|
A
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE STATUTE
I hereby state, in
unmistakable language, the follow-
ing statute in the morale of
Christian Science: - |
| 18 |
A man or woman, having voluntarily entered
into
wedlock, and accepted the claims of the marriage cove-
nant, is
held in Christian Science as morally bound to |
| 21 |
fulfil all the claims growing out of this
contract, unless
such claims are relinquished by mutual consent of both
parties, or this contract is legally dissolved. If the man |
| 24 |
is dominant over the animal, he will count
the conse-
quences of his own conduct; will consider the effects,
on
himself and his progeny, of selfishness, unmerciful- |
| 27 |
ness, tyranny, or lust.
Trust Truth, not
error; and Truth will give you all
that belongs to the rights of freedom.
The Hebrew bard
Page
298 |
| 1 |
wrote, "Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart; and lean
not unto thine own understanding." Nothing is gained |
| 3 |
by wrong-doing. St. Paul's words take in
the situation:
"Not . . . (as we be slanderously reported, and as some
affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? |
| 6 |
whose damnation is just."
When causing others
to go astray, we also are wan-
derers. "With what measure ye mete, it shall
be meas- |
| 9 |
ured to you again." Ask yourself: Under the
same
circumstances, in the same spiritual ignorance and power
of
passion, would I be strengthened by having my best |
| 12 |
friend break troth with me? These words of
St. Matthew
have special application to Christian Scientists; namely,
"It is not good to marry." |
| 15 |
To build on selfishness is to build on
sand. When
Jesus received the material rite of water baptism, he did
not say that it was God's command; but implied that |
| 18 |
the period demanded it. Trials purify
mortals and deliver
them from themselves, - all the claims of
sensuality.
Abide by the morale of absolute Christian Science,
- |
| 21 |
self-abnegation and purity; then Truth
delivers you from
the seeming power of error, and faith vested in
righteous-
ness triumphs!
ADVICE TO STUDENTS
The true
consciousness is the true health. One says,
"I find relief from pain in
unconscious sleep." I say, |
| 27 |
You mistake; through unconsciousness one no
more
gains freedom from pain than immunity from evil. When
unconscious
of a mistake, one thinks he is not mistaken; |
| 30 |
but this false consciousness does not
change the fact, or
Page
299 |
| 1 |
its results; suffering and mistakes recur
until one is awake
to their cause and character. To know the what,
when, |
| 3 |
and how of error, destroys error. The error
that is seen
aright as error, has received its death-blow; but never
until then. |
| 6 |
Let us look through the lens of Christian
Science,
not of "self," at the following mistake, which demands
our
present attention. I have no time for detailed report |
| 9 |
of this matter, but simply answer the
following question
sent to me; glad, indeed, that this query has finally
come
with the courage of conviction to the minds of many |
| 12 |
students.
"Is it right to copy
your works and read them for our
public services?" |
| 15 |
The good which the material senses see not
is the only
absolute good; the evil which these senses see not is the
only absolute evil. |
| 18 |
If I enter Mr. Smith's store and take from
it his gar-
ments that are on sale, array myself in them, and put
myself and them on exhibition, can I make this right |
| 21 |
by saying, These garments are Mr. Smith's;
he manu-
factured them and owns them, but you must pay me,
not him, for
this exhibit? |
| 24 |
The spectators may ask, Did he give you
permission
to do this, did he sell them or loan them to you? No.
Then
have you asked yourself this question on the sub- |
| 27 |
ject, namely, What right have I to do this?
True, it
saves your purchasing these garments, and gives to the
public
new patterns which are useful to them; but does |
| 30 |
this silence your conscience? or, because
you have con-
fessed that they are the property of a noted firm, and
you wished to handle them, does it justify you in appro-
Page
300 |
| 1 |
priating them, and so avoiding the cost of
hiring or
purchasing? |
| 3 |
Copying my published works verbatim,
compiling them
in connection with the Scriptures, taking this copy into
the pulpit, announcing the author's name, then reading |
| 6 |
it publicly as your own compilation, is -
what?
We answer, It is a
mistake; in common parlance, it
is an ignorant
wrong. |
| 9 |
If you should print and publish your copy
of my works,
you would be liable to arrest for infringement of copy-
right, which the law defines and punishes as theft. Read- |
| 12 |
ing in the pulpit from copies of my
publications gives
you the clergyman's salary and spares you the
printer's
bill, but does it spare you our Master's condemnation? |
| 15 |
You literally publish my works through the
pulpit, instead
of the press, and thus evade the law, but not the
gospel.
When I consent to this act, you will then be justified |
| 18 |
in it.
Your manuscript copy
is liable, in some way, to be
printed as your original writings, thus
incurring the pen- |
| 21 |
alty of the law, and increasing the record
of theft in the
United States Circuit Court.
To The Church of
Christ, Scientist, in Boston, which I |
| 24 |
had organized and of which I had for many
years been
pastor, I gave permission to cite, in the Christian Science
Quarterly, from my work Science and Health, passages |
| 27 |
giving the spiritual meaning of Bible
texts; but this was
a special privilege, and the author's gift.
Christian Science
demonstrates that the patient who |
| 30 |
pays whatever he is able to pay for being
healed, is more
apt to recover than he who withholds a slight equiva-
lent for health. Healing morally and physically are one.
Page
301 |
| 1 |
Then, is compiling and delivering that
sermon for which
you pay nothing, and which you deliver without the |
| 3 |
author's consent, and receive pay therefor,
the precedent
for preaching Christian Science, - and are you
doing
to the author of the above-named book as you would |
| 6 |
have others do unto you?
Those authors and
editors of pamphlets and periodi-
cals whose substance is made up of my
publications, are |
| 9 |
morally responsible for what the law
construes as crime.
There are startling instances of the above-named
law-
breaking and gospel-opposing system of authorship, which |
| 12 |
characterize the writings of a few
professed Christian
Scientists. My Christian students who have read
copies
of my works in the pulpit require only a word to be wise; |
| 15 |
too sincere and morally statuesque are they
to be long
led into temptation; but I must not leave persistent
plagiarists without this word of warning in public, since |
| 18 |
my private counsel they disregard.
To the question of
my true-hearted students, "Is it
right to copy your works and read them for
our public |
| 21 |
services?" I answer: It is not right to
copy my book
and read it publicly without my consent. My reasons are
as follows: - |
| 24 |
First: This method is an unseen
form of injustice
standing in a holy place.
Second: It breaks the Golden
Rule, - a divine rule |
| 27 |
for human conduct.
Third: All error tends to
harden the heart, blind
the eyes, stop the ears of understanding, and
inflate |
| 30 |
self; counter to the commands of our
hillside Priest, to
whom Isaiah alluded thus: "I have trodden the wine-
press alone; and of the people there was none with me."
Page
302 |
| 1 |
Behind the scenes lurks an evil which you
can prevent
it is a purpose to kill the reformation begun and increas- |
| 3 |
ing through the instructions of "Science
and Health with
Key to the Scriptures;" it encourages infringement of my
copyright, and seeks again to "cast lots for his vesture," |
| 6 |
- while the perverter preserves in his own
consciousness
and teaching the name without the Spirit, the skeleton
without the heart, the form without the comeliness, the |
| 9 |
sense without the Science, of Christ's
healing. My stu-
dents are expected to know the teaching of Christian
Sci-
ence sufficiently to discriminate between error and Truth, |
| 12 |
thus sparing their teacher a task and
themselves the
temptation to be misled.
Much good has been
accomplished through Christian |
| 15 |
Science Sunday services. If Christian
Scientists occasion-
ally mistake in interpreting revealed Truth, of two
evils
the less would be not to leave the Word unspoken and |
| 18 |
untaught. I allowed, till this permission
was withdrawn,
students working faithfully for Christ's cause on
earth,
the privilege of copying and reading my works for Sunday |
| 21 |
service; provided, they each and all
destroyed the copies
at once after said service. When I should so elect
and
give suitable notice, they were to desist from further copy- |
| 24 |
ing of my writings as aforesaid.
This injunction did
not curtail the benefit which the
student derived from making his copy, nor
detract from |
| 27 |
the good that his hearers received from his
reading thereof;
but it was intended to forestall the possible evil of
putting
the divine teachings contained in "Science and Health |
| 30 |
with Key to the Scriptures" into human
hands, to sub-
vert or to liquidate.
I recommend that
students stay within their own fields
Page
303 |
| 1 |
of labor, to work for the race; they are
lights that can-
not be hid, and need only to shine from their home
sum- |
| 3 |
mits to be sought and found as healers
physical and
moral.
The kindly shepherd
has his own fold and tends his |
| 6 |
own flock. Christian students should have
their own
institutes and, unmolested, be governed by divine Love
alone in teaching and guiding their students. When |
| 9 |
wisdom garrisons these strongholds of
Christian Science,
peace and joy, the fruits of Spirit, will rest upon us
all.
We are brethren in the fullest sense of that word; there- |
| 12 |
fore no queries should arise as to "who
shall be great-
est." Let us serve instead of rule, knock instead of
push at the door of human hearts, and allow to each |
| 15 |
and every one the same rights and
privileges that we
claim for ourselves. If ever I wear out from serving
students, it shall be in the effort to help them to obey |
| 18 |
the Ten Commandments and imbibe the spirit
of Christ's
Beatitudes.
NOTICE |
| 21 |
Editor of Christian Science Journal:
- You will oblige
me by giving place in your Journal to the
following notice.
The idea and purpose of a Liberty Bell is pleasing,
and |
| 24 |
can be made profitable to the heart of our
country. I feel
assured that many Christian Scientists will respond to
this
letter by contributions. |
| 27 |
MARY BAKER EDDY
Page
304 |
| 1 |
COLUMBIAN LIBERTY BELL COMMITTEE,
1505 PENNA. AVE., WASHINGTON, D.
C. |
| 3 |
TO THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION: -
It has been determined to create a
Columbian Liberty
Bell, to be placed by the lovers of liberty and peace
in |
| 6 |
the most appropriate place in the coming
World's Expo-
sition at Chicago. After the close of the Exhibition this
bell will pass from place to place throughout the world |
| 9 |
as a missionary of freedom, coming first
to the capital
of the nation under the care of our society.
Then it will go to Bunker Hill or Liberty
Island, to |
| 12 |
the battle-field of New Orleans ( 1812), to
San Francisco,
to the place where any great patriotic celebration is
being
held, until 1900, when it will be sent to the next World's |
| 15 |
Exhibition, which takes place at Paris,
France. There it
will continue until that Exhibition closes.
When not in use in other places, it will
return to Wash- |
| 18 |
ington under the care of the Daughters of
the American
Revolution. Washington will be its home, and from there
it
will journey from place to place, fulfilling its mission |
| 21 |
throughout the world.
The following is the proposed use of the
bell: It shall
ring at sunrise and sunset; at nine o'clock in the
morn- |
| 24 |
ing on the anniversaries of the days on
which great events
have occurred marking the world's progress toward
liberty;
at twelve o'clock on the birthdays of the "creators of |
| 27 |
liberty;" and at four o'clock it will toll
on the anniver-
saries of their death. (It will always ring at nine
o'clock
on October 11th, in recognition of the organization on |
| 30 |
that day of the Daughters of the American
Revolution.)
. . The responsibility of its production, and the direc-
tion of its use, have been placed in the hands of a
Page
305 |
| 1 |
committee of women representing each State
and Ter-
ritory, one representative from each Republic in the |
| 3 |
world, and a representative from the
patriotic societies,
- Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution,
the Lyceum League of America, the Society of Ger- |
| 6 |
man Patriots, the Human Freedom League,
and kindred
organizations.
The National Board
of Management has placed upon |
| 9 |
me the responsibility of representing the
National Society
of the Daughters of the American Revolution upon the
General Committee, and this circular is sent to every |
| 12 |
member of the society, asking for her
personal coopera-
tion in making the undertaking successful. In
creating
the bell it is particularly desired that the largest number |
| 15 |
of persons possible shall have a part in
it. For this reason
small contributions from many persons are to be
asked
for, rather than large contributions from a few. They |
| 18 |
are to be of two kinds: -
First: Material that can be
made a part of the bell;
articles of historic interest will be particularly
appre- |
| 21 |
ciated - gold, silver, bronze, copper, and
nickel can be
fused.
Second: Of money with which to
pay for the bell. |
| 24 |
Each member of the society is asked to
contribute one
cent to be fused into the bell, and twenty-five cents to
pay for it. She is also asked to collect two dollars from |
| 27 |
others, in pennies, if possible, and send
with the amount
the name of each contributor. In order that the bell
shall be cast April 30th, the anniversary of the inaugu- |
| 30 |
ration of George Washington as the first
President of
the United States, we ask every one receiving this cir-
cular to act at once.
Page
306 |
| 1 |
In forwarding material to be melted into
the bell, please
send fullest historical description. This will be
entered |
| 3 |
carefully in a book which will accompany
the bell wherever
it goes.
. . . As the motto
has not yet been decided upon, any |
| 6 |
ideas on that subject will be gratefully
received; we will
also welcome suggestions of events to be celebrated
and
names to be commemorated. |
| 9 |
Very cordially yours,
MARY DESHA,
ex-Vice-President General, D. A. R. |
| 12 |
Contributions should be sent to the Liberty
National
Bank, corner Liberty and West Streets, New York, and
a
duplicate letter written, as a notification of the same, |
| 15 |
to Miss Mary Desha, 1505 Penna. Ave.,
Washington,
D. C., or to Miss Minnie F. Mickley, Mickleys, Pa.
We would add, as
being of interest, that Mrs. Eddy is |
| 18 |
a member of the above organization, having
been made
such by the special request of the late Mrs. Harrison,
wife
of the ex-President, who was at that time the Presi- |
| 21 |
dent thereof. - ED.
ANGELS
When angels visit
us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, |
| 24 |
nor feel the feathery touch of the breast
of a dove; but
we know their presence by the love they create in our
hearts. Oh, may you feel this touch, - it is not the |
| 27 |
clasping of hands, nor a loved person
present; it is more
than this: it is a spiritual idea that lights your
path!
The Psalmist saith: "He shall give His angels charge
Page
307 |
| 1 |
over thee." God gives you His spiritual
ideas, and in
turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for to- |
| 3 |
morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an
ever-present
help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have
all
you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance |
| 6 |
is given to us through the understanding of
omnipresent
Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want:
more we
cannot have. This sweet assurance is the |
| 9 |
"Peace, be still" to all human fears, to
suffering of every
sort.
DEIFICATION OF PERSONALITY |
| 12 |
Notwithstanding the rapid sale already of
two editions
of "Christ and Christmas," and many orders on hand, I
have
thought best to stop its publication. |
| 15 |
In this revolutionary religious period, the
increasing
inquiry of mankind as to Christianity and its unity -
and
above all, God's love opening the eyes of the blind |
| 18 |
- is fast fitting all minds for the proper
reception of
Christian Science healing.
But I must stand on
this absolute basis of Christian |
| 21 |
Science; namely, Cast not pearls before the
unprepared
thought. Idolatry is an easily-besetting sin of all peoples.
The apostle saith, "Little children, keep yourselves from |
| 24 |
idols."
The illustrations
were not intended for a golden calf,
at which the sick may look and be
healed. Christian |
| 27 |
Scientists should beware of unseen snares,
and adhere
to the divine Principle and rules for demonstration.
They
must guard against the deification of finite person- |
| 30 |
ality. Every human thought must turn
instinctively to
Page
308 |
| 1 |
the divine Mind as its sole centre and
intelligence. Until
this be done, man will never be found harmonious
and |
| 3 |
immortal.
Whosoever looks to
me personally for his health or
holiness, mistakes. He that by reason of
human love or |
| 6 |
hatred or any other cause clings to my
material per-
sonality, greatly errs, stops his own progress, and loses
the path to health, happiness, and heaven. The Scrip- |
| 9 |
tures and Christian Science reveal "the
way," and per-
sonal revelators will take their proper place in
history,
but will not be deified. |
| 12 |
Advanced scientific students are ready for
"Christ
and Christmas;" but those are a minority of its readers,
and
even they know its practicality only by healing |
| 15 |
the sick on its divine Principle. In the
words of the
prophet, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one
Lord." |
| 18 |
Friends, strangers, and Christian
Scientists, I thank
you, each and all, for your liberal patronage and
scholarly,
artistic, and scientific notices of my book. This little |
| 21 |
messenger has done its work, fulfilled its
mission, retired
with honor (and mayhap taught me more than it has
others), only to reappear in due season. The knowledge |
| 24 |
that I have gleaned from its fruitage is,
that intensely
contemplating personality impedes spiritual growth; even
as holding in mind the consciousness of disease prevents |
| 27 |
the recovery of the sick.
Christian Science is
taught through its divine Prin-
ciple, which is invisible to corporeal
sense. A material |
| 30 |
human likeness is the antipode of man in
the image and
likeness of God. Hence, a finite person is not the model
for a metaphysician. I earnestly advise all Christian |
| 33 |
Scientists to remove from their
observation or study
Page
309 |
| 1 |
the personal sense of any one, and not to
dwell in thought
upon their own or others' corporeality, either as good
or |
| 3 |
evil.
According to
Christian Science, material personality is
an error in premise, and must
result in erroneous con- |
| 6 |
clusions. All will agree with me that
material portraiture
often fails to express even mortal man, and this
declares
its unfitness for fable or fact to build upon. |
| 9 |
The face of Jesus has uniformly been so
unnaturally
delineated that it has turned many from the true con-
templation of his character. He advances most in divine |
| 12 |
Science who meditates most on infinite
spiritual sub-
stance and intelligence. Experience proves this true.
Pondering on the finite personality of Jesus, the son of |
| 15 |
man, is not the channel through which we
reach the
Christ, or Son of God, the true idea of man's divine
Principle. |
| 18 |
I warn students against falling into the
error of anti-
Christ. The consciousness of corporeality, and what-
ever is connected therewith, must be outgrown. Corporeal |
| 21 |
falsities include all obstacles to health,
holiness, and
heaven. Man's individual life is infinitely above a
bodily form of existence, and the human concept an- |
| 24 |
tagonizes the divine. "Science and Health
with Key
to the Scriptures," on page 229, third and fourth para-
graphs, elucidates this topic.(l) |
| 27 |
My Christmas poem and its illustrations are
not a text-
book. Scientists sometimes take things too intensely.
Let
them soberly adhere to the Bible and Science and |
| 30 |
Health, which contain all and much more
than they
have yet learned. We should prohibit ourselves the
(1) See the revised
edition of 1890, or page 334, in editions
subsequent to
1902.
Page
310 |
| 1 |
childish pleasure of studying Truth through
the senses,
for this is neither the intent of my works nor possible |
| 3 |
in Science.
Even the teachings
of Jesus would be misused by sub-
stituting personality for the Christ, or
the impersonal |
| 6 |
form of Truth, amplified in this age by the
discovery of
Christian Science. To impersonalize scientifically the
material sense of existence - rather than cling to per- |
| 9 |
sonality - is the lesson of to-day.
A
CARD
My answer to
manifold letters relative to the return |
| 12 |
of members that have gone out of The First
Church of
Christ, Scientist, in Boston, is this: While my affec-
tions
plead for all and every one, and my desire is that |
| 15 |
all shall be redeemed, I am not unmindful
that the Scrip-
tures enjoin, "Let all things be done decently and in
order." |
| 18 |
To continue one's connection with this
church, or to
regain it, one must comply with the church rules. All
who
desire its fellowship, and to become members of it, |
| 21 |
must send in their petitions to this effect
to the Clerk
of the church; and upon a meeting being called, the
First
Members will determine the action of the church |
| 24 |
on this subject.
OVERFLOWING THOUGHTS
In this receding
year of religious jubilee, 1894, I as |
| 27 |
an individual would cordially invite all
persons who
have left our fold, together with those who never have
Page
311 |
| 1 |
been in it, - all who love God and keep His
command-
ments, - to come and unite with The Mother Church in |
| 3 |
Boston. The true Christian Scientists will
be welcomed,
greeted as brethren endeavoring to walk with us hand
in
hand, as we journey to the celestial city. |
| 6 |
Also, I would extend a tender invitation to
Christian
Scientists' students, those who are ready for the table of
our Lord: so, should we follow Christ's teachings; so, |
| 9 |
bury the dead past; so, loving one another,
go forth to
the full vintage-time, exemplifying what we profess. But
some of the older members are not quite ready to take |
| 12 |
this advanced step in the full spirit of
that charity which
thinketh no evil; and if it be not taken thus, it is
impracti-
cal, unfruitful, Soul-less. |
| 15 |
My deepest desires and daily labors go to
prove that
I love my enemies and would help all to gain the abiding
consciousness of health, happiness, and heaven. |
| 18 |
I hate no one; and love others more than
they can
love me. As I now understand Christian Science, I would
as
soon harm myself as another; since by breaking |
| 21 |
Christ's command, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as
thyself," I should lose my hope of heaven.
The works I have
written on Christian Science con- |
| 24 |
tain absolute Truth, and my necessity was
to tell it;
therefore I did this even as a surgeon who wounds
to heal.
I was a scribe under orders; and who can |
| 27 |
refrain from transcribing what God indites,
and ought
not that one to take the cup, drink all of it, and give
thanks? |
| 30 |
Being often reported as saying what never
escaped
from my lips, when rehearsing facts concerning others
who were
reporting false charges, I have been sorry that
Page
312 |
| 1 |
I spoke at all, and wished I were wise
enough to guard
against that temptation. Oh, may the love that is
talked, |
| 3 |
be felt! and so lived, that
when weighed in the scale of
God we be not found wanting. Love is
consistent, uni-
form, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, unutterably kind;
even |
| 6 |
that which lays all upon the altar, and,
speechless and
alone, bears all burdens, suffers all inflictions,
endures
all piercing for the sake of others, and for the kingdom |
| 9 |
of heaven's sake.
A
GREAT MAN AND HIS SAYING
Hon. Charles Carrol
Bonney, President of the World's |
| 12 |
Congress Auxiliary, in his remarks before
that body,
said, "No more striking manifestation of the interposi-
tion
of divine Providence in human affairs has come in |
| 15 |
recent years, than that shown in the
raising up of the
body of people known as Christian Scientists, who are
called to declare the real harmony between religion and |
| 18 |
Science, and to restore the waning faith
of many in the
verities of the sacred Scriptures."
In honest utterance
of veritable history, and his own |
| 21 |
spiritual discernment, this man must have
risen above
worldly schemes, human theorems or hypotheses, to
conclusions which reason too supine or misemployed |
| 24 |
cannot fasten upon. He spake inspired; he
touched a
tone of Truth that will continue to reverberate and renew
its
emphasis throughout the entire centuries, into the vast |
| 27 |
forever.
Page
313
WORDS OF COMMENDATION
Editor of The
Christian Science Journal: - Permit
me |
| 3 |
to say that your editorial in the August
number is par
excellence.
It is a digest of
good manners, morals, methods, and |
| 6 |
means. It points to the scientific
spiritual molecule,
pearl, and pinnacle, that everybody needs. May the
Christlikeness it reflects rest on the dear readers, and |
| 9 |
throw the light of penetration on the page;
even as the
dawn, kindling its glories in the east, lightens earth's
landscape. |
| 12 |
I thank the contributors to The
Christian Science
Journal for their jewels of thought, so adapted to
the
hour, and without ill-humor or hyperbolic tumor. I |
| 15 |
was impressed by the articles entitled "The
New Pas-
tor," by Rev. Lanson P. Norcross, "The Lamp," by
Walter
Church, "The Temptation," a poem by J. J. |
| 18 |
Rome, etc.
The field waves its
white ensign, the reapers are strong,
the rich sheaves are ripe, the
storehouse is ready: pray |
| 21 |
ye therefore the God of harvest to send
forth more
laborers of the excellent sort, and garner the supplies
for
a world.
CHURCH AND SCHOOL
Humbly, and, as I
believe, divinely directed, I hereby
ordain the Bible, and "Science and
Health with Key |
| 27 |
to the Scriptures," to be hereafter the
only pastor of
Page
314 |
| 1 |
The Church of Christ, Scientist, throughout
our land
and in other lands. |
| 3 |
From this date the Sunday services of our
denomina-
tion shall be conducted by Readers in lieu of pastors.
Each
church, or society formed for Sunday worship, |
| 6 |
shall elect two Readers: a male, and a
female. One of
these individuals shall open the meeting by reading the
hymns, and chapter (or portion of the chapter) in the |
| 9 |
Bible, lead in silent prayer, and repeat in
concert with
the congregation the Lord's Prayer. Also, this First
Reader shall give out any notices from the pulpit, shall |
| 12 |
read the Scriptures indicated in the Sunday
School Les-
son of the Christian Science Quarterly, and shall pro-
nounce the benediction. |
| 15 |
The First Reader shall read from my book,
"Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures," alternately in
response to the congregation, the spiritual interpreta- |
| 18 |
tion of the Lord's Prayer; also, shall read
all the selec-
tions from Science and Health referred to in the Sunday
Lessons. |
| 21 |
The Reader of the Scriptures shall name, at
each
reading, the book, chapter, and verses. The Reader of
"Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures" shall |
| 24 |
commence by announcing the full title of
this book, with
the name of its author, and add to this announcement,
"the Christian Science textbook." It is unnecessary to |
| 27 |
repeat the title or page. This form shall
also be observed
at the Communion service; the selections from both the
Bible and the Christian Science textbook shall be taken |
| 30 |
from the Quarterly, as heretofore,
and this Lesson shall
be such as is adapted to that service. On the first
Sunday
of each month, except Communion Sunday, a sermon
Page
315 |
| 1 |
shall be preached to the children, from
selections taken
from the Scriptures and Science and Health,
especially |
| 3 |
adapted to the occasion, and read after the
manner of
the Sunday service. The children's service shall be
held on
the Sunday following Communion Day. |
| 6 |
No copies from my books are allowed to be
written,
and read from manuscripts, either in private or in pub-
lic
assemblies, except by their author. |
| 9 |
Christian Scientists, all over the world,
who are let-
terly fit and specially spiritually fitted for teachers,
can
teach annually three classes only. They shall teach |
| 12 |
from the Christian Science textbook. Each
class shall
consist of not over thirty-three students, carefully selected,
and only of such as have promising proclivities toward |
| 15 |
Christian Science. The teacher shall hold
himself mor-
ally obligated to look after the welfare of his students,
not only through class term, but after it; and to watch |
| 18 |
well that they prove sound in sentiment,
health, and
practical Christian Science.
Teaching Christian
Science shall be no question of |
| 21 |
money, but of morals and of uplifting the
race. Teachers
shall form associations for this purpose; and for the
first few years, convene as often as once in three months. |
| 24 |
Teachers shall not silently mentally
address the thought,
to handle it, nor allow their students to do thus,
except
the individual needing it asks for mental treatment. |
| 27 |
They shall steadily and patiently strive to
educate their
students in conformity to the unerring wisdom and law
of
God, and shall enjoin upon them habitually to study |
| 30 |
His revealed Word, the Scriptures, and
"Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures."
They shall teach
their students how to defend them-
Page
316 |
| 1 |
selves against mental malpractice, but
never to return
evil for evil; never to attack the malpractitioner,
but |
| 3 |
to know the truth that makes free, - and
so to be a law
not unto others, but themselves.
CLASS, PULPIT, STUDENTS' STUDENTS |
| 6 |
When will you take a class in Christian
Science or
speak to your church in Boston? is often asked.
I shall speak to my
dear church at Boston very seldom. |
| 9 |
The Mother Church must be self-sustained by
God.
The date of a class in Christian Science should depend
on the
fitness of things, the tide which flows heavenward, |
| 12 |
the hour best for the student. Until minds
become less
worldly-minded, and depart farther from the primitives
of
the race, and have profited up to their present capac- |
| 15 |
ity from the written word, they are not
ready for the
word spoken at this date.
My juniors can tell
others what they know, and turn |
| 18 |
them slowly toward the haven. Imperative,
accumula-
tive, sweet demands rest on my retirement from life's
bustle.
What, then, of continual recapitulation of tired |
| 21 |
aphorisms and disappointed ethics; of
patching breaches
widened the next hour; of pounding wisdom and love
into sounding brass; of warming marble and quench- |
| 24 |
ing volcanoes! Before entering the
Massachusetts Meta-
physical College, had my students achieved the
point
whence they could have derived most benefit from their |
| 27 |
pupilage, to-day there would be on earth
paragons of
Christianity, patterns of humility, wisdom, and might
for
the world.
Page
317 |
| 1 |
To the students whom I have not seen that
ask, "May
I call you mother?" my heart replies, Yes, if you are |
| 3 |
doing God's work. When born of Truth and
Love, we
are all of one kindred.
The hour has struck
for Christian Scientists to do their |
| 6 |
own work; to appreciate the signs of the
times; to dem-
onstrate self-knowledge and self-government; and to
demonstrate, as this period demands, over all sin, disease, |
| 9 |
and death. The dear ones whom I would have
great
pleasure in instructing, know that the door to my teaching
was
shut when my College closed. |
| 12 |
Again, it is not absolutely requisite for
some people
to be taught in a class, for they can learn by spiritual
growth and by the study of what is written. Scarcely a |
| 15 |
moiety, compared with the whole of the
Scriptures and
the Christian Science textbook, is yet assimilated
spirit-
ually by the most faithful seekers; yet this assimilation is |
| 18 |
indispensable to the progress of every
Christian Scientist.
These considerations prompt my answers to the
above
questions. Human desire is inadequate to adjust the |
| 21 |
balance on subjects of such earnest import.
These
words of our Master explain this hour: "What I do
thou knowest
not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." |
| 24 |
My sympathies are deeply enlisted for the
students
of students; having already seen in many instances their
talents, culture, and singleness of purpose to uplift the |
| 27 |
race. Such students should not pay the
penalty for
other people's faults; and divine Love will open the
way
for them. My soul abhors injustice, and loves |
| 30 |
mercy. St. John writes: "Whom God hath
sent speaketh
the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by meas-
ure unto him."
Page
318
MY
STUDENTS AND THY STUDENTS
Mine and thine are
obsolete terms in absolute Christian |
| 3 |
Science, wherein and whereby the universal
brotherhood
of man is stated and demands to be demonstrated. I have
a
large affection, not alone for my students, but for thy |
| 6 |
students, - for students of the second
generation. I can-
not but love some of those devoted students better
than
some of mine who are less lovable or Christly. This |
| 9 |
natural affection for goodness must go on
ad libitum unto
the third and fourth and final generation of those
who
love God and keep His commandments. Hence the |
| 12 |
following is an amendment of the paragraph
on page 47 (1)
of "Retrospection and Introspection": -
Any student, having
received instructions in a Primary |
| 15 |
class from me, or from a loyal student of
Christian Science,
and afterwards studied thoroughly "Science and
Health
with Key to the Scriptures," can enter upon the gospel |
| 18 |
work of teaching Christian Science, and so
fulfil the com-
mand of Christ. Before entering this sacred field of
labor,
the student must have studied faithfully the latest edi- |
| 21 |
tions of my works, and be a good Bible
scholar and a
devout, consecrated Christian.
These are the indispensable demands on all those
who |
| 24 |
become teachers.
UNSEEN SIN
Two points of danger
beset mankind; namely, making |
| 27 |
sin seem either too large or too little:
if too large, we
(1) See edition of
1909.
Page
319 |
| 1 |
are in the darkness of all the ages,
wherein the true sense
of the unity of good and the unreality of evil is
lost. |
| 3 |
If good is God, even as God is good, then
good and
evil can neither be coeval nor coequal, for God is All-in-
all. This closes the argument of aught besides Him, aught |
| 6 |
else than good.
If the sense of sin
is too little, mortals are in danger
of not seeing their own belief in sin,
but of seeing too |
| 9 |
keenly their neighbor's. Then they are
beset with
egotism and hypocrisy. Here Christian Scientists must
be
most watchful. Their habit of mental and audible |
| 12 |
protest against the reality of sin, tends
to make sin less
or more to them than to other people. They must either
be overcoming sin in themselves, or they must not lose |
| 15 |
sight of sin; else they are self-deceived
sinners of the
worst sort.
A
WORD TO THE WISE |
| 18 |
Will all the dear Christian Scientists
accept my tender
greetings for the forthcoming holidays, and grant me
this request, - let the present season pass without one |
| 21 |
gift to me.
Our church edifice
must be built in 1894. Take thither
thy saintly offerings, and lay them in
the outstretched |
| 24 |
hand of God. The object to be won affords
ample oppor-
tunity for the grandest achievement to which Christian
Scientists can direct attention, and feel themselves alone |
| 27 |
among the stars.
No doubt must
intervene between the promise and
event; faith and resolve are friends to
Truth; seize them,
Page
320 |
| 1 |
trust the divine Providence, push upward
our prayer in
stone, - and God will give the benediction.
CHRISTMAS
This interesting
day, crowned with the history of
Truth's idea, - its earthly advent and
nativity, - is |
| 6 |
especially dear to the heart of Christian
Scientists; to
whom Christ's appearing in a fuller sense is so
precious,
and fraught with divine benedictions for mankind. |
| 9 |
The star that looked lovingly down on the
manger of
our Lord, lends its resplendent light to this hour: the
light
of Truth, to cheer, guide, and bless man as he |
| 12 |
reaches forth for the infant idea of divine
perfection
dawning upon human imperfection, - that calms man's
fears,
bears his burdens, beckons him on to Truth and |
| 15 |
Love and the sweet immunity these bring
from sin, sick-
ness, and death.
This polar star,
fixed in the heavens of divine Science, |
| 18 |
shall be the sign of his appearing who
"healeth all our
diseases;" it hath traversed night, wading through
darkness and gloom, on to glory. It doth meet the |
| 21 |
antagonism of error; addressing to dull
ears and undis-
ciplined beliefs words of Truth and Life.
The star of
Bethlehem is the star of Boston, high in |
| 24 |
the zenith of Truth's domain, that looketh
down on the
long night of human beliefs, to pierce the darkness and
melt into dawn. |
| 27 |
The star of Bethlehem is the light of all
ages; is the
light of Love, to-day christening religion undefiled,
divine
Science; giving to it a new name, and the white stone in |
| 30 |
token of purity and permanence.
Page
321 |
| 1 |
The wise men follow this guiding star; the
watchful
shepherd chants his welcome over the cradle of a great |
| 3 |
truth, and saith, "Unto us a child is
born," whose birth
is less of a miracle than eighteen centuries ago; and
"his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty |
| 6 |
God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace."
My heart is filled
with joy, that each receding year sees
the steady gain of Truth's idea in
Christian Science; that |
| 9 |
each recurring year witnesses the balance
adjusted more
on the side of God, the supremacy of Spirit; as shown
by
the triumphs of Truth over error, of health over sick- |
| 12 |
ness, of Life over death, and of Soul over
sense.
"The hour cometh,
and now is, when the true wor-
shippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth." |
| 15 |
"For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made
me free from the law of sin and death." "Fear not,
little
flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you |
| 18 |
the kingdom."
Press on,
press on! ye sons of light,
Untiring in your holy fight, |
| 21 |
Still
treading each temptation down,
And battling for a brighter crown.
CARD |
| 24 |
In reply to all invitations from Chicago to
share the
hospitality of their beautiful homes at any time during
the
great wonder of the world, the World's Fair, I say, |
| 27 |
Do not expect me. I have no desire to see
or to hear
what is to be offered upon this approaching occasion.
I have a world of
wisdom and Love to contemplate, |
| 30 |
that concerns me, and you, infinitely
beyond all earthly
Page
322 |
| 1 |
expositions or exhibitions. In return for
your kindness,
I earnestly invite you to its contemplation with me,
and |
| 3 |
to preparation to behold it.
MESSAGE TO THE MOTHER CHURCH
Beloved
Brethren: - People coming from a
distance |
| 6 |
expecting to hear me speak in The Mother
Church,
are frequently disappointed. To avoid this, I may here-
after
notify the Directors when I shall be present to |
| 9 |
address this congregation, and the Clerk of
the church
can inform correspondents. Your dual and impersonal
pastor,
the Bible, and "Science and Health with Key to |
| 12 |
the Scriptures," is with you; and the Life
these give, the
Truth they illustrate, the Love they demonstrate, is
the great Shepherd that feedeth my flock, and leadeth |
| 15 |
them "beside the still waters." By any
personal pres-
ence, or word of mine, your thought must not be diverted
or diverged, your senses satisfied, or self be justified. |
| 18 |
Therefore, beloved, my often-coming is
unnecessary;
for, though I be present or absent, it is God that feed-
eth the hungry heart, that giveth grace for grace, that |
| 21 |
healeth the sick and cleanseth the sinner.
For this
consummation He hath given you Christian Science,
and my past
poor labors and love. He hath shown you |
| 24 |
the amplitude of His mercy, the justice of
His judgment,
the omnipotence of His love; and this, to compensate
your
zealous affection for seeking good, and for labor- |
| 27 |
ing in its widening grooves from the
infinitesimal to the
infinite.
Page
323
CHAPTER IX - THE FRUIT OF SPIRIT
AN
ALLEGORY
PICTURE to yourself
"a city set upon a hill," a |
| 3 |
celestial city above all clouds, in serene
azure and
unfathomable glory: having no temple therein, for God is
the
temple thereof; nor need of the sun, neither of the |
| 6 |
moon, for God doth lighten it. Then from
this sacred
summit behold a Stranger wending his way downward,
to where
a few laborers in a valley at the foot of the moun- |
| 9 |
tain are working and watching for his
coming.
The descent and
ascent are beset with peril, priva-
tion, temptation, toil, suffering.
Venomous serpents hide |
| 12 |
among the rocks, beasts of prey prowl in
the path, wolves
in sheep's clothing are ready to devour; but the
Stranger
meets and masters their secret and open attacks with |
| 15 |
serene confidence.
The Stranger
eventually stands in the valley at the
foot of the mountain. He saith unto
the patient toilers |
| 18 |
therein: "What do ye here? Would ye ascend
the moun-
tain, - climbing its rough cliffs, hushing the hissing
serpents, taming the beasts of prey, -and bathe in its |
| 21 |
streams, rest in its cool grottos, and
drink from its living
fountains? The way winds and widens in the
valley;
up the hill it is straight and narrow, and few there be that |
| 24 |
find it."
Page
324 |
| 1 |
His converse with the watchers and workers
in the
valley closes, and he makes his way into the streets of a |
| 3 |
city made with hands.
Pausing at the
threshold of a palatial dwelling, he
knocks and waits. The door is shut. He
hears the |
| 6 |
sounds of festivity and mirth; youth,
manhood, and age
gayly tread the gorgeously tapestried parlors,
dancing-
halls, and banquet-rooms. But a little while, and the |
| 9 |
music is dull, the wine is unsipped, the
footfalls abate,
the laughter ceases. Then from the window of this
dwel-
ling a face looks out, anxiously surveying him who waiteth |
| 12 |
at the door.
Within this mortal
mansion are adulterers, fornicators,
idolaters; drunkenness, witchcraft,
variance, envy, emu- |
| 15 |
lation, hatred, wrath, murder. Appetites
and passions
have so dimmed their sight that he alone who looks from
that dwelling, through the clearer pane of his own heart |
| 18 |
tired of sin, can see the Stranger.
Startled beyond
measure at beholding him, this mortal
inmate withdraws; but growing more
and more troubled, |
| 21 |
he seeks to leave the odious company and
the cruel walls,
and to find the Stranger. Stealing cautiously away
from
his comrades, he departs; then turns back, - he is afraid |
| 24 |
to go on and to meet the Stranger. So he
returns to the
house, only to find the lights all wasted and the music
fled. Finding no happiness within, he rushes again |
| 27 |
into the lonely streets, seeking peace but
finding none.
Naked, hungry, athirst, this time he struggles on, and
at
length reaches the pleasant path of the valley at the |
| 30 |
foot of the mountain, whence he may
hopefully look for
the reappearance of the Stranger, and receive his
heavenly
guidance.
Page
325 |
| 1 |
The Stranger enters a massive carved stone
mansion,
and saith unto the dwellers therein, "Blessed are the |
| 3 |
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven." But
they understand not his saying.
These are believers
of different sects, and of no sect; |
| 6 |
some, so-called Christian Scientists in
sheep's clothing;
and all "drunken without wine." They have small con-
ceptions of spiritual riches, few cravings for the immortal, |
| 9 |
but are puffed up with the applause of the
world: they
have plenty of pelf, and fear not to fall upon the
Stranger,
seize his pearls, throw them away, and afterwards try to |
| 12 |
kill him.
Somewhat
disheartened, he patiently seeks another
dwelling, - only to find its
inmates asleep at noontide! |
| 15 |
Robust forms, with manly brow nodding on
cushioned
chairs, their feet resting on footstools, or, flat on their
backs, lie stretched on the floor, dreaming away the |
| 18 |
hours. Balancing on one foot, with eyes
half open,
the porter starts up in blank amazement and looks at
the
Stranger, calls out, rubs his eyes, - amazed beyond |
| 21 |
measure that anybody is animated with a
purpose, and
seen working for it!
They in this house
are those that "provoke Him in |
| 24 |
the wilderness, and grieve Him in the
desert." Away
from this charnel-house of the so-called living, the Stranger
turns quickly, and wipes off the dust from his feet as a |
| 27 |
testimony against sensualism in its myriad
forms. As
he departs, he sees robbers finding ready ingress to that
dwelling of sleepers in the midst of murderous hordes, |
| 30 |
without watchers and the doors unbarred!
Next he enters a
place of worship, and saith unto them,
"Go ye into all the world; preach
the gospel, heal the
Page
326 |
| 1 |
sick, cast out devils, raise the dead; for
the Scripture
saith the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath |
| 3 |
made you free from the law of sin and
death." And they
cast him out.
Once more he seeks
the dwelling-place of mortals and |
| 6 |
knocks loudly. The door is burst open, and
sufferers
shriek for help: that house is on fire! The flames caught
in
the dwelling of luxury, where the blind saw them not, |
| 9 |
but the flesh at length did feel them;
thence they spread
to the house of slumberers who heeded them not,
until
they became unmanageable; fed by the fat of hypocrisy |
| 12 |
and vainglory, they consumed the next
dwelling; then
crept unseen into the synagogue, licking up the blood
of
martyrs and wrapping their altars in ruins. "God is a |
| 15 |
consuming fire."
Thus are all
mortals, under every hue of circumstances,
driven out of their houses of
clay and, homeless wan- |
| 18 |
derers in a beleaguered city, forced to
seek the Father's
house, if they would be led to the valley and up the
mount. |
| 21 |
Seeing the wisdom of withdrawing from those
who
persistently rejected him, the Stranger returned to the
valley;
first, to meet with joy his own, to wash their |
| 24 |
feet, and take them up the mountain. Well
might this
heavenly messenger exclaim, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which |
| 27 |
are sent unto thee, . . . Behold, your
house is left unto
you desolate."
Discerning in his
path the penitent one who had groped |
| 30 |
his way from the dwelling of luxury, the
Stranger saith
unto him, "Wherefore comest thou hither?"
He answered, "The
sight of thee unveiled my sins, and
Page
327 |
| 1 |
turned my misnamed joys to sorrow. When I
went back
into the house to take something out of it, my misery |
| 3 |
increased; so I came hither, hoping that I
might follow
thee whithersoever thou goest."
And
the Stranger saith unto him, "Wilt thou climb |
| 6 |
the mountain, and take nothing of thine
own with thee?"
He answered, "I
will."
"Then," saith the
Stranger, "thou hast chosen the |
| 9 |
good part; follow me."
Many there were who had entered the valley to specu-
late in worldly policy, religion, politics, finance, and to |
| 12 |
search for wealth and fame. These had heavy
baggage
of their own, and insisted upon taking all of it with them,
which must greatly hinder their ascent. |
| 15 |
The journey commences. The encumbered
travellers
halt and disagree. They stoutly belay those who, hav-
ing
less baggage, ascend faster than themselves, and |
| 18 |
betimes burden them with their own.
Despairing of
gaining the summit, loaded as they are, they conclude to
stop and lay down a few of the heavy weights, - but |
| 21 |
only to take them up again, more than ever
determined
not to part with their baggage.
All this time the
Stranger is pointing the way, show- |
| 24 |
ing them their folly, rebuking their pride,
consoling their
afflictions, and helping them on, saying, "He that loseth
his life for my sake, shall find it." |
| 27 |
Obstinately holding themselves back, and
sore-footed,
they fall behind and lose sight of their guide; when,
stumbling and grumbling, and fighting each other, they |
| 30 |
plunge headlong over the jagged rocks.
Then he who has no
baggage goes back and kindly
binds up their wounds, wipes away the blood
stains, and
Page
328 |
| 1 |
would help them on; but suddenly the
Stranger shouts,
"Let them alone; they must learn from the things they |
| 3 |
suffer. Make thine own way; and if thou
strayest, listen
for the mountain-horn, and it will call thee back to
the
path that goeth upward." |
| 6 |
Dear reader, dost thou suspect that the
valley is hu-
mility, that the mountain is heaven-crowned Christianity,
and the Stranger the ever-present Christ, the spiritual |
| 9 |
idea which from the summit of bliss surveys
the vale of
the flesh, to burst the bubbles of earth with a breath of
heaven, and acquaint sensual mortals with the mystery |
| 12 |
of godliness, - unchanging, unquenchable
Love? Hast
not thou heard this Christ knock at the door of thine own
heart, and closed it against Truth, to "eat and drink |
| 15 |
with the drunken"? Hast thou been driven by
suffer-
ing to the foot of the mount, but earth-bound, burdened
by
pride, sin, and self, hast thou turned back, stumbled, |
| 18 |
and wandered away? Or hast thou tarried in
the habita-
tion of the senses, pleased and stupefied, until wakened
through the baptism of fire? |
| 21 |
He alone ascends the hill of Christian
Science who
follows the Way-shower, the spiritual presence and idea
of
God. Whatever obstructs the way, - causing to |
| 24 |
stumble, fall, or faint, those mortals who
are striving
to enter the path, - divine Love will remove; and up-
lift
the fallen and strengthen the weak. Therefore, give |
| 27 |
up thy earth-weights; and observe the
apostle's admoni-
tion, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those which are before." Then, |
| 30 |
loving God supremely and thy neighbor as
thyself, thou
wilt safely bear thy cross up to the throne of
everlasting
glory.
Page
329
VOICES OF SPRING
Mine is an obstinate
penchant for nature in all her |
| 3 |
moods and forms, a satisfaction with
whatever is hers.
And what shall this be named, a weakness, or a -
virtue? |
| 6 |
In spring, nature like a thrifty housewife
sets the earth
in order; and between taking up the white carpets and
putting down the green ones, her various apartments are |
| 9 |
dismally dirty.
Spring is my
sweetheart, whose voices are sad or glad,
even as the heart may be;
restoring in memory the sweet |
| 12 |
rhythm of unforgotten harmonies, or
touching tenderly
its tearful tones.
Spring passes over
mountain and meadow, waking up |
| 15 |
the world; weaving the wavy grass, nursing
the timid
spray, stirring the soft breeze; rippling all nature in
ceaseless flow, with "breath all odor and cheek all bloom." |
| 18 |
Whatever else droops, spring is gay: her
little feet trip
lightly on, turning up the daisies, paddling the
water-
cresses, rocking the oriole's cradle; challenging the sed- |
| 21 |
entary shadows to activity, and the streams
to race for the
sea. Her dainty fingers put the fur cap on
pussy-willow,
paint in pink the petals of arbutus, and sweep in soft |
| 24 |
strains her Orphean lyre. "The voice of the
turtle is
heard in our land." The snow-bird that tarried through
the
storm, now chirps to the breeze; the cuckoo sounds |
| 27 |
her invisible lute, calling the feathered
tribe back to their
summer homes. Old robin, though stricken to the
heart
with winter's snow, prophesies of fair earth and sunny |
| 30 |
skies. The brooklet sings melting murmurs
to merry
Page
330 |
| 1 |
meadows; the leaves clap their hands, and
the winds
make melody through dark pine groves. |
| 3 |
What is the anthem of human life?
Has love ceased to
moan over the new-made grave,
and, looking upward, does it patiently pray
for the per- |
| 6 |
petual springtide wherein no arrow wounds
the dove?
Human hope and faith should join in nature's grand har-
mony,
and, if on minor key, make music in the heart. |
| 9 |
And man, more friendly, should call his
race as gently
to the springtide of Christ's dear love. St. Paul wrote,
"Rejoice in the Lord always." And why not, since man's |
| 12 |
possibilities are infinite, bliss is
eternal, and the conscious-
ness thereof is here and now?
The alders bend over
the streams to shake out their |
| 15 |
tresses in the water-mirrors; let mortals
bow before the
creator, and, looking through Love's transparency,
behold
man in God's own image and likeness, arranging in the |
| 18 |
beauty of holiness each budding thought. It
is good to
talk with our past hours, and learn what report they
bear,
and how they might have reported more spirit- |
| 21 |
ual growth. With each returning year,
higher joys,
holier aims, a purer peace and diviner energy, should
freshen the fragrance of being. Nature's first and last |
| 24 |
lessons teach man to be kind, and even
pride should
sanction what our natures need. Popularity, - what is
it?
A mere mendicant that boasts and begs, and God |
| 27 |
denies charity.
When gentle violet
lifts its blue eye to heaven, and
crown imperial unveils its regal splendor
to the sun; |
| 30 |
when the modest grass, inhabiting the
whole earth, stoops
meekly before the blast; when the patient corn
waits
on the elements to put forth its slender blade, construct
Page
331 |
| 1 |
the stalk, instruct the ear, and crown the
full corn in the
ear, - then, are mortals looking up, waiting on God, |
| 3 |
and committing their way unto Him who
tosses earth's
mass of wonders into their hands? When downtrodden
like
the grass, did it make them humble, loving, obedi- |
| 6 |
ent, full of good odor, and cause them to
wait patiently
on God for man's rich heritage, - "dominion over all
the
earth"? Thus abiding in Truth, the warmth and |
| 9 |
sunlight of prayer and praise and
understanding will
ripen the fruits of Spirit, and goodness will have its
spring-
tide of freedom and greatness. |
| 12 |
When the white-winged dove feeds her callow
brood,
nestles them under her wings, and, in tones tremulous
with
tenderness, calls them to her breast, do mortals |
| 15 |
remember their cradle hymns, and
thank God for those
redemptive words from a mother's lips which taught
them the Lord's Prayer? |
| 18 |
O gentle
presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting
hour;
Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight! |
| 21 |
Keep Thou
my child on upward wing to-night.
Midst the falling leaves of old-time
faiths, above the
frozen crust of creed and dogma, the divine
Mind-force, |
| 24 |
filling all space and having all power,
upheaves the earth.
In sacred solitude divine Science evolved nature as
thought,
and thought as things. This supreme potential Principle |
| 27 |
reigns in the realm of the real, and is
"God with us,"
the I AM.
As mortals awake
from their dream of material sen- |
| 30 |
sation, this adorable, all-inclusive God,
and all earth's
hieroglyphics of Love, are understood; and infinite
Mind
Page
332 |
| 1 |
is seen kindling the stars, rolling the
worlds, reflecting
all space and Life, - but not life in matter.
Wisely |
| 3 |
governing, informing the universe, this
Mind is Truth, -
not laws of matter. Infinitely just, merciful, and
wise,
this Mind is Love, - but not fallible love. |
| 6 |
Spring is here! and doors that closed on
Christian
Science in "the long winter of our discontent," are open
flung. Its seedtime has come to enrich earth and en- |
| 9 |
robe man in righteousness; may its
sober-suited autumn
follow with hues of heaven, ripened sheaves, and
harvest
songs.
"WHERE ART THOU?"
In the allegory of
Genesis, third chapter and ninth
verse, two mortals, walking in the cool of
the day midst |
| 15 |
the stately palms, many-hued blossoms,
perfume-laden
breezes, and crystal streams of the Orient, pondered the
things of man and God. |
| 18 |
A sense of evil is supposed to have spoken,
been listened
to, and afterwards to have formed an evil sense that
blinded the eyes of reason, masked with deformity the |
| 21 |
glories of revelation, and shamed the face
of mortals.
What was this sense?
Error versus Truth: first, a
supposition; second, a false belief; third,
suffering; |
| 24 |
fourth, death.
Is
man the supposer, false believer, sufferer?
Not man, but a mortal - the
antipode of immortal |
| 27 |
man. Supposing, false believing, suffering
are not fac-
ulties of Mind, but are qualities of error.
The supposition is, that God and His idea are not
all- |
| 30 |
power; that there is something besides
Him; that this
Page
333 |
| 1 |
something is intelligent matter; that sin -
yea, self-
hood - is apart from God, where pleasure and pain, |
| 3 |
good and evil, life and death, commingle,
and are for-
ever at strife; even that every ray of Truth, of infinity,
omnipotence, omnipresence, goodness, could be absorbed |
| 6 |
in error! God cannot be obscured, and this
renders error
a palpable falsity, yea, nothingness; on the basis that
black is not a color because it absorbs all the rays of |
| 9 |
light.
The "Alpha and
Omega" of Christian Science voices
this question: Where do we hold
intelligence to be? Is |
| 12 |
it in both evil and good, in matter as well
as Spirit?
If so, we are literally and practically denying that God,
good, is supreme, all power and presence, and are turn- |
| 15 |
ing away from the only living and true
God, to "lords
many and gods many."
Where art thou, O
mortal! who turnest away from |
| 18 |
the divine source of being, - calling on
matter to work
out the problem of Mind, to aid in understanding and
securing the sweet harmonies of Spirit that relate to the |
| 21 |
universe, including man?
Paul asked: "What
communion hath light with dark-
ness? And what concord hath Christ with
Belial?" The |
| 24 |
worshippers of Baal worshipped the sun.
They believed
that something besides God had authority and power,
could
heal and bless; that God wrought through matter |
| 27 |
- by means of that which does not reflect
Him in a single
quality or quantity! - the grand realities of Mind,
thus
to exemplify the power of Truth and Love. |
| 30 |
The ancient Chaldee hung his destiny out
upon the
heavens; but ancient or modern Christians, instructed in
divine Science, know that the prophet better understood
Page
334 |
| 1 |
Him who said: "He doeth according to His
will in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; |
| 3 |
and none can stay His hand, or say unto
Him, What doest
Thou?"
Astrology is well in
its place, but this place is second- |
| 6 |
ary. Necromancy has no foundation, - in
fact, no
intelligence; and the belief that it has, deceives itself.
Whatever simulates power and Truth in matter, does this |
| 9 |
as a lie declaring itself, that mortals'
faith in matter may
have the effect of power; but when the whole
fabrication
is found to be a lie, away goes all its supposed power and |
| 12 |
prestige.
Why do Christian
Scientists treat disease as disease,
since there is no
disease? |
| 15 |
This is done only as one gives the lie to a
lie; because
it is a lie, without one word of Truth in it. You must
find error to be nothing: then, and only then, do you |
| 18 |
handle it in Science. The diabolism of
suppositional
evil at work in the name of good, is a lie of the highest
degree of nothingness: just reduce this falsity to its proper |
| 21 |
denomination, and you have done with it.
How shall we treat a
negation, or error - by means
of matter, or Mind? Is matter Truth? No! Then
it |
| 24 |
cannot antidote error.
Can belief destroy
belief? No: understanding is re-
quired to do this. By the substitution of
Truth demon- |
| 27 |
strated, Science remedies the ills of
material beliefs.
Because I have
uncovered evil, and dis-covered for
you divine Science, which saith, "Be
not overcome of |
| 30 |
evil, but overcome evil with good," and
you have not
loved sufficiently to understand this Golden Rule and
demonstrate the might of perfect Love that casteth out
Page
335 |
| 1 |
all fear, shall you turn away from this
divine Principle
to graven images? Remember the Scripture: - |
| 3 |
"But and if that evil servant shall say in
his heart,
My lord delayeth his coming;
"And shall begin to
smite his fellow-servants, and to |
| 6 |
eat and drink with the drunken;
"The lord of that
servant shall come in a day when
he looketh not for him, and in an hour
that he is not |
| 9 |
aware of,
"And shall cut him
asunder, and appoint him his por-
tion with the
hypocrites." |
| 12 |
One mercilessly assails me for opposing the
subtle lie,
others charge upon me with full-fledged invective for, as
they say, having too much charity; but neither moves |
| 15 |
me from the path made luminous by divine
Love.
In my public works I
lay bare the ability, in belief, of
evil to break the Decalogue, - to
murder, steal, commit |
| 18 |
adultery, and so on. Those who deny my
wisdom or
right to expose error, are either willing participants in
wrong, afraid of its supposed power, or ignorant of it. |
| 21 |
The notion that one is covering iniquity by
asserting
its nothingness, is a fault of zealots, who, like Peter,
sleep when the Watcher bids them watch, and when the |
| 24 |
hour of trial comes would cut off
somebody's ears. Such
people say, "Would you have me get out of a
burning
house, or stay in it?" |
| 27 |
I would have you already out, and
know that you are
out; also, to remember the Scripture concerning
those
who do evil that good may come, - "whose damnation |
| 30 |
is just;" and that whoso departeth from
divine Science,
seeking power or good aside from God, has done himself
harm.
Page
336 |
| 1 |
Mind is supreme: Love is the master of
hate; Truth,
the victor over a lie. Hath not Science voiced this les- |
| 3 |
son to you, - that evil is powerless, that
a lie is never
true? It is your province to wrestle with error, to
handle
the serpent and bruise its head; but you cannot, as a |
| 6 |
Christian Scientist, resort to stones and
clubs,-yea, to
matter, - to kill the serpent of a material mind.
Do you love that
which represents God most, His high- |
| 9 |
est idea as seen to-day? No!
Then you would hate
Jesus if you saw him personally,
and knew your right obligations towards
him. He would |
| 12 |
insist on the rule and demonstration of
divine Science:
even that you first cast out your own dislike and
hatred
of God's idea, - the beam in your own eye that hinders |
| 15 |
your seeing clearly how to cast the mote of
evil out of
other eyes. You cannot demonstrate the Principle of
Christian Science and not love its idea: we gather not |
| 18 |
grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles.
Where art thou?
DIVINE SCIENCE |
| 21 |
What is it but another name for Christian
Science,
the cognomen of all true religion, the quintessence of
Christianity, that heals disease and sin and destroys |
| 24 |
death! Part and parcel of Truth and Love,
wherever
one ray of its effulgence looks in upon the heart, behold
a
better man, woman, or child. |
| 27 |
Science is the fiat of divine intelligence,
which, hoary
with eternity, touches time only to take away its frailty.
That it rests on everlasting foundations, the sequence |
| 30 |
proves.
Page
337 |
| 1 |
Have I discovered and founded at this
period Chris-
tian Science, that which reveals the truth of Love, - is |
| 3 |
the question.
And how can you be
certain of so momentous an
affirmative? By proving its effect on yourself
to be - |
| 6 |
divine.
What is the
Principle and rule of Christian Science?
Infinite query!
Wonder in heaven and on earth, - |
| 9 |
who shall say? The immaculate Son of the
Blessed
has spoken of them as the Golden Rule and its Principle,
God
who is Love. Listen, and he illustrates the rule: |
| 12 |
"Jesus called a little child unto him, and
set him in the
midst of them, and said, . . . Whosoever . . . shall
humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest |
| 15 |
in the kingdom of heaven."
Harmony is heaven.
Science brings out harmony;
but this harmony is not understood unless it
produces a |
| 18 |
growing affection for all good, and
consequent disaffec-
tion for all evil, hypocrisy, evil-speaking, lust,
envy, hate.
Where these exist, Christian Science has no sure foot- |
| 21 |
hold: they obscure its divine element, and
thus seem
to extinguish it. Even the life of Jesus was belittled
and
belied by personalities possessing these defacing de- |
| 24 |
formities. Only the devout Marys, and such
as lived
according to his precepts, understood the concrete char-
acter
of him who taught - by the wayside, in humble |
| 27 |
homes, to itching ears and to dull
disciples - the words
of Life.
The ineffable Life
and light which he reflected through |
| 30 |
divine Science is again reproduced in the
character which
sensualism, as heretofore, would hide or besmear. Sin
of any sort tends to hide from an individual this grand
Page
338 |
| 1 |
verity in Science, that the appearing of
good in an in-
dividual involves the disappearing of evil. He who
first |
| 3 |
brings to humanity some great good, must
have gained
its height beforehand, to be able to lift others toward
it.
I first proved to myself, not by "words," - these |
| 6 |
afford no proof, - but by demonstration of
Christian
Science, that its Principle is divine. All must go and do
likewise. |
| 9 |
Faith illumined by works; the spiritual
understanding
which cannot choose but to labor and love; hope hold-
ing
steadfastly to good in the midst of seething evil; |
| 12 |
charity that suffereth long and is kind,
but cancels not
sin until it be destroyed, - these afford the only rule
I
have found which demonstrates Christian Science. |
| 15 |
And remember, a pure faith in humanity will
subject
one to deception; the uses of good, to abuses from evil;
and
calm strength will enrage evil. But the very heavens |
| 18 |
shall laugh at them, and move majestically
to your de-
fense when the armies of earth press hard upon you.
"Thou must be true thyself, |
| 21 |
If thou the
truth wouldst teach;
Thy soul must overflow, if thou
Another's soul
wouldst reach; |
| 24 |
It needs
the overflow of heart,
To give the lips full speech.
"Think
truly, and thy thoughts |
| 27 |
Shall the
world's famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a
fruitful seed; |
| 30 |
Live
truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed."
Page
339
FIDELITY
If people would
confine their talk to subjects that are |
| 3 |
profitable, that which St. John informs us
took place
once in heaven, would happen very frequently on earth,
-
silence for the space of half an hour. |
| 6 |
Experience is victor, never the vanquished;
and out
of defeat comes the secret of victory. That to-morrow
starts
from to-day and is one day beyond it, robes the |
| 9 |
future with hope's rainbow hues.
In the battle of
life, good is made more industrious
and persistent because of the supposed
activity of evil. |
| 12 |
The elbowing of the crowd plants our feet
more firmly.
In the mental collisions of mortals and the strain of in-
tellectual wrestlings, moral tension is tested, and, if it |
| 15 |
yields not, grows stronger. The past
admonishes us:
with finger grim and cold it points to every mortal
mistake;
or smiling saith, "Thou hast been faithful over a few |
| 18 |
things."
Art thou a child,
and hast added one furrow to the
brow of care? Art thou a husband, and hast
pierced |
| 21 |
the heart venturing its all of happiness to
thy keeping?
Art thou a wife, and hast bowed the o'erburdened head
of
thy husband? Hast thou a friend, and forgettest to be |
| 24 |
grateful? Remember, that for all this thou
alone canst
and must atone. Carelessly or remorselessly thou mayest
have sent along the ocean of events a wave that will some |
| 27 |
time flood thy memory, surge dolefully at
the door of con-
science, and pour forth the unavailing tear.
Change and the grave
may part us; the wisdom that |
| 30 |
might have blessed the past may come too
late. One
Page
340 |
| 1 |
backward step, one relinquishment of right
in an evil
hour, one faithless tarrying, has torn the laurel from many |
| 3 |
a brow and repose from many a heart. Good
is never
the reward of evil, and vice versa.
There is no
excellence without labor; and the time to |
| 6 |
work, is now. Only by persistent,
unremitting, straight-
forward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to
the
left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which |
| 9 |
cometh from God, can you win and wear the
crown of the
faithful.
That law-school is
not at fault which sends forth a |
| 12 |
barrister who never brings out a brief.
Why? Because
he followed agriculture instead of litigation, forsook
Blackstone for gray stone, dug into soils instead of delv- |
| 15 |
ing into suits, raised potatoes instead of
pleas, and drew
up logs instead of leases. He has not been faithful
over
a few things. |
| 18 |
Is a musician made by his teacher? He makes
him-
self a musician by practising what he was taught. The
conscientious are successful. They follow faithfully; |
| 21 |
through evil or through good report, they
work on to the
achievement of good; by patience, they inherit the prom-
ise. Be active, and, however slow, thy success is sure: |
| 24 |
toil is triumph; and - thou hast been
faithful over a few
things.
The lives of great
men and women are miracles of pa- |
| 27 |
tience and perseverance. Every luminary in
the constel-
lation of human greatness, like the stars, comes out in
the darkness to shine with the reflected light of God. |
| 30 |
Material philosophy, human ethics,
scholastic theology,
and physics have not sufficiently enlightened
mankind.
Human wrong, sickness, sin, and death still appear in
Page
341 |
| 1 |
mortal belief, and they never bring out the
right action
of mind or body. When will the whole human race have |
| 3 |
one God, - an undivided affection that
leaves the unreal
material basis of things, for the spiritual foundation
and
superstructure that is real, right, and eternal? |
| 6 |
First purify thought, then put thought into
words,
and words into deeds; and after much slipping and
clambering,
you will go up the scale of Science to the |
| 9 |
second rule, and be made ruler over many
things. Fidelity
finds its reward and its strength in exalted purpose.
Seek-
ing is not sufficient whereby to arrive at the results of |
| 12 |
Science: you must strive; and the glory of
the strife
comes of honesty and humility.
Do human hopes
deceive? is joy a trembler? Then, |
| 15 |
weary pilgrim, unloose the latchet of thy
sandals; for the
place whereon thou standest is sacred. By that, you
may
know you are parting with a material sense of life and |
| 18 |
happiness to win the spiritual sense of
good. O learn to
lose with God! and you find Life eternal: you gain
all.
To doubt this is implicit treason to divine decree. |
| 21 |
The parable of "the ten virgins" serves to
illustrate
the evil of inaction and delay. This parable is drawn
from
the sad history of Vesta, - a little girl of eight |
| 24 |
years, who takes the most solemn vow of
celibacy for thirty
years, and is subject to terrible torture if the lamp
she
tends is not replenished with oil day and night, so that the |
| 27 |
flame never expires. The moral of the
parable is pointed,
and the diction purely Oriental.
We learn from this
parable that neither the cares of |
| 30 |
this world nor the so-called pleasures or
pains of mate-
rial sense are adequate to plead for the neglect of
spiritual
light, that must be tended to keep aglow the flame of
Page
342 |
| 1 |
devotion whereby to enter into the joy of
divine Science
demonstrated. |
| 3 |
The foolish virgins had no oil in their
lamps: their
way was material; thus they were in doubt and dark-
ness.
They heeded not their sloth, their fading warmth |
| 6 |
of action; hence the steady decline of
spiritual light,
until, the midnight gloom upon them, they must borrow
the better-tended lamps of the faithful. By entering |
| 9 |
the guest-chamber of Truth, and beholding
the bridal
of Life and Love, they would be wedded to a higher
understanding of God. Each moment's fair expect- |
| 12 |
ancy was to behold the bridegroom, the One
"altogether
lovely."
It was midnight:
darkness profound brooded over |
| 15 |
earth's lazy sleepers. With no oil in their
lamps, no
spiritual illumination to look upon him whom they had
pierced, they heard the shout, "The bridegroom cometh!" |
| 18 |
But how could they behold him? Hear that
human
cry: "Oh, lend us your oil! our lamps have gone out,
- no light!
earth's fables flee, and heaven is afar |
| 21 |
off."
The door is shut.
The wise virgins had no oil to spare,
and they said to the foolish, "Go to
them that sell, and |
| 24 |
buy for yourselves." Seek Truth, and pursue
it. It should
cost you something: you are willing to pay for error
and
receive nothing in return; but if you pay the price of |
| 27 |
Truth, you shall receive all.
"The children of
this world are in their generation
wiser than the children of light;" they
watch the market, |
| 30 |
acquaint themselves with the etiquette of
the exchange,
and are ready for the next move. How much more should
we
be faithful over the few things of Spirit, that are able
Page
343 |
| 1 |
to make us wise unto salvation! Let us
watch and pray
that we enter not into the temptation of ease in sin;
and |
| 3 |
let us not forget that others before us
have laid upon the
altar all that we have to sacrifice, and have passed
to
their reward. Too soon we cannot turn from disease |
| 6 |
in the body to find disease in the mortal
mind, and its cure,
in working for God. Thought must be made better,
and
human life more fruitful, for the divine energy to move |
| 9 |
it onward and upward.
Warmed by the
sunshine of Truth, watered by the
heavenly dews of Love, the fruits of
Christian Science |
| 12 |
spring upward, and away from the sordid
soil of self and
matter. Are we clearing the gardens of thought by up-
rooting the noxious weeds of passion, malice, envy, and |
| 15 |
strife? Are we picking away the cold, hard
pebbles of
selfishness, uncovering the secrets of sin and burnishing
anew the hidden gems of Love, that their pure perfection |
| 18 |
shall appear? Are we feeling the vernal
freshness and
sunshine of enlightened faith?
The weeds of mortal
mind are not always destroyed |
| 21 |
by the first uprooting; they reappear, like
devastating
witch-grass, to choke the coming clover. O stupid gar-
dener ! watch their reappearing, and tear them away from |
| 24 |
their native soil, until no seedling be
left to propagate -
and rot.
Among the manifold
soft chimes that will fill the haunted |
| 27 |
chambers of memory, this is the sweetest:
"Thou hast
been faithful !"
Page
344
TRUE PHILOSOPHY AND COMMUNION
It is related of
Justin Martyr that, hearing of a Pythag- |
| 3 |
orean professor of ethics, he expressed the
wish to be-
come one of his disciples. "Very well," the teacher
replied; "but have you studied music, astronomy, and |
| 6 |
geometry, and do you think it possible for
you to under-
stand aught of that which leads to bliss, without hav-
ing mastered the sciences that disengage the soul from |
| 9 |
objects of sense, so rendering it a fit
habitation for
the intelligences?" On Justin's confessing that he had
not studied those branches, he was dismissed by the |
| 12 |
professor.
Alas for such a
material science of life! Of what
avail would geometry be to a poor sinner
struggling with |
| 15 |
temptation, or to a man with the smallpox?
Ancient and modern
philosophies are spoiled by lack
of Science. They would place Soul wholly
inside of body, |
| 18 |
intelligence in matter; and from error of
premise would
seek a correct conclusion. Such philosophy can never
demonstrate the Science of Life, - the Science which |
| 21 |
Paul understood when he spoke of
willingness "to be
absent from the body, and present with the Lord."
Such
philosophy is far from the rules of the mighty Nazarene |
| 24 |
Prophet. His words, living in our hearts,
were these:
"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as
a little
child, shall in no wise enter therein." Not through |
| 27 |
astronomy did he point out the way to
heaven and the
reign of harmony.
We need the spirit
of St. Paul, when he stood on Mars' |
| 30 |
hill at Athens, bringing Christianity for
the first time
Page
345 |
| 1 |
into Europe. The Spirit bestows spiritual
gifts, God's
presence and providence. St. Paul stood where Socrates |
| 3 |
had stood four hundred years before,
defending himself
against the charge of atheism; in the place where De-
mosthenes had pleaded for freedom in immortal strains |
| 6 |
of eloquence.
We need the spirit
of the pious Polycarp, who, when
the proconsul said to him, "I will set the
beasts upon |
| 9 |
you, unless you yield your religion,"
replied: "Let them
come; I cannot change from good to bad." Then they
bound him to the stake, set fire to the fagots, and his |
| 12 |
pure and strong faith rose higher through
the baptism
of flame.
Methinks the infidel
was blind who said, "Christianity |
| 15 |
is fit only for women and weak men;" but
even infidels
may disagree. Bonaparte declared, "Ever since the
reign
of Christianity began the loftiest intellects have had |
| 18 |
a practical faith in God." Daniel Webster
said, "My
heart has always assured and reassured me that Chris-
tianity
must be a divine reality." |
| 21 |
To turn the popular indignation against an
advanced
form of religion, the pagan slanderers affirmed that
Christians took their infants to a place of worship in |
| 24 |
order to offer them in sacrifice, - a
baptism not of
water but of blood, thus distorting or misapprehending
the purpose of Christian sacraments. Christians met |
| 27 |
in midnight feasts in the early days, and
talked of the
crucified Saviour; thence arose the rumor that it was
a
part of Christian worship to kill and eat a human |
| 30 |
being.
Really, Christianity
turned men away from the thought
of fleshly sacrifice, and directed them to
spiritual attain-
Page
346 |
| 1 |
ments. Life, not death, was and is the very
centre of
its faith. Christian Science carries this thought even |
| 3 |
higher, and insists on the demonstration
of moral and
spiritual healing as eminent proof that God is understood
and illustrated.
ORIGIN OF EVIL
The origin of evil
is the problem of ages. It confronts
each generation anew. It confronts
Christian Science. |
| 9 |
The question is often asked, If God
created only the
good, whence comes the evil?
To this question
Christian Science replies: Evil never |
| 12 |
did exist as an entity. It is but a belief
that there is an
opposite intelligence to God. This belief is a species
of
idolatry, and is not more true or real than that an image |
| 15 |
graven on wood or stone is God.
The mortal admission
of the reality of evil perpetuates
faith in evil; and the Scriptures
declare that "to whom |
| 18 |
ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants ye
are." This leading, self-evident proposition of Christian
Science, that, good being real, its opposite is necessarily |
| 21 |
unreal, needs to be grasped in all its
divine requirements.
TRUTH VERSUS ERROR
"A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold in pictures |
| 24 |
of silver." It is a rule in Christian
Science never to re-
peat error unless it becomes requisite to bring out
Truth.
Then lift the curtain, let in the light, and countermand
Page
347 |
| 1 |
this first command of Solomon, "Answer not
a fool accord-
ing to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him." |
| 3 |
A distant rumbling and quivering of the
earth foretell
the internal action of pent-up gas. To avoid danger from
this source people have to escape from their houses to the |
| 6 |
open space. A conical cloud, hanging like a
horoscope
in the air, foreshadows a cyclone. To escape from this
calamity people prepare shelter in caves of the earth. |
| 9 |
They who discern the face of the skies
cannot always
discern the mental signs of these times, and peer through
the opaque error. Where my vision begins and is clear, |
| 12 |
theirs grows indistinct and ends.
There are
diversities of operation by the same spirit.
Two individuals, with all the
goodness of generous na- |
| 15 |
tures, advise me. One says, Go this way;
the other
says, Take the opposite direction! Between the two I
stand
still; or, accepting the premonition of one of them, |
| 18 |
I follow his counsel, take a few steps,
then halt. A true
sense not unfamiliar has been awakened. I see the way
now. The guardians of His presence go before me. I |
| 21 |
enter the path. It may be smooth, or it may
be rugged;
but it is always straight and narrow; and if it be up-
hill
all the way, the ascent is easy and the summit can |
| 24 |
be gained.
God is responsible
for the mission of those whom He
has anointed. Those who know no will but
His take |
| 27 |
His hand, and from the night He leads to
light. None
can say unto Him, What doest Thou?
The Christian
Science Journal was the oldest
and |
| 30 |
only authenticated organ of Christian
Science up to
1898. Loyal Scientists are targets for envy, rivalry,
slander; and whoever hits this mark is well paid by the
Page
348 |
| 1 |
umpire. But the Scientists aim highest.
They press for-
ward towards the mark of a high calling. They recog- |
| 3 |
nize the claims of the law and the gospel.
They know
that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. They
infringe neither the books nor the business of others; and |
| 6 |
with hearts overflowing with love for God,
they help on the
brotherhood of men. It is not mine but Thine
they seek.
When God bids one
uncover iniquity, in order to |
| 9 |
exterminate it, one should lay it bare; and
divine Love
will bless this endeavor and those whom it reaches.
"Nothing is hid that shall not be revealed." |
| 12 |
It is only a question of time when God
shall reveal His
rod, and show the plan of battle. Error, left to
itself,
accumulates. Hence, Solomon's transverse command: |
| 15 |
"Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in
his own conceit."
To quench the
growing flames of falsehood, once in |
| 18 |
about seven years I have to repeat this, -
that I use no
drugs whatever, not even coffea (coffee), thea (tea),
cap-
sicum (red pepper); though every day, and especially at |
| 21 |
dinner, I indulge in homoeopathic doses of
Natrum muri-
aticum (common salt).
When I found myself
under this new régime of medi- |
| 24 |
cine, the medicine of Mind, I wanted to
satisfy my curi-
osity as to the effect of drugs on one who had lost
all
faith in them. Hence I tried several doses of medicine, |
| 27 |
and so proved to myself that drugs have no
beneficial
effect on an individual in a proper state of mind.
I have by no means
encouraged students of the Massa- |
| 30 |
chusetts Metaphysical College to enter
medical schools,
and afterwards denied this and objected to their
entering
those schools. A student who consulted me on this sub-
Page
349 |
| 1 |
ject, received my consent and even the
offer of pecuniary
assistance to take lessons outside of my College,
provided |
| 3 |
he received these lessons of a certain
regular-school physi-
cian, whose instructions included about twelve
lessons,
three weeks' time, and the surgical part of midwifery. I |
| 6 |
have students with the degree of M. D., who
are skilful
obstetricians. Such a course with such a teacher would
not
necessitate essential materialization of a student's |
| 9 |
thought, nor detract from the metaphysical
mode of
obstetrics taught in my College.
This student had
taken the above-named course in |
| 12 |
obstetrics when he consulted me on the
feasibility of enter-
ing a medical school; and to this I objected on the
ground
that it was inconsistent with Christian Science, which he |
| 15 |
claimed to be practising; but I was
willing, and said
so, that, notwithstanding my objection, he should do
as
he deemed best, for I claim no jurisdiction over any stu- |
| 18 |
dents. He entered the medical school, and
several other
students with him. My counsel to all of them was in
substance the same as the foregoing, and some of these |
| 21 |
students have openly acknowledged this.
In answer to a
question on the following subject, I
will state that I preached four years,
and built up the |
| 24 |
church, before I would accept the slightest
remuneration.
When the church had sufficient members and means to
pay a
salary, and refused to give me up or to receive my |
| 27 |
gratuitous services, I accepted, for a
time, fifteen dollars
each Sunday when I preached. I never received
more
than this; and the contributions, when I preached, |
| 30 |
doubled that amount. I have accepted no
pay from my
church for about three years, and believe that I have
put
into the church-fund about two thousand dollars of
Page
350 |
| 1 |
my own contributions. I hold receipts for
$1,489.50 paid
in, and the balance was never receipted for. |
| 3 |
I temporarily organized a secret society
known as the
P. M., the workings whereof were not "terrible and too
shocking to relate." By and with advice of the very |
| 6 |
student who brings up the question of this
society, it
was formed. The P. M. (Private Meeting) Society met
only
twice. The first subject given out for considera- |
| 9 |
tion was this: "There is no Animal
Magnetism." There
was no advice given, no mental work, and there were
no transactions at those meetings which I would hesi- |
| 12 |
tate to have known. On the contrary, our
deliberations
were, as usual, Christian, and like my public
instruction.
The second P. M. convened in about one week from the |
| 15 |
first. The subject given out at that
meeting was, in sub-
stance, "God is All; there is none beside Him." This
proved to be our last meeting. I dissolved the society, |
| 18 |
and we have not met since. If harm could
come from
the consideration of these two topics, it was because of
the
misconception of those subjects in the mind that |
| 21 |
handled them. An individual state of mind
sometimes
occasions effects on patients which are not in harmony
with
Science and the soundness of the argument used. |
| 24 |
Hence it prevents the normal action, and
the benefit that
would otherwise accrue.
I issue no
arguments, and cause none to be used in |
| 27 |
mental practice, which consign people to
suffering. On
the contrary, I cannot serve two masters; therefore I
teach the use of such arguments only as promote health |
| 30 |
and spiritual growth. My life, consecrated
to humanity
through nameless suffering and sacrifice, furnishes its
own
proof of my practice.
Page
351 |
| 1 |
I have sometimes called on students to test
their ability
and meet the mental malpractice, so as to lift the
burdens |
| 3 |
imposed by students.
The fact is, that
for want of time, and for the purpose
of blessing even my enemies, I
neglect myself. I never |
| 6 |
have practised by arguments which,
perverted, are the
weapons of the silent mental malpractice. I have no
skill
in occultism; and I could not if I would, and would not |
| 9 |
if I could, harm any one through the
mental method of
Mind-healing, or in any manner.
The late
much-ado-about-nothing arose solely from |
| 12 |
mental malicious practice, and the audible
falsehood
designed to stir up strife between brethren, for the purpose
of placing Christian Science in the hands of aspirants |
| 15 |
for place and power. These repeated
attempts of mad
ambition may retard our Cause, but they never can place
it in the wrong hands and hold it there, nor benefit |
| 18 |
mankind by such endeavors.
FALLIBILITY OF HUMAN CONCEPTS
Evil counterfeits
good: it says, "I am Truth," though |
| 21 |
it is a lie; it says, "I am Love," - but
Love is spirit-
ual, and sensuous love is material, wherefore it is
hate
instead of Love; for the five senses give to mortals pain, |
| 24 |
sickness, sin, and death, - pleasure that
is false, life that
leads unto death, joy that becomes sorrow. Love that
is
not the procurator of happiness, declares itself the anti- |
| 27 |
pode of Love; and Love divine punishes the
joys of this
false sense of love, chastens its affection, purifies it, and
turns it into the opposite channels. |
| 30 |
Material life is the antipode of spiritual
life; it mocks
Page
352 |
| 1 |
the bliss of spiritual being; it is bereft
of permanence and
peace. |
| 3 |
When human sense is quickened to behold
aright the
error, - the error of regarding Life, Truth, Love as
material and not spiritual, or as both material and spir- |
| 6 |
itual, - it is able for the first time to
discern the Science
of good. But it must first see the error of its
present
erroneous course, to be able to behold the facts of Truth |
| 9 |
outside of the error; and, vice
versa, when it discovers
the truth, this uncovers the error and
quickens the true
consciousness of God, good. May the human shadows of |
| 12 |
thought lengthen as they approach the
light, until they
are lost in light and no night is there!
In Science, sickness
is healed upon the same Principle |
| 15 |
and by the same rule that sin is healed. To
know the
supposed bodily belief of the patient and what has claimed
to
produce it, enables the practitioner to act more under- |
| 18 |
standingly in destroying this belief. Thus
it is in heal-
ing the moral sickness; the malicious mental operation
must be understood in order to enable one to destroy |
| 21 |
it and its effects. There is not sufficient
spiritual power
in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful.
Through the divine energies alone one must either get |
| 24 |
out of himself and into God so far that his
consciousness
is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through
argu-
ment and the human consciousness of both evil and good, |
| 27 |
overcome evil.
The only difference
between the healing of sin and the
healing of sickness is, that sin must be
uncovered before |
| 30 |
it can be destroyed, and the moral sense
be aroused to
reject the sense of error; while sickness must be cov-
ered with the veil of harmony, and the consciousness be
Page
353 |
| 1 |
allowed to rejoice in the sense that it has
nothing to mourn
over, but something to forget. |
| 3 |
Human concepts run in extremes; they are
like the
action of sickness, which is either an excess of action or
not
action enough; they are fallible; they are neither |
| 6 |
standards nor models.
If one asks me, Is
my concept of you right? I reply, The
human concept is always imperfect;
relinquish your human |
| 9 |
concept of me, or of any one, and find the
divine, and you
have gained the right one - and never until then.
People
give me too much attention of the misguided, fallible sort, |
| 12 |
and this misrepresents one through malice
or ignorance.
My brother was a
manufacturer; and one day a work-
man in his mills, a practical joker, set
a man who applied |
| 15 |
for work, in the overseer's absence, to
pour a bucket of
water every ten minutes on the regulator. When my
brother returned and saw it, he said to the jester, "You |
| 18 |
must pay that man." Some people try to tend
folks, as
if they should steer the regulator of mankind. God makes
us pay for tending the action that He adjusts. |
| 21 |
The regulator is governed by the principle
that makes
the machinery work rightly; and because it is thus gov-
erned, the folly of tending it is no mere jest. The divine |
| 24 |
Principle carries on His harmony.
Now turn from the
metaphor of the mill to the Mother's
four thousand children, most of whom,
at about three |
| 27 |
years of scientific age, setup housekeeping
alone. Certain
students, being too much interested in themselves to
think
of helping others, go their way. They do not love Mother, |
| 30 |
but pretend to; they constantly go to her
for help, interrupt
the home-harmony, criticise and disobey her; then
"return
to their vomit," - world worship, pleasure seeking, and
Page
354 |
| 1 |
sense indulgence, - meantime declaring they
"never dis-
obey Mother"! It exceeds my conception of human |
| 3 |
nature. Sin in its very nature is
marvellous ! Who but a
moral idiot, sanguine of success in sin, can steal,
and lie
and lie, and lead the innocent to doom? History needs it, |
| 6 |
and it has the grandeur of the loyal,
self-forgetful, faith-
ful Christian Scientists to overbalance this foul
stuff.
When the Mother's
love can no longer promote peace |
| 9 |
in the family, wisdom is not "justified of
her children."
When depraved reason is preferred to revelation, error
to Truth, and evil to good, and sense seems sounder than |
| 12 |
Soul, the children are tending the
regulator; they are
indeed losing the knowledge of the divine Principle
and
rules of Christian Science, whose fruits prove the nature |
| 15 |
of their source. A little more grace, a
motive made pure,
a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a
character
subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action |
| 18 |
of the mental mechanism, and make manifest
the move-
ment of body and soul in accord with God.
Instead of relying
on the Principle of all that really |
| 21 |
exists, - to govern His own creation, -
self-conceit, igno-
rance, and pride would regulate God's action. Expe-
rience shows that humility is the first step in Christian |
| 24 |
Science, wherein all is controlled, not by
man or laws
material, but by wisdom, Truth, and Love.
Go gaze on
the eagle, his eye on the sun, |
| 27 |
Fast
gathering strength for a flight well begun,
As rising he rests in a liberty
higher
Than genius inflated with worldly desire. |
| 30 |
No tear
dims his eye, nor his pinions lose power
To gaze on the lark in her emerald
bower -
Whenever he soareth to fashion his nest, |
| 33 |
No vision
more bright than the dream in his breast.
Page
355
THE WAY
The present stage of
progress in Christian Science pre- |
| 3 |
sents two opposite aspects, - a full-orbed
promise, and
a gaunt want. The need, however, is not of the letter,
but
the spirit. |
| 6 |
Less teaching and good healing is to-day
the acme of
"well done;" a healing that is not guesswork, - chronic
recovery ebbing and flowing, - but instantaneous cure. |
| 9 |
This absolute demonstration of Science must
be revived.
To consummate this desideratum, mortal mind must
pass
through three stages of growth. |
| 12 |
First, self-knowledge. The physician must
know him-
self and understand the mental state of his patient. Error
found out is two-thirds destroyed, and the last third |
| 15 |
pierces itself, for the remainder only
stimulates and gives
scope to higher demonstration. To strike out right
and
left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift |
| 18 |
your head above it, is a sovereign panacea.
Mental dark-
ness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power,
and
its victim is responsible for its supposititious presence. |
| 21 |
"Cast the beam out of thine own eye." Learn
what in
thine own mentality is unlike "the anointed," and cast
it out;
then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient's |
| 24 |
mind that makes his body sick, and remove
it, and rest
like the dove from the deluge.
"Physician, heal
thyself." Let no clouds of sin gather |
| 27 |
and fall in mist and showers from thine own
mental
atmosphere. Hold thy gaze to the light, and the iris of
faith,
more beautiful than the rainbow seen from my |
| 30 |
window at the close of a balmy autumnal
day, will span
thy heavens of thought.
Page
356 |
| 1 |
A radiant sunset, beautiful as blessings
when they take
their flight, dilates and kindles into rest. Thus will
a |
| 3 |
life corrected illumine its own atmosphere
with spiritual
glow and understanding.
The pent-up elements
of mortal mind need no terrible |
| 6 |
detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry,
hate need no
temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through
suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and |
| 9 |
freedom.
My students, with
cultured intellects, chastened affec-
tions, and costly hopes, give promise
of grand careers. |
| 12 |
But they must remember that the seedtime is
passed,
the harvest hour has come; and songs should ascend
from the
mount of revelation, sweeter than the sound of |
| 15 |
vintage bells.
The seed of
Christian Science, which when sown was
"the least of all seeds," has sprung
up, borne fruit, and |
| 18 |
the birds of the air, the uplifted desires
of the human
heart, have lodged in its branches. Now let my faithful
students carry the fruit of this tree into the rock-ribbed |
| 21 |
nests of the raven's callow brood.
The second stage of
mental development is humility.
This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is
the genius of |
| 24 |
Christian Science. One can never go up,
until one has
gone down in his own esteem. Humility is lens and
prism
to the understanding of Mind-healing; it must be |
| 27 |
had to understand our textbook; it is
indispensable to
personal growth, and points out the chart of its
divine
Principle and rule of practice. |
| 30 |
Cherish humility, "watch," and "pray
without ceas-
ing," or you will miss the way of Truth and Love. Hu-
mility is no busybody: it has no moments for trafficking
Page
357 |
| 1 |
in other people's business, no place for
envy, no time for
idle words, vain amusements, and all the et cetera
of the |
| 3 |
ways and means of personal sense.
Let Christian
Scientists minister to the sick; the school-
room is the dernier
ressort. Let them seek the lost sheep |
| 6 |
who, having strayed from the true fold,
have lost their
great Shepherd and yearn to find living pastures and
rest beside still waters. These long for the Christlike- |
| 9 |
ness that is above the present status of
religion and be-
yond the walks of common life, quite on the verge of
heaven. Without the cross and healing, Christianity has |
| 12 |
no central emblem, no history.
The seeds of Truth
fall by the wayside, on artless
listeners. They fall on stony ground and
shallow soil. |
| 15 |
The fowls of the air pick them up. Much of
what has
been sown has withered away, but what remaineth has
fallen
into the good and honest hearts and is bearing |
| 18 |
fruit.
The third stage of
mental growth is manifested in love,
the greatest of all stages and
states of being; love that |
| 21 |
is irrespective of self, rank, or
following. For some time
it has been clear to my thought that those
students of
Christian Science whose Christian characters and lives |
| 24 |
recommend them, should receive full
fellowship from us,
no matter who has taught them. If they have been
taught
wrongly, they are not morally responsible for this, and |
| 27 |
need special help. They are as lambs that
have sought
the true fold and the great Shepherd, and strayed inno-
cently; hence we should be ready and glad to help them |
| 30 |
and point the way.
Divine Love is the
substance of Christian Science, the
basis of its demonstration, yea, its
foundation and super-
Page
358 |
| 1 |
structure. Love impels good works. Love is
greatly
needed, and must be had to mark the way in divine |
| 3 |
Science.
The student who
heals by teaching and teaches by
healing, will graduate under divine
honors, which are |
| 6 |
the only appropriate seals for Christian
Science. State
honors perish, and their gain is loss to the Christian
Scientist. They include for him at present naught but |
| 9 |
tardy justice, hounded footsteps, false
laurels. God
alone is his help, his shield and great reward. He that
seeketh aught besides God, loseth in Life, Truth, and |
| 12 |
Love. All men shall be satisfied when they
"awake in
His likeness," and they never should be until then. Hu-
man
pride is human weakness. Self-knowledge, humility, |
| 15 |
and love are divine strength. Christ's
vestures are put
on only when mortals are "washed in the blood of the
Lamb;" we must walk in the way which Jesus marked |
| 18 |
out, if we would reach the heaven-crowned
summit of
Christian Science.
Be it understood
that I do not require Christian Sci- |
| 21 |
entists to stop teaching, to dissolve
their organizations,
or to desist from organizing churches and
associations.
The Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, the first |
| 24 |
and only College for teaching Christian
Science Mind-
healing, after accomplishing the greatest work of the
ages, and at the pinnacle of prosperity, is closed. Let |
| 27 |
Scientists who have grown to self-sacrifice
do their
present work, awaiting, with staff in hand, God's
commands. |
| 30 |
When students have fulfilled all the good
ends of
organization, and are convinced that by leaving the
material
forms thereof a higher spiritual unity is won,
Page
359 |
| 1 |
then is the time to follow the example of
the Alma Mater.
Material organization is requisite in the beginning;
but |
| 3 |
when it has done its work, the purely
Christly method
of teaching and preaching must be adopted. On the same
principle, you continue the mental argument in the prac- |
| 6 |
tice of Christian healing until you can
cure without it
instantaneously, and through Spirit alone.
St. Paul says: "When
I was a child, I spake as a |
| 9 |
child, I understood as a child, I thought
as a child: but
when I became a man, I put away childish things. For
now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to |
| 12 |
face." Growth is restricted by forcing
humanity out of
the proper channels for development, or by holding it
in
fetters. |
| 15 |
For Jesus to walk the water was scientific,
insomuch
as he was able to do this; but it is neither wisdom nor
Science for poor humanity to step upon the Atlantic until |
| 18 |
we can walk on the water.
Peter's impetuosity
was rebuked. He had to learn
from experience; so have we. The methods of
our |
| 21 |
Master were in advance of the period in
which he per-
sonally appeared; but his example was right, and is
available at the right time. The way is absolute divine |
| 24 |
Science: walk ye in it; but remember that
Science is
demonstrated by degrees, and our demonstration rises
only as
we rise in the scale of being.
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
Men give counsel;
but they give not the wisdom to
profit by it. To ask wisdom of God, is the
beginning of |
| 30 |
wisdom.
Page
360 |
| 1 |
Meekness, moderating human desire, inspires
wisdom
and procures divine power. Human lives are yet un- |
| 3 |
carved, - in the rough marble, encumbered
with crude,
rude fragments, and awaiting the hammering, chiselling,
and
transfiguration from His hand. |
| 6 |
Great only as good, because fashioned
divinely, were
those unpretentious yet colossal characters, Paul and
Jesus. Theirs were modes of mind cast in the moulds |
| 9 |
of Christian Science: Paul's, by the
supremely natural
transforming power of Truth; and the character of
Jesus, by his original scientific sonship with God. Phi- |
| 12 |
losophy never has produced, nor can it
reproduce, these
stars of the first magnitude - fixed stars in the
heavens
of Soul. When shall earth be crowned with the true |
| 15 |
knowledge of Christ?
When Christian
Science has melted away the cloud of
false witnesses; and the dews of
divine grace, fall- |
| 18 |
sing upon the blighted flowers of fleeting
joys, shall
lift every thought-leaflet Spiritward; and "Israel after
the flesh," who partaketh of its own altars, shall be |
| 21 |
no more, - then, "the Israel according to
Spirit"
shall fill earth with the divine energies, understanding,
and
ever-flowing tides of spiritual sensation and con- |
| 24 |
sciousness.
When mortal mind is
silenced by the "still, small voice"
of Truth that regenerates philosophy
and logic; and |
| 27 |
Jesus, as the true idea of Him, is heard as
of yore saying
to sensitive ears and dark disciples, "I came from the
Father," "Before Abraham was, I am," coexistent and |
| 30 |
coeternal with God, - and this idea is
understood, -
then will the earth be filled with the true knowledge of
Christ. No advancing modes of human mind made
Page
361 |
| 1 |
Jesus; rather was it their subjugation, and
the pure
heart that sees God. |
| 3 |
When the belief in material origin, mortal
mind, sen-
sual conception, dissolves through self-imposed suffering,
and its substances are found substanceless, - then its |
| 6 |
miscalled life ends in death, and death
itself is swallowed
up in Life, - spiritual Life, whose myriad forms
are
neither material nor mortal. |
| 9 |
When every form and mode of evil disappear
to hu-
man thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual con-
cepts
testifying to one creator, - then, earth is full of |
| 12 |
His glory, and Christian Science has
overshadowed all
human philosophy, and being is understood in startling
contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato, |
| 15 |
Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin,
and Spencer
sit at the feet of Jesus.
To this great end,
Paul admonished, "Let us lay aside |
| 18 |
every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set
before
us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our |
| 21 |
faith." So shall mortals soar to final
freedom, and rest
from the subtlety of speculative wisdom and human
woe. |
| 24 |
God is the only Mind, and His manifestation
is the
spiritual universe, including man and all eternal indi-
viduality. God, the only substance and divine Principle |
| 27 |
of creation, is by no means a creative
partner in the firm
of error, named matter, or mortal mind. He
elucidates
His own idea, wherein Principle and idea, God and man, |
| 30 |
are not one, but are inseparable as cause
and effect. If
one, who could say which that "one" was?
His ways are not as
our ways. The divine modes
Page
362 |
| 1 |
and manifestations are not those of the
material senses;
for instance, intelligent matter, or mortal mind,
material |
| 3 |
birth, growth, and decay: they are the
forever-existing
realities of divine Science; wherein God and man are
perfect, and man's reason is at rest in God's wisdom, - |
| 6 |
who comprehends and reflects all real
mode, form, indi-
viduality, identity.
Scholastic dogma has
made men blind. Christ's logos |
| 9 |
gives sight to these blind, ears to these
deaf, feet to these
lame, - physically, morally, spiritually.
Theologians
make the mortal mistake of believing that God, having |
| 12 |
made all, made evil; but the
Scriptures declare that all
that He made was good. Then, was evil part and
parcel
of His creation? |
| 15 |
Philosophy hypothetically regards creation
as its own
creator, puts cause into effect, and out of nothing would
create something, whose noumenon is mortal mind, |
| 18 |
with its phenomenon matter, - an evil mind
already
doomed, whose modes are material manifestations of
evil, and
that continually, until self-extinguished by |
| 21 |
suffering!
Here revelation must
come to the rescue of mortals,
to remove this mental millstone that is
dragging them |
| 24 |
downward, and refute erring reason with the
spiritual
cosmos and Science of Soul. We all must find shelter
from the
storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit. |
| 27 |
Truth is won through Science or suffering:
O vain mor-
tals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward,
except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform |
| 30 |
the sinner. And pleasure is no crime
except when it
strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens
the activities of virtue. The more nearly an erring so-
Page
363 |
| 1 |
called mind approaches purity, the more
conscious it
becomes of its own unreality, and of the great reality of |
| 3 |
divine Mind and true happiness.
The "ego" that
claims selfhood in error, and passes
from molecule and monkey up to man, is
no ego, but is |
| 6 |
simply the supposition that the absence of
good is mind
and makes men, - when its greatest flatterer, identifica-
tion, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with |
| 9 |
nothingness, dust with dust!
The mythology of
evil and mortality is but the ma-
terial mode of a suppositional mind;
while the immortal |
| 12 |
modes of Mind are spiritual, and pass
through none of
the changes of matter, or evil. Truth said, and said
from
the beginning, "Let us [Spirit] make man perfect;" and |
| 15 |
there is no other Maker: a perfect man
would not desire
to make himself imperfect, and God is not chargeable
with imperfection. His modes declare the beauty of holi- |
| 18 |
ness, and His manifold wisdom shines
through the visible
world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even
through
the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His |
| 21 |
coming.
We must avoid the
shoals of a sensual religion or
philosophy that misguides reason and
affection, and |
| 24 |
hold fast to the Principle of Christian
Science as the
Word that is God, Spirit, and Truth. This Word
cor-
rects the philosopher, confutes the astronomer, exposes |
| 27 |
the subtle sophist, and drives diviners
mad. The Bible
is the learned man's masterpiece, the ignorant man's
dictionary, the wise man's directory. |
| 30 |
I foresee and foresay that every advancing
epoch of
Truth will be characterized by a more spiritual appre-
hension
of the Scriptures, that will show their marked
Page
364 |
| 1 |
consonance with the textbook of Christian
Science Mind-
healing, "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures." |
| 3 |
Interpreting the Word in the "new tongue,"
whereby
the sick are healed, naturally evokes new paraphrase
from the
world of letters. "Wait patiently on the Lord, |
| 6 |
and He will renew your strength." In return
for indi-
vidual sacrifice, what a recompense to have healed, through
Truth, the sick and sinful, made the public your friend, |
| 9 |
and posterity your familiar!
Christian Science
refutes everything that is not a
postulate of the divine Principle, God. It
is the soul of |
| 12 |
divine philosophy, and there is no other
philosophy. It
is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is
God's
right hand grasping the universe, - all time, space, |
| 15 |
immortality, thought, extension, cause, and
effect; con-
stituting and governing all identity, individuality, law,
and power. It stands on this Scriptural platform: |
| 18 |
that He made all that was made, and it is
good, reflects
the divine Mind, is governed by it; and that nothing
apart from this Mind, one God, is self-created or evolves |
| 21 |
the universe.
Human hypotheses
predicate matter of Spirit and
evil of good; hence these opposites must
either cooperate |
| 24 |
or quarrel throughout time and eternity, -
or until
this impossible partnership is dissolved. If Spirit is the
lawgiver to matter, and good has the same power or |
| 27 |
modes as evil, it has the same
consciousness, and there
is no absolute good. This error, carried to its
ultimate,
would either extinguish God and His modes, or give |
| 30 |
reality and power to evil ad
infinitum.
Christian Science
rends this veil of the temple of gods,
and reproduces the divine philosophy
of Jesus and Paul.
Page
365 |
| 1 |
This philosophy alone will bear the strain
of time and
bring out the glories of eternity; for "other founda- |
| 3 |
tion can no man lay than that is laid,"
which is Christ,
Truth.
Human theories
weighed in the balances of God are |
| 6 |
found wanting; and their highest endeavors
are to Science
what a child's love of pictures is to art. The school
whose
schoolmaster is not Christ, gets things wrong, and is igno- |
| 9 |
rant thereof.
If Christian Science
lacked the proof of its goodness
and utility, it would destroy itself; for
it rests alone on |
| 12 |
demonstration. Its genius is right thinking
and right
acting, physical and moral harmony; and the secret of
its
success lies in supplying the universal need of better |
| 15 |
health and better men.
Good health and a
more spiritual religion form the
common want, and this want has worked out
a moral |
| 18 |
result; namely, that mortal mind is calling
for what im-
mortal Mind alone can supply. If the uniform moral
and
spiritual, as well as physical, effects of divine Science |
| 21 |
were lacking, the demand would diminish;
but it con-
tinues, and increases, which shows the real value of
Christian Science to the race. Even doctors agree that |
| 24 |
infidelity, bigotry, or sham has never met
the growing
wants of humanity.
As a literature,
Christian metaphysics is hampered by |
| 27 |
lack of proper terms in which to express
what it means.
As a Science, it is held back by the common ignorance
of
what it is and of what it does, - and more than all |
| 30 |
else, by the impostors that come in its
name. To be
appreciated, it must be conscientiously understood and
introduced.
Page
366 |
| 1 |
If the Bible and "Science and Health with
Key to the
Scriptures" had in our schools the time or attention that |
| 3 |
human hypotheses consume, they would
advance the
world. True, it requires more study to understand and
demonstrate what they teach than to learn the doctrine |
| 6 |
of theology, philosophy, or physics,
because they con-
tain and offer Science, with fixed Principle, given
rule,
and unmistakable proof. |
| 9 |
The Scriptures give the keynote of
Christian Science
from Genesis to Revelation, and this is the prolonged
tone: "For the Lord He is God, and there is |
| 12 |
none beside Him." And because He is
All-in-all,
He is in nothing unlike Himself; and nothing that
worketh
or maketh a lie is in Him, or can be divine con- |
| 15 |
sciousness.
At this date, poor
jaded humanity needs to get her
eyes open to a new style of imposition in
the field of |
| 18 |
medicine and of religion, and to "beware of
the leaven
of the scribes and Pharisees," the doctrines of men, even
as Jesus admonished. From first to last, evil insists on |
| 21 |
the unity of good and evil as the purpose
of God; and
on drugs, electricity, and animal magnetism as modes
of
medicine. To a greater or less extent, all mortal con- |
| 24 |
clusions start from this false premise, and
they neces-
sarily culminate in sickness, sin, disease, and death.
Erroneous doctrines never have abated and never will |
| 27 |
abate dishonesty, self-will, envy, and
lust. To destroy
sin and its sequence, is the office of Christ, Truth, -
ac-
cording to His mode of Christian Science; and this is |
| 30 |
being done daily.
The false theories
whose names are legion, gilded with
sophistry and what Jesus had not,
namely, mere book-
Page
367 |
| 1 |
learning, - letter without law, gospel, or
demonstration,
- have no place in Christian Science. This Science re- |
| 3 |
quires man to be honest, just, pure; to
love his neighbor
as himself, and to love God supremely.
Matter and evil are
subjective states of error or mortal |
| 6 |
mind. But Mind is immortal; and the fact of
there
being no mortal mind, exposes the lie of suppositional
evil,
showing that error is not Mind, substance, or |
| 9 |
Life. Thus, whatever is wrongfully-minded
will dis-
appear in the proportion that Science is understood,
and the
reality of being - goodness and harmony - is |
| 12 |
demonstrated.
Error says that
knowing all things implies the neces-
sity of knowing evil, that it
dishonors God to claim that |
| 15 |
He is ignorant of anything; but God says of
this fruit
of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, "In
the
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." If |
| 18 |
God is infinite good, He knows nothing but
good; if He
did know aught else, He would not be infinite. Infinite
Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To |
| 21 |
good, evil is never present; for evil is a
different state of
consciousness. It was not against evil, but against
know-
ing evil, that God forewarned. He dwelleth in
light; |
| 24 |
and in the light He sees light, and cannot
see darkness.
The opposite conclusion, that darkness dwelleth in light,
has neither precedent nor foundation in nature, in logic, |
| 27 |
or in the character of Christ.
The senses would say
that whatever saves from sin,
must know sin. Truth replies that God is too
pure |
| 30 |
to behold iniquity; and by virtue of His
ignorance of
that which is not, He knoweth that which is, and
abideth in Himself, the only Life, Truth, and Love,
Page
368 |
| 1 |
- and is reflected by a universe in His own
image
and likeness. |
| 3 |
Even so, Father, let the light that shineth
in dark-
ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, dispel this
illusion of the senses, open the eyes of the blind, and cause |
| 6 |
the deaf to hear.
"Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever
on the throne.
Yet that
scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, |
| 9 |
Standeth
God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own."
LOWELL
"TAKE HEED!" |
| 12 |
We regret to be obliged to say that all are
not meta-
physicians, or Christian Scientists, who call themselves
so.
Charlatanism, fraud, and malice are getting into |
| 15 |
the ranks of the good and pure, sending
forth a poison
more deadly than the upas-tree in the eastern archi-
pelago. This evil obtains in the present false teaching |
| 18 |
and false practice of the Science of
treating disease through
Mind. The silent address of a mental
malpractitioner
can only be portrayed in these words of the apostle, |
| 21 |
"whisperers," and "the poison of asps is
under their
tongue."
Some of the mere
puppets of the hour are playing |
| 24 |
only for money, and at a fearful stake.
Others, from
malice and envy, are working out the destinies of the
damned. But while the best, perverted, on the mortal |
| 27 |
plane may become the worst, let us not
forget that the
Lord reigns, and that this earth shall some time
rejoice
in His supreme rule, - that the tired watchmen on the
Page
369 |
| 1 |
walls of Zion, and the true Christian
Scientist at the foot
of the mount of revelation, shall look up with shouts
and |
| 3 |
thanksgiving, - that God's law, as in
divine Science,
shall be finally understood; and the gospel of glad
tidings
bring "on earth peace, good will toward men."
THE CRY OF CHRISTMAS-TIDE
Metaphysics, not
physics, enables us to stand erect
on sublime heights, surveying the
immeasurable universe |
| 9 |
of Mind, peering into the cause which
governs all effects,
while we are strong in the unity of God and man.
There
is "method" in the "madness" of this system, - since |
| 12 |
madness it seems to many onlookers. This
method sits
serene at the portals of the temple of thought, while
the
leaders of materialistic schools indulge in mad |
| 15 |
antics. Metaphysical healing seeks a wisdom
that is
higher than a rhubarb tincture or an ipecacuanha pill.
This
method is devout enough to trust Christ more than |
| 18 |
it does drugs.
Meekly we kneel at
our Master's feet, for even a crumb
that falleth from his table. We are
hungry for Love, |
| 21 |
for the white-winged charity that heals and
saves; we
are tired of theoretic husks, - as tired as was the prodi-
gal son of the carobs which he shared with the swine, |
| 24 |
to whom he fed that wholesome but
unattractive food.
Like him, we would find our Father's house again -
the perfect and eternal Principle of man. We thirst |
| 27 |
for inspiring wine from the vine which our
Father tends.
We crave the privilege of saying to the sick, when their
Page
370 |
| 1 |
feebleness calls for help, "Rise and walk."
We rejoice
to say, in the spirit of our Master, "Stretch forth thy |
| 3 |
hand, and be whole!"
When the Pharisees
saw Jesus do such deeds of mercy,
they went away and took counsel how they
might remove |
| 6 |
him. The antagonistic spirit of evil is
still abroad; but
the greater spirit of Christ is also abroad, - risen
from
the grave-clothes of tradition and the cave of ignorance. |
| 9 |
Let the sentinels of Zion's watch-towers
shout once
again, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given." |
| 12 |
In different ages the divine idea assumes
different
forms, according to humanity's needs. In this age it
assumes,
more intelligently than ever before, the form |
| 15 |
of Christian healing. This is the babe we
are to cherish.
This is the babe that twines its loving arms about the
neck of omnipotence, and calls forth infinite care from |
| 18 |
His loving heart.
BLIND LEADERS
What figure is less
favorable than a wolf in sheep's |
| 21 |
clothing? The braying donkey whose ears
stick out is
less troublesome. What manner of man is it that has
discovered an improvement on Christian Science, a "met- |
| 24 |
aphysical healing" by which error destroys
error, and
would gather all sorts into a "national convention" by
the
sophistry that such is the true fold for Christian heal- |
| 27 |
ers, since the good shepherd cares for
all?
Yes; the good
Shepherd does care for all, and His
first care is to separate the sheep
from the goats; and
Page
371 |
| 1 |
this is among the first lessons on healing
taught by our
great Master. |
| 3 |
If, as the gentleman aforesaid states,
large flocks of
metaphysicians are wandering about without a leader,
what has opened his eyes to see the need of taking them |
| 6 |
out of the care of the great Shepherd, and
behold the
remedy, to help them by his own leadership? Is it that
he
can guide Christian Scientists better than they, through |
| 9 |
the guidance of our common Father, can
guide them-
selves? or is it that they are incapable of helping them-
selves thus? |
| 12 |
I as their teacher can say, They know far
more of
Christian Science than he who deprecates their condition
appears to, and my heart pleads for them to possess |
| 15 |
more and more of Truth and Love; but mixing
all grades
of persons is not productive of the better sort, although
he
who has self-interest in this mixing is apt to pro- |
| 18 |
pose it.
Whoever desires to
say, "good right, and good wrong,"
has no truth to defend. It is a wise
saying that "men |
| 21 |
are known by their enemies." To sympathize
in any
degree with error, is not to rectify it; but error always
strives to unite, in a definition of purpose, with Truth, |
| 24 |
to give it buoyancy. What is under the
mask, but error
in borrowed plumes?
"CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS" |
| 27 |
An
Illustrated Poem
This poem and its illustrations are as
hopelessly origi-
nal as is "Science and Health with Key to the Scrip-
Page
372 |
| 1 |
tures." When the latter was first issued,
critics declared
that it was incorrect, contradictory, unscientific,
unchris- |
| 3 |
tian; but those human opinions had not one
feather's
weight in the scales of God. The fact remains, that
the
textbook of Christian Science is transforming the |
| 6 |
universe.
"Christ and
Christmas" voices Christian Science
through song and object-lesson. In two
weeks from the |
| 9 |
date of its publication in December, 1893,
letters extoll-
ing it were pouring in from artists and poets. A mother
wrote, "Looking at the pictures in your wonderful book |
| 12 |
has healed my child."
Knowing that this
book would produce a stir, I sought
the judgment of sound critics familiar
with the works |
| 15 |
of masters in France and Italy. From them
came such
replies as the following: "The illustrations of your poem
are truly a work of art, and the artist seems quite familiar |
| 18 |
with delineations from the old masters." I
am delighted
to find "Christ and Christmas" in accord with the
ancient
and most distinguished artists. |
| 21 |
The Christian Science Journal gives
no uncertain dec-
laration concerning the spirit and mission of "Christ and
Christmas." |
| 24 |
I aimed to reproduce, with reverent touch,
the modest
glory of divine Science. Not by aid of foreign device
or
environment could I copy art, - never having seen |
| 27 |
the painter's masterpieces; but the
art of Christian
Science, with true hue and character of the living
God,
is akin to its Science: and Science and Health gives |
| 30 |
scopes and shades to the shadows of
divinity, thus im-
parting to humanity the true sense of meekness and
might.
Page
373 |
| 1 |
One incident serves to illustrate the
simple nature of
art. |
| 3 |
I insisted upon placing the serpent behind
the woman
in the picture "Seeking and Finding." My artist at the
easel
objected, as he often did, to my sense of Soul's |
| 6 |
expression through the brush; but, as
usual, he finally
yielded. A few days afterward, the following from
Roth-
erham's translation of the New Testament was handed |
| 9 |
to me, - I had never before seen it: "And
the serpent
cast out of his mouth, behind the woman, water as a
river, that he might cause her to be river-borne." Neither |
| 12 |
material finesse, standpoint, nor
perspective guides the
infinite Mind and spiritual vision that should,
does, guide
His children. |
| 15 |
One great master clearly delineates
Christ's appear-
ing in the flesh, and his healing power, as clad not
in
soft raiment or gorgeous apparel; and when forced out |
| 18 |
of its proper channel, as living feebly, in
kings' courts.
This master's thought presents a sketch of Christian-
ity's state, in the early part of the Christian era, as |
| 21 |
homelessness in a wilderness. But in due
time Chris-
tianity entered into synagogues, and, as St. Mark
writes,
it has rich possession here, with houses and |
| 24 |
lands. In Genesis we read that God gave man
do-
minion over all things; and this assurance is followed
by Jesus'
declaration, "All power is given unto me |
| 27 |
in heaven and in earth," and by his promise
that the
Christlike shall finally sit down at the right hand of the
Father. |
| 30 |
Christian Science is more than a prophet
or a proph-
ecy: it presents not words alone, but works, - the daily
demonstration of Truth and Love. Its healing and sav-
Page
374 |
| 1 |
ing power was so great a proof of Immanuel
and the
realism of Christianity, that it caused even the publi- |
| 3 |
cans to justify God. Although clad in
panoply of power,
the Pharisees scorned the spirit of Christ in most of
its
varied manifestations. To them it was cant and carica- |
| 6 |
ture, - always the opposite of what it was.
Keen and
alert was their indignation at whatever rebuked hypocrisy
and
demanded Christianity in life and religion. In view |
| 9 |
of this, Jesus said, "Wisdom is justified
of all her
children."
Above the fogs of
sense and storms of passion, Chris- |
| 12 |
tian Science and its art will rise
triumphant; ignorance,
envy, and hatred - earth's harmless thunder -
pluck
not their heaven-born wings. Angels, with overtures, |
| 15 |
hold charge over both, and announce their
Principle and
idea.
It is most fitting
that Christian Scientists memorize |
| 18 |
the nativity of Jesus. To him who brought a
great light
to all ages, and named his burdens light, homage is in-
deed due, - but is bankrupt. I never looked on my |
| 21 |
ideal of the face of the Nazarite Prophet;
but the one
illustrating my poem approximates it.
Extremists in every
age either doggedly deny or fran- |
| 24 |
tically affirm what is what: one renders
not unto Caesar
"the things that are Caesar's;" the other sees "Helen's
beauty in a brow of Egypt." |
| 27 |
Pictures are portions of one's ideal, but
this ideal is
not one's personality. Looking behind the veil, he that
perceives a semblance between the thinker and his thought |
| 30 |
on canvas, blames him not.
Because my ideal of
an angel is a woman without
feathers on her wings, - is it less
artistic or less natu-
Page
375 |
| 1 |
ral? Pictures which present disordered
phases of ma-
terial conceptions and personality blind with animality, |
| 3 |
are not my concepts of angels. What is the
material ego,
but the counterfeit of the spiritual?
The truest art of
Christian Science is to be a Chris- |
| 6 |
tian Scientist; and it demands more than a
Raphael to
delineate this art.
The following is an
extract from a letter reverting to |
| 9 |
the illustrations of "Christ and
Christmas": -
"In my last letter,
I did not utter all I felt about the
wonderful new book you have given us.
Years ago, |
| 12 |
while in Italy, I studied the old masters
and their great
works of art thoroughly, and so got quite an idea of
what constitutes true art. Then I spent two years in |
| 15 |
Paris, devoting every moment to the study
of music and
art.
"The first thing
that impressed me in your illustra- |
| 18 |
tions was the conscientious application to
detail, which
is the foundation of true art. From that, I went on to
study each illustration thoroughly, and to my amazement |
| 21 |
and delight I find an almost identical
resemblance, in
many things, to the old masters! In other words, the
art
is perfect. |
| 24 |
"The hands and feet of the figures - how
many times
have I seen these-hands and feet in Angelico's 'Jesus,'
or
Botticelli's 'Madonna'! |
| 27 |
"It gave me such a thrill of joy as no
words can ex-
press, to see produced to-day that art - the only true
art - that we have identified with the old masters, and |
| 30 |
mourned as belonging to them exclusively,
- a thing of
the past, impossible of reproduction.
"All that I can say
to you, as one who gives no mean
Page
376 |
| 1 |
attention to such matters, is that the art
is perfect. It
is the true art of the oldest, most revered, most
authen- |
| 3 |
tic Italian school, revived. I use the
words most au-
thentic in the following sense: the face, figure,
and
drapery of Jesus, very closely resemble in detail the |
| 6 |
face, figure, and drapery of that Jesus
portrayed by the
oldest of the old masters, and said to have been
authen-
tic; the face having been taken by Fra Angelico from |
| 9 |
Caesar's Cameo, the figure and garments
from a descrip-
tion, in The Galaxy, of a small sketch handed
down
from the living reality. Their productions are
expres- |
| 12 |
sionless copies of an engraving cut in a
stone. Yours
is a palpitating, living Saviour engraven on the
heart.
You have given us back our Jesus, and in a much better |
| 15 |
form."
SUNRISE AT PLEASANT VIEW
Who shall describe
the brave splendor of a November |
| 18 |
sky that this morning burst through the
lattice for me,
on my bed? According to terrestrial calculations, above
the horizon, in the east, there rose one rod of rainbow |
| 21 |
hues, crowned with an acre of eldritch
ebony. Little
by little this topmost pall, drooping over a deeply daz-
zling sunlight, softened, grew gray, then gay, and glided |
| 24 |
into a glory of mottled marvels. Fleecy,
faint, fairy
blue and golden flecks came out on a background of
cerulean hue; while the lower lines of light kindled into |
| 27 |
gold, orange, pink, crimson, violet; and
diamond, topaz,
opal, garnet, turquoise, and sapphire spangled the
gloom
in celestial space as with the brightness of His glory. |
| 30 |
Then thought I, What are we, that He who
fashions for-
Page
377 |
| 1 |
ever such forms and hues of heaven, should
move our
brush or pen to paint frail fairness or to weave a web |
| 3 |
of words that glow with gladdening gleams
of God, so
unapproachable, and yet so near and full of radiant relief
in clouds and darkness!
Page
378
CHAPTER X
INKLINGS HISTORIC |
| 1 |
ABOUT the year 1862, while the author of
this work
was at Dr. Vail's Hydropathic Institute in New |
| 3 |
Hampshire, this occurred: A patient
considered incur-
able left that institution, and in a few weeks
returned
apparently well, having been healed, as he informed |
| 6 |
the patients, by one Mr. P. P. Quimby of
Portland,
Maine.
After much
consultation among ourselves, and a struggle |
| 9 |
with pride, the author, in company with
several other
patients, left the water-cure, en route for the
aforesaid
doctor in Portland. He proved to be a magnetic practi- |
| 12 |
tioner. His treatment seemed at first to
relieve her, but
signally failed in healing her case.
Having practised
homoeopathy, it never occurred to the |
| 15 |
author to learn his practice, but she did
ask him how
manipulation could benefit the sick. He answered kindly
and
squarely, in substance, "Because it conveys electricity |
| 18 |
to them." That was the sum of what he
taught her of
his medical profession.
The readers of my
books cannot fail to see that meta- |
| 21 |
physical therapeutics, as in Christian
Science, are farther
removed from such thoughts than the nebulous
system
is from the earth.
Page
379 |
| 1 |
After treating his patients, Mr. Quimby
would retire
to an anteroom and write at his desk. I had a curiosity |
| 3 |
to know if he indited anything pathological
relative to
his patients, and asked if I could see his pennings on
my
case. He immediately presented them. I read the |
| 6 |
copy in his presence, and returned it to
him. The com-
position was commonplace, mostly descriptive of the gen-
eral appearance, height, and complexion of the individual, |
| 9 |
and the nature of the case: it was not at
all metaphysi-
cal or scientific; and from his remarks I inferred that
his writings usually ran in the vein of thought presented |
| 12 |
by these. He was neither a scholar nor a
metaphysician.
I never heard him say that matter was not as real as
Mind,
or that electricity was not as potential or remedial, or |
| 15 |
allude to God as the divine Principle of
all healing. He
certainly had advanced views of his own, but they com-
mingled error with truth, and were not Science. On |
| 18 |
his rare humanity and sympathy one could
write a
sonnet.
I had already
experimented in medicine beyond the |
| 21 |
basis of materia medica, - up to the
highest attenuation
in homoeopathy, thence to a mental standpoint not
un-
derstood, and with phenomenally good results; (1) mean- |
| 24 |
while, assiduously pondering the solution
of this great
question: Is it matter, or is it Mind, that heals the
sick ? |
| 27 |
It was after Mr. Quimby's death that I
discovered,
in 1866, the momentous facts relating to Mind and its
superiority over matter, and named my discovery Chris- |
| 30 |
tian Science. Yet, there remained the
difficulty of ad-
justing in the scale of Science a metaphysical
practice,
(1) See Science and
Health, p. 47, revised edition of 1890, and |
| 33 |
pp. 152, 153 in late editions.
Page
380 |
| 1 |
and settling the question, What shall be
the outward
sign of such a practice: if a divine Principle alone
heals, |
| 3 |
what is the human modus for demonstrating
this, - in
short, how can sinful mortals prove that a divine Principle
heals the sick, as well as governs the universe, time, |
| 6 |
space, immortality, man?
When contemplating
the majesty and magnitude of
this query, it looked as if centuries of
spiritual growth |
| 9 |
were requisite to enable me to elucidate or
to dem-
onstrate what I had discovered: but an unlooked-for,
imperative
call for help impelled me to begin this stu- |
| 12 |
pendous work at once, and teach the first
student in
Christian Science. Even as when an accident, called
fatal to
life, had driven me to discover the Science of |
| 15 |
Life, I again, in faith, turned to divine
help, - and com-
menced teaching.
My students at first
practised in slightly differing |
| 18 |
forms. Although I could heal
mentally, without a sign
save the immediate recovery of the sick, my
students'
patients, and people generally, called for a sign-a ma- |
| 21 |
terial evidence wherewith to satisfy the
sick that some-
thing was being done for them; and I said, "Suffer it
to be so now," for thus saith our Master. Experience, |
| 24 |
however, taught me the impossibility of
demonstrating
the Science of metaphysical healing by any outward form
of practice. |
| 27 |
In April, 1883, a bill in equity was filed
in the United
States Circuit Court in Boston, to restrain, by decree
and
order of the Court, the unlawful publishing and use of an |
| 30 |
infringing pamphlet printed and issued by
a student of
Christian Science.
Answer was filed by
the defendant, alleging that the
Page
381 |
| 1 |
copyrighted works of Mrs. Eddy were not
original with
her, but had been copied by her, or by her direction, |
| 3 |
from manuscripts originally composed by
Dr. P. P.
Quimby.
Testimony was taken
on the part of Mrs. Eddy, the |
| 6 |
defendant being present personally and by
counsel. The
time for taking testimony on the part of the defendant
having nearly expired, he gave notice through his coun- |
| 9 |
sel that he should not put in testimony.
Later, Mrs.
Eddy requested her lawyer to inquire of defendant's
counsel
why he did not present evidence to support his |
| 12 |
claim that Dr. Quimby was the author of her
writings !
Accordingly, her counsel asked the defendant's counsel
this
question, and he replied, in substance, "There is |
| 16 |
no evidence to present."
The stipulation for
a judgment and a decree in favor
of Mrs. Eddy was drawn up and signed by
counsel. |
| 18 |
It was ordered that the complainant (Mrs.
Eddy)
recover of the defendant her cost of suit, taxed at
($113.09) one
hundred thirteen and 9/100 dollars. |
| 21 |
A writ of injunction was issued under the
seal of the
said Court, restraining the defendant from directly or
indirectly printing, publishing, selling, giving away, |
| 24 |
distributing, or in any way or manner
disposing of,
the enjoined pamphlet, on penalty of ten thousand
dollars. |
| 27 |
The infringing books, to the number of
thirty-eight
hundred or thereabouts, were put under the edge of
the
knife, and their unlawful existence destroyed, in |
| 30 |
Boston, Massachusetts.
It has been written
that "nobody can be both founder
and discoverer of the same thing." If this
declaration
Page
382 |
| 1 |
were either a truism or a rule, my
experience would
contradict it and prove an exception. |
| 3 |
No works on the subject of Christian
Science existed,
prior to my discovery of this Science. Before the
publi-
cation of my first work on this doctrine, a few manu- |
| 6 |
scripts of mine were in circulation. The
discovery and
founding of Christian Science has cost more than thirty
years of unremitting toil and unrest; but, comparing those |
| 9 |
with the joy of knowing that the sinner and
the sick are
helped thereby, that time and eternity bear witness to
this gift of God to the race, I am the debtor. |
| 12 |
In the latter half of the nineteenth
century I discov-
ered the Science of Christianity, and restored the
first
patient healed in this age by Christian Science. I taught |
| 15 |
the first student in Christian Science
Mind-healing; was
author and publisher of the first books on this
subject;
obtained the first charter for the first Christian Science |
| 18 |
church, originated its form of government,
and was its
first pastor. I donated to this church the land on which
in
1894 was erected the first church edifice of this de- |
| 21 |
nomination in Boston; obtained the first
and only charter
for a metaphysical medical college, - was its first
and
only president; was editor and proprietor of the first |
| 24 |
Christian Science periodical; organized the
first Chris-
tian Scientist Association, wrote its constitution and by-
laws, - as also the constitution and by-laws of the |
| 27 |
National Christian Science Association; and
gave it
The Christian Science Journal; inaugurated our denom-
inational form of Sunday services, Sunday School, and |
| 30 |
the entire system of teaching and
practising Christian
Science.
In 1895 I ordained
that the Bible, and "Science and
Page
383 |
| 1 |
Health with Key to the Scriptures," the
Christian Science
textbook, be the pastor, on this planet, of all the
churches |
| 3 |
of the Christian Science denomination. This
ordinance
took effect the same year, and met with the universal ap-
proval and support of Christian Scientists. Whenever |
| 6 |
and wherever a church of Christian Science
is established,
its pastor is the Bible and my book.
In 1896 it goes
without saying, preeminent over igno- |
| 9 |
rance or envy, that Christian Science is
founded by its
discoverer, and built upon the rock of Christ. The
ele-
ments of earth beat in vain against the immortal parapets |
| 12 |
of this Science. Erect and eternal, it will
go on with the
ages, go down the dim posterns of time unharmed, and
on
every battle-field rise higher in the estimation of |
| 15 |
thinkers and in the hearts of Christians.
Page
384
CHAPTER XI - POEMS
COME THOU
COME, in the
minstrel's lay; |
| 3 |
When two hearts meet,
And true hearts
greet,
And all is morn and May. |
| 6 |
Come Thou! and now, anew,
To thought
and deed
Give sober speed, |
| 9 |
Thy will to know, and do.
Stay! till the storms are o'er -
The
cold blasts done, |
| 12 |
The reign of heaven begun,
And Love,
the evermore.
Be patient, waiting heart: |
| 15 |
Light, Love divine
Is here, and
thine;
You therefore cannot part. |
| 18 |
"The seasons come and go:
Love, like
the sea,
Rolls on with thee, - |
| 21 |
But knows no ebb and flow.
Page
385 |
| 1 |
"Faith, hope, and tears, triune,
Above
the sod |
| 3 |
Find peace in God,
And one eternal
noon."
Oh, Thou hast heard
my prayer; |
| 6 |
And I am blest!
This is Thy high
behest:
Thou, here and everywhere.
MEETING OF MY DEPARTED MOTHER AND HUSBAND
"Joy for thee, happy
friend! thy bark is past
The dangerous sea, and safely moored at last
- |
| 12 |
Beyond rough foam.
Soft gales
celestial, in sweet music bore -
Spirit emancipate for this far shore
- |
| 15 |
Thee to thy home.
"You've travelled
long, and far from mortal joys,
To Soul's diviner sense, that spurns such
toys, |
| 18 |
Brave wrestler, lone.
Now see thy
ever-self; Life never fled;
Man is not mortal, never of the dead: |
| 21 |
The dark unknown.
"When hope soared
high, and joy was eagle-plumed,
Thy pinions drooped; the flesh was weak,
and doomed |
| 24 |
To pass away.
But faith triumphant
round thy death-couch shed
Majestic forms; and radiant glory sped |
| 27 |
The dawning day.
Page
396 |
| 1 |
"Intensely grand and glorious life's
sphere, -
Beyond the shadow, infinite appear |
| 3 |
Life, Love divine, -
Where mortal
yearnings come not, sighs are stilled,
And home and peace and hearts are
found and filled, |
| 6 |
Thine, ever thine.
"Bearest thou no
tidings from our loved on earth,
The toiler tireless for Truth's new
birth |
| 9 |
All-unbeguiled?
Our joy is gathered
from her parting sigh:
This hour looks on her heart with pitying eye,
- |
| 12 |
What of my child?"
"When, severed by
death's dream, I woke to Life,
She deemed I died, and could not know the
strife |
| 15 |
At first to fill
That waking with a
love that steady turns
To God; a hope that ever upward yearns, |
| 18 |
Bowed to His will.
"Years had passed
o'er thy broken household band,
When angels beckoned me to this bright
land, |
| 21 |
With thee to meet.
She that has wept
o'er thee, kissed my cold brow,
Rears the sad marble to our memory
now, |
| 24 |
In lone retreat.
"By the remembrance
of her loyal life,
And parting prayer, I only know my
wife, |
| 27 |
Thy child, shall come -
Where farewells
cloud not o'er our ransomed rest -
Hither to reap, with all the crowned and
blest, |
| 30 |
Of bliss the sum.
Page
387 |
| 1 |
"When Love's rapt sense the heart-strings
gently sweep,
With joy divinely fair, the high and deep, |
| 3 |
To call her home,
She shall mount
upward unto purer skies;
We shall be waiting, in what glad surprise, |
| 6 |
Our spirits' own!"
LOVE
Brood o'er us with
Thy shelt'ring wing, |
| 9 |
'Neath which our spirits blend
Like
brother birds, that soar and sing,
And on the same branch bend. |
| 12 |
The arrow that doth wound the dove
Darts not from those who watch and love.
If thou the bending
reed wouldst break |
| 15 |
By thought or word unkind,
Pray that
his spirit you partake,
Who loved and healed mankind: |
| 18 |
Seek holy thoughts and heavenly strain,
That make men one in love remain.
Learn, too, that
wisdom's rod is given |
| 21 |
For faith to kiss, and know;
That
greetings glorious from high heaven,
Whence joys supernal flow, |
| 24 |
Come from that Love, divinely near,
Which chastens pride and earth-born fear,
Page
388 |
| 1 |
Through God, who gave that word of might
Which swelled creation's lay: |
| 3 |
"Let there be light, and there was
light."
What chased the clouds away?
'T was Love whose finger traced
aloud |
| 6 |
A bow of promise on the cloud.
Thou to whose power
our hope we give,
Free us from human strife. |
| 9 |
Fed by Thy love divine we live,
For
Love alone is Life;
And life most sweet, as heart to heart |
| 12 |
Speaks kindly when we meet and part.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS
Grave on her
monumental pile: |
| 15 |
She won from vice, by virtue's smile,
Her dazzling crown, her sceptred throne,
Affection's wreath, a happy
home; |
| 18 |
The right to worship deep and pure,
To
bless the orphan, feed the poor;
Last at the cross to mourn her Lord, |
| 21 |
First at the tomb to hear his word:
To fold an angel's
wings below;
And hover o'er the couch of woe; |
| 24 |
To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet,
The right to sit at Jesus' feet;
Page
389 |
| 1 |
To form the bud for bursting bloom,
The
hoary head with joy to crown; |
| 3 |
In short, the right to work and pray,
"To point to heaven and lead the way."
THE MOTHER'S EVENING PRAYER |
| 6 |
O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the
nestling's faltering flight! |
| 9 |
Keep Thou my child on upward wing
to-night.
Love is our refuge;
only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the
fall: |
| 12 |
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.
O make me glad for
every scalding tear, |
| 15 |
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, - since God is
good, and loss is gain. |
| 18 |
Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the
angels sing: |
| 21 |
"Lo, I am with you alway," - watch and
pray.
No snare, no fowler,
pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled
breast, |
| 24 |
When heaven's aftersmile earth's
tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heavenly rest.
Page
390 |
