0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 6 – Retrospection and Introspection – Chpt 29 – Exemplification

                             EXEMPLIFICATION 

 1	    To energize wholesome spiritual warfare, to rebuke
  	vainglory, to offset boastful emptiness, to crown
 3	patient toil, and rejoice in the spirit and power of Christian
  	Science, we must ourselves be true. There is but one way
  	of doing good, and that is to do it! There is but one way of
 6	being good, and that is to be good! 
  	    Art thou still unacquainted with thyself? Then be in-
  	troduced to this self. "Know thyself!" as said the classic
 9	Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of this mortal self! 
  	Behold its vileness, and remember this poverty-stricken
  	"stranger that is within thy gates." Cleanse every stain
12	from this wanderer's soiled garments, wipe the dust from
  	his feet and the tears from his eyes, that you may behold
  	the real man, the fellow-saint of a holy household. There
15	should be no blot on the escutcheon of our Christliness
  	when we offer our gift upon  the altar. 
  	    A student desiring growth in the knowledge of Truth,
18	can and will obtain it by taking up his cross and following
  	Truth. If he does this not, and another one undertakes to
  	carry his burden and do his work, the duty will not be
21	accomplished. No one can save himself without God's
  	help, and God will help each man who performs his own
  	part. After this manner and in no other way is every
24	man cared for and blessed. To the unwise helper our
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Exemplification                     87


 1	Master said, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their
  	dead." 
 3	    The poet's line, "Order is heaven's first law," is so eter-
  	nally true, so axiomatic, that it has become a truism; and
  	its wisdom is as obvious in religion and scholarship as in
 6	astronomy or mathematics. 
  	    Experience has taught me that the rules of Christian
  	Science can be far more thoroughly and readily acquired
 9	by regularly settled and systematic workers, than by un-
  	settled and spasmodic efforts. Genuine Christian Scien-
  	tists are, or should be, the most systematic and law-abiding
12	people on earth, because their religion demands implicit
  	adherence to fixed rules, in the orderly demonstration
  	thereof. Let some of these rules be here stated. 
15	    First: Christian Scientists are to "heal the sick" as the
  	Master commanded. 
  	    In so doing they must follow the divine order as pre-
18	scribed by Jesus, — never, in any way, to trespass upon
  	the rights of their neighbors, but to obey the celestial in-
  	junction, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to
21	you, do ye even so to them." 
  	    In this orderly, scientific dispensation healers become a
  	law unto themselves. They feel their own burdens less,
24	and can therefore bear the weight of others' burdens, since
  	it is only through the lens of their unselfishness that the
  	sunshine of Truth beams with such efficacy as to dissolve
27	error. 
  	    It is already understood that Christian Scientists will
  	not receive a patient who is under the care of a regular
30	physician, until he has done with the case and different aid
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Exemplification                     88


 1	is sought. The same courtesy should be observed in the
  	professional intercourse of Christian Science healers with
 3	one another. 
  	    Second: Another command of the Christ, his prime
  	command, was that his followers should "raise the dead." 
 6	He lifted his own body from the sepulchre. In him, Truth
  	called the physical man from the tomb to health, and the
  	so-called dead forthwith emerged into a higher manifesta-
 9	tion of Life. 
  	    The spiritual significance of this command, "Raise the
  	dead," most concerns mankind. It implies such an eleva-
12	tion of the understanding as will enable thought to appre-
  	hend the living beauty of Love, its practicality, its divine
  	energies, its health-giving and life-bestowing qualities, — 
15	yea, its power to demonstrate immortality. This end Jesus
  	achieved, both by example and precept. 
  	    Third: This leads inevitably to a consideration of an-
18	other part of Christian Science work, — a part which con-
  	cerns us intimately, — preaching the gospel. 
  	    This evangelistic duty should not be so warped as to
21	signify that we must or may go, uninvited, to work in other
  	vineyards than our own. One would, or should, blush to
  	enter unasked another's pulpit, and preach without the
24	consent of the stated occupant of that pulpit. The Lord's
  	command means this, that we should adopt the spirit of
  	the Saviour's ministry, and abide in such a spiritual atti-
27	tude as will draw men unto us. Itinerancy should not be
  	allowed to clip the wings of divine Science. Mind demon-
  	strates omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves
30	on a spiritual axis, and its power is displayed and its pres-
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Exemplification                     89


 1	ence felt in eternal stillness and immovable Love. The
  	divine potency of this spiritual mode of Mind, and the hin-
 3	drance opposed to it by material motion, is proven beyond
  	a doubt in the practice of Mind-healing. 
  	    In those days preaching and teaching were substantially
 6	one. There was no church preaching, in the modern sense
  	of the term. Men assembled in the one temple (at Jeru-
  	salem) for sacrificial ceremonies, not for sermons. Into
 9	the synagogues, scattered about in cities and villages, they
  	went for liturgical worship, and instruction in the Mosaic
  	law. If one worshipper preached to the others, he did so
12	informally, and because he was bidden to this privileged
  	duty at that particular moment. It was the custom to pay
  	this hortatory compliment to a stranger, or to a member
15	who had been away from the neighborhood; as Jesus was
  	once asked to exhort, when he had been some time absent
  	from Nazareth but once again entered the synagogue which
18	he had frequented in childhood. 
  	    Jesus' method was to instruct his own students; and he
  	watched and guarded them unto the end, even according
21	to his promise, "Lo, I am with you alway!" Nowhere in
  	the four Gospels will Christian Scientists find any prece-
  	dent for employing another student to take charge of
24	their students, or for neglecting their own students, in
  	order to enlarge their sphere of action. 
  	    Above all, trespass not intentionally upon other people's
27	thoughts, by endeavoring to influence other minds to any
  	action not first made known to them or sought by them. 
  	Corporeal and selfish influence is human, fallible, and tem-
30	porary; but incorporeal impulsion is divine, infallible, and
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Exemplification                     90


 1	eternal. The student should be most careful not to thrust
  	aside Science, and shade God's window which lets in light,
 3	or seek to stand in God's stead. 
  	    Does the faithful shepherd forsake the lambs, — retain-
  	ing his salary for tending the home flock while he is serving
 6	another fold? There is no evidence to show that Jesus
  	ever entered the towns whither he sent his disciples; no
  	evidence that he there taught a few hungry ones, and then
 9	left them to starve or to stray. To these selected ones (like
  	"the elect lady" to whom St. John addressed one of his
  	epistles) he gave personal instruction, and gave in plain
12	words, until they were able to fulfil his behest and depart
  	on their united pilgrimages. This he did, even though
  	one of the twelve whom he kept near himself betrayed
15	him, and others forsook him. 
  	    The true mother never willingly neglects her children
  	in their early and sacred hours, consigning them to the care
18	of nurse or stranger. Who can feel and comprehend the
  	needs of her babe like the ardent mother? What other
  	heart yearns with her solicitude, endures with her patience,
21	waits with her hope, and labors with her love, to promote
  	the welfare and happiness of her children? Thus must the
  	Mother in Israel give all her hours to those first sacred
24	tasks, till her children can walk steadfastly in wisdom's
  	ways. 
  	    One of my students wrote to me: "I believe the proper
27	thing for us to do is to follow, as nearly as we can, in the
  	path you have pursued!" It is gladdening to find, in such
  	a student, one of the children of light. It is safe to leave
30	with God the government of man. He appoints and He
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Exemplification                     91


 1	anoints His Truth-bearers, and God is their sure defense
  	and refuge. 
 3	    The parable of "the prodigal son" is rightly called "the
  	pearl of parables," and our Master's greatest utterance may
  	well be called "the diamond sermon." No purer and more
 6	exalted teachings ever fell upon human ears than those con-
  	tained in what is commonly known as the Sermon on the
  	Mount, — though this name has been given it by compilers
 9	and translators of the Bible, and not by the Master him-
  	self or by the Scripture authors. Indeed, this title really
  	indicates more the Master's mood, than the material
12	locality. 
  	    Where did Jesus deliver this great lesson — or, rather,
  	this series of great lessons — on humanity and divinity? 
15	On a hillside, near the sloping shores of the Lake of Gali-
  	lee, where he spake primarily to his immediate disciples. 
  	    In this simplicity, and with such fidelity, we see Jesus
18	ministering to the spiritual needs of all who placed them-
  	selves under his care, always leading them into the divine
  	order, under the sway of his own perfect understanding. 
21	His power over others was spiritual, not corporeal. To the
  	students whom he had chosen, his immortal teaching was
  	the bread of Life. When he was with them, a fishing-boat
24	became a sanctuary, and the solitude was peopled with
  	holy messages from the All-Father. The grove became
  	his class-room, and nature's haunts were the Messiah's
27	university. 
  	    What has this hillside priest, this seaside teacher, done
  	for the human race? Ask, rather, what has he not done. 
30	His holy humility, unworldliness, and self-abandonment
  
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Exemplification                     92


1	wrought infinite results. The method of his religion was
  	not too simple to be sublime, nor was his power so exalted
 3	as to be unavailable for the needs of suffering mortals,
  	whose wounds he healed by Truth and Love. 
  	    His order of ministration was "first the blade, then the
 6	ear, after that the full corn in the ear." May we unloose
  	the latchets of his Christliness, inherit his legacy of love,
  	and reach the fruition of his promise: "If ye abide in me,
 9	and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and
  	it shall be done unto you."SHOW ALL