In
all ages there have been
messengers who have prepared the
way for a better understanding of
the Christ. As Christian
Scientists we believe that Mrs.
Eddy was one of these messengers
with a wonderful message,
a
message with healing in its
wings.
Mary
Ellen Pollock
Christian Science Sentinel, October 11, 1919
"And all thy children shall
be taught of the Lord..." Isaiah The Writings
of Mary Baker Eddy
This
area contains selections from the writings of the
Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary
Baker Eddy.
-
"In
the spirit of Christ's charity,
as one who 'hopeth all
things, endureth all things,' and
is joyful to bear consolation to
the sorrowing and healing to the
sick, she commits these
pages to honest seekers for
Truth."
Questions
and
Answers
"What did Jesus mean when he
said to the dying thief, 'To-day
shalt thou be with me in
paradise'?"
-
Questions
and
Answers
"If mesmerism has the power
attributed to it by the gentleman
referred to, it should neither be
taught nor practised, but should
be conscientiously
condemned."
-
Questions
and
Answers
"The 'man of sorrows' knew that
the man of joys, his spiritual
self, or Christ, was the Son of
God; and that the mortal mind,
not the immortal Mind, suffered.
The human manifestation of the
Son of God was called the Son of
man, or Mary's son."
-
Christian
Science
"Hungering and thirsting after a
better life, we shall have it,
and become Christian Scientists;
learn God aright, and know
something of the ideal man, the
real man, harmonious and
eternal."
-
Prayer
for Country and
Church
"Pray
that the divine presence may
still guide and bless our chief
magistrate, those associated with
his executive trust, and our
national judiciary; give to our
congress wisdom, and uphold our
nation with the right arm of His
righteousness."
-
Angels
"When angels visit us, we do not
hear the rustle of wings, nor
feel the feathery touch of the
breast of a dove; but we know
their presence by the love they
create in our hearts."
-
The
Way
"The present stage of progress in
Christian Science presents two
opposite aspects, a
full-orbed promise, and a gaunt
want."
-
Fidelity
"Seeking is not sufficient
whereby to arrive at the results
of Science: you must strive; and
the glory of the strife comes of
honesty and humility."
-
Science
and the
Senses
"Jesus' personality in the flesh,
so far as material sense could
discern it, was like that of
other men; but Science exchanges
this human concept of Jesus for
the divine ideal, his spiritual
individuality . . ."
-
One
Cause and
Effect
".
. . The mist of materialism will
vanish as we approach
spirituality, the realm of
reality; cleanse our lives in
Christ's righteousness; bathe in
the baptism of Spirit, and awake
in His likeness."
-
"Where
Art
Thou?"
"The
'Alpha and Omega' of Christian
Science voices this question:
Where do we hold intelligence to
be? Is it in both evil and good,
in matter as well as
Spirit?"
-
Reply
to McClure's
Magazine
"The
attack on me and my late father
and his family in McClure's
Magazine, January, 1907,
compels me as a dutiful child and
the Leader of Christian Science
to speak."
-
Reminiscences
"Quotations
have been published, purporting
to be Dr. Quimby's own words,
which were written while I was
his patient in Portland and
holding long conversations with
him on my views of mental
therapeutics. Some words in these
quotations certainly read like
words that I said to him, and
which I, at his request, had
added to his copy when I
corrected
it."
-
Power
of
Prayer
"In a certain city the Master
'did not many mighty works there
because of their unbelief,'
because of the mental
counteracting elements, the
startled or the unrighteous
contradicting minds of mortals.
And if he were personally with us
to-day, he would rebuke whatever
accords not with a full faith and
spiritual knowledge of
God."
-
Loyal
Christian
Scientists
"I pray that all my students
shall have their lamps trimmed
and burning at the noon of night,
that not one of them be found
borrowing oil, and seeking light
from matter instead of Spirit, or
at work erroneously, thus
shutting out spiritual
light."
-
Things
to be Thought
Of
"If a teacher of Christian
Science unwittingly or
intentionally offers his own
thought, and gives me as
authority for it; if he diverges
from Science and knows it not,
or, knowing it, makes the venture
from vanity, in order to be
thought original, or wiser than
somebody else, this
divergence widens. He grows dark,
and cannot regain, at will, an
upright
understanding."
-
The
Cry of
Christmas-tide
"Let
the sentinels of Zion's
watch-towers shout once again,
'Unto us a child is born, unto us
a son is given.'"
-
Christmas
"The
star of Bethlehem is the star of
Boston, high in the zenith of
Truth's domain, that looketh down
on the long night of human
beliefs, to pierce the darkness
and melt into dawn."
-
Pond
and
Purpose
"By
purifying human thought, this
state of mind permeates with
increased harmony all the
minutiae of human
affairs."
-
Mental
Practice
"May
divine Love so permeate the
affections of all those who have
named the name of Christ in its
fullest sense, that no
counteracting influence can
hinder their growth or taint
their
examples."
-
Politics
"Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy has always
believed that those who are
entitled to vote should do so,
and she has also believed that in
such matters no one should seek
to dictate the actions of
others."
-
Dedication
of Mrs. Eddy's
Gift
"The general thought chiefly
regards material things, and
keeps Mind much out of sight. The
Christian, however, strives for
the spiritual; he abides in a
right purpose, as in laws which
it were impious to transgress,
and follows Truth
fearlessly."
-
A
Timely
Issue
"It
is often said, 'You must have a
very strong will-power to heal,'
or, 'It must require a great deal
of faith to make your
demonstrations.' When it is
answered that there is no
will-power required, and that
something more than faith is
necessary, we meet with an
expression of
incredulity."
-
Christian
Theism
"What
appears to mortals from their
standpoint to be the necessity
for evil, is proven by the law of
opposites to be without
necessity. Good is the primitive
Principle of man; and evil,
good's opposite, has no
Principle, and is not, and cannot
be, the derivative of
good."
-
Fallibility
of Human
Concepts
"If one asks me, Is my concept of
you right? I reply, The human
concept is always imperfect;
relinquish your human concept of
me, or of any one, and find the
divine, and you have gained the
right one and never until
then."
-
Address
to the Concord Church, February,
1899
"Remember, thou canst be brought
into no condition, be it ever so
severe, where Love has not been
before thee and where its tender
lesson is not awaiting thee.
Therefore despair not nor murmur,
for that which seeketh to save,
to heal, and to deliver, will
guide thee, if thou seekest this
guidance."
-
What
is
man?
"A
mortal sinner is not God's man.
Mortals are the counterfeits of
immortals. They are the children
of the wicked one, or the one
evil, which declares that man
begins in dust or as a material
embryo. In divine Science, God
and the real man are inseparable
as divine Principle and
idea."
-
Questions
and
Answers
"Must
I have faith in Christian Science
in order to be healed by
it?"
-
Prospectus
"Meekness heightens immortal
attributes only by removing the
dust that dims them. Goodness
reveals another scene and another
self seemingly rolled up in
shades, but brought to light by
the evolutions of advancing
thought, whereby we discern the
power of Truth and Love to heal
the sick."
-
Spirit
and
Law
"The law of God is the law of
Spirit, a moral and spiritual
force of immortal and divine
Mind. The so-called law of matter
is an immoral force of erring
mortal mind, alias the
minds of mortals."
-
An
Allegory
"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."
-
An
Important
Distinction
"In
your letter to me you spoke of
your 'divine self.' Where do you
find such a selfhood outside of
God? Nowhere; it is an
unscientific
statement."
-
Questions
and
Answers
"Did the salvation of the
eunuch depend merely on his
believing that Jesus Christ was
the Son of God? It did . . ."
-
The
New
Birth
"With the spiritual birth, man's
primitive, sinless, spiritual
existence dawns on human thought,
through the travail of
mortal mind, hope deferred, the
perishing pleasure and
accumulating pains of sense,
by which one loses himself
as matter, and gains a truer
sense of Spirit and spiritual
man."
-
Future
Punishment of
Sin
"The present self-inflicted
sufferings of mortals from sin,
disease, and death should suffice
so to awaken the sufferer from
the mortal sense of sin and mind
in matter as to cause him to
return to the Father's house
penitent and saved . .
."
-
What
are body and
Soul?
"Even
according to the teachings of
natural science, man has never
beheld Spirit or Soul leaving a
body or entering it. What basis
is there for the theory of
indwelling spirit, except the
claim of mortal
belief?"
-
What
is
substance?
"Substance
is that which is eternal and
incapable of discord and decay.
Truth, Life, and Love are
substance, as the Scriptures use
this word in Hebrews: 'The
substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not
seen.'"
Questions
and
Answers
"Why
do you insist that there is but
one Soul, and that Soul is not in
the
body?"
-
Questions
and
Answers
"What is the distinction
between mortal mind and immortal
Mind?"
-
Questions
and
Answers
"After the change called death
takes place, do we meet those
gone before? or does life
continue in thought only as in a
dream?"
-
Questions
and
Answers
"Are material things real when
they are harmonious, and do they
disappear only to the natural
sense? Does this Scripture, 'Your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye
have need of all these things,'
imply that Spirit takes note of
matter?"
-
Questions
and
Answers
"What are the advantages of
your system of healing, over the
ordinary methods of healing
disease?"
Questions
and
Answers
"It is often asked, 'If
Christian Science is the same
method of healing that Jesus and
the apostles used, why do not its
students perform as instantaneous
cures as did those in the first
century of the Christian
era?'"
-
Questions
and
Answers
"If all that is mortal is a
dream or error, is not our
capacity for formulating a dream,
real; is it not God-made; and if
God-made, can it be wrong,
sinful, or an
error?"
-
Extract
from an
Address
"Beware of those who misrepresent
facts; or tacitly assent where
they should dissent; or who take
me as authority for what I
disapprove, or mayhap never have
thought of, and try to reverse,
invert, or controvert, Truth; for
this is a sure pretext of moral
defilement."
-
Scientific
Theism
"It is erroneous to accept the
evidence of the material senses
whence to reason out God, when it
is conceded that the five
personal senses can take no
cognizance of Spirit or of its
phenomena."
-
Instruction
by Mrs.
Eddy
"Last evening I was catechized by
a Christian Science practitioner
because I referred to myself as
an immortal idea of the one
divine Mind."
-
Seven
Hymns
"Beneath the shadow of His mighty
wing; / In that sweet secret of
the narrow way, / Seeking and
finding, with the angels sing: /
'Lo, I am with you alway,'
watch and pray."
-
Message
for
1900
"In
Revelation St. John refers to
what 'the Spirit saith unto the
churches.' His allegories are the
highest criticism on all human
action, type, and system. His
symbolic ethics bravely rebuke
lawlessness. His types of purity
pierce corruption beyond the
power of the pen."
-
Well
Doinge is the Fruite of Doinge
Well
"The Scriptural metaphors,
of the woman in travail, the
great red dragon that stood ready
to devour the child as soon as it
was born, and the husbandmen that
said, 'This is the heir: come,
let us kill him, that the
inheritance may be ours,'
are type and shadow of this
hour."
Science
and
Philosophy
"When mortal mind is silenced by
the 'still, small voice' of Truth
that regenerates philosophy and
logic; and Jesus, as the true
idea of Him, is heard as of yore
saying to sensitive ears and dark
disciples, 'I came from the
Father,' 'Before Abraham was, I
am,' coexistent and coeternal
with God, and this idea is
understood, then will the
earth be filled with the true
knowledge of Christ."
-
The United
States to Great
Britain
"Brave Britain, blest America! /
Unite your battle-plan; /
Victorious, all who live it,
/ The love for God and
man."
-
Bible
Lessons (Number
1)
"But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name: which
were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.
JOHN i. 12, 13. Here,
the apostle assures us that man
has power to become the son of
God."
-
Bible
Lessons (Number
2)
"And so it is written, The
first man Adam was made a living
soul; the last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. 1
COR. xv. 45. When reasoning on
this subject of man with the
Corinthian brethren, the apostle
first spake from their standpoint
of thought; namely, that creation
is material: he was not at this
point giving the history of the
spiritual man who originates in
God, Love, who created man in His
own image and likeness."
-
Bible
Lessons (Number
3)
"And he was casting out a
devil, and it was dumb. And it
came to pass, when the devil was
gone out, the dumb spake.
LUKE xi. 14. The
meaning of the term 'devil' needs
yet to be learned. Its definition
as an individual is too limited
and contradictory."
-
Bible
Lessons (Number
4)
"He that believeth on me, the
works that I do shall he do also;
and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my
Father. JOHN xiv. 12.
Such are the words of him who
spake divinely, well knowing the
omnipotence of Truth."
-
Bible
Lessons (Number
5)
"Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
ACTS xvi. 31. The
Scriptures require more than a
simple admission and feeble
acceptance of the truths they
present; they require a living
faith, that so incorporates their
lessons into our lives that these
truths become the motive-power of
every act."
-
Bible
Lessons (Number
6)
"Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ's sake.
2 COR. xii. 10. The
miracles recorded in the
Scriptures illustrate the life of
Jesus as nothing else can; but
they cost him the hatred of the
rabbis."
-
Retrospection
and
Introspection
"Many peculiar circumstances and
events connected with my
childhood throng the chambers of
memory. For some twelve months,
when I was about eight years old,
I repeatedly heard a voice,
calling me distinctly by name,
three times, in an ascending
scale."
-
Christ
and
Christmas
"As in blest Palestina's hour, /
So in our age, / Tis the same
hand unfolds His power, / And
writes the page."
-
Unity
of
Good
"The more I understand true
humanhood, the more I see it to
be sinless, as ignorant of
sin as is the perfect Maker."
-
No
and
Yes
"Disease
and sin appear to-day in subtler
forms than they did yesterday.
They progress and will multiply
into worse forms, until it is
understood that disease and sin
are unreal, unknown to
Truth, and never actual persons
or real
facts."
-
Christian
Healing
"Metaphysical healing includes
infinitely more than merely to
know that mind governs the body
and the method of a mental
practice. The preparation for a
metaphysical practitioner is the
most arduous task I ever
performed."
-
The
People's Idea of
God
"Proportionately as the people's
belief of God, in every age, has
been dematerialized and unfinited
has their Deity become good; no
longer a personal tyrant or a
molten image, but the divine
Life, Truth, and Love,
Life without beginning or ending,
Truth without a lapse or error,
and Love universal, infinite,
eternal."
-
To
the Christian
World
"In the midst of the imperfect,
perfection is reluctantly seen
and acknowledged. Because Science
is unimpeachable, it summons the
severest conflicts of the ages
and waits on God."
-
Wedlock
"When asked by a wife or a
husband important questions
concerning their happiness, the
substance of my reply is: God
will guide you."
-
Capitalization
"Christian Science is not
understood by the writer or the
reader who does not comprehend
where capital letters should be
used in writing about Christian
Science."
-
Questions
and
Answers
"How
shall we demean ourselves towards
the students of disloyal
students? And what about that
clergyman's remarks on 'Christ
and Christmas'?"
-
Extract
from a
Sermon
"If God is Mind and fills all
space, is everywhere, matter is
nowhere and sin is obsolete."
-
A
Correction
"The introduction of pure
abstractions into Christian
Science, without their
correlatives, leaves the divine
Principle of Christian Science
unexplained, tends to confuse the
mind of the reader, and ultimates
in what Jesus denounced, namely,
straining at gnats and swallowing
camels."
-
What
Our Leader
Says
"Good thoughts are an impervious
armor; clad therewith you are
completely shielded from the
attacks of error of every sort.
And not only yourselves are safe,
but all whom your thoughts rest
upon are thereby benefited."
-
Love
Your
Enemies
"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."
-
Personal
Contagion
"Declaring the truth regarding an
individual or leader, rendering
praise to whom praise is due, is
not a symptom of this contagious
malady, but persistent pursuit of
his or her person is."
-
The
Laborer and His
Hire
"Till Christian Scientists give
all their time to spiritual
things, live without eating, and
obtain their money from a fish's
mouth, they must earn it in order
to help mankind with it. All
systems of religion stand on this
basis."
-
Admonition
"The rules of Mind-healing are
wholly Christlike and spiritual.
Therefore the adoption of a
worldly policy or a resort to
subterfuge in the statement of
the Science of Mind-healing, or
any name given to it other than
Christian Science, or an attempt
to demonstrate the facts of this
Science other than is stated in
Science and Health is a
departure from the Science of
Mind-healing."
-
Contagion
"If only the people would believe
that good is more contagious than
evil, since God is omnipresence,
how much more certain would be
the doctor's success, and the
clergyman's conversion of
sinners."
-
Improve
Your
Time
"All successful individuals have
become such by hard work; by
improving moments before they
pass into hours, and hours that
other people may occupy in the
pursuit of pleasure."
-
Vainglory
"The predisposing and exciting
cause of all defeat and victory
under the sun, rests on this
scientific basis: that action, in
obedience to God, spiritualizes
man's motives and methods, and
crowns them with success; while
disobedience to this divine
Principle materializes human
modes and consciousness, and
defeats them."
-
Principle
and
Practice
"The inclination of mortal mind
is to receive Christian Science
through a belief instead of the
understanding, . . . "
-
Heaven
"Heaven is spiritual. Heaven is
harmony, infinite,
boundless bliss. The dying or the
departed enter heaven in
proportion to their progress, in
proportion to their fitness to
partake of the quality and the
quantity of heaven."
-
Watching
versus Watching
Out
"Ignorance of self is the most
stubborn belief to overcome, for
apathy, dishonesty, sin, follow
in its train. One should watch to
know what his errors are; and if
this watching destroys his peace
in error, should one watch
against such a result? He should
not."
-
Letter
to James
Neal
"Society, flattery, popularity
are temptations in your pursuit
of growth spiritual. Avoid them
as much as in you
lies."
-
Youth
and Young
Manhood
"The ultimatum of life here and
hereafter is utterly apart from a
material or personal sense of
pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow,
life, and death. The truth of
life, or life in truth, is a
scientific knowledge that is
portentous; and is won only by
the spiritual understanding of
Life as God, good, ever-present
good, and therefore life
eternal."
-
"Put
up thy
sword"
"My students are at the beginning
of their demonstration; they have
a long warfare with error in
themselves and in others to
finish, and they must at this
stage use the sword of Spirit.
They cannot in the beginning take
the attitude, nor adopt the
words, that Jesus used at the end
of his demonstration."
-
Take
Notice
"What I wrote on Christian
Science some twenty-five years
ago I do not consider a precedent
for a present student of this
Science."
-
The
General Association of Teachers,
1903
"Adhere to the teachings of the
Bible, Science and Health, and
our Manual, and you will obey the
law and gospel. Have one God and
you will have no devil. Keep
yourselves busy with divine
Love."
-
Reply
to Mark
Twain
"What I am remains to be proved
by the good I do. We need much
humility, wisdom, and love to
perform the functions of
foreshadowing and foretasting
heaven within us. This glory is
molten in the furnace of
affliction."
-
The
Second Advent
"Noticing
the mistakes in the sermons
published in the Christian
Science Journal on the subject of
Jesus and the Christ, I herewith
state once again [ca
1896] and for all time the
pith of the meaning in your
textbook that has settled this
question on its scientific
basis."
-
Nota
Bene
"Rest assured that your Leader is
living, loving, acting, enjoying.
She is neither dead nor plucked
up by the roots, but she is
keenly alive to the reality of
living, and safely, soulfully
founded upon the rock, Christ
Jesus, even the spiritual idea of
Life, with its abounding,
increasing, advancing footsteps
of progress, primeval faith,
hope, love."
-
A
Christmas
Sermon
"The truth uttered and lived by
Jesus, who passed on and left to
mortals the rich legacy of what
he said and did, makes his
followers the heirs to his
example; but they can neither
appreciate nor appropriate his
treasures of Truth and Love,
until lifted to these by their
own growth and
experiences."
-
Extract
from a Christmas
Letter
"My heart has many rooms: one of
these is sacred to the memory of
my students. Into this upper
chamber, where all things are
pure and of good report,
into this sanctuary of love,
I often retreat, sit silently,
and ponder."
-
What
Christmas Means to
Me
"To
me Christmas involves an open
secret, understood by few
or by none and unutterable
except in Christian
Science."
-
Christmas
for the
Children
".
. . The children should not be
taught to believe that Santa
Claus has aught to do with this
pastime. A deceit or falsehood is
never wise."
-
Christmas
"Are
we still searching diligently to
find where the young child lies,
and are we satisfied to know that
our sense of Truth is not
demoralized, finitized, cribbed,
or cradled, but has risen to
grasp the spiritual idea
unenvironed by
materiality?"
-
Easter
Message,
1902
"May this glad Easter morn find
the members of this dear church
having a pure peace, a fresh joy,
a clear vision of heaven here,
heaven within us,
and an awakened sense of the
risen Christ."
-
Sunday
Services on July
Fourth
"The day we celebrate reminds us
of the heroes and heroines who
counted not their own lives dear
to them, when they sought the New
England shores, not as the flying
nor as conquerors, but, steadfast
in faith and love, to build upon
the rock of Christ, the true idea
of God the supremacy of
Spirit and the nothingness of
matter."
-
Address
on the Fourth of
July
"To-day we commemorate not only
our nation's civil and religious
freedom, but a greater even, the
liberty of the sons of God, the
inalienable rights and radiant
reality of Christianity . .
."