Veritas Odium Parit

From Miscellaneous Writings by




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         The combined efforts of the materialistic portion of
         the pulpit and press in 1885, to retard by misrepresen-
10    tation the stately goings of Christian Science, are giving
         it new impetus and energy; calling forth the vox populi
         and directing more critical observation to its uplifting
         influence upon the health, morals, and spirituality of
         mankind.

15    Their movements indicate fear and weakness, a physi-
         cal and spiritual need that Christian Science should re-
         move with glorious results. The conclusion cannot now
         be pushed, that women have no rights that man is bound
         to respect. This is woman’s hour, in all the good tend-
20    encies, charities, and reforms of to-day. It is difficult
         to say which may be most mischievous to the human
         heart, the praise or the dispraise of men.

         I have loved the Church and followed it, thinking that
         it was following Christ; but, if the pulpit allows the people
25    to go no further in the direction of Christlikeness, and
         rejects apostolic Christianity, seeking to stereotype infinite
         Truth, it is a thing to be thankful for that one can walk
         alone the straight and narrow way; that, in the words of
         Wendell Phillips, “one with God is a majority.”


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1      It is the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the pro-
         hibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of
         the world, — all unmitigated systems of crime; and it
         requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through
5      civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes.
         It was the Southern pulpit and press that influenced the
         people to wrench from man both human and divine rights,
         in order to subserve the interests of wealth, religious caste,
         civil and political power. And the pulpit had to be
10    purged of that sin by human gore, — when the love of
         Christ would have washed it divinely away in Christian
         Science!

         The cry of the colored slave has scarcely been heard
         and hushed, when from another direction there comes
15    another sharp cry of oppression. Another form of inhumanity
         lifts its hydra head to forge anew the old fetters;
         to shackle conscience, stop free speech, slander, vilify;
         to invite its prey, then turn and refuse the victim a solitary
         vindication in this most unprecedented warfare.

20    A conflict more terrible than the battle of Gettysburg
         awaits the crouching wrong that refused to yield its
         prey the peace of a desert, when a voice was heard
         crying in the wilderness, — the spiritual famine of 1866,
          — “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths
25    straight.”

         Shall religious intolerance, arrayed against the rights
         of man, again deluge the earth in blood? The question
         at issue with mankind is: Shall we have a spiritual Chris-
         tianity and a spiritual healing, or a materialistic religion
30    and a materia medica?

         The advancing faith and hope of Christianity, the
         earnest seeking after practical truth that shall cast out


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1      error and heal the sick, wisely demand for man his God-
         given heritage, both human and divine rights; namely,
         that his honest convictions and proofs of advancing truth
         be allowed due consideration, and treated not as pearls
5      trampled upon.

         Those familiar with my history are more tolerant; those
         who know me, know that I found health in just what I
         teach. I have professed Christianity a half-century; and
         now I calmly challenge the world, upon fair investigation,
10    to furnish a single instance of departure in one of my
         works from the highest possible ethics.

         The charges against my views are false, but natural,
         since those bringing them do not understand my state-
         ment of the Science I introduce, and are unwilling to be
15    taught it, even gratuitously. If they did understand it, they
         could demonstrate this Science by healing the sick; hence
         the injustice of their interpretations.

         To many, the healing force developed by Christian
         Science seems a mystery, because they do not understand
20    that Spirit controls body. They acknowledge the exist-
         ence of mortal mind, but believe it to reside in matter
         of the brain; but that man is the idea of infinite Mind,
         is not so easily accepted. That which is temporary
         seems, to the common estimate, solid and substantial.
25    It is much easier for people to believe that the body
         affects mind, than that the body is an expression of
         mind, and reflects harmony or discord according to
         thought.

         Everything that God created, He pronounced good.
30    He never made sickness. Hence that is only an evil belief
         of mortal mind, which must be met, in every instance,
         with a denial by Truth.


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1      This is the “new tongue,” the language of them that
         “lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover,” whose
         spiritual interpretation they refuse to hear. For instance:
         the literal meaning of the passage “lay hands on the sick”
5      would be manipulation; its moral meaning, found in the
         “new tongue,” is spiritual power, — as, in another Scripture,
         “I will triumph in the works of Thy hands.”






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Love is the liberator.