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the belief that Mary was the mother of God deny the self-existence of God? And does not the doctrine that Mohammed is the only prophet of God infringe the sacredness of one Christ Jesus?

      Scientific Christianity Means One God

      Christianity, as taught and demonstrated in the first century by our great Master, virtually annulled the so-called laws of matter, idolatry, pantheism, and polytheism. Christianity then had one God and one law, namely, divine Science. It said, “Call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” Speaking of himself, Jesus said, “My Father is greater than I.” Christianity, as he taught and demonstrated it, must ever rest on the basis of the First Commandment and love for man.

      The doctrines that embrace pantheism, polytheism, and paganism are admixtures of matter and Spirit, truth and error, sickness and sin, life and death. They make man the servant of matter, living by reason of it, suffering because of it, and dying in consequence of it. They ​constantly reiterate the belief of pantheism, that mind “sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the animal, and wakes in man.”

      “Infinite Spirit” means one God and His creation, and no reality in aught else. The term “spirits” means more than one Spirit;—in paganism they stand for gods; in spiritualism they imply men and women; and in Christianity they signify a good Spirit and an evil spirit.

      Is there a religion under the sun that hath demonstrated one God and the four first rules pertaining thereto, namely, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me;” “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;” “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John xi. 26.)

      What mortal to-day is wise enough to do himself no harm, to hinder not the attainment of scientific Christianity? Whoever demonstrates the highest humanity—long-suffering, self-surrender, and spiritual endeavor to bless others—ought to be aided, not hindered, in his holy mission. I would kiss the feet of such a messenger, for to help such a one is to help one's self. The demonstration of Christianity blesses all mankind. It loves one's neighbor as one's self; it loves its enemies—and this love benefits its enemies (though they believe it not), and rewards its possessor; for, “If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?”

      Man the True Image of God

      From a material standpoint, the best of people sometimes object to the philosophy of Christian Science, on the ​ground that it takes away man's personality and makes man less than man. But what saith the apostle?—even this: “If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” The great Nazarene Prophet said, “By their fruits ye shall know them:” then, if the effects of Christian Science on the lives of men be thus judged, we are sure the honest verdict of humanity will attest its uplifting power, and prevail over the opposite notion that Christian Science lessens man's individuality.

      The students at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, generally, were the average man and woman. But after graduation, the best students in the class averred that they were stronger and better than before it. With twelve lessons or less, the present and future of those students had wonderfully broadened and brightened before them, thus proving the utility of what they had been taught. Christian Scientists heal functional, organic, chronic, and acute diseases that M.D.'s have failed to heal; and, better still, they reform desperate cases of intemperance, tobacco using, and immorality, which, we regret to say, other religious teachers are unable to effect. All this is accomplished by the grace of God—the effect of God understood. A higher manhood is manifest, and never lost, in that individual who finds the highest joy—therefore no pleasure in loathsome habits or in sin, and no necessity for disease and death. Whatever promotes statuesque being, health, and holiness does not degrade man's personality. Sin, sickness, appetites, and passions, constitute no part of man, but obscure man. Therefore it ​required the divinity of our Master to perceive the real man, and to cast out the unreal or counterfeit. It caused St. Paul to write—“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.”

      Was our Master mistaken in judging a cause by its effects? Shall the opinions, systems, doctrines, and dogmas of men gauge the animus of man? or shall his stature in Christ, Truth, declare him? Governed by the divine Principle of his being, man is perfect. When will the schools allow mortals to turn from clay to Soul for the model? The Science of being, understood and obeyed, will demonstrate man to be superior to the best church-member or moralist on earth, who understands not this Science. If man is spiritually fallen, it matters not what he believes; he is not upright, and must regain his native spiritual stature in order to be in proper shape, as certainly as the man who falls physically needs to rise again.

      Mortals, content with something less than perfection—the original standard of man—may believe that evil develops good, and that whatever strips off evil's disguise belittles man's personality. But God enables us to know that evil is not the medium of good, and that good supreme destroys all sense of evil, obliterates the lost image that mortals are content to call man, and demands man's unfallen spiritual perfectibility.

      The grand realism that man is the true image of God, not fallen or inverted, is demonstrated by Christian Science. And because Christ's dear demand, “Be ye therefore ​perfect,” is valid, it will be found possible to fulfil it. Then also will it be learned that good is not educed from evil,but comes from the rejection of evil and its modus operandi. Our scholarly expositor of the Scriptures, Lyman Abbott, D.D., writes, “God, Spirit, is ever in universal nature.” Then, we naturally ask, how can Spirit be constantly passing out of mankind by death—for the universe includes man?

      The Grandeur of Christianity

      This closing century, and its successors, will make strong claims on religion, and demand that the inspired Scriptural commands be fulfilled. The altitude of Christianity openeth, high above the so-called laws of matter, a door that no man can shut; it showeth to all peoples the way of escape from sin, disease, and death; it lifteth the burden of sharp experience from off the heart of humanity, and so lighteth the path that he who entereth it may run and not weary, and walk, not wait by the roadside—yea, pass gently on without the alterative agonies whereby the way-seeker gains and points the path.

      The Science of Christianity is strictly monotheism—it has ONE GOD. And this divine infinite Principle, noumenon and phenomena, is demonstrably the self-existent Life, Truth, Love, substance. Spirit, Mind, which includes all that the term implies, and is all that is real and eternal. Christian Science is irrevocable—unpierced by bold conjecture's sharp point, by bald philosophy, or by man's inventions. It is divinely true, and every hour ​in time and in eternity will witness more steadfastly to its practical truth. And Science is not pantheism, but Christian Science.

      Chief among the questions herein, and nearest my heart, is this: When shall Christianity be demonstrated according to Christ, in these words: “Neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you”?

      Exhortation

      Beloved brethren, the love of our loving Lord was never more manifest than in its stern condemnation of all error, wherever found. I counsel thee, rebuke and exhort one another. Love all Christian churches for the gospel's sake; and be exceedingly glad that the churches are united in purpose, if not in method, to close the war between flesh and Spirit, and to fight the good fight till God's will be witnessed and done on earth as in heaven.

      Sooner or later all shall know Him, recognize the great truth that Spirit is infinite, and find life in Him in whom we do “live, and move, and have our being”—life in Life, all in All. Then shall all nations, peoples, and tongues, in the words of St. Paul, have “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians iv. 6.)

      Have I wearied you with the mysticism of opposites? Truly there is no rest in them, and I have only traversed my subject that you may prove for yourselves the ​unsubstantial nature of whatever is unlike good, weigh a sigh, and rise into the rest of righteousness with its triumphant train.

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