0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

24	                               ADVICE TO STUDENTS 

  	    The true consciousness is the true health. One says,
  	"I find relief from pain in unconscious sleep." I say,
27	You mistake; through unconsciousness one no more
  	gains freedom from pain than immunity from evil. When
  	unconscious of a mistake, one thinks he is not mistaken;
30	but this false consciousness does not change the fact, or
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Advice To Students                           
 page 299

 1	its results; suffering and mistakes recur until one is awake
  	to their cause and character. To know the what, when,
 3	and how of error, destroys error. The error that is seen
  	aright as error, has received its death-blow; but never
  	until then. 
 6	    Let us look through the lens of Christian Science,
  	not of "self," at the following mistake, which demands
  	our present attention. I have no time for detailed report
 9	of this matter, but simply answer the following question
  	sent to me; glad, indeed, that this query has finally come
  	with the courage of conviction to the minds of many
12	students. 
  	    "Is it right to copy your works and read them for our
  	public services?" 
15	    The good which the material senses see not is the only
  	absolute good; the evil which these senses see not is the
  	only absolute evil. 
18	    If I enter Mr. Smith's store and take from it his gar-
  	ments that are on sale, array myself in them, and put
  	mys...elf and them on exhibition, can I make this right
21	by saying, These garments are Mr. Smith's; he manu-
  	factured them and owns them, but you must pay me,
  	not him, for this exhibit? 
24	    The spectators may ask, Did he give you permission
  	to do this, did he sell them or loan them to you? No. 
  	Then have you asked yourself this question on the sub-
27	ject, namely, What right have I to do this? True, it
  	saves your purchasing these garments, and gives to the
  	public new patterns which are useful to them; but does
30	this silence your conscience? or, because you have con-
  	fessed that they are the property of a noted firm, and
  	you wished to handle them, does it justify you in appro-
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Advice To Students                           
 page 300

 1	priating them, and so avoiding the cost of hiring or
  	purchasing? 
 3	    Copying my published works verbatim, compiling them
  	in connection with the Scriptures, taking this copy into
  	the pulpit, announcing the author's name, then reading
 6	it publicly as your own compilation, is — what? 
  	    We answer, It is a mistake; in common parlance, it
  	is an ignorant wrong. 
 9	    If you should print and publish your copy of my works,
  	you would be liable to arrest for infringement of copy-
  	right, which the law defines and punishes as theft. Read-
12	ing in the pulpit from copies of my publications gives
  	you the clergyman's salary and spares you the printer's
  	bill, but does it spare you our Master's condemnation? 
15	You literally publish my works through the pulpit, instead
  	of the press, and thus evade the law, but not the gospel. 
  	When I consent to this act, you will then be justified
18	in it. 
  	    Your manuscript copy is liable, in some way, to be
  	printed as your original writings, thus incurring the pen-
21	alty of the law, and increasing the record of theft in the
  	United States Circuit Court. 
  	    To The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, which I
24	had organized and of which I had for many years been
  	pastor, I gave permission to cite, in the Christian Science
  	Quarterly, from my work Science and Health, passages
27	giving the spiritual meaning of Bible texts; but this was
  	a special privilege, and the author's gift. 
  	    Christian Science demonstrates that the patient who
30	pays whatever he is able to pay for being healed, is more
  	apt to recover than he who withholds a slight equiva-
  	lent for health. Healing morally and physically are one. 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Advice To Students                            
 page 301

 1	Then, is compiling and delivering that sermon for which
  	you pay nothing, and which you deliver without the
 3	author's consent, and receive pay therefor, the precedent
  	for preaching Christian Science, — and are you doing
  	to the author of the above-named book as you would
 6	have others do unto you? 
  	    Those authors and editors of pamphlets and periodi-
  	cals whose substance is made up of my publications, are
 9	morally responsible for what the law construes as crime. 
  	There are startling instances of the above-named law-
  	breaking and gospel-opposing system of authorship, which
12	characterize the writings of a few professed Christian
  	Scientists. My Christian students who have read copies
  	of my works in the pulpit require only a word to be wise;
15	too sincere and morally statuesque are they to be long
  	led into temptation; but I must not leave persistent
  	plagiarists without this word of warning in public, since
18	my private counsel they disregard. 
  	    To the question of my true-hearted students, "Is it
  	right to copy your works and read them for our public
21	services?" I answer:  It is not right to copy my book
  	and read it publicly without my consent. My reasons are
  	as follows: —  
24	    First:  This method is an unseen form of injustice
  	standing in a holy place. 
  	    Second:  It breaks the Golden Rule, — a divine rule
27	for human conduct. 
  	    Third:  All error tends to harden the heart, blind
  	the eyes, stop the ears of understanding, and inflate
30	self; counter to the commands of our hillside Priest, to
  	whom Isaiah alluded thus: "I have trodden the wine-
  	press alone; and of the people there was none with me." 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Advice To Students                           
 page 302

 1	    Behind the scenes lurks an evil which you can prevent:
  	it is a purpose to kill the reformation begun and increas-
 3	ing through the instructions of "Science and Health with
  	Key to the Scriptures;" it encourages infringement of my
  	copyright, and seeks again to "cast lots for his vesture,"
 6	 — while the perverter preserves in his own consciousness
  	and teaching the name without the Spirit, the skeleton
  	without the heart, the form without the comeliness, the
 9	sense without the Science, of Christ's healing. My stu-
  	dents are expected to know the teaching of Christian Sci-
  	ence sufficiently to discriminate between error and Truth,
12	thus sparing their teacher a task and themselves the
  	temptation to be misled. 
  	    Much good has been accomplished through Christian
15	Science Sunday services. If Christian Scientists occasion-
  	ally mistake in interpreting revealed Truth, of two evils
  	the less would be not to leave the Word unspoken and
18	untaught. I allowed, till this permission was withdrawn,
  	students working faithfully for Christ's cause on earth,
  	the privilege of copying and reading my works for Sunday
21	service; provided, they each and all destroyed the copies
  	at once after said service. When I should so elect and
  	give suitable notice, they were to desist from further copy-
24	ing of my writings as aforesaid. 
  	    This injunction did not curtail the benefit which the
  	student derived from making his copy, nor detract from
27	the good that his hearers received from his reading thereof;
  	but it was intended to forestall the possible evil of putting
  	the divine teachings contained in "Science and Health
30	with Key to the Scriptures" into human hands, to sub-
  	vert or to liquidate. 
  	    I recommend that students stay within their own fields
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Advice To Students                           
 page 303

 1	of labor, to work for the race; they are lights that can-
  	not be hid, and need only to shine from their home sum-
 3	mits to be sought and found as healers physical and
  	moral. 
  	    The kindly shepherd has his own fold and tends his
 6	own flock. Christian students should have their own
  	institutes and, unmolested, be governed by divine Love
  	alone in teaching and guiding their students. When
 9	wisdom garrisons these strongholds of Christian Science,
  	peace and joy, the fruits of Spirit, will rest upon us all. 
  	We are brethren in the fullest sense of that word; there-
12	fore no queries should arise as to "who shall be great-
  	est." Let us serve instead of rule, knock instead of
  	push at the door of human hearts, and allow to each
15	and every one the same rights and privileges that we
  	claim for ourselves. If ever I wear out from serving
  	students, it shall be in the effort to help them to obey
18	the Ten Commandments and imbibe the spirit of Christ's
  	Beatitudes. 
Read more