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CSEC ON-LINE REFERENCE LIBRARY |
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MARY BAKER EDDY
Such are the words of him who spake divinely, well knowing the omnipotence of Truth. The Hebrew bard saith, "His name shall endure forever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun." Luminous with the light of divine Science, his words reveal the great Principle of a full salvation. Neither can we question the practicability of the divine Word, who have learned its adaptability to human needs, and man's ability to prove the truth of prophecy. The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing belongs to every period; as the above Scripture plainly declares, and as primitive Christianity confirms. Also, the last chapter of Mark is emphatic on this subject; making healing a condition of salvation, that extends to all ages and throughout all Christendom. Nothing can be more conclusive than this: "And these signs shall follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." This declaration of our Master settles the question; else we are entertaining the startling inquiries, Are the Scriptures inspired? Are they true? Did Jesus mean what he said? If this be the cavil, we reply in the affirmative that the Scripture is true; that Jesus did mean all, and even more than he said or deemed it safe to say at that time. His words are unmistakable, for they form propositions of self-evident demonstrable truth. Doctrines that deny the substance and practicality of all Christ's teachings cannot be evangelical; and evangelical religion can be established on no other claim than the authenticity of the Gospels, which support unequivocally the proof that Christian Science, as defined and practised by Jesus, heals the sick, casts out error, and will destroy death. Referring to The Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, of which I am pastor, a certain clergyman charitably expressed it, "the so-called Christian Scientists." I am thankful even for his allusion to truth; it being a modification of silence on this subject, and also of what had been said when critics attacked me for supplying the word Science to Christianity,—a word which the people are now adopting. The next step for ecclesiasticism to take, is to admit that all Christians are properly called Scientists who follow the commands of our Lord and His Christ, Truth; and that no one is following his full command without this enlarged sense of the spirit and power of Christianity. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do," is a radical and unmistakable declaration of the right and power of Christianity to heal; for this is Christlike, and includes the understanding of man's capabilities and spiritual power. The condition insisted upon is, first, "belief;" the Hebrew of which implies understanding. How many to-day believe that the power of God equals even the power of a drug to heal the sick! Divine Science reveals the Principle of this power, and the rule whereby sin, sickness, disease, and death are destroyed; and God is this Principle. Let us, then, seek this Science; that we may know Him better, and love Him more. Though a man were begirt with the Urim and Thummim of priestly office, yet should deny the validity or permanence of Christ's command to heal in all ages, this denial would dishonor that office and misinterpret evangelical religion. Divine Science is not an interpolation of the Scriptures, but is redolent with love, health, and holiness, for the whole human race. It only needs the prism of this Science to divide the rays of Truth, and bring out the entire hues of Deity, which scholastic theology has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter. The context of the foregoing Scriptural text explains Jesus' words, "because I go unto my Father." "Because" in following him, you understand God and how to turn from matter to Spirit for healing; how to leave self, the sense material, for the sense spiritual; how to accept God's power and guidance, and become imbued with divine Love that casts out all fear. Then are you baptized in the Truth that destroys all error, and you receive the sense of Life that knows no death, and you know that God is the only Life. To reach the consummate naturalness of the Life that is God, good, we must comply with the first condition set forth in the text, namely, believe; in other words, understand God sufficiently to exclude all faith in any other remedy than Christ, the Truth that antidotes all error. Thence will follow the absorption of all action, motive, and mind, into the rules and divine Principle of metaphysical healing. Whosoever learns the letter of Christian Science but possesses not its spirit, is unable to demonstrate this Science; or whosoever hath the spirit without the letter, is held back by reason of the lack of understanding. Both the spirit and the letter are requisite; and having these, every one can prove, in some degree, the validity of those words of the great Master, "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." It has been said that the New Testament does not authorize us to expect the ministry of healing at this period. We ask what is the authority for such a conclusion, the premises whereof are not to be found in the Scriptures. The Master's divine logic, as seen in our text, contradicts this inference,—these are his words: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." That perfect syllogism of Jesus has but one correct premise and conclusion, and it cannot fall to the ground beneath the stroke of unskilled swordsmen. He who never unsheathed his blade to try the edge of truth in Christian Science, is unequal to the conflict, and unfit to judge in the case; the shepherd's sling would slay this Goliath. I once believed that the practice and teachings of Jesus relative to healing the sick, were spiritual abstractions, impractical and impossible to us; but deed, not creed, and practice more than theory, have given me a higher sense of Christianity. The "I" will go to the Father when meekness, purity, and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter, lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God. Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in the beginning, "Believe in me, and I will make you as gods;" that is, I will give you a separate mind from God (good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind, good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the words of our Master: "He is a liar, and the father of it;" also, the character of the votaries to "other gods" which sprung from it. The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man's unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good. It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness, and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall appear, "we shall be like Him;" we shall do the works of Christ, and, in the words of David, "the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner," because the "I" does go unto the Father, the ego does arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted,—not through death, but Life, God understood.
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