Christian Science: The Science of Christian Healing
Dr. John R. Carr, C.S., of
The subjoined lecture, entitled
"Christian Science: The Science of Christian Healing," was delivered
in various Churches of Christ, Scientist, in Chicago and vicinity during the
current year by Dr. John R. Carr, C.S., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: member
of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First of Christ, Scientist,
in Boston, Massachusetts. The lecture is reprinted from a previous issue of the
Leader.
Christian Science, with its scientifically
Christian system of Mind-healing as taught and practiced originally by Christ
Jesus, and in this age by Mary Baker Eddy, is a subject of supreme importance
and profound significance to the whole world. It should be of paramount
interest to everyone. It deserves careful study and right practice because of
the fact that it offers to those who understand its Science and practice its
Christianity, good, all good and only good, that all-good which the all-good
God lovingly and freely bestows upon man and the universe here and now.
Christian Science is a subject
which today is engaging the attention and interest of many thinking people the
world over - a subject which is destined to gain the ear of humanity more and
more, until, in the fullness of time and in God's own way, it shall have led
the enslaved human mind out of its supposititiously self-created and
self-imposed dream of mortality, the dark error of its own mental Egypt, into
the promised land of spiritual understanding, into heaven itself, where, as
stated on page 227 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, "fetters fall and the
rights of man are fully known and acknowledged."
Christian Science is a Science, a
philosophy, and a religion, a threefold mode of thought whereby Truth comes to
the understanding. Through Christian Science, thought is repented, reformed, regenerated, purified, and spiritualized - the
human yielding to the divine; and, through baptism or the submergence of the
human in the divine, consciousness is exalted to the high level of spiritual understanding.
Christian Science is "The Way," lighting the mental path from the
low, base level of material thinking to the mountain height of spiritual
transfiguration, spiritual illumination, resurrection, and ascension. It is
more than a scientific experiment, a philosophical abstraction, or a religious ritual;
it is a conduct of life, a method of living, a plan of salvation through right
thinking, whereby thought is led out of the erroneous beliefs of sin, disease,
and death into the light and liberty of spiritual knowing or true being.
Christian Science is universal in its scope and application. It is applicable
to every possible human situation, condition, or circumstance, and, correctly
understood and rightly applied, meets and solves every possible human equation
or problem. It is practical in its demonstration and provable in its Science.
It is based upon infinite, divine, impartial, and universal Principle, which
must be understood and demonstrated. It has definite rules which must be
intelligently and correctly applied; and the result of the application of the
Principle according to the rule is proof, namely, the casting out of devils,
all evil, false beliefs, with the healing of the false sense of sin, sickness,
disease, and death.
Christian Science, properly presented
and rightly understood, is a "feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined."
Christian Science bids all to this "feast of fat things" and
"wines on the lees" as it spreads a table of Truth and Love for those
hungering and thirsting after righteousness. At this table of divine Science
the bread of Truth and the wine of Love
are freely shared. As interpreted in Christian Science, the breaking of bread
and the pouring of wine symbolize the teaching and preaching of absolute,
spiritual truth - the truth of being, the great truth of spiritual being. This
"bread indeed came down from heaven" (Science and Health, p. 33).
This is the wine which is "the inspiration of Love, the draught our Master
drank and commended to his followers" (ibid., p. 35). It is of this truth
that Jesus spake when he said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my
disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free." This is the age-old yet ever new truth which has been discovered
and founded in this age by Mary Baker Eddy. This truth is, today, teaching and
preaching the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, of
God, Mind, at hand and in individual spiritual consciousness. This gospel,
today as of old, does "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead,
cast out devils."
To be scientific, a system of healing
or of teaching must possess three fundamentals or prerequisites; namely: first, principle;
second, rule; third, proof. Christian
Science meets fully these requirements, as the following quotations from the
Christian Science textbook reveal: "The Principle of divine metaphysics is
God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utilization of the power of
Truth over error; its rules demonstrate its Science" (p. 111); and,
"Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this
declaration and its divine Principle, making mankind better physically,
morally, and spiritually" (p. 466).
World Struggle or Dilemma
Throughout the ages there has been
going on in human experience a struggle - a ceaseless, relentless, never-ending
struggle - and the end is not yet. This struggle is the action and reaction of
the so-called forces of nature, a constant and continuous agitation of the
so-called vital processes. As manifested in its various aspects, this agitation
or commotion has been called "the struggle for existence," "the
survival of the fittest," "natural selection," "organic
evolution," the common characteristic being the struggle or effort on the
part of the so-called living thing to gain and maintain a basis upon which to
stand, a point from which to start, and a goal toward which to go. It is indeed
an effort or urge on the part of humanity to find or to find out life, truth,
intelligence, substance - what it is and where it is.
This search for God, good, this
quest for truth, this struggle for existence, has engaged the attention of
thinkers through the ages. Natural scientists, philosophers, poets, and wise
men have labored long and well to answer life's problems. No one can doubt or
question the high purpose, the sincere desire, the unselfish effort of these
seekers for truth. Certain it is that in humanity's search for health and cure
there has been no lack of honest and sincere effort. I would be an ingrate
indeed, untrue to facts and to my highest sense of right and justice, did I not
take advantage of this opportunity to express publicly my appreciation of and
esteem for the noble lives and labors of the many splendid men and women engaged
in the practice of medicine and surgery. It has been my opportunity and
privilege to be associated with many such. I know something of their ideals,
their hopes, hardships, struggles, disappointments, and despair; and I say
without fear of contradiction that the practice of medicine has enlisted, as a
class, a high type of professional man and woman. These high-minded practitioners
are busily engaged in a noble effort to help and heal their fellow man. In the
item of unselfish service and devotion to duty all might learn valuable lessons
from the physicians of the better sort. I have found them, for the most part,
true and tried friends, good citizens, splendid neighbors, lovers and servers
of their brother man.
In spite of the high purpose and
noble effort of the matter-physician, health and cure have not been vouchsafed
to the human race. From a "great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,
halt, withered," the cry goes up: "Is there no balm in
Mind Is Medicine
Mind, not matter, is medicine.
Mrs. Eddy states this on page 142 of the textbook. She writes: "If Mind
was first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first
medicine. God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was
Mind." Health is a spiritually-mental state, not a physiological nor an
anatomical one. Healing is a metaphysical or divinely-mental process, not a
physical nor a pathological one. It is brought about by the action of
impersonal, impartial, universal Principle, divine Mind, Love, operating
through spiritual law, to the end of proving the presence, power, might,
majesty, dominion, victory, supremacy, even the allness of God, good, Mind,
Love.
It is scientifically and
Christianly true that God, Mind, Spirit, cares for His children. It is true
that Love's care is manifested in the forgiveness of sin and in the healing of
disease, sickness, and death. Jesus, the master Physician, was no wonder-worker.
He did not perform miracles in the generally accepted meaning of the term - that
of law infraction. Jesus was a Scientist in the most Christianly scientific interpretation
of the word "Science." On page 313 of the textbook Mrs. Eddy writes
of him, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the
globe." He understood fully and
demonstrated completely the Christ, Truth. He knew the truth and
practiced it, proving it to be what Mrs. Eddy defines Christian Science to be
(Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1): "the law of God, the law of good, interpreting
and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony."
Medical Practice Not an Exact Science
Medicine practiced materially is
not an exact or true science. The best that can be said of material medicine is
that it is a system of man-made theories, opinions, hypotheses, conjectures,
based upon observation, experimentation, correlation. It is empirical in
essence and nature, and based upon the testimony of the faulty senses. In
support of this view I quote the following medical authority: "The art of
medicine . . . will never be wholly within the control of pure science"
(Dr. David Riesman, Professor of Medical History, University of Pennsylvania,
in "Medicine in Modern Society," 1938, p. 13).
The conscientious physician admits
the dilemma in which he finds himself. Many admit the fact that medical
practice has not proved effectual in the treatment of disease, sickness, and
death. They see and acknowledge the inadequacy of material methods of healing,
and not a few are at their wits end - even in utter despair.
Illustrative of the situation I
quote Doctor Galdston, Information Director, New York Academy of Medicine: "Science
has left mankind spiritually bankrupt, because at rock bottom science is
amoral, not concerned with good, the true. Unless it mends its faults it will,
like blind Samson, bring down the palace upon itself, to its own destruction
and the irreparable hurt of humanity." A noted surgeon of my adopted city
was an invalid for many years. He taught and lectured from a wheel chair to
which he was confined. At his last public appearance in
As we look about we see a world
upset, disturbed, confused. The physical world is lashed and torn by wind and
wave; while storm, drought, flood, famine, and pestilence stalk abroad. The
social, political, economic, and industrial world is rent asunder by strife,
strikes, war and the rumor of war. Materialism has not stood the test, but has
given way and cracked under its own strain. Academic intellectualism has
become a babel of tongues. Nations, kingdoms, and governments rise and fall
with armies on the march and armaments on the increase. The moral world is
unstable and unsteady. Old and tried standards have been thrown overboard as
new and questionable ones are set up. The human mind has, in belief, an
insatiable appetite for new and strange sensations. In an effort to forget
itself, that is, by abandonment, this mind draws new and wider circles of
indulgence, thereby entangling itself in more subtle and degrading webs of
illusion and delusion. In an attempt to steer among the "Scylla and
Charybdis" of material sense, the pains and pleasures of the senses, this
prodigal mind strays into the far country of deluded sense, wastes its
substance in riotous living, spends all, and comes to grief and want. Feeding
on the "husks that the swine did eat," the wayward prodigal is
ultimately and inevitably wrecked on the shifting sands of sin and sensuality.
The insentient human body, ignorant and innocent victim of the attacks of the
would-be murderer, mortal mind, is either capsized and sunk in the mire of
suffering, sinning beliefs, or, floating aimlessly on the currents of fleeting,
whimsical fancies, is cast adrift, a derelict upon the barren and wasted shore
of a distorted and perverted sense.
Outside the realm and reign of
divine Science, that is, in the realm and reign of material sense, pandemonium
seems to run to its own ruin; "for to be carnally minded is death."
"The scientific statement of being"
Mrs. Eddy goes at once and for all
time to the very heart of the problem. She lays bare the issue and prescribes
the remedy. In clear, accurate, and unmistakable terms she states the two sides
of the proposition: first, what life, truth, intelligence, substance are not;
secondly, what they are. In that remarkable passage called
"the scientific statement of being," appearing on page 468 of the
textbook, Mrs. Eddy makes the
most accurate statement of the most scientific discovery ever brought to
humanity. It is surpassed by none in the history of scientific discovery. It deserves
to be rated with the religious sayings of the spiritual seer, John, who said,
"God is love," and that of Jesus, who said, "God is a
Spirit."
"The scientific statement of
being" is a correct statement of that which is, and an equally true statement
of that which seems to be but is not. It states the Science of being and the
error of sense, the fact of being and the fable of seeming. It presents
reality, Spirit, Mind, Truth, in scientific terms, together with the statement
of the unreality of human belief, the error of the ages, the error that
"deceiveth the whole world." As it appears in the textbook it reads:
"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 God, and man is His image and likeness.
Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."
This declaration presents the
truth and the whole truth, beyond which it is impossible to go. It is entire,
complete, and adequate for today and for all time. It is the scientific
statement of Truth - the truth about God, man, and the universe - together with
a statement of the unreality of human belief, the lie about creation.
"The scientific statement of
being" is radical and revolutionary in its every statement, breaking thoroughly
with the accepted theories regarding life, truth, intelligence, substance as
existent in or dependent upon matter. When from the standpoint of spiritual
understanding it was declared that matter is neither living, true,
intelligent, nor substantial, our Leader parted company with the systems of
her time and revealed the Science of Mind or Spirit. Since this declaration was
made slightly over a half-century ago, radical and fundamental changes have
taken place in the world's view regarding life, truth, intelligence, and
substance. New views are advanced, tending away from the false concepts of
matter as substance to the spiritual concept of Life, Truth, intelligence,
substance. This much-to-be-desired change in human thinking is due to the
leavening effect of Truth - the truth of being, revealed in Christian Science.
Christian Science Healing
In the Manual of The Mother
Church, written by Mary Baker Eddy, page 17, one reads: "At a meeting of
the Christian Scientist Association,
The "lost element of
healing," healing through spiritual law or divine power, lost to the
church, has been rediscovered and reinstated in Christian Science. This Science
offers to a sick and sinning world a system of healing which is scientific,
Christian, absolute, exact, full, and final; a system which, when applied
according to the Science stated in "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, has healed, is healing, and will continue
to heal, in an ever-increasing manner, every ill "that flesh is heir
to."
The last chapter in this book is
entitled "Fruitage." It contains one hundred pages devoted
exclusively to testimonies of healing brought about through the study of
Science and Health. Authenticated testimonies of healing appear in each issue
of the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, The Herald of
Christian Science in foreign languages. At the Wednesday church meetings held
over the world, testimonies are given by grateful and appreciative witnesses to
the power of Truth. Of special interest and value is the collection of verified
cases of healing in the personal experience of Mrs. Eddy, collected and
published in the Historical and Biographical Papers: Sketches from the Life of
Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science, Second Series, chapters
VII and VIII, published by The Christian Science Publishing Society, in
The Principle, rule, and proof of
this Christianly scientific system of medicine are set forth in the writings
of Mrs. Eddy, which, together with the King James Version of the Bible, form
the texts of Christian Science. Christian Science healing is a system of
therapeutics identical with that taught and practiced by Christ Jesus.
In an interview Jesus held with
his disciples, recorded in Matthew 16, the question arose concerning the
healings wrought by the Master. Jesus made inquiry, "Whom do men say that
I the Son of man am?" and "Whom say ye that I am?" Simon Peter
replied: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," which
answer is interpreted by Mrs. Eddy on page 137 of Science and Health to mean:
"The Messiah is what thou hast declared, - Christ, the spirit of God, of
Truth, Life, and Love, which heals mentally." The Master not only accepted
Simon's explanation as satisfactory, but showed approbation by saying:
"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against if." This Peter, or rock, refers not to the personal,
corporeal man, Simon Barjona, but rather to the spiritual understanding of Truth
and Love. It is this understanding of divine Science, the Science of God,
man, and the universe as divine Principle and spiritual idea, that cast out and
casts out the errors of false belief manifested as sin, disease, and death.
Shifting Sands versus
Firm Rock
Simon Peter presented in sharp
contrast conflicting mental states, the so-called "pairs of
opposites" of human thinking. At one time we find him denying the Master,
cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest, and first to suggest to
the bewildered disciples that they go back to the old, material way of thinking
and living, now the Master had left them. At another time we find him filled with the Holy
Ghost, divine Science, teaching and preaching and healing in the name of
Christ, Truth. Peter attained, at times, the height of spiritual understanding.
This understanding was the rock or firm foundation upon which was to be founded
the church for the healing of sin, sickness, disease, and death.
The idea of building on the firm
foundation of spiritual understanding is illustrated in Matthew 7:24-27, and
in Luke
The Bible story contrasting the
house or consciousness built on the sands of belief with the one founded upon
the rock further illustrates the necessity of practicing one's precepts, in
other words, the necessity of living Science in the daily life. It is Science
to do what one knows as well as
to know what one does. Knowing and doing are but phases of the same fact in
Science, while professing and not doing is a serious offense. Our Leader speaks
directly on this issue. She says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 293): "Truth
talked and not lived, rolls on the human heart a stone; consigns sensibility to
the charnel-house of sensuality, ease, self love, self-justification, there to
moulder and rot."
Leading medical authorities are
coming to the conclusion that the present great need - even dire necessity - in
the treatment of disease is a system or method other than and superior to any
so far evolved by the mind of man. These physicians have exhausted material
methods with uncertain and unsatisfactory results, and, in doubt, look to a new
and better therapy; but they know not where or what. Many of these doubting
Thomases are, to be sure, being deflected into the byways of so called human
metaphysics, psychological medicine, new-thought, unity, mental science,
psychoanalysis, hypnotism, theosophy, spiritualism, none of which have any
part in or direct similarity to the purely spiritual method of Christian Science.
I take great satisfaction in quoting, on this point, the late Dr. William
Osier, my teacher in medicine and my friend, Professor of Medicine at the
Cases of Healing Cited
I shall at this point present a
series of cases of disease healed through Christian Science. These have come
directly under my notice.
Case A. Congenital stricture of
stomach in new-born. - Alarming digestive symptoms presented themselves in
new-born shortly after delivery with diagnosis of pyloric stenosis of stomach
made by surgical staff of university hospital. Surgical procedure was urged,
but radical stand for Christian Science taken against the advice, warning, and
threats of physicians. Complete healing
resulted.
Case B. Chronic ear infection,
acute mastoiditis, abscess, deafness. - A young boy suffered with discharge
from ear following measles. This became complicated by the sudden onset of
inflammatory process with abscess formation behind infected ear. Two surgeons
urged emergency operation, giving bad prognosis, as brain was thought to be
infected. The case was handled chiefly through the thought of mother.
Disappearance of signs and symptoms in five days.
Case C. Instantaneous healing of organic
valvular heart disease. - A young man eked out a miserable existence as an
invalid with organic heart disease, following multiple attacks of acute
articular rheumatism. He attended a free lecture on Christian Science by a
member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church and was greatly impressed.
At next subsequent attack he received Christian Science treatment, resulting in
instantaneous healing. The patient returned immediately to work and to a
normal and healthy life, with mountain climbing as an avocation.
Classification of Disease
- Organic and Functional
By way of summarizing the above
cases it is to be noted that each is of the type of so-called organic disease,
so diagnosed by supposedly competent medical men. I shall discuss briefly the
classification of disease with special reference to the widely used terminology
"organic and functional" as applied to disorders of the body and
mind, my purpose being to show that while such a classification may be of value
to those handling disease on a matter basis, it has no value to the
metaphysician or Christian Scientist.
Any man-made classification of
disease is artificial and superficial. Only those who look upon disease as an
entity, or essentially physical, could find the classification "organic
and functional" of possible value, and this value would be relative and
superficial rather than fundamental or real. Structure and action, that is,
organ and function, are but two phases of the same anatomical or physiological
fact. They exist and coexist in biological life and man. They go hand in hand,
and in both normal and abnormal states strike and maintain a corresponding
parallelism. Structure or organ makes function, and function is organ in
action. This classification has resulted in possible confusion of thought and
has tended to limit the practice of spiritual healing to certain types of
disease. My remarks are for the purpose of doing away with this confusion and
of promoting the practice of spiritual healing to disease of every name and
nature.
Man-made classification will undoubtedly
be used by the materialist for an indefinite period of time; but it will find
no place in scientific Christianity or Christian Science. It had no place in
primitive Christianity. Certain it is that Christ Jesus did not classify
disease on any such artificial basis, nor did he treat disease from any such
superficial viewpoint.
Mrs. Eddy takes a most scientific
stand on the subject. She states in no uncertain terms that Christ, Truth,
heals all diseases - all types and kinds - organic and functional. A number of
quotations might be given from the writings of our Leader. I shall use but one
(Science and Health, p. 162); "Christian Science heals organic disease as
surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires only a fuller
understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science to demonstrate the
higher rule."
Mrs. Eddy, the Woman of
the Ages
And now, my friends, I come to
that part of my address which, to me at least, is the sweetest and the best. As
recorded in the Gospel according to John, writing of the marriage feast in
Cana of Galilee, "Thou hast kept the good wine until now." It is my
opportunity, privilege, duty, responsibility to speak to you about a truly
"great woman," the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian
Science; and I approach my subject, Mary Baker Eddy, with genuine and profound
respect, honor, reverence, esteem, appreciation, and love.
I am grateful for an ever-unfolding
and ever-increasing appreciation of and love for this refined, cultured,
spiritually-minded
The term "great woman"
appears only once in Holy Writ. In II Kings 4:8 it is applied to the Shunammite
woman, and refers to spiritual qualities or attributes rather than to
physique. It is in the same sense that the term is to be applied to Mrs. Eddy.
She was great as she was good.
H. G. Wells, the popular English
writer, has listed the characters of history. Among the "truly great"
he has listed the names of three, Jesus, Aristotle, and Buddha. As requirements
for eligibility to the listing "truly great," Mr. Wells fixes two:
"They must have started men to think along fresh lines and with
vigor;" and, "They must have left something to grow." Asked
whether a woman might qualify as
"truly great," Mr. Wells replied, "No." According to the
terms of the above mentioned requirements - to "have started men to think
along fresh lines and with vigor," and to "have left something to
grow" - Mary Baker Eddy qualifies for the highest possible rating among
the "truly great." She has discovered a Science and a religion,
Christian Science. This Science has started men to think along fresh lines,
ever unfolding and ever renewing; and with vigor, the vigor of a new faith, a
new hope, a new love - indeed a new Life, the Life which is divine Mind. She
has founded the
Mrs. Eddy has appeared in human
history in the light of prophecy and fulfillment. Through the ages references
have appeared to the coming of a great, good, and noble woman. Now Mrs. Eddy
has appeared. Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1860 wrote, "In heaven's own time, a
new truth will be revealed. The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must
be a woman indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise."
Certain it is that Mrs. Eddy deserves
the rating "great woman" as it concerns my human experience, my healing
and salvation. After years of intensive study of her writings, after having
witnessed the fruits of her labor as manifested in healed bodies, minds, homes,
businesses of the thousands who "arise up, and call her blessed,"
and as the result of my own healing, after medicine and surgery had failed, I
do not hesitate to state my
honest conviction that history does not record another woman who has given so
much and asked so little, one who has served humanity so unselfishly and so
well. From the viewpoint of character and achievement she stands preeminent
among the great and good women of all time. My earthly father, a physician of
the old school of general practitioner, used his art and his skill in an honest
and sincere effort to minister to my ailing body and disturbed mind, but with
no avail. Myself a member of the surgical staff of one of the leading medical
schools and hospitals, I received from the kindly hearts and willing hands of
my professional associates the best and the all that medicine and surgery had
to offer. It remained, however, for Mrs. Eddy to give me, through Christian
Science, that gleam of light and truth which has enabled me to touch, at least,
the hem of the garment of Christ, Truth, and to begin the regenerative process
of spiritual healing, or being made whole.
It is right, beautiful, and
necessary that Christian Science should have been discovered and founded by a
woman; and it is fitting and proper that it should have as its Leader a woman.
Christian Science owes its conception and inception, its origin and
establishment, to a woman, and the loyal Christian Scientist gladly pays
merited tribute to this divinely inspired woman. Nineteen centuries ago, a
woman was good enough and pure enough to conceive and bring forth the child
Jesus, the personal or human messenger of the Christ, Truth; and in our own age
a woman was good enough and pure enough to conceive and bring forth the impersonal
or spiritual message, Christian Science.
Our Leader understood more thoroughly,
embodied more completely, and expressed more fully the spiritual qualities or
attributes of God, divine Mind, than did any other earthly inhabitant with the
exception of the Master. Of the many characteristics reflected by her I shall
speak of but one - moral courage.
Moral Courage
It takes moral courage to speak
the truth. This is true today, here and now; but how much more was it true when
Mrs. Eddy stood alone, a pioneer in spiritual truth! In a doubting and
skeptical age, rank with materialism and Pharisaical with scholastic theology,
she, single handed and alone with Principle, planted the Christianity of Jesus
upon the rock of spiritual understanding and scientific demonstration,
thereby establishing it on the firm foundation of infinite, divine Science. She
has made the Christian religion safe and secure for all time and for all men.
She has saved it from the attacks of evil of every sort - from atheism, agnosticism,
idolatry, infidelity, pharisaism, idolatry, within and without. It is a fact
worthy of note that the span of the human experience of Mrs. Eddy parallels
chronologically that period in medical history known as the Golden Age, that
period during which medical art and practice is said to have reached its
high-water mark of progress and development. Mrs. Eddy combined the courage of
a Daniel and a David in that she, alone and unafraid, faced the theological and
medical systems of her time; and, in the face of their complexities and
ambiguities, contradictions and uncertainties, presented the "simplicity
that is in Christ" - Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy knew that "the
battle is the Lord's;" and she placed her hope, her trust, and her Cause
under the shadow of the Almighty God. The Christian Science organization is the
direct, natural, and inevitable outcome of the prayers of faith and the labors
of love of this "great woman."
My purpose in dwelling on the life
and the character of Mrs. Eddy is that we all may render unto her the honor,
respect, reverence, and love due her. This is but a fair and just request of a
fair and just people. Mary Baker Eddy is the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader
of Christian Science, and the sole author of its original and only textbook,
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is as such that
she wished to be known, and it is right that she be ever known as such.
Conclusion
I am profoundly grateful for this
opportunity and privilege of speaking to you and thinking with you on the
subject of Christian Science. I recommend that you diligently pursue the study
and practice of this Science. It
will bring into your life-experience fruit - "some thirty, and some sixty,
and some an hundred" - each according to his sowing, "good measure,
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." The healing Christ,
in divine Science, is ever at hand to save and to heal. Receive him unto
thyself.
In conclusion I quote one of our
Leader's poems (Poems, p. 75) entitled "Communion Hymn" and to be
found in the Christian Science Hymnal (Nos. 298-302):
"Saw ye my Saviour? Heard ye
the glad sound?
Felt ye the power of the Word?
'Twas the Truth that made us free,
And was found by you and me
In the life and the love of our
Lord.
"Mourner, it calls you, - 'Come
to my bosom,
Love wipes your tears all away,
And will lift the shade of gloom,
And for you make radiant room
Midst the glories of one endless
day.'
"Sinner, it calls you, - 'Come
to this fountain,
Cleanse the foul senses within;
'Tis the Spirit that makes pure,
That exalts thee, and will cure
All thy sorrow and sickness and sin.'
"Strongest deliverer, friend
of the friendless,
Life of all being divine:
Thou the Christ, and not the
creed;
Thou the Truth in thought and
deed;
Thou the water, the bread, and the
wine."
The
Date unknown