Trustees under the Will of Mary
Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U.S.A.
| 1 |
MY ancestors, according to the flesh, were
from both
Scotland and England, my great-grandfather, on |
| 3 |
my father's side, being John McNeil of
Edinburgh.
His wife, my
great-grandmother, was Marion Moor,
and her family is said to have been in
some way related |
| 6 |
to Hannah More, the pious and popular
English authoress
of a century ago.
I remember reading,
in my childhood, certain manu- |
| 9 |
scripts containing Scriptural sonnets,
besides other verses
and enigmas which my grandmother said were written
by my great-grandmother. But because my great-grand- |
| 12 |
mother wrote a stray sonnet and an
occasional riddle, it
was no sign that she inherited a spark from Hannah
More,
or was her relative. |
| 15 |
John and Marion Moor McNeil had a daughter,
who
perpetuated her mother's name. This second Marion
McNeil in due
time was married to an Englishman, |
| 18 |
named Joseph Baker, and so became my
paternal grand-
mother, the Scotch and English elements thus mingling
in her children.
Page
2 |
| 1 |
Mrs. Marion McNeil Baker was reared among
the
Scotch Covenanters, and had in her character that sturdy |
| 3 |
Calvinistic devotion to Protestant liberty
which gave those
religionists the poetic daring and pious
picturesqueness
which we find so graphically set forth in the pages of
Sir |
| 6 |
Walter Scott and in John Wilson's
sketches.
Joseph Baker and his
wife, Marion McNeil, came to
America seeking "freedom to worship God;"
though |
| 9 |
they could hardly have crossed the
Atlantic more than a
score of years prior to the Revolutionary period.
With them they
brought to New England a heavy sword, |
| 12 |
encased in a brass scabbard, on which was
inscribed the
name of a kinsman upon whom the weapon had been
bestowed
by Sir William Wallace, from whose patriotism |
| 15 |
and bravery comes that heart-stirring air,
"Scots wha hae
wi' Wallace bled."
My childhood was
also gladdened by one of my Grand- |
| 18 |
mother Baker's books, printed in olden type
and replete
with the phraseology current in the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries. |
| 21 |
Among grandmother's treasures were some
newspapers,
yellow with age. Some of these, however, were not very
ancient, nor had they crossed the ocean; for they were |
| 24 |
American newspapers, one of which
contained a full ac-
count of the death and burial of George
Washington.
A relative of my
Grandfather Baker was General Henry |
| 27 |
Knox of Revolutionary fame. I was fond of
listening,
when a child, to grandmother's stories about General
Knox,
for whom she cherished a high regard. |
| 30 |
In the line of my Grandmother Baker's
family was the
Page
3 |
| 1 |
late Sir John Macneill, a Scotch knight,
who was promi-
nent in British politics, and at one time held the
position |
| 3 |
of ambassador to Persia.
My grandparents were
likewise connected with Capt.
John Lovewell of Dunstable, New Hampshire,
whose |
| 6 |
gallant leadership and death, in the Indian
troubles of
1722-1725, caused that prolonged contest to be known
historically as Lovewell's War. |
| 9 |
A cousin of my grandmother was John
Macneil, the
New Hampshire general who fought at Lundy's Lane,
and won
distinction in 1814 at the neighboring battle of |
| 12 |
Chippewa, towards the close of the War of
1812.
Page
4
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES |
| 1 |
THIS venerable grandmother had thirteen
children,
the youngest of whom was my father, Mark Baker, |
| 3 |
who inherited the homestead, and with his
brother, James
Baker, he inherited my grandfather's farm of about five
hundred acres, lying in the adjoining towns of Concord |
| 6 |
and Bow, in the State of New Hampshire.
One hundred acres of
the old farm are still cultivated
and owned by Uncle James Baker's
grandson, brother of |
| 9 |
the Hon. Henry Moore Baker of Washington,
D. C.
The farm-house,
situated on the summit of a hill, com-
manded a broad picturesque view of
the Merrimac River |
| 12 |
and the undulating lands of three
townships. But change
has been busy. Where once stretched broad fields
of
bending grain waving gracefully in the sunlight, and |
| 15 |
orchards of apples, peaches, pears, and
cherries shone
richly in the mellow hues of autumn, - now the lone
night-
bird cries, the crow caws cautiously, and wandering winds |
| 18 |
sigh low requiems through dark pine groves.
Where
green pastures bright with berries, singing brooklets,
beautiful
wild flowers, and flecked with large flocks and |
| 21 |
herds, covered areas of rich acres, - now
the scrub-oak,
poplar, and fern flourish.
The wife of Mark
Baker was Abigail Barnard Ambrose, |
| 24 |
daughter of Deacon Nathaniel Ambrose of
Pembroke, a
Page
5 |
| 1 |
small town situated near Concord, just
across the bridge,
on the left bank of the Merrimac River. |
| 3 |
Grandfather Ambrose was a very religious
man, and
gave the money for erecting the first Congregational
Church in
Pembroke. |
| 6 |
In the Baker homestead at Bow I was born,
the young-
est of my parents' six children and the object of their
tender solicitude. |
| 9 |
During my childhood my parents removed to
Tilton,
eighteen miles from Concord, and there the family re-
mained
until the names of both father and mother were |
| 12 |
inscribed on the stone memorials in the
Park Cemetery
of that beautiful village.
My father possessed
a strong intellect and an iron will. |
| 15 |
Of my mother I cannot speak as I would, for
memory
recalls qualities to which the pen can never do justice.
The
following is a brief extract from the eulogy of the Rev. |
| 18 |
Richard S. Rust, D. D., who for many years
had re-
sided in Tilton and knew my sainted mother in all the
walks of
life. |
| 21 |
The character of Mrs. Abigail Ambrose Baker
was distin-
guished for numerous excellences. She possessed a strong
intellect, a sympathizing heart, and a placid spirit. Her |
| 24 |
presence, like the gentle dew and cheerful
light, was felt by
all around her. She gave an elevated character to the
tone of
conversation in the circles in which she moved, and directed |
| 27 |
attention to themes at once pleasing and
profitable.
As a mother, she was
untiring in her efforts to secure the
happiness of her family. She ever
entertained a lively sense |
| 30 |
of the parental obligation, especially in
regard to the educa-
Page
6 |
| 1 |
tion of her children. The oft-repeated
impressions of that
sainted spirit, on the hearts of those especially
entrusted to her |
| 3 |
watch-care, can never be effaced, and can
hardly fail to induce
them to follow her to the brighter world. Her life
was a
living illustration of Christian faith. |
| 6 |
My childhood's home I remember as one with
the open
hand. The needy were ever welcome, and to the clergy
were
accorded special household privileges. |
| 9 |
Among the treasured reminiscences of my
much re-
spected parents, brothers, and sisters, is the memory of
my
second brother, Albert Baker, who was, next to my |
| 12 |
mother, the very dearest of my kindred. To
speak of his
beautiful character as I cherish it, would require more
space than this little book can afford. |
| 15 |
My brother Albert was graduated at
Dartmouth Col-
lege in 1834 and was reputed one of the most talented,
close, and thorough scholars ever connected with that |
| 18 |
institution. For two or three years he read
law at Hills-
borough, in the office of Franklin Pierce, afterwards
Presi-
dent of the United States; but later Albert spent a year |
| 21 |
in the office of the Hon. Richard Fletcher
of Boston.
He was consequently admitted to the bar in two States,
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 1837 he suc- |
| 24 |
ceeded to the law-office which Mr. Pierce
had occupied,
and was soon elected to the Legislature of his native
State,
where he served the public interests faithfully for two |
| 27 |
consecutive years. Among other important
bills which
were carried through the Legislature by his persistent en-
ergy was one for the abolition of imprisonment for debt. |
| 30 |
In 1841 he received further political
preferment, by
Page
7 |
| 1 |
nomination to Congress on a majority vote
of seven
thousand, - it was the largest vote of the State; but he |
| 3 |
passed away at the age of thirty-one, after
a short illness,
before his election. His noble political antagonist,
the
Hon. Isaac Hill, of Concord, wrote of my brother as |
| 6 |
follows: -
Albert Baker was a
young man of uncommon promise.
Gifted with the highest order of
intellectual powers, he trained |
| 9 |
and schooled them by intense and almost
incessant study
throughout his short life. He was fond of investigating
ab-
struse and metaphysical principles, and he never forsook |
| 12 |
them until he had explored their every nook
and corner,
however hidden and remote. Had life and health been spared
to him, he would have made himself one of the most distin- |
| 15 |
guished men in the country. As a lawyer he
was able and
learned, and in the successful practice of a very large
business.
He was noted for his boldness and firmness, and for his
power- |
| 18 |
ful advocacy of the side he deemed right.
His death will be
deplored, with the most poignant grief, by a large number
of
friends, who expected no more than they realized from his |
| 21 |
talents and acquirements. This sad event
will not be soon
forgotten. It blights too many hopes; it carries with it
too
much of sorrow and loss. It is a public calamity.
Page
8
VOICES NOT OUR OWN |
| 1 |
MANY peculiar circumstances and events
connected
with my childhood throng the chambers of memory. |
| 3 |
For some twelve months, when I was about
eight years
old, I repeatedly heard a voice, calling me distinctly by
name, three times, in an ascending scale. I thought this |
| 6 |
was my mother's voice, and sometimes went
to her, be-
seeching her to tell me what she wanted. Her answer was
always, "Nothing, child! What do you mean?" Then |
| 9 |
I would say, "Mother, who did call
me? I heard some-
body call Mary, three times!" This continued until
I
grew discouraged, and my mother was perplexed and |
| 12 |
anxious.
One day, when my
cousin, Mehitable Huntoon, was
visiting us, and I sat in a little chair by
her side, in the |
| 15 |
same room with grandmother, - the call
again came, so
loud that Mehitable heard it, though I had ceased to
notice it. Greatly surprised, my cousin turned to me and |
| 18 |
said, "Your mother is calling you!" but I
answered not,
till again the same call was thrice repeated. Mehitable
then said sharply, "Why don't you go? your mother is |
| 21 |
calling you!" I then left the room, went to
my mother,
and once more asked her if she had summoned me? She
answered
as always before. Then I earnestly declared |
| 24 |
my cousin had heard the voice, and said
that mother
Page
9 |
| 1 |
wanted me. Accordingly she returned with me
to grand-
mother's room, and led my cousin into an adjoining apart- |
| 3 |
ment. The door was ajar, and I listened
with bated
breath. Mother told Mehitable all about this mysterious
voice, and asked if she really did hear Mary's name pro- |
| 6 |
nounced in audible tones. My cousin
answered quickly,
and emphasized her affirmation.
That night, before
going to rest, my mother read to me |
| 9 |
the Scriptural narrative of little Samuel,
and bade me,
when the voice called again, to reply as he did, "Speak,
Lord; for Thy servant heareth." The voice came; but |
| 12 |
I was afraid, and did not answer. Afterward
I wept, and
prayed that God would forgive me, resolving to do, next
time, as my mother had bidden me. When the call came |
| 15 |
again I did answer, in the words of Samuel,
but never
again to the material senses was that mysterious call
repeated. |
| 18 |
Is it not
much that I may worship Him,
With naught my spirit's breathings to
control,
And feel His presence in the vast and dim |
| 21 |
And
whispering woods, where dying thunders roll
From the far cataracts? Shall I
not rejoice
That I have learned at last to know His voice |
| 24 |
From man's?
- I will rejoice! My soaring soul
Now hath redeemed her birthright of the
day,
And won, through clouds, to Him, her own unfettered way! |
| 27 |
- MRS.
HEMANS
Page
10
EARLY STUDIES |
| 1 |
MY father was taught to believe that my
brain was
too large for my body and so kept me much out of |
| 3 |
school, but I gained book-knowledge with
far less labor
than is usually requisite. At ten years of age I was as
familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as with the |
| 6 |
Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had
to repeat
every Sunday. My favorite studies were natural philoso-
phy,
logic, and moral science. From my brother Al- |
| 9 |
bert I received lessons in the ancient
tongues, Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. My brother studied Hebrew during
his
college vacations. After my discovery of Christian |
| 12 |
Science, most of the knowledge I had
gleaned from
schoolbooks vanished like a dream.
Learning was so
illumined, that grammar was eclipsed. |
| 15 |
Etymology was divine history, voicing the
idea of God in
man's origin and signification. Syntax was spiritual
order
and unity. Prosody, the song of angels, and no earthly |
| 18 |
or inglorious theme.
Page
11
GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION |
| 1 |
FROM childhood I was a verse-maker. Poetry
suited
my emotions better than prose. The following is |
| 3 |
one of my girlhood productions.
ALPHABET AND
BAYONET
If fancy
plumes aerial flight, |
| 6 |
Go fix thy
restless mind
On learning's lore and wisdom's might,
And live to bless
mankind. |
| 9 |
The sword
is sheathed, 't is freedom's hour,
No despot bears misrule,
Where
knowledge plants the foot of power |
| 12 |
In our
God-blessed free school.
Forth from
this fount the streamlets flow,
That widen in their course. |
| 15 |
Hero and
sage arise to show
Science the mighty source,
And laud the land whose
talents rock |
| 18 |
The cradle
of her power,
And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock,
From
erudition's bower. |
| 21 |
Farther
than feet of chamois fall,
Free as the generous air,
Page
12 |
| 1 |
Strains
nobler far than clarion call
Wake freedom's welcome, where |
| 3 |
Minerva's
silver sandals still
Are loosed, and not effete;
Where echoes still my
day-dreams thrill, |
| 6 |
Woke by
her fancied feet.
Page
13
THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE |
| 1 |
AT the age of twelve (1) I was admitted to
the Congre-
gational (Trinitarian) Church, my parents having |
| 3 |
been members of that body for a
half-century. In connec-
tion with this event, some circumstances are
noteworthy.
Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional |
| 6 |
election, or predestination, greatly
troubled me; for I
was unwilling to be saved, if my brothers and sisters
were
to be numbered among those who were doomed to per- |
| 9 |
petual banishment from God. So perturbed
was I by the
thoughts aroused by this erroneous doctrine, that the
family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me stricken |
| 12 |
with fever.
My father's
relentless theology emphasized belief in a
final judgment-day, in the
danger of endless punishment, |
| 15 |
and in a Jehovah merciless towards
unbelievers; and of
these things he now spoke, hoping to win me from
dreaded
heresy. |
| 18 |
My mother, as she bathed my burning
temples, bade
me lean on God's love, which would give me rest, if I
went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do, seeking His |
| 21 |
guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of
ineffable joy came
over me. The fever was gone, and I rose and dressed
myself, in a normal condition of health. Mother saw this, |
| 24 |
and was glad. The physician marvelled; and
the "hor-
(1) See Page 311,
Lines 12 to 17, "The First Church of Christ,
Scientist, and
Miscellany."
Page
14 |
| 1 |
rible decree" of predestination - as John
Calvin rightly
called his own tenet - forever lost its power over me. |
| 3 |
When the meeting was held for the
examination of can-
didates for membership, I was of course present.
The
pastor was an old-school expounder of the strictest Pres- |
| 6 |
byterian doctrines. He was apparently as
eager to have
unbelievers in these dogmas lost, as he was to have elect
believers converted and rescued from perdition; for both |
| 9 |
salvation and condemnation depended,
according to his
views, upon the good pleasure of infinite Love. However,
I
was ready for his doleful questions, which I answered with- |
| 12 |
out a tremor, declaring that never could I
unite with the
church, if assent to this doctrine was essential
thereto.
Distinctly do I
recall what followed. I stoutly main- |
| 15 |
tained that I was willing to trust God, and
take my chance
of spiritual safety with my brothers and sisters, - not
one
of whom had then made any profession of religion, - |
| 18 |
even if my creedal doubts left me outside
the doors. The
minister then wished me to tell him when I had experi-
enced a change of heart; but tearfully I had to respond |
| 21 |
that I could not designate any precise
time. Nevertheless,
he persisted in the assertion that I had been
truly regene-
rated, and asked me to say how I felt when the new
light |
| 24 |
dawned within me. I replied that I could
only answer
him in the words of the Psalmist: "Search me, O God,
and
know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: |
| 27 |
and see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in
the way everlasting."
This was so
earnestly said, that even the oldest church- |
| 30 |
members wept. After the meeting was over
they came
Page
15 |
| 1 |
and kissed me. To the astonishment of many,
the good
clergyman's heart also melted, and he received me into |
| 3 |
their communion, and my protest along with
me. My con-
nection with this religious body was retained till I
founded
a church of my own, built on the basis of Christian Science, |
| 6 |
"Jesus Christ himself being the chief
corner-stone."
In confidence of
faith, I could say in David's words,
"I will go in the strength of the Lord
God: I will make |
| 9 |
mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine
only. O
God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: and hith-
erto have I
declared Thy wondrous works." (Psalms lxxi. |
| 12 |
16, 17.)
In the year 1878 I
was called to preach in Boston at the
Baptist Tabernacle of Rev. Daniel C.
Eddy, D. D., - by |
| 15 |
the pastor of this church. I accepted the
invitation and
commenced work.
The congregation so
increased in number the pews were |
| 18 |
not sufficient to seat the audience and
benches were used
in the aisles. At the close of my engagement we
parted
in Christian fellowship, if not in full unity of doctrine. |
| 21 |
Our last vestry meeting was made memorable
by elo-
quent addresses from persons who feelingly testified to
having
been healed through my preaching. Among other |
| 24 |
diseases cured they specified cancers. The
cases described
had been treated and given over by physicians of the
popu-
lar schools of medicine, but I had not heard of these cases |
| 27 |
till the persons who divulged their secret
joy were healed.
A prominent churchman agreeably informed the congre-
gation that many others present had been healed under |
| 30 |
my preaching, but were too timid to
testify in public.
Page
16 |
| 1 |
One memorable Sunday afternoon, a soprano,
- clear,
strong, sympathetic, - floating up from the pews, caught |
| 3 |
my ear. When the meeting was over, two
ladies pushing
their way through the crowd reached the platform. With
tears of joy flooding her eyes - for she was a mother - |
| 6 |
one of them said, "Did you hear my daughter
sing? Why,
she has not sung before since she left the choir and was
in
consumption! When she entered this church one hour |
| 9 |
ago she could not speak a loud word, and
now, oh, thank
God, she is healed!"
It was not an
uncommon occurrence in my own church |
| 12 |
for the sick to be healed by my sermon.
Many pale cripples
went into the church leaning on crutches who went
out
carrying them on their shoulders. "And these signs shall |
| 15 |
follow them that believe."
The charter for The
Mother Church in Boston was ob-
tained June, 1879,(1) and the same month
the members, |
| 18 |
twenty-six in number, extended a call to
Mary B. G. Eddy
to become their pastor. She accepted the call, and was
ordained A. D. 1881. |
| 21 |
(1)This statement appears to be based upon
the Annual Report of the Secretary of The Christian
Scientist Association, read at its meeting,
January 15, 1880, in which June is named as the month in
which the charter for The Mother Church was obtained,
instead of August 23, 1879, the correct date.
Page
17
THE COUNTRY-SEAT |
| 1 |
Written in
youth, while visiting a family friend in the beautiful
suburbs of
Boston |
| 3 |
WILD spirit of song, - midst the zephyrs at
play
In bowers of beauty, - I bend to thy lay,
And woo, while I worship
in deep sylvan spot, |
| 6 |
The Muses' soft echoes to kindle the
grot.
Wake chords of my lyre, with musical kiss,
To vibrate and tremble
with accents of bliss. |
| 9 |
Here morning peers out, from her crimson
repose,
On proud Prairie Queen and the modest Moss-rose;
And vesper
reclines - when the dewdrop is shed |
| 12 |
On the heart of the pink - in its odorous
bed;
But Flora has stolen the rainbow and sky,
To sprinkle the flowers
with exquisite dye. |
| 15 |
Here fame-honored hickory rears his bold
form,
And bares a brave breast to the lightning and storm,
While palm,
bay, and laurel, in classical glee, |
| 18 |
Chase tulip, magnolia, and fragrant
fringe-tree;
And sturdy horse-chestnut for centuries hath given
Its
feathery blossom and branches to heaven.
Page
18 |
| 1 |
Here is life! Here is youth! Here the
poet's world-
wish,
- |
| 3 |
Cool waters at play with the gold-gleaming
fish;
While cactus a mellower glory receives
From light colored softly
by blossom and leaves; |
| 6 |
And nestling alder is whispering low,
In lap of the pear-tree, with musical flow.(1)
Dark sentinel
hedgerow is guarding repose, |
| 9 |
Midst grotto and songlet and streamlet that
flows
Where beauty and perfume from buds burst away,
And ope their
closed cells to the bright, laughing day; |
| 12 |
Yet, dwellers in Eden, earth yields you
her tear, -
Oft plucked for the banquet, but laid on the bier.
Earth's beauty and
glory delude as the shrine |
| 15 |
Or fount of real joy and of visions divine;
But hope, as the eaglet that spurneth the sod,
May soar above matter,
to fasten on God, |
| 18 |
And freely adore all His spirit hath made,
Where rapture and radiance and glory ne'er fade.
Oh, give me the spot
where affection may dwell |
| 21 |
In sacred communion with home's magic
spell!
Where flowers of feeling are fragrant and fair,
And those we
most love find a happiness rare; |
| 24 |
But clouds are a presage, - they darken my
lay:
This life is a shadow, and hastens away.
(1)An alder growing
from the bent branch of a pear-tree.
Page
19
MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE |
| 1 |
IN 1843 I was united to my first husband,
Colonel George
Washington Glover of Charleston, South Carolina, |
| 3 |
the ceremony taking place under the
paternal roof in
Tilton.
After parting with
the dear home circle I went with |
| 6 |
him to the South; but he was spared to me
for only one
brief year. He was in Wilmington, North Carolina, on
business, when the yellow-fever raged in that city, and was |
| 9 |
suddenly attacked by this insidious
disease, which in his
case proved fatal.
My husband was a
freemason, being a member in Saint |
| 12 |
Andrew's Lodge, Number 10 and of Union
Chapter, Num-
ber 3, of Royal Arch masons. He was highly esteemed
and
sincerely lamented by a large circle of friends and ac- |
| 15 |
quaintances, whose kindness and sympathy
helped to sup-
port me in this terrible bereavement. A month later I
returned to New Hampshire, where, at the end of four |
| 18 |
months, my babe was born.
Colonel Glover's
tender devotion to his young bride
was remarked by all observers. With his
parting breath |
| 21 |
he gave pathetic directions to his brother
masons about
accompanying her on her sad journey to the North. Here
it
is but justice to record, they performed their obligations |
| 24 |
most faithfully.
Page
20 |
| 1 |
After returning to the paternal roof I lost
all my hus-
band's property, except what money I had brought with |
| 3 |
me; and remained with my parents until
after my mother's
decease.
A few months before
my father's second marriage, to |
| 6 |
Mrs. Elizabeth Patterson Duncan, sister of
Lieutenant-
Governor George W. Patterson of New York, my little
son,
about four years of age, was sent away from me, and |
| 9 |
put under the care of our family nurse, who
had married,
and resided in the northern part of New Hampshire. I
had
no training for self-support, and my home I regarded |
| 12 |
as very precious. The night before my child
was taken
from me, I knelt by his side throughout the dark hours,
hoping for a vision of relief from this trial. The follow- |
| 15 |
ing lines are taken from my poem,
"Mother's Darling,"
written after this separation: -
Thy smile
through tears, as sunshine o'er the sea, |
| 18 |
Awoke new
beauty in the surge's roll!
Oh, life is dead, bereft of all, with thee,
-
Star of my earthly hope, babe of my soul. |
| 21 |
My second marriage was very unfortunate,
and from it
I was compelled to ask for a bill of divorce, which was
granted me in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. |
| 24 |
My dominant thought in marrying again was
to get
back my child, but after our marriage his stepfather was
not
willing he should have a home with me. A plot was |
| 27 |
consummated for keeping us apart. The
family to whose
care he was committed very soon removed to what was
then regarded as the Far West.
Page
21 |
| 1 |
After his removal a letter was read to my
little son,
informing him that his mother was dead and buried. |
| 3 |
Without my knowledge a guardian was
appointed him, and
I was then informed that my son was lost. Every
means
within my power was employed to find him, but without |
| 6 |
success. We never met again until he had
reached the
age of thirty-four, had a wife and two children, and by a
strange providence had learned that his mother still lived, |
| 9 |
and came to see me in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile he had
served as a volunteer throughout
the war for the Union, and at its
expiration was appointed |
| 12 |
United States Marshal of the Territory of
Dakota.
It is well to know,
dear reader, that our material, mortal
history is but the record of dreams,
not of man's real ex- |
| 15 |
istence, and the dream has no place in the
Science of being.
It is "as a tale that is told," and "as the shadow when
it
declineth." The heavenly intent of earth's shadows is to |
| 18 |
chasten the affections, to rebuke human
consciousness and
turn it gladly from a material, false sense of life and
happi-
ness, to spiritual joy and true estimate of being. |
| 21 |
The awakening from a false sense of life,
substance, and
mind in matter, is as yet imperfect; but for those lucid
and enduring lessons of Love which tend to this result, |
| 24 |
I bless God.
Mere historic
incidents and personal events are frivo-
lous and of no moment, unless they
illustrate the ethics of |
| 27 |
Truth. To this end, but only to this end,
such narrations
may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual con-
clusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is |
| 30 |
lost, and the argument, with its rightful
conclusions, be-
Page
22 |
| 1 |
comes correspondingly obscure. The human
history needs
to be revised, and the material record expunged. |
| 3 |
The Gospel narratives bear brief testimony
even to the
life of our great Master. His spiritual noumenon and
phenomenon silenced portraiture. Writers less wise than |
| 6 |
the apostles essayed in the Apocryphal New
Testament
a legendary and traditional history of the early life of
Jesus. But St. Paul summarized the character of Jesus |
| 9 |
as the model of Christianity, in these
words: "Consider
him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself." "Who for the joy that was set before him en- |
| 12 |
dured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God."
It may be that the
mortal life-battle still wages, and |
| 15 |
must continue till its involved errors are
vanquished by
victory-bringing Science; but this triumph will come!
God
is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and being. |
| 18 |
The real man is not of the dust, nor is he
ever created
through the flesh; for his father and mother are the one
Spirit, and his brethren are all the children of one parent, |
| 21 |
the eternal good.
Page
23
EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT |
| 1 |
THE trend of human life was too eventful to
leave me
undisturbed in the illusion that this so-called life |
| 3 |
could be a real and abiding rest. All
things earthly must
ultimately yield to the irony of fate, or else be
merged
into the one infinite Love. |
| 6 |
As these pungent lessons became clearer,
they grew
sterner. Previously the cloud of mortal mind seemed to
have a
silver lining; but now it was not even fringed with |
| 9 |
light. Matter was no longer spanned with
its rainbow
of promise. The world was dark. The oncoming hours
were
indicated by no floral dial. The senses could not |
| 12 |
prophesy sunrise or starlight.
Thus it was when the
moment arrived of the heart's
bridal to more spiritual existence. When the
door opened, |
| 15 |
I was waiting and watching; and, lo, the
bridegroom
came! The character of the Christ was illuminated by
the
midnight torches of Spirit. My heart knew its Re- |
| 18 |
deemer. He whom my affections had
diligently sought
was as the One "altogether lovely," as "the chiefest,"
the only, "among ten thousand." Soulless famine had |
| 21 |
fled. Agnosticism, pantheism, and theosophy
were void.
Being was beautiful, its substance, cause, and currents
were
God and His idea. I had touched the hem of Chris- |
| 24 |
tian Science.
Page
24
THE GREAT DISCOVERY |
| 1 |
IT was in Massachusetts, in February, 1866,
and after
the death of the magnetic doctor, Mr. P. P. Quimby, |
| 3 |
whom spiritualists would associate
therewith, but who
was in no wise connected with this event, that I
discov-
ered the Science of divine metaphysical healing which I |
| 6 |
afterwards named Christian Science. The
discovery came
to pass in this way. During twenty years prior to my
discovery I had been trying to trace all physical effects to |
| 9 |
a mental cause; and in the latter part of
1866 I gained
the scientific certainty that all causation was Mind, and
every effect a mental phenomenon. |
| 12 |
My immediate recovery from the effects of
an injury
caused by an accident, an injury that neither medicine nor
surgery could reach, was the falling apple that led me to |
| 15 |
the discovery how to be well myself, and
how to make
others so.
Even to the
homoeopathic physician who attended me, |
| 18 |
and rejoiced in my recovery, I could not
then explain the
modus of my relief. I could only assure him that
the divine
Spirit had wrought the miracle - a miracle which later |
| 21 |
I found to be in perfect scientific accord
with divine law.
I then withdrew from
society about three years, - to
ponder my mission, to search the
Scriptures, to find the |
| 24 |
Science of Mind that should take the
things of God and
Page
25 |
| 1 |
show them to the creature, and reveal the
great curative
Principle, - Deity. |
| 3 |
The Bible was my textbook. It answered my
questions
as to how I was healed; but the Scriptures had to me a
new
meaning, a new tongue. Their spiritual significa- |
| 6 |
tion appeared; and I apprehended for the
first time, in
their spiritual meaning, Jesus' teaching and demonstra-
tion, and the Principle and rule of spiritual Science and |
| 9 |
metaphysical healing, - in a word,
Christian Science.
I named it
Christian, because it is compassionate,
helpful, and spiritual. God
I called immortal Mind. That |
| 12 |
which sins, suffers, and dies, I named
mortal mind. The
physical senses, or sensuous nature, I called
error and
shadow. Soul I denominated substance,
because Soul |
| 15 |
alone is truly substantial. God I
characterized as individ-
ual entity, but His corporeality I denied. The
real I
claimed as eternal; and its antipodes, or the temporal, |
| 18 |
I described as unreal. Spirit I called the
reality; and
matter, the unreality.
I knew the human
conception of God to be that He was |
| 21 |
a physically personal being, like unto man;
and that the
five physical senses are so many witnesses to the physical
personality of mind and the real existence of matter; but |
| 24 |
I learned that these material senses
testify falsely, that
matter neither sees, hears, nor feels Spirit, and is
therefore
inadequate to form any proper conception of the infinite |
| 27 |
Mind. "If I bear witness of myself, my
witness is not
true." (John v. 31.)
I beheld with
ineffable awe our great Master's purpose |
| 30 |
in not questioning those he healed as to
their disease or
Page
26 |
| 1 |
its symptoms, and his marvellous skill in
demanding
neither obedience to hygienic laws, nor prescribing drugs |
| 3 |
to support the divine power which heals.
Adoringly I
discerned the Principle of his holy heroism and Christian
example on the cross, when he refused to drink the "vine- |
| 6 |
gar and gall," a preparation of poppy, or
aconite, to allay
the tortures of crucifixion.
Our great
Way-shower, steadfast to the end in his obedi- |
| 9 |
ence to God's laws, demonstrated for all
time and peoples
the supremacy of good over evil, and the superiority
of
Spirit over matter. |
| 12 |
The miracles recorded in the Bible, which
had before
seemed to me supernatural, grew divinely natural and ap-
prehensible; though uninspired interpreters ignorantly |
| 15 |
pronounce Christ's healing miraculous,
instead of seeing
therein the operation of the divine law.
Jesus of Nazareth
was a natural and divine Scientist. |
| 18 |
He was so before the material world saw
him. He who
antedated Abraham, and gave the world a new date in the
Christian era, was a Christian Scientist, who needed no |
| 21 |
discovery of the Science of being in order
to rebuke the
evidence. To one "born of the flesh," however, divine
Science must be a discovery. Woman must give it birth. |
| 24 |
It must be begotten of spirituality, since
none but the pure
in heart can see God, - the Principle of all things
pure;
and none but the "poor in spirit" could first state this |
| 27 |
Principle, could know yet more of the
nothingness of mat-
ter and the allness of Spirit, could utilize Truth, and
ab-
solutely reduce the demonstration of being, in Science, to |
| 30 |
the apprehension of the age.
Page
27 |
| 1 |
I wrote also, at this period, comments on
the Scriptures,
setting forth their spiritual interpretation, the Science
of |
| 3 |
the Bible, and so laid the foundation of
my work called
Science and Health, published in 1875.
If these notes and
comments, which have never been |
| 6 |
read by any one but myself, were published,
it would
show that after my discovery of the absolute Science
of
Mind-healing, like all great truths, this spiritual |
| 9 |
Science developed itself to me until
Science and
Health was written. These early comments are valu-
able to
me as waymarks of progress, which I would not |
| 12 |
have effaced.
Up to that time I
had not fully voiced my discov-
ery. Naturally, my first jottings were but
efforts to |
| 15 |
express in feeble diction Truth's
ultimate. In Longfellow's
language, -
But the
feeble hands and helpless, |
| 18 |
Groping
blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness,
And
are lifted up and strengthened. |
| 21 |
As sweet music ripples in one's first
thoughts of it like
the brooklet in its meandering midst pebbles and
rocks,
before the mind can duly express it to the ear, - so the |
| 24 |
harmony of divine Science first broke upon
my sense,
before gathering experience and confidence to articulate
it.
Its natural manifestation is beautiful and euphonious, |
| 27 |
but its written expression increases in
power and perfection
under the guidance of the great Master.
The divine hand led
me into a new world of light and |
| 30 |
Life, a fresh universe - old to God, but
new to His "little
Page
28 |
| 1 |
one." It became evident that the divine
Mind alone must
answer, and be found as the Life, or Principle, of all
being; |
| 3 |
and that one must acquaint himself with
God, if he would
be at peace. He must be ours practically, guiding our
every thought and action; else we cannot understand |
| 6 |
the omnipresence of good sufficiently to
demonstrate,
even in part, the Science of the perfect Mind and divine
healing. |
| 9 |
I had learned that thought must be
spiritualized, in
order to apprehend Spirit. It must become honest, un-
selfish, and pure, in order to have the least understanding |
| 12 |
of God in divine Science. The first must
become last.
Our reliance upon material things must be transferred to
a
perception of and dependence on spiritual things. For |
| 15 |
Spirit to be supreme in demonstration, it
must be supreme
in our affections, and we must be clad with divine
power.
Purity, self-renunciation, faith, and understanding must |
| 18 |
reduce all things real to their own mental
denomina-
tion, Mind, which divides, subdivides, increases, dimin-
ishes, constitutes, and sustains, according to the law of |
| 21 |
God.
I had learned that
Mind reconstructed the body, and
that nothing else could. How it was done,
the spiritual |
| 24 |
Science of Mind must reveal. It was a
mystery to me
then, but I have since understood it. All Science is a
revelation. Its Principle is divine, not human, reaching |
| 27 |
higher than the stars of heaven.
Am I a believer in
spiritualism? I believe in no ism.
This is my endeavor, to be a
Christian, to assimilate the |
| 30 |
character and practice of the anointed;
and no motive
Page
29 |
| 1 |
can cause a surrender of this effort. As I
understand it,
spiritualism is the antipode of Christian Science. I
esteem |
| 3 |
all honest people, and love them, and hold
to loving our
enemies and doing good to them that "despitefully use
you
and persecute you."
Page
30
FOUNDATION WORK |
| 1 |
AS the pioneer of Christian Science I stood
alone in
this conflict, endeavoring to smite error with the |
| 3 |
falchion of Truth. The rare bequests of
Christian Science
are costly, and they have won fields of battle from
which
the dainty borrower would have fled. Ceaseless toil, self- |
| 6 |
renunciation, and love, have cleared its
pathway.
The motive of my
earliest labors has never changed.
It was to relieve the sufferings of
humanity by a sanitary |
| 9 |
system that should include all moral and
religious reform.
It is often asked
why Christian Science was revealed to
me as one intelligence, analyzing,
uncovering, and annihi- |
| 12 |
lating the false testimony of the physical
senses. Why was
this conviction necessary to the right apprehension of
the
invincible and infinite energies of Truth and Love, as con- |
| 15 |
trasted with the foibles and fables of
finite mind and ma-
terial existence.
The answer is plain.
St. Paul declared that the law |
| 18 |
was the schoolmaster, to bring him to
Christ. Even so
was I led into the mazes of divine metaphysics through
the gospel of suffering, the providence of God, and the |
| 21 |
cross of Christ. No one else can drain the
cup which I
have drunk to the dregs as the Discoverer and teacher of
Christian Science; neither can its inspiration be gained |
| 24 |
without tasting this cup.
Page
31 |
| 1 |
The loss of material objects of affection
sunders the
dominant ties of earth and points to heaven. Nothing |
| 3 |
can compete with Christian Science, and its
demonstra-
tion, in showing this solemn certainty in growing freedom
and vindicating "the ways of God" to man. The abso- |
| 6 |
lute proof and self-evident propositions of
Truth are im-
measurably paramount to rubric and dogma in proving
the
Christ. |
| 9 |
From my very childhood I was impelled, by a
hunger
and thirst after divine things, - a desire for something
higher
and better than matter, and apart from it, - to |
| 12 |
seek diligently for the knowledge of God as
the one great
and ever-present relief from human woe. The first spon-
taneous motion of Truth and Love, acting through Chris- |
| 15 |
tian Science on my roused consciousness,
banished at once
and forever the fundamental error of faith in things
ma-
terial; for this trust is the unseen sin, the unknown foe, - |
| 18 |
the heart's untamed desire which breaketh
the divine com-
mandments. As says St. James: "Whosoever shall keep
the
whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty |
| 21 |
of all."
Into mortal mind's
material obliquity I gazed, and stood
abashed. Blanched was the cheek of
pride. My heart |
| 24 |
bent low before the omnipotence of Spirit,
and a tint of
humility, soft as the heart of a moonbeam, mantled the
earth. Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and Calvary, |
| 27 |
spoke to my chastened sense as by the
tearful lips of a
babe. Frozen fountains were unsealed. Erudite systems
of philosophy and religion melted, for Love unveiled the |
| 30 |
healing promise and potency of a present
spiritual afflatus.
Page
32 |
| 1 |
It was the gospel of healing, on its
divinely appointed
human mission, bearing on its white wings, to my
appre- |
| 3 |
hension, "the beauty of holiness," - even
the possibili-
ties of spiritual insight, knowledge, and being.
Early had I learned
that whatever is loved materially, |
| 6 |
as mere corporeal personality, is
eventually lost. "For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it," saith
the Master.
Exultant hope, if tinged with earthliness, is crushed as
the |
| 9 |
moth.
What is termed
mortal and material existence is graph-
ically defined by Calderon, the
famous Spanish poet, who |
| 12 |
wrote, -
What is
life? 'T is but a madness.
What is life? A mere illusion, |
| 15 |
Fleeting
pleasure, fond delusion,
Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness,
Whose
most constant substance seems |
| 18 |
But the
dream of other dreams.
Page
33
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS |
| 1 |
THE physical side of this research was
aided by hints
from homoeopathy, sustaining my final conclusion |
| 3 |
that mortal belief, instead of the drug,
governed the action
of material medicine.
I wandered through
the dim mazes of materia medica, |
| 6 |
till I was weary of "scientific guessing,"
as it has been well
called. I sought knowledge from the different schools,
-
allopathy, homoeopathy, hydropathy, electricity, and from |
| 9 |
various humbugs, - but without receiving
satisfaction.
I found, in the two
hundred and sixty-two remedies
enumerated by Jahr, one pervading secret;
namely, that |
| 12 |
the less material medicine we have, and the
more Mind,
the better the work is done; a fact which seems to prove
the
Principle of Mind-healing. One drop of the thirtieth |
| 15 |
attenuation of Natrum muriaticum, in
a tumbler-full
of water, and one teaspoonful of the water mixed with
the faith of ages, would cure patients not affected by a |
| 18 |
larger dose. The drug disappears in the
higher attenua-
tions of homoeopathy, and matter is thereby rarefied to
its fatal essence, mortal mind; but immortal Mind, the |
| 21 |
curative Principle, remains, and is found
to be even more
active.
The mental virtues
of the material methods of medicine, |
| 24 |
when understood, were insufficient to
satisfy my doubts
Page
34 |
| 1 |
as to the honesty or utility of using a
material curative. I
must know more of the unmixed, unerring source, in
order |
| 3 |
to gain the Science of Mind, the All-in-all
of Spirit, in
which matter is obsolete. Nothing less could solve the
mental problem. If I sought an answer from the medical |
| 6 |
schools, the reply was dark and
contradictory. Neither
ancient nor modern philosophy could clear the
clouds, or
give me one distinct statement of the spiritual Science of |
| 9 |
Mind-healing Human reason was not equal to
it.
I claim for healing
scientifically the following advan-
tages: First: It does away with
all material medicines, |
| 12 |
and recognizes the antidote for all
sickness, as well as sin,
in the immortal Mind; and mortal mind as the
source of
all the ills which befall mortals. Second: It is more
effec- |
| 15 |
tual than drugs, and cures when they fail,
or only relieve;
thus proving the superiority of metaphysics over
physics.
Third: A person healed by Christian Science is not
only |
| 18 |
healed of his disease, but he is advanced
morally and
spiritually. The mortal body being but the objective state
of the mortal mind, this mind must be renovated to im- |
| 21 |
prove the body.
Page
35
FIRST PUBLICATION |
| 1 |
IN 1870 I copyrighted the first publication
on spirit-
ual, scientific Mind-healing, entitled "The Science of |
| 3 |
Man." This little book is converted into
the chapter on
Recapitulation in Science and Health. It was so new -
the basis it laid down for physical and moral health was |
| 6 |
so hopelessly original, and men were so
unfamiliar with
the subject - that I did not venture upon its
publication
until later, having learned that the merits of Christian |
| 9 |
Science must be proven before a work on
this subject
could be profitably published.
The truths of
Christian Science are not interpolations |
| 12 |
of the Scriptures, but the spiritual
interpretations thereof.
Science is the prism of Truth, which divides its
rays and
brings out the hues of Deity. Human hypotheses have |
| 15 |
darkened the glow and grandeur of
evangelical religion.
When speaking of his true followers in every period,
Jesus
said, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall |
| 18 |
recover." There is no authority for
querying the authen-
ticity of this declaration, for it already was and is
demon-
strated as practical, and its claim is substantiated, - a |
| 18 |
claim too immanent to fall to the ground
beneath the stroke
of artless workmen.
Though a man were
girt with the Urim and Thummim |
| 21 |
of priestly office, and denied the
perpetuity of Jesus' com-
Page
36 |
| 1 |
mand, "Heal the sick," or its application
in all time to
those who understand Christ as the Truth and the Life, |
| 3 |
that man would not expound the gospel
according to
Jesus.
Five years after
taking out my first copyright, I taught |
| 6 |
the Science of Mind-healing, alias
Christian Science, by
writing out my manuscripts for students and
distribut-
ing them unsparingly. This will account for certain pub- |
| 9 |
lished and unpublished manuscripts extant,
which the
evil-minded would insinuate did not originate with me.
Page
37
THE PRECIOUS VOLUME |
| 1 |
THE first edition of my most important
work, Science
and Health, containing the complete statement of |
| 3 |
Christian Science, - the term employed by
me to express
the divine, or spiritual, Science of Mind-healing, was
pub-
lished in 1875. |
| 6 |
When it was first printed, the critics took
pleasure in
saying, "This book is indeed wholly original, but it will
never be read." |
| 9 |
The first edition numbered one thousand
copies. In
September, 1891, it had reached sixty-two editions.
Those who formerly
sneered at it, as foolish and ec- |
| 12 |
centric, now declare Bishop Berkeley, David
Hume, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, or certain German philosophers, to have
been
the originators of the Science of Mind-healing as |
| 15 |
therein stated.
Even the Scriptures
gave no direct interpretation of the
scientific basis for demonstrating the
spiritual Principle |
| 18 |
of healing, until our heavenly Father saw
fit, through the
Key to the Scriptures, in Science and Health, to
unlock
this "mystery of godliness." |
| 21 |
My reluctance to give the public, in my
first edition of
Science and Health, the chapter on Animal Magnetism,
and the divine purpose that this should be done, may |
| 24 |
have an interest for the reader, and will
be seen in the fol-
Page
38 |
| 1 |
lowing circumstances. I had finished that
edition as far
as that chapter, when the printer informed me that he |
| 3 |
could not go on with my work. I had already
paid
him seven hundred dollars, and yet he stopped my work.
All efforts
to persuade him to finish my book were in |
| 6 |
vain.
After months had
passed, I yielded to a constant con-
viction that I must insert in my last
chapter a partial |
| 9 |
history of what I had already observed of
mental mal-
practice. Accordingly, I set to work, contrary to my in-
clination, to fulfil this painful task, and finished my copy |
| 12 |
for the book. As it afterwards appeared,
although I had
not thought of such a result, my printer resumed his
work
at the same time, finished printing the copy he had on |
| 15 |
hand, and then started for Lynn to see me.
The after-
noon that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston
with
my finished copy. We met at the Eastern depot in |
| 18 |
Lynn, and were both surprised, - I to learn
that he had
printed all the copy on hand, and had come to tell me he
wanted more, - he to find me en route for Boston, to give |
| 21 |
him the closing chapter of my first edition
of Science and
Health. Not a word had passed between us, audibly or
mentally, while this went on. I had grown disgusted |
| 24 |
with my printer, and become silent. He had
come to
a standstill through motives and circumstances unknown
to
me. |
| 27 |
Science and Health is the textbook of
Christian Science.
Whosoever learns the letter of this book, must also
gain
its spiritual significance, in order to demonstrate Christian |
| 30 |
Science.
Page
39 |
| 1 |
When the demand for this book increased,
and people
were healed simply by reading it, the copyright was in- |
| 3 |
fringed. I entered a suit at law, and my
copyright was
protected.
Page
40
RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT |
| 1 |
THROUGH four successive years I healed,
preached,
and taught in a general way, refusing to take any |
| 3 |
pay for my services and living on a small
annuity.
At one time I was
called to speak before the Lyceum
Club, at Westerly, Rhode Island. On my
arrival my |
| 6 |
hostess told me that her next-door neighbor
was dying.
I asked permission to see her. It was granted, and with
my
hostess I went to the invalid's house. |
| 9 |
The physicians had given up the case and
retired. I
had stood by her side about fifteen minutes when the sick
woman rose from her bed, dressed herself, and was well. |
| 12 |
Afterwards they showed me the clothes
already prepared
for her burial; and told me that her physicians had
said
the diseased condition was caused by an injury received |
| 15 |
from a surgical operation at the birth of
her last babe, and
that it was impossible for her to be delivered of
another
child. It is sufficient to add her babe was safely born, |
| 18 |
and weighed twelve pounds. The mother
afterwards
wrote to me, "I never before suffered so little in child-
birth." |
| 21 |
This scientific demonstration so stirred
the doctors and
clergy that they had my notices for a second lecture
pulled
down, and refused me a hearing in their halls and churches. |
| 24 |
This circumstance is cited simply to show
the opposition
Page
41 |
| 1 |
which Christian Science encountered a
quarter-century
ago, as contrasted with its present welcome into the
sick- |
| 3 |
room.
Many were the
desperate cases I instantly healed,
"without money and without price," and
in most instances |
| 6 |
without even an acknowledgment of the
benefit.
Page
42
A
TRUE MAN |
| 1 |
MY last marriage was with Asa Gilbert Eddy,
and
was a blessed and spiritual union, solemnized at |
| 3 |
Lynn, Massachusetts, by the Rev. Samuel
Barrett Stewart,
in the year 1877. Dr. Eddy was the first student
publicly
to announce himself a Christian Scientist, and place these |
| 6 |
symbolic words on his office sign. He
forsook all to follow
in this line of light. He was the first organizer of
a Chris-
tian Science Sunday School, which he superintended. He |
| 9 |
also taught a special Bible-class; and he
lectured so ably
on Scriptural topics that clergymen of other denomina-
tions listened to him with deep interest. He was remark- |
| 12 |
ably successful in Mind-healing, and
untiring in his chosen
work. In 1882 he passed away, with a smile of peace
and
love resting on his serene countenance. "Mark the per- |
| 15 |
fect man, and behold the upright:
for the end of that man
is peace." (Psalms xxxvii. 37.)
Page
43
COLLEGE AND CHURCH |
| 1 |
IN 1867 I introduced the first purely
metaphysical sys-
tem of healing since the apostolic days. I began by |
| 3 |
teaching one student Christian Science
Mind-healing.
From this seed grew the Massachusetts Metaphysical
College in Boston, chartered in 1881. No charter was |
| 6 |
granted for similar purposes after 1883. It
is the only
College, hitherto, for teaching the pathology of spiritual
power, alias the Science of Mind-healing. |
| 9 |
My husband, Asa G. Eddy, taught two terms
in my
College. After I gave up teaching, my adopted son,
Ebenezer J.
Foster-Eddy, a graduate of the Hahnemann |
| 12 |
Medical College of Philadelphia, and who
also received a
certificate from Dr. W. W. Keen's (allopathic)
Philadelphia
School of Anatomy and Surgery, - having renounced his |
| 15 |
material method of practice and embraced
the teach-
ings of Christian Science, taught the Primary, Normal,
and
Obstetric class one term. Gen. Erastus N. Bates |
| 18 |
taught one Primary class, in 1889, after
which I judged
it best to close the institution. These students of mine
were the only assistant teachers in the College. |
| 21 |
The first Christian Scientist Association
was organized
by myself and six of my students in 1876, on the Centen-
nial Day of our nation's freedom. At a meeting of the |
| 24 |
Christian Scientist Association, on April
12, 1879, it was
Page
44 |
| 1 |
voted to organize a church to commemorate
the words
and works of our Master, a Mind-healing church, without |
| 3 |
a creed, to be called the Church of Christ,
Scientist, the
first such church ever organized. The charter for this
church was obtained in June, 1879(1) and during the same |
| 6 |
month the members, twenty-six in number,
extended a
call to me to become their pastor. I accepted the call,
and
was ordained in 1881, though I had preached five |
| 9 |
years before being ordained.
When I was its
pastor, and in the pulpit every Sunday,
my church increased in members, and
its spiritual growth |
| 12 |
kept pace with its increasing popularity;
but when obliged,
because of accumulating work in the College, to
preach
only occasionally, no student, at that time, was found able |
| 15 |
to maintain the church in its previous
harmony and
prosperity.
Examining the
situation prayerfully and carefully, noting |
| 18 |
the church's need, and the predisposing and
exciting cause
of its condition, I saw that the crisis had come when
much
time and attention must be given to defend this church |
| 21 |
from the envy and molestation of other
churches, and
from the danger to its members which must always lie in
Christian warfare. At this juncture I recommended that |
| 24 |
the church be dissolved. No sooner were my
views made
known, than the proper measures were adopted to carry
them
out, the votes passing without a dissenting voice. |
| 27 |
This measure was immediately followed by a
great re-
vival of mutual love, prosperity, and spiritual power.
The history of that
hour holds this true record. Add- |
| 30 |
ing to its ranks and influence, this
spiritually organized
(1) Steps were taken to
promote the Church of Christ, Scientist, in April, May,
and June; formal organization was accomplished and the charter
obtained in
August, 1879.
Page
45 |
| 1 |
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston,
still goes on. A
new light broke in upon it, and more beautiful became |
| 3 |
the garments of her who "bringeth good
tidings, that pub-
lisheth peace."
Despite the
prosperity of my church, it was learned |
| 6 |
that material organization has its value
and peril, and that
organization is requisite only in the earliest periods
in
Christian history. After this material form of cohesion |
| 9 |
and fellowship has accomplished its end,
continued organi-
zation retards spiritual growth, and should be laid off,
-
even as the corporeal organization deemed requisite in |
| 12 |
the first stages of mortal existence is
finally laid off, in
order to gain spiritual freedom and supremacy.
From careful
observation and experience came my clue |
| 15 |
to the uses and abuses of organization.
Therefore, in ac-
cord with my special request, followed that noble,
un-
precedented action of the Christian Scientist Association |
| 18 |
connected with my College when dissolving
that organiza-
tion, - in forgiving enemies, returning good for evil,
in
following Jesus' command, "Whosoever shall smite thee |
| 21 |
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also." I saw
these fruits of Spirit, long-suffering and temperance,
ful-
fil the law of Christ in righteousness. I also saw that |
| 24 |
Christianity has withstood less the
temptation of popularity
than of persecution.
Page
46
"FEED MY SHEEP" |
| 1 |
Lines
penned when I was pastor of the Church of Christ, Scien-
tist, in
Boston |
| 3 |
SHEPHERD show me how to go
O'er the
hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow, - |
| 6 |
How to feed Thy sheep;
I will listen
for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray; |
| 9 |
I will follow and rejoice
All the
rugged way.
Thou wilt bind the
stubborn will, |
| 12 |
Wound the callous breast,
Make
self-righteousness be still,
Break earth's stupid rest. |
| 15 |
Strangers on a barren shore,
Lab'ring
long and lone,
We would enter by the door, |
| 18 |
And Thou know'st Thine own.
So, when day grows
dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms, |
| 21 |
Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take
them in Thine arms;
Feed the hungry, heal the heart, |
| 24 |
Till the morning's beam;
White as
wool, ere they depart,
Shepherd, wash them clean.
Page
47
COLLEGE CLOSED |
| 1 |
THE apprehension of what has been, and must
be, the
final outcome of material organization, which wars |
| 3 |
with Love's spiritual compact, caused me to
dread the
unprecedented popularity of my College. Students from
all
over our continent, and from Europe, were flooding |
| 6 |
the school. At this time there were over
three hundred
applications from persons desiring to enter the College,
and applicants were rapidly increasing. Example had |
| 9 |
shown the dangers arising from being placed
on earthly
pinnacles, and Christian Science shuns whatever involves
material means for the promotion of spiritual ends. |
| 12 |
In view of all this, a meeting was called
of the Board
of Directors of my College, who, being informed of
my
intentions, unanimously voted that the school be |
| 15 |
discontinued.
A Primary class
student, richly imbued with the spirit
of Christ, is a better healer and
teacher than a Normal |
| 18 |
class student who partakes less of God's
love. After hav-
ing received instructions in a Primary class from me,
or
a loyal student, and afterwards studied thoroughly Science |
| 21 |
and Health, a student can enter upon the
gospel work of
teaching Christian Science, and so fulfil the command of
Christ. But before entering this field of labor he must |
| 24 |
have studied the latest editions of my
works, be a good
Bible scholar and a consecrated Christian.
Page
48 |
| 1 |
The Massachusetts Metaphysical College drew
its
breath from me, but I was yearning for retirement. The |
| 3 |
question was, Who else could sustain this
institute, under
all that was aimed at its vital purpose, the
establishment
of genuine Christian Science healing? My
conscientious |
| 6 |
scruples about diplomas, the recent
experience of the
church fresh in my thoughts, and the growing
conviction
that every one should build on his own foundation, sub- |
| 9 |
ject to the one builder and maker, God, -
all these con-
siderations moved me to close my flourishing school, and
the following resolutions were passed: -
|
| 12 |
At a special meeting of the Board of the
Metaphysical
College Corporation, Oct. 29, 1889, the following are some
of the resolutions which were presented and passed |
| 15 |
unanimously: -
WHEREAS, The
Massachusetts Metaphysical College,
chartered in January, 1881, for
medical purposes, to give |
| 18 |
instruction in scientific methods of mental
healing on a purely
practical basis, to impart a thorough understanding of
meta-
physics, to restore health, hope, and harmony to man, - has |
| 21 |
fulfilled its high and noble destiny, and
sent to all parts of our
country, and into foreign lands, students
instructed in Chris-
tian Science Mind-healing, to meet the demand of the
age for |
| 24 |
something higher than physic or drugging;
and
WHEREAS, The
material organization was, in the beginning
in this institution, like the
baptism of Jesus, of which he said, |
| 27 |
"Suffer it to be so now," though the
teaching was a purely
spiritual and scientific impartation of Truth, whose
Christly
spirit has led to higher ways, means, and understanding, -
the |
| 30 |
President, the Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy, at
the height of pros-
Page
49 |
| 1 |
perity in the institution, which yields a
large income, is willing
to sacrifice all for the advancement of the world
in Truth and |
| 3 |
Love; and
WHEREAS, Other
institutions for instruction in Christian
Science, which are working out
their periods of organization, |
| 6 |
will doubtless follow the example of the
Alma Mater after
having accomplished the worthy purpose for which
they were
organized, and the hour has come wherein the great need is |
| 9 |
for more of the spirit instead of the
letter, and Science and
Health is adapted to work this result; and
WHEREAS, The
fundamental principle for growth in Chris- |
| 12 |
tian Science is spiritual formation first,
last, and always, while
in human growth material organization is first;
and
WHEREAS, Mortals
must learn to lose their estimate |
| 15 |
of the powers that are not ordained of God,
and attain
the bliss of loving unselfishly, working patiently, and con-
quering all that is unlike Christ and the example he gave; |
| 18 |
therefore
Resolved, That we thank the
State for its charter, which is
the only one ever granted to a legal
college for teaching the |
| 21 |
Science of Mind-healing; that we thank the
public for its
liberal patronage. And everlasting gratitude is due to
the
President, for her great and noble work, which we believe |
| 24 |
will prove a healing for the nations, and
bring all men to a
knowledge of the true God, uniting them in one
common
brotherhood. |
| 27 |
After due deliberation and earnest
discussion it was unani-
mously voted: That as all debts of the corporation
have been
paid, it is deemed best to dissolve this corporation, and
the |
| 30 |
same is hereby dissolved.
C. A. FRYE,
Clerk
Page
50 |
| 1 |
When God impelled me to set a price on my
instruction
in Christian Science Mind-healing, I could think of no |
| 3 |
financial equivalent for an impartation of
a knowledge of
that divine power which heals; but I was led to name
three
hundred dollars as the price for each pupil in one course |
| 6 |
of lessons at my College, - a startling sum
for tuition
lasting barely three weeks. This amount greatly troubled
me. I shrank from asking it, but was finally led, by a |
| 9 |
strange providence, to accept this fee.
God has since shown
me, in multitudinous ways, the
wisdom of this decision; and I beg
disinterested people |
| 12 |
to ask my loyal students if they consider
three hundred
dollars any real equivalent for my instruction during
twelve half-days, or even in half as many lessons. Never- |
| 15 |
theless, my list of indigent charity
scholars is very large,
and I have had as many as seventeen in one
class.
Loyal students speak
with delight of their pupilage, |
| 18 |
and of what it has done for them, and for
others through
them. By loyalty in students I mean this, - allegiance
to God, subordination of the human to the divine, stead- |
| 21 |
fast justice, and strict adherence to
divine Truth and
Love.
I see clearly that
students in Christian Science should, |
| 24 |
at present, continue to organize churches,
schools, and
associations for the furtherance and unfolding of Truth,
and that my necessity is not necessarily theirs; but it was |
| 27 |
the Father's opportunity for furnishing a
new rule of order
in divine Science, and the blessings which arose
therefrom.
Students are not environed with such obstacles as were |
| 30 |
encountered in the beginning of pioneer
work.
Page
51 |
| 1 |
In December, 1889, I gave a lot of land in
Boston to my
student, Mr. Ira O. Knapp of Roslindale, - valued in |
| 3 |
1892 at about twenty thousand dollars, and
rising in value,
- to be appropriated for the erection, and building on
the premises thereby conveyed, of a church edifice to be |
| 6 |
used as a temple for Christian Science
worship.
Page
52
GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS, AND OUR MAGAZINE |
| 1 |
FOR many successive years I have endeavored
to find
new ways and means for the promotion and expan- |
| 3 |
sion of scientific Mind-healing, seeking to
broaden its
channels and, if possible, to build a hedge round about
it
that should shelter its perfections from the contaminat- |
| 6 |
ing influences of those who have a small
portion of its
letter and less of its spirit. At the same time I have
worked to provide a home for every true seeker and honest |
| 9 |
worker in this vineyard of Truth.
To meet the broader
wants of humanity, and provide
folds for the sheep that were without
shepherds, I sug- |
| 12 |
gested to my students, in 1886, the
propriety of forming
a National Christian Scientist Association. This
was
immediately done, and delegations from the Christian |
| 15 |
Scientist Association of the Massachusetts
Metaphysical
College, and from branch associations in other States,
met
in general convention at New York City, February |
| 18 |
11, 1886.
The first official
organ of the Christian Scientist Asso-
ciation was called Journal of
Christian Science. I started |
| 21 |
it, April, 1883, as editor and publisher.
To the National
Christian Scientist Association, at its
meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, June,
1889, I sent a letter,
Page
53 |
| 1 |
presenting to its loyal members The
Christian Science
Journal, as it was now called, and the funds
belonging |
| 3 |
thereto. This monthly magazine had been
made success-
ful and prosperous under difficult circumstances, and was
designed to bear aloft the standard of genuine Christian |
| 6 |
Science.
Page
54
FAITH-CURE |
| 1 |
IT is often asked, Why are faith-cures
sometimes more
speedy than some of the cures wrought through Chris- |
| 3 |
tian Scientists? Because faith is belief,
and not under-
standing; and it is easier to believe, than to
understand
spiritual Truth. It demands less cross-bearing, self- |
| 6 |
renunciation, and divine Science to admit
the claims of
the corporeal senses and appeal to God for relief through
a humanized conception of His power, than to deny these |
| 9 |
claims and learn the divine way, - drinking
Jesus' cup,
being baptized with his baptism, gaining the end through
persecution and purity. |
| 12 |
Millions are believing in God, or good,
without bearing
the fruits of goodness, not having reached its Science.
Belief is virtually blindness, when it admits Truth with- |
| 15 |
out understanding it. Blind belief cannot
say with the
apostle, "I know whom I have believed." There is danger
in this mental state called belief; for if Truth is admitted, |
| 18 |
but not understood, it may be lost, and
error may enter
through this same channel of ignorant belief. The
faith-
cure has devout followers, whose Christian practice is far |
| 21 |
in advance of their theory.
The work of healing,
in the Science of Mind, is the most
sacred and salutary power which can be
wielded. My |
| 24 |
Christian students, impressed with the
true sense of the
Page
55 |
| 1 |
great work before them, enter this strait
and narrow path,
and work conscientiously. |
| 3 |
Let us follow the example of Jesus, the
master Meta-
physician, and gain sufficient knowledge of error to
destroy
it with Truth. Evil is not mastered by evil; it can only |
| 6 |
be overcome with good. This brings out the
nothingness
of evil and the eternal somethingness, vindicates the
divine
Principle, and improves the race of Adam.
Page
56
FOUNDATION-STONES |
| 1 |
THE following ideas of Deity, antagonized
by finite
theories, doctrines, and hypotheses, I found to be |
| 3 |
demonstrable rules in Christian Science,
and that we
must abide by them.
Whatever diverges
from the one divine Mind, or God, |
| 6 |
- or divides Mind into minds, Spirit into
spirits, Soul
into souls, and Being into beings, - is a misstatement
of
the unerring divine Principle of Science, which inter- |
| 9 |
rupts the meaning of the omnipotence,
omniscience, and
omnipresence of Spirit, and is of human instead of
divine
origin. |
| 12 |
War is waged between the evidences of
Spirit and the
evidences of the five physical senses; and this contest
must go on until peace be declared by the final triumph |
| 15 |
of Spirit in immutable harmony. Divine
Science disclaims
sin, sickness, and death, on the basis of the
omnipotence
and omnipresence of God, or divine good. |
| 18 |
All consciousness is Mind, and Mind is God.
Hence
there is but one Mind; and that one is the infinite good,
supplying all Mind by the reflection, not the subdivision, |
| 21 |
of God. Whatever else claims to be mind, or
consciousness,
is untrue. The sun sends forth light, but not suns; so
God reflects Himself, or Mind, but does not subdivide |
| 24 |
Mind, or good, into minds, good and evil.
Divine Sci-
Page
57 |
| 1 |
ence demands mighty wrestlings with mortal
beliefs, as
we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable |
| 3 |
sea of possibilities.
Neither ancient nor
modern philosophy furnishes a
scientific basis for the Science of
Mind-healing. Plato |
| 6 |
believed he had a soul, which must be
doctored in order
to heal his body. This would be like correcting the
prin-
ciple of music for the purpose of destroying discord. Prin- |
| 9 |
ciple is right; it is practice that is
wrong. Soul is right;
it is the flesh that is evil. Soul is the synonym of
Spirit,
God; hence there is but one Soul, and that one is infinite. |
| 12 |
If that pagan philosopher had known that
physical sense,
not Soul, causes all bodily ailments, his philosophy
would
have yielded to Science. |
| 15 |
Man shines by borrowed light. He reflects
God as
his Mind, and this reflection is substance, - the substance
of
good. Matter is substance in error, Spirit is substance |
| 18 |
in Truth.
Evil, or error, is
not Mind; but infinite Mind is sufficient
to supply all manifestations of
intelligence. The notion |
| 21 |
of more than one Mind, or Life, is as
unsatisfying as it is
unscientific. All must be of God, and not our own,
sepa-
rated from Him. |
| 24 |
Human systems of philosophy and religion
are depart-
ures from Christian Science. Mistaking divine Principle
for
corporeal personality, ingrafting upon one First Cause |
| 27 |
such opposite effects as good and evil,
health and sickness,
life and death; making mortality the status and rule
of
divinity, - such methods can never reach the perfection |
| 30 |
and demonstration of metaphysical, or
Christian Science.
Page
58 |
| 1 |
Stating the divine Principle, omnipotence
(omnis potens),
and then departing from this statement and taking
the |
| 3 |
rule of finite matter, with which to work
out the problem
of infinity or Spirit, - all this is like trying to
compensate
for the absence of omnipotence by a physical, false, and |
| 6 |
finite substitute.
With our Master,
life was not merely a sense of exist-
ence, but an accompanying sense of
power that subdued |
| 9 |
matter and brought to light immortality,
insomuch that
the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught
them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." |
| 12 |
Life, as defined by Jesus, had no
beginning; it was not
the result of organization, or infused into matter;
it was
Spirit.
Page
59
THE GREAT REVELATION |
| 1 |
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE reveals the grand verity,
that
to believe man has a finite and erring mind, and |
| 3 |
consequently a mortal mind and soul and
life, is error.
Scientific terms have no contradictory significations.
In Science, Life is
not temporal, but eternal, without |
| 6 |
beginning or ending. The word Life
never means that
which is the source of death, and of good and evil.
Such
an inference is unscientific. It is like saying that addition |
| 9 |
means subtraction in one instance and
addition in an-
other, and then applying this rule to a demonstration
of
the science of numbers; even as mortals apply finite terms |
| 12 |
to God, in demonstration of infinity.
Life is a term used
to indicate Deity; and every other name for the
Supreme
Being, if properly employed, has the signification of |
| 15 |
Life. Whatever errs is mortal, and is the
antipodes of
Life, or God, and of health and holiness, both in idea
and
demonstration. |
| 18 |
Christian Science reveals Mind, the only
living and true
God, and all that is made by Him, Mind, as harmonious,
immortal, and spiritual: the five material senses define |
| 21 |
Mind and matter as distinct, but mutually
dependent,
each on the other, for intelligence and existence. Science
defines man as immortal, as coexistent and coeternal with |
| 24 |
God, as made in His own image and
likeness; material
Page
60 |
| 1 |
sense defines life as something apart from
God, beginning
and ending, and man as very far from the divine
likeness. |
| 3 |
Science reveals Life as a complete sphere,
as eternal, self-
existent Mind; material sense defines life as a
broken
sphere, as organized matter, and mind as something sep- |
| 6 |
arate from God. Science reveals Spirit as
All, averring
that there is nothing beside God; material sense says
that
matter, His antipode, is something besides God. Material |
| 9 |
sense adds that the divine Spirit created
matter, and that
matter and evil are as real as Spirit and good.
Christian Science
reveals God and His idea as the All |
| 12 |
and Only. It declares that evil is the
absence of good;
whereas, good is God ever-present, and therefore evil
is
unreal and good is all that is real. Christian Science saith |
| 15 |
to the wave and storm, "Be still," and
there is a great
calm. Material sense asks, in its ignorance of
Science,
"When will the raging of the material elements cease?" |
| 18 |
Science saith to all manner of disease,
"Know that God
is all-power and all-presence, and there is nothing
beside
Him;" and the sick are healed. Material sense saith, |
| 21 |
"Oh, when will my sufferings cease? Where
is God?
Sickness is something besides Him, which He cannot, or
does
not, heal." |
| 24 |
Christian Science is the only sure basis of
harmony.
Material sense contradicts Science, for matter and its
so-called organizations take no cognizance of the spir- |
| 27 |
itual facts of the universe, or of the real
man and God.
Christian Science declares that there is but one Truth,
Life, Love, but one Spirit, Mind, Soul. Any attempt |
| 30 |
to divide these arises from the
fallibility of sense, from
Page
61 |
| 1 |
mortal man's ignorance, from enmity to God
and divine
Science. |
| 3 |
Christian Science declares that sickness is
a belief, a
latent fear, made manifest on the body in different forms
of fear or disease. This fear is formed unconsciously in |
| 6 |
the silent thought, as when you awaken from
sleep and
feel ill, experiencing the effect of a fear whose existence
you do not realize; but if you fall asleep, actually con- |
| 9 |
scious of the truth of Christian Science, -
namely, that
man's harmony is no more to be invaded than the rhythm
of
the universe, - you cannot awake in fear or suffering |
| 12 |
of any sort.
Science saith to
fear, "You are the cause of all sick-
ness; but you are a self-constituted
falsity, - you are |
| 15 |
darkness, nothingness. You are without
'hope, and with-
out God in the world.' You do not exist, and have no
right to exist, for 'perfect Love casteth out fear.'" |
| 18 |
God is everywhere. "There is no speech nor
language,
where their voice is not heard;" and this voice is Truth
that destroys error and Love that casts out fear. |
| 21 |
Christian Science reveals the fact that, if
suffering exists,
it is in the mortal mind only, for matter has no
sensation
and cannot suffer. |
| 24 |
If you rule out every sense of disease and
suffering from
mortal mind, it cannot be found in the body.
Posterity will have
the right to demand that Christian |
| 27 |
Science be stated and demonstrated in its
godliness and
grandeur, - that however little be taught or learned,
that
little shall be right. Let there be milk for babes, but let |
| 30 |
not the milk be adulterated. Unless this
method be pur-
Page
62 |
| 1 |
sued, the Science of Christian healing will
again be lost,
and human suffering will increase. |
| 3 |
Test Christian Science by its effect on
society, and you
will find that the views here set forth - as to the
illusion
of sin, sickness, and death - bring forth better fruits of |
| 6 |
health, righteousness, and Life, than a
belief in their reality
has ever done. A demonstration of the
unreality of evil
destroys evil.
Page
63
SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM |
| 1 |
WHY do Christian Scientists say God and His
idea
are the only realities, and then insist on the need |
| 3 |
of healing sickness and sin? Because
Christian Science
heals sin as it heals sickness, by establishing the
recogni-
tion that God is All, and there is none beside Him, -
that |
| 6 |
all is good, and there is in reality no
evil, neither sickness
nor sin. We attack the sinner's belief in the
pleasure of
sin, alias the reality of sin, which makes him a sinner,
in |
| 9 |
order to destroy this belief and save him
from sin; and
we attack the belief of the sick in the reality of
sickness,
in order to heal them. When we deny the authority of |
| 12 |
sin, we begin to sap it; for this
denunciation must precede
its destruction.
God is good, hence
goodness is something, for it rep- |
| 15 |
resents God, the Life of man. Its opposite,
nothing,
named evil, is nothing but a conspiracy against man's
Life and goodness. Do you not feel bound to expose this |
| 18 |
conspiracy, and so to save man from it?
Whosoever
covers iniquity becomes accessory to it. Sin, as a claim,
is
more dangerous than sickness, more subtle, more diffi- |
| 21 |
cult to heal.
St. Augustine once
said, "The devil is but the ape of
God." Sin is worse than sickness; but
recollect that it |
| 24 |
encourages sin to say, "There is no sin,"
and leave the
subject there.
Page
64 |
| 1 |
Sin ultimates in sinner, and in this sense
they are one.
You cannot separate sin from the sinner, nor the sinner |
| 3 |
from his sin. The sin is the sinner, and
vice versa, for
such is the unity of evil; and together both sinner
and sin
will be destroyed by the supremacy of good. This, how- |
| 6 |
ever, does not annihilate man, for to
efface sin, alias the
sinner, brings to light, makes apparent, the
real man,
even God's "image and likeness." Need it be said that |
| 9 |
any opposite theory is heterodox to divine
Science, which
teaches that good is equally one and all, even
as the oppo-
site claim of evil is one. |
| 12 |
In Christian Science the fact is made
obvious that the
sinner and the sin are alike simply nothingness; and
this
view is supported by the Scripture, where the Psalmist |
| 15 |
saith: "He shall go to the generation of
his fathers; they
shall never see light. Man that is in honor, and
under-
standeth not, is like the beasts that perish." God's ways |
| 18 |
and works and thoughts have never changed,
either in
Principle or practice.
Since there is in
belief an illusion termed sin, which |
| 21 |
must be met and mastered, we classify sin,
sickness, and
death as illusions. They are supposititious claims of
error; and error being a false claim, they are no claims |
| 24 |
at all. It is scientific to abide in
conscious harmony, in
health-giving, deathless Truth and Love. To do
this,
mortals must first open their eyes to all the illusive forms, |
| 27 |
methods, and subtlety of error, in order
that the illusion,
error, may be destroyed; if this is not done, mortals
will
become the victims of error. |
| 30 |
If evangelical churches refuse fellowship
with the
Page
65 |
| 1 |
Church of Christ, Scientist, or with
Christian Science,
they must rest their opinions of Truth and Love on |
| 3 |
the evidences of the physical senses,
rather than on
the teaching and practice of Jesus, or the works of the
Spirit. |
| 6 |
Ritualism and dogma lead to
self-righteousness and
bigotry, which freeze out the spiritual element.
Pharisa-
ism killeth; Spirit giveth Life. The odors of persecution, |
| 9 |
tobacco, and alcohol are not the
sweet-smelling savor of
Truth and Love. Feasting the senses, gratification
of
appetite and passion, have no warrant in the gospel or |
| 12 |
the Decalogue. Mortals must take up the
cross if they
would follow Christ, and worship the Father "in spirit
and in truth." |
| 15 |
The Jewish religion was not spiritual;
hence Jesus
denounced it. If the religion of to-day is constituted of
such elements as of old ruled Christ out of the synagogues, |
| 18 |
it will continue to avoid whatever follows
the example of
our Lord and prefers Christ to creed. Christian Science
is the pure evangelic truth. It accords with the trend and |
| 21 |
tenor of Christ's teaching and example,
while it demon-
strates the power of Christ as taught in the four
Gospels.
Truth, casting out evils and healing the sick; Love, ful- |
| 24 |
filling the law and keeping man unspotted
from the world,
- these practical manifestations of Christianity
constitute
the only evangelism, and they need no creed. |
| 27 |
As well expect to determine, without a
telescope, the
magnitude and distance of the stars, as to expect to
obtain
health, harmony, and holiness through an unspiritual and |
| 30 |
unhealing religion. Christianity reveals
God as ever-
Page
66 |
| 1 |
present Truth and Love, to be utilized in
healing the sick,
in casting out error, in raising the dead. |
| 3 |
Christian Science gives vitality to
religion, which is no
longer buried in materiality. It raises men from a
material
sense into the spiritual understanding and scientific demon- |
| 6 |
stration of God.
Page
67
THE HUMAN CONCEPT |
| 1 |
SIN existed as a false claim before the
human concept
of sin was formed; hence one's concept of error is |
| 3 |
not the whole of error. The human thought
does not
constitute sin, but vice versa, sin constitutes the human
or
physical concept. |
| 6 |
Sin is both concrete and abstract. Sin was,
and is, the
lying supposition that life, substance, and intelligence
are
both material and spiritual, and yet are separate from |
| 9 |
God. The first iniquitous manifestation of
sin was a
finity. The finite was self-arrayed against the infinite,
the
mortal against immortality, and a sinner was the |
| 12 |
antipode of God.
Silencing self,
alias rising above corporeal personality,
is what reforms the sinner
and destroys sin. In the ratio |
| 15 |
that the testimony of material personal
sense ceases, sin
diminishes, until the false claim called sin is finally
lost
for lack of witness. |
| 18 |
The sinner created neither himself nor sin,
but sin
created the sinner; that is, error made its man mortal,
and
this mortal was the image and likeness of evil, not of |
| 21 |
good. Therefore the lie was, and is,
collective as well as
individual. It was in no way contingent on Adam's
thought, but supposititiously self-created. In the words |
| 24 |
of our Master, it, the "devil"
(alias evil), "was a liar, and
the father of it."
Page
68 |
| 1 |
This mortal material concept was never a
creator, al-
though as a serpent it claimed to originate in the name
of |
| 3 |
"the Lord," or good, - original evil;
second, in the name
of human concept, it claimed to beget the offspring of
evil,
alias an evil offspring. However, the human concept |
| 6 |
never was, neither indeed can be, the
father of man.
Even the spiritual idea, or ideal man, is not a parent,
though he reflects the infinity of good. The great differ- |
| 9 |
ence between these opposites is, that the
human material
concept is unreal, and the divine concept or idea is
spiritu-
ally real. One is false, while the other is true. One is |
| 12 |
temporal, but the other is eternal.
Our Master
instructed his students to "call no man
your father upon the earth: for one
is your Father, which |
| 15 |
is in heaven." (Matt. xxiii. 9.)
Science and Health,
the textbook of Christian Science,
treats of the human concept, and the
transference of |
| 18 |
thought, as follows: -
"How can matter
originate or transmit mind? We
answer that it cannot. Darkness and doubt
encompass |
| 21 |
thought, so long as it bases creation on
materiality"
(p. 551).
"In reality there is
no mortal mind, and consequently |
| 24 |
no transference of mortal thought and
will-power. Life
and being are of God. In Christian Science, man can do
no harm, for scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing |
| 27 |
from God to man" (pp. 103, 104) .
"Man is the
offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good,
and pure constitute his ancestry.
His origin is not, like
Page
69 |
| 1 |
that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor
does he pass through
material conditions prior to reaching intelligence.
Spirit |
| 3 |
is his primitive and ultimate source of
being; God is his
Father, and Life is the law of his being" (p. 63).
"The parent of all
human discord was the Adam- |
| 6 |
dream, the deep sleep, in which originated
the delusion
that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into
matter. This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, in- |
| 9 |
sists still upon the opposite of Truth,
saying, 'Ye shall be
as gods;' that is, I will make error as real and
eternal as
Truth. . . . 'I will put spirit into what I call matter,
and |
| 12 |
matter shall seem to have life as much as
God, Spirit,
who is the only Life.' This error has proved itself to
be
error. Its life is found to be not Life, but only a transient, |
| 15 |
false sense of an existence which ends in
death" (pp. 306,
307).
"When will the error
of believing that there is life in |
| 18 |
matter, and that sin, sickness, and death
are creations of
God, be unmasked? When will it be understood that
matter has no intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that |
| 21 |
the opposite belief is the prolific source
of all suffering?
God created all through Mind, and made all perfect
and
eternal. Where then is the necessity for recreation or |
| 24 |
procreation?" (p. 205).
"Above error's awful
din, blackness, and chaos, the
voice of Truth still calls: 'Adam, where art
thou? Con- |
| 27 |
sciousness, where art thou? Art thou
dwelling in the be-
lief that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or
art
thou in the living faith that there is and can be but one |
| 30 |
God, and keeping His commandment?"' (pp.
307, 308).
Page
70 |
| 1 |
"Mortal mind inverts the true likeness, and
confers
animal names and natures upon its own misconceptions. |
| 3 |
Ignorant of the origin and operations of
mortal mind, -
that is, ignorant of itself, - this so-called mind puts
forth
its own qualities, and claims God as their author; . . . |
| 6 |
usurps the deific prerogatives and is an
attempted in-
fringement on infinity" (pp. 512, 513).
We do not question
the authenticity of the Scriptural |
| 9 |
narrative of the Virgin-mother and
Bethlehem babe, and
the Messianic mission of Christ Jesus; but in our
time
no Christian Scientist will give chimerical wings to his |
| 12 |
imagination, or advance speculative
theories as to the
recurrence of such events.
No person can take
the individual place of the Virgin |
| 15 |
Mary. No person can compass or fulfil the
individual
mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person can take the
place
of the author of Science and Health, the Discoverer |
| 18 |
and Founder of Christian Science. Each
individual must
fill his own niche in time and eternity.
The second appearing
of Jesus is, unquestionably, the |
| 21 |
spiritual advent of the advancing idea of
God, as in Chris-
tian Science.
And the scientific
ultimate of this God-idea must be, |
| 24 |
will be, forever individual, incorporeal,
and infinite, even
the reflection, "image and likeness," of the infinite
God.
The right teacher of
Christian Science lives the truth he |
| 27 |
teaches. Preeminent among men, he
virtually stands at
the head of all sanitary, civil, moral, and religious
reform.
Such a post of duty, unpierced by vanity, exalts a mortal
Page
71 |
| 1 |
beyond human praise, or monuments which
weigh dust,
and humbles him with the tax it raises on calamity to open |
| 3 |
the gates of heaven. It is not the forager
on others' wis-
dom that God thus crowns, but he who is obedient to the
divine command, "Render to Caesar the things that are |
| 6 |
Caesar's, and to God the things that are
God's."
Great temptations
beset an ignorant or an unprincipled
mind-practice in opposition to the
straight and narrow |
| 9 |
path of Christian Science. Promiscuous
mental treat-
ment, without the consent or knowledge of the individual
treated, is an error of much magnitude. People unaware |
| 12 |
of the indications of mental treatment,
know not what is
affecting them, and thus may be robbed of their
individual
rights, - freedom of choice and self-government. Who is |
| 15 |
willing to be subjected to such an
influence? Ask the un-
bridled mind-manipulator if he would consent to
this; and
if not, then he is knowingly transgressing Christ's com- |
| 18 |
mand. He who secretly manipulates mind
without the
permission of man or God, is not dealing justly and
loving
mercy, according to pure and undefiled religion. |
| 21 |
Sinister and selfish motives entering into
mental practice
are dangerous incentives; they proceed from false con-
victions and a fatal ignorance. These are the tares grow- |
| 24 |
ing side by side with the wheat, that must
be recognized,
and uprooted, before the wheat can be garnered and
Christian Science demonstrated. |
| 27 |
Secret mental efforts to obtain help from
one who is
unaware of this attempt, demoralizes the person who does
this, the same as other forms of stealing, and will end in |
| 30 |
destroying health and morals.
Page
72 |
| 1 |
In the practice of Christian Science one
cannot impart
a mental influence that hazards another's happiness, nor |
| 3 |
interfere with the rights of the
individual. To disregard
the welfare of others is contrary to the law of
God; there-
fore it deteriorates one's ability to do good, to benefit |
| 6 |
himself and mankind.
The Psalmist vividly
portrays the result of secret faults,
presumptuous sins, and
self-deception, in these words: |
| 9 |
"How are they brought into desolation, as
in a moment !
They are utterly consumed with terrors."
Page
73
PERSONALITY |
| 1 |
THE immortal man being spiritual,
individual, and
eternal, his mortal opposite must be material, cor- |
| 3 |
poreal, and temporal. Physical personality
is finite; but
God is infinite. He is without materiality, without
finite-
ness of form or Mind. |
| 6 |
Limitations are put off in proportion as
the fleshly
nature disappears and man is found in the reflection of
Spirit. |
| 9 |
This great fact leads into profound depths.
The mate-
rial human concept grew beautifully less as I floated into
more spiritual latitudes and purer realms of thought. |
| 12 |
From that hour personal corporeality became
less to
me than it is to people who fail to appreciate individual
character. I endeavored to lift thought above physical |
| 15 |
personality, or selfhood in matter, to
man's spiritual in-
dividuality in God, - in the true Mind, where
sensible
evil is lost in supersensible good. This is the only way |
| 18 |
whereby the false personality is laid off.
He who clings to
personality, or perpetually warns you
of "personality," wrongs it, or
terrifies people over it, |
| 21 |
and is the sure victim of his own
corporeality. Constantly
to scrutinize physical personality, or accuse
people of being
unduly personal, is like the sick talking sickness.
Such |
| 24 |
errancy betrays a violent and egotistical
personality,
Page
74 |
| 1 |
increases one's sense of corporeality, and
begets a fear of
the senses and a perpetually egotistical sensibility. |
| 3 |
He who does this is ignorant of the meaning
of the word
personality, and defines it by his own corpus sine
pectore
(soulless body), and fails to distinguish the individual,
or |
| 6 |
real man from the false sense of
corporeality, or egotistic
self.
My own corporeal
personality afflicteth me not wittingly; |
| 9 |
for I desire never to think of it, and it
cannot think
of me.
Page
75
PLAGIARISM |
| 1 |
THE various forms of book-borrowing without
credit
spring from this ill-concealed question in mortal |
| 3 |
mind, Who shall be greatest? This error
violates the
law given by Moses, it tramples upon Jesus' Sermon
on the
Mount, it does violence to the ethics of Christian |
| 6 |
Science.
Why withhold my
name, while appropriating my lan-
guage and ideas, but give credit when
citing from the works |
| 9 |
of other authors?
Life and its ideals
are inseparable, and one's writings
on ethics, and demonstration of Truth,
are not, cannot be, |
| 12 |
understood or taught by those who
persistently misunder-
stand or misrepresent the author. Jesus said, "For
there
is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can |
| 15 |
lightly speak evil of me."
If one's spiritual
ideal is comprehended and loved, the
borrower from it is embraced in the
author's own mental |
| 18 |
mood, and is therefore honest. The
Science of Mind ex-
cludes opposites, and rests on unity.
It is proverbial
that dishonesty retards spiritual growth |
| 21 |
and strikes at the heart of Truth. If a
student at Harvard
College has studied a textbook written by his teacher,
is
he entitled, when he leaves the University, to write out as |
| 24 |
his own the substance of this textbook?
There is no war-
rant in common law and no permission in the gospel
Page
76 |
| 1 |
for plagiarizing an author's ideas and
their words.
Christian Science is not copyrighted; nor would pro- |
| 3 |
tection by copyright be requisite, if
mortals obeyed
God's law of manright. A student can write
volumi-
nous works on Science without trespassing, if he writes |
| 6 |
honestly, and he cannot dishonestly compose
Christian
Science. The Bible is not stolen, though it is cited,
and quoted deferentially. |
| 9 |
Thoughts touched with the Spirit and Word
of Christian
Science gravitate naturally toward Truth. Therefore the
mind to which this Science was revealed must have risen |
| 12 |
to the altitude which perceived a light
beyond what others
saw.
The spiritually
minded meet on the stairs which lead up |
| 15 |
to spiritual love. This affection, so far
from being per-
sonal worship, fulfils the law of Love which Paul
enjoined
upon the Galatians. This is the Mind "which was also |
| 18 |
in Christ Jesus," and knows no material
limitations. It is
the unity of good and bond of perfectness. This just
affec-
tion serves to constitute the Mind-healer a wonder-worker, |
| 21 |
- as of old, on the Pentecost Day, when
the disciples were
of one accord.
He who gains the
God-crowned summit of Christian |
| 24 |
Science never abuses the corporeal
personality, but up-
lifts it. He thinks of every one in his real quality,
and
sees each mortal in an impersonal depict. |
| 27 |
I have long remained silent on a growing
evil in plagi-
arism; but if I do not insist upon the strictest
observance
of moral law and order in Christian Scientists, I become
Page
77 |
| 1 |
responsible, as a teacher, for laxity in
discipline and law-
lessness in literature. Pope was right in saying,
"An |
| 3 |
honest man's the noblest work of God;" and
Ingersoll's
repartee has its moral: "An honest God's the noblest
work
of man."
Page
78
ADMONITION |
| 1 |
THE neophyte in Christian Science acts like
a diseased
physique, - being too fast or too slow. He is in- |
| 3 |
clined to do either too much or too little.
In healing and
teaching the student has not yet achieved the entire
wis-
dom of Mind-practice. The textual explanation of this |
| 6 |
practice is complete in Science and Health;
and scientific
practice makes perfect, for it is governed by its
Principle,
and not by human opinions; but carnal and sinister |
| 9 |
motives, entering into this practice, will
prevent the
demonstration of Christian Science.
I recommend students
not to read so-called scientific |
| 12 |
works, antagonistic to Christian Science,
which advocate
materialistic systems; because such works and words be-
cloud the right sense of metaphysical Science. |
| 15 |
The rules of Mind-healing are wholly
Christlike and
spiritual. Therefore the adoption of a worldly policy or
a
resort to subterfuge in the statement of the Science of |
| 18 |
Mind-healing, or any name given to it other
than Christian
Science, or an attempt to demonstrate the facts of this
Science other than is stated in Science and Health - is a |
| 21 |
departure from the Science of Mind-healing.
To becloud
mortals, or for yourself to hide from God, is to conspire
against the blessings otherwise conferred, against your |
| 24 |
own success and final happiness, against
the progress of
Page
79 |
| 1 |
the human race as well as against
honest metaphysical
theory and practice. |
| 3 |
Not by the hearing of the ear is spiritual
truth learned
and loved; nor cometh this apprehension from the ex-
periences of others. We glean spiritual harvests from our |
| 6 |
own material losses. In this consuming heat
false images
are effaced from the canvas of mortal mind; and thus does
the material pigment beneath fade into invisibility. |
| 9 |
The signs for the wayfarer in divine
Science lie in meek-
ness, in unselfish motives and acts, in shuffling off
scholastic
rhetoric, in ridding the thought of effete doctrines, in
the |
| 12 |
purification of the affections and
desires.
Dishonesty, envy,
and mad ambition are "lusts of the
flesh," which uproot the germs of growth
in Science and |
| 15 |
leave the inscrutable problem of being
unsolved. Through
the channels of material sense, of worldly policy,
pomp,
and pride, cometh no success in Truth. If beset with mis- |
| 18 |
guided emotions, we shall be stranded on
the quicksands
of worldly commotion, and practically come short of the
wisdom requisite for teaching and demonstrating the |
| 21 |
victory over self and sin.
Be temperate in
thought, word, and deed. Meekness
and temperance are the jewels of Love,
set in wisdom. |
| 24 |
Restrain untempered zeal. "Learn to labor
and to wait."
Of old the children of Israel were saved by patient
waiting.
"The kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence, and the |
| 27 |
violent take it by force!" said Jesus.
Therefore are
its spiritual gates not captured, nor its golden streets
invaded. |
| 30 |
We recognize this kingdom, the reign of
harmony
Page
80 |
| 1 |
within us, by an unselfish affection or
love, for this is the
pledge of divine good and the insignia of heaven.
This |
| 3 |
also is proverbial, that though eternal
justice be graciously
gentle, yet it may seem severe.
For whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, |
| 6 |
And
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
As
the poets in different languages have expressed it: -
Though the mills of God grind slowly, |
| 9 |
Yet they
grind exceeding small;
Though with
patience He stands waiting,
With
exactness grinds He all. |
| 12 |
Though the divine rebuke is effectual to
the pulling
down of sin's strongholds, it may stir the human heart to
resist Truth, before this heart becomes obediently recep- |
| 15 |
tive of the heavenly discipline. If the
Christian Scientist
recognize the mingled sternness and gentleness
which
permeate justice and Love, he will not scorn the timely re- |
| 18 |
proof, but will so absorb it that this
warning will be within
him a spring, welling up into unceasing spiritual
rise and
progress. Patience and obedience win the golden scholar- |
| 21 |
ship of experimental tuition.
The kindly shepherd
of the East carries his lambs in his
arms to the sheepcot, but the older
sheep pass into the fold |
| 24 |
under his compelling rod. He who sees the
door and turns
away from it, is guilty, while innocence strayeth
yearningly.
There are no greater
miracles known to earth than per- |
| 27 |
fection and an unbroken friendship. We
love our friends,
but ofttimes we lose them in proportion to our
affection.
The sacrifices made for others are not infrequently met by
Page
81 |
| 1 |
envy, ingratitude, and enmity, which smite
the heart and
threaten to paralyze its beneficence. The unavailing
tear |
| 3 |
is shed both for the living and the dead.
Nothing except sin,
in the students themselves, can
separate them from me. Therefore we should
guard |
| 6 |
thought and action, keeping them in accord
with Christ,
and our friendship will surely continue.
The letter of the
law of God, separated from its spirit, |
| 9 |
tends to demoralize mortals, and must be
corrected by a
diviner sense of liberty and light. The spirit of Truth
ex-
tinguishes false thinking, feeling, and acting; and falsity |
| 12 |
must thus decay, ere spiritual sense,
affectional conscious-
ness, and genuine goodness become so apparent as to
be
well understood. |
| 15 |
After the supreme advent of Truth in the
heart, there
comes an overwhelming sense of error's vacuity, of the
blunders which arise from wrong apprehension. The en- |
| 18 |
lightened heart loathes error, and casts it
aside; or else
that heart is consciously untrue to the light, faithless
to
itself and to others, and so sinks into deeper darkness. |
| 21 |
Said Jesus: "If the light that is in thee
be darkness, how
great is that darkness !" and Shakespeare puts this pious
counsel into a father's mouth: - |
| 24 |
This above
all: To thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the
day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. |
| 27 |
A realization of the shifting scenes of
human happiness,
and of the frailty of mortal anticipations, - such as
first
led me to the feet of Christian Science, - seems to be requi- |
| 30 |
site at every stage of advancement. Though
our first les-
Page
82 |
| 1 |
sons are changed, modified, broadened, yet
their core is
constantly renewed; as the law of the chord remains |
| 3 |
unchanged, whether we are dealing with a
simple Latour
exercise or with the vast Wagner Trilogy.
A general rule is,
that my students should not allow their |
| 6 |
movements to be controlled by other
students, even if they
are teachers and practitioners of the same blessed
faith.
The exception to this rule should be very rare. |
| 9 |
The widest power and strongest growth have
always
been attained by those loyal students who rest on divine
Principle for guidance, not on themselves; and who locate |
| 12 |
permanently in one section, and adhere to
the orderly
methods herein delineated.
At this period my
students should locate in large cities, |
| 15 |
in order to do the greatest good to the
greatest number, and
therein abide. The population of our principal cities
is
ample to supply many practitioners, teachers, and preachers |
| 18 |
with work. This fact interferes in no way
with the pros-
perity of each worker; rather does it represent an
accumu-
lation of power on his side which promotes the ease and |
| 21 |
welfare of the workers . Their liberated
capacities of mind
enable Christian Scientists to consummate much good
or
else evil; therefore their examples either excel or fall short |
| 24 |
of other religionists; and they must be
found dwelling
together in harmony, if even they compete with
ecclesias-
tical fellowship and friendship. |
| 27 |
It is often asked which revision of Science
and Health is
the best. The arrangement of my last revision, in 1890,
makes the subject-matter clearer than any previous edition, |
| 30 |
and it is therefore better adapted to
spiritualize thought
Page
83 |
| 1 |
and elucidate scientific healing and
teaching. It has
already been proven that this volume is accomplishing
the |
| 3 |
divine purpose to a remarkable degree. The
wise Chris-
tian Scientist will commend students and patients to the
teachings of this book, and the healing efficacy thereof, |
| 6 |
rather than try to centre their interest
on himself.
Students whom I have
taught are seldom benefited by
the teachings of other students, for
scientific foundations |
| 9 |
are already laid in their minds which ought
not to be tam-
pered with. Also, they are prepared to receive the
infinite
instructions afforded by the Bible and my books, which |
| 12 |
mislead no one and are their best guides.
The student may
mistake in his conception of Truth, and
this error, in an honest heart, is
sure to be corrected. But |
| 15 |
if he misinterprets the text to his pupils,
and communicates,
even unintentionally, his misconception of Truth,
there-
after he will find it more difficult to rekindle his own light |
| 18 |
or to enlighten them. Hence, as a rule, the
student should
explain only Recapitulation, the chapter for the
class-room,
and leave Science and Health to God's daily
interpretation. |
| 21 |
Christian Scientists should take their
textbook into the
schoolroom the same as other teachers; they should
ask
questions from it, and be answered according to it, - occa- |
| 24 |
sionally reading aloud from the book to
corroborate what
they teach. It is also highly important that their
pupils
study each lesson before the recitation. |
| 27 |
That these essential points are ever
omitted, is anoma-
lous, when we consider the necessity of thoroughly
under-
standing Science, and the present liability of deviating |
| 30 |
from absolute Christian Science.
Page
84 |
| 1 |
Centuries will intervene before the
statement of the inex-
haustible topics of Science and Health is
sufficiently under- |
| 3 |
stood to be fully demonstrated.
The teacher himself
should continue to study this text-
book, and to spiritualize his own
thoughts and human life |
| 6 |
from this open fount of Truth and Love.
He who sees clearly
and enlightens other minds most
readily, keeps his own lamp trimmed and
burning. |
| 9 |
Throughout his entire explanations he
strictly adheres to
the teachings in the chapter on Recapitulation.
When
closing the class, each member should own a copy of |
| 12 |
Science and Health, and continue to study
and assimilate
this inexhaustible subject - Christian Science.
The opinions of men
cannot be substituted for God's |
| 15 |
revelation. In times past, arrogant pride,
in attempting to
steady the ark of Truth, obscured even the power and
glory of the Scriptures, - to which Science and Health is |
| 18 |
the Key.
That teacher does
most for his students who divests him-
self most of pride and self, and by
reason thereof is able to |
| 21 |
empty his students' minds of error, that
they may be filled
with Truth. Thus doing, posterity will call him
blessed,
and the tired tongue of history be enriched. |
| 24 |
The less the teacher personally controls
other minds, and
the more he trusts them to the divine Truth and Love,
the
better it will be for both teacher and student. |
| 27 |
A teacher should take charge only of his
own pupils and
patients, and of those who voluntarily place themselves
under his direction; he should avoid leaving his own regu- |
| 30 |
lar institute or place of labor, or
expending his labor where
Page
85 |
| 1 |
there are other teachers who should be
specially responsible
for doing their own work well. |
| 3 |
Teachers of Christian Science will find it
advisable to
band together their students into associations, to
continue
the organization of churches, and at present they can |
| 6 |
employ any other organic operative method
that may
commend itself as useful to the Cause and beneficial to
mankind. |
| 9 |
Of this also rest assured, that books and
teaching are but
a ladder let down from the heaven of Truth and Love,
upon
which angelic thoughts ascend and descend, bearing on |
| 12 |
their pinions of light the Christ-spirit.
Guard yourselves
against the subtly hidden suggestion
that the Son of man will be glorified,
or humanity benefited, |
| 15 |
by any deviation from the order prescribed
by supernal
grace. Seek to occupy no position whereto you do not feel
that God ordains you. Never forsake your post without |
| 18 |
due deliberation and light, but always wait
for God's finger
to point the way. The loyal Christian Scientist is
incapable
alike of abusing the practice of Mind-healing or of healing |
| 21 |
on a material basis.
The tempter is
vigilant, awaiting only an opportunity
to divide the ranks of Christian
Science and scatter the |
| 24 |
sheep abroad; but "if God be for us, who
can be against
us?" The Cause, our Cause, is highly prosperous,
rapidly
spreading over the globe; and the morrow will crown the |
| 27 |
effort of to-day with a diadem of gems
from the New
Jerusalem.
Page
86
EXEMPLIFICATION |
| 1 |
TO energize wholesome spiritual warfare, to
rebuke
vainglory, to offset boastful emptiness, to crown |
| 3 |
patient toil, and rejoice in the spirit and
power of Christian
Science, we must ourselves be true. There is but one
way
of doing good, and that is to do it! There is but one way
of |
| 6 |
being good, and that is to
be good!
Art thou still
unacquainted with thyself ? Then be in-
troduced to this self. "Know
thyself! " as said the classic |
| 9 |
Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of
this mortal self!
Behold its vileness, and remember this
poverty-stricken
"stranger that is within thy gates." Cleanse every
stain |
| 12 |
from this wanderer's soiled garments, wipe
the dust from
his feet and the tears from his eyes, that you may behold
the real man, the fellow-saint of a holy household. There |
| 15 |
should be no blot on the escutcheon of our
Christliness
when we offer our gift upon the altar.
A student desiring
growth in the knowledge of Truth, |
| 18 |
can and will obtain it by taking up his
cross and following
Truth. If he does this not, and another one undertakes
to
carry his burden and do his work, the duty will not be |
| 21 |
accomplished. No one can save
himself without God's
help, and God will help each man who performs his
own
part. After this manner and in no other way is every |
| 24 |
man cared for and blessed. To the unwise
helper our
Page
87 |
| 1 |
Master said, "Follow me; and let the dead
bury their
dead." |
| 3 |
The poet's line, "Order is heaven's first
law," is so eter-
nally true, so axiomatic, that it has become a truism;
and
its wisdom is as obvious in religion and scholarship as in |
| 6 |
astronomy or mathematics.
Experience has
taught me that the rules of Christian
Science can be far more thoroughly
and readily acquired |
| 9 |
by regularly settled and systematic
workers, than by un-
settled and spasmodic efforts. Genuine Christian
Scien-
tists are, or should be, the most systematic and law-abiding |
| 12 |
people on earth, because their religion
demands implicit
adherence to fixed rules, in the orderly demonstration
thereof. Let some of these rules be here stated. |
| 15 |
First: Christian Scientists are to
"heal the sick" as the
Master commanded.
In so doing they
must follow the divine order as pre- |
| 18 |
scribed by Jesus, - never, in any way, to
trespass upon
the rights of their neighbors, but to obey the celestial
in-
junction, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to |
| 21 |
you, do ye even so to them."
In this orderly,
scientific dispensation healers become a
law unto themselves. They feel
their own burdens less, |
| 24 |
and can therefore bear the weight of
others' burdens, since
it is only through the lens of their unselfishness
that the
sunshine of Truth beams with such efficacy as to dissolve |
| 27 |
error.
It is already
understood that Christian Scientists will
not receive a patient who is
under the care of a regular |
| 30 |
physician, until he has done with the case
and different aid
Page
88 |
| 1 |
is sought. The same courtesy should be
observed in the
professional intercourse of Christian Science healers
with |
| 3 |
one another.
Second: Another command of the
Christ, his prime
command, was that his followers should "raise the
dead." |
| 6 |
He lifted his own body from the sepulchre.
In him, Truth
called the physical man from the tomb to health, and the
so-called dead forthwith emerged into a higher manifesta- |
| 9 |
tion of Life.
The spiritual
significance of this command, "Raise the
dead," most concerns mankind. It
implies such an eleva- |
| 12 |
tion of the understanding as will enable
thought to appre-
hend the living beauty of Love, its practicality, its
divine
energies, its health-giving and life-bestowing qualities, - |
| 15 |
yea, its power to demonstrate immortality.
This end Jesus
achieved, both by example and precept.
Third: This leads inevitably
to a consideration of an- |
| 18 |
other part of Christian Science work, - a
part which con-
cerns us intimately, - preaching the gospel.
This evangelistic
duty should not be so warped as to |
| 21 |
signify that we must or may go, uninvited,
to work in other
vineyards than our own. One would, or should, blush to
enter unasked another's pulpit, and preach without the |
| 24 |
consent of the stated occupant of that
pulpit. The Lord's
command means this, that we should adopt the spirit
of
the Saviour's ministry, and abide in such a spiritual atti- |
| 27 |
tude as will draw men unto us. Itinerancy
should not be
allowed to clip the wings of divine Science. Mind demon-
strates omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves |
| 30 |
on a spiritual axis, and its power is
displayed and its pres-
Page
89 |
| 1 |
ence felt in eternal stillness and
immovable Love. The
divine potency of this spiritual mode of Mind, and the
hin- |
| 3 |
drance opposed to it by material motion,
is proven beyond
a doubt in the practice of Mind-healing.
In those days
preaching and teaching were substantially |
| 6 |
one. There was no church preaching, in the
modern sense
of the term. Men assembled in the one temple (at Jeru-
salem) for sacrificial ceremonies, not for sermons. Into |
| 9 |
the synagogues, scattered about in cities
and villages, they
went for liturgical worship, and instruction in the
Mosaic
law. If one worshipper preached to the others, he did so |
| 12 |
informally, and because he was bidden to
this privileged
duty at that particular moment. It was the custom to
pay
this hortatory compliment to a stranger, or to a member |
| 15 |
who had been away from the neighborhood; as
Jesus was
once asked to exhort, when he had been some time absent
from
Nazareth but once again entered the synagogue which |
| 18 |
he had frequented in childhood.
Jesus' method was to
instruct his own students; and he
watched and guarded them unto the end,
even according |
| 21 |
to his promise, "Lo, I am with you alway!"
Nowhere in
the four Gospels will Christian Scientists find any prece-
dent for employing another student to take charge of |
| 24 |
their students, or for neglecting their
own students, in
order to enlarge their sphere of action.
Above all, trespass
not intentionally upon other people's |
| 27 |
thoughts, by endeavoring to influence other
minds to any
action not first made known to them or sought by them.
Corporeal and selfish influence is human, fallible, and tem- |
| 30 |
porary; but incorporeal impulsion is
divine, infallible, and
Page
90 |
| 1 |
eternal. The student should be most careful
not to thrust
aside Science, and shade God's window which lets in
light, |
| 3 |
or seek to stand in God's stead.
Does the faithful
shepherd forsake the lambs, - retain-
ing his salary for tending the home
flock while he is serving |
| 6 |
another fold? There is no evidence to show
that Jesus
ever entered the towns whither he sent his disciples; no
evidence that he there taught a few hungry ones, and then |
| 9 |
left them to starve or to stray. To these
selected ones (like
"the elect lady" to whom St. John addressed one of his
epistles) he gave personal instruction, and gave in plain |
| 12 |
words, until they were able to fulfil his
behest and depart
on their united pilgrimages. This he did, even though
one of the twelve whom he kept near himself betrayed |
| 15 |
him, and others forsook him.
The true mother
never willingly neglects her children
in their early and sacred hours,
consigning them to the care |
| 18 |
of nurse or stranger. Who can feel and
comprehend the
needs of her babe like the ardent mother? What other
heart yearns with her solicitude, endures with her patience, |
| 21 |
waits with her hope, and labors with her
love, to promote
the welfare and happiness of her children? Thus must
the
Mother in Israel give all her hours to those first sacred |
| 24 |
tasks, till her children can walk
steadfastly in wisdom's
ways.
One of my students
wrote to me: "I believe the proper |
| 27 |
thing for us to do is to follow, as nearly
as we can, in the
path you have pursued!" It is gladdening to find, in such
a student, one of the children of light. It is safe to leave |
| 30 |
with God the government of man. He
appoints and He
Page
91 |
| 1 |
anoints His Truth-bearers, and God is their
sure defense
and refuge. |
| 3 |
The parable of "the prodigal son" is
rightly called "the
pearl of parables," and our Master's greatest utterance
may
well be called "the diamond sermon." No purer and more |
| 6 |
exalted teachings ever fell upon human ears
than those con-
tained in what is commonly known as the Sermon on the
Mount, - though this name has been given it by compilers |
| 9 |
and translators of the Bible, and not by
the Master him-
self or by the Scripture authors. Indeed, this title
really
indicates more the Master's mood, than the material |
| 12 |
locality.
Where did Jesus
deliver this great lesson - or, rather,
this series of great lessons - on
humanity and divinity? |
| 15 |
On a hillside, near the sloping shores of
the Lake of Gali-
lee, where he spake primarily to his immediate
disciples.
In this simplicity,
and with such fidelity, we see Jesus |
| 18 |
ministering to the spiritual needs of all
who placed them-
selves under his care, always leading them into the
divine
order, under the sway of his own perfect understanding. |
| 21 |
His power over others was spiritual, not
corporeal. To the
students whom he had chosen, his immortal teaching
was
the bread of Life. When he was with them, a fishing-boat |
| 24 |
became a sanctuary, and the solitude was
peopled with
holy messages from the All-Father. The grove became
his
class-room, and nature's haunts were the Messiah's |
| 27 |
university.
What has this
hillside priest, this seaside teacher, done
for the human race? Ask,
rather, what has he not done. |
| 30 |
His holy humility, unworldliness, and
self-abandonment
Page
92 |
| 1 |
wrought infinite results. The method of his
religion was
not too simple to be sublime, nor was his power so
exalted |
| 3 |
as to be unavailable for the needs of
suffering mortals,
whose wounds he healed by Truth and Love.
His order of
ministration was "first the blade, then the |
| 6 |
ear, after that the full corn in the ear."
May we unloose
the latchets of his Christliness, inherit his legacy of
love,
and reach the fruition of his promise: "If ye abide in me, |
| 9 |
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and
it shall be done unto you."
Page
93
WAYMARKS |
| 1 |
IN the first century of the Christian era
Jesus went about
doing good. The evangelists of those days wandered |
| 3 |
about. Christ, or the spiritual idea,
appeared to human
consciousness as the man Jesus. At the present epoch
the human concept of Christ is based on the incorporeal |
| 6 |
divine Principle of man, and Science has
elevated this idea
and established its rules in consonance with their
Principle.
Hear this saying of our Master, "And I, if I be lifted up |
| 9 |
from the earth, will draw all men unto
me."
The ideal of God is
no longer impersonated as a waif or
wanderer; and Truth is not fragmentary,
disconnected, un- |
| 12 |
systematic, but concentrated and immovably
fixed in Princi-
ple. The best spiritual type of Christly method for
uplifting
human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary |
| 15 |
power, stillness, and strength; and when
this spiritual ideal
is made our own, it becomes the model for human
action.
St. Paul said to the
Athenians, "For in Him we live, |
| 18 |
and move, and have our being." This
statement is in sub-
stance identical with my own: "There is no life,
truth,
substance, nor intelligence in matter." It is quite clear |
| 21 |
that as yet this grandest verity has not
been fully demon-
strated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian
Science
reiterates St. Paul's teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, |
| 24 |
should give to the world convincing proof
of the validity of
Page
94 |
| 1 |
this scientific statement of being. Having
perceived, in
advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to
ourselves |
| 3 |
and to the world a struggle for its
demonstration.
At some period and
in some way the conclusion must be
met that whatsoever seems true, and yet
contradicts divine |
| 6 |
Science and St. Paul's text, must be and is
false; and that
whatsoever seems to be good, and yet errs, though ac-
knowledging the true way, is really evil. |
| 9 |
As dross is separated from gold, so
Christ's baptism of
fire, his purification through suffering, consumes
whatso-
ever is of sin. Therefore this purgation of divine mercy, |
| 12 |
destroying all error, leaves no flesh, no
matter, to the mental
consciousness.
When all fleshly
belief is annihilated, and every spot and |
| 15 |
blemish on the disk of consciousness is
removed, then, and
not till then, will immortal Truth be found true, and
scien-
tific teaching, preaching, and practice be essentially one. |
| 18 |
"Happy is he that condemneth not himself in
that thing
which he alloweth. . . . for whatsoever is not of faith is
sin." (Romans xiv. 22, 23.) |
| 21 |
There is no "lo here! or lo there!" in
divine Science;
its manifestation must be "the same yesterday, and
to-day, and forever," since Science is eternally one, and |
| 24 |
unchanging, in Principle, rule, and
demonstration.
I am persuaded that
only by the modesty and distin-
guishing affection illustrated in Jesus'
career, can Chris- |
| 27 |
tian Scientists aid the establishment of
Christ's kingdom
on the earth. In the first century of the Christian era
Jesus'
teachings bore much fruit, and the Father was glorified |
| 30 |
therein. In this period and the
forthcoming centuries,
Page
95 |
| 1 |
watered by dews of divine Science, this
"tree of life" will
blossom into greater freedom, and its leaves will be
"for |
| 3 |
the healing of the nations."
Ask God to
give thee skill
In comfort's art: |
| 6 |
That thou
may'st consecrated be
And set apart
Unto a
life of sympathy. |
| 9 |
For heavy
is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And
comforters are needed much |
| 12 |
Of Christlike touch.
-
A. E. HAMILTON |
