DEFINITION OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
PERSONALITY OF GOD
HEALING SICKNESS AND SIN
INDIVIDUALITY OF GOD
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
NON-EXISTENCE OF MATTER
MATERIALITY INTANGIBLE
BASIS OF MIND-HEALING
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN
DEMONSTRATION IN HEALING
MEANS AND METHODS
ONLY ONE SCHOOL
RUDIMENTAL DIVINE
SCIENCE
_How would you define Christian Science?_ 1
AS the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and
demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of 3
universal harmony.
_What is the Principle of Christian Science?_
It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal 6
Mind, the Soul of man and the universe. It is our Father
which is in heaven. It is substance, Spirit, Life, Truth,
and Love, -- these are the deific Principle. 9
_Do you mean by this that God is a person?_
The word person affords a large margin for misappre-
hension, as well as definition. In French the equivalent 12
word is _personne_. In Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it is
_persona_. The Latin verb _personare_ is compounded of
the prefix _per_ (through) and _sonare_ (to sound). 15
In law, Blackstone applies the word _personal_ to _bodily
presence_, in distinction from one's appearance (in court,
for example) by deputy or proxy. 18
Other definitions of _person_, as give by Webster, are 1
"a living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent;
especially, a living human being, a corporeal man, woman, 3
or child; an individual of the human race." He adds,
that among Trinitarian Christians the word stands for one
of the three subjects, or agents, constituting the Godhead. 6
In Christian Science we learn that God is definitely indi-
vidual and not a _person_, as that word is used by the best
authorities, if our lexicographers are right in defining 9
_person_ as especially a finite _human being_; but God is
personal, if by _person_ is meant infinite Spirit.
We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him 12
as less than infinite. The human person is finite; and
therefore I prefer to retain the proper sense of Diety by
using the phrase _an individual_ God rather than _a per- 15
sonal_ God; for there is and can be but on infinite indi-
vidual spirit, who mortals have named God.
Science defines the individuality of God as supreme 18
good, Life, Truth, Love. This term enlarges our sense
of Diety, takes away the trammels assigned to God by
finite though, and introduces us to higher definitions. 21
_Is healing the sick the whole of Science?_
Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Chris-
tian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and 24
action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The
emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of
sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the 27
cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they 1
do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acqui-
escence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and 3
their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from
sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which
redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the 6
flesh, from the flesh, -- the material world and evil.
This Life, Truth, and Love -- this trinity of good -- was
individualized, to the perception of mortal sense, in the 9
man Jesus. His history is emphatic in our hearts, and it
lives more because of his spiritual than his physical healing.
His example is, to Christian Scientists, what the models 12
of the masters in music and painting are to artists.
Genuine Christian Scientists will no more deviate mor-
ally from that divine digest of Science called the Sermon 15
on the Mount, than they will manipulate invalids, prescribe
drugs, or deny God. Jesus' healing was spiritual in its
nature, method, and design. He wrought the cure of 18
disease through the divine Mind, which gives all true
volition, impulse, and action; and destroys the mental
error made manifest physically, and establishes the oppo- 21
site manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmony
and health.
_By the individuality of God, do you mean that God has_ 24
_a finite form?_
No. I mean the infinite and divine Principle of all
being, the ever-present I AM, filling all space, including 27
in itself all Mind, the one Father-Mother God. Life, 1
Truth, and Love are this trinity in unity, and their uni-
verse is spiritual, peopled with perfect beings, harmonious 3
and eternal, of which our material universe and men are
the counterfeits.
_Is God the Principle of all science, or only of Divine or_ 6
_Christian Science?_
Science is Mind manifested. It is not material; neither
is it of human origin. 9
All true Science represents a moral and spiritual force,
which holds the earth in its orbit. This force is Spirit,
that can "bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades," and 12
"loose the bands of Orion."
There is no material science, if by that term you mean
material intelligence. God is infinite Mind, hence there 15
is no other Mind. Good is Mind, but evil is not Mind.
Good is not in evil, but in God only. Spirit is not in matter,
but in Spirit only. Law is not in matter, but in Mind only. 18
_Is there no matter?_
All is Mind. According to the Scriptures and Christian
Science, all is God, and there is naught beside Him. "God 21
is Spirit;" and we can only learn and love Him through
His spirit, which brings out the fruits of Spirit and ex-
tinguishes forever the works of darkness by His marvel- 24
lous light.
The five material senses testify to the existence of
matter. The spiritual senses afford no such evidence, 1
but deny the testimony of the material senses. Which
testimony is correct? The Bible says: "Let God be 3
true, and every man a liar." If, as the Scriptures imply,
God is All-in-all, then all must be Mind, since God is
Mind. Therefore in divine Science there is no material 6
mortal man, for man is spiritual and eternal, he being
made in the image of Spirit, or God.
There is no material sense. Matter is inert, inanimate, 9
and sensationless, -- considered apart from Mind. Lives
there a man who has ever found Soul in the body or in
matter, who has ever seen spiritual substance with the 12
eye, who has found sight in matter, hearing in the material
ear, or intelligence in non-intelligence? If there is any
such thing as matter, it must be either mind which is 15
called matter, or matter without Mind.
Matter without Mind is a moral impossibility. Mind
in matter is pantheism. Soul is the only real conscious- 18
ness which cognizes being. The body does not see, hear,
smell, or taste. Human belief says that it does; but
destroy this belief of seeing with the eye, and we could 21
not see materially; and so it is with each of the physical
senses.
Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should 24
believe man and the universe to be the football of chance
and sinking into oblivion. Destroy the five senses as
organized matter, and you must either become non-exist- 27
ent, or exist in Mind only; and this latter conclusion is
the simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to 1
the equal inference that there is no matter.
_The sweet sounds and glories of earth and sky, assum-_ 3
_ing manifold forms and colors, -- are they not tangible and_
_material?_
As Mind they are real, but not as matter. All beauty 6
and goodness are in and of Mind, emanating from God;
but when we change the nature of beauty and goodness
from Mind to matter, the beauty is marred, through a 9
false conception, and, to the material senses, evil takes
the place of good.
Has not the truth in Christian Science met a response 12
from Prof. S. P. Langley, the young American astronomer?
He says that "color is in _us_," not "in the rose;" and he
adds that this is not "any metaphysical subtlety," but a 15
fact "almost universally accepted, within the _last few_
_years_, by physicists."
_Is not the basis of Mind-healing a destruction of the evi-_ 18
_dence of the material senses, and restoration of the true_
_evidence of spiritual sense?_
It is, so far as you perceive and understand this predi- 21
cate and postulate of Mind-healing; but the Science of
Mind-healing is best understood in practical demonstra-
tion. The proof of what you apprehend, in the simplest 24
definite and absolute form of healing, can alone answer
this question of how much you understand of Christian
Science Mind-healing. Not that all healing is Science, 1
by any means; but that the simplest case, healed in Science,
is as demonstrably scientific, in a small degree, as the most 3
difficult case so treated.
The infinite and subtler conceptions and consistencies
of Christian Science are set forth in my work Science and 6
Health.
_Is man material or spiritual?_
In Science, man is the manifest reflection of God, per- 9
feet and immortal Mind. He is the likeness of God; and
His likeness would be lost if inverted or perverted.
According to the evidence of the so-called physical 12
senses, man is material, fallen, sick, depraved, mortal.
Science and spiritual sense contradict this, and they afford
the only true evidence of the being of God and man, the 15
material evidence being wholly false.
Jesus said of personal evil, that "the truth abode not
in him," because there is no material sense. Matter, as 18
matter, has neither sensation nor personal intelligence.
As a pretension to be Mind, matter is a lie, and "the
father of lies;" Mind is not in matter, and Spirit cannot 21
originate its opposite, named matter.
According to divine Science, Spirit no more changes its
species, by evolving matter from Spirit, than natural 24
science, so-called, or material laws, bring about altera-
tion of species by transforming minerals into vegetables
or plants into animals, -- thus confusing and confounding 27
the three great kingdoms. No rock brings forth an apple; 1
no pine-tree produces a mammal or provides breast-milk
for babes. 3
To sense, the lion of to-day is the lion of six thousand
years ago; but in Science, Spirit sends forth its own harm-
less likeness. 6
_How should I undertake to demonstrate Christian Science_
_in healing the sick?_
As I have given you only an epitome of the Principle, 9
so I can give you here nothing but an outline of the prac-
tice. Be honest, be true to thyself, and true to others;
then it follows thou wilt be strong in God, the eternal 12
good. Heal through Truth and Love; there is no other
healer.
In all moral revolutions, from a lower to a higher con- 15
dition of thought and action, Truth is in the minority and
error has the majority. It is not otherwise in the field
of Mind-healing. The man who calls himself a Christian 18
Scientist, yet is false to God and man, is also uttering
falsehood about good. This falsity shuts against him the
Truth and the Principle of Science, but opens a way 21
whereby, through will-power, sense may say the unchris-
tian practitioner can heal; but Science shows that he makes
morally worse the invalid whom he is supposed to cure. 24
By this I mean that mortal mind should not be falsely
impregnated. If by such lower means the health is seem-
ingly restored, the restoration is not lasting, and the patient 27
is liable to a relapse, -- "The last state of that man is 1
worse than the first."
The teacher of Mind-healing who is not a Christian, 3
in the highest sense, is constantly sowing the seeds of
discord and disease. Even the truth he speaks is more
or less blended with error; and this error will spring up 6
in the mind of his pupil. The pupil's imperfect knowl-
edge will lead to weakness in practice, and he will be a
poor practitioner, if not a malpractitioner. 9
The basis of malpractice is in erring human will, and
this will is an outcome of what I call _mortal mind_, -- a
false and temporal sense of Truth, Life, and Love. To 12
heal, in Christian Science, is to base your practice on
immortal Mind, the divine Principle of man's being; and
this requires a preparation of the heart and an answer 15
of the lips from the Lord.
The Science of healing is the Truth of healing. If
one is untruthful, his mental state weighs against his 18
healing power; and similar effects come from pride,
envy, lust, and all fleshly vices.
The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, with- 21
out a direct effort, an audible or even a mental argument,
has oftentimes healed inveterate diseases.
The thoughts of the practitioner should be imbued with 24
a clear conviction of the omnipotence and omnipresence
of God; that He is All, and that there can be none beside
Him; that God is good, and the producer only of good; 27
and hence, that whatever militates against health, har-
mony, or holiness, is an unjust usurper of the throne of 1
the controller of all mankind. Note this, that if you have
power in error, you forfeit the power that Truth bestows, 3
and its salutary influence on yourself and others.
You must feel and know that God alone governs man;
that His government is harmonious; that He is too pure 6
to behold iniquity, and divides His power with nothing
evil or material; that material laws are only human be-
liefs, which govern mortals wrongfully. These beliefs arise 9
from the subjective states of thought, producing the be-
liefs of a mortal material universe, -- so-called, and of
material disease and mortality. Mortal ills are but errors 12
of thought, -- diseases of mortal mind, and not of matter;
for matter cannot feel, see, or report pain or disease,
Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; 15
and fear is the procurator of the thought which causes
sickness and suffering. Remove this fear by the true
sense that God is Love, -- and that Love punishes nothing 18
but sin, -- and the patient can then look up to the loving
God, and know that He afflicteth not willingly the children
of men, who are punished because of disobedience to His 21
spiritual law. His law of Truth, when obeyed, removes
every erroneous physical and mental state. The belief
that matter can master Mind, and make you ill, is an 24
error which Truth will destroy.
You must learn to acknowledge God in all His ways.
It is only a lack of understanding of the allness of God, 27
which leads you to believe in the existence of matter, or
that matter can frame its own conditions, contrary to the 1
law of Spirit.
Sickness is the schoolmaster, leading you to Christ; 3
first to faith in Christ; next to belief in God as omnipo-
tent; and finally to the _understanding_ of God and man
in Christian Science, whereby you learn that God is good, 6
and in Science man is His likeness, the forever reflection of
goodness. Therefore good is one and All.
This brings forward the next proposition in Christian 9
Science, -- namely, that there are no sickness, sin, and
death in the divine Mind. What seem to be disease, vice,
and mortality are illusions of the physical senses. These 12
illusions are not real, but unreal. Health is the conscious-
ness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the
absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else. 15
In a moment you may awake from a night-dream; just
so you can awake from the dream of sickness; but the
demonstration of the Science of Mind-healing by no means 18
rests on the strength of human belief. This demonstra-
tion is based on a true understanding of God and divine
Science, which takes away every human belief, and, 21
through the illumination of spiritual understanding, re-
veals the all-power and ever-presence of good, whence
emanate health, harmony, and Life eternal. 24
The lecturer, teacher, or healer who is indeed a Christian
Scientist, never introduces the subject of human anatomy;
never depicts the muscular, vascular, or nervous opera- 27
tions of the human frame. He never talks about the
structure of the material body. He never lays his hands 1
on the patient, nor manipulates the parts of the body sup-
posed to be ailing. Above all, he keeps unbroken the Ten 3
Commandments, and practises Christ's Sermon on the
Mount.
Wrong thoughts and methods strengthen the sense of 6
disease, instead of cure it; or else quiet the fear of the
sick on false grounds, encouraging them in the belief of
error until they hold stronger than before the belief that 9
they are first made sick by matter, and then restored
through its agency. This fosters infidelity, and is mental
quackery, that denies the Principle of Mind-healing. If 12
the sick are aided in this mistaken fashion, their ailments
will return, and be more stubborn because the relief is
unchristian and unscientific. 15
Christian Science erases from the minds of invalids
their mistaken belief that they live in or because of matter,
or that a so-called material organism controls the health 18
or existence of mankind, and induces rest in God, divine
Love, as caring for all the conditions requisite for the well-
being of man. As power divine is the healer, why should 21
mortals concern themselves with the chemistry of food?
Jesus said: "Take no thought what ye shall eat."
The practitioner should also endeavor to free the minds 24
of the healthy from any sense of subordination to their
bodies, and teach them that the divine Mind, not material
law, maintains human health and life. 27
A Christian Scientist knows that, in Science, disease
is unreal; that Mind is not in matter; that Life is God, 1
good; hence Life is not functional, and is neither matter
nor mortal mind; knows that pantheism and theosophy 3
are not Science. Whatever saps, with human belief,
this basis of Christian Science, renders it impossible to
demonstrate the Principle of this Science, even in the 6
smallest degree.
A mortal and material body is not the actual individuality
of man made in the divine and spiritual image of God. 9
The material body is not the likeness of Spirit; hence it
is not the truth of being, but the likeness of error ? the
human belief which saith there is more than one God, -- 12
there is more than one Life and one Mind.
In Deuteronomy (iv. 35) we read: "The Lord, He is
God; there is none else beside Him." In John (iv. 24) 15
we may read: "God is Spirit." These propositions, un-
derstood in their Science, elucidate my meaning.
When treating a patient, it is not Science to treat every 18
organ in the body. To aver that harmony is the real and
discord is the unreal, and then give special attention to
what according to their own belief is diseased, is scientific; 21
and if the _healer realizes_ the truth, it will free his patient.
_What are the means and, methods of trustworthy Christian_
_Scientists?_ 24
These people should not be expected, more than others,
to give all their time to Christian Science work, receiving
no wages in return, but left to be fed, clothed, and sheltered 27
by charity. Neither can they serve two masters, giving 1
only a portion of their time to God, and still be Christian
Scientists. They must give Him all their services, and 3
"owe no man." To do this, they must at present ask a
suitable price for their services, and then _conscientiously_
_earn their wages_, strictly practising Divine Science, and 6
healing the sick.
The author never sought charitable support, but gave
fully seven-eighths of her time without remuneration, ex- 9
cept the bliss of doing good. The only pay taken for her
labors was from classes, and often those were put off for
months, in order to do gratuitous work. She has never 12
taught a Primary class without several, and sometimes
seventeen, free students in it; and has endeavored to take
the full price of tuition only from those who were able to 15
pay. The student who pays must of necessity do better
than he who does not pay, and yet will expect and require
others to pay him. No discount on tuition was made on 18
higher classes, because their first classes furnished students
with the means of paying for their tuition in the higher
instruction, and of doing charity work besides. If the 21
Primary students are still impecunious, it is their own
fault, and this ill-success of itself leaves them unprepared
to enter higher classes. 24
People are being healed by means of my instructions,
both in and out of class. Many students, who have
passed through a regular course of instruction from me, 27
have been invalids and were healed in the class; but ex-
perience has shown that this defrauds the scholar, though 1
it heals the sick.
It is seldom that a student, if healed hi a class, has left 3
it understanding sufficiently the Science of healing to im-
mediately enter upon its practice. Why? Because the
glad surprise of suddenly regained health is a shock to 6
the mind; and this holds and satisfies the thought with
exuberant joy.
This renders the mind less inquisitive, plastic, and tract- 9
able; and deep systematic thinking is impracticable until
this impulse subsides.
This was the principal reason for advising diseased 12
people not to enter a class. Few were taken besides inva-
lids for students, until there were enough practitioners to
fill in the best possible manner the department of healing. 15
Teaching and healing should have separate departments,
and these should be fortified on all sides with suitable and
thorough guardianship and grace. 18
Only a very limited number of students can advanta-
geously enter a class, grapple with this subject, and well
assimilate what has been taught them. It is impossible 21
to teach thorough Christian Science to promiscuous and
large assemblies, or to persons who cannot be addressed
individually, so that the mind of the pupil may be dissected 24
more critically than the body of a subject laid bare for
anatomical examination. Public lectures cannot be such
lessons in Christian Science as are required to empty and 27
to fill anew the individual mind.
If publicity and material control are the motives for 1
teaching, then public lectures can take the place of private
lessons; but the former can never give a thorough knowledge 3
of Christian Science, and a Christian Scientist will never
undertake to fit students for practice by such means. Lec-
tures in public are needed, but they must be subordinate 6
to thorough class instruction in any branch of education.
None with an imperfect sense of the spiritual significa-
tion of the Bible, and its scientific relation to Mind- 9
healing, should attempt overmuch in their translation of
the Scriptures into the "new tongue;" but I see that
some novices, in the truth of Science, and some impostors are 12
committing this error.
_Is there more than one school of scientific healing?_
In reality there is, and can be, but one school of the 15
Science of Mind-healing. Any departure from Science is
an irreparable loss of Science. Whatever is said and
written correctly on this Science originates from the Princi- 18
ple and practice laid down in Science and Health, a work
which I published in 1875. This was the first book, re-
corded in history, which elucidates a pathological Science 21
purely mental.
Minor shades of difference in Mind-healing have origi-
nated with certain opposing factions, springing up among 24
unchristian students, who, fusing with a class of aspirants
which snatch at whatever is progressive, call it their first-
fruits, or else _post mortem_ evidence. 27
A slight divergence is fatal in Science. Like certain 1
Jews whom St. Paul had hoped to convert from mere
motives of self-aggrandizement to the love of Christ, these 3
so-called schools are clogging the wheels of progress by
blinding the people to the true character of Christian
Science, -- its moral power, and its divine efficacy to 6
heal.
The true understanding of Christian Science Mind-
healing never originated in pride, rivalry, or the deification 9
of self. The Discoverer of this Science could tell you of
timidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness, toil, agonies, and
victories under which she needed miraculous vision to 12
sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in this
Science.
The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meek- 15
ness, selflessness, and love are the paths of His testimony
and the footsteps of His flock.
WORKS ON CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
WRITTEN BY MARY BAKER EDDY
Published by the
Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy
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