0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 10 – Miscellaneous Writings – Chpt 1 – Introductory – Subtitles

 1	                                   PROSPECTUS 

  	     The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olym-
 3	piad. The Chaldee watched the appearing of a
  	star; to him, no higher destiny dawned on the dome
  	of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heav-
 6	ens. The meek Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers,
  	said, "Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye
  	not discern the signs of the times?" — for he forefelt
 9	and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated
  	by sinners. 
  	    To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the
12	new idea that comes welling up from infinite Truth needs
  	to be understood. The seer of this age should be a
  	sage. 
15	    Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition
  	of Deity. The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and
  	strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops
18	the world. Meekness heightens immortal attributes
  	only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness
  	reveals another scene and another self seemingly rolled
21	up in shades, but brought to light by the evolutions of
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Prospectus                                           2

 1	advancing thought, whereby we discern the power of
  	Truth and Love to heal the sick. 
 3	    Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have the
  	least wisdom or experience; and they steal from their
  	neighbor, because they have so little of their own. 
 6	    The signs of these times portend a long and strong
  	determination of mankind to cleave to the world, the
  	flesh, and evil, causing great obscuration of Spirit. 
 9	When we remember that God is just, and admit the
  	total depravity of mortals, alias mortal mind, — and that
  	this Adam legacy must first be seen, and then must be
12	subdued and recompensed by justice, the eternal attri-
  	bute of Truth, — the outlook demands labor, and the
  	laborers seem few. To-day we behold but the first
15	faint view of a more spiritual Christianity, that embraces
  	a deeper and broader philosophy and a more rational and
  	divine healing. The time approaches when divine Life,
18	Truth, and Love will be found alone the remedy for sin,
  	sickness, and death; when God, man's saving Principle,
  	and Christ, the spiritual idea of God, will be revealed. 
21	    Man's probation after death is the necessity of his
  	immortality; for good dies not and evil is self-destruc-
  	tive, therefore evil must be mortal and self-destroyed. 
24	If man should not progress after death, but should re-
  	main in error, he would be inevitably self-annihilated. 
  	Those upon whom "the second death hath no power"
27	are those who progress here and hereafter out of evil,
  	their mortal element, and into good that is immortal;
  	thus laying off the material beliefs that war against
30	Spirit, and putting on the spiritual elements in divine
  	Science. 
  	    While we entertain decided views as to the best method
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Prospectus                                           3

 1	for elevating the race physically, morally, and spiritu-
  	ally, and shall express these views as duty demands, we
 3	shall claim no especial gift from our divine origin, no
  	supernatural power. If we regard good as more natural
  	than evil, and spiritual understanding — the true knowl-
 6	edge of God — as imparting the only power to heal the
  	sick and the sinner, we shall demonstrate in our lives the
  	power of Truth and Love. 
 9	    The lessons we learn in divine Science are applica-
  	ble to all the needs of man. Jesus taught them for this
  	very purpose; and his demonstration hath taught us
12	that "through his stripes" — his life-experience — and
  	divine Science, brought to the understanding through
  	Christ, the Spirit-revelator, is man healed and saved. 
15	No opinions of mortals nor human hypotheses enter this
  	line of thought or action. Drugs, inert matter, never are
  	needed to aid spiritual power. Hygiene, manipulation,
18	and mesmerism are not Mind's medicine. The Prin-
  	ciple of all cure is God, unerring and immortal Mind. 
  	We have learned that the erring or mortal thought holds
21	in itself all sin, sickness, and death, and imparts these
  	states to the body; while the supreme and perfect Mind,
  	as seen in the truth of being, antidotes and destroys these
24	material elements of sin and death. 
  	    Because God is supreme and omnipotent, materia
  	medica, hygiene, and animal magnetism are impotent;
27	and their only supposed efficacy is in apparently delud-
  	ing reason, denying revelation, and dethroning Deity. 
  	The tendency of mental healing is to uplift mankind; but
30	this method perverted, is "Satan let loose." Hence the
  	deep demand for the Science of psychology to meet sin,
  	and uncover it; thus to annihilate hallucination. 
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Prospectus                                           4

 1	    Thought imbued with purity, Truth, and Love, in-
  	structed in the Science of metaphysical healing, is the
 3	most potent and desirable remedial agent on the earth. 
  	At this period there is a marked tendency of mortal
  	mind to plant mental healing on the basis of hypnotism,
 6	calling this method "mental science." All Science is
  	Christian Science; the Science of the Mind that is God,
  	and of the universe as His idea, and their relation to each
 9	other. Its only power to heal is its power to do good,
  	not evil. 

12	    At this date, 1883, a newspaper edited and published
  	by the Christian Scientists has become a necessity. Many
  	questions important to be disposed of come to the Col-
15	lege and to the practising students, yet  but little time
  	has been devoted to their answer. Further enlight-
  	enment is necessary for the age, and a periodical de-
18	voted to this work seems alone adequate to meet the
  	requirement. Much interest is awakened and expressed
  	on the subject of metaphysical healing, but in many
21	minds it is confounded with isms, and even infidelity, so
  	that its religious specialty and the vastness of its worth
  	are not understood. 
24	    It is often said, "You must have a very strong will-
  	power to heal," or, "It must require a great deal of faith
  	to make your demonstrations." When it is answered
27	that there is no will-power required, and that something
  	more than faith is necessary, we meet with an expression
  	of incredulity. It is not alone the mission of Christian
30	Science to heal the sick, but to destroy sin in mortal
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- A Timely Issue                                    5

 1	thought. This work well done will elevate and purify
  	the race. It cannot fail to do this if we devote our best
 3	energies to the work. 
  	    Science reveals man as spiritual, harmonious, and eter-
  	nal. This should be understood. Our College should
 6	be crowded with students who are willing to consecrate
  	themselves to this Christian work. Mothers should be
  	able to produce perfect health and perfect morals in their
 9	children — and ministers, to heal the sick — by study-
  	ing this scientific method of practising Christianity. 
  	Many say, "I should like to study, but have not suffi-
12	cient faith that I have the power to heal." The healing
  	power is Truth and Love, and these do not fail in the
  	greatest emergencies. 
15	    Materia medica says, "I can do no more. I have
  	done all that can be done. There is nothing to build
  	upon.  There is no longer any reason for hope." Then
18	metaphysics comes in, armed with the power of Spirit,
  	not matter, takes up the case hopefully and builds on
  	the stone that the builders have rejected, and is suc-
21	cessful. 
  	    Metaphysical therapeutics can seem a miracle and a
  	mystery to those only who do not understand the grand
24	reality that Mind controls the body. They acknowledge
  	an erring or mortal mind, but believe it to be brain mat-
  	ter. That man is the idea of infinite Mind, always perfect
27	in God, in Truth, Life, and Love, is something not easily
  	accepted, weighed down as is mortal thought with mate-
  	rial beliefs. That which never existed, can seem solid
30	substance to this thought. It is much easier for people
  	to believe that the body affects the mind, than that the
  	mind affects the body. 
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- A Timely Issue                                    6

 1	    We hear from the pulpits that sickness is sent as a
  	discipline to bring man nearer to God, — even though
 3	sickness often leaves mortals but little time free from
  	complaints and fretfulness, and Jesus cast out disease as
  	evil. 
 6	    The most of our Christian Science practitioners have
  	plenty to do, and many more are needed for the ad-
  	vancement of the age. At present the majority of the
 9	acute cases are given to the M. D.'s, and only those
  	cases that are pronounced incurable are passed over to
  	the Scientist. The healing of such cases should cer-
12	tainly prove to all minds the power of metaphysics over
  	physics; and it surely does, to many thinkers, as the
  	rapid growth of the work shows. At no distant day,
15	Christian healing will rank far in advance of allopathy
  	and homoeopathy; for Truth must ultimately succeed
  	where error fails. 
18	    Mind governs all. That we exist in God, perfect,
  	there is no doubt, for the conceptions of Life, Truth, and
  	Love must be perfect; and with that basic truth we con-
21	quer sickness, sin, and death. Frequently it requires
  	time to overcome the patient's faith in drugs and mate-
  	rial hygiene; but when once convinced of the uselessness
24	of such material methods, the gain is rapid. 
  	    It is a noticeable fact, that in families where laws
  	of health are strictly enforced, great caution is observed
27	in regard to diet, and the conversation chiefly confined
  	to the ailments of the body, there is the most sickness. 
  	Take a large family of children where the mother has
30	all that she can attend to in keeping them clothed and
  	fed, and health is generally the rule; whereas, in small
  	families of one or two children, sickness is by no means
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- A Timely Issue                                   7

 1	the exception. These children must not be allowed to
  	eat certain food, nor to breathe the cold air, because
 3	there is danger in it; when they perspire, they must be
  	loaded down with coverings until their bodies become
  	dry, — and the mother of one child is often busier than
 6	the mother of eight. 
  	    Great charity and humility is necessary in this work
  	of healing. The loving patience of Jesus, we must
 9	strive to emulate. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
  	thyself" has daily to be exemplified; and, although
  	skepticism and incredulity prevail in places where
12	one would least expect it, it harms not; for if serving
  	Christ, Truth, of what can mortal opinion avail? Cast
  	not your pearls before swine; but if you cannot bring
15	peace to all, you can to many, if faithful laborers in His
  	vineyard. 
  	    Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally
18	reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease
  	seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to
  	many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon
21	the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to
  	some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper,
  	at the price at which we shall issue it, we shall be able
24	to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought. 
  	A great work already has been done, and a greater work
  	yet remains to be done. Oftentimes we are denied the
27	results of our labors because people do not understand
  	the nature and power of metaphysics, and they think
  	that health and strength would have returned natu-
30	rally without any assistance. This is not so much from
  	a lack of justice, as it is that the mens populi is not suffi-
  	ciently enlightened on this great subject. More thought
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- A Timely Issue                                    8

 1	is given to material illusions than to spiritual facts. If
  	we can aid in abating suffering and diminishing sin,
 3	we shall have accomplished much; but if we can bring
  	to the general thought this great fact that drugs do not,
  	cannot, produce health and harmony, since "in Him
 6	[Mind] we live, and move, and have our being," we shall
  	have done more. 

9	    Who is thine enemy that thou shouldst love him? Is
  	it a creature or a thing outside thine own creation? 
  	    Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate  this
12	enemy and then look upon the object of your own con-
  	ception? What is it that harms you? Can height, or
  	depth, or any other creature separate you from the
15	Love that is omnipresent good, — that blesses infinitely
  	one and all? 
  	    Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles,
18	defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should
  	reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates
  	human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in
21	the process. Shakespeare writes: "Sweet are the uses
  	of adversity." Jesus said: "Blessed are ye, when men
  	shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
24	manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; . . .
  	for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
  	you." 
27	    The Hebrew law with its "Thou shalt not," its de-
  	mand and sentence, can only be fulfilled through the
  	gospel's benediction. Then, "Blessed are ye," inso-

Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                 9

 1	much as the consciousness of good, grace, and peace,
  	comes through affliction rightly understood, as sanctified
 3	by the purification it brings to the flesh, — to pride, self-
  	ignorance, self-will, self-love, self-justification. Sweet,
  	indeed, are these uses of His rod! Well is it that the
 6	Shepherd of Israel passes all His flock under His rod
  	into His fold; thereby numbering them, and giving them
  	refuge at last from the elements of earth. 
 9	    "Love thine enemies" is identical with "Thou hast
  	no enemies." Wherein is this conclusion relative to
  	those who have hated thee without a cause? Simply, in
12	that those unfortunate individuals are virtually thy best
  	friends. Primarily and ultimately, they are doing thee
  	good far beyond the present sense which thou canst enter-
15	tain of good. 
  	    Whom we call friends seem to sweeten life's cup and
  	to fill it with the nectar of the gods. We lift this cup
18	to our lips; but it slips from our grasp, to fall in frag-
  	ments before our eyes. Perchance, having tasted its
  	tempting wine, we become intoxicated; become lethar-
21	gic, dreamy objects of self-satisfaction; else, the con-
  	tents of this cup of selfish human enjoyment having lost
  	its flavor, we voluntarily set it aside as tasteless and
24	unworthy of human aims. 
  	    And wherefore our failure longer to relish this fleet-
  	ing sense, with its delicious forms of friendship,
27	wherewith mortals become educated to gratification in
  	personal pleasure and trained in treacherous peace? 
  	Because it is the great and only danger in the path
30	that winds upward. A false sense of what consti-
  	tutes happiness is more disastrous to human progress
  	than all that an enemy or enmity can obtrude upon
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                10

 1	the mind or engraft upon its purposes and achievements
  	wherewith to obstruct life's joys and enhance its sor-
 3	rows. 
  	    We have no enemies. Whatever envy, hatred, revenge
  	 — the most remorseless motives that govern mortal mind
 6	 — whatever these try to do, shall "work together for good
  	to them that love God." 
  	    Why? 
 9	    Because He has called His own, armed them, equipped
  	them, and furnished them defenses impregnable. Their
  	God will not let them be lost; and if they fall they shall
12	rise again, stronger than before the stumble. The good
  	cannot lose their God, their help in times of trouble. 
  	If they mistake the divine command, they will recover
15	it, countermand their order, retrace their steps, and
  	reinstate His orders, more assured to press on safely. 
  	The best lesson of their lives is gained by crossing
18	swords with temptation, with fear and the besetments
  	of evil; insomuch as they thereby have tried their
  	strength and proven it; insomuch as they have found
21	their strength made perfect in weakness, and their fear
  	is self-immolated. 
  	    This destruction is a moral chemicalization, wherein
24	old things pass away and all things become new. The
  	worldly or material tendencies of human affections and
  	pursuits are thus annihilated; and this is the advent of
27	spiritualization. Heaven comes down to earth, and
  	mortals learn at last the lesson, "I have no enemies." 
  	    Even in belief you have but one (that, not in reality),
30	and this one enemy is yourself — your erroneous belief
  	that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but
  	good exists in Science. Soon or late, your enemy will
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                11

 1	wake from his delusion to suffer for his evil intent; to
  	find that, though thwarted, its punishment is tenfold. 
 3	    Love is the fulfilling of the law:  it is grace, mercy,
  	and justice. I used to think it sufficiently just to abide
  	by our State statutes; that if a man should aim a ball at
 6	my heart, and I by firing first could kill him and save
  	my own life, that this was right. I thought, also, that
  	if I taught indigent students gratuitously, afterwards
 9	assisting them pecuniarily, and did not cease teach-
  	ing the wayward ones at close of the class term, but
  	followed them with precept upon precept; that if my
12	instructions had healed them and shown them the sure way
  	of salvation, — I had done my whole duty to students. 
  	    Love metes not out human justice, but divine mercy. 
15	If one's life were attacked, and one could save it only
  	in accordance with common law, by taking another's,
  	would one sooner give up his own? We must love our
18	enemies in all the manifestations wherein and whereby
  	we love our friends; must even try not to expose their
  	faults, but to do them good whenever opportunity
21	occurs. To mete out human justice to those who per-
  	secute and despitefully use one, is not leaving all retribu-
  	tion to God and returning blessing for cursing. If special
24	opportunity for doing good to one's enemies occur not,
  	one can include them in his general effort to benefit the
  	race. Because I can do much general good to such as
27	hate me, I do it with earnest, special care — since they
  	permit me no other way, though with tears have I striven
  	for it. When smitten on one cheek, I have turned the
30	other: I have but two to present. 
  	    I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not,
  	and saying to them, "I love you, and would not know-  

Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                12

1	ingly harm you." Because I thus feel, I say to others:
  	Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads
 3	its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it masters us;
  	brings suffering upon suffering to its possessor, through-
  	out time and beyond the grave. If you have been badly
 6	wronged, forgive and forget:  God will recompense this
  	wrong, and punish, more severely than you could, him
  	who has striven to injure you. Never return evil for evil;
 9	and, above all, do not fancy that you have been wronged
  	when you have not been. 
  	    The present is ours; the future, big with events. 
12	Every man and woman should be to-day a law to him-
  	self, herself, — a law of loyalty to Jesus' Sermon on the
  	Mount. The means for sinning unseen and unpunished
15	have so increased that, unless one be watchful and stead-
  	fast in Love, one's temptations to sin are increased a
  	hundredfold. Mortal mind at this period mutely works
18	in the interest of both good and evil in a manner least
  	understood; hence the need of watching, and the danger
  	of yielding to temptation from causes that at former
21	periods in human history were not existent. The action
  	and effects of this so-called human mind in its silent argu-
  	ments, are yet to be uncovered and summarily dealt with
24	by divine justice. 
  	    In Christian Science, the law of Love rejoices the heart;
  	and Love is Life and Truth. Whatever manifests aught
27	else in its effects upon mankind, demonstrably is not Love. 
  	We should measure our love for God by our love for man;
  	and our sense of Science will be measured by our obedience
30	to God, — fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all;
  	imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love
  	to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought.   

Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                13

1	    The only justice of which I feel at present capable,
  	is mercy and charity toward every one, — just so far as
 3	one and all permit me to exercise these sentiments toward
  	them, — taking special care to mind my own business. 
  	    The falsehood, ingratitude, misjudgment, and sharp
 6	return of evil for good — yea, the real wrongs (if wrong
  	can be real) which I have long endured at the hands of
  	others — have most happily wrought out for me the law
 9	of loving mine enemies. This law I now urge upon the
  	solemn consideration of all Christian Scientists. Jesus
  	said, "If ye love them which love you, what thank have
12	ye? for sinners also love those that love them." 

  	    Scholastic theology elaborates the proposition that
15	evil is a factor of good, and that to believe in the reality
  	of evil is essential to a rounded sense of the existence of
  	good. 
18	     This frail hypothesis is founded upon the basis of mate-
  	rial and mortal evidence — only upon what the shifting
  	mortal senses confirm and frail human reason accepts. 
21	The Science of Soul reverses this proposition, overturns
  	the testimony of the five erring senses, and reveals in
  	clearer divinity the existence of good only; that is, of
24	God and His idea. 
  	    This postulate of divine Science only needs to be con-
  	ceded, to afford opportunity for proof of its correctness
27	and the clearer discernment of good. 
  	    Seek the Anglo-Saxon term for God, and you will
  	find it to be good; then define good as God, and you
30	will find that good is omnipotence, has all power; it fills
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Christian Theism                                  14

 1	all space, being omnipresent; hence, there is neither place
  	nor power left for evil. Divest your thought, then, of
 3	the mortal and material view which contradicts the ever-
  	presence and all-power of good; take in only the immor-
  	tal facts which include these, and where will you see or
 6	feel evil, or find its existence necessary either to the origin
  	or ultimate of good? 
  	    It is urged that, from his original state of perfec-
 9	tion, man has fallen into the imperfection that requires
  	evil through which to develop good. Were we to
  	admit this vague proposition, the Science of man could
12	never be learned; for in order to learn Science, we
  	begin with the correct statement, with harmony and
  	its Principle; and if man has lost his Principle and
15	its harmony, from evidences before him he is inca-
  	pable of knowing the facts of existence and its con-
  	comitants:  therefore to him evil is as real and eternal
18	as good, God! This awful deception is evil's umpire
  	and empire, that good, God, understood, forcibly
  	destroys. 
21	    What appears to mortals from their standpoint to be
  	the necessity for evil, is proven by the law of opposites
  	to be without necessity. Good is the primitive Princi-
24	ple of man; and evil, good's opposite, has no Principle,
  	and is not, and cannot be, the derivative of good. 
  	Thus evil is neither a primitive nor a derivative, but
27	is suppositional; in other words, a lie that is incapable
  	of proof — therefore, wholly problematical. 
  	    The Science of Truth annihilates error, deprives evil
30	of all power, and thereby destroys all error, sin, sickness,
  	disease, and death. But the sinner is not sheltered from
  	suffering from sin:  he makes a great reality of evil, iden-
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Christian Theism                                15

1	tifies himself with it, fancies he finds pleasure in it, and
  	will reap what he sows; hence the sinner must endure
 3	the effects of his delusion until he awakes from it. 

  	    St. Paul speaks of the new birth as "waiting for the
 6	adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." The
  	great Nazarene Prophet said, "Blessed are the pure in
  	heart:  for  they shall see God." Nothing aside from the
 9	spiritualization — yea, the highest Christianization — of
  	thought and desire, can give the true perception of God
  	and divine Science, that results in health, happiness, and
12	holiness. 
  	    The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins
  	with moments, and goes on with years; moments of sur-
15	render to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption
  	of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration,
  	heaven-born hope, and spiritual love. 
18	    Time may commence, but it cannot complete, the
  	new birth:  eternity does this; for progress is the law
  	of infinity. Only through the sore travail of mortal mind
21	shall soul as sense be satisfied, and man awake in His
  	likeness. What a faith-lighted thought is this! that
  	mortals can lay off the "old man," until man is found
24	to be the image of the infinite good that we name God,
  	and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears. 
  	    In mortal and material man, goodness seems in em-
27	bryo. By suffering for sin, and the gradual fading out
  	of the mortal and material sense of man, thought is de-
  	veloped into an infant Christianity; and, feeding at first
30	on the milk of the Word, it drinks in the sweet revealings
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- The New Birth                                  16

 1	of a new and more spiritual Life and Love. These nourish
  	the hungry hope, satisfy more the cravings for immor-
 3	tality, and so comfort, cheer, and bless one, that he saith:
  	In mine infancy, this is enough of heaven to come down
  	to earth. 
 6	    But, as one grows into the manhood or womanhood
  	of Christianity, one finds so much lacking, and so very
  	much requisite to become wholly Christlike, that one
 9	saith:  The Principle of Christianity is infinite:  it is
  	indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite
  	claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human;
12	and man's ability to meet them is from God; for, being
  	His likeness and image, man must reflect the full
  	dominion of Spirit — even its supremacy over sin, sick-
15	ness, and death. 
  	    Here, then, is the awakening from the dream of life
  	in matter, to the great fact that God is the only Life;
18	that, therefore, we must entertain a higher sense of both
  	God and man. We must learn that God is infinitely
  	more than a person, or finite form, can contain; that
21	God is a divine Whole, and All, an all-pervading in-
  	telligence and Love, a divine, infinite Principle; and
  	that Christianity is a divine Science. This newly
24	awakened consciousness is wholly spiritual; it emanates
  	from Soul instead of body, and is the new birth begun
  	in Christian Science. 
27	    Now, dear reader, pause for a moment with me, earn-
  	estly to contemplate this new-born spiritual altitude; for
  	this statement demands demonstration. 
30	    Here you stand face to face with the laws of infinite
  	Spirit, and behold for the first time the irresistible con-
  	flict between the flesh and Spirit. You stand before the
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- The New Birth                                  17

 1	awful detonations of Sinai. You hear and record the
  	thunderings of the spiritual law of Life, as opposed to
 3	the material law of death; the spiritual law of Love, as
  	opposed to the material sense of love; the law of om-
  	nipotent harmony and good, as opposed to any supposi-
 6	titious law of sin, sickness, or death. And, before the
  	flames have died away on this mount of revelation, like
  	the patriarch of old, you take off your shoes — lay aside
 9	your material appendages, human opinions and doc-
  	trines, give up your more material religion with its rites
  	and ceremonies, put off your materia medica and hygiene
12	as worse than useless — to sit at the feet of Jesus. Then,
  	you meekly bow before the Christ, the spiritual idea
  	that our great Master gave of the power of God to heal
15	and to save. Then it is that you behold for the first
  	time the divine Principle that redeems man from under
  	the curse of materialism, — sin, disease, and death. 
18	This spiritual birth opens to the enraptured understand-
  	ing a much higher and holier conception of the supremacy
  	of Spirit, and of man as His likeness, whereby man reflects
21	the divine power to heal the sick. 
  	    A material or human birth is the appearing of a mor-
  	tal, not the immortal man. This birth is more or less
24	prolonged and painful, according to the timely or un-
  	timely circumstances, the normal or abnormal material
  	conditions attending it. 
27	    With the spiritual birth, man's primitive, sinless,
  	spiritual existence dawns on human thought, — through
  	the travail of mortal mind, hope deferred, the perishing
30	pleasure and accumulating pains of sense, — by which
  	one loses himself as matter, and gains a truer sense of
  	Spirit and spiritual man. 
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- The New Birth                                  18

 1	    The purification or baptismals that come from Spirit,
  	develop, step by step, the original likeness of perfect man,
 3	and efface the mark of the beast. "Whom the Lord
  	loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
  	He receiveth;" therefore rejoice in tribulation, and wel-
 6	come these spiritual signs of the new birth under the law
  	and gospel of Christ, Truth. 
  	    The prominent laws which forward birth in the divine
 9	order of Science, are these: "Thou shalt have no other
  	gods before me;" "Love thy neighbor as thyself." 
  	These commands of infinite wisdom, translated into
12	the new tongue, their spiritual meaning, signify:  Thou
  	shalt love Spirit only, not its opposite, in every God-
  	quality, even in substance; thou shalt recognize thy-
15	self as God's spiritual child only, and the true man
  	and true woman, the all-harmonious "male and female,"
  	as of spiritual origin, God's reflection, — thus as chil-
18	dren of one common Parent, — wherein and whereby
  	Father, Mother, and child are the divine Principle and
  	divine idea, even the divine "Us" — one in good, and
21	good in One. 
  	    With this recognition man could never separate him-
  	self from good, God; and he would necessarily entertain
24	habitual love for his fellow-man. Only by admitting
  	evil as a reality, and entering into a state of evil
  	thoughts, can we in belief separate one man's interests
27	from those of the whole human family, or thus attempt
  	to separate Life from God. This is the mistake that
  	causes much that must be repented of and overcome. 
30	Not to know what is blessing you, but to believe that
  	aught that God sends is unjust, — or that those whom
  	He commissions bring to you at His demand that which
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- The New Birth                                  19

 1	is unjust, — is wrong and cruel. Envy, evil thinking,
  	evil speaking, covetousness, lust, hatred, malice, are
 3	always wrong, and will break the rule of Christian
  	Science and prevent its demonstration; but the rod of
  	God, and the obedience demanded of His servants in
 6	carrying out what He teaches them, — these are never
  	unmerciful, never unwise. 
  	    The task of healing the sick is far lighter than that
 9	of so teaching the divine Principle and rules of Chris-
  	tian Science as to lift the affections and motives of men
  	to adopt them and bring them out in human lives. He
12	who has named the name of Christ, who has virtually
  	accepted the divine claims of Truth and Love in divine
  	Science, is daily departing from evil; and all the wicked
15	endeavors of suppositional demons can never change the
  	current of that life from steadfastly flowing on to God,
  	its divine source. 
18	    But, taking the livery of heaven wherewith to cover
  	iniquity, is the most fearful sin that mortals can commit. 
  	I should have more faith in an honest drugging-doctor,
21	one who abides by his statements and works upon as
  	high a basis as he understands, healing me, than I could
  	or would have in a smooth-tongued hypocrite or mental
24	malpractitioner. 
  	    Between the centripetal and centrifugal mental forces
  	of material and spiritual gravitations, we go into or we
27	go out of materialism or sin, and choose our course and
  	its results. Which, then, shall be our choice, — the sin-
  	ful, material, and perishable, or the spiritual, joy-giving,
30	and eternal? 
  	    The spiritual sense of Life and its grand pursuits is
  	of itself a bliss, health-giving and joy-inspiring. This
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- The New Birth                                  20

 1	sense of Life illumes our pathway with the radiance of
  	divine Love; heals man spontaneously, morally and
 3	physically, — exhaling the aroma of Jesus' own words,
  	"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
         and I will give you rest."