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MARY BAKER EDDY LETTER Letter No. Ten, August 15, 1998 "When God bids one uncover iniquity, in order to exterminate it, one should lay it bare; and divine Love will bless this endeavor and those whom it reaches. 'Nothing is hid that shall not be revealed.'" (Mis. 348:8) Mary Baker Eddy could not fill a mind already full. Evil must be exposed and seen as nothing, as illusion, hypnotic suggestion. She therefore said, "Whosoever covereth iniquity becomes accessory to it" (Ret. 63:18. See also Ret. 14:27). After sounding the Scriptural warning: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper," Mrs. Eddy admonished: "No risk is so stupendous as to neglect opportunities which God [infinite good] giveth, and not to forewarn and forearm our fellow-mortals against the evil which, if seen, can be destroyed" (Mis. 21:10). We will expand on this subject. But first, I want to again thank the many dear readers who responded so quickly to Mary Baker Eddy Letter No 9. Of course, one always hopes for more response, but we are going through what Jesus prophesied to St. John on the Isle of Patmos, namely, Revelation's chapters 13-20, when, because of disobedience to Mary Baker Eddy's sacred, God-written Manual, the beast and dragon (the drag-on of old theology, which wants to carry on material organization) seems to be in full power. The seeming deadness of the Christian Science movement today reminds me of the paramedic who described a recent emergency at a Christian Science church as one of his most unusual and challenging 911 calls. "The usher was frantic," he told a friend. "During the service an elderly man had passed out in a pew, and appeared to be dead. The usher could find no pulse, and there was no noticeable breathing." "What was so unusual and demanding about this particular 911 call?" his friend asked. "Well," the paramedic replied, "we carried out four men before we found the one that was dead." When one sees the lack of healing today, the empty Christian Science churches, the once-grand Christian Science Publishing Society taken over by those who defy and disobey Mary Baker Eddy's Manual By-laws (decreeing that Christian Scientists should read only what that Manual-terminated Board of Directors has authorized), one realizes we are going through Jesus' prophecy to St. John as told in Revelation, chapters 13-20, and that the words of Revelation 12:12 relate directly to our time: "Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." As Jesus declared, prophecy cannot be broken. In Science and Health (p. 129:13) we read: "In those days there will be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world; and earth will echo the cry, 'Art thou [Truth] come hither to torment us before the time?' Animal magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnosticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some other systems." But Mrs. Eddy also saw "the new heaven and the new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away....and God [Spirit, understanding] shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Isaiah 25:7 & 8 likewise teaches and comforts us with the assurance: "And he [infinite good, our own right Mind, "the kingdom of God within you"] will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." "The Time For Thinkers..."Mrs. Eddy said, "the time for thinkers has come," and with it the material church organization in Boston is fading into the twilight zone. Why? Because her holy and sacred Manual, written, as she states, by God, forbids material church organization to continue. In My. p. 230:1, she writes: "Notwithstanding the sacrilegious moth of time, eternity awaits our Church Manual, which will maintain its rank as in the past, amid ministries aggressive and active, and will stand when those have gone to rest." Let's not forget that Mary Baker Eddy made sure her Manual would some day be considered a legal instrument by the courts of our land. The Mary Baker Eddy Institute has only one reason for existing, and that is to glorify Christian Science with which Mary Baker Eddy is one. This institute wants to do for Mary Baker Eddy what Mary Baker Eddy did for Christ Jesus. Christian Science understood will enable us to have that same power Jesus had when he made "his mighty, crowning, unparalleled and triumphant exit from the flesh." "Mary Baker Eddy's great work on earth was and is an astounding achievement. In human history her work for mankind is without parallel. So high, so holy, so far above human comprehension was her discovery of our true identity that only by small degrees does the human mind catch glimpses of its wondrous glory, like star-light that is long in reaching this world." (From Made Whole Through Our Marriage to God.) The goal of the Mary Baker Eddy Institute, the Mary Baker Eddy Letters and all my books is TO KEEP THE TRUTH OF MRS. EDDY'S CHARACTER BEFORE THE WORLD, because she has said that "doing this would help the students and DO MORE THAN ALL ELSE FOR THE CAUSE. As Christian Scientists learn to love our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who showed us how to overcome evil, the Christian Science movement will again prosper. Mr. Peel Revisited & the Mailing FundMany of you know that The Mailing Fund recently sent a letter to their mail list regarding my defense of Robert Peel in Mary Baker Eddy Letter No. 9. Although the authors of the Mailing Fund letter took issue with some of my statements, readers should note that in regard to Mr. Peel, their intent, like mine, was to "exonerate" him. In answering the Mailing Fund's letter, let's remember that Mrs. Eddy wrote: "Of this I am sure, that each Rule and By-Law in this Manual will increase the spirituality of him who obeys it, invigorate his capacity to heal the sick, to comfort such as mourn, and to awaken the sinner" (My. 230:10). In all my writings I have upheld and defended Mary Baker Eddy's Manual, as she wrote it, knowing that "each Rule and By-Law helps the Christian Scientist to "be a law unto himself," and to grow out of material organization. But before I say more on that subject, I must apologize to my readers for an unverified statement in my Mary Baker Eddy Institute Letter No. 9, a statement I understood to be from a reliable source, namely, that because Mr. Peel was limited by a mental impairment, a ghost-writer finished Mr. Peel's Vol. III, and therefore Mr. Peel was not responsible for the cruel, untrue things said about Mary Baker Eddy in his Vol. III, Mary Baker Eddy, The Years of Authority. The truth is, I, like many other thoughtful readers, have long been distressed by Mr. Peel's apparent change of attitude toward Mrs. Eddy in the third Volume of his biography of her. The even-handed approach of his first two volumes stands in stark contrast to the thinly veiled disparagement of her in Vol. III. Therefore, when a friend who had personally known contemporaries of Mr. Peel volunteered the explanation I repeated in Letter 9, I was perhaps too ready to believe it, wanting, as the Mailing Fund evidently also does, to clear Mr. Peel's name. For this lapse, I am truly sorry. We Meant to Honor Robert PeelWe meant to do Robert Peel a great kindness in publishing the "unverified" statement absolving him of responsibility for having made the cruel, untrue statements about Mary Baker Eddy, occurring here and there in his Vol. III, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority. (To see for yourself the specific ruthless, truculent references we refer to, please order the cogent analysis done by The Gethsemane Foundation on Peel's Vol. III, available from: The Gethsemane Foundation, Box 583, St. Maries, ID 83861. It is plain to anyone who has "eyes to see" that there is a radical difference between the third volume and the impartiality of the previous two volumes.) For The Mailing Fund to infer that we libeled Mr. Peel is ridiculous. It reminds me of a pastor's wife who caught three small boys stealing cherries from her cherry tree. "Do you know what the Bible says about thieves," she asked furiously. "Sure, ma'am," one boy answered. "Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise." Our effort was to redeem and exonerate Mr. Peel! To anyone reading our Letter No. 9, it is clear that our statement was in support of Mr. Peel, to absolve, to exonerate, and to clear him of having written the unkind, cruel, merciless statements made about our Leader in his Volume III. (So that today he, too, would be in "paradise.") We have no more desire than our friends at the Mailing Fund to becloud Mr. Peel's memory. We certainly do not wish to imply any lessening of his great talents, if that is not the case. Neither do we want him to be remembered as a detractor of our Leader. I regret that we do not have the hard facts to explain the mystery of Vol. III. Is there a third explanation which will yet come to light? I hope so. Meanwhile I hope you will accept my sincere apology. Daily I process an extraordinary volume of mail. Everywhere I look, are piles of letters expressing gratitude for my work of love and support for Mary Baker Eddy and her writings, the Second Coming of the Christ, the "Comforter," promised and prophesied by Jesus. This is the first time that I know of, that I have included an unverified statement, and I ask your forgiveness. I cherish your confidence. But again, who knows, in this case it may be that it was God, infinite good, wanting to bring error to the surface, so it could be uncovered, exposed, and healed. Mrs. Eddy has much to say concerning the fact that error must be uncovered and exposed. Perhaps God (infinite good) was using Letter No. 9 to accomplish this uncovering and exposure, to heal the evil done Mary Baker Eddy in Robert Peel's Vol. III, The Years of Authority. If the Mailing Fund is putting me on the confession stand, and asking me if I would like to tell them my sins, I would say, "Sure, which ones do you want, the good ones or the bad ones?" The reason I am confessing so little, is because I am saving some for the next time I get a letter from the Mailing Fund. Concerning Material OrganizationOn a more serious note, in addition to upholding Mr. Peel, the Mailing Fund's letter continues their effort to uphold material organization. Mrs. Eddy saw the danger of material organization. In fact she considered this issue so important that she devoted an entire chapter, "Christian Science vs. Spiritualism," to the error of material organization, and to its healing. Aristotle wrote, "We become brave by doing brave acts." By exposing error, Mrs. Eddy freed people from the scourge of thinking they were less than God, less than Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love. In every age the pioneer reformer must pass through a baptism of fire, but one fearless Leader can make millions brave. The Second Coming of the Christ came through Mary Baker Eddy because she was the only one prepared to receive it, and to endure the hatred of the carnal mind and its efforts to destroy her revelation. Having realized this divine Truth, she had to teach it to all mankind, no matter what the cost. The cost was great beyond our conception, but "heeding not the pointed bayonette," with courage unmatched in human history, knowing that "falsehood is on the wings of the winds" and that "whoever proclaims Truth loudest, becomes the mark for error's shafts," Mrs. Eddy placed herself between humanity and the danger. Her teachings on marriage stirred human hatred. In astonishment mingled with awe, the world of old theology let out a collective gasp when it became aware that "sin" was the "connubial relationship." While such teachings opened Mary Baker Eddy to merciless attack, she never faltered. She wrote, "The archers aim at Truth's mouthpiece...[but] the stake and the scaffold never silenced the messengers of the Most High" (Mis. 277:9). No Mother Church After Mrs. Eddy LeftIt may well be that Mrs. Eddy's bravest and most dangerous action on our behalf was her systematic work to terminate the material organization of Christian Science. Thanks to the carefully worded By-Laws of the Church Manual, there was no "Mother Church" after Mrs. Eddy's leaving. There was only "The First Church of Christ Scientist," in Boston, of which item 6 on p. 132:4 says: "The congregation which shall worship in said church shall be styled 'The First Church of Christ, Scientist.'" The only duty of the legal four-member Board-(that came into existence with the building of the little Mother Church) is to look after the property of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. This legal four-member Board has nothing to do with the Christian Science branch churches throughout the world. Mrs. Eddy Terminated Material OrganizationThe Mailing Fund letter denounced as "wildly inaccurate" those who would obey Mrs. Eddy's inspired Church Manual By-Laws that terminate material organization. The Mailing Fund letter said that our defense of Mrs. Eddy's Manual had no basis in fact even though Mrs. Eddy's By-Laws REQUIRED HER CONSENT to perpetuate the materially organized church. That our defense of Mary Baker Eddy's Manual "has no basis in fact," seems to me to be a case of mixed up priorities and wishful thinking, like that of the two alcoholics lost in the Swiss Alps. Suddenly, one exclaimed: "Here comes man's best friend, and he's got a dog with him." Mrs. Eddy's whole desire was to help us progress beyond material organization; to do away with it entirely. She was not talking about chaos, as in the clergyman's appeal, "If you don't like church organization, you will love ours; we're as disorganized as you can get." Rather than do away with law, she wanted each one to be a law unto himself. "God Wrote the Manual By-Laws"During Mrs. Eddy's stay with us (as she ruled with the Christ Mind) the temporary five-member Board repeatedly asked her to change the By-Law on page 26 of the Manual, that terminated this Board. This By-Law stripped the five-member Board of the ability to perpetuate itself when she was no longer here to give her consent to replace a member. Mrs. Eddy knew only too well what would happen when she was not here to govern and direct with the Christ Mind. In response to the five-member Board's plea, she always said that God had written that By-Law that would topple the five-member Board, and she could not change what God had dictated. Many people only want to advise God; but Mary Baker Eddy listened for God's voice and wrote down what God said. When the editor of the Minneapolis Daily News asked for a statement of what Christian Science could do for universal fellowship, Mrs. Eddy replied: "Christian Science can and does produce universal fellowship as a sequence of divine Love. It explains Love, it lives Love, it demonstrates Love." Love is the guiding star. Where does it lead us? It leads us to see what we already really are and have always been. It leads us to see "the omnipresence of present perfection." In a class Mrs. Eddy said: "You may falsely think that something stands between you and your heart's desire, and so go through life here with that desire unfulfilled, but it is not so. Deny it, and you will find yourself free; and good will begin to flow to you, and you will see clearly that nothing can stand between you and your own. Lean on God [your own right Mind, "the kingdom of God within you" as your true consciousness], Trust Him. Understand Him [this kingdom of God within your consciousness as your true Mind] and He will give you foresight, wisdom, and a capacity to execute His will and show forth His name." Ask yourself, "Can anything thwart the power of right knowing to bring to light the millennium, the understanding of man's eternal oneness with good?" Once we see what we already really ARE, how natural is Mrs. Eddy's declaration, "To affirm anything is to assert its possibility-to assert it even in the face of all contrary evidence," and her statement, "By affirming that which is true, but which to all human reasoning or sight seems not to be true at all, you can bring it to pass." Think of this! By affirming that which is true, we can bring it to pass. All good is right here, just as the round earth was right there when everyone thought it was flat. We all need to wake up. After a Christian Science church service, the First Reader told a woman, "I noticed your husband walked out in the middle of the service. I hope I didn't read something that offended him." "Not at all," replied the wife. "My husband has been walking in his sleep for years." Let us wake up, and stay with the Truth as Mary Baker Eddy wrote it in the Church Manual. "The author and the reader know each other. They meet on the bridge of words." Let us be like the faithful minister who had pastored the same church for fifty years. When he was asked the secret of his staying power, he replied: "I stayed when they wanted me to stay; I stayed when they wanted me to leave; I stayed when I wanted to stay; I stayed when I wanted to leave." So let us stay with Mary Baker Eddy's Manual as she wrote it, and not as it was falsely and legalistically interpreted after her passing, by lawyers who advised the Board that since they could no longer get Mrs. Eddy's signature, they did not need to obey her By-Law terminating the temporary five-member Board. While self-praise is no recommendation, those who will read my books, and the "Mary Baker Eddy Institute Letters," will see for themselves how carefully I obey Mary Baker Eddy's Manual, and how diligently I put out the truth concerning her as the Second Coming of the Christ, and as the "Comforter" Jesus prophesied should come and abide with us forever. Why not make up your own mind?A church bulletin announcing an "ADULT FORUM" said, "Beginning September 5, our Pastor will lead a six-part series on the book of Genesis: "Were Adam and Eve really NAKED in the Garden? Come and see for yourself." Read my books on Mary Baker Eddy, and "see for yourself" the love and deep reverence I have for her grand spiritual life work. A spiritually-minded student sums up what I have written in my books, as follows: "Can there be more than one interpretation of Mary Baker Eddy's sacred, holy Manual? Can loyal Christian Scientists allow a five member Board of Directors that Mary Baker Eddy's Manual terminated, to be a mediator between them and their God-sent Leader? Can this Manual-terminated Board of Directors interpret Mary Baker Eddy's writings for them, when Mrs. Eddy has urged: 'Christian Scientists, be a law unto yourselves'? (S&H 442:30)." According to historical facts, when Mrs. Eddy left us (in person) in 1910, the question was raised: Who would take her place as Leader of the Christian Science Movement? It was with the aid of human law (or rather human legal opinion), not by Divine Law nor by Mrs. Eddy's Church Manual, that the Manual-terminated five-member Board of Directors assumed Mrs. Eddy's place as Leader and falsely took complete control of the Christian Science Movement. This was the beginning of the ecclesiastical hierarchy which has ruled the Christian Science Movement since 1910. And while at first, healings continued because of the monumental momentum Mary Baker Eddy and her loyal students had built up, a drastic decline set in after 40 years. Why did the drastic decline set in?Because once the five-member Board seized control, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, the Leader, then became Leader of her Church in name only; and the Manual-terminated Board of Directors became the Board of Directors of the entire Movement, including the branch churches. This was diametrically opposed to Mary Baker Eddy's Manual, her God-dictated By-Laws. Mary Baker Eddy did not make provision for anyone to take her place. How could she? She and her writings are one. The Second Coming of the Christ-the "Comforter" promised and prophesied by Jesus-and Mary Baker Eddy, are one. Therefore no one can take her place, just as no one can take the place of Christ Jesus. Therefore Mary Baker Eddy is the forever Leader, through her God-dictated writings, whether or not she is here in person. The Five-Member Board's DisobedienceThe Manual-terminated five-member Board of Directors has put itself above Mary Baker Eddy's Church Manual, disobeying and annulling many of Mrs. Eddy's By-Laws, especially the one on page 26 that forever did away with a five-member Board of Directors when Mrs. Eddy was no longer here to guide and control them with the Mind of Christ. Instead of obeying the Manual, this Manual-terminated five-member Board, in order to have the power of the press, broke Mrs. Eddy's Publishing Deed of Trust which she had set up separately in 1898. After instructing the field to read only literature that they, the Directors, authorized, in direct violation of our Leader's teaching that totally denounced "authorizing" literature, this Manual-terminated five-member Board then took over the Christian Science Publishing Society. How Christian Science Is LostSince we cannot separate the Revelator from the Revelation, in proportion as we lose Mary Baker Eddy as Leader, in that proportion we also lose Christian Science. Those of us who see the error must expose and denounce it. My books and "Letters" have sought to do this. "Mankind must sooner or later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error to be overcome" (S&H p. 240:24). "A knowledge of error and its operations, must precede the understanding of Truth which destroys error, ... (S&H 252). And "though error hides behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be concealed. ...Even the disposition to excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished" (S&H 542:5). Honest, spiritually-minded students can no longer remain silent. If we do not speak out against error, we are hypocrites, and incur the stern rebuke of our Leader for those who are "...too cowardly, too ignorant, or too wicked to uncover, and expose error, and excuse themselves by denying that this evil exists" (My. 211. Read also Science & Health, p. 570:30-14). We can't just ignore what our Leader says about exposing evil and "the foe in ambush." "The march of mind and of honest investigation will bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of some sort, the growing occultism of this period. The PRESENT APATHY as to the tendency of certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be shocked into another extreme mortal mood,-into human indignation; for one extreme follows another." Jesus and St. John on the Isle of PatmosRemember Jesus and St. John on the Isle of Patmos? Revelation xii, 13, says, "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child [the Second Coming of the Christ, the "Comforter," promised and prophesied by Jesus.] When Mrs. Eddy was asked concerning the prophecy of Jesus to St. John in Revelation's chapters 13-20, Mrs. Eddy said in substance, "Yes, I see what is coming. It is awful! I dare not tell you about it!" Our salvation lies in "seeking first the kingdom of God." Then, as we persist and persevere in holding to Truth, every good thing will be added unto us. Why? Because we will find that this "kingdom of God is our very own true Mind, our true consciousness, in which is found every divine quality; and we will not need to pray: "Dear God, help me to be the person my dog thinks I am." We will become aware that we actually are that person-that God-identity. In My. p. 356 Mrs. Eddy asks: "When will mankind awake to know their present ownership of all good?" Elsewhere she urges, "Know then that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly" (Pul. 3:7). Let us think about this "present ownership" and this "sovereign power"; let us be grateful for it, and begin to exercise it. "I can do it," are four words that can change your life if you take them seriously, remembering Mary Baker Eddy's words that "you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly." Why Do You Possess This Power?You possess this power because "the kingdom of God [infinite good] is within you." It is your true Mind, your true consciousness right now. It was never taken from you. Human birth-what Mrs. Eddy calls "the first death"-alone, has hidden it, and made us think we were fleshly mortals. This is why Mrs. Eddy said bringing a child into the world was "a crime," it was "murder." Jesus said the same thing, when he said, "Ye are of your father, the devil...." and told us that death would never cease "until ye women cease your child-bearing." "Blessed are the wombs that never bare." But human birth did not take anything away from us; it has only blinded us to what we already are and have always been. We still have, and always will have, all that God (infinite good) is; and we will become aware of it as "probation after death"-meaning this so-called human life after human birth, which Mrs. Eddy calls the first death-reveals it. We are going through this "probation after death" now, as we "seek first the kingdom of God; and find that, as Jesus said, this "kingdom is within you." It is our own real Mind, our true consciousness. Through study and learning we are awakened out of this "first death," this Adam dream, and we begin to understand what we already really are, here and now, and have always been. We begin to learn that right now we are Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love, as Mrs. Eddy makes clear in the first edition of Science and Health, "the little book open in the hand of the angel." But we need to learn this and so awaken from the Adam dream, the illusion, the hypnotic suggestion, that we live in a matter body, and that we are flesh, blood, and bones. St. Paul urged: "Study to show thyself approved unto God....a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of God." What is called "man" (when correctly seen) is your divine Mind's reflection, manifestation, the visible manifestation of "the kingdom of God that is within you," that is your true Mind and consciousness. The invisible Mind must have a visible manifestation. What good would Mind be if it didn't have a visible expression or manifestation? We Have the Same Mind Jesus HadThe Bible tells us to let that Mind be Mind to us that was Mind to Christ Jesus. After all, "JESUS SAVES," as a sign in front of a church said. (And the big sign on the grocery store across the street said: "WE SAVE YOU MORE.") When we have the same Mind that Jesus had, we too will "behold in Science the perfect man"-the visible manifestation of the invisible Mind, the expression of "the kingdom of God within you," as your true consciousness. We will behold the man that Mrs. Eddy speaks of in her scientific statement of being on page 468:8-15 of Science and Health-the man that is spiritual. We will trust in that man (not like the IRS tax collectors, who say: "In God we trust; everyone else we audit.") Getting serious, think of the trust Jesus had when he knew it was time for the prophecies concerning him to be fulfilled, and he voluntarily put himself before Pilate to endure the crucifixion. His death by crucifixion-the most public form of death, since everyone could behold it-was to show all mankind that his Mind and their Mind was, in reality, infinite, eternal omnipresent perfection, here and now. We only have to wake up out of the Adam dream to realize this great spiritual truth. Jesus could make this demonstration because he understood what we are all destined to understand through the teaching of the Second Coming of the Christ, namely, that HERE and NOW we are spiritual God-beings, and that matter in any form is illusion only, merely hypnotic suggestion. Why is this true? Why will all mankind eventually learn it, "either through suffering or through Science"? Because "the kingdom of God is within you." It is your real Mind that gives you "sovereign power to think and act rightly." St. John exercised this "sovereign power" when he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. When it could not kill him, he was exiled to the lonely isle of Patmos, where he received the great revelation in his talks with Jesus. In these talks with Jesus (Revelation 13-20) St. John is told of the evil that is in store for mankind-because mankind's disobedience to the Manual, has brought in the rulership of the "beast and the false prophet." In Miscellaneous Writings, p. 177:l, Mrs. Eddy warns: "Never was there a more solemn and imperious call than God [your true Mind] makes to us all, right here, for fervent devotion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and operative in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard bearers." Who is Mrs. Eddy talking about here? It can only be those who do not see Mary Baker Eddy and her writings (which are one), as the Second Coming of the Christ, the "Comforter" "that would remain with you forever," promised by Christ Jesus. "What will you do about it?" Mrs. Eddy asks. "Will you be equally in earnest for the truth...and become real and consecrated warriors? Will you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death?" The vast majority of so-called Christian Scientists in the world today do not realize that Mary Baker Eddy was mentally murdered by her own dissident students who wanted to gain control of the vast 1910 Christian Science movement with its thousands of churches and its millions of church-goers. They do not realize that the five-member Board of Directors in 1910 disobeyed the Manual which on page 26 clearly states regarding "Directors," "[The Director] shall fill a vacancy occurring on that Board AFTER THE CANDIDATE IS APPROVED BY THE PASTOR EMERITUS [MARY BAKER EDDY]. The vast majority of Christian Scientists are not aware that the five-member Board several times implored Mrs. Eddy to change that By-Law so they could continue to rule (after there was not the Christ Mind of Mary Baker Eddy to oversee and guide them.) But Mary Baker Eddy knew this was the most important By-Law in the Manual, and that God had dictated it, so she could not change it. She knew "There was never a religion or philosophy lost to the centuries except by sinking its divine Principle in personality" (My. 117:22). It reminds one of a sign on a big church bulletin board: WHO KILLED JESUS? and under it: The Rev. Simon Jones. The way the disobedient five-member Manual-terminated Board of Directors changed the Manual to give them power over the churches and over Christian Scientists is explained in my two books on the Manual, as well as how they took over the Christian Science Publishing Society which Mrs. Eddy had set up as a completely separate entity, only giving herself power in it as long as she was here in person. Since June, 19ll, the Manual-terminated Board has crucified and excommunicated some of the finest workers and thinkers in our movement. It would seem that no one is allowed to have an original thought unless the Board approves, and it is "authorized" by this Board. Hundreds of churches have closed, more than 400 in just the past ten years. And those still open are mostly empty. Teachers and practitioners do not dare to speak up, even if they know the truth about this situation, for fear of being taken out of the Journal, and thus losing their income. This hideous error must be uncovered, exposed, and dealt with. If you saw someone about to be murdered or harmfully dealt with, wouldn't you do what you could to save him? "Cowardice is selfishness" (Mis. 211:21).
Mrs. Eddy and What She Wrote Are OneBecause Mrs. Eddy knew that she was one with her great spiritual discovery that evil was unreal, and that you and the infinite good we call God, are one, she also knew that if the world could know her as she is, it would do more for the Cause of Christian Science than any other one thing. Mrs. Eddy tells us plainly in the first edition of Science and Health that we are Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth and Love. These are all terms for God. In her earliest classes she openly taught: "You, my students, are God." But when she saw how unready the world and her students were for this great spiritual truth, she hid it deeper and deeper in the Christian Science textbook, and finally said to Laura Sargent, "There, Laura, I have hidden it, and hidden it, and hidden it; and if I hide it [this great spiritual truth] any more, they will never find it." (See Vol. II of Lida Fitzpatrick's Association Addresses.) Mary Baker Eddy wrote as she was God-inspired to do "leaving the ages to grow up to it." Mrs. Eddy knew that as we learn to see rightly, "thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance and color, but without material accompaniments," and "as material knowledge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of materially" (S&H 310:6 and 96:27). The One Mind That Is God Is Our MindCreation is the disappearance of mortal sense and the appearing of God's [your Mind's,] ideas. "Mind speaks, and form appears." "Principle and its idea is one." Mind (your Mind, "the kingdom of God within you" as your consciousness) thinks, and the form, the body, called man, appears. "Man," idea, image, is definite, specific, individual, having form, outline, tangibility, quality and quantity as well as color. But this man, mentally created, is only the manifested body, not the mentality, just as the painting you paint, or the sculptor you create are not the creator. What you are, as Mind, and what you create, man, are not identical; they coexist as cause and effect, as you, the Principle, and your idea. Several Christian Scientists have written something to the effect that they always knew in Christian Science there was only one Mind, but they never before realized that, in reality, this One Mind was their Mind. Jesus taught, "The kingdom of God is within you," it is your real Mind; but this is not understood in old theology. In old theology there were three times when you were quite sure to be in church, namely, "when you were hatched, matched, or dispatched." Christian Science shows all three of these occurrences to be based on illusion, hypnotic suggestion only. Why have we not always understood that the one Mind (infinite good) is our Mind, and that right now "the kingdom of God is within" us, is our true consciousness? Because, as we have already stated, human birth-the belief of being born into matter-has pulled the wool over our eyes, so we are hypnotized to see things as matter. This causes us to see destruction and chaos, such as we see in the divorces so prevalent today. A man writes of his divorce (and to me he immediately becomes a dear friend, yes, a dear friend, because I know how I would feel if this happened to me.) He describes his divorce as "a bomb that blows to shreds your sense of who are and what you have become." He describes it as "a series of landmines, going off in your face when you least expect; it is the shrapnel of memories searing your heart....The center around which your life has been defined is suddenly gone, utterly ripped away." Mary Baker Eddy went through divorce, as well as the death of two beloved husbands, and still could say, "O, make me glad for every scalding tear, for hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain. Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear no ill since God is good, and loss is gain." "Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom." As one gropes through what seems an all-enveloping darkness for structure and order, one grows in Christian Science where we learn that error of any kind is unreal, illusion only, hypnotic suggestion, animal magnetism. What we see after human birth, after the wool has been pulled over our eyes, is pure illusion, and not the true spiritual identity that is really there. As St. Paul says, "We see through a glass darkly." When a Sunday School teacher asked her class, "How do you get to heaven?" the children answered, "You have to die." The old theological belief was that you had to be dead before you reached heaven. Even today, many people seem to feel that after the Lord created the world in six days, and rested on the seventh, on the eighth day He should have started answering complaints. They have not grasped the truth Christian Science teaches, namely, "the omnipresence of present perfection." Mrs. Eddy's great discovery that evil, error of any nature, is unreal, illusion, hypnotic suggestion only, is the most important information that has come to humanity in its three million-year history. We do not have to die, we do not have to go somewhere to find heaven; it is already within us. All we need to do is wake up out of this Adam dream, and remove the wool-the belief of human birth-that has been pulled over our eyes. Then we will see that right here and now we are God-beings, having "the kingdom of God within" our consciousness, as our consciousness, our Mind. A note concerning the Children's CornerWe will continue with the "Children's Corner" in our next Letter, and only say here that during this 20th century much progress has been made for children as well as for adults. Take the case of child labor: We only need to remember that a hundred years ago children in this country were forced to work in mines and mills. Mary Harris, "Mother Jones" (1830 -1930) is still known for what she did so well, namely, "speaking out and raising hell with the powers that be" on behalf of these little ones. "And when no one in Washington cared," she said, "the kids and I marched from Pennsylvania to Teddy Roosevelt's home in Oyster Bay, N.Y. Together we forced the nation to face up to the crime of child labor." Our problems, as we face a new millennium, may be different, but our work is still to keep telling the truth concerning the lie. Mrs. Eddy spoke of herself as "keenly ALIVE to the reality of living, and safely, soulfully founded upon the rock, Christ Jesus, even the spiritual idea of Life, with its abounding, increasing, advancing footsteps of progress, primeval faith, hope, love" (My. 139:4). So must we be, as we continue to awaken ourselves and mankind to what we already are and have always been, as we learn in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Second Coming of the Christ, the "Comforter" promised and prophesied by Jesus. END OF LETTER 10 Have you read the Christian Science Beacon, published by David Robinson? It is available for a contribution to The Roan Mountain Institute, P.O. Box 888, Bakersville, NC 28705, (828) 688-9056, website: http://www.trmi.com/ Contact TRMI for their books regarding Bible history, as well as the new Beacon Bits A'bound, a compilation of their first 40 issues of the Christian Science Beacon, 140 pages, spiral bound, only $19.95 postpaid (or, add $3 for Priority Mail). 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