0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 16 – The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany – Chpt 1 – To the Christian World

 1	                       TO THE CHRISTIAN WORLD 

   1	    In the midst of the imperfect, perfection is reluctantly
  	seen and acknowledged. Because Science is unim-
 3	peachable, it summons the severest conflicts of the ages
  	and waits on God. 
  	    The faith and works demanded of man in our textbooks,
 6	the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the
  	Scriptures," and the proof of the practicality of this faith
  	and these works, show conclusively that Christian Science
 9	is indeed Science, — the Science of Christ, the Science of
  	God and man, of the creator and creation. In every age
  	and at its every appearing, Science, until understood, has
12	been persecuted and maligned. Infinite perfection is
  	unfolded as man attains the stature of man in Christ
  	Jesus by means of the Science which Jesus taught and
15	practised. Alluding to this divine method, the Psalmist
  	said: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine
  	a vain thing?" 
18	    I  have set forth Christian Science and its application
  	to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered
  	them. I have demonstrated through Mind the effects
21	of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals of men;
  	and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern sys-
  	tems on which to found my own, except the teachings
24	and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives
  	of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only
 
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 1	authority. I have had no other guide in the strait and
  	narrow way of Truth. 
 3	    Jewish pagans thought that the learned St. Paul, the
  	Mars' Hill orator, the canonized saint, was a "pestilent
  	fellow," but to-day all sorts of institutions flourish under
 6	the name of this "pestilent fellow." That epithet points
  	a moral. Of old the Pharisees said of the great master
  	of metaphysics, "He stirreth up the people." Because
 9	they could find no fault in him, they vented their hatred
  	of Jesus in opprobrious terms. But what would be
  	thought to-day of a man that should call St. Paul
12	a "pest," and what will be thought to-morrow of him
  	who shall call a Christian Scientist a "pest"? Again,
  	what shall be said of him who says that the Saviour
15	of men, the healer of men, the Christ, the Truth, "stir-
  	reth up the people"? 
  	    It is of the utmost concern to the world that men
18	suspend judgment and sentence on the pioneers of
  	Christianity till they know of what and of whom these
  	pioneers speak. A person's ignorance of Christian Sci-
21	ence is a sufficient reason for his silence on the subject,
  	but what can atone for the vulgar denunciation of that
  	of which a man knows absolutely nothing? 
24	    On November 21, 1898, in my class on Christian Science
  	were many professional men and women of the highest
  	talents, scholarship, and character in this or any other
27	country. What was it that brought together this class
  	to learn of her who, thirty years ago, was met with the
  	anathema spoken of in Scripture: "Blessed are ye, when
30	men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
  	manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake"? It
  	was the healing of the sick, the saving of sinners, the works
 
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 1	even more than the words of Christ, Truth, which had
  	of a verity stirred the people to search the Scriptures and
 3	to find in them man's only medicine for mind and body. 
  	This Aesculapius, defined Christianly and demonstrated
  	scientifically, is the divine Principle whose rules demon-
 6	strated prove one's faith by his works. 
  	    After my discovery of Christian Science, I healed con-
  	sumption in its last stages, a case which the M.D.'s,
 9	by verdict of the stethoscope and the schools, declared
  	incurable because the lungs were mostly consumed. I
  	healed malignant diphtheria and carious bones that could
12	be dented by the finger, saving the limbs when the sur-
  	geon's instruments were lying on the table ready for their
  	amputation. I have healed at one visit a cancer that had
15	eaten the flesh of the neck and exposed the jugular vein
  	so that it stood out like a cord. I have physically restored
  	sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb,
18	and have made the lame walk. 
  	    About the year 1869, I was wired to attend the patient
  	of a distinguished M.D., the late Dr. Davis of Manchester,
21	N. H. The patient was pronounced dying of pneumonia,
  	and was breathing at intervals in agony. Her physician,
  	who stood by her bedside, declared that she could not live. 
24	On seeing her immediately restored by me without mate-
  	rial aid, he asked earnestly if I had a work describing
  	my system of healing. When answered in the negative,
27	he urged me immediately to write a book which should
  	explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics. 
  	In the ranks of the M.D.'s are noble men and women,
30	and I love them; but they must refrain from persecuting
  	and misrepresenting a system of medicine which from
  	personal experience I have proved to be more certain
 
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 1	and curative in functional and organic diseases than any
  	material method. I admonish Christian Scientists either
 3	to speak charitably of all mankind or to keep silent, for
  	love fulfils divine law and without this proof of love
  	mental practice were profitless. 
 6	    The list of cases healed by me could be made to include
  	hopeless organic diseases of almost every kind. I name
  	those mentioned above simply to show the folly of believ-
 9	ing that the immutable laws of omnipotent Mind have not
  	power over and above matter in every mode and form, and
  	the folly of the cognate declaration that Christian Science
12	is limited to imaginary diseases! On the contrary, Chris-
  	tian Science has healed cases that I assert it would have
  	been impossible for the surgeon or materia medica to cure. 
15	Without Mind, man and the universe would collapse;
  	the winds would weary, and the world stand still. It is
  	already proved that Christian Science rests on the basis of
18	fixed Principle, and overcomes the evidence of diseased
  	sensation. Human mentality, expressed in disease, sin,
  	and death, in tempest and in flood, the divine Mind calms
21	and limits with a word. 
  	    In what sense is the Christian Scientist a "pest"? Is it
  	because he minds his own business more than does the
24	average man, is not a brawler, an alcohol drinker, a
  	tobacco user, a profane swearer, an adulterer, a fornicator,
  	nor a dishonest politician or business man? Or is it
27	because he is the very antipode of all these? In what
  	sense is the Christian Scientist a charlatan? Is it because
  	he heals the sick without drugs? 
30	    Our great Exemplar, the Nazarene Prophet, healed
  	through Mind, and commanded his followers to do like-
  	wise. The prophets and apostles and the Christians in
 
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 1	the first century healed the sick as a token of their Chris-
  	tianity. Has Christianity improved upon its earlier
 3	records, or has it retrograded? Compare the lives of its
  	professors with those of its followers at the beginning of
  	the Christian era, and you have the correct answer. 
 6	    As a pertinent illustration of the general subject under
  	discussion, I will cite a modern phase of medical practice,
  	namely, the homoeopathic system, to which the old school
 9	has become reconciled. Here I speak from experience. 
  	In homoeopathy, the one thousandth attenuations and
  	the same triturations of medicine have not an iota of the
12	drug left in them, and the lower attenuations have so
  	little that a vial full of the pellets can be swallowed without
  	harm and without appreciable effect. Yet the homoe-
15	opathist administers half a dozen or less of these same
  	globules, and he tells you, and you believe him, that
  	with these pellets he heals the sick. The diminishing of
18	the drug does not disprove the efficiency of the homoeo-
  	pathic system. It enhances its efficiency, for it identifies
  	this system with mind, not matter, and places it nearer the
21	grooves of omnipotence. O petty scorner of the infinite,
  	wouldst thou mock God's miracles or scatter the shade of
  	one who "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty"? 
24	If, as Scripture declares, God made all that was made,
  	then whatever is entitled to a classification as truth
  	or science must be comprised in a knowledge or under-
27	standing of God, for there can be nothing beyond
  	illimitable divinity. 
  	    The homoeopathist handles in his practice and heals the
30	most violent stages of organic and inflammatory diseases,
  	stops decomposition, removes enteritis, gastritis, hyper-
  	aemia, pneumonia, diphtheria, and ossification — the effects
 
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 1	of calcareous salts formed by carbonate and sulphate of
  	lime; and the homoeopathic physician succeeds as well in
 3	healing his cases without drugs as does the allopath who
  	depends upon drugs. Then is mind or matter the intelli-
  	gent cause in pathology? If matter, I challenge matter
 6	to act apart from mind; and if mind, I have proved beyond
  	cavil that the action of the divine Mind is salutary and
  	potent in proportion as it is seen to act apart from matter. 
 9	Hence our Master's saying, "The flesh profiteth nothing." 
  	The difference between metaphysics in homoeopathy and
  	metaphysics in Christian Science consists in this forcible
12	fact:  the former enlists faith in the pharmacy of the
  	human mind, and the latter couples faith with spiritual
  	understanding and is based on the law of divine Mind. 
15	Christian Science recognizes that this Mind is the only
  	lawgiver, omnipotent, infinite, All. Hence the divine
  	Mind is the sovereign appeal, and there is nothing in
18	the divine Mind to attenuate. The more of this Mind
  	the better for both physician and patient. 
  	    Ignorance, slang, and malice touch not the hem of the
21	garment of Christian Scientists, for if they did once touch
  	it, they would be destroyed. To be stoned for that which
  	our Master designated as his best work, saying, "For
24	which of those works do ye stone me," is to make known
  	the best work of a Christian Scientist. 
  	    Finally, beloved brethren in Christ, the words of the
27	New York press — "Mrs. Eddy not shaken" — are valid. 
  	I remain steadfast in St. Paul's faith, and will close with
  	his own words: "Christ is the head of the church:  and he
30     is the saviour of the body."SHOW ALL