Excerpt
RUDIMENTAL DIVINESCIENCE
How would you define Christian Science? 1AS the law of God, the law of good, interpreting anddemonstrating the divine Principle and rule of 3universal harmony.What is the Principle of Christian Science?It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal 6Mind, the Soul of man and the universe. It is our Fatherwhich is in heaven. It is substance, Spirit, Life, Truth,and Love, -- these are the deific Principle. 9Do you mean by this that God is a person?The word person affords a large margin for misappre-hension, as well as definition. In French the equivalent 12word is personne. In Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it ispersona. The Latin verb personare is compounded ofthe prefix per (through) and sonare (to sound). 15In law, Blackstone applies the word personal to bodilypresence, in distinction from one's appearance (in court,for example) by deputy or proxy. 18Other definitions of person, as give by Webster, are 1"a living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent;especially, a living human being, a corporeal man, woman, 3or child; an individual of the human race." He adds,that among Trinitarian Christians the word stands for oneof the three subjects, or agents, constituting the Godhead. 6In Christian Science we learn that God is definitely indi-vidual and not a person, as that word is used by the bestauthorities, if our lexicographers are right in defining 9person as especially a finite human being; but God ispersonal, if by person is meant infinite Spirit.We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him 12as less than infinite. The human person is finite; andtherefore I prefer to retain the proper sense of Diety byusing the phrase an individual God rather than a per- 15sonal God; for there is and can be but on infinite indi-vidual spirit, who mortals have named God.Science defines the individuality of God as supreme 18good, Life, Truth, Love. This term enlarges our senseof Diety, takes away the trammels assigned to God byfinite though, and introduces us to higher definitions. 21Is healing the sick the whole of Science?Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Chris-tian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and 24action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. Theemphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing ofsin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the 27cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they 1do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acqui-escence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and 3their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them fromsin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, whichredeem them, and become their Saviour, through the 6flesh, from the flesh, -- the material world and evil....