Miscellaneous Writings
1883-1896
by
Mary Baker Eddy
Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science
and Author of Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures
Published by the
Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U. S. A.
Copyright, 1896
By Mary Baker G. Eddy
Copyright renewed, 1924
CONTENTS
Dedication.
Epigrams.
Preface.
Chapter I. Introductory.
Prospectus.
A Timely Issue.
Love Your Enemies.
Christian Theism.
The New Birth.
Chapter II. One Cause And Effect.
Chapter III. Questions And Answers.
Chapter IV. Addresses.
Christian Science In Tremont Temple.
Science And The Senses.
Extract From My First Address In The Mother Church, May 26, 1895
Address Before The Alumni Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College,
1895
Address Before The Christian Scientist Association Of The Massachusetts
Metaphysical College, In 1893
Communion Address, January, 1896
Message To The Annual Meeting Of The Mother Church, Boston, 1896
Chapter V. Letters.
To The Mother Church.
To ——, On Prayer.
To The National Christian Scientist Association.
To The College Association.
To The National Christian Scientist Association.
To The First Church Of Christ, Scientist, Boston.
To Donors Of Boat, From Toronto, Canada.
Address,—Laying The Corner-Stone.
To The First Church Of Christ, Scientist, Boston
The First Members Of The First Church Of Christ, Scientist, Boston,
Massachusetts
Extract From A Letter
To The Mother Church
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Oconto
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Scranton
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Denver
To First Church Of Christ, Scientist, In Lawrence
To Correspondents
To Students
To A Student
To A Student
Extract From A Christmas Letter
Chapter VI. Sermons.
A Christmas Sermon
Editor’s Extracts From Sermon
Extract From A Sermon Delivered In Boston, January 18, 1885
Sunday Services on July Fourth
Easter Services
Bible Lessons
Chapter VII. Pond And Purpose.
Chapter VIII. Precept Upon Precept
“Thy Will Be Done”
“Put Up Thy Sword”
Scientific Theism
Mental Practice
Taking Offense
Hints To The Clergy
Perfidy And Slander
Contagion
Improve Your Time
Thanksgiving Dinner
Christian Science
Injustice
Reformers
Mrs. Eddy Sick
“I’ve Got Cold”
“Prayer And Healing”
Veritas Odium Parit
Falsehood
Love
Address On The Fourth Of July At Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., Before
2,500 Members Of The Mother Church, 1897
Well Doinge Is The Fruite Of Doinge Well
Little Gods
Advantage Of Mind-Healing
A Card
Spirit And Law
Truth-Healing
Heart To Heart
Things To Be Thought Of
Unchristian Rumor
Vainglory
Compounds
Close Of The Massachusetts Metaphysical College
Malicious Reports
Loyal Christian Scientists
The March Primary Class
Obtrusive Mental Healing
Wedlock
Judge Not
New Commandment
A Cruce Salus
Comparison to English Barmaids
A Christian Science Statute
Advice To Students
Notice
Angels
Deification Of Personality
A Card
Overflowing Thoughts
A Great Man And His Saying
Words Of Commendation
Church And School
Class, Pulpit, Students’ Students
My Students And Thy Students
Unseen Sin
A Word To The Wise
Christmas
Card
Message To The Mother Church
Chapter IX. The Fruit Of Spirit
An Allegory
Voices Of Spring
“Where Art Thou?”
Divine Science
Fidelity
True Philosophy And Communion
Origin Of Evil
Truth Versus Error
Fallibility Of Human Concepts
The Way
Science And Philosophy
“Take Heed!”
The Cry Of Christmas-Tide
Blind Leaders
“Christ And Christmas”
Sunrise At Pleasant View
Chapter X. Inklings Historic
Chapter XI. Poems
Come Thou
Meeting Of My Departed Mother And Husband
Love
Woman’s Rights
The Mother’s Evening Prayer
June
Wish And Item
The Oak On The Mountain’s Summit
Isle Of Wight
Hope
Rondelet
To Mr. James T. White
Autumn
Christ My Refuge
“Feed My Sheep”
Communion Hymn
Laus Deo!
A Verse
Chapter XII. Testimonials
Footnotes
DEDICATION.
To
Loyal Christian Scientists
In This And Every Land
I Lovingly Dedicate These Practical Teachings
Indispensable To The Culture And Achievements Which
Constitute The Success Of A Student
And Demonstrate The Ethics
Of Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy
EPIGRAMS.
Pray thee, take care, that tak’st my book in hand, To read it well; that is, to understand.
BEN JONSON: Epigram 1
When I would know thee ... my thought looks Upon thy well made choice of friends and books; Then do I love thee, and behold thy ends In making thy friends books, and thy books friends.
BEN JONSON: Epigram 86
If worlds were formed by matter,
And mankind from the dust;
Till time shall end more timely,
There’s nothing here to trust.
Thenceforth to evolution’s
Geology, we say,—
Nothing have we gained therefrom,
And nothing have to pray:
My world has sprung from Spirit,
In everlasting day;
Whereof, I’ve more to glory,
Wherefor, have much to pay.
MARY BAKER EDDY
PREFACE.
[Page ix.]
[Transcriber’s Note: The original book includes line numbers throughout the text, for easy reference to the text by page number and line number. This transcription retains those page and line numbers; the numbers in [square brackets] at the right ends of lines are the original book’s line numbers. The paragraphs are not adjusted as is customary for text in e-books, nor are words split by hyphens rejoined, so that the lines shown below have the same words as the lines in the original book.]
A certain apothegm of a Talmudical philosopher [1] suits my sense of doing good. It reads thus: “The noblest charity is to prevent a man from accepting charity; and the best alms are to show and to enable a man to dispense with alms.” [5]
In the early history of Christian Science, among my thousands of students few were wealthy. Now, Christian Scientists are not indigent; and their comfortable fortunes are acquired by healing mankind morally, physically, spiritually. The easel of time presents pictures—once [10] fragmentary and faint—now rejuvenated by the touch of God’s right hand. Where joy, sorrow, hope, disap- pointment, sigh, and smile commingled, now hope sits dove-like.
To preserve a long course of years still and uniform, [15] amid the uniform darkness of storm and cloud and tempest, requires strength from above,—deep draughts from the fount of divine Love. Truly may it be said: There is an old age of the heart, and a youth that never grows old; a Love that is a boy, and a Psyche who is [20] ever a girl. The fleeting freshness of youth, however, is not the evergreen of Soul; the coloring glory of
[Page x.]
perpetual bloom; the spiritual glow and grandeur of [1] a consecrated life wherein dwelleth peace, sacred and sincere in trial or in triumph.
The opportunity has at length offered itself for me to comply with an oft-repeated request; namely, to collect [5] my miscellaneous writings published in The Christian Science Journal, since April, 1883, and republish them in book form,—accessible as reference, and reliable as old landmarks. Owing to the manifold demands on my time in the early pioneer days, most of these articles [10] were originally written in haste, without due preparation. To those heretofore in print, a few articles are herein appended. To some articles are affixed data, where these are most requisite, to serve as mile-stones measuring the distance,—or the difference between then and now,— [15] in the opinions of men and the progress of our Cause.
My signature has been slightly changed from my Christian name, Mary Morse Baker. Timidity in early years caused me, as an author, to assume various noms de plume. After my first marriage, to Colonel Glover [20] of Charleston, South Carolina, I dropped the name of Morse to retain my maiden name,—thinking that other- wise the name would be too long.
In 1894, I received from the Daughters of the American Revolution a certificate of membership made out to Mary [25] Baker Eddy, and thereafter adopted that form of signature, except in connection with my published works.
[Page xi.]
The first edition of Science and Health having been [1] copyrighted at the date of its issue, 1875, in my name of Glover, caused me to retain the initial “G” on my subsequent books.
These pages, although a reproduction of what has [5] been written, are still in advance of their time; and are richly rewarded by what they have hitherto achieved for the race. While no offering can liquidate one’s debt of gratitude to God, the fervent heart and willing hand are not unknown to nor unrewarded by Him. [10]
May this volume be to the reader a graphic guide- book, pointing the path, dating the unseen, and enabling him to walk the untrodden in the hitherto unexplored fields of Science. At each recurring holiday the Christian Scientist will find herein a “canny” crumb; and thus [15] may time’s pastimes become footsteps to joys eternal.
Realism will at length be found to surpass imagination, and to suit and savor all literature. The shuttlecock of religious intolerance will fall to the ground, if there be no battledores to fling it back and forth. It is reason for [20] rejoicing that the vox populi is inclined to grant us peace, together with pardon for the preliminary battles that purchased it.
With tender tread, thought sometimes walks in memory, through the dim corridors of years, on to old battle- [25] grounds, there sadly to survey the fields of the slain and the enemy’s losses. In compiling this work, I have tried
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to remove the pioneer signs and ensigns of war, and to [1] retain at this date the privileged armaments of peace.
With armor on, I continue the march, command and countermand; meantime interluding with loving thought this afterpiece of battle. Supported, cheered, I take my [5] pen and pruning-hook, to “learn war no more,” and with strong wing to lift my readers above the smoke of conflict into light and liberty.
Mary Baker Eddy
CONCORD, N.H.
January, 1897
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
Prospectus.
[Page 1.]
The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olym- [1] 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- [5] 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 and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated by sinners. [10]
To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the new idea that comes welling up from infinite Truth needs to be understood. The seer of this age should be a sage.
Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition [15] of Deity. The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops the world. Meekness heightens immortal attributes only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness reveals another scene and another self seemingly rolled [20] up in shades, but brought to light by the evolutions of
[Page 2.]
advancing thought, whereby we discern the power of [1] Truth and Love to heal the sick.
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. [5]
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. When we remember that God is just, and admit the total depravity of mortals, alias mortal mind,—and that [10] this Adam legacy must first be seen, and then must be 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 faint view of a more spiritual Christianity, that embraces [15] a deeper and broader philosophy and a more rational and divine healing. The time approaches when divine Life, 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. [20]
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. If man should not progress after death, but should re- main in error, he would be inevitably self-annihilated. [25] Those upon whom “the second death hath no power” 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 Spirit, and putting on the spiritual elements in divine [30] Science.
While we entertain decided views as to the best method
[Page 3.]
for elevating the race physically, morally, and spiritually, [1] and shall express these views as duty demands, we 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- [5] 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.
The lessons we learn in divine Science are applica- ble to all the needs of man. Jesus taught them for this [10] very purpose; and his demonstration hath taught us that “through his stripes”—his life-experience—and divine Science, brought to the understanding through Christ, the Spirit-revelator, is man healed and saved. No opinions of mortals nor human hypotheses enter this [15] line of thought or action. Drugs, inert matter, never are needed to aid spiritual power. Hygiene, manipulation, and mesmerism are not Mind’s medicine. The Principle of all cure is God, unerring and immortal Mind. We have learned that the erring or mortal thought holds [20] 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 material elements of sin and death.
Because God is supreme and omnipotent, materia [25] medica, hygiene, and animal magnetism are impotent; 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 this method perverted, is “Satan let loose.” Hence the [30] deep demand for the Science of psychology to meet sin, and uncover it; thus to annihilate hallucination.
[Page 4.]
Thought imbued with purity, Truth, and Love, in- [1] structed in the Science of metaphysical healing, is the 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, [5] 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 other. Its only power to heal is its power to do good, not evil.
A Timely Issue.
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- lege and to the practising students, yet but little time [15] has been devoted to their answer. Further enlight- enment is necessary for the age, and a periodical de- 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 [20] minds it is confounded with isms, and even infidelity, so that its religious specialty and the vastness of its worth are not understood.
It is often said, “You must have a very strong will- power to heal,” or, “It must require a great deal of faith [25] to make your demonstrations.” When it is answered 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 Science to heal the sick, but to destroy sin in mortal [30]
[Page 5.]
thought. This work well done will elevate and purify [1] the race. It cannot fail to do this if we devote our best energies to the work.
Science reveals man as spiritual, harmonious, and eter- nal. This should be understood. Our College should [5] 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 children—and ministers, to heal the sick—by study- ing this scientific method of practising Christianity. [10] Many say, “I should like to study, but have not suffi- 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.
Materia medica says, “I can do no more. I have [15] done all that can be done. There is nothing to build upon. There is no longer any reason for hope.” Then 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- [20] cessful.
Metaphysical therapeutics can seem a miracle and a mystery to those only who do not understand the grand reality that Mind controls the body. They acknowledge an erring or mortal mind, but believe it to be brain mat- [25] ter. That man is the idea of infinite Mind, always perfect 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 substance to this thought. It is much easier for people [30] to believe that the body affects the mind, than that the mind affects the body.
[Page 6.]
We hear from the pulpits that sickness is sent as a [1] discipline to bring man nearer to God,—even though sickness often leaves mortals but little time free from complaints and fretfulness, and Jesus cast out disease as evil. [5]
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 acute cases are given to the M. D.’s, and only those cases that are pronounced incurable are passed over to [10] the Scientist. The healing of such cases should cer- 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, Christian healing will rank far in advance of allopathy [15] and homœopathy; for Truth must ultimately succeed where error fails.
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- [20] 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 of such material methods, the gain is rapid.
It is a noticeable fact, that in families where laws [25] of health are strictly enforced, great caution is observed 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 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
[Page 7.]
the exception. These children must not be allowed to [1] eat certain food, nor to breathe the cold air, because 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 [5] the mother of eight.
Great charity and humility is necessary in this work of healing. The loving patience of Jesus, we must strive to emulate. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” has daily to be exemplified; and, although [10] skepticism and incredulity prevail in places where 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 peace to all, you can to many, if faithful laborers in His [15] vineyard.
Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally 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 [20] 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 to reach many homes with healing, purifying thought. A great work already has been done, and a greater work [25] yet remains to be done. Oftentimes we are denied the 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- rally without any assistance. This is not so much from [30] a lack of justice, as it is that the mens populi is not suffi- ciently enlightened on this great subject. More thought
[Page 8.]
is given to material illusions than to spiritual facts. If [1] we can aid in abating suffering and diminishing sin, 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 [5] [Mind] we live, and move, and have our being,” we shall have done more.”
Love Your Enemies.
Who is thine enemy that thou shouldst love him? Is it a creature or a thing outside thine own creation? [10]
Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception? What is it that harms you? Can height, or depth, or any other creature separate you from the Love that is omnipresent good,—that blesses infinitely [15] one and all?
Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, 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 [20] 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 manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; ... for so persecuted they the prophets which were before [25] you.”
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-
[Page 9.]
much as the consciousness of good, grace, and peace, [1] comes through affliction rightly understood, as sanctified 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 [5] 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.
“Love thine enemies” is identical with “Thou hast no enemies.” Wherein is this conclusion relative to [10] those who have hated thee without a cause? Simply, in 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 entertain of good. [15]
Whom we call friends seem to sweeten life’s cup and to fill it with the nectar of the gods. We lift this cup 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- [20] 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 unworthy of human aims.
And wherefore our failure longer to relish this fleet- [25] ing sense, with its delicious forms of friendship, 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 that winds upward. A false sense of what consti- [30] tutes happiness is more disastrous to human progress than all that an enemy or enmity can obtrude upon
[Page 10.]
the mind or engraft upon its purposes and achievements [1] wherewith to obstruct life’s joys and enhance its sor- rows.
We have no enemies. Whatever envy, hatred, revenge —the most remorseless motives that govern mortal mind [5] —whatever these try to do, shall “work together for good to them that love God.”
Why?
Because He has called His own, armed them, equipped them, and furnished them defenses impregnable. Their [10] God will not let them be lost; and if they fall they shall 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 it, countermand their order, retrace their steps, and [15] reinstate His orders, more assured to press on safely. The best lesson of their lives is gained by crossing 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 [20] their strength made perfect in weakness, and their fear is self-immolated.
This destruction is a moral chemicalization, wherein old things pass away and all things become new. The worldly or material tendencies of human affections and [25] pursuits are thus annihilated; and this is the advent of 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), and this one enemy is yourself—your erroneous belief [30] that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but good exists in Science. Soon or late, your enemy will
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wake from his delusion to suffer for his evil intent; to [1] find that, though thwarted, its punishment is tenfold.
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 [5] 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 assisting them pecuniarily, and did not cease teachi ing the wayward ones at close of the class term, but [10] followed them with precept upon precept; that if my 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. If one’s life were attacked, and one could save it only [15] in accordance with common law, by taking another’s, would one sooner give up his own? We must love our 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 [20] occurs. To mete out human justice to those who per- secure and despitefully use one, is not leaving all retribu- tion to God and returning blessing for cursing. If special opportunity for doing good to one’s enemies occur not, one can include them in his general effort to benefit the [25] race. Because I can do much general good to such as 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 other: I have but two to present. [30]
I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not, and saying to them, “I love you, and would not know-
[Page 12.]
ingly harm you.” Because I thus feel, I say to others: [1] Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads 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 [5] 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; and, above all, do not fancy that you have been wronged when you have not been. [10]
The present is ours; the future, big with events. 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 have so increased that, unless one be watchful and stead- [15] fast in Love, one’s temptations to sin are increased a hundredfold. Mortal mind at this period mutely works 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 [20] 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 by divine justice.
In Christian Science, the law of Love rejoices the heart; [25] and Love is Life and Truth. Whatever manifests aught 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 to God,—fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all; [30] imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought.
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The only justice of which I feel at present capable, [1] is mercy and charity toward every one,—just so far as 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 [5] 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 of loving mine enemies. This law I now urge upon the solemn consideration of all Christian Scientists. Jesus [10] said, “If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.”
Christian Theism.
Scholastic theology elaborates the proposition that evil is a factor of good, and that to believe in the reality [15] of evil is essential to a rounded sense of the existence of good.
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. [20] 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 God and His idea.
This postulate of divine Science only needs to be con- [25] ceded, to afford opportunity for proof of its correctness 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 will find that good is omnipotence, has all power; it fills [30]
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all space, being omnipresent; hence, there is neither place [1] nor power left for evil. Divest your thought, then, of 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 [5] 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- tion, man has fallen into the imperfection that requires evil through which to develop good. Were we to [10] admit this vague proposition, the Science of man could 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 its harmony, from evidences before him he is inca- [15] pable of knowing the facts of existence and its con- comitants: therefore to him evil is as real and eternal as good, God! This awful deception is evil’s umpire and empire, that good, God, understood, forcibly destroys. [20]
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- ple of man; and evil, good’s opposite, has no Principle, and is not, and cannot be, the derivative of good. [25] Thus evil is neither a primitive nor a derivative, but is suppositional; in other words, a lie that is incapable of proof—therefore, wholly problematical.
The Science of Truth annihilates error, deprives evil of all power, and thereby destroys all error, sin, sickness, [30] disease, and death. But the sinner is not sheltered from suffering from sin: he makes a great reality of evil, iden-
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tifies himself with it, fancies he finds pleasure in it, and [1] will reap what he sows; hence the sinner must endure the effects of his delusion until he awakes from it.
The New Birth.
St. Paul speaks of the new birth as “waiting for the [5] 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 spiritualization—yea, the highest Christianization—of thought and desire, can give the true perception of God [10] and divine Science, that results in health, happiness, and holiness.
The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of sur- render to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption [15] of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love.
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 [20] 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 to be the image of the infinite good that we name God, and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears. [25]
In mortal and material man, goodness seems in em- 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 on the milk of the Word, it drinks in the sweet revealings [30]
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of a new and more spiritual Life and Love. These nourish [1] the hungry hope, satisfy more the cravings for immor- tality, and so comfort, cheer, and bless one, that he saith: In mine infancy, this is enough of heaven to come down to earth. [5]
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 saith: The Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite [10] claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human; 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- ness, and death. [15]
Here, then, is the awakening from the dream of life in matter, to the great fact that God is the only Life; 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 [20] 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 awakened consciousness is wholly spiritual; it emanates from Soul instead of body, and is the new birth begun [25] in Christian Science.
Now, dear reader, pause for a moment with me, earn- estly to contemplate this new-born spiritual altitude; for this statement demands demonstration.
Here you stand face to face with the laws of infinite [30] Spirit, and behold for the first time the irresistible con- flict between the flesh and Spirit. You stand before the
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awful detonations of Sinai. You hear and record the [1] thunderings of the spiritual law of Life, as opposed to 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- [5] 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 your material appendages, human opinions and doc- trines, give up your more material religion with its rites [10] and ceremonies, put off your materia medica and hygiene 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 and to save. Then it is that you behold for the first [15] time the divine Principle that redeems man from under the curse of materialism,—sin, disease, and death. 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 [20] 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 prolonged and painful, according to the timely or un- timely circumstances, the normal or abnormal material [25] conditions attending it.
With the spiritual birth, man’s primitive, sinless, spiritual existence dawns on human thought,—through the travail of mortal mind, hope deferred, the perishing pleasure and accumulating pains of sense,—by which [30] one loses himself as matter, and gains a truer sense of Spirit and spiritual man.
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The purification or baptismals that come from Spirit, [1] develop, step by step, the original likeness of perfect man, 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- [5] 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 order of Science, are these: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me;” “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” [10] These commands of infinite wisdom, translated into 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- self as God’s spiritual child only, and the true man [15] and true woman, the all-harmonious “male and female,” as of spiritual origin, God’s reflection,—thus as chil- 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 [20] good in One.
With this recognition man could never separate him- self from good, God; and he would necessarily entertain habitual love for his fellow-man. Only by admitting evil as a reality, and entering into a state of evil [25] thoughts, can we in belief separate one man’s interests 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. Not to know what is blessing you, but to believe that [30] aught that God sends is unjust,—or that those whom He commissions bring to you at His demand that which
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is unjust,—is wrong and cruel. Envy, evil thinking, [1] evil speaking, covetousness, lust, hatred, malice, are 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 [5] carrying out what He teaches them,—these are never unmerciful, never unwise.
The task of healing the sick is far lighter than that of so teaching the divine Principle and rules of Chris- tian Science as to lift the affections and motives of men [10] to adopt them and bring them out in human lives. He 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 endeavors of suppositional demons can never change the [15] current of that life from steadfastly flowing on to God, its divine source.
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, [20] 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 malpractitioner.
Between the centripetal and centrifugal mental forces [25] of material and spiritual gravitations, we go into or we 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, and eternal? [30]
The spiritual sense of Life and its grand pursuits is of itself a bliss, health-giving and joy-inspiring. This
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sense of Life illumes our pathway with the radiance of [1] divine Love; heals man spontaneously, morally and 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.” [5]
CHAPTER II. ONE CAUSE AND EFFECT.
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Christian Science begins with the First Com- [1] mandment of the Hebrew Decalogue, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” It goes on in perfect unity with Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and in that age culminates in the Revelation of St. John, [5] who, while on earth and in the flesh, like ourselves, beheld “a new heaven and a new earth,”—the spiritual universe, whereof Christian Science now bears testimony.
Our Master said, “The works that I do shall ye do also;” and, “The kingdom of God is within you.” This [10] makes practical all his words and works. As the ages advance in spirituality, Christian Science will be seen to depart from the trend of other Christian denomina- tions in no wise except by increase of spirituality.
My first plank in the platform of Christian Science [15] is as follows: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is [20] God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.”(1)
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I am strictly a theist—believe in one God, one Christ [1] or Messiah.
Science is neither a law of matter nor of man. It is the unerring manifesto of Mind, the law of God, its divine Principle. Who dare say that matter or [5] mortals can evolve Science? Whence, then, is it, if not from the divine source, and what, but the contempor- ary of Christianity, so far in advance of human knowl- edge that mortals must work for the discovery of even a portion of it? Christian Science translates Mind, God, [10] to mortals. It is the infinite calculus defining the line, plane, space, and fourth dimension of Spirit. It abso- lutely refutes the amalgamation, transmigration, absorp- tion, or annihilation of individuality. It shows the impossibility of transmitting human ills, or evil, from one [15] individual to another; that all true thoughts revolve in God’s orbits: they come from God and return to Him,—and untruths belong not to His creation, there- fore these are null and void. It hath no peer, no comp- petitor, for it dwelleth in Him besides whom “there is [20] none other.”
That Christian Science is Christian, those who have demonstrated it, according to the rules of its divine Principle,—together with the sick, the lame, the deaf, and the blind, healed by it,—have proven to a waiting world. [25] He who has not tested it, is incompetent to condemn it; and he who is a willing sinner, cannot demonstrate it.
A falling apple suggested to Newton more than the simple fact cognized by the senses, to which it seemed to fall by reason of its own ponderosity; but the primal [30] cause, or Mind-force, invisible to material sense, lay concealed in the treasure-troves of Science. True,
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Newton named it gravitation, having learned so much; [1] but Science, demanding more, pushes the question: Whence or what is the power back of gravitation,—the intelligence that manifests power? Is pantheism true? Does mind “sleep in the mineral, or dream in the [5] animal, and wake in man”? Christianity answers this question. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, demon- strated a divine intelligence that subordinates so-called material laws; and disease, death, winds, and waves, obey this intelligence. Was it Mind or matter that spake [10] in creation, “and it was done”? The answer is self- evident, and the command remains, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
It is plain that the Me spoken of in the First Com- mandment, must be Mind; for matter is not the Chris- [15] tian’s God, and is not intelligent. Matter cannot even talk; and the serpent, Satan, the first talker in its behalf, lied. Reason and revelation declare that God is both noumenon and phenomena,—the first and only cause. The universe, including man, is not a result of atomic [20] action, material force or energy; it is not organized dust. God, Spirit, Mind, are terms synonymous for the one God, whose reflection is creation, and man is His image and likeness. Few there are who comprehend what Chris- tian Science means by the word reflection. God is seen [25] only in that which reflects good, Life, Truth, Love— yea, which manifests all His attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror repeats precisely the looks and actions of the object in front of it. All must be Mind and Mind’s ideas; since, according to [30] natural science, God, Spirit, could not change its species and evolve matter.
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These facts enjoin the First Commandment; and [1] knowledge of them makes man spiritually minded. St. Paul writes: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” This knowl- edge came to me in an hour of great need; and I give it [5] to you as death-bed testimony to the daystar that dawned on the night of material sense. This knowledge is practical, for it wrought my immediate recovery from an injury caused by an accident, and pronounced fatal by the physicians. On the third day thereafter, I called [10] for my Bible, and opened it at Matthew ix. 2. As I read, the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever after was in better health than I had before enjoyed. That short experience included a glimpse of the great fact [15] that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely, Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence. I learned that mortal thought evolves a sub- jective state which it names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit. Per contra, Mind and man [20] are immortal; and knowledge gained from mortal sense is illusion, error, the opposite of Truth; therefore it cannot be true. A knowledge of both good and evil (when good is God, and God is All) is impossible. Speak- ing of the origin of evil, the Master said: “When he [25] speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” God warned man not to believe the talking serpent, or rather the allegory describing it. The Nazarene Prophet declared that his followers should handle serpents; that is, put down all subtle falsi- [30] ties or illusions, and thus destroy any supposed effect arising from false claims exercising their supposed power
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on the mind and body of man against his holiness and [1] health.
That there is but one God or Life, one cause and one effect, is the multum in parvo of Christian Science; and to my understanding it is the heart of Christianity, [5] the religion that Jesus taught and demonstrated. In divine Science it is found that matter is a phase of error, and that neither one really exists, since God is Truth, and All-in-all. Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, in its direct application to human needs, confirms this [10] conclusion.
Science, understood, translates matter into Mind, rejects all other theories of causation, restores the spir- itual and original meaning of the Scriptures, and ex- plains the teachings and life of our Lord. It is religion’s [15] “new tongue,” with “signs following,” spoken of by St. Mark. It gives God’s infinite meaning to mankind, healing the sick, casting out evil, and raising the spirit- ually dead. Christianity is Christlike only as it re- iterates the word, repeats the works, and manifests the [20] spirit of Christ.
Jesus’ only medicine was omnipotent and omniscient Mind. As omni is from the Latin word meaning all, this medicine is all-power; and omniscience means as well, all-science. The sick are more deplorably situated [25] than the sinful, if the sick cannot trust God for help and the sinful can. If God created drugs good, they cannot be harmful; if He could create them otherwise, then they are bad and unfit for man; and if He created drugs for healing the sick, why did not Jesus employ them and [30] recommend them for that purpose?
No human hypotheses, whether in philosophy, medi-
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cine, or religion, can survive the wreck of time; but [1] whatever is of God, hath life abiding in it, and ulti- mately will be known as self-evident truth, as demonstra- ble as mathematics. Each successive period of progress is a period more humane and spiritual. The only logical [5] conclusion is that all is Mind and its manifestation, from the rolling of worlds, in the most subtle ether, to a potato- patch.
The agriculturist ponders the history of a seed, and believes that his crops come from the seedling and the [10] loam; even while the Scripture declares He made “every plant of the field before it was in the earth.” The Scien- tist asks, Whence came the first seed, and what made the soil? Was it molecules, or material atoms? Whence came the infinitesimals,—from infinite Mind, or from [15] matter? If from matter, how did matter originate? Was it self-existent? Matter is not intelligent, and thus able to evolve or create itself: it is the very opposite of Spirit, intelligent, self-creative, and infinite Mind. The belief of mind in matter is pantheism. Natural history shows [20] that neither a genus nor a species produces its opposite. God is All, in all. What can be more than All? Noth- ing: and this is just what I call matter, nothing. Spirit, God, has no antecedent; and God’s consequent is the spiritual cosmos. The phrase, “express image,” in the [25] common version of Hebrews i. 3, is, in the Greek Tes- tament, character.
The Scriptures name God as good, and the Saxon term for God is also good. From this premise comes the logical conclusion that God is naturally and divinely [30] infinite good. How, then, can this conclusion change, or be changed, to mean that good is evil, or the creator
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of evil? What can there be besides infinity? Nothing! [1] Therefore the Science of good calls evil nothing. In divine Science the terms God and good, as Spirit, are synonymous. That God, good, creates evil, or aught that can result in evil,—or that Spirit creates its oppo- [5] site, named matter,—are conclusions that destroy their premise and prove themselves invalid. Here is where Christian Science sticks to its text, and other systems of religion abandon their own logic. Here also is found the pith of the basal statement, the cardinal point in [10] Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all inharmony, sin, disease, death) are unreal. Mortals accept natural science, wherein no species ever pro- duces its opposite. Then why not accept divine Sci- ence on this ground? since the Scriptures maintain [15] this fact by parable and proof, asking, “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”
According to reason and revelation, evil and matter [20] are negation: for evil signifies the absence of good, God, though God is ever present; and matter claims some- thing besides God, when God is really All. Creation, evolution, or manifestation,—being in and of Spirit, Mind, and all that really is,—must be spiritual and [25] mental. This is Science, and is susceptible of proof.
But, say you, is a stone spiritual?
To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spirit- ual substance, “the substance of things hoped for.” [30] Mortals can know a stone as substance, only by first ad- mitting that it is substantial. Take away the mortal sense
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of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only [1] to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof. Matter can neither see, hear, feel, taste, nor smell; having no sen- sation of its own. Perception by the five personal senses is mental, and dependent on the beliefs that mortals [5] entertain. Destroy the belief that you can walk, and volition ceases; for muscles cannot move without mind. Matter takes no cognizance of matter. In dreams, things are only what mortal mind makes them; and the phe- nomena of mortal life are as dreams; and this so-called [10] life is a dream soon told. In proportion as mortals turn from this mortal and material dream, to the true sense of reality, everlasting Life will be found to be the only Life. That death does not destroy the beliefs of the flesh, our Master proved to his doubting disciple, Thomas. Also, [15] he demonstrated that divine Science alone can overbear materiality and mortality; and this great truth was shown is by his ascension after death, whereby he arose above the illusion of matter.
The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other [20] gods before me,” suggests the inquiry, What meaneth this Me,—Spirit, or matter? It certainly does not signify a graven idol, and must mean Spirit. Then the commandment means, Thou shalt recognize no intelligence nor life in matter; and find neither pleasure [25] nor pain therein. The Master’s practical knowledge of this grand verity, together with his divine Love, healed the sick and raised the dead. He literally annulled the claims of physique and of physical law, by the superiority of the higher law; hence his decla- [30] ration, “These signs shall follow them that believe;... if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
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they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” [1]
Do you believe his words? I do, and that his prom- ise is perpetual. Had it been applicable only to his immediate disciples, the pronoun would be you, not them. [5] The purpose of his life-work touches universal human- ity. At another time he prayed, not for the twelve only, but “for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”
The Christ-healing was practised even before the Christ- [10] ian era; “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is, however, no analogy between Christian Science and spiritualism, or between it and any specu- lative theory.
In 1867, I taught the first student in Christian Science. [15] Since that date I have known of but fourteen deaths in the ranks of my about five thousand students. The census since 1875 (the date of the first publication of my work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scrip- tures”) shows that longevity has increased. Daily letters [20] inform me that a perusal of my volume is healing the writers of chronic and acute diseases that had defied medi- cal skill.
Surely the people of the Occident know that esoteric magic and Oriental barbarisms will neither flavor Chris- [25] tianity nor advance health and length of days.
Miracles are no infraction of God’s laws; on the contrary, they fulfil His laws; for they are the signs fol- lowing Christianity, whereby matter is proven power- less and subordinate to Mind. Christians, like students [30] in mathematics, should be working up to those higher rules of Life which Jesus taught and proved. Do we
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really understand the divine Principle of Christianity [1] before we prove it, in at least some feeble demonstra- tion thereof, according to Jesus’ example in healing the sick? Should we adopt the “simple addition” in Chris- tian Science and doubt its higher rules, or despair of [5] ultimately reaching them, even though failing at first to demonstrate all the possibilities of Christianity?
St. John spiritually discerned and revealed the sum total of transcendentalism. He saw the real earth and heaven. They were spiritual, not material; and they [10] were without pain, sin, or death. Death was not the door to this heaven. The gates thereof he declared were inlaid with pearl,—likening them to the priceless under- standing of man’s real existence, to be recognized here and now. [15]
The great Way-shower illustrated Life unconfined, un- contaminated, untrammelled, by matter. He proved the superiority of Mind over the flesh, opened the door to the captive, and enabled man to demonstrate the law of Life, which St. Paul declares “hath made me free from [20] the law of sin and death.”
The stale saying that Christian Science “is neither Christian nor science!” is to-day the fossil of wisdom- less wit, weakness, and superstition. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” [25]
Take courage, dear reader, for any seeming mysti- cism surrounding realism is explained in the Scripture, “There went up a mist from the earth [matter];” and the mist of materialism will vanish as we approach spirit- uality, the realm of reality; cleanse our lives in Christ’s [30] righteousness; bathe in the baptism of Spirit, and awake in His likeness.
CHAPTER III. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
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What do you consider to be mental malpractice? [1]
Mental malpractice is a bland denial of Truth, and is the antipode of Christian Science. To mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously affect the happiness of a fellow-being—harm him [5] morally, physically, or spiritually—breaks the Golden Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being. This, therefore, is not the use but the abuse of mental treat- ment, and is mental malpractice. It is needless to say that such a subversion of right is not scientific. Its [10] claim to power is in proportion to the faith in evil, and consequently to the lack of faith in good. Such false faith finds no place in, and receives no aid from, the Principle or the rules of Christian Science; for it denies the grand verity of this Science, namely, that God, good, [15] has all power.