This generation seems too material for any strong demonstration over death, and hence cannot bring out the infinite reality of Life,—­namely, that there is no death, but only Life.  The present mortal sense of being is too finite for anchorage in infinite good, God, because mortals now believe in the possibility that Life can be evil.

The achievement of this ultimatum of Science, complete triumph over death, requires time and immense spiritual growth.

I have by no means spoken of myself, I cannot speak of myself as “sufficient for these things.”  I insist only upon the fact, as it exists in divine Science, that man dies not, and on the words of the Master in support of this verity,—­words which can never “pass away till all be fulfilled.”

Because of these profound reasons I urge Christians to have more faith in living than in dying.  I exhort them to accept Christ’s promise, and unite the influence of their own thoughts with the power of his teachings, in the Science of being.  This will interpret the divine power to human capacity, and enable us to apprehend, or lay hold upon, “that for which,” as Paul says in the third chapter of Philippians, we are also “apprehended of [or grasped by] Christ Jesus,”—­the ever-present Life which knows no death, the omnipresent Spirit which knows no matter.

Personal Statements

Many misrepresentations are made concerning my doctrines, some of which are as unkind and unjust as they are untrue; but I can only repeat the Master’s words:  “They know not what they do.”

The foundations of these assertions, like the structure raised thereupon, are vain shadows, repeating—­if the popular couplet may be so paraphrased—­

            The old, old story,
    Of Satan and his lie.

In the days of Eden, humanity was misled by a false personality,—­a talking snake,—­according to Biblical history.  This pretender taught the opposite of Truth.  This abortive ego, this fable of error, is laid bare in Christian Science.

Human theories call, or miscall, this evil a child of God.  Philosophy would multiply and subdivide personality into everything that exists, whether expressive or not expressive of the Mind which is God.  Human wisdom says of evil, “The Lord knows it!” thus carrying out the serpent’s assurance:  “In the day ye eat thereof [when you, lie, get the floor], then your eyes shall be opened [you shall be conscious matter], and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil [you shall believe a lie, and this lie shall seem truth].”

Bruise the head of this serpent, as Truth and “the woman” are doing in Christian Science, and it stings your heel, rears its crest proudly, and goes on saying, “Am I not myself?  Am I not mind and matter, person and thing?” We should answer:  “Yes! you are indeed yourself, and need most of all to be rid of this self, for it is very far from God’s likeness.”