the fear of not being able to express himself correctly or of being misunderstood because he may fall short of telling what his healing has really meant to him. It may seem difficult to find words adequate enough to cover his need of expression. Then does he realize that it is not words that count but works; for he who has had that wonderful uplift in though after a demonstration of the allness of God begins to appreciate in a measure what the ever presence of Spirit really means. The fact comes home to him that the only reality anywhere is the power of Spirit, Principle, while all other arguments of seeming power are arguments and nothing more.

In Science and Health on page 571 we read, "Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." There is a wonderful realization of the ever presence of God when one truly does "know" himself. That means the knowing and the understanding of the inseparability of God and man. Truly to know one's self is to have the presence of Mind always at hand, always the guiding power in any transaction, any seeming trial, and in any pleasure. There is then no time given to wondering or doubt as to what is leading or prompting one to act, but the steady sureness of the omnipresent intelligence directing all to the glory of God.

There follows the assurance of the fact that whatever may be the appearance to the senses, the truth about one's self and his expression is that man is the child of God, and expresses only what Mind directs, and nothing more. There may be times when this expression seems to be the two-edged sword, or the overturning of the tables of the money changers, but when it is realized that it is not persons who are wielding this power, but Truth, there will follow the blessings.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "No and Yes" (p. 35): "When human struggles cease, and mortals yield lovingly to the purpose of divine Love, there will be no more sickness, sorrow, sin, and death." It behooves us all to ponder carefully and prayerfully this "purpose of divine Love." What can it mean other than the expression wholly and completely of Spirit, and not matter. As we understand and "know" man's true self we are appreciating in that degree the purpose of divine Love. In that proportion do we see the lessening of our experiences of the beliefs in sin sorrow, and sickness. There can be no hesitancy, then, in expressing what this means to us, in telling others what our experiences have brought forth.

Webster gives a definition of purpose as "the object, effect, or result arrived at, intended, or attained." The object or result arrived at by divine Mind is the expression of itself, because, of course, Truth knows only truth and the only unfoldment of right thinking or right activity must be the operation of Truth. The only intention of good is to be good, of Love is to be loving, or of Mind is to be intelligent. At times erring human sense may try to say that the experiences that apparently seem to be necessary for man to go through are anything but loving, inasmuch as one may be called upon to do those things which appear the very farthest from his capabilities. The only doubt as to man's ability to perform anything comes from the testimony of mortal mind, which is only the supposititious counterfeit of divine Mind.

Divine Mind already knows all, and man is the reflection of this Mind; therefore he can do only that which Mind has already intended, which Mind has, in reality, already done.

Let us have more faith that whatever may be our duty to do it is for the glory of God. Let us know ourselves so completely and constantly to be always one with God that there can never for an instant be a thought entertained of anything having place or power other than divine Love. Then shall we be ready to see and understand the "purpose of divine Love," and shall know ourselves as one with this purpose, and in fact, as part of it. True strength comes with this clear vision, and the ability to do every necessary thing is found to be ever present, because Love is ever present. Man reflects infinite capability, because he reflects God, and each one can fearlessly go forth proving under every circumstance his divine inheritance as the child of God. He can then look forward to every seeming condition as an opportunity to prove the ever presence of Mind, and in this way will he be learning also to "know" himself.

For man to know himself is to prove that there can never be a step to be taken where God has not been before him, and then will it be found too that he will be returning even as the disciples of Jesus telling of victories over all manner of discord and diseases. In Science and Health, on page 393, Mrs. Eddy gives us this command: "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man."

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March 5, 1921
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