Footsteps Of His Flock®

Tell me, O thou when my soul loveth, where thou feedest,
where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one
that turneth aside by the flocks of they companions?
The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meekness selflessness and love
are the paths of his testimony and the footsteps of His flock.
(Rudimental Divine Science by Mary Baker Eddy)

THIS COUNTRY IS A TRUE REPUBLIC
“With regard to the election (for president), it is simply the test that this country is once again putting itself as to whether America is really the land of equal opportunity, which is the true Republican ideal, or the Democratic concept. Equality would reduce all to a common level, whereas equality of opportunity lifts all to the very highest if he will avail himself of the opportunity to go forward. I cannot go into this subject fully because it is far reaching . . . This country is not a Democracy; it is a true Republic.
Letter written 12/7/1932 by Herbert W. Eustace.

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For the week of November 17th through 23rd in 2024.
There were no CS Monitors printed on Sunday November 19th in 1916.
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Principle Makes Immortal

Written for The Christian Science Monitor
November 17, 1917

IT IS related of Washington that he trained himself in his youth to be exact, a training that was but the outcome of his love of honesty. Right was attractive to him for is own sake. This was also true of Abraham Lincoln. Though their youthful environment was different, love of honesty was as dominant a factor in character building with Lincoln as it was with Washington. The story of the hatchet and the cherry tree in which Washington figured, and the nickname “Honest Abe” as applied to Lincoln, became popular because they agreed so well with the characters of both of these men. It was evident, therefore, that they were guided by right desires, that is by Principle. This becomes even more apparent to us if we try to realize how meaningless their lives would become if this adherence to right, that is to Principle, were to be subtracted therefrom. Now it is plain that nothing is immortal unless its identity is established in God, in divine Mind or Principle, for God being the only cause or creator must be the source of all that really is. In so far, then, as Washington and Lincoln had each a high sense of right and were faithful in following it they were dominated by divine Principle, and, being so dominated, their words and deeds naturally partook of the immortality that belongs to Principle.
The world is prone, in its false estimate of honor, to forget the true mental preparation required in order to obtain immortal success—a success that is always based upon some degree of spiritual understanding. For instance, much has been said of Lincoln’s rail-splitting, and of his nights spent in study by the light of a tallow dip or a pine knot. Yet have there not been hosts of other men, who made similar efforts to succeed and become famous, who did not attain any noticeable degree of enduring success? So it was not environment that made either Washington or Lincoln great, neither was it their desire for knowledge. It was purity of motive, and purity of motive is just faith in the final victory of good over evil. Because Washington and Lincoln were glad to submit themselves to Principle, long before they could have thought of the White House, they were preparing themselves for duties and victories that could not have been achieved otherwise. Right here is where carnal or mortal mind seems to mesmerize mortals to their own undoing, for it constantly seeks place and power without being willing to submit to Principle to be properly trained therefor. The material ends are magnified until Principle is lost to view, and nothing is left but a purely selfish struggle as to who shall be the greatest. Out of this selfishness nothing can deliver us but sufficient suffering to make us willing to forsake the landmarks of illusive sense perception, or, as Science and Health says (p. 370), “To be immortal, we must forsake the mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being from the divine Mind.”
Now what is true of Washington and Lincoln, so far as the mental preparation for their great duties is concerned, is also true in even a greater degree of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and the author of its textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” The discovery of the Principle of divine healing did not come to one who was not mentally prepared to receive it. If we wish to convince ourselves on this point we have only to read the history of Mrs. Eddy’s life. Among biographies we shall find “The Life of Mary Baker Eddy” by Sibyl Wilbur most worthy of a careful perusal. Throughout the days of her youth we find Mrs. Eddy making persistent efforts to be exact in her understanding of God, a most unusual thing to do when one remembers the world’s heterogeneous reasoning upon all subjects that pertain to Deity. The world, of course, was then and is now lost in a chaos of material reasoning about spiritual things, attempting to hold the impossible position that God, Spirit, can be apprehended through matter.
Taking the ignorant postulate that matter is real, that it is power, that it has life and intelligence, the world, alias material sense, virtually seeks to reduce God, Spirit, to next to nothing. Thus it maintains a deadly circle of reasoning in which sin and disease, birth, death and decay are recognized as the only constant factors, the factors that claim to produce a so-called mortal man. But the position of the real man, the immortal man of God’s creating, is one of spiritual understanding, of light and not of darkness, for through the aid of Christian Science he reasons not from a material basis but from the basis of Principle, that is, of right, and right, let it be emphasized, is always spiritual. Therefore instead of remaining in a deadly circle of materiality he is lifted out of it into spirituality. Thus he not only helps himself, he invariably encourages others to do likewise, and herein lies the true reason for the enduring fame of such individuals as Washington, Lincoln and Mrs. Eddy. Christ Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” That is if Truth, Principle, is made number one in our lives, in our thinking and acting, thus overcoming the fleshly desires and motives (crucifying the flesh as Paul intimated) we shall not only lift ourselves above matter, we shall inspire all those that perceive our motives to do likewise. Therefore every human life that touches the hem of immortality becomes an inspiration and thus helps to lift mankind above matter into Spirit. Immortality, then, is a thing of today—of this very moment. It is to obtain and retain a correct mental attitude, a right metaphysical standard such as only Christian Science gives to us.
Christian Science makes it plain to us how we may apply divine Principle to all of the affairs of life so that our viewpoint is changed and failure becomes success while disease is exchanged for health. When the understanding of Christian Science becomes more general, lives that are governed by Principle, by spiritual light and not by darkness, will become more numerous and the effulgence of immortality will be seen everywhere, even as Jeremiah says: “They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”

Psychology

Written for The Christian Science Monitor
November 18, 1916

THE spiritual fact of the unity of good is counterfeited in the material supposition of the unity of evil. Of course the human senses do not define matter as evil. But inasmuch as matter is the antithesis of Spirit, it follows, by a very simple process of deduction, that if Spirit is good, matter must be evil. These human senses, being themselves material, naturally quarrel with the very simplicity of this logic, and have laboriously built up a philosophic system which with great ingenuity, now this way and now that way, entangles the two opposites so satisfactorily to itself as to arrive, by some argument of the identity of contraries, at the sufficiently surprising result which it sums up in the apophthegm that “Spirit is the ultimate of matter,” in other words, that the physical universe proceeds from a spiritual First Cause.
This is a sufficiently remarkable doctrine to have been evolved from the Johannine repetition of Christ Jesus’ saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” to say nothing of the Pauline declaration, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Still it has been fathered by orthodox theology, and is, indeed, a necessary conclusion from the dogma of the divine creation of the human body and human mind. For the theologian who has once accepted this premise there is no possible escape. The Science of being becomes biology; the Science of Mind, human psychology; and so he defines this latter in his dictionaries as, “the science of the nature, functions, and phenomena of the human soul or mind.” In that definition is preserved the germ of the theory of the unity of matter. Mrs. Eddy, with far greater discernment, explained psychology as the Science of Spirit, of God, and so of divine Mind.
In giving this explanation Mrs. Eddy was, of course, referring to the suppositional material counterfeit of good, summed up, in her own words, on page 60 of “Miscellaneous Writings,” “Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand.” Psychology, then, in the light of Christian Science, passes from the category of those supposititious material phenomena, comprehended in the unity of matter, into a spiritual manifestation of divine Mind included in the unity of good. In other words, spiritual and not material psychology stands revealed as the Science of being, and on the understanding of this Science is found to be dependent the ability to heal the sick, since, as Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 369 of Science and Health, “The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood.”
The term psychology is, of course, a compound of two Greek words, which mean respectively soul and word. It must be remembered, however, that the Greek word for soul has no spiritual significance whatever. It refers to the purely animal instinct of material life which is common at once to the vegetable and the viper, to the mollusc and the man. It means, in short, animate as opposed to inanimate matter, and is, consequently, quite naturally expressive of the so-called science of physical existence. Now if, as Mrs. Eddy insists, and as every person who has ever demonstrated the truth of Christian Science has proved, “Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality,” then it follows that this material psychology is the counterfeit of a spiritual psychology or Science of Soul, in which Soul, as Mrs. Eddy has explained, ceases to be understood as a mere expression of animal life, and is revealed as one of the synonyms of God or Spirit. Then as God must, in the very necessity of things, be Principle, psychology becomes the Science of divine Principle, and passing finally and irrevocably out of the catalogue of mere relative truths or pseudo science, is, as has already been said, revealed as the only absolute or true Science, the Science of being, of God, Spirit, or Soul, in a single word, of Principle.
This is the psychological moment, in the true sense of that expression, so far, that is to say, as a relative expression can possess a true significance, for it is, by that very contradiction of terms, which marks the translation of material phrases into spiritual expression, eternity. Even in human language the psychological moment does not mean anything so illogically futile as the correct moment or the exactly chosen moment. It means the moment in which the human mind is in actual expectation of something that is to happen. The divine Mind, however, being at once omniscient and omnipresent can have no such moments of dawning anticipation or expectation. Its knowledge fills all space, and has existed throughout all time. Thus, to refer once more to the quotation already made from Mrs. Eddy’s “Miscellaneous Writings,” if this manifestation of material belief is reversed, the psychological moment will be seen to be continuous, and in that discovery will be found the indication of a priceless verity.
This verity, also, as Mrs. Eddy indicates, will be found not to be afar off, but to be at hand. Between the real and the unreal, the scientific and the unscientific, there is not a great material gulf fixed in space. If material phenomena are unreal there is no gulf at all between them and the real, they are simply not there. If true phenomena are the ideas of divine Mind, then the apparent material counterfeits of these have only a suppositious existence. This was surely what Christ Jesus meant when he banished the kingdom of heaven as a locality hidden, beyond space, in the clouds. “The kingdom of God,” he declared, “is within you,” or is in your midst. The kingdom of God, or harmony, in other words, is not a material externalization, it is a spiritual and mental concept, and as such is reflected in that divine idea which is a man’s true self. The kingdom of God is not afar off, for the divine Mind is omnipresent. Therefore, the kingdom of God is everywhere, and so, all unconsciously, to the very counterfeit of the sons and daughters of God, is in their very midst. This is the Science of Spirit, the psychology of Soul.

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There were no CS Monitors printed on Sunday November 19th in 1916.
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Begin to Know God

Written for The Christian Science Monitor
November 20, 1916

IN THE beginning God created the heaven and the earth” are the opening words of the Bible. Human philosophy has propounded many questions as to the how, the when and the why of creation, as to what God is and what men are and whether it is possible to know God.
Mrs. Eddy has explained on page 502 of Science and Health, the textbook of Christian Science, “The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only,—that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe. The creative Principle—Life, Truth, and Love—is God. The universe reflects God.” It is therefore clear that to understand the first verse in Genesis it is necessary to have a right idea of what God is, and to gain somewhat of this understanding is the only beginning. To perceive spiritually that God is Life, Truth, and Love unfolds creation, which is, of course, necessarily spiritual, because the only creator, God, is Spirit.
Now to gain this understanding is to work both of and for eternity, because God is infinite, but a beginning can be made by any man, at any moment, anywhere, because there is no place where God is not. David, it the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm says: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? . . . If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” And so the great enterprise which leads to, at present, unimaginable heights, as well as to immediate practical results, and which confronts each individual daily, is to make this beginning. There is no reader of this article who would not be the better for knowing more of God, divine Principle, and it may truthfully be said that just in proportion as he gives devotion, time and attention to a scientific study of God and of man in God’s image, putting into practice at the same time the rules found all through the Christian Science textbook, he will find that this beginning and continuing is, indeed—the only—the great worth while and practical fact.
Again, on page 275 of Science and Health there is a further explanation: “To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine at one,—and are the Scriptural names for God.” Now the Bible is full of records of those who have entered upon this beginning. Enoch walked with God, proving that he had learnt to understand God as Life; he walked, that is, progressed, gently and calmly guided along the road up to the demonstration of Life eternal. The first recorded words of Jesus the Christ, “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” express his concept of beginning. The Father’s business was the one subject of importance; he was a true divinity student, and, though it is recorded that all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers, yet it was not until after eighteen more years of preparation that his public ministry began. The teaching by Jesus about God as given in the four gospels and the demonstration by himself and his followers of the truth of that teaching, when he pointed them to his works rather than to his words, began the Christian era.
The understanding of the heavenly Father as Life expressed by Christ Jesus before the tomb of Lazarus, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always:” brought forth him who had been dead four days. No material condition could prevent him from hearing the “Lazarus, come forth.” That command originated in the understanding of God as Life healing always the real man, he who is made in the divine image and likeness.
The great Teacher’s understanding of God as Spirit and of man as spiritual is shown in the beatitude, where he declares that it is the pure in heart who see God. It was also perfectly and absolutely exemplified in the ascension, that wondrous demonstration of Life, crowning a life spent in proving that Spirit is the reality, and that the so-called laws of matter are the unreality, which can be overcome. The announcement of the ascension sent through Mary Magdalene to his brethren, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God,” expresses clearly the eternal unity of God and man. The Wayshower understood God as Truth when he declared to Pilate that he had actually been born for the experience through which he was passing, as in that way only could he bear witness to the truth before the world. The three years spent in the healing of sickness, sin and sorrow bore irrefutable testimony to the understanding of the truth of being which Jesus lived and taught.
This faithful friend of humanity expressed the clear perception of Love as God; for to love God with all the heart and with all the mind was his spiritual summing up of the First Commandment. Knowing that fear and sensuality or love of self are cast out by Love, divine Principle, the Master was ever leading the way to the understanding of divine Love by denial of self, demanding that even the right hand be cut off if it offend, but he said: “I can of mine own self do nothing,” “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do,” thus leading his hearers to see that the real man is not material but is spiritual, the reflection or expression of the Father, ever present divine Love, or Principle.
It would be difficult to overestimate the gratitude due today to Mrs. Eddy, the Founder and Discoverer of Christian Science, for the simple yet scientific instructions which she has given to the world, showing how to make a beginning which many thousands of the most enlightened of the human race today are proving leads to health, happiness and holiness.

Mind is Omnipotent

Written for The Christian Science Monitor
November 21, 1916

SOMETIMES it is remarked that in Christian Science God is very frequently referred to as Mind. It is true to say that Mind is used by Mrs. Eddy as a synonym for Deity constantly throughout her writings. It is a most expressive word, conveying to the human consciousness information regarding ever so many phases of the divine nature. Mrs. Eddy uses also as names for God, among others, the words Spirit, Soul, Truth, Life, Love, and Principle. And each of these is valuable because of the light it tends to throw on the nature of the Supreme Being.
Christian Science declares that God is infinite; and since God is Mind, Mind is infinite. Therefore there is only one Mind. This spiritual truth is one which is not apprehended in the slightest degree by the so-called material senses of men. Indeed the general belief is that intelligence is contained in matter and is controlled by matter. Human beings may even believe very strongly that the human mind originates in what they call nerve-substance, and that it is dependent upon this substance and is destroyed as the substance perishes. But if there is only one Mind, what is to be thought of such reasoning?
Now to admit that there is only one Mind means that everything that exists is created by Mind; or, in other words, that creation is the expression of the one Mind. This creation must be like unto that which creates it; it is therefore spiritual. Hence the real creation is the universe of Mind’s spiritual ideas. And, further, there is only one such creation. The so-called material creation is not the product of Mind; it is the counterfeit of the real spiritual creation; the so-called material universe is, from the tiniest atom to the greatest sun, a false belief or concept of the human mind, with no more reality about it than the fallacy that two straight lines can inclose a space. The real spiritual creation is perfect; it never needs readjusting; it does not change in any way; it was always the same and will ever remain so. The real universe has existed eternally and will continue to exist eternally, because God is infinite Mind. What a vista is opened up when God is understood to be the one infinite Mind. Intelligence unlimited: spiritual ideas, infinite in number, obeying the mandates of Mind in harmony which is unbroken, each the servant of every other, all of them necessary to complete the infinite whole, all of them indestructible as the Mind which knows them! How simply does Mrs. Eddy write of it on page 206 of Science and Health: “Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes and subsequently correct them.”
It is a very simple conclusion to draw that Mind is omnipotent. It follows directly from the fact that Mind is infinite. But what a far-reaching truth it is to mortals. It conveys the good news that the divine Mind, which is omnipresent, being the only real power that exists is all-powerful. As has been indicated, the material sense of creation is false; but this false belief seems to result in others which go by the names of disease and sin. Human existence is literally honeycombed with such errors which tend to undermine the happiness of mankind. Is there a way out of them? Is it possible for a man to liberate himself from them? Is it possible for the world to free itself from the bondage of false belief which kindles perhaps the fire of hatred and revenge, and lets loose the worst passions of men? The liberation of the individual and of nations can come about in only one way, and that by gaining the spiritual understanding of the one Mind. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (page 469), “Mind is God.” Then she continued: “The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind—called devil or evil—is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality.”
The one Mind, then, is infinite good. Consequently good is omnipotent. That is one of the wonderful revelations which Christian Science has brought to the world. Everywhere continually operative as spiritual law is the divine Principle, infinite good. What mortals call evil and practice as sin is the false belief that good is not omnipresent and omnipotent. The problem which presents itself to every man is so to understand, so to realize the omnipresence of good that the false belief in the reality and power of evil may be got rid of as quickly as possible. What a comfort to know that evil is nonintelligent. Divine Mind knows of no creation but His own; and so-called evil is entirely unknown to Him.
There is another kind of error which yields proportionably as the spiritual understanding of the omnipotence of Mind is gained. It is the belief of disease. People often wonder how Christian Science heals. They think sometimes that the healings come about through the action of one human mind on another human mind. But that is quite a mistake. It is always Truth that heals in Christian Science. The healing comes about precisely as the omnipotence of Mind is spiritually understood. As a man perceives that Mind is the only power, that spiritual law is the only law, that good is the only presence, he, according to the measure of his knowledge, loses the false belief that evil or disease possesses either power or presence. In healing through Truth, one remembers that Mind has to be acknowledged as supreme, and that it is material belief that is destroyed.
It was John who wrote: “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” And Christian Science explains to humanity the way in which God, as Mind, holds sway over the entire spiritual creation. Christian Science, in every demonstration it enables men to make over the belief of evil, proves that Mind is omnipotent.

Deeply Rooted

Written for The Christian Science Monitor
November 22, 1916

THE figure of the tree has enriched all religion and all literature, has taught lessons of beauty to all peoples. It types the ideal in character and offers the symbol of much that is desirable in human life. From the “tree” in the book of Genesis to the tree the leaves of which were for “the healing of the nations” in the Revelation of Saint John, the Scriptures contain many references to the loveliness of this metaphor, and its simple lessons have taught their truth to many hearts. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, longing “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,” wrote further to them,—“that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” And the figure in this form appeals with force to the man who wants to be better than he is, for it shows him how to go about it.
To be rooted and grounded is to draw strength from the sources of sustenance; is to be secured against tempest and drought; is to insure flower and fruitage. The tree looks to its roots, rather than to the outer appearance of leaf and blossom, for its vitality and its growth. All that is visible above the surface of the earth is just the effect of the unseen roots, and the strength and beauty of the tree are according to the vigor with which the roots lay hold of that from which the whole tree springs. Upon page 54 of the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs. Eddy writes, “All must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true idea of God.” And again upon page 222 she declares, “We must destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and perfect.” So planted, the man who wants to be better than he used to be finds a new tree springing in his thoughts, a tree of spiritual understanding, the roots of which are fixed in Spirit, divine Mind, not in matter; a tree that will, in the course of its growth, do what the prophet foresaw for Israel, “blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit,” because it is rooted in infinity.
Christian Science teaches that God is divine Mind, divine Principle, divine Love, and Life, and Truth, everywhere present and all powerful. It teaches that man is the idea of this divine Mind; spiritual idea because divine Mind is Spirit; perfect idea because the Mind is perfect; infinite eternal indestructible idea, because divine Mind, its origin and source, is infinite and undestroyable. In absolute truth God is the infinite cause from which spiritual man and the spiritual universe spring; so that spiritual man and universe are in reality and in their entirety the “tree” rooted and grounded in God—the full and perfect expression of the one creator, God. Christian Science teaches furthermore that the material man as he appears, is a counterfeit of man as he is, spiritual and perfect; and so that matter with all the paraphernalia of its supposed existence is an evil tree which never has had its roots in God. The fruits of sin, sickness and death spring not from spiritual sources. The roots must be evil which produce evil fruit; the roots good which produce good fruit. And so Christian Science separates the fruit of the flesh from the fruit of the Spirit by separating that which has root in the flesh from that which has root in Spirit. It cuts to the source, and shows logically that the divine Mind creates spiritual man, while the falsity, or material sense, what Paul called the carnal mind and Mrs. Eddy calls mortal mind, puts forth its material man. And it reveals that there truly is but one man, the spiritual one, for that which has not its root in Spirit is but a passing mistaken temporal sense of man and of manhood that must eventually wither away for lack of true and enduring root.
Then how does that mortal who wants to be better than he used to be, happier and healthier than he used to be, go about it through Christian Science? First, he chooses the fruit of the Spirit; and then he “plants” himself in spiritual understanding, knowing he must root every conscious thought in Truth if he hopes for spiritual fruit. When he learns that health and happiness grow from spiritual understanding he strikes deeper and deeper mental root into the knowledge of God as Spirit and man as spiritual, and he clings to this and lets it nourish his daily outlook as devotedly as the gardener plants his tree in proper soil and guards its first growths from storm or drought. Because the tree of evil, of heredity, temperament, environment, accident, circumstance, is only human belief and not a growth from God, it has less and less vitality to appear in human consciousness. It is counteracted by the sturdy roots of divine understanding which draw spiritual strength from God and put forth trunk and branch of righteousness. Refusing to believe that evil, matter, sin, sickness and death, have origin in God or derive sustenance from Him, refusing to grant them power or place, withers the supposed roots of all things erroneous. In truth, to know there is no mortal, or carnal mind, because the ever-present divine Mind is the only Mind there is, takes from the tree of evil any soil to grow in; and it withers away because wrong-thinking no longer supports it.
So the enlightened Christian, taught by Christian Science that in reality good is power and evil is not power, strikes deeper root in God for every storm that assails him. Winds to break him, suns to scorch him, leave him stronger in his soil of Truth, richer in its nourishment of him, straighter and larger-grown with what it supplies him. Whatever sends his roots more firmly downward, multiplies his leaf and blossoming. So grow he must, until he, like the Israel of the prophet, shall fill the face of the world with all good fruit.
In Mrs. Eddy’s poem, “The Oak on the Mountain’s Summit” (published upon page 392 of Miscellaneous Writings), we can read her tribute to the lovely figure of the tree:

“Faithful and patient be my life as thine;
As strong to wrestle with the storms of time;
As deeply rooted in a soil of love;
As grandly rising to the heavens above.”

Confidence in Truth

Written for The Christian Science Monitor
November 23, 1916

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE inspires a confidence in Truth which is quite inexplicable to those who have not learned something about its teaching. From the first moment a man through Christian Science gains a slight understanding of Truth he experiences that confidence which makes him feel as if he were standing on solid rock. Indeed, he is standing on an absolutely solid spiritual foundation as he possesses that knowledge of Truth which is accurate and scientific. Christ Jesus once stated that a man is wise who builds his house upon a rock. The Master’s words were:—“Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” The teaching of Christ Jesus is accepted wholly as the truth by Christian Science; and Christian Science by its declarations about the nature of God, Truth or reality, enables a man to understand the message of the Galilean prophet, and in the measure of his understanding to utilize the power of Spirit or Truth in his daily life.
Now, as Christian Science teaches, God or Truth is infinite. What a tremendously important and far-reaching statement is this. Truth is infinite! Truth is therefore all there is in reality. There is nothing real outside of Truth. Go where a man may, there is nothing to be found in reality but Truth. Because Truth is infinite, Truth is omnipotent; there is no real power other than the power of Truth. And Truth which is always the same unchangeable substance is infinite God. These spiritual facts are recognized by Christian Science. Can there be any doubt as to the reason of the confidence in Truth which Christian Science inspires? But the human mind is incredulous as to Truth’s omnipotence and omnipresence. It would argue that Truth is not All-in-all. Is not error real, it asks, for do not the physical senses of men tell about evil, inharmony, disease? Christian Science replies that the so-called material or physical senses never inform a man of Truth, of Mind or reality, that they never catch the faintest glimpse of Truth, that they are altogether opaque to the rays of the truth which emanates everywhere here from the divine Mind; and that in consequence all they seem to tell mortals is untrue or unreal, is false belief without a single iota of the truth to redeem its utter vacuity. Only spiritual sense can reveal Truth; and only spiritual sense can expose the nothingness of the supposititious opposite of Truth. Writing on pages 367-368 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: “Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth’s opposite, has no might. Evil is but the counterpoise of nothingness.” And a little further on, on the latter page, occur the words: “The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal.”
Sometimes one hears it said that the absoluteness of Christian Science renders it impossible as a practical religion. There never was fallacy greater than that. It is because Christian Science states the truth so uncompromisingly, so absolutely, that many today are finding it to be the most practical religious or metaphysical system extant and far beyond any expectation they ever cherished. Truth, as revealed by Christian Science, has healed all manner of disease, has lifted men who were believing themselves the slaves of vice into purity of thought and nobility of purpose, has broken to pieces time and again the false fears of thousands; wherever Truth is really known, healing follows. Let a human being put what he knows of Truth into practice, never doubting, and let him note the result. As surely as he places his confidence in Truth, as surely, that is, as he trusts or has faith in Truth, he will demonstrate its power and prove to himself the trustworthiness of the revelation of Christian Science. And with every demonstration of the power of Truth confidence in Truth becomes more firmly established.
What magnificent confidence in Truth is implied in these words of Jesus: “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him”; and “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Spiritual understanding establishes faith on an unshakable basis; and such faith, so far above all mere belief, is to human consciousness the knowledge of real substance, and it reveals the intimate relationship that exists between God and man as Principle and idea.
Usually men do not doubt the workings of the relative rules which are believed to control mundane affairs. For example, through practice of the rules underlying numerical relationships, they gain complete confidence in these rules and apply them constantly with satisfactory results. The astronomer, by the application of more advanced rules, including trigonometrical ratios, can calculate, comparatively correctly, immense distances and compute the sizes of bodies situated to mortal sense far away in the depths of space. These are analogous to the application of the knowledge of divine Principle. Divine Principle or Truth is absolutely reliable, and the understanding of it destroys all that is underived from Principle.
John writes: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” God who is Truth is also Love. Here, once more, is surely cause for confidence in God. Love is omnipresent. Can infinite divine Love do less than bestow all good? But to obtain the blessings of divine Love, one must have confidence in Love’s omnipotence. Love that never slumbers protects His own spiritual creation; and spiritual man is thus forever safe. “‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!’ expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, ‘Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!’ demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.” (Science and Health, p. 23.)

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