MARY BAKER EDDY LETTER

Letter No. Twelve, January 30, 1999

First I want to thank the multitudes who have written requesting to stay on our mail list. Many sent donations for which I am deeply grateful and without which the "Letters" cannot continue. "Dear one," Mary Baker Eddy comforted, "realize for yourself and all each day clear and strong that the Christ, Truth, does not merely open the windows of heaven for us, or promise us heaven, but the knowledge of the Christ in Christian Science is heaven here and now. This knowledge of Truth as it is taught in Science is heaven's open door for all."

THE SYSTEM

Seen in the classified section of a local newspaper:

"Illiterate? Write today for free help."

Are you illiterate in the "system" of Christian Science?

Yes? Then you are in the company of nearly six billion people today. This fulfills Isaiah's prophecy that "the remnant shall be small and very feeble."

Why is the remnant so small and feeble?

Are we like the man who told his doctor he wasn't able to do things around the house that he used to do? At the end of his examination the man said, "Now, Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what is wrong with me."

"Well, in plain English," the doctor replied, "you're just lazy."

"Okay," said the man. "Now give me the medical term so I can tell my wife."

Mrs. Eddy advised, "Work, work, work, watch and pray." Are we making excuses to hide our laziness?

Or are we more like the two shipwrecked sailors adrift on a raft in the ocean? When they had just about given up hope of rescue, one began to pray loudly: "O, Lord, I've led a worthless life. I've neglected my children and been unkind to my wife, but if you'll save me, I promise I..."

"Hold it!" the other shouted, "I think I see land!"

Like the sailors we can take hope. The promised land is in sight, and we can reach it, if we overcome our own laziness and our attachment to error. Though the moment seems dark and the prophecies dire, if you read the last page of the Bible you will see it turns out all right.

Even now, help is at hand. In the year 1866 Mary Baker Eddy's experiences led her to discover the "system" that heals every discord by revealing our oneness with Love and all good. This "system," which Mrs. Eddy denominated Christian Science, all can learn, and all eventually will learn, just as everyone has learned that the earth is round and not flat. But we must make the effort to learn it just as we today learn the science of mathematics.

Mrs. Eddy humbly said, "I am not the door through which to enter, nor the rock upon which to build, but what God has spoken to this age through me [through her own true Mind, "the kingdom of God within" her consciousness] is the way and sure foundation, and no man enters by any other way into Christian Science."

In teaching Christian Science, our Leader quickly found that, "Apart from the usual opposition to everything new, the one great obstacle to the reception of that spirituality, through which the understanding of Mind-science comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for metaphysical statements (S&H 114:32)." To overcome this problem, she worked long and hard to give us-through divine Science-seven terms for God, and to define them and their relation to each other and how they operate.

How was the infinite subject of mathematics reduced to a system that any child can learn and demonstrate? Many thousands of years ago someone must have conceived that what today we call the infinite subject of mathematics could be reduced to a system, just as Mary Baker Eddy, through divine revelation, learned that the infinity of our true being could be reduced to a system that all could learn and understand.

That person, thousands of years ago, could have begun by counting the ten fingers of his two hands, and named them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And, gradually (guided by the one Mind) he learned to add, subtract, multiply and divide. That grew into what is called infinite mathematics that each child can learn in school.

In the same way the Science of our being will some day be taught in all schools and then, like Shakespeare wrote, we can be in any place as soon as think it. Through Mary Baker Eddy's great discovery of the Science of our being "Mankind [will] awaken to their present ownership of all good." (My. 356:1)

NUMEROUS REVISIONS BRING SYSTEM TO TEXTBOOK

Through numerous revisions of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy worked carefully to bring the system of Christian Science to full expression. Finally, with changes made in June, 1907, she brought the entire textbook into a divine God-governed system that can be learned and demonstrated like that of mathematics and music. Having perfected this "system," Mrs. Eddy did not renew her copyright on her final edition of Science and Health; henceforth a copyright was no more needed for the Christian Science textbook than it was needed for mathematics or music.

What was the crowning, essential touch that brought the system to full perfection?

In 1907, after forty-four years of arduous work, Mary Baker Eddy gave you and me and all mankind a definitive statement of what we really are, when she penned the most momentous sentence ever written in the history of mankind.

What was this sentence?

It was her answer to the question, "What is God?" It said: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love."

A student recorded that Mrs. Eddy told a class that "upon the truth of these terms for God rests the basis of the Science; in fact, they are the Science." To another class Mrs. Eddy said, "Upon the Truth of these terms for God, rests the whole structure of Christian Science" (Mis. Doc. pp. 61 & 84).

WHAT YOU ARE IN REALITY

Why is this definition of God so vitally important?

It tells you not only what God is, but also what, in reality, you are. This statement, so familiar to students of the final edition of Science and Health, crowns the momentous proclamation of Mrs. Eddy's first edition and early classes: "You, my students, are God!" You are "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love."

Here we see how the first and last editions of Science and Health work together to open our perfect understanding of Science. After finishing the last edition of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy turned to Laura Sargent and said, "There, Laura, I have hidden it and hidden it and hidden it and if I hide it any more they will never find it." What had she hidden? She had hidden what she plainly, outspokenly- like the lion's roar,-proclaimed in the first edition: "You, my students, are God." You are the Principle, Love, because "the kingdom of heaven is within you"-is your true Mind and consciousness. The last edition reduced to human comprehension what God had revealed to Mary Baker Eddy in the first edition. This is why it is so necessary to study the first edition as well as the last. "God wrote the textbook," Mrs. Eddy said, "I only held the pen."

It may take a thousand years for all humanity to fully understand the system Mary Baker Eddy has laid out, or hidden, in the textbook; but it is there and it will be learned, just as we all have learned that the earth is round and not flat as everyone believed only five hundred years ago.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN PEOPLE REALIZED THE EARTH IS ROUND?

In Science and Health (p. 268:1) Mrs. Eddy tells us, "In the material world, thought has brought to light many useful wonders. With like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising to the realm of the real, to the spiritual cause of those lower things which give impulse to inquiry."

When people realized that the earth wasn't flat, that it was round, vast new worlds opened up for mankind; an era of unprecedented discovery was ushered in. Five hundred years ago no one knew the earth was round. Today we all know it, and this knowledge has transformed every aspect of our lives.

Now we are on the brink of a new understanding that will bring about an even more momentous transformation, stripping away many more limitations.

What is this discovery? We are realizing that the world isn't material. Mankind is nearing the end of the material sense of things. A few hundred years from now humanity will be saying: "Just think! Five hundred years ago people thought they lived in a matter body! Can you believe it!"

Yes, the material sense of things is coming to an end as thought is being spiritualized. Mrs. Eddy tells us that in proportion as man including the universe is translated back into Spirit, all will be found harmonious and perfect. (See S&H 209.) The end of the material senses is as inevitable as the end of the flat earth.

We also see the end of the material sense of things in what our physical scientists are finding and teaching. The Wall Street Journal ran an article that said there are signs that physical scientists are becoming theologians. And daily we read of medical doctors telling their patients that it's all in the mind; "get rid of hate, fear and all wrong thinking and you will recover."

All the wonders of the last five hundred years of human progress are as nothing compared to what lies ahead for us. Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy healed the sick and raised the dead. They transcended the seeming limits of time and space and matter. "Human theories are inadequate to interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty, crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the flesh" (S&H 117:19). When once we learn the "system" incorporated in the textbook, we too, like Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy, will do the marvelous things they did. The possibilities are endless. Jesus said, "When ye stand praying," believe you already have what you are asking for.

We are no longer living in the theological age. We have come to the scientific age where Science has a "system." (See S&H 146:31). We have come to the age of "thinkers."

THE VALUE OF EARLY EDITIONS

We have seen how the first and last editions of Science and Health work together to unfold our true identity. Each intermediate edition also has something to add. This is why the Mary Baker Eddy Institute is now working to put all of Mrs. Eddy's 432 editions of Science and Health (except where duplicates occur) on the internet, so they will always be there to teach mankind what, in reality, they already divinely are, and have always been.

MRS. EDDY DEEPLY VALUED EARLY EDITIONS

Mrs. Eddy deeply valued her early editions of Science and Health. Gilbert Carpenter states he will never forget being with Mrs. Eddy the day someone sent in to her a first edition of Science and Health, thinking he would no longer need it because the 50th edition had just come out. Carpenter, with tears, says "Mrs. Eddy held the 'little book' tenderly, and with deepest feeling said, 'No one will ever know what it cost me to write this book'"-the "little book" that "a mighty angel brought down from heaven." (See Rev. 10:1-2.)

In Retrospection and Introspection, on page 37, in an article entitled "The Precious Volume," Mrs. Eddy states, "The first edition of my most important work, Science and Health, containing the complete statement of Christian Science, was published in 1875." Even the final edition of Science and Health never goes beyond the profound truths set down so simply and clearly in the first edition. It simply brings it all into a "system."

It is clear that Mrs. Eddy never intended us to lose touch with this first "complete statement." That Mrs. Eddy hoped her early editions would always be available to all mankind can be learned from many sources. For instance, it is known that she had Lansing P. Norcross write an article that was published three times, twice in 1891 in the March and April Journals. This article emphasized how extremely important it was for students to become acquainted with all the editions leading up to the current edition.

It was not unusual for Mrs. Eddy to have a student write an article to carry a message she felt needed emphasis, as when she occasionally had a student publish something pertaining to her as bringing the second coming of the Christ. Essential as that message was, it would have looked like self-praise for Mrs. Eddy herself to dwell on her role in bringing the "Comforter" and thus fulfilling Scriptural prophecy.

However, Mrs. Eddy kept close watch on what was published. When Judge Hanna brought her his wonderful article, set in galley-proof, stating how she was fulfilling Scripture, she saw that publishing the article at that time would greatly harm them because the world was not yet ready for this grand truth. She praised Judge Hanna for his understanding, saying that divine Love had dictated this to him; but then added that it was animal magnetism that wanted him to publish it. To avoid the world's antagonism and hatred the article was set aside. (Please see the last page for letter to send to Boston.)

MRS. EDDY KEPT WATCH ON WHAT STUDENTS WROTE

In the case of the Norcross article, mentioned earlier, the repetition of her message-having it published three times-was unprecedented; it clearly indicates the importance Mary Baker Eddy ascribed to the early editions.

There is evidence that Mrs. Eddy hoped all early editions of Science and Health would be available in all Christian Science Reading rooms. Because of disobedience to the Manual this has not come to pass. But God, infinite good, has means! Once these early editions are made available on the internet, which the Mary Baker Institute is now in the process of doing, any student in the whole wide world can down-load them and study them in the peace and quiet of his own home.

What could please Mrs. Eddy more?

USURPERS TURN STUDENTS FROM EARLY EDITIONS

Those who defied the Manual, and usurped Mrs. Eddy's place, tried to turn students away from the early editions. In Miscellany (printed after Mrs. Eddy said good-bye) they misleadingly included an article Mrs. Eddy had not included. This article said, "What I wrote on Christian Science some twenty-five years ago I do not consider a precedent for a present student..." Mrs. Eddy wrote these words in 1910. "Twenty-five years ago" would be 1885, and that was the time when she was deeply involved in teaching on the subject of animal magnetism, which she finally buried by saying it is just a lie.

This "Take Notice," which the five member Board of Directors surreptitiously included in Miscellany (p.237), did much harm. Why? Many students took it to mean not to read the early editions. Therefore including this article was a mean and cruel blow to Mrs. Eddy and her hope that all students would read and ponder her early editions along with the last.

Although each edition was written to meet the needs and limited understanding of students at its time, each also has something to add to our understanding today.

Much of Mrs. Eddy's teaching is stated very explicitly in every edition of Science and Health. For example, all the editions teach that we do not have a matter body and that when we find this out, nothing can hurt us. They show us that the fundamental lie is the hypnotic suggestion that ideas have become material things. All editions strip away the illusion that man can only have life or consciousness through the medium of matter.

In other ways, however, the editions differ. This often occurs where Mrs. Eddy realized it was necessary to temporarily veil or hide some truth which would be misunderstood at that time.

JUDGE HANNA AND THE "SYSTEM"

Once Hanna wrote Mrs. Eddy asking "If the system is so important, why can't it be laid out in just so many words?" He apparently had glimpsed the system and had written regarding it. In answering, Mrs. Eddy wrote him, "I have erased your verities, they are spoken too soon." And then she added, "The letter alone without the due process of Spirit and of Love, almost inhumanizes a mortal.... The textbook contains it all, but so arranged as to promote growth in Christian character," she told him. The human self must be evangelized. "I have learned from bitter experience that the head instructed before the heart is ready causes dangerous difficulties and sore defeats."

Let us keep this admonition in mind as we proceed to study the "system."

THE "SYSTEM" IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Mary Baker Eddy once said that if in the Bible the term Principle had been substituted for the term God, things would have been clearer. We must never forget that the Principle is Love, and is our real Mind.

Mrs. Eddy says, "The time for thinkers has come."

Let us not be like the man who went to a psychologist and complained that he felt like a dog. "Everything I do makes me feel like a dog," he said to the psychologist.

After putting him on the couch, the psychologist asked: "How long have you felt this way?"

"Ever since I was a puppy."

Let us now begin to give up our "puppy" ways and feelings, and begin to look at the divine "SYSTEM" Mrs. Eddy incorporated in the pages of Science and Health.

Two of the world's outstanding thinkers during the past 50 or 60 years have been John W. Doorly of England, and Max Kappeler of Zurich. They have gone far in explaining the divine "system" Mary Baker Eddy incorporated in Science and Health, as well as others.

When I talked with Mr. Doorly in 1949, I prosaically said, "God is All."

He said, "You're close, lady, but no cigar!"

No, I'm sure those were not his exact words, but that's what he meant. Then he explained, "Certainly God is All, but if I said, music is all, or mathematics is all, what good would that do you? In each case you have to learn their system. In music you have to learn the seven notes and how they operate through tone, rhythm, melody, and harmony. And in math you have to learn the ten digits and how they operate through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Only then can you demonstrate the infinite subjects of music or mathematics."

To that I said, "Amen."

I knew that if "the kingdom of God is within" my consciousness, then all the truth that I am Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love is also within my very own true Mind, just as all of math and all of music is already within me or I could not learn them. Learning is essential to bring them out. Mrs. Eddy has over a hundred references in Science and Health to the fact that what constitutes our true being must be learned.

"The nature and position of mortal mind are the opposite of immortal Mind," as Mrs. Eddy explains in her article Principle and Practice. "The so-called mortal mind is belief and not understanding. Christian Science requires understanding instead of belief; it is based on a fixed eternal and divine Principle, wholly apart from mortal conjecture; and it must be understood, otherwise it cannot be correctly accepted and demonstrated."

Mrs. Eddy "saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Christ Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration, - reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God" (S&H 561:16-20).

Christian Science is Science, and, as John Doorly, Max Kappeler and other far-seeing students realized, there is no Science without a system. Before we can demonstrate Christian Science we must learn its system and learn how to use it just as we learn how to use the infinite system of math or music.

SCIENCE CALLS FOR ORDER, DIVERSIFICATION

A system calls for order and diversification. For instance, in mathematics the usefulness of the numbers 1,2,3,4,5, etc. derives from both their order and their distinctness.

Similarly, in Christian Science we have the seven synonyms for God (for infinite good), operating through Word, Christ, Christianity, and Science on four levels of thought. This constitutes the "system" of Christian Science. For instance, to teach the system, Mrs. Eddy has four "Word" chapters; "Prayer" is the Word as the Word. "Atonement and Eucharist" is the Word as the Christ. "Marriage" is the Word as Christianity, and "Christian Science versus Spiritualism" is the Word as Science.

The next four chapters are Christ as the Word, Christ as the Christ, Christ as Christianity, and Christ as Science.

Then we come to four chapters on Christianity; Christianity as the Word, Christianity as the Christ, Christianity as Christianity, and Christianity as Science.

The last four chapters are Science as the Word, Science as the Christ, Science as Christianity, and Science as Science.

To demonstrate Christian Science unfailingly we have to learn our oneness with the seven synonyms for God, namely: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, since they constitute our real spiritual being. Then we have to learn how these seven operate in a fourfold calculus of Word, Christ, Christianity, and Science on the four descending levels of spiritual consciousness, namely: Science itself, divine Science, absolute Christian Science, and Christian Science.

As we study and understand the seven synonyms through the infinite ideas which express them, we are awakening ourselves to our real and true Christ selfhood.

LET'S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING

What is the most important question in the Christian Science textbook? Isn't it the question: "What is God?"

And why?

Because, as we noted earlier, it tells you what you divinely are. The foundation, the basis, of all Mrs. Eddy's teaching is found in the question, "What is God?" and her answer: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind [your real Mind], Spirit [your real substance, reality], Soul [your true identity], Principle [your forever harmony of operation], Life [eternal indestructible individuality], Truth [your Christ consciousness], Love [your holiness, peace, glory].

Students of Science and Health will find that each synonym has its own distinct meaning. For example, the synonyms can be characterized as: law (Mind), order (Spirit), rule (Soul), system (Principle), method (Life), form (Truth), and plan or design (Love). Or again they can be characterized as: wisdom (Mind), purity (Spirit), spiritual understanding (Soul), spiritual power (Principle), love (Life), health (Truth), holiness (Love) (S&H 116:2).

It is quickly evident as we will show later on, that each synonym has many characteristics and each is characterized in Mary Baker Eddy's writings differently than the other six synonyms. Each denotes a unique quality or attribute pertaining to God, infinite good, which stands in unique relation to each other quality or attribute. For example:

Mind is characterized by intelligence, law, power, basis, information, action, creativity, etc.

Spirit is characterized as substance, reality, order, the only, strength, divine energy, good, etc. Here note that the infinite ideas of Mind have the nature of Spirit.

Soul is characterized by identity, Ego, self-sameness, rule, spiritual understanding, intact, balance, etc.

Principle: Mind, Spirit, Soul, as one, constitute our Principle. Principle is characterized as harmony, divine government, structure, system, Science, spiritual power, foundation; Principle explains, etc.

Life is characterized by is-ness, eternality, God-governed individuality, inspiration, method, etc.

Truth is characterized by consciousness, the whole, form, deliverer, health, ideal, remedy; Truth uncovers, unveils, etc.

Love is characterized by fulfillment, plan, purpose, rest, peace, perfection; Love accepts, etc.

LEARNING WHICH WORDS INDICATE THE SEVEN SYNONYMOUS TERMS

While I learned much from Mr. Doorly's class in London and from Max Kappeler's teaching and others, in order to find out for myself how each of the seven synonymous terms differ from each other, and what each synonym is, does, and deals with, I "dissected" Science and Health. Using a Spanish-English translation of Science and Health, and working with the word "Mind," I cut out every paragraph that had "Mind" in it, and pasted that paragraph into a notebook. Then I could see for myself what Mind is, what it does, and what it deals with.

In a second Spanish Science and Health, I cut out the paragraphs (in English) that had the word Spirit in it; and pasted these paragraphs into a notebook. Then I could see how Mrs. Eddy characterized Spirit by what Spirit is, what it does, and what it deals with.

I did the same with Soul, and with Principle, and with Life, with Truth, and with Love.

I used seven Spanish-English translations of Science and Healths for this project because these books have the English on one side only. If you want to try this, use foreign editions of S&H or you will have to use 14 English editions, since Mind (or any synonym) might be on both sides of one page.

When I had completed this project The Rare Book Company sold a few of these voluminous works on the synonyms; and several interested students volunteered, and sold a few copies. It is my intention to make this study available again, as there is more interest today in the system imbedded in Science and Health.

Helped by the insights I had received from John Doorly, Max Kappeler and others, I drew up the two lists-first, words used to describe or explain Mind-and second, words used as opposites, to explain what Mind is not.

I did the same for Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth and Love. The notebooks this generated are too massive to include here, but readers might find the following lists useful.

Sometimes Mrs. Eddy uses a word that mostly characterizes one synonym to also characterize a different synonym, two different ways. One such example is the word "power." While "power" indicates and is mostly used with Mind, Mrs. Eddy sometimes uses it with Love, as "the healing power of Love." And, while "creates" is a Mind word, Mrs. Eddy in certain cases says Spirit creates. The same is true of a word like "govern." While Mind governs, "govern" and "government" are usually words denoting Principle. While "delivers" is usually a Love word, Mrs. Eddy also uses it with Mind. These words are marked on the following lists (e.g.-So/Mind/Principle, or Mind/Truth, etc.)

LIST OF WORDS OFTEN USED WITH SYNONYMS

In the following list of words, the first section contains words Mrs. Eddy often uses to describe Mind, to show what Mind is, what it does, and what it deals with.

The second section contains words Mrs. Eddy uses with Spirit to tell us what Spirit is, what it does and what it deals with. This pattern is then utilized throughout the remaining sections covering all seven of the synonyms.

This first section contains words Mrs. Eddy uses to describe MIND.

I. MIND

The 2nd section contains words Mrs. Eddy uses to describe aspects of SPIRIT.

II. SPIRIT

The 3rd section is where Mrs. Eddy uses certain words to describe SOUL.

III. SOUL

The fourth section contains words Mrs. Eddy uses to describe PRINCIPLE.

IV. PRINCIPLE:

Words that Mrs. Eddy uses to describe the attributes of LIFE are in section five.

V. LIFE

The 6th section contains Mrs. Eddy words to describe the attributes of TRUTH.

VI. TRUTH

The last section contains words Mrs. Eddy uses to describe aspects of LOVE.

VII. LOVE

MRS. EDDY'S REVELATION WAS DIRECT FROM GOD

At this point it must be clear to the Christian Scientist that Mary Baker Eddy did not get her great revelation from the Bible, but rather, as she makes it emphatically clear, it was a revelation straight from God; and she afterwards studied the Bible for confirmation of what her divine Mind had revealed to her, as it pierced the veil of materiality. This is clear from her answer to Mr. Wiggin (Miscellany 318:31): "I do not find my authority for Christian Science in history, but in revelation. If there had never existed such a person as the Galilean Prophet, it would make no difference to me. I should still know that God's [Mind's, infinite good's] spiritual ideal is the only real man in His [infinite good's] image and likeness."

There is no word in the English language that could more truly express the nature and purpose of divine Love than does the term "Science." Why? Because Science (like the science of mathematics) is universal, always available, and always demonstrable, and "if men would bring to bear upon the study of the Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so-called pains and pleasures of material sense, they would not go from bad to worse until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold, but the whole human family would be redeemed through the merits of Christ,-through the perception and acceptance of Truth. For this glorious result Christian Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding" (S&H 202:6).

OUR TEXTBOOK CONTAINS THE "SYSTEM"

The Christian Science textbook by Mary Baker Eddy contains the "system" that honors God, "that heals the sick and sinning as no other system can." "Our system of Mind-healing rests on the apprehension of the nature and essence of all being,-on the divine Mind and Love's essential qualities." ("Of course to the material thought all is material, till such thought is rectified by Spirit.")

Mrs. Eddy tells us: "Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of the age in which we live. This system enables the learner to demonstrate the divine Principle, upon which Jesus' healing was based, and the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of disease" (S&H 146:31).

Learning the system means learning what we are and have always been in reality, namely Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth and Love. The seven synonyms for God constitute "the kingdom of heaven within our consciousness. This is the most wonderful knowledge that has ever come to mankind. But it must be learned.

Knowing and seeing what we truly are is not always easy, even for those who have immersed themselves in this study for years. When a group of thinkers recently held a reunion-after 60 years-to discuss the wonderful findings Mr. Doorly and Max Kappeler and others had unearthed in our textbook, they tried to "behold the perfect man," as Jesus and Mrs. Eddy had done; they tried not to see receding hairlines and expanding waistlines, hearing aids and walking aids, wrinkles and bifocals, dentures and toupeés.

With much hearty laughter they bowed gracefully toward all those things that mark the passing of years, that to the materially-minded might bring forth a cry, a sob, a wail, a moan, a groan or a whimper; and they sang as they feasted on grits and gravy.

DIVINE METAPHYSICS REDUCED TO A SYSTEM

Mrs. Eddy tells us, "Divine metaphysics is now REDUCED TO A SYSTEM." The God-dictated textbook is laid out in a "system" which consists of three fundamental categories of being in which:

(1) The seven synonyms for God-Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love-constitute the nature of infinite good-of what you are.

(2) These seven synonyms for God (infinite good) operate through a four-fold calculus of being-the city foursquare. The four sides of the city are the incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite, and they refer to the four functions of Word, Christ, Christianity, and Science, or seeking, finding, using, being-also known as revelation, translation, demonstration, explanation.

(3) Divine action takes place on four levels: Science itself, divine Science, absolute Christian Science, and Christian Science (in descending order).

When we someday understand the system Mrs. Eddy has embedded in Science and Health, we will be able to use it just as we today use mathematics to calculate mathematically. When through spiritual education, "thought accepts the divine infinite calculus...[all material substances will] vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of Spirit" (S&H 520:15 & 209:25), and Spirit means infinite good.

In Unity of Good, p. 6:27 Mrs. Eddy tells us, "the platoons of Christian Science [must first be] thoroughly drilled in the plainer manual of their spiritual armament...'Wait patiently on the Lord'; and in less than another fifty years His name will be magnified in the apprehension of this new subject."

It was just fifty years after she wrote these words, that Mr. John Doorly of London, England began to see the system, and teach its beginnings to hundreds of students. (As a note of interest it was also just fifty years later, in 1938, that "Mrs. Eddy's Place" was published in the Christian Science Sentinel and in the Journal.)

One day the Science of Christian Science will be taught in schools and colleges, just as the material sciences are taught today. "If the Bible and Science and Health had the place in schools of learning that physiology occupies, they would revolutionize and reform the world through the power of Christ" (No. 11:15). This is a moment of hope in history, and we should rejoice in it. (The above pages were taken from my book, Made Whole Through Our Marriage To God, pp. 285-289.)

The Children's Section will be continued in the next letter. As announced in Letter No. 11, this Letter will be the last one you will receive if we do not hear from you.

With love to all, and again gratitude for the mountain of letters received asking to stay on our mail list.

(signed) Helen M. Wright

TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT -- AGAIN.

I have not received The Mailing Fund's last letter but friends have written that my defence of Mary Baker Eddy's sacred Manual, has come under fierce and heavy attack. The Mailing Fund insists Mrs. Eddy did not really mean what she in "plain straight-forward talk" wrote in her Manual. We will be making a response to The Mailing Fund's last letter available to anyone who requests it. Please write, call, or email us for your free copy. MBE Institute, 2100 Third Ave., #2601, Seattle, WA 98121, phone (206) 728-1819, email: talktous@MBEInstitute.org

To meet rumors of her death, Mrs. Eddy took daily drives. In similar vein to meet rumors of my death (which are greatly exaggerated,) I am in training for the next Olympics and jog around the block daily.

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