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AMERICA CRADLE FOR THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST
Helen Wright
Books by the same Author: Mary Baker Eddy: A New Look Mary Baker Eddy's Church Manual & Church Universal & Triumphant Mary Baker Eddy: God's Great Scientist, Vol. I Mary Baker Eddy: God's Great Scientist, Vol. II Mary Baker Eddy: God's Great Scientist, Vol. III If Mary Baker Eddy's Manual Were Obeyed America: Cradle for the Second Coming of the Christ Mary Baker Eddy Reveals Your Divinity Humanity's Divinity Made Whole Through Our Marriage To God Star of Boston: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy Audio cassette series, read by Alan Young Mary Baker Eddy, Leader Forever (44 page pamphlet) FREE Mary Baker Eddy, Leader Forever (112 page booklet) FREE
Internet edition ©2000 Helen M. Wright ISBN 1-886505-20-9 Book Cover Design by David Keyston and Elizabeth Zwick Title page art by Elizabeth Zwick ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer of this book is deeply grateful for those metaphysical giants who have done so much to explain and forward Mary Baker Eddy's great revelation of the "omnipresence of present perfection" and the total unreality of evil. These include, among many others, John Doorley and Max Kappeler, whose work on the "system" of Christian Science is still to be grasped. We owe deep gratitude to David Nolan for his courageous efforts to free Science and Health in the copyright suit in the 1970s and 1980s and to the Carpenters who preserved many of Mary Baker Eddy's teachings. Special thanks is also due the Rare Book Company and to Ann Beals' Bookmark for their grand work in making valuable Christian Science material available. Lastly, a heartfelt thank you to my dear friend David Keyston for his unselfish labor in helping the Mary Baker Eddy Institute put the works of Mary Baker Eddy on the Internet, including all 432 editions of Science and Health and her Prose works. "Historical portions of the Bible are not more inspired than the history of the United States." Mary Baker Eddy, Mind Healing: Historical Sketch
"The spiritual status is urging its highest demands on mortals, and material history is drawing to a close." Mary Baker Eddy, No. 45:25 DEDICATED TO The spiritually minded reader, with special thanks to Elizabeth Zwick and others who helped produce this book. EXPLANATORY NOTE: Italics not appearing in the original are sometimes used in quotations, not to emphasize, but to identify that portion of the quote directly applicable to the point under discussion. Abbreviations for titles of Mrs. Eddy's writings are those used in the Concordance to Miscellaneous Writings and Works Other than Science and Health: S&H...Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mis...Miscellaneous Writings Man...Manual of The Mother Church Chr...Christ and Christmas Ret...Retrospection and Introspection Un...Unity of Good Pul...Pulpit and Press Rud...Rudimental Divine Science No...No and Yes Pan...Christian Science versus Pantheism '00...Message to The Mother Church, June 1900 '01...Message to The Mother Church, June 1901 '02...Message to The Mother Church, June 1902 Hea... Christian Healing Peo...The People's Idea of God Po...Poems My...The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany Abbreviations for the books of the Bible are those generally accepted. Abbreviations for other books include: EOF---Essays and Other Footprints. DCC---Divinity Course and General Collectanea. Six Days---Mary Baker Eddy's Six Days of Revelation The three above books were compiled by Richard Oakes. CONTENTS Foreword xii
THE INDISPENSABLE HUMAN FOOTSTEPS 1 Love for God and Man Advanced Civilization 1 The Magna Charta, 1215 2 What Made Progress Possible? 3 Columbus: The Impulsion Behind His Voyage 4 Europe Challenges Church Practices 6 Americathe New Worldthe Only Place for Dissenters 7
HOW AMERICA BECAME THE CRADLE FOR SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST 9 Puritans Become Pilgrims 9 Pilgrims Leave Holland 10 Farewell to England 11 The Crossing 12 Land! 14 The Mayflower Compact 15 The Vision of the Pilgrims 16 The Pilgrims Land 19 The Bitter First Winter 21 Samoset and Squanto 22 The First Thanksgiving 23 The New England Federation 25
THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 28 "God Works in Mysterious Ways"The Great Awakening 28 The Declaration of Independence 29 Memoirs of Major Ben Tallmadge 31 Valley Forge 33 "The Event is in the Hands of God" 35
THE CONSTITUTION IS WRITTEN 38 The Stormy Constitutional Convention: How 13 Colonies Became the United States 38 Horrendous Obstacles Had to be Overcome 39 How God Used the Delegates 43 Heroic Forbearance Characterized Our Founding Fathers 44 A Foundation for Future Generations 45 Protecting Our Religious Heritage 47 The Constitution Has Stood the Test of Time 49 God's Constitution 50
A NEW NATION UNDER GOD 52 Washington's Inaugural Address 52 The Establishment of Congress 54 Saul Pett's Short History of Congress 56 The Covered Wagons Roll 64 Ingrained Trust of Pioneers Readied Nation for Christian Science 65
THE CIVIL WARTHE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 68 Abraham Lincoln's Addresses 69 The Battle of Gettysburg 71 General McClellan's Vision 72 "Liberty and Justice for All" 77 Slavery's Abolition Clears the Way 79
Christian Science Sounds THE Keynote of Universal Freedom 82 The Long Wait is Over 82 Why There Had to be a United States of America 84 Liberty and Love 85 There is Only One Power 86 What Conclusion Should We Arrive At? 87 Dispelling the Illusion 88 We Must Know the Truth That Frees 89 What Makes Evil, Error Vanish? 90 Christian Science Restores Our True Mind 91 Belief in Two Powers Caused Suffering 92 Mankind's Struggle for Freedom 94 Mankind's Misconception of What Sin Is 95 Man Governed By His Creator is Self-Governed 97
SPIRITUALIZATION OF THOUGHT IS THE GREAT NECESSITY 99 Advancement Comes Through Enlightenment 99 "I Live; Yet Not I, But Christ Liveth in Me" 101 Our Consciousness is the Invisible Substance of All That Appears 103 Our Consciousness and God's Consciousness Are the Same in Reality 104
SPIRITUALIZING AMERICA 109 Truth and Love Uncovers Hidden Evil 109 What America Needs 111 The "Third and Last Struggle" 113 The Most Imminent Dangers 115 The Qualities That Can Save a Nation 117
THE CONSTITUTION AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS PROVIDE A UNIQUE FRAMEWORK 119 The Christ, Not Man, Guides Our Destiny 121 Heeding the "Still Small Voice" 123 There is But One "I" 124 Becoming Infinite Good's Instrument 125 The Meaning of the Fight for Women's Liberation 128 What Did Jesus Teach? 129 Birth and Death Are Illusion 131 Ecclesiasticism Resists Jesus' Teachings 133 "Separation of Church and State" Vital 135 Religious Freedom Under Attack 136 Early Colonists, Civil Government, and the Bible 139 The Democratic Concept Under Attack 140 Each Individual Has the Stature of Christ 142 George Washington's Vision at Valley Forge 143 "The Manual Will Save the Cause." 146
WHY OUR CONSTITUTION IS UNDER ATTACK 149 120 Years of Christian Science Instruction 149 The Christian Science Solution is Critical to Humanity's Survival 151 Mary Baker Eddy Cited for Patriotism 153 Mary Baker Eddy and the Monroe Doctrine 154 Our Divine Potential 155 Human Consciousness is Being Prepared 156 The Constitution Bulwarks Advancing Christian Science 158 America's Religious History "Inspired" 159 Individual Freedom as a Spiritual Experience 160 How This Nation Will Fulfill Its Purpose 161 "Go in and Possess the Land" 162 The Vision of Julia Ward Howe 163
MAN IS, NOT SHALL BE, PERFECT AND IMMORTAL 165 Christian Science Lifts Human Consciousness into the Millennium 165 The Textbook is Within Our Consciousness 166 A Mist Went Up 168 The Manual was Divinely Dictated 170 Disobedience to Mrs. Eddy's Manual Brought Plagues 170 "Organization Wars with Love's Spiritual Compact" 172
THE CONSTITUTION AND THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEXTBOOK 175 "Let the Word Have Free Course and be Glorified" 175 The Deeds of Trust Speak for Mrs. Eddy Today 177 Vindication of Mrs. Eddy's Deeds of Trust Will Usher in a Renaissance 178 The Hour Has Struck 180 Think of What We Have to be Grateful For! 180
CONCLUSION 185 When Will We Awake? 186 Just Be Love 188
BIBLIOGRAPHY 192
FOREWORD When this book was first published in 1987, on the 200th anniversary of our Constitution, Christian Scientists in particular had reason to be grateful. Without the Constitution and Bill of Rights there would have been no place on this planet where Christian Science could have gained a foothold. Until America was prepared, and our Bill of Rights guaranteed religious freedom, there was no nation that would have protected Mary Baker Eddy and enabled her to found Christian Science in human consciousness. Today, as the 200th anniversary of our Godinspired Constitution makes way for the 2000th anniversary of the advent of Christ Jesus, it is especially appropriate to consider how the founding of the United States set the stage for the second coming of the Christ. Mrs. Eddy, after giving a short history of her life as it was lived before her discovery of Christian Science, wrote:
"True history is the record of the development in the human consciousness of a truer idea of God and man." This is the history the author attempts to unfold in these pages. "The human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable" (S&H 254:1). Running through this book, America: Cradle for the Second Coming of the Christ, is the human history of the United States of Americashowing the indispensable human footsteps leading up to the moment of humanity's arousal from its long slumber in the Adam dream. These human footsteps illustrate the ethics of Truth. They show what America is, what it stands for spiritually, as the outward evidence of man's individual oneness with God. They reveal that America is not just a nation bounded by oceans on the east and west; America stands for the spiritual idea everywhere present. Only on the solid rock of this spiritual idea could infinite good lay the foundation for the city foursquare, our understanding of the kingdom of God within our Mind. The prophecy of America dates back thousands of years. The Bible shows that Great Britain and America fulfill the prophecy of God's latter-day Israel, as Mannaseh and Ephraim, Joseph's two sons. Mrs. Eddy's poem regarding Britain and America, "United States to Great Britain," identifies Britainthe only royal throne left in the worldas "Judah's sceptered race." The birthright promise made to Ephraim, Joseph's younger son, is fulfilled in the "company of nations" later revealed as the United States. (See pages 34-58 of Paul Smillie's book, Mary Baker Eddy: The Historical and Prophetic Perspective.) Doubtless, it was part of the fulfillment of this prophecy that this nation was not named "Columbus" or "Columbia," but "America." Some historians trace this name to the mapmaker, Amerigo Vespucci. Others believe the name AmERICa was already in use by native Americans, a reference to Norse explorer Leif Ericson, who reached the coast of North America in 1000 or 1003AD, shortly after his conversion to Christianity. Historians agree that old Scandinavian literature bears out the indisputable fact that Leif Ericson's discovery of America resulted in its subsequent colonization by the Norse. An article entitled "America" from Norse Words explains:
It was inevitable that this land should be named America. The very name "America" was an intentional part of infinite good's plan. But why? Mrs. Velva Odland and Mrs. Lois Stoneman distinctly recall their teacher, Mildred LeBlond, C.S.B., an authority on America and on the ancient derivation of word meanings, informing their class that the root of the word "America" means the second coming of the Christ! Scriptural prophecy of the central role the United States of America would play in this event occurs in Revelation 12:14: "To the woman [the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science] were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she was nourished....from the face of the serpent [the great red dragon]." Spiritually interpreted, the "great eagle" represents that which flies above the storm, above illusion and error. The eagle is also a symbol for the United States of America, a nation carved out of the "wilderness," a "place" which would "nourish" Mary Baker Eddy. With the two wings of the great eagleunderstanding and demonstrationMrs. Eddy would soar above the illusions, above the material sense of the world. Another compelling prophecy linking America to the second coming of the Christ is even older; it was made in stone nearly fortysix centuries ago with the building of the great Pyramid of Gizeh. Dr. Worth Smith informs us that "Gizeh," from the root Jizeh, means "the Man of God in Us." The word "Pyramid" comes from "pyr am us" or "pyr em us," which interpreted means "Far Resplendent Fire" or "Far Resplendent Light." Scholars, deciphering root meanings, note that "The Geometrical Expression of Divine Revelation" (the Pyramid, meaning in the ultimate: a "Beacon of Reflections," or a "Monument of Measures") was built by "Heavenly Light" (Suphis) upon the foundation of "The Man of God in Us" (Gizeh). Jeremiah 32:1820 states: "The Great, the Mighty God...hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day." Indestructible through the ages, the Great Pyramid has stood, a witness in stone to all humanity, that "the man of God in us," meaning the Christ, has always been present to show forth "the omnipresence of present perfection;" that God's or infinite good's reflection is without beginning or end. It stands as a reminder that what is called "man" has never been separated from God, the Mind of man. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ"1st Cor., 3:11.
The "rejected stone" finds its resting place on the "Bible in stone" the Great Pyramid and its divine prophetic message. The Great Seal of the United States of America (shown on the following page) came forth at the time of the Revolutionary War. It must have been a radiant flash of divine inspiration, since in 1776 nothing whatever was known to mortals regarding the prophetic or scientific features of the Great Pyramid. Above the pyramidpictured unfinished, just as it was left in Egyptis poised its missing apexan illuminated triangle dissolving in a blaze of light. In the heart of the triangle is an open eye, representing the "AllSeeing Eye" of the one Mind, "the kingdom of God within" our spiritual consciousness.
Some license prevailing in the interpretation of the two mottoes of the Great Seal, the inscriptions read: "He (God) has favored our undertakings," or "He (God) has prospered our beginning." "Novus Ordo Seclorum" equals "A mighty order of the ages lives anew," or "An ancient order is born again." The pyramid, with its capstone suspended above it in a halo of glory, symbolizes the crowning of the Scriptures with the Christian Science textbook (and other writings of Mary Baker Eddy.) Mary Baker Eddy herself, describing Christian Science, the miracle of the ages, likened it to the Great Pyramid:
Divine prophecy was fulfilled when the Biblical "headstone" was symbolically placed on the Holy Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Truly we can say, "Despise not prophecy." (For fuller information on this subject see the author's "Appendix" to her book, Mary Baker Eddy: A New Look.) As we turn to mortal history and see why "the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable," we will become aware that when America is understood spiritually it will be seen to be Christian Science, the law of God, which can be defined as "the omnipresence of present perfection." We will see that behind what looked to mortals like the discovery and settling of America was always the one Mind, God. Though invisible, it was everpresent, guiding, leading, imparting vision, will, wisdom, as Jesus' prophecy concerning the "Comforter"the second coming of the Christwas being fulfilled. As Mind urged forward the heroes who are the subject of this book, the path behind them was "with glory crowned." As we pursue their ventures we will see the Principle, God, showing Itself forth in examples of Its infinite ability to create love in the hearts of menlove that urged them to act in the cause of justice, mercy, and Christianity. In this book when we speak of "America," it is never to localize it, but to reveal God's everywhere present, wonderful America universal, triumphant, and fulfilling Mind's already existing Law, which is Christian Science. "Christian Science [and thus its manifestation in God's everywherepresent America] is more than 200 years old... It is as old as God, although it's earthly advent is called the Christian era" (Mess. '01. 24:19). When we speak of the Constitution of the United States with its Bill of Rights, and the religiouslibertyprotection it gave to Mary Baker Eddy in founding Christian Science in America, it must be remembered that Truth or Christian Science may indeed sponsor a document, but the document (the Constitution) cannot produce or predate the LAW (Christian Science). Rightly understood, the 1787 document called the Constitution is a concrete example of everlasting fundamental law, which could not be, of course, unless Law (Christian Science) were already in place. When the laws of God are understood it will be perceived that there is one spiritual Nation, one spiritual State, universal and triumphant; and that "one infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself'; annihilates pagan and Christian idolatrywhatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed" (S&H 340:23). All through this book we will find illustrations of the Principle which is always at work behind the scenes, and is always the reality behind the symbol. "The spiritual idea must have its visible expression, its incarnation, or else Christian Science is only abstraction." For example, Mary Eddy Baker gave the full and correct definition of Church, which begins with the statement: "Church [is] the structure of Truth and Love" (S&H 583:12). She then illustrated it with a building and certain activities in Boston. The materialistoblivious of his true spiritual being, that his own real Mind is Truth and Love, "the kingdom of God within" his consciousness thinks the buildingandactivities is church and that mortals must be coaxed into that church or deservedly perish. In this book we will endeavor to make it clear that America, seen in its true identity, is not localized. It is a spiritual, universal idea, representing the love of God encircling the universe and man. "When will mankind awaken to their present ownership of all good?" There is no division of estate; just as in mathematics when we know the principle, we have allof math, no division of estate. America: Cradle for the Second Coming of the Christ explores the inspired history of the United States which divine Love has brought to pass. It reveals certain of the pertinent "human footsteps leading to perfection" which have already been taken, and which were, and will continue to be, indispensable in bringing the glorious Science of being into daily living. In pursuing the saga of suffering and misery that seemed to accompany the epic deeds of this book's heroes as they took the indispensable "human footsteps leading to perfection" (S&H 254:1), we find allegory, dreams, claims to be the only correct worshippers, "cried-out-unto-the-Lords," "forsook-the-Lords," etc. All of these make an interesting compilation, but they could have done no more "than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice," had not the one universal Spirit, the one Mind, and the laws of God been the leading and guiding light. Because of the grave danger that today threatens the human sense of America, the author has not neglected to sound a warning in this book in accordance with Mrs. Eddy's instruction:
The America that became the cradle for the second coming of the Christ, the America which had been prophesied for thousands of years, is God's grand Americaspiritual, universal, triumphant and fulfilling Mind's alreadyexisting Law which is Christian Science. This America always existed, but to become aware of it, humanity must take the indispensable "human footsteps leading to perfection." As these footsteps unfold let us not lose sight of the spiritual fact that "our mortal material history is but the record of dreams, not of man's real existence.... [and that] the heavenly intent of earth's shadows is to chasten the affections, to rebuke human consciousness and turn it gladly from a material, false sense of life and happiness, to spiritual joy and true estimate of being" (Ret. 21:13). AMERICA book sections Foreword * I * II * III * IV * V * VI * VII * VIII * IX * X * XI * XII * XIII * Conclusion * Bibliography MBE Institute | What's New! | Publications | Audiotapes | Resources | MBE Letters | Weekly Quote | Links | Science & Health | Holy Bible | Prose Works | Church Manual | Email Us
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