Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

It is vain to plead ignorance of this Divine Science that destroys all human discord, when you can readily acquire its understanding and demonstration. It is foolish to say that you doubt if there is a Divine Science in perfect harmony with God, its Principle (a Science which, understood and demonstrated, would destroy all discord), when you admit that God is omnipotent; for from this premise it follows that good, and its sweet concords, have all power.

There is no place or opportunity in Science for error of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs, rather than professions, of Christianity, for this is the part of progress; and progress is the law of God, and His law demands only what we can meet and fulfil.

Mind is perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rotations and revolutions of mortal mind are now going on, though often unconsciously. Mortals move onward towards good or evil, as time glides on. If not progressing, the past must be repeated until its poor work is effaced and rectified. If at present satisfied with wrong-doing, we must become dissatisfied with it. If at present content with idleness, we must loathe this leisure.

In this undoing of the errors of sense, here or hereafter, one must pay the utmost farthing, in order to bring the body into subjection to Spirit. Unwinding one's snarls, learning from experience, dividing (through pangs unspeakable) between error and Truth — these are the divine methods of paying the wages of sin.

“Those whom He loveth He chasteneth.” He who knows the demands of Divine Science, and yet refuses obedience thereto, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Vegetarianism, homœopathy, and hydropathy have diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs are good things, is it safe to say that the less you have of them the better? If drugs possess intrinsic curative qualities, those qualities must be mental. Who named them, and what made them good or bad, beneficial or injurious to mortals? Matter is not self-creative, being unintelligent; and mortal mind constitutes the only power a drug can possess.

Christian Science is sunlight to the body. It invigorates and purifies. It acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effects of this Science are to stir the human mind to a change of base, whereby it may yield to the Divine Mind.

Wrong and right will be at strife until victory rests on the side of immutable right. Mental chemicalization (to coin a word) follows the explanation of Truth, and a higher basis is won; but with some individuals the morbid moral and physical symptoms constantly reappear. I have never witnessed as decided effects from the use of material remedies as from the spiritual. There is a large class of thinkers whose bigotry and conceit twist every fact to suit themselves. Their central doctrine teaches belief in a mysterious and supernatural God, and in a supernatural all-powerful devil.

Another class of people, still more unfortunate, are so depraved that they appear to be pictures of innocence, uttering a falsehood while looking you blandly in the face, and never failing to stab benefactors in the back.

A third class of thinkers build with solid masonry, are generous, lofty, and open to the approach and recognition of Truth. To teach Christian Science to such as these is no task. They are not inclined longingly to error, or prone to whine over the demands of Truth.

Society is a silly juror, listening only to one side of the case. Honesty often comes too late to a verdict. People with work to do have no time to gossip with law or testimony. To reconstruct timid justice, and place the fact above the falsehood, is the work of time.

To talk rightly and live wrongly is foolish deceit, doing one's self the most harm. The best detective of individual character is the first impression made on a mind that is attracted or repelled according to personal merit or demerit.

The impure are at peace with the impure. Only virtue is a rebuke to vice. A Christian Scientist dealing with the sick or the sinful, and not improving the health of the one or the morals of the other, is at fault, — a Scientist only in name.

Some people yield more slowly than others to the touch of Truth. They seldom yield without a struggle, and often are reluctant to acknowledge that they have yielded; but unless this is done, the evil will boast itself above the good.

Certain minds meet only to separate through simultaneous combustion. They are enemies without the preliminary offence.

Walking in the light, we are accustomed to it and require it; we cannot see in darkness; but eyes accustomed to darkness are pained by the light.

The floral apostles are hieroglyphics of Deity. Flowers and stars teach grand lessons. The stars make darkness beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.

Outgrowing the old, fear not to put on the new. Your course may provoke envy, but will attract admiration also. When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or explanation that destroys it. Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it.

Right is radical. We soil our garments with conservatism, and have to scrub them clean. When the spiritual sense of being unfolds its harmonies to you, take no risks in the policies of error. Better is a frugal meal with contentment and virtue, than luxury with vice.

Each individual has some influence. Let that weight be thrown into the right scale. The baneful effect of evil associates is less seen than felt. The inoculation of evil human thoughts ought to be understood and guarded against.

The teachers of our private and public schools should be selected with as direct reference to their morals as to their learning. Nurseries of character should be strongly garrisoned with virtue and truth. School examinations are one-sided. Not so much a classical education, as a moral and spiritual, lifts one higher. The pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly imparted to her pupils, reach higher than the heavens of astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind, though set with gems of scholarly attainment, imparts no lustre, but degrades the characters it should inform and elevate.

Physicians, whom in their helplessness the sick employ, should be guardians of virtue. They should be also wise spiritual guides, when material things fail to give ease or hope. To the tremblers on the brink of death, who understand not the Truth that could heal them, such physicians should be able to teach it; that when the mind is willing and the flesh weak, they may become able to plant their feet upon the rock Christ Jesus, even the basis of spiritual power.

Clergymen, standing on the watch-towers of the world, should uplift the standard of Truth fearlessly. They should so raise their hearers spiritually, that those hearers shall love to grapple with a new idea and unshackle their own thoughts. Christianity, rather than popularity, should stimulate labor and progress. Life should emanate from the pulpit, and never be strangled there. A special privilege is vested in the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, — in the interests of the individual, not of sect.

Children should obey their parents. Insubordination is a growing evil that blights the buddings of self-government. Parents should teach their children at the earliest possible period the truth of health and holiness. They are more tractable than adults, and will learn to love the simple verities that make them happy and good. Says Charles Swain: —

Men are agents for the future;

As they work, so ages win —

Either harvests of advancement,

Or the products of their sin.