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Science and
Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Preface
Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you
free.
— JOHN viii. 32
There is nothing either good
or bad, but thinking makes it
so.
— SHAKESPEARE
Oh! Thou has heard my
prayer;
And I am blest!
This is Thy high behest:
—
Thou here, and everywhere.
— MARY BAKER G. EDDY
To those leaning on the
sustaining infinite, to-day is
big with blessings. The wakeful
shepherd beholds the first faint
morning beams, ere cometh the
full radiance of a risen day. So
shone the pale star to the
prophet-shepherds; yet it
traversed the night, and came
where, in cradled obscurity, lay
the Bethlehem babe, the human
herald of Christ, Truth, who
would make plain to benighted
understanding the way of
salvation through Christ Jesus,
till across a night of error
should dawn the morning beams and
shine the guiding star of being.
The Wisemen were led to behold
and to follow this daystar of
divine Science, lighting the way
to eternal harmony.
The time for thinkers has
come. Truth, independent of
doctrines and time-honored
systems, knocks at the portal of
humanity. Contentment with the
past and the cold conventionality
of materialism are crumbling
away. Ignorance of God is no
longer the steppingstone to
faith. The only guarantee of
obedience is a right apprehension
of Him whom to know aright is
Life eternal. Though empires
fall, "the Lord shall reign
forever."
A book introduces new
thoughts, but it cannot make them
speedily understood. It is the
task of the sturdy pioneer to hew
the tall oak and to cut the rough
granite. Future ages must declare
what the pioneer has
accomplished.
Since the author's discovery
of the might of Truth in the
treatment of disease as well as
of sin, her system has been fully
tested and has not been found
wanting; but to reach the heights
of Christian Science, man must
live in obedience to its divine
Principle. To develop the full
might of this Science, the
discords of corporeal sense must
yield to the harmony of spiritual
sense, even as the science of
music corrects false tones and
gives sweet concord to sound.
Theology and physics teach
that both Spirit and matter are
real and good, whereas the fact
is that Spirit is good and real,
and matter is Spirit's opposite.
The question, What is Truth, is
answered by demonstration, —
by healing both disease and sin;
and this demonstration shows that
Christian healing confers the
most health and makes the best
men. On this basis Christian
Science will have a fair fight.
Sickness has been combated for
centuries by doctors using
material remedies; but the
question arises, Is there less
sickness because of these
practitioners? A vigorous "No" is
the response deducible from two
connate facts, — the reputed
longevity of the Antediluvians,
and the rapid multiplication and
increased violence of diseases
since the flood.
In the author's work,
RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION,
may be found a biographical
sketch, narrating experiences
which led her, in the year 1866,
to the discovery of the system
that she denominated Christian
Science. As early as 1862 she
began to write down and give to
friends the results of her
Scriptural study, for the Bible
was her sole teacher; but these
compositions were crude, —
the first steps of a child in the
newly discovered world of
Spirit.
She also began to jot down her
thoughts on the main subject, but
these jottings were only
infantile lispings of Truth. A
child drinks in the outward world
through the eyes and rejoices in
the draught. He is as sure of the
world's existence as he is of his
own; yet he cannot describe the
world. He finds a few words, and
with these he stammeringly
attempts to convey his feeling.
Later, the tongue voices the more
definite thought, though still
imperfectly.
So was it with the author. As
a certain poet says of himself,
she "lisped in numbers, for the
numbers came." Certain essays
written at that early date are
still in circulation among her
first pupils; but they are feeble
attempts to state the Principle
and practice of Christian
healing, and are not complete nor
satisfactory expositions of
Truth. To-day, though rejoicing
in some progress, she still finds
herself a willing disciple at the
heavenly gate, waiting for the
Mind of Christ.
Her first pamphlet on
Christian Science was copyrighted
in 1870; but it did not appear in
print until 1876, as she had
learned that this Science must be
demonstrated by healing, before a
work on the subject could be
profitably studied. From 1867
until 1875, copies were, however,
in friendly circulation.
Before writing this work,
SCIENCE AND HEALTH, she made
copious notes of Scriptural
exposition, which have never been
published. This was during the
years 1867 and 1868. These
efforts show her comparative
ignorance of the stupendous
Life-problem up to that time, and
the degrees by which she came at
length to its solution; but she
values them as a parent may
treasure the memorials of a
child's growth, and she would not
have them changed.
The first edition of SCIENCE
AND HEALTH was published in 1875.
Various books on mental healing
have since been issued, most of
them incorrect in theory and
filled with plagiarisms from
SCIENCE AND HEALTH. They regard
the human mind as a healing
agent, whereas this mind is not a
factor in the Principle of
Christian Science. A few books,
however, which are based on this
book, are useful.
The author has not compromised
conscience to suit the general
drift of thought, but has bluntly
and honestly given the text of
Truth. She has made no effort to
embellish, elaborate, or treat in
full detail so infinite a theme.
By thousands of
well-authenticated cases of
healing, she and her students
have proved the worth of her
teachings. These cases for the
most part have been abandoned as
hopeless by regular medical
attendants. Few invalids will
turn to God till all physical
supports have failed, because
there is so little faith in His
disposition and power to heal
disease.
The divine Principle of
healing is proved in the personal
experience of any sincere seeker
of Truth. Its purpose is good,
and its practice is safer and
more potent than that of any
other sanitary method. The
unbiased Christian thought is
soonest touched by Truth, and
convinced of it. Only those
quarrel with her method who do
not understand her meaning, or
discerning the truth, come not to
the light lest their works be
reproved. No intellectual
proficiency is requisite in the
learner, but sound morals are
most desirable.
Many imagine that the
phenomena of physical healing in
Christian Science present only a
phase of the action of the human
mind, which action in some
unexplained way results in the
cure of disease. On the contrary,
Christian Science rationally
explains that all other
pathological methods are the
fruits of human faith in matter,
— faith in the workings, not
of Spirit, but of the fleshly
mind which must yield to
Science.
The physical healing of
Christian Science results now, as
in Jesus' time, from the
operation of divine Principle,
before which sin and disease lose
their reality in human
consciousness and disappear as
naturally and as necessarily as
darkness gives place to light and
sin to reformation. Now, as then,
these mighty works are not
supernatural, but supremely
natural. They are the sign of
Immanuel, or "God with us,"
— a divine influence ever
present in human consciousness
and repeating itself, coming now
as was promised aforetime,
To preach deliverance
to the captives [of
sense],
And recovering of sight to the
blind,
To set at liberty them that
are bruised.
When God called the author to
proclaim His Gospel to this age,
there came also the charge to
plant and water His vineyard.
The first school of Christian
Science Mind-healing was started
by the author with only one
student in Lynn, Massachusetts,
about the year 1867. In 1881, she
opened the Massachusetts
Metaphysical College in Boston,
under the seal of the
Commonwealth, a law relative to
colleges having been passed,
which enabled her to get this
institution chartered for medical
purposes. No charters were
granted to Christian Scientists
for such institutions after 1883,
and up to that date, hers was the
only College of this character
which had been established in the
United States, where Christian
Science was first introduced.
During seven years over four
thousand students were taught by
the author in this College.
Meanwhile she was pastor of the
first established Church of
Christ, Scientist; President of
the first Christian Scientist
Association, convening monthly;
publisher of her own works; and
(for a portion of this time) sole
editor and publisher of the
Christian Science Journal, the
first periodical issued by
Christian Scientists. She closed
her College, October 29, 1889, in
the height of its prosperity with
a deep-lying conviction that the
next two years of her life should
be given to the preparation of
the revision of SCIENCE AND
HEALTH, which was published in
1891. She retained her charter,
and as its President, reopened
the College in 1899 as auxiliary
to her church. Until June 10,
1907, she had never read this
book throughout consecutively in
order to elucidate her
idealism.
In the spirit of Christ's
charity, — as one who
"hopeth all things, endureth all
things," and is joyful to bear
consolation to the sorrowing and
healing to the sick, — she
commits these pages to honest
seekers for Truth.
Go
to Chapter 1:
Prayer
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