diff options
Diffstat (limited to '12321-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 12321-h/12321-h.htm | 592 |
1 files changed, 592 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/12321-h/12321-h.htm b/12321-h/12321-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acfc4be --- /dev/null +++ b/12321-h/12321-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,592 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rudimental Divine Science, by Mary Baker Eddy.</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + BODY {} + pre {font-size: .8em; text-align: left;} /* Whitewasher, change as desired. Not used in text. */ + div {margin: 0% 10% 0% 10%; line-height: 1.4em} + div.dedication {margin: 0% 15% 0% 15%;} + div.toc {margin: 0% 5% 0% 5%;} + p {text-align: justify; font-size: 1.2em;} + p.title {font-size: 2em; font-weight: 900; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center;} + p.author {font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: .1em; line-height: .6em; text-align: center;} + p.pubdate {font-size: .8em; line-height: 1em; text-align: center;} + p.chapter-head {font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: left;} + p.sig {font-weight: 900; text-align: right;} + a {text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em;} + a:link {color: rgb(0,0,153); text-decoration:none;} + a:visited {color: rgb(0,0,153); text-decoration:none;} + a:hover {color: rgb(0,153,0); text-decoration:none;} + em {font-weight: 700;} + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 {text-align: center;} + HR.full {width: 100%;} + HR.exsmall {width: 10%;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12321 ***</div> + +<HR class="full"> +<br> + +<div> +<p class="title">RUDIMENTAL DIVINE SCIENCE</p> + +<p class="author">By MARY BAKER EDDY</p> + +<p class="author">Published by The Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy</p> + +<p class="pubdate">1891, 1908</p> +<br> + +<div class="dedication"> +<p>THIS LITTLE BOOK IS TENDERLY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO ALL LOYAL + STUDENTS, WORKING AND WAITING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SCIENCE OF + MIND-HEALING</p> + <p class="sig">MARY BAKER EDDY</p> +</div> +<br><br> + +<div class="toc"> +<p class="chapter-head">CONTENTS</p> +<br> + +<a href="#DEFINITION_OF_CHRISTIAN_SCIENCE">DEFINITION OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE</a><br><br> + +<a href="#PRINCIPLE_OF_CHRISTIAN_SCIENCE">PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE</a><br><br> + +<a href="#PERSONALITY_OF_GOD">PERSONALITY OF GOD</a><br><br> + +<a href="#HEALING_SICKNESS_AND_SIN">HEALING SICKNESS AND SIN</a><br><br> + +<a href="#INDIVIDUALITY_OF_GOD">INDIVIDUALITY OF GOD</a><br><br> + +<a href="#MATERIAL_AND_SPIRITUAL_SCIENCE">MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL SCIENCE</a><br><br> + +<a href="#NON-EXISTENCE_OF_MATTER">NON-EXISTENCE OF MATTER</a><br><br> + +<a href="#MATERIALITY_INTANGIBLE">MATERIALITY INTANGIBLE</a><br><br> + +<a href="#BASIS_OF_MIND-HEALING">BASIS OF MIND-HEALING</a><br><br> + +<a href="#MATERIAL_AND_SPIRITUAL_MAN">MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN</a><br><br> + +<a href="#DEMONSTRATION_IN_HEALING">DEMONSTRATION IN HEALING</a><br><br> + +<a href="#MEANS_AND_METHODS">MEANS AND METHODS</a><br><br> + +<a href="#ONLY_ONE_SCHOOL">ONLY ONE SCHOOL</a><br><br> +</div> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="DEFINITION_OF_CHRISTIAN_SCIENCE"> +<em>How would you define Christian Science?</em></p> + +<p>As the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the +divine Principle and rule of universal harmony.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="PRINCIPLE_OF_CHRISTIAN_SCIENCE"> +<em>What is the Principle of Christian Science?</em></p> + +<p>It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal Mind, the Soul of man +and the universe. It is our Father which is in heaven. It is substance, +Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love,—these are the deific Principle.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="PERSONALITY_OF_GOD"> +<em>Do you mean by this that God is a person?</em></p> + +<p>The word <em>person</em> affords a large margin for misapprehension, as well as +definition. In French the equivalent word is <em>personne</em>. In Spanish, +Italian, and Latin, it is <em>persona</em>. The Latin verb <em>personare</em> is +compounded of the prefix <em>per</em> (through) and <em>sonare</em> (to sound).</p> + +<p>In law, Blackstone applies the word <em>personal</em> to <em>bodily presence</em>, in +distinction from one's appearance (in court, for example) by deputy or +proxy.</p> + +<p>Other definitions of <em>person</em>, as given by Webster, are "a living soul; a +self-conscious being; a moral agent; especially, a living human being, +a corporeal man, woman, or child; an individual of the human race." He +adds, that among Trinitarian Christians the word stands for one of the +three subjects, or agents, constituting the Godhead.</p> + +<p>In Christian Science we learn that God is definitely individual, and +not a <em>person</em>, as that word is used by the best authorities, if our +lexicographers are right in defining <em>person</em> as especially a finite +<em>human being</em>; but God is personal, if by <em>person</em> is meant +infinite Spirit.</p> + +<p>We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him as less than +infinite. The human person is finite; and therefore I prefer to retain +the proper sense of Deity by using the phrase <em>an individual</em> God, rather +than <em>a personal</em> God; for there is and can be but one infinite individual +Spirit, whom mortals have named God.</p> + +<p>Science defines the individuality of God as supreme good, Life, Truth, +Love. This term enlarges our sense of Deity, takes away the trammels +assigned to God by finite thought, and introduces us to higher definitions.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="HEALING_SICKNESS_AND_SIN"> +<em>Is healing the sick the whole of Science?</em></p> + +<p>Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It +is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of +infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the +healing of sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the cure +of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they do not love to be +sick. Hence their comparative acquiescence in your endeavors to heal +them of bodily ills, and their obstinate resistance to all efforts to +save them from sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which redeem +them, and become their Saviour, through the flesh, from the flesh,—the +material world and evil.</p> + +<p>This Life, Truth, and Love—this trinity of good—was individualized, +to the perception of mortal sense, in the man Jesus. His history is +emphatic in our hearts, and it lives more because of his spiritual +than his physical healing. His example is, to Christian Scientists, +what the models of the masters in music and painting are to artists.</p> + +<p>Genuine Christian Scientists will no more deviate morally from that +divine digest of Science called the Sermon on the Mount, than they will +manipulate invalids, prescribe drugs, or deny God. Jesus' healing was +spiritual in its nature, method, and design. He wrought the cure of +disease through the divine Mind, which gives all true volition, impulse, +and action; and destroys the mental error made manifest physically, and +establishes the opposite manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmony +and health.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="INDIVIDUALITY_OF_GOD"> +<em>By the individuality of God, do you mean that God has a finite form?</em></p> + +<p>No. I mean the infinite and divine Principle of all being, the +ever-present I AM, filling all space, including in itself all Mind, +the one Father-Mother God. Life, Truth, and Love are this trinity +in unity, and their universe is spiritual, peopled with perfect beings, +harmonious and eternal, of which our material universe and men are the +counterfeits.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="MATERIAL_AND_SPIRITUAL_SCIENCE"> +<em>Is God the Principle of all science, or only of Divine or +Christian Science?</em></p> + +<p>Science is Mind manifested. It is not material; neither is it of +human origin.</p> + +<p>All true Science represents a moral and spiritual force, which holds +the earth in its orbit. This force is Spirit, that can "bind the sweet +influences of the Pleiades," and "loose the bands of Orion."</p> + +<p>There is no material science, if by that term you mean material +intelligence. God is infinite Mind, hence there is no other Mind. +Good is Mind, but evil is not Mind. Good is not in evil, but in +God only. Spirit is not in matter, but in Spirit only. Law is not +in matter, but in Mind only.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="NON-EXISTENCE_OF_MATTER"> +<em>Is there no matter?</em></p> + +<p>All is Mind. According to the Scriptures and Christian Science, all is +God, and there is naught beside Him. "God is Spirit;" and we can only +learn and love Him through His spirit, which brings out the fruits of +Spirit and extinguishes forever the works of darkness by His marvellous +light.</p> + +<p>The five material senses testify to the existence of matter. The +spiritual senses afford no such evidence, but deny the testimony of +the material senses. Which testimony is correct? The Bible says: +"Let God be true, and every man a liar." If, as the Scriptures imply, +God is All-in-all, then all must be Mind, since God is Mind. Therefore +in divine Science there is no material mortal man, for man is spiritual +and eternal, he being made in the image of Spirit, or God.</p> + +<p>There is no material sense. Matter is inert, inanimate, and +sensationless,—considered apart from Mind. Lives there a man who +has ever found Soul in the body or in matter, who has ever seen +spiritual substance with the eye, who has found sight in matter, +hearing in the material ear, or intelligence in non-intelligence? +If there is any such thing as matter, it must be either mind which +is called matter, or matter without Mind.</p> + +<p>Matter without Mind is a moral impossibility. Mind in matter is pantheism. +Soul is the only real consciousness which cognizes being. The body does +not see, hear, smell, or taste. Human belief says that it does; but destroy +this belief of seeing with the eye, and we could not see materially; and +so it is with each of the physical senses.</p> + +<p>Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should believe man +and the universe to be the football of chance and sinking into oblivion. +Destroy the five senses as organized matter, and you must either become +non-existent, or exist in Mind only; and this latter conclusion is the +simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to the equal inference +that there is no matter.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="MATERIALITY_INTANGIBLE"> +<em>The sweet sounds and glories of earth and sky, assuming manifold forms +and colors,—are they not tangible and material?</em></p> + +<p>As Mind they are real, but not as matter. All beauty and goodness are +in and of Mind, emanating from God; but when we change the nature of +beauty and goodness from Mind to matter, the beauty is marred, through +a false conception, and, to the material senses, evil takes the place +of good.</p> + +<p>Has not the truth in Christian Science met a response from Prof. +S.P. Langley, the young American astronomer? He says that "color +is in <em>us</em>," not "in the rose;" and he adds that this is not "any +metaphysical subtlety," but a fact "almost universally accepted, +within the <em>last few years</em>, by physicists."</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="BASIS_OF_MIND-HEALING"> +<em>Is not the basis of Mind-healing a destruction of the evidence of the +material senses, and restoration of the true evidence of spiritual sense?</em></p> + +<p>It is, so far as you perceive and understand this predicate and postulate +of Mind-healing; but the Science of Mind-healing is best understood in +practical demonstration. The proof of what you apprehend, in the simplest +definite and absolute form of healing, can alone answer this question of +how much you understand of Christian Science Mind-healing. Not that all +healing is Science, by any means; but that the simplest case, healed in +Science, is as demonstrably scientific, in a small degree, as the most +difficult case so treated.</p> + +<p>The infinite and subtler conceptions and consistencies of Christian Science +are set forth in my work Science and Health.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="MATERIAL_AND_SPIRITUAL_MAN"> +<em>Is man material or spiritual?</em></p> + +<p>In Science, man is the manifest reflection of God, perfect and immortal +Mind. He is the likeness of God; and His likeness would be lost if inverted +or perverted.</p> + +<p>According to the evidence of the so-called physical senses, man is +material, fallen, sick, depraved, mortal. Science and spiritual sense +contradict this, and they afford the only true evidence of the being +of God and man, the material evidence being wholly false.</p> + +<p>Jesus said of personal evil, that "the truth abode not in him," because +there is no material sense. Matter, as matter, has neither sensation nor +personal intelligence. As a pretension to be Mind, matter is a lie, and +"the father of lies;" Mind is not in matter, and Spirit cannot originate +its opposite, named matter.</p> + +<p>According to divine Science, Spirit no more changes its species, by +evolving matter from Spirit, than natural science, so-called, or material +laws, bring about alteration of species by transforming minerals into +vegetables or plants into animals,—thus confusing and confounding the +three great kingdoms. No rock brings forth an apple; no pine-tree produces +a mammal or provides breast-milk for babes.</p> + +<p>To sense, the lion of to-day is the lion of six thousand years ago; but +in Science, Spirit sends forth its own harmless likeness.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="DEMONSTRATION_IN_HEALING"> +<em>How should I undertake to demonstrate Christian Science in healing +the sick?</em></p> + +<p>As I have given you only an epitome of the Principle, so I can give you +here nothing but an outline of the practice. Be honest, be true to thyself, +and true to others; then it follows thou wilt be strong in God, the eternal +good. Heal through Truth and Love; there is no other healer.</p> + +<p>In all moral revolutions, from a lower to a higher condition of thought +and action, Truth is in the minority and error has the majority. It is +not otherwise in the field of Mind-healing. The man who calls himself a +Christian Scientist, yet is false to God and man, is also uttering +falsehood about good. This falsity shuts against him the Truth and the +Principle of Science, but opens a way whereby, through will-power, sense +may say the unchristian practitioner can heal; but Science shows that he +makes morally worse the invalid whom he is supposed to cure.</p> + +<p>By this I mean that mortal mind should not be falsely impregnated. If by +such lower means the health is seemingly restored, the restoration is not +lasting, and the patient is liable to a relapse,—"The last state of that +man is worse than the first."</p> + +<p>The teacher of Mind-healing who is not a Christian, in the highest sense, +is constantly sowing the seeds of discord and disease. Even the truth he +speaks is more or less blended with error; and this error will spring +up in the mind of his pupil. The pupil's imperfect knowledge will lead +to weakness in practice, and he will be a poor practitioner, if not a +malpractitioner.</p> + +<p>The basis of malpractice is in erring human will, and this will is an +outcome of what I call <em>mortal mind</em>,—a false and temporal sense +of Truth, Life, and Love. To heal, in Christian Science, is to base your +practice on immortal Mind, the divine Principle of man's being; and this +requires a preparation of the heart and an answer of the lips from the +Lord.</p> + +<p>The Science of healing is the Truth of healing. If one is untruthful, his +mental state weighs against his healing power; and similar effects come +from pride, envy, lust, and all fleshly vices.</p> + +<p>The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, without a direct +effort, an audible or even a mental argument, has oftentimes healed +inveterate diseases.</p> + +<p>The thoughts of the practitioner should be imbued with a clear conviction +of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God; that He is All, and that there +can be none beside Him; that God is good, and the producer only of good; +and hence, that whatever militates against health, harmony, or holiness, +is an unjust usurper of the throne of the controller of all mankind. Note +this, that if you have power in error, you forfeit the power that Truth +bestows, and its salutary influence on yourself and others.</p> + +<p>You must feel and know that God alone governs man; that His government +is harmonious; that He is too pure to behold iniquity, and divides His +power with nothing evil or material; that material laws are only human +beliefs, which govern mortals wrongfully. These beliefs arise from the +subjective states of thought, producing the beliefs of a mortal material +universe,—so-called, and of material disease and mortality. Mortal ills +are but errors of thought,—diseases of mortal mind, and not of matter; +for matter cannot feel, see, or report pain or disease.</p> + +<p>Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; and fear is the +procurator of the thought which causes sickness and suffering. Remove +this fear by the true sense that God is Love,—and that Love punishes +nothing but sin,—and the patient can then look up to the loving God, +and know that He afflicteth not willingly the children of men, who are +punished because of disobedience to His spiritual law. His law of Truth, +when obeyed, removes every erroneous physical and mental state. The belief +that matter can master Mind, and make you ill, is an error which Truth +will destroy.</p> + +<p>You must learn to acknowledge God in all His ways. It is only a lack of +understanding of the allness of God, which leads you to believe in the +existence of matter, or that matter can frame its own conditions, contrary +to the law of Spirit.</p> + +<p>Sickness is the schoolmaster, leading you to Christ; first to faith +in Christ; next to belief in God as omnipotent; and finally to the +<em>understanding</em> of God and man in Christian Science, whereby you +learn that God is good, and in Science man is His likeness, the forever +reflection of goodness. Therefore good is one and All.</p> + +<p>This brings forward the next proposition in Christian Science,—namely, +that there are no sickness, sin, and death in the divine Mind. What +seem to be disease, vice, and mortality are illusions of the physical +senses. These illusions are not real, but unreal. Health is the +consciousness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, +the absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else. In a moment +you may awake from a night-dream; just so you can awake from the dream +of sickness; but the demonstration of the Science of Mind-healing by +no means rests on the strength of human belief. This demonstration is +based on a true understanding of God and divine Science, which takes +away every human belief, and, through the illumination of spiritual +understanding, reveals the all-power and ever-presence of good, whence +emanate health, harmony, and Life eternal.</p> + +<p>The lecturer, teacher, or healer who is indeed a Christian Scientist, +never introduces the subject of human anatomy; never depicts the muscular, +vascular, or nervous operations of the human frame. He never talks about +the structure of the material body. He never lays his hands on the patient, +nor manipulates the parts of the body supposed to be ailing. Above all, he +keeps unbroken the Ten Commandments, and practises Christ's Sermon on the +Mount.</p> + +<p>Wrong thoughts and methods strengthen the sense of disease, instead of +cure it; or else quiet the fear of the sick on false grounds, encouraging +them in the belief of error until they hold stronger than before the belief +that they are first made sick by matter, and then restored through its +agency. This fosters infidelity, and is mental quackery, that denies the +Principle of Mind-healing. If the sick are aided in this mistaken fashion, +their ailments will return, and be more stubborn because the relief is +unchristian and unscientific.</p> + +<p>Christian Science erases from the minds of invalids their mistaken belief +that they live in or because of matter, or that a so-called material +organism controls the health or existence of mankind, and induces rest +in God, divine Love, as caring for all the conditions requisite for the +well-being of man. As power divine is the healer, why should mortals +concern themselves with the chemistry of food? Jesus said: "Take no +thought what ye shall eat."</p> + +<p>The practitioner should also endeavor to free the minds of the healthy +from any sense of subordination to their bodies, and teach them that the +divine Mind, not material law, maintains human health and life.</p> + +<p>A Christian Scientist knows that, in Science, disease is unreal; that +Mind is not in matter; that Life is God, good; hence Life is not +functional, and is neither matter nor mortal mind; knows that pantheism +and theosophy are not Science. Whatever saps, with human belief, this +basis of Christian Science, renders it impossible to demonstrate the +Principle of this Science, even in the smallest degree.</p> + +<p>A mortal and material body is not the actual individuality of man made +in the divine and spiritual image of God. The material body is not the +likeness of Spirit; hence it is not the truth of being, but the likeness +of error—the human belief which saith there is more than one God,—there +is more than one Life and one Mind.</p> + +<p>In Deuteronomy (iv. 35) we read: "The Lord, He is God; there is none +else beside Him." In John (iv. 24) we may read: "God is Spirit." These +propositions, understood in their Science, elucidate my meaning.</p> + +<p>When treating a patient, it is not Science to treat every organ in the +body. To aver that harmony is the real and discord is the unreal, and +then give special attention to what according to their own belief is +diseased, is scientific; and if the <em>healer realizes</em> the truth, it +will free his patient.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="MEANS_AND_METHODS"> +<em>What are the means and methods of trustworthy Christian Scientists?</em></p> + +<p>These people should not be expected, more than others, to give all their +time to Christian Science work, receiving no wages in return, but left to +be fed, clothed, and sheltered by charity. Neither can they serve two +masters, giving only a portion of their time to God, and still be Christian +Scientists. They must give Him all their services, and "owe no man." To do +this, they must at present ask a suitable price for their services, and +then <em>conscientiously earn their wages</em>, strictly practising Divine +Science, and healing the sick.</p> + +<p>The author never sought charitable support, but gave fully seven-eighths +of her time without remuneration, except the bliss of doing good. The only +pay taken for her labors was from classes, and often those were put off +for months, in order to do gratuitous work. She has never taught a Primary +class without several, and sometimes seventeen, free students in it; and +has endeavored to take the full price of tuition only from those who were +able to pay. The student who pays must of necessity do better than he +who does not pay, and yet will expect and require others to pay him. No +discount on tuition was made on higher classes, because their first classes +furnished students with the means of paying for their tuition in the higher +instruction, and of doing charity work besides. If the Primary students +are still impecunious, it is their own fault, and this ill-success of +itself leaves them unprepared to enter higher classes.</p> + +<p>People are being healed by means of my instructions, both in and out +of class. Many students, who have passed through a regular course of +instruction from me, have been invalids and were healed in the class; +but experience has shown that this defrauds the scholar, though it heals +the sick.</p> + +<p>It is seldom that a student, if healed in a class, has left it +understanding sufficiently the Science of healing to immediately +enter upon its practice. Why? Because the glad surprise of suddenly +regained health is a shock to the mind; and this holds and satisfies +the thought with exuberant joy.</p> + +<p>This renders the mind less inquisitive, plastic, and tractable; and deep +systematic thinking is impracticable until this impulse subsides.</p> + +<p>This was the principal reason for advising diseased people not to enter +a class. Few were taken besides invalids for students, until there were +enough practitioners to fill in the best possible manner the department +of healing. Teaching and healing should have separate departments, and +these should be fortified on all sides with suitable and thorough +guardianship and grace.</p> + +<p>Only a very limited number of students can advantageously enter a class, +grapple with this subject, and well assimilate what has been taught them. +It is impossible to teach thorough Christian Science to promiscuous and +large assemblies, or to persons who cannot be addressed individually, so +that the mind of the pupil may be dissected more critically than the body +of a subject laid bare for anatomical examination. Public lectures cannot +be such lessons in Christian Science as are required to empty and to fill +anew the individual mind.</p> + +<p>If publicity and material control are the motives for teaching, then +public lectures can take the place of private lessons; but the former +can never give a thorough knowledge of Christian Science, and a Christian +Scientist will never undertake to fit students for practice by such means. +Lectures in public are needed, but they must be subordinate to thorough +class instruction in any branch of education.</p> + +<p>None with an imperfect sense of the spiritual signification of the Bible, +and its scientific relation to Mind-healing, should attempt overmuch in +their translation of the Scriptures into the "new tongue;" but I see that +some novices, in the truth of Science, and some impostors are committing +this error.</p> + +<br> +<hr class="exsmall"> +<br> + +<p class="chapter-head" id="ONLY_ONE_SCHOOL"> +<em>Is there more than one school of scientific healing?</em></p> + +<p>In reality there is, and can be, but one school of the Science of +Mind-healing. Any departure from Science is an irreparable loss +of Science. Whatever is said and written correctly on this Science +originates from the Principle and practice laid down in Science and +Health, a work which I published in 1875. This was the first book, +recorded in history, which elucidates a pathological Science purely +mental.</p> + +<p>Minor shades of difference in Mind-healing have originated with certain +opposing factions, springing up among unchristian students, who, fusing +with a class of aspirants which snatch at whatever is progressive, call +it their first-fruits, or else <em>post mortem</em> evidence.</p> + +<p>A slight divergence is fatal in Science. Like certain Jews whom St. Paul +had hoped to convert from mere motives of self-aggrandizement to the love +of Christ, these so-called schools are clogging the wheels of progress by +blinding the people to the true character of Christian Science,—its moral +power, and its divine efficacy to heal.</p> + +<p>The true understanding of Christian Science Mind-healing never originated +in pride, rivalry, or the deification of self. The Discoverer of this +Science could tell you of timidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness, +toil, agonies, and victories under which she needed miraculous vision to +sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in this Science.</p> + +<p>The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meekness, selflessness, and +love are the paths of His testimony and the footsteps of His flock.</p> +</div> + +<br> +<HR class="full"> +<br> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12321 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |