Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U.S.A.
| 1 |
How would you define Christian Science?
AS the law of God, the law of good,
interpreting and |
| 3 |
demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of
universal harmony.
What is the Principle of Christian
Science? |
| 6 |
It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal
Mind,
the Soul of man and the universe. It is our Father
which is in heaven. It
is substance, Spirit, Life, Truth, |
| 9 |
and Love, - these are the deific Principle.
Do you mean by this that God is a person?
The word person affords a large margin for
misappre- |
| 12 |
hension, as well as definition. In French the equivalent
word is personne. In Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it is
persona. The Latin verb personare is compounded of |
| 15 |
the prefix per (through) and sonare (to
sound).
In law, Blackstone applies the word personal to
bodily
presence, in distinction from one's appearance (in court,
for example) by deputy or proxy.
Page 2 |
| 1 |
Other definitions of person, as given by Webster,
are
"a living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent; |
| 3 |
especially, a living human being, a corporeal man, woman,
or child; an individual of the human race." He adds,
that among Trinitarian
Christians the word stands for one |
| 6 |
of the three subjects, or agents, constituting the
Godhead.
In Christian Science we learn that God
is definitely indi-
vidual, and not a person, as that word is used
by the best |
| 9 |
authorities, if our lexicographers are right in defining
person as especially a finite human being; but God is
personal, if by person is meant infinite Spirit. |
| 12 |
We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him
as
less than infinite. The human person is finite; and
therefore I prefer to
retain the proper sense of Deity by |
| 15 |
using the phrase an individual God, rather than
a per-
sonal God; for there is and can be but one infinite
indi-
vidual Spirit, whom mortals have named God. |
| 18 |
Science defines the individuality of God as supreme
good,
Life, Truth, Love. This term enlarges our sense
of Deity, takes away the
trammels assigned to God by |
| 21 |
finite thought, and introduces us to higher definitions.
Is healing the sick the whole of
Science?
Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of
Chris- |
| 24 |
tian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and
action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The
emphatic purpose of
Christian Science is the healing of |
| 27 |
sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the
Page 3 |
| 1 |
cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they
do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acqui- |
| 3 |
escence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and
their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from
sin
through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which |
| 6 |
redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the
flesh, from the flesh, - the material world and evil.
This Life, Truth, and Love - this
trinity of good - was |
| 9 |
individualized, to the perception of mortal sense, in the
man Jesus. His history is emphatic in our hearts, and it
lives more
because of his spiritual than his physical healing. |
| 12 |
His example is, to Christian Scientists, what the models
of the masters in music and painting are to artists.
Genuine Christian Scientists will no
more deviate mor- |
| 15 |
ally from that divine digest of Science called the Sermon
on the Mount, than they will manipulate invalids, prescribe
drugs, or
deny God. Jesus' healing was spiritual in its |
| 18 |
nature, method, and design. He wrought the cure of
disease through the divine Mind, which gives all true
volition, impulse,
and action; and destroys the mental |
| 21 |
error made manifest physically, and establishes the oppo-
site manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmony
and health. |
| 24 |
By the individuality of God, do you mean that God has
a finite form?
No. I mean the infinite and divine
Principle of all |
| 27 |
being, the ever-present I AM, filling all space, including
Page 4 |
| 1 |
in itself all Mind, the one Father-Mother God. Life,
Truth, and Love are this trinity in unity, and their uni- |
| 3 |
verse is spiritual, peopled with perfect beings,
harmonious
and eternal, of which our material universe and men are
the
counterfeits. |
| 6 |
Is God the Principle of all science, or only of Divine
or
Christian Science?
Science is Mind manifested. It is not material;
neither |
| 9 |
is it of human origin.
All true Science represents a moral and spiritual force,
which holds the earth in its orbit. This force is Spirit, |
| 12 |
that can "bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades,"
and
"loose the bands of Orion."
There is no material science, if by that term you
mean |
| 15 |
material intelligence. God is infinite Mind, hence there
is no other Mind. Good is Mind, but evil is not Mind.
Good is not in evil,
but in God only. Spirit is not in matter, |
| 18 |
but in Spirit only. Law is not in matter, but in Mind only.
Is there no matter?
All is Mind. According to the
Scriptures and Christian |
| 21 |
Science, all is God, and there is naught beside Him. "God
is Spirit;" and we can only learn and love Him through
His spirit,
which brings out the fruits of Spirit and ex- |
| 24 |
tinguishes forever the works of darkness by His marvel-
lous light.
The five material senses testify to the existence of
Page 5 |
| 1 |
matter. The spiritual senses afford no such evidence,
but
deny the testimony of the material senses. Which |
| 3 |
testimony is correct? The Bible says: "Let God be
true,
and every man a liar." If, as the Scriptures imply,
God is All-in-all,
then all must be Mind, since God is |
| 6 |
Mind. Therefore in divine Science there is no material
mortal man, for man is spiritual and eternal, he being
made in the image of
Spirit, or God. |
| 9 |
There is no material sense. Matter is inert, inanimate,
and sensationless, - considered apart from Mind. Lives
there a man who has
ever found Soul in the body or in |
| 12 |
matter, who has ever seen spiritual substance with the
eye, who has found sight in matter, hearing in the material
ear, or
intelligence in non-intelligence? If there is any |
| 15 |
such thing as matter, it must be either mind which is
called matter, or matter without Mind.
Matter without Mind is a moral
impossibility. Mind |
| 18 |
in matter is pantheism. Soul is the only real conscious-
ness which cognizes being. The body does not see, hear,
smell, or taste.
Human belief says that it does; but |
| 21 |
destroy this belief of seeing with the eye, and we could
not see materially; and so it is with each of the physical
senses. |
| 24 |
Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should
believe man and the universe to be the football of chance
and sinking
into oblivion. Destroy the five senses as |
| 27 |
organized matter, and you must either become non-exist-
ent, or exist in Mind only; and this latter conclusion is
Page 6 |
| 1 |
the simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to
the equal inference that there is no matter. |
| 3 |
The sweet sounds and glories of earth and sky, assum-
ing manifold forms and colors, - are they not tangible and
material? |
| 6 |
As Mind they are real, but not as matter. All beauty
and
goodness are in and of Mind, emanating from God;
but when we change the
nature of beauty and goodness |
| 9 |
from Mind to matter, the beauty is marred, through a
false conception, and, to the material senses, evil takes
the place of
good. |
| 12 |
Has not the truth in Christian Science met a response
from Prof. S. P. Langley, the young American astronomer?
He says that
"color is in us," not "in the rose;" and he |
| 15 |
adds that this is not "any metaphysical subtlety," but a
fact "almost universally accepted, within the last few
years, by
physicists." |
| 18 |
Is not the basis of Mind-healing a destruction of the
evi-
dence of the material senses, and restoration of the true
evidence
of spiritual sense? |
| 21 |
It is, so far as you perceive and understand this predi-
cate and postulate of Mind-healing; but the Science of
Mind-healing is best
understood in practical demonstra- |
| 24 |
tion. The proof of what you apprehend, in the simplest
definite and absolute form of healing, can alone answer
this question of
how much you understand of Christian
Page 7 |
| 1 |
Science Mind-healing. Not that all healing is Science,
by
any means; but that the simplest case, healed in Science, |
| 3 |
is as demonstrably scientific, in a small degree, as the
most
difficult case so treated.
The infinite and subtler conceptions
and consistencies |
| 6 |
of Christian Science are set forth in my work Science and
Health.
Is man material or
spiritual? |
| 9 |
In Science, man is the manifest reflection of God, per-
fect and immortal Mind. He is the likeness of God; and
His likeness would
be lost if inverted or perverted. |
| 12 |
According to the evidence of the so-called physical
senses, man is material, fallen, sick, depraved, mortal.
Science and
spiritual sense contradict this, and they afford |
| 15 |
the only true evidence of the being of God and man, the
material evidence being wholly false.
Jesus said of personal evil, that "the truth abode
not |
| 18 |
in him," because there is no material sense. Matter, as
matter, has neither sensation nor personal intelligence.
As a pretension to
be Mind, matter is a lie, and "the |
| 21 |
father of lies;" Mind is not in matter, and Spirit cannot
originate its opposite, named matter.
According to divine Science, Spirit no more changes
its |
| 24 |
species, by evolving matter from Spirit, than natural
science, so-called, or material laws, bring about altera-
tion of species
by transforming minerals into vegetables |
| 27 |
or plants into animals, - thus confusing and confounding
Page 8 |
| 1 |
the three great kingdoms. No rock brings forth an apple;
no pine-tree produces a mammal or provides breast-milk |
| 3 |
for babes.
To sense, the lion of to-day is the
lion of six thousand
years ago; but in Science, Spirit sends forth its own
harm- |
| 6 |
less likeness.
How should I undertake to
demonstrate Christian Science
in healing the sick? |
| 9 |
As I have given you only an epitome of the Principle,
so
I can give you here nothing but an outline of the prac-
tice. Be honest, be
true to thyself, and true to others; |
| 12 |
then it follows thou wilt be strong in God, the eternal
good. Heal through Truth and Love; there is no other
healer. |
| 15 |
In all moral revolutions, from a lower to a higher con-
dition of thought and action, Truth is in the minority and
error has the
majority. It is not otherwise in the field |
| 18 |
of Mind-healing. The man who calls himself a Christian
Scientist, yet is false to God and man, is also uttering
falsehood about
good. This falsity shuts against him the |
| 21 |
Truth and the Principle of Science, but opens a way
whereby, through will-power, sense may say the unchris-
tian practitioner
can heal; but Science shows that he makes |
| 24 |
morally worse the invalid whom he is supposed to cure.
By this I mean that mortal mind should not be falsely
impregnated. If by such lower means the health is seem- |
| 27 |
ingly restored, the restoration is not lasting, and the
patient
Page 9 |
| 1 |
is liable to a relapse, - "The last state of that man is
worse than the first." |
| 3 |
The teacher of Mind-healing who is not a Christian,
in
the highest sense, is constantly sowing the seeds of
discord and disease.
Even the truth he speaks is more |
| 6 |
or less blended with error; and this error will spring up
in the mind of his pupil. The pupil's imperfect knowl-
edge will lead
to weakness in practice, and he will be a |
| 9 |
poor practitioner, if not a malpractitioner.
The basis of malpractice is in erring
human will, and
this will is an outcome of what I call mortal mind,
- a |
| 12 |
false and temporal sense of Truth, Life, and Love. To
heal, in Christian Science, is to base your practice on
immortal Mind, the
divine Principle of man's being; and |
| 15 |
this requires a preparation of the heart and an answer
of the lips from the Lord.
The Science of healing is the Truth of
healing. If |
| 18 |
one is untruthful, his mental state weighs against his
healing power; and similar effects come from pride,
envy, lust, and all
fleshly vices. |
| 21 |
The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, with-
out a direct effort, an audible or even a mental argument,
has oftentimes
healed inveterate diseases. |
| 24 |
The thoughts of the practitioner should be imbued with
a
clear conviction of the omnipotence and omnipresence
of God; that He is
All, and that there can be none beside |
| 27 |
Him; that God is good, and the producer only of good;
and hence, that whatever militates against health, har-
Page 10 |
| 1 |
mony, or holiness, is an unjust usurper of the throne of
the controller of all mankind. Note this, that if you have |
| 3 |
power in error, you forfeit the power that Truth
bestows,
and its salutary influence on yourself and others.
You must feel and know that God alone
governs man; |
| 6 |
that His government is harmonious; that He is too pure
to
behold iniquity, and divides His power with nothing
evil or material; that
material laws are only human be- |
| 9 |
liefs, which govern mortals wrongfully. These beliefs arise
from the subjective states of thought, producing the be-
liefs of a
mortal material universe, - so-called, and of |
| 12 |
material disease and mortality. Mortal ills are but
errors
of thought, - diseases of mortal mind, and not of matter;
for
matter cannot feel, see, or report pain or disease. |
| 15 |
Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body;
and
fear is the procurator of the thought which causes
sickness and suffering.
Remove this fear by the true |
| 18 |
sense that God is Love, - and that Love punishes nothing
but sin, - and the patient can then look up to the loving
God, and know
that He afflicteth not willingly the children |
| 21 |
of men, who are punished because of disobedience to His
spiritual law. His law of Truth, when obeyed, removes
every erroneous
physical and mental state. The belief |
| 24 |
that matter can master Mind, and make you ill, is an
error which Truth will destroy.
You must learn to acknowledge God in
all His ways. |
| 27 |
It is only a lack of understanding of the allness of
God,
which leads you to believe in the existence of matter, or
Page 11 |
| 1 |
that matter can frame its own conditions, contrary to the
law of Spirit. |
| 3 |
Sickness is the schoolmaster, leading you to Christ;
first to faith in Christ; next to belief in God as omnipo-
tent; and
finally to the understanding of God and man |
| 6 |
in Christian Science, whereby you learn that God is good,
and in Science man is His likeness, the forever reflection of
goodness.
Therefore good is one and All. |
| 9 |
This brings forward the next proposition in Christian
Science, - namely, that there are no sickness, sin, and
death in the divine
Mind. What seem to be disease, vice, |
| 12 |
and mortality are illusions of the physical senses. These
illusions are not real, but unreal. Health is the conscious-
ness of the
unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the |
| 15 |
absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else.
In
a moment you may awake from a night-dream; just
so you can awake from the
dream of sickness; but the |
| 18 |
demonstration of the Science of Mind-healing by no means
rests on the strength of human belief. This demonstra-
tion is based on a
true understanding of God and divine |
| 21 |
Science, which takes away every human belief, and,
through the illumination of spiritual understanding, re-
veals the
all-power and ever-presence of good, whence |
| 24 |
emanate health, harmony, and Life eternal.
The lecturer, teacher, or healer who
is indeed a Christian
Scientist, never introduces the subject of human
anatomy; |
| 27 |
never depicts the muscular, vascular, or nervous opera-
tions of the human frame. He never talks about the
Page 12 |
| 1 |
structure of the material body. He never lays his hands
on the patient, nor manipulates the parts of the body sup- |
| 3 |
posed to be ailing. Above all, he keeps unbroken the Ten
Commandments, and practises Christ's Sermon on the
Mount. |
| 6 |
Wrong thoughts and methods strengthen the sense of
disease, instead of cure it; or else quiet the fear of the
sick on false
grounds, encouraging them in the belief of |
| 9 |
error until they hold stronger than before the belief
that
they are first made sick by matter, and then restored
through its
agency. This fosters infidelity, and is mental |
| 12 |
quackery, that denies the Principle of Mind-healing. If
the sick are aided in this mistaken fashion, their ailments
will return,
and be more stubborn because the relief is |
| 15 |
unchristian and unscientific.
Christian Science erases from the
minds of invalids
their mistaken belief that they live in or because of
matter, |
| 18 |
or that a so-called material organism controls the health
or existence of mankind, and induces rest in God, divine
Love, as caring
for all the conditions requisite for the well- |
| 21 |
being of man. As power divine is the healer, why should
mortals concern themselves with the chemistry of food?
Jesus said: "Take no
thought what ye shall eat." |
| 24 |
The practitioner should also endeavor to free the minds
of the healthy from any sense of subordination to their
bodies, and teach
them that the divine Mind, not material |
| 27 |
law, maintains human health and life.
A Christian Scientist knows that, in
Science, disease
Page 13 |
| 1 |
is unreal; that Mind is not in matter; that Life is God,
good; hence Life is not functional, and is neither matter |
| 3 |
nor mortal mind; knows that pantheism and theosophy
are
not Science. Whatever saps, with human belief,
this basis of Christian
Science, renders it impossible to |
| 6 |
demonstrate the Principle of this Science, even in the
smallest degree.
A mortal and material body is not the
actual individuality |
| 9 |
of man made in the divine and spiritual image of God.
The
material body is not the likeness of Spirit; hence it
is not the truth of
being, but the likeness of error - the |
| 12 |
human belief which saith there is more than one God, -
there is more than one Life and one Mind.
In Deuteronomy (iv. 35) we read: "The
Lord, He is |
| 15 |
God; there is none else beside Him." In John (iv. 24)
we
may read: "God is Spirit." These propositions, un-
derstood in their
Science, elucidate my meaning. |
| 18 |
When treating a patient, it is not Science to treat every
organ in the body. To aver that harmony is the real and
discord is the
unreal, and then give special attention to |
| 21 |
what according to their own belief is diseased, is
scientific;
and if the healer realizes the truth, it will free his
patient.
What are the means and methods of
trustworthy Christian |
| 24 |
Scientists?
These people should not be expected,
more than others,
to give all their time to Christian Science work,
receiving |
| 27 |
no wages in return, but left to be fed, clothed, and
sheltered
Page 14 |
| 1 |
by charity. Neither can they serve two masters, giving
only a portion of their time to God, and still be Christian |
| 3 |
Scientists. They must give Him all their services, and
"owe no man." To do this, they must at present ask a
suitable price for
their services, and then conscientiously |
| 6 |
earn their wages, strictly practising Divine Science,
and
healing the sick.
The author never sought charitable
support, but gave |
| 9 |
fully seven-eighths of her time without remuneration, ex-
cept the bliss of doing good. The only pay taken for her
labors was from
classes, and often those were put off for |
| 12 |
months, in order to do gratuitous work. She has never
taught a Primary class without several, and sometimes
seventeen, free
students in it; and has endeavored to take |
| 15 |
the full price of tuition only from those who were able
to
pay. The student who pays must of necessity do better
than he who
does not pay, and yet will expect and require |
| 18 |
others to pay him. No discount on tuition was made on
higher classes, because their first classes furnished students
with the
means of paying for their tuition in the higher |
| 21 |
instruction, and of doing charity work besides. If the
Primary students are still impecunious, it is their own
fault, and this
ill-success of itself leaves them unprepared |
| 24 |
to enter higher classes.
People are being healed by means of my
instructions,
both in and out of class. Many students, who have
27 passed through a regular course of instruction from
me,
have been invalids and were healed in the class; but ex-
Page 15 |
| 1 |
perience has shown that this defrauds the scholar, though
it heals the sick. |
| 3 |
It is seldom that a student, if healed in a class, has
left
it understanding sufficiently the Science of healing to im-
mediately enter upon its practice. Why? Because the |
| 6 |
glad surprise of suddenly regained health is a shock to
the mind; and this holds and satisfies the thought with
exuberant joy. |
| 9 |
This renders the mind less inquisitive, plastic, and
tract-
able; and deep systematic thinking is impracticable until
this
impulse subsides. |
| 12 |
This was the principal reason for advising diseased
people not to enter a class. Few were taken besides inva-
lids for
students, until there were enough practitioners to |
| 15 |
fill in the best possible manner the department of
healing.
Teaching and healing should have separate departments,
and
these should be fortified on all sides with suitable and |
| 18 |
thorough guardianship and grace.
Only a very limited number of students
can advanta-
geously enter a class, grapple with this subject, and
well |
| 21 |
assimilate what has been taught them. It is impossible
to
teach thorough Christian Science to promiscuous and
large assemblies, or to
persons who cannot be addressed |
| 24 |
individually, so that the mind of the pupil may be
dissected
more critically than the body of a subject laid bare for
anatomical examination. Public lectures cannot be such |
| 27 |
lessons in Christian Science as are required to empty
and
to fill anew the individual mind.
Page 16 |
| 1 |
If publicity and material control are the motives for
teaching, then public lectures can take the place of private |
| 3 |
lessons; but the former can never give a thorough
knowledge
of Christian Science, and a Christian Scientist will never
undertake to fit students for practice by such means. Lec- |
| 6 |
tures in public are needed, but they must be subordinate
to thorough class instruction in any branch of education.
None with an imperfect sense of the
spiritual significa- |
| 9 |
tion of the Bible, and its scientific relation to Mind-
healing, should attempt overmuch in their translation of
the Scriptures
into the "new tongue;" but I see that |
| 12 |
some novices, in the truth of Science, and some
impostors
are committing this error.
Is there more than one school of
scientific healing? |
| 15 |
In reality there is, and can be, but one school of the
Science of Mind-healing. Any departure from Science is
an irreparable loss
of Science. Whatever is said and |
| 18 |
written correctly on this Science originates from the
Princi-
ple and practice laid down in Science and Health, a work
which
I published in 1875. This was the first book, re- |
| 21 |
corded in history, which elucidates a pathological
Science
purely mental.
Minor shades of difference in
Mind-healing have origi- |
| 24 |
nated with certain opposing factions, springing up among
unchristian students, who, fusing with a class of aspirants
which snatch at
whatever is progressive, call it their first- |
| 27 |
fruits, or else post mortem evidence.
Page 17 |
| 1 |
A slight divergence is fatal in Science. Like certain
Jews whom St. Paul had hoped to convert from mere |
| 3 |
motives of self-aggrandizement to the love of Christ,
these
so-called schools are clogging the wheels of progress by
blinding
the people to the true character of Christian |
| 6 |
Science, - its moral power, and its divine efficacy to
heal.
The true understanding of Christian
Science Mind- |
| 9 |
healing never originated in pride, rivalry, or the
deification
of self. The Discoverer of this Science could tell you of
timidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness, toil, agonies, and |
| 12 |
victories under which she needed miraculous vision to
sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in this
Science. |
| 15 |
The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meek-
ness,
selflessness, and love are the paths of His testimony
and the footsteps of
His flock. |