Love
What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what
worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the un-
derived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the [1]
alone God, is Love.
By what strange perversity is the best become the most
abused,—either as a quality or as an entity? Mortals
misrepresent and miscall affection; they make it what [5]
it is not, and doubt what it is. The so-called affection
pursuing its victim is a butcher fattening the lamb to
slay it. What the lower propensities express, should be
repressed by the sentiments. No word is more mis-
construed; no sentiment less understood. The divine [10]
significance of Love is distorted into human qualities,
which in their human abandon become jealousy and
hate.
Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken
down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a [15]
rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active
witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand
achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast
aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring
of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or [20]
goodness without activity and power. As a human quality,
the glorious significance of affection is more than words:
it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent,
ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows;
the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a [25]
side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the
gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and
woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark
places of earth.
Address On The Fourth Of July At Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., Before 2,500 Members Of The Mother Church, 1897
My beloved brethren, who have come all the way from
the Pacific to the Atlantic shore, from the Palmetto to the [5]
Pine Tree State, I greet you; my hand may not touch
yours to-day, but my heart will with tenderness untalkable.
His Honor, Mayor Woodworth, has welcomed you to
Concord most graciously, voicing the friendship of this
city and of my native State—loyal to the heart's core to [10]
religion, home, friends, and country.
To-day we commemorate not only our nation's civil
and religious freedom, but a greater even, the liberty of
the sons of God, the inalienable rights and radiant reality
of Christianity, whereof our Master said: “The works [15]
that I do shall he do;” and, “The kingdom of God
cometh
not with observation” (with knowledge obtained from
the senses), but “the kingdom of God is within you,”—
within the present possibilities of mankind.
Think of this inheritance! Heaven right here, where [20]
angels are as men, clothed more lightly, and men as angels
who, burdened for an hour, spring into liberty, and the
good they would do, that they do, and the evil they would
not do, that they do not.
From the falling leaves of old-time faiths men learn a [25]
parable of the period, that all error, physical, moral, or
religious, will fall before Truth demonstrated, even as
dry leaves fall to enrich the soil for fruitage.
Sin, sickness, and disease flee before the evangel of
Truth as the mountain mists before the sun. Truth is [30]
the tonic for the sick, and this medicine of Mind is not [1]
necessarily infinitesimal but infinite. Herein the mental
medicine of divine metaphysics and the medical systems
of allopathy and homœopathy differ. Mental medi-
cine gains no potency by attenuation, and its largest [5]
dose is never dangerous, but the more the better in every
case.
Christian Science classifies thought thus: Right thoughts
are reality and power; wrong thoughts are unreality and
powerless, possessing the nature of dreams. Good thoughts [10]
are potent; evil thoughts are impotent, and they should
appear thus. Continuing this category, we learn that
sick thoughts are unreality and weakness; while healthy
thoughts are reality and strength. My proof of these
novel propositions is demonstration, whereby any man [15]
can satisfy himself of their verity.
Christian Science is not only the acme of Science
but the crown of Christianity. It is universal. It ap-
peals to man as man; to the whole and not to a por-
tion; to man physically, as well as spiritually, and to all [20]
mankind.
It has one God. It demonstrates the divine Principle,
rules and practice of the great healer and master of meta-
physics, Jesus of Nazareth. It spiritualizes religion and
restores its lost element, namely, healing the sick. It [25]
consecrates and inspires the teacher and preacher; it
equips the doctor with safe and sure medicine; it en-
courages and empowers the business man and secures
the success of honesty. It is the dear children's toy and
strong tower; the wise man's spiritual dictionary; the [30]
poor man's money; yea, it is the pearl priceless whereof
our Master said, if a man findeth, he goeth and selleth
all that he hath and buyeth it. Buyeth it! Note the [1]
scope of that saying, even that Christianity is not merely
a gift, as St. Paul avers, but is bought with a price, a great
price; and what man knoweth as did our Master its
value, and the price that he paid for it? [5]
Friends, I am not enough the new woman of the period
for outdoor speaking, and the incidental platform is not
broad enough for me, but the speakers that will now ad-
dress you—one a congressman—may improve our
platforms; and make amends for the nothingness of [10]
matter with the allness of Mind.
Well Doinge Is The Fruite Of Doinge Well
Herrick
This period is big with events. Fraught with history,
it repeats the past and portends much for the future. [15]
The Scriptural metaphors,—of the woman in travail,
the great red dragon that stood ready to devour the child
as soon as it was born, and the husbandmen that said,
“This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the in-
heritance may be ours,”—are type and shadow of this [20]
hour.
A mother's love touches the heart of God, and should
it not appeal to human sympathy? Can a mother tell
her child one tithe of the agonies that gave that child
birth? Can that child conceive of the anguish, until she [25]
herself is become a mother?
Do the children of this period dream of the spiritual
Mother's sore travail, through the long night, that has
opened their eyes to the light of Christian Science? Cherish
these new-born children that filial obedience to which the [1]
Decalogue points with promise of prosperity? Should not
the loving warning, the far-seeing wisdom, the gentle entreaty,
the stern rebuke have been heeded, in return for
all that love which brooded tireless over their tender [5]
years? for all that love that hath fed them with Truth,—
even the bread that cometh down from heaven,—as the
mother-bird tendeth her young in the rock-ribbed nest of
the raven's callow brood!
And what of the hope of that parent whose children [10]
rise up against her; when brother slays brother, and
the strength of union grows weak with wickedness?
The victim of mad ambition that saith, “This is
the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance
may be ours,” goes on to learn that he must at last [15]
kill this evil in “self” in order to gain the kingdom
of God.
Envy, the great red dragon of this hour, would obscure
the light of Science, take away a third part of the stars
from the spiritual heavens, and cast them to the earth. [20]
This is not Science. Per contra, it is the mortal mind
sense—mental healing on a material basis—hurling
its so-called healing at random, filling with hate its
deluded victims, or resting in silly peace upon the
laurels of headlong human will. “What shall, therefore, [25]
the Lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy
the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto
others.”
Little Gods
It is sometimes said, cynically, that Christian Scien-
tists set themselves on pedestals, as so many petty deities;
but there is no fairness or propriety in the aspersion.
Man is not equal to his Maker. That which is formed [5]
is not cause, but effect; and has no underived power.
But it is possible, and dutiful, to throw the weight of
thought and action on the side of right, and to be thus
lifted up.
Man should be found not claiming equality with, but [10]
growing into, that altitude of Mind which was in Christ
Jesus. He should comprehend, in divine Science, a
recognition of what the apostle meant when he said:
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; [15]
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”
Advantage Of Mind-Healing
It is sometimes asked, What are the advantages of your
system of healing?
I claim for healing by Christian Science the following [20]
advantages:—
First: It does away with material medicine, and rec-
ognizes the fact that the antidote for sickness, as well
as for sin, may be found in God, the divine Mind.
Second: It is more effectual than drugs, and cures [25]
where they fail, because it is this divine antidote, and
metaphysics is above physics.
Third: Persons who have been healed by Christian [1]
Science are not only cured of their belief in disease, but
they are at the same time improved morally. The body
is governed by Mind, and mortal mind must be corrected
in order to make the body harmonious. [5]
A Card
While gratefully acknowledging the public confidence
manifested in daily letters that protest against receiving
instruction in the Massachusetts Metaphysical College
from any other than Mrs. Eddy, I feel, deeply, that of [10]
necessity this imposes on me the severe task of remaining
at present a public servant: also, that this must prevent
my classes from forming as frequently as was an-
nounced in the October number of the Journal, and
necessitates receiving but a select number of students. [15]
To meet the old impediment, lack of time, that has oc-
casioned the irregular intervals between my class terms,
I shall continue to send to each applicant a notice from
one to two weeks previous to the opening term.
Mary Baker G. Eddy
Spirit And Law
We are accustomed to think and to speak of gravitation
as a law of matter; while every quality of matter,
in and of itself, is inert, inanimate, and non-intelligent.
The assertion that matter is a law, or a lawgiver, is [25]
anomalous. Wherever law is, Mind is; and the notion
that Mind can be in matter is rank infidelity, which either [1]
excludes God from the universe, or includes Him in every
mode and form of evil. Pantheism presupposes that
God sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the animal, and
wakes in a wicked man. [5]
The distinction between that which is and that which
is not law, must be made by Mind and as Mind. Law is
either a moral or an immoral force. The law of God is
the law of Spirit, a moral and spiritual force of immor-
tal and divine Mind. The so-called law of matter is an [10]
immoral force of erring mortal mind, alias the minds of
mortals. This so-called force, or law, at work in nature
as a power, prohibition, or license, is cruel and merciless.
It punishes the innocent, and repays our best deeds
with sacrifice and suffering. It is a code whose modes [15]
trifle with joy, and lead to immediate or ultimate death.
It fosters suspicion where confidence is due, fear where
courage is requisite, reliance where there should be
avoidance, a belief in safety where there is most
danger. Our Master called it “a murderer from the [20]
beginning.”
Electricity, governed by this so-called law, sparkles
on the cloud, and strikes down the hoary saint. Floods
swallow up homes and households; and childhood, age,
and manhood go down in the death-dealing wave. Earth- [25]
quakes engulf cities, churches, schools, and mortals.
Cyclones kill and destroy, desolating the green earth.
This pitiless power smites with disease the good Samari-
tan ministering to his neighbor's need. Even the chamber
where the good man surrenders to death is not exempt [30]
from this law. Smoothing the pillow of pain may infect
you with smallpox, according to this lawless law which
dooms man to die for loving his neighbor as himself,— [1]
when Christ has said that love is the fulfilling of the
law.
Our great Ensample, Jesus of Nazareth, met and abol-
ished this unrelenting false claim of matter with the [5]
righteous scorn and power of Spirit. When, through
Mind, he restored sight to the blind, he figuratively and
literally spat upon matter; and, anointing the wounded
spirit with the great truth that God is All, he demon-
strated the healing power and supremacy of the law of [10]
Life and Love.
In the spiritual Genesis of creation, all law was vested
in the Lawgiver, who was a law to Himself. In divine
Science, God is One and All; and, governing Himself,
He governs the universe. This is the law of creation: [15]
“My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in
heart.” And that infinite Mind governs all things. On
this infinite Principle of freedom, God named Him-
self, i am. Error, or Adam, might give names to itself,
and call Mind by the name of matter, but error could [20]
neither name nor demonstrate Spirit. The name, i
am, indicated no personality that could be paralleled
with it; but it did declare a mighty individuality,
even the everlasting Father, as infinite consciousness,
ever-presence, omnipotence; as all law, Life, Truth, and [25]
Love.
God's interpretation of Himself furnishes man with
the only suitable or true idea of Him; and the divine
definition of Deity differs essentially from the human.
It interprets the law of Spirit, not of matter. It explains [30]
the eternal dynamics of being, and shows that nature
and man are as harmonious to-day as in the beginning,
when “all things were made by Him; and without Him [1]
was not any thing made.”
Whatever appears to be law, but partakes not of the
nature of God, is not law, but is what Jesus declared
it, “a liar, and the father of it.” God is the law of Life, [5]
not of death; of health, not of sickness; of good, not
of evil. It is this infinitude and oneness of good that
silences the supposition that evil is a claimant or a claim.
The consciousness of good has no consciousness or knowl-
edge of evil; and evil is not a quality to be known or [10]
eliminated by good: while iniquity, too evil to conceive
of good as being unlike itself, declares that God knows
iniquity!
When the Lawgiver was the only law of creation, free-
dom reigned, and was the heritage of man; but this [15]
freedom was the moral power of good, not of evil: it
was divine Science, in which God is supreme, and the
only law of being. In this eternal harmony of Science,
man is not fallen: he is governed in the same rhythm
that the Scripture describes, when “the morning stars [20]
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
Truth-Healing
The spiritual elevator of the human race, physically,
morally, and Christianly, is the truism that Truth dem-
onstrates good, and is natural; while error, or evil, [25]
is really non-existent, and must have produced its own
illusion,—for it belongs not to nature nor to God. Truth
is the power of God which heals the sick and the sinner,
and is applicable to all the needs of man. It is the uni-
versal, intelligent Christ-idea illustrated by the life of [1]
Jesus, through whose “stripes we are healed.” By con-
flicts, defeats, and triumphs, Christian Science has been
reduced to the understanding of mortals, and found able
to heal them. [5]
Pagan mysticism, Grecian philosophy, or Jewish reli-
gion, never entered into the line of Jesus' thought or
action. His faith partook not of drugs, matter, nor of
the travesties of mortal mind. The divine Mind was
his only instrumentality and potency, in religion or medi- [10]
cine. The Principle of his cure was God, in the laws
of Spirit, not of matter; and these laws annulled all other
laws.
Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in
itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and [15]
death are its subjective states; also, that pure Mind is
the truth of being that subjugates and destroys any sup-
positional or elementary opposite to Him who is All.
Truth is supreme and omnipotent. Then, whatever
else seemeth to be intelligence or power is false, delud- [20]
ing reason and denying revelation, and seeking to dethrone
Deity. The truth of Mind-healing uplifts mankind, by
acknowledging pure Mind as absolute and entire, and
that evil is naught, although it seems to be.
Pure Mind gives out an atmosphere that heals and [25]
saves. Words are not always the auxiliaries of Truth.
The spirit, and not the letter, performs the vital func-
tions of Truth and Love. Mind, imbued with this Science
of healing, is a law unto itself, needing neither license
nor prohibition; but lawless mind, with unseen motives, [30]
and silent mental methods whereby it may injure the
race, is the highest attenuation of evil.
Again: evil, as mind, is doomed, already sentenced, [1]
punished; for suffering is commensurate with evil, and
lasts as long as the evil. As mind, evil finds no escape
from itself; and the sin and suffering it occasions can
only be removed by reformation. [5]
According to divine law, sin and suffering are not
cancelled by repentance or pardon. Christian Science
not only elucidates but demonstrates this verity of be-
ing; namely, that mortals suffer from the wrong they
commit, whether intentionally or ignorantly; that every [10]
effect and amplification of wrong will revert to the wrong-
doer, until he pays his full debt to divine law, and the
measure he has meted is measured to him again, full,
pressed down, and running over. Surely “the way of
the transgressor is hard.” [15]
In this law of justice, the atonement of Christ loses
no efficacy. Justice is the handmaid of mercy, and show-
eth mercy by punishing sin. Jesus said, “I came not to
destroy the law,”—the divine requirements typified in
the law of Moses,—“but to fulfil it” in righteousness, [20]
by Truth's destroying error. No greater type of divine
Love can be presented than effecting so glorious a purpose.
This spirit of sacrifice always has saved, and still saves
mankind; but by mankind I mean mortals, or a kind
of men after man's own making. Man as God's idea [25]
is already saved with an everlasting salvation. It is impossible
to be a Christian Scientist without apprehend-
ing the moral law so clearly that, for conscience' sake,
one will either abandon his claim to even a knowledge
of this Science, or else make the claim valid. All Science [30]
is divine. Then, to be Science, it must produce physical
and moral harmony.
Dear readers, our Journal is designed to bring health [1]
and happiness to all households wherein it is permitted
to enter, and to confer increased power to be good and
to do good. If you wish to brighten so pure a purpose,
you will aid our prospect of fulfilling it by your kind [5]
patronage of The Christian Science Journal, now enter-
ing upon its fifth volume, clad in Truth-healing's new
and costly spring dress.
Heart To Heart
When the heart speaks, however simple the words, [10]
its language is always acceptable to those who have
hearts.
I just want to say, I thank you, my dear students, who
are at work conscientiously and assiduously, for the good
you are doing. I am grateful to you for giving to the [15]
sick relief from pain; for giving joy to the suffering and
hope to the disconsolate; for lifting the fallen and strength-
ening the weak, and encouraging the heart grown faint
with hope deferred. We are made glad by the divine
Love which looseth the chains of sickness and sin, open- [20]
ing the prison doors to such as are bound; and we should
be more grateful than words can express, even through
this white-winged messenger, our Journal.
With all the homage beneath the skies, yet were our
burdens heavy but for the Christ-love that makes them [25]
light and renders the yoke easy. Having his word, you
have little need of words of approval and encouragement
from me. Perhaps it is even selfish in me sometimes to
relieve my heart of its secrets, because I take so much
pleasure in thus doing; but if my motives are sinister, [1]
they will harm myself only, and I shall have the unself-
ish joy of knowing that the wrong motives are not yours,
to react on yourselves.
These two words in Scripture suggest the sweetest [5]
similes to be found in any language—rock
and feathers:
“Upon this rock I will build my church;” “He shall
cover thee with His feathers.” How blessed it is to
think of you as “beneath the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land,” safe in His strength, building on His [10]
foundation, and covered from the devourer by divine
protection and affection. Always bear in mind that His
presence, power, and peace meet all human needs and
reflect all bliss.