Independent Christian Science articles

Taking Offense

From Miscellaneous Writings by , pages 223 to 224



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There is immense wisdom in the old proverb, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” Hannah More said, “If I wished to punish my enemy, I should make him hate somebody.”

To punish ourselves for others’ faults, is superlative folly. The mental arrow shot from another’s bow is practically harmless, unless our own thought barbs it. It is our pride that makes another’s criticism rankle, our self-will that makes another’s deed offensive, our egotism that feels hurt by another’s self-assertion. Well may we feel wounded by our own faults; but we can hardly afford to be miserable for the faults of others.

A courtier told Constantine that a mob had broken the head of his statue with stones. The emperor lifted his hands to his head, saying: “It is very surprising, but I don’t feel hurt in the least.”

We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world’s evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it, — determined not to be offended when no wrong is meant, nor even when it is, unless the offense be against God.

Nothing short of our own errors should offend us. He who can wilfully attempt to injure another, is an object of pity rather than of resentment; while it is a question in my mind, whether there is enough of a flatterer, a fool, or a liar, to offend a whole-souled woman.

The Resurrection And The Life

From the April 1893 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by

The following is editorially submitted in view of the coming Easter time.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live. —John ii. 25.

What is life? The ordinary definition of it is, in a general sense, that state of animals and plants, or of an organized body in which its natural functions and motions are performed, or in which its organs are capable of performing their functions. In animals animation, vitality, and in man that state of being in which the soul and body are united. This is the lexicographical definition of life. It reflects the ordinary and generally accepted conception of life.

The material conception is strikingly noticeable in all of the generally understood definitions. Nor does theology, whose peculiar office is to teach the things of life in its truest and best sense, in any satisfactory way come to the aid of our materialistic philosophers.

The question as to what life really is, has challenged the thought and engaged the attention of thinkers in all ages. Philosophers, scholars, theologians, scientists, have vied with each other in their efforts to ascertain what life is, or to find its origin. They have eagerly sought the explanation of its varied manifestations. The theologian, while vaguely regarding God as the author and creator of all life, has yet no well-defined notion of what Life is. Believing in the reality of matter, he undertakes to account for its existence upon the theory that it was constructed carpenter-fashion by the hand of God; and hence he speaks of the works of nature as the handiwork of God. The material universe, is to his conception, a tangible and substantial something erected by the Creator by some sort of a material process, and the supposed life which it manifests was placed therein after the structure had been completed. And that the completed structure, with its myriad forms of life, exists and moves in its appointed sphere, entirely separate and apart from, and wholly independent of its Creator, excepting in so far as He exercises a species of control and supervision over it. In other words, that the universe and its life, or rather its lives, are moving in their wonted sphere as entities distinct from the life which is God.

From this premise proceeds the conception that life has its origin in matter, and that it cannot exist apart from it. From this premise also is drawn the conclusion that life is contained in the mortal body, and that it rises Phœnix-like, from the mortal dèbris at the change called death. That, therefore, there is and can be no life without the necessary prelude,— death. Man cannot live until he first dies. Thus the immortality of this supposed life is dependent on the resurrection from death. Is not this the commonly accepted theory of the theological world to-day; and does it differ from Martha’s conception of it? “Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Then came from Jesus’ lips the words of the text, which were at once an answer and a rebuke: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

How strange that the plain meaning of this statement of the Master should have been so overlooked! If the Scriptural definition of life rested on this statement alone, however, the oversight might be measurably pardonable. But in view of the repeated and varied statements of similar import, it would seem to be almost without justification. As witness the following: Deut. 30-20. “That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days.” Ps. 36-9. “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” Prov. 8—35. “For whoso findeth me findeth life.” John 1—4. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 5—26. “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” 2 Tim. 1—10. “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” John 1. 1—4. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

I have thus quoted at length, for the purpose of showing how plainly and emphatically the Scriptures define Life and its origin. And yet in the face of these very simple definitions, and many others which might be quoted, men who are accounted wise and learned; who are recognized by the world as philosophers and scientists, are still searching in the atom, in the cell, in the molecule, in the protoplasm for life and its origin; while the theologian is endeavoring to find his origin of life in a Creator having human attributes. Is not the one as much without a certain base as the other?

The materialist says: “I must stop my investigation with the atom. Here scientific research ceases. This is my ultimate analysis. Here certainty stops, and beyond is only speculation. I shall not speculate. It is for theologians to speculate. Beyond this material base I know nothing and claim nothing. At this point I become an agnostic.” The theologian says life is derived from personality. The materialist says it is inherent in and evolved from matter, at least so far as scientific demonstration can give its origin. Each is here driven to his final analysis. And here we will leave them, with the suggestion that as each is trying to solve his problem from an impossible, and wholly supposititious base, neither has any advantage over the other.

At this point, Christian Science will ask permission to give its views upon the subject. What, therefore, is Life from the Christian Science standpoint? A sufficient answer might be the passages of Scripture quoted. We might say that God is Life, for that would be an absolutely correct statement. We might say that God is Spirit, and therefore is Life, because this would be a correct definition, even from the ordinary standpoint, as the lexicographer thus defines Spirit: “An intelligence conceived apart from any physical organization or embodiment, vital essence, force or energy as distinct from matter.” This is an excellent definition of Life. We might say in the still further language of Scripture: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man.” Again, God being derived from the Anglo-saxon word Good, it might be sufficient to say that Good is Life.

If we will keep in mind these Scriptural definitions, and think of Life as the Infinite and unchangeable, as being the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, we shall have no difficulty in solving the problem. Organization and time have nothing to do with Life. The real Ego is spiritual, and Ego is Life. Hence Life is spiritual and not material (Science and Health). We must look away from the material, to the spiritual, the Infinite, the Divine for our definition of Life. We must lay our premises in the spiritual, and, reasoning therefrom, arrive at our conclusion as to what it is. Reasoning thus we will be driven to the fixed and unalterable conclusion, that God is the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omniactive Principle, from whom all things come, by whom all things were made, “and without whom was not anything made that was made.”

What then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? This: that God is Spirit, therefore, all of His creation is spiritual, and man being made in His image and likeness is spiritual; hence it follows that there is and can be no Life separate from God. In this view, and this only, can we comprehend the various passages of Scripture which I have cited.

In what sense then is Jesus the Christ, the resurrection, and the Life? He was God, Good, manifest in the flesh. Paul says it is the flesh which warreth with the Spirit. Are we not to understand that Jesus as the way-shower out of the flesh, as the embodiment and demonstrator of divine Love and power upon earth, was in that sense, the resurrection and the Life? The word resurrection implies a “rising again.” The rising out of the false sense of blind, mortal conditions, to an understanding of the divine self-hood, is, therefore, the resurrection to which the Master referred. The death under the claim of which Lazarus was, while seeming real to the sisters, and to all other mortal on-lookers, after all but typified the death of trespass and sin to which Paul so often refers.

Sin is death; death to spiritual understanding; death to the apprehension and realization of the fact that God is the only Life; death in the sense of inactivity or inertia. He who has not been awakened to a consciousness of his spirituality, or immortality, is therefore, dead. The Adam-dream is death. All the false and delusive conditions of mortal mind are so many sense-evidences of death. In a relative sense, the world of humanity are dead to all which they do not to-day understand. They were for long ages dead to the existence of the stellar universe. They were for long ages unaware of, therefore, dead to the fact that our earth revolved upon its axis. Until a Franklin appeared, they were dead to the means of applying electricity to any human purpose. Until an Edison appeared they were dead to the varied uses and applications of that still mysterious and subtle agency. Until the railroads appeared they were dead to the possibilities of that means of transportation, now so common. And so all along the lines of human invention and discovery, mankind have been dead to latent possibilities, until inventive genius has brought them to light. Human invention is but awakened human sense.

The tomb in which Lazarus was buried symbolizes the tomb of mortal sense; the darkness and blindness of mortal man. The grave clothes in which he was wrapped further symbolize the bounden and helpless condition of mortals in their state of blindness. It required the understanding of Life possessed by Jesus to “resurrect” the dead Lazarus; to bring him forth from the tomb, and demonstrate to him. and those about him the fact that he was not dead.

The world calls this a miracle. A miracle it indeed is to human sense. A miracle it will remain to all who continue to look for life and intelligence in matter. To the wisest of earth’s material philosophers, it is a profound miracle to-day. So incomprehensible is it to their philosophy that they are prone to discredit the Biblical narrative, and to denounce this, and all similar narrations, as the fine fiction of the Biblical writers. So long as they remain in the dark tomb of human speculation, and look to the material evidences of life as being the real evidences, so long will they continue to doubt, dispute, deny. To those who have been partially awakened to the fact of God as all Life, and all activity, the resurrection of Lazarus becomes “divinely natural.” It becomes an object lesson by which they see what Life is by which they see that death is false, and that the resurrection is the coming out from this tomb of human sin and blindness into an understanding of man’s oneness with God.

Thus we get a conception of the resurrection and the atone-ment,— at-one-ment. To be resurrected is to come into atone-ment with Mind, Truth, God. We reach this altitude of consciousness by hearing the voice of the Christ, and heeding it by stepping out from the tomb of mortal death and tearing asunder the grave clothes of malice, sensuality, avarice, revenge, anger, hatred, jealously, deceit, false pride, and all those mortal qualities which bind and trammel us; and which so long as indulged and held to as realities, will confine us in the tomb of human error. This is the Hades, the Sheol, of the Scriptures. Resurrection from this tomb, therefore, is at once the escaping from the grave and from the environments of hell.

The resurrection of Lazarus foreshadowed the Master’s resurrection. In a larger sense the Master came out from the tomb, and from the trammels of the grave. It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the cerements of the grave were left in the sepulchre, and were found therein by the vigilant disciples. The evidences of his release from the material trammels were thus strikingly brought to the material perception of those who looked into the empty tomb. Here we are again taught the utter powerlessness of material environments to prevent our “rising again”; our attaining to a realization of our spiritual estate.

Thus may we see the true sense in which the Master brought life and immortality to light. To attain to this realization in individual consciousness, is the coming of life and immortality to light, and the resurrection from the dead. Now or hereafter, must each human being, in his journey through the wilderness of human error, listen to the command of the eternal Master to come forth from the tomb tear asunder the habiliments of the grave of his sin, and step forth to his resurrection. The Christ-voice is calling, calling, to us all. To heed the call is to commence our resurrection now and here. To heed it not is to continue in the tomb of sin, in the Hades of death.

Christian Scientists have heard, and are hearing this voice in a peculiar sense. There is imposed upon them an especial duty, and an increased responsibility as the result of having heard. By walking in the Light of which we have already been the recipients, we shall continue our resurrection. Failing of this, we recede into the tomb of blindness, and our last state becomes worse than our first. Only through suffering can we rise again.” This is no fancy sketch it is the inevitable result of disobedience. We flatter ourselves amiss if we suppose that because of the unreality of sin, in the true sense of unreality, we shall thereby escape its penalties. We are under this false claim, and shall continue to be, until we shall, through fear and trembling, have wrought our salvation and earned our resurrection. By constant self-denial, by unceasing vigilance, by perpetual prayer, (prayer of right living) by “seeking first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,” by “overcoming evil with Good,” by absolute consecration, by the complete surrender to the demands of divine Law, may we perfect our resurrection; but not otherwise. These are the demands of the Christ-voice. Only by strict obedience to these demands can we be made whole. Through Peter we hear this voice:—

“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the, corner.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

To indulge the hope that by remaining at ease in material conditions, and courting the vanities of this life, we are attaining to the standard of happiness, is a terrible delusion. The pleasures of this world of mortal sense are false, delusive, misleading. Their inevitable end is the tomb of misery and despair. The awakening from the death of sin, is to mortal sense, the acme of suffering. Fortunately it is the suffering of the resurrection. The finale of it is bliss, joy, peace,— that “Peace which passeth all understanding.” In surrendering to the Christ-demands we are exchanging pebbles for pearls; the dross of the flesh for the pure gold of the Spirit. Is it not a glorious exchange? On material planes would we hesitate to make such exchange? How vastly better, richer, grander, is the value we receive at the hands of God, than at the hands of men. Can we not afford to deal in the divine mart, and seek only the heavenly merchandise?

The suffering after all is but the seeming of the senses. Its reality is the stepping forth from the charnel-house of the flesh into “the glorious liberty of the Sons of God.”

This is the “Resurrection and the Life” to which the Master referred when he spoke to the believing Martha.

We need but step out from the dark tomb of material sense into the bright and shining atmosphere of Life, Truth and Love to find our resurrection. Jesus’ command is as much for us to-day as it was for the entombed Lazarus; and we too, if we will, may now hear the welcome words: “Loose him and let him go,” for “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

The Letter Of The Pastor Emeritus by Editor with contributions from Mary Baker G. Eddy

From the August 1903 issue of the Christian Science Journal by

The following letter from the Pastor Emeritus was read at the Communion service of the Mother Church June 28, 1903.

My Beloved Brethren:—I have a secret to tell thee, and a question to ask. Do you know how much I love you, and the nature of this love? No: then my sacred secret is incommunicable, and we live apart. But, yes: and this inmost something becomes articulate—and my book is not all you know of me—but your knowledge with its magnitude of meaning uncovers my life, and your heart has discovered it. The spiritual bespeaks our temporal history. Difficulty, abnegation, constant battle against the world, the flesh, and evil, tell my long kept secret—evidence a heart wholly in protest, and unutterable in love.

The unprecedented progress of Christian Science is proverbial, and we cannot be too grateful, nor too humble for this—inasmuch as our daily lives serve to enhance or to stay its glory. To triumph in truth, to keep the faith individually and collectively, conflicting elements must be mastered. Defeat need not follow victory; joy over good achievements and work well done should not be eclipsed by some lost opportunity, some imperative demand not yet met.

Truth, Life, and Love will never lose their claim on us. And here let me add:—

Truth happifies life in hamlet or town;
Life lessons all pride—its pomp and its frown—
Love comes to our tears like soft summer shower,
To beautify, bless, and inspire man’s power.

With everlasting love,
Mary Baker G. Eddy.

This loving letter was supplemented by the earnest words which were addressed to the awaiting multitude by Mrs. Eddy from the balcony of her residence in Concord, where they were permitted to visit her June 29, 1903. The speaker, apparently without effort, succeeded in being heard by practically all the assembled thousands. To address an audience of this size, in the open air, is a task which few public speakers would undertake with any hope of being heard by more than a limited number, but Mrs. Eddy’s strong, clear voice was distinctly heard even by those a long distance removed. The loving thought conveyed will be treasured by that great company in all the years to come. She said:—

Beloved Brethren:—Welcome home! to your home in my heart. Welcome to Pleasant View, but not to varying views. I would present a gift to you to-day only that this gift is already yours, God hath given it to all mankind. It is His coin, His currency, it hath His image and superscription. This gift is a passage of Scripture, it is my sacred motto, and reads thus: “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”

Beloved, some of you have come long distances to kneel with us in sacred silence, in blest communion, unity of faith, understanding, prayer and praise—and to return in joy, bearing your sheaves with you. In parting I repeat to these dear members of my Church, Trust in Truth, and have no other trusts. To-day is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Love Your Enemies

From Miscellaneous Writings by

Who is thine enemy that thou shouldst love him? Is it a creature or a thing outside thine own creation?

Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception? What is it that harms you? Can height, or depth, or any other creature separate you from the Love that is omnipresent good, — that blesses infinitely one and all?

Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in the process. Shakespeare writes: “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Jesus said: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; … for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

The Hebrew law with its “Thou shalt not,” its demand and sentence, can only be fulfilled through the gospel’s benediction. Then, “Blessed are ye,” insomuch as the consciousness of good, grace, and peace, comes through affliction rightly understood, as sanctified by the purification it brings to the flesh, — to pride, self-ignorance, self-will, self-love, self-justification. Sweet, indeed, are these uses of His rod! Well is it that the Shepherd of Israel passes all His flock under His rod into His fold; thereby numbering them, and giving them refuge at last from the elements of earth.

“Love thine enemies” is identical with “Thou hast no enemies.” Wherein is this conclusion relative to those who have hated thee without a cause? Simply, in that those unfortunate individuals are virtually thy best friends. Primarily and ultimately, they are doing thee good far beyond the present sense which thou canst entertain of good.

Whom we call friends seem to sweeten life’s cup and to fill it with the nectar of the gods. We lift this cup to our lips; but it slips from our grasp, to fall in fragments before our eyes. Perchance, having tasted its tempting wine, we become intoxicated; become lethargic, dreamy objects of self-satisfaction; else, the contents of this cup of selfish human enjoyment having lost its flavor, we voluntarily set it aside as tasteless and unworthy of human aims.

And wherefore our failure longer to relish this fleeting sense, with its delicious forms of friendship, wherewith mortals become educated to gratification in personal pleasure and trained in treacherous peace? Because it is the great and only danger in the path that winds upward. A false sense of what constitutes happiness is more disastrous to human progress than all that an enemy or enmity can obtrude upon the mind or engraft upon its purposes and achievements wherewith to obstruct life’s joys and enhance its sorrows.

We have no enemies. Whatever envy, hatred, revenge — the most remorseless motives that govern mortal mind — whatever these try to do, shall “work together for good to them that love God.”

Why?

Because He has called His own, armed them, equipped them, and furnished them defenses impregnable. Their God will not let them be lost; and if they fall they shall rise again, stronger than before the stumble. The good cannot lose their God, their help in times of trouble. If they mistake the divine command, they will recover it, countermand their order, retrace their steps, and reinstate His orders, more assured to press on safely. The best lesson of their lives is gained by crossing swords with temptation, with fear and the besetments of evil; insomuch as they thereby have tried their strength and proven it; insomuch as they have found their strength made perfect in weakness, and their fear is self-immolated.

This destruction is a moral chemicalization, wherein old things pass away and all things become new. The worldly or material tendencies of human affections and pursuits are thus annihilated; and this is the advent of spiritualization. Heaven comes down to earth, and mortals learn at last the lesson, “I have no enemies.”

Even in belief you have but one (that, not in reality), and this one enemy is yourself — your erroneous belief that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but good exists in Science. Soon or late, your enemy will wake from his delusion to suffer for his evil intent; to find that, though thwarted, its punishment is tenfold.

Love is the fulfilling of the law: it is grace, mercy, and justice. I used to think it sufficiently just to abide by our State statutes; that if a man should aim a ball at my heart, and I by firing first could kill him and save my own life, that this was right. I thought, also, that if I taught indigent students gratuitously, afterwards assisting them pecuniarily, and did not cease teaching the wayward ones at close of the class term, but followed them with precept upon precept; that if my instructions had healed them and shown them the sure way of salvation, — I had done my whole duty to students.

Love metes not out human justice, but divine mercy. If one’s life were attacked, and one could save it only in accordance with common law, by taking another’s, would one sooner give up his own? We must love our enemies in all the manifestations wherein and whereby we love our friends; must even try not to expose their faults, but to do them good whenever opportunity occurs. To mete out human justice to those who persecute and despitefully use one, is not leaving all retribution to God and returning blessing for cursing. If special opportunity for doing good to one’s enemies occur not, one can include them in his general effort to benefit the race. Because I can do much general good to such as hate me, I do it with earnest, special care — since they permit me no other way, though with tears have I striven for it. When smitten on one cheek, I have turned the other: I have but two to present.

I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not, and saying to them, “I love you, and would not knowingly harm you.” Because I thus feel, I say to others: Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it masters us; brings suffering upon suffering to its possessor, throughout time and beyond the grave. If you have been badly wronged, forgive and forget: God will recompense this wrong, and punish, more severely than you could, him who has striven to injure you. Never return evil for evil; and, above all, do not fancy that you have been wronged when you have not been.

The present is ours; the future, big with events. Every man and woman should be to-day a law to himself, herself, — a law of loyalty to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The means for sinning unseen and unpunished have so increased that, unless one be watchful and steadfast in Love, one’s temptations to sin are increased a hundredfold. Mortal mind at this period mutely works in the interest of both good and evil in a manner least understood; hence the need of watching, and the danger of yielding to temptation from causes that at former periods in human history were not existent. The action and effects of this so-called human mind in its silent arguments, are yet to be uncovered and summarily dealt with by divine justice.

In Christian Science, the law of Love rejoices the heart; and Love is Life and Truth. Whatever manifests aught else in its effects upon mankind, demonstrably is not Love. We should measure our love for God by our love for man; and our sense of Science will be measured by our obedience to God, — fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all; imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought.

The only justice of which I feel at present capable, is mercy and charity toward every one, — just so far as one and all permit me to exercise these sentiments toward them, — taking special care to mind my own business.

The falsehood, ingratitude, misjudgment, and sharp return of evil for good — yea, the real wrongs (if wrong can be real) which I have long endured at the hands of others — have most happily wrought out for me the law of loving mine enemies. This law I now urge upon the solemn consideration of all Christian Scientists. Jesus said, “If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.”

Resolutions for the Day

From Poems by , page 32
(Written in girlhood.)

To rise in the morning and drink in the view —
The home where I dwell in the vale,
The blossoms whose fragrance and charms ever new
Are scattered o’er hillside and dale;

To gaze on the sunbeams enkindling the sky —
A loftier life to invite —
A light that illumines my spiritual eye,
And inspires my pen as I write;

To form resolutions, with strength from on high,
Such physical laws to obey,
As reason with appetite, pleasures deny,
That health may my efforts repay;

To kneel at the altar of mercy and pray
That pardon and grace, through His Son,
May comfort my soul all the wearisome day,
And cheer me with hope when ’tis done;

To daily remember my blessings and charge,
And make this my humble request:
Increase Thou my faith and my vision enlarge,
And bless me with Christ’s promised rest;

To hourly seek for deliverance strong
From selfishness, sinfulness, dearth,
From vanity, folly, and all that is wrong —
With ambition that binds us to earth;

To kindly pass over a wound, or a foe
(And mem’ry but part us awhile),
To breathe forth a prayer that His love I may know,
Whose mercies my sorrows beguile, —

If these resolutions are acted up to,
And faith spreads her pinions abroad,
‘Twill be sweet when I ponder the days may be few
That waft me away to my God.

Pond and Purpose

From Miscellaneous Writings by

Beloved Students: — In thanking you for your gift of the pretty pond contributed to Pleasant View, in Concord, New Hampshire, I make no distinction between my students and your students; for here, thine becomes mine through gratitude and affection.

From my tower window, as I look on this smile of Christian Science, this gift from my students and their students, it will always mirror their love, loyalty, and good works. Solomon saith, “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.”

The waters that run among the valleys, and that you have coaxed in their course to call on me, have served the imagination for centuries. Theology religiously bathes in water, medicine applies it physically, hydrology handles it with so-called science, and metaphysics appropriates it topically as type and shadow. Metaphysically, baptism serves to rebuke the senses and illustrate Christian Science.

First: The baptism of repentance is indeed a stricken state of human consciousness, wherein mortals gain severe views of themselves; a state of mind which rends the veil that hides mental deformity. Tears flood the eyes, agony struggles, pride rebels, and a mortal seems a monster, a dark, impenetrable cloud of error; and falling on the bended knee of prayer, humble before God, he cries, “Save, or I perish.” Thus Truth, searching the heart, neutralizes and destroys error.

This mental period is sometimes chronic, but oftener acute. It is attended throughout with doubt, hope, sorrow, joy, defeat, and triumph. When the good fight is fought, error yields up its weapons and kisses the feet of Love, while white-winged peace sings to the heart a song of angels.

Second: The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the spirit of Truth cleansing from all sin; giving mortals new motives, new purposes, new affections, all pointing upward. This mental condition settles into strength, freedom, deep-toned faith in God; and a marked loss of faith in evil, in human wisdom, human policy, ways, and means. It develops individual capacity, increases the intellectual activities, and so quickens moral sensibility that the great demands of spiritual sense are recognized, and they rebuke the material senses, holding sway over human consciousness.

By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiae of human affairs. It brings with it wonderful foresight, wisdom, and power; it unselfs the mortal purpose, gives steadiness to resolve, and success to endeavor. Through the accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition, and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry, evil thinking, evil speaking and acting; and mortal mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of itself.

This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind, the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists of materiality and melting away the shadows called sin, disease, and death.

In mortal experience, the fire of repentance first separates the dross from the gold, and reformation brings the light which dispels darkness. Thus the operation of the spirit of Truth and Love on the human thought, in the words of St. John, “shall take of mine and show it unto you.”

Third: The baptism of Spirit, or final immersion of human consciousness in the infinite ocean of Love, is the last scene in corporeal sense. This omnipotent act drops the curtain on material man and mortality. After this, man’s identity or consciousness reflects only Spirit, good, whose visible being is invisible to the physical senses: eye hath not seen it, inasmuch as it is the disembodied individual Spirit-substance and consciousness termed in Christian metaphysics the ideal man — forever permeated with eternal life, holiness, heaven. This order of Science is the chain of ages, which maintain their obvious correspondence, and unites all periods in the divine design. Mortal man’s repentance and absolute abandonment of sin finally dissolves all supposed material life or physical sensation, and the corporeal or mortal man disappears forever. The encumbering mortal molecules, called man, vanish as a dream; but man born of the great Forever, lives on, God-crowned and blest.

Mortals who on the shores of time learn Christian Science, and live what they learn, take rapid transit to heaven, — the hinge on which have turned all revolutions, natural, civil, or religious, the former being servant to the latter, — from flux to permanence, from foul to pure, from torpid to serene, from extremes to intermediate. Above the waves of Jordan, dashing against the receding shore, is heard the Father and Mother’s welcome, saying forever to the baptized of Spirit: “This is my beloved Son.” What but divine Science can interpret man’s eternal existence, God’s allness, and the scientific indestructibility of the universe?

The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion; idleness is the foe of progress. And scientific growth manifests no weakness, no emasculation, no illusive vision, no dreamy absentness, no insubordination to the laws that be, no loss nor lack of what constitutes true manhood.

Growth is governed by intelligence; by the active, all-wise, law-creating, law-disciplining, law-abiding Principle, God. The real Christian Scientist is constantly accentuating harmony in word and deed, mentally and orally, perpetually repeating this diapason of heaven: “Good is my God, and my God is good. Love is my God, and my God is Love.”

Beloved students, you have entered the path. Press patiently on; God is good, and good is the reward of all who diligently seek God. Your growth will be rapid, if you love good supremely, and understand and obey the Way-shower, who, going before you, has scaled the steep ascent of Christian Science, stands upon the mount of holiness, the dwelling-place of our God, and bathes in the baptismal font of eternal Love.

As you journey, and betimes sigh for rest “beside the still waters,” ponder this lesson of love. Learn its purpose; and in hope and faith, where heart meets heart reciprocally blest, drink with me the living waters of the spirit of my life-purpose, — to impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian Science.

An Allegory

From Miscellaneous Writings by

Picture to yourself “a city set upon a hill,” a celestial city above all clouds, in serene azure and unfathomable glory: having no temple therein, for God is the temple thereof; nor need of the sun, neither of the moon, for God doth lighten it. Then from this sacred summit behold a Stranger wending his way downward, to where a few laborers in a valley at the foot of the mountain are working and watching for his coming.

The descent and ascent are beset with peril, privation, temptation, toil, suffering. Venomous serpents hide among the rocks, beasts of prey prowl in the path, wolves in sheep’s clothing are ready to devour; but the Stranger meets and masters their secret and open attacks with serene confidence.

The Stranger eventually stands in the valley at the foot of the mountain. He saith unto the patient toilers therein: “What do ye here? Would ye ascend the mountain,—climbing its rough cliffs, hushing the hissing serpents, taming the beasts of prey,—and bathe in its streams, rest in its cool grottos, and drink from its living fountains? The way winds and widens in the valley; up the hill it is straight and narrow, and few there be that find it.”

His converse with the watchers and workers in the valley closes, and he makes his way into the streets of a city made with hands.

Pausing at the threshold of a palatial dwelling, he knocks and waits. The door is shut. He hears the sounds of festivity and mirth; youth, manhood, and age gayly tread the gorgeously tapestried parlors, dancinghalls, and banquet-rooms. But a little while, and the music is dull, the wine is unsipped, the footfalls abate, the laughter ceases. Then from the window of this dwelling a face looks out, anxiously surveying him who waiteth at the door.

Within this mortal mansion are adulterers, fornicators, idolaters; drunkenness, witchcraft, variance, envy, emulation, hatred, wrath, murder. Appetites and passions have so dimmed their sight that he alone who looks from that dwelling, through the clearer pane of his own heart tired of sin, can see the Stranger.

Startled beyond measure at beholding him, this mortal inmate withdraws; but growing more and more troubled, he seeks to leave the odious company and the cruel walls, and to find the Stranger. Stealing cautiously away from his comrades, he departs; then turns back,—he is afraid to go on and to meet the Stranger. So he returns to the house, only to find the lights all wasted and the music fled. Finding no happiness within, he rushes again into the lonely streets, seeking peace but finding none. Naked, hungry, athirst, this time he struggles on, and at length reaches the pleasant path of the valley at the foot of the mountain, whence he may hopefully look for the reappearance of the Stranger, and receive his heavenly guidance.

The Stranger enters a massive carved stone mansion, and saith unto the dwellers therein, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” But they understand not his saying.

These are believers of different sects, and of no sect; some, so-called Christian Scientists in sheep’s clothing; and all “drunken without wine.” They have small conceptions of spiritual riches, few cravings for the immortal, but are puffed up with the applause of the world: they have plenty of pelf, and fear not to fall upon the Stranger, seize his pearls, throw them away, and afterwards try to kill him.

Somewhat disheartened, he patiently seeks another dwelling,—only to find its inmates asleep at noontide! Robust forms, with manly brow nodding on cushioned chairs, their feet resting on footstools, or, flat on their backs, lie stretched on the floor, dreaming away the hours. Balancing on one foot, with eyes half open, the porter starts up in blank amazement and looks at the Stranger, calls out, rubs his eyes,—amazed beyond measure that anybody is animated with a purpose, and seen working for it!

They in this house are those that “provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert.” Away from this charnel-house of the so-called living, the Stranger turns quickly, and wipes off the dust from his feet as a testimony against sensualism in its myriad forms. As he departs, he sees robbers finding ready ingress to that dwelling of sleepers in the midst of murderous hordes, without watchers and the doors unbarred!

Next he enters a place of worship, and saith unto them, “Go ye into all the world; preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead; for the Scripture saith the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made you free from the law of sin and death.” And they cast him out.

Once more he seeks the dwelling-place of mortals and knocks loudly. The door is burst open, and sufferers shriek for help: that house is on fire! The flames caught in the dwelling of luxury, where the blind saw them not, but the flesh at length did feel them; thence they spread to the house of slumberers who heeded them not, until they became unmanageable; fed by the fat of hypocrisy and vainglory, they consumed the next dwelling; then crept unseen into the synagogue, licking up the blood of martyrs and wrapping their altars in ruins. “God is a consuming fire.”

Thus are all mortals, under every hue of circumstances, driven out of their houses of clay and, homeless wanderers in a beleaguered city, forced to seek the Father’s house, if they would be led to the valley and up the mount.

Seeing the wisdom of withdrawing from those who persistently rejected him, the Stranger returned to the valley; first, to meet with joy his own, to wash their feet, and take them up the mountain. Well might this heavenly messenger exclaim, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee,… Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

Discerning in his path the penitent one who had groped his way from the dwelling of luxury, the Stranger saith unto him, “Wherefore comest thou hither?”

He answered, “The sight of thee unveiled my sins, and turned my misnamed joys to sorrow. When I went back into the house to take something out of it, my misery increased; so I came hither, hoping that I might follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”

And the Stranger saith unto him, “Wilt thou climb the mountain, and take nothing of thine own with thee?”

He answered, “I will.”

“Then,” saith the Stranger, “thou hast chosen the good part; follow me.”

Many there were who had entered the valley to speculate in worldly policy, religion, politics, finance, and to search for wealth and fame. These had heavy baggage of their own, and insisted upon taking all of it with them, which must greatly hinder their ascent.

The journey commences. The encumbered travellers halt and disagree. They stoutly belay those who, having less baggage, ascend faster than themselves, and betimes burden them with their own. Despairing of gaining the summit, loaded as they are, they conclude to stop and lay down a few of the heavy weights,—but only to take them up again, more than ever determined not to part with their baggage.

All this time the Stranger is pointing the way, showing them their folly, rebuking their pride, consoling their afflictions, and helping them on, saying, “He that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it.”

Obstinately holding themselves back, and sore-footed, they fall behind and lose sight of their guide; when, stumbling and grumbling, and fighting each other, they plunge headlong over the jagged rocks.

Then he who has no baggage goes back and kindly binds up their wounds, wipes away the blood stains, and would help them on; but suddenly the Stranger shouts, “Let them alone; they must learn from the things they suffer. Make thine own way; and if thou strayest, listen for the mountain-horn, and it will call thee back to the path that goeth upward.”

Dear reader, dost thou suspect that the valley is humility, that the mountain is heaven-crowned Christianity, and the Stranger the ever-present Christ, the spiritual idea which from the summit of bliss surveys the vale of the flesh, to burst the bubbles of earth with a breath of heaven, and acquaint sensual mortals with the mystery of godliness,—unchanging, unquenchable Love? Hast not thou heard this Christ knock at the door of thine own heart, and closed it against Truth, to “eat and drink with the drunken”? Hast thou been driven by suffering to the foot of the mount, but earth-bound, burdened by pride, sin, and self, hast thou turned back, stumbled, and wandered away? Or hast thou tarried in the habitation of the senses, pleased and stupefied, until wakened through the baptism of fire?

He alone ascends the hill of Christian Science who follows the Way-shower, the spiritual presence and idea of God. Whatever obstructs the way,—causing to stumble, fall, or faint, those mortals who are striving to enter the path,—divine Love will remove; and uplift the fallen and strengthen the weak. Therefore, give up thy earth-weights; and observe the apostle’s admonition, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before.” Then, loving God supremely and thy neighbor as thyself, thou wilt safely bear thy cross up to the throne of everlasting glory.

The Right Kind Of Watching

From Watches, Prayers, and Arguments by , pages 27-28

WATCH — Learn what watching means.

I have watched all these years for you and the world.

Now you watch; be always on duty — on guard.

You must watch, as Jesus said, if you would not have the house broken open; you think you are watching, but are you, when the house is broken open? What would be thought of a watchman, who would let the place watched be burglarized? Would he be the right kind of a watchman? That is just why I named our paper, Sentinel, and on it, “Watch.” We must feel the danger and lift our thought to God; He will save us. If we do not feel the danger, and go right on, as though everything were all right, declaring you are all right, you cannot die, etc., when the seeming is all wrong, you will not be watching with God. When we feel the danger, then we earnestly turn to God.

Keep awake — watch; the right kind of watching.

KEEP YOUR WATCH

Where all students have failed, is in not knowing how to handle animal magnetism. If we don’t break the belief that mesmerism has power, we are still the victims of mesmerism, and it is handling us. Now then, the main point is to keep your watch. Matt. 26:40 & 24:43. If you stay here, until you learn to handle animal magnetism, I will make healers out of you. I had to do it, and did it for forty years, and you must do it. You must rise to the point where you can destroy the belief in mesmerism, or you will have no Cause. It tried to overcome me for forty years and I withstood it all. Now it has gotten to the point where the students must take up this work and meet animal magnetism. I cannot do it for you. You must do it for yourselves, and unless it is done, the Cause will perish, and we will go along another nineteen hundred years, with the world sunk into the blackest night. Now will you rouse yourselves? You have all the power of God with you to conquer this lie of mesmerism. The workers in the field are not healing, because they are not meeting animal magnetism which says they cannot heal. Will you keep your watch? To keep your watch doesn’t only mean to be awake at that hour and be working mentally. It means to do the work and succeed in breaking the mesmerism for the two hours assigned. If you don’t succeed, you haven’t kept your watch.

How Mrs. Eddy used “Christmas Morn” to Heal a Patient

From The Healer by , pages 145 to 146

“I would like to read an excerpt given to me in the very early days by Mr. James Neal, the beloved student and friend of our Leader. I have given this before, but I find it so valuable that I cannot resist sharing with you our Leader’s own interpretation of “Christmas Morn” in healing a patient.

Thou gentle beam of living Love,
And deathless Life!
Truth infinite is you, as God sees you,
As you see yourself.

“Still I quote our Leader:

I have taken this hymn and raised a patient who was at the point of passing on in [the] hospital. I held her as a ‘gentle beam.’ Of what? ‘Living Love’—as far above all the strife, all the striving, as far above the conditions that brought her there. ‘Or cruel creed’—the doctor’s verdict. So far above all cruel edicts, creeds of mortal belief. ‘Or earth-born taint’—so far above any taint of inheritance. ‘Fill us,’ fill her, today, right now, ‘with all Thou art.’ With what? With ‘living Love, and deathless Life, Truth infinite.’ Thou all of her. Thou all of me. Fill us, be Thou our all of Life always.”

The Bread and the Cup of Christian Science

From Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by , pages 142-143

The communion can come only by regeneration, by the baptism of Spirit, as taught through Christian Science. This baptism with fire brings out the true odor of divinity, establishing the omnipresence of God, imparted to man in healing the sick by salvation from sin, and triumphing over a sense of dead and buried understanding, and revealing the Comforter which leadeth into peace. This it is to eat the bread. What is the Bread of Christian Science? It is the strength and nutriment that God gives to the fainting heart and faltering footsteps, in the awful hours of human helplessness; yea! that power He imparts, by which we gain a recognition of Himself — that recognition which is never grasped by intellect, but by the humble heart. What is the Cup of Christian Science? It is that cup which is drank in affliction. It is the exhilaration of joy, after the triumph over temptation. It is the fruit of that vine of which the Father is the husbandman. It is the wine-press whose seeds of sin must be crushed, and which the weary feet may not leave till each seed is in itself crushed — that out of this essence God shall distil a new creature, which shall bear witness of Himself as the Love which heals. We are bidden, as members of this church, to partake of the silent sacrament, to come to this table of His preparing with thanksgiving. To us is spoken the command, ‘My child, give me thy heart;’ while it is ours to answer:

Search me, oh God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my thoughts;
And see if there be any wicked way in me.

We are called to lay ourselves daily, hourly, upon the altar of self-sacrifice, of utter dependence upon God, glorying in each awful trial, rejoicing in each draught from that cup which fits us to become participants with Jesus of his martyrdom and victory. This power is given us in the same extent as we entertain the sense of the Spirit which enriched him, and we come into the fullness of demonstration as we have the same Mind which was in Christ Jesus.

Love is the liberator.