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Title: Retrospection and Introspection
Author: Mary Baker Eddy
Release Date: September 23, 2005 [EBook #16734]
Language: English
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RETROSPECTION
AND
INTROSPECTION
BY
MARY BAKER EDDY
AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
Registered
U.S. Patent Office
Published by The
Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy
BOSTON, U.S.A.
Authorized Literature of
THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST
in Boston, Massachusetts
_Copyright, 1891, 1892_
BY MARY BAKER G. EDDY
Copyright renewed 1919 and 1920
_All rights reserved_
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
ANCESTRAL SHADOWS
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES
VOICES NOT OUR OWN
EARLY STUDIES
GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION
THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE
THE COUNTRY-SEAT (POEM)
MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE
EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT
THE GREAT DISCOVERY
FOUNDATION WORK
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
FIRST PUBLICATION
THE PRECIOUS VOLUME
RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT
A TRUE MAN
COLLEGE AND CHURCH
"FEED MY SHEEP" (POEM)
COLLEGE CLOSED
GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS AND OUR MAGAZINE
FAITH-CURE
FOUNDATION-STONES
THE GREAT REVELATION
SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM
THE HUMAN CONCEPT
PERSONALITY
PLAGIARISM
ADMONITION
EXEMPLIFICATION
WAYMARKS
RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION
ANCESTRAL SHADOWS
My ancestors, according to the flesh, were from both Scotland and England,
my great-grandfather, on my father's side, being John McNeil of Edinburgh.
His wife, my great-grandmother, was Marion Moor, and her family is said to
have been in some way related to Hannah More, the pious and popular English
authoress of a century ago.
I remember reading, in my childhood, certain manuscripts containing
Scriptural sonnets, besides other verses and enigmas which my grandmother
said were written by my great-grandmother. But because my great-grandmother
wrote a stray sonnet and an occasional riddle, it was no sign that she
inherited a spark from Hannah More, or was her relative.
John and Marion Moor McNeil had a daughter, who perpetuated her mother's
name. This second Marion McNeil in due time was married to an Englishman,
named Joseph Baker, and so became my paternal grandmother, the Scotch and
English elements thus mingling in her children.
Mrs. Marion McNeil Baker was reared among the Scotch Covenanters, and had
in her character that sturdy Calvinistic devotion to Protestant liberty
which gave those religionists the poetic daring and pious picturesqueness
which we find so graphically set forth in the pages of Sir Walter Scott and
in John Wilson's sketches.
Joseph Baker and his wife, Marion McNeil, came to America seeking "freedom
to worship God;" though they could hardly have crossed the Atlantic more
than a score of years prior to the Revolutionary period.
With them they brought to New England a heavy sword, encased in a brass
scabbard, on which was inscribed the name of a kinsman upon whom the weapon
had been bestowed by Sir William Wallace, from whose patriotism and bravery
comes that heart-stirring air, "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled."
My childhood was also gladdened by one of my Grandmother Baker's books,
printed in olden type and replete with the phraseology current in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Among grandmother's treasures were some newspapers, yellow with age. Some
of these, however, were not very ancient, nor had they crossed the ocean;
for they were American newspapers, one of which contained a full account of
the death and burial of George Washington.
A relative of my Grandfather Baker was General Henry Knox of Revolutionary
fame. I was fond of listening, when a child, to grandmother's stories about
General Knox, for whom she cherished a high regard.
In the line of my Grandmother Baker's family was the late Sir John
Macneill, a Scotch knight, who was prominent in British politics, and at
one time held the position of ambassador to Persia.
My grandparents were likewise connected with Capt. John Lovewell of
Dunstable, New Hampshire, whose gallant leadership and death, in the Indian
troubles of 1722-1725, caused that prolonged contest to be known
historically as Lovewell's War.
A cousin of my grandmother was John Macneil, the New Hampshire general who
fought at Lundy's Lane, and won distinction in 1814 at the neighboring
battle of Chippewa, towards the close of the War of 1812.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES
This venerable grandmother had thirteen children, the youngest of whom was
my father, Mark Baker, who inherited the homestead, and with his brother,
James Baker, he inherited my grandfather's farm of about five hundred
acres, lying in the adjoining towns of Concord and Bow, in the State of New
Hampshire.
One hundred acres of the old farm are still cultivated and owned by Uncle
James Baker's grandson, brother of the Hon. Henry Moore Baker of
Washington, D.C.
The farm-house, situated on the summit of a hill, commanded a broad
picturesque view of the Merrimac River and the undulating lands of three
townships. But change has been busy. Where once stretched broad fields of
bending grain waving gracefully in the sunlight, and orchards of apples,
peaches, pears, and cherries shone richly in the mellow hues of
autumn,--now the lone night-bird cries, the crow caws cautiously, and
wandering winds sigh low requiems through dark pine groves. Where green
pastures bright with berries, singing brooklets, beautiful wild flowers,
and flecked with large flocks and herds, covered areas of rich acres,--now
the scrub-oak, poplar, and fern flourish.
The wife of Mark Baker was Abigail Barnard Ambrose, daughter of Deacon
Nathaniel Ambrose of Pembroke, a small town situated near Concord, just
across the bridge, on the left bank of the Merrimac River.
Grandfather Ambrose was a very religious man, and gave the money for
erecting the first Congregational Church in Pembroke.
In the Baker homestead at Bow I was born, the youngest of my parents' six
children and the object of their tender solicitude.
During my childhood my parents removed to Tilton, eighteen miles from
Concord, and there the family remained until the names of both father and
mother were inscribed on the stone memorials in the Park Cemetery of that
beautiful village.
My father possessed a strong intellect and an iron will. Of my mother I
cannot speak as I would, for memory recalls qualities to which the pen can
never do justice. The following is a brief extract from the eulogy of the
Rev. Richard S. Rust, D.D., who for many years had resided in Tilton and
knew my sainted mother in all the walks of life.
The character of Mrs. Abigail Ambrose Baker was distinguished for
numerous excellences. She possessed a strong intellect, a
sympathizing heart, and a placid spirit. Her presence, like the
gentle dew and cheerful light, was felt by all around her. She
gave an elevated character to the tone of conversation in the
circles in which she moved, and directed attention to themes at
once pleasing and profitable.
As a mother, she was untiring in her efforts to secure the
happiness of her family. She ever entertained a lively sense of
the parental obligation, especially in regard to the education of
her children. The oft-repeated impressions of that sainted spirit,
on the hearts of those especially entrusted to her watch-care, can
never be effaced, and can hardly fail to induce them to follow her
to the brighter world. Her life was a living illustration of
Christian faith.
My childhood's home I remember as one with the open hand. The needy were
ever welcome, and to the clergy were accorded special household privileges.
Among the treasured reminiscences of my much respected parents, brothers,
and sisters, is the memory of my second brother, Albert Baker, who was,
next to my mother, the very dearest of my kindred. To speak of his
beautiful character as I cherish it, would require more space than this
little book can afford.
My brother Albert was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1834, and was
reputed one of the most talented, close, and thorough scholars ever
connected with that institution. For two or three years he read law at
Hillsborough, in the office of Franklin Pierce, afterwards President of the
United States; but later Albert spent a year in the office of the Hon.
Richard Fletcher of Boston. He was consequently admitted to the bar in two
States, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 1837 he succeeded to the
law-office which Mr. Pierce had occupied, and was soon elected to the
Legislature of his native State, where he served the public interests
faithfully for two consecutive years. Among other important bills which
were carried through the Legislature by his persistent energy was one for
the abolition of imprisonment for debt.
In 1841 he received further political preferment, by nomination to
Congress on a majority vote of seven thousand,--it was the largest vote of
the State; but he passed away at the age of thirty-one, after a short
illness, before his election. His noble political antagonist, the Hon.
Isaac Hill, of Concord, wrote of my brother as follows:--
Albert Baker was a young man of uncommon promise. Gifted with the
highest order of intellectual powers, he trained and schooled them
by intense and almost incessant study throughout his short life.
He was fond of investigating abstruse and metaphysical principles,
and he never forsook them until he had explored their every nook
and corner, however hidden and remote. Had life and health been
spared to him, he would have made himself one of the most
distinguished men in the country. As a lawyer he was able and
learned, and in the successful practice of a very large business.
He was noted for his boldness and firmness, and for his powerful
advocacy of the side he deemed right. His death will be deplored,
with the most poignant grief, by a large number of friends, who
expected no more than they realized from his talents and
acquirements. This sad event will not be soon forgotten. It
blights too many hopes; it carries with it too much of sorrow and
loss. It is a public calamity.
VOICES NOT OUR OWN
Many peculiar circumstances and events connected with my childhood throng
the chambers of memory. For some twelve months, when I was about eight
years old, I repeatedly heard a voice, calling me distinctly by name, three
times, in an ascending scale. I thought this was my mother's voice, and
sometimes went to her, beseeching her to tell me what she wanted. Her
answer was always, "Nothing, child! What do you mean?" Then I would say,
"Mother, who _did_ call me? I heard somebody call _Mary_, three times!"
This continued until I grew discouraged, and my mother was perplexed and
anxious.
One day, when my cousin, Mehitable Huntoon, was visiting us, and I sat in a
little chair by her side, in the same room with grandmother,--the call
again came, so loud that Mehitable heard it, though I had ceased to notice
it. Greatly surprised, my cousin turned to me and said, "Your mother is
calling you!" but I answered not, till again the same call was thrice
repeated. Mehitable then said sharply, "Why don't you go? your mother is
calling you!" I then left the room, went to my mother, and once more asked
her if she had summoned me? She answered as always before. Then I earnestly
declared my cousin had heard the voice, and said that mother wanted me.
Accordingly she returned with me to grandmother's room, and led my cousin
into an adjoining apartment. The door was ajar, and I listened with bated
breath. Mother told Mehitable all about this mysterious voice, and asked if
she really did hear Mary's name pronounced in audible tones. My cousin
answered quickly, and emphasized her affirmation.
That night, before going to rest, my mother read to me the Scriptural
narrative of little Samuel, and bade me, when the voice called again, to
reply as he did, "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth." The voice came;
but I was afraid, and did not answer. Afterward I wept, and prayed that God
would forgive me, resolving to do, next time, as my mother had bidden me.
When the call came again I did answer, in the words of Samuel, but never
again to the material senses was that mysterious call repeated.
Is it not much that I may worship Him,
With naught my spirit's breathings to control,
And feel His presence in the vast and dim
And whispering woods, where dying thunders roll
From the far cataracts? Shall I not rejoice
That I have learned at last to know His voice
From man's?--I will rejoice! My soaring soul
Now hath redeemed her birthright of the day,
And won, through clouds, to Him, her own unfettered way!
--MRS. HEMANS.
EARLY STUDIES
My father was taught to believe that my brain was too large for my body and
so kept me much out of school, but I gained book-knowledge with far less
labor than is usually requisite. At ten years of age I was as familiar with
Lindley Murray's Grammar as with the Westminster Catechism; and the latter
I had to repeat every Sunday. My favorite studies were natural philosophy,
logic, and moral science. From my brother Albert I received lessons in the
ancient tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. My brother studied Hebrew during
his college vacations. After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the
knowledge I had gleaned from schoolbooks vanished like a dream.
Learning was so illumined, that grammar was eclipsed. Etymology was divine
history, voicing the idea of God in man's origin and signification. Syntax
was spiritual order and unity. Prosody, the song of angels, and no earthly
or inglorious theme.
GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION
From childhood I was a verse-maker. Poetry suited my emotions better than
prose. The following is one of my girlhood productions.
ALPHABET AND BAYONET
If fancy plumes aerial flight,
Go fix thy restless mind
On learning's lore and wisdom's might,
And live to bless mankind.
The sword is sheathed, 'tis freedom's hour,
No despot bears misrule,
Where knowledge plants the foot of power
In our God-blessed free school.
Forth from this fount the streamlets flow,
That widen in their course.
Hero and sage arise to show
Science the mighty source,
And laud the land whose talents rock
The cradle of her power,
And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock,
From erudition's bower.
Farther than feet of chamois fall,
Free as the generous air,
Strains nobler far than clarion call
Wake freedom's welcome, where
Minerva's silver sandals still
Are loosed, and not effete;
Where echoes still my day-dreams thrill,
Woke by her fancied feet.
THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE
At the age of twelve[A] I was admitted to the Congregational (Trinitarian)
Church, my parents having been members of that body for a half-century. In
connection with this event, some circumstances are noteworthy. Before this
step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or predestination,
greatly troubled me; for I was unwilling to be saved, if my brothers and
sisters were to be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual
banishment from God. So perturbed was I by the thoughts aroused by this
erroneous doctrine, that the family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me
stricken with fever.
My father's relentless theology emphasized belief in a final judgment-day,
in the danger of endless punishment, and in a Jehovah merciless towards
unbelievers; and of these things he now spoke, hoping to win me from
dreaded heresy.
My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God's love,
which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do,
seeking His guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over
me. The fever was gone, and I rose and dressed myself, in a normal
condition of health. Mother saw this, and was glad. The physician
marvelled; and the "horrible decree" of predestination--as John Calvin
rightly called his own tenet--forever lost its power over me.
When the meeting was held for the examination of candidates for membership,
I was of course present. The pastor was an old-school expounder of the
strictest Presbyterian doctrines. He was apparently as eager to have
unbelievers in these dogmas lost, as he was to have elect believers
converted and rescued from perdition; for both salvation and condemnation
depended, according to his views, upon the good pleasure of infinite Love.
However, I was ready for his doleful questions, which I answered without a
tremor, declaring that never could I unite with the church, if assent to
this doctrine was essential thereto.
Distinctly do I recall what followed. I stoutly maintained that I was
willing to trust God, and take my chance of spiritual safety with my
brothers and sisters,--not one of whom had then made any profession of
religion,--even if my creedal doubts left me outside the doors. The
minister then wished me to tell him when I had experienced a change of
heart; but tearfully I had to respond that I could not designate any
precise time. Nevertheless he persisted in the assertion that I _had_ been
truly regenerated, and asked me to say how I felt when the new light dawned
within me. I replied that I could only answer him in the words of the
Psalmist: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my
thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting."
This was so earnestly said, that even the oldest church-members wept. After
the meeting was over they came and kissed me. To the astonishment of many,
the good clergyman's heart also melted, and he received me into their
communion, and my protest along with me. My connection with this religious
body was retained till I founded a church of my own, built on the basis of
Christian Science, "Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."
In confidence of faith, I could say in David's words, "I will go in the
strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of
Thine only. O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I
declared Thy wondrous works." (Psalms lxxi. 16, 17.)
In the year 1878 I was called to preach in Boston at the Baptist Tabernacle
of Rev. Daniel C. Eddy, D.D.,--by the pastor of this church. I accepted the
invitation and commenced work.
The congregation so increased in number the pews were not sufficient to
seat the audience and benches were used in the aisles. At the close of my
engagement we parted in Christian fellowship, if not in full unity of
doctrine.
Our last vestry meeting was made memorable by eloquent addresses from
persons who feelingly testified to having been healed through my preaching.
Among other diseases cured they specified cancers. The cases described had
been treated and given over by physicians of the popular schools of
medicine, but I had not heard of these cases till the persons who divulged
their secret joy were healed. A prominent churchman agreeably informed the
congregation that many others present had been healed under my preaching,
but were too timid to testify in public.
One memorable Sunday afternoon, a soprano,--clear, strong,
sympathetic,--floating up from the pews, caught my ear. When the meeting
was over, two ladies pushing their way through the crowd reached the
platform. With tears of joy flooding her eyes--for she was a mother--one of
them said, "Did you hear my daughter sing? Why, she has not sung before
since she left the choir and was in consumption! When she entered this
church one hour ago she could not speak a loud word, and now, oh, thank
God, she is healed!"
It was not an uncommon occurrence in my own church for the sick to be
healed by my sermon. Many pale cripples went into the church leaning on
crutches who went out carrying them on their shoulders. "And these signs
shall follow them that believe."
The charter for The Mother Church in Boston was obtained June, 1879,[B] and
the same month the members, twenty-six in number, extended a call to Mary
B.G. Eddy to become their pastor. She accepted the call, and was ordained
A.D. 1881.
THE COUNTRY-SEAT
Written in youth, while visiting a family friend in the beautiful suburbs
of Boston.
Wild spirit of song,--midst the zephyrs at play
In bowers of beauty,--I bend to thy lay,
And woo, while I worship in deep sylvan spot,
The Muses' soft echoes to kindle the grot.
Wake chords of my lyre, with musical kiss,
To vibrate and tremble with accents of bliss.
Here morning peers out, from her crimson repose,
On proud Prairie Queen and the modest Moss-rose;
And vesper reclines--when the dewdrop is shed
On the heart of the pink--in its odorous bed;
But Flora has stolen the rainbow and sky,
To sprinkle the flowers with exquisite dye.
Here fame-honored hickory rears his bold form,
And bares a brave breast to the lightning and storm,
While palm, bay, and laurel, in classical glee,
Chase tulip, magnolia, and fragrant fringe-tree;
And sturdy horse-chestnut for centuries hath given
Its feathery blossom and branches to heaven.
Here is life! Here is youth! Here the poet's world-wish,--
Cool waters at play with the gold-gleaming fish;
While cactus a mellower glory receives
From light colored softly by blossom and leaves;
And nestling alder is whispering low,
In lap of the pear-tree, with musical flow.[C]
Dark sentinel hedgerow is guarding repose,
Midst grotto and songlet and streamlet that flows
Where beauty and perfume from buds burst away,
And ope their closed cells to the bright, laughing day;
Yet, dwellers in Eden, earth yields you her tear,--
Oft plucked for the banquet, but laid on the bier.
Earth's beauty and glory delude as the shrine
Or fount of real joy and of visions divine;
But hope, as the eaglet that spurneth the sod,
May soar above matter, to fasten on God,
And freely adore all His spirit hath made,
Where rapture and radiance and glory ne'er fade.
Oh, give me the spot where affection may dwell
In sacred communion with home's magic spell!
Where flowers of feeling are fragrant and fair,
And those we most love find a happiness rare;
But clouds are a presage,--they darken my lay:
This life is a shadow, and hastens away.
MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE
In 1843 I was united to my first husband, Colonel George Washington Glover
of Charleston, South Carolina, the ceremony taking place under the paternal
roof in Tilton.
After parting with the dear home circle I went with him to the South; but
he was spared to me for only one brief year. He was in Wilmington, North
Carolina, on business, when the yellow-fever raged in that city, and was
suddenly attacked by this insidious disease, which in his case proved
fatal.
My husband was a freemason, being a member in Saint Andrew's Lodge, Number
10, and of Union Chapter, Number 3, of Royal Arch masons. He was highly
esteemed and sincerely lamented by a large circle of friends and
acquaintances, whose kindness and sympathy helped to support me in this
terrible bereavement. A month later I returned to New Hampshire, where, at
the end of four months, my babe was born.
Colonel Glover's tender devotion to his young bride was remarked by all
observers. With his parting breath he gave pathetic directions to his
brother masons about accompanying her on her sad journey to the North. Here
it is but justice to record, they performed their obligations most
faithfully.
After returning to the paternal roof I lost all my husband's property,
except what money I had brought with me; and remained with my parents until
after my mother's decease.
A few months before my father's second marriage, to Mrs. Elizabeth
Patterson Duncan, sister of Lieutenant-Governor George W. Patterson of New
York, my little son, about four years of age, was sent away from me, and
put under the care of our family nurse, who had married, and resided in the
northern part of New Hampshire. I had no training for self-support, and my
home I regarded as very precious. The night before my child was taken from
me, I knelt by his side throughout the dark hours, hoping for a vision of
relief from this trial. The following lines are taken from my poem,
"Mother's Darling," written after this separation:--
Thy smile through tears, as sunshine o'er the sea,
Awoke new beauty in the surge's roll!
Oh, life is dead, bereft of all, with thee,--
Star of my earthly hope, babe of my soul.
My second marriage was very unfortunate, and from it I was compelled to ask
for a bill of divorce, which was granted me in the city of Salem,
Massachusetts.
My dominant thought in marrying again was to get back my child, but after
our marriage his stepfather was not willing he should have a home with me.
A plot was consummated for keeping us apart. The family to whose care he
was committed very soon removed to what was then regarded as the Far West.
After his removal a letter was read to my little son, informing him that
his mother was dead and buried. Without my knowledge a guardian was
appointed him, and I was then informed that my son was lost. Every means
within my power was employed to find him, but without success. We never met
again until he had reached the age of thirty-four, had a wife and two
children, and by a strange providence had learned that his mother still
lived, and came to see me in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile he had served as a volunteer throughout the war for the Union,
and at its expiration was appointed United States Marshal of the Territory
of Dakota.
It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but
the record of dreams, not of man's real existence, and the dream has no
place in the Science of being. It is "as a tale that is told," and "as the
shadow when it declineth." The heavenly intent of earth's shadows is to
chasten the affections, to rebuke human consciousness and turn it gladly
from a material, false sense of life and happiness, to spiritual joy and
true estimate of being.
The awakening from a false sense of life, substance, and mind in matter, is
as yet imperfect; but for those lucid and enduring lessons of Love which
tend to this result, I bless God.
Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment,
unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth. To this end, but only to this
end, such narrations may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual
conclusions are separated from their premises, the _nexus_ is lost, and the
argument, with its rightful conclusions, becomes correspondingly obscure.
The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.
The Gospel narratives bear brief testimony even to the life of our great
Master. His spiritual noumenon and phenomenon silenced portraiture. Writers
less wise than the apostles essayed in the Apocryphal New Testament a
legendary and traditional history of the early life of Jesus. But St. Paul
summarized the character of Jesus as the model of Christianity, in these
words: "Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself." "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God."
It may be that the mortal life-battle still wages, and must continue till
its involved errors are vanquished by victory-bringing Science; but this
triumph will come! God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and being.
The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created through the flesh;
for his father and mother are the one Spirit, and his brethren are all the
children of one parent, the eternal good.
EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT
The trend of human life was too eventful to leave me undisturbed in the
illusion that this so-called life could be a real and abiding rest. All
things earthly must ultimately yield to the irony of fate, or else be
merged into the one infinite Love.
As these pungent lessons became clearer, they grew sterner. Previously the
cloud of mortal mind seemed to have a silver lining; but now it was not
even fringed with light. Matter was no longer spanned with its rainbow of
promise. The world was dark. The oncoming hours were indicated by no floral
dial. The senses could not prophesy sunrise or starlight.
Thus it was when the moment arrived of the heart's bridal to more spiritual
existence. When the door opened, I was waiting and watching; and, lo, the
bridegroom came! The character of the Christ was illuminated by the
midnight torches of Spirit. My heart knew its Redeemer. He whom my
affections had diligently sought was as the One "altogether lovely," as
"the chiefest," the only, "among ten thousand." Soulless famine had fled.
Agnosticism, pantheism, and theosophy were void. Being was beautiful, its
substance, cause, and currents were God and His idea. I had touched the hem
of Christian Science.
THE GREAT DISCOVERY
It was in Massachusetts, in February, 1866, and after the death of the
magnetic doctor, Mr. P.P. Quimby, whom spiritualists would associate
therewith, but who was in no wise connected with this event, that I
discovered the Science of divine metaphysical healing which I afterwards
named Christian Science. The discovery came to pass in this way. During
twenty years prior to my discovery I had been trying to trace all physical
effects to a mental cause; and in the latter part of 1866 I gained the
scientific certainty that all causation was Mind, and every effect a mental
phenomenon.
My immediate recovery from the effects of an injury caused by an accident,
an injury that neither medicine nor surgery could reach, was the falling
apple that led me to the discovery how to be well myself, and how to make
others so.
Even to the homoeopathic physician who attended me, and rejoiced in my
recovery, I could not then explain the _modus_ of my relief. I could only
assure him that the divine Spirit had wrought the miracle--a miracle which
later I found to be in perfect scientific accord with divine law.
I then withdrew from society about three years,--to ponder my mission, to
search the Scriptures, to find the Science of Mind that should take the
things of God and show them to the creature, and reveal the great curative
Principle,--Deity.
The Bible was my textbook. It answered my questions as to how I was healed;
but the Scriptures had to me a new meaning, a new tongue. Their spiritual
signification appeared; and I apprehended for the first time, in their
spiritual meaning, Jesus' teaching and demonstration, and the Principle and
rule of spiritual Science and metaphysical healing,--in a word, Christian
Science.
I named it _Christian_, because it is compassionate, helpful, and
spiritual. God I called _immortal Mind_. That which sins, suffers, and
dies, I named _mortal mind_. The physical senses, or sensuous nature, I
called _error_ and _shadow_. Soul I denominated _substance_, because Soul
alone is truly substantial. God I characterized as individual entity, but
His corporeality I denied. The real I claimed as eternal; and its
antipodes, or the temporal, I described as unreal. Spirit I called the
_reality_; and matter, the _unreality_.
I knew the human conception of God to be that He was a physically personal
being, like unto man; and that the five physical senses are so many
witnesses to the physical personality of mind and the real existence of
matter; but I learned that these material senses testify falsely, that
matter neither sees, hears, nor feels Spirit, and is therefore inadequate
to form any proper conception of the infinite Mind. "If I bear witness of
myself, my witness is not true." (John v. 31.)
I beheld with ineffable awe our great Master's purpose in not questioning
those he healed as to their disease or its symptoms, and his marvellous
skill in demanding neither obedience to hygienic laws, nor prescribing
drugs to support the divine power which heals. Adoringly I discerned the
Principle of his holy heroism and Christian example on the cross, when he
refused to drink the "vinegar and gall," a preparation of poppy, or
aconite, to allay the tortures of crucifixion.
Our great Way-shower, steadfast to the end in his obedience to God's laws,
demonstrated for all time and peoples the supremacy of good over evil, and
the superiority of Spirit over matter.
The miracles recorded in the Bible, which had before seemed to me
supernatural, grew divinely natural and apprehensible; though uninspired
interpreters ignorantly pronounce Christ's healing miraculous, instead of
seeing therein the operation of the divine law.
Jesus of Nazareth was a natural and divine Scientist. He was so before the
material world saw him. He who antedated Abraham, and gave the world a new
date in the Christian era, was a Christian Scientist, who needed no
discovery of the Science of being in order to rebuke the evidence. To one
"born of the flesh," however, divine Science must be a discovery. Woman
must give it birth. It must be begotten of spirituality, since none but the
pure in heart can see God,--the Principle of all things pure; and none but
the "poor in spirit" could first state this Principle, could know yet more
of the nothingness of matter and the allness of Spirit, could utilize
Truth, and absolutely reduce the demonstration of being, in Science, to the
apprehension of the age.
I wrote also, at this period, comments on the Scriptures, setting forth
their spiritual interpretation, the Science of the Bible, and so laid the
foundation of my work called Science and Health, published in 1875.
If these notes and comments, which have never been read by any one but
myself, were published, it would show that after my discovery of the
absolute Science of Mind-healing, like all great truths, this spiritual
Science developed itself to me until Science and Health was written. These
early comments are valuable to me as waymarks of progress, which I would
not have effaced.
Up to that time I had not fully voiced my discovery. Naturally, my first
jottings were but efforts to express in feeble diction Truth's ultimate. In
Longfellow's language,--
But the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness,
And are lifted up and strengthened.
As sweet music ripples in one's first thoughts of it like the brooklet in
its meandering midst pebbles and rocks, before the mind can duly express it
to the ear,--so the harmony of divine Science first broke upon my sense,
before gathering experience and confidence to articulate it. Its natural
manifestation is beautiful and euphonious, but its written expression
increases in power and perfection under the guidance of the great Master.
The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh
universe--old to God, but new to His "little one." It became evident that
the divine Mind alone must answer, and be found as the Life, or Principle,
of all being; and that one must acquaint himself with God, if he would be
at peace. He must be ours practically, guiding our every thought and
action; else we cannot understand the omnipresence of good sufficiently to
demonstrate, even in part, the Science of the perfect Mind and divine
healing.
I had learned that thought must be spiritualized, in order to apprehend
Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish, and pure, in order to have the
least understanding of God in divine Science. The first must become last.
Our reliance upon material things must be transferred to a perception of
and dependence on spiritual things. For Spirit to be supreme in
demonstration, it must be supreme in our affections, and we must be clad
with divine power. Purity, self-renunciation, faith, and understanding must
reduce all things real to their own mental denomination, Mind, which
divides, subdivides, increases, diminishes, constitutes, and sustains,
according to the law of God.
I had learned that Mind reconstructed the body, and that nothing else
could. How it was done, the spiritual Science of Mind must reveal. It was a
mystery to me then, but I have since understood it. All Science is a
revelation. Its Principle is divine, not human, reaching higher than the
stars of heaven.
Am I a believer in spiritualism? I believe in no _ism_. This is my
endeavor, to be a Christian, to assimilate the character and practice of
the anointed; and no motive can cause a surrender of this effort. As I
understand it, spiritualism is the antipode of Christian Science. I esteem
all honest people, and love them, and hold to loving our enemies and doing
good to them that "despitefully use you and persecute you."
FOUNDATION WORK
As the pioneer of Christian Science I stood alone in this conflict,
endeavoring to smite error with the falchion of Truth. The rare bequests of
Christian Science are costly, and they have won fields of battle from which
the dainty borrower would have fled. Ceaseless toil, self-renunciation, and
love, have cleared its pathway.
The motive of my earliest labors has never changed. It was to relieve the
sufferings of humanity by a sanitary system that should include all moral
and religious reform.
It is often asked why Christian Science was revealed to me as one
intelligence, analyzing, uncovering, and annihilating the false testimony
of the physical senses. Why was this conviction necessary to the right
apprehension of the invincible and infinite energies of Truth and Love, as
contrasted with the foibles and fables of finite mind and material
existence.
The answer is plain. St. Paul declared that the law was the schoolmaster,
to bring him to Christ. Even so was I led into the mazes of divine
metaphysics through the gospel of suffering, the providence of God, and the
cross of Christ. No one else can drain the cup which I have drunk to the
dregs as the Discoverer and teacher of Christian Science; neither can its
inspiration be gained without tasting this cup.
The loss of material objects of affection sunders the dominant ties of
earth and points to heaven. Nothing can compete with Christian Science, and
its demonstration, in showing this solemn certainty in growing freedom and
vindicating "the ways of God" to man. The absolute proof and self-evident
propositions of Truth are immeasurably paramount to rubric and dogma in
proving the Christ.
From my very childhood I was impelled, by a hunger and thirst after divine
things,--a desire for something higher and better than matter, and apart
from it,--to seek diligently for the knowledge of God as the one great and
ever-present relief from human woe. The first spontaneous motion of Truth
and Love, acting through Christian Science on my roused consciousness,
banished at once and forever the fundamental error of faith in things
material; for this trust is the unseen sin, the unknown foe,--the heart's
untamed desire which breaketh the divine commandments. As says St. James:
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all."
Into mortal mind's material obliquity I gazed, and stood abashed. Blanched
was the cheek of pride. My heart bent low before the omnipotence of Spirit,
and a tint of humility, soft as the heart of a moonbeam, mantled the earth.
Bethlehem and Bethany, Gethsemane and Calvary, spoke to my chastened sense
as by the tearful lips of a babe. Frozen fountains were unsealed. Erudite
systems of philosophy and religion melted, for Love unveiled the healing
promise and potency of a present spiritual _afflatus_. It was the gospel
of healing, on its divinely appointed human mission, bearing on its white
wings, to my apprehension, "the beauty of holiness,"--even the
possibilities of spiritual insight, knowledge, and being.
Early had I learned that whatever is loved materially, as mere corporeal
personality, is eventually lost. "For whosoever will save his life shall
lose it," said the Master. Exultant hope, if tinged with earthliness, is
crushed as the moth.
What is termed mortal and material existence is graphically defined by
Calderon, the famous Spanish poet, who wrote,--
What is life? 'Tis but a madness.
What is life? A mere illusion,
Fleeting pleasure, fond delusion,
Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness,
Whose most constant substance seems
But the dream of other dreams.
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
The physical side of this research was aided by hints from homoeopathy,
sustaining my final conclusion that mortal belief, instead of the drug,
governed the action of material medicine.
I wandered through the dim mazes of _materia medica_, till I was weary of
"scientific guessing," as it has been well called. I sought knowledge from
the different schools,--allopathy, homoeopathy, hydropathy, electricity,
and from various humbugs,--but without receiving satisfaction.
I found, in the two hundred and sixty-two remedies enumerated by Jahr, one
pervading secret; namely, that the less material medicine we have, and the
more Mind, the better the work is done; a fact which seems to prove the
Principle of Mind-healing. One drop of the thirtieth attenuation of _Natrum
muriaticum_, in a tumbler-full of water, and one teaspoonful of the water
mixed with the faith of ages, would cure patients not affected by a larger
dose. The drug disappears in the higher attenuations of homoeopathy, and
matter is thereby rarefied to its fatal essence, mortal mind; but immortal
Mind, the curative Principle, remains, and is found to be even more active.
The mental virtues of the material methods of medicine, when understood,
were insufficient to satisfy my doubts as to the honesty or utility of
using a material curative. I must know more of the unmixed, unerring
source, in order to gain the Science of Mind, the All-in-all of Spirit, in
which matter is obsolete. Nothing less could solve the mental problem. If I
sought an answer from the medical schools, the reply was dark and
contradictory. Neither ancient nor modern philosophy could clear the
clouds, or give me one distinct statement of the spiritual Science of
Mind-healing. Human reason was not equal to it.
I claim for healing scientifically the following advantages: _First_: It
does away with all material medicines, and recognizes the antidote for all
sickness, as well as sin, in the immortal Mind; and mortal mind as the
source of all the ills which befall mortals. _Second_: It is more effectual
than drugs, and cures when they fail, or only relieve; thus proving the
superiority of metaphysics over physics. _Third_: A person healed by
Christian Science is not only healed of his disease, but he is advanced
morally and spiritually. The mortal body being but the objective state of
the mortal mind, this mind must be renovated to improve the body.
FIRST PUBLICATION
In 1870 I copyrighted the first publication on spiritual, scientific
Mind-healing, entitled "The Science of Man." This little book is converted
into the chapter on Recapitulation in Science and Health. It was so
new--the basis it laid down for physical and moral health was so hopelessly
original, and men were so unfamiliar with the subject--that I did not
venture upon its publication until later, having learned that the merits of
Christian Science must be proven before a work on this subject could be
profitably published.
The truths of Christian Science are not interpolations of the Scriptures,
but the spiritual interpretations thereof. Science is the prism of Truth,
which divides its rays and brings out the hues of Deity. Human hypotheses
have darkened the glow and grandeur of evangelical religion. When speaking
of his true followers in every period, Jesus said, "_They_ shall lay hands
on the sick, and they shall recover." There is no authority for querying
the authenticity of this declaration, for it already was and is
demonstrated as practical, and its claim is substantiated,--a claim too
immanent to fall to the ground beneath the stroke of artless workmen.
Though a man were girt with the Urim and Thummim of priestly office, and
denied the perpetuity of Jesus' command, "Heal the sick," or its
application in all time to those who understand Christ as the Truth and the
Life, that man would not expound the gospel according to Jesus.
Five years after taking out my first copyright, I taught the Science of
Mind-healing, _alias_ Christian Science, by writing out my manuscripts for
students and distributing them unsparingly. This will account for certain
published and unpublished manuscripts extant, which the evil-minded would
insinuate did not originate with me.
THE PRECIOUS VOLUME
The first edition of my most important work, Science and Health, containing
the complete statement of Christian Science,--the term employed by me to
express the divine, or spiritual, Science of Mind-healing, was published in
1875.
When it was first printed, the critics took pleasure in saying, "This book
is indeed wholly original, but it will never be read."
The first edition numbered one thousand copies. In September, 1891, it had
reached sixty-two editions.
Those who formerly sneered at it, as foolish and eccentric, now declare
Bishop Berkeley, David Hume, Ralph Waldo Emerson, or certain German
philosophers, to have been the originators of the Science of Mind-healing
as therein stated.
Even the Scriptures gave no direct interpretation of the scientific basis
for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing, until our heavenly
Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in Science and Health,
to unlock this "mystery of godliness."
My reluctance to give the public, in my first edition of Science and
Health, the chapter on Animal Magnetism, and the divine purpose that this
should be done, may have an interest for the reader, and will be seen in
the following circumstances. I had finished that edition as far as that
chapter, when the printer informed me that he could not go on with my work.
I had already paid him seven hundred dollars, and yet he stopped my work.
All efforts to persuade him to finish my book were in vain.
After months had passed, I yielded to a constant conviction that I must
insert in my last chapter a partial history of what I had already observed
of mental malpractice. Accordingly, I set to work, contrary to my
inclination, to fulfil this painful task, and finished my copy for the
book. As it afterwards appeared, although I had not thought of such a
result, my printer resumed his work at the same time, finished printing the
copy he had on hand, and then started for Lynn to see me. The afternoon
that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston with my finished copy.
We met at the Eastern depot in Lynn, and were both surprised,--I to learn
that he had printed all the copy on hand, and had come to tell me he wanted
more,--he to find me _en route_ for Boston, to give him the closing chapter
of my first edition of Science and Health. Not a word had passed between
us, audibly or mentally, while this went on. I had grown disgusted with my
printer, and become silent. He had come to a standstill through motives and
circumstances unknown to me.
Science and Health is the textbook of Christian Science. Whosoever learns
the letter of this book, must also gain its spiritual significance, in
order to demonstrate Christian Science.
When the demand for this book increased, and people were healed simply by
reading it, the copyright was infringed. I entered a suit at law, and my
copyright was protected.
RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT
Through four successive years I healed, preached, and taught in a general
way, refusing to take any pay for my services and living on a small
annuity.
At one time I was called to speak before the Lyceum Club, at Westerly,
Rhode Island. On my arrival my hostess told me that her next-door neighbor
was dying. I asked permission to see her. It was granted, and with my
hostess I went to the invalid's house.
The physicians had given up the case and retired. I had stood by her side
about fifteen minutes when the sick woman rose from her bed, dressed
herself, and was well. Afterwards they showed me the clothes already
prepared for her burial; and told me that her physicians had said the
diseased condition was caused by an injury received from a surgical
operation at the birth of her last babe, and that it was impossible for her
to be delivered of another child. It is sufficient to add her babe was
safely born, and weighed twelve pounds. The mother afterwards wrote to me,
"I never before suffered so little in childbirth."
This scientific demonstration so stirred the doctors and clergy that they
had my notices for a second lecture pulled down, and refused me a hearing
in their halls and churches. This circumstance is cited simply to show the
opposition which Christian Science encountered a quarter-century ago, as
contrasted with its present welcome into the sickroom.
Many were the desperate cases I instantly healed, "without money and
without price," and in most instances without even an acknowledgment of the
benefit.
A TRUE MAN
My last marriage was with Asa Gilbert Eddy, and was a blessed and spiritual
union, solemnized at Lynn, Massachusetts, by the Rev. Samuel Barrett
Stewart, in the year 1877. Dr. Eddy was the first student publicly to
announce himself a Christian Scientist, and place these symbolic words on
his office sign. He forsook all to follow in this line of light. He was the
first organizer of a Christian Science Sunday School, which he
superintended. He also taught a special Bible-class; and he lectured so
ably on Scriptural topics that clergymen of other denominations listened to
him with deep interest. He was remarkably successful in Mind-healing, and
untiring in his chosen work. In 1882 he passed away, with a smile of peace
and love resting on his serene countenance. "Mark the perfect _man_, and
behold the upright: for the end of _that_ man _is_ peace." (Psalms xxxvii.
37.)
COLLEGE AND CHURCH
In 1867 I introduced the first purely metaphysical system of healing since
the apostolic days. I began by teaching one student Christian Science
Mind-healing. From this seed grew the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in
Boston, chartered in 1881. No charter was granted for similar purposes
after 1883. It is the only College, hitherto, for teaching the pathology of
spiritual power, _alias_ the Science of Mind-healing.
My husband, Asa G. Eddy, taught two terms in my College. After I gave up
teaching, my adopted son, Ebenezer J. Foster-Eddy, a graduate of the
Hahneman Medical College of Philadelphia, and who also received a
certificate from Dr. W.W. Keen's (allopathic) Philadelphia School of
Anatomy and Surgery,--having renounced his material method of practice and
embraced the teachings of Christian Science, taught the Primary, Normal,
and Obstetric class one term. Gen. Erastus N. Bates taught one Primary
class, in 1889, after which I judged it best to close the institution.
These students of mine were the only assistant teachers in the College.
The first Christian Scientist Association was organized by myself and six
of my students in 1876, on the Centennial Day of our nation's freedom. At a
meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, on April 12, 1879, it was
voted to organize a church to commemorate the words and works of our
Master, a Mind-healing church, without a creed, to be called the Church of
Christ, Scientist, the first such church ever organized. The charter for
this church was obtained in June, 1879,[D] and during the same month the
members, twenty-six in number, extended a call to me to become their
pastor. I accepted the call, and was ordained in 1881, though I had
preached five years before being ordained.
When I was its pastor, and in the pulpit every Sunday, my church increased
in members, and its spiritual growth kept pace with its increasing
popularity; but when obliged, because of accumulating work in the College,
to preach only occasionally, no student, at that time, was found able to
maintain the church in its previous harmony and prosperity.
Examining the situation prayerfully and carefully, noting the church's
need, and the predisposing and exciting cause of its condition, I saw that
the crisis had come when much time and attention must be given to defend
this church from the envy and molestation of other churches, and from the
danger to its members which must always lie in Christian warfare. At this
juncture I recommended that the church be dissolved. No sooner were my
views made known, than the proper measures were adopted to carry them out,
the votes passing without a dissenting voice.
This measure was immediately followed by a great revival of mutual love,
prosperity, and spiritual power.
The history of that hour holds this true record. Adding to its ranks and
influence, this spiritually organized Church of Christ, Scientist, in
Boston, still goes on. A new light broke in upon it, and more beautiful
became the garments of her who "bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace."
Despite the prosperity of my church, it was learned that material
organization has its value and peril, and that organization is requisite
only in the earliest periods in Christian history. After this material form
of cohesion and fellowship has accomplished its end, continued organization
retards spiritual growth, and should be laid off,--even as the corporeal
organization deemed requisite in the first stages of mortal existence is
finally laid off, in order to gain spiritual freedom and supremacy.
From careful observation and experience came my clue to the uses and abuses
of organization. Therefore, in accord with my special request, followed
that noble, unprecedented action of the Christian Scientist Association
connected with my College when dissolving that organization,--in forgiving
enemies, returning good for evil, in following Jesus' command, "Whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." I saw
these fruits of Spirit, long-suffering and temperance, fulfil the law of
Christ in righteousness. I also saw that Christianity has withstood less
the temptation of popularity than of persecution.
"FEED MY SHEEP"
Lines penned when I was pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, in
Boston.
Shepherd, show me how to go
O'er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow,--
How to feed Thy sheep;
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.
Thou wilt bind the stubborn will,
Wound the callous breast,
Make self-righteousness be still,
Break earth's stupid rest.
Strangers on a barren shore,
Lab'ring long and lone,
We would enter by the door,
And Thou know'st Thine own.
So, when day grows dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms,
Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take them in Thine arms;
Feed the hungry, heal the heart,
Till the morning's beam;
White as wool, ere they depart,
Shepherd, wash them clean.
COLLEGE CLOSED
The apprehension of what has been, and must be, the final outcome of
material organization, which wars with Love's spiritual compact, caused me
to dread the unprecedented popularity of my College. Students from all over
our continent, and from Europe, were flooding the school. At this time
there were over three hundred applications from persons desiring to enter
the College, and applicants were rapidly increasing. Example had shown the
dangers arising from being placed on earthly pinnacles, and Christian
Science shuns whatever involves material means for the promotion of
spiritual ends.
In view of all this, a meeting was called of the Board of Directors of my
College, who, being informed of my intentions, unanimously voted that the
school be discontinued.
A Primary class student, richly imbued with the spirit of Christ, is a
better healer and teacher than a Normal class student who partakes less of
God's love. After having received instructions in a Primary class from me,
or a loyal student, and afterwards studied thoroughly Science and Health, a
student can enter upon the gospel work of teaching Christian Science, and
so fulfil the command of Christ. But before entering this field of labor he
must have studied the latest editions of my works, be a good Bible scholar
and a consecrated Christian.
The Massachusetts Metaphysical College drew its breath from me, but I was
yearning for retirement. The question was, Who else could sustain this
institute, under all that was aimed at its vital purpose, the establishment
of _genuine_ Christian Science healing? My conscientious scruples about
diplomas, the recent experience of the church fresh in my thoughts, and the
growing conviction that every one should build on his own foundation,
subject to the one builder and maker, God,--all these considerations moved
me to close my flourishing school, and the following resolutions were
passed:--
At a special meeting of the Board of the Metaphysical College
Corporation, Oct. 29, 1889, the following are some of the
resolutions which were presented and passed unanimously:--
WHEREAS, The Massachusetts Metaphysical College,
chartered in January, 1881, for medical purposes, to give
instruction in scientific methods of mental healing on a purely
practical basis, to impart a thorough understanding of
metaphysics, to restore health, hope, and harmony to man,--has
fulfilled its high and noble destiny, and sent to all parts of our
country, and into foreign lands, students instructed in Christian
Science Mind-healing, to meet the demand of the age for something
higher than physic or drugging; and
WHEREAS, The material organization was, in the beginning
in this institution, like the baptism of Jesus, of which he said,
"Suffer it to be so now," though the teaching was a purely
spiritual and scientific impartation of Truth, whose Christly
spirit has led to higher ways, means, and understanding,--the
President, the Rev. Mary B.G. Eddy, at the height of prosperity
in the institution, which yields a large income, is willing to
sacrifice all for the advancement of the world in Truth and Love;
and
WHEREAS, Other institutions for instruction in Christian
Science, which are working out their periods of organization, will
doubtless follow the example of the _Alma Mater_ after having
accomplished the worthy purpose for which they were organized, and
the hour has come wherein the great need is for more of the spirit
instead of the letter, and Science and Health is adapted to work
this result; and
WHEREAS, The fundamental principle for growth in
Christian Science is spiritual formation first, last, and always,
while in human growth material organization is first; and
WHEREAS, Mortals must learn to lose their estimate of the
powers that are not ordained of God, and attain the bliss of
loving unselfishly, working patiently, and conquering all that is
unlike Christ and the example he gave; therefore
_Resolved_, That we thank the State for its charter, which is the
only one ever granted to a _legal college_ for teaching the
Science of Mind-healing; that we thank the public for its liberal
patronage. And everlasting gratitude is due to the President, for
her great and noble work, which we believe will prove a healing
for the nations, and bring all men to a knowledge of the true God,
uniting them in one common brotherhood.
After due deliberation and earnest discussion it was unanimously
voted: That as all debts of the corporation have been paid, it is
deemed best to dissolve this corporation, and the same is hereby
dissolved.
C.A. FRYE, _Clerk_.
When God impelled me to set a price on my instruction in Christian Science
Mind-healing, I could think of no financial equivalent for an impartation
of a knowledge of that divine power which heals; but I was led to name
three hundred dollars as the price for each pupil in one course of lessons
at my College,--a startling sum for tuition lasting barely three weeks.
This amount greatly troubled me. I shrank from asking it, but was finally
led, by a strange providence, to accept this fee.
God has since shown me, in multitudinous ways, the wisdom of this decision;
and I beg disinterested people to ask my loyal students if they consider
three hundred dollars any real equivalent for my instruction during twelve
half-days, or even in half as many lessons. Nevertheless, my list of
indigent charity scholars is very large, and I have had as many as
seventeen in one class.
Loyal students speak with delight of their pupilage, and of what it has
done for them, and for others through them. By loyalty in students I mean
this,--allegiance to God, subordination of the human to the divine,
steadfast justice, and strict adherence to divine Truth and Love.
I see clearly that students in Christian Science should, at present,
continue to organize churches, schools, and associations for the
furtherance and unfolding of Truth, and that my necessity is not
necessarily theirs; but it was the Father's opportunity for furnishing a
new rule of order in divine Science, and the blessings which arose
therefrom. Students are not environed with such obstacles as were
encountered in the beginning of pioneer work.
In December, 1889, I gave a lot of land in Boston to my student, Mr. Ira O.
Knapp of Roslindale,--valued in 1892 at about twenty thousand dollars, and
rising in value,--to be appropriated for the erection, and building on the
premises thereby conveyed, of a church edifice to be used as a temple for
Christian Science worship.
GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS, AND OUR MAGAZINE
For many successive years I have endeavored to find new ways and means for
the promotion and expansion of scientific Mind-healing, seeking to broaden
its channels and, if possible, to build a hedge round about it that should
shelter its perfections from the contaminating influences of those who have
a small portion of its letter and less of its spirit. At the same time I
have worked to provide a home for every true seeker and honest worker in
this vineyard of Truth.
To meet the broader wants of humanity, and provide folds for the sheep that
were without shepherds, I suggested to my students, in 1886, the propriety
of forming a National Christian Scientist Association. This was immediately
done, and delegations from the Christian Scientist Association of the
Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and from branch associations in other
States, met in general convention at New York City, February 11, 1886.
The first official organ of the Christian Scientist Association was called
_Journal of Christian Science_. I started it, April, 1883, as editor and
publisher.
To the National Christian Scientist Association, at its meeting in
Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1889, I sent a letter, presenting to its loyal
members _The Christian Science Journal_, as it was now called, and the
funds belonging thereto. This monthly magazine had been made successful and
prosperous under difficult circumstances and was designed to bear aloft the
standard of genuine Christian Science.
FAITH-CURE
It is often asked, Why are faith-cures sometimes more speedy than some of
the cures wrought through Christian Scientists? Because faith is belief,
and not understanding; and it is easier to believe, than to understand
spiritual Truth. It demands less cross-bearing, self-renunciation, and
divine Science to admit the claims of the corporeal senses and appeal to
God for relief through a humanized conception of His power, than to deny
these claims and learn the divine way,--drinking Jesus' cup, being baptized
with his baptism, gaining the end through persecution and purity.
Millions are believing in God, or good, without bearing the fruits of
goodness, not having reached its Science. Belief is virtually blindness,
when it admits Truth without understanding it. Blind belief cannot say with
the apostle, "I know whom I have believed." There is danger in this mental
state called belief; for if Truth is admitted, but not understood, it may
be lost, and error may enter through this same channel of ignorant belief.
The faith-cure has devout followers, whose Christian practice is far in
advance of their theory.
The work of healing, in the Science of Mind, is the most sacred and
salutary power which can be wielded. My Christian students, impressed with
the true sense of the great work before them, enter this strait and narrow
path, and work conscientiously.
Let us follow the example of Jesus, the master Metaphysician, and gain
sufficient knowledge of error to destroy it with Truth. Evil is not
mastered by evil; it can only be overcome with good. This brings out the
nothingness of evil and the eternal somethingness, vindicates the divine
Principle, and improves the race of Adam.
FOUNDATION-STONES
The following ideas of Deity, antagonized by finite theories, doctrines,
and hypotheses, I found to be demonstrable rules in Christian Science, and
that we must abide by them.
Whatever diverges from the one divine Mind, or God,--or divides Mind into
minds, Spirit into spirits, Soul into souls, and Being into beings,--is a
misstatement of the unerring divine Principle of Science, which interrupts
the meaning of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of Spirit,
and is of human instead of divine origin.
War is waged between the evidences of Spirit and the evidences of the five
physical senses; and this contest must go on until peace be declared by the
final triumph of Spirit in immutable harmony. Divine Science disclaims sin,
sickness, and death, on the basis of the omnipotence and omnipresence of
God, or divine good.
All consciousness is Mind, and Mind is God. Hence there is but one Mind;
and that one is the infinite good, supplying all Mind by the reflection,
not the subdivision, of God. Whatever else claims to be mind, or
consciousness, is untrue. The sun sends forth light, but not suns; so God
reflects Himself, or Mind, but does not subdivide Mind, or good, into
minds, good and evil. Divine Science demands mighty wrestlings with mortal
beliefs, as we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable sea of
possibilities.
Neither ancient nor modern philosophy furnishes a scientific basis for the
Science of Mind-healing. Plato believed he had a soul, which must be
doctored in order to heal his body. This would be like correcting the
principle of music for the purpose of destroying discord. Principle is
right; it is practice that is wrong. Soul is right; it is the flesh that is
evil. Soul is the synonym of Spirit, God; hence there is but one Soul, and
that one is infinite. If that pagan philosopher had known that physical
sense, not Soul, causes all bodily ailments, his philosophy would have
yielded to Science.
Man shines by borrowed light. He reflects God as his Mind, and this
reflection is substance,--the substance of good. Matter is substance in
error, Spirit is substance in Truth.
Evil, or error, is not Mind; but infinite Mind is sufficient to supply all
manifestations of intelligence. The notion of more than one Mind, or Life,
is as unsatisfying as it is unscientific. All must be of God, and not our
own, separated from Him.
Human systems of philosophy and religion are departures from Christian
Science. Mistaking divine Principle for corporeal personality, ingrafting
upon one First Cause such opposite effects as good and evil, health and
sickness, life and death; making mortality the status and rule of
divinity,--such methods can never reach the perfection and demonstration of
metaphysical, or Christian Science.
Stating the divine Principle, omnipotence (_omnis potens_), and then
departing from this statement and taking the rule of finite matter, with
which to work out the problem of infinity or Spirit,--all this is like
trying to compensate for the absence of omnipotence by a physical, false,
and finite substitute.
With our Master, life was not merely a sense of existence, but an
accompanying sense of power that subdued matter and brought to light
immortality, insomuch that the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for
he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Life, as
defined by Jesus, had no beginning; it was not the result of organization,
or infused into matter; it was Spirit.
THE GREAT REVELATION
Christian Science reveals the grand verity, that to believe man has a
finite and erring mind, and consequently a mortal mind and soul and life,
is error. Scientific terms have no contradictory significations.
In Science, Life is not temporal, but eternal, without beginning or ending.
The word _Life_ never means that which is the source of death, and of good
and evil. Such an inference is unscientific. It is like saying that
addition means subtraction in one instance and addition in another, and
then applying this rule to a demonstration of the science of numbers; even
as mortals apply finite terms to God, in demonstration of infinity. _Life_
is a term used to indicate Deity; and every other name for the Supreme
Being, if properly employed, has the signification of Life. Whatever errs
is mortal, and is the antipodes of Life, or God, and of health and
holiness, both in idea and demonstration.
Christian Science reveals Mind, the only living and true God, and all that
is made by Him, Mind, as harmonious, immortal, and spiritual: the five
material senses define Mind and matter as distinct, but mutually dependent,
each on the other, for intelligence and existence. Science defines man as
immortal, as coexistent and coeternal with God, as made in His own image
and likeness; material sense defines life as something apart from God,
beginning and ending, and man as very far from the divine likeness. Science
reveals Life as a complete sphere, as eternal, self-existent Mind; material
sense defines life as a broken sphere, as organized matter, and mind as
something separate from God. Science reveals Spirit as All, averring that
there is nothing beside God; material sense says that matter, His antipode,
is something besides God. Material sense adds that the divine Spirit
created matter, and that matter and evil are as real as Spirit and good.
Christian Science reveals God and His idea as the All and Only. It declares
that evil is the absence of good; whereas, good is God ever-present, and
therefore evil is unreal and good is all that is real. Christian Science
saith to the wave and storm, "Be still," and there is a great calm.
Material sense asks, in its ignorance of Science, "When will the raging of
the material elements cease?" Science saith to all manner of disease, "Know
that God is all-power and all-presence, and there is nothing beside Him;"
and the sick are healed. Material sense saith, "Oh, when will my sufferings
cease? Where is God? Sickness is something besides Him, which He cannot, or
does not, heal."
Christian Science is the only sure basis of harmony. Material sense
contradicts Science, for matter and its so-called organizations take no
cognizance of the spiritual facts of the universe, or of the real man and
God. Christian Science declares that there is but one Truth, Life, Love,
but one Spirit, Mind, Soul. Any attempt to divide these arises from the
fallibility of sense, from mortal man's ignorance, from enmity to God and
divine Science.
Christian Science declares that sickness is a belief, a latent fear, made
manifest on the body in different forms of fear or disease. This fear is
formed unconsciously in the silent thought, as when you awaken from sleep
and feel ill, experiencing the effect of a fear whose existence you do not
realize; but if you fall asleep, actually conscious of the truth of
Christian Science,--namely, that man's harmony is no more to be invaded
than the rhythm of the universe,--you cannot awake in fear or suffering of
any sort.
Science saith to fear, "You are the cause of all sickness; but you are a
self-constituted falsity,--you are darkness, nothingness. You are without
'hope, and without God in the world.' You do not exist, and have no right
to exist, for 'perfect Love casteth out fear.'"
God is everywhere. "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is
not heard;" and this voice is Truth that destroys error and Love that casts
out fear.
Christian Science reveals the fact that, if suffering exists, it is in the
mortal mind only, for matter has no sensation and cannot suffer.
If you rule out every sense of disease and suffering from mortal mind, it
cannot be found in the body.
Posterity will have the right to demand that Christian Science be stated
and demonstrated in its godliness and grandeur,--that however little be
taught or learned, that little shall be right. Let there be milk for babes,
but let not the milk be adulterated. Unless this method be pursued, the
Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will
increase.
Test Christian Science by its effect on society, and you will find that the
views here set forth--as to the illusion of sin, sickness, and death--bring
forth better fruits of health, righteousness, and Life, than _a belief in
their reality has ever done_. A demonstration of the _unreality_ of evil
destroys evil.
SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM
Why do Christian Scientists say God and His idea are the only realities,
and then insist on the need of healing sickness and sin? Because Christian
Science heals sin as it heals sickness, by establishing the recognition
that God _is All_, and there is none beside Him,--that all is good, and
there is in reality no evil, neither sickness nor sin. We attack the
sinner's belief in the pleasure of sin, _alias_ the reality of sin, which
makes him a sinner, in order to destroy this belief and save him from sin;
and we attack the belief of the sick in the reality of sickness, in order
to heal them. When we deny the authority of sin, we begin to sap it; for
this denunciation must precede its destruction.
God is good, hence goodness is something, for it represents God, the Life
of man. Its opposite, nothing, named _evil_, is nothing but a conspiracy
against man's Life and goodness. Do you not feel bound to expose this
conspiracy, and so to save man from it? Whosoever covers iniquity becomes
accessory to it. Sin, as a claim, is more dangerous than sickness, more
subtle, more difficult to heal.
St. Augustine once said, "The devil is but the ape of God." Sin is worse
than sickness; but recollect that it encourages sin to say, "There is no
sin," and leave the subject there.
Sin ultimates in sinner, and in this sense they are one. You cannot
separate sin from the sinner, nor the sinner from his sin. The sin is the
sinner, and _vice versa_, for such is the unity of evil; and together both
sinner and sin will be destroyed by the supremacy of good. This, however,
does not annihilate man, for to efface sin, _alias_ the sinner, brings to
light, makes apparent, the real man, even God's "image and likeness." Need
it be said that any opposite theory is heterodox to divine Science, which
teaches that good is equally _one_ and _all_, even as the opposite claim of
evil is one.
In Christian Science the fact is made obvious that the sinner and the sin
are alike simply nothingness; and this view is supported by the Scripture,
where the Psalmist saith: "He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
they shall never see light. Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is
like the beasts that perish." God's ways and works and thoughts have never
changed, either in Principle or practice.
Since there is in belief an illusion termed sin, which must be met and
mastered, we classify sin, sickness, and death as illusions. They are
supposititious claims of error; and error being a false claim, they are no
claims at all. It is scientific to abide in conscious harmony, in
health-giving, deathless Truth and Love. To do this, mortals must first
open their eyes to all the illusive forms, methods, and subtlety of error,
in order that the illusion, error, may be destroyed; if this is not done,
mortals will become the victims of error.
If evangelical churches refuse fellowship with the Church of Christ,
Scientist, or with Christian Science, they must rest their opinions of
Truth and Love on the evidences of the physical senses, rather than on the
teaching and practice of Jesus, or the works of the Spirit.
Ritualism and dogma lead to self-righteousness and bigotry, which freeze
out the spiritual element. Pharisaism killeth; Spirit giveth Life. The
odors of persecution, tobacco, and alcohol are not the sweet-smelling savor
of Truth and Love. Feasting the senses, gratification of appetite and
passion, have no warrant in the gospel or the Decalogue. Mortals must take
up the cross if they would follow Christ, and worship the Father "in spirit
and in truth."
The Jewish religion was not spiritual; hence Jesus denounced it. If the
religion of to-day is constituted of such elements as of old ruled Christ
out of the synagogues, it will continue to avoid whatever follows the
example of our Lord and prefers Christ to creed. Christian Science is the
pure evangelic truth. It accords with the trend and tenor of Christ's
teaching and example, while it demonstrates the power of Christ as taught
in the four Gospels. Truth, casting out evils and healing the sick; Love,
fulfilling the law and keeping man unspotted from the world,--these
practical manifestations of Christianity constitute the only evangelism,
and they need no creed.
As well expect to determine, without a telescope, the magnitude and
distance of the stars, as to expect to obtain health, harmony, and holiness
through an unspiritual and unhealing religion. Christianity reveals God as
ever-present Truth and Love, to be utilized in healing the sick, in
casting out error, in raising the dead.
Christian Science gives vitality to religion, which is no longer buried in
materiality. It raises men from a material sense into the spiritual
understanding and scientific demonstration of God.
THE HUMAN CONCEPT
Sin existed as a false claim before the human concept of sin was formed;
hence one's concept of error is not the whole of error. The human thought
does not constitute sin, but _vice versa_, sin constitutes the human or
physical concept.
Sin is both concrete and abstract. Sin was, and _is_, the lying supposition
that life, substance, and intelligence are both material and spiritual, and
yet are separate from God. The first iniquitous manifestation of sin was a
finity. The finite was self-arrayed against the infinite, the mortal
against immortality, and a sinner was the antipode of God.
Silencing self, _alias_ rising above corporeal personality, is what reforms
the sinner and destroys sin. In the ratio that the testimony of material
personal sense ceases, sin diminishes, until the false claim called sin is
finally lost for lack of witness.
The sinner created neither himself nor sin, but sin created the sinner;
that is, error made its man mortal, and this mortal was the image and
likeness of evil, not of good. Therefore the lie was, and _is_, collective
as well as individual. It was in no way contingent on Adam's thought, but
supposititiously self-created. In the words of our Master, it, the "devil"
(_alias_ evil), "was a liar, and the father of it."
This mortal material concept was never a creator, although as a serpent it
claimed to originate in the name of "the Lord," or good,--original evil;
second, in the name of human concept, it claimed to beget the offspring of
evil, _alias_ an evil offspring. However, the human concept never was,
neither indeed can be, the father of man. Even the spiritual idea, or ideal
man, is not a parent, though he reflects the infinity of good. The great
difference between these opposites is, that the human material concept is
_unreal_, and the divine concept or idea is spiritually real. One is false,
while the other is true. One is temporal, but the other is eternal.
Our Master instructed his students to "call no man your father upon the
earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." (Matt. xxiii. 9.)
Science and Health, the textbook of Christian Science, treats of the human
concept, and the transference of thought, as follows:--
"How can matter originate or transmit mind? We answer that it
cannot. Darkness and doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases
creation on materiality" (p. 551).
"In reality there is no _mortal_ mind, and consequently no
transference of mortal thought and will-power. Life and being are
of God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for scientific
thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God to man" (pp. 103,
104).
"Man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure
constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals,
in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions
prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and
ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law
of his being" (p. 63).
"The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep
sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence
proceeded from and passed into matter. This pantheistic error, or
so-called _serpent_, insists still upon the opposite of Truth,
saying, 'Ye shall be as gods;' that is, I will make error as real
and eternal as Truth.... 'I will put spirit into what I call
matter, and matter shall seem to have life as much as God, Spirit,
who _is_ the only Life.' This error has proved itself to be error.
Its life is found to be not Life, but only a transient, false
sense of an existence which ends in death" (pp. 306, 307).
"When will the error of believing that there is life in matter,
and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of God, be
unmasked? When will it be understood that matter has no
intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is
the prolific source of all suffering? God created all through
Mind, and made all perfect and eternal. Where then is the
necessity for recreation or procreation?" (p. 205).
"Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice of Truth
still calls: 'Adam, where art thou? Consciousness, where art thou?
Art thou dwelling in the belief that mind is in matter, and that
evil is mind, or art thou in the living faith that there is and
can be but one God, and keeping His commandment?'" (pp. 307,
308). "Mortal mind inverts the true likeness, and confers animal
names and natures upon its own misconceptions. Ignorant of the
origin and operations of mortal mind,--that is, ignorant of
itself,--this so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and
claims God as their author;... usurps the deific prerogatives and
is an attempted infringement on infinity" (pp. 512, 513).
We do not question the authenticity of the Scriptural narrative of the
Virgin-mother and Bethlehem babe, and the Messianic mission of Christ
Jesus; but in our time no Christian Scientist will give chimerical wings to
his imagination, or advance speculative theories as to the recurrence of
such events.
No person can take the individual place of the Virgin Mary. No person can
compass or fulfil the individual mission of Jesus of Nazareth. No person
can take the place of the author of Science and Health, the Discoverer and
Founder of Christian Science. Each individual must fill his own niche in
time and eternity.
The second appearing of Jesus is, unquestionably, the spiritual advent of
the advancing idea of God, as in Christian Science.
And the scientific ultimate of this God-idea must be, will be, forever
individual, incorporeal, and infinite, even the reflection, "image and
likeness," of the infinite God.
The right teacher of Christian Science lives the truth he teaches.
Preeminent among men, he virtually stands at the head of all sanitary,
civil, moral, and religious reform. Such a post of duty, unpierced by
vanity, exalts a mortal beyond human praise, or monuments which weigh
dust, and humbles him with the tax it raises on calamity to open the gates
of heaven. It is not the forager on others' wisdom that God thus crowns,
but he who is obedient to the divine command, "Render to Cæsar the things
that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Great temptations beset an ignorant or an unprincipled mind-practice in
opposition to the straight and narrow path of Christian Science.
Promiscuous mental treatment, without the consent or knowledge of the
individual treated, is an error of much magnitude. People unaware of the
indications of mental treatment, know not what is affecting them, and thus
may be robbed of their individual rights,--freedom of choice and
self-government. Who is willing to be subjected to such an influence? Ask
the unbridled mind-manipulator if he would consent to this; and if not,
then he is knowingly transgressing Christ's command. He who secretly
manipulates mind without the permission of man or God, is not dealing
justly and loving mercy, according to pure and undefiled religion.
Sinister and selfish motives entering into mental practice are dangerous
incentives; they proceed from false convictions and a fatal ignorance.
These are the tares growing side by side with the wheat, that must be
recognized, and uprooted, before the wheat can be garnered and Christian
Science demonstrated.
Secret mental efforts to obtain help from one who is unaware of this
attempt, demoralizes the person who does this, the same as other forms of
stealing, and will end in destroying health and morals.
In the practice of Christian Science one cannot impart a mental influence
that hazards another's happiness, nor interfere with the rights of the
individual. To disregard the welfare of others is contrary to the law of
God; therefore it deteriorates one's ability to do good, to benefit himself
and mankind.
The Psalmist vividly portrays the result of secret faults, presumptuous
sins, and self-deception, in these words: "How are they brought into
desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors."
PERSONALITY
The immortal man being spiritual, individual, and eternal, his mortal
opposite must be material, corporeal, and temporal. Physical personality is
finite; but God is infinite. He is without materiality, without finiteness
of form or Mind.
Limitations are put off in proportion as the fleshly nature disappears and
man is found in the reflection of Spirit.
This great fact leads into profound depths. The material human concept grew
beautifully less as I floated into more spiritual latitudes and purer
realms of thought.
From that hour personal corporeality became less to me than it is to people
who fail to appreciate individual character. I endeavored to lift thought
above physical personality, or selfhood in matter, to man's spiritual
individuality in God,--in the true Mind, where sensible evil is lost in
supersensible good. This is the only way whereby the false personality is
laid off.
He who clings to personality, or perpetually warns you of "personality,"
wrongs it, or terrifies people over it, and is the sure victim of his own
corporeality. Constantly to scrutinize physical personality, or accuse
people of being unduly personal, is like the sick talking sickness. Such
errancy betrays a violent and egotistical personality, increases one's
sense of corporeality, and begets a fear of the senses and a perpetually
egotistical sensibility.
He who does this is ignorant of the meaning of the word _personality_, and
defines it by his own _corpus sine pectore_ (soulless body), and fails to
distinguish the individual, or real man from the false sense of
corporeality, or egotistic self.
My own corporeal personality afflicteth me not wittingly; for I desire
never to think of it, and it cannot think of me.
PLAGIARISM
The various forms of book-borrowing without credit spring from this
ill-concealed question in mortal mind, Who shall be greatest? This error
violates the law given by Moses, it tramples upon Jesus' Sermon on the
Mount, it does violence to the ethics of Christian Science.
Why withhold my name, while appropriating my language and ideas, but give
credit when citing from the works of other authors?
Life and its ideals are inseparable, and one's writings on ethics, and
demonstration of Truth, are not, cannot be, understood or taught by those
who persistently misunderstand or misrepresent the author. Jesus said, "For
there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak
evil of me."
If one's spiritual ideal is comprehended and loved, the borrower from it is
embraced in the author's own mental mood, and is therefore _honest_. The
Science of Mind excludes opposites, and rests on unity.
It is proverbial that dishonesty retards spiritual growth and strikes at
the heart of Truth. If a student at Harvard College has studied a textbook
written by his teacher, is he entitled, when he leaves the University, to
write out as his own the substance of this textbook? There is no warrant in
common law and no permission in the gospel for plagiarizing an author's
ideas and their words. Christian Science is not copyrighted; nor would
protection by copyright be requisite, if mortals obeyed God's law of
_manright_. A student can write voluminous works on Science without
trespassing, if he writes honestly, and he cannot dishonestly compose
_Christian Science_. The Bible is not stolen, though it is cited, and
quoted deferentially.
Thoughts touched with the Spirit and Word of Christian Science gravitate
naturally toward Truth. Therefore the mind to which this Science was
revealed must have risen to the altitude which perceived a light beyond
what others saw.
The spiritually minded meet on the stairs which lead up to spiritual love.
This affection, so far from being personal worship, fulfils the law of Love
which Paul enjoined upon the Galatians. This is the Mind "which was also in
Christ Jesus," and knows no material limitations. It is the unity of good
and bond of perfectness. This just affection serves to constitute the
Mind-healer a wonder-worker,--as of old, on the Pentecost Day, when the
disciples were of one accord.
He who gains the God-crowned summit of Christian Science never abuses the
corporeal personality, but uplifts it. He thinks of every one in his real
quality, and sees each mortal in an impersonal depict.
I have long remained silent on a growing evil in plagiarism; but if I do
not insist upon the strictest observance of moral law and order in
Christian Scientists, I become responsible, as a teacher, for laxity in
discipline and lawlessness in literature. Pope was right in saying, "An
honest man's the noblest work of God;" and Ingersoll's repartee has its
moral: "An honest God's the noblest work of man."
ADMONITION
The neophyte in Christian Science acts like a diseased physique,--being too
fast or too slow. He is inclined to do either too much or too little. In
healing and teaching the student has not yet achieved the entire wisdom of
Mind-practice. The textual explanation of this practice is complete in
Science and Health; and scientific practice makes perfect, for it is
governed by its Principle, and not by human opinions; but carnal and
sinister motives, entering into this practice, will prevent the
demonstration of Christian Science.
I recommend students not to read so-called scientific works, antagonistic
to Christian Science, which advocate materialistic systems; because such
works and words becloud the right sense of metaphysical Science.
The rules of Mind-healing are wholly Christlike and spiritual. Therefore
the adoption of a worldly policy or a resort to subterfuge in the statement
of the Science of Mind-healing, or any name given to it other than
Christian Science, or an attempt to demonstrate the facts of this Science
other than is stated in Science and Health--is a departure from the Science
of Mind-healing. To becloud mortals, or for yourself to hide from God, is
to conspire against the blessings otherwise conferred, against your own
success and final happiness, against the progress of the human race as
well as against _honest_ metaphysical theory and practice.
Not by the hearing of the ear is spiritual truth learned and loved; nor
cometh this apprehension from the experiences of others. We glean spiritual
harvests from our own material losses. In this consuming heat false images
are effaced from the canvas of mortal mind; and thus does the material
pigment beneath fade into invisibility.
The signs for the wayfarer in divine Science lie in meekness, in unselfish
motives and acts, in shuffling off scholastic rhetoric, in ridding the
thought of effete doctrines, in the purification of the affections and
desires.
Dishonesty, envy, and mad ambition are "lusts of the flesh," which uproot
the germs of growth in Science and leave the inscrutable problem of being
unsolved. Through the channels of material sense, of worldly policy, pomp,
and pride, cometh no success in Truth. If beset with misguided emotions, we
shall be stranded on the quicksands of worldly commotion, and practically
come short of the wisdom requisite for teaching and demonstrating the
victory over self and sin.
Be temperate in thought, word, and deed. Meekness and temperance are the
jewels of Love, set in wisdom. Restrain untempered zeal. "Learn to labor
and to wait." Of old the children of Israel were saved by patient waiting.
"The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force!" said Jesus. Therefore are its spiritual gates not captured, nor its
golden streets invaded.
We recognize this kingdom, the reign of harmony within us, by an unselfish
affection or love, for this is the pledge of divine good and the insignia
of heaven. This also is proverbial, that though eternal justice be
graciously gentle, yet it may seem severe.
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
As the poets in different languages have expressed it:--
Though the mills of God grind slowly,
Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting,
With exactness grinds He all.
Though the divine rebuke is effectual to the pulling down of sin's
strongholds, it may stir the human heart to resist Truth, before this heart
becomes obediently receptive of the heavenly discipline. If the Christian
Scientist recognize the mingled sternness and gentleness which permeate
justice and Love, he will not scorn the timely reproof, but will so absorb
it that this warning will be within him a spring, welling up into unceasing
spiritual rise and progress. Patience and obedience win the golden
scholarship of experimental tuition.
The kindly shepherd of the East carries his lambs in his arms to the
sheepcot, but the older sheep pass into the fold under his compelling rod.
He who sees the door and turns away from it, is guilty, while innocence
strayeth yearningly.
There are no greater miracles known to earth than perfection and an
unbroken friendship. We love our friends, but ofttimes we lose them in
proportion to our affection. The sacrifices made for others are not
infrequently met by envy, ingratitude, and enmity, which smite the heart
and threaten to paralyze its beneficence. The unavailing tear is shed both
for the living and the dead.
Nothing except sin, in the students themselves, can separate them from me.
Therefore we should guard thought and action, keeping them in accord with
Christ, and our friendship will surely continue.
The letter of the law of God, separated from its spirit, tends to
demoralize mortals, and must be corrected by a diviner sense of liberty and
light. The spirit of Truth extinguishes false thinking, feeling, and
acting; and falsity must thus decay, ere spiritual sense, affectional
consciousness, and genuine goodness become so apparent as to be well
understood.
After the supreme advent of Truth in the heart, there comes an overwhelming
sense of error's vacuity, of the blunders which arise from wrong
apprehension. The enlightened heart loathes error, and casts it aside; or
else that heart is consciously untrue to the light, faithless to itself and
to others, and so sinks into deeper darkness. Said Jesus: "If the light
that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" and Shakespeare
puts this pious counsel into a father's mouth:--
This above all: To thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
A realization of the shifting scenes of human happiness, and of the frailty
of mortal anticipations,--such as first led me to the feet of Christian
Science,--seems to be requisite at every stage of advancement. Though our
first lessons are changed, modified, broadened, yet their core is
constantly renewed; as the law of the chord remains unchanged, whether we
are dealing with a simple Latour exercise or with the vast Wagner Trilogy.
A general rule is, that my students should not allow their movements to be
controlled by other students, even if they are teachers and practitioners
of the same blessed faith. The exception to this rule should be very rare.
The widest power and strongest growth have always been attained by those
loyal students who rest on divine Principle for guidance, not on
themselves; and who locate permanently in one section, and adhere to the
orderly methods herein delineated.
At this period my students should locate in large cities, in order to do
the greatest good to the greatest number, and therein abide. The population
of our principal cities is ample to supply many practitioners, teachers,
and preachers with work. This fact interferes in no way with the prosperity
of each worker; rather does it represent an accumulation of power on his
side which promotes the ease and welfare of the workers. Their liberated
capacities of mind enable Christian Scientists to consummate much good or
else evil; therefore their examples either excel or fall short of other
religionists; and they must be found dwelling together in harmony, if even
they compete with ecclesiastical fellowship and friendship.
It is often asked which revision of Science and Health is the best. The
arrangement of my last revision, in 1890, makes the subject-matter clearer
than any previous edition, and it is therefore better adapted to
spiritualize thought and elucidate scientific healing and teaching. It has
already been proven that this volume is accomplishing the divine purpose to
a remarkable degree. The wise Christian Scientist will commend students and
patients to the teachings of this book, and the healing efficacy thereof,
rather than try to centre their interest on himself.
Students whom I have taught are seldom benefited by the teachings of other
students, for scientific foundations are already laid in their minds which
ought not to be tampered with. Also, they are prepared to receive the
infinite instructions afforded by the Bible and my books, which mislead no
one and are their best guides.
The student may mistake in his conception of Truth, and this error, in an
honest heart, is sure to be corrected. But if he misinterprets the text to
his pupils, and communicates, even unintentionally, his misconception of
Truth, thereafter he will find it more difficult to rekindle his own light
or to enlighten them. Hence, as a rule, the student should explain only
Recapitulation, the chapter for the class-room, and leave Science and
Health to God's daily interpretation.
Christian Scientists should take their textbook into the schoolroom the
same as other teachers; they should ask questions from it, and be answered
according to it,--occasionally reading aloud from the book to corroborate
what they teach. It is also highly important that their pupils study each
lesson before the recitation.
That these essential points are ever omitted, is anomalous, when we
consider the necessity of thoroughly understanding Science, and the present
liability of deviating from absolute Christian Science.
Centuries will intervene before the statement of the inexhaustible topics
of Science and Health is sufficiently understood to be fully demonstrated.
The teacher himself should continue to study this textbook, and to
spiritualize his own thoughts and human life from this open fount of Truth
and Love.
He who sees clearly and enlightens other minds most readily, keeps his own
lamp trimmed and burning. Throughout his entire explanations he strictly
adheres to the teachings in the chapter on Recapitulation. When closing the
class, each member should own a copy of Science and Health, and continue to
study and assimilate this inexhaustible subject--Christian Science.
The opinions of men cannot be substituted for God's revelation. In times
past, arrogant pride, in attempting to steady the ark of Truth, obscured
even the power and glory of the Scriptures,--to which Science and Health is
the Key.
That teacher does most for his students who divests himself most of pride
and self, and by reason thereof is able to empty his students' minds of
error, that they may be filled with Truth. Thus doing, posterity will call
him blessed, and the tired tongue of history be enriched.
The less the teacher personally controls other minds, and the more he
trusts them to the divine Truth and Love, the better it will be for both
teacher and student.
A teacher should take charge only of his own pupils and patients, and of
those who voluntarily place themselves under his direction; he should avoid
leaving his own regular institute or place of labor, or expending his labor
where there are other teachers who should be specially responsible for
doing their own work well.
Teachers of Christian Science will find it advisable to band together their
students into associations, to continue the organization of churches, and
at present they can employ any other organic operative method that may
commend itself as useful to the Cause and beneficial to mankind.
Of this also rest assured, that books and teaching are but a ladder let
down from the heaven of Truth and Love, upon which angelic thoughts ascend
and descend, bearing on their pinions of light the Christ-spirit.
Guard yourselves against the subtly hidden suggestion that the Son of man
will be glorified, or humanity benefited, by any deviation from the order
prescribed by supernal grace. Seek to occupy no position whereto you do not
feel that God ordains you. Never forsake your post without due deliberation
and light, but always wait for God's finger to point the way. The loyal
Christian Scientist is incapable alike of abusing the practice of
Mind-healing or of healing on a material basis.
The tempter is vigilant, awaiting only an opportunity to divide the ranks
of Christian Science and scatter the sheep abroad; but "if God be for us,
who can be against us?" The Cause, _our_ Cause, is highly prosperous,
rapidly spreading over the globe; and the morrow will crown the effort of
to-day with a diadem of gems from the New Jerusalem.
EXEMPLIFICATION
To energize wholesome spiritual warfare, to rebuke vainglory, to offset
boastful emptiness, to crown patient toil, and rejoice in the spirit and
power of Christian Science, we must ourselves be true. There is but one way
of _doing_ good, and that is to _do_ it! There is but one way of _being_
good, and that is to _be_ good!
Art thou still unacquainted with thyself? Then be introduced to this self.
"Know thyself!" as said the classic Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of
this mortal self! Behold its vileness, and remember this poverty-stricken
"stranger that is within thy gates." Cleanse every stain from this
wanderer's soiled garments, wipe the dust from his feet and the tears from
his eyes, that you may behold the real man, the fellow-saint of a holy
household. There should be no blot on the escutcheon of our Christliness
when we offer our gift upon the altar.
A student desiring growth in the knowledge of Truth, can and will obtain it
by taking up his cross and following Truth. If he does this not, and
another one undertakes to carry his burden and do his work, the duty will
_not be accomplished_. No one can save himself without God's help, and God
will help each man who performs his own part. After this manner and in no
other way is every man cared for and blessed. To the unwise helper our
Master said, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."
The poet's line, "Order is heaven's first law," is so eternally true, so
axiomatic, that it has become a truism; and its wisdom is as obvious in
religion and scholarship as in astronomy or mathematics.
Experience has taught me that the rules of Christian Science can be far
more thoroughly and readily acquired by regularly settled and systematic
workers, than by unsettled and spasmodic efforts. Genuine Christian
Scientists are, or should be, the most systematic and law-abiding people on
earth, because their religion demands implicit adherence to fixed rules, in
the orderly demonstration thereof. Let some of these rules be here stated.
_First_: Christian Scientists are to "heal the sick" as the Master
commanded.
In so doing they must follow the divine order as prescribed by
Jesus,--never, in any way, to trespass upon the rights of their neighbors,
but to obey the celestial injunction, "Whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them."
In this orderly, scientific dispensation healers become a law unto
themselves. They feel their own burdens less, and can therefore bear the
weight of others' burdens, since it is only through the lens of their
unselfishness that the sunshine of Truth beams with such efficacy as to
dissolve error.
It is already understood that Christian Scientists will not receive a
patient who is under the care of a regular physician, until he has done
with the case and different aid is sought. The same courtesy should be
observed in the professional intercourse of Christian Science healers with
one another.
_Second_: Another command of the Christ, his prime command, was that his
followers should "raise the dead." He lifted his own body from the
sepulchre. In him, Truth called the physical man from the tomb to health,
and the so-called dead forthwith emerged into a higher manifestation of
Life.
The spiritual significance of this command, "Raise the dead," most concerns
mankind. It implies such an elevation of the understanding as will enable
thought to apprehend the living beauty of Love, its practicality, its
divine energies, its health-giving and life-bestowing qualities,--yea, its
power to demonstrate immortality. This end Jesus achieved, both by example
and precept.
_Third_: This leads inevitably to a consideration of another part of
Christian Science work,--a part which concerns us intimately,--preaching
the gospel.
This evangelistic duty should not be so warped as to signify that we must
or may go, uninvited, to work in other vineyards than our own. One would,
or should, blush to enter unasked another's pulpit, and preach without the
consent of the stated occupant of that pulpit. The Lord's command means
this, that we should adopt the spirit of the Saviour's ministry, and abide
in such a spiritual attitude as will draw men unto us. Itinerancy should
not be allowed to clip the wings of divine Science. Mind demonstrates
omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves on a spiritual axis, and
its power is displayed and its presence felt in eternal stillness and
immovable Love. The divine potency of this spiritual mode of Mind, and the
hindrance opposed to it by material motion, is proven beyond a doubt in the
practice of Mind-healing.
In those days preaching and teaching were substantially one. There was no
church preaching, in the modern sense of the term. Men assembled in the one
temple (at Jerusalem) for sacrificial ceremonies, not for sermons. Into the
synagogues, scattered about in cities and villages, they went for
liturgical worship, and instruction in the Mosaic law. If one worshipper
preached to the others, he did so informally, and because he was bidden to
this privileged duty at that particular moment. It was the custom to pay
this hortatory compliment to a stranger, or to a member who had been away
from the neighborhood; as Jesus was once asked to exhort, when he had been
some time absent from Nazareth but once again entered the synagogue which
he had frequented in childhood.
Jesus' method was to instruct his own students; and he watched and guarded
them unto the end, even according to his promise, "Lo, I am with you
alway!" Nowhere in the four Gospels will Christian Scientists find any
precedent for employing another student to take charge of their students,
or for neglecting their own students, in order to enlarge their sphere of
action.
Above all, trespass not intentionally upon other people's thoughts, by
endeavoring to influence other minds to any action not first made known to
them or sought by them. Corporeal and selfish influence is human, fallible,
and temporary; but incorporeal impulsion is divine, infallible, and
eternal. The student should be most careful not to thrust aside Science,
and shade God's window which lets in light, or seek to stand in God's
stead.
Does the faithful shepherd forsake the lambs,--retaining his salary for
tending the home flock while he is serving another fold? There is no
evidence to show that Jesus ever entered the towns whither he sent his
disciples; no evidence that he there taught a few hungry ones, and then
left them to starve or to stray. To these selected ones (like "the elect
lady" to whom St. John addressed one of his epistles) he gave personal
instruction, and gave in plain words, until they were able to fulfil his
behest and depart on their united pilgrimages. This he did, even though one
of the twelve whom he kept near himself betrayed him, and others forsook
him.
The true mother never willingly neglects her children in their early and
sacred hours, consigning them to the care of nurse or stranger. Who can
feel and comprehend the needs of her babe like the ardent mother? What
other heart yearns with her solicitude, endures with her patience, waits
with her hope, and labors with her love, to promote the welfare and
happiness of her children? Thus must the Mother in Israel give all her
hours to those first sacred tasks, till her children can walk steadfastly
in wisdom's ways.
One of my students wrote to me: "I believe the proper thing for us to do is
to follow, as nearly as we can, in the path you have pursued!" It is
gladdening to find, in such a student, one of the children of light. It is
safe to leave with God the government of man. He appoints and He anoints
His Truth-bearers, and God is their sure defense and refuge.
The parable of "the prodigal son" is rightly called "the pearl of
parables," and our Master's greatest utterance may well be called "the
diamond sermon." No purer and more exalted teachings ever fell upon human
ears than those contained in what is commonly known as the Sermon on the
Mount,--though this name has been given it by compilers and translators of
the Bible, and not by the Master himself or by the Scripture authors.
Indeed, this title really indicates more the Master's mood, than the
material locality.
Where did Jesus deliver this great lesson--or, rather, this series of great
lessons--on humanity and divinity? On a hillside, near the sloping shores
of the Lake of Galilee, where he spake primarily to his immediate
disciples.
In this simplicity, and with such fidelity, we see Jesus ministering to the
spiritual needs of all who placed themselves under his care, always leading
them into the divine order, under the sway of his own perfect
understanding. His power over others was spiritual, not corporeal. To the
students whom he had chosen, his immortal teaching was the bread of Life.
When _he_ was with them, a fishing-boat became a sanctuary, and the
solitude was peopled with holy messages from the All-Father. The grove
became his class-room, and nature's haunts were the Messiah's university.
What has this hillside priest, this seaside teacher, done for the human
race? Ask, rather, what has he _not_ done. His holy humility,
unworldliness, and self-abandonment wrought infinite results. The method
of his religion was not too simple to be sublime, nor was his power so
exalted as to be unavailable for the needs of suffering mortals, whose
wounds he healed by Truth and Love.
His order of ministration was "first the blade, then the ear, after that
the full corn in the ear." May we unloose the latchets of his Christliness,
inherit his legacy of love, and reach the fruition of his promise: "If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you."
WAYMARKS
In the first century of the Christian era Jesus went about doing good. The
evangelists of those days wandered about. Christ, or the spiritual idea,
appeared to human consciousness as the man Jesus. At the present epoch the
human concept of Christ is based on the incorporeal divine Principle of
man, and Science has elevated this idea and established its rules in
consonance with their Principle. Hear this saying of our Master, "And I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
The ideal of God is no longer impersonated as a waif or wanderer; and Truth
is not fragmentary, disconnected, unsystematic, but concentrated and
immovably fixed in Principle. The best spiritual type of Christly method
for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary
power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our
own, it becomes the model for human action.
St. Paul said to the Athenians, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our
being." This statement is in substance identical with my own: "There is no
life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter." It is quite clear that
as yet this grandest verity has not been fully demonstrated, but it is
nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates St. Paul's teaching, we,
as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the
validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in
advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the
world a struggle for its demonstration.
At some period and in some way the conclusion must be met that whatsoever
seems true, and yet contradicts divine Science and St. Paul's text, must be
and is false; and that whatsoever seems to be good, and yet errs, though
acknowledging the true way, is really evil.
As dross is separated from gold, so Christ's baptism of fire, his
purification through suffering, consumes whatsoever is of sin. Therefore
this purgation of divine mercy, destroying all error, leaves no flesh, no
matter, to the mental consciousness.
When all fleshly belief is annihilated, and every spot and blemish on the
disk of consciousness is removed, then, and not till then, will immortal
Truth be found true, and scientific teaching, preaching, and practice be
essentially one. "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing
which he alloweth ... for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Romans xiv.
22, 23.)
There is no "lo here! or lo there!" in divine Science; its manifestation
must be "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," since Science is
eternally one, and unchanging, in Principle, rule, and demonstration.
I am persuaded that only by the modesty and distinguishing affection
illustrated in Jesus' career, can Christian Scientists aid the
establishment of Christ's kingdom on the earth. In the first century of the
Christian era Jesus' teachings bore much fruit, and the Father was
glorified therein. In this period and the forthcoming centuries, watered
by dews of divine Science, this "tree of life" will blossom into greater
freedom, and its leaves will be "for the healing of the nations."
Ask God to give thee skill
In comfort's art:
That thou may'st consecrated be
And set apart
Unto a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch.
--A.E. HAMILTON.
THE PLIMPTON PRESS
NORWOOD MASS USA
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: See Page 311, Lines 12 to 17, "The First Church of Christ,
Scientist, and Miscellany."]
[Footnote B: This statement appears to be based upon the Annual Report of
the Secretary of The Christian Scientist Association, read at its meeting,
January 15, 1880, in which June is named as the month in which the charter
for The Mother Church was obtained, instead of August 23, 1879, the correct
date.]
[Footnote C: An alder growing from the bent branch of a pear-tree.]
[Footnote D: Steps were taken to promote the Church of Christ, Scientist,
in April, May and June; formal organization was accomplished and the
charter obtained in August, 1879]
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