TEXT: (p.107:14-110:12, Misc. Wr.) - study - we will read this aloud, then follow with some testimonies.
Three cardinal points must be gained before poor humanity is regenerated and Christian Science is demonstrated: (1) A proper sense of sin; (2) repentance; (3) the understanding of good. Evil is a negation: it never started with time, and it cannot keep pace with eternity. Mortals' false senses pass through three states and stages of human consciousness before yielding error. The deluded sense must first be shown its falsity through a knowledge of evil as evil, so-called. Without a sense of one's oft-repeated violations of divine law, the individual may become morally blind, and this deplorable mental state is moral idiocy. The lack of seeing one's deformed mentality, and of repentance therefor, deep, never to be repented of, is retarding, and in certain morbid instances stopping, the growth of Christian Scientists. Without a knowledge of his sins, and repentance so severe that it destroys them, no person is or can be a Christian Scientist.
Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin. The sensitive, sorrowing saint thinks too much of it: the sordid sinner, or the so-called Christian asleep, thinks too little of sin.
To allow sin of any sort is anomalous in Christian Scientists, claiming, as they do, that good is infinite, All. Our Master, in his definition of Satan as a liar from the beginning, attested the absolute powerlessness — yea, nothingness — of evil: since a lie, being without foundation in fact, is merely a falsity; spiritually, literally, it is nothing.
Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright, then reducing its claim to its proper denominator, — nobody and nothing. Sin should be conceived of only as a delusion. This true conception would remove mortals' ignorance and its consequences, and advance the second stage of human consciousness, repentance. The first state, namely, the knowledge of one's self, the proper knowledge of evil and its subtle workings wherein evil seems as real as good, is indispensable; since that which is truly conceived of, we can handle; but the misconception of what we need to know of evil, — or the conception of it at all as something real, — costs much. Sin needs only to be known for what it is not; then we are its master, not servant. Remember, and act on, Jesus' definition of sin as a lie. This cognomen makes it less dangerous; for most of us would not be seen believing in, or adhering to, that which we know to be untrue. What would be thought of a Christian Scientist who believed in the use of drugs, while declaring that they have no intrinsic quality and that there is no matter? What should be thought of an individual believing in that which is untrue, and at the same time declaring the unity of Truth, and its allness? Beware of those who misrepresent facts; or tacitly assent where they should dissent; or who take me as authority for what I disapprove, or mayhap never have thought of, and try to reverse, invert, or controvert, Truth; for this is a sure pretext of moral defilement.
Examine yourselves, and see what, and how much, sin claims of you; and how much of this claim you admit as valid, or comply with. The knowledge of evil that brings on repentance is the most hopeful stage of mortal mentality. Even a mild mistake must be seen as a mis- take, in order to be corrected; how much more, then, should one's sins be seen and repented of, before they can be reduced to their native nothingness! Ignorance is only blest by reason of its nothingness; for seeing the need of somethingness in its stead, blesses mortals.
Ignorance was the first condition of sin in the allegory of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Their mental state is not desirable, neither is a knowledge of sin and its consequences, repentance, per se; but, ad- mitting the existence of both, mortals must hasten through the second to the third stage, — the knowledge of good; for without this the valuable sequence of knowledge would be lacking, — even the power to escape from the false claims of sin. To understand good, one must discern the nothingness of evil, and consecrate one's life anew.
Beloved brethren, Christ, Truth, saith unto you, "Be not afraid!" — fear not sin, lest thereby it master you; but only fear to sin. Watch and pray for self-knowledge; since then, and thus, cometh repentance, — and your superiority to a delusion is won.
Repentance is better than sacrifice. The costly balm of Araby, poured on our Master's feet, had not the value of a single tear.
Beloved children, the world has need of you, — and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through contact with the world. What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind!