Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896
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Title: Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896
Author: Mary Baker Eddy
Release date: February 27, 2010 [eBook #31427]
Most recently updated: June 16, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS, 1883-1896 ***
Miscellaneous Writings
1883-1896
by
Mary Baker Eddy
Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science
and Author of Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures
Published by the
Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U. S. A.
Copyright, 1896
By Mary Baker G. Eddy
Copyright renewed, 1924
CONTENTS
Dedication.
Epigrams.
Preface.
Chapter I. Introductory.
Prospectus.
A Timely Issue.
Love Your Enemies.
Christian Theism.
The New Birth.
Chapter II. One Cause And Effect.
Chapter III. Questions And Answers.
Chapter IV. Addresses.
Christian Science In Tremont Temple.
Science And The Senses.
Extract From My First Address In The Mother Church, May 26, 1895
Address Before The Alumni Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College,
1895
Address Before The Christian Scientist Association Of The Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, In 1893
Communion Address, January, 1896
Message To The Annual Meeting Of The Mother Church, Boston, 1896
Chapter V. Letters.
To The Mother Church.
To ——, On Prayer.
To The National Christian Scientist Association.
To The College Association.
To The National Christian Scientist Association.
To The First Church Of Christ, Scientist, Boston.
To Donors Of Boat, From Toronto, Canada.
Address,—Laying The Corner-Stone.
To The First Church Of Christ, Scientist, Boston
The First Members Of The First Church Of Christ, Scientist, Boston,
Massachusetts
Extract From A Letter
To The Mother Church
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Oconto
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Scranton
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Denver
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Lawrence
To Correspondents
To Students
To A Student
To A Student
Extract From A Christmas Letter
Chapter VI. Sermons.
A Christmas Sermon
Editor’s Extracts From Sermon
Extract From A Sermon Delivered In Boston, January 18, 1885
Sunday Services on July Fourth
Easter Services
Bible Lessons
Chapter VII. Pond And Purpose.
Chapter VIII. Precept Upon Precept
“Thy Will Be Done”
“Put Up Thy Sword”
Scientific Theism
Mental Practice
Taking Offense
Hints To The Clergy
Perfidy And Slander
Contagion
Improve Your Time
Thanksgiving Dinner
Christian Science
Injustice
Reformers
Mrs. Eddy Sick
“I’ve Got Cold”
“Prayer And Healing”
Veritas Odium Parit
Falsehood
Love
Address On The Fourth Of July At Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., Before
2,500 Members Of The Mother Church, 1897
Well Doinge Is The Fruite Of Doinge Well
Little Gods
Advantage Of Mind-Healing
A Card
Spirit And Law
Truth-Healing
Heart To Heart
Things To Be Thought Of
Unchristian Rumor
Vainglory
Compounds
Close Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College
Malicious Reports
Loyal Christian Scientists
The March Primary Class
Obtrusive Mental Healing
Wedlock
Judge Not
New Commandment
A Cruce Salus
Comparison to English Barmaids
A Christian Science Statute
Advice To Students
Notice
Angels
Deification Of Personality
A Card
Overflowing Thoughts
A Great Man And His Saying
Words Of Commendation
Church And School
Class, Pulpit, Students’ Students
My Students And Thy Students
Unseen Sin
A Word To The Wise
Christmas
Card
Message To The Mother Church
Chapter IX. The Fruit Of Spirit
An Allegory
Voices Of Spring
“Where Art Thou?”
Divine Science
Fidelity
True Philosophy And Communion
Origin Of Evil
Truth Versus Error
Fallibility Of Human Concepts
The Way
Science And Philosophy
“Take Heed!”
The Cry Of Christmas-Tide
Blind Leaders
“Christ And Christmas”
Sunrise At Pleasant View
Chapter X. Inklings Historic
Chapter XI. Poems
Come Thou
Meeting Of My Departed Mother And Husband
Love
Woman’s Rights
The Mother’s Evening Prayer
June
Wish And Item
The Oak On The Mountain’s Summit
Isle Of Wight
Hope
Rondelet
To Mr. James T. White
Autumn
Christ My Refuge
“Feed My Sheep”
Communion Hymn
Laus Deo!
A Verse
Chapter XII. Testimonials
Footnotes
DEDICATION.
To
Loyal Christian Scientists
In This And Every Land
I Lovingly Dedicate These Practical Teachings
Indispensable To The Culture And Achievements Which
Constitute The Success Of A Student
And Demonstrate The Ethics
Of Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy
EPIGRAMS.
Pray thee, take care, that tak’st my book in hand,
To read it well; that is, to understand.
BEN JONSON: _Epigram_ 1
When I would know thee ... my thought looks
Upon thy well made choice of friends and books;
Then do I love thee, and behold thy ends
In making thy friends books, and thy books friends.
BEN JONSON: _Epigram_ 86
If worlds were formed by matter,
And mankind from the dust;
Till time shall end more timely,
There’s nothing here to trust.
Thenceforth to evolution’s
Geology, we say,—
Nothing have we gained therefrom,
And nothing have to pray:
My world has sprung from Spirit,
In everlasting day;
Whereof, I’ve more to glory,
Wherefor, have much to pay.
MARY BAKER EDDY
PREFACE.
[Page ix.]
[Transcriber’s Note: The original book includes line numbers throughout
the text, for easy reference to the text by page number and line number.
This transcription retains those page and line numbers; the numbers in
[square brackets] at the right ends of lines are the original book’s line
numbers. The paragraphs are not adjusted as is customary for text in
e-books, nor are words split by hyphens rejoined, so that the lines shown
below have the same words as the lines in the original book.]
A certain apothegm of a Talmudical philosopher [1]
suits my sense of doing good. It reads thus: “The
noblest charity is to prevent a man from accepting
charity; and the best alms are to show and to enable a
man to dispense with alms.” [5]
In the early history of Christian Science, among my
thousands of students few were wealthy. Now, Christian
Scientists are not indigent; and their comfortable fortunes
are acquired by healing mankind morally, physically,
spiritually. The easel of time presents pictures—once [10]
fragmentary and faint—now rejuvenated by the touch
of God’s right hand. Where joy, sorrow, hope, disap-
pointment, sigh, and smile commingled, now hope sits
dove-like.
To preserve a long course of years still and uniform, [15]
amid the uniform darkness of storm and cloud and
tempest, requires strength from above,—deep draughts
from the fount of divine Love. Truly may it be said:
There is an old age of the heart, and a youth that never
grows old; a Love that is a boy, and a Psyche who is [20]
ever a girl. The fleeting freshness of youth, however,
is not the evergreen of Soul; the coloring glory of
[Page x.]
perpetual bloom; the spiritual glow and grandeur of [1]
a consecrated life wherein dwelleth peace, sacred and
sincere in trial or in triumph.
The opportunity has at length offered itself for me to
comply with an oft-repeated request; namely, to collect [5]
my miscellaneous writings published in _The Christian_
_Science Journal_, since April, 1883, and republish them
in book form,—accessible as reference, and reliable as
old landmarks. Owing to the manifold demands on my
time in the early pioneer days, most of these articles [10]
were originally written in haste, without due preparation.
To those heretofore in print, a few articles are herein
appended. To some articles are affixed data, where these
are most requisite, to serve as mile-stones measuring the
distance,—or the difference between then and now,— [15]
in the opinions of men and the progress of our Cause.
My signature has been slightly changed from my
Christian name, Mary Morse Baker. Timidity in early
years caused me, as an author, to assume various _noms_
_de plume_. After my first marriage, to Colonel Glover [20]
of Charleston, South Carolina, I dropped the name of
Morse to retain my maiden name,—thinking that other-
wise the name would be too long.
In 1894, I received from the Daughters of the American
Revolution a certificate of membership made out to Mary [25]
Baker Eddy, and thereafter adopted that form of signature,
except in connection with my published works.
[Page xi.]
The first edition of Science and Health having been [1]
copyrighted at the date of its issue, 1875, in my name
of Glover, caused me to retain the initial “G” on my
subsequent books.
These pages, although a reproduction of what has [5]
been written, are still in advance of their time; and are
richly rewarded by what they have hitherto achieved for
the race. While no offering can liquidate one’s debt of
gratitude to God, the fervent heart and willing hand are
not unknown to nor unrewarded by Him. [10]
May this volume be to the reader a graphic guide-
book, pointing the path, dating the unseen, and enabling
him to walk the untrodden in the hitherto unexplored
fields of Science. At each recurring holiday the Christian
Scientist will find herein a “canny” crumb; and thus [15]
may time’s pastimes become footsteps to joys eternal.
Realism will at length be found to surpass imagination,
and to suit and savor all literature. The shuttlecock of
religious intolerance will fall to the ground, if there be
no battledores to fling it back and forth. It is reason for [20]
rejoicing that the _vox populi_ is inclined to grant us peace,
together with pardon for the preliminary battles that
purchased it.
With tender tread, thought sometimes walks in memory,
through the dim corridors of years, on to old battle- [25]
grounds, there sadly to survey the fields of the slain and
the enemy’s losses. In compiling this work, I have tried
[Page xii.]
to remove the pioneer signs and ensigns of war, and to [1]
retain at this date the privileged armaments of peace.
With armor on, I continue the march, command and
countermand; meantime interluding with loving thought
this afterpiece of battle. Supported, cheered, I take my [5]
pen and pruning-hook, to “learn war no more,” and with
strong wing to lift my readers above the smoke of conflict
into light and liberty.
Mary Baker Eddy
CONCORD, N.H.
January, 1897
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
Prospectus.
[Page 1.]
The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olym- [1]
piad. The Chaldee watched the appearing of a
star; to him, no higher destiny dawned on the dome
of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heav- [5]
ens. The meek Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers,
said, “Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye
not discern the signs of the times?”—for he forefelt
and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated
by sinners. [10]
To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the
new idea that comes welling up from infinite Truth needs
to be understood. The seer of this age should be a
sage.
Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition [15]
of Deity. The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and
strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops
the world. Meekness heightens immortal attributes
only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness
reveals another scene and another self seemingly rolled [20]
up in shades, but brought to light by the evolutions of
[Page 2.]
advancing thought, whereby we discern the power of [1]
Truth and Love to heal the sick.
Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have the
least wisdom or experience; and they steal from their
neighbor, because they have so little of their own. [5]
The signs of these times portend a long and strong
determination of mankind to cleave to the world, the
flesh, and evil, causing great obscuration of Spirit.
When we remember that God is just, and admit the
total depravity of mortals, _alias_ mortal mind,—and that [10]
this Adam legacy must first be seen, and then must be
subdued and recompensed by justice, the eternal attri-
bute of Truth,—the outlook demands labor, and the
laborers seem few. To-day we behold but the first
faint view of a more spiritual Christianity, that embraces [15]
a deeper and broader philosophy and a more rational and
divine healing. The time approaches when divine Life,
Truth, and Love will be found alone the remedy for sin,
sickness, and death; when God, man’s saving Principle,
and Christ, the spiritual idea of God, will be revealed. [20]
Man’s probation after death is the necessity of his
immortality; for good dies not and evil is self-destruc-
tive, therefore evil must be mortal and self-destroyed.
If man should not progress after death, but should re-
main in error, he would be inevitably self-annihilated. [25]
Those upon whom “the second death hath no power”
are those who progress here and hereafter out of evil,
their mortal element, and into good that is immortal;
thus laying off the material beliefs that war against
Spirit, and putting on the spiritual elements in divine [30]
Science.
While we entertain decided views as to the best method
[Page 3.]
for elevating the race physically, morally, and spiritually, [1]
and shall express these views as duty demands, we
shall claim no especial gift from our divine origin, no
supernatural power. If we regard good as more natural
than evil, and spiritual understanding—the true knowl- [5]
edge of God—as imparting the only power to heal the
sick and the sinner, we shall demonstrate in our lives the
power of Truth and Love.
The lessons we learn in divine Science are applica-
ble to all the needs of man. Jesus taught them for this [10]
very purpose; and his demonstration hath taught us
that “through his stripes”—his life-experience—and
divine Science, brought to the understanding through
Christ, the Spirit-revelator, is man healed and saved.
No opinions of mortals nor human hypotheses enter this [15]
line of thought or action. Drugs, inert matter, never are
needed to aid spiritual power. Hygiene, manipulation,
and mesmerism are not Mind’s medicine. The Principle
of all cure is God, unerring and immortal Mind.
We have learned that the erring or mortal thought holds [20]
in itself all sin, sickness, and death, and imparts these
states to the body; while the supreme and perfect Mind,
as seen in the truth of being, antidotes and destroys these
material elements of sin and death.
Because God is supreme and omnipotent, _materia_ [25]
_medica_, hygiene, and animal magnetism are impotent;
and their only supposed efficacy is in apparently delud-
ing reason, denying revelation, and dethroning Deity.
The tendency of mental healing is to uplift mankind; but
this method perverted, is “Satan let loose.” Hence the [30]
deep demand for the Science of psychology to meet sin,
and uncover it; thus to annihilate hallucination.
[Page 4.]
Thought imbued with purity, Truth, and Love, in- [1]
structed in the Science of metaphysical healing, is the
most potent and desirable remedial agent on the earth.
At this period there is a marked tendency of mortal
mind to plant mental healing on the basis of hypnotism, [5]
calling this method “mental science.” All _Science_ is
_Christian_ Science; the Science of the Mind that is God,
and of the universe as His idea, and their relation to each
other. Its only power to heal is its power to do good,
not evil.
A Timely Issue.
At this date, 1883, a newspaper edited and published
by the Christian Scientists has become a necessity. Many
questions important to be disposed of come to the Col-
lege and to the practising students, yet but little time [15]
has been devoted to their answer. Further enlight-
enment is necessary for the age, and a periodical de-
voted to this work seems alone adequate to meet the
requirement. Much interest is awakened and expressed
on the subject of metaphysical healing, but in many [20]
minds it is confounded with isms, and even infidelity, so
that its religious specialty and the vastness of its worth
are not understood.
It is often said, “You must have a very strong will-
power to heal,” or, “It must require a great deal of faith [25]
to make your demonstrations.” When it is answered
that there is no will-power required, and that something
more than faith is necessary, we meet with an expression
of incredulity. It is not alone the mission of Christian
Science to heal the sick, but to destroy sin in mortal [30]
[Page 5.]
thought. This work well done will elevate and purify [1]
the race. It cannot fail to do this if we devote our best
energies to the work.
Science reveals man as spiritual, harmonious, and eter-
nal. This should be understood. Our College should [5]
be crowded with students who are willing to consecrate
themselves to this Christian work. Mothers should be
able to produce perfect health and perfect morals in their
children—and ministers, to heal the sick—by study-
ing this scientific method of practising Christianity. [10]
Many say, “I should like to study, but have not suffi-
cient faith that I have the power to heal.” The healing
power is Truth and Love, and these do not fail in the
greatest emergencies.
_Materia medica_ says, “I can do no more. I have [15]
done all that can be done. There is nothing to build
upon. There is no longer any reason for hope.” Then
metaphysics comes in, armed with the power of Spirit,
not matter, takes up the case hopefully and builds on
the stone that the builders have rejected, and is suc- [20]
cessful.
Metaphysical therapeutics can seem a miracle and a
mystery to those only who do not understand the grand
reality that Mind controls the body. They acknowledge
an erring or mortal mind, but believe it to be brain mat- [25]
ter. That man is the idea of infinite Mind, always perfect
in God, in Truth, Life, and Love, is something not easily
accepted, weighed down as is mortal thought with mate-
rial beliefs. That which never existed, can seem solid
substance to this thought. It is much easier for people [30]
to believe that the body affects the mind, than that the
mind affects the body.
[Page 6.]
We hear from the pulpits that sickness is sent as a [1]
discipline to bring man nearer to God,—even though
sickness often leaves mortals but little time free from
complaints and fretfulness, and Jesus cast out disease as
evil. [5]
The most of our Christian Science practitioners have
plenty to do, and many more are needed for the ad-
vancement of the age. At present the majority of the
acute cases are given to the M. D.’s, and only those
cases that are pronounced incurable are passed over to [10]
the Scientist. The healing of such cases should cer-
tainly prove to all minds the power of metaphysics over
physics; and it surely does, to many thinkers, as the
rapid growth of the work shows. At no distant day,
Christian healing will rank far in advance of allopathy [15]
and homœopathy; for Truth must ultimately succeed
where error fails.
Mind governs all. That we exist in God, perfect,
there is no doubt, for the conceptions of Life, Truth, and
Love must be perfect; and with that basic truth we con- [20]
quer sickness, sin, and death. Frequently it requires
time to overcome the patient’s faith in drugs and mate-
rial hygiene; but when once convinced of the uselessness
of such material methods, the gain is rapid.
It is a noticeable fact, that in families where laws [25]
of health are strictly enforced, great caution is observed
in regard to diet, and the conversation chiefly confined
to the ailments of the body, there is the most sickness.
Take a large family of children where the mother has
all that she can attend to in keeping them clothed and
fed, and health is generally the rule; whereas, in small
families of one or two children, sickness is by no means
[Page 7.]
the exception. These children must not be allowed to [1]
eat certain food, nor to breathe the cold air, because
there is danger in it; when they perspire, they must be
loaded down with coverings until their bodies become
dry,—and the mother of one child is often busier than [5]
the mother of eight.
Great charity and humility is necessary in this work
of healing. The loving patience of Jesus, we must
strive to emulate. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself” has daily to be exemplified; and, although [10]
skepticism and incredulity prevail in places where
one would least expect it, it harms not; for if serving
Christ, Truth, of what can mortal opinion avail? Cast
not your pearls before swine; but if you cannot bring
peace to all, you can to many, if faithful laborers in His [15]
vineyard.
Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally
reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease
seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to
many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon [20]
the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to
some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper,
at the price at which we shall issue it, we shall be able
to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought.
A great work already has been done, and a greater work [25]
yet remains to be done. Oftentimes we are denied the
results of our labors because people do not understand
the nature and power of metaphysics, and they think
that health and strength would have returned natu-
rally without any assistance. This is not so much from [30]
a lack of justice, as it is that the _mens populi_ is not suffi-
ciently enlightened on this great subject. More thought
[Page 8.]
is given to material illusions than to spiritual facts. If [1]
we can aid in abating suffering and diminishing sin,
we shall have accomplished much; but if we can bring
to the general thought this great fact that drugs do not,
cannot, produce health and harmony, since “in Him [5]
[Mind] we live, and move, and have our being,” we shall
have done more.”
Love Your Enemies.
Who is thine enemy that thou shouldst love him? Is
it a creature or a thing outside thine own creation? [10]
Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this
enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception?
What is it that harms you? Can height, or
depth, or any other creature separate you from the
Love that is omnipresent good,—that blesses infinitely [15]
one and all?
Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles,
defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should
reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates
human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in [20]
the process. Shakespeare writes: “Sweet are the uses
of adversity.” Jesus said: “Blessed are ye, when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you _falsely_, for my sake; ... for
so persecuted they the prophets which were before [25]
you.”
The Hebrew law with its “Thou shalt not,” its de-
mand and sentence, can only be fulfilled through the
gospel’s benediction. Then, “Blessed are ye,” inso-
[Page 9.]
much as the consciousness of good, grace, and peace, [1]
comes through affliction rightly understood, as sanctified
by the purification it brings to the flesh,—to pride, self-
ignorance, self-will, self-love, self-justification. Sweet,
indeed, are these uses of His rod! Well is it that the [5]
Shepherd of Israel passes all His flock under His rod
into His fold; thereby numbering them, and giving them
refuge at last from the elements of earth.
“Love thine enemies” is identical with “Thou hast
no enemies.” Wherein is this conclusion relative to [10]
those who have hated thee without a cause? Simply, in
that those unfortunate individuals are virtually thy best
friends. Primarily and ultimately, they are doing thee
good far beyond the present sense which thou canst entertain
of good. [15]
Whom we call friends seem to sweeten life’s cup and
to fill it with the nectar of the gods. We lift this cup
to our lips; but it slips from our grasp, to fall in frag-
ments before our eyes. Perchance, having tasted its
tempting wine, we become intoxicated; become lethar- [20]
gic, dreamy objects of self-satisfaction; else, the con-
tents of this cup of selfish human enjoyment having lost
its flavor, we voluntarily set it aside as tasteless and
unworthy of human aims.
And wherefore our failure longer to relish this fleet- [25]
ing sense, with its delicious forms of friendship,
wherewith mortals become educated to gratification in
personal pleasure and trained in treacherous peace?
Because it is the great and only danger in the path
that winds upward. A false sense of what consti- [30]
tutes happiness is more disastrous to human progress
than all that an enemy or enmity can obtrude upon
[Page 10.]
the mind or engraft upon its purposes and achievements [1]
wherewith to obstruct life’s joys and enhance its sor-
rows.
We have no enemies. Whatever envy, hatred, revenge
—the most remorseless motives that govern mortal mind [5]
—whatever these try to do, shall “work together for good
to them that love God.”
Why?
Because He has called His own, armed them, equipped
them, and furnished them defenses impregnable. Their [10]
God will not let them be lost; and if they fall they shall
rise again, stronger than before the stumble. The good
cannot lose their God, their help in times of trouble.
If they mistake the divine command, they will recover
it, countermand their order, retrace their steps, and [15]
reinstate His orders, more assured to press on safely.
The best lesson of their lives is gained by crossing
swords with temptation, with fear and the besetments
of evil; insomuch as they thereby have tried their
strength and proven it; insomuch as they have found [20]
their strength made perfect in weakness, and their fear
is self-immolated.
This destruction is a moral chemicalization, wherein
old things pass away and all things become new. The
worldly or material tendencies of human affections and [25]
pursuits are thus annihilated; and this is the advent of
spiritualization. Heaven comes down to earth, and
mortals learn at last the lesson, “I have no enemies.”
Even in belief you have but one (that, not in reality),
and this one enemy is yourself—your erroneous belief [30]
that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but
good exists in Science. Soon or late, your enemy will
[Page 11.]
wake from his delusion to suffer for his evil intent; to [1]
find that, though thwarted, its punishment is tenfold.
Love is the fulfilling of the law: it is grace, mercy,
and justice. I used to think it sufficiently just to abide
by our State statutes; that if a man should aim a ball at [5]
my heart, and I by firing first could kill him and save
my own life, that this was right. I thought, also, that
if I taught indigent students gratuitously, afterwards
assisting them pecuniarily, and did not cease teachi
ing the wayward ones at close of the class term, but [10]
followed them with precept upon precept; that if my
instructions had healed them and shown them the sure way
of salvation,—I had done my whole duty to students.
Love metes not out human justice, but divine mercy.
If one’s life were attacked, and one could save it only [15]
in accordance with common law, by taking another’s,
would one sooner give up his own? We must love our
enemies in all the manifestations wherein and whereby
we love our friends; must even try not to expose their
faults, but to do them good whenever opportunity [20]
occurs. To mete out human justice to those who per-
secure and despitefully use one, is not leaving all retribu-
tion to God and returning blessing for cursing. If special
opportunity for doing good to one’s enemies occur not,
one can include them in his general effort to benefit the [25]
race. Because I can do much general good to such as
hate me, I do it with earnest, special care—since they
permit me no other way, though with tears have I striven
for it. When smitten on one cheek, I have turned the
other: I have but two to present. [30]
I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not,
and saying to them, “_I_ love _you_, and would not know-
[Page 12.]
ingly harm you.” _Because_ I thus feel, I say to others: [1]
Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads
its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it masters us;
brings suffering upon suffering to its possessor, through-
out time and beyond the grave. If you have been badly [5]
wronged, forgive and forget: God will recompense this
wrong, and punish, more severely than you could, him
who has striven to injure you. Never return evil for evil;
and, above all, do not fancy that you have been wronged
when you have not been. [10]
The present is ours; the future, big with events.
Every man and woman should be to-day a law to him-
self, herself,—a law of loyalty to Jesus’ Sermon on the
Mount. The means for sinning unseen and unpunished
have so increased that, unless one be watchful and stead- [15]
fast in Love, one’s temptations to sin are increased a
hundredfold. Mortal mind at this period mutely works
in the interest of both good and evil in a manner least
understood; hence the need of watching, and the danger
of yielding to temptation from causes that at former [20]
periods in human history were not existent. The action
and effects of this so-called human mind in its silent argu-
ments, are yet to be uncovered and summarily dealt with
by divine justice.
In Christian Science, the law of Love rejoices the heart; [25]
and Love is Life and Truth. Whatever manifests aught
else in its effects upon mankind, demonstrably is not Love.
We should measure our love for God by our love for man;
and our sense of Science will be measured by our obedience
to God,—fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all; [30]
imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love
to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought.
[Page 13.]
The only justice of which I feel at present capable, [1]
is mercy and charity toward every one,—just so far as
one and all permit me to exercise these sentiments toward
them,—taking special care to mind my own business.
The falsehood, ingratitude, misjudgment, and sharp [5]
return of evil for good—yea, the real wrongs (if wrong
can be real) which I have long endured at the hands of
others—have most happily wrought out for me the law
of loving mine enemies. This law I now urge upon the
solemn consideration of all Christian Scientists. Jesus [10]
said, “If ye love them which love you, what thank have
ye? for sinners also love those that love them.”
Christian Theism.
Scholastic theology elaborates the proposition that
evil is a factor of good, and that to believe in the reality [15]
of evil is essential to a rounded sense of the existence of
good.
This frail hypothesis is founded upon the basis of mate-
rial and mortal evidence—only upon what the shifting
mortal senses confirm and frail human reason accepts. [20]
The Science of Soul reverses this proposition, overturns
the testimony of the five erring senses, and reveals in
clearer divinity the existence of good only; that is, of
God and His idea.
This postulate of divine Science only needs to be con- [25]
ceded, to afford opportunity for proof of its correctness
and the clearer discernment of good.
Seek the Anglo-Saxon term for God, and you will
find it to be good; then define good as God, and you
will find that good is omnipotence, has all power; it fills [30]
[Page 14.]
all space, being omnipresent; hence, there is neither place [1]
nor power left for evil. Divest your thought, then, of
the mortal and material view which contradicts the ever-
presence and all-power of good; take in only the immor-
tal facts which include these, and where will you see or [5]
feel evil, or find its existence necessary either to the origin
or ultimate of good?
It is urged that, from his original state of perfec-
tion, man has fallen into the imperfection that requires
evil through which to develop good. Were we to [10]
admit this vague proposition, the Science of man could
never be learned; for in order to learn Science, we
begin with the correct statement, with harmony and
its Principle; and if man has lost his Principle and
its harmony, from evidences before him he is inca- [15]
pable of knowing the facts of existence and its con-
comitants: therefore to him evil is as real and eternal
as good, God! This awful deception is evil’s umpire
and empire, that good, God, understood, forcibly
destroys. [20]
What appears to mortals from their standpoint to be
the necessity for evil, is proven by the law of opposites
to be without necessity. Good is the primitive Princi-
ple of man; and evil, good’s opposite, has no Principle,
and is not, and cannot be, the derivative of good. [25]
Thus evil is neither a primitive nor a derivative, but
is suppositional; in other words, a lie that is incapable
of proof—therefore, wholly problematical.
The Science of Truth annihilates error, deprives evil
of all power, and thereby destroys all error, sin, sickness, [30]
disease, and death. But the sinner is not sheltered from
suffering from sin: he makes a great reality of evil, iden-
[Page 15.]
tifies himself with it, fancies he finds pleasure in it, and [1]
will reap what he sows; hence the sinner must endure
the effects of his delusion until he awakes from it.
The New Birth.
St. Paul speaks of the new birth as “waiting for the [5]
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” The
great Nazarene Prophet said, “Blessed are the pure in
heart: for they shall see God.” Nothing aside from the
spiritualization—yea, the highest Christianization—of
thought and desire, can give the true perception of God [10]
and divine Science, that results in health, happiness, and
holiness.
The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins
with moments, and goes on with years; moments of sur-
render to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption [15]
of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration,
heaven-born hope, and spiritual love.
Time may commence, but it cannot complete, the
new birth: eternity does this; for progress is the law
of infinity. Only through the sore travail of mortal mind [20]
shall soul as sense be satisfied, and man awake in His
likeness. What a faith-lighted thought is this! that
mortals can lay off the “old man,” until man is found
to be the image of the infinite good that we name God,
and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears. [25]
In mortal and material man, goodness seems in em-
bryo. By suffering for sin, and the gradual fading out
of the mortal and material sense of man, thought is de-
veloped into an infant Christianity; and, feeding at first
on the milk of the Word, it drinks in the sweet revealings [30]
[Page 16.]
of a new and more spiritual Life and Love. These nourish [1]
the hungry hope, satisfy more the cravings for immor-
tality, and so comfort, cheer, and bless one, that he saith:
In mine infancy, this is enough of heaven to come down
to earth. [5]
But, as one grows into the manhood or womanhood
of Christianity, one finds so much lacking, and so very
much requisite to become wholly Christlike, that one
saith: The Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is
indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite [10]
claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human;
and man’s ability to meet them is from God; for, being
His likeness and image, man must reflect the full
dominion of Spirit—even its supremacy over sin, sick-
ness, and death. [15]
Here, then, is the awakening from the dream of life
in matter, to the great fact that _God is the only Life_;
that, therefore, we must entertain a higher sense of both
God and man. We must learn that God is infinitely
more than a person, or finite form, can contain; that [20]
God is a divine _Whole_, and _All_, an all-pervading in-
telligence and Love, a divine, infinite Principle; and
that Christianity is a divine Science. This newly
awakened consciousness is wholly spiritual; it emanates
from Soul instead of body, and is the new birth begun [25]
in Christian Science.
Now, dear reader, pause for a moment with me, earn-
estly to contemplate this new-born spiritual altitude; for
this statement demands demonstration.
Here you stand face to face with the laws of infinite [30]
Spirit, and behold for the first time the irresistible con-
flict between the flesh and Spirit. You stand before the
[Page 17.]
awful detonations of Sinai. You hear and record the [1]
thunderings of the spiritual law of Life, as opposed to
the material law of death; the spiritual law of Love, as
opposed to the material sense of love; the law of om-
nipotent harmony and good, as opposed to any supposi- [5]
titious law of sin, sickness, or death. And, before the
flames have died away on this mount of revelation, like
the patriarch of old, you take off your shoes—lay aside
your material appendages, human opinions and doc-
trines, give up your more material religion with its rites [10]
and ceremonies, put off your _materia medica_ and hygiene
as worse than useless—to sit at the feet of Jesus. Then,
you meekly bow before the Christ, the spiritual idea
that our great Master gave of the power of God to heal
and to save. Then it is that you behold for the first [15]
time the divine Principle that redeems man from under
the curse of materialism,—sin, disease, and death.
This spiritual birth opens to the enraptured understand-
ing a much higher and holier conception of the supremacy
of Spirit, and of man as His likeness, whereby man reflects [20]
the divine power to heal the sick.
A material or human birth is the appearing of a mor-
tal, not the immortal man. This birth is more or less
prolonged and painful, according to the timely or un-
timely circumstances, the normal or abnormal material [25]
conditions attending it.
With the spiritual birth, man’s primitive, sinless,
spiritual existence dawns on human thought,—through
the travail of mortal mind, hope deferred, the perishing
pleasure and accumulating pains of sense,—by which [30]
one loses himself as matter, and gains a truer sense of
Spirit and spiritual man.
[Page 18.]
The purification or baptismals that come from Spirit, [1]
develop, step by step, the original likeness of perfect man,
and efface the mark of the beast. “Whom the Lord
loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth;” therefore rejoice in tribulation, and wel- [5]
come these spiritual signs of the new birth under the law
and gospel of Christ, Truth.
The prominent laws which forward birth in the divine
order of Science, are these: “Thou shalt have no other
gods before me;” “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” [10]
These commands of infinite wisdom, translated into
the new tongue, their spiritual meaning, signify: Thou
shalt love Spirit only, not its opposite, in every God-
quality, even in substance; thou shalt recognize thy-
self as God’s spiritual child only, and the true man [15]
and true woman, the all-harmonious “male and female,”
as of spiritual origin, God’s reflection,—thus as chil-
dren of one common Parent,—wherein and whereby
Father, Mother, and child are the divine Principle and
divine idea, even the divine “Us”—one in good, and [20]
good in One.
With this recognition man could never separate him-
self from good, God; and he would necessarily entertain
habitual love for his fellow-man. Only by admitting
evil as a reality, and entering into a state of evil [25]
thoughts, can we in belief separate one man’s interests
from those of the whole human family, or thus attempt
to separate Life from God. This is the mistake that
causes much that must be repented of and overcome.
Not to know what is blessing you, but to believe that [30]
aught that God sends is unjust,—or that those whom
He commissions bring to you at His demand that which
[Page 19.]
is unjust,—is wrong and cruel. Envy, evil thinking, [1]
evil speaking, covetousness, lust, hatred, malice, are
always wrong, and will break the rule of Christian
Science and prevent its demonstration; but the rod of
God, and the obedience demanded of His servants in [5]
carrying out what He teaches them,—these are never
unmerciful, never unwise.
The task of healing the sick is far lighter than that
of so teaching the divine Principle and rules of Chris-
tian Science as to lift the affections and motives of men [10]
to adopt them and bring them out in human lives. He
who has named the name of Christ, who has virtually
accepted the divine claims of Truth and Love in divine
Science, is daily departing from evil; and all the wicked
endeavors of suppositional demons can never change the [15]
current of that life from steadfastly flowing on to God,
its divine source.
But, taking the livery of heaven wherewith to cover
iniquity, is the most fearful sin that mortals can commit.
I should have more faith in an honest drugging-doctor, [20]
one who abides by his statements and works upon as
high a basis as he understands, healing me, than I could
or would have in a smooth-tongued hypocrite or mental
malpractitioner.
Between the centripetal and centrifugal mental forces [25]
of material and spiritual gravitations, we go into or we
go out of materialism or sin, and choose our course and
its results. Which, then, shall be our choice,—the sin-
ful, material, and perishable, or the spiritual, joy-giving,
and eternal? [30]
The spiritual sense of Life and its grand pursuits is
of itself a bliss, health-giving and joy-inspiring. This
[Page 20.]
sense of Life illumes our pathway with the radiance of [1]
divine Love; heals man spontaneously, morally and
physically,—exhaling the aroma of Jesus’ own words,
“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.” [5]
CHAPTER II. ONE CAUSE AND EFFECT.
[Page 21.]
Christian Science begins with the First Com- [1]
mandment of the Hebrew Decalogue, “Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.” It goes on in
perfect unity with Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and
in that age culminates in the Revelation of St. John, [5]
who, while on earth and in the flesh, like ourselves,
beheld “a new heaven and a new earth,”—the spiritual
universe, whereof Christian Science now bears testimony.
Our Master said, “The works that I do shall ye do
also;” and, “The kingdom of God is within you.” This [10]
makes practical all his words and works. As the ages
advance in spirituality, Christian Science will be seen
to depart from the trend of other Christian denomina-
tions in no wise except by increase of spirituality.
My first plank in the platform of Christian Science [15]
is as follows: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor
substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite
manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal
Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and
eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is [20]
God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man
is not material; he is spiritual.”(1)
[Page 22.]
I am strictly a theist—believe in one God, one Christ [1]
or Messiah.
Science is neither a law of matter nor of man. It is
the unerring manifesto of Mind, the law of God, its
divine Principle. Who dare say that matter or [5]
mortals can evolve Science? Whence, then, is it, if not
from the divine source, and what, but the contempor-
ary of Christianity, so far in advance of human knowl-
edge that mortals must work for the discovery of even a
portion of it? Christian Science translates Mind, God, [10]
to mortals. It is the infinite calculus defining the line,
plane, space, and fourth dimension of Spirit. It abso-
lutely refutes the amalgamation, transmigration, absorp-
tion, or annihilation of individuality. It shows the
impossibility of transmitting human ills, or evil, from one [15]
individual to another; that all true thoughts revolve
in God’s orbits: they come from God and return to
Him,—and untruths belong not to His creation, there-
fore these are null and void. It hath no peer, no comp-
petitor, for it dwelleth in Him besides whom “there is [20]
none other.”
That Christian Science is Christian, those who have
demonstrated it, according to the rules of its divine
Principle,—together with the sick, the lame, the deaf, and
the blind, healed by it,—have proven to a waiting world. [25]
He who has not tested it, is incompetent to condemn it;
and he who is a willing sinner, cannot demonstrate it.
A falling apple suggested to Newton more than the
simple fact cognized by the senses, to which it seemed
to fall by reason of its own ponderosity; but the primal [30]
cause, or Mind-force, invisible to material sense, lay
concealed in the treasure-troves of Science. True,
[Page 23.]
Newton named it gravitation, having learned so much; [1]
but Science, demanding more, pushes the question:
Whence or what is the power back of gravitation,—the
intelligence that manifests power? Is pantheism true?
Does mind “sleep in the mineral, or dream in the [5]
animal, and wake in man”? Christianity answers this
question. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, demon-
strated a divine intelligence that subordinates so-called
material laws; and disease, death, winds, and waves,
obey this intelligence. Was it Mind or matter that spake [10]
in creation, “and it was done”? The answer is self-
evident, and the command remains, “Thou shalt have
no other gods before me.”
It is plain that the Me spoken of in the First Com-
mandment, must be Mind; for matter is not the Chris- [15]
tian’s God, and is not intelligent. Matter cannot even
talk; and the serpent, Satan, the first talker in its behalf,
lied. Reason and revelation declare that God is both
noumenon and phenomena,—the first and only cause.
The universe, including man, is not a result of atomic [20]
action, material force or energy; it is not organized dust.
God, Spirit, Mind, are terms synonymous for the one
God, whose reflection is creation, and man is His image
and likeness. Few there are who comprehend what Chris-
tian Science means by the word _reflection_. God is seen [25]
only in that which reflects good, Life, Truth, Love—
yea, which manifests all His attributes and power, even
as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror repeats
precisely the looks and actions of the object in front of it.
All must be Mind and Mind’s ideas; since, according to [30]
natural science, God, Spirit, could not change its species
and evolve matter.
[Page 24.]
These facts enjoin the First Commandment; and [1]
knowledge of them makes man spiritually minded. St.
Paul writes: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to
be spiritually minded is life and peace.” This knowl-
edge came to me in an hour of great need; and I give it [5]
to you as death-bed testimony to the daystar that dawned
on the night of material sense. This knowledge is
practical, for it wrought my immediate recovery from
an injury caused by an accident, and pronounced fatal
by the physicians. On the third day thereafter, I called [10]
for my Bible, and opened it at Matthew ix. 2. As I
read, the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and
the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever after
was in better health than I had before enjoyed. That
short experience included a glimpse of the great fact [15]
that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely,
Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of
existence. I learned that mortal thought evolves a sub-
jective state which it names matter, thereby shutting
out the true sense of Spirit. _Per contra_, Mind and man [20]
are immortal; and knowledge gained from mortal sense
is illusion, error, the opposite of Truth; therefore it
cannot be true. A knowledge of both good and evil
(when good is God, and God is All) is impossible. Speak-
ing of the origin of evil, the Master said: “When he [25]
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it.” God warned man not to believe
the talking serpent, or rather the allegory describing
it. The Nazarene Prophet declared that his followers
should handle serpents; that is, put down all subtle falsi- [30]
ties or illusions, and thus destroy any supposed effect
arising from false claims exercising their supposed power
[Page 25.]
on the mind and body of man against his holiness and [1]
health.
That there is but one God or Life, one cause and
one effect, is the _multum in parvo_ of Christian Science;
and to my understanding it is the heart of Christianity, [5]
the religion that Jesus taught and demonstrated. In
divine Science it is found that matter is a phase of
error, and that neither one really exists, since God is
Truth, and All-in-all. Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,
in its direct application to human needs, confirms this [10]
conclusion.
Science, understood, translates matter into Mind,
rejects all other theories of causation, restores the spir-
itual and original meaning of the Scriptures, and ex-
plains the teachings and life of our Lord. It is religion’s [15]
“new tongue,” with “signs following,” spoken of by
St. Mark. It gives God’s infinite meaning to mankind,
healing the sick, casting out evil, and raising the spirit-
ually dead. Christianity is Christlike only as it re-
iterates the word, repeats the works, and manifests the [20]
spirit of Christ.
Jesus’ only medicine was omnipotent and omniscient
Mind. As _omni_ is from the Latin word meaning _all_,
this medicine is all-power; and omniscience means as
well, all-science. The sick are more deplorably situated [25]
than the sinful, if the sick cannot trust God for help and
the sinful can. If God created drugs good, they cannot be
harmful; if He could create them otherwise, then they
are bad and unfit for man; and if He created drugs for
healing the sick, why did not Jesus employ them and [30]
recommend them for that purpose?
No human hypotheses, whether in philosophy, medi-
[Page 26.]
cine, or religion, can survive the wreck of time; but [1]
whatever is of God, hath life abiding in it, and ulti-
mately will be known as self-evident truth, as demonstra-
ble as mathematics. Each successive period of progress
is a period more humane and spiritual. The only logical [5]
conclusion is that all is Mind and its manifestation, from
the rolling of worlds, in the most subtle ether, to a potato-
patch.
The agriculturist ponders the history of a seed, and
believes that his crops come from the seedling and the [10]
loam; even while the Scripture declares He made “every
plant of the field before it was in the earth.” The Scien-
tist asks, Whence came the first seed, and what made
the soil? Was it molecules, or material atoms? Whence
came the infinitesimals,—from infinite Mind, or from [15]
matter? If from matter, how did matter originate? Was
it self-existent? Matter is not intelligent, and thus able
to evolve or create itself: it is the very opposite of Spirit,
intelligent, self-creative, and infinite Mind. The belief
of mind in matter is pantheism. Natural history shows [20]
that neither a genus nor a species produces its opposite.
God is All, in all. What can be more than All? Noth-
ing: and this is just what I call matter, _nothing_. Spirit,
God, has no antecedent; and God’s consequent is the
spiritual cosmos. The phrase, “express image,” in the [25]
common version of Hebrews i. 3, is, in the Greek Tes-
tament, _character_.
The Scriptures name God as good, and the Saxon
term for God is also good. From this premise comes
the logical conclusion that God is naturally and divinely [30]
infinite good. How, then, can this conclusion change,
or be changed, to mean that good is evil, or the creator
[Page 27.]
of evil? What can there be besides infinity? Nothing! [1]
Therefore the Science of good calls evil _nothing_. In
divine Science the terms God and good, as Spirit, are
synonymous. That God, good, creates evil, or aught
that can result in evil,—or that Spirit creates its oppo- [5]
site, named matter,—are conclusions that destroy their
premise and prove themselves invalid. Here is where
Christian Science sticks to its text, and other systems
of religion abandon their own logic. Here also is found
the pith of the basal statement, the cardinal point in [10]
Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all
inharmony, sin, disease, death) are _unreal_. Mortals
accept natural science, wherein no species ever pro-
duces its opposite. Then why not accept divine Sci-
ence on this ground? since the Scriptures maintain [15]
this fact by parable and proof, asking, “Do men
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” “Doth a
fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and
bitter?”
According to reason and revelation, evil and matter [20]
are negation: for evil signifies the absence of good, God,
though God is ever present; and matter claims some-
thing besides God, when God is really _All_. Creation,
evolution, or manifestation,—being in and of Spirit,
Mind, and all that really is,—must be spiritual and [25]
mental. This is Science, and is susceptible of proof.
But, say you, is a stone spiritual?
To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual
sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spirit-
ual substance, “the substance of things hoped for.” [30]
Mortals can know a stone as substance, only by first ad-
mitting that it is substantial. Take away the mortal sense
[Page 28.]
of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only [1]
to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof. Matter can
neither see, hear, feel, taste, nor smell; having no sen-
sation of its own. Perception by the five personal senses
is mental, and dependent on the beliefs that mortals [5]
entertain. Destroy the belief that you can walk, and
volition ceases; for muscles cannot move without mind.
Matter takes no cognizance of matter. In dreams, things
are only what mortal mind makes them; and the phe-
nomena of mortal life are as dreams; and this so-called [10]
life is a dream soon told. In proportion as mortals turn
from this mortal and material dream, to the true sense
of reality, everlasting Life will be found to be the only
Life. That death does not destroy the beliefs of the flesh,
our Master proved to his doubting disciple, Thomas. Also, [15]
he demonstrated that divine Science alone can overbear
materiality and mortality; and this great truth was shown
is by his ascension after death, whereby he arose above
the illusion of matter.
The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other [20]
gods before me,” suggests the inquiry, What meaneth
this Me,—Spirit, or matter? It certainly does not
signify a graven idol, and must mean Spirit. Then
the commandment means, Thou shalt recognize no
intelligence nor life in matter; and find neither pleasure [25]
nor pain therein. The Master’s practical knowledge
of this grand verity, together with his divine Love,
healed the sick and raised the dead. He literally
annulled the claims of physique and of physical law,
by the superiority of the higher law; hence his decla- [30]
ration, “These signs shall follow them that believe;...
if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
[Page 29.]
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” [1]
Do you believe his words? I do, and that his prom-
ise is perpetual. Had it been applicable only to his
immediate disciples, the pronoun would be _you_, not _them_. [5]
The purpose of his life-work touches universal human-
ity. At another time he prayed, not for the twelve
only, but “for them also which shall believe on me through
their word.”
The Christ-healing was practised even before the Christ- [10]
ian era; “the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” There is, however, no analogy between Christian
Science and spiritualism, or between it and any specu-
lative theory.
In 1867, I taught the first student in Christian Science. [15]
Since that date I have known of but fourteen deaths
in the ranks of my about five thousand students. The
census since 1875 (the date of the first publication of
my work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scrip-
tures”) shows that longevity has _increased_. Daily letters [20]
inform me that a perusal of my volume is healing the
writers of chronic and acute diseases that had defied medi-
cal skill.
Surely the people of the Occident know that esoteric
magic and Oriental barbarisms will neither flavor Chris- [25]
tianity nor advance health and length of days.
Miracles are no infraction of God’s laws; on the
contrary, they fulfil His laws; for they are the signs fol-
lowing Christianity, whereby matter is proven power-
less and subordinate to Mind. Christians, like students [30]
in mathematics, should be working up to those higher
rules of Life which Jesus taught and proved. Do we
[Page 30.]
really understand the divine Principle of Christianity [1]
before we prove it, in at least some feeble demonstra-
tion thereof, according to Jesus’ example in healing the
sick? Should we adopt the “simple addition” in Chris-
tian Science and doubt its higher rules, or despair of [5]
ultimately reaching them, even though failing at first to
demonstrate all the possibilities of Christianity?
St. John spiritually discerned and revealed the sum
total of transcendentalism. He saw the real earth and
heaven. They were spiritual, not material; and they [10]
were without pain, sin, or death. Death was not the
door to this heaven. The gates thereof he declared were
inlaid with pearl,—likening them to the priceless under-
standing of man’s real existence, to be recognized here
and now. [15]
The great Way-shower illustrated Life unconfined, un-
contaminated, untrammelled, by matter. He proved the
superiority of Mind over the flesh, opened the door to
the captive, and enabled man to demonstrate the law of
Life, which St. Paul declares “hath made me free from [20]
the law of sin and death.”
The stale saying that Christian Science “is neither
Christian nor science!” is to-day the fossil of wisdom-
less wit, weakness, and superstition. “The fool hath
said in his heart, There is no God.” [25]
Take courage, dear reader, for any seeming mysti-
cism surrounding realism is explained in the Scripture,
“There went up a mist from the earth [matter];” and
the mist of materialism will vanish as we approach spirit-
uality, the realm of reality; cleanse our lives in Christ’s [30]
righteousness; bathe in the baptism of Spirit, and awake
in His likeness.
CHAPTER III. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
[Page 31.]
_What do you consider to be mental malpractice? [1]_
Mental malpractice is a bland denial of Truth,
and is the antipode of Christian Science. To
mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously
affect the happiness of a fellow-being—harm him [5]
morally, physically, or spiritually—breaks the Golden
Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being. This,
therefore, is not the use but the abuse of mental treat-
ment, and is mental malpractice. It is needless to
say that such a subversion of right is not scientific. Its [10]
claim to power is in proportion to the faith in evil, and
consequently to the lack of faith in good. Such false
faith finds no place in, and receives no aid from, the
Principle or the rules of Christian Science; for it denies
the grand verity of this Science, namely, that God, good, [15]
has _all_ power.
This leaves the individual no alternative but to re-
linquish his faith in evil, or to argue against his own
convictions of good and so destroy his power to be or
to do good, because he has no faith in the _omnipotence_ [20]
of God, good. He parts with his understanding of good,
in order to retain his faith in evil and so succeed with his
[Page 32.]
wrong argument,—if indeed he desires success in this [1]
broad road to destruction.
_How shall we demean ourselves towards the students_
_of disloyal students? And what about that clergyman’s_
_remarks on __“__Christ and Christmas__”__?_ [5]
From this question, I infer that some of my students
seem not to know in what manner they should act towards
the students of false teachers, or such as have strayed
from the rules and divine Principle of Christian Science.
The query is abnormal, when “precept upon precept; [10]
line upon line” are to be found in the Scriptures, and in
my books, on this very subject.
In Mark, ninth chapter, commencing at the thirty-
third verse, you will find my views on this subject; love
alone is admissible towards friend and foe. My sym- [15]
pathies extend to the above-named class of students more
than to many others. If I had the time to talk with all
students of Christian Science, and correspond with them,
I would gladly do my best towards helping those un-
fortunate seekers after Truth whose teacher is straying [20]
from the straight and narrow path. But I have not mo-
ments enough in which to give to my own flock all the
time and attention that they need,—and charity must
begin at home.
Distinct denominational and social organizations and [25]
societies are at present necessary for the individual,
and for our Cause. But all people can and should be
just, merciful; they should never envy, elbow, slander,
hate, or try to injure, but always should try to bless their
fellow-mortals. [30]
To the query in regard to some clergyman’s com-
[Page 33.]
ments on my illustrated poem, I will say: It is the righteous [1]
prayer that avails with God. Whatever is wrong will
receive its own reward. The high priests of old caused
the crucifixion of even the great Master; and thereby
they lost, and he won, heaven. I love all ministers and [5]
ministries of Christ, Truth.
All clergymen may not understand the illustrations
in “Christ and Christmas;” or that these refer not to
personality, but present the type and shadow of Truth’s
appearing in the womanhood as well as in the manhood [10]
of God, our divine Father and Mother.
_Must I have faith in Christian Science in order to be_
_healed by it?_
This is a question that is being asked every day. It
has not proved impossible to heal those who, when they [15]
began treatment, had no faith whatever in the Science,
—other than to place themselves under my care, and
follow the directions given. Patients naturally gain con-
fidence in Christian Science as they recognize the help
they derive therefrom. [20]
_What are the advantages of your system of healing, over_
_the ordinary methods of healing disease?_
Healing by Christian Science has the following advantages:—
_First_: It does away with all material medicines, and [25]
recognizes the fact that, as mortal mind is the cause of
all “the ills that flesh is heir to,” the antidote for sickness,
as well as for sin, may and must be found in mortal mind’s
opposite,—the divine Mind.
_Second_: It is more effectual than drugs; curing where [30]
[Page 34.]
these fail, and leaving none of the harmful “after effects” [1]
of these in the system; thus proving that metaphysics
is above physics.
_Third:_ One who has been healed by Christian Sci-
ence is not only healed of the disease, but is improved [5]
morally. The body is governed by mind; and mortal
mind must be improved, before the body is renewed
and harmonious,—since the physique is simply thought
made manifest.
_Is spiritualism or mesmerism included in Christian_ [10]
_Science?_
They are wholly apart from it. Christian Science is
based on divine Principle; whereas spiritualism, so far
as I understand it, is a mere speculative opinion and
human belief. If the departed were to communicate [15]
with us, we should see them as they were before death,
and have them with us; after death, they can no more
come to those they have left, than we, in our present state
of existence, can go to the departed or the adult can re-
turn to his boyhood. We may pass on to their state [20]
of existence, but they cannot return to ours. Man is
_im_-mortal, and there is not a moment when he ceases to
exist. All that are called “communications from spirits,”
lie within the realm of mortal thought on this present plane
of existence, and are the antipodes of Christian Science; [25]
the immortal and mortal are as direct opposites as light
and darkness.
_Who is the Founder of mental healing?_
The author of “Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures,” who discovered the Science of healing em- [30]
[Page 35.]
bodied in her works. Years of practical proof, through [1]
homœopathy, revealed to her the fact that Mind, in-
stead of matter, is the Principle of pathology; and
subsequently her recovery, through the supremacy of
Mind over matter, from a severe casualty pronounced [5]
by the physicians incurable, sealed that proof with the
signet of Christian Science. In 1883, a million of peo-
ple acknowledge and attest the blessings of this mental
system of treating disease. Perhaps the following
words of her husband, the late Dr. Asa G. Eddy, [10]
afford the most concise, yet complete, summary of the
matter:—
“Mrs, Eddy’s works are the outgrowths of her life.
I never knew so unselfish an individual.”
_Will the book Science and Health, that you offer for sale_ [15]
_at three dollars, teach its readers to heal the sick,—or is_
_one obliged to become a student under your personal in-_
_struction? And if one is obliged to study under you, of_
_what benefit is your book?_
Why do we read the Bible, and then go to church to [20]
hear it expounded? Only because both are important.
Why do we read moral science, and then study it at
college?
You are benefited by reading Science and Health, but
it is greatly to your advantage to be taught its Science [25]
by the author of that work, who explains it in detail.
_What is immortal Mind?_
In reply, we refer you to “Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures,”(2) Vol. I. page 14: “That which
[Page 36.]
is erring, sinful, sick, and dying, termed material or [1]
mortal man, is neither God’s man nor Mind; but to be
understood, we shall classify evil and error as mortal
mind, in contradistinction to good and Truth, or the
Mind which is immortal.” [5]
_Do animals and beasts have a mind?_
Beasts, as well as men, express Mind as their origin;
but they manifest less of Mind. The first and only
cause is the eternal Mind, which is God, and there is
but one God. The ferocious mind seen in the beast is [10]
mortal mind, which is harmful and proceeds not from
God; for His beast is the lion that lieth down with
the lamb. Appetites, passions, anger, revenge, subtlety,
are the animal qualities of sinning mortals; and the
beasts that have these propensities express the lower [15]
qualities of the so-called animal man; in other words,
the nature and quality of mortal mind,—not immortal
Mind.
_What is the distinction between mortal mind and immortal_
_Mind?_ [20]
Mortal mind includes all evil, disease, and death;
also, all beliefs relative to the so-called material laws,
and all material objects, and the law of sin and death.
The Scripture says, “The carnal mind [in other words,
mortal mind] is enmity against God; for it is not sub- [25]
ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Mortal
mind is an illusion; as much in our waking moments
as in the dreams of sleep. The belief that intelligence,
Truth, and Love, are in matter and separate from God,
is an error; for there is no intelligent evil, and no power [30]
[Page 37.]
besides God, good. God would not be omnipotent if [1]
there were in reality another mind creating or governing
man or the universe.
Immortal Mind is God; and this Mind is made
manifest in all thoughts and desires that draw man- [5]
kind toward purity, health, holiness, and the spiritual
facts of being.
Jesus recognized this relation so clearly that he said,
“I and my Father are one.” In proportion as we oppose
the belief in material sense, in sickness, sin, and death, [10]
and recognize ourselves under the control of God,
spiritual and immortal Mind, shall we go on to leave the
animal for the spiritual, and learn the meaning of those
words of Jesus, “Go ye into all the world ... heal the
sick.” [15]
_Can your Science cure intemperance?_
Christian Science lays the axe at the root of the tree.
Its antidote for all ills is God, the perfect Mind, which
corrects mortal thought, whence cometh all evil. God
can and does destroy the thought that leads to moral [20]
or physical death. Intemperance, impurity, sin of every
sort, is destroyed by Truth. The appetite for alcohol
yields to Science as directly and surely as do sickness
and sin.
_Does Mrs. Eddy take patients?_ [25]
She now does not. Her time is wholly devoted to in-
struction, leaving to her students the work of healing;
which, at this hour, is in reality the least difficult of the
labor that Christian Science demands.
[Page 38.]
_Why do you charge for teaching Christian Science, when_ [1]
_all the good we can do must be done freely?_
When teaching imparts the ability to gain and main-
tain health, to heal and elevate man in every line of
life,—as this teaching certainly does,—is it un- [5]
reasonable to expect in return something to support
one’s self and a Cause? If so, our whole system
of education, secular and religious, is at fault, and the
instructors and philanthropists in our land should ex-
pect no compensation. “If we have sown unto you [10]
spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your
carnal things?”
_How happened you to establish a college to instruct in_
_metaphysics, when other institutions find little interest in_
_such a dry and abstract subject?_ [15]
Metaphysics, as taught by me at the Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, is far from dry and abstract. It
is a Science that has the animus of Truth. Its practical
application to benefit the race, heal the sick, enlighten
and reform the sinner, makes divine metaphysics need- [20]
ful, indispensable. Teaching metaphysics at other col-
leges means, mainly, elaborating a man-made theory,
or some speculative view too vapory and hypothetical
for questions of practical import.
_Is it necessary to study your Science in order to be healed_ [25]
_by it and keep well?_
It is not necessary to make each patient a student
in order to cure his present disease, if this is what
you mean. Were it so, the Science would be of less
[Page 39.]
practical value. Many who apply for help are not [1]
prepared to take a course of instruction in Christian
Science.
To avoid being _subject_ to disease, would require the
understanding of how you are healed. In 1885, this [5]
knowledge can be obtained in its genuineness at the
Massachusetts Metaphysical College. There are abroad
at this early date some grossly incorrect and false
teachers of what they term Christian Science; of such
beware. They have risen up in a day to make this claim; [10]
whereas the Founder of genuine Christian Science has
been all her years in giving it birth.
_Can you take care of yourself?_
God giveth to every one this _puissance_; and I have
faith in His promise, “Lo, I am with you alway”— [15]
_all the way_. Unlike the M. D.’s, Christian Scientists
are not afraid to take their own medicine, for this
medicine is divine Mind; and from this saving, ex-
haustless source they intend to fill the human mind with
enough of the leaven of Truth to leaven the whole lump. [20]
There may be exceptional cases, where one Christian
Scientist who has more to meet than others needs support
at times; then, it is right to bear “one another’s burdens,
and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
_In what way is a Christian Scientist an instrument by_ [25]
_which God reaches others to heal them, and what most_
_obstructs the way?_
A Christian, or a Christian Scientist, assumes no more
when claiming to work with God in healing the sick,
than in converting the sinner. Divine help is as neces-
[Page 40.]
sary in the one case as in the other. The scientific Prin- [1]
ciple of healing demands such cooperation; but this
unison and its power would be arrested if one were to
mix material methods with the spiritual,—were to min-
gle hygienic rules, drugs, and prayers in the same pro- [5]
cess,—and thus serve “other gods.” Truth is as
effectual in destroying sickness as in the destruction
of sin.
It is often asked, “If Christian Science is the same
method of healing that Jesus and the apostles used, [10]
why do not its students perform as instantaneous cures
as did those in the first century of the Christian era?”
In some instances the students of Christian Science
equal the ancient prophets as healers. All true healing
is governed by, and demonstrated on, the same Princi- [15]
ple as theirs; namely, the action of the divine Spirit,
through the power of Truth to destroy error, discord
of whatever sort. The reason that the same results fol-
low not in every ease, is that the student does not in
every case possess sufficiently the Christ-spirit and its [20]
power to cast out the disease. The Founder of Chris-
tian Science teaches her students that they must possess
the spirit of Truth and Love, must gain the power
over sin in themselves, or they cannot be instantaneous
healers. [25]
In this Christian warfare the student or practitioner
has to master those elements of evil too common to other
minds. If it is hate that is holding the purpose to kill
his patient by mental means, it requires more divine
understanding to conquer this sin than to nullify either [30]
the disease itself or the ignorance by which one unin-
tentionally harms himself or another. An element of
[Page 41.]
brute-force that only the cruel and evil can send forth, is [1]
given vent in the diabolical practice of one who, having
learned the power of liberated thought to do good, per-
verts it, and uses it to accomplish an evil purpose. This
mental malpractice would disgrace Mind-healing, were it [5]
not that God overrules it, and causes “the wrath of man”
to praise Him. It deprives those who practise it of the
power to heal, and destroys their own possibility of
progressing.
The honest student of Christian Science is purged [10]
through Christ, Truth, and thus is ready for victory in
the ennobling strife. The good fight must be fought by
those who keep the faith and finish their course. Mental
purgation must go on: it promotes spiritual growth,
scales the mountain of human endeavor, and gains the [15]
summit in Science that otherwise could not be reached,
—where the struggle with sin is forever done.
_Can all classes of disease be healed by your method?_
We answer, Yes. Mind is the architect that builds
its own idea, and produces all harmony that appears. [20]
There is no other healer in the case. If mortal mind,
through the action of fear, manifests inflammation and a
belief of chronic or acute disease, by removing the cause
in that so-called mind the effect or disease will disappear
and health will be restored; for health, _alias_ harmony, [25]
is the normal manifestation of man in Science. The
divine Principle which governs the universe, including
man, if demonstrated, is sufficient for all emergencies.
But the practitioner may not always prove equal to
bringing out the result of the Principle that he knows to [30]
be true.
[Page 42.]
_After the change called death takes place, do we meet_ [1]
_those gone before?—or does life continue in thought only_
_as in a dream?_
Man is not annihilated, nor does he lose his identity,
by passing through the belief called death. After the [5]
momentary belief of dying passes from mortal mind, this
mind is still in a conscious state of existence; and the in-
dividual has but passed through a moment of extreme
mortal fear, to awaken with thoughts, and being, as
material as before. Science and Health clearly states [10]
that spiritualization of thought is not attained by the death
of the body, but by a conscious union with God. When
we shall have passed the ordeal called death, or destroyed
this last enemy, and shall have come upon the same plane
of conscious existence with those gone before, then we [15]
shall be able to communicate with and to recognize them.
If, before the change whereby we meet the dear de-
parted, our life-work proves to have been well done, we
shall not have to repeat it; but our joys and means of ad-
vancing will be proportionately increased. [20]
The difference between a belief of material existence
and the spiritual fact of Life is, that the former is a dream
and unreal, while the latter is real and eternal. Only
as we understand God, and learn that good, not evil,
lives and is immortal, that immortality exists only in [25]
spiritual perfection, shall we drop our false sense of Life
in sin or sense material, and recognize a better state of
existence.
_Can I be treated without being present during treatment?_
Mind is not confined to limits; and nothing but our [30]
own false admissions prevent us from demonstrating this
[Page 43.]
great fact. Christian Science, recognizing the capabili- [1]
ties of Mind to act of itself, and independent of matter,
enables one to heal cases without even having seen the
individual,—or simply after having been made ac-
quainted with the mental condition of the patient. [5]
_Do all who at present claim to be teaching Christian_
_Science, teach it correctly?_
By no means: Christian Science is not sufficiently un-
derstood for that. The student of this Science who under-
stands it best, is the one least likely to pour into other [10]
minds a trifling sense of it as being adequate to make safe
and successful practitioners. The simple sense one gains
of this Science through careful, unbiased, contemplative
reading of my books, is far more advantageous to the
sick and to the learner than is or can be the spurious [15]
teaching of those who are spiritually unqualified. The
sad fact at this early writing is, that the letter is gained
sooner than the spirit of Christian Science: time is re-
quired thoroughly to qualify students for the great ordeal
of this century. [20]
If one student tries to undermine another, such sinister
rivalry does a vast amount of injury to the Cause. To
fill one’s pocket at the expense of his conscience, or to
build on the downfall of others, incapacitates one to
practise or teach Christian Science. The occasional tem- [25]
porary success of such an one is owing, in part, to the im-
possibility for those unacquainted with the mighty Truth
of _Christian_ Science to recognize, as such, the barefaced
errors that are taught—and the damaging effects these
leave on the practice of the learner, on the Cause, and [30]
on the health of the community.
[Page 44.]
Honest students speak the truth “according to the [1]
pattern showed to thee in the mount,” and live it: these
are not working for emoluments, and may profitably
teach people, who are ready to investigate this subject,
the rudiments of Christian Science. [5]
_Can Christian Science cure acute cases where there is_
_necessity for immediate relief, as in membranous croup?_
The remedial power of Christian Science is positive,
and its application direct. It cannot fail to heal in
every case of disease, when conducted by one who un- [10]
derstands this Science sufficiently to demonstrate its
highest possibilities.
_If I have the toothache, and nothing stops it until I_
_have the tooth extracted, and then the pain ceases, has_
_the mind, or extracting, or both, caused the pain to_ [15]
_cease?_
What you thought was pain in the bone or nerve, could
only have been a belief of pain in matter; for matter
has no sensation. It was a state of mortal thought made
manifest in the flesh. You call this body matter, when [20]
awake, or when asleep in a dream. That matter can re-
report pain, or that mind is _in_ matter, reporting sensa-
tions, is but a dream at all times. You believed that if
the tooth were extracted, the pain would cease: this de-
mand of mortal thought once met, your belief assumed [25]
a new form, and said, There is no more pain. When
your belief in pain ceases, the pain stops; for matter
has no intelligence of its own. By applying this men-
tal remedy or antidote directly to your belief, you scien-
[Page 45.]
tifically prove the fact that Mind is supreme. This is not [1]
done by will-power, for that is not Science but mesmerism.
The full understanding that God is Mind, and that mat-
ter is but a belief, enables you to control pain. Chris-
tian Science, by means of its Principle of metaphysical [5]
healing, is able to do more than to heal a toothache;
although its power to allay fear, prevent inflammation,
and destroy the necessity for ether—thereby avoiding
the fatal results that frequently follow the use of that
drug—render this Science invaluable in the practice [10]
of dentistry.
_Can an atheist or a profane man be cured by metaphysics,_
_or Christian Science?_
The moral status of the man demands the remedy of
Truth more in this than in most cases; therefore, under [15]
the deific law that supply invariably meets demand, this
Science is effectual in treating moral ailments. Sin is
not the master of divine Science, but _vice versa_; and
when Science in a single instance decides the conflict,
the patient is better both morally and physically. [20]
_If God made all that was made, and it was good, where_
_did evil originate?_
It never originated or existed as an entity. It is but a
false belief; even the belief that God is not what the
Scriptures imply Him to be, All-in-all, but that there [25]
is an opposite intelligence or mind termed evil. This
error of belief is idolatry, having “other gods before me.”
In John i. 3 we read, “All things were made by Him;
and without Him was not anything made that was made.”
[Page 46.]
The admission of the reality of evil perpetuates the belief [1]
or faith in evil. The Scriptures declare, “To whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.”
The leading self-evident proposition of Christian Science
is: good being real, evil, good’s opposite, is unreal. This [5]
truism needs only to be tested scientifically to be found
true, and adapted to destroy the appearance of evil to an
extent beyond the power of any doctrine previously
entertained.
_Do you teach that you are equal with God?_ [10]
A reader of my writings would not present this ques-
tion. There are no such indications in the premises or
conclusions of Christian Science, and such a misconcep-
tion of Truth is not scientific. Man is not equal with
his Maker; that which is formed is not cause, but effect, [15]
and has no power underived from its creator. It is pos-
sible, and it is man’s duty, so to throw the weight of his
thoughts and acts on the side of Truth, that he be ever
found in the scale _with_ his creator; not weighing
equally with Him, but comprehending at every point, in [20]
divine Science, the full significance of what the apostle
meant by the declaration, “The Spirit itself beareth wit-
ness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and
if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ.” In Science, man represents his divine Prin- [25]
ciple,—the Life and Love that are God,—even as the
idea of sound, in tones, represents harmony; but thought
has not yet wholly attained unto the Science of being,
wherein man is perfect even as the Father, his divine
Principle, is perfect. [30]
[Page 47.]
_How can I believe that there is no such thing as matter,_ [1]
_when I weigh over two hundred pounds and carry about_
_this weight daily?_
By learning that matter is but manifest mortal mind.
You entertain an adipose belief of yourself as substance; [5]
whereas, substance means more than matter: it is the
glory and permanence of Spirit: it is that which is
hoped for but unseen, that which the material senses
cannot take in. Have you never been so preoccupied in
thought when moving your body, that you did this with- [10]
out consciousness of its weight? If never in your waking
hours, you have been in your night-dreams; and these
tend to elucidate your day-dream, or the mythical nature
of matter, and the possibilities of mind when let loose
from its own beliefs. In sleep, a sense of the body ac- [15]
companies thought with less impediment than when
awake, which is the truer sense of being. In Science,
body is the servant of Mind, not its master: Mind is
supreme. Science reverses the evidence of material
sense with the spiritual sense that God, Spirit, is the only [20]
substance; and that man, His image and likeness, is
spiritual, not material. This great Truth does not de-
stroy but substantiates man’s identity,—together with
his immortality and preexistence, or his spiritual co-
existence with his Maker. That which has a beginning [25]
must have an ending.
_What should one conclude as to Professor Carpenter’s_
_exhibitions of mesmerism?_
That largely depends upon what one accepts as either
useful or true. I have no knowledge of mesmerism, [30]
[Page 48.]
practically or theoretically, save as I measure its demon- [1]
strations as a false belief, and avoid all that works ill. If
mesmerism has the power attributed to it by the gentle-
man referred to, it should neither be taught nor practised,
but should be conscientiously condemned. One thing [5]
is quite apparent; namely, that its so-called power is
despotic, and Mr. Carpenter deserves praise for his public
exposure of it. If such be its power, I am opposed to it,
as to every form of error,—whether of ignorance or
fanaticism, prompted by money-making or malice. It [10]
is enough for me to know that animal magnetism is neither
of God nor Science.
It is alleged that at one of his recent lectures in Bos-
ton Mr. Carpenter made a man drunk on water, and
then informed his audience that he could produce the [15]
effect of alcohol, or of any drug, on the human system,
through the action of mind alone. This honest declara-
tion as to the animus of animal magnetism and the pos-
sible purpose to which it can be devoted, has, we trust,
been made in season to open the eyes of the people to the [20]
hidden nature of some tragic events and sudden deaths
at this period.
_Was ever a person made insane by studying meta-_
_physics?_
Such an occurrence would be impossible, for the [25]
proper study of Mind-healing would cure the insane.
That persons have gone away from the Massachusetts
Metaphysical College “made insane by Mrs. Eddy’s
teachings,” like a hundred other stories, is a baseless
fabrication offered solely to injure her or her school. [30]
The enemy is trying to make capital out of the follow-
[Page 49.]
ing case. A young lady entered the College class who, [1]
I quickly saw, had a tendency to monomania, and re-
quested her to withdraw before its close. We are cred-
ibly informed that, before entering the College, this
young lady had manifested some mental unsoundness, [5]
and have no doubt she could have been restored by
Christian Science treatment. Her friends employed a
homœopathist, who had the skill and honor to state, as his
opinion given to her friends, that “Mrs. Eddy’s teach-
ings had not produced insanity.” This is the only case [10]
that could be distorted into the claim of insanity ever
having occurred in a class of Mrs. Eddy’s; while ac-
knowledged and notable cases of insanity have been
cured in her class.
_If all that is mortal is a dream or error, is not_ [15]
_our capacity for formulating a dream, real; is it not_
_God-made; and if God-made, can it be wrong, sinful, or_
_an error?_
The spirit of Truth leads into all truth, and enables
man to discern between the real and the unreal. Enter- [20]
taining the common belief in the opposite of goodness,
and that evil is as real as good, opposes the leadings of
the divine Spirit that are helping man Godward: it pre-
vents a recognition of the nothingness of the dream, or
belief, that Mind is in matter, intelligence in non-intel- [25]
ligence, sin, and death. This belief presupposes not
only a power opposed to God, and that God is not All-
in-all, as the Scriptures imply Him to be, but that the
capacity to err proceeds from God.
That God is Truth, the Scriptures aver; that Truth [30]
never created error, or such a capacity, is self-evident;
[Page 50.]
that God made all that was made, is again Scriptural; [1]
therefore your answer is, that error is an illusion of
mortals; that God is not its author, and it cannot be
real.
_Does __“__Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures__”_ [5]
_explain the entire method of metaphysical healing, or is_
_there a secret back of what is contained in that book, as_
_some say?_
“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”
is a complete textbook of Christian Science; and its [10]
metaphysical method of healing is as lucid in presenta-
tion as can be possible, under the necessity to express
the metaphysical in physical terms. There is absolutely
no additional secret outside of its teachings, or that gives
one the power to heal; but it is essential that the student [15]
gain the spiritual understanding of the contents of this
book, in order to heal.
_Do you believe in change of heart?_
We do believe, and understand—which is more—
that there must be a change from human affections, de- [20]
sires, and aims, to the divine standard, “Be ye therefore
perfect;” also, that there must be a change from the be-
lief that the heart is matter and sustains life, to the
understanding that God is our Life, that we exist in
Mind, live thereby, and have being. This change of [25]
heart would deliver man from heart-disease, and ad-
vance Christianity a hundredfold. The human affections
need to be changed from self to benevolence and love
for God and man; changed to having but _one_ God and
loving Him supremely, and helping our brother man. [30]
[Page 51.]
This change of heart is essential to Christianity, and [1]
will have its effect physically as well as spiritually,
healing disease. Burnt offerings and drugs, God does
not require.
_Is a belief of nervousness, accompanied by great mental_ [5]
_depression, mesmerism?_
All mesmerism is of one of three kinds; namely, the
ignorant, the fraudulent, or the malicious workings of
error or mortal mind. We have not the particulars of
the case to which you may refer, and for this reason can- [10]
not answer your question professionally.
_How can I govern a child metaphysically? Doesn’t the_
_use of the rod teach him life in matter?_
The use of the rod is virtually a declaration to the
child’s mind that sensation belongs to matter. Motives [15]
govern acts, and Mind governs man. If you make clear
to the child’s thought the right motives for action, and
cause him to love them, they will lead him aright: if you
educate him to love God, good, and obey the Golden
Rule, he will love and obey you without your having to [20]
resort to corporeal punishment.
“"When from the lips of Truth one mighty breath
Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze
The whole dark pile of human mockeries;
Then shall the reign of Mind commence on earth, [25]
And starting fresh, as from a second birth,
Man in the sunshine of the world’s new spring,
Shall walk transparent like some holy thing.”
_Are both prayer and drugs necessary to heal?_
The apostle James said, “Ye ask, and receive not, [30]
because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your
[Page 52.]
lusts.” This text may refer to such as seek the material [1]
to aid the spiritual, and take drugs to support God’s
power to heal them. It is difficult to say how much
one can do for himself, whose faith is divided be-
tween catnip and Christ; but not so difficult to know [5]
that if he were to serve one master, he could do vastly
more. Whosoever understands the power of Spirit, has
no doubt of God’s power,—even the might of Truth,—
to heal, through divine Science, beyond all human means
and methods. [10]
_What do you think of marriage?_
That it is often convenient, sometimes pleasant, and
occasionally a love affair. Marriage is susceptible of
many definitions. It sometimes presents the most
wretched condition of human existence. To be normal, [15]
it must be a union of the affections that tends to lift
mortals higher.
_If this life is a dream not dispelled, but only changed,_
_by death,—if one gets tired of it, why not commit_
_suicide?_ [20]
Man’s existence is a problem to be wrought in divine
Science. What progress would a student of science
make, if, when tired of mathematics or failing to dem-
onstrate one rule readily, he should attempt to work
out a rule farther on and more difficult—and this, [25]
because the first rule was not easily demonstrated? In
that case he would be obliged to turn back and work
out the previous example, before solving the advanced
problem. Mortals have the sum of being to work out,
and up, to its spiritual standpoint. They must work [30]
[Page 53.]
out of this dream or false claim of sensation and life [1]
in matter, and up to the spiritual realities of existence,
before this false claim can be wholly dispelled. Com-
mitting suicide to dodge the question is not working
it out. The error of supposed life and intelligence in [5]
matter, is dissolved only as we master error with Truth.
Not through sin or suicide, but by _overcoming_ tempta-
tion and sin, shall we escape the weariness and wicked-
ness of mortal existence, and gain heaven, the harmony
of being. [10]
_Do you sometimes find it advisable to use medicine to_
_assist in producing a cure, when it is difficult to start the_
_patient’s recovery?_
You only weaken your power to heal through Mind,
by any compromise with matter; which is virtually ac- [15]
knowledging that under difficulties the former is not equal
to the latter. He that resorts to physics, seeks what is
below instead of above the standard of metaphysics;
showing his ignorance of the meaning of the term and
of Christian Science. [20]
_If Christian Science is the same as Jesus taught, why is_
_it not more simple, so that all can readily understand it?_
The teachings of Jesus were simple; and yet he found
it difficult to make the rulers understand, because of
their great lack of spirituality. Christian Science is [25]
simple, and readily understood by the children; only
the thought educated away from it finds it abstract or
difficult to perceive. Its seeming abstraction is the
mystery of godliness; and godliness is simple to the
godly; but to the unspiritual, the ungodly, it is dark [30]
[Page 54.]
and difficult. The carnal mind cannot discern spiritual [1]
things.
_Has Mrs. Eddy lost her power to heal?_
Has the sun forgotten to shine, and the planets to
revolve around it? Who is it that discovered, dem- [5]
onstrated, and teaches Christian Science? That one,
whoever it be, does understand something of what can-
not be lost. Thousands in the field of metaphysical
healing, whose lives are worthy testimonials, are her
students, and they bear witness to this fact. Instead [10]
of losing her power to heal, she is demonstrating the
power of Christian Science over all obstacles that envy
and malice would fling in her path. The reading of her
book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,”
is curing hundreds at this very time; and the sick, un- [15]
asked, are testifying thereto.
_Must I study your Science in order to keep well all my_
_life? I was healed of a chronic trouble after one month’s_
_treatment by one of your students._
When once you are healed by Science, there is no rea- [20]
son why you should be liable to a return of the disease
that you were healed of. But not to be subject again to
any disease whatsoever, would require an understanding
of the Science by which you were healed.
_Because none of your students have been able to perform_ [25]
_as great miracles in healing as Jesus and his disciples did,_
_does it not suggest the possibility that they do not heal on_
_the same basis?_
You would not ask the pupil in simple equations to
solve a problem involving logarithms; and then, because [30]
[Page 55.]
he failed to get the right answer, condemn the pupil [1]
and the science of numbers. The simplest problem
in Christian Science is healing the sick, and the least
understanding and demonstration thereof prove all its
possibilities. The ability to demonstrate to the extent [5]
that Jesus did, will come when the student possesses as
much of the divine Spirit as he shared, and utilizes its
power to overcome sin.
Opposite to good, is the universal claim of evil that
seeks the proportions of good. There may be those [10]
who, having learned the power of the unspoken thought,
use it to harm rather than to heal, and who are using
that power against Christian Scientists. This giant sin
is the sin against the Holy Ghost spoken of in Matt.
xii. 31, 32. [15]
_Is Christian Science based on the facts of both Spirit_
_and matter?_
Christian Science is based on the facts of Spirit and
its forms and representations, but these facts are the
direct antipodes of the so-called facts of matter; and [20]
the eternal verities of Spirit assert themselves over their
opposite, or matter, in the final destruction of all that
is unlike Spirit.
Man knows that he can have one God only, when
he regards God as the only Mind, Life, and substance. [25]
If God is Spirit, as the Scriptures declare, and All-in-
all, matter is mythology, and its laws are mortal
beliefs.
If Mind is in matter and beneath a skull bone, it is
in something unlike Him; hence it is either a godless and [30]
material Mind, or it is God in matter,—which are theo-
[Page 56.]
ries of agnosticism and pantheism, the very antipodes [1]
of Christian Science
_What is organic life?_
Life is inorganic, infinite Spirit; if Life, or Spirit,
were organic, disorganization would destroy Spirit and [5]
annihilate man.
If Mind is not substance, form, and tangibility, God
is substanceless; for the substance of Spirit is divine
Mind. Life is God, the only creator, and Life is im-
mortal Mind, not matter. [10]
Every indication of matter’s constituting life is mortal,
the direct opposite of immortal Life, and infringes the
rights of Spirit. Then, to conclude that Spirit consti-
tutes or ever has constituted laws to that effect, is a mor-
tal error, a human conception opposed to the divine [15]
government. Mind and matter mingling in perpetual
warfare is a kingdom divided against itself, that shall be
brought to desolation. The final destruction of this
false belief in matter will appear at the full revelation
of Spirit,—one God, and the brotherhood of man. [20]
Organic life is an error of statement that Truth destroys.
The Science of Life needs only to be understood; its dem-
onstration proves the correctness of my statements, and
brings blessings infinite.
_Why did God command, __“__Be fruitful, and multiply,_ [25]
_and replenish the earth,__”__ if all minds (men) have existed_
_from the beginning, and have had successive stages of_
_existence to the present time?_
Your question implies that Spirit, which first spirit-
ually created the universe, including man, created man [30]
[Page 57.]
over again materially; and, by the aid of mankind, all [1]
was later made which _He had made_. If the first record
is true, what evidence have you—apart from the evi-
dence of that which you admit cannot discern spiritual
things—of any other creation? The creative “Us” [5]
made all, and Mind was the creator. Man originated
not from dust, materially, but from Spirit, spiritually.
This work had been done; the true creation was finished,
and its spiritual Science is alluded to in the first chapter
of Genesis. [10]
Jesus said of error, “That thou doest, do quickly.”
By the law of opposites, after the truth of man had been
demonstrated, the postulate of error must appear. That
this addendum was untrue, is seen when Truth, God,
denounced it, and said: “I will greatly multiply thy [15]
sorrow.” “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.” The opposite error said, “I am true,” and
declared, “God doth know ... that your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods,” creators. This was false;
and the Lord God never said it. This history of a falsity [20]
must be told in the name of Truth, or it would have no
seeming. The Science of creation is the universe with man
created spiritually. The false sense and error of creation
is the sense of man and the universe created materially.
_Why does the record make man a creation of the sixth_ [25]
_and last day, if he was coexistent with God?_
In its genesis, the Science of creation is stated in mathe-
matical order, beginning with the lowest form and ascend-
ing the scale of being up to man. But all that really is,
always was and forever is; for it existed in and of the Mind [30]
that is God, wherein man is foremost.
[Page 58.]
_If one has died of consumption, and he has no remem-_ [1]
_brance of that disease or dream, does that disease have any_
_more power over him?_
Waking from a dream, one learns its _unreality_; then
it has no power over one. Waking from the dream of [5]
death, proves to him who thought he died that it was a
dream, and that he did not die; then he learns that con-
sumption did not kill him. When the belief in the power
of disease is destroyed, disease cannot return.
_How does Mrs. Eddy know that she has read and studied_ [10]
_correctly, if one must deny the evidences of the senses?_
_She had to use her eyes to read._
Jesus said, “Having eyes, see ye not?” I read the in-
spired page through a higher than mortal sense. As
matter, the eye cannot see; and as mortal mind, it is a [15]
belief that sees. I may read the Scriptures through a
belief of eyesight; but I must spiritually understand
them to interpret their Science.
_Does the theology of Christian Science aid its heal-_
_ing?_ [20]
Without its theology there is no mental science, no
order that proceeds from God. All Science is divine,
not human, in origin and demonstration. If God does
not govern the action of man, it is inharmonious: if He
does govern it, the action is Science. Take away the [25]
theology of mental healing and you take away its science,
leaving it a human “mind-cure,” nothing more nor less,
—even one human mind governing another; by which,
if you agree that God is Mind, you admit that there is
[Page 59.]
more than one government and God. Having no true [1]
sense of the healing theology of Mind, you can neither
understand nor demonstrate its Science, and will prac-
tise your belief of it in the name of Truth. This is the
mortal “mind-cure” that produces the effect of mes- [5]
merism. It is using the power of human will, instead
of the divine power understood, as in Christian Science;
and without this Science there had better be no “mind-
cure,”—in which the last state of patients is worse than
the first. [10]
_Is it wrong to pray for the recovery of the sick?_
Not if we pray Scripturally, with the understanding
that God _has_ given all things to those who love Him;
but pleading with infinite Love to love us, or to restore
health and harmony, and then to admit that it has been [15]
lost under His government, is the prayer of doubt and
mortal belief that is unavailing in divine Science.
_Is not all argument mind over mind?_
The Scriptures refer to God as saying, “Come now, and
let us reason together.” There is but one right Mind, and [20]
that one should and does govern man. Any copartnership
with that Mind is impossible; and the only benefit in
speaking often one to another, arises from the success that
one individual has with another in leading his thoughts
away from the human mind or body, and guiding them [25]
with Truth. That individual is the best healer who as-
serts himself the least, and thus becomes a transparency
for the divine Mind, who is the only physician; the divine
Mind is the scientific healer.
[Page 60.]
_How can you believe there is no sin, and that God does_ [1]
_not recognize any, when He sent His Son to save from_
_sin, and the Bible is addressed to sinners? How can you_
_believe there is no sickness, when Jesus came healing the_
_sick? [5]_
To regard sin, disease, and death with less deference,
and only as the woeful unrealities of being, is the only
way to destroy them; Christian Science is proving this by
healing cases of disease and sin after all other means have
failed. The Nazarene Prophet could make the unreality [10]
of both apparent in a moment.
_Does it not limit the power of Mind to deny the possi-_
_bility of communion with departed friends—dead only in_
_belief?_
Does it limit the power of Mind to say that addition [15]
is not subtraction in mathematics? The Science of Mind
reveals the impossibility of two individual sleepers, in
different phases of thought, communicating, even if touch-
ing each other corporeally; or for one who sleeps to
communicate with another who is awake. Mind’s possi- [20]
bilities are not lessened by being confined and conformed
to the Science of being.
_If mortal mind and body are myths, what is the con-_
_nection between them and real identity, and why are there_
_as many identities as mortal bodies?_ [25]
Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and
utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has
its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material be-
lief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals
are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that ma- [30]
[Page 61.]
terial belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be [1]
found the type and representative of verities priceless,
eternal, and just at hand.
The education of the future will be instruction, in spir-
itual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit [5]
sciences. All the knowledge and vain strivings of mortal
mind, that lead to death,—even when aping the wisdom
and magnitude of immortal Mind,—will be swallowed
up by the reality and omnipotence of Truth over error,
and of Life over death. [10]
“_Dear Mrs. Eddy_:—In the October _Journal_ I read
the following: “But the real man, who was created in the
image of God, does not commit sin.” _What then does sin?_
_What commits theft? Or who does murder?_ For instance,
the man is held responsible for the crime; for I went once [15]
to a place where a man was said to be “hanged for mur-
der”—and certainly I saw him, or his effigy, dangling
at the end of a rope. This “man” was held responsible
for the ‘sin.’ ”
_What sins?_ [20]
According to the Word, man is the image and likeness
of God. Does God’s essential likeness sin, or dangle at
the end of a rope? If not, what does? A culprit, a sinner,
—anything but a man! Then, what is a sinner? A
mortal; but man is _immortal_. [25]
Again: mortals are the embodiments (or bodies, if
you please) of error, not of Truth; of sickness, sin, and
death. Naming these His embodiment, can neither make
them so nor overthrow the logic that man is God’s like-
ness. Mortals seem very material; man in the likeness [30]
[Page 62.]
of Spirit is spiritual. Holding the _right_ idea of man in my [1]
mind, I can improve my own, and other people’s individ-
uality, health, and morals; whereas, the opposite image
of man, a sinner, kept constantly in mind, can no more
improve health or morals, than holding in thought the [5]
form of a boa-constrictor can aid an artist in painting a
landscape.
Man is seen only in the true likeness of his Maker.
Believing a lie veils the truth from our vision; even as
in mathematics, in summing up positive and negative [10]
quantities, the negative quantity offsets an equal positive
quantity, making the aggregate positive, or true quantity,
by that much, less available.
_Why do Christian Scientists hold that their theology is_
_essential to heal the sick, when the mind-cure claims to heal_ [15]
_without it?_
The theology of Christian Science is Truth; opposed
to which is the error of sickness, sin, and death, that
Truth destroys.
A “mind-cure” is a matter-cure. An adherent to this [20]
method honestly acknowledges this fact in her work
entitled “Mind-cure on a Material Basis.” In that
work the author grapples with Christian Science, attempts
to solve its divine Principle by the rule of human mind,
fails, and ends in a parody on this Science which is amus- [25]
ing to astute readers,—especially when she tells them
that she is practising this Science.
The theology of Christian Science is based on the action
of the divine Mind over the human mind and body;
whereas, “mind-cure” rests on the notion that the human [30]
mind can cure its own disease, or that which it causes,
[Page 63.]
and the _sickness of matter_,—which is infidel in the one [1]
case, and anomalous in the other. It was said of old by
Truth-traducers, that Jesus healed through Beelzebub;
but the claim that one erring mind cures another one was
at first gotten up to hinder his benign influence and to hide [5]
his divine power.
Our Master understood that Life, Truth, Love are the
triune Principle of all pure theology; also, that this divine
trinity is one infinite remedy for the opposite triad, sick-
ness, sin, and death. [10]
_If there is no sin, why did Jesus come to save sinners?_
If there is no reality in sickness, why does a Chris-
tian Scientist go to the bedside and address himself to
the healing of disease, on the basis of its unreality?
Jesus came to seek and to save such as believe in the [15]
reality of the unreal; to save them from _this false belief_;
that they might lay hold of eternal Life, the great reality
that concerns man, and understand the final fact,—that
God is omnipotent and omnipresent; yea, “that the Lord
He is God; there is none else beside Him,” as the Scrip- [20]
tures declare.
_If Christ was God, why did Jesus cry out, __“__My God,_
_why hast Thou forsaken me?__”_
Even as the struggling heart, reaching toward a higher
goal, appeals to its hope and faith, Why failest thou [25]
me? Jesus as the son of man was human: Christ as
the Son of God was divine. This divinity was reaching
humanity through the crucifixion of the human,—that
momentous demonstration of God, in which Spirit proved
its supremacy over matter. Jesus assumed for mortals the [30]
[Page 64.]
weakness of flesh, that Spirit might be found “All-in-all.” [1]
Hence, the human cry which voiced that struggle;
thence, the way he made for mortals’ escape. Our
Master bore the cross to show his power over death;
then relinquished his earth-task of teaching and dem- [5]
onstrating the nothingness of sickness, sin, and death,
and rose to his native estate, man’s indestructible eternal
life in God.
_What can prospective students of the College take for_
_preliminary studies? Do you regard the study of litera-_ [10]
_ture and languages as objectionable?_
Persons contemplating a course at the Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, can prepare for it through no
books except the Bible, and “Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures.” Man-made theories are nar- [15]
row, else extravagant, and are always materialistic.
The ethics which guide thought spiritually must bene-
fit every one; for the only philosophy and religion that
afford instruction are those which deal with facts and
resist speculative opinions and fables. [20]
Works on science are profitable; for science is not
human. It is spiritual, and not material. Literature
and languages, to a limited extent, are aids to a student
of the Bible and of Christian Science.
_Is it possible to know why we are put into this condition_ [25]
_of mortality?_
It is quite as possible to know wherefore man is thus
conditioned, as to be certain that he _is_ in a state of
mortality. The only evidence of the existence of a mor-
tal man, or of a material state and universe, is gathered [30]
[Page 65.]
from the five personal senses. This delusive evidence, [1]
Science has dethroned by repeated proofs of its falsity.
We have no more proof of human discord,—sin,
sickness, disease, or death,—than we have that the
earth’s surface is flat, and her motions imaginary. If [5]
man’s _ipse dixit_ as to the stellar system is correct, this
is because Science is true, and the evidence of the senses
is false. Then why not submit to the affirmations of
Science concerning the greater subject of human weal
and woe? Every question between Truth and error, [10]
Science must and will decide. Left to the decision of
Science, your query concerns a negative which the posi-
tive Truth destroys; for God’s universe and man are
immortal. We must not consider the false side of exist-
ence in order to gain the true solution of Life and its [15]
great realities.
_Have you changed your instructions as to the right way_
_of treating disease?_
I have not; and this important fact must be, and al-
ready is, apprehended by those who understand my in- [20]
structions on this question. Christian Science demands
both law and gospel, in order to demonstrate healing,
and I have taught them both in its demonstration, and
with signs following. They are a unit in restoring the
equipoise of mind and body, and balancing man’s ac- [25]
count with his Maker. The sequence proves that strict
adherence to one is inadequate to compensate for the
absence of the other, since both constitute the divine law
of healing.
The Jewish religion demands that “whoso sheddeth [30]
man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” But this
[Page 66.]
law is not infallible in wisdom; and obedience thereto [1]
may be found faulty, since false testimony or mistaken
evidence may cause the innocent to suffer for the guilty.
Hence the gospel that fulfils the law in righteousness,
the genius whereof is displayed in the surprising wisdom [5]
of these words of the New Testament: “Whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” No possible
injustice lurks in this mandate, and no human mis-
judgment can pervert it; for the offender alone suffers,
and always according to divine decree. This sacred, [10]
solid precept is verified in all directions in Mind-
healing, and is supported in the Scripture by parallel
proof.
The law and gospel of Truth and Love teach, through
divine Science, that sin is identical with suffering, and [15]
that suffering is the lighter affliction. To reach the sum-
mit of Science, whence to discern God’s perfect ways
and means, the material sense must be controlled by
the higher spiritual sense, and Truth be enthroned,
while “we look not at the things which are seen, but at [20]
the things which are not seen.”
Cynical critics misjudge my meaning as to the sci-
entific treatment of the sick. Disease that is superin-
duced by sin is not healed like the more physical
ailment. The beginner in sin-healing must know this, or [25]
he never can reach the Science of Mind-healing, and
so “overcome evil with good.” Error in premise is met
with error in practice; yea, it is “the blind leading the
blind.” Ignorance of the cause of disease can neither
remove that cause nor its effect. [30]
I endeavor to accommodate my instructions to the
present capability of the learner, and to support the
[Page 67.]
liberated thought until its altitude reaches beyond the [1]
mere alphabet of Mind-healing. Above physical wants,
lie the higher claims of the law and gospel of healing.
First is the law, which saith:—
“Thou shalt not commit adultery;” in other words, [5]
thou shalt not adulterate Life, Truth, or Love,—men-
tally, morally, or physically. “Thou shalt not steal;”
that is, thou shalt not rob man of money, which is but
trash, compared with his rights of mind and character.
“Thou shalt not kill;” that is, thou shalt not strike at the [10]
eternal sense of Life with a malicious aim, but shalt
know that by doing thus thine own sense of Life shall be
forfeited. “Thou shalt not bear false witness;” that is,
thou shalt not utter a lie, either mentally or audibly, nor
cause it to be thought. Obedience to these command- [15]
ments is indispensable to health, happiness, and length
of days.
The gospel of healing demonstrates the law of Love.
Justice uncovers sin of every sort; and mercy demands
that if you see the danger menacing others, you shall, [20]
_Deo volente_, inform them thereof. Only thus is the right
practice of Mind-healing achieved, and the wrong prac-
tice discerned, disarmed, and destroyed.
_Do you believe in translation?_
If your question refers to language, whereby one ex- [25]
presses the sense of words in one language by equiva-
lent words in another, I do. If you refer to the removal
of a person to heaven, without his subjection to death,
I modify my affirmative answer. I believe in this
removal being possible after all the footsteps requisite [30]
have been taken up to the very throne, up to the
[Page 68.]
spiritual sense and fact of divine substance, intelligence, [1]
Life, and Love. This translation is not the work of mo-
ments; it requires both time and eternity. It means more
than mere disappearance to the human sense; it must
include also man’s changed appearance and diviner form [5]
visible to those beholding him here.
_The Rev. —— said in a sermon: A true Christian_
_would protest against metaphysical healing being called_
_Christian Science. He also maintained that pain and_
_disease are not illusions but realities; and that it is not_ [10]
_Christian to believe they are illusions. Is this so?_
It is unchristian to believe that pain and sickness are
anything _but_ illusions. My proof of this is, that the
penalty for believing in their reality is the very pain and
disease. Jesus cast out a devil, and the dumb spake; [15]
hence it is right to know that the works of Satan are the
illusion and error which Truth casts out.
Does the gentleman above mentioned know the
meaning of divine metaphysics, or of metaphysical
theology? [20]
According to Webster, metaphysics is defined thus:
“The science of the conceptions and relations which are
necessary to thought and knowledge; science of the
mind.” Worcester defines it as “the philosophy of mind,
as distinguished from that of matter; a science of which [25]
the object is to explain the principles and causes of
all things existing,” Brande calls metaphysics “the
science which regards the ultimate grounds of being, as
distinguished from its phenomenal modifications.” “A
speculative science, which soars beyond the bounds of [30]
experience,” is a further definition.
[Page 69.]
Divine metaphysics is that which treats of the exist- [1]
ence of God, His essence, relations, and attributes. A
sneer at metaphysics is a scoff at Deity; at His goodness,
mercy, and might.
Christian Science is the unfolding of true metaphysics; [5]
that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests
on Principle and demonstration. The Principle of Chris-
tian Science is divine. Its rule is, that man shall utilize
the divine power.
In Genesis i. 26, we read: “Let us make man in [10]
our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air.”
I was once called to visit a sick man to whom the
regular physicians had given three doses of Croton [15]
oil, and then had left him to die. Upon my arrival I
found him barely alive, and in terrible agony. In one
hour he was well, and the next day he attended to his
business. I removed the stoppage, healed him of en-
teritis, and neutralized the bad effects of the poison- [20]
ous oil. His physicians had failed even to move his
bowels,—though the wonder was, with the means
used in their effort to accomplish this result, that
they had not quite killed him. According to their
diagnosis, the exciting cause of the inflammation and [25]
stoppage was—eating smoked herring. The man is
living yet; and I will send his address to any one
who may wish to apply to him for information about
his case.
Now comes the question: Had that sick man dominion [30]
over the fish in his stomach?
His want of control over “the fish of the sea” must
[Page 70.]
have been an illusion, or else the Scriptures misstate [1]
man’s power. That the Bible is true I believe, not
only, but I _demonstrated_ its truth when I exercised
my power over the fish, cast out the sick man’s illu-
sion, and healed him. Thus it was shown that the [5]
healing action of Mind upon the body has its only ex-
planation in divine metaphysics. As a man “thinketh
in his heart, so is he.” When the mortal thought, or be-
lief, was removed, the man was well.
_What did Jesus mean when he said to the dying thief,_ [10]
_“__To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise__”__?_
Paradisaical rest from physical agony would come to
the criminal, if the dream of dying should startle him
from the dream of suffering. The paradise of Spirit
would come to Jesus, in a spiritual sense of Life and [15]
power. Christ Jesus lived and reappeared. He was too
good to die; for goodness is immortal. The thief was
not equal to the demands of the hour; but sin was de-
stroying itself, and had already begun to die,—as
the poor thief’s prayer for help indicated. The dy- [20]
ing malefactor and our Lord were inevitably sepa-
rated through Mind. The thief’s body, as matter,
must dissolve into its native nothingness; whereas the
body of the holy Spirit of Jesus was eternal. That
day the thief would be with Jesus only in a finite [25]
and material sense of relief; while our Lord would
soon be rising to the supremacy of Spirit, working
out, even in the silent tomb, those wonderful demon-
strations of divine power, in which none could equal his
glory. [30]
[Page 71.]
_Is it right for me to treat others, when I am not entirely_ [1]
_well myself?_
The late John B. Gough is said to have suffered from
an appetite for alcoholic drink until his death; yet he
saved many a drunkard from this fatal appetite. Paul [5]
had a thorn in the flesh: one writer thinks that he was
troubled with rheumatism, and another that he had sore
eyes; but this is certain, that he healed others who were
sick. It is unquestionably right to do right; and heal-
ing the sick is a very right thing to do. [10]
_Does Christian Science set aside the law of transmission,_
_prenatal desires, and good or bad influences on the unborn_
_child?_
Science never averts law, but supports it. All actual
causation must interpret omnipotence, the all-knowing [15]
Mind. Law brings out Truth, not error; unfolds divine
Principle,—but neither human hypothesis nor matter.
Errors are based on a mortal or material formation; they
are suppositional modes, not the factors of divine presence
and power. [20]
Whatever is humanly conceived is a departure from
divine law; hence its mythical origin and certain end.
According to the Scriptures,—St. Paul declares astutely,
“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all
things,”—man is incapable of originating; nothing can [25]
be formed apart from God, good, the all-knowing Mind.
What seems to be of human origin is the counterfeit
of the divine,—even human concepts, mortal shadows
flitting across the dial of time.
Whatever is real is right and eternal; hence the im- [30]
mutable and just law of Science, that God is good only,
[Page 72.]
and can transmit to man and the universe nothing evil, [1]
or unlike Himself. For the innocent babe to be born a
lifelong sufferer because of his parents’ mistakes or sins,
were sore injustice. Science sets aside man as a creator,
and unfolds the eternal harmonies of the only living and [5]
true origin, God.
According to the beliefs of the flesh, both good and
bad traits of the parents are transmitted to their help-
less offspring, and God is supposed to impart to man
this fatal power. It is cause for rejoicing that this belief [10]
is as false as it is remorseless. The immutable Word
saith, through the prophet Ezekiel, “What mean ye, that
ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s
teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, [15]
ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb
in Israel.”
_Are material things real when they are harmonious, and_
_do they disappear only to the natural sense? Does this_
_Scripture, __“__Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have_ [20]
_need of all these things__”__ imply that Spirit takes note of_
_matter?_
The Science of Mind, as well as the material unii
verse, shows that nothing which is material is in
perpetual harmony. Matter is manifest mortal mind, [35]
and it exists only to material sense. Real sensation
is not material; it is, and must be, mental: and Mind
is not mortal, it is immortal. Being is God, infinite
Spirit; therefore it cannot cognize aught material, or
outside of infinity. [30]
The Scriptural passage quoted affords no evidence of
[Page 73.]
the reality of matter, or that God is conscious of it. [1]
The so-called material body is said to suffer, but this
supposition is proven erroneous when Mind casts out
the suffering. The Scripture saith, “Whom the Lord
loveth He chasteneth;” and again, “He doth not [5]
afflict willingly.” Interpreted materially, these pas-
sages conflict; they mingle the testimony of immor-
tal Science with mortal sense; but once discern their
spiritual meaning, and it separates the false sense from
the true, and establishes the reality of what is spiritual, [10]
and the unreality of materiality.
Law is never material: it is always mental and moral,
and a commandment to the wise. The foolish disobey
moral law, and are punished. Human wisdom therefore
can get no farther than to say, He knoweth that we have [15]
need of experience. Belief fulfils the conditions of a be-
lief, and these conditions destroy the belief. Hence the
verdict of experience: We have need of _these_ things; we
have need to know that the so-called pleasures and pains
of matter—yea, that all subjective states of false sensa- [20]
tion—are _unreal_.
_“__And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,_
_That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when_
_the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,_
_ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the_ [25]
_twelve tribes of Israel.__”_ (Matt. xix. 28.) _What is meant_
_by regeneration?_
It is the appearing of divine law to human under-
standing; the spiritualization that comes from spiritual
sense in contradistinction to the testimony of the so- [30]
called material senses. The phenomena of Spirit in
[Page 74.]
Christian Science, and the divine correspondence of [1]
noumenon and phenomenon understood, are here signi-
fied. This new-born sense subdues not only the false
sense of generation, but the human will, and the un-
natural enmity of mortal man toward God. It quickly [5]
imparts a new apprehension of the true basis of being,
and the spiritual foundation for the affections which en-
throne the Son of man in the glory of his Father; and
judges, through the stern mandate of Science, all human
systems of etiology and teleology. [10]
_If God does not recognize matter, how did Jesus, who was_
_“__the way, the truth, and the life,__”__ cognize it?_
Christ Jesus’ sense of matter was the opposite of that
which mortals entertain: his nativity was a spiritual and
immortal sense of the ideal world. His earthly mission [15]
was to translate substance into its original meaning,
Mind. He walked upon the waves; he turned the water
into wine; he healed the sick and the sinner; he raised
the dead, and rolled away the stone from the door of his
own tomb. His demonstration of Spirit virtually van- [20]
quished matter and its supposed laws. Walking the
wave, he proved the fallacy of the theory that matter is
substance; healing through Mind, he removed any sup-
position that matter is intelligent, or can recognize or
express pain and pleasure. His triumph over the grave [25]
was an everlasting victory for Life; it demonstrated the
lifelessness of matter, and the power and permanence
of Spirit. He met and conquered the resistance of the
world.
If you will admit, with me, that matter is neither [30]
substance, intelligence, nor Life, you may have all that
[Page 75.]
is left of it; and you will have touched the hem of the [1]
garment of Jesus’ idea of matter, Christ was “the way;”
since Life and Truth were the way that gave us, through
a human person, a spiritual revelation of man’s possible
earthly development. [5]
_Why do you insist that there is but one Soul, and that_
_Soul is not in the body?_
_First:_ I urge this fundamental fact and grand verity
of Christian Science, because it includes a rule that must
be understood, or it is impossible to demonstrate the Sci- [10]
ence. Soul is a synonym of Spirit, and God is Spirit.
There is but one God, and the infinite is not within the
finite; hence Soul is one, and is God; and God is not in
matter or the mortal body.
_Second:_ Because Soul is a term for Deity, and this [15]
term should seldom be employed except where the word
_God_ can be used and make complete sense. The word
_Soul_ may sometimes be used metaphorically; but if this
term is warped to signify human quality, a substitution
of _sense_ for _soul_ clears the meaning, and assists one to [20]
understand Christian Science. Mary’s exclamation,
“"My _soul_ doth magnify the Lord,” is rendered in Sci-
ence, “My _spiritual sense_ doth magnify the Lord;”
for the name of Deity used in that place does not bring
out the meaning of the passage. It was evidently an [25]
illuminated sense through which she discovered the
spiritual origin of man. “The soul that sinneth, it shall
die,” means, that mortal man (_alias_ material sense) that
sinneth, shall die; and the commonly accepted view is
that _soul_ is deathless. Soul is the divine Mind,—for [30]
Soul cannot be formed or brought forth by human
[Page 76.]
thought,—and must proceed from God; hence it must [1]
be sinless, and destitute of self-created or derived capacity
to sin.
_Third:_ Jesus said, “If a man keep my saying, he
shall never see death.” This statement of our Master [5]
is true, and remains to be demonstrated; for it is the
ultimatum of Christian Science; but this immortal saying
can never be tested or proven true upon a false premise,
such as the mortal belief that soul is in body, and life
and intelligence are in matter. That doctrine is not [10]
theism, but pantheism. According to human belief the
bodies of mortals are mortal, but they contain immortal
souls! hence these bodies must die for these souls to
escape and be immortal. The theory that death must
occur, to set a human soul free from its environments, [15]
is rendered void by Jesus’ divine declaration, who spake
as never man spake,—and no man can rationally reject
his authority on this subject and accept it on other topics
less important.
Now, exchange the term _soul_ for _sense_ whenever this [20]
word means the so-called soul in the body, and you will
find the right meaning indicated. The misnamed human
soul is material sense, which sinneth and shall die; for
it is an error or false sense of mentality in matter, and
matter has no sense. You will admit that Soul is the [25]
Life of man. Now if Soul sinned, it would die; for “the
wages of sin is death.” The Scripture saith, “When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him in glory.” The Science of Soul, Spirit,
involves this appearing, and is essential to the fulfilment [30]
of this glorious prophecy of the master Metaphysician,
who overcame the last enemy, death.
[Page 77.]
_Did the salvation of the eunuch depend merely on his_ [1]
_believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God?_
It did; but this believing was more than faith in the
fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Here the verb _believe_
took its original meaning, namely, to be _firm_,—yea, to [5]
_understand_ those great truths asserted of the Messiah:
it meant to discern and consent to that infinite demand
made upon the eunuch in those few words of the apostle.
Philip’s requirement was, that he should not only ac-
knowledge the incarnation,—God made manifest through [10]
man,—but even the eternal unity of man and God, as
the divine Principle and spiritual idea; which is the in-
dissoluble bond of union, the power and presence, in
divine Science, of Life, Truth, and Love, to support their
ideal man. This is the Father’s great Love that He [15]
hath bestowed upon us, and it holds man in endless
Life and one eternal round of harmonious being. It
guides him by Truth that knows no error, and with
supersensual, impartial, and unquenchable Love. To
_believe_ is to _be firm_. In adopting all this vast idea of [20]
Christ Jesus, the eunuch was to _know_ in whom he be-
lieved. To _believe_ thus was to enter the spiritual sanctuary
of Truth, and there learn, in divine Science, somewhat
of the All-Father-Mother God. It was to understand
God and man: it was sternly to rebuke the mortal [25]
belief that man has fallen away from his first estate; that
man, made in God’s own likeness, and reflecting Truth,
could fall into mortal error; or, that man is the father
of man. It was to enter unshod the Holy of Holies, where
the miracle of grace appears, and where the miracles of [30]
Jesus had their birth,—healing the sick, casting out
evils, and resurrecting the human _sense_ to the belief
[Page 78.]
that Life, God, is not buried in matter. This is the spirit- [1]
ual dawn of the Messiah, and the overture of the
angels. This is when God is made manifest in the
flesh, and thus it destroys all sense of sin, sickness, and
death,—when the brightness of His glory encompasseth [5]
all being.
_Can Christian Science Mind-healing be taught to those_
_who are absent?_
The Science of Mind-healing can no more be taught
thus, than can science in any other direction. I know [10]
not how to teach either Euclid or the Science of Mind
silently; and never dreamed that either of these partook
of the nature of occultism, magic, alchemy, or necro-
mancy. These “ways that are vain” are the inventions
of animal magnetism, which would deceive, if possible, [15]
the very elect. We will charitably hope, however, that
some people employ the _et cetera_ of ignorance and self-
conceit unconsciously, in their witless ventilation of false
statements and claims. Misguiding the public mind and
taking its money in exchange for this abuse, has become [20]
too common: we will hope it is the froth of error passing
off; and that Christian Science will some time appear all
the clearer for the purification of the public thought con-
cerning it.
_Has man fallen from a state of perfection?_ [25]
If God is the Principle of man (and He is), man is the
idea of God; and this idea cannot fail to express the ex-
act nature of its Principle,—any more than goodness,
to present the quality of good. Human hypotheses are
always human vagaries, formulated views antagonistic [30]
[Page 79.]
to the divine order and the nature of Deity. All these [1]
mortal beliefs will be purged and dissolved in the cru-
cible of Truth, and the places once knowing them will
know them no more forever, having been swept clean
by the winds of history. The grand verities of Science [5]
will sift the chaff from the wheat, until it is clear to hu-
man comprehension that man was, and is, God’s perfect
likeness, that reflects all whereby we can know God. In
Him we live, move, and have being. Man’s origin and
existence being in Him, man is the ultimatum of per- [10]
fection, and by no means the medium of imperfection.
Immortal man is the eternal idea of Truth, that cannot
lapse into a mortal belief or error concerning himself
and his origin: he cannot get out of the focal distance of
infinity. If God is upright and eternal, man as His like- [15]
ness is erect in goodness and perpetual in Life, Truth,
and Love. If the great cause is perfect, its effect is per-
fect also; and cause and effect in Science are immutable
and immortal. A mortal who is sinning, sick, and dying,
is not immortal man; and never was, and never can be, [20]
God’s image and likeness, the true ideal of immortal
man’s divine Principle. The spiritual man is that per-
fect and unfallen likeness, coexistent and coeternal with
God. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive.” [25]
_What course should Christian Scientists take in regard_
_to aiding persons brought before the courts for violation of_
_medical statutes?_
Beware of joining any medical league which in any
way obligates you to assist—because they chance to be [30]
under arrest—vendors of patent pills, mesmerists,
[Page 80.]
occultists, sellers of impure literature, and authors of [1]
spurious works on mental healing. By rendering error
such a service, you lose much more than can be gained
by mere unity on the single issue of opposition to unjust
medical laws. [5]
A league which obligates its members to give money
and influence in support and defense of medical char-
latans in general, and possibly to aid individual rights
in a wrong direction—which Christian Science eschews
—should be avoided. Anybody and everybody, who [10]
will fight the medical faculty, can join this league. It is
better to be friendly with cultured and conscientious
medical men, who leave Christian Science to rise or fall
on its own merit or demerit, than to affiliate with a wrong
class of people. [15]
Unconstitutional and unjust coercive legislation and
laws, infringing individual rights, must be “of few days,
and full of trouble.” The _vox populi_, through the provi-
dence of God, promotes and impels all true reform; and,
at the best time, will redress wrongs and rectify injus- [20]
tice. Tyranny can thrive but feebly under our Govern-
ment. God reigns, and will “turn and overturn” until
right is found supreme.
In a certain sense, we should commiserate the lot of
regular doctors, who, in successive generations for cen- [25]
turies, have planted and sown and reaped in the fields
of what they deem pathology, hygiene, and therapeutics,
but are now elbowed by a new school of practitioners,
outdoing the healing of the old. The old will not patronize
the new school, at least not until it shall come to understand [30]
the medical system of the new.
Christian Science Mind-healing rests demonstrably on
[Page 81.]
the broad and sure foundation of Science; and this is [1]
not the basis of _materia medica_, as some of the most skil-
ful and scholarly physicians openly admit.
To prevent all unpleasant and unchristian action—as
we drift, by right of God’s dear love, into more spiritual [5]
lines of life—let each society of practitioners, the matter-
physicians and the metaphysicians, agree to disagree, and
then patiently wait on God to decide, as surely He will,
which is the true system of medicine.
_Do we not see in the commonly accepted teachings of the_ [10]
_day, the Christ-idea mingled with the teachings of John_
_the Baptist? or, rather, Are not the last eighteen centuries_
_but the footsteps of Truth being baptized of John, and com-_
_ing up straightway out of the ceremonial (or ritualistic)_
_waters to receive the benediction of an honored Father, and_ [15]
_afterwards to go up into the wilderness, in order to over-_
_come mortal sense, before it shall go forth into all the cities_
_and towns of Judea, or see many of the people from beyond_
_Jordan? Now, if all this be a fair or correct view of this_
_question, why does not John hear this voice, or see the_ [20]
_dove,—or has not Truth yet reached the shore?_
Every individual character, like the individual John
the Baptist, at some date must cry in the desert of
earthly joy; and his voice be heard divinely and
humanly. In the desolation of human understanding, [25]
divine Love hears and answers the human call for help;
and the voice of Truth utters the divine verities of being
which deliver mortals out of the depths of ignorance
and vice. This _is_ the Father’s benediction. It gives
lessons to human life, guides the understanding, peoples [30]
[Page 82.]
the mind with spiritual ideas, reconstructs the Judean [1]
religion, and reveals God and man as the Principle and
idea of all good.
Understanding this fact in Christian Science, brings
the peace symbolized by a dove; and this peace floweth [5]
as a river into a shoreless eternity. He who knew the
foretelling Truth, beheld the forthcoming Truth, as it
came up out of the baptism of Spirit, to enlighten and
redeem mortals. Such Christians as John cognize the
symbols of God, reach the sure foundations of time, stand [10]
upon the shore of eternity, and grasp and gather—in all
glory—what eye hath not seen.
_Is there infinite progression with man after the destruc-_
_tion of mortal mind?_
Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, [15]
whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this
law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of
Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life,
Truth, and Love.
Infinite progression is concrete being, which finite [20]
mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory. As
mortal mind, or the material sense of life, is put off,
the spiritual sense and Science of being is brought to
light.
Mortal mind is a myth; the one Mind is immortal. [25]
A mythical or mortal sense of existence is consumed
as a moth, in the treacherous glare of its own flame—
the errors which devour it. Immortal Mind is God,
immortal good; in whom the Scripture saith “we live,
and move, and have our being.” This Mind, then, is not [30]
subject to growth, change, or diminution, but is the divine
[Page 83.]
intelligence, or Principle, of all real being; holding [1]
man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss,
as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible
good.
_In your book, Science and Health,_(_3_)_ page 181, you_ [5]
_say: __“__Every sin is the author of itself, and every_
_invalid the cause of his own sufferings.__”__ On page_
_182 you say: __“__Sickness is a growth of illusion, spring-_
_ing from a seed of thought,—either your own thought_
_or another’s.__”__ Will you please explain this seeming_ [10]
_contradiction?_
No person can accept another’s belief, except it be
with the consent of his own belief. If the error which
knocks at the door of your own thought originated in
another’s mind, you are a free moral agent to reject or [15]
to accept this error; hence, you are the arbiter of your
own fate, and sin is the author of sin. In the words
of our Master, you are “a liar, and the father of it
[the lie].”
_Why did Jesus call himself __“__the Son of man__”__?_ [20]
In the life of our Lord, meekness was as conspicuous
as might. In John xvii. he declared his sonship with
God: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his
eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;
glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” [25]
The hour had come for the avowal of this great truth,
and for the proof of his eternal Life and sonship. Jesus’
[Page 84.]
wisdom ofttimes was shown by his forbearing to speak, [1]
as well as by speaking, the whole truth. Haply he waited
for a preparation of the human heart to receive start-
ling announcements. This wisdom, which character-
ized his sayings, did not prophesy his death, and thereby [5]
hasten or permit it.
The disciples and prophets thrust disputed points on
minds unprepared for them. This cost them their lives,
and the world’s temporary esteem; but the prophecies
were fulfilled, and their motives were rewarded by [10]
growth and more spiritual understanding, which dawns
by degrees on mortals. The spiritual Christ was infal-
lible; Jesus, as material manhood, was not Christ. The
“man of sorrows” knew that the man of joys, his spiritual
self, or Christ, was the Son of God; and that the mor- [15]
tal mind, not the immortal Mind, suffered. The human
manifestation of the Son of God was called the Son of
man, or Mary’s son.
_Please explain Paul’s meaning in the text, __“__For to me_
_to live is Christ, and to die is gain.__”_ [20]
The Science of Life, overshadowing Paul’s sense of
life in matter, so far extinguished the latter as forever
to quench his love for it. The discipline of the flesh is
designed to turn one, like a weary traveller, to the home
of Love. To lose error thus, is to live in Christ, Truth. [25]
A true sense of the falsity of material joys and sorrows,
pleasures and pains, takes them away, and teaches Life’s
lessons aright. The transition from our lower sense of
Life to a new and higher sense thereof, even though it be
through the door named death, yields a clearer and [30]
nearer sense of Life to those who have utilized the present,
[Page 85.]
and are ripe for the harvest-home. To the battle- [1]
worn and weary Christian hero, Life eternal brings
blessings.
_Is a Christian Scientist ever sick, and has he who is_
_sick been regenerated?_ [5]
The Christian Scientist learns spiritually all that he
knows of Life, and demonstrates what he understands.
God is recognized as the divine Principle of his being,
and of every thought and act leading to good. His pur-
pose must be right, though his power is temporarily lim- [10]
ited. Perfection, the goal of existence, is not won in a
moment; and regeneration leading thereto is gradual,
for it culminates in the fulfilment of this divine rule in
Science: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect.” [15]
The last degree of regeneration rises into the rest of
perpetual, spiritual, individual existence. The first
feeble fluttering of mortals Christward are infantile
and more or less imperfect. The new-born Christian
Scientist must mature, and work out his own salvation. [20]
Spirit and flesh antagonize. Temptation, that mist of
mortal mind which seems to be matter and the environ-
ment of mortals, suggests pleasure and pain in matter;
and, so long as this temptation lasts, the warfare is not
ended and the mortal is not regenerated. The pleas- [25]
ures—more than the pains—of sense, retard regenera-
tion; for pain compels human consciousness to escape
from sense into the immortality and harmony of Soul.
Disease in error, more than ease in it, tends to destroy
error: the sick often are thereby led to Christ, Truth, [30]
and to learn their way out of both sickness and sin.
[Page 86.]
The material and physical are imperfect. The in- [1]
dividual and spiritual are perfect; these have no fleshly
nature. This final degree of regeneration is saving, and
the Christian will, must, attain it; but it doth not yet
appear. Until this be attained, the Christian Scientist [5]
must continue to strive with sickness, sin, and death—
though in lessening degrees—and manifest growth at
every experience.
_Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are noth-_
_ing and exist only in imagination?_ [10]
_Nothing_ and _something_ are words which need correct
definition. They either mean formations of indefinite
and vague human opinions, or scientific classifications
of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of
the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is some- [15]
thing to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful
to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the
eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief,
of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the
glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and [20]
earth, the harmony of body and Mind.
Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and
utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than
imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the gran-
deur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is [25]
the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmos-
phere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal envi-
ronment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell,
constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must
grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings [30]
to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall
[Page 87.]
soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue tem- [1]
poral sky.
To take all earth’s beauty into one gulp of vacuity
and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature
God’s creation, which is unjust to human sense and [5]
to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spirit-
ual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous
universe: “I love your promise; and shall know, some
time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light,
and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and [10]
knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail con-
ception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer
representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the
immortal Mind.”
_Please inform us through your Journal; if you sent_ [15]
_Mrs. —— to ——. She said that you sent her there to look_
_after the students; and also, that no one there was working_
_in Science,—which is certainly a mistake._
I never commission any one to teach students of mine.
After class teaching, he does best in the investigation of [20]
Christian Science who is most reliant on himself and
God. My students are taught the divine Principle and
rules of the Science of Mind-healing. What they need
thereafter is to study thoroughly the Scriptures and
“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” To [25]
watch and pray, to be honest, earnest, loving, and truth-
ful, is indispensable to the demonstration of the truth
they have been taught.
If they are haunted by obsequious helpers, who, un-
called for, imagine they can help anybody and steady [30]
God’s altar—this interference prolongs the struggle
[Page 88.]
and tends to blight the fruits of my students. A faith- [1]
ful student may even sometimes feel the need of
physical help, and occasionally receive it from others;
but the less this is required, the better it is for that
student. [5]
_Please give us, through your Journal, the name of_
_the author of that genuine critique in the September_
_number, __“__What Quibus Thinks.__”_
I am pleased to inform this inquirer, that the author
of the article in question is a Boston gentleman whose [10]
thought is appreciated by many liberals. Patience, ob-
servation, intellectual culture, reading, writing, exten-
sive travel, and twenty years in the pulpit, have equipped
him as a critic who knows whereof he speaks. His allu-
sion to Christian Science in the following paragraph, [15]
glows in the shadow of darkling criticism like a mid-
night sun. Its manly honesty follows like a benediction
after prayer, and closes the task of talking to deaf ears
and dull debaters.
“We have always insisted that this Science is natural, [20]
spiritually natural; that Jesus was the highest type of
real nature; that Christian healing is supernatural, or
extra-natural, only to those who do not enter into its
sublimity or understand its modes—as imported ice
was miraculous to the equatorial African, who had never [25]
seen water freeze.”
_Is it right for a Scientist to treat with a doctor?_
This depends upon what kind of a doctor it is. Mind-
healing, and healing with drugs, are opposite modes of
medicine. As a rule, drop one of these doctors when you [30]
[Page 89.]
employ the other. The Scripture saith, “No man can [1]
serve two masters;” and, “Every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation.”
_If Scientists are called upon to care for a member of_
_the family, or a friend in sickness, who is employing a_ [5]
_regular physician, would it be right to treat this patient_
_at all; and ought the patient to follow the doctor’s_
_directions?_
When patients are under material medical treatment,
it is advisable in most cases that Scientists do not treat [10]
them, or interfere with _materia medica_. If the patient
is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings,
although the medical attendant and friends have no
faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian,
to do him all the good you can; but your good will gen- [15]
erally “be evil spoken of.” The hazard of casting “pearls
before swine” caused our Master to refuse help to some
who sought his aid; and he left this precaution for
others.
_If mortal man is unreal, how can he be saved, and why_ [20]
_does he need to be saved? I ask for information, not for_
_controversy, for I am a seeker after Truth._
You will find the proper answer to this question in
my published works. Man is immortal. Mortal man
is a false concept that is not spared or prolonged by being [25]
saved from itself, from whatever is false. This salva-
tion means: saved from error, or error overcome. Im-
mortal man, in God’s likeness, is safe in divine Science.
Mortal man is saved on this divine Principle, if he will
only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and recog- [30]
[Page 90.]
nize his Saviour. He must know that God is omnipo- [1]
tent; hence, that sin is impotent. He must know that
the power of sin is the pleasure in sin. Take away this
pleasure, and you remove all reality from its power. Jesus
demonstrated sin and death to be powerless. This [5]
practical Truth saves from sin, and will save all who
understand it.
_Is it wrong for a wife to have a husband treated for_
_sin, when she knows he is sinning, or for drinking and_
_smoking?_ [10]
It is always right to act rightly; but sometimes, under
circumstances exceptional, it is inexpedient to attack
evil. This rule is forever golden: “As ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Do you
desire to be freed from sin? Then help others to be free; [15]
but in your measures, obey the Scriptures, “Be ye wise
as serpents.” Break the yoke of bondage in every wise
way. First, be sure that your means for doing good
are equal to your motives; then judge them by their
fruits. [20]
_If not ordained, shall the pastor of the Church of_
_Christ, Scientist, administer the communion,—and_
_shall members of a church not organized receive the_
_communion?_
Our great Master administered to his disciples the [25]
Passover, or last supper, without this prerogative being
conferred by a visible organization and ordained priest-
hood. His spiritually prepared breakfast, after his
resurrection, and after his disciples had left their nets
to follow him, is the spiritual communion which Chris- [30]
[Page 91.]
tian Scientists celebrate in commemoration of the Christ. [1]
This ordinance is significant as a type of the true worship,
and it should be observed at present in our churches.
It is not indispensable to organize materially Christ’s
church. It is not absolutely necessary to ordain pas- [5]
tors and to dedicate churches; but if this be done,
let it be in concession to the period, and not as a per-
petual or indispensable ceremonial of the church. If
our church is organized, it is to meet the demand,
“Suffer it to be so now.” The real Christian compact [10]
is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual
and inviolate.
It is imperative, at all times and under every cir-
cumstance, to perpetuate no ceremonials except as
types of these mental conditions,—remembrance and [15]
love; a real affection for Jesus’ character and example.
Be it remembered, that all types employed in the ser-
vice of Christian Science should represent the most spir-
itual forms of thought and worship that can be made
visible. [20]
_Should not the teacher of Christian Science have our_
_textbook, __“__Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,__”_
_in his schoolroom and teach from it?_
I never dreamed, until informed thereof, that a loyal
student did not take his textbook with him into the class- [25]
room, ask questions from it, answer them according to
it, and, as occasion required, read from the book as au-
thority for what he taught. I supposed that students
had followed my example, and that of other teachers,
sufficiently to do this, and also to require their pupils to [30]
study the lessons before recitations.
[Page 92.]
To omit these important points is anomalous, con- [1]
sidering the necessity for understanding Science, and
the present liability of deviating from Christian Science.
Centuries will intervene before the statement of the inex-
haustible topics of that book become sufficiently under- [5]
stood to be absolutely demonstrated. The teacher of
Christian Science needs continually to study this textbook.
His work is to replenish thought, and to spiritualize human
life, from this open fount of Truth and Love.
He who sees most clearly and enlightens other minds [10]
most readily, keeps his own lamp trimmed and burning.
He will take the textbook of Christian Science into his
class, repeat the questions in the chapter on Recapitula-
tion, and his students will answer them from the same
source. Throughout his entire explanations, the teacher [15]
should strictly adhere to the questions and answers con-
tained in that chapter of “Science and Health with Key
to the Scriptures.” It is important to point out the
lesson to the class, and to require the students thor-
oughly to study it before the recitations; for this spirit- [20]
ualizes their thoughts. When closing his class, the
teacher should require each member to own a copy of
the above-named book and to continue the study of this
textbook.
The opinions of men cannot be substituted for God’s [25]
revelation. It must not be forgotten that in times past,
arrogant ignorance and pride, in attempting to steady
the ark of Truth, have dimmed the power and glory of
the Scriptures, to which this Christian Science textbook
is the Key. [30]
That teacher does most for his students who most
divests himself of pride and self, spiritualizes his own
[Page 93.]
thought, and by reason thereof is able to empty his stu- [1]
dents’ minds, that they may be filled with Truth.
Beloved students, _so_ teach that posterity shall call
you blessed, and the heart of history shall be made
glad! [5]
_Can fear or sin bring back old beliefs of disease that have_
_been healed by Christian Science?_
The Scriptures plainly declare the allness and oneness
of God to be the premises of Truth, and that God is
good: in Him dwelleth no evil. Christian Science au- [10]
thorizes the logical conclusion drawn from the Scriptures,
that there is in reality none besides the eternal, infinite
God, good. Evil is temporal: it is the illusion of time
and mortality.
This being true, sin has no power; and fear, its coeval, [15]
is without divine authority. Science sanctions only what
is supported by the unerring Principle of being. Sin can
do nothing: all cause and effect are in God. Fear is a
belief of sensation in matter: this belief is neither main-
tained by Science nor supported by facts, and exists only [20]
as fable. Your answer is, that neither fear nor sin can
bring on disease or bring back disease, since there is in
reality no disease.
Bear in mind, however, that human consciousness does
not test sin and the fact of its nothingness, by believing [25]
that sin is pardoned without repentance and reforma-
tion. Sin punishes itself, because it cannot go unpun-
ished either here or hereafter. Nothing is more fatal than
to indulge a sinning sense or consciousness for even one
moment. Knowing this, obey Christ’s Sermon on the [30]
Mount, even if you suffer for it in the first instance,—
[Page 94.]
are misjudged and maligned; in the second, you will [1]
reign with him.
I never knew a person who knowingly indulged evil,
to be grateful; to understand me, or himself. He must
first see himself and the hallucination of sin; then he [5]
must repent, and love good in order to understand God.
The sinner and the sin are the twain that are one flesh,—
but which God hath not joined together.
CHAPTER IV. ADDRESSES.
[Page 95.]
Christian Science In Tremont Temple.
From the platform of the Monday lectureship in [2]
Tremont Temple, on Monday, March 16, 1885, as
will be seen by what follows. Reverend Mary Baker G.
Eddy was presented to Mr. Cook’s audience, and allowed [5]
ten minutes in which to reply to his public letter con-
demning her doctrines; which reply was taken in full by
a shorthand reporter who was present, and is transcribed
below.
Mrs. Eddy responding, said:— [10]
As the time so kindly allotted me is insufficient for
even a synopsis of Christian Science, I shall confine my-
self to questions and answers.
Am I a spiritualist?
I am not, and never was. I understand the impossi- [15]
bility of intercommunion between the so-called dead and
living. There have always attended my life phenomena
of an uncommon order, which spiritualists have mis-
called mediumship; but I clearly understand that no
human agencies were employed,—that the divine Mind [20]
reveals itself to humanity through spiritual law. And
to such as are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of our body,” Christian Science reveals the in-
[Page 96.]
finitude of divinity and the way of man’s salvation from [1]
sickness and death, as wrought out by Jesus, who robbed
the grave of victory and death of its sting. I understand
that God is an ever-present help in all times of trouble,—
have found Him so; and would have no other gods, no [5]
remedies in drugs, no material medicine.
Do I believe in a personal God?
I believe in God as the Supreme Being. I know not
what the person of omnipotence and omnipresence is,
or what the infinite includes; therefore, I worship that [10]
of which I can conceive, first, as a loving Father and
Mother; then, as thought ascends the scale of being to
diviner consciousness, God becomes to me, as to the
apostle who declared it, “God is Love,”—divine Prin-
ciple,—which I worship; and “after the manner of my [15]
fathers, so worship I God.”
Do I believe in the atonement of Christ?
I do; and this atonement becomes more to me since
it includes man’s redemption from sickness as well as
from sin. I reverence and adore Christ as never before. [20]
It brings to my sense, and to the sense of all who enter-
tain this understanding of the Science of God, a _whole_
salvation.
How is the healing done in Christian Science?
This answer includes too much to give you any con- [25]
clusive idea in a brief explanation. I can name some
means by which it is not done.
It is not one mind acting upon another mind; it is
not the transference of human images of thought to
other minds; it is not supported by the evidence before [30]
the personal senses,—Science contradicts this evidence;
it is not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. It is Christ come
[Page 97.]
to destroy the power of the flesh; it is Truth over error; [1]
that understood, gives man ability to rise above the evi-
dence of the senses, take hold of the eternal energies of
Truth, and destroy mortal discord with immortal har-
mony,—the grand verities of being. It is not one mortal [5]
thought transmitted to another’s thought from the human
mind that holds within itself all evil.
Our Master said of one of his students, “He is a devil,”
and repudiated the idea of casting out devils through
Beelzebub. Erring human mind is by no means a de- [10]
sirable or efficacious healer. Such suppositional healing
I deprecate. It is in no way allied to divine power. All
human control is animal magnetism, more despicable
than all other methods of treating disease.
Christian Science is not a remedy of faith alone, but [15]
combines faith with understanding, through which we
may touch the hem of His garment; and know that om-
nipotence has all power. “I am the Lord, and there is
none else, there is no God beside me.”
Is there a personal man? [20]
The Scriptures inform us that man was made in the
image and likeness of God. I commend the Icelandic
translation: “He created man in the image and likeness
of Mind, in the image and likeness of Mind created
He him.” To my sense, we have not seen all of man; [25]
he is more than personal sense can cognize, who is the
image and likeness of the infinite. I have not seen a
perfect man in mind or body,—and such must be the
personality of him who is the true likeness: the lost
image is not this personality, and corporeal man is this [30]
lost image; hence, it doth not appear what is the real
personality of man. The only cause for making this
[Page 98.]
question of personality a point, or of any importance, is [1]
that man’s perfect model should be held in mind, whereby
to improve his present condition; that his contemplation
regarding himself should turn away from inharmony, sick-
ness, and sin, to that which is the image of his Maker. [5]
Science And The Senses.
Substance of my Address at the National Convention in Chicago,
June 13, 1888
The National Christian Scientist Association has
brought us together to minister and to be ministered [10]
unto; mutually to aid one another in finding ways and
means for helping the whole human family; to quicken
and extend the interest already felt in a higher mode of
medicine; to watch with eager joy the individual growth
of Christian Scientists, and the progress of our common [15]
Cause in Chicago,—the miracle of the Occident. We
come to strengthen and perpetuate our organizations
and institutions; and to find strength in union,—strength
to build up, through God’s right hand, that pure and
undefiled religion whose Science demonstrates God and [20]
the perfectibility of man. This purpose is immense,
and it must begin with individual growth, a “consum-
mation devoutly to be wished.” The lives of all re-
formers attest the authenticity of their mission, and call
the world to acknowledge its divine Principle. Truly [25]
is it written:—
“Thou must be true thyself, if thou the truth would’st teach;
Thy heart must overflow, if thou another’s heart would’st reach.”
[Page 99.]
Science is absolute and final. It is revolutionary in [1]
its very nature; for it upsets all that is not upright.
It annuls false evidence, and saith to the five material
senses, “Having eyes ye see not, and ears ye hear not;
neither can you understand.” To weave one thread of [5]
Science through the looms of time, is a miracle in itself.
The risk is stupendous. It cost Galileo, what? This
awful price: the temporary loss of his self-respect. His
fear overcame his loyalty; the courage of his convictions
fell before it. Fear is the weapon in the hands of [10]
tyrants.
Men and women of the nineteenth century, are you
called to voice a higher order of Science? Then obey
this call. Go, if you must, to the dungeon or the scaf-
fold, but take not back the words of Truth. How many [15]
are there ready to suffer for a righteous cause, to stand
a long siege, take the front rank, face the foe, and be
in the battle every day?
In no other one thing seemed Jesus of Nazareth more
divine than in his faith in the immortality of his words. [20]
He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away;” and they have not. The
winds of time sweep clean the centuries, but they can
never bear into oblivion his words. They still live, and
to-morrow speak louder than to-day. They are to-day [25]
as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make
straight God’s paths; make way for health, holiness,
universal harmony, and come up hither.” The gran-
deur of the word, the power of Truth, is again casting
out evils and healing the sick; and it is whispered, “This [30]
is Science.”
Jesus taught by the wayside, in humble homes. He
[Page 100.]
spake of Truth and Love to artless listeners and dull [1]
disciples. His immortal words were articulated in a
decaying language, and then left to the providence of
God. Christian Science was to interpret them; and
woman, “last at the cross,” was to awaken the dull senses, [5]
intoxicated with pleasure or pain, to the infinite meaning
of those words.
Past, present, future, will show the word and might of
Truth—healing the sick and reclaiming the sinner—
so long as there remains a claim of error for Truth to [10]
deny or to destroy. Love’s labors are not lost. The
five personal senses, that grasp neither the meaning nor
the magnitude of self-abnegation, may lose sight thereof;
but Science voices unselfish love, unfolds infinite good,
leads on irresistible forces, and will finally show the fruits [15]
of Love. Human reason is inaccurate; and the scope
of the senses is inadequate to grasp the word of Truth,
and teach the eternal.
Science speaks when the senses are silent, and then
the evermore of Truth is triumphant. The spiritual mon- [20]
itor understood is coincidence of the divine with the
human, the acme of Christian Science. Pure humanity,
friendship, home, the interchange of love, bring to earth
a foretaste of heaven. They unite terrestrial and celes-
tial joys, and crown them with blessings infinite. [25]
The Christian Scientist loves man more because he
loves God most. He understands this Principle,—Love.
Who is sufficient for these things? Who remembers that
patience, forgiveness, abiding faith, and affection, are
the symptoms by which our Father indicates the dif- [30]
ferent stages of man’s recovery from sin and his en-
trance into Science? Who knows how the feeble lips
[Page 101.]
are made eloquent, how hearts are inspired, how heal- [1]
ing becomes spontaneous, and how the divine Mind is
understood and demonstrated? He alone knows these
wonders who is departing from the thraldom of the
senses and accepting spiritual truth,—that which blesses [5]
its adoption by the refinement of joy and the dismissal of
sorrow.
Christian Science and the senses are at war. It is a
revolutionary struggle. We already have had two in
this nation; and they began and ended in a contest for [10]
the true idea, for human liberty and rights. Now cometh
a third struggle; for the freedom of health, holiness, and
the attainment of heaven.
The scientific sense of being which establishes har-
mony, enters into no compromise with finiteness and [15]
feebleness. It undermines the foundations of mortality,
of physical law, breaks their chains, and sets the captive
free, opening the doors for them that are bound.
He who turns to the body for evidence, bases his con-
clusions on mortality, on imperfection; but Science saith
to man, “God hath all-power.” [20]
The Science of omnipotence demonstrates but one
power, and this power is good, not evil; not matter,
but Mind. This virtually destroys matter and evil, in-
cluding sin and disease. [25]
If God is All, and God is good, it follows that all
must be good; and no other power, law, or intelligence
can exist. On this proof rest premise and conclusion in
Science, and the facts that disprove the evidence of the
senses. [30]
God is individual Mind. This one Mind and His
individuality comprise the elements of all forms and
[Page 102.]
individualities, and prophesy the nature and stature of [1]
Christ, the ideal man.
A corporeal God, as often defined by lexicographers
and scholastic theologians, is only an infinite finite being,
an unlimited man,—a theory to me inconceivable. If [5]
the unlimited and immortal Mind could originate in a
limited body, Mind would be chained to finity, and the
infinite forever finite.
In this limited and lower sense God is not personal.
His infinity precludes the possibility of corporeal person- [10]
ality. His being is individual, but not physical.
God is like Himself and like nothing else. He is uni-
versal and primitive. His character admits of no degrees
of comparison. God is not part, but the whole. In His
individuality I recognize the loving, divine Father-Mother [15]
God. Infinite personality must be incorporeal.
God’s ways are not ours. His pity is expressed in
modes above the human. His chastisements are the
manifestations of Love. The sympathy of His eternal
Mind is fully expressed in divine Science, which blots [20]
out all our iniquities and heals all our diseases. Human
pity often brings pain.
Science supports harmony, denies suffering, and de-
stroys it with the divinity of Truth. Whatever seems mate-
rial, seems thus only to the material senses, and is but the [25]
subjective state of mortal and material thought.
Science has inaugurated the irrepressible conflict be-
tween sense and Soul. Mortal thought wars with this
sense as one that beateth the air, but Science outmasters
it, and ends the warfare. This proves daily that “one [30]
on God’s side is a majority.”
Science defines _omnipresence_ as universality, that which
[Page 103.]
precludes the presence of evil. This verity annuls the tes- [1]
timony of the senses, which say that sin is an evil power,
and substance is perishable. Intelligent Spirit, Soul, is
substance, far more impregnable and solid than matter; for
one is temporal, while the other is eternal, the ultimate [5]
and predicate of being.
Mortality, materiality, and destructive forces, such as
sin, disease, and death, mortals virtually name _substance_;
but these are the substance of things _not_ hoped for. For
lack of knowing what substance is, the senses say vaguely: [10]
“The substance of life is sorrow and mortality; for who
knoweth the substance of good?” In Science, form and
individuality are never lost, thoughts are outlined, indi-
vidualized ideas, which dwell forever in the divine Mind
as tangible, true substance, because eternally conscious. [15]
Unlike mortal mind, which must be ever in bondage,
the eternal Mind is free, unlimited, and knows not the
temporal.
Neither does the temporal know the eternal. Mortal
man, as mind or matter, is neither the pattern nor Maker [20]
of immortal man. Any inference of the divine derived
from the human, either as mind or body, hides the actual
power, presence, and individuality of God.
Jesus’ personality in the flesh, so far as material sense
could discern it, was like that of other men; but Science [25]
exchanges this human concept of Jesus for the divine
ideal, his spiritual individuality that reflected the Im-
manuel, or “God with us.” This God was not outlined.
He was too mighty for that. He was eternal Life, infinite
Truth and Love. The individuality is embraced in Mind, [30]
therefore is forever with the Father. Hence the Scrip-
ture, “I am a God at hand, saith the Lord.” Even while
[Page 104.]
his personality was on earth and in anguish, his individual [1]
being, the Christ, was at rest in the eternal harmony.
His unseen individuality, so superior to that which was
seen, was not subject to the temptations of the flesh, to
laws material, to death, or the grave. Formed and gov- [5]
erned by God, this individuality was safe in the substance
of Soul, the substance of Spirit,—yea, the substance of
God, the one inclusive good.
In Science all being is individual; for individuality is
endless in the calculus of forms and numbers. Herein [10]
sin is miraculous and supernatural; for it is not in the
nature of God, and good is forever good. Accord-
ing to Christian Science, perfection is normal,—not
miraculous. Clothed, and in its right Mind, man’s
individuality is sinless, deathless, harmonious, eternal. [15]
His materiality, clad in a false mentality, wages feeble
fight with his individuality,—his physical senses with
his spiritual senses. The latter move in God’s grooves
of Science: the former revolve in their own orbits, and
must stand the friction of false selfhood until self- [20]
destroyed.
In obedience to the divine nature, man’s individuality
reflects the divine law and order of being. How shall
we reach our true selves? Through Love. The Prin-
ciple of Christian Science is Love, and its idea represents [25]
Love. This divine Principle and idea are demonstrated,
in healing, to be God and the real man.
Who wants to be mortal, or would not gain the true
ideal of Life and recover his own individuality? I will
love, if another hates. I will gain a balance on the side of [30]
good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of
God wherewith to overcome all error. On this rests the
[Page 105.]
implicit faith engendered by Christian Science, which [1]
appeals intelligently to the facts of man’s spirituality, in-
dividuality, to disdain the fears and destroy the discords
of this material personality.
On our Master’s individual demonstrations over sin, [5]
sickness, and death, rested the anathema of priesthood
and the senses; yet this demonstration is the foundation
of Christian Science. His physical sufferings, which
came from the testimony of the senses, were over when
he resumed his individual spiritual being, after showing [10]
us the way to escape from the material body.
Science would have no conflict with Life or common
sense, if this sense were consistently sensible. Man’s real
life or existence is in harmony with Life and its glorious
phenomena. It upholds being, and destroys the too [15]
common sense of its opposites—death, disease, and sin.
Christian Science is an everlasting victor, and vanquish-
ment is unknown to the omnipresent Truth. I must ever
follow this line of light and battle.
Christian Science is my only ideal; and the individual [20]
and his ideal can never be severed. If either is misunder-
stood or maligned, it eclipses the other with the shadow
cast by this error.
Truth destroys error. Nothing appears to the physi-
cal senses but their own subjective state of thought. The [25]
senses join issue with error, and pity what has no right
either to be pitied or to exist, and what does not exist in
Science. Destroy the thought of sin, sickness, death, and
you destroy their existence. “Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.” [30]
Because God is Mind, and this Mind is good, all
is good and all is Mind. God is the sum total of the
[Page 106.]
universe. Then what and where are sin, sickness, and [1]
death?
Christian Science and Christian Scientists will, _must_,
have a history; and if I could write the history in poor
parody on Tennyson’s grand verse, it would read [5]
thus:—
Traitors to right of them,
M. D.’s to left of them,
Priestcraft in front of them,
Volleyed and thundered! [10]
Into the jaws of hate,
Out through the door of Love,
On to the blest above,
Marched the one hundred.
Extract From My First Address In The Mother Church, May 26, 1895
_Friends and Brethren_:—Your Sunday Lesson, com-
posed of Scripture and its correlative in “Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures,” has fed you. In addi- [20]
tion, I can only bring crumbs fallen from this table of
Truth, and gather up the fragments.
It has long been a question of earnest import, How
shall mankind worship the most adorable, but most
unadored,—and where shall begin that praise that shall
never end? Beneath, above, beyond, methinks I hear [25]
the soft, sweet sigh of angels answering, “So live, that
your lives attest your sincerity and resound His praise.”
Music is the harmony of being; but the music of Soul
affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling
and awaken the heart’s harpstrings. Moved by mind, [30]
your many-throated organ, in imitative tones of many
[Page 107.]
instruments, praises Him; but even the sweetness and [1]
beauty in and of this temple that praise Him, are earth’s
accents, and must not be mistaken for the oracles of God.
Art must not prevail over Science. Christianity is not
superfluous. Its redemptive power is seen in sore trials, [5]
self-denials, and crucifixions of the flesh. But these come
to the rescue of mortals, to admonish them, and plant
the feet steadfastly in Christ. As we rise above the seem-
ing mists of sense, we behold more clearly that all the
heart’s homage belongs to God. [10]
More love is the great need of mankind. A pure af-
fection, concentric, forgetting self, forgiving wrongs and
forestalling them, should swell the lyre of human love.
Three cardinal points must be gained before poor
humanity is regenerated and Christian Science is dem- [15]
onstrated: (1) A proper sense of sin; (2) repentance;
(3) the understanding of good. Evil is a negation: it
never started with time, and it cannot keep pace with
eternity. Mortals’ false senses pass through three states
and stages of human consciousness before yielding error. [20]
The deluded sense must first be shown its falsity through
a knowledge of evil as evil, so-called. Without a sense
of one’s oft-repeated violations of divine law, the in-
dividual may become morally blind, and this deplorable
mental state is moral idiocy. The lack of seeing one’s [25]
deformed mentality, and of _repentance_ therefor, deep,
never to be repented of, is retarding, and in certain mor-
bid instances stopping, the growth of Christian Scientists.
Without a knowledge of his sins, and repentance so severe
that it destroys them, no person is or can be a Christian [30]
Scientist.
Mankind thinks either too much or too little of sin.
[Page 108.]
The sensitive, sorrowing saint thinks too much of it: the [1]
sordid sinner, or the so-called Christian asleep, thinks too
little of sin.
To allow sin of any sort is anomalous in Christian
Scientists, claiming, as they do, that good is infinite, All. [5]
Our Master, in his definition of Satan as a liar from the
beginning, attested the absolute powerlessness—yea,
nothingness—of evil: since a lie, being without founda-
tion in fact, is merely a falsity; spiritually, literally, it
_is nothing_. [10]
Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger
of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright,
then reducing its claim to its proper denominator,—
nobody and nothing. Sin should be conceived of only
as a delusion. This true conception would remove mortals’ [15]
ignorance and its consequences, and advance the second
stage of human consciousness, repentance. The first
state, namely, the knowledge of one’s self, the proper
knowledge of evil and its subtle workings wherein evil
seems as real as good, is indispensable; since that which [20]
is truly conceived of, we can handle; but the misconcep-
tion of what we need to know of evil,—or the concep-
tion of it at all as something real,—costs much. Sin
needs only to be known for what it is not; then we are
its master, not servant. Remember, and act on, Jesus’ [25]
definition of sin as a _lie_. This cognomen makes it less
dangerous; for most of us would not be seen believing
in, or adhering to, that which we know to be untrue.
What would be thought of a Christian Scientist who be-
lieved in the use of drugs, while declaring that they have [30]
no intrinsic quality and that there is no matter? What
should be thought of an individual believing in that
[Page 109.]
which is untrue, and at the same time declaring the unity [1]
of Truth, and its allness? Beware of those who mis-
represent facts; or tacitly assent where they should dis-
sent; or who take me as authority for what I disapprove,
or mayhap never have thought of, and try to reverse, in- [5]
vert, or controvert, Truth; for this is a sure pretext of
moral defilement.
Examine yourselves, and see what, and how much, sin
claims of you; and how much of this claim you admit
as valid, or comply with. The knowledge of evil that [10]
brings on repentance is the most hopeful stage of mortal
mentality. Even a mild mistake must be seen as a mis-
take, in order to be corrected; how much more, then,
should one’s sins be seen and repented of, before they
can be reduced to their native nothingness! [15]
Ignorance is only blest by reason of its nothingness;
for seeing the need of somethingness in its stead, blesses
mortals. Ignorance was the first condition of sin in the
allegory of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Their
mental state is not desirable, neither is a knowledge of [20]
sin and its consequences, repentance, _per se_; but, ad-
mitting the existence of both, mortals must hasten through
the second to the third stage,—the knowledge of good;
for without this the valuable sequence of knowledge
would be lacking,—even the power to escape from the [25]
false claims of sin. To understand good, one must discern
the nothingness of evil, and consecrate one’s life anew.
Beloved brethren, Christ, Truth, saith unto you, “Be
not afraid!”—fear not sin, lest thereby it master you;
but only _fear to sin_. Watch and pray for self-knowledge; [30]
since then, and thus, cometh repentance,—and your
superiority to a delusion is won.
[Page 110.]
Repentance is better than sacrifice. The costly balm [1]
of Araby, poured on our Master’s feet, had not the value
of a single _tear_.
Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and
more as children than as men and women: it needs your [5]
innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontami-
nated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you
preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through
contact with the world. What grander ambition is there
than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to [10]
know that your example, more than words, makes morals
for mankind!
Address Before The Alumni Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, 1895
_My Beloved Students_:—Weeks have passed into [15]
months, and months into years, since last we met; but
time and space, when encompassed by divine presence,
do not separate us. Our hearts have kept time together,
and our hands have wrought steadfastly at the same
object-lesson, while leagues have lain between us. [20]
We may well unite in thanksgiving for the continued
progress and unprecedented prosperity of our Cause. It
is already obvious that the world’s acceptance and the
momentum of Christian Science, increase rapidly as
years glide on. [25]
As Christian Scientists, you have dared the perilous de-
fense of Truth, and have succeeded. You have learned
how fleeting is that which men call great; and how per-
manent that which God calls good.
[Page 111.]
You have proven that the greatest piety is scarcely [1]
sufficient to demonstrate what you have adopted and
taught; that your work, well done, would dignify angels.
Faithfully, as meekly, you have toiled all night; and
at break of day caught much. At times, your net has [5]
been so full that it broke: human pride, creeping into
its meshes, extended it beyond safe expansion; then,
losing hold of divine Love, you lost your fishes, and pos-
sibly blamed others more than yourself. But those whom
God makes “fishers of men” will not pull for the shore; [10]
like Peter, they launch into the depths, cast their nets
on the right side, compensate loss, and gain a higher sense
of the true idea. Nothing is lost that God gives: had He
filled the net, it would not have broken.
Leaving the seed of Truth to its own vitality, it propa- [15]
gates: the tares cannot hinder it. Our Master said,
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away;” and Jesus’ faith in Truth must not ex-
ceed that of Christian Scientists who prove its power to
be immortal. [20]
The Christianity that is merely of sects, the pulpit, and
fashionable society, is brief; but the Word of God abideth.
Plato was a pagan; but no greater difference existed be-
tween his doctrines and those of Jesus, than to-day exists
between the Catholic and Protestant sects. I love the [25]
orthodox church; and, in time, that church will love
Christian Science. Let me specially call the attention of
this Association to the following false beliefs inclining
mortal mind more deviously:—
The belief in anti-Christ: that somebody in the flesh [30]
is the son of God, or is another Christ, or is a spiritually
adopted child, or is an incarnated babe, is the evil one—
[Page 112.]
in other words, the one evil—disporting itself with the [1]
subtleties of sin!
Even honest thinkers, not knowing whence they come,
may deem these delusions verities, before they know it,
or really look the illusions in the face. The ages are bur- [5]
dened with material modes. Hypnotism, microbes, X-rays,
and ex-common sense, occupy time and thought; and
error, given new opportunities, will improve them. The
most just man can neither defend the innocent nor detect
the guilty, unless he knows _how_ to be just; and this knowl- [10]
edge demands our time and attention.
The mental stages of crime, which seem to belong to
the latter days, are strictly classified in metaphysics as
some of the many features and forms of what is properly
denominated, in extreme cases, moral idiocy. I visited [15]
in his cell the assassin of President Garfield, and found
him in the mental state called moral idiocy. He had no
sense of his crime; but regarded his act as one of simple
justice, and himself as the victim. My few words touched
him; he sank back in his chair, limp and pale; his flip- [20]
pancy had fled. The jailer thanked me, and said, “Other
visitors have brought to him bouquets, but you have
brought what will do him good.”
This mental disease at first shows itself in extreme
sensitiveness; then, in a loss of self-knowledge and of [25]
self-condemnation,—a shocking inability to see one’s
own faults, but an exaggerating sense of other people’s.
Unless this mental condition be overcome, it ends in a
total loss of moral, intellectual, and spiritual discernment,
and is characterized in this Scripture: “The fool hath [30]
said in his heart, There is no God.” This state of mind
is the exemplification of total depravity, and the result
[Page 113.]
of sensuous mind in matter. Mind that is God is not in [1]
matter; and God’s presence gives spiritual light, wherein
is no darkness.
If, as is indisputably true, “God is Spirit,” and Spirit
is our Father and Mother, and that which it includes is [5]
all that is real and eternal, when evil seems to predomi-
nate and divine light to be obscured, free moral agency
is lost; and the Revelator’s vision, that “no man might
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name,” is imminent. [10]
Whoever is mentally manipulating human mind, and
is not gaining a higher sense of Truth by it, is losing in
the scale of moral and spiritual being, and may be car-
ried to the depths of perdition by his own consent. He
who refuses to be influenced by any but the divine Mind, [15]
commits his way to God, and rises superior to sugges-
tions from an evil source. Christian Science shows that
there is a way of escape from the latter-day ultimatum
of evil, through scientific truth; so that all are without
excuse. [20]
Already I clearly recognize that mental malpractice,
if persisted in, will end in insanity, dementia, or moral
idiocy. Thank God! this evil can be resisted by true
Christianity. Divine Love is our hope, strength, and
shield. We have nothing to fear when Love is at the [25]
helm of thought, but everything to enjoy on earth and
in heaven.
The systematized centres of Christian Science are life-
giving fountains of truth. Our churches, _The Christian_
_Science Journal_, and the _Christian Science Quarterly_, [30]
are prolific sources of spiritual power whose intellectual,
moral, and spiritual animus is felt throughout the land.
[Page 114.]
Our Publishing Society, and our Sunday Lessons, are [1]
of inestimable value to all seekers after Truth. The Com-
mittee on Sunday School Lessons cannot give too much
time and attention to their task, and should spare no
research in the preparation of the _Quarterly_ as an educa- [5]
tional branch.
The teachers of Christian Science need to watch inces-
santly the trend of their own thoughts; watch that these
be not secretly robbed, and themselves misguided, and
so made to misteach others. Teachers must conform [10]
strictly to the rules of divine Science announced in the
Bible and their textbook, “Science and Health with Key
to the Scriptures.” They must themselves practise, and
teach others to practise, the Hebrew Decalogue, the Ser-
mon on the Mount, and the understanding and enuncia- [15]
tion of these according to Christ.
They must always have on armor, and resist the foe
within and without. They cannot arm too thoroughly
against original sin, appearing in its myriad forms: pass-
sion, appetites, hatred, revenge, and all the _et cetera_ of [20]
evil. Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously,
or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fer-
vently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus
doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover
their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the [25]
lives of mortals. Rest assured that God in His wisdom
will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found
faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us
the powerlessness of evil,—even its utter nothingness.
The teacher in Christian Science who does not spe- [30]
cially instruct his pupils how to guard against evil and
its silent modes, and to be able, through Christ, the liv-
[Page 115.]
ing Truth, to protect themselves therefrom, is commit- [1]
ting an offense against God and humanity. With Science
and Health for their textbook, I am astounded at the
apathy of some students on the subject of sin and mental
malpractice, and their culpable ignorance of the work- [5]
ing of these—and even the teacher’s own deficiency in
this department. I can account for this state of mind in
the teacher only as the result of sin; otherwise, his own
guilt as a mental malpractitioner, and fear of being found
out. [10]
The helpless ignorance of the community on this sub-
ject is pitiable, and plain to be seen. May God enable
my students to take up the cross as I have done, and meet
the pressing need of a proper preparation of heart to prac-
tise, teach, and live Christian Science! Your means of [15]
protection and defense from sin are, constant watchful-
ness and prayer that you enter not into temptation and
are delivered from every claim of evil, till you intelligently
know and demonstrate, in Science, that evil has neither
prestige, power, nor existence, since God, good, is All- [20]
in-all.
The increasing necessity for relying on God to de-
fend us against the subtler forms of evil, turns us more
unreservedly to Him for help, and thus becomes a means
of grace. If one lives rightly, every effort to hurt one [25]
will only help that one; for God will give the ability to
overcome whatever tends to impede progress. Know
this: that you cannot overcome the baneful effects of
sin on yourself, if you in any way indulge in sin; for,
sooner or later, you will fall the victim of your own as [30]
well as of others’ sins. Using mental power in the right
direction only, doing to others as you would have them
[Page 116.]
do to you, will overcome evil with good, and destroy [1]
your own sensitiveness to the power of evil.
The God of all grace be with you, and save you from
“spiritual wickedness in high places.”
PLEASANT VIEW, CONCORD, N. H., [5]
June 3, 1895
Address Before The Christian Scientist Association Of The Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, In 1893
SUBJECT: _Obedience_ [10]
_My Beloved Students_:—This question, ever nearest
to my heart, is to-day uppermost: Are we filling the
measures of life’s music aright, emphasizing its grand
strains, swelling the harmony of being with tones whence
come glad echoes? As _crescendo_ and _diminuendo_ accent [15]
music, so the varied strains of human chords express
life’s loss or gain,—loss of the pleasures and pains and
pride of life: gain of its sweet concord, the courage of
honest convictions, and final obedience to spiritual law.
The ultimate of scientific research and attainment in [20]
divine Science is not an argument: it is not merely say-
ing, but doing, the Word—demonstrating Truth—even
as the fruits of watchfulness, prayer, struggles, tears, and
triumph.
Obeying the divine Principle which you profess to un- [25]
derstand and love, demonstrates Truth. Never absent
from your post, never off guard, never ill-humored, never
unready to work for God,—is obedience; being “faith-
ful over a few things.” If in one instance obedience be
lacking, you lose the scientific rule and its reward: namely, [30]
[Page 117.]
to be made “ruler over many things.” A progressive [1]
life is the reality of Life that unfolds its immortal Prin-
ciple.
The student of Christian Science must first separate the
tares from the wheat; discern between the thought, [5]
motive, and act superinduced by the wrong motive or
the true—the God-given intent and volition—arrest
the former, and obey the latter. This will place him on
the safe side of practice. We always know where to look
for the real Scientist, and always find him there. I agree [10]
with Rev. Dr. Talmage, that “there are wit, humor, and
enduring vivacity among God’s people.”
Obedience is the offspring of Love; and Love is the
Principle of unity, the basis of all right thinking and
acting; it fulfils the law. We see eye to eye and know as we [15]
are known, reciprocate kindness and work wisely, in
proportion as we love.
It is difficult for me to carry out a divine commission
while participating in the movements, or _modus operandi_,
of other folks. To point out every step to a student and [20]
then watch that each step be taken, consumes time,—
and experiments ofttimes are costly. According to my
calendar, God’s time and mortals’ differ. The neo-
phyte is inclined to be too fast or too slow: he works
somewhat in the dark; and, sometimes out of season, [25]
he would replenish his lamp at the midnight hour and
borrow oil of the more provident watcher. God is the
fountain of light, and He illumines one’s way when one
is obedient. The disobedient make their moves before
God makes His, or make them too late to follow Him. [30]
Be sure that God _directs_ your way; then, hasten to follow
under every circumstance.
[Page 118.]
Human will must be subjugated. We cannot obey [1]
both God, good, and evil,—in other words, the ma-
terial senses, false suggestions, self-will, selfish motives,
and human policy. We shall have no faith in evil
when faith finds a resting-place and scientific under- [5]
standing guides man. Honesty in every condition,
under every circumstance, is the indispensable rule of
obedience. To obey the principle of mathematics ninety-
nine times in one hundred and then allow one numeral
to make incorrect your entire problem, is neither Science [10]
nor obedience.
However keenly the human affections yearn to for-
give a mistake, and pass a friend over it smoothly, one’s
sympathy can neither atone for error, advance individual
growth, nor change this immutable decree of Love: “Keep [15]
My commandments.” The guerdon of meritorious
faith or trustworthiness rests on being willing to work
alone with God and for Him,—willing to suffer patiently
for error until all error is destroyed and His rod and His
staff comfort you. [20]
Self-ignorance, self-will, self-righteousness, lust, covet-
ousness, envy, revenge, are foes to grace, peace, and
progress; they must be met manfully and overcome,
or they will uproot all happiness. Be of good cheer;
the warfare with one’s self is grand; it gives one plenty [25]
of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with
you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with
everlasting victory. Every attempt of evil to harm good
is futile, and ends in the fiery punishment of the
evil-doer. [30]
Jesus said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth
defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth,
[Page 119.]
this defile
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