Reformers
The olden opinion that hell is fire and brimstone, has
yielded somewhat to the metaphysical fact that suffering
is a thing of mortal mind instead of body: so, in place
of material flames and odor, mental anguish is generally [5]
accepted as the penalty for sin. This changed belief
has wrought a change in the actions of men. Not a few
individuals serve God (or try to) from fear; but remove
that fear, and the worst of human passions belch forth
their latent fires. Some people never repent until earth [10]
gives them such a cup of gall that conscience strikes home;
then they are brought to realize how impossible it is to
sin and not suffer. All the different phases of error in
human nature the reformer must encounter and help to
eradicate. [15]
This period is not essentially one of conscience: few
feel and live now as when this nation began, and our
forefathers' prayers blended with the murmuring winds
of their forest home. This is a period of doubt, inquiry,
speculation, selfishness; of divided interests, marvellous [20]
good, and mysterious evil. But sin can only work out
its own destruction; and reform does and must push on
the growth of mankind.
Honor to faithful merit is delayed, and always has
been; but it is sure to follow. The very streets through [25]
which Garrison was dragged were draped in honor of
the dead hero who did the hard work, the immortal work,
of loosing the fetters of one form of human slavery. I
remember, when a girl, and he visited my father, how a
childish fear clustered round his coming. I had heard [30]
the awful story that “he helped ‘niggers’ kill the white [1]
folks!” Even the loving children are sometimes made
to believe a lie, and to hate reformers. It is pleasant,
now, to contrast with that childhood's wrong the reverence
of my riper years for all who dare to be true, honest to [5]
their convictions, and strong of purpose.
The reformer has no time to give in defense of his
own life's incentive, since no sacrifice is too great for the
silent endurance of his love. What has not unselfed love
achieved for the race? All that ever was accomplished, [10]
and more than history has yet recorded. The reformer
works on unmentioned, save when he is abused or his
work is utilized in the interest of somebody. He may
labor for the establishment of a cause which is fraught
with infinite blessings,—health, virtue, and heaven; [15]
but what of all that? Who should care for everybody?
It is enough, say they, to care for a few. Yet the good
is done, and the love that foresees more to do, stimulate
philanthropy and are an ever-present reward. Let one's
life answer well these questions, and it already hath a [20]
benediction:
Have you renounced self? Are you faithful? Do
you love?
Mrs. Eddy Sick
The frequent public allegement that I am “sick, unable [25]
to speak a loud word,” or that I died of palsy, and am
dead,—is but another evidence of the falsehoods kept
constantly before the public.
While I accord these evil-mongers due credit for their
desire, let me say to you, dear reader: Call at the [1]
Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in 1889, and judge
for yourself whether I can talk—and laugh too! I
never was in better health. I have had but four
days' vacation for the past year, and am about to com- [5]
mence a large class in Christian Science. Lecturing,
writing, preaching, teaching, etc., give fair proof that
my shadow is not growing less; and substance is taking
larger proportions.
“I've Got Cold”
Out upon the sidewalk one winter morning, I observed
a carriage draw up before a stately mansion; a portly
gentleman alight, and take from his carriage the ominous
hand-trunk.
“Ah!” thought I, “somebody has to take it; and what [15]
may the potion be?”
Just then a tiny, sweet face appeared in the vestibule,
and red nose, suffused eyes, cough, and tired look, told
the story; but, looking up quaintly, the poor child said,—
“I've got cold, doctor.” [20]
Her apparent pride at sharing in a popular influenza
was comical. However, her dividend, when compared
with that of the household stockholders, was new; and
doubtless their familiarity with what the stock paid, made
them more serious over it. [25]
What if that sweet child, so bravely confessing that
she had something that she ought not to have, and which
mamma thought must be gotten rid of, had been taught
the value of saying even more bravely, and believing
it,— [30]
“I have not got cold.” [1]
Why, the doctor's squills and bills would have been
avoided; and through the cold air the little one would
have been bounding with sparkling eyes, and ruby cheeks
painted and fattened by metaphysical hygiene. [5]
Parents and doctors must not take the sweet freshness
out of the children's lives by that flippant caution, “You
will get cold.”
Predicting danger does not dignify life, whereas fore-
casting liberty and joy does; for these are strong pro- [10]
moters of health and happiness. All education should
contribute to moral and physical strength and freedom.
If a cold could get into the body without the assent of
mind, nature would take it out as gently, or let it remain
as harmlessly, as it takes the frost out of the ground or [15]
puts it into the ice-cream to the satisfaction of all.
The sapling bends to the breeze, while the sturdy oak,
with form and inclination fixed, breasts the tornado. It
is easier to incline the early thought rightly, than the
biased mind. Children not mistaught, naturally love [20]
God; for they are pure-minded, affectionate, and gen-
erally brave. Passions, appetites, pride, selfishness, have
slight sway over the fresh, unbiased thought.
Teach the children early self-government, and teach
them nothing that is wrong. If they see their father with [25]
a cigarette in his mouth—suggest to them that the habit
of smoking is not nice, and that nothing but a loathsome
worm naturally chews tobacco. Likewise soberly inform
them that “Battle-Axe Plug” takes off men's heads; or,
leaving these on, that it takes from their bodies a sweet [30]
something which belongs to nature,—namely, pure
odors.
From a religious point of view, the faith of both youth [1]
and adult should centre as steadfastly in God to benefit
the body, as to benefit the mind. Body and mind are
correlated in man's salvation; for man will no more
enter heaven sick than as a sinner, and Christ's Christi- [5]
anity casts out sickness as well as sin of every sort.
Test, if you will, metaphysical healing on two patients:
one having morals to be healed, the other having a physi-
cal ailment. Use as your medicine the great alterative,
Truth: give to the immoralist a mental dose that says, [10]
“You have no pleasure in sin,” and witness the effects.
Either he will hate you, and try to make others do like-
wise, so taking a dose of error big enough apparently to
neutralize your Truth, else he will doubtingly await the
result; during which interim, by constant combat and [15]
direful struggles, you get the victory and Truth heals him
of the moral malady.
On the other hand, to the bedridden sufferer admin-
ister this alternative Truth: “God never made you sick:
there is no necessity for pain; and Truth destroys the [20]
error that insists on the necessity of any man's bondage
to sin and sickness. “Ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.’ ”
Then, like blind Bartimeus, the doubting heart looks
up through faith, and your patient rejoices in the gospel [25]
of health.
Thus, you see, it is easier to heal the physical than the
moral ailment. When divine Truth and Love heal, of
sin, the sinner who is at ease in sin, how much more should
these heal, of sickness, the sick who are dis-eased, dis- [30]
comforted, and who long for relief!
“Prayer And Healing”
The article of Professor T——, having the above cap- [1]
tion, published in Zion's Herald, December third, came
not to my notice until January ninth. In it the Professor
offered me, as President of the Metaphysical College in
Boston, or one of my students, the liberal sum of one [5]
thousand dollars if either would reset certain dislocations
without the use of hands, and two thousand dollars if
either would give sight to one born blind.
Will the gentleman accept my thanks due to his gener- [10]
osity; for, if I should accept his bid on Christianity, he
would lose his money.
Why?
Because I performed more difficult tasks fifteen years
ago. At present, I am in another department of Christian [15]
work, “where there shall no signs be given them,” for
they shall be instructed in the Principle of Christian
Science that furnishes its own proof.
But, to reward his liberality, I offer him three thou-
sand dollars if he will heal one single case of opium-eating [20]
where the patient is very low and taking morphine powder
in its most concentrated form, at the rate of one ounce in
two weeks,—having taken it twenty years; and he is to
cure that habit in three days, leaving the patient well. I
cured precisely such a case in 1869. [25]
Also, Mr. C. M. H——, of Boston, formerly partner
of George T. Brown, pharmacist, No. 5 Beacon St., will
tell you that he was my student in December, 1884; and
that before leaving the class he took a patient thoroughly
addicted to the use of opium—if she went without it [30]
twenty-four hours she would have delirium—and in [1]
forty-eight hours cured her perfectly of this habit,
with no bad results, but with decided improvement in
health.
I have not yet made surgery one of the mental branches [5]
taught in my college; although students treat sprains,
contusions, etc., successfully. In the case of sprain of the
wrist-joint, where the regular doctor had put on splints
and bandages to remain six weeks, a student of mine
removed these appliances the same day and effected the [10]
cure in less than one week. Reference, Mrs. M. A. F——,
107 Eutaw Street, East Boston.
I agree with the Professor, that every system of medi-
cine claims more than it practises. If the system is Science,
it includes of necessity the Principle, which the learner [15]
can demonstrate only in proportion as he understands it.
Boasting is unbecoming a mortal's poor performances.
My Christian students are proverbially modest: their
works alone should declare them, since my system of medi-
cine is not generally understood. There are charlatans [20]
in “mind-cure,” who practise on the basis of matter, or
human will, not Mind.
The Professor alludes to Paul's advice to Timothy.
Did he refer to that questionable counsel, “Take a little
wine for thy stomach's sake”? Even doctors disagree [25]
on that prescription: some of the medical faculty will
tell you that alcoholic drinks cause the coats of the stomach
to thicken and the organ to contract; will prevent the
secretions of the gastric juice, and induce ulceration,
bleeding, vomiting, death. [30]
Again, the Professor quotes, in justification of material
methods, and as veritable: “He took a bone from the
side of Adam, closed up the wound thereof, and builded [1]
up the woman.” (Gen. ii. 21.)
Here we have the Professor on the platform of Christian
Science! even a “surgical operation” that he says was
performed by divine power,—Mind alone constructing [5]
the human system, before surgical instruments were
invented, and closing the incisions of the flesh.
He further states that God cannot save the soul without
compliance to ordained conditions. But, we ask, have
those conditions named in Genesis been perpetuated in [10]
the multiplication of mankind? And, are the conditions
of salvation mental, or physical; are they bodily penance
and torture, or repentance and reform, which are the
action of mind?
He asks, “Has the law been abrogated that demands [15]
the employment of visible agencies for specific ends?”
Will he accept my reply as derived from the life and
teachings of Jesus?—who annulled the so-called laws of
matter by the higher law of Spirit, causing him to walk
the wave, turn the water into wine, make the blind to see, [20]
the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the dead to be
raised without matter-agencies. And he did this for man's
example; not to teach himself, but others, the way of
healing and salvation. He said, “And other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold.” [25]
The teachings and demonstration of Jesus were for
all peoples and for all time; not for a privileged class or
a restricted period, but for as many as should believe in
him.
Are the discoverers of quinine, cocaine, etc., espe- [30]
cially the children of our Lord because of their medical
discoveries?
We have no record showing that our Master ever used, [1]
or recommended others to use, drugs; but we have his
words, and the prophet's, as follows: “Take no thought,
saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?”
“And Asa ... sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. [5]
And Asa slept with his fathers.”
Veritas Odium Parit
The combined efforts of the materialistic portion of
the pulpit and press in 1885, to retard by misrepresen-
tation the stately goings of Christian Science, are giving [10]
it new impetus and energy; calling forth the vox populi
and directing more critical observation to its uplifting
influence upon the health, morals, and spirituality of
mankind.
Their movements indicate fear and weakness, a physi- [15]
cal and spiritual need that Christian Science should re-
move with glorious results. The conclusion cannot now
be pushed, that women have no rights that man is bound
to respect. This is woman's hour, in all the good tend-
encies, charities, and reforms of to-day. It is difficult [20]
to say which may be most mischievous to the human
heart, the praise or the dispraise of men.
I have loved the Church and followed it, thinking that
it was following Christ; but, if the pulpit allows the people
to go no further in the direction of Christlikeness, and [25]
rejects apostolic Christianity, seeking to stereotype infinite
Truth, it is a thing to be thankful for that one can walk
alone the straight and narrow way; that, in the words of
Wendell Phillips, “one with God is a majority.”
It is the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the pro- [1]
hibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of
the world,—all unmitigated systems of crime; and it
requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through
civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes. [5]
It was the Southern pulpit and press that influenced the
people to wrench from man both human and divine rights,
in order to subserve the interests of wealth, religious caste,
civil and political power. And the pulpit had to be
purged of that sin by human gore,—when the love of [10]
Christ would have washed it divinely away in Christian
Science!
The cry of the colored slave has scarcely been heard
and hushed, when from another direction there comes
another sharp cry of oppression. Another form of inhumanity [15]
lifts its hydra head to forge anew the old fetters;
to shackle conscience, stop free speech, slander, vilify;
to invite its prey, then turn and refuse the victim a solitary
vindication in this most unprecedented warfare.
A conflict more terrible than the battle of Gettysburg [20]
awaits the crouching wrong that refused to yield its
prey the peace of a desert, when a voice was heard
crying in the wilderness,—the spiritual famine of 1866,
—“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths
straight.” [25]
Shall religious intolerance, arrayed against the rights
of man, again deluge the earth in blood? The question
at issue with mankind is: Shall we have a spiritual Chris-
tianity and a spiritual healing, or a materialistic religion
and a materia medica? [30]
The advancing faith and hope of Christianity, the
earnest seeking after practical truth that shall cast out
error and heal the sick, wisely demand for man his God- [1]
given heritage, both human and divine rights; namely,
that his honest convictions and proofs of advancing truth
be allowed due consideration, and treated not as pearls
trampled upon. [5]
Those familiar with my history are more tolerant; those
who know me, know that I found health in just what I
teach. I have professed Christianity a half-century; and
now I calmly challenge the world, upon fair investigation,
to furnish a single instance of departure in one of my [10]
works from the highest possible ethics.
The charges against my views are false, but natural,
since those bringing them do not understand my state-
ment of the Science I introduce, and are unwilling to be
taught it, even gratuitously. If they did understand it, they [15]
could demonstrate this Science by healing the sick; hence
the injustice of their interpretations.
To many, the healing force developed by Christian
Science seems a mystery, because they do not understand
that Spirit controls body. They acknowledge the exist- [20]
ence of mortal mind, but believe it to reside in matter
of the brain; but that man is the idea of infinite Mind,
is not so easily accepted. That which is temporary
seems, to the common estimate, solid and substantial.
It is much easier for people to believe that the body [25]
affects mind, than that the body is an expression of
mind, and reflects harmony or discord according to
thought.
Everything that God created, He pronounced good.
He never made sickness. Hence that is only an evil belief [30]
of mortal mind, which must be met, in every instance,
with a denial by Truth.
This is the “new tongue,” the language of them that [1]
“lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover,” whose
spiritual interpretation they refuse to hear. For instance:
the literal meaning of the passage “lay hands on the sick”
would be manipulation; its moral meaning, found in the [5]
“new tongue,” is spiritual power,—as, in another Scripture,
“I will triumph in the works of Thy hands.”
Falsehood
The Greeks showed a just estimate of the person they
called slanderer, when they made the word synonymous [10]
with devil. If the simple falsehoods uttered about me
were compounded, the mixture would be labelled thus:
“Religionists' mistaken views of Mrs. Eddy's book,
‘Sci-
ence and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” and the
malice aforethought of sinners.” [15]
That I take opium; that I am an infidel, a mesmerist,
a medium, a “pantheist;” or that my hourly life is prayerless,
or not in strict obedience to the Mosaic Decalogue,—
is not more true than that I am dead, as is oft reported.
The St. Louis Democrat is alleged to have reported my [20]
demise, and to have said that I died of poison, and bequeathed
my property to Susan Anthony.
The opium falsehood has only this to it: Many years
ago my regular physician prescribed morphine, which I
took, when he could do no more for me. Afterwards, [25]
the glorious revelations of Christian Science saved me
from that necessity and made me well, since which time
I have not taken drugs, with the following exception:
When the mental malpractice of poisoning people was
first undertaken by a mesmerist, to test that malprac- [1]
tice I experimented by taking some large doses of mor-
phine, to see if Christian Science could not obviate its
effect; and I say with tearful thanks, “The drug had
no effect upon me whatever.” The hour has struck, [5]
—“If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them.”
The false report that I have appropriated other people's
manuscripts in my works, has been met and answered
legally. Both in private and public life, and especially [10]
through my teachings, it is well known that I am not a
spiritualist, a pantheist, or prayerless. The most devout
members of evangelical churches will say this, as well as
my intimate acquaintances. None are permitted to re-
main in my College building whose morals are not un- [15]
questionable. I have neither purchased nor ordered a
drug since my residence in Boston; and to my knowledge,
not one has been sent to my house, unless it was something
to remove stains or vermin.
The report that I was dead arose no doubt from the [20]
combined efforts of some malignant students, expelled
from my College for immorality, to kill me: of their mental
design to do this I have proof, but no fear. My heavenly
Father will never leave me comfortless, in the amplitude
of His love; coming nearer in my need, more tenderly to [25]
save and bless.