Trustees under the Will of Mary
Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U.S.A.
| 1 |
MY beloved brethren, methinks even I am
touched
with the tone of your happy hearts, and can see |
| 3 |
your glad faces, aglow with gratitude,
chinked within the
storied walls of The Mother Church. If, indeed, we
may
be absent from the body and present with the ever-present |
| 6 |
Love filling all space, time, and
immortality - then I am
with thee, heart answering to heart, and mine to
thine in
the glow of divine reflection.
|
| 9 |
I am grateful to say that in the last year
of the nine-
teenth century this first church of our denomination,
chartered in 1879, is found crowned with unprecedented |
| 12 |
prosperity; a membership of over sixteen
thousand com-
municants in unity, with rapidly increasing numbers,
rich
spiritual attainments, and right convictions fast forming |
| 15 |
themselves into conduct.
Christian Science
already has a hearing and following
in the five grand divisions of the
globe; in Australia, the |
| 18 |
Philippine Islands, Hawaiian Islands; and
in most of the
principal cities, such as Boston, New York,
Philadelphia,
Washington, Baltimore, Charleston, S. C., Atlanta, New |
| 21 |
Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Salt
Lake City, San
Francisco, Montreal, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris,
Berlin, Rome, Pekin. Judging from the number of the |
| 24 |
readers of my books and those interested
in them, over a
Page 2
|
| 1 |
million of people are already interested in
Christian
Science; and this interest increases. Churches of this |
| 3 |
denomination are springing up in the
above-named cities,
and, thanks to God, the people most interested in
this
old-new theme of redeeming Love are among the best people |
| 6 |
on earth and in heaven.
The song of
Christian Science is, "Work - work -
work - watch and pray." The close
observer reports |
| 9 |
three types of human nature - the right
thinker and
worker, the idler, and the intermediate.
The right thinker
works; he gives little time to society |
| 12 |
manners or matters, and benefits society by
his example
and usefulness. He takes no time for amusement, ease,
frivolity; he earns his money and gives it wisely to the |
| 15 |
world.
The wicked idler
earns little and is stingy; he has
plenty of means, but he uses them
evilly. Ask how he |
| 18 |
gets his money, and his satanic majesty is
supposed to
answer smilingly: "By cheating, lying, and crime; his
dupes
are his capital; his stock in trade, the wages of sin; |
| 21 |
your idlers are my busiest workers; they
will leave a
lucrative business to work for me." Here we add: The
doom
of such workers will come, and it will be more sudden, |
| 24 |
severe, and lasting than the adversary can
hope.
The intermediate
worker works at times. He says:
"It is my duty to take some time for
myself; however, I |
| 27 |
believe in working when it is convenient."
Well, all that
is good. But what of the fruits of your labors? And he
answers: "I am not so successful as I could wish, but I |
| 30 |
work hard enough to be so."
Page 3
|
| 1 |
Now, what saith Christian Science? "When a
man is
right, his thoughts are right, active, and they are fruitful; |
| 3 |
he loses self in love, and cannot hear
himself, unless he
loses the chord. The right thinker and worker does
his
best, and does the thinking for the ages. No hand that |
| 6 |
feels not his help, no heart his comfort.
He improves
moments; to him time is money, and he hoards this capital
to distribute gain."
|
| 9 |
If the right thinker and worker's servitude
is duly valued,
he is not thereby worshipped. One's idol is by no
means
his servant, but his master. And they who love a good |
| 12 |
work or good workers are themselves workers
who appre-
ciate a life, and labor to awake the slumbering capability
of man. And what the best thinker and worker has said |
| 15 |
and done, they are not far from saying and
doing. As a
rule the Adam-race are not apt to worship the pioneer
of
spiritual ideas, - but ofttimes to shun him as their |
| 18 |
tormentor. Only the good man loves the
right thinker
and worker, and cannot worship him, for that would de-
stroy this man's goodness.
|
| 21 |
To-day it surprises us that during the
period of captivity
the Israelites in Babylon hesitated not to call the
divine
name Yahwah, afterwards transcribed Jehovah; also |
| 24 |
that women's names contained this divine
appellative and
so sanctioned idolatry, - other gods. In the heathen
conception Yahwah, misnamed Jehovah, was a god of |
| 27 |
hate and of love, who repented himself,
improved on his
work of creation, and revenged himself upon his
enemies.
However, the animus of heathen religion was not the in- |
| 30 |
centive of the devout Jew - but has it not
tainted the reli-
Page 4
|
| 1 |
gious sects? This seedling misnomer couples
love and
hate, good and evil, health and sickness, life and death, |
| 3 |
with man - makes His opposites as real and
normal as
the one God, and so unwittingly consents to many minds
and
many gods. This precedent that would commingle |
| 6 |
Christianity, the gospel of the New
Testament and the
teaching of the righteous Galilean, Christ Jesus, with
the
Babylonian and Neoplatonic religion, is being purged by |
| 9 |
a purer Judaism and nearer approach to
monotheism and
the perfect worship of one God.
To-day people are
surprised at the new and forward |
| 12 |
steps in religion, which indicate a
renaissance greater than
in the mediaeval period; but ought not this to be
an agree-
able surprise, inasmuch as these are progressive signs of |
| 15 |
the times?
It should seem
rational that the only perfect religion is
divine Science, Christianity as
taught by our great Master; |
| 18 |
that which leaves the beaten path of human
doctrines and
is the truth of God, and of man and the universe. The
divine Principle and rules of this Christianity being de- |
| 21 |
monstrable, they are undeniable; and they
must be found
final, absolute, and eternal. The question as to religion
is: Does it demonstrate its doctrines? Do religionists |
| 24 |
believe that God is One and
All? Then whatever is real
must proceed from God, from Mind, and is
His reflection
and Science. Man and the universe coexist with God in |
| 27 |
Science, and they reflect God and nothing
else. In divine
Science, divine Love includes and reflects all that
really
is, all personality and individuality. St. Paul beautifully |
| 30 |
enunciates this fundamental fact of Deity
as the "Father
Page 5
of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all."
This scientific statement of the
origin, nature, and govern- |
| 3 |
ment of all things coincides with the First
Commandment
of the Decalogue, and leaves no opportunity for idolatry
or aught besides God, good. It gives evil no origin, no |
| 6 |
reality. Here note the words of our Master
corroborating
this as self-evident. Jesus said the opposite of God -
good - named devil - evil - "is a liar, and the father |
| 9 |
of it" - that is, its origin is a myth, a
lie.
Applied to Deity,
Father and Mother are synonymous
terms; they signify one God. Father, Son,
and Holy |
| 12 |
Ghost mean God, man, and divine Science.
God is self-
existent, the essence and source of the two latter, and their
office is that of eternal, infinite individuality. I see no |
| 15 |
other way under heaven and among men
whereby to have
one God, and man in His image and likeness, loving an-
other as himself. This being the divine Science of divine |
| 18 |
Love, it would enable man to escape from
idolatry of
every kind, to obey the First Commandment of the Deca-
logue: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" |
| 21 |
and the command of Christ: "Love thy
neighbor as thy-
self." On this rock Christian Science is built. It may
be the rock which the builders reject for a season; but |
| 24 |
it is the Science of God and His universe,
and it will be-
come the head of the corner, the foundation of all
systems
of religion.
|
| 27 |
The spiritual sense of the Scriptures
understood enables
one to utilize the power of divine Love in casting out
God's
opposites, called evils, and in healing the sick. Not mad- |
| 30 |
ness, but might and majesty attend every
footstep of
Page 6
|
| 1 |
Christian Science. There is no
imperfection, no lack in
the Principle and rules which demonstrate it. Only
the |
| 3 |
demonstrator can mistake or fail in proving
its power and
divinity. In the words of St. Paul: "I count not myself
to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting |
| 6 |
those things which are behind, and reaching
forth to those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" - in the |
| 9 |
true idea of God. Any mystery in Christian
Science de-
parts when dawns the spiritual meaning thereof; and the
spiritual sense of the Scriptures is the scientific sense which |
| 12 |
interprets the healing Christ. A child can
measurably
understand Christian Science, for, through his simple faith
and purity, he takes in its spiritual sense that puzzles the |
| 15 |
man. The child not only accepts Christian
Science more
readily than the adult, but he practises it. This notable
fact proves that the so-called fog of this Science obtains |
| 18 |
not in the Science, but in the material
sense which the
adult entertains of it. However, to a man who uses to-
bacco, is profane, licentious, and breaks God's com- |
| 21 |
mandments, that which destroys his false
appetites and
lifts him from the stubborn thrall of sin to a meek and
loving disciple of Christ, clothed and in his right mind, is |
| 24 |
not darkness but light.
Again, that
Christian Science is the Science of God is
proven when, in the degree that
you accept it, understand |
| 27 |
and practise it, you are made better
physically, morally,
and spiritually. Some modern exegesis on the
prophetic
Scriptures cites 1875 as the year of the second coming of |
| 30 |
Christ. In that year the Christian Science
textbook,
Page 7
|
| 1 |
"Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures," was
first published. From that year the United States
official |
| 3 |
statistics show the annual death-rate to
have gradually
diminished. Likewise the religious sentiment has in-
creased; creeds and dogmas have been sifted, and a |
| 6 |
greater love of the Scriptures manifested.
In 1895 it was
estimated that during the past three years there had
been
more Bibles sold than in all the other 1893 years. Many |
| 9 |
of our best and most scholarly men and
women, distin-
guished members of the bar and bench, press and pulpit,
and those in all the walks of life, will tell you they never |
| 12 |
loved the Bible and appreciated its worth
as they did after
reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
"
This is my great reward for having suffered, lived, and |
| 15 |
learned, in a small degree, the Science of
perfectibility
through Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Is there more than
one Christ, and hath Christ a second |
| 18 |
appearing? There is but one Christ. And
from ever-
lasting to everlasting this Christ is never absent. In
doubt
and darkness we say as did Mary of old: "I know not |
| 21 |
where they have laid him." But when we
behold the
Christ walking the wave of earth's troubled sea, like Peter
we believe in the second coming, and would walk more |
| 24 |
closely with Christ; but find ourselves so
far from the em-
bodiment of Truth that ofttimes this attempt
measurably
fails, and we cry, "Save, or I perish !" Then the tender, |
| 27 |
loving Christ is found near, affords help,
and we are saved
from our fears. Thus it is we walk here below, and
wait
for the full appearing of Christ till the long night is past |
| 30 |
and the morning dawns on eternal day.
Then, if sin and
Page 8
|
| 1 |
flesh are put off, we shall know and behold
more nearly
the embodied Christ, and with saints and angels shall be |
| 3 |
satisfied to go on till we awake in his
likeness.
The good man imparts
knowingly and unknowingly
goodness; but the evil man also exhales
consciously and |
| 6 |
unconsciously his evil nature - hence, be
careful of your
company. As in the floral kingdom odors emit character-
istics of tree and flower, a perfume or a poison, so the hu- |
| 9 |
man character comes forth a blessing or a
bane upon
individuals and society. A wicked man has little real
intelligence; he may steal other people's good thoughts, |
| 12 |
and wear the purloined garment as his own,
till God's
discipline takes it off for his poverty to appear.
Our Master saith to
his followers: "Bring forth things |
| 15 |
new and old." In this struggle remember
that sensitive-
ness is sometimes selfishness, and that mental idleness
or
apathy is always egotism and animality. Usefulness is |
| 18 |
doing rightly by yourself and others. We
lose a percentage
due to our activity when doing the work that belongs
to
another. When a man begins to quarrel with himself he |
| 21 |
stops quarrelling with others. We must
exterminate self
before we can successfully war with mankind. Then, at
last, the right will boil over the brim of life and the fire |
| 24 |
that purifies sense with Soul will be
extinguished. It is not
Science for the wicked to wallow or the good to
weep.
Learn to obey; but
learn first what obedience is. |
| 27 |
When God speaks to you through one of His
little ones,
and you obey the mandate but retain a desire to follow
your own inclinations, that is not obedience. I some- |
| 30 |
times advise students not to do certain
things which I
Page 9
|
| 1 |
know it were best not to do, and they
comply with my
counsel; but, watching them, I discern that this
obedience |
| 3 |
is contrary to their inclination. Then I
sometimes with-
draw that advice and say: "You may do it if you de-
sire." But I say this not because it is the best thing to |
| 6 |
do, but because the student is not willing
- therefore,
not ready - to obey.
The secret of
Christian Science in right thinking and |
| 9 |
acting is open to mankind, but few,
comparatively, see it;
or, seeing it, shut their eyes and wait for a more
convenient
season; or as of old cry out: "Why art thou come hither |
| 12 |
to torment me before the time?"
Strong desires bias
human judgment and misguide ac-
tion, else they uplift them. But the
reformer continues |
| 15 |
his lightning, thunder, and sunshine till
the mental at-
mosphere is clear. The reformer must be a hero at all
points, and he must have conquered himself before he can |
| 18 |
conquer others. Sincerity is more
successful than genius
or talent.
The twentieth
century in the ebb and flow of thought |
| 21 |
will challenge the thinkers, speakers, and
workers to do
their best. Whosoever attempts to ostracize Christian
Science will signally fail; for no one can fight against God, |
| 24 |
and win.
My loyal students
will tell you that for many years I
have desired to step aside and to have
some one take my |
| 27 |
place as leader of this mighty movement.
Also that I
strove earnestly to fit others for this great responsibility.
But no one else has seemed equal to "bear the burden and |
| 30 |
heat of the day."
Page
10
|
| 1 |
Success in sin is downright defeat. Hatred
bites the
heel of love that is treading on its head. All that worketh |
| 3 |
good is some manifestation of God asserting
and develop-
ing good. Evil is illusion, that after a fight vanisheth with
the new birth of the greatest and best. Conflict and perse- |
| 6 |
cution are the truest signs that can be
given of the greatness
of a cause or of an individual, provided this
warfare is
honest and a world-imposed struggle. Such conflict never |
| 9 |
ends till unconquerable right is begun
anew, and hath
gained fresh energy and final victory.
Certain elements in
human nature would undermine |
| 12 |
the civic, social, and religious rights and
laws of nations
and peoples, striking at liberty, human rights, and
self-
government - and this, too, in the name of God, justice, |
| 15 |
and humanity ! These elements assail even
the new-old
doctrines of the prophets and of Jesus and his disciples.
History shows that error repeats itself until it is extermi- |
| 18 |
nated. Surely the wisdom of our forefathers
is not added
but subtracted from whatever sways the sceptre of self and
pelf over individuals, weak provinces, or peoples. Here |
| 21 |
our hope anchors in God who reigns, and
justice and judg-
ment are the habitation of His throne forever.
Only last week I
received a touching token of unselfed |
| 24 |
manhood from a person I never saw. But
since publishing
this page I have learned it was a private soldier who
sent
to me, in the name of a first lieutenant of the United States |
| 27 |
infantry in the Philippine Islands, ten
five-dollar gold
pieces snuggled in Pears' soap. Surely it is enough for
a
soldier serving his country in that torrid zone to part with |
| 30 |
his soap, but to send me some of his
hard-earned money
Page
11
|
| 1 |
cost me a tear! Yes, and it gave me more
pleasure than
millions of money could have given.
|
| 3 |
Beloved brethren, have no discord over
music. Hold
in yourselves the true sense of harmony, and this sense
will harmonize, unify, and unself you. Once I was pas- |
| 6 |
sionately fond of material music, but
jarring elements
among musicians weaned me from this love and wedded
me
to spiritual music, the music of Soul. Thus it is with |
| 9 |
whatever turns mortals away from earth to
heaven; we
have the promise that "all things work together for good
to them that love God," - love good. The human sigh |
| 12 |
for peace and love is answered and
compensated by divine
love. Music is more than sound in unison. The
deaf
Beethoven besieges you with tones intricate, profound, |
| 15 |
commanding. Mozart rests you. To me his
composition
is the triumph of art, for he measures himself against
deeper grief. I want not only quality, quantity, and vari- |
| 18 |
ation in tone, but the unction of Love.
Music is divine.
Mind, not matter, makes music; and if the divine tone
be
lacking, the human tone has no melody for me. Adelaide |
| 21 |
A. Proctor breathes my thought: -
It flooded
the crimson twilight
Like the close of an angel's psalm, |
| 24 |
And it lay
on my fevered spirit
With a touch of infinite calm.
In Revelation St.
John refers to what "the Spirit saith |
| 27 |
unto the churches." His allegories are the
highest criticism
on all human action, type, and system. His symbolic
ethics bravely rebuke lawlessness. His types of purity
Page
12
|
| 1 |
pierce corruption beyond the power of the
pen. They are
bursting paraphrases projected from divinity upon human- |
| 3 |
ity, the spiritual import whereof "holdeth
the seven stars
in His right hand and walketh in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks" - the radiance of glorified Being.
|
| 6 |
In Revelation, second chapter, his messages
to the
churches commence with the church of Ephesus. History
records
Ephesus as an illustrious city, the capital of Asia |
| 9 |
Minor. It especially flourished as an
emporium in the
time of the Roman Emperor Augustus. St. Paul's life
furnished items concerning this city. Corresponding to |
| 12 |
its roads, its gates, whence the Ephesian
elders travelled to
meet St. Paul, led northward and southward. At the
head
of the harbor was the temple of Diana, the tutelary divinity |
| 15 |
of Ephesus. The earlier temple was burned
on the night
that Alexander the Great was born. Magical arts pre-
vailed at Ephesus; hence the Revelator's saying: "I |
| 18 |
have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy
first love . . . and will remove thy candlestick out of
his
place, except thou repent." This prophecy has been ful- |
| 21 |
filled. Under the influence of St. Paul's
preaching the
magical books in that city were publicly burned. It were
well if we had a St. Paul to purge our cities of charlatanism. |
| 24 |
During St. Paul's stay in that city - over
two years - he
labored in the synagogue, in the school of Tyrannus, and
also in private houses. The entire city is now in ruins.
|
| 27 |
The Revelation of St. John in the apostolic
age is sym-
bolic, rather than personal or historical. It refers to the
Hebrew Balaam as the devourer of the people. Nicolaitan |
| 30 |
church presents the phase of a great
controversy, ready to
Page
13
|
| 1 |
destroy the unity and the purity of the
church. It is said
"a controversy was inevitable when the Gentiles
entered |
| 3 |
the church of Christ" in that city. The
Revelator com-
mends the church at Ephesus by saying: "Thou hatest
the
deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." It is |
| 6 |
written of this church that their words
were brave and their
deeds evil. The orgies of their idolatrous feasts and
their
impurities were part of a system supported by their doc- |
| 9 |
trine and their so-called prophetic
illumination. Their
distinctive feature the apostle justly regards as
heathen,
and so he denounces the Nicolaitan church.
|
| 12 |
Alexander the Great founded the city of
Smyrna, and
after a series of wars it was taken and sacked. The Reve-
lator writes of this church of Smyrna: "Be thou faithful |
| 15 |
unto death, and I will give thee a crown
of life." A glad
promise to such as wait and weep.
The city of Pergamos
was devoted to a sensual worship. |
| 18 |
There AEsculapius, the god of medicine,
acquired fame;
and a serpent was the emblem of AEsculapius. Its
medical
practice included charms and incantations. The Reve- |
| 21 |
lator refers to the church in this city as
dwelling "where
Satan's seat is." The Pergamene church consisted of
the
school of Balaam and AEsculapius, idolatry and medicine.
|
| 24 |
The principal deity in the city of Thyatira
was Apollo.
Smith writes: "In this city the amalgamation of different
pagan religions seems not to have been wholly discoun- |
| 27 |
tenanced by the authorities of the
Judaeo-Christian
church."
The Revelator speaks
of the angel of the church in |
| 30 |
Philadelphia as being bidden to write the
approval of this
Page
14
|
| 1 |
church by our Master - he saith: "Thou hast
a little
strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my |
| 3 |
name. Behold, I will make them of the
synagogue of
Satan . . . to know that I have loved thee. . . . Hold
that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
|
| 6 |
He goes on to portray seven churches, the
full number
of days named in the creation, which signifies a complete
time or number of whatever is spoken of in the Scriptures.
|
| 9 |
Beloved, let him that hath an ear (that
discerneth spirit-
ually) hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;
and
seek thou the divine import of the Revelator's vision - |
| 12 |
and no other. Note his inspired rebuke to
all the churches
except the church in Philadelphia-the name whereof
signifies "brotherly love." I call your attention to this |
| 15 |
to remind you of the joy you have had in
following the
more perfect way, or Golden Rule: "As ye would that
men
should do to you, do ye." Let no root of bitterness |
| 18 |
spring up among you, but hold in your full
hearts fervently
the charity that seeketh not only her own, but
another's
good. The angel that spake unto the churches cites Jesus |
| 21 |
as "he that hath the key of David; that
openeth and no
man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth;" in
other
words, he that toiled for the spiritually indispensable.
|
| 24 |
At all times respect the character and
philanthropy of
the better class of M.D.'s - and if you are stoned from
the pulpit, say in your heart as the devout St. Stephen said: |
| 27 |
"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
When invited to a
feast you naturally ask who are to be
the guests. And being told they are
distinguished indi- |
| 30 |
viduals, you prepare accordingly for the
festivity. Putting
Page
15
|
| 1 |
aside the old garment, you purchase, at
whatever price, a
new one that is up to date. To-day you have come to
a |
| 3 |
sumptuous feast, to one that for many years
has been await-
ing you. The guests are distinguished above human
title
and this feast is a Passover. To sit at this table of their |
| 6 |
Lord and partake of what divine Love hath
prepared for
them, Christian Scientists start forward with true ambi-
tion. The Passover, spiritually discerned, is a wonderful |
| 9 |
passage over a tear-filled sea of
repentance - which of
all human experience is the most divine; and after
this
Passover cometh victory, faith, and good works.
|
| 12 |
When a supercilious consciousness that
saith "there is
no sin," has awakened to see through sin's disguise
the
claim of sin, and thence to see that sin has no claim, it |
| 15 |
yields to sharp conviction - it sits in
sackcloth - it waits
in the desert - and fasts in the wilderness. But all
this
time divine Love has been preparing a feast for this |
| 18 |
awakened consciousness. To-day you have
come to Love's
feast, and you kneel at its altar. May you have on a
wed-
ding garment new and old, and the touch of the hem of |
| 21 |
his garment heal the sick and the sinner!
In the words of St.
John, may the angel of The Mother
Church write of this church: "Thou hast
not left thy first |
| 24 |
love, I know thy works, and charity, and
service, and faith,
and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be
more
than the first."
|
| 27 |
Watch! till
the storms are o'er -
The cold blasts done,
The reign of heaven
begun, |
| 30 |
And love,
the evermore. |
