I beg to thank you for your most excellent letterEditorial Note: See 182.31.004. It is an outpouring of goodness and greatness with which you honor me.

In a call upon my person, you would not see me, for spiritual sense demands and commands us; hence I seek to be "absent from the body,II Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. " and such circumstances embarrass the higher criticism.

The Scripture reads: "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. " A saving faith comes not of a person but of Truth's presence and power. Soul, not sense, receives and gives it. One's voluntary withdrawal from society, from furnishing the demands upon the finite to supply the blessings of the infinite--something impossible in the Science of God and credited only by human belief, by a material and not by the spiritual sense of man--should come from conscience.

The doctrine of Buddha, which rests on a heathen basis for its Nirvana, represents not the divinity of Christian Science, in which Truth, or Christ, finds its paradise in Spirit, in the consciousness of heaven within usLuke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. --health, harmony, holiness, entirely apart from limitations, which would dwarf individuality in personality and couple evil with good. It is convenient for history to record limitations and to regard evil as real, but it is impossible in Science to believe this, or on such a basis to demonstrate the divine Principle of that which is real, harmonious, and eternal--that which is based on one infinite God and man His idea, image, and likeness.

In Science, we learn that man is not absorbed in the divine nature, but is absolved by it. Man is free from the flesh and is individual in consciousness--in Mind, not in matter. Think not that Christian Science tends toward Buddhism or any other "ism." Per contra, Christian Science destroys such tendency. Mary of old weptJohn 20:11 ¶But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, John 20:12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. because she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher--looked for the person, instead of for the Principle that reveals Christ. The Mary of today looks up for Christ--away from the supposedly crucified to the ascended Christ, to the Truth that "healeth all thy diseasesPs 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; " and gives dominion Gen 1:26 ¶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. over all the earth. The doubting discipleJohn 20:24 ¶But Thomas, one of the twelve, called
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. John 20:25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. John 20:26 ¶And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. John 20:27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. could not identify Christ spiritually, but he could materially. He turned to the person, to the prints of the nails, to prove Christ, whereas the discharged evidence of material sense gave the real proof of his Savior, the veritable Christ, Truth, which destroys the false sense with the evidence of Soul, immortality, eternal Life without beginning or end of days.

Should I give myself the pleasant pastime of seeing your personal self or give you the opportunity of seeing mine, you would not see me thus, for "I am not there.Matt 28:6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. " I have risen to look and wait and watch and pray for the spirit of Truth that leadeth away from person--from body to Soul, even to the true image and likeness of God.

St. John John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. found Christ, Truth, in the Word which is God. We look for the sainted Revelator in his writings, and there we find him. Those, who look for me in person or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me. I hope and trust that you and I meet in truth and know each other there, and know as we are knownI Cor 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. of God.

Accept my gratitude for the chance you give me to answer your excellent letter. Forgive, if it needs forgiveness, my honest position. Bear with me the burden of discovery, and share with me the bliss of seeing the risen Christ, God's spiritual idea that takes away all sin, disease, and death and gives to Soul its native freedom.