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Retrospection
and Introspection
by Mary Baker Eddy
Discoverer and Founder of
Christian Science and
Author of Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures
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
nightbird 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,
be-seeching 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, ‘t
is 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
(See
Page 311, Lines 12 to 17,
“The First Church of Christ,
Scientist, and
Miscellany.”)
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
churchmembers 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, (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.) 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. [1]
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.
[1]
An alder growing from the bent
branch of a pear-tree.
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,” saith 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? ‘T is 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
Hahnemann 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,
(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.)
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 faithcure 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, frommortal 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 everpresent 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
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