MARY BAKER EDDY LETTER

Letter No. Nine, May 21, 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)

St. Francis of Assisi urged: "Preach the gospel at all time. If necessary, use words."

I am deeply grateful for your faithful and continued support of these Mary Baker Eddy Letters. As the eve of the new millenium approaches, with your help we are reaching more and more people with Mary Baker Eddy's teaching in the Second Coming of the Christ, the "Comforter" Jesus prophesied and promised.

This teaching is revealing to you, and to all, that "the kingdom of God is within you"-is your true Mind, the Mind that is Love. This is the most important information that has come to us in the three-million-year history of humanity. Let us accept and share with all mankind, this wonderment and awe of Mary Baker Eddy's great discovery.

A number of eager and concerned readers have asked about the delay in this issue of the Mary Baker Eddy Letter. Letter 9 is long in coming because I have been hard at work finishing a new book, Star of Boston, The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, which has just now gone to press. It is a book I think you will enjoy reading. It can be ordered from Bookmark or from Rare Book Company, or from the Mary Baker Eddy Institute. (260 pp. paperback, $12.95).

"MAN IS NOT GOD"

Several students (seasoned metaphysicians) have written indicating that they consider themselves "man," and that "man is not God"; that they considered themselves "man" was unmistakable. They would be interested to know that Mary Baker Eddy told Mr. Carpenter, Sr. that "the reason church Scientists do not make their demonstration is because they believe they are man rather than God."

Mrs. Eddy defines God as "Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love."

Eventually we will all see ourselves as the infinite good we call God, with man as our reflection, our visible image. It is always a matter of "Principle and its idea is one."

Mrs. Eddy, in the first edition of Science and Health, tells us plainly and repeatedly that "you are Spirit, you are Soul, you are Principle, you will be Life, Truth, and Love when you understand them." These are terms for God.

For instance, on page 11 we read: "We [must] learn ourselves Spirit....All is mind and mind produces mind only." [In the first edition Mrs. Eddy did not capitalize Mind.]

Again on page 14: "We are Spirit, Soul, and not body, and all is good that is Spirit." [What freedom we will experience when we realize we don't have a matter body!]

Page 38 states: " 'Tis necessary to understand oneself Spirit, and not matter."

On page 39 we find: "Jesus regarded himself Principle instead of person: hear his words: 'I am the way, the Truth, and the Life'.... man is the reflex shadow of God [but you are not a shadow. A shadow doesn't have the power to think, as you have.]....To know we are Soul [God] and not body is starting right."

Page 41: "Jesus reckoned himself not matter but Spirit; not sense but Soul [God]....Understanding himself Soul instead of body, and that Soul was God, brought down upon him the anathemas of a world."

Page 46: "But how shall we escape from flesh or mortality, except through the change called death? [Answer]: By understanding we were never flesh, that we are Spirit and not matter [that 'God is the only being of man']," or as one Sunday School student put it, "In Him we live and move and have our beans."

Statements like these from the first edition will bless us when once we understand Mrs. Eddy's teaching-the Second Coming of the Christ.

Because of these forthright, God-dictated statements, the first edition of Science and Health was met with such a barrage of dire criticism that Mrs. Eddy wrote one newspaper: "In the book I only wanted to bless my enemies as well as my friends if I have any."

In later editions Mary Baker Eddy saw the need to mute some of these statements, but she never refuted them. In her book Retrospection and Introspection Mrs. Eddy tells us for all time: "The first edition of my most important work, Science and Health, containing the complete statement of Christian Science,-the term employed by me to express the divine, or spiritual, Science of Mind-healing, was published in 1875."

MORE REFERENCES

A few more references from the first edition of Science and Health will help us see how spiritual Truth flowed into Mary Baker Eddy's thought to bring us this Second Coming of the Christ, and fulfill Jesus' prophecy and promise of the "Comforter" that would remain with us forever, and teach us what the people in Jesus' day were not ready for-the understanding of our divinity.

Page 59 tells us: "We must recognize ourself Soul." Page 65: "We are Spirit." Page 76: "To admit oneself Soul, sets us free"... Page 77: "The understanding that we are Spirit must come"...."We shall be found Love, Life, and Truth because we understand them." What an enormously thrilling discovery! Let's vigorously claim our birthright. Page 116: "man has not a separate mind from Deity" [from your real Mind, "the kingdom of God within you."] Page 117: "Jesus understood himself Soul." [Soul is a synonym for God, meaning spiritual understanding, true identity; Jesus was our example.]

Page 223: "When realizing Life as it is, namely, Soul, not sense or the personal man, we shall expand into Truth and self-completeness that embrace all things, and need communion with nothing more than itself, to find them all"....[We must lay up our treasures in heaven, in Spirit, not matter]. Page 225: "We are Spirit, but knowing this not, we go on to vainly suppose ourself body [man] and not Soul." [It is only false beliefs that have hidden this glorious Truth of our being and turned us away from our original selfhood, hence the great need we feel for something better, higher, holier than personal man. Think of this incredible truth of our being that Mary Baker Eddy discovered!]

Page 260: "I am intelligence and not matter, and that Intelligence is God." Page 267: "All is mind, there is no matter." Page 274: "Knowing that we are Soul destroys all sickness, sin, and death." Page 275: "We cannot reach this Principle unless it be understood." [The Second Coming of the Christ brings the needed understanding]. Page 294: "If we are sensibly with the body we are not Soul, Life, Love, and Truth, and therefore not in the harmony of being." Page 305: "Jesus held all that he was, God..."

Page 435 tells us: "Only as we understand the Principle of being, and reach perfection, are we Spirit, and eternal....We are never Spirit until we are God....We become Spirit only as we reach being in God." Shouldn't we be enthralled to learn what we really already are?

Yes, let us no longer wallow in ignorance; but as St. Paul urges: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Tim. 2:15).

As early as 60 B.C. Epictetus, a slave, rose to teach others that the true good is within oneself and that the only thing to be feared is "the God in one's own breast," in other words, what you think. He taught: "When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember, never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone, but God is within, and your genius is within."

MRS. EDDY ANSWERS THE QUESTION: WHAT IS MAN?

In the current edition of Science and Health what does Mary Baker Eddy say about who and what we are, and what "man" is? In "the scientific statement of being" on page 468:8, Mrs. Eddy tells us that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation [man]." She has made it clear that this Mind that is "All," is your real Mind, "the kingdom of God within you"-your true consciousness. This Mind-your true consciousness-has an image, a reflection, that which is seen, and this reflection is called "man."

In her definition of "man" on page 475 in the current edition of Science and Health, addressing the question "What is man?" Mrs. Eddy answers: "He is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God." You are not an "image." The "image" is merely the visible part of you, of your invisible Mind.

The belief that we are "man," image, or that we are flesh, blood and bones rather than God, is corrected in Christian Science.

Mary Baker Eddy for the first time in human history showed and explained that evil of any nature is unreal, and must be seen as illusion only. The great revelation that came to Mrs. Eddy in 1866, was the realization of the "omnipresence of present perfection," causing her, in effect, to see that we are "Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love," and that error of any kind is unreal.

How easily we forget this. The kingdom of God is within us; heaven is at hand yet we claim its opposite!

We are like the three small boys bragging about the worldly wealth of their fathers. The first boasted that his dad owned a farm. The second said his dad owned a factory. The third boy, a pastor's son, replied: "That's nothin'. My dad owns hell."

"No way," another boy scoffed. "How can a man own hell?" "Well he does," the preacher's son said. "My mom told my grandma that the elders of our church gave it to him last night."

Isn't it time to stop "giving each other hell"? Isn't it time to roll away the great stone from the tomb in which mankind has buried itself in dogma and ritualism? This great stone is the illusion, the hypnotic suggestion, the false belief, that we are material man instead of God, infinite good, having "sovereign power to think and act rightly."

Divine Science has rolled away this great stone. "The stone," Mrs. Eddy says, "has been rolled away by human suffering" (Mis. 179:3). Elsewhere she asks: "Who can roll away the stone from this sepulchre [where we are buried in dogma, ritualism, ecclesiasticism]? Who-but God's avenging angel!"-the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, the "Comforter."

Continuing her definition of "man," Mrs. Eddy says: "Man is idea, the image of Love....the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind [whose Mind? Your true Mind, "the kingdom of God" within your consciousness] and therefore is eternal.... [Man, as image, is] that which has no separate mind from God."

When you look in the mirror, does that image (man) have a separate Mind from what is standing in front of the mirror?-namely, you? Does that image have a single quality underived from Deity, namely your real Mind? Isn't Mrs. Eddy asking, "Does that image, man, 'possess any life, intelligence or creative power of its own?'" Or does it "reflect spiritually all that belongs to his Maker"-your true Mind?

Mary Baker Eddy asks you to "Ponder in thought your infinite, harmonious, Christ-expressing selfhood," and to claim that Christ-expressing selfhood as you, as your true being.

In her early pamphlet, Science of Man, answering the question: "What is man?" Mrs. Eddy wrote: "You are not man or woman, you are the Soul [spiritual understanding, true identity, the Ego, the Principle which is Mind, Spirit, Soul expressing itself as Life, Truth, and Love.] And that which is called man, are the shadows and ideas of you."

In other words, "man" is not you, but simply your reflection; the reflection of your Mind.

TRUTH SUPPRESSED

It is not surprising that some people are still confused about this question. So much of what Mary Baker Eddy has written, especially in her first and other early editions of Science and Health, in her Manual, and in her unpublished statements, has been intentionally suppressed by those in high ecclesiastical positions. Or worse yet, efforts have been made by this ecclesiastical hierarchy to willfully confuse the field.

When (after Mrs. Eddy's leaving) the Manual-terminated five member Board of Directors disobediently took over not only her church but also her legally set up Publishing Society, and no one came forward to rattle the cages of the high and mighty, and give them an earful, the Christian Science movement was in for trouble; and we have the fulfilling of Jesus' Revelation to St. John, chapters 13 to 20, when the "beast" and the "dragon" came into power.

Mrs. Eddy had tried to avoid this by writing the Manual, for she knew, as she writes (My. 117:22): "There was never a religion or philosophy lost to the centuries except by sinking its divine Principle in personality." She dearly hoped that "all Christian Scientists [would] ponder this fact, and give their talents and loving hearts free scope only in the right direction!" (Ibid. 117). She knew that the world is hungry for goodness and she dedicated her life to bringing it the goodness that is its true heritage.

In Miscellaneous Writings we read: "Because God is Mind [your real Mind], and this Mind is good, all is good and all is Mind. God [your real Mind that is infinite good, and Love] is the sum total of the universe. Then what and where are sin, sickness and death?" (P. 105:31).

But "Christian Science and Christian Scientists must have a history; and if I could write the history in poor parody on Tennyson's grand verse, it would read thus:-

Traitors to right of them,

M.D.'s to left of them,

Priestcraft in front of them,

Volleyed and thundered!

Into the jaws of hate,

Out through the door of Love,

On to the blesed above,

Marched the one hundred.

These verses in Miscellaneous Writings, copyrighted in 1896, portray accurately the past one hundred years of Christian Science history.

"Mrs. Eddy wrote, 'The way is always blockaded in proportion to the weight of good that is to be carried over it." Then she added: "Watch lest you believe error attempts to make you suffer for the good you do. You may be persecuted, but that does not necessarily mean that it must be suffering. Error aims its hatred at the kingdom of heaven, not at you. When you endeavor to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, you place yourself in a position where you feel the opposition of the carnal mind; but you are protected in this work because you are working to protect the establishment of the kingdom of heaven.

The dangers Mrs. Eddy saw besetting her great life work were set forth in a "Watch" recorded by Lewis Strang:

"One Mind controls this and every hour. When the Discoverer of Christian Science in this age must deal with sinning, so-called Christian Scientists, those who know their Leader as she is, must be awake to the delusions of M.A.M. [malicious animal magnetism] that would make Jerusalem a waste and desert place. Take up those transgressors in our midst who would undo the work of their Leader. Love is All. One Mind. Dear one, Mother knows your heart is active in His [infinite good's] service. Waken to the need of this hour that those who would set aside the Manual of The Mother Church, with its just By-laws, see the sinfulness of their ways."

MARY BAKER EDDY'S MANUAL

In 1903 Mary Baker Eddy wrote the Board of Directors: "NEVER ABANDON THE BY-LAWS."

Mrs. Eddy knew that even if her Manual-terminated five Directors betrayed her and through fraud and deception kept themselves in power, sooner or later her ten deeds of trust would be honored by the courts of our land, for "the Manual is God's law," she said.

In the class of 1898 she prophetically declared, "The Manual will be regarded as law by law."

To Clara Shannon she explained, "This Church Manual is God's law as much as the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. It is God's law, and will be acknowledged as law by law." Then, Clara recalls, Mrs. Eddy smiled, and looking up from her writing, said, "I mean by the laws of our state, even if it has to go to the higher courts."

Only as students awaken spiritually will they obey the By-Laws in the Manual, the most important of which is the one on page 26 that terminated the five-member Board when Mary Baker Eddy was no longer here to guide and oversee them with the Mind of Christ.

A few readers are still confused concerning the five-member Board of Directors, and the four-member Board. The four-member Board was legally set up at the time of the building of the little Mother Church. They had no control over anything except that one church in Boston, whose members constituted The First Church of Christ Scientist.

The temporary five-member Board was the four-member Board to which Archibald McClellan had been added. They were vested with additional powers only so long as Mrs. Eddy was here to supervise and control them with the Mind of Christ. To ensure this she made a By-Law in the Manual that said they could fill a vacancy on this five-member Board ONLY AFTER THE CANDIDATE IS APPROVED BY THE PASTOR EMERITUS (MRS. EDDY). When this fifth position could no longer be filled the Board could no longer function as the five-member board, and would again become the self-perpetuating four-member board with authority only concerning The First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston. Note: "in Boston."

Mrs. Eddy wanted every Christian Scientist to be a law unto himself. She wanted to forever do away with an ecclesiastical hierarchy that would rule over you and me. As already stated, she had seen that "There was never a religion or philosophy lost to the centuries except by sinking its divine Principle in personality." This had happened to the First Coming of the Christ, with Jesus; and Mrs. Eddy did not want it to happen again with the Second Coming of the Christ. With your love for Christian Science, we have reason to believe you feel the same.

Ecclesiasticism and priestcraft have no relation to Christian Science, and to think they have is to manacle oneself to a corpse. This is just what Mary Baker Eddy intended her Manual to prevent. Thus she used the Manual to terminate, after her leaving, every function which would lead to an ecclesiastical hierarchy, as happened after Jesus and the apostles departed.

For example, there was to be no official church publication after Mrs. Eddy was no longer here to give it authority, because, to continue, it must have her "signature in her own handwriting." (See Manual p. 26.)

To further stem the tide she saw rising up, in its attempt to engulf and destroy the Christ, the incorporeal savior, the spiritual idea which leadeth into all truth, Mary Baker Eddy took the steps of (1) terminating the temporary five-member Board of Directors; (2) giving the legal four-member Board authority ONLY over the Boston church; and (3) legally establishing the Christian Science Publishing Society entirely apart from the material Church organization. She gave full authority for all Christian Science literature (apart from her own writings) perpetually and irrevocably to the Publishing Trustees, entirely apart from the material church organization.

Some of Mary Baker Eddy's men students vigorously resisted these actions. They never saw that Mrs. Eddy's authority came from God and that she was "the bone and sinew of the world." They just saw her as another human being whom they would some day replace. The students' refusal to see Mary Baker Eddy truly, and honor her rightly, makes Mrs. Eddy's achievement nothing short of miraculous and deserves the response an old, white bearded pastor gave the teenagers who teased him.

"Good morning Father Abraham," one said, bowing.

"Good morning Father Isaac," said, another teenager, also bowing.

"Good morning Father Jacob," said a third.

Smiling, the old pastor replied: "I am neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob. I am Saul, and I am looking for my father's asses. I think I have found what I am looking for."

Unfortunately, in the case of Mrs. Eddy's students, the consequences are far more serious.

The author of this "Letter," in her two books on the Manual, has uncovered other details of the shocking and base betrayal of our Leader by some of her students the minute Mrs. Eddy said farewell. This appalling betrayal has, for the present, deprived mankind of Jesus' promise and prophecy of the "Comforter," the Second Coming of the Christ, and in consequence we are now experiencing the fulfilling of Jesus' prophecy to St. John concerning the beast and the dragon, as recorded in Revelation's chapters 13-20.

The Christian Science movement needs a clarion call, Gabriel's piercing trumpet to signal the attack on this error-with each of us becoming a Michael, a warrior-angel in the cause.

As spiritual understanding broadens, deepens, strengthens, it drives nails into the coffin of priestcraft, and the "remnant's" devotion of thought to the honest achievement of bringing about obedience to Mary Baker Eddy's Manual will reap its reward.

Since Mrs. Eddy's passing, the mighty colossus of ecclesiastical despotism and domination has sat astride the fence that shuts out freedom, casting its long shadow of disobedience over the Christian Science movement. But now it has reached its day of reckoning. The momentous expansion of understanding of Mary Baker Eddy's Manual is bringing victory in this battle for spiritual freedom-the battle to free individual Christian Scientists from ecclesiastical thought control and from their fear of reading anything not "authorized" by five mortals in Boston.

Many of the accumulated abuses and violations that dishonored Mary Baker Eddy's Manual By-Laws, after she passed from mortal sight, have been set forth in the author's two books on the Manual. One of the most damaging has been the ecclesiastical hierarchy's official stricture against reading any writing not approved by the five Directors in Boston-what the Directors call "unauthorized literature." This restriction has done incalculable harm to the progress of Christian Science and is absolutely contrary to Mrs. Eddy's intent.

Mrs. Eddy describes such attempts at controlling a student's reading matter as "wicked, tyrannical, proscriptive, and unChristian." The Manual's By-Law speaks only of "incorrect literature," and says nothing about not reading it. How would one know it was incorrect if one didn't read it? Students should read critically and widely, always using the Bible and Science and Health as their textbooks, their standard and authority.

The attempt at thought control by the Boston hierarchy has had a devastating effect on individual growth, depriving members of instructive and inspiring literature, and constricting Mary Baker Eddy's great revelation within institutional fetters.

Practitioners and teachers caught recommending literature not authorized by the five Directors were, and still are, subject to excommunication, disgrace, and de-listing from the Journal, which usually also means deprivation of their income. "Fear is the weapon in the hands of tyrants" (Mis. 99:10). This fear has led to attitudes of servility and dependence on human authority. The resultant reluctance to read widely, to initiate and innovate, has largely ended the vitality of the Christian Science movement.

We, "the remnant," must do all we can to uncover the lie. We must insist on playing with a full deck of cards, not just the few cards the Board of Directors orders us to use. Let us not give away the store the minute error knocks at our door. Instead let us tell the truth, that Mary Baker Eddy's Manual is holy writ, a holy instrument. Let us educate the people spiritually. Let us spread the Word of God as given to us in the Second Coming of the Christ. As we do, we will be victorious, for "the earth will help the woman.

Will you be part of this glorious process?

Because of Mary Baker Eddy's teaching, every individual is destined to learn he is Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love, just as Jesus proved himself to be "in his mighty, crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the flesh" (S&H 117:21). Jesus had absolute trust in good. He was our example.

Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy are our Wayshowers. We need to resist any who would take their place.

A Christian Scientist woke up one morning and told his wife this dream: "I saw a group of peopl who had died and were waiting at the pearly gates. They were brought before the Lord, who was seated on His throne."

"Who are you and what did you do to deserve to be here?" the Lord asked the first man in line.

"I'm George Bush and I'm the former President of the United States," he replied, and then proceeded to relate all the things he had done for his country and the world.

"Welcome," the Lord said. "Take the seat on my right." He then asked the second man: "And who are you?"

"I'm Bill Clinton and I'm the current President of the United States," he replied, and proceeded to relate all the things he was doing for his country and the world.

"Welcome," the Lord said. "Take the seat on my left." Then turning to the third man, the Lord asked: "Who are you?"

"I'm on the 5-member Christian Science Board of Directors and I believe you are sitting in my seat."

It has been said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

After Mrs. Eddy's passing, and her betrayal by her Manual-terminated five-member Board, a reign of terror began, for "fear is the weapon of tyrants." Many who should have stood up to the Board became jelly-fish when they were put through the wringer. Fear of being de-listed from the Journal or being excommunicated caused them to keep silent or actually support the Manual-terminated Board. Many were afraid of the "malpractice" that would come their way if they actually stood for Principle.

Unfortunately, this situation continues even today. But true Christian Scientists, with vision and courage, will bravely support Mary Baker Eddy and her God-dictated, holy Manual, even if it means being classed with the "outcasts" and "infidels." Do right and fear not!

This reminds me of a little story I read recently. It goes something like this: His name is John. He has wild hair, wears patched jeans, a T-shirt with holes in it, and no shoes. This has been his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kinda eccentric and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college.

Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students, but are not sure how to go about it. One day John decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, just jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started, so John starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now people are looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. John gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit and when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, trust me, this has never happened in this church before!) By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.

About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward John. The deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, a three-piece suit, and a pocket watch. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane and as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves, "You can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?"

It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The people are thinking, "The minister can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do." And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to John and worships with him so he won't be alone. Everyone chokes up with emotion. When the minister gains control he says, "What I'm about to preach, you will hardly remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget." (From E. I., Sherman Oaks, Calif.)

ARE YOU READY FOR A PROGRESSIVE VISION OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?

Mr. Fredric Stoessel, C.S., who has done much to uncover the error that in the last fifty years has devastated the Christian Science movement, asks:

"Are you ready for a progressive vision of Christian Science?"

Mary Baker Eddy, "the Leader and Founder of Christian Science, tells us that the time for thinkers has come. Note, she did not say blind believers. While the central church organization in Boston is fading to the point of vanishing, high energy physics and most of the scientific world has accepted the basic teachings she laid down a century ago-for which she was bitterly condemned. Today advanced thinkers see her teaching as reality. Most of her concepts are now in the mainstream of human understanding.

"In the last century," continues Mr. Stoessel, "divine Love so flooded the consciousness of Mary Baker Eddy that she was able to teach and demonstrate the way to lift human consciousness outside of itself into the realization of the everpresent Christ.

"Our Founder and Leader plainly believed no person or group should lead the Christian Science movement. Only the Christ in our true consciousness [the 'kingdom of God within you'] should lead and guide. The purpose of Christian Science is not to improve humanhood, but to raise it into spiritual consciousness so that the reappearance of Christ as a tangible reality will result.

"The universe of Love [which we are all destined to become aware of] has no hate, malice, jealousy, revenge, fear. It has no mental malpractice, disloyal students, enemies, business competition, wars or any of the negative qualities humans ascribe to each other. Love knows absolutely nothing about such negative human emotions. They have no power. They simply do not exist [except as hypnotic suggestion, illusion, aggressive mental suggestion.]"

Love, at last, is always the winning argument. It is always the winner. Let us exercise it.

Mrs. Eddy showed that one fearless Leader can make millions of brave doers, resulting in millions healed.

Let us, "Wake up, sing up, preach up, pray up, stay up, pay up, but never give up or back up or shut up until the cause of Christ in the church and in this world is built up!"

CHILDREN'S CORNER

It has been said that politeness and consideration are a sound investment, like investing pennies and getting dollars back. Abraham Lincoln said, "If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his friend."

Young people have an almost biological tendency to be hopeful. This natural hopefulness needs to be treasured. If nurtured it will bloom into the buoyant and loving self-assurance which fosters qualities like compassion, responsibility, enterprise and perseverance.

A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner. As parents, we help shape the content of our children's minds. We help make each a treasure-house of useful knowledge and precious memories or a bleak warehouse booby-trapped with pain and self-doubt. If we are wise, we will know what to overlook, what to forgive and forget. Remembering that "the kingdom of God is within [us]," we will be happy and joyous, and this will help our children's mental health.

Since silence is a text easy to misread, always be quick to assure your child that you love him, are for him, loyal to him in every way, and that you expect him to make history, not headlines.

A recent article, called "Secrets of Happy Families," in the Reader's Digest, pointed out that "in close relationships, the little things are the big things." The author, Stephen R. Covey, said that when he asked people to name the three most important things in their lives, 95 percent included "family" or "family relationships" on their list. About 75 percent put family first.

Yet in our day-to-day lives, all too often we get caught up in the stress of the day's work or our ambition for the future, and neglect or hurt those who mean most to us.

Mr. Covey says that what we all need is a pause button that enables us to stop and choose a response based on our deepest values, rather than react to the pressures of the moment.

He speaks of a friend who makes a powerful choice every day. When he comes home from work, he sits in his car and pushes his pause button, and says to himself, "My family is the most important, the most enjoyable part of my life. I'm going to go into my home and communicate my love for them."

Mr. Covey also speaks of some parents who decided that the behavior of their daughter had deteriorated to the point where it was destroying the family. The father determined that when she got home that night, he'd tell her she had to do certain things or move out.

While he waited, he took out a blank note card and listed changes she had to make in order to stay. In this emotionally pained spirit, he turned the card over. The other side being blank, he decided to list the improvements he would make if she agreed to the changes he suggested. He was stunned when he realized his list was longer than hers.

In that spirit, he humbly greeted her, and they began a meaningful talk, starting with his side of the card. Mrs. Eddy says, "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man." This father's decision to work from the kingdom of God within his consciousness, to behold "in Science the perfect man," made all the difference. Their family became a happy family.

We all need to cultivate kindness. Mr. Covey tells of spending an evening out with his two boys. In the middle of the movie, Sean, then four, fell asleep. His older brother, Stephen, six, stayed awake, and they watched the movie together. When it was over the father carried Sean to the car. It was cold, so he took off his coat, and gently arranged it over Sean. At home that night, Stephen suddenly asked, "Daddy, if I were cold, would you put your coat around me too?"

Of all the events of that night out together, the most important to Stephen was a little act of kindness-a momentary gesture of love from his father to his brother.

In close relationships, it's the little things that mean the most. They go a long way toward building trust and unconditional love. Just think about the impact on your family of using words of courtesy such as thank you, and please. Or unexpected acts of service, such as taking children shopping for something that's important to them. Or finding little ways to express love, such as tucking a loving note in a lunch box or briefcase.

Or using humor to soften the sting when you need to say "no." A 16-year old boy was pestering his father for permission to drive his father's car.

The father said, "You read your Bible, son, and get your long hair cut, then we'll talk about it."

Soon the son returned and said, "Sampson had long hair, and so did Jesus."

"Yes," said the father, "and they walked everywhere they went."

If you want to earn an "A," apologize. Perhaps nothing tests our capacity to initiate change as much as saying "I'm sorry" to another person:

"Son, I'm sorry I embarrassed you in front of your friends. That was wrong of me."

Apologizing, admitting one's own faults, can feel risky. So can saying "I love you." When we are tired or discouraged small kindnesses may take extra effort. Do them anyway, for your family's sake, and your own. These gestures of love are not trivial. They are infinitely important because they are infinite good, the Mind that is Love, in action. In close relationships the little things are the big things, just as in this letter I embrace you in love.

Helen M. Wright

We are pleased to offer the following new items to our readers:

Mr. Young Goes to Boston is the poignant story of Alan Young's remarkable experiences as Communications Director, and later as a lecturer, with the Mother Church. You won't want to miss this humorous story told with the love that Alan is known for. At only $9.95, you can get a copy for all your friends too!

Alan Young has just completed the audiobook recording of Helen Wright's last book, Made Whole Through Our Marriage To God. With 10 hours of recording this audiobook is filled with the truth of your relationship to God, revealing the truth and practicality of Mary Baker Eddy's highest teachings. Order your copy today - only $22.95.

Star of Boston - The Life of Mary Baker Eddy

Helen Wright has just finished her latest book, a wonderfully inspiring look at the life of Mary Baker Eddy. Read how Mrs. Eddy's life fulfilled the Biblical prophecy of the 54th chapter of Isaiah, how her life is intertwined with the chapter "Atonement and Eucharist" in Science and Health, and how Christ & Christmas reveals the trials and triumphs of her journey Spiritward. This unique story of the greatest woman who ever lived, will be sure to awaken a deeper appreciation of this most remarkable woman, in the hearts of all mankind. Available end of May - paperback, 270 pages - Introductory pricing -ONLY $12.95

"Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols"

Who is the "Woman in the Apocalypse?" Why "Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?" the most important Bible Lesson? What hidden meaning do the beautiful windows in the Mother Church reveal? You can find out the answers to these questions and more in a new book now at the printer, titled Mother in Israel. This beautiful full-color paperback can be ordered now for June delivery; just phone, fax, write or email Healing Unlimited at 2100 Third Ave., #1901, Seattle, WA 98121, (206) 728-1819, email: heal@ChristianScience.org Color, paperback (120 pages) ONLY $14.95 plus $2 postage.

ADDENDUM

WONDERFUL NEWS EXONERATING ROBERT PEEL

Downplaying Mrs. Eddy's role as the Revelator and Wayshower, as the one who fulfilled Jesus' prophecy and promise to bring the "Comforter," the Second Coming of the Christ, has been a continuing theme of the Manual-terminated five-member board. One of the most unexpectedly damaging tools in this campaign has been Volume III of Robert Peel's biography of Mary Baker Eddy.

For years discerning people have wondered how Robert Peel could have written the first two volumes of his biography in such an impartial but genuinely respectful manner while the third volume is filled with such subtle hatred of Mrs. Eddy. (A nine page article by Paul Smillie, available from the Gethsemane Foundation, P.O. Box 583, St. Maries, ID 83861, gives numerous examples of Vol. III's undercutting references to Mrs. Eddy's "human failings," battering Mrs. Eddy with verbal hooks, jabs and uppercuts.)

It is well known that Peel, as historian for The Mother Church, had a constant battle with church officials over the officials' desire to present a picture of our Leader as just another "white-haired old lady"-perhaps more spiritually-minded than most, but not the "Woman" prophesied throughout the Scriptures as the one to bring the Second Coming of the Christ. Thus the third volume's staggering departure from Peel's previous treatment of Mrs. Eddy has been a puzzle to many.

Now startling news has come to light concerning Robert Peel's innocence in regard to the untrue statements about Mary Baker Eddy in what was thought to be his writing in Vol. III of his trilogy. As genuine Christian Scientists grasp the truth regarding Robert Peel's steadfast, continuing love for his Leader they will recoil in horror at the foul and shameless treatment accorded Robert Peel and his beloved Leader.

There is nothing hidden that shall not sooner or later come to light, and it is our desire-and we welcome the opportunity-to make known to the entire Christian Science field the following stunning information setting forth Robert Peel's innocence.

This is the point the reader must know: While Robert Peel had the basic structure of the third volume outlined and much of the basic research of the volume had been written years previous, HE DID NOT WRITE THE FINAL VERSION OF THE BOOK. A mental impairment precluded him from finishing his final volume. That job was left to a "ghost-writer," another individual versed in the history of the church and Mary Baker Eddy. It is clear that the real author and "revisionist" of this final volume of the trilogy embodied nothing less than the Pharasaical thought bent on crucifying the Christ anew, if it could. The spiritually-minded reader sees through this blatant attempt to bury her who made the demonstration of being governed by the law of God, beneath the flood of the dragon.

We are deeply grateful to be able to bring this true knowledge to the awareness of our readers knowing they will be happy to have this vindication of Robert Peel.

The first 50 people placing an order from our attached 2-page catalog will receive FREE, an audiotape of their choice with their order. You'll love Alan Young's inspiring reading of Helen Wright's books that bring Mrs. Eddy's most profound teachings to life. Place your ORDER TODAY!

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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