When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.—I Cor. xXi. 11.
Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.—St. Mark iv. 11.
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. —S. John xiv. 20.
For many days following the conversation that Millicent Curtis had with Mr. Williams, she seemed plunged into a maize of thought. Family duties, household duties, her duties as a Christian Science practitioner—indeed everything seemed to fade out of her consciousness as of importance except that one great paramount question— Life.
She found herself performing mechanically, all things that were necessary as daily demands, and as one in a dream, for her mind was full of questions, arguments, disputations. At night, she lay awake while the others around her were wrapped in slumber. Never was her mind so alert, so desirous, so certain to understand the so-called mysteries (realities) of Life as now. As question after question came pouring into her consciousness, finding no completely satisfying answer, she found herself concluding, “Since Mr. Williams left me I am a literal question mark. Some of the foundation upon which I had stood and which I had thought Truth has been swept from beneath my feet so that I am uncertain how to proceed.”
Nevertheless, Millicent Curtis was never so happy, so buoyant, and confident, for she felt certain that she was on the road to actually understand every single statement of Truth that Mrs. Eddy ever wrote. Gradually the conviction came to her that she had accepted much of the explanations given in Christian Science without reasoning. Many statements that were not clear to her she had somehow made herself believe were clear. “Mr. Williams told me not to accept a single statement as a fact unless it appealed to my reason as true,” she told herself, with keen satisfaction, “and I intend to keep at this reasoning process until I am satisfied that I know clearly and intelligently the answers to the questions of my heart. No more laying questions away for ‘Truth to unfold to me’; no wonder we wait and wait and the unfoldment comes not. If Truth is God, then true thought is God, for true thought is Truth, and the true thought in my mind is Truth or God. I must not wait passively for some supernatural power to operate in my behalf, but the thing for me to learn is how to unfold my own mentality into the understanding of Truth.”
Then came to Millicent the startling questions, “What am I? Who or what am I? What and where is this power that heals and saves? Am I man? How can I be man, an image, and yet have power? For an image has no power of its own; it is only a shadow, a reflection, depending entirely upon something else. An image need not try to be anything. Why, an image could not even try for it just can’t be anything of itself; it merely reflects an original. I have understood and have been taught by an ‘authorized teacher’ that we are all the spiritual image or idea of God. If this teaching is correct, then I can in no wise be responsible for my mistakes; in fact, an image could make no mistakes. I simply cannot be an image merely, for an image cannot form thought and I am thinking this very instant. Oh, what is the correct solution to this problem?” “Where is this God, this intelligence, this wonderful Being of whom I was taught that I am the image and the reflection? Mrs. Eddy teaches that Mind is God. Can it be that my own right mind is God? if so, then I am not an image at all.” Surely there was no more peace for Millicent Curtis until she knew the answers to these questions. “Why, oh, why, have I never thought of them before?”
“Because I was never taught that they could be reasoned out,” came back the answer. “I was made to believe that I must accept without argument what Mrs. Eddy said; other students seemed to be doing this, and, should I ask a startling question, which at the same time was a natural question, I was looked at in such a manner by the older Scientists as to make me keep silent in their presence thereafter. I can see now that to some extent I have fallen into the error of accepting what was told me. Can it be that these ‘authorized teachers’ have not themselves reasoned out all of Mrs. Eddy’s statements?”
Millicent was sure that Mrs. Eddy knew and wrote actual Truth, and now came to her Mr. Williams’ words: “Many are reading into our Leader’s writings their own meanings. This is not right. We must read from her writings her meaning, then we have it right.” Again and again would come the thought, “Why did not Mrs. Eddy tell us more plainly the great facts of Life so that we would not have to go through this wonder and question and agony?” But to all of these questions came no satisfactory reply.
Then, one day, when her mind seemed in a bewilderment of reasoning, there flashed before her mental vision the calm, satisfied expression on the face of Mr. Williams. To him she would go and at once. It took but a few days to regulate her home affairs so that she could leave her little family in good care, and the day soon arrived when she started en route for Mr. Williams’ home and as fast as the limited express would take her.
“No, I am not at all surprised to see you, Mrs. Curtis,” and Mr. Williams shook his head and smiled, “but I had not looked for you quite so soon.”
“I just could not wait any longer,” said the young woman. “The seed of Truth that you planted that day when you talked with me sprung up immediately, and it is breaking down and tearing asunder many former beliefs; it just seems as though there were some live thing within me shoving and pushing and demanding to know itself.”
“It must have been pretty good soil in which I planted that seed,” remarked the man with a wise twinkle. “You know how it is with seeds; sometimes a seed will grow a little, then it will cease growing and gradually wither away; other seeds may never even sprout; but this seed wants to unfold itself, to mature, of this I am certain.” He need not look twice upon the face before him to be convinced of this fact.
“Well, now, what is it, my friend?” he asked, kindly.
“Everything,” returned Millicent. “What you have told me is wonderful and true, and I understand that much; but the very fact of accepting that brings to light many other questions that never before had occurred to me. I think I must feel like the baby that is taken down from his high- chair and placed upon his feet for the first time; he suddenly becomes aware that he has feet and that he can move about on them. Well, I’ve suddenly become convinced that I have a mentality of my own that can do things, and since this discovery it is working over time. All I can do is to think, think, think. Really, it seems to me that I am nothing but a big thinking machine!”
“Good,” laughed Mr. Williams, nodding his head understandingly, then adding, “you know Mrs. Eddy said that the time for thinkers has come.”
“But, like the baby that likes to walk, only to fall down and get up and walk again, so I think and think, only to get all tangled up in ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, yet still keep right on with thinking. Mr. Williams, I’m counting on you for help,” finished she, confidently.
“And, I will give it to you; as I told you before, I will give you all that you can take.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear you say it, although I expected that you would. I’m hungrier this time than the time before,” she smiled, warmingly, “and it will take a good heavy meal to satisfy me.” “I see,” he nodded, “Well, now, go ahead.” He leaned back in his chair.
“What am I?” she asked, eagerly. “This question is ever before me. What am I?”
“Why did you not reason it out deductively and discover just what you are?”
“I’ve tried and am not satisfied,” confessed she. “I’ve taken the fact that Mrs. Eddy teaches that we are the image and likeness of God, and I’ve tried to reason out that I am this image, but it just won’t reason out. Then when I take as a fact that my mind is God, my life, my consciousness is God, this conflicts with the fact that I am the image of God. I’m ready to be convinced of any truth that works out logically, so please show me how my mind can be God, and still I be an image.”
“Impossible.”
“But, you reasoned out with me that my mind is God, and I saw plainly that this is the deep teaching of Mrs. Eddy,”
“Exactly.”
“Well, then, Mrs. Eddy contradicts herself.”
“No,” was the quiet answer.
“But, Mr. Williams, she must,” insisted Millicent, “for, she says that we are man, the image and likeness of God.”
“Never,” he replied, “she never says in any of her writings that ‘you’ are the image, idea, of God; she does not teach that ‘you are man’ or ‘I am man’.”
“Mr. Williams!” gasped Millicent, dumbfounded, “how can you say such a thing as that? Why, she says dozens of times that we are the likeness of God; that we do everything only by reflection.”
“I still declare that she never said this at all,” was the calm, unwavering reply.
“Well, I think I can show you,” said the woman taking up the copy of Science and Health that lay on the table. She turned over the leaves and rapidly scanned the pages. “Here it is. Of course, this is only one reference; I could find many similar ones: ‘Keep in mind the verity of being—that man is the image and likeness of God’. There!” she said, looking up, with a satisfied expression. It surprised her to note that the countenance before her was serene as ever.
“I cannot see that you have proved your point at all.”
“I’ve proved this much,” asserted she, “You said that Mrs. Eddy does not teach that we are the image of God, and I have read you that she does state this plainly.” “I must still beg to differ with you,” came the astounding reply. “You did not read that at all.
You are honest, dear friend, in your belief; you are sure that you are right, but you are laboring under a great delusion. Now, look at that sentence again and see if you cannot detect your error.”
Millicent read the sentence over and over to herself. “I am at a loss to understand you,” she said in despair. “Surely I have a right to believe my own eyes?”
“You certainly have,” he granted, with that illuminating smile that made her feel more at ease. “Now look carefully and tell me what Mrs. Eddy says ‘is’ the image and likeness of God?”
“Man.”
“Oh,” with a prolonged inflection.
Millicent now dropped her head in her palm in deep thought.
Presently, she looked up. “I see your point,” she admitted, slowly. “I said that Mrs. Eddy teaches that we are the image of God, and what she does say is that man is the image.”
“You have only done what thousands upon thousands have done and are doing, Mrs. Curtis—reading her words and reading into them your own meaning.” “But this is only a play upon her words. What she says about man she means about us, certainly.”
“Not at all; this is where the great mass of Scientists have lost the way. What she says about man, is not about you nor me as individuals. Jesus never taught that we were an image, neither did Mrs. Eddy.”
Had the earth suddenly opened Millicent could scarcely have been more amazed. “How did you ever make this great discovery?” she asked, finally.
“I will tell you later,” he replied, gently. “Now, I want you to straighten yourself out regarding this matter.”
But with all her great earnestness, Millicent found herself at sea.
“I’ll make it a little easier for you,” said the metaphysician, kindly. “I’ll ask you some questions to which you must answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.” “I’ll do the best I can,” was the quiet answer, as she drew in a deep breath.
“As I look back over the past, I can see that to some extent I have been feeding upon words, yet I earnestly believed that I was understanding Science. I’m ready now, and I am prepared for shocks,” she laughed.
“Can you think?”
“Yes, I’m thinking now.” “Can an image think?”
“No.”
“What does the Bible and Mrs. Eddy call man?”
“An image.”
“If you can think, and man an image cannot think, then, Mrs. Curtis, you are not man?
The room was very still. “According to such mathematical reasoning I am not man,” she repeated, quietly.
“Mrs. Curtis, did you ever see an image sing, and dance, and talk as we do?”
“No, I never did. I don’t know where this reasoning is going to take me, and just now I have not the faintest idea what this ‘man’ is; but I do know that I’m just overjoyed to discover that I am not an image. It has always jarred me a little to think that I was merely an image, having no power, no intelligence of my own, but only reflecting it. I have wished at times that I might be more than an image, only to feel rebuked at such audaciousness immediately after.”
“Well, don’t feel ashamed any longer, you have only to use your reason and you can easily uncover the hidden truth.”
“Mrs. Eddy actually hid the Truth!” exclaimed the astonished Millicent.
“In the later editions of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy or someone else hid it so deep that the great mass of her people have never found it.”
“Mrs. Eddy knew the great facts of Life, and yet hid or veiled them from us! But I promised not to be shocked, so please go on.”
“I will make allowances for you,” laughed he. “You have fed on the milk so long that this meat gives you a bit of mental indigestion. How about it?”
“I’ve fed on milk, without a doubt, but the meat of the Word, the actual plain truth is what I want now,” Millicent replied, firmly.
“Milk is all right for the baby, but who wants to stay a baby all the time and be kept in a crib with a fence around him?”
“Certainly not a true thinker.”
“The right place for a babe is in the cradle, but a crib is not the right place for a thinker who has awakened to the Truth,” said Mr. Williams.
“Why, I can see now the metaphysical reason why there is such a great upheaval in the Christian Science field at present,” announced Millicent. “I have heard many practitioners say that they cannot do as good healing work now as they accomplished years ago, and I know of many who have been under Christian Science treatment for a long time and have not been healed. This, then, is the reason: they are feeding on the milk and not upon the meat. They should be growing in deep understanding, unfolding into the actual Truth, becoming more active in thought; but, instead, many of us feed year after year on the same milk diet.”
“You are right. It is like the salt that loses its savor. The nature of the mentality is to unfold itself, unfold its own intelligence; and the great mass of metaphysical students believe that they, themselves, cannot heal; but that a power outside themselves called ‘divine Love’ does the healing. They call themselves channels, avenues, window-panes, etc., and declare that God shines through them, as though God, the all power, needs a channel or window-pane to produce healing. They also state that He does not know a thing about anyone with a sickness, still in some mysterious way He heals. Much of this is blind belief, faith-healing, and it has had its day.”
“Oh, I’m so happy to feel that I am getting out of my crib,” declared Millicent, “however, I have no idea where I am going to land. I want to ask a dozen questions all at once; but, first, please reason out with me the answer to the question, What am I? then next, I want to know: What is man?”
“Very well, and remember that I adhere strictly to the great Truth as taught by the Master, and as discovered by Mrs. Eddy.” “Are you alive?” he began.
Millicent’s face flushed and she made no immediate reply to this simple question. “I hardly know what to say,” she began, hesitatingly, “you told me to answer yes or no, and I can see that I will get into a corner whichever way I reply; for, Mrs. Eddy teaches that God is the only Life.”
“My friend, you cannot get into any corner if you let your reason take you—no matter where it leads you, you cannot go wrong. Now, I’m thinking that you are very much alive. You certainly don’t appear like any corpse that I have ever seen.”
“How foolish I am,” laughing with him. “Of course I am alive. I knew this all the time, but I was wondering how it would fit in with other statements.”
“We will take one step at a time, and go slowly and remember you said that you would not be shocked,” laughed he, good-naturedly. Then, seriously, “You are alive?”
“Yes.”
“What, only, lives?”
A pause. Then, her face lighted and she said: “Life.”
“Good. Well, if Life, only, lives, and you live, what are you?” “I must be Life,” came slowly from her lips, while her eyes grew bright with a new understanding. “Why, Jesus said, ‘I am the Life’.”
The man went on. “What, only, thinks?”
“Mind.”
“You think. If Mind thinks and you think, then, what are you?”
“I am Mind,” she reasoned.
“You are Life, Mind,” he echoed.
“But, Mr. Williams, there is only the one Mind,” she interrupted, anxiously.
“All right mentality is Mind, and right mentality is the divine Mind that Mrs. Eddy speaks about.”
“She really meant that my mind, when it thinks rightly, is the divine Mind?” she uttered, in astonishment.
“Positively.”
“And is this why she sometimes speaks of Mind with a capital as healing and sometimes she speaks of mind with a small ‘m’ as healing?” “Yes, they are one and the same. Right mind, or a mind that is thinking right, true thoughts is the only Mind that can heal; therefore, it is true that God, divine Mind, right mentality is the only healer.”
“Isn’t this wonderful,” and her eyes filled with tears of joy. “I see now the great mistake that I have made. When I read a statement that spoke of ‘mind’, I thought of a human mind that I really ought not to have; and when I read about ‘divine Mind’, I thought of a Mind or Power or something outside myself. Why, all the students of Science with whom I ever talked have this same opinion!”
“That no doubt is true,” he agreed, “but that is not our Leader’s meaning. Before we go deeper, let me tell you that some who call themselves students of metaphysics will even tell you that they cannot think. They base this astounding statement upon the fact that Mrs. Eddy says that God is the only thinker. So, they argue that if God is the only thinker, of course, I cannot think. Why, they have to think even to make that absurd statement. We are all thinking something every moment of our waking hours. Now, if you happen to meet one quite as blind as this, just turn to page 3 in Pulpit and Press, by Mrs. Eddy, and you will read this: ‘Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think’. This is plain enough. We possess the paramount, supreme power; we do not reflect it merely, but we possess it. Take thought out of the universe and what would be left? Nothing. Mrs. Eddy never intimates that we reflect God’s thought, as many of her people say. If you possess a quality, then, it is yours. If God were a big Mind somewhere or everywhere and we all reflected this Mind we would all be thinking the same things and consequently doing the same things and we all would at this very moment be thinking good. Don’t you see that this is not the case?”
“Indeed, I do. I have never clearly understood how there could be one God and so many separate individuals or images of this God. When I stand before the mirror, I do not see a million images of myself, I see only one image in the mirror; yet there are millions of men and women which disproves the belief that we are images. Then it is true that all right mind is Mind and all the true consciousness is Consciousness?”
The teacher nodded affirmatively.
“How wonderful this is,” sighed she, happily.
“And simple,” he added, “All Truth is simple.”
“And how hard we have made it, looking in every direction for God, from the sky to ‘everywhere’—and, behold, the kingdom of God is within us; our own true consciousness, itself, is God.”
“The individual, himself, like all Life, is Mind. Jesus possessed perfect consciousness which is the Father, the real Life, the real substance of all.” “This, then, must have been the hidden meaning of his great saying, ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father’.”
“You are right. All right mentality is the Father, the primal Cause of all reality; and I (my mentality) and the Father are one (identical) in substance, one in quality, though not all the quantity; for Jesus also said, “The Father is greater than I’, meaning that the Father comprised all Life, and not merely his own.”
“But the Father or infinite Mind is not divided into parts or into minds, Mr. Williams?”
“No, God is one in the sense that God is all and there can be but one all. You are not a separate or distinct life or mind by yourself, but you are an inseparable part of a complete whole. Life, Mind, is one as to substance, unity and quality but infinite as to individuality or quantity. Life is indivisible and inseparable and is one Intelligence of which we are all an inseparable part. Each individual is Life, Mind, Soul, Consciousness in quality but not in quantity; the quantity is infinite.”
This was putting Science in such plain and new light that Millicent’s whole being was touched. Her eyes sparkled with joy, her voice carried a new ring, her whole countenance was shining as she leaned forward with animation. “Do talk on,” she pleaded, “I so love to hear you. Then, it is not true that I am a mere image or reflection of intelligence as I have seen written in articles by students of metaphysics?” “The ‘I’ that is the real ‘You’ is Intelligence. You also possess intelligence. Your mentality is Intelligence, Itself. You are an intelligent, reasoning being.”
“How reasonable that sounds. Why, already I am beginning to see many things plainly that I never thought of before. Jesus never said that he was an image or that anyone else was an image, and he certainly would have mentioned this had it been a fact. But he did call himself the Son of God, and Mrs. Eddy calls us ‘sons and daughters of God’,” finished Millicent, questioningly.
“I can explain all of this to you,” was the confident reply. “However, this is deep metaphysics, and we have to look long and think deep to get at the inner meaning. When you have heard 1st John 1-3 verses read on Sundays from the desk in the Christian Science churches, have you never wondered why, out of all the verses in the Bible, our Leader selected these verses to be read every Sunday of the year?”
“Yes, I have. I have heard them read by various readers with various inflections but I have never been satisfied that I understood them completely. Are they of special significance?”
“Indeed they are. St. John knew the great Truth of Life and he expressed it in these verses; but like all the other deep passages of Scripture, the Truth is hidden from all except the metaphysical student who has the actual understanding.
Mrs. Eddy saw the great Truth contained in these verses, so she selected them to be read every Sunday, hoping, I suppose, that the time would come when some of her people would grasp the true significance of these wonderful words.”
“And you are one who has,” asserted Millicent.
“Listen,” he continued, “as I repeat the verses:
‘Now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be’. In plainer words: Now we call ourselves the Sons of God because it hath not yet appeared to us (become plain or known to us) what we really are; but when He shall appear—when actual Truth shall become known to us, then shall we be like Him—equal or identical with Him (understanding). When we gain the correct and ultimate understanding of Life, then we shall find that we, ourselves, are one with this Life, or are actually this very Life.”
The room was filled with a hush as the voice ceased. It seemed to Millicent that something had been lifted somewhere and a great light was pouring in.
For several moments neither spoke, then Millicent roused herself as questions and solutions came flooding her consciousness. “We are sons and daughters, then, until we grasp the actual Truth; thereafter we have attained the Father or understanding position. Am I right?” “You are,” he nodded. “Does not all Nature teach that the babe develops into the adult? That the infantile state is gradually put off for maturity?”
“Yes, I see this now that you have pointed it out to me. Is this what the great Paul meant when he said, ‘When I became a man, I put away childish things’?”
“Exactly. If we consider our self an image of God, we are children in thought; but, as we grow and unfold into the actual understanding of Life, we lay aside this infantile, immature stage of thought-development and we reach the Father (ultimate or understanding) state. Mrs. Eddy had exactly this understanding of John’s and Paul’s sayings as I will prove to you by her words. Here they are in Science and Health and this edition bears the date 1886. ‘At present we know not fully what we are; but this is certain, that we shall be Love, Life and Truth, when we understand them.’ This states very clearly that as we understand Life, Love and Truth we will find that we are this divine Trinity.”
“I am absolutely satisfied,” said Millicent, earnestly.
Presently, Mr. Williams asked, “Now, you have discovered what you are, and shall we find ‘man’?”
“Yes, I want all that I can ‘take’ and I guess that I can take man all right.”
“And as man co-exists with God, you had better not go away without taking man.”
They both laughed heartily, and Millicent could not help feeling conscious of the fact that although they were talking on the deepest and the most sacred things of Life there was no trace of sanctimonious airs, no pious inflections, no hypocrisy; contrariwise, the very atmosphere seemed pregnant with the exhilarating sparkle of light and love and Joy.
“Tell me some of the synonyms for man, according to the teachings of Mrs. Eddy,” requested the teacher.
“Reflection; embodiment; idea; expression; manifestation; likeness; image; form; identity.”
“I guess that you have said them all,” he nodded.
“Yes, I have said them,” she echoed, “but they have seemed at times a little mysterious to me, sort of ‘nebulistic’ expressions, and I may have said them like a parrot, without actually comprehending their full meaning. Do tell me what and where is this man that Mrs. Eddy speaks so continually about.”
“We will reason this out calmly and quietly, Mrs. Curtis, the same as we have reasoned out some of her other statements. Nature, you know, never hurries nor worries, so we won’t. Suppose we start this way: both the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s teachings tell us that ‘man’ is image. Now, the thing for us to uncover is, What is this image that God made in His likeness ?”
Millicent was all attention.
“The image of God must be the image of Mind, since God is Mind. Do you grant this?”
“Yes.”
“You have discovered that your own true mind is the divine Mind?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if God made an image (man), then, Mind makes an image; then, you, the Soul or mentality make and have an image of yourself or of your thinking. Mind is Cause, and as there could be no cause without a corresponding effect, it is evident, therefore, that for Mind to think or comprehend, would automatically cause a corresponding comprehensible effect to be produced. This visible effect that Mind produces is naturally the image, likeness, manifestation or embodiment of Mind, Itself, and is the ‘man’ of the Bible, created in the image and likeness of the ‘God’ of the Bible, through the natural law of cause producing effect.”
“Why, how wonderfully clear you reason,” exclaimed she. “I have never reasoned like that before, but I can readily accept that the reasoning is correct although I cannot see clearly where it will take me.” “Right reason is the Christ and can lead us only into Truth (true understanding). There is only one avenue to actual understanding, and this avenue is right reason. We are therefore bound to win. Now, let us go back again to our subject under discussion. Tell me a synonym for God.”
“Mind; Soul.”
”Your soul?”
“Yes, so I understand now.”
“As all Mind or Soul is Cause, there must be a corresponding effect, must there not?”
“Yes, there must be an effect.”
“What does the Bible call the effect of God or Soul?”
“Why, man or image.”
“Good. Tell me again a synonym for image.” “Embodiment; likeness; manifestation.”
“Then we see that you, as Soul, must have an embodiment, likewise a manifestation. Can you think of anything about yourself that would stand for an image, an embodiment, a manifestation?”
Millicent’s brows puckered together and she searched penetratingly for the answer. “I, my mentality, has an embodiment of itself?” she repeated, questioningly.
“Remember that this embodiment must be something that has no life, no intelligence of its own,” he said, endeavoring to help her, “for, ‘man’, as you will bear in mind, does all things by reflection only, as a shadow does.”
After a considerable pause she looked up with a grave smile. “I just can’t think of a single thing that might fit conditions except my body; but, of course, it can’t be the body.”
“Why not?” smiling.
“Because the body is matter and is mortal.”
“Are you sure that you should regard your body as matter, as mortal? Did Jesus, our Way-shower, so regard his body?”
“I don’t quite know,” reflected she. “Wasn’t his body just like ours in substance, appearance, form, etc.?”
“Exactly.” Jesus ate and slept and said that his body was flesh and bones such as we see today.
“But he could not have had two bodies, one spiritual and one material?”
Mr. Williams shook his head.
“Jesus did not leave any body here,” reflected Millicent, his body never returned to dust; but, to tell you the truth, although I have talked with many Scientists on this subject, I have never been able to discover whether we should think that we have a real body or not; where it is or what it is. I have been taught that I have a mortal body and that it is my work to put off this material, mortal body; but just how to do this and what I will have when I complete this process has never been made plain to me. I have also heard it said that in reality we have no bodies at all.”
“Well, well, well,” and Mr. Williams laughed aloud and then Millicent laughed, too.
“So you are not sure whether you have a real body or not, or whether you should consider it immortal or otherwise?”
“I am not clear on the subject,” confessed she.
“And there are thousands of others, who, if they would admit it, would say the very same. You are frank and open and ready to be convinced and to progress, and we will soon determine what there is to this mysterious body question.”
“Another load to go off my mind,” sighed she, happily. “Oh, you can’t realize how joyful I feel!” “Yes, I understand absolutely. Now, we must keep in mind the great Shakespearean truth that there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so. In Unity of Good Mrs. Eddy makes this very enlightening and positive statement: ‘There is no matter\ Now, where does this statement take you?”
“If there is no such thing as matter, then my body is not matter,” she answered, determinately.
“Correct.”
“Then, Jesus, who knew the truth about Life, never thought of his body as mortal or material?”
“Correct again.”
Millicent’s countenance began to blaze with the true understanding that was rapidly unfolding in her own consciousness. “This, then, is the explanation: there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so. Jesus thought of his body as good, as mental, and so retained it and glorified it; mankind thinks of the body as mortal and material, and it appears so to them. Is this really true?”
“You are progressing finely,” he said, encouragingly. “Go right on.”
“Then, because all is good, it must be that we have a wrong sense of the body—”she stopped and looked at her teacher for a fuller explanation.
“You are right. We should think of our body as good, spiritual and perfect, and thinking makes it so. A wrong sense of the body is what holds the body in bondage. A wrong sense of the body is what allows the body to be put into the grave.”
“Did Mrs. Eddy ever say anything to uphold this great truth?” questioned she eagerly.
“Yes. She did. I will read it to you.” He picked up a volume from the table and opening it read: “‘Jesus knew that the body is but a reflex shadow of immortal Soul, also that it is impossible to lose this, for, as the Scripture saith, it is the image of God’.”
“Why, isn’t that beautiful and clear,” she cried. “I can’t remember reading such a passage as that in Mrs. Eddy’s writings. What book is that from which you read?”
“This is Science and Health. It is one of the first edition.”
“Do read it over again,” she begged.
She listened breathlessly as the man repeated the clear, plain statement.
“She says that Jesus could not lose his body for the body is the image of God. That is certainly illuminating and inspiring.” “Here is another statement that Mrs. Eddy makes about the body in this same edition. ‘You, the immortal, have a perfect and divine form’.”
“That is surely food for the hungry and drink for the thirsty,” breathed Millicent. “I am drinking from a well- spring of which I never knew before.”
“You are drinking from the well of clear understanding,” uttered the man earnestly. “Don’t you recall the Master’s words: ‘But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’? This means that your mentality is part of the whole mental element or Mind and contains within itself the ability to know and forever unfold Itself (Intelligence). Under right conditions the rosebud becomes a full-blown rose; and, under right conditions your mentality will unfold into the actual understanding of Life: for growth, progress, unfoldment is a law of Nature, Life.”
“Tell me the right conditions,” insisted she, quietly.
“Desire is the first and primary right condition. You must have an honest, earnest, fearless desire to know actual Truth. You must be receptive, open-minded, unprejudiced; willing to listen, willing to investigate, willing to reason; you must let no thing and no one limit or hinder you in any way from learning more and more of Truth; learn to be a law to yourself as our Leader admonished, and learn to stand upon your own feet. Mrs. Eddy knew that Jesus, the Wayshower, was self-governed; that is, he governed himself according to his understanding of Life. Since he is our model then we should pattern after him. We should so study as to acquire a clear and comprehensive understanding of Mind so that it enables us to govern ourself by our own Spirit, our own right thinking and right feeling: for to be self-governed is to be God-governed.”
“That is a wonderful goal to which to look forward,” declared she.
“And it is one which we can attain; for all things are attainable to him who has no sense of limitations. But, we are wandering again from our point—we were locating man, the image. You suggested to me that your body might be called your image or reflection. It was because you believed that your body is mortal and material that you figured it could not be the image of God. Many other students of Mrs. Eddy’s Science have arrived at the astounding conclusion that since she teaches there is no matter, therefore, we have no bodies. To a reasoning individual who lets common sense guide him, this conclusion that we have no bodies is absolutely absurd and ridiculous. The correct reasoning is this: Since we know that man is the expression, image, likeness of Mind, then, this man must be my body, for it is true that my body is the expression of my mentality. My body images forth exactly my thought conclusions. Mrs. Eddy illustrates this in her books, for she points out that fright causes the face to become pale; extreme fear causes the body to become paralyzed; a sad thought makes a tear start; a happy thought brings forth a smile, etc. The body, you see, is a mental mirror and reflects and manifests precisely one’s thought conclusions, whether they be good or bad, right or wrong. If I keep constantly in my mind a certain disease until I form a thought conclusion that I have it, this disease shows forth in my body; if, on the contrary, I am habitually thinking thoughts of health, life and harmony, I thereby form right mental conclusions and my body will show forth the condition of health. The body is ‘man\ The body is the manifestation, embodiment, image, likeness, idea that Mrs. Eddy talks about.”
“Oh, how blind I have been, and how very plain it all is now that you have lifted the veil for me. The man that God, Mind makes the body. It is Mind and its thought activity that makes the body, and a perfect mentality or perfect and good thinking will make a good and a right body. Does this explain Mrs. Eddy’s statement, ‘God and man co-exist’?”
“God, Soul, Mind (right thinking) and its embodiment (the body) co-exist always and forever. You cannot move your body without mind or thought. Your body has no life, intelligence nor power of its own, but it is the visible effect of Life or Intelligence. ‘God creates man’, means plainly, Mind creates body. In Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy says: ‘And Mind spake and form appeared’. Mind (mentality) thinks and the form (body) appears (is externalized, exhibited). In this early edition of Science and Health you will find these statements and many other similar ones: ‘God and man are Soul and body’… ‘Soul and body, God and man are inseparable’. ‘The true relation of Soul to body is that of God to man’.” “I certainly never looked at it that way before, Mr. Williams, but how glorious it is, and how enlightening. Most of the Christian Science writers of today, however, teach that we, ourselves, are man, the image of God, the idea of God,—and that God is some power distinct from us of which we are the reflection. Why, Mr. Williams, I myself have believed with all my heart that this is what our Leader taught and I have written and talked from this standpoint.”
“Never mind if you have. Your books in the past contained the Milk of the Word and have blessed millions nevertheless; now write other books containing the Meat of the Word; this is all that you have to do. We can all give out the very best that is in us all the time, and we can all constantly unfold greater and greater intelligence and understanding of Life and then give out more of this wonderful Truth.”
“But Mrs. Eddy does say that ‘God is not man and man is not God’. How can you get any other meaning out of this than just what she says?” questioned Millicent, perplexed.
Mr. Williams’ face broadened into a smile as he said, “The old beliefs do stick, don’t they?”
“But that plain statement!” insisted Millicent.
“That is really very simple, dear friend. You have read those words and have read into them your own interpretation, the same as the million other readers are doing. When you read them you believed that she meant something like this: ‘You are man and not God and therefore you must be man always and forever’. How about it?”
“You are right. That is the meaning that I get out of those words. That is the meaning that my teacher gave to her class.”
“Let us see about it,” he began in his simple manner. “God is Cause. You grant this?”
“Yes.”
“Man is the creation, the effect, manifestation, objectification. Do you grant this?”
“Certainly.”
“Well, then, the mystery is cleared up, is it not? Cause is not effect and effect is not Cause. The Creator is not the creation, and the creation is not the Creator. They are however inseparable, and man, the embodiment or body is always dependent upon the Creator or mentality, but the body is never the mentality.”
Millicent smiled a little sadly. “How many years I have read these statements of Mrs. Eddy over and over and yet never saw the deep truth or viewpoint from which she wrote. You make it so plain and simple I wonder why I never saw it before. That statement is as clear as light to me now. I see where all my mistake has originated. I always reasoned from the standpoint that I am man, an image, I thought Mrs. Eddy meant God is not you, and you are not God; now, of course, after you have lifted the heavy veil for me, I see plainly that man is the body only, and not the mentality. The mentality and its embodiment or body are not identical although they co-exist as cause and effect. I feel as though I had a new life before me,” she finished, feelingly. “How much depends upon the right start. How very much. I started my reasoning from the belief-fact that I am man. If we start wrong we can, of course, never reach the ultimate understanding. I shall have to go back and read Mrs. Eddy’s books all over again from the right starting point.”
“Yes, I believe that you should.”
“Mrs. Eddy states emphatically that Infinite Mind cannot be in man, but is only reflected by man. I feel sure that sentences like this have led us to believe that she taught that God is not within us, but is without us and that we are a reflection. Now, after the clear light that you have shown me, I can see that the sentence ‘God is not within man’, is correct; for with the veil lifted, it simply means that Mind is not within the body; the body (man) merely reflects the Mind or mentality (thinking) of the individual.”
“You are right, Mrs. Curtis. The Master repeatedly spoke of the ‘Father within\ Of course, divine or right Mind or the Father or primal Substance is within us, within our consciousness. God, Life, is both within and without us, for
God is ‘in all’, ‘over all’, and is ‘all’. Let me read you a few more statements of the plain truth from Science and Health. These statements are from the first edition. Here is one from page 11: ‘We learn from science that mind is universal, the first and only cause of all that really is’. The word mind is not capitalized. Page 39: ‘To know we are Soul and not body is starting right’. Therefore, those who think of themselves as man or idea are on the wrong track, for she says plainly that we are Soul and that the body is man.”
“It is all so new to me and yet so beautiful and clear and reasonable that I hardly know how to express myself. Such a wonderful light brings great joy and gladness to me, for with all honesty of purpose and endeavor I have tried to know and to live the Truth. If there is no personal or impersonal God or presence or power or anything else outside of us that we reflect, then, why does Mrs. Eddy capitalize the words Life, Truth, Mind, Soul? If all life is actually Life; if all right mentality is divine Mind; if all soul is Soul, and all intelligence is actually God, then, why speak and write about them with a small letter sometimes and again with a capital, implying that ‘mind’ and ‘Mind’ for instance, are different?”
“I can clear that up for you for I, too, had that thought with which to contend. You must not lose sight of the great fact that Mind is a substance and not a person. It was St. John who said ‘God is a spirit’. The capitalization therefore is not used to personify but it is used to differentiate or distinguish between right and wrong mentality or thinking. Belief, false consciousness, mortal mind, carnal mind, human mind is often written just ‘mind’ with a small ‘m,’ which means wrong thinking. When the word ‘Mind’ is used, it means right thinking, right consciousness. There is really nothing mysterious at all about it. Your own mentality when conscious of right, of the actual Truth, is the divine Mind or Consciousness.”
“Oh, I am so glad that is made clear to me. It certainly is very confusing, at least it has been so to me, to hear so much said about mortal mind; but to understand that mortal mind is simply wrong thinking, or thinking not based upon the actual Truth makes it so very simplified.”
“In the first edition Mrs. Eddy makes some splendid statements along this line. On page 39, she says: ‘Jesus regarded himself Principle’. Page 126: ‘He maketh himself as God was the foundation of all accusations against him… he established the proof that he was Christ and Christ is God’. Page 157: ‘You, the Soul and circumference of being (for the body is but the idea of “you”) are a law to your members and the law-giver that makes your body discordant or harmonious, according to the ignorance or understanding, the error or truth that governs it’. Page 227: ‘This is not losing man or robbing God, but finding yourself more blessed as Principle than person, as God than man, as Soul than sense, and yourself and your neighbor one’. There are hundreds of other references similar to these that I have selected, but I think that I have read enough for you to see what was the great truth that our Leader knew and wrote.”
Millicent nodded her head, her thoughts too full for utterance. After a few moments of reflection, she spoke with great finality of conviction. “How far the whole field has wandered from this great truth of Life. Why, the testimonies that are given in the Christian Science churches at the Wednesday evening meetings point unmistakably to the fact that the speakers believe that their healings were not brought about through their own change of thought but that a supernatural God healed them. They express their great gratitude to God and to Mrs. Eddy for their healing. I have heard testimonies that credit this ‘God’ with extinguishing a blaze of a burning building; this ‘God’ as removing a tumor; this ‘God’ as renting houses, etc., etc. Why this is not our Leader’s great truth at all!”
“You are right, Mrs. Curtis, and while these people, and there are hundreds of thousands of them, are no doubt sincere in their belief, still, as you see, they have not learned the whole truth that Mrs. Eddy taught. There is no outside God or power that knows about tumors, broken bones, vacant houses, lost articles, etc., and those who are depending upon this God to rectify such conditions do not understand the meat of the Word. Those who have enough faith in this outside power which they are pleased to call ‘divine Love’ will get the result of their faith. God is Truth and Life and it is one’s understanding of his oneness with this Truth and Life that is the God or healer of all wrong beliefs and their consequent corresponding manifestations. We are to look within for our help, not without, for the kingdom of God (understanding) is within our conscious, right thinking. The principle of mathematics knows nothing whatever about wrong applications and wrong results, and the student who makes a mistake, by merely correcting his error and basing his reason upon the actual laws of mathematics will heal himself of his error and obtain the right result.
The principle of mathematics does not heal him, does not do the work for him; he heals himself through the understanding of the principle. Now, the ‘I’ of me is God and is my true self, and it is this ‘I am’ which is God, the one and only healer for each of us. God, or Mind, or I am, is the very Truth, Itself, in your consciousness; and It is the God or Mind or Truth in your consciousness which is your healer. Truth (understanding) is not limited to anyone, but is limitless and can be gained by all. True understanding and God are one and the same, the perfect healer. The mentality of each individual is Mind, Soul, God and is Being, Itself. It is both absurd therefore and non-sensical to say, without further explanation, that God knows not evil of sickness but nevertheless heals it. The statement that God knows not evil or sickness, means merely that God, intelligence, understanding, truth, cannot know or view a lie or falsity as real and true; because it is evident that actual understanding or intelligence would know different, and therefore could not sense the lie as true or real. Do you see it clearly now?”
“You have certainly expressed it clearly and beautifully, how can I help but get the true meaning? But, I confess that I never looked at it in this light before. I can picture what a great step in progress it would make if more understood
Life this way; and, too, what better healing there would be. I, like many others, accepted much that Mrs. Eddy wrote without absolutely understanding it. For instance, I accepted as a fact that God does not know sickness and yet God heals sickness. Indeed, to me, there seemed no way out of it, no matter how opposed to common sense it seems that one could heal what one did not know needed mending, for, Mrs. Eddy states plainly that God knows not sickness, and again she states plainly that God is the only healer. I can now see that God (good) knows not wrong; God (understanding) knows not ignorance; yet, good and understanding (God) destroys (heals) wrong and ignorance when we apply this good and understanding thought conviction to the proposition at hand.
Now, I have another question to ask about ‘man’. Did Mrs. Eddy employ two separate meanings for the word man? I can recall various references in her writings where she speaks of man as having power, having dominion; then in other places she speaks of man in an entirely opposite way, for she says that man has no power at all but is merely an image or a reflection. How can ‘man’ have power, be a law to himself, a judge, etc., in one instance, and again, be no power, no intelligence but be merely a reflection or an image? If, when she speaks of man she means the body, how do you explain her statements that contradict this? In the Bible we read that God gave man dominion—surely, the body has no dominion. Really, it is no wonder that it does seem confusing.” “I agree with you, Mrs. Curtis, it does seem so, but I will show you how it appears to me. It is true as you surmise, that Mrs. Eddy employed two meanings for the word ‘man’, and the writers of the Bible do this also; this is where much of the confusion comes in. Sometimes she used this word to signify mankind or individuals. Again she used the word to signify the body. In reading her references to man, the reader must be careful to note whether she is speaking of man as a thinking individual or whether she is speaking of man, the non-intelligent body.
For instance, when she says: ‘To become wholly spiritual, man must be sinless’. Now, the body cannot think, therefore it cannot sin or become sinless. Mrs. Eddy is not speaking about the body here, she is speaking about the individual. She means: To become wholly spiritual you must become sinless or cease thinking wrong thoughts about Life. When she says: ‘It is man’s moral right to annul an unjust sentence’, we know she is not speaking about the body, and we see at once that she is alluding to the mentality or the individual. It is your or our moral right to annul an unjust sentence. Now, let us turn to some of her other sayings about man. I have read these from the present edition of Science and Health and will continue to read some more from this edition.”
Mr. Williams turned several pages and then read aloud: “‘Man co-exists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God’s image’. I am fully aware that the vast field of students of Mrs. Eddy’s writings believe that it means: I coexist with and reflect God for I am His image. But, it does not mean this. She is not speaking of man, the thinking individual, but is here speaking of man the image, man the body. She means this: the body co-exists with and reflects the mentality, for the body is the mind’s thoughts imaged forth or externalized.”
“Oh, I do see that so plainly, Mr. Williams. There is no mystery at all about it any longer. I am sure that I will never mistake them again. Man, according to Mrs. Eddy’s usage of the word, may mean either the body or the mentality. We must look deeply and see which she means. Of course, we are all familiar with the statement that, ‘few understand what I mean by the term reflection’, yet, all her students with whom I am acquainted believe that there is nothing deep about it. They all seem to understand that they are the image or reflection. Inasmuch as they all have this belief, I have sometimes wondered why Mrs. Eddy said that few understood it; but, now that I grasp the true meaning I can say, yes, few indeed do comprehend what she actually meant. The universal interpretation of the Science students is that we are in the mirror, that we are the reflection of God who is outside the mirror. ‘If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours’, is what Mrs. Eddy states when speaking of the mirrored reflection. Now, according to the right interpretation of it, does she not mean that the ‘God’ outside the mirror is Mind or the individual mentality, and that the ‘man’ in the mirror is the manifestation of body? That whatever the mind thinks, the body images forth, if the mind thinks gladness the body images a smile?” “Yes, you have it nicely now and I am sure that you will never go back to the foolish belief that you are merely an image or say that such is the teaching of Christian Science.”
“As you say, I now see that Mrs. Eddy never says that ‘we’ are image, but always she says that ‘man’ is the image; however, I do recall one place in Science and Health where it reads that we are reflection.” Millicent took up the book from the table and turning to page 516 read: “‘As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God’.”
“It is as though she had said, ‘the body part of you is spiritual (mental), it being but the reflected image of your mentality which is Spirit; therefore the embodied part of you is not material but is spiritual (mental) though mistakenly called ‘matter’. The real You is Mind and the body is the reflection, but the body is still you in the objective state. It is not strictly correct to refer to ourselves as reflections, for it is the body that is the reflection and I would not refer to your body as You. To say that you are reflection is only a relative Truth. When I speak of you I am holding the sense of You, the mentality, or the conscious You; whereas, if I wish to speak of your body I should designate it as your body. The belief that we are reflection rather than conscious Mind is holding multitudes in bondage today. While it is true that God is both Soul and body and that you and your body are one and can never be separated, yet the one is never the other. The ‘You’ or the ‘I or Us’ is Mind, God, Cause. As there can be no cause without a corresponding effect, your body must be the effect of you, the Soul or Cause. Soul being Spirit, the visible effect or reflection is spiritual and not material. Jesus called his body shadow. Mrs. Eddy calls the body identity or reflection, hence, it is not scientifically correct to refer to yourself as reflection merely, for you are both Soul and body or Spirit and Its spiritual (mental) reflection.”
“That is perfectly clear to me, now,” answered Millicent, with a nod of her head, “but I really cannot comprehend,” with puckered brows, “why Mrs. Eddy did not write plainly so that one could understand exactly what she meant without all this digging out and pondering process. Why did she never state simply and plainly that we should consider ourself Mind or Soul, and should consider our body as the reflection or man?”
“Your query is a very natural one, my friend, and one that all thinkers sooner or later ask. I might state that in the first edition Mrs. Eddy did teach in substance that, until you understood yourself as Soul and your body as man, you had not started right. There are some students of Christian Science who have, to some degree, reasoned out some of the facts that I have given you about Life; yet because they do not see such facts declared in Mrs. Eddy’s later writings, nor in the ‘authorized’ publications, come to the belief that their own common-sense reasoning must be wrong, or else after a time they drift entirely away from Christian Science and join the ranks of one of the various metaphysical schools of thought called New Thought, Advanced Thought, Divine Science, etc.; for some of these teach that we are Life, Truth, Intelligence. It is absolutely true that Mrs. Eddy wrote, ‘We are Soul. ‘We are Spirit’. ‘That we are Spirit and Spirit is God is undeniably true’, and similar statements; but it is also true that the great mass of Scientists have never seen these printed words.”
Millicent uttered an exclamation of astonishment, “Do you mean that they are to be found in old manuscripts of Mrs. Eddy?”
“No. These statements of actual truth are found in Science and Health, published in the year 1875. Also these same statements continue throughout the first fourteen editions of this great work. After that edition a great change was made.”
“I’m certainly having many surprises, Mr. Williams. I have never seen or read the first edition of Science and Health, and I surely never dreamed that that first book would be more enlightening to one than the late book. Why, if she told the truth in the first book, did she change her standpoint of understanding, and why have we been told that the latest editions are the best and purest? How can we be sure that her first discovery was correct?”
“One question at a time,” smiled the man. “I see that you are startled and that all this is entirely new to you. I have known this truth for many years, and am following the admonition of the hymn: ‘For we must share if we would keep that blessing from above’, that is, I am giving this discovery that I made to all who are ready for it, and in this way I am not only receiving the blessing that comes from obedience but I am also blessing others. The true spirit or right desire is not to retain but to give out. The Master gave of his understanding freely, for he said: ‘All things that I have heard of my Father (understanding) have I made known unto you’. He is our example, and if we wish to progress we must follow him.”
Millicent smiled happily. “You are surely feeding me the bread of Life.”
“Now, I will answer your questions. Let me read you a paragraph from Mrs. Eddy’s book Retrospection and Introspection. The chapter I select is entitled by her, THE PRECIOUS VOLUME. The first paragraph reads: ‘The first edition of my most important book Science and Health, containing the complete statement of Christian Science, was published in 1875’.”
The room was very quiet. The full meaning of the words seemed to sink deep into the heart of the listener. “When did Mrs. Eddy write that statement?” she asked, slowly.
“In 1891, or sixteen years after she wrote her first book.”
“I have read those words before but I never dreamed of their significance. Why, Mrs. Eddy states plainly that she considers her first book her ‘precious volume’, and says that it is this first edition that contains her ‘complete statement of Christian Science’. One surely need not seek to correct or to amplify that which one considers ‘complete’.” Then, after a moment’s pause, “Will you tell me where I can obtain a copy of this book that our Leader valued as the greatest of all her editions of the text book?”
“You may be able to procure it from the book shops that specialize in buying and selling old and rare books. You may also read it in some of the public libraries.”
“I certainly shall not rest satisfied until I read a copy. And, to think that I have always been so particular to get the very latest edition!”
“Why?”
“Because I have understood that the latest volume read the clearest and smoothest. Why, I have often heard it remarked that the early editions were crudely written.”
“According to my estimation, metaphysics is not primarily a work on rhetoric. It is a science which states the facts of Life. It may be true that the later editions contain sentences that read more smoothly and are couched in more elegant language, but after all is said, one’s salvation does not depend upon sentences that ‘read smoothly’. One’s salvation does depend upon learning and operating the laws of Life, and you well know that the simpler and plainer a science can be stated the better. A short, clear statement that can be at once grasped and comprehended by the reader will certainly accomplish more good than a statement that is most elegantly and smoothly written, yet, after one has read it, he is forced to ponder and reflect and wonder just what it all means. Don’t you think so?”
“I surely do. I, for one, am ready for plain facts. They can’t be told too simply or bluntly for me, and I yearn for them more than all smoothly written rhetoric in the world. The Bible says to ‘try the spirits’, and this is what I shall do. I have read the late editions of the text book, and now I shall read the early editions and judge for myself which is the meat and which is the milk. Could it be that Mrs. Eddy gave the real meat to the world at first, but later, believing that her statements were too advanced for the times, modified them, thinking that she would by so doing sooner reach the mass of people?”
“Possibly.”
“Mrs. Eddy, we know, wrote the first book unaided,” mused Millicent, “but she tells us that later she employed literary critics to assist in revising her work. Of course, it was these literary ones who put the touch of smoothness to the words. Why, only lately, I heard an advertised practitioner remark that she was a ‘loyal student of Mrs. Eddy’ and that she therefore read only her latest writings. Of course, this implied that anyone who reads the early writings of our Leader is disloyal. I also know of some Christian Science churches whose board of Directors forbid their membership to read the early books. How strange that does seem, now, when I think it over with the truth that you have given me. Why, Mrs. Eddy claimed that she was inspired to write the first book. She says that neither tongue
nor pen taught it to her nor can they overthrow it; and to think that this very book that she, herself, calls ‘precious’ and ‘complete’, some of her very own students are now trying to overthrow, and they count those disloyal who read it. Surely, a great error is being committed. We have been taught that Mrs. Eddy was growing all the time into fuller Truth, and therefore kept revising the text book.”
“I advise you to take Mrs. Eddy as your authority and disregard all advice that is not founded upon her words,” remarked Mr. Williams. “She says, in speaking of her early days: ‘The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life’. Now, the divine hand is ‘without variableness neither shadow of turning’, is it not? Divine law does not change. If Mrs. Eddy gave the world the Truth in 1875 then that is the Truth now. She tells us that she was three years writing this first book. She says that ‘it was not myself, but the divine power of Truth and Love, infinitely above me, which dictated Science and Health. Think of it! Students of Mrs. Eddy today claim that it is disloyal to read this book that she herself says Truth and Love dictated to her. Let us remember always that Mrs. Eddy never claimed to have made the facts of Life. She claims to have discovered them. Facts are such that they can never change. They belong to Life and are changeless. One may change his mind regarding the facts of Life, but no one ever yet lived who could change a single fact of Life. There is no getting around the proposition that Mrs. Eddy considered her wonderful discovery the result of Truth (true thinking) unfolding in her consciousness. She says that she would blush to write of this book ‘were I, apart from God, its author’. Now, we are face to face with the grave question that either Mrs. Eddy told us Truth in her first book or she did not. If she was inspired, as she says, then, it was Truth that she wrote. If what she wrote was not Truth, and should not even be kept in the house today nor read, as some narrow students say, then, our Leader made entirely erroneous claims. If what she wrote at first was not Truth, yet she claimed at the time, that is was Truth, how can we be certain that what she wrote later was Truth?”
As Millicent was very silent the voice went on.
“But I claim that Mrs. Eddy was right; that she did discover the facts of Life; that she told these facts plainly and correctly in the beginning; that tongue nor pen can never overthrow them; that any earnest seeker who is open- minded and unafraid can prove it for himself. There is a vast difference between the first and the late editions. The wonderful plain truths and facts of Being that are written in the first editions do not appear at all in the later editions in plain form, and what does appear of them is stated in such ambiguous terms that several different meanings can be taken from the one statement.
Let me read you some more statements of Truth from this first and precious edition, Mrs. Curtis.”
“Page 77. ‘The final understanding that we are Spirit must come, and we might as well improve our time in solving the so-called mysteries of today on this Principle.’ “Page 155. ‘That we are Spirit and Spirit is God is undeniably true.’
“Page 222. ‘The compound idea named man is unintelligent; it is a lifeless image and reflection of Principle, or Soul.’ I cannot help calling your attention to this wonderfully enlightening statement, Mrs. Curtis. Here, Mrs. Eddy says plainly that man, the idea is a non- intelligent image. Of course, she is speaking of the body. Those Scientists who claim that they are an ‘idea’ are virtually claiming, according to Mrs. Eddy’s definition of idea, that they are non-intelligent and lifeless. Anyone with such a foolish belief about himself can never hope to reach the ultimate understanding, for we well know that the individual is conscious and intelligent.”
Millicent smiled understandingly.
“Page 225. ‘We are Spirit, but not knowing this, we go on to vainly suppose ourself body, and not Soul’.
“Page 260. ‘Christ said, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me”. i.e., understand that I am Intelligence. and that Intelligence is God’.”
“Page 274. ‘Knowing we are Intelligence, and not intelligent matter; Soul and not sense, is the Truth that destroys all sickness, sin and death.’ “Page 294. ‘Sorrow is turned into joy when we become conscious Soul, able to govern the body with Life, Truth and Love.’
“Page 362. ‘To understand their God-given dominion over the body would reassure and encourage the sick and impart healthy action to the body. Knowing their mental power, they would meet sickness as fearlessly as we encounter a swarm of insects that flee from us.’
“Page 414. ‘Ignorance coupled with a smattering of metaphysical learning is a shocking bore.’
“Page 454. ‘We have told you before all is mind; therefore what you term physical effects are purely mental ones’.”
“Wonderful! enlightening! glorious!” exclaimed the woman with deep feeling. “Mrs. Eddy was a more wonderful woman than I ever dreamed. But there are no such plain statements as those in the late editions. I never could understand why there were so many revisions of her book. It never occurred to me that the plain truths were being omitted and Truth veiled and hidden. I can readily conceive that this may have been done so that evil eyes could not see Truth; but as the book stands today, even the honest seeker cannot readily see this great Truth that you read to me from her first book. We certainly do not hear that the great Master made a statement one day and later told his students that what he had uttered to them of Truth was not to be considered anymore. We do not hear that he ever took back a statement that he ever made, or that he revised or changed or altered what he once said was Truth. When Mrs. Eddy revised and changed so repeatedly her statements in the text book, we were told that she was growing into a larger understanding, herself, and that she was inspired each time with newer and fuller ideas of Truth.”
“If one says the Truth today, he need never change it,” declared the man. “Someone has well said: ‘Inspiration is an art that does not improve with practise’. Sooner or later all the world will know the whole truth about the life and work of the great teacher, Mrs. Eddy, and why it appears in some of the latest writings that she recommends her late books to be studied in preference to her early ones. If in one book she tells us that the first edition of Science and Health is ‘complete’ and ‘correct’, and was ‘dictated’ to her ‘by Truth and Love’, and later, in another of her writings, she says that ‘what I wrote on Christian Science some twenty-five years ago I do not consider a precedent for a present student of this Science’, it is not to be wondered that those who do not think things out for themselves have been confused by these contradictory statements; inasmuch as the books of the first and last editions are not at all similar in their plain statements of Truth.”
Millicent shook her head and a troubled look overspread her face.
“Take heart, my friend, and remember the words of the great Master, ‘For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known’.”
After a moment’s pause she asked: “Do you believe that the field is ready for this plainer and fuller Truth?”
“Some are. There are many like yourself who take it in with open arms. There are those who have labored long with the present edition and with the understanding gained therefrom endeavoring to get release from sickness, sorrow and poverty but without success who have since secured their long-looked-for freedom by gaining the understanding of the actual Truth of Being as told in the ‘precious volume’. Again, there are those who will ‘turn and rend you’ for the good that you try to do them. Our Leader also had this attitude to combat, for she says in her third edition, page 122: ‘If you have revelations and discoveries that others have not, and venture them upon the quiet surface of thought, they disturb the waters. your good will be evil spoken of.”
“I think that I understand you, Mr. Williams. You believe that we should do right and that we should not be at all disturbed by anything others say against us. If these dear ones who claim to be ‘loyal followers’ of our Leader would read carefully and thoughtfully the lesson as taught by the Master Teacher it would be well at this period I am sure. These are his words to the one who thought he was doing right in rebuking another who was not his follower: ‘Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can speak evil of me. He that is not against us is on our part’. (Mark 9:38-40.) It was the beloved disciple John who was thus reprimanded by Jesus, inasmuch as John thought that he was doing the cause a service in thrusting out of his path one who was doing the works of Truth, yet who was not joined to his rank. There are leaders today who profess to be followers of the Religion of Love—Christian Science, yet, notwithstanding this unmistakable and paramount example of the Master Metaphysician take the attitude that John took and ‘forbid’ (thrust from their midst) their friends and fellow-workers in the vineyard simply because these workers have broadened their conceptions of Life, have learned and are now preaching the deeper truths that their Leader knew and preached years ago. I am sure that we need love and still more love,” finished Millicent.
“Mrs. Eddy wrote, as I have quoted you before: ‘the final understanding that we are Spirit must come’, yet, as you already see, when we have gained this actual and ultimate understanding that she prophesied would come to us, there are those to whom this understanding has not yet come, who would condemn us, excommunicate us, censure us. I have been through it all. I know. And I have learned to say with Paul, ‘none of these things move me’. Just turn in thought to those who profess to know Truth, yet, who are not living in its fulness the Master’s teachings, and say, ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do’. You and I want to help, not hinder, and we can rejoice and be happy in the fact that only one’s own thought governs one. If your mind is filled with true and loving thoughts all the time, what others say or think about you will not harm you in the least. . Thoughts of criticism, jealousy, revenge must injure only those who think such thoughts, for this is the great law of Life. Only what you think governs and effects you; the wrong that another says about you does not reach you, but in due season rebounds against the thinker. ‘Whatsoever (thoughts) a man soweth (thinketh) that shall he also reap’ (upon himself).”
“You do not, then, believe in animal magnetism or mental malpractice?”
The teacher smiled. “Mrs. Curtis, I have read that a body of eminent men investigated the claim of animal magnetism and found that there was no such animal.”
Millicent laughed aloud. “To be good, to live good, to do good, to serve good is now my whole ambition. I will gladly help those who will let me, and give no heed to those who ‘curse’ or misunderstand me.”
“That is the right mental attitude. To have love for all and to have no fear of sickness or malpractice is to be absolutely immune to both.”
Millicent sat as though in deep thought, then looking squarely at Mr. Williams said: “I should like to ask a question of a different nature, may I?”
“Yes, ask any question,” was the reply.
“Why have you not put this plain understanding of God and man into print so that all might gain this wonderful insight into actual Truth?”
The man answered quietly, “I have already done so, some time ago.”
“You mean that your understanding of Science is in print or in book form?” questioned Millicent, in surprise.
“Yes.”
“Why, I have never heard of it. What is the title of the book?”
“I will explain. For many years, my many friends among the practitioners and teachers of Christian Science have urged me to put my Understanding of Metaphysics into book form so that they might gain the same understanding and have the same uniform success in healing that I have. I spent several years in writing the book and the title is The Sickle.”
“The Sickle, ” echoed Millicent, then added, “What a peculiar title.”
Mr. Williams reached over to his desk and picked up a morocco-bound book, saying, “Here it is. Four hundred pages of the most enlightening spiritual Truth in print today. Take it and read it, and then let me know if the title fits the book. It is for the fearless thinkers only. I have not advertised it broad cast, for the field of Science is still asleep in its blind belief. The very plainness of the book might make the timid ones more fearful, because the plain facts of Life are startling to blind believers; but those who are searching for a clearer understanding of the text book Science and Health and want the ‘meat of the Word’ are delighted with this book.”
Millicent took the book in her hands and read aloud from the cover of the book, “‘Thrust in thy sickle and reap.’ Rev. 14:15. This certainly sounds interesting.” Opening the book, she began to eagerly scan the pages. “Why, here is something on page 70, the very explanation that you have been giving me,” and she read aloud: “‘Life or God is one Intelligence of which all are an inseparable part, and all are unfolding perfection, the ultimate of all Being. This is done through right thought’. Yes, that is what I want to learn,” commented she, “I want to learn how to think right thoughts all the time and I want to learn what are the right thoughts to think.”
“I see that you have several pages of quotations from the early editions of Science and Health? continued she; “I am going to have a feast with this book I am certain. Here is a bit of reasoning that just suits me on page 158: “The mentality that you are, possesses every quality and faculty that God possesses. You can reason, you can think, you can remember, you can understand, you can judge. Having all that Wisdom is or can bestow, if you still remain in ignorance, this ignorance cannot rightly be laid at the door of Wisdom, God’.” Millicent paused to remark, “This is what I want—wisdom, and if as you say, this book will give me a practical understanding of Life, I surely shall rejoice; for as Solomon said: ‘Get Wisdom. Get Understanding’.
How many live as it were in a circle, thinking the same thoughts, reading the same things with the same sense of what they read, day after day. There is surely no longer any need of anyone remaining in the dark; if they are searching for understanding and fuller light, let them read and study this book. I’m counting upon getting a more complete understanding of Christian Science than I have ever had before. I can hardly wait to be alone; there is so much in store for me,” continued she, turning over the leaves in the book until something arrested her attention and again she read aloud, this time from page 161: “‘It has been discovered and proved that wrong thinking is the source and cause of disease, as well as of all other ills to which the flesh is heir, and that a change in thought, from wrong convictions to right convictions, produces a corresponding change in the conditions of the body and the environment. It has been discovered and proved that the only real curative agent is right thought, understanding, Mind. That to enlighten the individual, mentality to the point of understanding, with the actual Truth about any disease, is to make whole, or permanently heal that individual’.”
They both were silent for a few moments, each happy in his own thoughts. Millicent was the first to speak: “I am sure that what you have told me today will sink deep into my soul and will enrich and glorify my understanding, and I trust that The Sickle will also help me understand Life aright. I need not ask if I may have another and deeper talk with you for I already know your reply.” “And I repeat,” answered Mr. Williams, “when you attempt to spread the plain Truth and meet with ridicule and rebuke, remember the words of Mrs. Eddy: ‘If you have revelations and discoveries that others have not, and venture them upon the quiet surface of thought, they disturb the waters, your good will be evil spoken of.’ But go right on with the good work, my friend, for some of the seed will fall into good ground and will produce a hundredfold.”
The End