Prospectus
From Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy
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1 The ancient Greek looked longingly for the Olym-
piad. The Chaldee watched the appearing of a
star; to him, no higher destiny dawned on the dome
5 of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heav-
ens. The meek Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers,
said, “Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye
not discern the signs of the times?” — for he forefelt
and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated
10 by sinners.
To kindle all minds with a gleam of gratitude, the
new idea that comes welling up from infinite Truth needs
to be understood. The seer of this age should be a
sage.
15 Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition
of Deity. The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and
strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops
the world. Meekness heightens immortal attributes
only by removing the dust that dims them. Goodness
20 reveals another scene and another self seemingly rolled
up in shades, but brought to light by the evolutions of
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1 advancing thought, whereby we discern the power of
Truth and Love to heal the sick.
Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have the
least wisdom or experience; and they steal from their
5 neighbor, because they have so little of their own.
The signs of these times portend a long and strong
determination of mankind to cleave to the world, the
flesh, and evil, causing great obscuration of Spirit.
When we remember that God is just, and admit the
10 total depravity of mortals, alias mortal mind, — and that
this Adam legacy must first be seen, and then must be
subdued and recompensed by justice, the eternal attri-
bute of Truth, — the outlook demands labor, and the
laborers seem few. To-day we behold but the first
15 faint view of a more spiritual Christianity, that embraces
a deeper and broader philosophy and a more rational and
divine healing. The time approaches when divine Life,
Truth, and Love will be found alone the remedy for sin,
sickness, and death; when God, man’s saving Principle,
20 and Christ, the spiritual idea of God, will be revealed.
Man’s probation after death is the necessity of his
immortality; for good dies not and evil is self-destruc-
tive, therefore evil must be mortal and self-destroyed.
If man should not progress after death, but should re-
25 main in error, he would be inevitably self-annihilated.
Those upon whom “the second death hath no power”
are those who progress here and hereafter out of evil,
their mortal element, and into good that is immortal;
thus laying off the material beliefs that war against
30 Spirit, and putting on the spiritual elements in divine
Science.
While we entertain decided views as to the best method
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1 for elevating the race physically, morally, and spiritu-
ally, and shall express these views as duty demands, we
shall claim no especial gift from our divine origin, no
supernatural power. If we regard good as more natural
5 than evil, and spiritual understanding — the true knowl-
edge of God — as imparting the only power to heal the
sick and the sinner, we shall demonstrate in our lives the
power of Truth and Love.
The lessons we learn in divine Science are applica-
10 ble to all the needs of man. Jesus taught them for this
very purpose; and his demonstration hath taught us
that “through his stripes” — his life-experience — and
divine Science, brought to the understanding through
Christ, the Spirit-revelator, is man healed and saved.
15 No opinions of mortals nor human hypotheses enter this
line of thought or action. Drugs, inert matter, never are
needed to aid spiritual power. Hygiene, manipulation,
and mesmerism are not Mind’s medicine. The Prin-
ciple of all cure is God, unerring and immortal Mind.
20 We have learned that the erring or mortal thought holds
in itself all sin, sickness, and death, and imparts these
states to the body; while the supreme and perfect Mind,
as seen in the truth of being, antidotes and destroys these
material elements of sin and death.
25 Because God is supreme and omnipotent, materia
medica, hygiene, and animal magnetism are impotent;
and their only supposed efficacy is in apparently delud-
ing reason, denying revelation, and dethroning Deity.
The tendency of mental healing is to uplift mankind; but
30 this method perverted, is “Satan let loose.” Hence the
deep demand for the Science of psychology to meet sin,
and uncover it; thus to annihilate hallucination.
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1 Thought imbued with purity, Truth, and Love, in-
structed in the Science of metaphysical healing, is the
most potent and desirable remedial agent on the earth.
At this period there is a marked tendency of mortal
5 mind to plant mental healing on the basis of hypnotism,
calling this method “mental science.” All Science is
Christian Science; the Science of the Mind that is God,
and of the universe as His idea, and their relation to each
other. Its only power to heal is its power to do good,
not evil.