Law of Relapse – Your Power And Dominion

Writings of Herbert Eustace

(Ref. pages 128-131 of “Your Power & Dominion” in the section entitled

“Do Your Say There Is No God?“
The Law of Relapse

You understand what the law of relapse is, and you remember that some time ago there was published a number of books and articles -attacks apparently on Mrs. Eddy-vicious attacks ostensibly fortified by numerous references. How was that accepted by the unenlightened thought? Naturally as an attack on Mrs. Eddy.

But what did you as the metaphysician say about it? You recognized at once that it was not an attack on Mrs. Eddy at all. All such attacks were met and answered completely

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twenty-five years ago. They were at that time handled and destroyed, and therefore you were not deceived into thinking that because the same appearance accompanied this effort, that it had actually anything to do with the claim. You did not bow down to the appearance, even for a moment, just because the lie seemed to be clothed in the language of the former attacks levelled at the personality of Mrs. Eddy, any more than you would accept the action of a man swimming on dry boards, under hypnotic influence, as really settling the fact of his being in the water.

You turned from the appearance at once, and on analyzing the situation, you realized that the claim of a personal attack had been destroyed years ago; then you knew that the real claim of this malicious mind was that it was operating hypnotically as a law of relapse, not relapse, but a law of relapse*, in contradistinction to Mind’s eternal law of progress, and you immediately handled the claim from that standpoint.

What was the result? These books after a large sale in the beginning, died down to the point where, it is said, only a comparative few copies are selling today. You do not think that the demand of this so-called human mind ceased in its desire for that sort of fallacious reading

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do you? It was your understanding of what the real claim was and the handling of it that destroyed it, and nothing else. You know as metaphysicians that you could never heal a case by handling the same symptoms a second time after that case with those symptoms had once been healed, destroyed through Christian Science. The second appearance of the symptoms could never be the same claim.

After being healed, the same symptoms could come only as an entirely new disease, as a so-called law of relapse. When a claim is once destroyed, you never pay the slightest attention to any symptom appearing as that condition again. As you know, you bend your energies then toward understanding the oneness and allness of Mind, to realizing that Mind’s eternal law of progress is ever operative and that there is no malicious mind to operate hypnotically as a law of relapse.

There was only one reason why the demand for those books ceased. That was because the hypnotism was destroyed. One on the side of Truth is a majority. You have proved it in sickness. You have not a single case of sickness in which the entire world does not believe, because the mind that declares for that sickness is the

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mind of the whole world and therefore, all mortals accept what that mind is and believes. The law of relapse is the impersonal operation of that mind in its phase of pure evil and it is powerless to continue to appear to or to hurt or harm the Mind that knows its nothingness.

*”If you believe it a case of relapse rather than a LAW of relapse, then your turning to the personal human mind rather than understanding that Mary Baker Eddy, one with divine Mind, met that claim. Divine Mind, being All-in-all, doesn’t duplicate itself, therefore its negation cannot either as there can be no repeat of the same claim; then handle a LAW of relapse.” [note from Paul W. Ambuul]

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Ref. pages 148 – 149 of Your Power & Dominion in the section entitled

A LETTER

The Law of Relapse

You understand that when once a lie is replaced with the truth, the Christ, the lie is destroyed, for the Christ from that moment reigns as consciousness on that particular point, and so can never be displaced by the return of the lie, any more than two times two as five can return where the understanding reigns that two times two is four. Because you know this, you know also that when once the lie about Mrs. Eddy and the authorship of Science and Health was understandingly destroyed, it was equally impossible for that lie to return. As Science and Health declares, “Neither disease

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itself, sin, nor fear has the power to cause disease or a relapse.” (Science and Health, p. 419:10.)

Then the question arises: What is the world confronted with at the present time, not only in America, but also in England, in this apparent tirade of abuse of Mrs. Eddy and the repetition of all the old lies that have so long been silenced?

When a disease has been corrected with the truth, and Christian Science reigns as Mind, that disease is gone, as you know, and gone forever. If the old symptoms characterizing the disease should appear again, you would know at once that it was not the old claim but an entirely new claim with the old appearances. Nothing could persuade you to think that it was the original claim. You would at once diagnose it as a belief of a law of relapse, and you would handle it as such, and destroy it through understanding that since the one law of infinite progress is the law of God, of Mind, there is no mind, malicious or otherwise, that can operate as hypnotic suggestion and appear as a belief of a law of relapse.

I do not need to go into the various arguments you might use to establish this fact for yourself, for you understand how to do it,

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but establish it you would have to, in order to destroy the lie. You could not be tempted to handle relapse, but you would handle the law of relapse as the suppositional opposite of the law of progress, and you would under-stand that it had no relationship whatever to the original claim. The belief of a return of a diseased belief, in other words, the belief of a law of relapse, is not a claim in the realm of personality or matter at all; it only appears as that. It is really a claim in the realm of pure mental iniquity and must be destroyed as such.

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(also regarding the Law of Relapse)

COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN TO A FRIEND ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
CONDITIONS CONFRONTING THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST.

1600 The Alameda,
San Jose, California.
December 30, 1929.

Dear Mr. J:

As the alert Christian Scientist, as the metaphysician, you cannot be deceived by any phenomena that may be presented to you. You remember Jesus said, “What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch,” and again, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”

Jesus was warning against the temptation of being deceived into thinking that what appears as true to the so-called material senses is necessarily true, or indicative of what is really operating. Real truth is found only by looking away from the material sense testimony.

The metaphysician is confronted today with two very interesting conditions. One phase, which I will analyze first, is the world wide attack, as it appears, on Mrs. Eddy and her authorship of Science and Health.

Some twenty-five years ago, the attack at Mrs. Eddy’s life, education and character, from a personal standpoint, was in full swing and, as you know, this attack was fully and entirely answered, not only by Edward A. Kimball, Frederick Dixon, Alfred Farlow, B. O. Flower and others, but by Sibyl Wilbur’s excellent and accurate account of the whole question in her “Life of Mary Baker Eddy” published in 1907. The world was completely satisfied that Mrs. Eddy was not only the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, but that her character was, and always had been, above reproach, and that her entire life was an open book for all to review. Her ability as a writer was, also, fully established and her authorship of Science and Health accepted without further doubt or question.

You understand that when once a lie is replaced with the truth, the Christ, the lie is destroyed, for the Christ from that moment reigns as consciousness on that particular point, and so can never be displaced by the return of the lie, any more than two times two as five can return where the understanding reigns that two times two is four. Because you know this, you also know that when once the lie about Mrs. Eddy and the authorship of Science and Health was destroyed, it was equally impossible for that lie to return. As Science and Health declares, “Neither disease itself, sin nor fear has the power to cause disease or a relapse.”

Then the question arises, what is the world, apparently, confronted with at the present time, not only in America, but also in England, in this tirade of abuse of Mrs. Eddy and the repetition of all the old lies that have so long been silent?

With a disease corrected with the truth, and Christian Science reigning as Mind, that disease is gone, as you know, and gone forever. If the old symptoms characterizing the disease, should appear again, you would know at once that it was not the old claim, but an entirely new claim with the old appearances.

Nothing could persuade you to think it was the original claim. You would at once diagnose it as a law of relapse and you would handle it as such, and destroy it through understanding that the one law of infinite progress being the law of God, of Mind, there is no mind, malicious or otherwise, that could operate as hypnotic suggestion and appear as a law of relapse.

I do not need to go into the various arguments you might use to establish this fact for yourself, for you understand how to do it, but establish it you would have to in order to destroy the lie. You could not be tempted to handle relapse but you would handle the law of relapse as the suppositional opposite of the law of progress, and you would understand that it had no relationship whatever to the original claim. The belief of a return of an old belief, in other words the belief of a law of relapse is not a claim in the realm of personality or matter at all, it only appears as that, but it is a claim in the realm of pure mental iniquity and must be destroyed as such.

What appears as the present attack at Mrs. Eddy is exactly this claim of a belief of a law of relapse. The original claim was met and destroyed. Now because the old symptoms appear again, does it mean the old claim has arisen? Of course it does not, and you cannot be mesmerized into thinking that it does. Then the claim is the belief that there is malicious mind, and that as such mind it can operate as hypnotic suggestion and appear as a law of relapse.

What is it then, that has apparently brought out the conscious activity of this spurious belief of law that is now seen? In 1927, you, with a large number of other metaphysicians, met in a conference, and established for the first time publicly, as it were, the Line of Light in which you so impersonalized Mrs. Eddy and Science and Health as to find Mind as All-in-all, relinquishing forever both the revelator and the revelation as having anything to do with personality.

This was simply the further unfoldment and activity of God’s eternal law of progress and so spontaneously there arose the pretext or possibility of the suppositional opposite. Truth always precedes error, for error is ever but the lie about Truth. Today this suppositional opposite has appeared cloaked in the guise of the Dakin Book, the articles in the Outlook, the Fisher Book in England, and the accusations of Mrs. Bill and Mr. Dittemore, and perhaps many others.

To attempt to combat these attacks with the true account of Mrs. Eddy and her life is just as futile as to attempt to correct two times two as five, with three times three as nine. The latter is true but it will never correct anything wrong about two times two. The right Christ must be present to destroy the lie, or the lie is not destroyed. So the present lie appearing as the vicious attack at Mrs. Eddy can only be destroyed with the understanding that Mind is all that there is to Mrs. Eddy and to Science and Health, and so wholly impersonal, and that this understanding is the law of progress which has no opposite because there is no malicious mind to operate as mind, and appear as the law of relapse.

Your understanding of this and of what the Line of Light is answers the attack and will destroy it. No refutation dealing with personality, no matter how true and minute, now means anything, it must be impersonal. The truth of what you established, in the meetings of 1927 and 1929, is the answer and the only answer that will meet this lie and destroy it. Publishing the report of those meetings came at exactly the moment to publicly meet the lie about person. You are, I know, awake to and are understandingly handling the law of relapse and so, as Mrs. Eddy discerned, “Will hold crime in check”. (S. & H. 97:1)
Now with regard to the second condition confronting the metaphysician.

It was in September 1922 that we began to hear of “excommunication,” and a little later the public was informed that I had been excommunicated from the Christian Science Church. But it was not any person that was excommunicated, no person is of any moment, it was metaphysics. The metaphysician knows that it is never a person that is involved, but that what appears as a person is always a state of consciousness, and so what the person is standing for is all that constitutes the person. Hence it was metaphysics that was excommunicated.

Seven years have passed since that time, and you know that seven is always a figure of speech representing completeness. During these seven years, a quiet readjustment has been taking place with the Christian Scientist in his understanding of Christian Science as Mind instead of as a religious belief. I do not mean by this that Christian Science ever has been a religious belief, but it has been, in a large measure, looked upon by the Christian Scientist as a religious belief, and, in consequence, so regarded by the world.

If you apply the term “religion” to Christian Science then instead of Christian Science being a religion or religious belief, it is religion itself, for the very term religion means man’s relation to God and this relation is as fixed as Principle and is no more subject to a belief about it than is mathematics. In this sense Christian Science is religious and religion, but never in the sense of a creed, doctrine or belief. Human opinion does not enter its realm.

Then, because Christian Science is not, and never has been, a religious belief, it was inevitable that this should finally appear, which it has done, with the greatest clarity, during the past seven years. Today the metaphysician knows that Christian Science has nothing, whatever, to do with any religious belief, but has everything to do with Mind, for Christian Science is simply another name for Mind.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, how many people have I interested, or attempted to interest, in Christian Science during the past seven years? Perhaps, if you do this, you might be surprised to find that there had been almost a cessation of endeavor on your part, during this time, to interest anyone in Christian Science.

The reason for this cessation, if there has been one, is without doubt because you have felt that you could no longer attempt to present Christian Science as a religious belief, as you had done in the past under the aegis of church organization, and that you were not quite ready to present it in any other way. Hence the seven year period of readjustment.

Today, however, this is all changed, the seven years of quiet reconstruction is over, and a new seven years has begun. Without doubt, the second seven years we are now in, carrying to the year 1936, the computed time given as the final date of the fulfillment of all Biblical prophecy and also, given as the date of emergence into the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid, will be a period of tremendous activity on the part of the metaphysician. No longer thinking of Christian Science as a religious belief, but thinking of it in terms of pure Mind, you have no hesitancy or delicacy in presenting it to one and all as Mind.
Would you have the slightest question in presenting two times two as four to anyone? Would it not be the most natural thing in the world to correct spontaneously any mistake about two times two? Is it not equally natural and normal then for you, understanding Christian Science as Mind, to present Christian Science in this light to everyone? Why would there be any delicacy or hesitancy?

Under the old order of thinking of Christian Science as a religious belief, there was a natural delicacy about intruding one’s religious opinions on another, but with that sense of Christian Science entirely removed, there can no longer be any reluctance in presenting the allness of Mind.

As the metaphysician, you know that because you are dealing with Mind and Mind alone, that which appears to you as persons, places and things are not what they seem to be, something “over there”, but are simply the interpretation “here” that you are ascribing to your communion with Mind. It is not possible then, for you to remain satisfied with what appears as people “over there” continuing to be unacquainted with Christian Science. If you could be, you would not find yourself alone with Mind and, therefore, with perfection, which is the kingdom of heaven. Then do you not, for the moment at least, appear to have to bend your energies toward bringing to all the understanding of Christian Science as Mind? Unless you do this, will you be able to say that Mind is All-in-all? You know you will not. Does not this mean then, that you must begin to present understandingly, Christian Science as Mind, to all that appears to you, not obtrusively, but naturally and normally and in every way?

In this way will you truly find Mind as your Mind, and find Mind as All-in-all. There can be nothing external to Mind. All must be contained in Mind, hence, John’s statement, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.” All must be found as Mind and therefore, the presence of this Mind as omnipresent as the one Christian Scientist.

This is something you will enjoy carefully pondering and will doubtless seriously ask yourself, what am I doing to consciously establish the kingdom of God, Mind, on earth as it is in heaven? Or to give a little more punch to the question, as Mrs. Eddy puts it, “What will you do about it . . . . . will you doff your lavender-kid zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? . . . . Answer at once and practically and answer aright.” (Misc. 177:14).

Very Sincerely yours,

Herbert W. Eustace