who finds
fault with the exactness of the rule because unwilling to
work hard enough to practise it? The perfection of the [25]
rule of Christian Science is what constitutes its utility:
having a true standard, if some fall short, others will
approach it; and these are they only who adhere to that
standard.

Matter must be understood as a false belief or product so [30]
of mortal mind: whence we learn that sensation is not
in matter, but in this so-called mind; that we see and

[Page 234.]

feel disease only by reason of our belief in it: then shall [1]
matter remain no longer to blind us to Spirit, and clog
the wheels of progress. We spread our wings in vain when
we attempt to mount above error by speculative views
of Truth. [5]

Love is the Principle of divine Science; and Love is
not learned of the material senses, nor gained by a culpa-
ble attempt to seem what we have not lifted ourselves
to _be_, namely, a Christian. In love for man, we gain a
true sense of Love as God; and in no other way can we [10]
reach this spiritual sense, and rise--and still rise--to
things most essential and divine. What hinders man's
progress is his vain conceit, the Phariseeism of the times,
also his effort to steal from others and avoid hard work;
errors which can never find a place in Science. Empiri- [15]
cal knowledge is worse than useless: it never has advanced
man a single step in the scale of being.

That one should have ventured on such unfamiliar
ground, and, self-forgetful, should have gone on to estab-
lish this mighty system of metaphysical healing, called [20]
Christian Science, against such odds,--even the entire
current of mortality,--is matter of grave wonderment to
profound thinkers. That, in addition to this, she has made
some progress, has seen far into the spiritual facts of be-
ing which constitute physical and mental perfection, in [25]
the midst of an age so sunken in sin and sensuality, seems
to them still more inconceivable.

In this new departure of metaphysics, God is regarded
more as absolute, supreme; and Christ is clad with a
richer illumination as our Saviour from sickness, sin, [30]
and death. God's fatherliness as Life, Truth, and Love,
makes His sovereignty glorious.

[Page 235.]

By this system, too, man has a changed recognition [1]
of his relation to God. He is no longer obliged to sin,
be sick, and die to reach heaven, but is required and em-
powered to conquer sin, sickness, and de