0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 3 – No and Yes – Chpt 16 – Should Christians Beware of Christian Science

No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy                                                 41


 1	    SHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN
  	                                          SCIENCE? 

 3	    History repeats itself. The Pharisees of old warned
  	the people to beware of Jesus, and contemptuously called
  	him "this fellow." Jesus said, "For which of these
 6	works do ye stone me?" as much as to ask, Is it the
  	work most derided and envied that is most acceptable to
  	God? Not that he would cease to do the will of his Father
 9	on account of persecution, but he would repeat his work
  	to the best advantage for mankind and the glory  of his
  	Father. 
12	    There are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look
  	for perfection in churches or associations. The life of
  	Christ is the perfect example; and to compare mortal
15	lives with this model is to subject them to severe scrutiny. 
  	Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to
  	force the doors of Science and enter in; but this white
18	sanctuary will never admit such as come to steal and to
  	rob. Through long ages people have slumbered over
  	Christ's commands, "Go ye into all the world, and preach
21	the gospel;" "Heal the sick, cast out devils;" and now
  	the Church seems almost chagrined that by new discoveries
  	of Truth sin is losing prestige and power. 
24	    The Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist clergyman,
  	said in a sermon: "The prayer of faith shall save the
  	sick, and it is doing it to-day; and as the faith of the Church
 
   
No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy                                                 42


 1	increases, and Christians more and more learn their duty
  	to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will such
 3	manifestations of God's power increase among us." Such
  	sentiments are wholesome avowals of Christian Science. 
  	God is not unable or unwilling to heal, and mortals are not
 6	compelled to have other gods before Him, and employ
  	material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit
  	supplies all human needs. Jesus said to the sick, "Thy
 9	sins are forgiven thee; rise up and walk!" God's pardon
  	is the destruction of all "the ills that flesh is heir to." 
  	    All power belongs to God; and it is not in all the vain
12	power of dogma and philosophy to dispossess the divine
  	Mind of healing power, or to cast out error with error,
  	even in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal
15	the sick. While Science is engulfing error in bottomless
  	oblivion, the material senses would enthrone error as om-
  	nipotent and omnipresent, with power to determine the
18	fact and fate to being. It is said that the devil is the ape
  	of God. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring itself
  	both true and good. The path of Christian Science is be-
21	set with false claimants, aping its virtues, but cleaving to
  	their own vices. Denial of the authorship of "Science
  	and Health with Key to the Scriptures" would make a
24	lie the author of Truth, and so make Truth itself a lie. 
  	    A distinguished clergyman came to be healed. He said:
  	"I am suffering from nervous prostration, and have to eat
27	beefsteak and drink strong coffee to support me through
  	a sermon." Here a skeptic might well ask if the atone-
 
   
No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy                                                 43


 1	ment had lost its efficacy for him, and if Christ's power to
  	heal was not equal to the power of daily meat and drink. 
 3	The power of Truth is not contingent on matter. Our
  	Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
  	heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Truth rebukes
 6	error; and whether stall-fed or famishing, theology needs
  	Truth to stimulate and sustain a good sermon. 
  	    A lady said: "Only He who knows all things can esti-
 9	mate the good your books are doing." 
  	    A distinguished Doctor of Divinity said: "Your book
  	leavens my sermons." 
12	    The following extract from a letter is a specimen of
  	those received daily: "Your book Science and Health is
  	healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, preach-
15	ing deliverance to the captive, convicting the infidel, alarm-
  	ing the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian." 
  	    Christian Science Mind-healing is dishonored by those
18	who take it up from mercenary motives, for wealth and
  	fame, or think to build a baseless fabric of their own on
  	another's foundation. They cannot put the "new wine
21	into old bottles;" they can never engraft Truth into error. 
  	Such students come to my College to learn a system which
  	they go away to disgrace. Stealing or garbling my state-
24	ments of Mind-science will never prevent or reconstruct
  	the wrecks of "isms" and help humanity. 
  	    Science often suffers blame through the sheer ignorance
27	of people, while envy and hatred bark and bite at its heels. 
  	A man's inability to heal, on the Principle of Christian
 
   
No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy                                                 44


 1	Science, substantiates his ignorance of its Principle and
  	practice, and incapacitates him for correct comment. 
 3	This failure should make him modest. 
  	    Christian Science involves a new language, and a higher
  	demonstration of medicine and religion. It is the "new
 6	tongue" of Truth, having its best interpretation in the
  	power of Christianity to heal. My system of Mind-heal-
  	ing swerves not from the highest ethics and from the spirit-
 9	ual goal. To climb up by some other way than Truth is
  	to fall. Error has no hobby, however boldly ridden or
  	brilliantly caparisoned, that can leap into the sanctum
12	of Christian Science. 
  	    In Queen Elizabeth's time Protestantism could sentence
  	men to the dungeon or stake for their religion, and so
15	abrogate the rights of conscience and choke the channels
  	of God. Ecclesiastical tyranny muzzled the mouth lisping
  	God's praise; and instead of healing, it palsied the weak
18	hand outstretched to God. Progress, legitimate to the
  	human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love
  	into every wound. It reassures us that no Reign of Terror
21	or rule of error will again unite Church and State, or re-
  	enact, through the civil arm of government, the horrors of
  	religious persecution. 
24	    The Rev. S. E. Herrick, a Congregational clergyman of
  	Boston, says: "Heretics of yesterday are martyrs to-day." 
  	In every age and clime, "On earth peace, good will to-
27	ward men" must be the watchword of Christianity. 
  	    Jesus said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
 
   
No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy                                                 45


 1	and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise
  	and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." 
 3	    St. Paul said that without charity we are "as sound-
  	ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal;" and he added: "Charity
  	suffereth long, and is kind; . . . doth not behave itself
 6	unseemly, . . . thinketh no evil, . . . but rejoiceth in the
  	truth." 
  	    To hinder the unfolding truth, to ostracize whatever
 9	uplifts mankind, is of course out of the question. Such an
  	attempt indicates weakness, fear, or malice; and such
  	efforts arise from a spiritual lack, felt, though unacknowl-
12	edged. 
  	    Let it not be heard in Boston that woman, "last at the
  	cross and first at the sepulchre," has no rights which man
15	is bound to respect. In natural law and in religion the
  	right of woman to fill the highest measure of enlightened
  	understanding and the highest places in government, is
18	inalienable, and these rights are ably vindicated by the
  	noblest of both sexes. This is woman's hour, with all its
  	sweet amenities and its moral and religious reforms. 
21	    Drifting into intellectual wrestlings, we should agree to
  	disagree; and this harmony would anchor the Church in
  	more spiritual latitudes, and so fulfil her destiny. 
24	    Let the Word have free course and be glorified. The
  	people clamor to leave cradle and swaddling-clothes. The
  	spiritual status is urging its highest demands on mortals,
27	and material history is drawing to a close. Truth cannot
  	be stereotyped; it unfoldeth forever. "One on God's
 
   
No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy                                                 46


 1	side is a majority;" and "Lo, I am with you alway," is
  	the pledge of the Master. 
 3	    The question now at issue is:  Shall we have a prac-
  	tical, spiritual Christianity, with its healing power, or
  	shall we have material medicine and superficial religion? 
 6	The advancing hope of the race, craving health and holi-
  	ness, halts for a reply; and the reappearing Christ, whose
  	life-giving understanding Christian Science imparts, must
 9	answer the constant inquiry: "Art thou he that should
  	come?" Woman should not be ordered to the rear, or
  	laid on the rack, for joining the overture of angels. Theo-
12	logians descant pleasantly upon free moral agency; but
  	they should begin by admitting individual rights. 
  	    The author's ancestors were among the first settlers of
15	New Hampshire. They reared there the Puritan standard
  	of undefiled religion. As dutiful descendants of Puritans,
  	let us lift their standard higher, rejoicing, as Paul did,
18	that we are free born. 
  	    Man has a noble destiny; and the full-orbed significance
  	of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-
21	enslaved. For the unfolding of this upward tendency to
  	health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to labor
         and wait.SHOW ALL