Mary Baker Eddy

“ Too soon we cannot turn from disease [5]
in the body to find disease in the mortal mind, and its cure,
in working for God. Thought must be made better, and
human life more fruitful, for the divine energy to move
it onward and upward.
Warmed by the sunshine of Truth, watered by the [10]
heavenly dews of Love, the fruits of Christian Science
spring upward, and away from the sordid soil of self and
matter. ”

“ Mortal mind has even called me crazy; but what a blessing to know the nothingness of that mind, and that divine Principle governs all its ideas, and will place each where it belongs!
If our Master was persecuted, can his servants hope to escape? I know in some degree what Paul meant when he said he rejoiced in tribulations, “for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
Many claims that have baffled the skill of the physicians have disappeared through my understanding of Truth. What a blessing that we can break the bread of Life to others, and so add to our crown of rejoicing! ”

“ The Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is
indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite [10]
claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human;
and man's ability to meet them is from God; for, being
His likeness and image, man must reflect the full
dominion of Spirit—even its supremacy over sin, sick-
ness, and death. [15]
Here, then, is the awakening from the dream of life
in matter, to the great fact that God is the only Life;
that, therefore, we must entertain a higher sense of both
God and man. ”

“ Now let my faithful
students carry the fruit of this tree into the rock-ribbed [20]
nests of the raven's callow brood.
The second stage of mental development is humility.
This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of
Christian Science. One can never go up, until one has
gone down in his own esteem. Humility is lens and [25]
prism to the understanding of Mind-healing; it must be
had to understand our textbook; it is indispensable to
personal growth, and points out the chart of its divine
Principle and rule of practice. ”

“ We seemed to be cast upon the ocean of time, and left to drift aimlessly about, with no exact knowledge of what was required of us or how to attain unto the truth, which must certainly have an existence somewhere. It seemed to me that in the very nature of things there must be a great error somewhere in our understanding, or that the creator Himself had slipped a cog when He fitted all things into their proper spheres. ”

“ As I read Science and Health, I wondered why others had not discerned this truth,—physicians, ministers, and others who had devoted their lives to benefit mankind. Yes! why? Because they had been seeking in the opposite direction to Truth, namely, for cause and effect in matter, when all cause and effect are mental.
I mention physicians and ministers, because one class claims to heal disease, the other claims to heal sin; but Christian Science heals physically and morally,—it contains all; “its leaves are for the healing of the nations.” ”

“ The wife simply recognized no reality in the belief, and, seeing only perfect being, felt no fear. She did nothing,—no “treating” in the usual sense. There is nothing to do but to understand that all is harmony, always. He felt the presence that destroys the sense of evil, and next morning—there was nothing left to recover from.
A lady, while doing some starching, thoughtlessly put her hand into the scalding starch to wring out a collar. Recalled to mortal sense by the stinging pain, she immediately realized the all-power of God. At once the pain began to subside ”

“ I always did think that there was something beautiful in the philosophy of life as taught by Jesus Christ, but that it was impracticable and not susceptible of application to the affairs of life in a world constituted as this appeared to be. As I now view it, that belief was the result of ignorance of the real power that “moves the universe,”—too much faith in matter or effect, and not enough in Mind or cause, which is God. ”

“ Can the infinite [15]
be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted
in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without
space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that
it is man?
If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter [20]
is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power
and all-presence, man is not met by another power
and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—
pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man
is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that [25]
is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator? ”

“ To strike out right and
left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift
your head above it, is a sovereign panacea. Mental dark-
ness is senseless error, neither intelligence nor power, and
its victim is responsible for its supposititious presence. [20]
“Cast the beam out of thine own eye.” Learn what in
thine own mentality is unlike “the anointed,” and cast
it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient's
mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest
like the dove from the deluge. [25]
“Physician, heal thyself.” ”

“ It must have been a rare revelation of infinite Love, a
new tone on the scale ascending, such as eternity is ever [10]
sounding. Could I impart to the student the higher
sense I entertain of Love, it would partly illustrate the
divine energy that brings to human weakness might and
majesty. Divine Love eventually causes mortals to turn
away from the open sepulchres of sin, and look no more [15]
into them as realities. It calls loudly on them to bury
the dead out of sight; to forgive and forget whatever is
unlike the risen, immortal Love; and to shut out all op-
posite sense. ”

“ All the different phases of error in
human nature the reformer must encounter and help to
eradicate. [15]
This period is not essentially one of conscience: few
feel and live now as when this nation began, and our
forefathers' prayers blended with the murmuring winds
of their forest home. This is a period of doubt, inquiry,
speculation, selfishness; of divided interests, marvellous [20]
good, and mysterious evil. But sin can only work out
its own destruction; and reform does and must push on
the growth of mankind. ”

“ I conquered one belief after another, until now, strong and well, I meet every belief with confidence. “I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me.” For two years I have realized the peace and confidence which the knowledge that God is all-powerful and always present alone can give. Feeling a great desire to spread Christian Science, that it may do the good to others that it has to me, not only physically but spiritually, I ask if you have any missionaries in the work. ”

“ The
loss of gustatory enjoyment and the ills of indigestion
tend to rebuke appetite and destroy the peace of a false
sense. False pleasure will be, is, chastened; it has no [20]
right to be at peace. To suffer for having “other gods
before me,” is divinely wise. Evil passions die in their
own flames, but are punished before extinguished. Peace
has no foothold on the false basis that evil should be
concealed and that life and happiness should still attend [25]
it. Joy is self-sustained; goodness and blessedness are
one: suffering is self-inflicted, and good is the master of
evil. ”

“ I insist on the etiquette of Christian Science, as well
as its morals and Christianity. The Scriptural rule of [20]
this Science may momentarily be forgotten; but this is
seldom the case with loyal students, or done without
incriminating the person who did it.
Each student should, must, work out his own problem
of being; conscious, meanwhile, that God worketh with [25]
him, and that he needs no personal aid. It is the genius
of Christian Science to demonstrate good, not evil,—
harmony, not discord; for Science is the mandate of
Truth which destroys all error. ”

“ My sense of the beauty of
the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is some- [15]
thing to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful
to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the
eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief,
of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the
glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and [20]
earth, the harmony of body and Mind.
Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and
utility is something that defies a sneer. ”

“ The doctrines of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” are high and pure, wholly free from those vile theories about love and marriage which have been so prevalent among the spiritualists. This new sect devotes itself to a study of the Bible, and a practice of curing disease without mesmerism or spiritualism. It treats Darwin and materialists with a lofty scorn.—Springfield Republican
“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” is indisputably a wonderful work. It has no equal. No one can read the book and not be benefited by it in mind and body. ”

“ He cannot escape from barriers who commits
his moral sense to a dungeon. Hear the Master [5]
on this subject: “No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he
will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.”
Lives there a man who can better define ethics, better [10]
elucidate the Principle of being, than he who “spake as
never man spake,” and whose precepts and example have
a perpetual freshness in relation to human events?
Who is it that understands, unmistakably, a fraction
of the actual Science of Mind-healing? ”

“ Justice is the handmaid of mercy, and show-
eth mercy by punishing sin. Jesus said, “I came not to
destroy the law,”—the divine requirements typified in
the law of Moses,—“but to fulfil it” in righteousness, [20]
by Truth's destroying error. No greater type of divine
Love can be presented than effecting so glorious a purpose.
This spirit of sacrifice always has saved, and still saves
mankind; but by mankind I mean mortals, or a kind
of men after man's own making. Man as God's idea [25]
is already saved with an everlasting salvation. ”

“ If it had not been for the presence of my young hopeful, it would have been hard to believe that there had so recently been a belief of a birth in the house; but then, I was sustained by Love, and had no belief of suffering to take my strength away. Before baby was two weeks old, I cooked, swept, ran the sewing machine, etc., assisting with the housework generally. How grateful I am for the obstetrics of this grand Science! Mothers need no longer listen to the whispering lies of the old serpent, for the law of mortal mind is broken by Truth. ”

“ The tendency of mortal
mind is to go from one extreme to another: Truth comes
into the intermediate space, saying, “I wound to heal;
I punish to reform; I do it all in love; my peace I leave [5]
with thee: not as the world giveth, give I unto thee.
Arise, let us go hence; let us depart from the material
sense of God's ways and means, and gain a spiritual
understanding of them.”
But let us not seek to climb up some other way, as we [10]
shall do if we take the end for the beginning or start
from wrong motives. Christian Science demands order
and truth. ”

“ The distinction between that which is and that which
is not law, must be made by Mind and as Mind. Law is
either a moral or an immoral force. The law of God is
the law of Spirit, a moral and spiritual force of immor-
tal and divine Mind. The so-called law of matter is an [10]
immoral force of erring mortal mind, alias the minds of
mortals. This so-called force, or law, at work in nature
as a power, prohibition, or license, is cruel and merciless.
It punishes the innocent, and repays our best deeds
with sacrifice and suffering. ”

“ Mind, he restored sight to the blind, he figuratively and
literally spat upon matter; and, anointing the wounded
spirit with the great truth that God is All, he demon-
strated the healing power and supremacy of the law of [10]
Life and Love.
In the spiritual Genesis of creation, all law was vested
in the Lawgiver, who was a law to Himself. In divine
Science, God is One and All; and, governing Himself,
He governs the universe. This is the law of creation: [15]
“My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in
heart.” And that infinite Mind governs all things. ”

“ My noble students, who are loyal to Christ, Truth, and
human obligations, will not be disheartened in the midst
of this seething sea of sin. They build for time and eter- [5]
nity. The others stumble over misdeeds, and their own
unsubstantiality, without the groundwork of right, till,
like camera shadows thrown upon the mists of time, they
melt into darkness.
Unity is the essential nature of Christian Science. Its [10]
Principle is One, and to demonstrate the divine One,
demands oneness of thought and action. ”

“ To one who can accept the truth that all causation is in Mind, and who therefore begins to look away from [pg 470] matter and into Mind, or Spirit, for all that is real and eternal, and for all that produces anything that is lasting, the doubts and petty annoyances of life become dissolved in the light of a better understanding, which has been refined in the crucible of charity and love; and they fade away into the nothingness from whence they came, never having had any existence in fact, being only the inventions of erring human belief. ”

“ 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 up-
ward. This mental condition settles into strength, free- [15]
dom, 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 [20]
rebuke the material senses, holding sway over human
consciousness. ”

“ Has her life exemplified long-suffering, meekness, charity,
purity?
She readily leaves the answer to those who know
her. [5]
Do we yet understand how much better it is to be
wronged, than to commit wrong? What do we find in
the Bible, and in the Christian Science textbook, on this
subject? Does not the latter instruct you that looking
continually for a fault in somebody else, talking about it, [10]
thinking it over, and how to meet it,—“rolling sin as a
sweet morsel under your tongue,”—has the same power
to make you a sinner that acting thus regarding disease
has to make a man sick? ”

“ As we think
thereon, man's true sense is filled with peace, and power;
and we say, It is well that Christian Science has taken [20]
expressive silence wherein to muse His praise, to kiss the
feet of Jesus, adore the white Christ, and stretch out our
arms to God.
The last act of the tragedy on Calvary rent the veil
of matter, and unveiled Love's great legacy to mortals: [25]
Love forgiving its enemies. This grand act crowned
and still crowns Christianity: it manumits mortals; it
translates love; it gives to suffering, inspiration; to
patience, experience; to experience, hope; to hope, faith ”