which I think may be true-but I say if the real man be perfect, and "mortal man" doesn't exist, there is to be sure an incentive in putting off the old man, the carnal mind which is non-existent, and bringing it to the point where it will disappear and the real or Christ man who is not a dreamer will appear, but how can something which is non-existent disappear anyway, because if it disappear, it must have had appearance sometime, and so on. This suggests the scripture, "If this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved," etc., (John).

Mrs. Eddy's book has been called extremely illogical. On the contrary, to me it is one of the most logical books I have ever read. Perhaps in view of the foregoing, you will fail to see what I mean-but here it is. Suppose I say, or Mrs. Eddy admits, that the imperfect man exists, what is the consequence? Simply this, that if he exist, God cannot be All and altogether good, for either evil (belief) came forth from Him, or He permitted a sense of the absence of good, named "evil," to exist and torture man, in which case He cannot be either All or altogether good. Further my inability to understand how a nonexistent thing can produce a sense of the absence of good may be simply due to the reluctance of that part of my being which is writing this book to admit its own nothingness and to its inability to perceive beyond the bounds of sense. In other words, I think the longer I read Mrs. Eddy's

book, that she saw the same difficulty that I do. She found it hard to construct through the obstruction of that material instrument, the human mind, a spiritual statement of truth. But she said, "I will not deny my idea of God. And if the thing which seems to exist in absence of good comes to me and demands recognition as a reality, I will deny it, for to grant it is to dishonor the conception of God which is a necessity to my life." In other words, to my mind the difference between this system and others is, that while all are illogical from the standpoint of the human mind, Mrs. Eddy denies the untruths of sense (i. e., absence of truth) in order to preserve her idea of God, while other systems have compromised with the untruths of sense (absence of truth) and thereby have destroyed the idea of an infinite God with which they originally started. Moreover going beyond the bounds of human reason again, I find that when I act on the principles set forth in Mrs. Eddy's book, I obtain results both in health and in peace of mind which I can get in no other way, and after all this is the crux of the whole matter; truth, if it be truth, is demonstrable, and the ability to obtain results in this way and in no other is demonstration. Try it yourself and see.

I must confess that the Occultist idea of metaphysical healing seems to me to be more logical and capable of explanation than that of the Christian Scientists, founded on the supposition, as I understand it to be, that there is a conscious

side to every atom, and that by effecting that consciousness or appealing to it the reconstruction of tissue, for instance, can be effected-nevertheless, I have found, in my own case at least, that results can be accomplished by consistently regarding matter as unreal which cannot be reached by the other method. I am forced therefore to the conclusion for myself, at least, that there is more of truth in the Christian Science viewpoint than there is in that of the Occultists.

Having said this, I have said all that I can say about the one illogicality which appears to me in my present conception of Christian Science to be in Mrs. Eddy's book. I cannot myself say why, or supply a good reason why God should permit us to have this dream state which appears to cause so much suffering. I can see that, from a human standpoint, mortals may be (yes, the word does imply existence which I can only arbitrarily deny, because it conflicts with my conception of God) spiritually inert, sleeping, dreaming, as Mrs. Eddy says, and that these experiences will finally awake our latent spiritual powers to their dynamic use and to harmony with God's law. But while it may be humanly true that no one can awake save by suffering and his own experience out of the dream, why is it necessary? It is safe none the less to believe despite my lack of understanding that an all powerful God created us perfect, without any potentiality of illusions, and I confess that for me there is here something

hid in the mind of God and I am content to leave it there till He reveals it, and to go on knowing that He is altogether good and that evil therefore cannot exist, no matter how real its seeming may be to human consciousness which is at variance with God's law. The Christian Scientist prefers to deny himself rather than to deny the only idea of God which satisfies his spiritual understanding. Have you ever thought in this connection of the passage "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me"? Deny thyself. This does not mean, as we shall see later, denying anything good which now exists in life.

With this I end this chapter, promising again that I will later give you my own answers to the other queries I propounded in the last part of the last chapter, and ending again with the statement, "Try this way if you have not and see if you do not get results that you can never otherwise obtain." "By their fruits ye shall know them."

CHAPTER IV

DOES MATTER HAVE REALITY?

CHRISTIAN SCI

ENCE AND THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES,

INCLUDING MEDICINE.1

I WISH to begin this chapter by repeating in a new form what I have previously otherwise stated, viz.:--That if one finds his premises in spiritual fact and reasons inductively, he will probably reach the same conclusions reached by Mrs. Eddy. If, on the other hand, one finds his premises in physical sense, and reasons deductively, there is grave danger that they will not be reached.

However, for the sake of those who wish to argue from the basis of known fact, there is much more to be said for Mrs. Eddy's doctrine than is commonly supposed. I am surprised to find that many if not most persons are of the opinion that when Mrs. Eddy doubts the existence of matter, she is taking a completely new and revolutionary step in the world's history. On the contrary,

I have in this chapter used the term "false thought” fre• quently. I ask in reading that the term "absence of thought" be borne in mind and substituted as an alternate phrase. Possibly this may throw light on the nature of "mortal mind” and the "law of sin and death."