0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 10 – Miscellaneous Writings – Chpt 3 – Questions and Answers

1	    What do you consider to be mental malpractice?

  	    Mental malpractice is a bland denial of Truth,
 3	and is the antipode of Christian Science. To
  	mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously
  	affect the happiness of a fellow-being — harm him
 6	morally, physically, or spiritually — breaks the Golden
  	Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being. This,
  	therefore, is not the use but the abuse of mental treat-
 9	ment, and is mental malpractice. It is needless to
  	say that such a subversion of right is not scientific. Its
  	claim to power is in proportion to the faith in evil, and
12	consequently to the lack of faith in good. Such false
  	faith finds no place in, and receives no aid from, the
  	Principle or the rules of Christian Science; for it denies
15	the grand verity of this Science, namely, that God, good,
  	has all power. 
  	    This leaves the individual no alternative but to re-
18	linquish his faith in evil, or to argue against his own
  	convictions of good and so destroy his power to be or
  	to  do good, because he has no faith in the omnipotence
21	of God, good. He parts with his understanding of good,
  	in order to retain his faith in evil and so succeed with his
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      32

 1	wrong argument, — if indeed he desires success in this
  	broad road to destruction. 


 3	     How shall we demean ourselves towards the students
  	of disloyal students? And what about that clergyman's
  	remarks on "Christ and Christmas"? 

 6	    From this question, I infer that some of my students
  	seem not to know in what manner they should act towards
  	the students of false teachers, or such as have strayed
 9	from the rules and divine Principle of Christian Science. 
  	The query is abnormal, when "precept upon precept;
  	line upon line" are to be found in the Scriptures, and in
12	my books, on this very subject. 
  	    In Mark, ninth chapter, commencing at the thirty-
  	third verse, you will find my views on this subject; love
15	alone is admissible towards friend and foe. My sym-
  	pathies extend to the above-named class of students more
  	than to many others. If I had the time to talk with all
18	students of Christian Science, and correspond with them,
  	I would gladly do my best towards helping those un-
  	fortunate seekers after Truth whose teacher is straying
21	from the straight and narrow path. But I have not mo-
  	ments enough in which to give to my own flock all the
  	time and attention that they need, — and charity must
24	begin at home. 
  	    Distinct denominational and social organizations and
  	societies are at present necessary for the individual,
27	and for our Cause. But all people can and should be
  	just, merciful; they should never envy, elbow, slander,
  	hate, or try to injure, but always should try to bless their
30	fellow-mortals. 
  	    To the query in regard to some clergyman's com-

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      33

1	ments on my illustrated poem, I will say:  It is the righteous
  	prayer that avails with God. Whatever is wrong will
 3	receive its own reward. The high priests of old caused
  	the crucifixion of even the great Master; and thereby
  	they lost, and he won, heaven. I love all ministers and
 6	ministries of Christ, Truth. 
  	    All clergymen may not understand the illustrations
  	in "Christ and Christmas;" or that these refer not to
 9	personality, but present the type and shadow of Truth's
  	appearing in the womanhood as well as in the manhood
  	of God, our divine Father and Mother. 

12	    Must I have faith in Christian Science in order to be
  	healed by it? 

  	    This is a question that is being asked every day. It
15	has not proved impossible to heal those who, when they
  	began treatment, had no faith whatever in the Science,
  	 — other than to place themselves under my care, and
18	follow the directions given. Patients naturally gain con-
  	fidence in Christian Science as they recognize the help
  	they derive therefrom. 

21	    What are the advantages of your system of healing, over
  	the ordinary methods of healing disease? 

  	    Healing by Christian Science has the following ad-
24	vantages: —  
  	    First: It does away with all material medicines, and
  	recognizes the fact that, as mortal mind is the cause of
27	all "the ills that flesh is heir to," the antidote for sickness,
  	as well as for sin, may and must be found in mortal mind's
  	opposite, — the divine Mind. 
30	    Second: It is more effectual than drugs; curing where
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      34

 1	these fail, and leaving none of the harmful "after effects"
  	of these in the system; thus proving that metaphysics
 3	is above physics. 
  	    Third: One who has been healed by Christian Sci-
  	ence is not only healed of the disease, but is improved
 6	morally. The body is governed by mind; and mortal
  	mind must be improved, before the body is renewed
  	and harmonious, — since the physique is simply thought
 9	made manifest. 

  	    Is spiritualism or mesmerism included in Christian
  	Science? 

12	    They are wholly apart from it. Christian Science is
  	based on divine Principle; whereas spiritualism, so far
  	as I understand it, is a mere speculative opinion and
15	human belief. If the departed were to communicate
  	with us, we should see them as they were before death,
  	and have them with us; after death, they can no more
18	come to those they have left, than we, in our present state
  	of existence, can go to the departed or the adult can re-
  	turn to his boyhood. We may pass on to their state
21	of existence, but they cannot return to ours. Man is
  	im-mortal, and there is not a moment when he ceases to
  	exist. All that are called "communications from spirits,"
24	lie within the realm of mortal thought on this present plane
  	of existence, and are the antipodes of Christian Science;
  	the immortal and mortal are as direct opposites as light
27	and darkness. 

  	    Who is the Founder of mental healing? 

  	    The author of "Science and Health with Key to the
30	Scriptures," who discovered the Science of healing em-
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      35

 1	bodied in her works. Years of practical proof, through
  	homoeopathy, revealed to her the fact that Mind, in-
 3	stead of matter, is the Principle of pathology; and
  	subsequently her recovery, through the supremacy of
  	Mind over matter, from a severe casualty pronounced
 6	by the physicians incurable, sealed that proof with the
  	signet of Christian Science. In 1883, a million of peo-
  	ple acknowledge and attest the blessings of this mental
 9	system of treating disease. Perhaps the following
  	words of her husband, the late Dr. Asa G. Eddy,
  	afford the most concise, yet complete, summary of the
12	matter: —  
  	    "Mrs. Eddy's works are the outgrowths of her life.  
  	I never knew so unselfish an individual." 

15	    Will the book Science and Health, that you offer for sale
  	at three dollars, teach its readers to heal the sick, — or is
  	one obliged to become a student under your personal in-
18	struction? And if one is obliged to study under you, of
  	what benefit is your book? 

  	    Why do we read the Bible, and then go to church to
21	hear it expounded? Only because both are important. 
  	Why do we read moral science, and then study it at
  	college? 
24	    You are benefited by reading Science and Health, but
  	it is greatly to your advantage to be taught its Science
  	by the author of that work, who explains it in detail. 

27	    What is immortal Mind? 

  	    In reply, we refer you to "Science and Health with
  	Key to the Scriptures,"¹ Vol. I. page 14: "That which

30	¹See the sixth edition.

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      36

 1	is erring, sinful, sick, and dying, termed material or
  	mortal man, is neither God's man nor Mind; but to be
 3	understood, we shall classify evil and error as mortal
  	mind, in contradistinction to good and Truth, or the
  	Mind which is immortal." 

 6	    Do animals and beasts have a mind? 

  	    Beasts, as well as men, express Mind as their origin;
  	but they manifest less of Mind. The first and only
 9	cause is the eternal Mind, which is God, and there is
  	but one God. The ferocious mind seen in the beast is
  	mortal mind, which is harmful and proceeds not from
12	God; for His beast is the lion that lieth down with
  	the lamb. Appetites, passions, anger, revenge, subtlety,
  	are the animal qualities of sinning mortals; and the
15	beasts that have these propensities express the lower
  	qualities of the so-called animal man; in other words,
  	the nature and quality of mortal mind, — not immortal
18	Mind. 

  	    What is the distinction between mortal mind and im-
  	mortal Mind? 

21	    Mortal mind includes all evil, disease, and death;
  	also, all beliefs relative to the so-called material laws,
  	and all material objects, and the law of sin and death. 
24	    The Scripture says, "The carnal mind [in other words,
  	mortal mind] is enmity against God; for it is not sub-
  	ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Mortal
27	mind is an illusion; as much in our waking moments
  	as in the dreams of sleep. The belief that intelligence,
  	Truth, and Love, are in matter and separate from God,
30	is an error; for there is no intelligent evil, and no power
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      37

 1	besides God, good. God would not be omnipotent if
  	there were in reality another mind creating or governing
 3	man or the universe. 
  	    Immortal Mind is God; and this Mind is made
  	manifest in all thoughts and desires that draw man-
 6	kind toward purity, health, holiness, and the spiritual
  	facts of being. 
  	    Jesus recognized this relation so clearly that he said,
 9	"I and my Father are one." In proportion as we oppose
  	the belief in material sense, in sickness, sin, and death,
  	and recognize ourselves under the control of God,
12	spiritual and immortal Mind, shall we go on to leave the
  	animal for the spiritual, and learn the meaning of those
  	words of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world . . . heal the
15	sick." 

  	    Can your Science cure intemperance? 

  	    Christian Science lays the axe at the root of the tree. 
18	Its antidote for all ills is God, the perfect Mind, which
  	corrects mortal thought, whence cometh all evil. God
  	can and does destroy the thought that leads to moral
21	or physical death. Intemperance, impurity, sin of every
  	sort, is destroyed by Truth. The appetite for alcohol
  	yields to Science as directly and surely as do sickness
24	and sin. 

  	    Does Mrs. Eddy take patients? 

  	    She now does not. Her time is wholly devoted to in-
27	struction, leaving to her students the work of healing;
  	which, at this hour, is in reality the least difficult of the
  	labor that Christian Science demands. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      38

 1	    Why do you charge for teaching Christian Science, when
  	all the good we can do must be done freely? 

 3	    When teaching imparts the ability to gain and main-
  	tain health, to heal and elevate man in every line of
  	life, — as this teaching certainly does, — is it un-
 6	reasonable to expect in return something to support
  	one's self and a Cause? If so, our whole system
  	of education, secular and religious, is at fault, and the
 9	instructors and philanthropists in our land should ex-
  	pect no compensation. "If we have sown unto you
  	spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your
12	carnal things?" 

  	    How happened you to establish a college to instruct in
  	metaphysics, when other institutions find little interest in
15	such a dry and abstract subject? 

  	    Metaphysics, as taught by me at the Massachusetts
  	Metaphysical College, is far from dry and abstract. It
18	is a Science that has the animus of Truth. Its practical
  	application to benefit the race, heal the sick, enlighten
  	and reform the sinner, makes divine metaphysics need-
21	ful, indispensable. Teaching metaphysics at other col-
  	leges means, mainly, elaborating a man-made theory,
  	or some speculative view too vapory and hypothetical
24	for questions of practical import. 

  	    Is it necessary to study your Science in order to be healed
  	by it and keep well? 

27	    It is not necessary to make each patient a student
  	in order to cure his present disease, if this is what
  	you mean. Were it so, the Science would be of less
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      39

 1	practical value. Many who apply for help are not
  	prepared to take a course of instruction in Christian
 3	Science. 
  	    To avoid being subject to disease, would require the
  	understanding of how you are healed. In 1885, this
 6	knowledge can be obtained in its genuineness at the
  	Massachusetts Metaphysical College. There are abroad
  	at this early date some grossly incorrect and false
 9	teachers of what they term Christian Science; of such
  	beware. They have risen up in a day to make this claim;
  	whereas the Founder of genuine Christian Science has
12	been all her years in giving it birth. 

  	    Can you take care of yourself? 

  	    God giveth to every one this puissance; and I have
15	faith in His promise, "Lo, I am with you alway" — 
  	all the way. Unlike the M. D.'s, Christian Scientists
  	are not afraid to take their own medicine, for this
18	medicine is divine Mind; and from this saving, ex-
  	haustless source they intend to fill the human mind with
  	enough of the leaven of Truth to leaven the whole lump. 
21	There may be exceptional cases, where one Christian
  	Scientist who has more to meet than others needs support
  	at times; then, it is right to bear "one another's burdens,
24	and so fulfil the law of Christ." 

  	    In what way is a Christian Scientist an instrument by
  	which God reaches others to heal them, and what most
27	obstructs the way? 

  	    A Christian, or a Christian Scientist, assumes no more
  	when claiming to work with God in healing the sick,
30	than in converting the sinner. Divine help is as neces-
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      40

 1	sary in the one case as in the other. The scientific Prin-
  	ciple of healing demands such cooperation; but this
 3	unison and its power would be arrested if one were to
  	mix material methods with the spiritual, — were to min-
  	gle hygienic rules, drugs, and prayers in the same pro-
 6	cess, — and thus serve "other gods." Truth is as
  	effectual in destroying sickness as in the destruction
  	of sin. 
 9	    It is often asked, "If Christian Science is the same
  	method of healing that Jesus and the apostles used,
  	why do not its students perform as instantaneous cures
12	as did those in the first century of the Christian era?" 
  	    In some instances the students of Christian Science
  	equal the ancient prophets as healers. All true healing
15	is governed by, and demonstrated on, the same Princi-
  	ple as theirs; namely, the action of the divine Spirit,
  	through the power of Truth to destroy error, discord
18	of whatever sort. The reason that the same results fol-
  	low not in every case, is that the student does not in
  	every case possess sufficiently the Christ-spirit and its
21	power to cast out the disease. The Founder of Chris-
  	tian Science teaches her students that they must possess
  	the spirit of Truth and Love, must gain the power
24	over sin in themselves, or they cannot be instantaneous
  	healers. 
  	    In this Christian warfare the student or practitioner
27	has to master those elements of evil too common to other
  	minds. If it is hate that is holding the purpose to kill
  	his patient by mental means, it requires more divine
30	understanding to conquer this sin than to nullify either
  	the disease itself or the ignorance by which one unin-
  	tentionally harms himself or another. An element of
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      41

 1	brute-force that only the cruel and evil can send forth, is
  	given vent in the diabolical practice of one who, having
 3	learned the power of liberated thought to do good, per-
  	verts it, and uses it to accomplish an evil purpose. This
  	mental malpractice would disgrace Mind-healing, were it
 6	not that God overrules it, and causes "the wrath of man"
  	to praise Him. It deprives those who practise it of the
  	power to heal, and destroys their own possibility of
 9	progressing. 
  	    The honest student of Christian Science is purged
  	through Christ, Truth, and thus is ready for victory in
12	the ennobling strife. The good fight must be fought by
  	those who keep the faith and finish their course. Mental
  	purgation must go on:  it promotes spiritual growth,
15	scales the mountain of human endeavor, and gains the
  	summit in Science that otherwise could not be reached,
  	 — where the struggle with sin is forever done. 

18	    Can all classes of disease be healed by your method? 

  	    We answer, Yes. Mind is the architect that builds
  	its own idea, and produces all harmony that appears. 
21	There is no other healer in the case. If mortal mind,
  	through the action of fear, manifests inflammation and a
  	belief of chronic or acute disease, by removing the cause
24	in that so-called mind the effect or disease will disappear
  	and health will be restored; for health, alias harmony,
  	is the normal manifestation of man in Science. The
27	divine Principle which governs the universe, including
  	man, if demonstrated, is sufficient for all emergencies. 
  	But the practitioner may not always prove equal to
30	bringing out the result of the Principle that he knows to
  	be true. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      42

 1	    After the change called death takes place, do we meet
  	those gone before? — or does life continue in thought only
 3	as in a dream? 

  	    Man is not annihilated, nor does he lose his identity,
  	by passing through the belief called death. After the
 6	momentary belief of dying passes from mortal mind, this
  	mind is still in a conscious state of existence; and the in-
  	dividual has but passed through a moment of extreme
 9	mortal fear, to awaken with thoughts, and being, as
  	material as before. Science and Health clearly states
  	that spiritualization of thought is not attained by the death
12	of the body, but by a conscious union with God. When
  	we shall have passed the ordeal called death, or destroyed
  	this last enemy, and shall have come upon the same plane
15	of conscious existence with those gone before, then we
  	shall be able to communicate with and to recognize them. 
  	    If, before the change whereby we meet the dear de-
18	parted, our life-work proves to have been well done, we
  	shall not have to repeat it; but our joys and means of ad-
  	vancing will be proportionately increased. 
21	    The difference between a belief of material existence
  	and the spiritual fact of Life is, that the former is a dream
  	and unreal, while the latter is real and eternal. Only
24	as we understand God, and learn that good, not evil,
  	lives and is immortal, that immortality exists only in
  	spiritual perfection, shall we drop our false sense of Life
27	in sin or sense material, and recognize a better state of
  	existence. 

  	    Can I be treated without being present during treatment? 

30	    Mind is not confined to limits; and nothing but our
  	own false admissions prevent us from demonstrating this
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      43

 1	great fact. Christian Science, recognizing the capabili-
  	ties of Mind to act of itself, and independent of matter,
 3	enables one to heal cases without even having seen the
  	individual, — or simply after having been made ac-
  	quainted with the mental condition of the patient. 


 6	    Do all who at present claim to be teaching Christian
  	Science, teach it correctly? 

  	    By no means:  Christian Science is not sufficiently un-
 9	derstood for that. The student of this Science who under-
  	stands it best, is the one least likely to pour into other
  	minds a trifling sense of it as being adequate to make safe
12	and successful practitioners. The simple sense one gains
  	of this Science through careful, unbiased, contemplative
  	reading of my books, is far more advantageous to the
15	sick and to the learner than is or can be the spurious
  	teaching of those who are spiritually unqualified. The
  	sad fact at this early writing is, that the letter is gained
18	sooner than the spirit of Christian Science:  time is re-
  	quired thoroughly to qualify students for the great ordeal
  	of this century. 
21	    If one student tries to undermine another, such sinister
  	rivalry does a vast amount of injury to the Cause. To
  	fill one's pocket at the expense of his conscience, or to
24	build on the downfall of others, incapacitates one to
  	practise or teach Christian Science. The occasional tem-
  	porary success of such an one is owing, in part, to the im-
27	possibility for those unacquainted with the mighty Truth
  	of Christian Science to recognize, as such, the barefaced
  	errors that are taught — and the damaging effects these
30	leave on the practice of the learner, on the Cause, and
  	on the health of the community. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      44

 1	    Honest students speak the truth "according to the
  	pattern showed to thee in the mount," and live it:  these
 3	are not working for emoluments, and may profitably
  	teach people, who are ready to investigate this subject,
  	the rudiments of Christian Science. 

 6	    Can Christian Science cure acute cases where there is
  	necessity for immediate relief, as in membranous croup? 

  	    The remedial power of Christian Science is positive,
 9	and its application direct. It cannot fail to heal in
  	every case of disease, when conducted by one who un-
  	derstands this Science sufficiently to demonstrate its
12	highest possibilities. 

  	    If I have the toothache, and nothing stops it until I
  	have the tooth extracted, and then the pain ceases, has
15	the mind, or extracting, or both, caused the pain to
  	cease? 

  	    What you thought was pain in the bone or nerve, could
18	only have been a belief of pain in matter; for matter
  	has no sensation. It was a state of mortal thought made
  	manifest in the flesh. You call this body matter, when
21	awake, or when asleep in a dream. That matter can re-
  	port pain, or that mind is in matter, reporting sensa-
  	tions, is but a dream at all times. You believed that if
24	the tooth were extracted, the pain would cease:  this de-
  	mand of mortal thought once met, your belief assumed
  	a new form, and said, There is no more pain. When
27	your belief in pain ceases, the pain stops; for matter
  	has no intelligence of its own. By applying this men-
  	tal remedy or antidote directly to your belief, you scien-

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      45

 1	tifically prove the fact that Mind is supreme. This is not
  	done by will-power, for that is not Science but mesmerism. 
 3	The full understanding that God is Mind, and that mat-
  	ter is but a belief, enables you to control pain. Chris-
  	tian Science, by means of its Principle of metaphysical
 6	healing, is able to do more than to heal a toothache;
  	although its power to allay fear, prevent inflammation,
  	and destroy the necessity for ether — thereby avoiding
 9	the fatal results that frequently follow the use of that
  	drug — render this Science invaluable in the practice
  	of dentistry. 

12	    Can an atheist or a profane man be cured by metaphysics,
  	or Christian Science? 

  	    The moral status of the man demands the remedy of
15	Truth more in this than in most cases; therefore, under
  	the deific law that supply invariably meets demand, this
  	Science is effectual in treating moral ailments. Sin is
18	not the master of divine Science, but vice versa; and
  	when Science in a single instance decides the conflict,
  	the patient is better both morally and physically. 

21	    If God made all that was made, and it was good, where
  	did evil originate? 

  	    It never originated or existed as an entity. It is but a
24	false belief; even the belief that God is not what the
  	Scriptures imply Him to be, All-in-all, but that there
  	is an opposite intelligence or mind termed evil. This
27	error of belief is idolatry, having "other gods before me." 
  	In John i. 3 we read, "All things were made by Him;
  	and without Him was not anything made that was made." 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      46

 1	The admission of the reality of evil perpetuates the belief
  	or faith in evil. The Scriptures declare, "To whom ye
 3	yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are." 
  	The leading self-evident proposition of Christian Science
  	is: good being real, evil, good's opposite, is unreal. This
 6	truism needs only to be tested scientifically to be found
  	true, and adapted to destroy the appearance of evil to an
  	extent beyond the power of any doctrine previously
 9	entertained. 

  	    Do you teach that you are equal with God? 

  	    A reader of my writings would not present this ques-
12	tion. There are no such indications in the premises or
  	conclusions of Christian Science, and such a misconcep-
  	tion of Truth is not scientific. Man is not equal with
15	his Maker; that which is formed is not cause, but effect,
  	and has no power underived from its creator. It is pos-
  	sible, and it is man's duty, so to throw the weight of his
18	thoughts and acts on the side of Truth, that he be ever
  	found in the scale with his creator; not weighing
  	equally with Him, but comprehending at every point, in
21	divine Science, the full significance of what the apostle
  	meant by the declaration, "The Spirit itself beareth wit-
  	ness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and
24	if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
  	Christ." In Science, man represents his divine Prin-
  	ciple, — the Life and Love that are God, — even as the
27	idea of sound, in tones, represents harmony; but thought
  	has not yet wholly attained unto the Science of being,
  	wherein man is perfect even as the Father, his divine
30	Principle, is perfect. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      47

 1	    How can I believe that there is no such thing as matter,
  	when I weigh over two hundred pounds and carry about
 3	this weight daily? 

  	    By learning that matter is but manifest mortal mind. 
  	You entertain an adipose belief of yourself as substance;
 6	whereas, substance means more than matter: it is the
  	glory and permanence of Spirit:  it is that which is
  	hoped for but unseen, that which the material senses
 9	cannot take in. Have you never been so preoccupied in
  	thought when moving your body, that you did this with-
  	out consciousness of its weight? If never in your waking
12	hours, you have been in your night-dreams; and these
  	tend to elucidate your day-dream, or the mythical nature
  	of matter, and the possibilities of mind when let loose
15	from its own beliefs. In sleep, a sense of the body ac-
  	companies thought with less impediment than when
  	awake, which is the truer sense of being. In Science,
18	body is the servant of Mind, not its master: Mind is
  	supreme. Science reverses the evidence of material
  	sense with the spiritual sense that God, Spirit, is the only
21	substance; and that man, His image and likeness, is
  	spiritual, not material. This great Truth does not de-
  	stroy but substantiates man's identity, — together with
24	his immortality and preexistence, or his spiritual co-
  	existence with his Maker. That which has a beginning
  	must have an ending. 

27	    What should one conclude as to Professor Carpenter's
  	exhibitions of mesmerism? 

  	    That largely depends upon what one accepts as either
30	useful or true. I have no knowledge of mesmerism,

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      48

 1	practically or theoretically, save as I measure its demon-
  	strations as a false belief, and avoid all that works ill. If
 3	mesmerism has the power attributed to it by the gentle-
  	man referred to, it should neither be taught nor practised,
  	but should be conscientiously condemned. One thing
 6	is quite apparent; namely, that its so-called power is
  	despotic, and Mr. Carpenter deserves praise for his public
  	exposure of it. If such be its power, I am opposed to it,
 9	as to every form of error, — whether of ignorance or
  	fanaticism, prompted by money-making or malice. It
  	is enough for me to know that animal magnetism is neither
12	of God nor Science. 
  	    It is alleged that at one of his recent lectures in Bos-
  	ton Mr. Carpenter made a man drunk on water, and
15	then informed his audience that he could produce the
  	effect of alcohol, or of any drug, on the human system,
  	through the action of mind alone. This honest declara-
18	tion as to the animus of animal magnetism and the pos-
  	sible purpose to which it can be devoted, has, we trust,
  	been made in season to open the eyes of the people to the
21	hidden nature of some tragic events and sudden deaths
  	at this period. 

  	    Was ever a person made insane by studying meta-
24	physics? 

  	    Such an occurrence would be impossible, for the
  	proper study of Mind-healing would cure the insane. 
27	That persons have gone away from the Massachusetts
  	Metaphysical College "made insane by Mrs. Eddy's
  	teachings," like a hundred other stories, is a baseless
30	fabrication offered solely to injure her or her school. 
  	The enemy is trying to make capital out of the follow-
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      49

 1	ing case. A young lady entered the College class who,
  	I quickly saw, had a tendency to monomania, and re-
 3	quested her to withdraw before its close. We are cred-
  	ibly informed that, before entering the College, this
  	young lady had manifested some mental unsoundness,
 6	and have no doubt she could have been restored by
  	Christian Science treatment. Her friends employed a
  	homoeopathist, who had the skill and honor to state, as his
 9	opinion given to her friends, that "Mrs. Eddy's teach-
  	ings had not produced insanity." This is the only case
  	that could be distorted into the claim of insanity ever
12	having occurred in a class of Mrs. Eddy's; while ac-
  	knowledged and notable cases of insanity have been
  	cured in her class. 

15	    If all that is mortal is a dream or error, is not
  	our capacity for formulating a dream, real; is it not
  	God-made; and if God-made, can it be wrong, sinful, or
18	an error? 

  	    The spirit of Truth leads into all truth, and enables
  	man to discern between the real and the unreal. Enter-
21	taining the common belief in the opposite of goodness,
  	and that evil is as real as good, opposes the leadings of
  	the divine Spirit that are helping man Godward:  it pre-
24	vents a recognition of the nothingness of the dream, or
  	belief, that Mind is in matter, intelligence in non-intel-
  	ligence, sin, and death. This belief presupposes not
27	only a power opposed to God, and that God is not All-
  	in-all, as the Scriptures imply Him to be, but that the
  	capacity to err proceeds from God. 
30	    That God is Truth, the Scriptures aver; that Truth
  	never created error, or such a capacity, is self-evident;
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      50

 1	that God made all that was made, is again Scriptural;
  	therefore your answer is, that error is an illusion of
 3	mortals; that God is not its author, and it cannot be
  	real. 

  	    Does "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"
 6	explain the entire method of metaphysical healing, or is
  	there a secret back of what is contained in that book, as
  	some say? 

 9	    "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"
  	is a complete textbook of Christian Science; and its
  	metaphysical method of healing is as lucid in presenta-
12	tion as can be possible, under the necessity to express
  	the metaphysical in physical terms. There is absolutely
  	no additional secret outside of its teachings, or that gives
15	one the power to heal; but it is essential that the student
  	gain the spiritual understanding of the contents of this
  	book, in order to heal. 

18	    Do you believe in change of heart? 

  	    We do believe, and understand — which is more — 
  	that there must be a change from human affections, de-
21	sires, and aims, to the divine standard, "Be ye therefore
  	perfect;" also, that there must be a change from the be-
  	lief that the heart is matter and sustains life, to the
24	understanding that God is our Life, that we exist in
  	Mind, live thereby, and have being. This change of
  	heart would deliver man from heart-disease, and ad-
27	vance Christianity a hundredfold. The human affections
  	need to be changed from self to benevolence and love
  	for God and man; changed to having but one God and
30	loving Him supremely, and helping our brother man. 
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      51

 1	This change of heart is essential to Christianity, and
  	will have its effect physically as well as spiritually,
 3	healing disease. Burnt offerings and drugs, God does
  	not require. 

  	    Is a belief of nervousness, accompanied by great mental
 6	depression, mesmerism? 

  	    All mesmerism is of one of three kinds; namely, the
  	ignorant, the fraudulent, or the malicious workings of
 9	error or mortal mind. We have not the particulars of
  	the case to which you may refer, and for this reason can-
  	not answer your question professionally. 

12	    How can I govern a child metaphysically? Doesn't the
  	use of the rod teach him life in matter? 

  	    The use of the rod is virtually a declaration to the
15	child's mind that sensation belongs to matter. Motives
  	govern acts, and Mind governs man. If you make clear
  	to the child's thought the right motives for action, and
18	cause him to love them, they will lead him aright:  if you
  	educate him to love God, good, and obey the Golden
  	Rule, he will love and obey you without your having to
21	resort to corporeal punishment. 

  	     "When from the lips of Truth one mighty breath
  	      Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze
24	      The whole dark pile of human mockeries;
  	      Then shall the reign of Mind commence on earth,
  	      And starting fresh, as from a second birth,
27	      Man in the sunshine of the world's new spring,
  	      Shall walk transparent like some holy thing."   

  	    Are both prayer and drugs necessary to heal? 

30	    The apostle James said, "Ye ask, and receive not,
  	because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      52

 1	lusts." This text may refer to such as seek the material
  	to aid the spiritual, and take drugs to support God's
 3	power to heal them. It is difficult to say how much
  	one can do for himself, whose faith is divided be-
  	tween catnip and Christ; but not so difficult to know
 6	that if he were to serve one master, he could do vastly
  	more. Whosoever understands the power of Spirit, has
  	no doubt of God's power, — even the might of Truth, — 
 9	to heal, through divine Science, beyond all human means
  	and methods. 

  	    What do you think of marriage? 

12	    That it is often convenient, sometimes pleasant, and
  	occasionally a love affair. Marriage is susceptible of
  	many definitions. It sometimes presents the most
15	wretched condition of human existence. To be normal,
  	it must be a union of the affections that tends to lift
  	mortals higher. 

18	    If this life is a dream not dispelled, but only changed,
  	by death, — if one gets tired of it, why not commit
  	suicide? 

21	    Man's existence is a problem to be wrought in divine
  	Science. What progress would a student of science
  	make, if, when tired of mathematics or failing to dem-
24	onstrate one rule readily, he should attempt to work
  	out a rule farther on and more difficult — and this,
  	because the first rule was not easily demonstrated? In
27	that case he would be obliged to turn back and work
  	out the previous example, before solving the advanced
  	problem. Mortals have the sum of being to work out,
30	and up, to its spiritual standpoint. They must work

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      53

1	out of this dream or false claim of sensation and life
  	in matter, and up to the spiritual realities of existence,
 3	before this false claim can be wholly dispelled. Com-
  	mitting suicide to dodge the question is not working
  	it out. The error of supposed life and intelligence in
 6	matter, is dissolved only as we master error with Truth. 
  	Not through sin or suicide, but by overcoming tempta-
  	tion and sin, shall we escape the weariness and wicked-
 9	ness of mortal existence, and gain heaven, the harmony
  	of being. 

  	    Do you sometimes find it advisable to use medicine to
12	assist in producing a cure, when it is difficult to start the
  	patient's recovery? 

  	    You only weaken your power to heal through Mind,
15	by any compromise with matter; which is virtually ac-
  	knowledging that under difficulties the former is not equal
  	to the latter. He that resorts to physics, seeks what is
18	below instead of above the standard of metaphysics;
  	showing his ignorance of the meaning of the term and
  	of Christian Science. 

21	    If Christian Science is the same as Jesus taught, why is
  	it not more simple, so that all can readily understand it? 

  	    The teachings of Jesus were simple; and yet he found
24	it difficult to make the rulers understand, because of
  	their great lack of spirituality. Christian Science is
  	simple, and readily understood by the children; only
27	the thought educated away from it finds it abstract or
  	difficult to perceive. Its seeming abstraction is the
  	mystery of godliness; and godliness is simple to the
30	godly; but to the unspiritual, the ungodly, it is dark
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      54

 1	and difficult. The carnal mind cannot discern spiritual
  	things. 

 3	    Has Mrs. Eddy lost her power to heal? 

  	    Has the sun forgotten to shine, and the planets to
  	revolve around it? Who is it that discovered, dem-
 6	onstrated, and teaches Christian Science? That one,
  	whoever it be, does understand something of what can-
  	not be lost. Thousands in the field of metaphysical
 9	healing, whose lives are worthy testimonials, are her
  	students, and they bear witness to this fact. Instead
  	of losing her power to heal, she is demonstrating the
12	power of Christian Science over all obstacles that envy
  	and malice would fling in her path. The reading of her
  	book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,"
15	is curing hundreds at this very time; and the sick, un-
  	asked, are testifying thereto. 

  	    Must I study your Science in order to keep well all my
18	life? I was healed of a chronic trouble after one month's
  	treatment by one of your students. 

  	    When once you are healed by Science, there is no rea-
21	son why you should be liable to a return of the disease
  	that you were healed of. But not to be subject again to
  	any disease whatsoever, would require an understanding
24	of the Science by which you were healed. 

  	    Because none of your students have been able to perform
  	as great miracles in healing as Jesus and his disciples did,
27	does it not suggest the possibility that they do not heal on
  	the same basis? 

  	    You would not ask the pupil in simple equations to
30	solve a problem involving logarithms; and then, because
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      55

 1	he failed to get the right answer, condemn the pupil
  	and the science of numbers. The simplest problem
 3	in Christian Science is healing the sick, and the least
  	understanding and demonstration thereof prove all its
  	possibilities. The ability to demonstrate to the extent
 6	that Jesus did, will come when the student possesses as
  	much of the divine Spirit as he shared, and utilizes its
  	power to overcome sin. 
 9	    Opposite to good, is the universal claim of evil that
  	seeks the proportions of good. There may be those
  	who, having learned the power of the unspoken thought,
12	use it to harm rather than to heal, and who are using
  	that power against Christian Scientists. This giant sin
  	is the sin against the Holy Ghost spoken of in Matt. 
15	xii. 31, 32. 

  	    Is Christian Science based on the facts of both Spirit
  	and matter? 

18	    Christian Science is based on the facts of Spirit and
  	its forms and representations, but these facts are the
  	direct antipodes of the so-called facts of matter; and
21	the eternal verities of Spirit assert themselves over their
  	opposite, or matter, in the final destruction of all that
  	is unlike Spirit. 
24	    Man knows that he can have one God only, when
  	he regards God as the only Mind, Life, and substance. 
  	If God is Spirit, as the Scriptures declare, and All-in-
27	all, matter is mythology, and its laws are mortal
  	beliefs. 
  	    If Mind is in matter and beneath a skull bone, it is
30	in something unlike Him; hence it is either a godless and
  	material Mind, or it is God in matter, — which are theo-
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      56

 1	ries of agnosticism and pantheism, the very antipodes
  	of Christian Science. 

 3	    What is organic life? 

  	    Life is inorganic, infinite Spirit; if Life, or Spirit,
  	were organic, disorganization would destroy Spirit and
 6	annihilate man. 
  	    If Mind is not substance, form, and tangibility, God
  	is substanceless; for the substance of Spirit is divine
 9	Mind. Life is God, the only creator, and Life is im-
  	mortal Mind, not matter. 
  	    Every indication of matter's constituting life is mortal,
12	the direct opposite of immortal Life, and infringes the
  	rights of Spirit. Then, to conclude that Spirit consti-
  	tutes or ever has constituted laws to that effect, is a mor-
15	tal error, a human conception opposed to the divine
  	government. Mind and matter mingling in perpetual
  	warfare is a kingdom divided against itself, that shall be
18	brought to desolation. The final destruction of this
  	false belief in matter will appear at the full revelation
  	of Spirit, — one God, and the brotherhood of man. 
21	Organic life is an error of statement that Truth destroys. 
  	The Science of Life needs only to be understood; its dem-
  	onstration proves the correctness of my statements, and
24	brings blessings infinite. 

  	    Why did God command, "Be fruitful, and multiply,
  	and replenish the earth," if all minds (men) have existed
27	from the beginning, and have had successive stages of
  	existence to the present time? 

  	    Your question implies that Spirit, which first spirit-
30	ually created the universe, including man, created man
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      57

 1	over again materially; and, by the aid of mankind, all
  	was later made which He had made. If the first record
 3	is true, what evidence have you — apart from the evi-
  	dence of that which you admit cannot discern spiritual
  	things — of any other creation? The creative "Us"
 6	made all, and Mind was the creator. Man originated
  	not from dust, materially, but from Spirit, spiritually. 
  	This work had been done; the true creation was finished,
 9	and its spiritual Science is alluded to in the first chapter
  	of Genesis. 
  	    Jesus said of error, "That thou doest, do quickly." 
12	By the law of opposites, after the truth of man had been
  	demonstrated, the postulate of error must appear. That
  	this addendum was untrue, is seen when Truth, God,
15	denounced it, and said: "I will greatly multiply thy
  	sorrow." "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
  	surely die." The opposite error said, "I am true," and
18	declared, "God doth know . . . that your eyes shall be
  	opened, and ye shall be as gods," creators. This was false;
  	and the Lord God never said it. This history of a falsity
21	must be told in the name of Truth, or it would have no
  	seeming. The Science of creation is the universe with man
  	created spiritually. The false sense and error of creation
24	is the sense of man and the universe created materially. 

  	    Why does the record make man a creation of the sixth
  	and last day, if he was coexistent with God? 

27	    In its genesis, the Science of creation is stated in mathe-
  	matical order, beginning with the lowest form and ascend-
  	ing the scale of being up to man. But all that really is,
30	always was and forever is; for it existed in and of the Mind
  	that is God, wherein man is foremost. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      58

 1	    If one has died of consumption, and he has no remem-
  	brance of that disease or dream, does that disease have any
 3	more power over him? 

  	    Waking from a dream, one learns its unreality; then
  	it has no power over one. Waking from the dream of
 6	death, proves to him who thought he died that it was a
  	dream, and that he did not die; then he learns that con-
  	sumption did not kill him. When the belief in the power
 9	of disease is destroyed, disease cannot return. 

  	    How does Mrs. Eddy know that she has read and studied
  	correctly, if one must deny the evidences of the senses? 
12	She had to use her eyes to read. 

  	    Jesus said, "Having eyes, see ye not?" I read the in-
  	spired page through a higher than mortal sense. As
15	matter, the eye cannot see; and as mortal mind, it is a
  	belief that sees. I may read the Scriptures through a
  	belief of eyesight; but I must spiritually understand
18	them to interpret their Science. 

  	    Does the theology of Christian Science aid its heal-
  	ing? 

21	    Without its theology there is no mental science, no
  	order that proceeds from God. All Science is divine,
  	not human, in origin and demonstration. If God does
24	not govern the action of man, it is inharmonious:  if He
  	does govern it, the action is Science. Take away the
  	theology of mental healing and you take away its science,
27	leaving it a human "mind-cure," nothing more nor less,
  	 — even one human mind governing another; by which,
  	if you agree that God is Mind, you admit that there is

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      59

 1	more than one government and God. Having no true
  	sense of the healing theology of Mind, you can neither
 3	understand nor demonstrate its Science, and will prac-
  	tise your belief of it in the name of Truth. This is the
  	mortal "mind-cure" that produces the effect of mes-
 6	merism. It is using the power of human will, instead
  	of the divine power understood, as in Christian Science;
  	and without this Science there had better be no "mind-
 9	cure," — in which the last state of patients is worse than
  	the first. 

  	    Is it wrong to pray for the recovery of the sick? 

12	    Not if we pray Scripturally, with the understanding
  	that God has given all things to those who love Him;
  	but pleading with infinite Love to love us, or to restore
15	health and harmony, and then to admit that it has been
  	lost under His government, is the prayer of doubt and
  	mortal belief that is unavailing in divine Science. 

18	    Is not all argument mind over mind? 

  	    The Scriptures refer to God as saying, "Come now, and
  	let us reason together." There is but one right Mind, and
21	that one should and does govern man. Any copartnership
  	with that Mind is impossible; and the only benefit in
  	speaking often one to another, arises from the success that
24	one individual has with another in leading his thoughts
  	away from the human mind or body, and guiding them
  	with Truth. That individual is the best healer who as-
27	serts himself the least, and thus becomes a transparency
  	for the divine Mind, who is the only physician; the divine
  	Mind is the scientific healer. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      60

 1	    How can you believe there is no sin, and that God does
  	not recognize any, when He sent His Son to save from
 3	sin, and the Bible is addressed to sinners? How can you
  	believe there is no sickness, when Jesus came healing the
  	sick? 

 6	    To regard sin, disease, and death with less deference,
  	and only as the woeful unrealities of being, is the only
  	way to destroy them; Christian Science is proving this by
 9	healing cases of disease and sin after all other means have
  	failed. The Nazarene Prophet could make the unreality
  	of both apparent in a moment. 

12	    Does it not limit the power of Mind to deny the possi-
  	bility of communion with departed friends — dead only in
  	belief? 

15	    Does it limit the power of Mind to say that addition
  	is not subtraction in mathematics? The Science of Mind
  	reveals the impossibility of two individual sleepers, in
18	different phases of thought, communicating, even if touch-
  	ing each other corporeally; or for one who sleeps to
  	communicate with another who is awake. Mind's possi-
21	bilities are not lessened by being confined and conformed
  	to the Science of being. 

  	    If mortal mind and body are myths, what is the con-
24	nection between them and real identity, and why are there
  	as many identities as mortal bodies? 

  	    Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and
27	utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has
  	its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material be-
  	lief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals
30	are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that ma-
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      61

 1	terial belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be
  	found the type and representative of verities priceless,
 3	eternal, and just at hand. 
  	    The education of the future will be instruction, in spir-
  	itual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit
 6	sciences. All the knowledge and vain strivings of mortal
  	mind, that lead to death, — even when aping the wisdom
  	and magnitude of immortal Mind, — will be swallowed
 9	up by the reality and omnipotence of Truth over error,
  	and of Life over death. 

  	    "Dear Mrs. Eddy: — In the October Journal I read
12	the following: 'But the real man, who was created in the
  	image of God, does not commit sin.' What then does sin?  
  	What commits theft?  Or who does murder?  For instance,
15	the man is held responsible for the crime; for I went once
  	to a place where a man was said to be 'hanged for mur-
  	der' — and certainly I saw him, or his effigy, dangling
18	at the end of a rope.  This 'man' was held responsible
  	for the 'sin.'" 

  	    What sins? 

21	    According to the Word, man is the image and likeness
  	of God. Does God's essential likeness sin, or dangle at
  	the end of a rope? If not, what does? A culprit, a sinner,
24	 — anything but a man! Then, what is a sinner? A
  	mortal; but man is immortal. 
  	    Again:  mortals are the embodiments (or bodies, if
27	you please) of error, not of Truth; of sickness, sin, and
  	death. Naming these His embodiment, can neither make
  	them so nor overthrow the logic that man is God's like-
30	ness. Mortals seem very material; man in the likeness

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      62

 1	of Spirit is spiritual. Holding the right idea of man in my
  	mind, I can improve my own, and other people's individ-
 3	uality, health, and morals; whereas, the opposite image
  	of man, a sinner, kept constantly in mind, can no more
  	improve health or morals, than holding in thought the
 6	form of a boa-constrictor can aid an artist in painting a
  	landscape. 
  	    Man is seen only in the true likeness of his Maker. 
 9	Believing a lie veils the truth from our vision; even as
  	in mathematics, in summing up positive and negative
  	quantities, the negative quantity offsets an equal positive
12	quantity, making the aggregate positive, or true quantity,
  	by that much, less available. 

  	    Why do Christian Scientists hold that their theology is
15	essential to heal the sick, when the mind-cure claims to heal
  	without it? 

  	    The theology of Christian Science is Truth; opposed
18	to which is the error of sickness, sin, and death, that
  	Truth destroys. 
  	    A "mind-cure" is a matter-cure. An adherent to this
21	method honestly acknowledges this fact in her work
  	entitled "Mind-cure on a Material Basis." In that
  	work the author grapples with Christian Science, attempts
24	to solve its divine Principle by the rule of human mind,
  	fails, and ends in a parody on this Science which is amus-
  	ing to astute readers, — especially when she tells them
27	that she is practising this Science. 
  	    The theology of Christian Science is based on the action
  	of the divine Mind over the human mind and body;
30	whereas, "mind-cure" rests on the notion that the human
  	mind can cure its own disease, or that which it causes,
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      63

 1	and the sickness of matter, — which is infidel in the one
  	case, and anomalous in the other. It was said of old by
 3	Truth-traducers, that Jesus healed through Beelzebub;
  	but the claim that one erring mind cures another one was
  	at first gotten up to hinder his benign influence and to hide
 6	his divine power. 
  	    Our Master understood that Life, Truth, Love are the
  	triune Principle of all pure theology; also, that this divine
 9	trinity is one infinite remedy for the opposite triad, sick-
  	ness, sin, and death. 

  	    If there is no sin, why did Jesus come to save sinners? 

12	    If there is no reality in sickness, why does a Chris-
  	tian Scientist go to the bedside and address himself to
  	the healing of disease, on the basis of its unreality? 
15	Jesus came to seek and to save such as believe in the
  	reality of the unreal; to save them from this false belief;
  	that they might lay hold of eternal Life, the great reality
18	that concerns man, and understand the final fact, — that
  	God is omnipotent and omnipresent; yea, "that the Lord
  	He is God; there is none else beside Him," as the Scrip-
21	tures declare. 

  	    If Christ was God, why did Jesus cry out, "My God,
  	why hast Thou forsaken me?" 

24	    Even as the struggling heart, reaching toward a higher
  	goal, appeals to its hope and faith, Why failest thou
  	me? Jesus as the son of man was human:  Christ as
27	the Son of God was divine. This divinity was reaching
  	humanity through the crucifixion of the human, — that
  	momentous demonstration of God, in which Spirit proved
30	its supremacy over matter. Jesus assumed for mortals the
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      64

 1	weakness of flesh, that Spirit might be found "All-in-all." 
  	Hence, the human cry which voiced that struggle;
 3	thence, the way he made for mortals' escape. Our
  	Master bore the cross to show his power over death;
  	then relinquished his earth-task of teaching and dem-
 6	onstrating the nothingness of sickness, sin, and death,
  	and rose to his native estate, man's indestructible eternal
  	life in God. 

 9	    What can prospective students of the College take for
  	preliminary studies? Do you regard the study of litera-
  	ture and languages as objectionable? 

12	    Persons contemplating a course at the Massachusetts
  	Metaphysical College, can prepare for it through no
  	books except the Bible, and "Science and Health with
15	Key to the Scriptures." Man-made theories are nar-
  	row, else extravagant, and are always materialistic. 
  	The ethics which guide thought spiritually must bene-
18	fit every one; for the only philosophy and religion that
  	afford instruction are those which deal with facts and
  	resist speculative opinions and fables. 
21	    Works on science are profitable; for science is not
  	human. It is spiritual, and not material. Literature
  	and languages, to a limited extent, are aids to a student
24	of the Bible and of Christian Science. 

  	    Is it possible to know why we are put into this condition
  	of mortality? 

27	    It is quite as possible to know wherefore man is thus
  	conditioned, as to be certain that he is in a state of
  	mortality. The only evidence of the existence of a mor-
30	tal man, or of a material state and universe, is gathered
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      65

 1	from the five personal senses. This delusive evidence,
  	Science has dethroned by repeated proofs of its falsity. 
 3	    We have no more proof of human discord, — sin,
  	sickness, disease, or death, — than we have that the
  	earth's surface is flat, and her motions imaginary. If
 6	man's ipse dixit as to the stellar system is correct, this
  	is because Science is true, and the evidence of the senses
  	is false. Then why not submit to the affirmations of
 9	Science concerning the greater subject of human weal
  	and woe? Every question between Truth and error,
  	Science must and will decide. Left to the decision of
12	Science, your query concerns a negative which the posi-
  	tive Truth destroys; for God's universe and man are
  	immortal. We must not consider the false side of exist-
15	ence in order to gain the true solution of Life and its
  	great realities. 

  	    Have you changed your instructions as to the right way
18	of treating disease? 

  	    I have not; and this important fact must be, and al-
  	ready is, apprehended by those who understand my in-
21	structions on this question. Christian Science demands
  	both law and gospel, in order to demonstrate healing,
  	and I have taught them both in its demonstration, and
24	with signs following. They are a unit in restoring the
  	equipoise of mind and body, and balancing man's ac-
  	count with his Maker. The sequence proves that strict
27	adherence to one is inadequate to compensate for the
  	absence of the other, since both constitute the divine law
  	of healing. 
30	    The Jewish religion demands that "whoso sheddeth
  	man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." But this  

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      66

1	law is not infallible in wisdom; and obedience thereto
  	may be found faulty, since false testimony or mistaken
 3	evidence may cause the innocent to suffer for the guilty. 
  	Hence the gospel that fulfils the law in righteousness,
  	the genius whereof is displayed in the surprising wisdom
 6	of these words of the New Testament: "Whatsoever
  	a man soweth, that shall he also reap." No possible
  	injustice lurks in this mandate, and no human mis-
 9	judgment can pervert it; for the offender alone suffers,
  	and always according to divine decree. This sacred,
  	solid precept is verified in all directions in Mind-
12	healing, and is supported in the Scripture by parallel
  	proof. 
  	    The law and gospel of Truth and Love teach, through
15	divine Science, that sin is identical with suffering, and
  	that suffering is the lighter affliction. To reach the sum-
  	mit of Science, whence to discern God's perfect ways
18	and means, the material sense must be controlled by
  	the higher spiritual sense, and Truth be enthroned,
  	while "we look not at the things which are seen, but at
21	the things which are not seen." 
  	    Cynical critics misjudge my meaning as to the sci-
  	entific treatment of the sick. Disease that is superin-
24	duced by sin is not healed like the more physical
  	ailment. The beginner in sin-healing must know this, or
  	he never can reach the Science of Mind-healing, and
27	so "overcome evil with good." Error in premise is met
  	with error in practice; yea, it is "the blind leading the
  	blind." Ignorance of the cause of disease can neither
30	remove that cause nor its effect. 
  	    I endeavor to accommodate my instructions to the
  	present capability of the learner, and to support the

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      67

 1	liberated thought until its altitude reaches beyond the
  	mere alphabet of Mind-healing. Above physical wants,
 3	lie the higher claims of the law and gospel of healing. 
  	First is the law, which saith: —  
  	    "Thou shalt not commit adultery;" in other words,
 6	thou shalt not adulterate Life, Truth, or Love, — men-
  	tally, morally, or physically. "Thou shalt not steal;"
  	that is, thou shalt not rob man of money, which is but
 9	trash, compared with his rights of mind and character. 
  	"Thou shalt not kill;" that is, thou shalt not strike at the
  	eternal sense of Life with a malicious aim, but shalt
12	know that by doing thus thine own sense of Life shall be
  	forfeited. "Thou shalt not bear false witness;" that is,
  	thou shalt not utter a lie, either mentally or audibly, nor
15	cause it to be thought. Obedience to these command-
  	ments is indispensable to health, happiness, and length
  	of days. 
18	    The gospel of healing demonstrates the law of Love. 
  	Justice uncovers sin of every sort; and mercy demands
  	that if you see the danger menacing others, you shall,
21	Deo volente, inform them thereof. Only thus is the right
  	practice of Mind-healing achieved, and the wrong prac-
  	tice discerned, disarmed, and destroyed. 

24	    Do you believe in translation? 

  	    If your question refers to language, whereby one ex-
  	presses the sense of words in one language by equiva-
27	lent words in another, I do. If you refer to the removal
  	of a person to heaven, without his subjection to death,
  	I modify my affirmative answer. I believe in this
30	removal being possible after all the footsteps requisite
  	have been taken up to the very throne, up to the

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      68

1	spiritual sense and fact of divine substance, intelligence,
  	Life, and Love. This translation is not the work of mo-
 3	ments; it requires both time and eternity. It means more
  	than mere disappearance to the human sense; it must
  	include also man's changed appearance and diviner form
 6	visible to those beholding him here. 

  	    The Rev.  ——  said in a sermon:  A true Christian
  	would protest against metaphysical healing being called
 9	Christian Science. He also maintained that pain and
  	disease are not illusions but realities; and that it is not
  	Christian to believe they are illusions. Is this so? 

12	    It is unchristian to believe that pain and sickness are
  	anything but illusions. My proof of this is, that the
  	penalty for believing in their reality is the very pain and
15	disease. Jesus cast out a devil, and the dumb spake;
  	hence it is right to know that the works of Satan are the
  	illusion and error which Truth casts out. 
18	    Does the gentleman above mentioned know the
  	meaning of divine metaphysics, or of metaphysical
  	theology? 
21	    According to Webster, metaphysics is defined thus:
  	"The science of the conceptions and relations which are
  	necessary to thought and knowledge; science of the
24	mind." Worcester defines it as "the philosophy of mind,
  	as distinguished from that of matter; a science of which
  	the object is to explain the principles and causes of
27	all things existing." Brande calls metaphysics "the
  	science which regards the ultimate grounds of being, as
  	distinguished from its phenomenal modifications." "A
30	speculative science, which soars beyond the bounds of
  	experience," is a further definition. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      69

 1	    Divine metaphysics is that which treats of the exist-
  	ence of God, His essence, relations, and attributes. A
 3	sneer at metaphysics is a scoff at Deity; at His goodness,
  	mercy, and might. 
  	    Christian Science is the unfolding of true metaphysics;
 6	that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests
  	on Principle and demonstration. The Principle of Chris-
  	tian Science is divine. Its rule is, that man shall utilize
 9	the divine power. 
  	    In Genesis i. 26, we read: "Let us make man in
  	our image, after our likeness:  and let them have
12	dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
  	the air." 
  	    I was once called to visit a sick man to whom the
15	regular physicians had given three doses of Croton
  	oil, and then had left him to die. Upon my arrival I
  	found him barely alive, and in terrible agony. In one
18	hour he was well, and the next day he attended to his
  	business. I removed the stoppage, healed him of en-
  	teritis, and neutralized the bad effects of the poison-
21	ous oil. His physicians had failed even to move his
  	bowels, — though the wonder was, with the means
  	used in their effort to accomplish this result, that
24	they had not quite killed him. According to their
  	diagnosis, the exciting cause of the inflammation and
  	stoppage was — eating smoked herring. The man is
27	living yet; and I will send his address to any one
  	who may wish to apply to him for information about
  	his case. 
30	    Now comes the question:  Had that sick man dominion
  	over the fish in his stomach? 
  	    His want of control over "the fish of the sea" must
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      70

 1	have been an illusion, or else the Scriptures misstate
  	man's power. That the Bible is true I believe, not
 3	only, but I demonstrated its truth when I exercised
  	my power over the fish, cast out the sick man's illu-
  	sion, and healed him. Thus it was shown that the
 6	healing action of Mind upon the body has its only ex-
  	planation in divine metaphysics. As a man "thinketh
  	in his heart, so is he." When the mortal thought, or be-
 9	lief, was removed, the man was well. 

  	    What did Jesus mean when he said to the dying thief,
  	"To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise"? 

12	    Paradisaical rest from physical agony would come to
  	the criminal, if the dream of dying should startle him
  	from the dream of suffering. The paradise of Spirit
15	would come to Jesus, in a spiritual sense of Life and
  	power. Christ Jesus lived and reappeared. He was too
  	good to die; for goodness is immortal. The thief was
18	not equal to the demands of the hour; but sin was de-
  	stroying itself, and had already begun to die, — as
  	the poor thief's prayer for help indicated. The dy-
21	ing malefactor and our Lord were inevitably sepa-
  	rated through Mind. The thief's body, as matter,
  	must dissolve into its native nothingness; whereas the
24	body of the holy Spirit of Jesus was eternal. That
  	day the thief would be with Jesus only in a finite
  	and material sense of relief; while our Lord would
27	soon be rising to the supremacy of Spirit, working
  	out, even in the silent tomb, those wonderful demon-
  	strations of divine power, in which none could equal his
30	glory. 
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      71

  1	    Is it right for me to treat others, when I am not entirely
  	well myself? 

 3	    The late John B. Gough is said to have suffered from
  	an appetite for alcoholic drink until his death; yet he
  	saved many a drunkard from this fatal appetite. Paul
 6	had a thorn in the flesh:  one writer thinks that he was
  	troubled with rheumatism, and another that he had sore
  	eyes; but this is certain, that he healed others who were
 9	sick. It is unquestionably right to do right; and heal-
  	ing the sick is a very right thing to do. 

  	    Does Christian Science set aside the law of transmission,
12	prenatal desires, and good or bad influences on the unborn
  	child? 

  	    Science never averts law, but supports it. All actual
15	causation must interpret omnipotence, the all-knowing
  	Mind. Law brings out Truth, not error; unfolds divine
  	Principle, — but neither human hypothesis nor matter. 
18	Errors are based on a mortal or material formation; they
  	are suppositional modes, not the factors of divine presence
  	and power. 
21	    Whatever is humanly conceived is a departure from
  	divine law; hence its mythical origin and certain end. 
  	According to the Scriptures, — St. Paul declares astutely,
24	"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all
  	things," — man is incapable of originating: nothing can
  	be formed apart from God, good, the all-knowing Mind. 
27	What seems to be of human origin is the counterfeit
  	of the divine, — even human concepts, mortal shadows
  	flitting across the dial of time. 
30	    Whatever is real is right and eternal; hence the im-
  	mutable and just law of Science, that God is good only,
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      72

  1	and can transmit to man and the universe nothing evil,
  	or unlike Himself. For the innocent babe to be born a
 3	lifelong sufferer because of his parents' mistakes or sins,
  	were sore injustice. Science sets aside man as a creator,
  	and unfolds the eternal harmonies of the only living and
 6	true origin, God. 
  	    According to the beliefs of the flesh, both good and
  	bad traits of the parents are transmitted to their help-
 9	less offspring, and God is supposed to impart to man
  	this fatal power. It is cause for rejoicing that this belief
  	is as false as it is remorseless. The immutable Word
12	saith, through the prophet Ezekiel, "What mean ye, that
  	ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,
  	The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's
15	teeth are set on edge?  As I live, saith the Lord God,
  	ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb
  	in Israel." 

18	    Are material things real when they are harmonious, and
  	do they disappear only to the natural sense? Does this
  	Scripture, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
21	need of all these things," imply that Spirit takes note of
  	matter? 

  	    The Science of Mind, as well as the material uni-
24	verse, shows that nothing which is material is in
  	perpetual harmony. Matter is manifest mortal mind,
  	and it exists only to material sense. Real sensation
27	is not material; it is, and must be, mental: and Mind
  	is not mortal, it is immortal. Being is God, infinite
  	Spirit; therefore it cannot cognize aught material, or
30	outside of infinity. 
  	    The Scriptural passage quoted affords no evidence of
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      73

  1	the reality of matter, or that God is conscious of it. 
  	The so-called material body is said to suffer, but this
 3	supposition is proven erroneous when Mind casts out
  	the suffering. The Scripture saith, "Whom the Lord
  	loveth He chasteneth;" and again, "He doth not
 6	afflict willingly." Interpreted materially, these pas-
  	sages conflict; they mingle the testimony of immor-
  	tal Science with mortal sense; but once discern their
 9	spiritual meaning, and it separates the false sense from
  	the true, and establishes the reality of what is spiritual,
  	and the unreality of materiality. 
12	    Law is never material:  it is always mental and moral,
  	and a commandment to the wise. The foolish disobey
  	moral law, and are punished. Human wisdom therefore
15	can get no farther than to say, He knoweth that we have
  	need of experience. Belief fulfils the conditions of a be-
  	lief, and these conditions destroy the belief. Hence the
18	verdict of experience:  We have need of these things; we
  	have need to know that the so-called pleasures and pains
  	of matter — yea, that all subjective states of false sensa-
21	tion — are unreal. 

  	    "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
  	That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when
24	the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,
  	ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
  	twelve tribes of Israel."  (Matt. xix. 28.) What is meant
27	by regeneration? 

  	    It is the appearing of divine law to human under-
  	standing; the spiritualization that comes from spiritual
30	sense in contradistinction to the testimony of the so-
  	called material senses. The phenomena of Spirit in
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      74

  1	Christian Science, and the divine correspondence of
  	noumenon and phenomenon understood, are here signi-
 3	fied. This new-born sense subdues not only the false
  	sense of generation, but the human will, and the un-
  	natural enmity of mortal man toward God. It quickly
 6	imparts a new apprehension of the true basis of being,
  	and the spiritual foundation for the affections which en-
  	throne the Son of man in the glory of his Father; and
 9	judges, through the stern mandate of Science, all human
  	systems of etiology and teleology. 

  	    If God does not recognize matter, how did Jesus, who was
12	"the way, the truth, and the life," cognize it? 

  	    Christ Jesus' sense of matter was the opposite of that
  	which mortals entertain:  his nativity was a spiritual and
15	immortal sense of the ideal world. His earthly mission
  	was to translate substance into its original meaning,
  	Mind. He walked upon the waves; he turned the water
18	into wine; he healed the sick and the sinner; he raised
  	the dead, and rolled away the stone from the door of his
  	own tomb. His demonstration of Spirit virtually van-
21	quished matter and its supposed laws. Walking the
  	wave, he proved the fallacy of the theory that matter is
  	substance; healing through Mind, he removed any sup-
24	position that matter is intelligent, or can recognize or
  	express pain and pleasure. His triumph over the grave
  	was an everlasting victory for Life; it demonstrated the
27	lifelessness of matter, and the power and permanence
  	of Spirit. He met and conquered the resistance of the
  	world. 
30	    If you will admit, with me, that matter is neither
  	substance, intelligence, nor Life, you may have all that
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      75

  1	is left of it; and you will have touched the hem of the
  	garment of Jesus' idea of matter. Christ was "the way;"
 3	since Life and Truth were the way that gave us, through
  	a human person, a spiritual revelation of man's possible
  	earthly development. 

 6	    Why do you insist that there is but one Soul, and that
  	Soul is not in the body? 

  	    First:  I urge this fundamental fact and grand verity
 9	of Christian Science, because it includes a rule that must
  	be understood, or it is impossible to demonstrate the Sci-
  	ence. Soul is a synonym of Spirit, and God is Spirit. 
12	There is but one God, and the infinite is not within the
  	finite; hence Soul is one, and is God; and God is not in
  	matter or the mortal body. 
15	    Second:  Because Soul is a term for Deity, and this
  	term should seldom be employed except where the word
  	God can be used and make complete sense. The word
18	Soul may sometimes be used metaphorically; but if this
  	term is warped to signify human quality, a substitution
  	of sense for soul clears the meaning, and assists one to
21	understand Christian Science. Mary's exclamation,
  	"My soul doth magnify the Lord," is rendered in Sci-
  	ence, "My spiritual sense doth magnify the Lord;"
24	for the name of Deity used in that place does not bring
  	out the meaning of the passage. It was evidently an
  	illuminated sense through which she discovered the
27	spiritual origin of man. "The soul that sinneth, it shall
  	die," means, that mortal man (alias material sense) that
  	sinneth, shall die; and the commonly accepted view is
30	that soul is deathless. Soul is the divine Mind, — for
  	Soul cannot be formed or brought forth by human

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      76

 1	thought, — and must proceed from God; hence it must
  	be sinless, and destitute of self-created or derived capacity
 3	to sin. 
  	    Third:  Jesus said, "If a man keep my saying, he
  	shall never see death." This statement of our Master
 6	is true, and remains to be demonstrated; for it is the
  	ultimatum of Christian Science; but this immortal saying
  	can never be tested or proven true upon a false premise,
 9	such as the mortal belief that soul is in body, and life
  	and intelligence are in matter. That doctrine is not
  	theism, but pantheism. According to human belief the
12	bodies of mortals are mortal, but they contain immortal
  	souls! hence these bodies must die for these souls to
  	escape and be immortal. The theory that death must
15	occur, to set a human soul free from its environments,
  	is rendered void by Jesus' divine declaration, who spake
  	as never man spake, — and no man can rationally reject
18	his authority on this subject and accept it on other topics
  	less important. 
  	    Now, exchange the term soul for sense whenever this
21	word means the so-called soul in the body, and you will
  	find the right meaning indicated. The misnamed human
  	soul is material sense, which sinneth and shall die; for
24	it is an error or false sense of mentality in matter, and
  	matter has no sense. You will admit that Soul is the
  	Life of man. Now if Soul sinned, it would die; for "the
27	wages of sin is death." The Scripture saith, "When
  	Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
  	appear with him in glory." The Science of Soul, Spirit,
30	involves this appearing, and is essential to the fulfilment
  	of this glorious prophecy of the master Metaphysician,
  	who overcame the last enemy, death. 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      77

  1	    Did the salvation of the eunuch depend merely on his
  	believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God? 

 3	    It did; but this believing was more than faith in the
  	fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Here the verb believe
  	took its original meaning, namely, to be firm, — yea, to
 6	understand those great truths asserted of the Messiah:
  	it meant to discern and consent to that infinite demand
  	made upon the eunuch in those few words of the apostle. 
 9	Philip's requirement was, that he should not only ac-
  	knowledge the incarnation, — God made manifest through
  	man, — but even the eternal unity of man and God, as
12	the divine Principle and spiritual idea; which is the in-
  	dissoluble bond of union, the power and presence, in
  	divine Science, of Life, Truth, and Love, to support their
15	ideal man. This is the Father's great Love that He
  	hath bestowed upon us, and it holds man in endless
  	Life and one eternal round of harmonious being. It
18	guides him by Truth that knows no error, and with
  	supersensual, impartial, and unquenchable Love. To
  	believe is to be firm. In adopting all this vast idea of
21	Christ Jesus, the eunuch was to know in whom he be-
  	lieved. To believe thus was to enter the spiritual sanctuary
  	of Truth, and there learn, in divine Science, somewhat
24	of the All-Father-Mother God. It was to understand
  	God and man:  it was sternly to rebuke the mortal
  	belief that man has fallen away from his first estate; that
27	man, made in God's own likeness, and reflecting Truth,
  	could fall into mortal error; or, that man is the father
  	of man. It was to enter unshod the Holy of Holies, where
30	the miracle of grace appears, and where the miracles of
  	Jesus had their birth, — healing the sick, casting out
  	evils, and resurrecting the human sense to the belief

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      78

  1	that Life, God, is not buried in matter. This is the spirit-
  	ual dawn of the Messiah, and the overture of the
 3	angels. This is when God is made manifest in the
  	flesh, and thus it destroys all sense of sin, sickness, and
  	death, — when the brightness of His glory encompasseth
 6	all being. 

  	    Can Christian Science Mind-healing be taught to those
  	who are absent? 

 9	    The Science of Mind-healing can no more be taught
  	thus, than can science in any other direction. I know
  	not how to teach either Euclid or the Science of Mind
12	silently; and never dreamed that either of these partook
  	of the nature of occultism, magic, alchemy, or necro-
  	mancy. These "ways that are vain" are the inventions
15	of animal magnetism, which would deceive, if possible,
  	the very elect. We will charitably hope, however, that
  	some people employ the et cetera of ignorance and self-
18	conceit unconsciously, in their witless ventilation of false
  	statements and claims. Misguiding the public mind and
  	taking its money in exchange for this abuse, has become
21	too common:  we will hope it is the froth of error passing
  	off; and that Christian Science will some time appear all
  	the clearer for the purification of the public thought con-
24	cerning it. 

  	    Has man fallen from a state of perfection? 

  	    If God is the Principle of man (and He is), man is the
27	idea of God; and this idea cannot fail to express the ex-
  	act nature of its Principle, — any more than goodness,
  	to present the quality of good. Human hypotheses are
30	always human vagaries, formulated views antagonistic

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                     79

  1	to the divine order and the nature of Deity. All these
  	mortal beliefs will be purged and dissolved in the cru-
 3	cible of Truth, and the places once knowing them will
  	know them no more forever, having been swept clean
  	by the winds of history. The grand verities of Science
 6	will sift the chaff from the wheat, until it is clear to hu-
  	man comprehension that man was, and is, God's perfect
  	likeness, that reflects all whereby we can know God. In
 9	Him we live, move, and have being. Man's origin and
  	existence being in Him, man is the ultimatum of per-
  	fection, and by no means the medium of imperfection. 
12	Immortal man is the eternal idea of Truth, that cannot
  	lapse into a mortal belief or error concerning himself
  	and his origin:  he cannot get out of the focal distance of
15	infinity. If God is upright and eternal, man as His like-
  	ness is erect in goodness and perpetual in Life, Truth,
  	and Love. If the great cause is perfect, its effect is per-
18	fect also; and cause and effect in Science are immutable
  	and immortal. A mortal who is sinning, sick, and dying,
  	is not immortal man; and never was, and never can be,
21	God's image and likeness, the true ideal of immortal
  	man's divine Principle. The spiritual man is that per-
  	fect and unfallen likeness, coexistent and coeternal with
24	God. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
  	made alive." 

  	    What course should Christian Scientists take in regard
27	to aiding persons brought before the courts for violation of
  	medical statutes? 

  	    Beware of joining any medical league which in any
30	way obligates you to assist — because they chance to be
  	under arrest — vendors of patent pills, mesmerists,
 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      80

  1	occultists, sellers of impure literature, and authors of
  	spurious works on mental healing. By rendering error
 3	such a service, you lose much more than can be gained
  	by mere unity on the single issue of opposition to unjust
  	medical laws. 
 6	    A league which obligates its members to give money
  	and influence in support and defense of medical char-
  	latans in general, and possibly to aid individual rights
 9	in a wrong direction — which Christian Science eschews
  	 — should be avoided. Anybody and everybody, who
  	will fight the medical faculty, can join this league. It is
12	better to be friendly with cultured and conscientious
  	medical men, who leave Christian Science to rise or fall
  	on its own merit or demerit, than to affiliate with a wrong
15	class of people. 
  	    Unconstitutional and unjust coercive legislation and
  	laws, infringing individual rights, must be "of few days,
18	and full of trouble." The vox populi, through the provi-
  	dence of God, promotes and impels all true reform; and,
  	at the best time, will redress wrongs and rectify injus-
21	tice. Tyranny can thrive but feebly under our Govern-
  	ment. God reigns, and will "turn and overturn" until
  	right is found supreme. 
24	    In a certain sense, we should commiserate the lot of
  	regular doctors, who, in successive generations for cen-
  	turies, have planted and sown and reaped in the fields
27	of what they deem pathology, hygiene, and therapeutics,
  	but are now elbowed by a new school of practitioners,
  	outdoing the healing of the old. The old will not patronize
30	the new school, at least not until it shall come to under-
  	stand the medical system of the new. 
  	    Christian Science Mind-healing rests demonstrably on
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      81

 1	the broad and sure foundation of Science; and this is
  	not the basis of materia medica, as some of the most skil-
 3	ful and scholarly physicians openly admit. 
  	    To prevent all unpleasant and unchristian action — as
  	we drift, by right of God's dear love, into more spiritual
 6	lines of life — let each society of practitioners, the matter-
  	physicians and the metaphysicians, agree to disagree, and
  	then patiently wait on God to decide, as surely He will,
 9	which is the true system of medicine. 

  	    Do we not see in the commonly accepted teachings of the
  	day, the Christ-idea mingled with the teachings of John
12	the Baptist? or, rather, Are not the last eighteen centuries
  	but the footsteps of Truth being baptized of John, and com-
  	ing up straightway out of the ceremonial (or ritualistic)
15	waters to receive the benediction of an honored Father, and
  	afterwards to go up into the wilderness, in order to over-
  	come mortal sense, before it shall go forth into all the cities
18	and towns of Judea, or see many of the people from beyond
  	Jordan? Now, if all this be a fair or correct view of this
  	question, why does not John hear this voice, or see the
21	dove, — or has not Truth yet reached the shore? 

  	    Every individual character, like the individual John
  	the Baptist, at some date must cry in the desert of
24	earthly joy; and his voice be heard divinely and
  	humanly. In the desolation of human understanding,
  	divine Love hears and answers the human call for help;
27	and the voice of Truth utters the divine verities of being
  	which deliver mortals out of the depths of ignorance
  	and vice. This is the Father's benediction. It gives
30	lessons to human life, guides the understanding, peoples
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      82

 1	the mind with spiritual ideas, reconstructs the Judean
  	religion, and reveals God and man as the Principle and
 3	idea of all good. 
  	    Understanding this fact in Christian Science, brings
  	the peace symbolized by a dove; and this peace floweth
 6	as a river into a shoreless eternity. He who knew the
  	foretelling Truth, beheld the forthcoming Truth, as it
  	came up out of the baptism of Spirit, to enlighten and
 9	redeem mortals. Such Christians as John cognize the
  	symbols of God, reach the sure foundations of time, stand
  	upon the shore of eternity, and grasp and gather — in all
12	glory — what eye hath not seen. 

  	    Is there infinite progression with man after the destruc-
  	tion of mortal mind? 

15	    Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being,
  	whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this
  	law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of
18	Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life,
  	Truth, and Love. 
  	    Infinite progression is concrete being, which finite
21	mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory. As
  	mortal mind, or the material sense of life, is put off,
  	the spiritual sense and Science of being is brought to
24	light. 
  	    Mortal mind is a myth; the one Mind is immortal. 
  	A mythical or mortal sense of existence is consumed
27	as a moth, in the treacherous glare of its own flame — 
  	the errors which devour it. Immortal Mind is God,
  	immortal good; in whom the Scripture saith "we live,
30	and move, and have our being." This Mind, then, is not
  	subject to growth, change, or diminution, but is the divine

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      83

1	intelligence, or Principle, of all real being; holding
  	man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss,
 3	as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible
  	good. 


  	    In your book, Science and Health,¹ page 181, you
 6	say: "Every sin is the author of itself, and every
  	invalid the cause of his own sufferings." On page
  	182 you say: "Sickness is a growth of illusion, spring-
 9	ing from a seed of thought, — either your own thought
  	or another's." Will you please explain this seeming
  	contradiction? 

12	    No person can accept another's belief, except it be
  	with the consent of his own belief. If the error which
  	knocks at the door of your own thought originated in
15	another's mind, you are a free moral agent to reject or
  	to accept this error; hence, you are the arbiter of your
  	own fate, and sin is the author of sin. In the words
18	of our Master, you are "a liar, and the father of it
  	[the lie]." 

  	    Why did Jesus call himself "the Son of man"? 

21	    In the life of our Lord, meekness was as conspicuous
  	as might. In John xvii. he declared his sonship with
  	God: "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his
24	eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;
  	glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." 
  	The hour had come for the avowal of this great truth,
27	and for the proof of his eternal Life and sonship. Jesus'

  	¹Quoted from the sixteenth edition.
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      84

 1	wisdom ofttimes was shown by his forbearing to speak,
  	as well as by speaking, the whole truth. Haply he waited
 3	for a preparation of the human heart to receive start-
  	ling announcements. This wisdom, which character-
  	ized his sayings, did not prophesy his death, and thereby
 6	hasten or permit it. 
  	    The disciples and prophets thrust disputed points on
  	minds unprepared for them. This cost them their lives,
 9	and the world's temporary esteem; but the prophecies
  	were fulfilled, and their motives were rewarded by
  	growth and more spiritual understanding, which dawns
12	by degrees on mortals. The spiritual Christ was infal-
  	lible; Jesus, as material manhood, was not Christ. The
  	"man of sorrows" knew that the man of joys, his spiritual
15	self, or Christ, was the Son of God; and that the mor-
  	tal mind, not the immortal Mind, suffered. The human
  	manifestation of the Son of God was called the Son of
18	man, or Mary's son. 

  	    Please explain Paul's meaning in the text, "For to me
  	to live is Christ, and to die is gain." 

21	    The Science of Life, overshadowing Paul's sense of
  	life in matter, so far extinguished the latter as forever
  	to quench his love for it. The discipline of the flesh is
24	designed to turn one, like a weary traveller, to the home
  	of Love. To lose error thus, is to live in Christ, Truth. 
  	A true sense of the falsity of material joys and sorrows,
27	pleasures and pains, takes them away, and teaches Life's
  	lessons aright. The transition from our lower sense of
  	Life to a new and higher sense thereof, even though it be
30	through the door named death, yields a clearer and
  	nearer sense of Life to those who have utilized the present,
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      85

 1	and are ripe for the harvest-home. To the battle-
  	worn and weary Christian hero, Life eternal brings
 3	blessings. 

  	    Is a Christian Scientist ever sick, and has he who is
  	sick been regenerated? 

 6	    The Christian Scientist learns spiritually all that he
  	knows of Life, and demonstrates what he understands. 
  	God is recognized as the divine Principle of his being,
 9	and of every thought and act leading to good. His pur-
  	pose must be right, though his power is temporarily lim-
  	ited. Perfection, the goal of existence, is not won in a
12	moment; and regeneration leading thereto is gradual,
  	for it culminates in the fulfilment of this divine rule in
  	Science: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
15	which is in heaven is perfect." 
  	    The last degree of regeneration rises into the rest of
  	perpetual, spiritual, individual existence. The first
18	feeble flutterings of mortals Christward are infantile
  	and more or less imperfect. The new-born Christian
  	Scientist must mature, and work out his own salvation. 
21	Spirit and flesh antagonize. Temptation, that mist of
  	mortal mind which seems to be matter and the environ-
  	ment of mortals, suggests pleasure and pain in matter;
24	and, so long as this temptation lasts, the warfare is not
  	ended and the mortal is not regenerated. The pleas-
  	ures — more than the pains — of sense, retard regenera-
27	tion; for pain compels human consciousness to escape
  	from sense into the immortality and harmony of Soul. 
  	Disease in error, more than ease in it, tends to destroy
30	error:  the sick often are thereby led to Christ, Truth,
  	and to learn their way out of both sickness and sin. 
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      86

 1	    The material and physical are imperfect. The in-
  	dividual and spiritual are perfect; these have no fleshly
 3	nature. This final degree of regeneration is saving, and
  	the Christian will, must, attain it; but it doth not yet
  	appear. Until this be attained, the Christian Scientist
 6	must continue to strive with sickness, sin, and death — 
  	though in lessening degrees — and manifest growth at
  	every experience. 

 9	    Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are noth-
  	ing and exist only in imagination? 

  	    Nothing and something are words which need correct
12	definition. They either mean formations of indefinite
  	and vague human opinions, or scientific classifications
  	of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of
15	the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is some-
  	thing to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful
  	to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the
18	eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief,
  	of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the
  	glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and
21	earth, the harmony of body and Mind. 
  	    Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and
  	utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than
24	imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the gran-
  	deur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is
  	the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmos-
27	phere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal envi-
  	ronment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell,
  	constitutes their present earth and heaven:  but we must
30	grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings
  	to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      87

 1	soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue tem-
  	poral sky. 
 3	    To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity
  	and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature
  	God's creation, which is unjust to human sense and
 6	to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spirit-
  	ual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous
  	universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some
 9	time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light,
  	and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and
  	knowing this, I shall be satisfied.  Matter is a frail con-
12	ception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer
  	representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the
  	immortal Mind." 

15	    Please inform us, through your Journal, if you sent
  	Mrs.  ——  to  —— . She said that you sent her there to look
  	after the students; and also, that no one there was working
18	in Science, — which is certainly a mistake. 

  	    I never commission any one to teach students of mine. 
  	After class teaching, he does best in the investigation of
21	Christian Science who is most reliant on himself and
  	God. My students are taught the divine Principle and
  	rules of the Science of Mind-healing. What they need
24	thereafter is to study thoroughly the Scriptures and
  	"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." To
  	watch and pray, to be honest, earnest, loving, and truth-
27	ful, is indispensable to the demonstration of the truth
  	they have been taught. 
  	    If they are haunted by obsequious helpers, who, un-
30	called for, imagine they can help anybody and steady
  	God's altar — this interference prolongs the struggle
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      88

1	and tends to blight the fruits of my students. A faith-
  	ful student may even sometimes feel the need of
 3	physical help, and occasionally receive it from others;
  	but the less this is required, the better it is for that
  	student. 

 6	    Please give us, through your Journal, the name of
  	the author of that genuine critique in the September
  	number, "What Quibus Thinks." 

 9	    I am pleased to inform this inquirer, that the author
  	of the article in question is a Boston gentleman whose
  	thought is appreciated by many liberals. Patience, ob-
12	servation, intellectual culture, reading, writing, exten-
  	sive travel, and twenty years in the pulpit, have equipped
  	him as a critic who knows whereof he speaks. His allu-
15	sion to Christian Science in the following paragraph,
  	glows in the shadow of darkling criticism like a mid-
  	night sun. Its manly honesty follows like a benediction
18	after prayer, and closes the task of talking to deaf ears
  	and dull debaters. 
  	    "We have always insisted that this Science is natural,
21	spiritually natural; that Jesus was the highest type of
  	real nature; that Christian healing is supernatural, or
  	extra-natural, only to those who do not enter into its
24	sublimity or understand its modes — as imported ice
  	was miraculous to the equatorial African, who had never
  	seen water freeze." 

27	        Is it right for a Scientist to treat with a doctor? 

  	    This depends upon what kind of a doctor it is. Mind-
  	healing, and healing with drugs, are opposite modes of
30	medicine. As a rule, drop one of these doctors when you
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      89

 1	employ the other. The Scripture saith, "No man can
  	serve two masters;" and, "Every kingdom divided
 3	against itself is brought to desolation." 


  	    If Scientists are called upon to care for a member of
  	the family, or a friend in sickness, who is employing a
 6	regular physician, would it be right to treat this patient
  	at all; and ought the patient to follow the doctor's
  	directions? 

 9	    When patients are under material medical treatment,
  	it is advisable in most cases that Scientists do not treat
  	them, or interfere with materia medica. If the patient
12	is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings,
  	although the medical attendant and friends have no
  	faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian,
15	to do him all the good you can; but your good will gen-
  	erally "be evil spoken of." The hazard of casting "pearls
  	before swine" caused our Master to refuse help to some
18	who sought his aid; and he left this precaution for
  	others. 

  	    If mortal man is unreal, how can he be saved, and why
21	does he need to be saved? I ask for information, not for
  	controversy, for I am a seeker after Truth. 

  	    You will find the proper answer to this question in
24	my published works. Man is immortal. Mortal man
  	is a false concept that is not spared or prolonged by being
  	saved from itself, from whatever is false. This salva-
27	tion means:  saved from error, or error overcome. Im-
  	mortal man, in God's likeness, is safe in divine Science. 
  	Mortal man is saved on this divine Principle, if he will
30	only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and recog-
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      90

 1	nize his Saviour. He must know that God is omnipo-
  	tent; hence, that sin is impotent. He must know that
 3	the power of sin is the pleasure in sin. Take away this
  	pleasure, and you remove all reality from its power. Jesus
  	demonstrated sin and death to be powerless. This
 6	practical Truth saves from sin, and will save all who
  	understand it. 

  	    Is it wrong for a wife to have a husband treated for
 9	sin, when she knows he is sinning, or for drinking and
  	smoking? 

  	    It is always right to act rightly; but sometimes, under
12	circumstances exceptional, it is inexpedient to attack
  	evil. This rule is forever golden: "As ye would that
  	men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Do you
15	desire to be freed from sin? Then help others to be free;
  	but in your measures, obey the Scriptures, "Be ye wise
  	as serpents." Break the yoke of bondage in every wise
18	way. First, be sure that your means for doing good
  	are equal to your motives; then judge them by their
  	fruits. 

21	    If not ordained, shall the pastor of the Church of
  	Christ, Scientist, administer the communion, — and
  	shall members of a church not organized receive the
24	communion? 

  	    Our great Master administered to his disciples the
  	Passover, or last supper, without this prerogative being
27	conferred by a visible organization and ordained priest-
  	hood. His spiritually prepared breakfast, after his
  	resurrection, and after his disciples had left their nets
30	to follow him, is the spiritual communion which Chris-

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      91

 1	tian Scientists celebrate in commemoration of the Christ. 
  	This ordinance is significant as a type of the true worship,
 3	and it should be observed at present in our churches. 
  	    It is not indispensable to organize materially Christ's
  	church. It is not absolutely necessary to ordain pas-
 6	tors and to dedicate churches; but if this be done,
  	let it be in concession to the period, and not as a per-
  	petual or indispensable ceremonial of the church. If
 9	our church is organized, it is to meet the demand,
  	"Suffer it to be so now." The real Christian compact
  	is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual
12	and inviolate. 
  	    It is imperative, at all times and under every cir-
  	cumstance, to perpetuate no ceremonials except as
15	types of these mental conditions, — remembrance and
  	love; a real affection for Jesus' character and example. 
  	Be it remembered, that all types employed in the ser-
18	vice of Christian Science should represent the most spir-
  	itual forms of thought and worship that can be made
  	visible. 

21	    Should not the teacher of Christian Science have our
  	textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,"
  	in his schoolroom and teach from it? 

24	    I never dreamed, until informed thereof, that a loyal
  	student did not take his textbook with him into the class-
  	room, ask questions from it, answer them according to
27	it, and, as occasion required, read from the book as au-
  	thority for what he taught. I supposed that students
  	had followed my example, and that of other teachers,
30	sufficiently to do this, and also to require their pupils to
  	study the lessons before recitations. 
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      92

 1	    To omit these important points is anomalous, con-
  	sidering the necessity for understanding Science, and
 3	the present liability of deviating from Christian Science. 
  	Centuries will intervene before the statement of the inex-
  	haustible topics of that book become sufficiently under-
 6	stood to be absolutely demonstrated. The teacher of
  	Christian Science needs continually to study this textbook. 
  	His work is to replenish thought, and to spiritualize human
 9	life, from this open fount of Truth and Love. 
  	    He who sees most clearly and enlightens other minds
  	most readily, keeps his own lamp trimmed and burning. 
12	He will take the textbook of Christian Science into his
  	class, repeat the questions in the chapter on Recapitula-
  	tion, and his students will answer them from the same
15	source. Throughout his entire explanations, the teacher
  	should strictly adhere to the questions and answers con-
  	tained in that chapter of "Science and Health with Key
18	to the Scriptures." It is important to point out the
  	lesson to the class, and to require the students thor-
  	oughly to study it before the recitations; for this spirit-
21	ualizes their thoughts. When closing his class, the
  	teacher should require each member to own a copy of
  	the above-named book and to continue the study of this
24	textbook. 
  	    The opinions of men cannot be substituted for God's
  	revelation. It must not be forgotten that in times past,
27	arrogant ignorance and pride, in attempting to steady
  	the ark of Truth, have dimmed the power and glory of
  	the Scriptures, to which this Christian Science textbook
30	is the Key. 
  	    That teacher does most for his students who most
  	divests himself of pride and self, spiritualizes his own
 

  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      93


 1	thought, and by reason thereof is able to empty his stu-
  	dents' minds, that they may be filled with Truth. 
 3	    Beloved students, so teach that posterity shall call
  	you blessed, and the heart of history shall be made
  	glad! 


 6	    Can fear or sin bring back old beliefs of disease that have
  	been healed by Christian Science? 

  	    The Scriptures plainly declare the allness and oneness
 9	of God to be the premises of Truth, and that God is
  	good: in Him dwelleth no evil. Christian Science au-
  	thorizes the logical conclusion drawn from the Scriptures,
12	that there is in reality none besides the eternal, infinite
  	God, good. Evil is temporal:  it is the illusion of time
  	and mortality. 
15	    This being true, sin has no power; and fear, its coeval,
  	is without divine authority. Science sanctions only what
  	is supported by the unerring Principle of being. Sin can
18	do nothing:  all cause and effect are in God. Fear is a
  	belief of sensation in matter:  this belief is neither main-
  	tained by Science nor supported by facts, and exists only
21	as fable. Your answer is, that neither fear nor sin can
  	bring on disease or bring back disease, since there is in
  	reality no disease. 
24	    Bear in mind, however, that human consciousness does
  	not test sin and the fact of its nothingness, by believing
  	that sin is pardoned without repentance and reforma-
27	tion. Sin punishes itself, because it cannot go unpun-
  	ished either here or hereafter. Nothing is more fatal than
  	to indulge a sinning sense or consciousness for even one
30	moment. Knowing this, obey Christ's Sermon on the
  	Mount, even if you suffer for it in the first instance, — 
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      94

 1	are misjudged and maligned; in the second, you will
  	reign with him. 
 3	    I never knew a person who knowingly indulged evil,
  	to be grateful; to understand me, or himself. He must
  	first see himself and the hallucination of sin; then he
 6	must repent, and love good in order to understand God. 
  	The sinner and the sin are the twain that are one flesh, — 
         but which God hath not joined together.SHOW ALL