Description
Although our goal is to demonstrate the full potential of Christian Science, Mr. Rathvon realized that we are still very human, facing challenges that are often beyond our present understanding. His addresses are practical and relative to life in today’s world. They are like a modern day Book of Proverbs, with a happy blend of human wisdom and divine metaphysics. [See Volume I for details about Mr. Rathvon.]
In this second volume of his addresses, he writes:
Knowledge of Good and Evil: It was not against evil, but against knowing evil, that God forewarned. There is such a thing as knowing too much about evil, even when our investigations are based upon the belief that if we knew a little more about this particular ailment or that accident, or some other form of error, we could the more readily destroy it. What we really need is to extend our knowledge of good, its nature, power and presence. When that is well done we do not need to lose any sleep over evil.
Humility: True humility is not a garment, but a trait of character. It never intrudes and often has to be discovered. It is never boisterous and never self-assertive, but if it is mistaken for weakness, there is apt to be a rude awakening, for the strength of true humility lies in its impersonal selflessness, a fundamental element of power. The higher one’s rank and station in life, the greater the need and opportunity for humility, and the rarer its presence. Humility cannot be humiliated. It does not take offence where none is intended, and if deliberate, it exonerates the offender, knowing that evil brings its own punishment. Ever ready to serve, it is never servile. It is no stranger to mirth, dignity, or initiative. It adds power to authority, credence to reason, and reverence to religion.
A Final Word: If God knows everything, how can it be that He doesn’t know evil? If God knows anything of evil, He must know all of evil that ever has been since the beginning of time, hence He would be the most impure Being that could be conceived. Whatever He knows, He is.
The Belief of Age: In Science, age is a false belief associated by mortal mind with deterioration and impairment. God never made age, nor has He ever sanctioned mortals’ mistaken beliefs about it. God has never decreed that increasing years should bring decrepitude. He never ruled that the aged should lean upon a cane, or sit in the chimney corner and ruminate upon the past. Christian Science shows that added years bring greater wisdom, keener discernment, broader vision. In Science, as we grow older, we should make fewer mistakes, know better how to do what is to be done, and can better distinguish what really is from what merely seems to be. A right sense of age enables us to preserve the buoyant thought of youth with the power of maturity, and the serenity and poise of seniority. Our Leader guides us away from “meaningless commemoration of birthdays,” and shows us how to clear our thought of the false belief that man is the slave of time when in reality he is its master. Great age without great understanding is not a feat to be proud of.
Control Inanimate Matter: In the stilling of the tempest, the law of physics was reversed, and the very elements of nature were brought into subjection to the dominion of divine Love. Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook, “There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance.” The disciples, shaken with fear, turned to the Master and cried, “Lord save us, we perish.” He arose and took in the situation at a glance. He saw that two forces were making for discord and destruction, one being fear on the part of the disciples and the other the vapid fury of mortal mind expressed in the raging tempest. Taking them in the order of their urgency, he gave them both an audible treatment which operated instantaneously. To the wild and surging sea he said, “Peace, be still,” and the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Then he turned to his disciples and rebuked their fear, “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” He broke the mesmerism of the whole situation with two short audible treatments, both instantaneous in their results. The first annulled the law of mortal mind expressed in tempest; the second subdued the fear of the disciples which had made them terror stricken. The power of infinite Mind over inorganic matter is not sufficiently recognized among working Christian Scientists today. We confidently approach cases of sickness and heal them through calling into operation the power of infinite Mind over animate matter expressed in the body. We too often hold back when we should be harmonizing discordant conditions of inanimate matter, such as extreme heat and cold, flood, draught, and the like. I have seen Mrs. Eddy’s demonstrations over adverse weather conditions on more than one occasion. Clouds, rain, cold, snow disappeared through her demonstrating the control of infinite Mind over finite matter. “Immoral Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual,” Mrs. Eddy tells us.