human
Do you forget, Emmeline, that I preached from that text not so very long ago? I took as the keynote of my sermon, humility--the humility of Jesus. From the context that was undoubtedly what Saint Paul meant.
gpt
Yes, Raymond, I remember the sermon perfectly; but I cannot feel that to possess humility, even in a superlative degree, would be to possess, as the Apostle commands, the ’Mind’ of Christ. Carol was thinking out this subject, in the way he has of thinking about verses in the Bible, and the thought he gave me seems nearer to it. He could see only love. The mind that was in Christ was love. Now, Raymond, if we, at this moment, possessed hearts full of love we could not criticise or condemn anyone or any sect. We could not hold up creeds or dogmas, and say, ’It is necessary to believe this or that because it is a canon of the Church.’ We should just know that we and they had passed from death unto life when we love the brethren, and all are brethren who look to the Lord Jesus Christ as an elder brother.
human
It seems to me, Emmeline, that even before reading the book you have imbibed some of its mischievous statements. Remember, it teaches a religion of negation. According to Christian Science we have no Heavenly Father, no personal God; nothing but a divine Principle, an eternal existence, to worship.
gpt
Oh, Raymond, you do make a mistake. How can you infer that if you have not studied the book?
human
My authority, Emmeline, for the statement, is Dr. Hanson. He wrote a pamphlet on Christian Science, issued by the Religious Tract Society.
gpt
It seems strange, Raymond, that a man of Dr. Hanson’s eminence should write, and the Religious Tract Society should publish, a statement so misleading,--a statement which a boy of Carol’s years could easily confute. Carol prays to, and speaks of his Heavenly Father in a way which, I grieve to say, my own children never do. Only a few minutes before you entered the room, he said that this little book was a gift not only from his earthly father but from his Heavenly Father, too. So how can there be no Heavenly Father to a Christian Scientist? It is true he speaks more frequently of Him as Divine Love; and it seems to me he has a more comprehensive idea of God than I have myself, for the thought has often presented itself to me, how can we, as the Scriptures say, ’live, move and have our being’ in Him, if God is a person, according to our idea of personality? The idea which Carol has given me of God as infinite Love, filling the universe like light, makes that verse more intelligible.
human
A discussion such as this, Emmeline, cannot be productive of any good. I will send you that little pamphlet I mentioned.
gpt
Thank you, Raymond. I will read it after I have read _Science and Health_.