CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Evening Star, Issue 25419, 26 February 1945, Page 8

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

REDEMPTIVE MISSION LECTURE BY MR G. W. MARTIN Under the auspices of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Dunedin, a lecture was given yesterday afternoon in the municipal Concert Chamber on ‘ Christian Science: its Redemptive Mission ’ by Mr George W. Martin, C. 5.8., of Melbourne, member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, T-he First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass., U.S.A. The lecturer said, in part: The mission of Christ Jesus, which was the awakening of individual thought to more abundant, life, is the mission of the Christian Science Church. The methods employed by the Master are the methods advocated in the Christian Science textbook. Thus it is that Christian Science emphasises that spiritual understanding not only overcomes temptation by cleansing the human.mind of sinful thoughts, but also heals the body of pain and disease by removing from consciousness the wrong thoughts which produce the. physical suffering. That dynamic assurance of the presence and power of God which characterised the Christian church in the first century must become the cherished possession. of every Christian. Church standards will become a power of good only if the church members forge them into actuality by demonstrating them in their daily lives. The greatest service the church can render to the world is to make God more real to men, to make Him knowable and provable. False beliefs about God have darkened the ages. The turmoil and suffering of to-day are the outcome of a belief in a power opposed to God. Belief sometimes implies doubt. Doubt nullifies the demonstration, of God’s power. Understanding excludes doubt. AVe are convinced that a demonstrable understanding of God’s law of-life was revealed to Mary Baker Eddy which will, eventually, overcome every doubt regarding the omnipotence, the.omnipresence, and the omniscience of the great I AM. DISEASE HAS NO INTELLIGENCE. No disease, however long it has been in evidence, has, of itself, any power to hold you in bondage. Have consumption, growths, or malaria, being material beliefs, any power to attach themselves to your body? You may think they have, but, have they? Must the ability, activity, happiness, and useful life of a man lie set aside for a time because a condition of inanimate matter says so? Must a man spend years on bis bed at the dictate of his body? Where does disease obtain its seeming power? Who gave it authority to hurt and destroy? Not God. Is there any law by which it singles you out for its unwelcome attentions? Definitely no. Therefore do not permit mortal mind to use your body as a showcase to display its wares —sin, worry, lack, pain, disease. When we realise that each individual, to a degree at least, binds to himself his troubles, whatever they may be, we are ready to understand .that every practical Christian may be taught to take possession of his body and, with divine aid, govern it harmoniously. We learn from the apostle Paul, that “ the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” - (Romans viii., 2). Disease, or lack of ease, is lack of harmony. The only road to permanent health and complete harniony is the Christ-way ; it demands absolute allegiance to the First Commandment and all it implies: it acknowledges one God. one 'Mind, one cause and creator, one creation including man, and one spiritual law.