Page 378

1      About the year 1862, while the author of this work
         was at Dr. Vail’s Hydropathic Institute in New
         Hampshire, this occurred: A patient considered incur-
         able left that institution, and in a few weeks returned
5      apparently well, having been healed, as he informed
         the patients, by one Mr. P. P. Quimby of Portland,
         Maine.

         After much consultation among ourselves, and a struggle
         with pride, the author, in company with several other
10    patients, left the water-cure, en route for the aforesaid
         doctor in Portland. He proved to be a magnetic practi-
         tioner. His treatment seemed at first to relieve her, but
         signally failed in healing her case.

         Having practised homœopathy, it never occurred to the
15    author to learn his practice, but she did ask him how
         manipulation could benefit the sick. He answered kindly
         and squarely, in substance, “Because it conveys electricity
         to them.” That was the sum of what he taught her of
         his medical profession.

20    The readers of my books cannot fail to see that meta-
         physical therapeutics, as in Christian Science, are farther
         removed from such thoughts than the nebulous system
         is from the earth.

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1      After treating his patients, Mr. Quimby would retire
         to an anteroom and write at his desk. I had a curiosity
         to know if he indited anything pathological relative to
         his patients, and asked if I could see his pennings on
5      my case. He immediately presented them. I read the
         copy in his presence, and returned it to him. The com-
         position was commonplace, mostly descriptive of the gen-
         eral appearance, height, and complexion of the individual,
         and the nature of the case: it was not at all metaphysi-
10    cal or scientific; and from his remarks I inferred that
         his writings usually ran in the vein of thought presented
         by these. He was neither a scholar nor a metaphysician.
         I never heard him say that matter was not as real as Mind,
         or that electricity was not as potential or remedial, or
15    allude to God as the divine Principle of all healing. He
         certainly had advanced views of his own, but they com-
         mingled error with truth, and were not Science. On
         his rare humanity and sympathy one could write a
         sonnet.

20    I had already experimented in medicine beyond the
         basis of materia medica,—up to the highest attenuation
         in homoeopathy, thence to a mental standpoint not un-
         derstood and with phenomenally good results;(7) mean-
         while assiduously pondering the solution of this great
25    question: Is it matter, or is it Mind, that heals the
         sick?

         It was after Mr. Quimby’s death that I discovered,
         in 1866, the momentous facts relating to Mind and its
         superiority over matter, and named my discovery Chris-
30    tian Science. Yet, there remained the difficulty of ad-
         justing in the scale of Science a metaphysical practice,

Page 380

1      and settling the question, What shall be the outward
         sign of such a practice: if a divine Principle alone heals,
         what is the human modus for demonstrating this,—in
         short, how can sinful mortals prove that a divine Principle
5      heals the sick, as well as governs the universe, time,
         space, immortality, man?

         When contemplating the majesty and magnitude of
         this query, it looked as if centuries of spiritual growth
         were requisite to enable me to elucidate or to dem-
10    onstrate what I had discovered: but an unlooked-for,
         imperative call for help impelled me to begin this stu-
         pendous work at once, and teach the first student in
         Christian Science. Even as when an accident, called
         fatal to life, had driven me to discover the Science of
15    Life, I again, in faith, turned to divine help,—and com-
         menced teaching.

         My students at first practised in slightly differing
         forms. Although I could heal mentally, without a sign
         save the immediate recovery of the sick, my students’
20    patients, and people generally, called for a sign—a ma-
         terial evidence wherewith to satisfy the sick that something
         was being done for them; and I said, “Suffer it
         to be so now,” for thus saith our Master. Experience,
         however, taught me the impossibility of demonstrating
25    the Science of metaphysical healing by any outward form
         of practice.

         In April, 1883, a bill in equity was filed in the United
         States Circuit Court in Boston, to restrain, by decree and
         order of the Court, the unlawful publishing and use of an
30    infringing pamphlet printed and issued by a student of
         Christian Science.

         Answer was filed by the defendant, alleging that the

Page 381

1      copyrighted works of Mrs. Eddy were not original with
         her, but had been copied by her, or by her direction,
         from manuscripts originally composed by Dr. P. P.
         Quimby.

5      Testimony was taken on the part of Mrs. Eddy, the
         defendant being present personally and by counsel. The
         time for taking testimony on the part of the defendant
         having nearly expired, he gave notice through his counsel
         that he should not put in testimony. Later, Mrs.
10    Eddy requested her lawyer to inquire of defendant’s
         counsel why he did not present evidence to support his
         claim that Dr. Quimby was the author of her writings!
         Accordingly, her counsel asked the defendant’s counsel
         this question, and he replied, in substance, “There is
15    no evidence to present.”

         The stipulation for a judgment and a decree in favor
         of Mrs. Eddy was drawn up and signed by counsel.
         It was ordered that the complainant (Mrs. Eddy)
         recover of the defendant her cost of suit, taxed at
20    ($113.09) one hundred thirteen and 9/100 dollars.

         A writ of injunction was issued under the seal of the
         said Court, restraining the defendant from directly or
         indirectly printing, publishing, selling, giving away,
         distributing, or in any way or manner disposing of,
25    the enjoined pamphlet, on penalty of ten thousand
         dollars.

         The infringing books, to the number of thirty-eight
         hundred or thereabouts, were put under the edge of
         the knife, and their unlawful existence destroyed, in
30    Boston, Massachusetts.

         It has been written that “nobody can be both founder
         and discoverer of the same thing.” If this declaration

Page 382

1      were either a truism or a rule, my experience would
         contradict it and prove an exception.

         No works on the subject of Christian Science existed,
         prior to my discovery of this Science. Before the publi-
5      cation of my first work on this doctrine, a few manu-
         scripts of mine were in circulation. The discovery and
         founding of Christian Science has cost more than thirty
         years of unremitting toil and unrest; but, comparing those
         with the joy of knowing that the sinner and the sick are
10    helped thereby, that time and eternity bear witness to
         this gift of God to the race, I am the debtor.

         In the latter half of the nineteenth century I discov-
         ered the Science of Christianity, and restored the first
         patient healed in this age by Christian Science. I taught
15    the first student in Christian Science Mind-healing; was
         author and publisher of the first books on this subject;
         obtained the first charter for the first Christian Science
         church, originated its form of government, and was its
         first pastor. I donated to this church the land on which
20    in 1894 was erected the first church edifice of this denomination
         in Boston; obtained the first and only charter
         for a metaphysical medical college,—was its first and
         only president; was editor and proprietor of the first
         Christian Science periodical; organized the first Christian
25    Scientist Association, wrote its constitution and by-
         laws,—as also the constitution and by-laws of the
         National Christian Science Association; and gave it
         The Christian Science Journal; inaugurated our denom-
         inational form of Sunday services, Sunday School, and
30    so the entire system of teaching and practising Christian
         Science.

         In 1895 I ordained that the Bible, and “Science and

Page 383

1      Health with Key to the Scriptures,” the Christian Science
         textbook, be the pastor, on this planet, of all the churches
         of the Christian Science denomination. This ordinance
         took effect the same year, and met with the universal ap-
5      proval and support of Christian Scientists. Whenever
         and wherever a church of Christian Science is established,
         its pastor is the Bible and my book.

         In 1896 it goes without saying, preeminent over igno-
         rance or envy, that Christian Science is founded by its
10    discoverer, and built upon the rock of Christ. The el-
         ements of earth beat in vain against the immortal parapets
         of this Science. Erect and eternal, it will go on with the
         ages, go down the dim posterns of time unharmed, and
         on every battle-field rise higher in the estimation of
15    thinkers and in the hearts of Christians.

         Who shall describe the brave splendor of a November
         sky that this morning burst through the lattice for me,
         on my bed? According to terrestrial calculations, above
20    the horizon, in the east, there rose one rod of rainbow
         hues, crowned with an acre of eldritch ebony. Little
         by little this topmost pall, drooping over a deeply daz-
         zling sunlight, softened, grew gray, then gay, and glided
         into a glory of mottled marvels. Fleecy, faint, fairy
25    blue and golden flecks came out on a background of
         cerulean hue; while the lower lines of light kindled into
         gold, orange, pink, crimson, violet; and diamond, topaz,
         opal, garnet, turquoise, and sapphire spangled the gloom
         in celestial space as with the brightness of His glory.
30    Then thought I, What are we, that He who fashions for-

Page 377

1      ever such forms and hues of heaven, should move our
         brush or pen to paint frail fairness or to weave a web
         of words that glow with gladdening gleams of God, so
         unapproachable, and yet so near and full of radiant relief
5      in clouds and darkness!

         An Illustrated Poem

         This poem and its illustrations are as hopelessly origi-
         nal as is “Science and Health with Key to the Scrip-

Page 372

1      tures.” When the latter was first issued, critics declared
         that it was incorrect, contradictory, unscientific, unchris-
         tian; but those human opinions had not one feather’s
         weight in the scales of God. The fact remains, that
5      the textbook of Christian Science is transforming the
         universe.

         “Christ and Christmas” voices Christian Science
         through song and object-lesson. In two weeks from the
         date of its publication in December, 1893, letters extoll-
10    ing it were pouring in from artists and poets. A mother
         wrote, “Looking at the pictures in your wonderful book
         has healed my child.”

         Knowing that this book would produce a stir, I sought
         the judgment of sound critics familiar with the works
15    of masters in France and Italy. From them came such
         replies as the following: “The illustrations of your poem
         are truly a work of art, and the artist seems quite familiar
         with delineations from the old masters.” I am delighted
         to find “Christ and Christmas” in accord with the
20    ancient and most distinguished artists.

         The Christian Science Journal gives no uncertain dec-
         laration concerning the spirit and mission of “Christ and
         Christmas.”

         I aimed to reproduce, with reverent touch, the modest
25    glory of divine Science. Not by aid of foreign device
         or environment could I copy art,—never having seen
         the painter’s masterpieces; but the art of Christian
         Science, with true hue and character of the living God,
         is akin to its Science: and Science and Health gives
30    scopes and shades to the shadows of divinity, thus im-
         parting to humanity the true sense of meekness and
         might.

Page 373

1      One incident serves to illustrate the simple nature of
         art.

         I insisted upon placing the serpent behind the woman
         in the picture “Seeking and Finding.” My artist at the
5      easel objected, as he often did, to my sense of Soul’s
         expression through the brush; but, as usual, he finally
         yielded. A few days afterward, the following from Roth-
         erham’s translation of the New Testament was handed
         to me,—I had never before seen it: “And the serpent
10    cast out of his mouth, behind the woman, water as a
         river, that he might cause her to be river-borne.” Neither
         material finesse, standpoint, nor perspective guides the
         infinite Mind and spiritual vision that should, does, guide
         His children.

15    One great master clearly delineates Christ’s appear-
         ing in the flesh, and his healing power, as clad not in
         soft raiment or gorgeous apparel; and when forced out
         of its proper channel, as living feebly, in kings’ courts.
         This master’s thought presents a sketch of Christian-
20    ity’s state, in the early part of the Christian era, as
         homelessness in a wilderness. But in due time Chris-
         tianity entered into synagogues, and, as St. Mark
         writes, it has rich possession here, with houses and
         lands. In Genesis we read that God gave man do-
25    minion over all things; and this assurance is followed
         by Jesus’ declaration, “All power is given unto me
         in heaven and in earth,” and by his promise that the
         Christlike shall finally sit down at the right hand of the
         Father.

30    Christian Science is more than a prophet or a proph-
         ecy: it presents not words alone, but works,—the daily
         demonstration of Truth and Love. Its healing and sav-

Page 374

1      ing power was so great a proof of Immanuel and the
         realism of Christianity, that it caused even the publi-
         cans to justify God. Although clad in panoply of power,
         the Pharisees scorned the spirit of Christ in most of its
5      varied manifestations. To them it was cant and carica-
         ture,—always the opposite of what it was. Keen and
         alert was their indignation at whatever rebuked hypocrisy
         and demanded Christianity in life and religion. In view
         of this, Jesus said, “Wisdom is justified of all her
10    children.”

         Above the fogs of sense and storms of passion, Chris-
         tian Science and its art will rise triumphant; ignorance,
         envy, and hatred—earth’s harmless thunder—pluck
         not their heaven-born wings. Angels, with overtures,
15    hold charge over both, and announce their Principle and
         idea.

         It is most fitting that Christian Scientists memorize
         the nativity of Jesus. To him who brought a great light
         to all ages, and named his burdens light, homage is in-
20    deed due,—but is bankrupt. I never looked on my
         ideal of the face of the Nazarite Prophet; but the one
         illustrating my poem approximates it.

         Extremists in every age either doggedly deny or fran-
         tically affirm what is what: one renders not unto Cæsar
25    “the things that are Cæsar’s;” the other sees “Helen’s
         beauty in a brow of Egypt.”

         Pictures are portions of one’s ideal, but this ideal is
         not one’s personality. Looking behind the veil, he that
         perceives a semblance between the thinker and his thought
30    on canvas, blames him not.

         Because my ideal of an angel is a woman without
         feathers on her wings,—is it less artistic or less natu-

Page 375

1      ral? Pictures which present disordered phases of ma-
         terial conceptions and personality blind with animality,
         are not my concepts of angels. What is the material ego,
         but the counterfeit of the spiritual?

5      The truest art of Christian Science is to be a Chris-
         tian Scientist; and it demands more than a Raphael to
         delineate this art.

         The following is an extract from a letter reverting to
         the illustrations of “Christ and Christmas”:—

10    “In my last letter, I did not utter all I felt about the
         wonderful new book you have given us. Years ago,
         while in Italy, I studied the old masters and their great
         works of art thoroughly, and so got quite an idea of
         what constitutes true art. Then I spent two years in
15    Paris, devoting every moment to the study of music and
         art.

         “The first thing that impressed me in your illustra-
         tions was the conscientious application to detail, which is
         is the foundation of true art. From that, I went on to
20    study each illustration thoroughly, and to my amazement
         and delight I find an almost identical resemblance, in
         many things, to the old masters! In other words, the art
         is perfect.

         “The hands and feet of the figures—how many times
25    have I seen these hands and feet in Angelico’s “Jesus,”
         or Botticelli’s “Madonna”!

         “It gave me such a thrill of joy as no words can ex-
         press, to see produced to-day that art—the only true
         art—that we have identified with the old masters, and
30    mourned as belonging to them exclusively,—a thing of
         the past, impossible of reproduction.

         “All that I can say to you, as one who gives no mean

Page 376

1      attention to such matters, is that the art is perfect. It
         is the true art of the oldest, most revered, most authen-
         tic Italian school, revived. I use the words most au-
         thentic in the following sense: the face, figure, and
5      drapery of Jesus, very closely resemble in detail the
         face, figure, and drapery of that Jesus portrayed by the
         oldest of the old masters, and said to have been authen-
         tic; the face having been taken by Fra Angelico from
         Cæsar’s Cameo, the figure and garments from a descrip-
10    tion, in The Galaxy, of a small sketch handed down
         from the living reality. Their productions are expres-
         sionless copies of an engraving cut in a stone. Yours
         is a palpitating, living Saviour engraven on the heart.
         You have given us back our Jesus, and in a much better
15    is form.”

20    What figure is less favorable than a wolf in sheep’s
         clothing? The braying donkey whose ears stick out is
         less troublesome. What manner of man is it that has
         discovered an improvement on Christian Science, a “met-
         aphysical healing” by which error destroys error, and
25    would gather all sorts into a “national convention” by
         the sophistry that such is the true fold for Christian heal-
         ers, since the good shepherd cares for all?

         Yes; the good Shepherd does care for all, and His
         first care is to separate the sheep from the goats; and

Page 371

1      this is among the first lessons on healing taught by our
         great Master.

         If, as the gentleman aforesaid states, large flocks of
         metaphysicians are wandering about without a leader,
5      what has opened his eyes to see the need of taking them
         out of the care of the great Shepherd, and behold the
         remedy, to help them by his own leadership? Is it that
         he can guide Christian Scientists better than they, through
         the guidance of our common Father, can guide them-
10    selves? or is it that they are incapable of helping them-
         selves thus?

         I as their teacher can say, They know far more of
         Christian Science than he who deprecates their condition
         appears to, and my heart pleads for them to possess
15    more and more of Truth and Love; but mixing all grades
         of persons is not productive of the better sort, although
         he who has self-interest in this mixing is apt to pro-
         pose it.

         Whoever desires to say, “good right, and good wrong,”
20    has no truth to defend. It is a wise saying that “men
         are known by their enemies.” To sympathize in any
         degree with error, is not to rectify it; but error always
         strives to unite, in a definition of purpose, with Truth,
         to give it buoyancy. What is under the mask, but error
25    in borrowed plumes?

         Metaphysics, not physics, enables us to stand erect
         on sublime heights, surveying the immeasurable universe
         of Mind, peering into the cause which governs all effects,
10    while we are strong in the unity of God and man. There
         is “method” in the “madness” of this system,—since
         madness it seems to many onlookers. This method sits
         serene at the portals of the temple of thought, while
         the leaders of materialistic schools indulge in mad
15    antics. Metaphysical healing seeks a wisdom that is
         higher than a rhubarb tincture or an ipecacuanha pill.
         This method is devout enough to trust Christ more than
         it does drugs.

         Meekly we kneel at our Master’s feet, for even a crumb
20    that falleth from his table. We are hungry for Love,
         for the white-winged charity that heals and saves; we
         are tired of theoretic husks,—as tired as was the prodi-
         gal son of the carobs which he shared with the swine,
         to whom he fed that wholesome but unattractive food.
25    Like him, we would find our Father’s house again—
         the perfect and eternal Principle of man. We thirst
         for inspiring wine from the vine which our Father tends.
         We crave the privilege of saying to the sick, when their

Page 370

1      feebleness calls for help, “Rise and walk.” We rejoice
         to say, in the spirit of our Master, “Stretch forth thy
         hand, and be whole!”

         When the Pharisees saw Jesus do such deeds of mercy,
5      they went away and took counsel how they might remove
         him. The antagonistic spirit of evil is still abroad; but
         the greater spirit of Christ is also abroad,—risen from
         the grave-clothes of tradition and the cave of ignorance.
         Let the sentinels of Zion’s watch-towers shout once
10    again, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
         given.”

         In different ages the divine idea assumes different
         forms, according to humanity’s needs. In this age it
         assumes, more intelligently than ever before, the form
15    of Christian healing. This is the babe we are to cherish.
         This is the babe that twines its loving arms about the
         neck of omnipotence, and calls forth infinite care from
         His loving heart.

         We regret to be obliged to say that all are not meta-
         physicians, or Christian Scientists, who call themselves
         so. Charlatanism, fraud, and malice are getting into
15    the ranks of the good and pure, sending forth a poison
         more deadly than the upas-tree in the eastern archi-
         pelago. This evil obtains in the present false teaching
         and false practice of the Science of treating disease through
         Mind. The silent address of a mental malpractitioner
20    can only be portrayed in these words of the apostle,
         “whisperers,” and “the poison of asps is under their
         tongue.”

         Some of the mere puppets of the hour are playing
         only for money, and at a fearful stake. Others, from
25    malice and envy, are working out the destinies of the
         damned. But while the best, perverted, on the mortal
         plane may become the worst, let us not forget that the
         Lord reigns, and that this earth shall some time rejoice
         in His supreme rule,—that the tired watchmen on the

Page 369

1      walls of Zion, and the true Christian Scientist at the foot
         of the mount of revelation, shall look up with shouts and
         thanksgiving,—that God’s law, as in divine Science,
         shall be finally understood; and the gospel of glad tidings
5      bring “on earth peace, good will toward men.”

         Men give counsel; but they give not the wisdom to
         profit by it. To ask wisdom of God, is the beginning of
30    wisdom.

Page 360

1      Meekness, moderating human desire, inspires wisdom
         and procures divine power. Human lives are yet un-
         carved,—in the rough marble, encumbered with crude,
         rude fragments, and awaiting the hammering, chiselling,
5      and transfiguration from His hand.

         Great only as good, because fashioned divinely, were
         those unpretentious yet colossal characters, Paul and
         Jesus. Theirs were modes of mind cast in the moulds
         of Christian Science: Paul’s, by the supremely natural
10    transforming power of Truth; and the character of
         Jesus, by his original scientific sonship with God. Phi-
         losophy never has produced, nor can it reproduce, these
         stars of the first magnitude—fixed stars in the heavens
         of Soul. When shall earth be crowned with the true
15    knowledge of Christ?

         When Christian Science has melted away the cloud of
         false witnesses; and the dews of divine grace, fall-
         ing upon the blighted flowers of fleeting joys, shall
         lift every thought-leaflet Spiritward; and “Israel after
20    the flesh,” who partaketh of its own altars, shall be
         no more,—then, “the Israel according to Spirit”
         shall fill earth with the divine energies, understanding,
         and ever-flowing tides of spiritual sensation and consciousness.

25    When mortal mind is silenced by the “still, small voice”
         of Truth that regenerates philosophy and logic; and
         Jesus, as the true idea of Him, is heard as of yore saying
         to sensitive ears and dark disciples, “I came from the
         Father,” “Before Abraham was, I am,” coexistent and
30    coeternal with God,—and this idea is understood,—
         then will the earth be filled with the true knowledge of
         Christ. No advancing modes of human mind made

Page 361

1      Jesus; rather was it their subjugation, and the pure
         heart that sees God.

         When the belief in material origin, mortal mind, sen-
         sual conception, dissolves through self-imposed suffering,
5      and its substances are found substanceless,—then its
         miscalled life ends in death, and death itself is swallowed
         up in Life,—spiritual Life, whose myriad forms are
         neither material nor mortal.

         When every form and mode of evil disappear to hu-
10    man thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual con-
         cepts testifying to one creator,—then, earth is full of
         His glory, and Christian Science has overshadowed all
         human philosophy, and being is understood in startling
         contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato,
15    Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer
         sit at the feet of Jesus.

         To this great end, Paul admonished, “Let us lay aside
         every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
         and let us run with patience the race that is set before
20    us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our
         faith.” So shall mortals soar to final freedom, and rest
         from the subtlety of speculative wisdom and human
         woe.

         God is the only Mind, and His manifestation is the
25    spiritual universe, including man and all eternal indi-
         viduality. God, the only substance and divine Principle
         of creation, is by no means a creative partner in the firm
         of error, named matter, or mortal mind. He elucidates
         His own idea, wherein Principle and idea, God and man,
30    are not one, but are inseparable as cause and effect. If
         one, who could say which that “one” was?

         His ways are not as our ways. The divine modes

Page 362

1      and manifestations are not those of the material senses;
         for instance, intelligent matter, or mortal mind, material
         birth, growth, and decay: they are the forever-existing
         realities of divine Science; wherein God and man are
5      perfect, and man’s reason is at rest in God’s wisdom,—
         who comprehends and reflects all real mode, form, indi-
         viduality, identity.

         Scholastic dogma has made men blind. Christ’s logos
         gives sight to these blind, ears to these deaf, feet to these
10    lame,—physically, morally, spiritually. Theologians
         make the mortal mistake of believing that God, having
         made all, made evil; but the Scriptures declare that all
         that He made was good. Then, was evil part and parcel
         of His creation?

15    Philosophy hypothetically regards creation as its own
         creator, puts cause into effect, and out of nothing would
         create something, whose noumenon is mortal mind,
         with its phenomenon matter,—an evil mind already
         doomed, whose modes are material manifestations of
20    evil, and that continually, until self-extinguished by
         suffering!

         Here revelation must come to the rescue of mortals,
         to remove this mental millstone that is dragging them
         downward, and refute erring reason with the spiritual
25    cosmos and Science of Soul. We all must find shelter
         from the storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit.
         Truth is won through Science or suffering: O vain mor-
         tals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward,
         except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform
30    the sinner. And pleasure is no crime except when it
         strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens
         the activities of virtue. The more nearly an erring so-

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1      called mind approaches purity, the more conscious it
         becomes of its own unreality, and of the great reality of
         divine Mind and true happiness.

         The “ego” that claims selfhood in error, and passes
5      from molecule and monkey up to man, is no ego, but is
         simply the supposition that the absence of good is mind
         and makes men,—when its greatest flatterer, identifica-
         tion, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with
         nothingness, dust with dust!

10    The mythology of evil and mortality is but the ma-
         terial mode of a suppositional mind; while the immortal
         modes of Mind are spiritual, and pass through none of
         the changes of matter, or evil. Truth said, and said from
         the beginning, “Let us [Spirit] make man perfect;” and
15    there is no other Maker: a perfect man would not desire
         to make himself imperfect, and God is not chargeable
         with imperfection. His modes declare the beauty of holi-
         ness, and His manifold wisdom shines through the visible
         world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even through
20    the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His
         coming.

         We must avoid the shoals of a sensual religion or
         philosophy that misguides reason and affection, and
         hold fast to the Principle of Christian Science as the
25    Word that is God, Spirit, and Truth. This Word cor-
         rects the philosopher, confutes the astronomer, exposes
         the subtle sophist, and drives diviners mad. The Bible
         is the learned man’s masterpiece, the ignorant man’s
         dictionary, the wise man’s directory.

30    I foresee and foresay that every advancing epoch of so
         Truth will be characterized by a more spiritual appre-
         hension of the Scriptures, that will show their marked

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1      consonance with the textbook of Christian Science Mind-
         healing, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”
         Interpreting the Word in the “new tongue,” whereby
         the sick are healed, naturally evokes new paraphrase
5      from the world of letters. “Wait patiently on the Lord,
         and He will renew your strength.” In return for indi-
         vidual sacrifice, what a recompense to have healed, through
         Truth, the sick and sinful, made the public your friend,
         and posterity your familiar!

10    Christian Science refutes everything that is not a
         postulate of the divine Principle, God. It is the soul of
         divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It
         is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God’s
         right hand grasping the universe,—all time, space,
15    immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; con-
         stituting and governing all identity, individuality, law,
         and power. It stands on this Scriptural platform:
         that He made all that was made, and it is good, reflects
         the divine Mind, is governed by it; and that nothing
20    apart from this Mind, one God, is self-created or evolves
         the universe.

         Human hypotheses predicate matter of Spirit and
         evil of good; hence these opposites must either cooperate
         or quarrel throughout time and eternity,—or until
25    this impossible partnership is dissolved. If Spirit is the
         lawgiver to matter, and good has the same power or
         modes as evil, it has the same consciousness, and there
         is no absolute good. This error, carried to its ultimate,
         would either extinguish God and His modes, or give
30    reality and power to evil ad infinitum.

         Christian Science rends this veil of the temple of gods,
         and reproduces the divine philosophy of Jesus and Paul.

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1      This philosophy alone will bear the strain of time and
         bring out the glories of eternity; for “other founda-
         tion can no man lay than that is laid,” which is Christ,
         Truth.

5      Human theories weighed in the balances of God are
         found wanting; and their highest endeavors are to Science
         what a child’s love of pictures is to art. The school whose
         schoolmaster is not Christ, gets things wrong, and is ignorant
         thereof.

10    If Christian Science lacked the proof of its goodness
         and utility, it would destroy itself; for it rests alone on
         demonstration. Its genius is right thinking and right
         acting, physical and moral harmony; and the secret of
         its success lies in supplying the universal need of better
15    health and better men.

         Good health and a more spiritual religion form the
         common want, and this want has worked out a moral
         result; namely, that mortal mind is calling for what im-
         mortal Mind alone can supply. If the uniform moral
20    and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of divine Science
         were lacking, the demand would diminish; but it con-
         tinues, and increases, which shows the real value of
         Christian Science to the race. Even doctors agree that
         infidelity, bigotry, or sham has never met the growing
25    wants of humanity.

         As a literature, Christian metaphysics is hampered by
         lack of proper terms in which to express what it means.
         As a Science, it is held back by the common ignorance
         of what it is and of what it does,—and more than all
30    else, by the impostors that come in its name. To be
         appreciated, it must be conscientiously understood and
         introduced.

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1      If the Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the
         Scriptures” had in our schools the time or attention that
         human hypotheses consume, they would advance the
         world. True, it requires more study to understand and
5      demonstrate what they teach than to learn the doctrine
         of theology, philosophy, or physics, because they con-
         tain and offer Science, with fixed Principle, given rule,
         and unmistakable proof.

         The Scriptures give the keynote of Christian Science
10    from Genesis to Revelation, and this is the prolonged
         tone: “For the Lord He is God, and there is
         none beside Him.” And because He is All-in-all,
         He is in nothing unlike Himself; and nothing that
         worketh or maketh a lie is in Him, or can be divine con-
15    sciousness.

         At this date, poor jaded humanity needs to get her
         eyes open to a new style of imposition in the field of
         medicine and of religion, and to “beware of the leaven
         of the scribes and Pharisees,” the doctrines of men, even
20    as Jesus admonished. From first to last, evil insists on
         the unity of good and evil as the purpose of God; and
         on drugs, electricity, and animal magnetism as modes
         of medicine. To a greater or less extent, all mortal conclusions
         start from this false premise, and they necessarily
25    culminate in sickness, sin, disease, and death.
         Erroneous doctrines never have abated and never will
         abate dishonesty, self-will, envy, and lust. To destroy
         sin and its sequence, is the office of Christ, Truth,—ac-
         cording to His mode of Christian Science; and this is
30    being done daily.

         The false theories whose names are legion, gilded with
         sophistry and what Jesus had not, namely, mere book-

Page 367

1      learning,—letter without law, gospel, or demonstration,
         —have no place in Christian Science. This Science re-
         quires man to be honest, just, pure; to love his neighbor
         as himself, and to love God supremely.

5      Matter and evil are subjective states of error or mortal
         mind. But Mind is immortal; and the fact of there
         being no mortal mind, exposes the lie of suppositional
         evil, showing that error is not Mind, substance, or
         Life. Thus, whatever is wrongfully-minded will dis-
10    appear in the proportion that Science is understood,
         and the reality of being—goodness and harmony—is
         demonstrated.

         Error says that knowing all things implies the neces-
         sity of knowing evil, that it dishonors God to claim that
15    He is ignorant of anything; but God says of this fruit
         of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, “In the
         day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” If
         God is infinite good, He knows nothing but good; if He
         did know aught else, He would not be infinite. Infinite
20    Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To
         good, evil is never present; for evil is a different state of
         consciousness. It was not against evil, but against know-
         ing evil, that God forewarned. He dwelleth in light;
         and in the light He sees light, and cannot see darkness.
25    The opposite conclusion, that darkness dwelleth in light,
         has neither precedent nor foundation in nature, in logic,
         or in the character of Christ.

         The senses would say that whatever saves from sin,
         must know sin. Truth replies that God is too pure
30    to behold iniquity; and by virtue of His ignorance of
         that which is not, He knoweth that which is, and
         abideth in Himself, the only Life, Truth, and Love,

Page 368

1      —and is reflected by a universe in His own image
         and likeness.

         Even so, Father, let the light that shineth in dark-
         ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, dispel this
5      illusion of the senses, open the eyes of the blind, and cause
         the deaf to hear.

         “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.
         Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
         Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”
         LOWELL

Page 355

2      The present stage of progress in Christian Science pre-
         sents two opposite aspects,—a full-orbed promise, and
         a gaunt want. The need, however, is not of the letter,
5      but the spirit.

         Less teaching and good healing is to-day the acme of
         “well done;” a healing that is not guesswork,—chronic
         recovery ebbing and flowing,—but instantaneous cure.
         This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived.
10    To consummate this desideratum, mortal mind must pass
         through three stages of growth.

         First, self-knowledge. The physician must know him-
         self and understand the mental state of his patient. Error
         found out is two-thirds destroyed, and the last third
15    pierces itself, for the remainder only stimulates and gives
         scope to higher demonstration. To strike out right and
         left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift
         your head above it, is a sovereign panacea. Mental dark-
         ness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power, and
20    its victim is responsible for its supposititious presence.
         “Cast the beam out of thine own eye.” Learn what in
         thine own mentality is unlike “the anointed,” and cast
         it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient’s
         mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest
25    like the dove from the deluge.

         “Physician, heal thyself.” Let no clouds of sin gather
         and fall in mist and showers from thine own mental
         atmosphere. Hold thy gaze to the light, and the iris of
         faith, more beautiful than the rainbow seen from my
30    window at the close of a balmy autumnal day, will span
         thy heavens of thought.

Page 356

1      A radiant sunset, beautiful as blessings when they take
         their flight, dilates and kindles into rest. Thus will a
         life corrected illumine its own atmosphere with spiritual
         glow and understanding.

5      The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible
         detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate need no
         temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through
         suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and
         freedom.

10    My students, with cultured intellects, chastened affec-
         tions, and costly hopes, give promise of grand careers.
         But they must remember that the seedtime is passed,
         the harvest hour has come; and songs should ascend
         from the mount of revelation, sweeter than the sound of
15    vintage bells.

         The seed of Christian Science, which when sown was
         “the least of all seeds,” has sprung up, borne fruit, and
         the birds of the air, the uplifted desires of the human
         heart, have lodged in its branches. Now let my faithful
20    students carry the fruit of this tree into the rock-ribbed
         nests of the raven’s callow brood.

         The second stage of mental development is humility.
         This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of
         Christian Science. One can never go up, until one has
25    gone down in his own esteem. Humility is lens and
         prism to the understanding of Mind-healing; it must be
         had to understand our textbook; it is indispensable to
         personal growth, and points out the chart of its divine
         Principle and rule of practice.

30    Cherish humility, “watch,” and “pray without ceasing,”
         or you will miss the way of Truth and Love. Humility
         is no busybody: it has no moments for trafficking

Page 357

1      in other people’s business, no place for envy, no time for
         idle words, vain amusements, and all the et cetera of the
         ways and means of personal sense.

         Let Christian Scientists minister to the sick; the school-
5      room is the dernier ressort. Let them seek the lost sheep
         who, having strayed from the true fold, have lost their
         great Shepherd and yearn to find living pastures and
         rest beside still waters. These long for the Christlike-
         ness that is above the present status of religion and be-
10    yond the walks of common life, quite on the verge of
         heaven. Without the cross and healing, Christianity has
         no central emblem, no history.

         The seeds of Truth fall by the wayside, on artless
         listeners. They fall on stony ground and shallow soil.
15    The fowls of the air pick them up. Much of what has
         been sown has withered away, but what remaineth has
         fallen into the good and honest hearts and is bearing
         fruit.

         The third stage of mental growth is manifested in love,
20    the greatest of all stages and states of being; love that
         is irrespective of self, rank, or following. For some time
         it has been clear to my thought that those students of
         Christian Science whose Christian characters and lives
         recommend them, should receive full fellowship from us,
25    no matter who has taught them. If they have been taught
         wrongly, they are not morally responsible for this, and
         need special help. They are as lambs that have sought
         the true fold and the great Shepherd, and strayed inno-
         cently; hence we should be ready and glad to help them
30    and point the way.

         Divine Love is the substance of Christian Science, the
         basis of its demonstration, yea, its foundation and super-

Page 358

1      structure. Love impels good works. Love is greatly
         needed, and must be had to mark the way in divine
         Science.

         The student who heals by teaching and teaches by
5      healing, will graduate under divine honors, which are
         the only appropriate seals for Christian Science. State
         honors perish, and their gain is loss to the Christian
         Scientist. They include for him at present naught but
         tardy justice, hounded footsteps, false laurels. God
10    alone is his help, his shield and great reward. He that
         seeketh aught besides God, loseth in Life, Truth, and
         Love. All men shall be satisfied when they “awake in
         His likeness,” and they never should be until then. Hu-
         man pride is human weakness. Self-knowledge, humility,
15    and love are divine strength. Christ’s vestures are put
         on only when mortals are “washed in the blood of the
         Lamb;” we must walk in the way which Jesus marked
         out, if we would reach the heaven-crowned summit of
         Christian Science.

20    Be it understood that I do not require Christian Sci-
         entists to stop teaching, to dissolve their organizations,
         or to desist from organizing churches and associations.

         The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, the first
         and only College for teaching Christian Science Mind-
25    healing, after accomplishing the greatest work of the
         ages, and at the pinnacle of prosperity, is closed. Let
         Scientists who have grown to self-sacrifice do their
         present work, awaiting, with staff in hand, God’s
         commands.

30    When students have fulfilled all the good ends of
         organization, and are convinced that by leaving the
         material forms thereof a higher spiritual unity is won,

Page 359

1      then is the time to follow the example of the Alma Mater.
         Material organization is requisite in the beginning; but
         when it has done its work, the purely Christly method
         of teaching and preaching must be adopted. On the same
5      principle, you continue the mental argument in the prac-
         tice of Christian healing until you can cure without it
         instantaneously, and through Spirit alone.

         St. Paul says: “When I was a child, I spake as a
         child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but
10    when I became a man, I put away childish things. For
         now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
         face.” Growth is restricted by forcing humanity out of
         the proper channels for development, or by holding it in
         fetters.

15    For Jesus to walk the water was scientific, insomuch
         as he was able to do this; but it is neither wisdom nor
         Science for poor humanity to step upon the Atlantic until
         we can walk on the water.

         Peter’s impetuosity was rebuked. He had to learn
20    from experience; so have we. The methods of our
         Master were in advance of the period in which he per-
         sonally appeared; but his example was right, and is
         available at the right time. The way is absolute divine
         Science: walk ye in it; but remember that Science is
25    demonstrated by degrees, and our demonstration rises
         only as we rise in the scale of being.

20    Evil counterfeits good: it says, “I am Truth,” though
         it is a lie; it says, “I am Love,”—but Love is spirit-
         ual, and sensuous love is material, wherefore it is hate
         instead of Love; for the five senses give to mortals pain,
         sickness, sin, and death,—pleasure that is false, life that
25    leads unto death, joy that becomes sorrow. Love that is
         not the procurator of happiness, declares itself the anti-
         pode of Love; and Love divine punishes the joys of this
         false sense of love, chastens its affection, purifies it, and
         turns it into the opposite channels.

30    Material life is the antipode of spiritual life; it mocks

Page 352

1      the bliss of spiritual being; it is bereft of permanence and
         peace.

         When human sense is quickened to behold aright the
         error,—the error of regarding Life, Truth, Love as
5      material and not spiritual, or as both material and spirit-
         ual,—it is able for the first time to discern the Science
         of good. But it must first see the error of its present
         erroneous course, to be able to behold the facts of Truth
         outside of the error; and, vice versa, when it discovers
10    the truth, this uncovers the error and quickens the true
         consciousness of God, good. May the human shadows of
         thought lengthen as they approach the light, until they
         are lost in light and no night is there!

         In Science, sickness is healed upon the same Principle
15    and by the same rule that sin is healed. To know the
         supposed bodily belief of the patient and what has claimed
         to produce it, enables the practitioner to act more under-
         standingly in destroying this belief. Thus it is in heal-
         ing the moral sickness; the malicious mental operation
20    must be understood in order to enable one to destroy
         it and its effects. There is not sufficient spiritual power
         in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful.
         Through the divine energies alone one must either get
         out of himself and into God so far that his consciousness
25    is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through argu-
         ment and the human consciousness of both evil and good,
         overcome evil.

         The only difference between the healing of sin and the
         healing of sickness is, that sin must be uncovered before
30    it can be destroyed, and the moral sense be aroused to
         reject the sense of error; while sickness must be cov-
         ered with the veil of harmony, and the consciousness be

Page 353

1      allowed to rejoice in the sense that it has nothing to mourn
         over, but something to forget.

         Human concepts run in extremes; they are like the
         action of sickness, which is either an excess of action or
5      not action enough; they are fallible; they are neither
         standards nor models.

         If one asks me, Is my concept of you right? I reply, The
         human concept is always imperfect; relinquish your human
         concept of me, or of any one, and find the divine, and you
10    have gained the right one—and never until then. People
         give me too much attention of the misguided, fallible sort,
         and this misrepresents one through malice or ignorance.

         My brother was a manufacturer; and one day a work-
         man in his mills, a practical joker, set a man who applied
15    for work, in the overseer’s absence, to pour a bucket of
         water every ten minutes on the regulator. When my
         brother returned and saw it, he said to the jester, “You
         must pay that man.” Some people try to tend folks, as
         if they should steer the regulator of mankind. God makes
20    us pay for tending the action that He adjusts.

         The regulator is governed by the principle that makes
         the machinery work rightly; and because it is thus gov-
         erned, the folly of tending it is no mere jest. The divine
         Principle carries on His harmony.

25    Now turn from the metaphor of the mill to the Mother’s
         four thousand children, most of whom, at about three
         years of scientific age, set up housekeeping alone. Certain
         students, being too much interested in themselves to think
         of helping others, go their way. They do not love Mother,
30    but pretend to; they constantly go to her for help, interrupt
         the home-harmony, criticise and disobey her; then “return
         to their vomit,”—world worship, pleasure seeking, and

Page 354

1      sense indulgence,—meantime declaring they “never dis-
         obey Mother”! It exceeds my conception of human
         nature. Sin in its very nature is marvellous! Who but a
         moral idiot, sanguine of success in sin, can steal, and lie
5      and lie, and lead the innocent to doom? History needs it,
         and it has the grandeur of the loyal, self-forgetful, faith-
         ful Christian Scientists to overbalance this foul stuff.

         When the Mother’s love can no longer promote peace
         in the family, wisdom is not “justified of her children.”
10    When depraved reason is preferred to revelation, error
         to Truth, and evil to good, and sense seams sounder than
         Soul, the children are tending the regulator; they are
         indeed losing the knowledge of the divine Principle and
         rules of Christian Science, whose fruits prove the nature
15    of their source. A little more grace, a motive made pure,
         a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character
         subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action
         of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the move-
         ment of body and soul in accord with God.

20    Instead of relying on the Principle of all that really
         exists,—to govern His own creation,—self-conceit, igno-
         rance, and pride would regulate God’s action. Expe-
         rience shows that humility is the first step in Christian
         Science, wherein all is controlled, not by man or laws
25    material, but by wisdom, Truth, and Love.

         Go gaze on the eagle, his eye on the sun,
         Fast gathering strength for a flight well begun,
         As rising he rests in a liberty higher
         Than genius inflated with worldly desire.

30    No tear dims his eye, nor his pinions lose power
         To gaze on the lark in her emerald bower—
         Whenever he soareth to fashion his nest,
         No vision more bright than the dream in his breast.