Mary Baker Eddy

“ And how is man, seen through the lens of Spirit, enlarged, and how counterpoised his origin from dust, and how he presses to his original, never severed from Spirit! O ye who leap disdainfully from this rock of ages, return and plant thy steps in Christ, Truth, “the stone which the builders rejected”! Then will angels administer grace, do thy errands, and be thy dearest allies. The divine law gives to man health and life everlasting — gives a soul to Soul, a present harmony wherein the good man's heart takes hold on heaven, and whose feet can never be moved. ”

“ Christian Science has a place in its court, in which, like beds in hospitals, one man's head lies at another's feet. As you work, the ages win; for the majesty of Christian Science teaches the majesty of man. When it is learned that spiritual sense and not the material senses convey all impressions to man, man will naturally seek the Science of his spiritual nature, and finding it, be God-endowed for discipleship.
When divine Love gains admittance to a humble heart, that individual ascends the scale of miracles and meets the warmest wish of men and angels. ”

“ Forgetting the Golden Rule and indulging sin, men cannot serve God; they cannot demonstrate the omnipotence of divine Mind that heals the sick and the sinner. Human will may mesmerize and mislead man; divine wisdom, never. Indulging deceit is like the defendant arguing for the plaintiff in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will be turned against himself.
We cannot serve two masters. Do we love God supremely? Are we honest, just, faithful? Are we true to ourselves? “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” ”

“ Christian Science is not a dweller apart in royal solitude; it is not a law of matter, nor a transcendentalism that heals only the sick. This Science is a law of divine Mind, a persuasive animus, an unerring impetus, an ever-present help. Its presence is felt, for it acts and acts wisely, always unfolding the highway of hope, faith, understanding. It is the higher criticism, the higher hope; and its effect on man is mainly this — that the good which has come into his life, examination compels him to think genuine, whoever did it. ”

“ My faith in God and in His followers rests in the fact that He is infinite good, and that He gives His followers opportunity to use their hidden virtues, to put into practice the power which lies concealed in the calm and which storms awaken to vigor and to victory.
It is only by looking heavenward that mutual friendships such as ours can begin and never end. Over sea and over land, Christian Science unites its true followers in one Principle, divine Love, that sacred ave and essence of Soul which makes them one in Christ. ”

“ My Beloved Brethren: — The chain of Christian unity, unbroken, stretches across the sea and rises upward to the realms of incorporeal Life — even to the glorious beatitudes of divine Love. Striving to be good, to do good, and to love our neighbor as ourself, man's soul is safe; man emerges from mortality and receives his rights inalienable — the love of God and man. What holds us to the Christian life is the seven-fold shield of honesty, purity, and unselfed love. I need not say this to you, for you know the way in Christian Science. ”

“ This time-world flutters in my thought as an unreal shadow, and I can only solace the sore ills of mankind by a lively battle with “the world, the flesh and the devil,” in which Love is the liberator and gives man the victory over himself. Truth, canonized by life and love, lays the axe at the root of all evil, lifts the curtain on the Science of being, the Science of wedlock, of living and of loving, and harmoniously ascends the scale of life. ”

“ The late lamented Christian Scientist brother and the publisher of my books, Joseph Armstrong, C.S.D., is not dead, neither does he sleep nor rest from his labors in divine Science; and his works do follow him. Evil has no power to harm, to hinder, or to destroy the real spiritual man. He is wiser to-day, healthier and happier, than yesterday. The mortal dream of life, substance, or mind in matter, has been lessened, and the reward of good and punishment of evil and the waking out of his Adam-dream of evil will end in harmony, — evil powerless, and God, good, omnipotent and infinite. ”

“ If, as he implies, Christian Science is not a departure from the first century churches, — as surely it is not, — why persecute it? Are the churches opening fire on their own religious ranks, or are they attacking a peaceable party quite their antipode? Christian Science is a reflected glory; it shines with borrowed rays — from Light emitting light. Christian Science is the new-old Christianity, that which was and is the revelation of divine Love. ”

“ Scholastic theology at its best touches but the hem of Christian Science, shorn of all personality, wholly apart from human hypotheses, matter, creed and dogma, the lust of the flesh and the pride of power. Christian Science is the full idea of its divine Principle, God; it is forever based on Love, and it is demonstrated by perfect rules; it is unerring. Hence health, holiness, immortality, are its natural effects. The practitioner may fail, but the Science never. ”

“ “I say, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.’ We cannot force perfection on the world. Were vaccination of any avail, I should tremble for mankind; but, knowing it is not, and that the fear of catching smallpox is more dangerous than any material infection, I say: Where vaccination is compulsory, let your children be vaccinated, and see that your mind is in such a state that by your prayers vaccination will do the children no harm. So long as Christian Scientists obey the laws, I do not suppose their mental reservations will be thought to matter much. ”

“ I have crowned The Mother Church building with the spiritual modesty of Christian Science, which is its jewel. When my dear brethren in New York desire to build higher, — to enlarge their phylacteries and demonstrate Christian Science to a higher extent, — they must begin on a wholly spiritual foundation, than which there is no other, and proportionably estimate their success and glory of achievement only as they build upon the rock of Christ, the spiritual foundation. This will open the way, widely and impartially, to their never-ending success, — to salvation and eternal Christian Science. ”

“ Philanthropy is loving, ameliorative, revolutionary; it wakens lofty desires, new possibilities, achievements, and energies; it lays the axe at the root of the tree that bringeth not forth good fruit; it touches thought to spiritual issues, systematizes action, and insures success; it starts the wheels of right reason, revelation, justice, and mercy; it unselfs men and pushes on the ages. Love unfolds marvellous good and uncovers hidden evil. The philanthropist or reformer gives little thought to self-defence ”

“ May this church have one God, one Christ, and that one the God and Saviour whom the Scriptures declare. May it catch the early trumpet-call, take step with the twentieth century, leave behind those things that are behind, lay down the low laurels of vainglory, and, pressing forward in the onward march of Truth, run in joy, health, holiness, the race set before it, till, home at last, it finds the full fruition of its faith, hope, and prayer. ”

“ That is, he that hath the kingdom of heaven, the reign of holiness, in the least in his heart, shall be greatest.
Who shall inherit the earth? The meek, who sit at the feet of Truth, bathing the human understanding with tears of repentance and washing it clean from the taints of self-righteousness, hypocrisy, envy, — they shall inherit the earth, for “wisdom is justified of her children.” ”

“ Philosophical links, which would unite dead matter with animate, Spirit with matter and material means, prayer with power and pride of position, hinder the divine influx and lose Science, — lose the Principle of divine metaphysics and the tender grace of spiritual understanding, that love-linked holiness which heals and saves.
Schisms, imagination, and human beliefs are not parts of Christian Science; they darken the discernment of Science; they divide Truth's garment and cast lots for it. ”

“ The first impression was of vastness, then of light and cheerfulness, and when the vanguard of the thousands had been seated, expressions of surprise and of admiration were heard on every hand for the beauty and the grace of the architecture. The new home for worship that was opened by the Scientists in Boston yesterday can take a place in the front rank of the world's houses of worship, and it is no wonder that the first sight which the visitors caught of its interior should have impressed them as one of the events of their lives. ”

“ The basis of Christmas is the rock, Christ Jesus; its fruits are inspiration and spiritual understanding of joy and rejoicing, — not because of tradition, usage, or corporeal pleasures, but because of fundamental and demonstrable truth, because of the heaven within us. The basis of Christmas is love loving its enemies, returning good for evil, love that “suffereth long, and is kind.” The true spirit of Christmas elevates medicine to Mind; it casts out evils, heals the sick, raises the dormant faculties, appeals to all conditions, and supplies every need of man. ”

“ What we love determines what we are. I love the prosperity of Zion, be it promoted by Catholic, by Protestant, or by Christian Science, which anoints with Truth, opening the eyes of the blind and healing the sick. I would no more quarrel with a man because of his religion than I would because of his art. The divine Principle of Christian Science will ultimately be seen to control both religion and art in unity and harmony. God is Spirit, and “they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” ”

“ In the ratio that Christian Science is studied and understood, mankind will, as aforetime, imbibe the spirit and prove the practicality, validity, and redemptive power of Christianity by healing all manner of disease, by overcoming sin and death.
Must mankind wait for the ultimate of the millennium — until every man and woman comes into the knowledge of Christ and all are taught of God and see their apparent identity as one man and one woman — for God to be represented by His idea or image and likeness? ”

“ The unseen wrong to individuals and society they are too cowardly, too ignorant, or too wicked to uncover, and excuse themselves by denying that this evil exists. This mistaken way, of hiding sin in order to maintain harmony, has licensed evil, allowing it first to smoulder, and then break out in devouring flames. All that error asks is to be let alone; even as in Jesus' time the unclean spirits cried out, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee?”
Animal magnetism, in its ascending steps of evil, entices its victim by unseen, silent arguments. ”

“ When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone, — but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the ‘river of His pleasure,’ the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow, — even that joy which finds one's own in another's good. ”

“ Within its sacred walls may song and sermon generate only that which Christianity writes in broad facts over great continents — sermons that fell forests and remove mountains, songs of joy and gladness.
The letter of your work dies, as do all things material, but the spirit of it is immortal. Remember that a temple but foreshadows the idea of God, the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” while a silent, grand man or woman, healing sickness and destroying sin, builds that which reaches heaven. ”