Christian Science: The Key to Self-Government
John Sidney Braithwaite, M.A., C.S.B.
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
In seeking for a test to apply to
any form of religious teaching one hardly would expect to improve on the words
of an eighteenth century writer who says "That is the truest doctrine
which hath a tendency to make thee live in the best and wisest
manner." Christian Science
nevertheless proposes a further test, for it says that if such doctrine is
based on the teachings of Christ Jesus, as it surely will be, then it should be
found to confer in addition the best health. It is just because Christian
Science has helped and is helping so many people to a better and wiser manner
of life, besides healing them of physical ailments and keeping them well, that
so much interest has been aroused
in it.
The essential sanity and health
and optimism which permeate Christian Science are helping to leaven human thought,
and to supply the moral qualities that are needed to hold it steadfast in the
midst of present storms and beating waves.
Christian Science strengthens the
weak hands, confirms the feeble knees and says to those that are of a fearful
heart, "Be strong, fear not."
Many of us are here, no doubt, in
the spirit of enquiry, we want to
know in what way this teaching substantiates its claim to be both Christian and
Science, we want to know how the
healing is done, and perhaps also
whether it is applicable to our own case. These points I shall try to explain,
and also I shall try to show that in seeking the truth about God's government
of His universe, we find the truth about individual self-government. There is no lesson more needed today than that
of self-government, for until that is learned one cannot be ready, as all
should be, to participate in the government of the people, which means
government in obedience to divine Law. Is it not clear that a nation or a
movement will be safe when self-government is the first concern of the
individuals composing it?
Mary Baker Eddy
When one considers the place that
the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, occupies in
the unfoldment of Christianity, one finds it to be unique. You cannot compare
her to such religious teachers or reformers as Luther, Calvin, Wesley or George
Fox for this reason, that while each one of those men had his distinct message
to the age in which he lived and each one had a certain genius for organization,
not one ever claimed the full measure of the Master's promises. It seems that
they did not see far enough to associate his teaching with the word Science,
neither did they dare to advocate physical healing as an essential part of the
Master's instructions to his disciples throughout all time. They did not know
how to do so, and in some instances where healing occurred, they even feared
lest it should result in a darkening of their message, through a building up of
their own personality, in place of the Christ. And, mind you, they were not
very wide of the mark in estimating this danger, but Mrs. Eddy saw it too and
faced it. She fearlessly insisted on healing as an essential feature of Christianity,
but she also saw that nothing but strict adherence to the truth could qualify
for this demonstration. She was a Moses to this age, saying, as Moses said to
the children of Israel, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of
the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give
ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these
diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord
that healeth thee."
Mrs. Eddy brought to Christianity
that which it had hitherto lacked − the Science of its teaching. Nothing
could be added to the spirit of the Master's teaching, but the age was
demanding its scientific and systematic explanation. Mrs. Eddy supplied both.
Her book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is the
textbook of Christian Science, and her Church Manual provides the rules by which
this healing system becomes an integral feature of the
The story of Mrs. Eddy's own
healing which was occasioned by a sudden flash of illumination thrown on a
passage of Scripture, has been so often
told that I will not repeat it now, but it is perhaps not so generally known
that it was a regular physician who urged her to embody her discovery in a book
and thus give to the world her curative system of divine metaphysics. He had
good reason for doing so, for he had seen her heal pneumonia instantaneously when
he himself had declared that the patient could not live.
One might dwell at considerable
length on Mrs. Eddy's deeply spiritual nature, her unselfed and statesmanlike
leadership of the Christian Science movement, her far-seeing wisdom, her loving
warning, her stern rebuke, and her gentle entreaty, but I think that the world
today is more willing to concede these things than it formerly was and to give
to her her rightful place, and so I will proceed to deal with some aspects of
her discovery.
Back to the Bible
Perhaps the most important thing
that Christian Science does for the real truth-seeker is that it gives him back his Bible. So many people
have let their Bibles go in exchange for the more speculative and uninspired
writings of would be leaders of thought. They have wandered far into theories
about health, government, human nature, death and the hereafter, in many cases
only to return by the same door they went in saying as old Omar said:
"There was the door to which
I found no key:
There was the veil through which I
might not see."
And just as we may hear nowadays
the call of "back to the land," reminding men of the essentials of
existence, lost sight of in the anxieties of the war or the rush and
speculation of the city, so in Christian Science the cry is "back to the
Bible." There you will find the door you seek to open, and here in Christian
Science is the key to it. The very first of the tenets of Christian Science is
"As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our
sufficient guide to eternal life."
It may be asked how one is to know
which parts of the Bible are "inspired Word" and which are not. What
about the talking serpent, Noah and his ark, the whale that swallowed Jonah,
and a hundred other things either unintelligible or unbelievable? Well, these
things do not have to be regarded as actual material occurrences, but rather as
word pictures or illustrations to show what takes place in the human
consciousness when the truth begins to enlighten it. Suppose that someone were
to take you into a large room filled with furniture, books, pictures and other
curios, but so dimly lighted that you could barely distinguish the various
objects and certainly could make nothing of them, and then he should begin to tell
you of their great interest and priceless value. You might say to him "all
that you say about these things may be perfectly true, but it hardly interests
me because I can't see them in this dim light."
But if the light were turned up it
would all be quite different. You could see the things then, study them and
form your own estimate of them.
That is what Christian Science
does for the Bible. It turns up the light, so
that all can see for themselves.
Text-Book Commentary
The key which the Christian
Science textbook supplies to the Bible brings a power of discernment hitherto
unsuspected, so that one is released from the old fossilized theories that have
neither Science nor common sense to support them and learns to think clearly,
connectedly and authoritatively, first on the Scriptures themselves, and then
on every phase of human experience. In this way one finds self-government, and
self-government brings authority with it − the authority which comes from
right thinking. It was of this kind of authority, as illustrated in the life of
the Master that it was written on one occasion that the spectators were
"amazed," and questioned among themselves, saying, "What thing
is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the
unclean spirits and they do obey him."
Christian Science explains that in
the life of Jesus the Mind which created the Universe was become articulate in
human experience, so that all false belief and materialism knowing its hour
was come, literally quailed before it. The divine Principle, which holds all
things in its orderly grasp, was expressing itself in the thoughts and actions
of a man.
Christian Science reveals to us
that this same Mind, or Principle, is today omnipresent and is God. Many
people nowadays are using vague terms such as
God
In Christian Science it becomes
apparent that not human attributes, even the best of them, constitute God, but
that, on the contrary, the divine Mind is self existent, and the human mind
knows nothing truly about life until it begins to discard its own material
limitations and to acquaint itself intelligently with this divine Mind or
Spirit.
"God is Spirit," said
the great Wayshower, "and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth." Now, Spirit is one of the seven synonymous terms used to
denote God, and Christian Science shows that there is scriptural authority for
these seven terms.
In each one we find the pure
thought gem, not requiring any setting in which to be exhibited, but revealing
itself more and more as a complete idea, satisfying while yet unfathomable,
simple, yet profound.
"Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle.
Life, Truth, Love." If we take each one of these terms and study it
thoughtfully, we find ourselves being lifted into a nearer and truer sense of
God. The effort to gain this clearer vision, looking away from the human to the
divine, is the prayer of faith in Christian Science, and this prayer is answered
in the harmony, health, and peace that it brings. We can see then that we do
not need another human being, whether in the guise of priest or doctor, to take
care of our spiritual or physical welfare for us. Indeed they cannot do so. We
must work out our own salvation.
Source of Human Falsities
Now touching these human theories
about man and his origin, all of which are permeated with a great deal of
hopelessness and despair, because of their insistence on materialism as the
basis of life, and evil as an inescapable law, Mrs. Eddy writes in
"Science and Health" (p. 489), "The corporeal senses are the
only source of evil or error." This is a very profound statement, and like
all really profound statements it simplifies things enormously. It is a hopeless
thing to think of evil as some kind of diabolical intelligence with which we
can never expect to cope − but if its source is traceable to the
corporeal senses, we know we can cope with them if we care to take the trouble.
"I keep under my body," said Paul, "and bring it into
subjection," and what an example of freedom and self-government we have in
him.
We may study the writings of
Plato, Plotinus, Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Berkeley and others, and we may gain a
sense that matter is not the self-existent thing it appears to be, and we
shall find that modern, scientific research upholds this position. But we shall
not in this way have advanced far along the road which leads to Jesus' statement,
"The flesh profiteth nothing," or Mrs. Eddy's definition of matter to
be mortal mind, illusion, the opposite of Truth. It is comparatively easy to see
that the so-called properties of matter are qualities of thought, but it is quite
another thing to gain the spiritual perception that matter thoughts are illusion
or nothingness. All sin and disease are traceable to this illusion regarding
matter, and Christian Science teaches that disease is not a law of God, neither
is it a law of matter, but that it is mortal mind that causes disease, and
mortal mind that needs to be corrected. It was Jesus' understanding of this
fact that gave his mission on earth such startling significance. With his clear
spiritual vision he taught men the simplicity of the truth and healed all kinds
of diseases, treating them as the results of false belief. Finally he faced the
darkest phase that human experience can offer − a cruel death with every
man's hand against him − and triumphed completely over it in the
experience known as the resurrection, thereby annulling death − matter's
strongest claim. This was his atonement − the proof of man's scientific
unity with God − his at-one-ment with divine Mind.
Jesus No Ascetic
What then does bringing the body
"into subjection" really mean? Does it mean treating it with
asceticism and contempt, and like St. Francis referring to it as "my
brother, the ass?" Such a position may, no doubt, be achieved by an effort
of will, but is it the scientific way along which Jesus of Nazareth was the
first to tread? There is nothing to show that Jesus was an ascetic. On the
contrary, he seems to have been a very normal person in all matters to do with eating,
drinking, clothing and resting, though no one will deny that he was the most
unselfed man that ever lived.
What to the ascetic appeared to be
temptations to sin, to Jesus were symbols of the divine providence − the
temporary food and clothing which are needed by mortals in the transition stage
from the purely material sense of supply to that condition of spiritual
understanding which can say in the Master's words, "I have meat to eat
that ye know not of." He knew that the real health, the real food, and the
real clothing of the real man came from Mind alone, and that the understanding
of this fact brings now an abundance of blessings.
But while Jesus was tolerant and
friendly towards a normal sense of good, so distinct from the abnormal and
self-righteous sense of it entertained by the Pharisees, which he again and
again rebuked, he was not tolerant towards what mortals are accustomed to
consider a normal sense of evil, such as sin, disease, or death are.
These things he saw to be the
outcome of a misguided thought, lost in the darkness of materialism, led on by
a will-o'-the-wisp − a false sense of good.
When appealed to by a sufferer, he
recognized this turning to him to be an awakening out of the mesmerism of
sensuality, and in clear terms he encouraged the wrestler with "According
to your faith be it unto you." He knew it required faith to turn away from
the body, and one can see the sufferer's thought looking away from the
evidences of disease and sin and limitation to something higher, caught from him
the divine light and found instantly what it sought. Neither health laws, not
physical disabilities, nor temptations withstand this demonstration of the
Christ, God's presence and omnipotence. For that is what the Christ is −
the communicator of good, of health, purity, holiness, to men. Now we do not
hear what anyone is saying to us if
our thought is busy with something else, neither can we receive the Christ
communication if we are wholly preoccupied with self and the body. Therefore
bringing the body into subjection really means, not starving and bullying it,
but dropping it out of thought − mentally rising superior to the illusive
suggestions of pleasure or pain in matter − forgetting self, and
listening for God's message to man of Life, Truth and Love.
Best Work of All
Perhaps it is because we have
become so absorbed in material
occupations of one kind or another that we have come to think of Science, let
alone, Christian Science, as outside our scope. There is something very
satisfying about having a lot of work to do, and the absence of work seems to
create such a void in a man's life, that Stevenson once said of work that it
was "God's greatest gift to man."
But listen to this,
"Labour not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of
Man shall give unto you: for him hath God the
Father sealed.
Then said they unto him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent."
Perhaps you have never thought of
your work just in that light. The desk, the shop, the factory, the plough, the
pulpit, whatever your particular task may be, have kept you fully occupied. But
they, so far from being your real work, may sometimes be no more than your
excuse for not doing this work that Jesus outlined. What is it to "believe
on him whom he hath sent"? It must mean more than mere acquiescence, as
one might say "I believe there is a North Pole." It must surely mean
to grasp the spiritual idea of manhood which Jesus presented and to stop
thinking of man as a fallen being − a sick and sinning mortal. "Cease
ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils," says the Bible.
If some fruit that is good to eat
and some that is poisonous is set before you, you eat the good and reject the
bad. Your belief expresses itself in action and so it should always do.
The truth about God and man is set
before us in Christian Science and we can understand it and demonstrate it. Christian
Science reveals to us that we have omnipotence close at hand and all around us
giving authority to our every thought and action that is in line with truth. In
the textbook of Christian Science we have the scientific rule, which Jesus
promised should be given, enabling us to correct our thinking and to put the
truth in the place of the lie, as he did centuries ago.
Proofs Not Perfunctory
How is one to know that one is
escaping from materialism and really grasping the spiritual idea of manhood
which Jesus demonstrated? Here is the answer from the Bible: −
"These signs (proofs) shall follow them that believe; In my name shall
they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
These then are to be the proofs
that we have a right understanding of Life. Not, you will observe, the
occupancy of positions of prominence, not the wearing of fine raiment, not
wealth and popularity, but the casting out of devils (where are these devils,
or evils, if not in our own thoughts?), speaking with new tongues (not being
afraid to voice the truth), handling of serpents (showing up deceit), immunity
from poison and healing of the sick.
Most people will say that they
were never taught that these things were any part of their duty as a Christian,
regular attendance at church being regarded as an adequate sign following
Christian belief. Consulting a recent commentary on this passage I find these
words: "The gift of miracles was given to assist the diffusion of the
gospel at the very first. When Christianity was firmly planted, the gift of
miracles was withdrawn. Could any statement be more misleading than this? It
surely has not a particle of foundation. To begin with, Jesus never used the
word "miracles." He said these "signs" or
"proofs" shall follow them that believe. And again, he never hinted
that there would be a time limit to these proofs. It is no more correct to say
that these proofs have been withdrawn than it is to say that there is a time
limit to the fact that 2 x 2 = 4 or to such inventions as the telephone or the
electric light. The only difficulty there is about the healing work is the
difficulty we have in understanding God. How else can we know that we
understand God except we have proofs of His omnipotence and omnipresence? It
is not intellectual proficiency that is
needed for the making of these proofs, but the unselfing of thought
through purity, humility and affection, − the advancing stages of self-government.
Based on Rules
The healing work in Christian Science
is not just an exhibition of blind faith in the supernatural, or in some divine
interposition. It is based on certain rules derived from the Master himself.
This treatment, sometimes unspoken, but more often, according to the narrative,
spoken, almost invariably resulted in complete and instantaneous healing. This
is the kind of healing that needs to be restored today − not the grouping
and experimental methods of materia medica, not the blind reliance on a
good person, a good place, or a good thing, which sometimes produces the same
kind of faith-healing that drugs produce − but the Christ method, which
turns the sufferer's thought to Him "who healeth all thy diseases . . . . who
crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies," in other words, to
his divine Principle, God. What a waste of time it is trying to locate a
diabolical intelligence, in a tiny germ, equipped with a body so small that you cannot see it, when the
truth is that neither a germ nor any other suppositional manifestation of
evil, or disease, can influence in the smallest degree a mind that has gained
the secret of self-government. This secret brings detachment from the current
fears and alarms, either in regard to health, property or social conditions,
and places us mentally where, in the poet's words,
"neither evil
tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish
men,
Nor greetings where no kindness
is, or all
The dreary intercourse of daily
life
Shall e'er prevail against us or
disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which
we behold
Is full of blessings."
The demonstration we are to make in
Christian Science is that sin and disease have no power because they have no
mind, and that we, as children of the one Mind, can overcome these false
beliefs through Christ, of whom Paul writes that if we look to him, he "Shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body."
Fallacy of Medicine
A fond delusion that seems to be
gaining currency nowadays is that the health of the community may be improved
through the systematic application of medical methods to the individual
citizen. It is as if we were to become so much live stock awaiting the market
− to be sold to the highest bidder.
"What is a man," asks
Hamlet,
"If his chief good and market
of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast,
no more."
There is something peculiarly
abhorrent to most people in the notion that health is an animal property,
dependent on matter. Have we not seen over and over again that man, regarded as
a healthy animal, will be betrayed by animality. Samson would be a good illustration
of this, and Hercules another. Both of them were brought to disaster by
animality, the very thing that the doctors would call good health. Christian Science
gives us back the right idea of man as the spiritual image and likeness of God,
and not merely a healthy animal.
Christian Scientists have no
quarrel with the doctors but they do believe that the notion that in order to
understand health you must be a student of disease, has proved fallacious and
very costly to the community, You might as well expect a gardener to spend his
time studying weeds. Investigation of disease has enormously increased the
number of diseases. The study of health means the contemplation of that which
is governed by law, and law is spiritual. The raising of the standard of living
has improved health conditions and will continue to do so, but this is due to common
sense and a higher morality, not to drugs or inoculation.
We are told in the Bible of one
king, who "sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians," indicating
that it was a matter of reproach that he did not seek his health from God. If
that were the general thought today, we should not have such an enormous and
costly system in our midst as that known as "materia medica," and
undoubtedly great numbers of those unselfish workers whose motive is to
alleviate the sufferings of humanity would not be seeking to cure material
belief with drugs and hypnotism, but would be Christian Scientists enlisted to
lessen sin, disease, and death, in the Christ way, the way that Jesus taught on
the shores of Galilee.
Only One Authority
We should never let ourselves be
lulled into a false sense of security by statistics, or the statement that all
the authorities are agreed. A recent writer in dealing with this latter
contention humorously remarks: − "When I am told that all
authorities agree, I feel certain that one of them has blundered, and the rest
have followed him without enquiry."
Again, the argument that things
have always been so is no argument in their favor. Antiquity does not add venerability
to false belief. The fact that they found loaded dice in
Therefore they must be scientific
and they must be the only test which can safely be applied to all the modern
so-called sciences. If the latter do not stand that test, then they become as
Paul said, "oppositions of science falsely so called."
You see how inevitably we are
thrown back on to Christ Jesus for our authority in all matters. His kingship
stands because it is impossible that any human authority can ever supersede it.
We are safe if we hold to him, and Christian Science does not ask us to swerve
one hair's breath from his teaching. Instead it confirms it and reinforces it
at every point. We should ask ourselves whether, like the captain of a ship, we
are steering our course according to the chart that he mapped out, or whether
we are mere pleasure sailors going anywhere that the caprice of the moment
suggests.
True Self-Government
Self-government does not, of
course, mean just having you own way in everything. "Man is properly
self-governed," writes Mrs. Eddy ("Science and Health," p. 106),
"only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth
and Love."
To the degree that a man finds the
truth in Christian Science, the law of God enters into his heart, and he
becomes a representative of Principle. Basing his life on the first
commandment and the Golden Rule he finds himself naturally impelled to uphold
law and order and to aid in the ejection of disorder or lawlessness. He becomes more compassionate and willing to
share his new found freedom with those who are suffering from a false sense of
law, that is, from disease, or sin, or limitation. He knows that what has
healed him can heal others and he gladly brings to their notice the fact that
the Christ method of healing is here on earth today, and that it is to be found
embodied in the textbook "Science and Health," to which all may have
access. It would probably be correct to say that more healing of disease and
sin has resulted from the study of this book than from any other known method.
Let us never lose sight of the
fact that it is our absolute right to worship God in the way that seems best to
us, our right to seek health in any direction that we please, provided that we
do not trespass on the equal rights of others in so doing. Any attempted infringement
on this right, whether mental or physical, compulsory religion or compulsory medicine,
will not be tolerated in this age.
In conclusion, let me recite to
you the short prayer given by Mrs. Eddy to Christian Scientists for their daily
use (Manual, p. 41):
" 'Thy kingdom come;' let the
reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me
all sin: and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern
them."
True self-government first, and
then the government of all mankind through "Thy Word."
May not each of us, however feeble
and inadequate our footsteps have been hitherto, take up from today this vital
question of self-government, and find the true method in Christian Science.
To quote the words of John
Robinson, original pastor to the Pilgrim Fathers, "When Christ reigns, and
not till then, will the world have peace."