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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16734-8.txt b/16734-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffcc7fa --- /dev/null +++ b/16734-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2809 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Retrospection and Introspection + +Author: Mary Baker Eddy + +Release Date: September 23, 2005 [EBook #16734] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION *** + + + + +Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +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] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION *** + +***** This file should be named 16734-8.txt or 16734-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16734/ + +Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Retrospection and Introspection + +Author: Mary Baker Eddy + +Release Date: September 23, 2005 [EBook #16734] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION *** + + + + +Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<p><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></p> +<h1>RETROSPECTION</h1> + +<h2>AND</h2> + +<h1>INTROSPECTION</h1> + + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>MARY BAKER EDDY</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES</h4> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Registered</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">U.S. Patent Office</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Published by The</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">BOSTON, U.S.A.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Authorized Literature of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The First Church of Christ, Scientist</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">in Boston, Massachusetts</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Copyright, 1891, 1892</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">By Mary Baker G. Eddy</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Copyright renewed 1919 and 1920</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></p> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#ANCESTRAL_SHADOWS">Ancestral Shadows</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#AUTOBIOGRAPHIC_REMINISCENCES">Autobiographic Reminiscences</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#VOICES_NOT_OUR_OWN">Voices Not Our Own</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#EARLY_STUDIES">Early Studies</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#GIRLHOOD_COMPOSITION">Girlhood Composition</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#THEOLOGICAL_REMINISCENCE">Theological Reminiscence</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_COUNTRY-SEAT">The Country-seat</a> (Poem)</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#MARRIAGE_AND_PARENTAGE">Marriage and Parentage</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#EMERGENCE_INTO_LIGHT">Emergence into Light</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_GREAT_DISCOVERY">The Great Discovery</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#FOUNDATION_WORK">Foundation Work</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#MEDICAL_EXPERIMENTS">Medical Experiments</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#FIRST_PUBLICATION">First Publication</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_PRECIOUS_VOLUME">The Precious Volume</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#RECUPERATIVE_INCIDENT">Recuperative Incident</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#A_TRUE_MAN">A True Man</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#COLLEGE_AND_CHURCH">College and Church</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">"<a href="#FEED_MY_SHEEP">Feed My Sheep</a>" (Poem)</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#COLLEGE_CLOSED">College Closed</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#GENERAL_ASSOCIATIONS_AND_OUR_MAGAZINE">General Associations and Our Magazine</a></span><br /><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#FAITH-CURE">Faith-cure</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#FOUNDATION-STONES">Foundation-stones</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_GREAT_REVELATION">The Great Revelation</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#SIN_SINNER_AND_ECCLESIASTICISM">Sin, Sinner, and Ecclesiasticism</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#THE_HUMAN_CONCEPT">The Human Concept</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#PERSONALITY">Personality</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#PLAGIARISM">Plagiarism</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#ADMONITION">Admonition</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#EXEMPLIFICATION">Exemplification</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap"><a href="#WAYMARKS">Waymarks</a></span><br /> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a></p> +<h2><a name="RETROSPECTION_AND_INTROSPECTION" id="RETROSPECTION_AND_INTROSPECTION"></a>RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ANCESTRAL_SHADOWS" id="ANCESTRAL_SHADOWS"></a>ANCESTRAL SHADOWS</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the line of my Grandmother Baker's family was the <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>late Sir John +Macneill, a Scotch knight, who was prominent in British politics, and at +one time held the position of ambassador to Persia.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a></p> +<h2><a name="AUTOBIOGRAPHIC_REMINISCENCES" id="AUTOBIOGRAPHIC_REMINISCENCES"></a>AUTOBIOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The wife of Mark Baker was Abigail Barnard Ambrose, daughter of Deacon +Nathaniel Ambrose of Pembroke, a <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>small town situated near Concord, just +across the bridge, on the left bank of the Merrimac River.</p> + +<p>Grandfather Ambrose was a very religious man, and gave the money for +erecting the first Congregational Church in Pembroke.</p> + +<p>In the Baker homestead at Bow I was born, the youngest of my parents' six +children and the object of their tender solicitude.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>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.</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In 1841 he received further political preferment, by <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>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:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a></p> +<h2><a name="VOICES_NOT_OUR_OWN" id="VOICES_NOT_OUR_OWN"></a>VOICES NOT OUR OWN</h2> + + +<p>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 <i>did</i> call me? I heard somebody call <i>Mary</i>, three times!" +This continued until I grew discouraged, and my mother was perplexed and +anxious.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is it not much that I may worship Him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With naught my spirit's breathings to control,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And feel His presence in the vast and dim</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And whispering woods, where dying thunders roll</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From the far cataracts? Shall I not rejoice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That I have learned at last to know His voice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From man's?—I will rejoice! My soaring soul</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now hath redeemed her birthright of the day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And won, through clouds, to Him, her own unfettered way!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 23em;">—<span class="smcap">Mrs. Hemans</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a></p> +<h2><a name="EARLY_STUDIES" id="EARLY_STUDIES"></a>EARLY STUDIES</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a></p> +<h2><a name="GIRLHOOD_COMPOSITION" id="GIRLHOOD_COMPOSITION"></a>GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION</h2> + + +<p>From childhood I was a verse-maker. Poetry suited my emotions better than +prose. The following is one of my girlhood productions.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alphabet and Bayonet</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If fancy plumes aerial flight,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Go fix thy restless mind</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On learning's lore and wisdom's might,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And live to bless mankind.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The sword is sheathed, 'tis freedom's hour,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">No despot bears misrule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where knowledge plants the foot of power</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In our God-blessed free school.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forth from this fount the streamlets flow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That widen in their course.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hero and sage arise to show</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Science the mighty source,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And laud the land whose talents rock</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The cradle of her power,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From erudition's bower.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Farther than feet of chamois fall,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Free as the generous air,</span><br /><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Strains nobler far than clarion call</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Wake freedom's welcome, where</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Minerva's silver sandals still</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are loosed, and not effete;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where echoes still my day-dreams thrill,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Woke by her fancied feet.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a></p> +<h2><a name="THEOLOGICAL_REMINISCENCE" id="THEOLOGICAL_REMINISCENCE"></a>THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE</h2> + + +<p>At the age of twelve<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>decree" of predestination—as John Calvin +rightly called his own tenet—forever lost its power over me.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>had</i> 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."</p> + +<p>This was so earnestly said, that even the oldest church-members wept. After +the meeting was over they came <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>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."</p> + +<p>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.)</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a></p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>The charter for The Mother Church in Boston was obtained June, 1879,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a></p> +<h2><a name="THE_COUNTRY-SEAT" id="THE_COUNTRY-SEAT"></a>THE COUNTRY-SEAT</h2> + +<p>Written in youth, while visiting a family friend in the beautiful suburbs +of Boston.</p> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wild spirit of song,—midst the zephyrs at play</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In bowers of beauty,—I bend to thy lay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And woo, while I worship in deep sylvan spot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Muses' soft echoes to kindle the grot.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wake chords of my lyre, with musical kiss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To vibrate and tremble with accents of bliss.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Here morning peers out, from her crimson repose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On proud Prairie Queen and the modest Moss-rose;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And vesper reclines—when the dewdrop is shed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the heart of the pink—in its odorous bed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But Flora has stolen the rainbow and sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To sprinkle the flowers with exquisite dye.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Here fame-honored hickory rears his bold form,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And bares a brave breast to the lightning and storm,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While palm, bay, and laurel, in classical glee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chase tulip, magnolia, and fragrant fringe-tree;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And sturdy horse-chestnut for centuries hath given</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Its feathery blossom and branches to heaven.</span><br /><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Here is life! Here is youth! Here the poet's world-wish,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cool waters at play with the gold-gleaming fish;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While cactus a mellower glory receives</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From light colored softly by blossom and leaves;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And nestling alder is whispering low,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In lap of the pear-tree, with musical flow.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dark sentinel hedgerow is guarding repose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Midst grotto and songlet and streamlet that flows</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where beauty and perfume from buds burst away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And ope their closed cells to the bright, laughing day;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet, dwellers in Eden, earth yields you her tear,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oft plucked for the banquet, but laid on the bier.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Earth's beauty and glory delude as the shrine</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or fount of real joy and of visions divine;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But hope, as the eaglet that spurneth the sod,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">May soar above matter, to fasten on God,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And freely adore all His spirit hath made,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where rapture and radiance and glory ne'er fade.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oh, give me the spot where affection may dwell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In sacred communion with home's magic spell!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where flowers of feeling are fragrant and fair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And those we most love find a happiness rare;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But clouds are a presage,—they darken my lay:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This life is a shadow, and hastens away.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a></p> +<h2><a name="MARRIAGE_AND_PARENTAGE" id="MARRIAGE_AND_PARENTAGE"></a>MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy smile through tears, as sunshine o'er the sea,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Awoke new beauty in the surge's roll!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oh, life is dead, bereft of all, with thee,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Star of my earthly hope, babe of my soul.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>nexus</i> is lost, and the +argument, with its rightful conclusions, becomes <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>correspondingly obscure. +The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a></p> +<h2><a name="EMERGENCE_INTO_LIGHT" id="EMERGENCE_INTO_LIGHT"></a>EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a></p> +<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_DISCOVERY" id="THE_GREAT_DISCOVERY"></a>THE GREAT DISCOVERY</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Even to the homœopathic physician who attended me, and rejoiced in my +recovery, I could not then explain the <i>modus</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>show them to the creature, and reveal the great curative +Principle,—Deity.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I named it <i>Christian</i>, because it is compassionate, helpful, and +spiritual. God I called <i>immortal Mind</i>. That which sins, suffers, and +dies, I named <i>mortal mind</i>. The physical senses, or sensuous nature, I +called <i>error</i> and <i>shadow</i>. Soul I denominated <i>substance</i>, 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 +<i>reality</i>; and matter, the <i>unreality</i>.</p> + +<p>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.)</p> + +<p>I beheld with ineffable awe our great Master's purpose in not questioning +those he healed as to their disease or <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But the feeble hands and helpless,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Groping blindly in the darkness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Touch God's right hand in that darkness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And are lifted up and strengthened.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh +universe—old to God, but new to His "little <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Am I a believer in spiritualism? I believe in no <i>ism</i>. This is my +endeavor, to be a Christian, to assimilate the character and practice of +the anointed; and no motive <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a></p> +<h2><a name="FOUNDATION_WORK" id="FOUNDATION_WORK"></a>FOUNDATION WORK</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>afflatus</i>.<a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>What is termed mortal and material existence is graphically defined by +Calderon, the famous Spanish poet, who wrote,—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What is life? 'Tis but a madness.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What is life? A mere illusion,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Fleeting pleasure, fond delusion,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whose most constant substance seems</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But the dream of other dreams.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a></p> +<h2><a name="MEDICAL_EXPERIMENTS" id="MEDICAL_EXPERIMENTS"></a>MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS</h2> + + +<p>The physical side of this research was aided by hints from homœopathy, +sustaining my final conclusion that mortal belief, instead of the drug, +governed the action of material medicine.</p> + +<p>I wandered through the dim mazes of <i>materia medica</i>, till I was weary of +"scientific guessing," as it has been well called. I sought knowledge from +the different schools,—allopathy, homœopathy, hydropathy, electricity, +and from various humbugs,—but without receiving satisfaction.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Natrum +muriaticum</i>, 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 homœopathy, 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.</p> + +<p>The mental virtues of the material methods of medicine, when understood, +were insufficient to satisfy my doubts <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>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.</p> + +<p>I claim for healing scientifically the following advantages: <i>First</i>: 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. <i>Second</i>: It is more effectual +than drugs, and cures when they fail, or only relieve; thus proving the +superiority of metaphysics over physics. <i>Third</i>: 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a></p> +<h2><a name="FIRST_PUBLICATION" id="FIRST_PUBLICATION"></a>FIRST PUBLICATION</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, "<i>They</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Though a man were girt with the Urim and Thummim of priestly office, and +denied the perpetuity of Jesus' command,<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a> "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.</p> + +<p>Five years after taking out my first copyright, I taught the Science of +Mind-healing, <i>alias</i> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a></p> +<h2><a name="THE_PRECIOUS_VOLUME" id="THE_PRECIOUS_VOLUME"></a>THE PRECIOUS VOLUME</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When it was first printed, the critics took pleasure in saying, "This book +is indeed wholly original, but it will never be read."</p> + +<p>The first edition numbered one thousand copies. In September, 1891, it had +reached sixty-two editions.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>en route</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a></p> +<h2><a name="RECUPERATIVE_INCIDENT" id="RECUPERATIVE_INCIDENT"></a>RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>which Christian Science encountered a quarter-century ago, as +contrasted with its present welcome into the sickroom.</p> + +<p>Many were the desperate cases I instantly healed, "without money and +without price," and in most instances without even an acknowledgment of the +benefit.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a></p> +<h2><a name="A_TRUE_MAN" id="A_TRUE_MAN"></a>A TRUE MAN</h2> + + +<p>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 <i>man</i>, and +behold the upright: for the end of <i>that</i> man <i>is</i> peace." (Psalms xxxvii. +37.)</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a></p> +<h2><a name="COLLEGE_AND_CHURCH" id="COLLEGE_AND_CHURCH"></a>COLLEGE AND CHURCH</h2> + + +<p>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, <i>alias</i> the Science of Mind-healing.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>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,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This measure was immediately followed by a great revival of mutual love, +prosperity, and spiritual power.</p> + +<p>The history of that hour holds this true record. Adding to its ranks and +influence, this spiritually organized<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a></p> +<h2><a name="FEED_MY_SHEEP" id="FEED_MY_SHEEP"></a>"FEED MY SHEEP"</h2> + +<p>Lines penned when I was pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, in +Boston.</p> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shepherd, show me how to go</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">O'er the hillside steep,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How to gather, how to sow,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">How to feed Thy sheep;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I will listen for Thy voice,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lest my footsteps stray;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I will follow and rejoice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">All the rugged way.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou wilt bind the stubborn will,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Wound the callous breast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Make self-righteousness be still,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Break earth's stupid rest.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Strangers on a barren shore,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lab'ring long and lone,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We would enter by the door,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And Thou know'st Thine own.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So, when day grows dark and cold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Tear or triumph harms,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Take them in Thine arms;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Feed the hungry, heal the heart,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Till the morning's beam;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">White as wool, ere they depart,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Shepherd, wash them clean.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a></p> +<h2><a name="COLLEGE_CLOSED" id="COLLEGE_CLOSED"></a>COLLEGE CLOSED</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a></p> + +<p>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 <i>genuine</i> 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:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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:—</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, 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</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, 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 +<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>in the institution, which yields a large income, is willing to +sacrifice all for the advancement of the world in Truth and Love; +and</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, Other institutions for instruction in Christian +Science, which are working out their periods of organization, will +doubtless follow the example of the <i>Alma Mater</i> 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</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, The fundamental principle for growth in +Christian Science is spiritual formation first, last, and always, +while in human growth material organization is first; and</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, 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</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That we thank the State for its charter, which is the +only one ever granted to a <i>legal college</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">C.A. Frye</span>, <i>Clerk</i>.</p></div><p><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a></p> +<h2><a name="GENERAL_ASSOCIATIONS_AND_OUR_MAGAZINE" id="GENERAL_ASSOCIATIONS_AND_OUR_MAGAZINE"></a>GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS, AND OUR MAGAZINE</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The first official organ of the Christian Scientist Association was called +<i>Journal of Christian Science</i>. I started it, April, 1883, as editor and +publisher.</p> + +<p>To the National Christian Scientist Association, at its meeting in +Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1889, I sent a letter, <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>presenting to its loyal +members <i>The Christian Science Journal</i>, 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a></p> +<h2><a name="FAITH-CURE" id="FAITH-CURE"></a>FAITH-CURE</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>great work before them, enter this strait and narrow +path, and work conscientiously.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a></p> +<h2><a name="FOUNDATION-STONES" id="FOUNDATION-STONES"></a>FOUNDATION-STONES</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>demands mighty wrestlings with mortal +beliefs, as we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable sea of +possibilities.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a></p> + +<p>Stating the divine Principle, omnipotence (<i>omnis potens</i>), 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a></p> +<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_REVELATION" id="THE_GREAT_REVELATION"></a>THE GREAT REVELATION</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In Science, Life is not temporal, but eternal, without beginning or ending. +The word <i>Life</i> 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. <i>Life</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>mortal man's ignorance, from enmity to God and +divine Science.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Christian Science reveals the fact that, if suffering exists, it is in the +mortal mind only, for matter has no sensation and cannot suffer.</p> + +<p>If you rule out every sense of disease and suffering from mortal mind, it +cannot be found in the body.</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>the +Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will +increase.</p> + +<p>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 <i>a belief in +their reality has ever done</i>. A demonstration of the <i>unreality</i> of evil +destroys evil.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a></p> +<h2><a name="SIN_SINNER_AND_ECCLESIASTICISM" id="SIN_SINNER_AND_ECCLESIASTICISM"></a>SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM</h2> + + +<p>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 <i>is All</i>, 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, <i>alias</i> 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.</p> + +<p>God is good, hence goodness is something, for it represents God, the Life +of man. Its opposite, nothing, named <i>evil</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a></p> + +<p>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 <i>vice versa</i>, 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, <i>alias</i> 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 <i>one</i> and <i>all</i>, even as the opposite claim of +evil is one.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>If evangelical churches refuse fellowship with the<a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a> 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a> Truth and Love, to be utilized in healing the sick, in +casting out error, in raising the dead.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HUMAN_CONCEPT" id="THE_HUMAN_CONCEPT"></a>THE HUMAN CONCEPT</h2> + + +<p>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 <i>vice versa</i>, sin constitutes the human or +physical concept.</p> + +<p>Sin is both concrete and abstract. Sin was, and <i>is</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>Silencing self, <i>alias</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>is</i>, 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" +(<i>alias</i> evil), "was a liar, and the father of it."</p><p><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a></p> + +<p>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, <i>alias</i> 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 +<i>unreal</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.)</p> + +<p>Science and Health, the textbook of Christian Science, treats of the human +concept, and the transference of thought, as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"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).</p> + +<p>"In reality there is no <i>mortal</i> 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).</p> + +<p>"Man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure +constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>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).</p> + +<p>"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 <i>serpent</i>, 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 <i>is</i> 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).</p> + +<p>"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).</p> + +<p>"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).<a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a> "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).</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The second appearing of Jesus is, unquestionably, the spiritual advent of +the advancing idea of God, as in Christian Science.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p><p><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PERSONALITY" id="PERSONALITY"></a>PERSONALITY</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Limitations are put off in proportion as the fleshly nature disappears and +man is found in the reflection of Spirit.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>increases one's +sense of corporeality, and begets a fear of the senses and a perpetually +egotistical sensibility.</p> + +<p>He who does this is ignorant of the meaning of the word <i>personality</i>, and +defines it by his own <i>corpus sine pectore</i> (soulless body), and fails to +distinguish the individual, or real man from the false sense of +corporeality, or egotistic self.</p> + +<p>My own corporeal personality afflicteth me not wittingly; for I desire +never to think of it, and it cannot think of me.</p><p><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PLAGIARISM" id="PLAGIARISM"></a>PLAGIARISM</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Why withhold my name, while appropriating my language and ideas, but give +credit when citing from the works of other authors?</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>honest</i>. The +Science of Mind excludes opposites, and rests on unity.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>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 +<i>manright</i>. A student can write voluminous works on Science without +trespassing, if he writes honestly, and he cannot dishonestly compose +<i>Christian Science</i>. The Bible is not stolen, though it is cited, and +quoted deferentially.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>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."</p><p><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ADMONITION" id="ADMONITION"></a>ADMONITION</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>the human race as +well as against <i>honest</i> metaphysical theory and practice.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>We recognize this kingdom, the reign of harmony <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>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.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>As the poets in different languages have expressed it:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though the mills of God grind slowly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet they grind exceeding small;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though with patience He stands waiting,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With exactness grinds He all.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This above all: To thine own self be true;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And it must follow, as the night the day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou canst not then be false to any man.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><p><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a></p> + +<p>Centuries will intervene before the statement of the inexhaustible topics +of Science and Health is sufficiently understood to be fully demonstrated.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>there are other teachers who should be specially responsible for +doing their own work well.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>our</i> 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.</p><p><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EXEMPLIFICATION" id="EXEMPLIFICATION"></a>EXEMPLIFICATION</h2> + + +<p>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 <i>doing</i> good, and that is to <i>do</i> it! There is but one way of <i>being</i> +good, and that is to <i>be</i> good!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>not be accomplished</i>. 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<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a> +Master said, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><i>First</i>: Christian Scientists are to "heal the sick" as the Master +commanded.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>is sought. The same courtesy should be +observed in the professional intercourse of Christian Science healers with +one another.</p> + +<p><i>Second</i>: 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><i>Third</i>: This leads inevitably to a consideration of another part of +Christian Science work,—a part which concerns us intimately,—preaching +the gospel.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>anoints +His Truth-bearers, and God is their sure defense and refuge.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>he</i> 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.</p> + +<p>What has this hillside priest, this seaside teacher, done for the human +race? Ask, rather, what has he <i>not</i> done. His holy humility, +unworldliness, and self-abandonment <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p><p><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WAYMARKS" id="WAYMARKS"></a>WAYMARKS</h2> + + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.)</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>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."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ask God to give thee skill</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">In comfort's art:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That thou may'st consecrated be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And set apart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Unto a life of sympathy.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For heavy is the weight of ill</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">In every heart;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And comforters are needed much</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Of Christlike touch.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">—<span class="smcap">A.E. Hamilton</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p>THE PLIMPTON PRESS</p> + +<p>NORWOOD MASS USA</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> See Page 311, Lines 12 to 17, "The First Church of Christ, +Scientist, and Miscellany."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> An alder growing from the bent branch of a pear-tree.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> 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</p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION *** + +***** This file should be named 16734-h.htm or 16734-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16734/ + +Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Retrospection and Introspection + +Author: Mary Baker Eddy + +Release Date: September 23, 2005 [EBook #16734] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION *** + + + + +Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +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 Caesar the things +that are Caesar'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] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION *** + +***** This file should be named 16734.txt or 16734.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16734/ + +Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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