|
THE GREAT GATHERING
Christian Scientists
are flocking from all over the
world to Boston to-day, as they have been
for several |
| 15 |
days past and will be for several days to
come, to attend
the June meetings of The Mother Church and the dedica-
tion of the new temple.
|
| 18 |
The headquarters was thrown open to
visitors this
forenoon in Horticultural Hall, corner of Huntington
and
Massachusetts Avenues. It is in charge of G. D. |
| 21 |
Robertson, and here the visitors will
receive all information
concerning rooms and board, hotels, railroads,
etc. There
is here also a post-office to which all mail may be
directed, |
| 24 |
and telegraph and telephone service.
[Boston Evening
Transcript]
SPECIAL TRAINS COMING
|
| 27 |
Special trains and extra sections of
trains are due to
arrive in Boston to-night, bearing the first instalments
of
the crowds of Christian Scientists from the central and
Page
74
|
| 1 |
western sections of this country. Those
from abroad
and from the far West to a large degree are already in |
| 3 |
Boston. From now until Saturday night the
inrush will
be from the sections within two or three days' ride, and
no
doubt the night trains of Saturday will bring con- |
| 6 |
siderable numbers of belated church members
from New
York and elsewhere who will arrive in this city just about
in
time for the first Sunday service.
|
| 9 |
[Boston Evening Transcript]
INTERESTING AND AGREEABLE VISITORS
The Christian
Scientists are here in force, and they are |
| 12 |
very interesting and agreeable visitors,
even to those who
are unable to accompany them in their triumph of mind
over matter. Boston is indebted to them for one of the |
| 15 |
finest architectural achievements in this
or any other city,
and other denominations might profit by their example
of
paying for their church before dedicating it. It is a monu- |
| 18 |
ment to the sincerity of their faith; and
the pride and
satisfaction that is not only evident from their
addresses
but reflected in their faces, is justifiable. They are an |
| 21 |
intelligent and a happy appearing body, and
even if those
outside are unable to believe that they have escaped from
the bondage of the material world, it would be idle to |
| 24 |
attempt to deny them the satisfaction that
springs from
a belief in such emancipation. Our present relations with
them are as the guests of the city, and as such they are |
| 27 |
welcome.
Within two weeks we
have had here the representatives
of the two poles of healing, the
material and the mental, |
| 30 |
and each is interesting, one for its
hopefulness and the
other for its novelty. Whatever opinions we may
enter-
Page
75
|
| 1 |
tain of the value of the latter, we cannot
well withhold
our respectful acknowledgment of its enthusiasm, its |
| 3 |
energy, and its faith in its fundamentals.
Its votaries
are certainly holding the centre of the stage this week.
[Boston
Globe]
READILY ACCOMMODATED
Yesterday was a busy
day at the headquarters of the
Christian Scientists in Horticultural Hall.
They poured |
| 9 |
into the city from every direction and most
of them
headed straight for Horticultural Hall, where they were
assigned rooms in hotels or lodging-houses, if they had |
| 12 |
not already been provided for. So perfect
have been all
the preliminary arrangements for the handling of a great
number of visitors that there has not been the slightest |
| 15 |
hitch in the matter of securing
accommodations. And
if there was it would not make much difference, for
these
people would take it all very good-naturedly. They |
| 18 |
do not get excited over trifles. They are
very patient and
good-natured. Crowded as the hall was yesterday, and
warm as the day was, there was not the slightest evidence |
| 21 |
of temper, no matter how far they had
travelled or what
discomforts they might have endured in their travels.
[Boston Evening
Transcript]
BIG CHURCH IS PAID FOR
According to the
custom of the Christian Scientists, the
big addition to The Mother Church
will be dedicated |
| 27 |
to-morrow free from debt. No church has
ever yet been
dedicated by this denomination with any part of the
expense of its construction remaining unprovided for, and
Page
76
|
| 1 |
it went without saying that the same
practice would be
followed with this new two-million-dollar edifice,
the |
| 3 |
largest of them all. Up to within ten days
the notices
that more money was needed had been in circulation,
and new
contributions were constantly being received; |
| 6 |
but on June 2 it became evident to the
Board of Direct-
ors that enough money was on hand to provide for the
entire cost of the building, and the formal announcement |
| 9 |
was made that no more contributions to the
building fund
were needed. That it was received with rejoicing by the
thousands of church members and their friends only feebly |
| 12 |
expresses the gratification.
A similar decision
was reached and published at the
time of the dedication of The Mother
Church in 1895, all |
| 15 |
of which goes to show the earnestness and
loyalty which
Christian Scientists manifest in the support of their
church work, and which enables them to dedicate their |
| 18 |
churches free of debt without exception.
The estimated
cost of the extension of The Mother Church was pledged
by
the members assembled in their annual church meeting |
| 21 |
in Boston, in 1902, and all contributions
have been
voluntary.
[New York
Herald]
GIANT TEMPLE FOR SCIENTISTS
There will be
dedicated in Boston to-morrow the
first great monument to Christian
Science, the new two- |
| 27 |
million-dollar cathedral erected by the
devotees of a
religion which twenty-seven years ago was founded in
Boston by Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy with a membership |
| 30 |
of twenty-six persons.
The new structure,
which is now completed, has for
Page
77
|
| 1 |
months been the cynosure of all eyes
because of its great
size, beautiful architecture, and the novelty of the
cult |
| 3 |
which it represents. This temple is one of
the largest in
the world. It has a seating capacity of over five
thousand.
In this respect it leads the Auditorium of Chicago. Be- |
| 6 |
side it the dome of the Massachusetts State
House, which
is the leading landmark of Boston, pales into insignificance,
as its dimensions are only half as great.
|
| 9 |
From all over the world Christian
Scientists are rapidly
gathering in this city to participate in the most
notable
feature in the life of their cult. From beyond the Rockies, |
| 12 |
from Canada, from Great Britain, and
practically every
civilized country, daily trainloads of pilgrims are
pouring
into Boston, and it is estimated that not less than twenty- |
| 15 |
five thousand visitors will participate in
the dedication.
[New York
World]
DEDICATION DAY
|
| 18 |
Over the heads of a multitude which began
to gather at
daybreak and which filled the streets leading to the mag-
nificent temple of the Christian Science church, there |
| 21 |
pealed from the chimes a first hymn of
thanksgiving at
six o'clock this morning. It was dedication day, and
Christian Scientists from all quarters of the globe were |
| 24 |
present to participate in the occasion.
It was estimated
that nearly forty thousand believers
had gathered in Boston. Word was
conveyed to them that |
| 27 |
the temple would open its doors absolutely
free of debt,
every penny of the two million dollars required to build
the imposing edifice in the Back Bay district having |
| 30 |
been secured by voluntary subscription.
Page
78
|
| 1 |
The seating capacity of the temple is five
thousand,
and in order that all might participate in the dedication, |
| 3 |
six services, identical in character, were
held during the
morning, afternoon, and evening.
The worshippers saw
an imposing structure of gray |
| 6 |
stone with a massive dome rising to a
height of two
hundred and twenty-four feet and visible from every
quarter of the city. The multitude passed through the |
| 9 |
twelve entrances beneath a series of arches
in the sev-
eral façades. They looked upon an interior done in soft
gray with decorative carvings peculiarly rich and im- |
| 12 |
pressive. The seating is accomplished in a
semi-circular
sweep of mahogany pews and in triple galleries.
The offertory taken
at the beginning of the services |
| 15 |
found every basket piled high with
bank-notes, everybody
contributing, and none proffering small change.
At the close of the
Lesson-Sermon, and in accordance |
| 18 |
with the custom of the Christian Science
church, the
entire congregation knelt in silent communion, followed
by
the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer. One of |
| 21 |
the remarkable features of the services was
the congre-
gation singing in perfect unison. The acoustic properties
of the temple, in spite of its vast interior, were found to |
| 24 |
be perfect.
[Boston
Globe]
CHILDREN'S SERVICE
|
| 27 |
No mere words can convey the peculiar
impressiveness
of the half past twelve service; the little children, awed
by
the grandeur of the great room in which they were seated, |
| 30 |
drinking in every word of the exercises
and apparently
understanding all they heard, joining with their shrill
Page
79
|
| 1 |
voices in the singing and responsive
reading, and then, at
the last, kneeling for silent communion before the
pews, in |
| 3 |
absolute stillness, their eyes closed and
their solemn little
faces turned upward.
[Norfolk
(Neb.) Tribune]
ON
A FAR HIGHER PEDESTAL
To those who seem to
see no good in Christian Science,
it must stagger their faith not a little
to read the account |
| 9 |
of the dedication of the vast temple
located in the heart
of the city of Boston, the supposed fountain of
knowledge
and seat of learning of America; the spectacle of thirty |
| 12 |
thousand people assembling to gain
admission to the
temple shows an enthusiasm for Christian Science
seldom
witnessed anywhere in the world on any occasion; and |
| 15 |
this occurred in staid old Boston, and the
fact was heralded
in flaming headlines in the leading newspapers of
the
world. According to the despatches, that assembly was |
| 18 |
not a gathering of "the vulgar throng;" the
intelligence
and wisdom of the country were there. There certainly
must
be something more than a fad in Christian Science, |
| 21 |
which was placed upon a far higher
pedestal by that
demonstration than it ever occupied before.
[Boston
Herald]
THE WEDNESDAY EVENING MEETINGS
Quietly, without a
trace of fanaticism, making their
remarkable statements with a simplicity
which sprang |
| 27 |
from the conviction that they would be
believed, scores of
Christian Scientists told of cures from diseases,
physical
and mental, at the testimony meetings that marked the
Page
80
|
| 1 |
close of their visit to Boston; cures that
carried one back
to the age of miracles. To hear prosperous, contented |
| 3 |
men and women, people of substance and of
standing,
earnestly assure thousands of auditors that they had been
cured of blindness, of consumption in its advanced stages, |
| 6 |
of heart disease, of cancer; that they had
felt no pain
when having broken bones set; that when wasted unto
death
they had been made whole, constituted a severe tax |
| 9 |
upon frail human credulity, yet they were
believed.
Meetings were held
in the extension of The Mother
Church, in the extension vestry, in the old
auditorium |
| 12 |
of The Mother Church, in The Mother Church
vestry,
Horticultural Hall (Exhibition Hall), Horticultural Hall
(Lecture Hall), Jordan Hall, Potter Hall, Howe and |
| 15 |
Woolson Halls, Chickering Hall.
At each of the
meetings the introductory services were
identical, consisting of hymns, an
appropriate reading |
| 18 |
from the Bible, and selections from
"Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Mary Baker
Eddy.
|
| 21 |
Fifteen thousand Scientists crowded into
the auditorium
of the extension of The Mother Church, into the old
church, into Horticultural Hall, Jordan Hall, Potter Hall, |
| 24 |
Woolson Hall, and Chickering Hall, and it
took ten
meetings to accommodate the great throngs who wanted
to give
testimony or who wanted to hear it. And when |
| 27 |
these places had all been filled, there
were many hundreds
waiting vainly in the streets. A few were upon the
scene
as early as three o'clock in the afternoon to secure seats |
| 30 |
in the main body of the church, where the
largest meeting
was held, and long before seven the auditorium was com-
fortably filled.
Page
81
|
| 1 |
Upon entering The Mother Church one was
immediately
struck with the air of well-being and of prosperity of the |
| 3 |
great congregation. The Scientists fairly
radiate good
nature and healthy satisfaction with life. No pessimistic
faces there! So ingrained is this good nature, so complete |
| 6 |
this self-abnegation, that at the very
height of fervor, when
bursting with a desire to testify to the benefits
and the
healing power of the faith, one of them would pause and |
| 9 |
laughingly give precedence to another who
had been the
first to catch the Reader's eye.
When Mr. McCrackan
announced at the main meet- |
| 12 |
ing that they were ready to receive
testimony, up
leaped half a dozen Scientists. They had been told to
name, before beginning, the places where they lived. |
| 15 |
"Indianapolis!" "Des Moines!" "Glasgow!"
"Cuba!"
"Dresden!" "Peoria!" they cried. No more cosmo-
politan
audience ever sat in Boston.
|
| 18 |
Those who poured out their debts of
gratitude for ills
cured, for hearts lifted up, spoke simply and
gratefully,
but occasionally the voices would ring out in a way there |
| 21 |
was no mistaking. In those people was the
depth of
sincerity, and, when they sang, the volume of holy song
rose
tingling to the great dome, swelling as one voice. |
| 24 |
It was a practical demonstration of the
Scientist claims,
a fitting close to a memorable week.
If an attempt were
made to give any account of the |
| 27 |
marvellous cures narrated at the meetings
of the Scien-
tists, or wherever two or more of them are met together,
it would be impossible to convey a conception of the |
| 30 |
fervor of belief with which each tells his
or her experi-
ence. These are tales of people of standing and of
substance, professional men, hard-headed shrewd busi-
Page
82
|
| 1 |
ness men. Yet they all have the same
stories of their
conversion, either through a cure to themselves or to |
| 3 |
one near and dear to them.
[Boston
Herald]
EXODUS BEGINS
|
| 6 |
For a while this morning it looked as
though all the
Christian Scientists who have been crowding Boston
the
last week were trying to get away at the same |
| 9 |
time. Hotels, boarding-houses, and private
houses
were disgorging trunks and smaller articles of baggage
so fast
that it was a matter of wonder where there |
| 12 |
could be secured express wagons enough to
accommo-
date the demand.
At the dedicatory
services of The Mother Church |
| 15 |
extension on Sunday, and at the sessions of
the annual
meeting, Tuesday, it was the pride of the Church Direct-
ors
that the edifice was emptied of its crowds in some- |
| 18 |
thing like ten minutes. It would seem that
this ability
to get away when the entertainment is over is a dis-
tinguishing characteristic of Christian Scientists, for at |
| 21 |
noon to-day [June 14] the indications were
that Boston
would be emptied of its twenty thousand and more vis-
itors
by midnight to-night.
|
| 24 |
Transportation facilities at the two
stations were taxed
to the utmost from early morning, and trains pulled
out
of the city in double sections.
|
| 27 |
Although the Scientists came to Boston in
such numbers
and are departing with such remarkable expedition, their
going will not be noticeable to the residents of Boston, |
| 30 |
except perhaps those living in the streets
leading directly
Page
83
|
| 1 |
to Horticultural Hall. This fact will be
due to the
custom Christian Scientists have of never going about |
| 3 |
labelled. Ordinarily the holding of a great
convention
is patent to every one residing in the convention city.
Up
at Horticultural Hall the one hundred and fifty |
| 6 |
members of the local arrangement committee
wore tiny
white, unmarked buttons, for their own self-identification,
otherwise there has been no flaunting of badges or |
| 9 |
insignia of any kind. Christian Scientists
frequently
wear a small pin, but this is usually hidden away in
the
laces of the women's frocks, and the men go |
| 12 |
entirely unadorned.
Therefore, with the
exception of the street-car men
and policemen, who will doubtless have
fewer questions |
| 15 |
as to locality to answer, and the hotel and
restaurant
keepers, who will have time to rest and sleep, the pub-
lic
at large will scarcely realize that the Scientists have |
| 18 |
gone.
WHAT THE BOSTON EDITORS SAID
[Boston Daily
Advertiser]
|
| 21 |
The meeting of the Christian Scientists in
this city
naturally takes on a tone of deserved satisfaction, in view
of the announcement, which has just been made, that the |
| 24 |
two million dollars needed for the
construction of the new
temple has been raised even before the building
itself has
been completed.
|
| 27 |
The thirty thousand visitors have other
evidences of
the strength and growth of their organization, which has
made steady gains in recent years. But of this particu- |
| 30 |
lar example of the readiness of the
members to bear
each his or her share of the necessary expense of
church
Page
84
|
| 1 |
work, the facts speak more plainly than
mere assertion
could. Nothing is more of a drag on a church than a |
| 3 |
heavy debt, the interest on which calls for
practically all
the resources of the institution. Many a clergyman can
testify from his own experience how a "church debt" |
| 6 |
cramps and retards and holds back work that
would
otherwise be done. It is a rule in some denominations
that a
church edifice may not be formally dedicated until |
| 9 |
it be wholly free from debt. And the
experience of many
generations has affirmed its wisdom.
[Boston
Herald]
|
| 12 |
Boston is the Mecca for Christian
Scientists all over the
world. The new temple is something to be proud of.
Its
stately cupola is a fitting crown for the other architec- |
| 15 |
tural efforts in that section of the Back
Bay.
[Boston Evening
Record]
Boston is near to
another great demonstration of the |
| 18 |
growth of the Christian Science idea in
numbers, wealth,
vigor, and faithful adherence. It is a remarkable
story
which the gathering here tells. Its very magnitude and |
| 21 |
the cheerful optimism and energy of its
followers im-
press even the man who cannot reconcile himself to
the
methods and tenets of the sect. Its hold and |
| 24 |
development are most notable.
[Boston
Post]
The gathering of
Christian Scientists for the dedication |
| 27 |
of the beautiful structure on Falmouth
Street, which is
to take place on Sunday, is notable in many ways. It
Page
85
|
| 1 |
is remarkable in the character of the
assembling mem-
bership, in its widely international range, and in the |
| 3 |
significance of the occasion.
The growth of this
cult is the marvel of the age. Thirty
years ago it was comparatively
unknown; one church |
| 6 |
and a mere handful of members measured its
vogue.
To-day its adherents number probably a million, its
churches
have risen by hundreds, and its congregations |
| 9 |
meet in Europe and in the antipodes, as
from the Atlantic
to the Pacific on this continent.
One does not need to
accept the doctrines of Mrs. |
| 12 |
Eddy to recognize the fact that this
wonderful woman
is a world power. This is conclusive; it is conspicu-
ously manifest. And here in Boston the zeal and |
| 15 |
enthusiasm of the followers of this creed
have been
manifested in the building of a church structure which
will
hold place among the architectural beauties of the |
| 18 |
country.
[Boston
Herald]
Another glory for
Boston, another "landmark" set |
| 21 |
in the illustrious list for future
generations to reverence
and admire! The Science church has become the
great
centre of attraction, not merely for its thousands of wor- |
| 24 |
shippers, but for a multitude of strangers
to whom this
historic city is the Mecca of their love and duty. Last
Sunday it was entirely credible that the spirit of faith |
| 27 |
and brotherhood rested on this structure,
which is abso-
lutely unique in its symmetrical and appropriate design.
Aside from every other consideration, this church, with |
| 30 |
its noble dome of pure gray tint, forming
one of the
few perfect sky-lines in an American city, is doubly
Page
86
|
| 1 |
welcomed. Henceforth the greeting of
admiring eyes,
too often unaccustomed to fine architectural effects,
will |
| 3 |
be constant and sincere.
As Boston has ever
loved its golden State House
dome, so will it now find pleasure in this new
symbol, |
| 6 |
brooding elevation, guarding as it were,
embracing as it
may be, the hosts of a new religion.
[Boston
Globe]
|
| 9 |
Thousands of Christian Scientists have been
pouring
into Boston in the past few days to be present at the
dedication yesterday of their new two-million-dollar |
| 12 |
church, and to take part in the subsequent
ceremonies and
exercises. Not only was every cent of the estimated cost
contributed before the actual work was completed, but |
| 15 |
the treasurer of the building fund of the
great temple
appealed to his brethren to give no more money, since he
had enough. This must be regarded as an extraordinary |
| 18 |
achievement, and one which indicates
plainly enough the
generosity of the devotion that the Christian
Scientists
maintain towards their church.
|
| 21 |
[Boston Post]
The dedication of
the edifice of the Christian Scientists
on the Back Bay has proved one of
the most interest- |
| 24 |
ing and in some of its aspects the most
notable of such
occasions.
The attendance at
the ceremonies yesterday was re- |
| 27 |
markable, probably unprecedented, as
regards numbers.
Not even the great size of the auditorium could accom-
modate the throng of participants. At each of the iden- |
| 30 |
tical services, repeated at intervals from
early morning
Page
87
|
| 1 |
until the evening, the attendance was
greater than the
building could contain. And the transportation
facilities |
| 3 |
of the town have been strained to their
utmost to care
for the multitudes going and coming.
The temporary
increase of the population of Boston has |
| 6 |
been apparent to the most casual observer.
And so, we
think, must be the characteristics of this crowd of visitors.
It is a pleasant, congenial, quietly happy, well-to-do, |
| 9 |
intellectual, and cheerfully contented
multitude that has
invaded the town. There are among them visitors of
title and distinction, but one does not notice these unless |
| 12 |
they are pointed out. The impression
created is that of
a great gathering of people we like to know and like
to
have here.
|
| 15 |
We congratulate these comfortable
acquaintances upon
the fact that they have their costly church fully paid
for,
and we feel that Boston is to be congratulated upon the |
| 18 |
acquisition of an edifice so handsome
architecturally.
[Boston
Herald]
I do not think I
have ever seen more cheerful looking |
| 21 |
groups of people than I have met in Boston
during the
past few days. Their happy faces would make sunshine
on the
grayest day. If Christian Science gives such |
| 24 |
serene, beautiful expressions, it would not
be a bad thing
if all the world turned to the new religion. There is
one
thing about it: it is certainly imbued with the spirit of |
| 27 |
unselfishness and helpfulness, and,
whatever one's special
creed may be, there is nothing antagonistic to it in
this
doctrine of health, happiness, and in the cheerful doing |
| 30 |
of good.
Page
88
GENERAL EDITORIAL OPINION
[Montreal
(Can.) Gazette]
|
| 3 |
Twenty thousand Christian Scientists have
assembled
at Boston to attend the opening of their great new
temple.
Christian Science, as now before this conti- |
| 6 |
nent, is the development of a short
lifetime. It shows
strength in all parts, and among classes above the
aver-
age in intelligence.
|
| 9 |
[Concord (N. H.) Monitor]
The dedication,
Sunday, in Boston, of the new Mother
Church of the Christian Science faith
was a ceremonial of |
| 12 |
far more than usual ecclesiastic
significance. The edifice
itself is so rich in the architectural symbolisms
of aspira-
tion and faith, its proportions are so large, and its
accom- |
| 15 |
modations are so wide, that its dedication
abounds in
remarkable external manifestations which must arrest
public
attention. But externals constitute the smallest |
| 18 |
feature of the Christian Science faith, and
this beau-
tiful temple, striking as are its beauties, is only a slight
and material development in evidence of that beauty and |
| 21 |
serenity of faith, life, and love which
finds its temple in
the heart of all that increasing host who have found
the
truths of Christian Science to be a marvellous revelation |
| 24 |
given to this generation by a noble and
devoted woman,
to whom they rightfully turn with respect and affection.
[Brooklyn (N.
Y.) Eagle] |
| 27 |
The stoutest enemies of Christian Science
will confess
at least an aesthetic debt to that great and growing cult,
which is implied in the building of a great church in Bos-
Page
89
|
| 1 |
ton. This church is one of the largest and
seemliest in
America, and in its size, if not in its aspect, it may be |
| 3 |
held to symbolize that faith which is so
much a faith
that all facts inhospitable to it are deemed by its pro-
fessors not to exist at all. The building is of light stone, |
| 6 |
with a dome over two hundred and twenty
feet high, a
chime of bells, and one of the largest organs in the
world.
The architect has joined lightness and grace to solidity, |
| 9 |
and the edifice needs only an open space
about it, such
as one finds in the English cathedrals, to achieve its
extreme of beauty. A sect that leaves such a monument |
| 12 |
has not lived in vain.
A remarkable thing
in this building is that, although
it cost two million dollars, it is not
blanketed with debts |
| 15 |
and mortgages. Everything, even to the
flagstones in
front of it, is paid for, and subscriptions are not
solic-
ited. Here is an occasion for joy that marks it as dif- |
| 18 |
ferent from almost all other of the
Christian churches,
where petitions for money are almost as constant as
petitions for divine mercy.
|
| 21 |
[Denver (Col.) News]
The dedication of
the new Mother Church of the
Christian Scientists in Boston is not a matter
of interest |
| 24 |
to that city alone, but to the nation; not
to the nation
alone, but to the world; not to this time alone, but to
history.
|
| 27 |
The growth of this form of religious faith
has been one of
the marvels of the last quarter century. It is, in some
respects, the greatest religious phenomenon of all history. |
| 30 |
That a woman should found a religious
movement of
international sway; that its followers should number
Page
90
|
| 1 |
many thousands during her lifetime; that
hundreds of
great buildings should be filled at every meeting Sun- |
| 3 |
days or on week-days with devout
worshippers, wooed
by no eloquence of orator or magnetic ritual, - all
these
things are new, utterly new, in the history of religious |
| 6 |
expression.
Unaccountable?
Hardly so. Whatever else it is, this
faith is real and is given very real
tests. Thousands upon |
| 9 |
thousands believe that it has cured them of
diseases many
and diverse. All the passionate love for life with which
nature endows the children of men, grips hold of their |
| 12 |
faith and insures fidelity in pain or death
for self or dear
ones. But, while health-seeking is the door to this
gospel
for many, it is not the only source of appeal. A faith |
| 15 |
which teaches that hate is atheism, that
discord is poison-
ous, that gloom is sin, has a mission that can be
readily
grasped by sick or well.
|
| 18 |
The world is enormously richer for this
reincarnation of
the old, old gospel of "on earth peace, good will toward
men."
|
| 21 |
[Terre Haute (Ind.) Star]
The dedication of
The Mother Church of Christian
Science at Boston, with its paid-up cost of
two million |
| 24 |
dollars and its tremendous outpouring of
eager commu-
nicants from all over the civilized world, is an event of
impressiveness and momentous significance. The historic |
| 27 |
place of Mrs. Eddy as the Founder of a
great denomination
can no longer be questioned, and the sources of her
power
and following can be readily apprehended. Prominent |
| 30 |
among these is the denomination's peculiar
department of
healing, the efficacy of which to some extent is
established
Page
91
|
| 1 |
beyond cavil. The immense membership of the
body is
proof positive that it supplies these persons, most of |
| 3 |
whom were already nominal Christians,
something they
did not find in other communions. It affords refutation
of the notion that spiritual and mystic mediation has |
| 6 |
been drowned out in this so-called
commercial age. The
Christian Scientists set a good example to other
denomi-
nations in requiring their church edifices to be fully paid |
| 9 |
for before they are dedicated. It is to be
said for Chris-
tian Science that no person's spiritual aspirations
were
ever deadened or his moral standards debased through |
| 12 |
its agency. Its communicants are cheerful
and shed
sunshine about them - no insignificant element in true
Christianity.
|
| 15 |
[Lafayette (Ind.) Journal]
The dedication of a Christian Science temple at Boston
serves to
call attention to one of the most remarkable |
| 18 |
religious movements that this country or
any other country
has ever known. It has not been very many years since
Christian Science was announced as a discovery of Mary |
| 21 |
Baker Eddy of Concord, N. H. The few
thousand persons
who followed Mrs. Eddy during the first years of her
preaching were the objects of much ridicule, but despite |
| 24 |
the obstacles put in the way the church has
continued to
grow. Its growth in numbers is remarkable, but even
stranger is its increase in wealth. The temple which has |
| 27 |
just been dedicated at Boston cost two
million dollars,
and is one of the finest places of worship in the
world,
at least it is the largest in New England. This Mother |
| 30 |
Church is absolutely free from debt. After
but a few
years, Christian Science has congregations in every im-
Page
92
|
| 1 |
portant town and city of the United States.
Of course
the new idea will never have determined its real position |
| 3 |
in the doctrines of the world until it has
stood the test of
time. But its beginning has been impressive, and that
large numbers of intelligent men and women should be |
| 6 |
converted to it makes it appear that
Science cannot
be brushed aside by ridicule alone.
[Springfield
(Mass.) Republican]
|
| 9 |
The prodigious convention of Christian
Scientists in
Boston is a portent worthy of perhaps even more interest
than it has evoked in that city, where a new temple to |
| 12 |
Isis and Osiris would be hardly more than a
day's wonder.
With the swift growth of the new faith the public has in
a general way been familiar; it is but a few years ago that |
| 15 |
the astonishing revelation was made that
since 1890 its
following had increased from an insignificant number to
hundreds of thousands, a rate at which every other sect in |
| 18 |
the country would soon be left behind. But
mere statistics
give a feeble impression in comparison with so huge and
concrete a demonstration as the dedication of this vast |
| 21 |
temple. The statistics have been ridiculed
by the hostile
as mere guesswork, but one cannot sneer away the two-
million-dollar stone edifice or the thirty thousand wor- |
| 24 |
shippers who entered its portals Sunday.
[Rochester
(N. Y.) Post Express]
There are two things
to be said in favor of Christian |
| 27 |
Science. Its growth has been wonderfully
rapid, and due
apparently to nothing save the desire in the human heart
for some such comfort as it promises. Christian Scientists,
Page
93
|
| 1 |
as a class, so far as the writer knows
them, are happy,
gentle, and virtuous. They are multiplying without |
| 3 |
efforts at proselytizing; they are in no
wise at war with
society; and they have little of the spirit of bigotry.
The
dedication of their great church in Boston is a material |
| 6 |
evidence of their prosperity; and it may be
said that if
their opinions seem visionary, there is nothing in them
to
attract any class save the moderately well-to-do, the |
| 9 |
intelligent, and the well-behaved. It has
been said
cynically that a religion prospers according to the pledges
which it holds out to its votaries; and though Christian |
| 12 |
Science promises nothing in the way of
gratifying the
passions or attaining dominion over others, yet it has
rare lures for weary hearts, - physical health and spiritual |
| 15 |
peace.
[Topeka
(Kan.) Daily Capital]
Those of us who do
not accept the doctrine of Christian |
| 18 |
Science are possibly too prone to approach
it in a spirit
of levity, too often disposed to touch upon it with the
tongue of facetiousness. Too often we see only its ridic- |
| 21 |
ulous phases, attaching meanwhile no
importance to
the saneness and common sense which underlie many of
the
practices in its name. And many of us have missed |
| 24 |
entirely its tremendous growth and the
part it has come
to play in the economy of our social and religious
life.
To those of us who
have overlooked these essentials of |
| 27 |
its hold upon the public, certain
statistics brought to light
by the great meeting of the church now being
held in
Boston will come in the nature of a revelation. In 1890
the faith had but an
insignificant following. To-day its
30 adherents number
hundreds of thousands, and if the
Page
94
|
| 1 |
growth continues in like proportion through
another
decade every other sect will be left behind in the race for |
| 3 |
numerical supremacy. The figures given out
by the
church itself have been ridiculed by the hostile as mere
guesswork, but some of the evidence appears in the con- |
| 6 |
crete and cannot be combated. "One cannot
sneer away
the two-million-dollar stone edifice or the thirty thousand
worshippers who entered its portals Sunday," says the |
| 9 |
Springfield Republican. Neither can
we overlook the
steady, consistent growth of the sect in every commu-
nity in which it has found a foothold. In the adherence |
| 12 |
of its converts to the faith, and in the
absence of dissent
among them in the interpretation of its tenets, there
is
also much to convince the skeptic.
|
| 15 |
[Albany (N.Y.)
Knickerbocker]
The remarkable
growth and the apparent permanency
of Christian Science were noted in the
recent dedication in |
| 18 |
Boston of the magnificent new temple of the
cult. When
the doors were opened to the public, the structure was free
from debt. While the dedicatory services were being |
| 21 |
held at different hours of the day, forty
thousand Chris-
tian Scientists from every State in the Union and from
many foreign countries were in attendance.
|
| 24 |
Although Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of
Christian Science,
was not in attendance, she sent greetings in which
she
declared that the "crowning ultimate" of the church |
| 27 |
"rises to a mental monument, a
superstructure high above
the work of men's hands, even the outcome of
their
hearts, giving to the material a spiritual significance - |
| 30 |
the speed, beauty, and achievements of
goodness."
But a few years ago,
men there were who predicted that
Page
95
|
| 1 |
Christian Science would soon be included
among the cults
which flourish for a time like a green bay-tree, and
are |
| 3 |
then forgotten. Those predictions have not
been verified.
The church which has been built upon the tenets first
presented by Mrs. Eddy is being constantly strengthened |
| 6 |
by members who represent the intelligence
of many
communities in different parts of the world.
[Mexican
Herald, City of Mexico, Mex.]
|
| 9 |
The dedication of the magnificent Christian
Science
church in Boston has brought that cheerful and pros-
perous
body of believers before the press gallery of com- |
| 12 |
mentators. They have built a huge church,
which has
cost them about two million dollars, and it has a dome
which
rivals that of the famous old Massachusetts State |
| 15 |
House. During the great assembly of forty
thousand
Christian Scientists in Boston they were described in the
newspapers of the Hub as a contented and well-dressed |
| 18 |
body of people.
The faith of these
people is certainly great. They go
about telling of miracles performed in
this twentieth cen- |
| 21 |
tury when "advanced" clergymen of other
denominations
are avowing their disbelief in the miraculous.
The higher critics
and the men of science may think |
| 24 |
they can banish faith in the supernatural,
but no religion
of growth and vitality exists without faith in the
things
unseen.
|
| 27 |
[Sandusky (Ohio)
Star-Journal]
It is doubtful if,
since the days of the primitive Chris-
tians, there has been such a
wonderful demonstration of |
| 30 |
religious faith and enlightened zeal as
that exhibited at
Page
96
|
| 1 |
Boston, Sunday, when forty thousand
Christian Scientists
from all parts of the world assembled to participate
in |
| 3 |
the dedication of the extension of The
Mother Church
of that denomination. These people were of the highest
order of intelligence, many of them prominent figures in |
| 6 |
the social and business world, and none of
them afflicted
with the slightest trace of fanaticism. The gathering
can in no sense, save one, be compared with those of |
| 9 |
Mecca and the Hindu shrines, where
fanaticism domi-
nates everything else. The one point of resemblance is
that the Christian Scientists are thoroughly in earnest |
| 12 |
and take joy in attesting their faith in
the creed of the
church of their choice. It is a faith based upon rea-
son, and reached only through intelligent and unbiased |
| 15 |
study and comparison with other creeds.
A remarkable
feature, perhaps the most remarkable, of
the gathering was the generosity
of its adherents towards |
| 18 |
their church. The building they were in
Boston to dedi-
cate cost approximately two million dollars. Members
were invited to contribute what they could to pay for it. |
| 21 |
The money was sent in such quantities that
before the day
set for the dedication arrived the fund was full to
over-
flowing and the members were asked to quit giving.
|
| 24 |
[Peoria (Ill.) Journal]
It is the custom to
sneer at Christian Science, but it is
evident that the cult will soon be
beyond the sneering |
| 27 |
point. The dedication of what is known as
The Mother
Church extension in Boston, the other day, was attended
by
people from all parts of the United States. And they |
| 30 |
were people of intelligence.
The fact is that
Christian Science just goes a little
Page
97
|
| 1 |
beyond what almost every one is inclined to
admit. The
best physicians now admit the power of mind over matter. |
| 3 |
They believe that firm faith on the part of
a sick per-
son, for instance, will go far towards making the patient
well. These same physicians, however, ridicule the idea |
| 6 |
of a patient getting well without the use
of medicine.
It has yet to be shown that of the sick who abjure
medicine a larger proportion have died than among |
| 9 |
those who were medically treated. The
Journal has
kept no books on the subject, and is not a
Christian
Scientist, but believes that if the figures could be given |
| 12 |
they might show that the Scientists have a
little the
advantage so far as this goes.
[Nebraska State
Journal, Lincoln, Neb.]
|
| 15 |
Zion's Herald, a rather bitter
critic of Mrs. Eddy and
her cult, speaks of "the audacious, stupendous,
inex-
plicable faith of this well-dressed, good-looking, emi- |
| 18 |
nently respectable, evidently wealthy
congregation in
their teacher and her utterances." The opening of the
new Mother Church of the Christian Science faith |
| 21 |
at Boston has opened the eyes of the
country anew to
the growth of the new church and the zeal of its
membership.
|
| 24 |
[Athol (Mass.) Transcript]
The Christian
Scientists who descended upon Boston
to the number of forty thousand last
week to dedicate the |
| 27 |
new temple, just built at a cost of two
million dollars, have
mostly departed, but Boston has not yet recovered
from
the effects produced by that stupendous gathering. The |
| 30 |
incidents witnessed during the week were
calculated to
Page
98
|
| 1 |
impress the most determined skeptic. Forty
thousand
people truly make up a mighty host, but these, it is de- |
| 3 |
clared, are but a twentieth of the
Christian Science army
in this country to-day, and this is the wonderful
growth
of less than a score of years. Christian Science may be |
| 6 |
anything that its foes try to prove it to
be, but that mag-
nificent church, holding five thousand people,
dedicated
free from debt, and the centre of an enthusiasm and rever- |
| 9 |
ence of worship such as religious annals
hardly parallel
in modern times, is a tangible reality, and critics who
seek the light must have done with scoffs and jeers if |
| 12 |
they would deal with the phenomenon with
any effect.
[Portland
(Ore.) Telegram]
The last issue of
the Christian Science Sentinel contains |
| 15 |
a rather remarkable announcement to the
effect that
friends were requested to send no more money for the
building of the church which was recently dedicated at |
| 18 |
Boston. This structure cost about two
million dollars,
and all of the funds required to build it were raised in
a
little less than three years. It was dedicated absolutely |
| 21 |
free of debt, and no member of the church
anywhere,
in this country or elsewhere, was asked to contribute a
dollar. Contributions were entirely voluntary. No re- |
| 24 |
sort was had to any of the latter-day
methods of raising
money. The record is one of which any church might
well be proud.
|
| 27 |
[Portland (Me.) Advertiser]
The erection in
Boston of the two-million-dollar church
of the Christian Scientists and its
dedication free from |
| 30 |
debt has been a wonderful achievement, but
as our con-
Page
99
|
| 1 |
temporary, the Boston Times,
comments, it is but one of
the marvellous, great, and really good things
that this |
| 3 |
sect is doing. It says: "A faith which is
able to raise
its believers above the suffering of petty ills; a
religion
that makes the merry heart that doeth good like a |
| 6 |
medicine, not a necessity, but a pleasure
and an essen-
tial; a cult able to promote its faith with so great an
aggregation of good and beneficial works, is welcomed |
| 9 |
within our midst and bidden Godspeed."
[Denver
(Col.) Republican]
Christian Scientists
are a remarkably optimistic body |
| 12 |
of people, and it must be said in their
behalf that they
are enthusiasts whenever their form of religion is
con-
cerned. They have recently built a splendid cathedral in |
| 15 |
Boston, seating five thousand people, at a
cost of two
million dollars, and when it was dedicated there was not a
cent of indebtedness left. Thirty thousand of the faith, |
| 18 |
coming from all parts of the world,
attended the dedicatory
exercises, and the press reports state that the
contribution
baskets when passed around were literally stuffed and |
| 21 |
jammed with money.
Less than a
generation ago there was not a Christian
Science church in the land. To-day
there are hundreds |
| 24 |
of such churches. The denomination has
grown with a
rapidity that is startling, and the end is not yet.
[Bridgeport (Conn.) Standard]
|
| 27 |
Facts and figures are stubborn things, and
ignore them
as we may their existence points out their meaning and
leaves no choice but the acceptance of them at their |
| 30 |
face value. The recent dedication of a
Christian Science
Page
100
|
| 1 |
temple in Boston has inevitably brought out
in connection
with the event some of the facts and figures belonging
to |
| 3 |
it, which are as remarkable in their
aggregate as they are
unmistakable in their trend. The temple recently
dedi-
cated at Boston cost about two million dollars and is |
| 6 |
therefore the property of no
poverty-stricken sect. On
the Sunday of the dedication, thirty thousand
worshippers
were present in the building, coming from all, or nearly |
| 9 |
all, parts of the country, and
representing a vast number
of the followers of the cult.
It is only
twenty-five years, or thereabout, since the |
| 12 |
Christian Science sect made its appearance
as a dis-
tinctive organization among religious bodies, but its
members
are numbered by thousands to-day, and they |
| 15 |
are very generally of a class who are
reputable, intelli-
gent, and who think for themselves.
Part II
Miscellany
CHAPTER I - TO THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
|
| 1 |
IN the midst of the imperfect, perfection
is reluctantly
seen and acknowledged. Because Science is unim- |
| 3 |
peachable, it summons the severest
conflicts of the ages
and waits on God.
The faith and works
demanded of man in our textbooks, |
| 6 |
the Bible and "Science and Health with Key
to the
Scriptures," and the proof of the practicality of this faith
and these works, show conclusively that Christian Science |
| 9 |
is indeed Science, - the Science of Christ,
the Science of
God and man, of the creator and creation. In every age
and at its every appearing, Science, until understood, has |
| 12 |
been persecuted and maligned. Infinite
perfection is
unfolded as man attains the stature of man in Christ
Jesus by means of the Science which Jesus taught and |
| 15 |
practised. Alluding to this divine method,
the Psalmist
said: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine
a
vain thing?"
|
| 18 |
I have set forth Christian Science and its
application
to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered
them.
I have demonstrated through Mind the effects |
| 21 |
of Truth on the health, longevity, and
morals of men;
and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern sys-
tems on which to found my own, except the teachings |
| 24 |
and demonstrations of our great Master and
the lives
of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only
Page
104
|
| 1 |
authority. I have had no other guide in the
strait and
narrow way of Truth.
|
| 3 |
Jewish pagans thought that the learned St.
Paul, the
Mars' Hill orator, the canonized saint, was a "pestilent
fellow," but to-day all sorts of institutions flourish under |
| 6 |
the name of this "pestilent fellow." That
epithet points
a moral. Of old the Pharisees said of the great master
of metaphysics, "He stirreth up the people." Because |
| 9 |
they could find no fault in him, they
vented their hatred
of Jesus in opprobrious terms. But what would be
thought to-day of a man that should call St. Paul |
| 12 |
a "pest," and what will be thought
to-morrow of him
who shall call a Christian Scientist a "pest"? Again,
what shall be said of him who says that the Saviour |
| 15 |
of men, the healer of men, the Christ, the
Truth, "stir-
reth up the people"?
It is of the utmost
concern to the world that men |
| 18 |
suspend judgment and sentence on the
pioneers of
Christianity till they know of what and of whom these
pioneers speak. A person's ignorance of Christian Sci- |
| 21 |
ence is a sufficient reason for his silence
on the subject,
but what can atone for the vulgar denunciation of that
of which a man knows absolutely nothing?
|
| 24 |
On November 21, 1898, in my class on
Christian Science
were many professional men and women of the highest
talents, scholarship, and character in this or any other |
| 27 |
country. What was it that brought together
this class
to learn of her who, thirty years ago, was met with the
anathema spoken of in Scripture: "Blessed are ye, when |
| 30 |
men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake"? It
was the healing of the sick, the saving of sinners, the works
Page
105
|
| 1 |
even more than the words of Christ, Truth,
which had
of a verity stirred the people to search the Scriptures and |
| 3 |
to find in them man's only medicine for
mind and body.
This AEsculapius, defined Christianly and demonstrated
scientifically, is the divine Principle whose rules demon- |
| 6 |
strated prove one's faith by his works.
After my discovery
of Christian Science, I healed con-
sumption in its last stages, a case
which the M.D.'s, |
| 9 |
by verdict of the stethoscope and the
schools, declared
incurable because the lungs were mostly consumed. I
healed malignant diphtheria and carious bones that could |
| 12 |
be dented by the finger, saving the limbs
when the sur-
geon's instruments were lying on the table ready for
their
amputation. I have healed at one visit a cancer that had |
| 15 |
eaten the flesh of the neck and exposed the
jugular vein
so that it stood out like a cord. I have physically
restored
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, |
| 18 |
and have made the lame walk.
About the year 1869,
I was wired to attend the patient
of a distinguished M.D., the late Dr.
Davis of Manchester, |
| 21 |
N. H. The patient was pronounced dying of
pneumonia,
and was breathing at intervals in agony. Her physician,
who
stood by her bedside, declared that she could not live. |
| 24 |
On seeing her immediately restored by me
without mate-
rial aid, he asked earnestly if I had a work describing
my system of healing. When answered in the negative, |
| 27 |
he urged me immediately to write a book
which should
explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics.
In
the ranks of the M.D.'s are noble men and women, |
| 30 |
and I love them; but they must refrain
from persecuting
and misrepresenting a system of medicine which from
personal experience I have proved to be more certain
Page
106
|
| 1 |
and curative in functional and organic
diseases than any
material method. I admonish Christian Scientists
either |
| 3 |
to speak charitably of all mankind or to
keep silent, for
love fulfils divine law and without this proof of love
mental practice were profitless.
|
| 6 |
The list of cases healed by me could be
made to include
hopeless organic diseases of almost every kind. I name
those mentioned above simply to show the folly of believ- |
| 9 |
ing that the immutable laws of omnipotent
Mind have not
power over and above matter in every mode and form, and
the folly of the cognate declaration that Christian Science |
| 12 |
is limited to imaginary diseases! On the
contrary, Chris-
tian Science has healed cases that I assert it would
have
been impossible for the surgeon or materia medica to cure. |
| 15 |
Without Mind, man and the universe would
collapse;
the winds would weary, and the world stand still. It is
already proved that Christian Science rests on the basis of |
| 18 |
fixed Principle, and overcomes the evidence
of diseased
sensation. Human mentality, expressed in disease, sin,
and
death, in tempest and in flood, the divine Mind calms |
| 21 |
and limits with a word.
In what sense is the
Christian Scientist a "pest"? Is it
because he minds his own business more
than does the |
| 24 |
average man, is not a brawler, an alcohol
drinker, a
tobacco user, a profane swearer, an adulterer, a fornicator,
nor a dishonest politician or business man? Or is it |
| 27 |
because he is the very antipode of all
these? In what
sense is the Christian Scientist a charlatan? Is it
because
he heals the sick without drugs?
|
| 30 |
Our great Exemplar, the Nazarene Prophet,
healed
through Mind, and commanded his followers to do like-
wise. The
prophets and apostles and the Christians in
Page
107
|
| 1 |
the first century healed the sick as a
token of their Chris-
tianity. Has Christianity improved upon its
earlier |
| 3 |
records, or has it retrograded? Compare the
lives of its
professors with those of its followers at the beginning of
the Christian era, and you have the correct answer.
|
| 6 |
As a pertinent illustration of the general
subject under
discussion, I will cite a modern phase of medical
practice,
namely, the homoeopathic system, to which the old school |
| 9 |
has become reconciled. Here I speak from
experience.
In homoeopathy, the one thousandth attenuations and
the
same triturations of medicine have not an iota of the |
| 12 |
drug left in them, and the lower
attenuations have so
little that a vial full of the pellets can be
swallowed without
harm and without appreciable effect. Yet the homoe- |
| 15 |
opathist administers half a dozen or less
of these same
globules, and he tells you, and you believe him, that
with these pellets he heals the sick. The diminishing of |
| 18 |
the drug does not disprove the efficiency
of the homoeo-
pathic system. It enhances its efficiency, for it
identifies
this system with mind, not matter, and places it nearer the |
| 21 |
grooves of omnipotence. O petty scorner of
the infinite,
wouldst thou mock God's miracles or scatter the shade of
one who "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty"? |
| 24 |
If, as Scripture declares, God made all
that was made,
then whatever is entitled to a classification as truth
or science must be comprised in a knowledge or under- |
| 27 |
standing of God, for there can be nothing
beyond
illimitable divinity.
The homoeopathist
handles in his practice and heals the |
| 30 |
most violent stages of organic and
inflammatory diseases,
stops decomposition, removes enteritis, gastritis,
hyper-
aemia, pneumonia, diphtheria, and ossification - the effects
Page
108
|
| 1 |
of calcareous salts formed by carbonate and
sulphate of
lime; and the homoeopathic physician succeeds as well in |
| 3 |
healing his cases without drugs as does the
allopath who
depends upon drugs. Then is mind or matter the intelli-
gent cause in pathology? If matter, I challenge matter |
| 6 |
to act apart from mind; and if mind, I have
proved beyond
cavil that the action of the divine Mind is salutary and
potent in proportion as it is seen to act apart from matter. |
| 9 |
Hence our Master's saying, "The flesh
profiteth nothing."
The difference between metaphysics in homoeopathy
and
metaphysics in Christian Science consists in this forcible |
| 12 |
fact: the former enlists faith in the
pharmacy of the
human mind, and the latter couples faith with spiritual
understanding and is based on the law of divine Mind. |
| 15 |
Christian Science recognizes that this Mind
is the only
lawgiver, omnipotent, infinite, All. Hence the divine
Mind
is the sovereign appeal, and there is nothing in |
| 18 |
the divine Mind to attenuate. The more of
this Mind
the better for both physician and patient.
Ignorance, slang,
and malice touch not the hem of the |
| 21 |
garment of Christian Scientists, for if
they did once touch
it, they would be destroyed. To be stoned for that
which
our Master designated as his best work, saying, "For |
| 24 |
which of those works do ye stone me," is
to make known
the best work of a Christian Scientist.
Finally, beloved
brethren in Christ, the words of the |
| 27 |
New York press - "Mrs. Eddy not shaken" -
are valid.
I remain steadfast in St. Paul's faith, and will close with
his own words: "Christ is the head of the church: and he |
| 30 |
is the saviour of the body."
Page
109
CHAPTER II - THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEXTBOOK
|
| 1 |
MATTER is but the subjective state of
mortal mind.
Matter has no more substance and reality in our |
| 3 |
day-dreams than it has in our night-dreams.
All the way
mortals are experiencing the Adam-dream of mind in
matter,
the dream which is mortal and God-condemned |
| 6 |
and which is not the spiritual fact of
being. When this
scientific classification is understood, we shall have
one
Mind, one God, and we shall obey the commandment, |
| 9 |
"Love thy neighbor as thyself."
If nineteen hundred
years ago Christ taught his fol-
lowers to heal the sick, he is to-day
teaching them the |
| 12 |
same heavenly lesson. Christ is "the same
yesterday,
and to-day, and forever." "God is Love," the ever-
operative divine Principle (or Person, if you please) whose |
| 15 |
person is not corporeal, not finite. This
infinite Person
we know not of by the hearing of the ear, yet we may
sometimes say with Job, "But now mine eye [spiritual |
| 18 |
sense] seeth Thee."
God is one because
God is All. Therefore there can
be but one God, one Christ. We are
individually but |
| 21 |
specks in His universe, the reflex images
of this divine
Life, Truth, and Love, in whom "we live, and move,
and
have our being." Divine metaphysics is not to |
| 24 |
be scoffed at; it is Truth with us, God
"manifest in the
flesh," not alone by miracle and parable, but by
proof;
Page
110
|
| 1 |
it is the divine nature of God, which
belongs not to a
dispensation now ended, but is ever present, casting
out |
| 3 |
evils, healing the sick, and raising the
dead - resurrect-
ing individuals buried above-ground in material
sense.
At the present time
this Bethlehem star looks down |
| 6 |
upon the long night of materialism, -
material religion,
material medicine, a material world; and it shines as
of
yore, though it "shineth in darkness; and the dark- |
| 9 |
ness comprehended it not." But the day will
dawn and
the daystar will appear, lighting the gloom, guiding the
steps
of progress from molecule and mortals outward and |
| 12 |
upward in the scale of being.
Hidden electrical
forces annihilating time and space,
wireless telegraphy, navigation of the
air; in fact, all the |
| 15 |
et cetera of mortal mind pressing to
the front, remind me
of my early dreams of flying in airy space, buoyant
with
liberty and the luxury of thought let loose, rising higher |
| 18 |
and forever higher in the boundless blue.
And what of
reality, if waking to bodily sensation is real and if
bodily
sensation makes us captives? The night thought, me- |
| 21 |
thinks, should unfold in part the facts of
day, and open
the prison doors and solve the blind problem of matter.
The night thought should show us that even mortals |
| 24 |
can mount higher in the altitude of being.
Mounting
higher, mortals will cease to be mortal. Christ will have
"led
captivity captive," and immortality will have been |
| 27 |
brought to light.
Robert Ingersoll's
attempt to convict the Scriptures of
inconsistency made his life an abject
failure. Happily, |
| 30 |
the misquoting of "Science and Health with
Key to the
Scriptures," or quoting sentences or paragraphs torn from
their necessary contexts, may serve to call attention to
Page
111
|
| 1 |
that book, and thus reveal truths which
otherwise the
reader would not have sought. Surely "the wrath of man |
| 3 |
shall praise Thee."
The nature and truth
of Christian Science cannot
be destroyed by false psychics, crude theories
or modes |
| 6 |
of metaphysics. Our master Metaphysician,
the Galilean
Prophet, had much the same class of minds to deal with
as
we have in our time. They disputed his teachings on |
| 9 |
practically the same grounds as are now
assumed by many
doctors and lawyers, but he swept away their illogical
syllogisms as chaff is separated from the wheat. The |
| 12 |
genuine Christian Scientist will tell you
that he has found
the physical and spiritual status of a perfect life
through
his textbook.
|
| 15 |
The textbook of Christian Science maintains
primitive
Christianity, shows how to demonstrate it, and through-
out
is logical in premise and in conclusion. Can Scien- |
| 18 |
tists adhere to it, establish their
practice of healing on
its basis, become successful healers and models of
good
morals, and yet the book itself be absurd and unscientific ? |
| 21 |
Is not the tree known by its fruit? Did
Jesus mistake
his mission and unwittingly misguide his followers? Were
the apostles absurd and unscientific in adhering to his |
| 24 |
premise and proving that his conclusion
was logical
and divine?
"The scientific
statement of being" (Science and Health, |
| 27 |
p. 468) may irritate a certain class of
professionals
who fail to understand it, and they may pronounce it
absurd, ambiguous, unscientific. But that Christian |
| 30 |
Science is valid, simple, real, and
self-evident, thousands
upon thousands attest with their individual
demonstra-
tions. They have themselves been healed and have
Page
112
|
| 1 |
healed others by means of the Principle of
Christian
Science. Science has always been first met with denun- |
| 3 |
ciations. A fiction or a false philosophy
flourishes for a
time where Science gains no hearing. The followers of
the
Master in the early Christian centuries did just what he |
| 6 |
enjoined and what Christian Science makes
practical to-
day to those who abide in its teachings and build on its
chief corner-stone. Our religious denominations interpret |
| 9 |
the Scriptures to fit a doctrine, but the
doctrines taught
by divine Science are founded squarely and only on the
Scriptures.
|
| 12 |
"Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures" is not
inconsistent in a single instance with its logical
premise
and conclusion, and ninety-nine out of every hundred |
| 15 |
of its readers - honest, intelligent, and
scholarly - will
tell you this. The earnest student of this book,
under-
standing it, demonstrates in some degree the truth of its |
| 18 |
statements, and knows that it contains a
Science which
is demonstrable when understood, and which is fully
understood when demonstrated. That Christian Scien- |
| 21 |
tists, because of their uniformly pure
morals and noble
lives, are better representatives of Christian Science
than the textbook itself, is not in accordance with the |
| 24 |
Scriptures. The tree is known by its fruit.
The student
of this book will tell you that his higher life is the result
of his conscientious study of Science and Health in con- |
| 27 |
nection with the Bible.
A book that through
the good it does has won its
way into the palaces of emperors and kings,
into the |
| 30 |
home of the President of the United
States, into the chief
cities and the best families in our own and in
foreign
lands, a book which lies beside the Bible in hundreds
Page
113
|
| 1 |
of pulpits and in thousands of homes, which
heals the
sick and reclaims sinners in court and in cottage, is |
| 3 |
not less the evangel of Christian Science
than is he
who practises the teachings of this book or he who
studies
it and thereby is healed of disease. Can such a |
| 6 |
book be ambiguous, self-contradictory, or
unprofitable
to mankind?
St. Paul was a
follower but not an immediate disciple |
| 9 |
of our Lord, and Paul declares the truth of
the complete
system of Christian Science in these brief sentences:
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which |
| 12 |
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after
the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Was |
| 15 |
it profane for St. Paul to aspire to this
knowledge of Christ
and its demonstration, healing sin and sickness,
because
he was not a disciple of the personal Jesus? Nay, verily. |
| 18 |
Neither is it presumptuous or unscriptural
or vain for
another, a suckling in the arms of divine Love, to perfect
His praise.
|
| 21 |
A child will demonstrate Christian Science
and have
a clear perception of it. Then, is Christian Science a
cold,
dull abstraction, or is that unscientific which |
| 24 |
all around us is demonstrated on a fixed
Principle and
a given rule, - when, in proportion as this Principle
and
rule are understood, men are found casting out |
| 27 |
the evils of mortal thought, healing the
sick, and uplift-
ing human consciousness to a more spiritual life and
love? The signs of the times emphasize the answer |
| 30 |
to this in the rapid and steady
advancement of this Sci-
ence among the scholarly and titled, the deep
thinkers,
the truly great men and women of this age. In the
Page
114
|
| 1 |
words of the Master, "Can ye not discern
the signs of
the times?"
|
| 3 |
Christian Science teaches: Owe no man; be
temperate;
abstain from alcohol and tobacco; be honest, just, and
pure;
cast out evil and heal the sick; in short, Do unto |
| 6 |
others as ye would have others do to you.
Has one Christian
Scientist yet reached the maxi-
mum of these teachings? And if not, why
point the |
| 9 |
people to the lives of Christian Scientists
and decry the
book which has moulded their lives? Simply because
the
treasures of this textbook are not yet uncovered |
| 12 |
to the gaze of many men, the beauty of
holiness is not
yet won.
My first writings on
Christian Science began with notes |
| 15 |
on the Scriptures. I consulted no other
authors and read
no other book but the Bible for about three years.
What
I wrote had a strange coincidence or relationship with the |
| 18 |
light of revelation and solar light. I
could not write these
notes after sunset. All thoughts in the line of
Scriptural
interpretation would leave me until the rising of the sun. |
| 21 |
Then the influx of divine interpretation
would pour in
upon my spiritual sense as gloriously as the sunlight on
the
material senses. It was not myself, but the divine power |
| 24 |
of Truth and Love, infinitely above me,
which dictated
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." I
have
been learning the higher meaning of this book since |
| 27 |
writing it.
Is it too much to
say that this book is leavening
the whole lump of human thought? You can
trace its |
| 30 |
teachings in each step of mental and
spiritual progress,
from pulpit and press, in religion and ethics, and
find
these progressive steps either written or indicated in the
Page
115
|
| 1 |
book. It has mounted thought on the swift
and mighty
chariot of divine Love, which to-day is circling the |
| 3 |
whole world.
I should blush to
write of "Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures" as I have, were it
of human origin, |
| 6 |
and were I, apart from God, its author.
But, as I was
only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in divine
metaphysics, I cannot be super-modest in my estimate of |
| 9 |
the Christian Science textbook.
Page
116
CHAPTER III - PERSONALITY
PERSONAL CONTAGION
AT a time of
contagious disease, Christian Scientists en- |
| 3 |
deavor to rise in consciousness to the true
sense of
the omnipotence of Life, Truth, and Love, and this great
fact
in Christian Science realized will stop a contagion.
|
| 6 |
In time of religious or scientific
prosperity, certain indi-
viduals are inclined to cling to the personality
of its
leader. This state of mind is sickly; it is a contagion |
| 9 |
- a mental malady, which must be met and
overcome.
Why? Because it would dethrone the First Command-
ment, Thou
shalt have one God.
|
| 12 |
If God is one and God is Person, then
Person is infinite;
and there is no personal worship, for God is divine
Prin-
ciple, Love. Hence the sin, the danger and darkness of |
| 15 |
personal contagion.
Forgetting divine
Principle brings on this contagion.
Its symptoms are based upon personal
sight or sense. |
| 18 |
Declaring the truth regarding an individual
or leader,
rendering praise to whom praise is due, is not a symp-
tom
of this contagious malady, but persistent pursuit |
| 21 |
of his or her person is.
Every loss in grace
and growth spiritual, since time
began, has come from injustice and
personal contagion. |
| 24 |
Had the ages helped their leaders to, and
let them alone
Copyright, 1909, by
Mary Baker Eddy. Renewed, 1937.
Page
117
|
| 1 |
in, God's glory, the world would not have
lost the Science
of Christianity.
|
| 3 |
"What went ye out for to see?" A person, or
a Prin-
ciple? Whichever it be, determines the right or the
wrong of
this following. A personal motive gratified by |
| 6 |
sense will leave one "a reed shaken with
the wind,"
whereas helping a leader in God's direction, and giving
this leader time and retirement to pursue the infinite |
| 9 |
ascent, - the comprehending of the divine
order and con-
sciousness in Science, - will break one's own dream of
personal sense, heal disease, and make one a Christian |
| 12 |
Scientist.
Is not the old
question still rampant? "When saw we
thee a stranger, and took thee in? or
naked, and clothed |
| 15 |
thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in
prison, and came
unto thee?" But when may we see you, to get some good
out of your personality?
|
| 18 |
"In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was
with God, and the Word was God" (St. John). This
great truth
of God's impersonality and individuality and |
| 21 |
of man in His image and likeness,
individual, but not
personal, is the foundation of Christian Science.
There
was never a religion or philosophy lost to the centuries |
| 24 |
except by sinking its divine Principle in
personality.
May all Christian Scientists ponder this fact, and give
their talents and loving hearts free scope only in the |
| 27 |
right direction!
I left Boston in the
height of prosperity to retreat from
the world, and to seek
the one divine Person, whereby |
| 30 |
and wherein to show others the footsteps
from sense to
Soul. To give me this opportunity is all that I ask of
mankind.
Page
118
|
| 1 |
My soul thanks the loyal, royal natures of
the beloved
members of my church who cheerfully obey God and |
| 3 |
steadily go on promoting the true Principle
of Christian
Science. Only the disobedient spread personal contagion,
and any imaginary benefit they receive is the effect of |
| 6 |
self-mesmerism, wherein the remedy is
worse than the
disease.
LETTER TO A CLERGYMAN
|
| 9 |
My Dear Sir: - I beg to thank you
for your most
excellent letter. It is an outpouring of goodness and
greatness with which you honor me.
|
| 12 |
In a call upon my person, you would not see
me, for
spiritual sense demands and commands us; hence I seek
to be
"absent from the body," and such circumstances |
| 15 |
embarrass the higher criticism.
The Scripture reads:
"Blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed." A saving
faith comes |
| 18 |
not of a person, but of Truth's presence
and power.
Soul, not sense, receives and gives it. One's voluntary
withdrawal from society, from furnishing the demands |
| 21 |
upon the finite to supply the blessings of
the infinite, -
something impossible in the Science of God and credited
only by human belief, by a material and not by the |
| 24 |
spiritual sense of man, - should come from
conscience.
The doctrine of
Buddha, which rests on a heathen basis
for its Nirvana, represents not the
divinity of Christian |
| 27 |
Science, in which Truth, or Christ, finds
its paradise in
Spirit, in the consciousness of heaven within us -
health,
harmony, holiness, entirely apart from limitations, which |
| 30 |
would dwarf individuality in personality
and couple evil
Page
119
|
| 1 |
with good. It is convenient for history to
record limi-
tations and to regard evil as real, but it is impossible |
| 3 |
in Science to believe this, or on such a
basis to demon-
strate the divine Principle of that which is real,
harmo-
nious, and eternal - that which is based on one infinite |
| 6 |
God, and man, His idea, image, and
likeness.
In Science, we learn
that man is not absorbed in the
divine nature, but is absolved by it. Man
is free from |
| 9 |
the flesh and is individual in
consciousness - in Mind,
not in matter. Think not that Christian Science
tends
towards Buddhism or any other "ism." Per contra, |
| 12 |
Christian Science destroys such tendency.
Mary of old
wept because she stooped down and looked into the sepul-
chre - looked for the person, instead of the Principle that |
| 15 |
reveals Christ. The Mary of to-day looks up
for Christ,
away from the supposedly crucified to the ascended
Christ,
to the Truth that "healeth all thy diseases" and |
| 18 |
gives dominion over all the earth. The
doubting disciple
could not identify Christ spiritually, but he could
mate-
rially. He turned to the person, to the prints of the nails, |
| 21 |
to prove Christ, whereas the discharged
evidence of mate-
rial sense gave the real proof of his Saviour, the
veritable
Christ, Truth, which destroys the false sense with the |
| 24 |
evidence of Soul, immortality, eternal
Life without begin-
ning or end of days.
Should I give myself
the pleasant pastime of seeing your |
| 27 |
personal self, or give you the opportunity
of seeing mine,
you would not see me thus, for I am not there. I
have
risen to look and wait and watch and pray for the |
| 30 |
spirit of Truth that leadeth away from
person - from
body to Soul, even to the true image and likeness of
God. St. John found Christ, Truth, in the Word which
Page
120
|
| 1 |
is God. We look for the sainted
Revelator in his writ-
ings, and there we find him. Those who look for me
in |
| 3 |
person, or elsewhere than in my writings,
lose me in-
stead of find me. I hope and trust that you and I may
meet
in truth and know each other there, and know |
| 6 |
as we are known of God.
Accept my gratitude
for the chance you give me to
answer your excellent letter. Forgive, if it
needs forgive- |
| 9 |
ness, my honest position. Bear with me the
burden of
discovery and share with me the bliss of seeing the risen
Christ, God's spiritual idea that takes away all sin, disease, |
| 12 |
and death, and gives to soul its native
freedom.
Page
121
CHAPTER IV - MESSAGES TO THE MOTHER CHURCH
COMMUNION, JANUARY 2, 1898
MY BELOVED BRETHREN:
- I have suggested a |
| 3 |
change in the time for holding our
semi-annual
church meetings, in order to separate these sessions
from
the excitement and commotion of the season's |
| 6 |
holidays.
In metaphysics we
learn that the strength of peace
and of suffering is sublime, a true, tried
mental convic- |
| 9 |
tion that is neither tremulous nor
relapsing. This
strength is like the ocean, able to carry navies, yet
yielding to the touch of a finger. This peace is spiritual; |
| 12 |
never selfish, stony, nor stormy, but
generous, reliable,
helpful, and always at hand.
Peace, like plain
dealing, is somewhat out of fashion. |
| 15 |
Yet peace is desirable, and plain dealing
is a jewel as beau-
tiful as the gems that adorn the Christmas ring
presented
to me by my students in 1897. Few blemishes can be |
| 18 |
found in a true character, for it is always
a diamond of the
first water; but external gentility and good humor may
be used to disguise internal vulgarity and villainy. No |
| 21 |
deformity exists in honesty, and no
vulgarity in kindness.
Christian Science, however, adds to these graces,
and
reflects the divine likeness.
|
| 24 |
Self-denial is practical, and is not only
polite to all
but is pleasant to those who practise it. If one would
Page
122
|
| 1 |
follow the advice that one gratuitously
bestows on
others, this would create for one's self and for the world |
| 3 |
a destiny more grand than can issue from
the brain of
a dreamer.
That glory only is
imperishable which is fixed in one's |
| 6 |
own moral make-up.
Sin is like a dock
root. To cut off the top of a plant
does no good; the roots must be
eradicated or the plant |
| 9 |
will continue to grow. Now I am done with
homilies
and, you may add, with tedious prosaics.
On the fifth of July
last, my church tempted me ten- |
| 12 |
derly to be proud! The deportment of its
dear members
was such as to command respect everywhere. It called
forth
flattering comment and created surprise in our good |
| 15 |
city of Concord.
Beloved brethren,
another Christmas has come and gone.
Has it enabled us to know more of the
healing Christ that |
| 18 |
saves from sickness and sin? Are we still
searching dili-
gently to find where the young child lies, and are we
sat-
isfied to know that our sense of Truth is not demoralized, |
| 21 |
finitized, cribbed, or cradled, but has
risen to grasp the
spiritual idea unenvironed by materiality? Can we
say
with the angels to-day: "He is risen; he is not here: |
| 24 |
behold the place where they laid him"? Yes,
the real
Christian Scientist can say his Christ is risen and is not
the
material Christ of creeds, but is Truth, even as Jesus |
| 27 |
declared; and the sense of Truth of the
real Christian
Scientist is spiritualized to behold this Christ, Truth,
again healing the sick and saving sinners. The mission |
| 30 |
of our Master was to all mankind, and
included the very
hearts that rejected it - that refused to see the
power
of Truth in healing.
Page
123
|
| 1 |
Our unity and progress are proverbial, and
this church's
gifts to me are beyond comparison - they have become |
| 3 |
a wonder! To me, however, love is the
greater marvel,
so I must continue to prize love even more than the
gifts
which would express it. The great guerdon of divine |
| 6 |
Love, which moves the hearts of men to
goodness and
greatness, will reward these givers, and this encourages
me to continue to urge the perfect model for your accept- |
| 9 |
ance as the ultimate of Christian
Science.
To-day in
Concord, N. H., we have a modest hall in one
of the finest localities in
the city, - a reading-room and
|
| 12 |
nine other rooms in the same building.
"Tell it not in
Gath"! I had the property bought by the courtesy of
another person to be rid of the care and responsibility of |
| 15 |
purchasing it, and furnished him the money
to pay for it.
The original cost of the estate was fourteen thousand
dollars. With the repairs and other necessary expenses |
| 18 |
the amount is now about twenty thousand
dollars. Ere
long I will see you in this hall, Deo volente; but my
out-
door accommodations at Pleasant View are bigger than |
| 21 |
the indoor. My little hall, which holds a
trifle over two
hundred people, is less sufficient to receive a church of
ten
thousand members than were the "five loaves and two |
| 24 |
fishes" to feed the multitude; but the true
Christian
Scientist is not frightened at miracles, and ofttimes small
beginnings have large endings.
|
| 27 |
Seeing that we have to attain to the
ministry of right-
eousness in all things, we must not overlook small
things
in goodness or in badness, for "trifles make perfection," |
| 30 |
and "the little foxes . . . spoil the
vines."
As a peculiar people
whose God is All-in-all, let us say
with St. Paul: "We faint not; but have
renounced the
Page
124
|
| 1 |
hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by mani- |
| 3 |
festation of the truth commending
ourselves to every
man's conscience."
COMMUNION, JUNE 4, 1899
|
| 6 |
My Beloved Brethren: - Looking on
this annual assem-
blage of human consciousness, - health, harmony,
growth,
grandeur, and achievement, garlanded with glad faces, |
| 9 |
willing hands, and warm hearts, - who would
say to-day,
"What a fond fool is hope"? The fruition of friendship,
the world's arms outstretched to us, heart meeting heart |
| 12 |
across continents and oceans, bloodless
sieges and tear-
less triumphs, the "well done" already yours, and the
undone waiting only your swift hands, - these are |
| 15 |
enough to make this hour glad. What more
abounds
and abides in the hearts of these hearers and speakers,
pen may
not tell.
|
| 18 |
Nature reflects man and art pencils him,
but it remains
for Science to reveal man to man; and between these
lines
of thought is written in luminous letters, O man, what |
| 21 |
art thou? Where art thou? Whence and
whither? And
what shall the answer be? Expressive silence, or with
finger pointing upward, - Thither! Then produce thy |
| 24 |
records, time-table, log, traveller's
companion, et cetera,
and prove fairly the facts relating to the
thitherward, -
the rate of speed, the means of travel, and the number |
| 27 |
en route. Now what have you learned?
The mystery
of godliness - God made "manifest in the flesh," seen
of
men, and spiritually understood; and the mystery of |
| 30 |
iniquity - how to separate the tares from
the wheat,
that they consume in their own fires and no longer
Page
125
|
| 1 |
kindle altars for human sacrifice. Have you
learned to
conquer sin, false affections, motives, and aims, - to be |
| 3 |
not only sayers but doers of the law?
Brethren, our
annual meeting is a grave guardian. It
requires you to report progress, to
refresh memory, to
|
| 6 |
rejuvenate the branches and to vivify the
buds, to bend
upward the tendrils and to incline the vine towards the
parent trunk. You come from feeding your flocks, big |
| 9 |
with promise; and you come with the sling
of Israel's
chosen one to meet the Goliaths.
I have only to dip
my pen in my heart to say, All honor |
| 12 |
to the members of our Board of Lectureship
connected
with The Mother Church. Loyal to the divine Principle
they so
ably vindicate, they earn their laurels. History |
| 15 |
will record their words, and their works
will follow
them. When reading their lectures, I have felt the touch
of
the spirit of the Mars' Hill orator, which always |
| 18 |
thrills the soul.
The members of the
Board of Education, under the
auspices of the Massachusetts Metaphysical
College, have |
| 21 |
acquitted themselves nobly. The students
in my last
class in 1898 are stars in my crown of rejoicing.
We are deeply
grateful that the church militant is |
| 24 |
looking into the subject of Christian
Science, for Zion
must put on her beautiful garments - her bridal
robes.
The hour is come; the bride (Word) is adorned, and lo, |
| 27 |
the bridegroom cometh! Are our lamps
trimmed and
burning?
The doom of the
Babylonish woman, referred to in Reve- |
| 30 |
lation, is being fulfilled. This woman,
"drunken with the
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs
of Jesus," "drunk with the wine of her fornication,"
Page
126
|
| 1 |
would enter even the church, - the body of
Christ, Truth;
and, retaining the heart of the harlot and the purpose |
| 3 |
of the destroying angel, would pour
wormwood into the
waters - the disturbed human mind - to drown the
strong swimmer struggling for the shore, - aiming for |
| 6 |
Truth, - and if possible, to poison such as
drink of the
living water. But the recording angel, standing with
"right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth," |
| 9 |
has in his hand a book open (ready to be
read), which un-
covers and kills this mystery of iniquity and interprets
the
mystery of godliness, - how the first is finished and the |
| 12 |
second is no longer a mystery or a miracle,
but a marvel,
casting out evil and healing the sick. And a voice was
heard, saying, "Come out of her, my people" (hearken |
| 15 |
not to her lies), "that ye receive not of
her plagues. For
her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remem-
bered her iniquities . . . double unto her double accord- |
| 18 |
ing to her works: in the cup which she hath
filled fill
to her double . . . for she saith in her heart, I . . . am
no widow, . . . Therefore shall her plagues come in one |
| 21 |
day, death, and mourning, and famine; . . .
for strong is
the Lord God who judgeth her." That which the Rev-
elator
saw in spiritual vision will be accomplished. The |
| 24 |
Babylonish woman is fallen, and who should
mourn
over the widowhood of lust, of her that "is become the
habitation
of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, |
| 27 |
and a cage of every unclean . . . bird"?
One thing is
eternally here; it reigns supreme to-day,
to-morrow, forever. We need it in
our homes, at our fire- |
| 30 |
sides, on our altars, for with it win we
the race of the
centuries. We have it only as we live it. This is that
needful one thing - divine Science, whereby thought is
Page
127
|
| 1 |
spiritualized, reaching outward and
upward to Science in
Christianity, Science in medicine, in physics, and
in |
| 3 |
metaphysics.
Happy are the people
whose God is All-in-all, who ask
only to be judged according to their
works, who live to |
| 6 |
love. We thank the Giver of all good for
the marvellous
speed of the chariot-wheels of Truth and for the
steadfast,
calm coherence in the ranks of Christian Science.
|
| 9 |
On comparison, it will be found that
Christian Science
possesses more of Christ's teachings and example than
all other religions since the first century. Comparing |
| 12 |
our scientific system of metaphysical
therapeutics with
materia medica, we find that divine metaphysics
com-
pletely overshadows and overwhelms materia medica, even |
| 15 |
as Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the
magicians
of Egypt. I deliberately declare that when I was in prac-
tice, out of one hundred cases I healed ninety-nine to |
| 18 |
the ten of materia medica.
We should thank God
for persecution and for prosecu-
tion, if from these ensue a purer
Protestantism and mono- |
| 21 |
theism for the latter days of the
nineteenth century. A
siege of the combined centuries, culminating in
fierce attack,
cannot demolish our strongholds. The forts of
Christian |
| 24 |
Science, garrisoned by God's chosen ones,
can never sur-
render. Unlike Russia's armament, ours is not costly as
men count cost, but it is rich beyond price, staunch and |
| 27 |
indestructible on land or sea; it is not
curtailed in peace,
surrendered in conquest, nor laid down at the feet
of
progress through the hands of omnipotence. And why? |
| 30 |
Because it is "on earth peace, good will
toward men," -
a cover and a defence adapted to all men, all nations,
all times, climes, and races. I cannot quench my
Page
128
|
| 1 |
desire to say this; and words are not vain
when the
depth of desire can find no other outlet to liberty. |
| 3 |
"Therefore . . . let us go on unto
perfection; not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead
works."
(Hebrews 6: 1.)
|
| 6 |
A coroner's inquest, a board of health, or
class legisla-
tion is less than the Constitution of the United States,
and
infinitely less than God's benign government, which is |
| 9 |
"no respecter of persons." Truth crushed to
earth springs
spontaneously upward, and whispers to the breeze man's
inalienable birthright - Liberty. "Where the Spirit of |
| 12 |
the Lord is, there is liberty." God is
everywhere. No
crown nor sceptre nor rulers rampant can quench the
vital
heritage of freedom - man's right to adopt a religion, |
| 15 |
to employ a physician, to live or to die
according to the
dictates of his own rational conscience and
enlightened
understanding. Men cannot punish a man for suicide; |
| 18 |
God does that.
Christian Scientists
abide by the laws of God and the
laws of the land; and, following the
command of the |
| 21 |
Master, they go into all the world,
preaching the gospel
and healing the sick. Therefore be wise and harmless,
for
without the former the latter were impracticable. A lack |
| 24 |
of wisdom betrays Truth into the hands of
evil as effec-
tually as does a subtle conspirator; the motive is not
as
wicked, but the result is as injurious. Return not evil for |
| 27 |
evil, but "overcome evil with good." Then,
whatever
the shaft aimed at you or your practice may be, it will
fall
powerless, and God will reward your enemies accord- |
| 30 |
ing to their works. Watch, and pray daily
that evil
suggestions, in whatever guise, take no root in your
thought
nor bear fruit. Ofttimes examine yourselves, and
Page
129
|
| 1 |
see if there be found anywhere a deterrent
of Truth and
Love, and "hold fast that which is good."
|
| 3 |
I reluctantly foresee great danger
threatening our na-
tion, - imperialism, monopoly, and a lax system of
relig-
ion. But the spirit of humanity, ethics, and Christianity |
| 6 |
sown broadcast - all concomitants of
Christian Science
- is taking strong hold of the public thought
through-
out our beloved country and in foreign lands, and is |
| 9 |
tending to counteract the trend of mad
ambition.
There is no night
but in God's frown; there is no day
but in His smile. The oracular skies,
the verdant earth |
| 12 |
- bird, brook, blossom, breeze, and balm -
are richly
fraught with divine reflection. They come at Love's call.
The nod of Spirit is nature's natal.
|
| 15 |
And how is man, seen through the lens of
Spirit,
enlarged, and how counterpoised his origin from dust,
and how
he presses to his original, never severed |
| 18 |
from Spirit! O ye who leap disdainfully
from this rock
of ages, return and plant thy steps in Christ, Truth,
"the stone which the builders rejected"! Then will |
| 21 |
angels administer grace, do thy errands,
and be thy
dearest allies. The divine law gives to man health
and life
everlasting - gives a soul to Soul, a present |
| 24 |
harmony wherein the good man's heart takes
hold on
heaven, and whose feet can never be moved. These
are His green
pastures beside still waters, where faith |
| 27 |
mounts upward, expatiates, strengthens,
and exults.
Lean not too much on
your Leader. Trust God to
direct your steps. Accept my counsel and
teachings only |
| 30 |
as they include the spirit and the letter
of the Ten Com-
mandments, the Beatitudes, and the teachings and
example of Christ Jesus. Refrain from public contro-
Page
130
|
| 1 |
versy; correct the false with the true -
then leave the
latter to propagate. Watch and guard your own thoughts |
| 3 |
against evil suggestions and against
malicious mental
malpractice, wholly disloyal to the teachings of
Christian
Science. This hidden method of committing crime - |
| 6 |
socially, physically, and morally - will
ere long be un-
earthed and punished as it deserves. The effort of
disloyal students to blacken me and to keep my works |
| 9 |
from public recognition - students seeking
only public
notoriety, whom I have assisted pecuniarily and striven to
uplift morally - has been made too many times and has |
| 12 |
failed too often for me to fear it. The
spirit of Truth is
the lever which elevates mankind. I have neither the
time nor the inclination to be continually pursuing a lie |
| 15 |
- the one evil or the evil one. Therefore I
ask the help
of others in this matter, and I ask that according to
the
Scriptures my students reprove, rebuke, and exhort. |
| 18 |
A lie left to itself is not so soon
destroyed as it is with
the help of truth-telling. Truth never falters nor
fails;
it is our faith that fails.
|
| 21 |
All published quotations from my works must
have
the author's name added to them. Quotation-marks are
not
sufficient. Borrowing from my copyrighted works, |
| 24 |
without credit, is inadmissible. But I need
not say this
to the loyal Christian Scientist- to him who keeps
the
commandments. "Science and Health with Key to |
| 27 |
the Scriptures" has an enormous strain put
upon it,
being used as a companion to the Bible in all your
public
ministrations, as teacher and as the embodiment |
| 30 |
and substance of the truth that is taught;
hence
my request, that you borrow little else from it, should
seem
reasonable.
Page
131
|
| 1 |
Beloved, that which purifies the affections
also strength-
ens them, removes fear, subdues sin, and endues with |
| 3 |
divine power; that which refines character
at the same
time humbles, exalts, and commands a man, and obedience
gives him courage, devotion, and attainment. For this |
| 6 |
hour, for this period, for spiritual
sacrament, sacrifice,
and ascension, we unite in giving thanks. For the
body
of Christ, for the life that we commemorate and would |
| 9 |
emulate, for the bread of heaven whereof if
a man eat
"he shall live forever," for the cup red with loving resti-
tution, redemption, and inspiration, we give thanks. The |
| 12 |
signet of the great heart, given to me in a
little symbol,
seals the covenant of everlasting love. May apostate
praise return to its first love, above the symbol seize the |
| 15 |
spirit, speak the "new tongue" - and may
thought soar
and Soul be.
ADDRESS AT ANNUAL MEETING, JUNE 6, 1899
|
| 18 |
My Beloved Brethren: - I hope I
shall not be found
disorderly, but I wish to say briefly that this meeting
is
very joyous to me. Where God is we can meet, and where |
| 21 |
God is we can never part. There is
something suggestive
to me in this hour of the latter days of the
nineteenth
century, fulfilling much of the divine law and the gospel. |
| 24 |
The divine law has said to us: "Bring ye
all the tithes into
the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine
house,
and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I |
| 27 |
will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it."
|
| 30 |
There is with us at this hour this great,
great blessing;
and may I say with the consciousness of Mind that the
Page
132
|
| 1 |
fulfilment of divine Love in our lives is
the demand of
this hour - the special demand. We begin with the law |
| 3 |
as just announced, "Prove me now herewith,
. . . if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a
blessing," and we go to the Gospels, and there we hear: |
| 6 |
"In the world ye shall have tribulation;
but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world."
The Christian
Scientist knows that spiritual faith and |
| 9 |
understanding pass through the waters of
Meribah here -
bitter waters; but he also knows they embark for
infinity
and anchor in omnipotence.
|
| 12 |
Oh, may this hour be prolific, and at this
time and in
every heart may there come this benediction: Thou hast
no
longer to appeal to human strength, to strive with |
| 15 |
agony; I am thy deliverer. "Of His own will
begat He us
with the word of truth." Divine Love has strengthened
the
hand and encouraged the heart of every member of this |
| 18 |
large church. Oh, may these rich blessings
continue and
be increased! Divine Love hath opened the gate Beau-
tiful
to us, where we may see God and live, see good in |
| 21 |
good, - God all, one, - one Mind and that
divine; where
we may love our neighbor as ourselves, and bless our
enemies.
|
| 24 |
Divine Love will also rebuke and destroy
disease, and
destroy the belief of life in matter. It will waken the
dreamer - the sinner, dreaming of pleasure in sin; the sick, |
| 27 |
dreaming of suffering matter; the slothful,
satisfied to
sleep and dream. Divine Love is our only physician,
and
never loses a case. It binds up the broken-hearted; |
| 30 |
heals the poor body, whose whole head is
sick and whose
whole heart is faint; comforts such as mourn, wipes away
the unavailing, tired tear, brings back the wanderer to
Page
133
|
| 1 |
the Father's house in which are many
mansions, many
welcomes, many pardons for the penitent.
|
| 3 |
Ofttimes I think of this in the great light
of the present,
the might and light of the present fulfilment. So shall
all earth's children at last come to acknowledge God, and |
| 6 |
be one; inhabit His holy hill, the
God-crowned summit
of divine Science; the church militant rise to the
church
triumphant, and Zion be glorified.
A
QUESTION ANSWERED
My beloved church
will not receive a Message from
me this summer, for my annual Message is
swallowed |
| 12 |
up in sundries already given out. These
crumbs and
monads will feed the hungry, and the fragments gathered
therefrom should waken the sleeper, - "dead in tres- |
| 15 |
passes and sins," - set the captive sense
free from self's
sordid sequela; and one more round of old Sol give
birth
to the sowing of Solomon. |
| 18 |
MARY BAKER EDDY
PLEASANT
VIEW, CONCORD, N. H.,
May 11, 1903
LETTER OF THE PASTOR EMERITUS, JUNE, 1903
My Beloved
Brethren: - I have a secret to tell you
and
a question to ask. Do you know how much I love you |
| 24 |
and the nature of this love? No: then my
sacred secret
is incommunicable, and we live apart. But, yes: and
this
inmost something becomes articulate, and my book |
| 27 |
is not all you know of me. But your
knowledge with
its magnitude of meaning uncovers my life, even as
your
heart has discovered it. The spiritual bespeaks
Page
134
|
| 1 |
our temporal history. Difficulty,
abnegation, constant
battle against the world, the flesh, and evil, tell my
long- |
| 3 |
kept secret - evidence a heart wholly in
protest and
unutterable in love.
The unprecedented
progress of Christian Science is pro- |
| 6 |
verbial, and we cannot be too grateful nor
too humble for
this, inasmuch as our daily lives serve to enhance or to
stay its glory. To triumph in truth, to keep the faith |
| 9 |
individually and collectively, conflicting
elements must
be mastered. Defeat need not follow victory. Joy over
good achievements and work well done should not |
| 12 |
be eclipsed by some lost opportunity, some
imperative
demand not yet met.
Truth, Life, and
Love will never lose their claim on us. |
| 15 |
And here let me add: -
Truth
happifies life in the hamlet or town;
Life lessens all pride - its pomp and
its frown - |
| 18 |
Love comes
to our tears like a soft summer shower,
To beautify, bless, and inspire
man's power.
A
LETTER FROM MRS. EDDY
|
| 21 |
At the Wednesday evening meeting of April
3, 1907,
in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, the
First
Reader, Mr. William D. McCrackan, read the fol- |
| 24 |
lowing letter from Mrs. Eddy. In
announcing this letter,
he said: -
"Permission has been
secured from our beloved Leader |
| 27 |
to read you a letter from her to me. This
letter is in
Mrs. Eddy's own handwriting, with which I have been
familiar for several years, and it shows her usual mental |
| 30 |
and physical vigor."
Page
135
|
| 1 |
Mrs. Eddy's Letter
Beloved Student: - The wise man has
said, "When I |
| 3 |
was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child,
I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I
put
away childish things." That this passage of Scripture |
| 6 |
and its concluding declaration may be
applied to old age,
is a solace.
Perhaps you already know that I have
heretofore per- |
| 9 |
sonally attended to my secular affairs, -
to my income,
investments, deposits, expenditures, and to my employ-
ees. But the increasing demands upon my time and |
| 12 |
labor, and my yearning for more peace in my
advancing
years, have caused me to select a Board of Trustees to
take
the charge of my property; namely, the Hon. Henry |
| 15 |
M. Baker, Mr. Archibald McLellan, and Mr.
Josiah E.
Fernald.
As you are the First Reader of my church
in Boston, |
| 18 |
of about forty thousand members, I inform
you of this,
the aforesaid transaction.
Lovingly yours in Christ, |
| 21 |
MARY BAKER EDDY
PLEASANT VIEW, CONCORD, N.
H.,
March 22, 1907
LETTER TO THE MOTHER CHURCH
THE FIRST
CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, BOSTON, MASS.
My Beloved Church: - Your love and
fidelity cheer my |
| 27 |
advancing years. As Christian Scientists
you under-
stand the Scripture, "Fret not thyself because of evil-
doers;" also you spiritually and scientifically understand |
| 30 |
that God is divine Love, omnipotent,
omnipresent, in-
Page
136
|
| 1 |
finite; hence it is enough for you and me
to know that
our "Redeemer liveth" and intercedeth for us.
|
| 3 |
At this period my demonstration of
Christian Science
cannot be fully understood, theoretically; therefore
it is best explained by its fruits, and by the life of |
| 6 |
our Lord as depicted in the chapter
Atonement and
Eucharist, in "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures."
MARY BAKER EDDY
|
| 9 |
PLEASANT
VIEW, CONCORD, N. H.,
April 2, 1907
CARD
I am pleased to say
that the following members con-
stitute the Board of Trustees who own my
property: -
|
| 15 |
1. The Hon. Henry M. Baker, who won a suit
at
law in Washington, D. C., for which it is alleged he
was paid the
highest fee ever received by a native of |
| 18 |
New Hampshire.
2. Archibald McLellan, editor-in-chief of
the Christian
Science periodicals, circulating in the five grand
divisions |
| 21 |
of our globe; also in Canada, Australia,
etc.
3. Josiah E. Fernald, justice of the peace
and president
of the National State Capital Bank, Concord, N. H.
|
| 24 |
To my aforesaid Trustees I have committed
the hard
earnings of my pen, - the fruits of honest toil, the labor
that is known by its fruits, - benefiting the human race; |
| 27 |
and I have so done that I may have more
peace, and time
for spiritual thought and the higher criticism.
MARY
BAKER EDDY
|
| 30 |
PLEASANT
VIEW, CONCORD, N. H.,
April 3, 1907
Page
137
MRS. EDDY'S AFFIDAVIT
The following
affidavit, in the form of a letter from |
| 3 |
Mrs. Eddy to Judge Robert N. Chamberlin of
the Superior
Court, was filed in the office of the Clerk of the Court,
Saturday, May 18. The Boston Globe, referring to this |
| 6 |
document, speaks of it as, "in the main, an
example of
crisp, clear, plain-speaking English." The entire letter is
in Mrs. Eddy's own handwriting and is characteristic in |
| 9 |
both substance and penmanship: -
HON. JUDGE CHAMBERLIN, CONCORD, N. H.
Respected Sir: - It is over forty
years that I have |
| 12 |
attended personally to my secular affairs,
to my in-
come, investments, deposits, expenditures, and to my
employees. I have personally selected all my invest- |
| 15 |
ments, except in one or two instances, and
have paid for
the same.
The increasing demands upon my time,
labors, and |
| 18 |
thought, and yearning for more peace and to
have my
property and affairs carefully taken care of for the
persons
and purposes I have designated by my last will, |
| 21 |
influenced me to select a Board of Trustees
to take charge
of my property; namely, the Hon. Henry M. Baker,
Mr.
Archibald McLellan, Mr. Josiah E. Fernald. I |
| 24 |
had contemplated doing this before the
present proceed-
ings were brought or I knew aught about them, and I
had consulted Lawyer Streeter about the method.
|
| 27 |
I selected said Trustees because I had
implicit con-
fidence in each one of them as to honesty and business
capacity. No person influenced me to make this selec- |
| 30 |
tion. I find myself able to select the
Trustees I need
Page
138
|
| 1 |
without the help of others. I gave them my
property to
take care of because I wanted it protected and myself |
| 3 |
relieved of the burden of doing this. They
have agreed
with me to take care of my property and I consider this
agreement a great benefit to me already.
|
| 6 |
This suit was brought without my knowledge
and is
being carried on contrary to my wishes. I feel that it
is not
for my benefit in any way, but for my injury, |
| 9 |
and I know it was not needed to protect my
person or
property. The present proceedings test my trust in
divine
Love. My personal reputation is assailed and |
| 12 |
some of my students and trusted personal
friends are
cruelly, unjustly, and wrongfully accused.
Mr. Calvin A. Frye
and other students often ask me |
| 15 |
to receive persons whom I desire to see but
decline to
receive solely because I find that I cannot "serve two
masters." I cannot be a Christian Scientist except I |
| 18 |
leave all for Christ.
Trusting that I have
not exceeded the bounds of pro-
priety in the statements herein made by
me, |
| 21 |
I remain most respectfully yours,
MARY
BAKER EDDY
PLEASANT VIEW, CONCORD, N.
H., |
| 24 |
May 16,
1907
STATE OF NEW
HAMPSHIRE, Merrimack, ss.
On this sixteenth
day of May, 1907, personally appeared |
| 27 |
Mary Baker Eddy and made oath that the
statements
contained in the annexed letter directed to Honorable
Judge
Chamberlin and dated May 16, 1907, are true. |
| 30 |
Before me: ALLEN HOLLIS,
Justice of
the Peace
Page
139
NOTA BENE
Beloved
Students: - Rest assured that your Leader
is |
| 3 |
living, loving, acting, enjoying. She is
neither dead nor
plucked up by the roots, but she is keenly alive to
the
reality of living, and safely, soulfully founded upon |
| 6 |
the rock, Christ Jesus, even the spiritual
idea of Life,
with its abounding, increasing, advancing footsteps of
progress, primeval faith, hope, love.
|
| 9 |
Like the verdure and evergreen that
flourish when
trampled upon, the Christian Scientist thrives in adver-
sity; his is a life-lease of hope, home, heaven; his idea |
| 12 |
is nearing the Way, the Truth, and the
Life, when mis-
represented, belied, and trodden upon. Justice,
honesty,
cannot be abjured; their vitality involves Life, - calm, |
| 15 |
irresistible, eternal.
A
WORD TO THE WISE
My Beloved
Brethren: - When I asked you to
dispense |
| 18 |
with the Executive Members' meeting, the
purpose of my
request was sacred. It was to turn your sense of worship
from the material to the spiritual, the personal to the |
| 21 |
impersonal, the denominational to the
doctrinal, yea,
from the human to the divine.
Already you have
advanced from the audible to the |
| 24 |
inaudible prayer; from the material to the
spiritual
communion; from drugs to Deity; and you have been
greatly
recompensed. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, |
| 27 |
for so doth the divine Love redeem your
body from dis-
ease; your being from sensuality; your soul from sense;
your life from death.
Page
140
|
| 1 |
Of this abounding and abiding spiritual
understand-
ing the prophet Isaiah said, "And I will bring the blind |
| 3 |
by a way that they knew not; I will lead
them in
paths that they have not known: I will make dark-
ness light
before them, and crooked things straight. |
| 6 |
These things will I do unto them, and not
forsake
them."
MARY BAKER EDDY |
| 9 |
CHESTNUT HILL, MASS.
[Boston
Globe]
ABOLISHING THE COMMUNION
|
| 12 |
In a letter addressed to Christian
Scientists the Rev.
Mary Baker Eddy explains that dropping the annual
com-
munion service of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, |
| 15 |
in Boston, need not debar distant members
from attend-
ing occasionally The Mother Church. The following is
Mrs.
Eddy's letter: -
|
| 18 |
Beloved Christian Scientists: - Take
courage. God is
leading you onward and upward. Relinquishing a ma-
terial form of communion advances it spiritually. |
| 21 |
The material form is a "Suffer it to be so
now," and
is abandoned so soon as God's Way-shower, Christ,
points the
advanced step. This instructs us how to |
| 24 |
be abased and how to abound.
Dropping the
communion of The Mother Church
does not prevent its distant members from
occasionally |
| 27 |
attending this church.
MARY BAKER
EDDY
CHESTNUT HILL, MASS., |
| 30 |
June 21,
1908
Page
141
|
| 1 |
[Boston Globe]
COMMUNION SEASON IS ABOLISHED
|
| 3 |
The general communion service of the
Christian Science
denomination, held annually in The First Church of
Christ, Scientist, in this city, has been abolished by |
| 6 |
order of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. The services
attended
last Sunday [June 14] by ten thousand persons were thus
the
last to be held. Of late years members of the church |
| 9 |
outside of Boston have not been encouraged
to attend the
communion seasons except on the triennial gatherings,
the
next of which would have been held next year.
|
| 12 |
The announcement in regard to the services
was made
last night [June 21] by Alfred Farlow of the publication
committee as follows: -
|
| 15 |
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in
Boston, has
taken steps to abolish its famous communion seasons.
In
former years, the annual communion season of the |
| 18 |
Boston church has offered an occasion for
the gathering
of vast multitudes of Christian Scientists from all
parts
of the world . According to the following statement, which |
| 21 |
Mrs. Eddy has just given out to the press,
these gather-
ings will be discontinued: -
"The house of The
Mother Church seats only five thou- |
| 24 |
sand people, and its membership includes
forty-eight
thousand communicants, hence the following: -
"The
branch churches continue their communion sea- |
| 27 |
sons, but there shall be no more communion
season in
The Mother Church that has blossomed into spiritual
beauty,
communion universal and divine. 'For who
Page
142
|
| 1 |
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he
may instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ.' (1 Corinthians, |
| 3 |
2:16.) "
[Mrs. Eddy has only
abolished the disappointment of
communicants who come long distances and
then find no |
| 6 |
seats in The Mother Church. - EDITOR
Sentinel.]
MRS EDDY'S REPLY
JUDGE
CLIFFORD P. SMITH, LL.B., C.S.B., |
| 9 |
First Reader, The Mother Church, Boston,
Mass.
Beloved Christian Scientist: - Accept my thanks for
your approval of abolishing the communion season of |
| 12 |
The Mother Church. I sought God's guidance
in doing
it, but the most important events are criticized.
The Mother Church
communion season was liter- |
| 15 |
ally a communion of branch church
communicants
which might in time lose its sacredness and merge into
a
meeting for greetings. My beloved brethren may |
| 18 |
some time learn this and rejoice with me,
as they so
often have done, over a step higher in their passage
from
sense to Soul. |
| 21 |
Most truly yours,
MARY BAKER
EDDY
BOX G,
BROOKLINE, MASS. |
| 24 |
June 24,
1908
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Beloved
Students: - I thank you for your kind
invi- |
| 27 |
tation to be present at the annual meeting
of The
Mother Church on June 7, 1909. I will attend the
Page
143
|
| 1 |
meeting, but not in propria persona.
Watch and pray
that God directs your meetings and your lives, and your |
| 3 |
Leader will then be sure that they are
blessed in their
results.
Lovingly yours,
MARY BAKER EDDY |
| 6 |
BROOKLINE,
MASS.,
June 5,
1909
MRS. EDDY'S STATEMENTS
|
| 9 |
To Whom It May Concern: - I have the
pleasure to
report to one and all of my beloved friends and followers
that I exist in the flesh, and am seen daily by the mem- |
| 12 |
bers of my household and by those with
whom I have
appointments.
Above all this
fustian of either denying or asserting the |
| 15 |
personality and presence of Mary Baker
Eddy, stands
the eternal fact of Christian Science and the honest
history
of its Discoverer and Founder. It is self-evident that |
| 18 |
the discoverer of an eternal truth cannot
be a temporal
fraud.
The Cause of
Christian Science is prospering through- |
| 21 |
out the world and stands forever as an
eternal and de-
monstrable Science, and I do not regard this attack
upon
me as a trial, for when these things cease to bless they |
| 24 |
will cease to occur.
"And we know that
all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are
the called |
| 27 |
according to His purpose . . . . What shall
we then say
to these things? If God be for us, who can be against
us?" |
| 30 |
MARY BAKER EDDY
CHESTNUT HILL, MASS.
June 7, 1909
Page
144
|
| 1 |
Mrs. Eddy also sent the following letter to
the mem-
bers of her church in Concord, N. H.: -
|
| 3 |
FIRST
CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, CONCORD, N. H.
My Beloved
Brethren: - Give yourselves no fear and
spare not a moment's thought to
lies afloat that I am sick, |
| 6 |
helpless, or an invalid. The public report
that I am in
either of the aforesaid conditions is utterly false.
With
love, ever yours, |
| 9 |
MARY BAKER EDDY
BOX G, BROOKLINE, MASS.
June 7, 1909
Page
145
CHAPTER V - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE HALL, CONCORD, N. H.
IN
RETROSPECT
MY DEAR EDITORS: -
You are by this time ac- |
| 3 |
quainted with the small item that in
October, 1897,
I proposed to one of Concord's best builders the plan
for
Christian Science Hall in Concord, N. H. He drew the |
| 6 |
plan, showed it to me, and I accepted it.
From that
time, October 29, 1897, until the remodelling of the house
was finished, I inspected the work every day, suggested |
| 9 |
the details outside and inside from the
foundations to
the tower, and saw them carried out. One day the car-
penters' foreman said to me: "I want to be let off for |
| 12 |
a few days. I do not feel able to keep
about. I am
feeling an old ailment my mother had." I healed him
on the
spot. He remained at work, and the next morn- |
| 15 |
ing said to Mr. George H. Moore of
Concord, "I am as
well as I ever was."
Within the past year
and two months, I have worked |
| 18 |
even harder than usual, but I cannot go
upon the plat-
form and still be at home attending to the machinery
which keeps the wheels revolving. This well-known |
| 21 |
fact makes me the servant of the race -
and gladly
thus, if in this way I can serve equally my friends and
my
enemies.
Page
146
|
| 1 |
In explanation of my dedicatory letter to
the Chicago
church (see page 177), I will say: It is understood by all |
| 3 |
Christians that Jesus spoke the truth. He
said: "They
shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
thing,
it shall not hurt them." I believe this saying |
| 6 |
because I understand it, but its verity
has not been
acknowledged since the third century.
The statement in my
letter to the church in Chicago, |
| 9 |
in substance as follows, has been quoted
and criticized:
"If wisdom lengthens my sum of years to fourscore, I
may then be even younger than now."
|
| 12 |
Few believe this saying. Few believe that
Christian
Science contains infinitely more than has been demon-
strated, or that the altitude of its highest propositions has |
| 15 |
not yet been reached. The heights of the
great Naza-
rene's sayings are not fully scaled. Yet his immortal
words
and my poor prophecy, if they are true at all, are |
| 18 |
as true to-day as they will be to-morrow. I
am convinced
of the absolute truth of his sayings and of their present
application to mankind, and I am equally sure that what |
| 21 |
I wrote is true, although it has not been
demonstrated
in this age.
Christian Scientists
hold as a vital point that the beliefs |
| 24 |
of mortals tip the scale of being, morally
and physically,
either in the right or in the wrong direction.
Therefore
a Christian Scientist never mentally or audibly takes |
| 27 |
the side of sin, disease, or death. Others
who take the
side of error do it ignorantly or maliciously. The Chris-
tian Scientist voices the harmonious and eternal, and |
| 30 |
nothing else. He lays his whole weight of
thought,
tongue, and pen in the divine scale of being - for
health and
holiness.
Page
147
SECOND SUNDAY SERVICE, DECEMBER 12, 1897
Friends and
Brethren: - There are moments when
at |
| 3 |
the touch of memory the past comes forth
like a pageant
and the present is prophetic. Over a half century ago,
between the morning and afternoon services of the First |
| 6 |
Congregational Church, the grand old elm on
North State
Street flung its foliage in kindly shelter over my child-
hood's Sunday noons. And now, at this distant day, I |
| 9 |
have provided for you a modest hall, in
which to assemble
as a sort of Christian Science kindergarten for
teaching
the "new tongue" of the gospel with "signs following," |
| 12 |
of which St. Mark prophesies.
May this little
sanctum be preserved sacred to the
memory of this pure purpose, and
subserve it. Let
|
| 15 |
the Bible and the Christian Science
textbook preach the
gospel which heals the sick and enlightens the
people's
sense of Christian Science. This ministry, reaching the |
| 18 |
physical, moral, and spiritual needs of
humanity, will,
in the name of Almighty God, speak the truth that
to-day, as in olden time, is found able to heal both sin |
| 21 |
and disease.
I have purchased a
pleasant place for you, and prepared
for your use work-rooms and a little
hall, which are already |
| 24 |
dedicated to Christ's service, since
Christian Scientists
never stop ceremoniously to dedicate halls. I shall
be
with you personally very seldom. I have a work to do |
| 27 |
that, in the words of our Master, "ye know
not of."
From the interior of Africa to the utmost parts of the earth,
the sick and the heavenly homesick or hungry hearts are |
| 30 |
calling on me for help, and I am helping
them. You have
less need of me than have they, and you must not expect
Page
148
|
| 1 |
me further to do your pioneer work in this
city. Faithfully
and more than ever persistently, you are now, through |
| 3 |
the providence of God, called to do your
part wisely and
to let your faith be known by your works. All that we
ask of any people is to judge our doctrine by its fruits. |
| 6 |
May the good folk of Concord have this
opportunity,
and may the God of all grace, truth, and love be and
abide
with you henceforth.
ADDRESS TO THE CONCORD CHURCH, FEBRUARY, 1899
My Beloved
Brethren: - In the annals of our denomina-
tion this church becomes historic, having completed |
| 12 |
its organization February 22 - Washington's
birthday.
Memorable date, all unthought of till the day had passed!
Then we beheld the omen, - religious liberty, - the |
| 15 |
Father of the universe and the father of
our nation in
concurrence.
To-day, with the
large membership of seventy-four com- |
| 18 |
municants, you have met to praise God. I,
as usual at
home and alone, am with you in spirit, joining in your
rejoicing, and my heart is asking: What are the angels say- |
| 21 |
ing or singing of this dear little flock,
and what is each
heart in this house repeating, and what is being
recorded
of this meeting as with the pen of an angel?
|
| 24 |
Bear in mind always that Christianity is
not alone a
gift, but that it is a growth Christward; it is not a creed
or dogma, - a philosophical phantasm, - nor the opinions |
| 27 |
of a sect struggling to gain power over
contending sects
and scourging the sect in advance of it. Christianity
is
the summons of divine Love for man to be Christlike - |
| 30 |
to emulate the words and the works of our
great Master.
Page
149
|
| 1 |
To attain to these works, men must know
somewhat of
the divine Principle of Jesus' life-work, and must prove |
| 3 |
their knowledge by doing as he bade: "Go,
and do thou
likewise."
We know Principle
only through Science. The Prin- |
| 6 |
ciple of Christ is divine Love, resistless
Life and Truth.
Then the Science of the Principle must be Christlike,
or Christian Science. More than regal is the majesty |
| 9 |
of the meekness of the Christ-principle;
and its might is
the ever-flowing tides of truth that sweep the
universe,
create and govern it; and its radiant stores of knowl- |
| 12 |
edge are the mysteries of exhaustless
being. Seek ye
these till you make their treasures yours.
When a young man
vainly boasted, "I am wise, for I |
| 15 |
have conversed with many wise men,"
Epictetus made
answer, "And I with many rich men, but I am not rich."
The richest blessings are obtained by labor. A vessel |
| 18 |
full must be emptied before it can be
refilled. Lawyers
may know too much of human law to have a clear per-
ception of divine justice, and divines be too deeply read |
| 21 |
in scholastic theology to appreciate or to
demonstrate
Christian charity. Losing the comprehensive in the
technical, the Principle in its accessories, cause in effect, |
| 24 |
and faith in sight, we lose the Science of
Christianity, -
a predicament quite like that of the man who could not
see London for its houses.
|
| 27 |
Clouds parsimonious of rain, that swing in
the sky with
dumb thunderbolts, are seen and forgotten in the same
hour; while those with a mighty rush, which waken the |
| 30 |
stagnant waters and solicit every root and
every leaf with
the treasures of rain, ask no praising. Remember, thou
canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe,
Page
150
|
| 1 |
where Love has not been before thee and
where its tender
lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not
nor |
| 3 |
murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to
heal, and to
deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance.
Pliny gives the
following description of the character of |
| 6 |
true greatness: "Doing what deserves to be
written, and
writing what deserves to be read; and rendering the world
happier and better for having lived in it." Strive thou |
| 9 |
for the joy and crown of such a pilgrimage
- the service
of such a mission.
A heart touched and
hallowed by one chord of Christian |
| 12 |
Science, can accomplish the full scale; but
this heart must
be honest and in earnest and never weary of struggling
to
be perfect - to reflect the divine Life, Truth, and Love.
|
| 15 |
Stand by the limpid lake, sleeping amid
willowy banks
dyed with emerald. See therein the mirrored sky and the
moon ablaze with her mild glory. This will stir your |
| 18 |
heart. Then, in speechless prayer, ask God
to enable you
to reflect God, to become His own image and likeness,
even the calm, clear, radiant reflection of Christ's glory, |
| 21 |
healing the sick, bringing the sinner to
repentance, and
raising the spiritually dead in trespasses and sins to
life
in God. Jesus said: "If ye abide in me, and my words |
| 24 |
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be
done unto you."
Beloved in Christ,
what our Master said unto his |
| 27 |
disciples, when he sent them forth to heal
the sick and
preach the gospel, I say unto you: "Be ye therefore wise
as serpents, and harmless as doves." Then, if the wis- |
| 30 |
dom you manifest causes Christendom or the
disclaimer
against God to call this "a subtle fraud," "let your peace
return to you."
Page
151
|
| 1 |
I am patient with the newspaper wares and
the
present schoolboy epithets and attacks of a portion of |
| 3 |
Christendom:
(1) Because I
sympathize with their ignorance of
Christian Science:
|
| 6 |
(2) Because I know that no Christian can
or does
understand this Science and not love it:
(3) Because these
attacks afford opportunity for ex- |
| 9 |
plaining Christian Science:
(4) Because it is
written: "The wrath of man shall
praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt
Thou restrain."
|
| 12 |
Rest assured that the injustice done by
press and pulpit
to this denomination of Christians will cease, when it
no
longer blesses this denomination. "This I know; for God |
| 15 |
is for me" (Psalms). And in the words of
St. Paul, "If
God be for us, who can be against us?"
"Pass ye
the proud fane by, |
| 18 |
The
vaulted aisles by flaunting folly trod,
And 'neath the temple of uplifted
sky -
Go forth, and worship God."
MESSAGE, APRIL 19, 1899
SUBJECT: "NOT
MATTER, BUT SPIRIT"
My Beloved Brethren: - We learn
from the Scrip- |
| 24 |
tures that the Baalites or sun-worshippers
failed to
look "through nature up to nature's God," thus missing
the
discovery of all cause and effect. They were content |
| 27 |
to look no higher than the symbol. This
departure from
Spirit, this worshipping of matter in the name of
nature,
was idolatry then and is idolatry now. When human |
| 30 |
thought discerned its idolatrous
tendencies, it took a step
Page
152
|
| 1 |
higher; but it immediately turned to
another form of
idolatry, and, worshipping person instead of
Principle, |
| 3 |
anchored its faith in troubled waters. At
that period,
the touch of Jesus' robe and the handkerchief of St.
Paul
were supposed to heal the sick, and our Master |
| 6 |
declared, "Thy faith hath made thee whole."
The
medicine-man, far lower in the scale of thought, said,
"My material
tonic has strengthened you." By reposing |
| 9 |
faith in man and in matter, the human race
has not
yet reached the understanding of God, the conception
of Spirit
and its all-power.
|
| 12 |
The restoration of pure Christianity rests
solely on
spiritual understanding, spiritual worship, spiritual power.
Ask thyself, Do I enter by the door and worship only |
| 15 |
Spirit and spiritually, or do I climb up
some other way?
Do I understand God as Love, the divine Principle of
all
that really is, the infinite good, than which there is none |
| 18 |
else and in whom is all? Unless this be so,
the blind is
leading the blind, and both will stumble into doubt and
darkness, even as the ages have shown. To-day, if ye |
| 21 |
would hear His voice, listen to His Word
and serve no
other gods. Then the divine Principle of good, that we
call God, will be found an ever-present help in all things, |
| 24 |
and Christian Science will be understood.
It will also be
seen that this God demands all our faith and love; that
matter, man, or woman can never heal you nor pardon a |
| 27 |
single sin; while God, the divine Principle
of nature and
man, when understood and demonstrated, is found to be
the
remote, predisposing, and present cause of all that is |
| 30 |
rightly done.
I have the sweet
satisfaction of sending to you weekly
flowers that my skilful florist has
coaxed into loveliness
Page
153
|
| 1 |
despite our winter snows. Also I hear that
the loving
hearts and hands of the Christian Scientists in Concord |
| 3 |
send these floral offerings in my name to
the sick and
suffering. Now, if these kind hearts will only do this in
Christ's name, the power of Truth and Love will fulfil the |
| 6 |
law in righteousness. The healing and the
gospel ministry
of my students in Concord have come to fulfil the
whole
law. Unto "the angel of the church in Philadelphia," |
| 9 |
the church of brotherly love, "these
things saith He
that is holy."
To-day our great
Master would say to the aged gentle- |
| 12 |
man healed from the day my flowers visited
his bedside:
Thy faith hath healed thee. The flowers were imbued
and
associated with no intrinsic healing qualities from my |
| 15 |
poor personality. The scientific, healing
faith is a saving
faith; it keeps steadfastly the great and first
command-
ment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" - no |
| 18 |
other than the spiritual help of divine
Love. Faith in
aught else misguides the understanding, ignores the
power
of God, and, in the words of St. Paul, appeals to an un- |
| 21 |
known power "whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship."
This trembling and blind faith, in the past as in the present,
seeks personality for support, unmindful of the divine law |
| 24 |
of Love, which can be understood, the
Principle of which
works intelligently as the divine Mind, not as
matter,
casting out evil and healing the sick.
|
| 27 |
Christian Science healing is "the Spirit
and the bride,"
- the Word and the wedding of this Word to all human
thought and action, - that says: Come, and I will give |
| 30 |
thee rest, peace, health, holiness. The
sweet flowers
should be to us His apostles, pointing away from matter
and man up to the one source, divine Life and Love, in
Page
154
|
| 1 |
whom is all salvation from sin, disease,
and death. The
Science of all healing is based on Mind-the power of |
| 3 |
Truth over error. It is not the person who
gives the
drug nor the drug itself that heals, but it is the law of
Life understood by the practitioner as transcending the |
| 6 |
law of death.
I shall scarcely
venture to send flowers to this little hall
if they can be made to infringe
the divine law of Love |
| 9 |
even in thought. Send flowers and all
things fair and
comforting to the dear sick, but remember it is not he
who gives the flowers that confers the blessing, but |
| 12 |
"my Spirit, saith the Lord;" for "in Him
was life," and
that life "was the light of men."
FIRST ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY 11, 1900
|
| 15 |
My Beloved Brethren: - At this, your
first annual
meeting, permit me to congratulate this little church in
our city, weaving the new-old vesture in which to appear |
| 18 |
and to clothe the human race. Carlyle
wrote: "Wouldst
thou plant for eternity, then plant into the deep
infinite
faculties of man. " " If the poor . . . toil that we have
food, |
| 21 |
must not the high and glorious toil for him
in return, that
he have light, . . . freedom, immortality?" I agree with
him; and in our era of the world I welcome the means and |
| 24 |
methods, light and truth, emanating from
the pulpit and
press. Altogether it makes the church militant, embodied
in a visible communion, the foreshadowing of the church |
| 27 |
triumphant. Communing heart with heart,
mind with
mind, soul with soul, wherein and whereby we are looking
heavenward, is not looking nor gravitating earthward, |
| 30 |
take it in whatever sense you may. Such
communing
Page
155
|
| 1 |
uplifts man's being; it makes healing the
sick and reform-
ing the sinner a mutual aid society, which is effective
here |
| 3 |
and now.
May this dear little
church, nestled so near my heart
and native hills, be steadfast in Christ,
always abounding |
| 6 |
in love and good works, having unfaltering
faith in the
prophecies, promises, and proofs of Holy Writ. May this
church have one God, one Christ, and that one the God and |
| 9 |
Saviour whom the Scriptures declare. May it
catch the
early trumpet-call, take step with the twentieth century,
leave behind those things that are behind, lay down the |
| 12 |
low laurels of vainglory, and, pressing
forward in the on-
ward march of Truth, run in joy, health, holiness,
the
race set before it, till, home at last, it finds the full fru- |
| 15 |
ition of its faith, hope, and prayer.
EASTER MESSAGE, 1902
Beloved
Brethren: - May this glad Easter morn
find |
| 18 |
the members of this dear church having a
pure peace, a
fresh joy, a clear vision of heaven here, - heaven
within
us, - and an awakened sense of the risen Christ. May |
| 21 |
long lines of light span the horizon of
their hope and
brighten their faith with a dawn that knows no twilight
and no night. May those who discourse music to-day, |
| 24 |
sing as the angels heaven's symphonies
that come to
earth.
May the dear Sunday
School children always be gather- |
| 27 |
ing Easter lilies of love with happy hearts
and ripening
goodness. To-day may they find some sweet scents and
beautiful blossoms in their Leader's love, which she sends |
| 30 |
to them this glad morn in the flowers and
the cross from
Pleasant View, smiling upon them.
Page
156
ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY 6, 1905
Beloved
Brethren: - You will accept my gratitude
for |
| 3 |
your dear letter, and allow me to reply in
words of the
Scripture: "I know whom I have believed, and am per-
suaded that He is able" - "able to do exceeding abun- |
| 6 |
dantly above all that we ask or think,"
"able to make
all grace abound toward you; that ye, always hav-
ing all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every |
| 9 |
good work," "able to keep that which I
have com-
mitted unto Him against that day."
When Jesus directed
his disciples to prepare for the |
| 12 |
material passover, which spiritually
speaking is the pass-
over from sense to Soul, he bade them say to the
good-
man of the house: "The Master saith unto thee, Where |
| 15 |
is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the
passover will
my disciples? and he shall show you a large upper room
furnished: there make ready."
|
| 18 |
In obedience to this command may these
communicants
come with the upper chambers of thought prepared for the
reception of Truth - with hope, faith, and love ready to |
| 21 |
partake of the bread that cometh down from
heaven, and
to "drink of his blood" - to receive into their affections
and lives the inspiration which giveth victory over sin, |
| 24 |
disease, and death.
Page
157
CHAPTER VI - FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, CONCORD, N. H.
1 [Concord (N. H.) Monitor]
MRS. EDDY'S GIFT TO THE CONCORD CHURCH
|
| 3 |
"BELOVED TEACHER AND LEADER: - The members
of the Concord church are filled with profound joy
and deep gratitude
that your generous gift of one hun- |
| 6 |
dred thousand dollars is to be used at once
to build a
beautiful church edifice for your followers in the capital
city of your native State. We rejoice that the prosperity |
| 9 |
of the Cause in your home city, where,
without regard
to class or creed, you are so highly esteemed, makes
necessary the commodious and beautiful church home |
| 12 |
you have so freely bestowed. We thank you
for this
renewed evidence of your unselfish love."
The church will be
built of the same beautiful Concord |
| 15 |
granite of which the National Library
Building in Wash-
ington is constructed. This is in accord with the ex-
pressed wish of Mrs. Eddy, made known in her original |
| 18 |
deed of trust, first announced in the
Concord Monitor
of March 19, 1898. In response to an inquiry from
the
editor of that paper, Mrs. Eddy made the following |
| 21 |
statement: -
On January 31, 1898,
I gave a deed of trust to three
individuals which conveyed to them the sum
of one
Page
158
|
| 1 |
hundred thousand dollars to be appropriated
in build-
ing a granite church edifice for First Church of Christ, |
| 3 |
Scientist, in this city.
Very
truly,
MARY BAKER EDDY
CORNER-STONE LAID AT CONCORD
Beloved
Brethren: - This day drops down upon the
glories of summer; it is a glad day, in attune with faith's |
| 9 |
fond trust. We live in an age of Love's
divine adven-
ture to be All-in-all. This day is the natal hour of my
lone earth life; and for all mankind to-day hath its gloom |
| 12 |
and glory: it endureth all things; it
points to the new
birth, heaven here, the struggle over; it profits by
the
past and joys in the present - to-day lends a new-born |
| 15 |
beauty to holiness, patience, charity,
love.
Having all faith in
Christian Science, we must have
faith in whatever manifests love for God
and man. The |
| 18 |
burden of proof that Christian Science is
Science rests
on Christian Scientists. The letter without the spirit
is
dead: it is the Spirit that heals the sick and the |
| 21 |
sinner - that makes the heart tender,
faithful, true.
Most men and women talk well, and some practise what
they say.
|
| 24 |
God has blessed and will bless this dear
band of brethren.
He has laid the chief corner-stone of the temple
which
to-day you commemorate, to-morrow complete, and there- |
| 27 |
after dedicate to Truth and Love. O may
your temple
and all who worship therein stand through all time for
God
and humanity! |
| 30 |
MARY BAKER EDDY
Page
159
|
| 1 |
MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF THE
DEDICATION OF
MRS. EDDY'S GIFT, JULY 17, 1904
|
| 3 |
Beloved Brethren: - Never more sweet
than to-day,
seem to me, and must seem to thee, those words of
our
loved Lord, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto |
| 6 |
the end." Thus may it ever be that Christ
rejoiceth
and comforteth us. Sitting at his feet, I send to
you the
throbbing of every pulse of my desire for the |
| 9 |
ripening and rich fruit of this branch of
his vine, and
I thank God who hath sent forth His word to heal
and to
save.
|
| 12 |
At this period, the greatest man or woman
on earth
stands at the vestibule of Christian Science, struggling to
enter into the perfect love of God and man. The infinite |
| 15 |
will not be buried in the finite; the true
thought escapes
from the inward to the outward, and this is the only
right activity, that whereby we reach our higher |
| 18 |
nature. Material theories tend to check
spiritual at-
traction - the tendency towards God, the infinite and
eternal - by an opposite attraction towards the tem- |
| 21 |
porary and finite. Truth, life, and love
are the only
legitimate and eternal demands upon man; they are
spiritual laws enforcing obedience and punishing dis- |
| 24 |
obedience.
Even Epictetus,
a heathen philosopher who held that
Zeus, the master of the gods, could not
control human
|
| 27 |
will, writes, "What is the essence of God?
Mind." The
general thought chiefly regards material things, and keeps
Copyright,
1904, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. All rights
30 reserved.
Page
160
|
| 1 |
Mind much out of sight. The Christian,
however, strives
for the spiritual; he abides in a right purpose, as in
laws |
| 3 |
which it were impious to transgress, and
follows Truth
fearlessly. The heart that beats mostly for self is
seldom
alight with love. To live so as to keep human conscious- |
| 6 |
ness in constant relation with the divine,
the spiritual, and
the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and
this is
Christian Science.
|
| 9 |
It is of less importance that we receive
from man-
kind justice, than that we deserve it. Most of us
willingly
accept dead truisms which can be buried |
| 12 |
at will; but a live truth, even though it
be a sapling
within rich soil and with blossoms on its branches,
frightens people. The trenchant truth that cuts its |
| 15 |
way through iron and sod, most men avoid
until
compelled to glance at it. Then they open their
hearts to it for
actual being, health, holiness, and im- |
| 18 |
mortality.
I am asked, "Is
there a hell?" Yes, there is a hell for
all who persist in breaking the
Golden Rule or in dis- |
| 21 |
obeying the commandments of God. Physical
science
has sometimes argued that the internal fires of our earth
will
eventually consume this planet. Christian Science |
| 24 |
shows that hidden unpunished sin is this
internal fire, -
even the fire of a guilty conscience, waking to a true
sense
of itself, and burning in torture until the sinner is con- |
| 27 |
sumed, - his sins destroyed. This may take
millions of
cycles, but of the time no man knoweth. The advanced
psychist knows that this hell is mental, not material, and |
| 30 |
that the Christian has no part in it. Only
the makers of
hell burn in their fire.
Concealed crimes, the
wrongs done to others, are mill-
Page
161
|
| 1 |
stones hung around the necks of the wicked.
Christ Jesus
paid our debt and set us free by enabling us to pay it; |
| 3 |
for which we are still his debtors,
washing the Way-shower's
feet with tears of joy.
The intentional
destroyer of others would destroy him- |
| 6 |
self eternally, were it not that his
suffering reforms him,
thus balancing his account with divine Love, which
never
remits the sentence necessary to reclaim the sinner. |
| 9 |
Hence these words of Christ Jesus: "Depart
from me, all
ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping
and
gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and |
| 12 |
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in
the kingdom of
God, and you yourselves thrust out." (Luke 13 : 27, 28.)
He who gains self-knowledge, self-control, and the king- |
| 15 |
dom of heaven within himself, within his
own conscious-
ness, is saved through Christ, Truth. Mortals must
drink sufficiently of the cup of their Lord and Master |
| 18 |
to unself mortality and to destroy its
erroneous claims.
Therefore, said Jesus, "Ye shall drink indeed of my
cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am |
| 21 |
baptized with."
We cannot boast
ourselves of to-morrow; sufficient unto
each day is the duty thereof. Lest
human reason becloud |
| 24 |
spiritual understanding, say not in thy
heart: Sickness is
possible because one's thought and conduct do not
afford
a sufficient defence against it. Trust in God, and "He |
| 27 |
shall direct thy paths." When evil was
avenging itself on
its destroyer, his preeminent goodness, the Godlike man
said, "My burden is light." Only he who learns through |
| 30 |
meekness and love the falsity of
supposititious life and
intelligence in matter, can triumph over their
ultimatum,
sin, suffering, and death.
Page
162
|
| 1 |
God's mercy for mortal ignorance and need
is assured;
then who shall question our want of more faith in His |
| 3 |
"very present help in trouble"? Jesus said:
"Suffer
it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness . "
|
| 6 |
Strength is in man, not in muscles; unity
and power are
not in atom or in dust. A small group of wise
thinkers
is better than a wilderness of dullards and stronger than |
| 9 |
the might of empires. Unity is spiritual
cooperation,
heart to heart, the bond of blessedness such as my beloved
Christian Scientists all over the field, and the dear Sun- |
| 12 |
day School children, have demonstrated in
gifts to me
of about eighty thousand dollars, to be applied to build-
ing, embellishing, and furnishing our church edifice in |
| 15 |
Concord, N. H.
We read in Holy
Writ: "This man began to build, and
was not able to finish." This was
spoken derisively. |
| 18 |
But the love that rebukes praises also, and
methinks the
same wisdom which spake thus in olden time would say
to
the builder of the Christian Scientists' church edifice |
| 21 |
in Concord: "Well done, good and faithful."
Our proper
reason for church edifices is, that in them Christians may
worship God, - not that Christians may worship church |
| 24 |
edifices!
May the loving
Shepherd of this feeble flock lead it
gently into "green pastures . . .
beside the still waters." |
| 27 |
May He increase its members, and may their
faith never
falter - their faith in and their understanding of divine
Love. This church, born in my nativity, may it build |
| 30 |
upon the rock of ages against which the
waves and winds
beat in vain. May the towering top of its goodly
temple
- burdened with beauty, pointing to the heavens, bursting
Page
163
|
| 1 |
into the rapture of song - long call the
worshipper to
seek the haven of hope, the heaven of Soul, the sweet
sense |
| 3 |
of angelic song chiming chaste challenge to
praise him who
won the way and taught mankind to win through meekness
to might, goodness to grandeur, from cross to crown, |
| 6 |
from sense to Soul, from gleam to glory,
from matter to
Spirit.
ANNOUNCEMENT
|
| 9 |
Not having the time to receive all the
beloved ones who
have so kindly come to the dedication of this church,
I
must not allow myself the pleasure of receiving any of |
| 12 |
them. I always try to be just, if not
generous; and I
cannot show my love for them in social ways without
neglecting the sacred demands on my time and attention |
| 15 |
for labors which I think do them more
good.
A
KINDLY GREETING
Dear
Editor: - When I removed from Boston in
1889 |
| 18 |
and came to Concord, N. H., it was that I
might find
retirement from many years of incessant labor for the
Cause
of Christian Science, and the opportunity in Con- |
| 21 |
cord's quiet to revise our textbook,
"Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures." Here let me add that,
together with the retirement I so much coveted, I have |
| 24 |
also received from the leading people of
this pleasant city
all and more than I anticipated. I love its people
-
love their scholarship, friendship, and granite char- |
| 27 |
acter. I respect their religious beliefs,
and thank their
ancestors for helping to form mine. The movement of
establishing in this city a church of our faith was far from
Page
164
|
| 1 |
my purpose, when I came here, knowing that
such an
effort would involve a lessening of the retirement I so |
| 3 |
much desired. But the demand increased,
and I con-
sented, hoping thereby to give to many in this city a
church
home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GIFTS
To the Chicago
Churches
My Beloved Brethren: - I have
yearned to express my |
| 9 |
thanks for your munificent gift to First
Church of Christ,
Scientist, in Concord, of ten thousand dollars. What
is
gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, a thing focus- |
| 12 |
ing light where love, memory, and all
within the human
heart is present to manifest light.
Is it not a joy to compare the beginning
of Christian |
| 15 |
Science in Chicago with its present
prosperity? Now
[1904] six dear churches are there, the members of
which
not only possess a sound faith, but that faith also possesses |
| 18 |
them. A great sanity, a mighty something
buried in the
depths of the unseen, has wrought a resurrection among
you, and has leaped into living love. What is this |
| 21 |
something, this phoenix fire, this pillar
by day, kindling,
guiding, and guarding your way? It is unity, the
bond
of perfectness, the thousandfold expansion that will |
| 24 |
engirdle the world, - unity, which unfolds
the thought
most within us into the greater and better, the sum of
all
reality and good.
|
| 27 |
This unity is reserved wisdom and strength.
It builds
upon the rock, against which envy, enmity, or malice
beat in
vain. Man lives, moves, and has his being in God, |
| 30 |
Love. Then man must live, he cannot die;
and Love
Page
165
|
| 1 |
must necessarily promote and pervade all
his success.
Of two things fate cannot rob us; namely, of choos- |
| 3 |
ing the best, and of helping others thus to
choose.
But in doing this the Master became the servant. The
grand
must stoop to the menial. There is scarcely an |
| 6 |
indignity which I have not endured for the
cause of
Christ, Truth, and I returned blessing for cursing. The
best
help the worst; the righteous suffer for the unright- |
| 9 |
eous; and by this spirit man lives and
thrives, and by
it God governs.
To First Church of
Christ, Scientist, New York
|
| 12 |
Beloved Brethren: - I beg to thank
the dear brethren of
this church for the sum of ten thousand dollars
presented
to me for First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Concord, |
| 15 |
N. H. Goodness never fails to receive its
reward, for
goodness makes life a blessing. As an active portion of
one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with |
| 18 |
universal good. Thus may each member of
this church
rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the
scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and |
| 21 |
happiness, and this is my rock of
salvation and my reason
for existing.
Human reason becomes tired and calls for
rest. It has |
| 24 |
a relapse into the common hope. Goodness
and benevo-
lence never tire. They maintain themselves and others
and
never stop from exhaustion. He who is afraid of |
| 27 |
being too generous has lost the power of
being magnani-
mous. The best man or woman is the most unselfed.
God
grant that this church is rapidly nearing the maxi- |
| 30 |
mum of might, - the means that build to
the heavens,
- that it has indeed found and felt the infinite source
Page
166
|
| 1 |
where is all, and from which it can
help its neighbor.
Then efforts to be great will never end in anarchy
but |
| 3 |
will continue with divine approbation. It
is insincerity
and a half-persuaded faith that fail to succeed and fall
to the earth.
|
| 6 |
Religions may waste away, but the fittest
survives;
and so long as we have the right ideal, life is worth living
and God takes care of our life.
|
| 9 |
To The Mother Church
My Beloved
Brethren: - Your munificent gift of ten
thousand dollars, with which to furnish First Church of |
| 12 |
Christ, Scientist, of Concord, N. H., with
an organ, is
positive proof of your remembrance and love. Days of
shade
and shine may come and go, but we will live on and |
| 15 |
never drift apart. Life's ills are its
chief recompense;
they develop hidden strength. Had I never suffered
for
The Mother Church, neither she nor I would be practising |
| 18 |
the virtues that lie concealed in the
smooth seasons and
calms of human existence. When we are willing to
help
and to be helped, divine aid is near. If all our years were |
| 21 |
holidays, sport would be more irksome than
work. So,
my dear ones, let us together sing the old-new song of
salvation, and let our measure of time and joy be spiritual, |
| 24 |
not material.
To First Church of
Christ, Scientist,
New London, Conn.
|
| 27 |
Beloved Brethren: - I am for the
first time informed of
your gift to me of a beautiful cabinet, costing one
hundred
and seventy-five dollars, for my books, placed in my room |
| 30 |
at First Church of Christ, Scientist,
Concord, N. H.
Page
167
|
| 1 |
Accept my deep thanks therefor, and
especially for the
self-sacrifice it may have cost the dear donors.
|
| 3 |
The mysticism of good is unknown to the
flesh, for
goodness is "the fruit of the Spirit." The suppositional
world within us separates us from the spiritual world, |
| 6 |
which is apart from matter, and unites us
to one another.
Spirit teaches us to resign what we are not and to un-
derstand what we are in the unity of Spirit - in that |
| 9 |
Love which is faithful, an ever-present
help in trouble,
which never deserts us.
I pray that heaven's
messages of "on earth peace, good |
| 12 |
will toward men," may fill your hearts and
leave their
loving benedictions upon your lives.
THANKSGIVING DAY, 1904
|
| 15 |
Beloved Students: - May this, your
first Thanksgiv-
ing Day, according to time-tables, in our new church
edifice, be one acceptable in His sight, and full of love, |
| 18 |
peace, and good will for yourselves, your
flock, and the
race. Give to all the dear ones my love, and my
prayer
for their health, happiness, and holiness this |
| 21 |
and every day.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Beloved
Brethren: - Allow me to send forth a
paean |
| 24 |
of praise for the noble disposal of the
legislative question
as to the infringement of rights and privileges
guaran-
teed to you by the laws of my native State. The con- |
| 27 |
stituted religious rights in New Hampshire
will, I trust,
never be marred by the illegitimate claims of envy,
jealousy, or persecution.
|
| 30 |
In our country the day of heathenism,
illiberal views,
Page
168
|
| 1 |
or of an uncultivated understanding has
passed. Free-
dom to worship God according to the dictates of en- |
| 3 |
lightened conscience, and practical
religion in agreement
with the demand of our common Christ, the Holy
One
of Israel, are forever the privileges of the people of my |
| 6 |
dear old New Hampshire.
Lovingly
yours,
MARY BAKER EDDY
|
| 9 |
BOX G,
BROOKLINE, MASS.,
April 12,
1909
CHAPTER VII - PLEASANT VIEW AND CONCORD, N. H.
INVITATION TO CONCORD, JULY 4, 1897
MY BELOVED CHURCH: -
I invite you, one and all, |
| 3 |
to Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., on July
5, at
12.30 P.M., if you would enjoy so long a trip for so small
a
purpose as simply seeing Mother.
|
| 6 |
My precious Busy Bees, under twelve years
of age,
are requested to visit me at a later date, which I hope
soon
to name to them. |
| 9 |
With love, Mother,
MARY BAKER EDDY
PLEASANT
VIEW, CONCORD, N. H.,
12 June
30, 1897
[New York
Journal]
VISIT TO CONCORD, 1901
|
| 15 |
Please say through the New York
Journal, to the
Christian Scientists of New York City and of the
world
at large, that I was happy to receive at Concord, N. H., |
| 18 |
the call of about three thousand believers
of my faith,
and that I was rejoiced at the appropriate beauty of
time
and place which greeted them.
Page
170
|
| 1 |
I am especially desirous that it should be
understood
that this was no festal occasion, no formal church cere- |
| 3 |
monial, but simply my acquiescence in the
request of my
church members that they might see the Leader of Chris-
tian Science.
|
| 6 |
The brevity of my remarks was due to a
desire on my
part that the important sentiments uttered in my annual
Message to the church last Sunday should not be confused |
| 9 |
with other issues, but should be
emphasized in the minds
of all present here in Concord.
ADDRESS AT PLEASANT VIEW, JUNE, 1903
|
| 12 |
Beloved Brethren: - Welcome home! To
your home
in my heart! Welcome to Pleasant View, but not
to varying
views. I would present a gift to you |
| 15 |
to-day, only that this gift is already
yours. God hath
given it to all mankind. It is His coin, His currency;
it has His image and superscription. This gift is a |
| 18 |
passage of Scripture; it is my sacred
motto, and it
reads thus: -
"Trust in the Lord,
and do good; so shalt thou dwell |
| 21 |
in in the land, and verily thou shalt be
fed. Delight thyself
also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires
of thine
heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in |
| 24 |
Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He
shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment
as
the noonday."
|
| 27 |
Beloved, some of you have come long
distances to kneel
with us in sacred silence in blest communion - unity
of
faith, understanding, prayer, and praise - and to return |
| 30 |
in joy, bearing your sheaves with you. In
parting I
Page
171
|
| 1 |
repeat to these dear members of my
church: Trust in
Truth, and have no other trusts.
|
| 3 |
To-day is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
"And the
ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion
with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads: they |
| 6 |
shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow
and sigh-
ing shall flee away."
VISIT TO CONCORD, 1904
|
| 9 |
Beloved Students: - The new Concord
church is so
nearly completed that I think you would enjoy seeing it.
Therefore I hereby invite all my church communicants |
| 12 |
who attend this communion, to come to
Concord, and
view this beautiful structure, at two o'clock in the
after-
noon, Monday, June 13, 1904. |
| 15 |
Lovingly yours,
MARY BAKER
EDDY
PLEASANT
VIEW, CONCORD, N. H., |
| 18 |
June 11,
1904
The Day in Concord
While on her regular afternoon drive Mrs.
Eddy re- |
| 21 |
sponded graciously to the silent greetings
of the people
who were assembled on the lawn of the Unitarian church
and of the high school. Her carriage came to a stand- |
| 24 |
still on North State Street, and she was
greeted in behalf
of the church by the President, Mr. E. P. Bates, to
whom she presented as a love-token for the church a |
| 27 |
handsome rosewood casket beautifully bound
with bur-
nished brass.
The casket contained a gavel for the use
of the
Page
172
|
| 1 |
President of The Mother Church. The wood of
the head
of the gavel was taken from the old Yale College Athe- |
| 3 |
naeum, the first chapel of the college. It
was built in
1761, and razed in 1893 to make room for Vanderbilt
Hall.
The wood in the handle was grown on the farm |
| 6 |
of Mark Baker, father of the Rev. Mary
Baker Eddy,
at Bow, N. H.
In presenting this
gavel to President Bates, Mrs. Eddy |
| 9 |
spoke as follows to the members of her
church, The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass.: -
"My Beloved
Brethren: - Permit me to present to you |
| 12 |
a little gift that has no intrinsic value
save that which it
represents - namely, a material symbol of my
spiritual
call to this my beloved church of over thirty thousand |
| 15 |
members; and this is that call: In the
words of our great
Master, 'Go ye into all the world,' 'heal the sick,'
cast
out evil, disease, and death; 'Freely ye have received, |
| 18 |
freely give.' You will please accept my
thanks for your
kind, expert call on me."
In reply Mr. Bates
said, -
|
| 21 |
"I accept this gift in behalf of the
church, and for
myself and my successors in office.''
The box containing
the gavel was opened the following |
| 24 |
day in Boston at the annual meeting of The
Mother
Church of Christ, Scientist, and the enclosed note from
Mrs.
Eddy was read: -
|
| 27 |
"My Beloved Brethren: - You will
please accept
from me the accompanying gift as a simple token of
love."
Page
173
CARD OF THANKS
The following letter
appeared in the Concord (N. H.) |
| 3 |
newspapers after the visit of the
Christian Scientists in
1904: -
Dear Mr.
Editor: - Allow me through your paper
to |
| 6 |
thank the citizens of Concord for the
generous hospi-
tality extended yesterday to the members of my church,
The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.
|
| 9 |
After the Christian Science periodicals had
given notice
that no preparations would be made for a large gathering
at this annual meeting of The Mother Church, I scarcely |
| 12 |
supposed that a note, sent at the last
moment, would bring
thousands here yesterday; but as many gifts had
come
from Christian Scientists everywhere to help furnish and |
| 15 |
beautify our new church building in
Concord, it came to
me: Why not invite those who attend the communion
in Boston to take a peep at this church edifice on the day |
| 18 |
when there are no formal exercises at the
denominational
headquarters? The number of visitors, about four thou-
sand, exceeded my expectation, and my heart welcomed |
| 21 |
each and all. It was a glad day for me -
sweet to observe
with what unanimity my fellow-citizens vied with each
other to make the Christian Scientists' short stay so |
| 24 |
pleasant.
Special thanks are
due and are hereby tendered to his
Honor, the Mayor, for arranging the
details and allowing |
| 27 |
the visitors to assemble on the green
surrounding the high
school; also to Mr. George D. Waldron, chairman of
the
prudential committee of the Unitarian church, and to his |
| 30 |
colaborers on said committee and to the
church itself,
for their kindly foresight in granting permission, not
only
Page
174
to use the beautiful
lawn surrounding their church build-
ing, but also for throwing open their
doors for the com- |
| 3 |
fort and convenience of the Christian
Scientists during
the day. The wide-spreading elms and soft greensward
proved an ideal meeting place. I greatly appreciate the |
| 6 |
courtesy extended to my friends by the
Wonolancet Club
in again opening their spacious club-house to them on this
occasion; and the courtesy of the efficient city marshal |
| 9 |
and his staff of police extended to me
throughout. And
last but not least, I thank the distinguished editors in
my
home city for their reports of the happy occasion.
TO
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
To the
Rev. Franklin D. Ayer, D.D., Pastor Emeritus; the Rev.
George H. Reed,
Pastor of the First Congregational Church, |
| 15 |
Concord,
N. H., Edward A. Moulton, John C. Thorne, William P.
Ballard, Henry K.
Morrison, Deacons.
Beloved
Brethren: - I have the pleasure of thanking
|
| 18 |
you for your kind invitation to attend the
one hun-
dred and seventy-fifth anniversary of our time-honored
First
Congregational Church in Concord, N. H., where |
| 21 |
my parents first offered me to Christ in
infant baptism.
For nearly forty years and until I had a church of my
own, I was a member of the Congregational Church in |
| 24 |
Tilton, N. H.
To-day my soul can
only sing and soar. An increas-
ing sense of God's
love, omnipresence, and omnipotence |
| 27 |
enfolds me. Each day I know Him nearer,
love Him
more, and humbly pray to serve Him better. Thus
seeking and finding
(though feebly), finally may we not |
| 30 |
together rejoice in the church triumphant?
Page
175
|
| 1 |
I would love to be with you at this deeply
interesting
anniversary, but my little church in Boston, Mass., of |
| 3 |
thirty-six thousand communicants, together
with the
organizations connected therewith, requires my constant
attention and time, with the exception of a daily drive.
|
| 6 |
Please accept the enclosed check for five
hundred
dollars, to aid in repairing your church building.
PLEASANT
VIEW, CONCORD, N. H., |
| 9 |
November
14, 1905
GREETINGS
Allow me to say to
the good folk of Concord that the |
| 12 |
growth and prosperity of our city cheer me.
Its dear
churches, reliable editors, intelligent medical faculty,
up-to-date academies, humane institutions, provisions |
| 15 |
for the army, and well-conducted jail and
state prison, - if,
indeed, such must remain with us a little longer, -
speak
for themselves. Our picturesque city, however, greatly |
| 18 |
needs improved streets. May I ask in behalf
of the public
this favor of our city government; namely, to macadam-
ize a portion of Warren Street and to macadamize North |
| 21 |
State Street throughout?
Sweeter than the
balm of Gilead, richer than the
diamonds of Golconda, dear as the
friendship of those |
| 24 |
we love, are justice, fraternity, and
Christian charity.
The song of my soul must remain so long as I
remain.
Let brotherly love continue.
|
| 27 |
I am sure that the counterfeit letters in
circulation,
purporting to have my signature, must fail to influence
the
minds of this dear
people to conclusions the very opposite |
| 30 |
of my real sentiments.
|
