0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

                        FOUNDATION WORK 

 1	    As the pioneer of Christian Science I stood alone in
  	this conflict, endeavoring to smite error with the
 3	falchion of Truth. The rare bequests of Christian Science
  	are costly, and they have won fields of battle from which
  	the dainty borrower would have fled. Ceaseless toil, self-
 6	renunciation, and love, have cleared its pathway. 
  	    The motive of my earliest labors has never changed. 
  	It was to relieve the sufferings of humanity by a sanitary
 9	system that should include all moral and religious reform. 
  	    It is often asked why Christian Science was revealed to
  	me as one intelligence, analyzing, uncovering, and annihi-
12	lating the false testimony of the physical senses. Why was
  	this conviction necessary to the right apprehension of the
  	invincible and infinite energies of Truth and Love, as con-
15	trasted with the foibles and fables of finite mind and ma-
  	terial existence. 
  	    The answer is plain. St. Paul declared that the law
18	was the schoolmaster, to bring him to Christ. Even so
  	was I led into the mazes of divine metaphysics through
  	the gospel of suffering, the providence of God, and the
21	cross of Christ. No one else can drain the cup which I
  	have drunk to the dregs as the Discoverer and teacher of
  	Christian Science; neither can its inspiration be gained
24	without tasting this cup. 
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Foundation Wo...rk                  31


 1	    The loss of material objects of affection sunders the
  	dominant ties of earth and points to heaven. Nothing
 3	can compete with Christian Science, and its demonstra-
  	tion, in showing this solemn certainty in growing freedom
  	and vindicating "the ways of God" to man. The abso-
 6	lute proof and self-evident propositions of Truth are im-
  	measurably paramount to rubric and dogma in proving
  	the Christ. 
 9	    From my very childhood I was impelled, by a hunger
  	and thirst after divine things, — a desire for something
  	higher and better than matter, and apart from it, — to
12	seek diligently for the knowledge of God as the one great
  	and ever-present relief from human woe. The first spon-
  	taneous motion of Truth and Love, acting through Chris-
15	tian Science on my roused consciousness, banished at once
  	and forever the fundamental error of faith in things ma-
  	terial; for this trust is the unseen sin, the unknown foe, — 
18	the heart's untamed desire which breaketh the divine com-
  	mandments. As says St. James: "Whosoever shall keep
  	the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty
21	of all." 
  	    Into mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed, and stood
  	abashed. Blanched was the cheek of pride. My heart
24	bent low before the omnipotence of Spirit, and a tint of
  	humility, soft as the heart of a moonbeam, mantled the
  	earth. Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and Calvary,
27	spoke to my chastened sense as by the tearful lips of a
  	babe. Frozen fountains were unsealed. Erudite systems
  	of philosophy and religion melted, for Love unveiled the
30	healing promise and potency of a present spiritual afflatus. 
 
  
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Foundation Work                  32


 1	It was the gospel of healing, on its divinely appointed
  	human mission, bearing on its white wings, to my appre-
 3	hension, "the beauty of holiness," — even the possibili-
  	ties of spiritual insight, knowledge, and being. 
  	    Early had I learned that whatever is loved materially,
 6	as mere corporeal personality, is eventually lost. "For
  	whosoever will save his life shall lose it," saith the Master. 
  	Exultant hope, if tinged with earthliness, is crushed as the
 9	moth. 
  	    What is termed mortal and material existence is graph-
  	ically defined by Calderon, the famous Spanish poet, who
12	wrote, — 

  	     What is life?  'T is but a madness.  
  	       What is life?  A mere illusion,
15	       Fleeting pleasure, fond delusion,
  	     Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness,
  	       Whose most constant substance seems
    18	  But the dream of other dreams.
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