But if ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice ye would not have condemned the guiltlessMatt 12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

A large proportion of the sin that is committed is the result of ignorance The great teacher of Metaphysics said to his persecutors ye know not what ye doLuke 23:34 ¶Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. You know not the sad consequences to your self of wronging another The ignorance referedCorrected:referred to in the Biblical passage are here selected for our subject was no lack of human knowledge no deficiency of what the five personal senses take in no want of classical lore garnered from the garrulous page the mystic song poets or profound philosopyhers It was not the absence of the artizanCorrected:artisan or the scholarly attaimentsCorrected:attainments Mathematicians musicians professors of chemistry astronomy Geology and natural history even those to whom that saying was addressed had ye known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice

The origin of sacrifices we must leave in the silence with which history surrounds it

All will allow that the Eucharist and deprecatory views of sacrifice adhere to mortals thought As an historical question the origin of sacrifice is unsolauable unsolubleCorrected:insoluble and the higher view of its expiatory character dependent as it is on its typical nature character appears but gradually in history in scripture Christianity is not profession but proof It is the demonstration of health of body and health of mind brought out through by understanding God the Principle of all being and by understanding God as Life Truth and Love which are a Principle and not a person and by understanding this Principle to be a trinity in unity the three in one impossible to a person but natural and possible to the Principle that embraces all and is therefore the ple is many in one.

But just how Truth or Love restores health reclaims the prodigal and destroys error and hate must be left to the decissionsCorrected:decisions of Christian Science or Metaphysics which treat of, and alone can define the nature of Deity. And all Th [?] Unclear or illegible Science must be understood to be demonstrated hence it follows that we never can assimilate to the divine nature or Principle of being until we understand it and learn how the application of this Principle or Truth and Love casts out error and heals the sick This one great question of Truth knocks at the door of history and it cannot forever be shut out of synnagaguesCorrected:synagogues or out of nor prevented the practical proofs of all self evident Truth. The great question determining and encompassing every other facts is all fact resolves itself into this inquiry what is God? A person or a Principle? and But if God is a person and governed influenced by a petition or prayer and loves you more for the asking, He is not unchangCorrected:unchanging And this Truth this Life and this Love believed in as a person to save a man from sin yea this Principle that is God must be understood to be demonstrated that is to be brought out in our life lives and when understood we shall know what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice and cannot know until [illegible] we understand God as a Principle instead of believe in God as a person The history of religion shows that the error of believing in God as a person and relying on a person to pardon sin called for a sacrifice and if we had known what this meaneth that I will will have mercy and not sacrifice in other words that the understanding the Principle of all good inevitably brought out the demonstration of goodness whereas believing in God as a and man could go on in sin and no demonstration follow his belief Believe God to be a person who required a sacrifice to appease His wrath wrought brought out the false wrath in justification of wrath the and the supposed exercise fo wrath in another person called man hence the origin in mortal belief of sacrifice and the discord bad moral and its effects on man physical effects of this error There is a requirmentCorrected:requirement of justice which in itself is the exercise of mercy This requirement is the penalty attached to sin namely that sin shall be self destroyed destroy itself through suffering

To pardon sin is to perpetuate it The felon that gets a pardon from the governor is not one whit a better man for his escape from suffering the penalty of a broken law. But if the felon had understood what this meaneth if he had understood the Principle that is Love he would not have required pardon for if we understand God we shall bring God out in our life and thus God as Truth will be blessed to restore harmony to life to give health and destroy error And this is the reason I have for saying it That God being being Truth it will be found that God that this God or Truth being understood will destroys error of necessity and gets Thus we are may be rid of that Our hoary and bar berous element of religonsCorrected:religions that requires a sacrifice a and the good and just man Jesus to suffer for the evil and unjust The Pagan opinion illegible like that a poor little pig be as must squeal with pain or a lovely lamb to lick the hand first raised to that it sheds his blood

Progress is footsteps as we the age emerges from the worst features of sacrifice towards into the understanding even in part of Love we shall find as Jesus said that upon this commandment hangs all the law and the prophets namely Thou shalt have but one God Love thy neighbor as thyself But one God is the foundation very basis of Christian Science there whereby we have no material master. Then the body cannot be our Lord and master us mind the senses material cannot govern man but Spirit will be found to govern matter and Soul to furnish all sense and this sense to be joy and never sorrow Truth and never error Life and never death

As we near the boundary of Science wherein Soul instead of sense furnishes the conclusions of man and the explanation of God we shall improve our sense of sacrifice and gain the true definition and proper [?] Unclear or illegible  the and reach exercise of mercy

The only sacrifice we shall then retain will be no longer be a demand on others but a requirement of one's self in obedience to the command take the cross and follow me it will be a forgetfulness of self and this is science self abnegation is indispensable to science and why because the first chord the keynote of Christian Science is they that are in the flesh cannot please God namely put being into the hands of a Principle instead of a person and a and this Principle that is alone or God demonstrated by what is good only and by works and not rather than words. Evil is was no evidence of a man with to Jesus of a man! error is no witness for Truth, death is no stepping stone to Life unless we are Unless we are getting rid of death sin, sickness and evil and error of every sort we are not nearing that Principle of our being taught by Jesus and learnigCorrected:learning of it the demonstration of Life, [?] Unclear or illegible  holiness, and immortality ? If we are learning of God instead of man our way to harmony and heaven we shall bring out God in demonstration in proof of this, but if we are following the guidance of man-made theories we shall vibrate as a pendulum between Spirit and matter between the pure and impure the perfect and imperfect the mortal and immortal the right and the wrong until by the force of error it conquers its own power and becomes too big an error to keep on Then the vibration ceases and the error drops into oblivion its its native nothingness But what is it that finishes the scene what has carried on the process of the destruction of sin, of sickness and death? There are are but two reasons two statements for one Cause and result effect and but one cause for it The law of Truth and the error of error destroy error either suffering or Science destroys error and it is science for sin to suffer I say the suffering can alone destroy the belief of sin of sickness or of death which shall it be, friends I for one prefer that you to understand the Principle of your being better than to venture on sin to dare to do unto others what you we would not they should do to you us and if you we have advanced thus far in science sin will go out, will disappear in your demonstration of Life but if you we are too ignorant of the Principle that brings out harmony, that moral sense that is a moral law to your life then will not and will not obey this law and your moral or spiritual sense too blunt to discern it for this sin of ignorance shall be cause you less suffering than if you know we shall suffer but shall suffer less than knowing the right way but to persueCorrected:pursue the wrong Having your Our eyes must be opened sometime to the science of your our course or you we shall never can shall gain the demonstration of bliss and immortality and Science or suffering can alone opens the eyes Because you and by this you I mean the mortal, and the immortal reject science and we abide not by the rule of Christian Science to bring out the Principle of harmony and heaven in your being you are lives we call ourselfCorrected:ourself miserable, you are sick, and [?] Unclear or illegible  a sinner then and must as die in belief to live by the right rule of science at last before you are we can be rid of sickness of sin or of death We must work our passage to harmony the Paradise of Spirit We cannot shirk the task we have had no atonement that renders it this needless and forgives [*]Editorial Note: A vertical line is drawn through the following text.us our debts unless we forgive our debtors. We must do right or we cannot reap the reward of right, if we do wrong we shall suffer for that wrong, this is God's law and Jesus never annuledCorrected:annulled the law of God although the good do suffer because of the evil The theory creed or doctrinethat teaching that sin is forgiven by a personal God instead of destroyed by suffering or refrained from through the understanding of man's science in obedience to the Principle of his man's being that requires this in order to destroy the belief of sin, I say this theory or creed is a dangerous one and covers the volcano only that it may of error only to consume with pent up fires and burst forth in eruptions such as eventually sending forth[*]Editorial Note: Vertical line ends. belching its sulphurous odors or hints of HaidesCorrected:Hades from the church, from state, from civil and religious and social sources, until we are tempted to think, that being hath no science that all is chance and original chaos and that the bigestCorrected:biggest villain is the prince master of this world less and an honest man is not the noblest work of God

Let us be patient, God governs to day and tomorrow. This is seeming evil This is a troubled dream and ?tis well we could have seen it is not the reality of Life and but and tis well to see evil as evil instead of good if we see it at all. But remember if you are not acting squarely If not doing as well as you we know how to do that this the waking from this dream will not come, the dream will continue and grow more troubled, bring more disquiet and [*]Editorial Note: A vertical line is drawn through the following text.unhappiness to your thought untio until from the force of self love you we at length relinquish all error and especially the silly scheme of doing wrong and thinking to come out right and stop short and take up arms against all error against Sin sickness and death we must and death fighting them with the fact found out thro in science that these these are conditions of mind that show themselves on the body and [?] Unclear or illegible  illegible it latent thoughts that to personal sense, appear on the body but which conditions but Mind only and not matter can control and render void. [*]Editorial Note: Vertical line ends.

Understanding this fact is all that can save man from the continued dream of sense that hides the joy of Soul and cut short the purgatory of error this dream both here and hereafter

But if ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice ye would not have condemned the guiltless. Justice knows the are is the true demand of mercy are to and we should only help those who help themselves to and and [illegible] justice to condemns sin while mercy points out the escape from sin but unless justice joins hands with it, mercy it no longer charity mercy but is a mistake a word without the spirit of the word and a deed that is uncharitable The history of religion is replete with examples to that proving the sad results of believing that God is a person and that this person will pardons sin If God should pardons a criminals while yet the motive and malice lie latent to be reenacted the crime when the opportunity offered[?] according to scripture their blood would be upon His hands according to scripture

The Believing the in a personal Jesus was a personal God and or that The belief that one man's sufferings could can atone for and cancel another man's sins that deserved to be punished is an educated error or Again The believing the belief that God who cannot sin is capable of suffering is an injustice in thought that may and does leads to injustice in unjust action Error of thought leads to error of action and error of action leads to death

as tThe divine law law said the soul that sinneth shall die so the human and and that death came by sin so the [?] Unclear or illegible  this is penalty for sin etc and human law copies this [?] Unclear or illegible  code in the death penality But divine law never said that the unsining should be punished die or but that God delivers the righteous from the penalty they have not deserved suf out his afflictions The error of expiatory suffering is a relic of mortal mind as old as Adam that calls in heathen lands it calls to day for bullock and lamb to lay upon the altar of their god while religious Chris and in Christian lands Civilization demands and remediated expects to pardon for a criminal criminal, or a sinner directly from God when the God knows he deserves to be punshedCorrected:punished, [?] Unclear or illegible  making God the Divine and is less just than human tribunals not to by such that punishing sin as a measure reformatory

The criminal who is pardoned by our governor has not because of that his release lost his malice aforethought because of his release from the cause of his sin but must suffer for sin because sin is an error that produces discord but The wisest of judicial codes concludes it dangerous to himself and others to let the crimnalCorrected:criminal escape punishment and where did the precedent for such our criminal laws relating to crime originate and our is human law in contradiction of bold defiance of, and contrary to the law of God? No! they are human justice is planted in some respects on the very basis of His God's law for if human justice creates engenders a a the law and and wisdom formulates that law there does that the law it it that law corresponds with God's government

Let us be Christian Scientists and leave let the law of God to be read explained understood and vindicated by reason and the revelations of Wisdom and Love and and not according to man made doctrines or the edict of a kings[?] schools While we render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's let us render unto God those things that are like God That Justice and judgement are the habitations of His throne and He will by no means clear the guilty are the words of sacred writ But if ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrificCorrected:sacrifice ye would not have condemned the guiltless

The injustice in thought of vicarious sacrifice brings out their its results of injustice in action Because you If we wrong God in your theory you in theory we shall wrong your fellow beings in your practice and shall punish the innocent and let the guilty go unpunished shall the foul blackest criminal

Does Wisdom pardon the foul murderer reeking in sin while and trembling in with the cowardice of crime your a the a the doctrinal sacrifice would pardon find be pardoned and push him straight into glory

What a premium such doctrines offer views set upon the gallows When What man of common judgement would not prefer going to heaven than working hard on earth having at law having poor nothing wages with little else but poverty and poor wages and or suffering even the temptation even to steal and or to murder if by if by here when by when but by commitingCorrected:committing a crime he is and the sooner be helped and by a priest sending a petionCorrected:petition to God to get an immediate above he can entire receives full absolution and has and goes be at peace a new heart given him and at once the old heart disappearsing in a moment and without a hint of what it has done. Ah! friends we do not get to heaven so easy as that we must work our passage and did you never find that to master one temptation was something of a job and and remember it is not in the power of God because it is not in the wisdom of God to do our work for us and Love will not Love is not so blind as to cherish sin by destroying its preventing its suffering both here or and hereafter until through suffering sin is self destroyed Ecclesiastical Theology admits that would have God do more and does less for man than Christian science can proves in the case reveals Does more in bearing the effects burdens of our sin that justly belongs to [?] Unclear or illegible  to bear the sinner and or sin to bear and does less for man when he is sick and he knows not how to do better for himself than he is doing for himself To pardon sin perpetuates it unless that sin has condemned itself to death and then it needs no pardon but pleads guilty and hastens to death its own destruction Then is the goes upward heaven's peanCorrected:paean in heaven the joy that echoes along the bright aisles of Soul and sounds the winged words above around about "the prodigal has returned he is tired of husks and straw!Luke 15:17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! and would When he can sit down to meal and to begin with would sit down to meal When joy waits at with flying feet points to his Father's board house in th true Principle of his being God as a Principle may be seen and understood but the person of God cannot be known or comprehended can neither be seen nor understood it for it has no intelligence of its own but is it is an infinite idea that directs us points to its Principle Where even where God whence to gain the nature and character of theis idea and for for no where else can this it be gained We can never be correct in with regard to the Person of God until we know more something of the Principle that is the Life Truth and Love that produced that person it the it is mind that forms the body gives ing outline character form and expression to that body. The Principle that produces its own the idea can alone can acquaint us with that idea, what it is, and why it is. Progress is footsteps not a leap in the dark. The ages is are slowly emerging from the barbaric barbarism the belief of propiatoryCorrected:propitiatorysac is sacrifice that supported the pagan opinion that is is was affect by by by the [?] Unclear or illegible  receives its only support from that paganism The good and just Paul Jesus ought not to have suffered for any for [?] Unclear or illegible  any sooner than [?] Unclear or illegible  Peter and Paul But being in advance of them the age the error of the age leveled its blows at the and biggest Truth and Paul for the unjust man and only that he did suffer because of not because of justice but injustice did our brave Master meet that [?] Unclear or illegible  of man and the inevitable fate of speaking or and living in advance of the public sentiment Christ is God Jesus was the name of Mary's son Christ is God sentiment The meaning of his Jesus' sacrifice had a higher and holy mission it was holier sense than the shedding of blood its true import was more than the we a wooden cross [?] Unclear or illegible  [?] Unclear or illegible  it is was the part I fear is not understood his was the brought out sacrifice in It was a daily life of all that the cross up the hill of science whereby he destroyed the cross world values to bless his enemies for the had and could have in the material world few, if any friends would and won the crown It was not in his earthly death but in his earthly life that his earthly sacrifice was highest and for it was not through error but Truth that he wrought out and solved before Mary the great problem of Life without death How have they parted his garment of Truth and cast lott and for this righteous raiment of raiment cast lots Who thinkthat God had naught to do with the injustice of this the martydomCorrected:martyrdom of Jesus

For us To As well We should no longer support by any attempt possible admission to support by any possible [?] Unclear or illegible  the pagan opinion that for a poor little pig squealing with pain or ion that a lovely lamb that licksing the hand just raised to that sheds his blood to must suffer to or a poor little pig squeal in pain to popitiate they [?] Unclear or illegible  gives them the heathen's god who too send a potatoeCorrected:potato crop now this would be [?] squeUnclear or illegiblesque [?] profantUnclear or illegibleprofant and silly to in in among civilization, but it is does seems sensible to the and devouteCorrected:devout HindooCorrected:Hindu to the BraminCorrected:Brahmin

Jesus said upon this commandment hangs all the law and the prophets Thou shall have but one God and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself WThe exercise of mercy when obeying is to obey the requirements of justice

As we near the boundary of science Soul and not sense will explain God Truth and man and the our sacrifice our and our sense of sacrifice will then be justice, meekness and mercy in exercise, met in embrace [*]Editorial Note: Vertical lines are drawn through the remaining text.It is Science and the only sacrifice will be that we all should the sacrifice that we make and shall make and should be willingnot the one we require to be made for us The cross we take up will be our sacrifice and a meek and contrite heart the offering