Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896. Mary Baker Eddy

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Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 - Mary Baker Eddy

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in no wise except by increase of spirituality.

      My first plank in the platform of Christian Science [15]

      is as follows: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor

      substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite

      manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal

      Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and

      eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is [20]

      God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man

      is not material; he is spiritual.”1

      [pg 022]

      I am strictly a theist—believe in one God, one Christ [1]

      or Messiah.

      Science is neither a law of matter nor of man. It is

      the unerring manifesto of Mind, the law of God, its

      divine Principle. Who dare say that matter or [5]

      mortals can evolve Science? Whence, then, is it, if not

      from the divine source, and what, but the contempor-

      ary of Christianity, so far in advance of human knowl-

      edge that mortals must work for the discovery of even a

      portion of it? Christian Science translates Mind, God, [10]

      to mortals. It is the infinite calculus defining the line,

      plane, space, and fourth dimension of Spirit. It abso-

      lutely refutes the amalgamation, transmigration, absorp-

      tion, or annihilation of individuality. It shows the

      impossibility of transmitting human ills, or evil, from one [15]

      individual to another; that all true thoughts revolve

      in God's orbits: they come from God and return to

      Him—and untruths belong not to His creation, there-

      fore these are null and void. It hath no peer, no comp-

      petitor, for it dwelleth in Him besides whom “there is [20]

      none other.”

      That Christian Science is Christian, those who have

      demonstrated it, according to the rules of its divine

      Principle—together with the sick, the lame, the deaf, and

      the blind, healed by it—have proven to a waiting world. [25]

      He who has not tested it, is incompetent to condemn it;

      and he who is a willing sinner, cannot demonstrate it.

      A falling apple suggested to Newton more than the

      simple fact cognized by the senses, to which it seemed

      to fall by reason of its own ponderosity; but the primal [30]

      cause, or Mind-force, invisible to material sense, lay

      concealed in the treasure-troves of Science. True,

      [pg 023]

      Newton named it gravitation, having learned so much; [1]

      but Science, demanding more, pushes the question:

      Whence or what is the power back of gravitation—the

      intelligence that manifests power? Is pantheism true?

      Does mind “sleep in the mineral, or dream in the [5]

      animal, and wake in man”? Christianity answers this

      question. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, demon-

      strated a divine intelligence that subordinates so-called

      material laws; and disease, death, winds, and waves,

      obey this intelligence. Was it Mind or matter that spake [10]

      in creation, “and it was done”? The answer is self-

      evident, and the command remains, “Thou shalt have

      no other gods before me.”

      It is plain that the Me spoken of in the First Com-

      mandment, must be Mind; for matter is not the Chris- [15]

      tian's God, and is not intelligent. Matter cannot even

      talk; and the serpent, Satan, the first talker in its behalf,

      lied. Reason and revelation declare that God is both

      noumenon and phenomena—the first and only cause.

      The universe, including man, is not a result of atomic [20]

      action, material force or energy; it is not organized dust.

      God, Spirit, Mind, are terms synonymous for the one

      God, whose reflection is creation, and man is His image

      and likeness. Few there are who comprehend what Chris-

      tian Science means by the word reflection. God is seen [25]

      only in that which reflects good, Life, Truth, Love—

      yea, which manifests all His attributes and power, even

      as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror repeats

      precisely the looks and actions of the object in front of it.

      All must be Mind and Mind's ideas; since, according to [30]

      natural science, God, Spirit, could not change its species

      and evolve matter.

      [pg 024]

      These facts enjoin the First Commandment; and [1]

      knowledge of them makes man spiritually minded. St.

      Paul writes: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to

      be spiritually minded is life and peace.” This knowl-

      edge came to me in an hour of great need; and I give it [5]

      to

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