EVIL ~ A life of taking ~ Divides & Subtracts From GOOD
Mary Baker Eddy Spiritual Precepts ~ 5 Volumes by Gilbert C. Carpenter Sr. & Jr.
| Mary Baker Eddy Her Spiritual Precepts ~ Volume 1 ~ 1881 to 1892 |
Introduction
IN STUDYING A TREE one is supposed to be able to tell the size of the rootstock by the leaves and branches, deducing the unseen from the seen. Further study of these roots, however, is much more arduous than just observing the leaves and fruit of the tree. Much labor of digging is required before the entire root system is exposed for Investigation. The life and teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, that have been left to posterity as her loving heritage, and designated as her authorized writings, are available to all. In studying these the very beginner Is safe. These constitute the branches, leaves and fruit which are open to the public Inspection and study.
Mrs. Eddy was not only the author of her works, but the one who authorized them. That Is, she established beyond cavil their correctness, and demonstrated that they are not of human origin, but divine. She might well have said, “My dearly beloved brethren, I give you these teachings and assure you that In them you are safe, because I guarantee that they came from God. Therein you may gain a knowledge of Christian Science that Is correct and demonstrable. As you read and study them, you need have no doubt nor fear, since you are studying what was written through inspiration — by God, not man.”
In an airplane field the runway is plainly designated. It is a safe take-off for, and is used by, every plane. Mrs. Eddy’s authorized works are a safe and standardized take-off for the upward-soaring thought. No student can depart from them without making a shipwreck. They represent the only God-approved means of rising Into the higher realms of spiritual freedom. Hence one must study them until he understands them correctly, and Is able to demonstrate this understanding In part. Then, and only then, is he ready to rise to the higher reflection of God where all knowledge comes directly from Him.
This leads to a consideration of Mrs. Eddy’s own life and demonstration, as well as the waymarks, writings, letters, and books which have never been published, but repose in the archives of The Mother Church In Boston. Did not her unpublished and authorized writings come from God as well?
The leaves of Mrs. Eddy’s tree are for the healing of the nations. Yet we must learn of the root system of this tree in order to perpetuate a knowledge of the demonstration whereby the tree was able to put forth such leaves. Many students seem to be satisfied with the leaves, and do not care to investigate any further. Yet It should be the desire of every follower of Mrs. Eddy to study her complete tree and learn that such study Is really invaluable, because only in that way can he pattern her demonstration.
History from 1881 to 1892.
Volume 1 ~ 259 pages
View / Download PDF
| Mary Baker Eddy Her Spiritual Precepts ~ Volume 2 ~ 1892 to 1894 |
Introduction
Once Mrs. Eddy wrote as follows to William P. McKenzie (July, 1897): “Do not sorrow over your tasks; all things work together for good to them that love God, Good. You are now learning how to meet mortal mind In all its false claims; and its evil is less dangerous than Its seeming good. You have not nearly as much to meet now as when you cherished (as we all have done) its seeming good that was its greatest evil. Our Master said: fear ye not them that (would) destroy the body but rather them that destroy both soul and body – both the moral and physical. Your premonitions are what will save you if you employ them. The evil always works beforehand on the minds of those in health, to fear, or to believe they cannot help those.it intends to slay; and if only this preparatory mental malpractice Is understood, as I now trust it will be by you hereafter, it enables the Individual to watch better and to have 011 In his lamp, for each experience of this kind is a bridal that weds you to Life and Love everlasting.”
Here is Mrs. Eddy unfolding the deeper teachings of Science, endeavoring to support a student who is beginning to have his first lessons In the recognition that human good Is a more dangerous deterrent than human evil, and that affliction does us good, wedding us “to Life and Love everlasting.
On page 233 of Miscellany we read, “Which should we prefer, ease or disease In sin? Is not discomfort from sin better adapted to deliver mortals from the effects of belief In sin than ease in sin?” Discomfort from sin can be thought of as a light affliction, if It serves as a whip to drive us higher. A man whips a horse, not to punish him, but merely to get more
speed out of him. The owner Is not displeased with the horse; he merely wants him to do better than he Is doing, and he knows he can. The moment the
horse responds as he should, the whipping stops. It Is only a light affliction which Is but for a moment.
St. Paul could not be referring to those dark experiences which rob man of God, and sink him further Into bondage to sense. Light affliction must be the proof that we are successfully demonstrating our way out of mortality. A right attitude toward It causes It to make us more watchful, and to drive us higher by exposing the soporific and lethargic nature of human harmony. Light affliction prevents us from going to sleep In this mortal dream, satisfied with the human good that has corne to us as the result of what we call demonstration.
In the letter In question Mrs. Eddy Is referring to light affliction, showing that she regarded the error In connection with the Trustees, If handled rightly, as conducive to progress. The Directors had done their duty, and they could rest In full faith that the Father would take care of the rest.
History from 1892 to 1894.
Volume 2 ~ 211 pages
View / Download PDF
| Mary Baker Eddy Her Spiritual Precepts ~ Volume 3 ~ 1894 to 1896 |
Introduction
Old theology would interpret Mrs. Eddy’s attitude in this letter to be Christian. Old theology would be correct, were It not for the fact that It does not know what Christian really means, since It sets forth a Christian life as something that primarily relates to man’s outward acts, whereas everything In Christian Science has for Its ultimate purpose the bringing of one’s thinking under scientific control. Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter primarily to correct the thinking of her students. In Matt. 5:23 we are told, when we bring our gift to the altar, if there we remember that our brother has aught against us, to leave our gift and go and be reconciled to our brother. Our gift is the utilization of our spiritual understanding in order to heal and to bless. When you seek to bless another, if you hold him as having aught against you, you thereby entertain an unscientific thought toward him which renders your spiritual thought ineffective, and which opens you to the effects of erroneous thought, – just as though you held an erroneous thought toward him, – because you are acknowledging the reality of error. In order to help another, your thought must be Scientific, and you are not scientific when you hold error as real either in yourself or in another.
Mrs. Eddy wanted the members not only to hold nothing in thought. against the Nickersons, but to regard the Nickersons as holding nothing against them; and she sent their letter of contrition to prove It. Otherwise the members’ attitude would be malpractice.
When you malpractice, you endeavor to save yourself at the expense of your brother. When you strive to recognize man as your brother, and to know that he regards you in the same way, divine Love blesses suchan effort. You are not only protected from error, whatever it may be, but you help to protect and free him as well.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that Mrs. Eddy’s concept of excommunication was not to protect her Church from erring members, but to protect erring members from the malpractice of membership. When a member does that which is not right, there Is a. demand among the membership for some sort of discipline or punishment. The moment that erring one Is excommunicated, that demand Is fulfilled. If such a one remained a member, he might find It difficult to recover himself under the condemnation held over him by many brother members. Not that every member forgets his knowledge of Science at such times; but there always seems to be enough who do, to add weight to the burden the erring one Is carrying.
History from 1894 to 1896.
Volume 3 ~ 229 pages
View / Download PDF
| Mary Baker Eddy Her Spiritual Precepts ~ Volume 4 ~ 1895 to 1900 |
Introduction
On page 182 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy tells us that the demands of God appeal to thought only. It was a surprise to me, when I first went to Mrs. Eddy’s home, to discover that the only work I was called upon to do in her home was mental, and that all the workers were expected to work mentally in unison for three hours each day, as well as an additional hour alone. Thus at least four hours and usually more, were spent each day In silent prayer, in an effort to establish Truth In the home and upon the earth.
The first time I sat down to work an hour, I was instructed what to do, and given a few words in Mrs. Eddy’s handwriting as the basis for the hour’s work. After I had repeated these statements a few moments I was ready to
stop, and I wondered what I would do for the rest of the hour; but I knew that I was in the home to train for a higher understanding and effort in Christian Science, so I struggled on. Before many days I learned that when Mrs. Eddy’s brief instructions were properly used, they opened the wellspring of inspiration, so that an unlimited measure of spiritual thought flooded in, rich and abundant. It was not long before these hours of mental work flew by on wings. Thus when a sudden emergency arose in which all the household were called upon to work for nine hours in one day, I found myself able to unite. with the others in this demand. I recall one instance where the household workers were required to continue their mental ministrations for seventy-two hours without a break (except for a few brief naps), because of the tenacity of the error which had to be met.
One might wonder how this was possible. Yet a battalion with a band marches for thirty miles with no more fatigue than a regiment would feel, If
it marched ten miles without a band. A bicycle can be pedalled with surprising speed, when paced by a motorcycle. In a similar manner, Mrs. Eddy forged ahead of us, and removed a great deal of the error that normally makes it difficult for one to sit for long periods and do mental work, without the mind wandering. Mrs. Eddy furnished the music for our march.
History from 1895 to 1900.
Volume 4 ~ 260 pages
View / Download PDF
| Mary Baker Eddy Her Spiritual Precepts ~ Volume 5 ~ 1900 to 1903 |
Introduction
“Durance” means restraint of the person. Our Leader seemed to be in durance at the Communion season, in the sense that whenever the students assembled together, it brought an increase in the error for her to handle. This meant that she was compelled to stay at her post and to work to keep the atmosphere clear under more pressure than usual.
To many students the trip to Boston was in the nature of a vacation, and the devil often goes along on a vacation, for the reason that at such times
students relax, and let up their dally right thinking.
Thus the devil came along when the students gathered in Boston, and she was the one who felt it. The reason for this was her spiritual sensitivity,
as well as the fact that she let her thought go out in love to all those who gathered together.
She knew that the wise ones who read this letter, would know that a Pentecost does not just happen, and that she was working with them to make
the meeting such for them all. A Pentecost comes to those who earn it, those who keep watch over the world to brush aside falsity, and to establish an atmosphere into which inspiration flows.
When the tviaster told his disciples that he was going to be with them always, he laid upon them the necessity for demonstrating spiritual sense,
since that was the sense through which and only through which they were going to be able to perceive him as the Christ.
When Mrs. Eddy went to Pleasant View, only a few students had the opportunity to see her in retirement. Lest her followers begin to think of her as a figment of their imagination, she suffered them to gather yearly at Pleasant View. She was governing the Cause from a distant vantage point, in preparation for the time when she would remain head of her Cause, and yet no longer be here in the flesh. There will never be a time when the Directors are not responsible to our Leader as they were when she was here in person. A higher concept of her leads to the recognition that she is as much present with us today, as when she could be seen. When she named herself Pastor Emeritus, that indicated that she proposed to be the Leader of her Cause down through the ages. Like the Master before her, she could say, “Lo, I am with you away.”
History from 1900 to 1903.
Volume 5 ~ 234 pages
View / Download PDF
Excellent Uncensored Search Engine 