Trustees under the Will of Mary
Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U.S.A.
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PASTOR'S MESSAGE TO THE MOTHER
CHURCH,
ON THE OCCASION OF THE |
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JUNE COMMUNION, 1898
SUBJECT: Not Pantheism, but Christian
Science
BELOVED brethren, since last you gathered
at the |
| 6 |
feast of our Passover, the winter winds
have come
and gone; the rushing winds of March have shrieked and
hummed
their hymns; the frown and smile of April, the |
| 9 |
laugh of May, have fled; and the roseate
blush of joyous
June is here and ours.
In unctuous unison with nature, mortals
are hoping and |
| 12 |
working, putting off outgrown, wornout, or
soiled gar-
ments - the pleasures and pains of sensation and the
sackcloth of waiting - for the springtide of Soul. For |
| 15 |
what a man seeth he hopeth not for, but
hopeth for what
he hath not seen, and waiteth patiently the appearing
thereof. The night is far spent, and day is not distant in |
| 18 |
the horizon of Truth - even the day when
all people
shall know and acknowledge one God and one Christianity.
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE NOT PANTHEISM
At this period of
enlightenment, a declaration from the |
| 3 |
pulpit that Christian Science is pantheism
is anomalous to
those who know whereof they speak - who know that
Christian Science is Science, and therefore is neither |
| 6 |
hypothetical nor dogmatical, but
demonstrable, and
looms above the mists of pantheism higher than Mt.
Ararat above the deluge. |
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ANALYSIS OF "PANTHEISM"
According to Webster
the word "pantheism" is de-
rived from two Greek words meaning "all" and
"god." |
| 12 |
Webster's derivation of the English
word "pantheism" is
most suggestive. His uncapitalized word "god" gives
the meaning of pantheism as a human opinion of "gods |
| 15 |
many," or mind in matter. "The doctrine
that the uni-
verse, conceived of as a whole, is God; that there is no
God but the combined forces and laws which are mani- |
| 18 |
fested in the existing universe."
The Standard
Dictionary has it that pantheism is the
doctrine of the deification of
natural causes, conceived as |
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one personified nature, to which the
religious sentiment is
directed.
Pan is a Greek prefix, but it
might stand, in the term |
| 24 |
pantheism, for the mythological deity of
that name; and
theism for a belief concerning Deity in theology.
How-
ever, Pan in imagery is preferable to pantheism in theology.
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3 |
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The mythical deity may please the fancy,
while pantheism
suits not at all the Christian sense of religion. Pan, as
a |
| 3 |
deity, is supposed to preside over sylvan
solitude, and is a
horned and hoofed animal, half goat and half man,
that
poorly presents the poetical phase of the genii of forests.(1) |
| 6 |
My sense of nature's rich glooms is, that
loneness lacks
but one charm to make it half divine - a friend, with
whom to whisper, "Solitude is sweet." Certain moods |
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of mind find an indefinable pleasure in
stillness, soft,
silent as the storm's sudden hush; for nature's
stillness
is voiced with a hum of harmony, the gentle murmur of |
| 12 |
early morn, the evening's closing vespers,
and lyre of bird
and brooklet.
"O sacred
solitude! divine retreat! |
| 15 |
Choice of
the prudent! envy of the great!
By thy pure stream, or in thy evening
shade,
We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid." |
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Theism is the belief in the personality and
infinite mind
of one supreme, holy, self-existent God, who reveals Him-
self supernaturally to His creation, and whose laws are |
| 21 |
not reckoned as science. In religion, it
is a belief in one
God, or in many gods. It is opposed to atheism and
(1) In Roman mythology
(one of my girlhood studies), Pan stood |
| 24 |
for "universal nature
proceeding from the divine Mind and provi-
dence, of which heaven, earth,
sea, the eternal fire, are so many mem-
bers." Pan was the god of shepherds
and hunters, leader of the |
| 27 |
nymphs, president of the
mountains, patron of country life, and guar-
dian of flocks and herds. His
pipe of seven reeds denotes the celestial
harmony of the seven planets; his
shepherd's crook, that care and |
| 30 |
providence by which he
governs the universe; his spotted skin, the
stars; his goat's feet,
the solidity of the earth; his man-face, the
celestial world.
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monotheism, but agrees with certain forms
of pantheism
and polytheism. It is the doctrine that the universe owes |
| 3 |
its origin and continuity to the reason,
intellect, and will of
a self-existent divine Being, who possesses all
wisdom,
goodness, and power, and is the creator and preserver of |
| 6 |
man.
A theistic
theological belief may agree with physics and
anatomy that reason and will
are properly classified as |
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mind, located in the brain; also, that the
functions of
these faculties depend on conditions of matter, or brain,
for their proper exercise. But reason and will are human; |
| 12 |
God is divine. In academics and in religion
it is patent
that will is capable of use and of abuse, of right and
wrong
action, while God is incapable of evil; that brain is matter, |
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and that there are many so-called minds;
that He is the
creator of man, but that man also is a creator, making
two creators; but God is Mind and one. |
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GOD - NOT HUMAN DEVICES - THE PRESERVER
OF MAN
God, Spirit, is
indeed the preserver of man. Then, in |
| 21 |
the words of the Hebrew singer, "Why art
thou cast down,
O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope
thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health |
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of my countenance, and my God. . . . Who
forgiveth
all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." This
being the case, what need have we of drugs, hygiene, and |
| 27 |
medical therapeutics, if these are not
man's preservers?
By admitting self-evident affirmations and then
contra-
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5 |
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dicting them, monotheism is lost and
pantheism is found
in scholastic theology. Can a single quality of
God, |
| 3 |
Spirit, be discovered in matter? The
Scriptures plainly
declare, "The Word was God;" and "all things were
made by Him," - the
Word. What, then, can matter |
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create, or how can it exist?
JESUS' DEFINITION OF
EVIL
Did God create evil?
or is evil self-existent, and so |
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possessed of the nature of God, good? Since
evil is not
self-made, who or what hath made evil? Our Master
gave the
proper answer for all time to this hoary query. |
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He said of evil: "Ye are of your father,
the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer
from
the beginning, and abode not in the truth [God], because |
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here is no truth [reality] in him [evil] .
When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the
father
of it [a lie]." |
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Jesus' definition of devil (evil) explains
evil. It shows
that evil is both liar and lie, a delusion and illusion.
There-
fore we should neither believe the lie, nor believe that it |
| 21 |
hath embodiment or power; in other words,
we should
not believe that a lie, nothing, can be something, but deny
it and prove its falsity. After this manner our Master cast |
| 24 |
out evil, healed the sick, and saved
sinners. Knowing
that evil is a lie, and, as the Scripture declares,
brought
sin, sickness, and death into the world, Jesus treated the |
| 27 |
lie summarily. He denied it, cast it out
of mortal mind,
and thus healed sickness and sin. His treatment of evil
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and disease, Science will restore and
establish, - first,
because it was more effectual than all other means;
and, |
| 3 |
second, because evil and disease will
never disappear in
any other way.
Finally, brethren,
let us continue to denounce evil as the |
| 6 |
illusive claim that God is not supreme, and
continue to
fight it until it disappears, - but not as one that beateth
the mist, but lifteth his head above it and putteth his foot |
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upon a lie.
EVIL, AS PERSONIFIED
BY THE SERPENT
Mosaic theism
introduces evil, first, in the form of a |
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talking serpent, contradicting the word of
God and thereby
obtaining social prestige, a large following, and
changing
the order and harmony of God's creation. But the higher |
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criticism is not satisfied with this
theism, and asks, If God
is infinite good, what and where is evil?
And if Spirit
made all that was made, how can matter be an
intelligent |
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creator or coworker with God? Again: Did
one Mind,
or two minds, enter into the Scriptural allegory, in the
colloquy between good and evil, God and a serpent? - and |
| 21 |
if two minds, what becomes of theism in
Christianity? For
if God, good, is Mind, and evil also is mind, the
Christian
religion has at least two Gods. If Spirit is sovereign, how |
| 24 |
can matter be force or law; and if God,
good, is omnipo-
tent, what power hath evil?
It is plain that
elevating evil to the altitude of mind gives |
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it power, and that the belief in more than
one spirit, if
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Spirit, God, is infinite, breaketh the
First Commandment
in the Decalogue. |
| 3 |
Science shows that a plurality of minds, or
intelligent
matter, signifies more than one God, and thus prevents the
demonstration that the healing Christ, Truth, gave and |
| 6 |
gives in proof of the omnipotence of one
divine, infinite
Principle.
Does not the theism
or belief, that after God, Spirit, had |
| 9 |
created all things spiritually, a material
creation took
place, and God, the preserver of man, declared that man
should die, lose the character and sovereignty of Jehovah, |
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and hint the gods of paganism?
THEISTIC
RELIGIONS
We know of but three
theistic religions, the Mosaic, the |
| 15 |
Christian, and the Mohammedan. Does not
each of these
religions mystify the absolute oneness and infinity of
God,
Spirit? |
| 18 |
A close study of the Old and New Testaments
in con-
nection with the original text indicates, in the third chap-
ter of Genesis, a lapse in the Mosaic religion, wherein |
| 21 |
theism seems meaningless, or a vague
apology for con-
tradictions. It certainly gives to matter and evil
reality
and power, intelligence and law, which implies Mind, |
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Spirit, God; and the logical sequence of
this error is idol-
atry - other gods.
Again: The
hypothesis of mind in matter, or more than |
| 27 |
one Mind, lapses into evil dominating
good, matter govern-
ing Mind, and makes sin, disease, and death
inevitable,
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despite of Mind, or by the consent of Mind!
Next, it
follows that the disarrangement of matter causes a man to |
| 3 |
be mentally deranged; and the Babylonian
sun god, moon
god, and sin god find expression in sun worship, lunacy,
sin, and mortality. |
| 6 |
Does not the belief that Jesus, the man of
Galilee, is
God, imply two Gods, one the divine, infinite Person, the
other a human finite personality? Does not the belief |
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that Mary was the mother of God deny the
self-existence
of God? and does not the doctrine that Mohammed is
the
only prophet of God infringe the sacredness of one |
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Christ Jesus?
SCIENTIFIC
CHRISTIANITY MEANS ONE GOD
Christianity, as
taught and demonstrated in the first |
| 15 |
century by our great Master, virtually
annulled the so-
called laws of matter, idolatry, pantheism, and
polytheism.
Christianity then had one God and one law, namely, |
| 18 |
divine Science. It said, "Call no man your
father upon
the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven."
Speaking of himself, Jesus said, "My Father is greater |
| 21 |
than I." Christianity, as he taught and
demonstrated it,
must ever rest on the basis of the First Commandment
and
love for man. |
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The doctrines that embrace pantheism,
polytheism, and
paganism are admixtures of matter and Spirit, truth and
error, sickness and sin, life and death. They make man |
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the servant of matter, living by reason of
it, suffering be-
cause of it, and dying in consequence of it. They
con-
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stantly reiterate the belief of pantheism,
that mind "sleeps
in the mineral, dreams in the animal, and wakes in man.
" |
| 3 |
"Infinite Spirit" means one God and His
creation, and
no reality in aught else. The term "spirits" means more
than one Spirit; - in paganism they stand for gods; in |
| 6 |
spiritualism they imply men and women; and
in Christian-
ity they signify a good Spirit and an evil spirit.
Is there a religion
under the sun that hath demonstrated |
| 9 |
one God and the four first rules pertaining
thereto, namely,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" "Love thy
neighbor as thyself;" "Be ye therefore perfect, even as |
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your Father which is in heaven is
perfect;" "Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John xi.
26.)
What mortal to-day
is wise enough to do himself no |
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harm, to hinder not the attainment of
scientific Chris-
tianity? Whoever demonstrates the highest humanity, -
long-suffering, self-surrender, and spiritual endeavor to |
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bless others, - ought to be aided, not
hindered, in his
holy mission. I would kiss the feet of such a
messenger,
for to help such a one is to help one's self. The demon- |
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stration of Christianity blesses all
mankind. It loves one's
neighbor as one's self; it loves its enemies - and
this
love benefits its enemies (though they believe it not), and |
| 24 |
rewards its possessor; for, "If ye love
them which love you,
what reward have ye?"
MAN THE TRUE IMAGE
OF GOD |
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From a material standpoint, the best of
people some-
times object to the philosophy of Christian Science, on
the
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ground that it takes away man's personality
and makes
man less than man. But what saith the apostle? - even |
| 3 |
this: "If a man think himself to be
something, when he is
nothing, he deceiveth himself." The great
Nazarene
Prophet said, "By their fruits ye shall know them :" then, |
| 6 |
if the effects of Christian Science on the
lives of men
be thus judged, we are sure the honest verdict of hu-
manity will attest its uplifting power, and prevail over the |
| 9 |
opposite notion that Christian Science
lessens man's in-
dividuality.
The students at the
Massachusetts Metaphysical Col- |
| 12 |
lege, generally, were the average man and
woman. But
after graduation, the best students in the class averred
that they were stronger and better than before it. With |
| 15 |
twelve lessons or less, the present and
future of those stu-
dents had wonderfully broadened and brightened
before
them, thus proving the utility of what they had been taught. |
| 18 |
Christian Scientists heal functional,
organic, chronic, and
acute diseases that M.D.'s have failed to heal;
and,
better still, they reform desperate cases of intemperance, |
| 21 |
tobacco using, and immorality, which, we
regret to say,
other religious teachers are unable to effect. All this
is
accomplished by the grace of God, - the effect of God |
| 24 |
understood. A higher manhood is
manifest, and never
lost, in that individual who finds the highest joy, -
there-
fore no pleasure in loathsome habits or in sin, and no |
| 27 |
necessity for disease and death. Whatever
promotes
statuesque being, health, and holiness does not degrade
man's
personality. Sin, sickness, appetites, and passions, |
| 30 |
constitute no part of man, but obscure
man. Therefore it
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required the divinity of our Master to
perceive the real
man, and to cast out the unreal or counterfeit. It
caused |
| 3 |
St. Paul to write, - "Lie not one to
another, seeing that
ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have
put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after |
| 6 |
the image of Him that created him."
Was our Master
mistaken in judging a cause by its
effects? Shall the opinions, systems,
doctrines, and dog-
|
| 9 |
mas of men gauge the animus of man? or
shall his stature
in Christ, Truth, declare him? Governed by the divine
Principle of his being, man is perfect. When will the |
| 12 |
schools allow mortals to turn from clay to
Soul for the
model? The Science of being, understood and obeyed,
will
demonstrate man to be superior to the best church- |
| 15 |
member or moralist on earth, who
understands not this
Science. If man is spiritually fallen, it matters not
what
he believes; he is not upright, and must regain his native |
| 18 |
spiritual stature in order to be in proper
shape, as certainly
as the man who falls physically needs to rise
again.
Mortals, content
with something less than perfection - |
| 21 |
the original standard of man - may believe
that evil de-
velops good, and that whatever strips off evil's disguise be-
littles man's personality. But God enables us to know that |
| 24 |
evil is not the medium of good, and that
good supreme de-
stroys all sense of evil, obliterates the lost image
that
mortals are content to call man, and demands man's un- |
| 27 |
fallen spiritual perfectibility.
The grand
realism that man is the true image of God,
not fallen or inverted, is
demonstrated by Christian Science.
|
| 30 |
And because Christ's dear demand, "Be ye
therefore
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perfect," is valid, it will be found
possible to fulfil it. Then
also will it be learned that good is not educed
from evil, |
| 3 |
but comes from the rejection of evil and
its modus operandi.
Our scholarly expositor of the Scriptures, Lyman
Abbott,
D.D., writes, "God, Spirit, is ever in universal nature." |
| 6 |
Then, we naturally ask, how can Spirit be
constantly pass-
ing out of mankind by death - for the universe
includes
man? |
| 9 |
THE GRANDEUR OF CHRISTIANITY
This closing
century, and its successors, will make strong
claims on religion, and
demand that the inspired Scriptural |
| 12 |
commands be fulfilled. The altitude of
Christianity open-
eth, high above the so-called laws of matter, a door
that no
man can shut; it showeth to all peoples the way of escape |
| 15 |
from sin, disease, and death; it lifteth
the burden of sharp
experience from off the heart of humanity, and so
lighteth
the path that he who entereth it may run and not weary, |
| 18 |
and walk, not wait by the roadside, - yea,
pass gently on
without the alterative agonies whereby the way-seeker
gains and points the path. |
| 21 |
The Science of Christianity is strictly
monotheism, -
it has ONE GOD. And this divine infinite Principle,
noumenon and phenomena, is demonstrably the self- |
| 24 |
existent Life, Truth, Love, substance,
Spirit, Mind, which
includes all that the term implies, and is all that is
real and
eternal. Christian Science is irrevocable - unpierced |
| 27 |
by bold conjecture's sharp point, by bald
philosophy, or
by man's inventions. It is divinely true, and every hour
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| 1 |
in time and in eternity will witness more
steadfastly to its
practical truth. And Science is not pantheism, but
Chris- |
| 3 |
tian Science.
Chief among the
questions herein, and nearest my
heart, is this: When shall Christianity be
demonstrated |
| 6 |
according to Christ, in these words:
"Neither shall they
say, Lo, here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom
of
God is within you"? |
| 9 |
EXHORTATION
Beloved brethren,
the love of our loving Lord was never
more manifest than in its stern
condemnation of all error, |
| 12 |
wherever found. I counsel thee, rebuke and
exhort one
another. Love all Christian churches for the gospel's
sake;
and be exceedingly glad that the churches are united |
| 15 |
in purpose, if not in method, to close the
war between
flesh and Spirit, and to fight the good fight till God's will
be witnessed and done on earth as in heaven. |
| 18 |
Sooner or later all shall know Him,
recognize the great
truth that Spirit is infinite, and find life in Him in
whom
we do "live, and move, and have our being" - life in |
| 21 |
Life, all in All. Then shall all nations,
peoples, and
tongues, in the words of St Paul, have "one God and
Father
of all, who is above all, and through all, and in |
| 24 |
you all." (Ephesians iv. 6.)
Have I wearied you
with the mysticism of opposites?
Truly there is no rest in them, and I
have only traversed |
| 27 |
my subject that you may prove for
yourselves the unsub-
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| 1 |
stantial nature of whatever is unlike good,
weigh a sigh,
and rise into the rest of righteousness with its
triumphant |
| 3 |
train.
Once more I write,
Set your affections on things above;
love one another; commune at the table
of our Lord in one |
| 6 |
spirit; worship in spirit and in truth; and
if daily adoring,
imploring, and living the divine Life, Truth, Love,
thou
shalt partake of the bread that cometh down from heaven, |
| 9 |
drink of the cup of salvation, and be
baptized in Spirit.
PRAYER FOR COUNTRY
AND CHURCH
Pray for the
prosperity of our country, and for her vic- |
| 12 |
tory under arms; that justice, mercy, and
peace continue
to characterize her government, and that they shall rule
all
nations. Pray that the divine presence may still guide and |
| 15 |
bless our chief magistrate, those
associated with his execu-
tive trust, and our national judiciary; give to
our congress
wisdom, and uphold our nation with the right arm of His |
| 18 |
righteousness.
In your peaceful
homes remember our brave soldiers,
whether in camp or in battle.(1) Oh, may
their love of coun- |
| 21 |
try, and their faithful service thereof, be
unto them life-
preservers! May the divine Love succor and protect
them, as at Manila, where brave men, led by the dauntless |
| 24 |
Dewey, and shielded by the power that saved
them, sailed
victoriously through the jaws of death and blotted out the
Spanish squadron. |
| 27 |
Great occasion have we to rejoice that our
nation, which
(1) This
refers to the war between United States and Spain for
the liberty of
Cuba.
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15 |
| 1 |
fed her starving foe, - already murdering
her peaceful
seamen and destroying millions of her money, - will be |
| 3 |
as formidable in war as she has been
compassionate in
peace.
May our
Father-Mother God, who in times past hath |
| 6 |
spread for us a table in the wilderness and
"in the midst
of our enemies," establish us in the most holy faith, plant
our feet firmly on Truth, the rock of Christ, the "substance |
| 9 |
of things hoped for" - and fill us with
the life and under-
standing of God, and good will towards men.
MARY BAKER
EDDY |
