Should Christians Beware Of Christian Science?
From No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy
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3 History repeats itself. The Pharisees of old warned
the people to beware of Jesus, and contemptuously called
him “this fellow.” Jesus said, “For which of these
6 works do ye stone me?” as much as to ask, Is it the
work most derided and envied that is most acceptable to
God? Not that he would cease to do the will of his Father
9 on account of persecution, but he would repeat his work
to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his
Father.
12 There are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look
for perfection in churches or associations. The life of
Christ is the perfect example; and to compare mortal
15 lives with this model is to subject them to severe scrutiny.
Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to
force the doors of Science and enter in; but this white
18 sanctuary will never admit such as come to steal and to
rob. Through long ages people have slumbered over
Christ’s commands, “Go ye into all the world, and preach
21 the gospel;” “Heal the sick, cast out devils;” and now
the Church seems almost chagrined that by new discoveries
of Truth sin is losing prestige and power.
24 The Rev. Dr. A.J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist clergyman,
said in a sermon: “The prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and it is doing it to-day; and as the faith of the Church
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1 increases, and Christians more and more learn their duty
to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will such
3 manifestations of God’s power increase among us.” Such
sentiments are wholesome avowals of Christian Science.
God is not unable or unwilling to heal, and mortals are not
6 compelled to have other gods before Him, and employ
material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit
supplies all human needs. Jesus said to the sick, “Thy
9 sins are forgiven thee; rise up and walk!” God’s pardon
is the destruction of all “the ills that flesh is heir to.”
All power belongs to God; and it is not in all the vain
12 power of dogma and philosophy to dispossess the divine
Mind of healing power, or to cast out error with error,
even in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal
15 the sick. While Science is engulfing error in bottomless
oblivion, the material senses would enthrone error as om-
nipotent and omnipresent, with power to determine the
18 fact and fate to being. It is said that the devil is the ape
of God. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring itself
both true and good. The path of Christian Science is be-
21 set with false claimants, aping its virtues, but cleaving to
their own vices. Denial of the authorship of “Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures” would make a
24 lie the author of Truth, and so make Truth itself a lie.
A distinguished clergyman came to be healed. He said:
“I am suffering from nervous prostration, and have to eat
27 beefsteak and drink strong coffee to support me through
a sermon.” Here a skeptic might well ask if the atone-
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1 ment had lost its efficacy for him, and if Christ’s power to
heal was not equal to the power of daily meat and drink.
3 The power of Truth is not contingent on matter. Our
Master said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Truth rebukes
6 error; and whether stall-fed or famishing, theology needs
Truth to stimulate and sustain a good sermon.
A lady said: “Only He who knows all things can esti-
9 mate the good your books are doing.”
A distinguished Doctor of Divinity said: “Your book
leavens my sermons.”
12 The following extract from a letter is a specimen of
those received daily: “Your book Science and Health is
healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, preach-
15 ing deliverance to the captive, convicting the infidel, alarm-
ing the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian.”
Christian Science Mind-healing is dishonored by those
18 who take it up from mercenary motives, for wealth and
fame, or think to build a baseless fabric of their own on
another’s foundation. They cannot put the “new wine
21 into old bottles;” they can never engraft Truth into error.
Such students come to my College to learn a system which
they go away to disgrace. Stealing or garbling my state-
24 ments of Mind-science will never prevent or reconstruct
the wrecks of “isms” and help humanity.
Science often suffers blame through the sheer ignorance
27 of people, while envy and hatred bark and bite at its heels.
A man’s inability to heal, on the Principle of Christian
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1 Science, substantiates his ignorance of its Principle and
practice, and incapacitates him for correct comment.
3 This failure should make him modest.
Christian Science involves a new language, and a higher
demonstration of medicine and religion. It is the “new
6 tongue” of Truth, having its best interpretation in the
power of Christianity to heal. My system of Mind-heal-
ing swerves not from the highest ethics and from the spirit-
9 ual goal. To climb up by some other way than Truth is
to fall. Error has no hobby, however boldly ridden or
brilliantly caparisoned, that can leap into the sanctum
12 of Christian Science.
In Queen Elizabeth’s time Protestantism could sentence
men to the dungeon or stake for their religion, and so
15 abrogate the rights of conscience and choke the channels
of God. Ecclesiastical tyranny muzzled the mouth lisping
God’s praise; and instead of healing, it palsied the weak
18 hand outstretched to God. Progress, legitimate to the
human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love
into every wound. It reassures us that no Reign of Terror
21 or rule of error will again unite Church and State, or re-
enact, through the civil arm of government, the horrors of
religious persecution.
24 The Rev. S. E. Herrick, a Congregational clergyman of
Boston, says: “Heretics of yesterday are martyrs to-day.”
In every age and clime, “On earth peace, good will to-
27 ward men” must be the watchword of Christianity.
Jesus said: “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
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1 and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”
3 St. Paul said that without charity we are “as sound-
ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal;” and he added: “Charity
suffereth long, and is kind; . . . doth not behave itself
6 unseemly, . . . thinketh no evil, . . . but rejoiceth in the
truth.”
To hinder the unfolding truth, to ostracize whatever
9 uplifts mankind, is of course out of the question. Such an
attempt indicates weakness, fear, or malice; and such
efforts arise from a spiritual lack, felt, though unacknowl-
12 edged.
Let it not be heard in Boston that woman, “last at the
cross and first at the sepulchre,” has no rights which man
15 is bound to respect. In natural law and in religion the
right of woman to fill the highest measure of enlightened
understanding and the highest places in government, is
18 inalienable, and these rights are ably vindicated by the
noblest of both sexes. This is woman’s hour, with all its
sweet amenities and its moral and religious reforms.
21 Drifting into intellectual wrestlings, we should agree to
disagree; and this harmony would anchor the Church in
more spiritual latitudes, and so fulfil her destiny.
24 Let the Word have free course and be glorified. The
people clamor to leave cradle and swaddling-clothes. The
spiritual status is urging its highest demands on mortals,
27 and material history is drawing to a close. Truth cannot
be stereotyped; it unfoldeth forever. “One on God’s
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1 side is a majority;” and “Lo, I am with you alway,” is
the pledge of the Master.
3 The question now at issue is: Shall we have a prac-
tical, spiritual Christianity, with its healing power, or
shall we have material medicine and superficial religion?
6 The advancing hope of the race, craving health and holi-
ness, halts for a reply; and the reappearing Christ, whose
life-giving understanding Christian Science imparts, must
9 answer the constant inquiry: “Art thou he that should
come?” Woman should not be ordered to the rear, or
laid on the rack, for joining the overture of angels. Theo-
12 logians descant pleasantly upon free moral agency; but
they should begin by admitting individual rights.
The author’s ancestors were among the first settlers of
15 New Hampshire. They reared there the Puritan standard
of undefiled religion. As dutiful descendants of Puritans,
let us lift their standard higher, rejoicing, as Paul did,
18 that we are free born.
Man has a noble destiny; and the full-orbed significance
of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-
21 enslaved. For the unfolding of this upward tendency to
health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to labor
and wait.
