|
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.
|