Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896

by Mary Baker Eddy

Science And Philosophy

Men give counsel; but they give not the wisdom to

profit by it. To ask wisdom of God, is the beginning of

wisdom. [30]

Meekness, moderating human desire, inspires wisdom [1]

and procures divine power. Human lives are yet un-

carved,—in the rough marble, encumbered with crude,

rude fragments, and awaiting the hammering, chiselling,

and transfiguration from His hand. [5]

Great only as good, because fashioned divinely, were

those unpretentious yet colossal characters, Paul and

Jesus. Theirs were modes of mind cast in the moulds

of Christian Science: Paul's, by the supremely natural

transforming power of Truth; and the character of [10]

Jesus, by his original scientific sonship with God. Phi-

losophy never has produced, nor can it reproduce, these

stars of the first magnitude—fixed stars in the heavens

of Soul. When shall earth be crowned with the true

knowledge of Christ? [15]

When Christian Science has melted away the cloud of

false witnesses; and the dews of divine grace, fall-

ing upon the blighted flowers of fleeting joys, shall

lift every thought-leaflet Spiritward; and “Israel after

the flesh,” who partaketh of its own altars, shall be [20]

no more,—then, “the Israel according to Spirit”

shall fill earth with the divine energies, understanding,

and ever-flowing tides of spiritual sensation and consciousness.

When mortal mind is silenced by the “still, small voice” [25]

of Truth that regenerates philosophy and logic; and

Jesus, as the true idea of Him, is heard as of yore saying

to sensitive ears and dark disciples, “I came from the

Father,” “Before Abraham was, I am,” coexistent and

coeternal with God,—and this idea is understood,— [30]

then will the earth be filled with the true knowledge of

Christ. No advancing modes of human mind made

Jesus; rather was it their subjugation, and the pure [1]

heart that sees God.

When the belief in material origin, mortal mind, sen-

sual conception, dissolves through self-imposed suffering,

and its substances are found substanceless,—then its [5]

miscalled life ends in death, and death itself is swallowed

up in Life,—spiritual Life, whose myriad forms are

neither material nor mortal.

When every form and mode of evil disappear to hu-

man thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual con- [10]

cepts testifying to one creator,—then, earth is full of

His glory, and Christian Science has overshadowed all

human philosophy, and being is understood in startling

contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato,

Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer [15]

sit at the feet of Jesus.

To this great end, Paul admonished, “Let us lay aside

every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,

and let us run with patience the race that is set before

us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our [20]

faith.” So shall mortals soar to final freedom, and rest

from the subtlety of speculative wisdom and human

woe.

God is the only Mind, and His manifestation is the

spiritual universe, including man and all eternal indi- [25]

viduality. God, the only substance and divine Principle

of creation, is by no means a creative partner in the firm

of error, named matter, or mortal mind. He elucidates

His own idea, wherein Principle and idea, God and man,

are not one, but are inseparable as cause and effect. If [30]

one, who could say which that “one” was?

His ways are not as our ways. The divine modes

and manifestations are not those of the material senses; [1]

for instance, intelligent matter, or mortal mind, material

birth, growth, and decay: they are the forever-existing

realities of divine Science; wherein God and man are

perfect, and man's reason is at rest in God's wisdom,— [5]

who comprehends and reflects all real mode, form, indi-

viduality, identity.

Scholastic dogma has made men blind. Christ's logos

gives sight to these blind, ears to these deaf, feet to these

lame,—physically, morally, spiritually. Theologians [10]

make the mortal mistake of believing that God, having

made all, made evil; but the Scriptures declare that all

that He made was good. Then, was evil part and parcel

of His creation?

Philosophy hypothetically regards creation as its own [15]

creator, puts cause into effect, and out of nothing would

create something, whose noumenon is mortal mind,

with its phenomenon matter,—an evil mind already

doomed, whose modes are material manifestations of

evil, and that continually, until self-extinguished by [20]

suffering!

Here revelation must come to the rescue of mortals,

to remove this mental millstone that is dragging them

downward, and refute erring reason with the spiritual

cosmos and Science of Soul. We all must find shelter [25]

from the storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit.

Truth is won through Science or suffering: O vain mor-

tals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward,

except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform

the sinner. And pleasure is no crime except when it [30]

strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens

the activities of virtue. The more nearly an erring so-

called mind approaches purity, the more conscious it [1]

becomes of its own unreality, and of the great reality of

divine Mind and true happiness.

The “ego” that claims selfhood in error, and passes

from molecule and monkey up to man, is no ego, but is [5]

simply the supposition that the absence of good is mind

and makes men,—when its greatest flatterer, identifica-

tion, is piqued by Him who compensateth vanity with

nothingness, dust with dust!

The mythology of evil and mortality is but the ma- [10]

terial mode of a suppositional mind; while the immortal

modes of Mind are spiritual, and pass through none of

the changes of matter, or evil. Truth said, and said from

the beginning, “Let us [Spirit] make man perfect;” and

there is no other Maker: a perfect man would not desire [15]

to make himself imperfect, and God is not chargeable

with imperfection. His modes declare the beauty of holi-

ness, and His manifold wisdom shines through the visible

world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even through

the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His [20]

coming.

We must avoid the shoals of a sensual religion or

philosophy that misguides reason and affection, and

hold fast to the Principle of Christian Science as the

Word that is God, Spirit, and Truth. This Word cor- [25]

rects the philosopher, confutes the astronomer, exposes

the subtle sophist, and drives diviners mad. The Bible

is the learned man's masterpiece, the ignorant man's

dictionary, the wise man's directory.

I foresee and foresay that every advancing epoch of so [30]

Truth will be characterized by a more spiritual appre-

hension of the Scriptures, that will show their marked

consonance with the textbook of Christian Science Mind- [1]

healing, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”

Interpreting the Word in the “new tongue,” whereby

the sick are healed, naturally evokes new paraphrase

from the world of letters. “Wait patiently on the Lord, [5]

and He will renew your strength.” In return for indi-

vidual sacrifice, what a recompense to have healed, through

Truth, the sick and sinful, made the public your friend,

and posterity your familiar!

Christian Science refutes everything that is not a [10]

postulate of the divine Principle, God. It is the soul of

divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It

is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God's

right hand grasping the universe,—all time, space,

immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; con- [15]

stituting and governing all identity, individuality, law,

and power. It stands on this Scriptural platform:

that He made all that was made, and it is good, reflects

the divine Mind, is governed by it; and that nothing

apart from this Mind, one God, is self-created or evolves [20]

the universe.

Human hypotheses predicate matter of Spirit and

evil of good; hence these opposites must either cooperate

or quarrel throughout time and eternity,—or until

this impossible partnership is dissolved. If Spirit is the [25]

lawgiver to matter, and good has the same power or

modes as evil, it has the same consciousness, and there

is no absolute good. This error, carried to its ultimate,

would either extinguish God and His modes, or give

reality and power to evil ad infinitum. [30]

Christian Science rends this veil of the temple of gods,

and reproduces the divine philosophy of Jesus and Paul.

This philosophy alone will bear the strain of time and [1]

bring out the glories of eternity; for “other founda-

tion can no man lay than that is laid,” which is Christ,

Truth.

Human theories weighed in the balances of God are [5]

found wanting; and their highest endeavors are to Science

what a child's love of pictures is to art. The school whose

schoolmaster is not Christ, gets things wrong, and is ignorant

thereof.

If Christian Science lacked the proof of its goodness [10]

and utility, it would destroy itself; for it rests alone on

demonstration. Its genius is right thinking and right

acting, physical and moral harmony; and the secret of

its success lies in supplying the universal need of better

health and better men. [15]

Good health and a more spiritual religion form the

common want, and this want has worked out a moral

result; namely, that mortal mind is calling for what im-

mortal Mind alone can supply. If the uniform moral

and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of divine Science [20]

were lacking, the demand would diminish; but it con-

tinues, and increases, which shows the real value of

Christian Science to the race. Even doctors agree that

infidelity, bigotry, or sham has never met the growing

wants of humanity. [25]

As a literature, Christian metaphysics is hampered by

lack of proper terms in which to express what it means.

As a Science, it is held back by the common ignorance

of what it is and of what it does,—and more than all

else, by the impostors that come in its name. To be [30]

appreciated, it must be conscientiously understood and

introduced.

If the Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the [1]

Scriptures” had in our schools the time or attention that

human hypotheses consume, they would advance the

world. True, it requires more study to understand and

demonstrate what they teach than to learn the doctrine [5]

of theology, philosophy, or physics, because they con-

tain and offer Science, with fixed Principle, given rule,

and unmistakable proof.

The Scriptures give the keynote of Christian Science

from Genesis to Revelation, and this is the prolonged [10]

tone: “For the Lord He is God, and there is

none beside Him.” And because He is All-in-all,

He is in nothing unlike Himself; and nothing that

worketh or maketh a lie is in Him, or can be divine con-

sciousness. [15]

At this date, poor jaded humanity needs to get her

eyes open to a new style of imposition in the field of

medicine and of religion, and to “beware of the leaven

of the scribes and Pharisees,” the doctrines of men, even

as Jesus admonished. From first to last, evil insists on [20]

the unity of good and evil as the purpose of God; and

on drugs, electricity, and animal magnetism as modes

of medicine. To a greater or less extent, all mortal conclusions

start from this false premise, and they necessarily

culminate in sickness, sin, disease, and death. [25]

Erroneous doctrines never have abated and never will

abate dishonesty, self-will, envy, and lust. To destroy

sin and its sequence, is the office of Christ, Truth,—ac-

cording to His mode of Christian Science; and this is

being done daily. [30]

The false theories whose names are legion, gilded with

sophistry and what Jesus had not, namely, mere book-

learning,—letter without law, gospel, or demonstration, [1]

—have no place in Christian Science. This Science re-

quires man to be honest, just, pure; to love his neighbor

as himself, and to love God supremely.

Matter and evil are subjective states of error or mortal [5]

mind. But Mind is immortal; and the fact of there

being no mortal mind, exposes the lie of suppositional

evil, showing that error is not Mind, substance, or

Life. Thus, whatever is wrongfully-minded will dis-

appear in the proportion that Science is understood, [10]

and the reality of being—goodness and harmony—is

demonstrated.

Error says that knowing all things implies the neces-

sity of knowing evil, that it dishonors God to claim that

He is ignorant of anything; but God says of this fruit [15]

of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, “In the

day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” If

God is infinite good, He knows nothing but good; if He

did know aught else, He would not be infinite. Infinite

Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To [20]

good, evil is never present; for evil is a different state of

consciousness. It was not against evil, but against know-

ing evil, that God forewarned. He dwelleth in light;

and in the light He sees light, and cannot see darkness.

The opposite conclusion, that darkness dwelleth in light, [25]

has neither precedent nor foundation in nature, in logic,

or in the character of Christ.

The senses would say that whatever saves from sin,

must know sin. Truth replies that God is too pure

to behold iniquity; and by virtue of His ignorance of [30]

that which is not, He knoweth that which is, and

abideth in Himself, the only Life, Truth, and Love,

—and is reflected by a universe in His own image [1]

and likeness.

Even so, Father, let the light that shineth in dark-

ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, dispel this

illusion of the senses, open the eyes of the blind, and cause [5]

the deaf to hear.

“Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”

Lowell