A sign; instruction in the scientific method of right thinking, the principle of true prayer

Contents

Chapter

Page

I. The standard of perfection.

Chapter I THE STANDARD OF PERFECTION

A call to higher motives is the underlying trend of thought to-day. Mankind has for ages struggled under self-imposed subjugation to the mythology of evil. Believing evil to be good constitutes the only fabric of its existence, and this existence but a fable, not a fact.

Struggling to obtain good, we have hitherto been led by our conscience, which is not a safe guide as it depends upon our training and environment. We now have an accurate standard by which to gauge every thought. This standard is absolute perfection, God and His manifestation. "I am the Lord thy God, . . . Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:2, 3).

Obedience to this standard of absolute perfection precedes the invariable manifestation of good. In response to right thinking — thinking of perfection — good must follow. This covenant is referred to throughout the Bible, and cannot be broken, because it is the everlasting covenant between God, the Principle of good, and man, His manifestation. "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips" (Ps. 89:34).

1 So sure is the omnipotence of this Principle of good that if you will lose all sense of a material world by actively dwelling in thought upon God and heaven, you will be helped in some way in-

5 stantaneously. No one can doubt this when the nature of Principle is understood. What we want for freedom and happiness is knowledge, understanding of God, absolute good.

10 THE OBJECT OF LIFE

The object of life in the world of reality is the expression of continuous, infinite joy. "The kingdom of God is . . . joy" (Rom. 14:17). God, the Principle of good, expresses

15 this joy in giving it to the spiritual beings by means of which he thinks and acts and therefore enjoys all his creation. "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11).

20 What is required of us is to see everything as nearly in accordance with absolute good as possible, by giving happiness to others. We attain our happiness by giving others happiness. "Rejoice in that which I create" (Is. 65:18). It

25 often seems as though this happiness came by relieving those around us from sin, sickness, want, and misery. This we are able to do only by treating for them, that is, by praying — thinking rightly in a scientific manner — for them.

SO Our aim must be for the greatest good. We

1 must wake up from this dream of life in matter, but at the same time we cannot do the work of anyone else. Bach man has to work out his own salvation. We can only help our 5 fellow-man as the thought of him enters our consciousness, dispelling the evil thought of him, thereby freeing all concerned We can, however, explain the truth to people and so point out the way of salvation, when the

10 truth shall make them free whereby they not only gain freedom for themselves and those they love, but pass on the secret to others. "// any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came

15 not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47).

THE RULE OF LIFE

While the only rule of life is to know that 20 all is God and His manifestation, we cannot continuously think, speak, and act in accordance therewith. When able to do this the material man will disappear forever.

We can, however, work from the point of 25 view that there is nothing but the world of reality, God and His perfect world, and the mist of matter (See Gen. 2:6 and "Science and Health," p. 546, line 12) more or less hiding it from us. This, the highest working 30 basis to - day, eliminates every false idea of

1 personality, and by a comprehension of this basis, followed by treatment, we can prove by demonstration, the unreality of evil and the allness of God.

EXACT LANGUAGE

The terms used to-day in "speaking of the things of Spirit" better enable people to grasp metaphysical ideas "as thought is educated up

10 to spiritual apprehension" for "God is spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must be, and is, spiritual." "As human thought changes . . . error will no longer be used in stating truth" ("Science and Health," p. 125, line 12;

15 p. 126, line 2; p. 117, line 6; p. 349, line 24). Too few words often do not elucidate the underlying meaning, a number of words have the same significance, while others may be used to make clear a certain differentiation, conse-

20 quently, accurate definition of terms used should be sought.

For the sake of clear understanding the word "God" should be used as meaning "cause" only, and "the world of reality" or "God and

25 heaven" when reference is made to God and His manifestation. The words God, Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, I, Being, existence, reality, etc., all have the same significance, and imply permanence. The words

30 mortal, carnal, unconscious, subjective, and subconscious mind, subliminal self, Satan, Satan's angels, devil, evil, ether, matter, lines of force, mist of matter, cinema pictures, material thoughts, thought germs, universal consciousness, electricity, etc., all have the same significance, and imply impermanence, unreality, and nonexistence.

Mortal, material, personal, and human sense, conscious, objective, and human mind, otherwise known as the material man, must be distinguished from the real spiritual man. The material man is the individualised part of the false consciousness in mortal mind, while the real man is the individualised idea of the manifestation, expression, reflection, consciousness, knowledge, or thinking of God. The Christ, the spiritual or true idea, the image and likeness of God, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, or the action of G o d all express the "spiritual, eternal nature" of God ("Science and Health," p. 133, line 9), which, from a material point of view, are known as the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, grace, the thinning of the mist of matter, or treatment. The Son, man generically, or compound idea is "the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness" ("Science and Health," p. 475, line 15), while specifically, man means all of the individualised ideas of the consciousness of God in Mind, and signifies all that

1 is meant by the Christ.

THE NATURE OF GOD

God, "the Father, of whom are all things, 5 and we in him" (I Cor. 8:6), is infinite Being. "God is not a man" (Num. 23:19). "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer. 23:24). God is the Principle of good, governing all — as Jesus said, "My Father and your

10 Father; . . . my God and your God." (John 20:17), the animating divine Principle by virtue of which everything exists. "Of him, and through him, and to him are all things" (Rom. 11:36). This cause is everlasting life

15 (John 5:26); omnipotent Truth (Ps. 31:5); perfect Love (I John 4:8); divine Mind (Rom. 11:34) ; sinless Soul (Acts 4:32) ; infinite Spirit (John 4:24) and the Principle of all good. God is the only creator (Gen. 1:1) ; the

20 only Ego (Ex. 3:14); the only person (Is. 45:22); All-in-all (I Cor. 15:28); everything was made by Him (John 1:3), and all that He made was, is, and always will be "very good" (Gen. 1:31).

25 All of the time during which we are directly and actively thinking of God, the mist of matter is thinning, and we know more about God. The desire to know and to learn of God, to consecrate ourselves to some slight apprehension

30 and appreciation of our infinitely loving Father is the only way in which we can "find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator" ("Science and Health," p. 491, line 15).

THE EVOLUTION OF MAN'S CONCEPT OF GOD

The evolution of man has not only been a physical development, but an intellectual, moral, and spiritual advancement, the first conception of man appearing as hardly more than a beast. He then began to obtain a knowledge of good, which gradually evolved until he recognized the existence of a power or being superior to himself, and began to lift his thoughts in what is called prayer.

The idea of God gradually penetrating through the mist of matter, "the mist of obscurity evolved by error" ("S c i e n c e and H e a 1 1 h," p. 523, line 3) , as recorded in the Bible, reveals a tyrannical (Gen. 3:15), changeable (Gen. 6:7), warrior (Ex. 15:13), human (Ex. 23:11), angry (Num. 12:9), uncertain (Deut. 5:29), jealous (Deut. 14:24), and vengeful (Deut. 22:35) God. In the 51st. Psalm we come to the idea of God that required not the sacrifice of innocent animals, but the sacrifice of "a broken and contrite heart," and later a still higher concept was that

1 of the God who "desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). We now know that God is Life itself, Truth itself, and

5 Love itself as Jesus taught, and this perfection we can now prove as he did by demonstration. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).

10 MAN

Man is not a material being, liable to sin, disease, and suffering. Man is now, always was, and always will be perfect, spiritual, and divine, made in the image and likeness of Spirit,

15 and governed by God alone. The Bible makes this perfectly clear. Jesus taught that all men were divine and said : "I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 14:11), and "ye are in me, and I in you" (John 14:20); and

20 again, "Is it not written in your law, . . . ye are gods ? . . . and the scripture cannot be broken"! (John 10:34,35). The conception of Jesus as the only begotten Son of God is due to misunderstanding of this teaching. John

25 drew attention to the difference between Christ, the only begotten Son, and Jesus the Christ, when he wrote: "We beheld his glory as of the only begotten" (John 1:14), the word "as" differentiating the two. Men have

30 been so misled by matter that they could not see that the real man was and is spiritual. Men have conceived of God as man - like, instead of knowing man to be God - like. Other Biblical proofs of man's spiritual nature are: "God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1:27), and "as he is, so are we in this world" (I John 4:17). We are "partakers in the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4), and "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (I John 3:9). Again, "Ye are of God" (I John 4:4), "Ye are sons of the living God" (Hosea 1:10), and "noiv are we the sons of God" (I John 3:2), and "we know that we are of God" (I John 5:19), "for ye are all the children of God" (Gal. 3:26).

THE UNITY OF GOD AND MAN

Jesus was undoubtedly the only person entitled to be called the Saviour of mankind because he presented to mortals the true idea of God and man, and taught the everlasting unity between them and gave overwhelming proof of this oneness. Throughout the Bible we are told that we are "hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3), "in Christ" (Rom. 12:5), and that all were one in him. Paul says, "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28), "All things are yours; . . . And ye are Christ's: and Christ is God's" (I Cor. 3:21, 23). "The oneness of all men with one another in Christ,

1 and their oneness with God through Christ, is the foundation of all practical and effective religion" (Father Tyrrell in "The Way of Truth"). This unity — "I and my Father are

5 one" (John 10:30) — Jesus proved "not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do" their life work "but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility" ("Science and Health," 10 p. 18, line 7), and that they might know that "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory" (Col. 3:4).

15 THE CHRIST

Paul said: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5), and Jesus, voicing the Christ, said: "/ am the way" (John 14:6),

20 therefore, Christ is the way by means of which man knows God and God knows His manifestation, and that is the true idea of God and the true idea of the manifestation of God. 'Wo man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (Matt. 11:27). When we apply the word "Christ" as meaning the true idea of God, we find that it is through the Christ alone that we reach God.

30 "No man cometh unto the Father but by me"

(John 14:6). The Christ, "who is the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is the true idea of "Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, all substance, and intelligence." "Principle and its idea are one, and this one is God" ("Science and Health," p. 587, line 5; p. 465, line 17) . This is the exact knowledge of what Principle is, or the Christ, the word "Principle" meaning the Principle of, or inherent in, Life, Truth, Love, etc. The Christ is therefore the true idea of God, or God's idea of Himself, which is the exact knowledge of Life, Truth, Love, and all the other qualities and attributes of God.

Christ is also the true idea of the manifestation of God, the manifestation being man and the universe, "Man and the spiritual universe coexist with God" ("S c i e n c e and Health," p. 267, line 11); the universe being the inexhaustible spiritual ideas in Mind, God. 'Wo man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44).

The Christ is the true idea of God and His manifestation, and man is this true idea held in Mind, in God. "This idea is named man, it has infinite expressions, all of which are the members of the body of Christ." "Generically man is one, and specifically man means all men" ("Science and Health," 1st edition, p. 222,

1 only; p. 267, line 6). Man is God's consciousness by means of which God knows Himself and His ideas. God and man are so much one that no other distinction can 5 be made between them than that God is cause and man the manifestation of cause. They are absolutely one, but not one and the same.

The true idea of anything saves up from a false or mistaken concept of it; so the Christ

10 has always been the saving of the world, destroying the "works of the devil" (I John 3:8), taking "away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), as it comes to human consciousness, however dimly discerned.

15 God works by means of the Christ, and we individualise "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1:24). Each of us is an individualization of the Christ, of God's infinite consciousness, or one of the infinite num-

20 ber of spiritual beings in heaven, just as you might speak of God as the sun, the rays of light as the Christ, and each of us as a ray of light. "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (I Cor. 12:27).

THE HOLY SPIRIT

In considering God's "spiritual, eternal nature" we find that it consists of all that exists; both cause and effect, including the relation- 30 ship between them. "These three are one"

(I John 5:7). The fundamental relationship between' God and man is "the Spirit" that "maketh intercession" (Rom. 8:26), called the "Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5), or the "Holy Ghost" (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is the divine animus or law forever at work maintaining and unfolding the infinite ideas in Mind as conscious expressions of God. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17).

The Holy Spirit is the action of God on man, that maintains man as the consciousness, knowledge, or thinking of God, God's thinking. It is the Holy Spirit "which worketh in you both to will and to do of his oivn good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).

THE HOLY GHOST

The Holy Ghost is this divine action seen materially. From a religious point of view, it is the action of God which results in the evil disappearing and heaven being seen more as it really is. True, or scientific prayer, is the incoming of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4-8), or the thinning of the mist of matter, which reveals the kingdom of God to human consciousness.

Grace, the divine action of the Holy Spirit, reveals the nature of good, and it is by grace that we are saved from all evil. It is this action of the Holy Spirit seen materially which results in the material man being seen more

1 like his real self, thinking of God, because his real self is the knowledge or thinking of God.

THE TRUE IDEA

5 Because God is Mind, the image and likeness or reflection of God may be spoken of as "God's power of knowing what He knows," — "I AM that I AM" (Ex. 3:14),— thus bearing witness, as Paul declared, "that we are the

10 children of God: . . . heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:16,17), "His eternal power and Godhead" (Rom. 1:20). This is the quality of self-consciousness in Mind.

15 This consciousness is the knowledge of all the qualities, aspects or synonyms, and attributes "all right ideas" ("Science and Health," p. 475, line 15) of God. As the material man is merely the spiritual man seen falsely,

20 "through a glass, darkly" (I Cor. 5:15), so through the material m a n we are now able to recognise this knowledge of God. "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" (I Cor. 5:15). The material body

25 is the misrepresentation of the real man's knowledge of God.

This knowledge of the qualities of God as Life is seen as inspiration; Truth as understanding;

30 Love as motive;

Mind as intelligence; Soul as wisdom and knowledge; Spirit as purity and holiness; and Principle as substance.

WHAT AM I?

Man means all of the infinite number of spiritual beings which constitute the consciousness of God, as infinite as God, by means of which God thinks and acts and works, each man being an individualized idea of that consciousness. "The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings" ("Science and Health," p. 264, line 32). Man is also the knowledge of God, consisting of an infinite succession of all the ideas of which every man has been, and will be, conscious of throughout eternity, and this knowledge, activity, or thinking of the ideas in Mind is God's thinking; not God thinking, as this would be equivalent to calling man God.

The distinction of each individual man is the variation of the sequence of ideas which come to him throughout eternity, and which are infinite in number as well as perfect and complete. You, the real spiritual being, "are my witnesses, saith the Lord" (Is. 43:12), seeing, and therefore bearing witness in thought to the nature of God, infinite good. Treatment proves what God is, as, for instance,

1 when you realize God as Love, because man is made in the image and likeness of God, Love, the thinning of the mist of matter enables you to discern this Love through your fellow-man.

5 John speaks of Jesus as "the faithful witness" (Rev. 1:5; 3:14), and it was our Lord's unswerving fidelity to good that enabled him to prove his declaration, "I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). The legal use of the 10 word "witness," a person who has seen something and is therefore competent to testify of it, is also applicable, implying one who brings facts to light, and disposes of false evidence as no evidence at all. The real man is therefore 15 God's self-consciousness, the life of Life, the truth of Truth, the love of Love, the consciousness of the wisdom, joy and beauty of God, in fact, the activity, or active manifestation of God.

20 HEAVEN AND HELL

Heaven and hell are not future states to be reached by death, as "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:26). Heaven is a perfect state of consciousness "within"

25 reach of our thought, or "among" us (Luke 17:21), and a man has his own comparative heaven or hell by the way in which he thinks. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). Hell is the punishment that sin

30 and ignorance bestow upon those who think evil, therefore "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live" (Amos 5 :14) . One of the proofs that the material world is hell, is that injustice prevails, and we get punished for ignorance as well as sin. Heaven is here around us, but we do not see it properly, as we see "through a glass, darkly" (I Cor. 13:12). When we pray rightly we obtain justice in proportion to the clearness of our realization of the world of reality, this clearness being the measure of the extent to which the mist of matter disappears, enabling us to see heaven more clearly.

THE WAY TO FIND HEAVEN

The way in which we find ourselves in a state of consciousness more and more, like heaven is by persistently thinking of the world of reality. It does not matter how inadequate or how nearly perfect our idea is so long as it is our best concept of God and heaven. By thinking of God, we grow in the understanding of God, and attain a clearer sense of what constitutes the allness of God, and begin to comprehend the different views of Him.

There is no doubt that the earnest desire of all spiritual workers is to obtain a higher and more intimate knowledge of God, and every advance in spirituality or spiritual-mindedness, makes it more apparent that this is the only thing worth anyone's seeking. One method of

1 obtaining this knowledge is that of realizing each of the aspects, qualities, attributes, and synonyms of God whenever we have a spare moment. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace

5 whose mind is stayed on thee" (Is. 26:3).

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS

In heaven, God, divine Mind, thinks by means of the infinite number of spiritual beings

10 which constitute His consciousness by means of which He thinks and works and loves. In this so-called material world, mortal mind counterfeits this divine activity, inharmoniously thinking by means of an infinite number of imag-

15 inary material beings. Mortal mind, therefore, sees the spiritual being as a material man by means of your so-called material self, the mist of matter merely hiding the spiritual man. When you see someone sinning, it is not the

20 spiritual man sinning, nor can it be the mist of matter, as it is merely a mist, which, because of its inherent nature, gradually disappears; therefore, it is mortal mind believing in evil, an imaginary power other than God, think-

25 ing by means of your so-called material self that there is a material sinning man.

The main points to be understood in considering the facts of the world of reality are the non-reality of everything material, and the all-

30 ness of God and His manifestation. When we know that the only power evil has is the apparent power we give it in our thoughts by entertaining it, and that it has no reality, it disappears. "If sin, sickness, and death were understood as nothingness, they would disappear" ("Science and Health," p. 480, line 29). Material thoughts, the basis of all evil, can only be kept out of the mind by actively, consciously thinking of God and His manifestation, and the better one understands the world of reality, the easier it is to do this. "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21).

MATERIAL MAN NOT REAL

The Bible frequently states that the material man is not real. "Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought" (Is. 41:24). "For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is no thin g, he deceiveth himself" (Gal. 6:3). "Truth . . . indicates the infinite distance between . . . the material and the spiritual, — the unreal and the real" ("Science and Health," p. 538, line 5). Matter is perishable, and the human mind, being consicous only of material things, must also perish, for when there is nothing to be conscious of, the very consciousness itself ceases to exist. "The so-called mind is self-

1 destroyed. The manifestations of evil . . . show the self-destruction of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the strength and supremacy of Spirit." "Divine Science shows 5 it is impossible that a material body, though interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed, mind, should be man" ("Science and Health," p. 293, line 23; p. 477, line 13). "They which are the children of the flesh,

10 these are not the children of God" (Rom. 9:8), and "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (I Cor. 15:50).

The scientific world is gradually coming to the conclusion that what it known as the ma-

15 terial world has no stability and is rapidly disappearing, but few recognize the world of reality which has always existed and will remain when all matter is gone. "Matter, hitherto deemed indestructible, slowly vanishes by the

20 continuous dissociation of its component atoms. . . . Energy is no more indestructible than the matter from which it emanates" (Dr. le Bon in "The Evolution of Forces"). (See "The Non-reality of Matter," by F. L. Rawson).

25 There can be no loss of pleasure when "mortal sense, confining itself to matter" ("Unity of Good," p. 62, line 25), disappears, for matter gives no pleasure, but merely hides perfection from us and reduces our pleasure. All

30 of the beauty, the joy, the peace, in fact, everything that gives us any pleasure, is real and eternal. Matter is the mist that merely hides the real and results in suffering when we disobey the law of good, and allow ourselves to think of evil. As matter disappears, so does our limited sense of pleasure increase, until we find "there are pleasures forevermore" (Ps. 16:11).

MAN'S APPARENT DUALITY

The following Biblical statements are scientific when rightly understood: —

"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit" (Rom. 8:9).

"Ye are of your father the devil, . . . He . . . abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him . . . he is a liar, and the father of it" {"it" meaning the material man) (John 8:44).

"He that commiteth sin is of the devil; . . . Whosoever is born of God . . . cannot commit sin" (I John 3:8,9).

In order to understand and to enable others to understand the true position, you must have perfectly clear in your own mind the difference between the material and the spiritual. Jesus made the distinction perfectly clear when he said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). The spiritual man is not a human

1 being who is constantly thinking of spiritual things, in other words, a material person "spiritually minded." When you think of God and heaven you are praying; but this is only the 5 human mind awakening to a less material sense of the real world, and is in effect the elimination of the mortal sense hitherto thought to be man. You must not mix up the two by believing that when you are thinking evil, that a man 10 is sinning, for example, it is your material self thinking of evil, and that when you are realizing God, and the man is healed, it is your spiritual self thinking of God. In both cases it is the material man, in the first case forming a 15 bad concept, and in the second case forming a better concept of the world of reality. Even when this material counterfeit, hitherto thought to be you, is apparently conscious of evil, your real self is always thinking of God. 20 "Then of the Thee in me who works behind

The Veil, I lifted up my hands to find A Lamp amid the Darkness; and I heard, As from Without— 'THE ME WITHIN THEE BLIND!'" 25 (Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam).

Chapter II WHAT IS TRUTH?

1 There are to-day innumerable schools of mental workers divided into two broad classes, some working in the way Jesus taught us, namely, by the realization of God and heaven. 5 The rest use the human mind in various ways with the object of bringing what they think is good into manifestation, some even "picturing" or "imaging" what they think is best for themselves or others, and then dwelling per-

10 sistently upon it to bring it into visible manifestation.